Beneath The Skin - "Pay Up" EP

Beneath The Skin, the KC doomy-sludge metal band, released their EP “Pay Up” in April. 

The band’s music evokes a trance. Lyrics detail a darker sense of despair, desperation and regrets, with themes like feeling like you’re being buried alive by your own overconsuming thoughts; and crawling out of the hole of addiction, pulling yourself up with splintering fingernails as you scrape and claw and crawl your way out of the darkness. . .

Beneath The Skin is: Mike Riley on vocals, Russell Conner on guitar, Jimmy York on drums, and Joshua Kaine Bowles on bass. The EP was recorded at Hills East Recording Studio.

I spoke to the band about the writing/recording process, their favorite personal track, and other memories while they worked on this EP:

London Penny: What was the writing/recording process like? 

Russell: The songwriting process is typically me showing the guys some riffs and grooves, and them giving input to the flow and fine tuning of the main riffs until we have a musical base. From there, Josh crafts a bass part as he hears it building the song. Jimmy, at the same time, works on dialing in drum rhythms and accents to drive the beat. Mike then takes lyrical ideas and integrates them with the instrumental parts. Once a skeleton is there, we fill it in by arranging song sections to set how the song seems to want to flow.

Jimmy: It's pretty much as Russell said: it’s the chemistry that we all have together that makes it happen. 

Mike: Recording was great! We did the whole album in a weekend. We just got loose and did our thing. Jimmy was pretty locked in so that definitely set the pace, no pun intended! 

LP: Who are you influenced by?

Mike: I was super into punk rock and thrash until grunge hit the scene; huge influence was Layne Staley, Marilyn Manson. C.O.C., also Atmosphere and NF on the hip-hop side. And, of course, Black Sabbath.

Jimmy: Honestly, I can't pick one individual. . . I would say I am influenced by listening to different genres of music. Anything from rap beats to rock/metal.

Russell: Tony Iommi, James Hetfield, Zakk Wylde, and Garrett Morris (Windhand).

Josh: Personally, my major influences have been anything rock and metal from the ‘90s - classic psychedelic rock or anything Christian Conservative parents would consider blasphemy - have always been a staple of my listening enjoyment. Down, C.O.C., Crowbar, White Zombie, Pantera, and Type O Negative are all usually on some sort of rotation, although the last couple of years, a lot of modern doom/sludge bands have caught my attention, like Monolord and Bongripper.

LP: What is each members’ favorite track?

Russell: “Wasteland” was what I consider our first song that sounded like how our band plays Doom. It has long, sustained notes that let the guitar and bass tones fill the space in the room. Its groove and vibe also pay tribute to Doom creators Black Sabbath.

Mike: On the album, my favorite song is “Pay Up” for sure… “Hard Knocks” is a close second.

Jimmy: “Wasteland” is probably my favorite, simply because it just drives. 

Josh: My favorite song from the EP is probably “Wasteland”; it’s very dynamic and has a lot of swinging emotion that builds up to the end. Watching people in the crowd get more involved as the song goes on is always great.