AN INTERVIEW WITH IMPAVIDUS

Impavidus are a Melodic Death Metal quartet based in Manchester. The band only formed just over a year ago, and have already hit the UK Metal scene hard with a fantastic debut EP and plenty of crushing live shows!

I chatted to bassist Patrick McBride to find out where their unstoppable momentum had come from.

L-R: Chris ORourke (drums), Michelle Adamson (lead vocals), Gav Smith (guitar/vocals) & Patrick McBride (bass/vocals). 
Photo Credit: Simon Robertshaw

So how long has Impavidus been going and how did you get together? We have been together since the end of June 2015. We’ve all played in bands together before in one format or another and decided that we wanted to start something new & fresh with the sole intention of enjoying creating music again. For n00bs like me, please explain what Impavidus actually means and how did you settle on the name? It means fearless in Latin. We drew up a LOOOONG list of potential names and got it down to two that we all agreed on. Then we decided that Impavidus would fit us perfectly because it's powerful, punchy and isn’t a mouthful to say. You have an excellent debut self titled EP, how did the writing and recording process go? Thank you! The writing was really good. We didn’t have a plan or a direction which made it more interesting. We all brought some ideas to the table and once we started to work on them with all four of us in the jam room, the ideas grew into the songs you hear now. The original demos sound a little different in places. The four best songs we had at the time were recorded. Scourge was the last song we completed - the week before we went into Skyhammer studios. Recording at Skyhammer Studios was such a pleasure, it was a lot of work but it was a lot of fun and Chris Fielding is an excellent producer. He nailed the sound we wanted and we enjoyed it so much that we’re booked into record our second EP in February 2017! You delightfully capture the Gothenburg Melodic Death Metal sound, a bit of a rarity for a British band... Who are your biggest influences from that scene? Our sound developed itself - this is what it sounded like when the four of us started jamming. The guitar, bass and drums naturally found their own sweet spots in the mix where they sound great individually and compliment each other perfectly to give you Impavidus. We had an idea of how we thought the vocals would sound and when Michelle [Adamson, lead vocals] walked in and started singing on Exculpate, the rest of us started grinning like Cheshire cats! It was better than we had hoped for and she brought vocal dynamics and ideas we hadn’t considered. That was the first moment we knew we had something special. So the fact that we’ve captured that Gothenburg sound is a real compliment but it wasn’t our conscious intention. Our influences are wide ranging but from that scene in particular, it would be remiss of us not to mention The Haunted, At the Gates and In Flames. What other important influences contribute to the Impavidus sound? Our personalities, our lives, our experiences past and present and our opinions and viewpoints. What inspires you outside of music completely (eg films, games, art, books)? Films - Chris [ORourke, drummer] is a movie maniac, he knows so much about film and can remember scenes like no-one else we know. It’s like he eats film scripts for breakfast. Life is the greatest inspiration - the world around us, how people behave & treat others. Our families influence us whether they realise it or not. Art, books and film are great ways to escape from the normal world for a while. Being immersed in a story whether it's based on true stories or fiction, is a fantastic experience. And really, music is part of our escapism! So all of these things are intwinned and link together. Impavidus are very good at using social media, how important is it for upcoming bands to be active on social media sites? Talking in broader terms - it’s essential for bands to be in people's consciousness and at the moment social media is the best way to do that apart from releasing your music. It seems to be the best way to grab people's attention. Chris deals with that aspect for the band - he has a knack for it. You can’t jump in and out of social media - it just doesn’t work. You need to be immersed in it all the time to understand how to use it. The best aspect of how he approaches it, is that he doesn't always talk about us. Through our band page he promotes a lot of other local bands we like too. We often discussed that there are great bands in Manchester but not a great scene - except the doom / sludge scene who seem to have really rallied together to create a strong community of similar bands and styles. The potential is there for the metal bands too and if the current local bands can create a strong scene / community then we’ll all benefit from it. Other bands are taking notice of what Chris is doing so maybe we’ll see it happen in the coming years. Impavidus have a lot of great shows coming up, what do your fans have to look forward to this winter? We have 10 gigs booked until the end of the year. They’ll all be great but the special ones will be October 9th at The Club Academy supporting Akercocke, the Sophie Festival at Rebellion in Manchester on 26th November and we’re doing a 4 date run in December with our friends in God Shaped Devil and Deified in December: 8th - Grand Central - Manchester, 9th Rok Box - Wigan, 10th The Alma - Bolton & 11th Rendezvous - St Helens. And what are your future plans after touring? We’re currently planning 2017 - we have Skyhammer Studios in February, the new EP launch and we’re looking at gigs for 2017 / early 2018 Thats far enough in the further for us - for now! And finally, what is your favourite packet of crisps? McCoys Cheddar and Onion or Brannigans Roast Beef & Mustard.

Photo Credit: Jo Spooner

Thank you to Patrick and Impavidus for taking the time to chat and contribute to the answers!