KASKEID // Music For The Heart And Soul

If you haven’t yet heard of Kaskeid, we have one question: what are you doing?!

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The Sydneysiders came together in 2017, releasing two killer EPs in the space of a few months. Now, they’re ready to take the Aus heavy scene by storm with their latest single, Drifter. We caught up with them to chat all about it. 

Hysteria: How’d the band get started?

Joey: It started as a fun thing between James, our other guitarist Will, and myself. At the time, Will was doing sound-engineering at JMC. He would bring James along when he was doing metal assignments; I would join and write riffs.

Mitch: We’ve all just been in each other’s lives for years. Joey and Ethan are actually brothers too.

What inspired your new track, Drifter?

Mitch: There’s a lot that goes on in our lives that we miss. We overlook a lot of things. This track is just that old saying: you don’t know what you have until it’s gone.

Joey: When we were recording, I thought of my wife, health battles and everything that’s happened in the past. In life, you tend to focus on things like work, providing and trying to get a house. Then you realise it’s the people around you, your loved ones, your boys that really matter.

Ethan: We were sitting on Drifter for a while. I was listening to the final edit on my way to work one morning and thought we were dropping it at such a poignant time; for both us and the world. After COVID, the song just took on a whole new meaning. It’s open to interpretation, just listen to the lyrics and take on what fits you best.

Joey: We wrote Drifter in 2018. We could’ve released it back then, but we weren’t in the right headspace. We’ve been on a journey of discovery, evolving and figuring out what we want to do. We took the two years in between to evaluate what was going on.

Ethan: We matured like a good wine (laughs).

I want our music to be a service to people. I want it to be good for their heart and soul.
[ Joey ]

What else did those two years teach you?

Ethan: In between Eclipse and Drifter, Joey and I both got married. The rest of the boys went through their own things too. It’s all influenced the way we make decisions. We’ve been taking our time instead of just pushing music out for the sake of it. That’s allowed us to be more selective with what we write and show the public.

Mitch: We released both our debut and sophomore EP in the same year. We also wrote a lot and played a lot of shows. We learnt a lot about how we approach music and building our brand. I don’t think we had really honed in on that at the beginning.

Joey: I was undirected around 2018. I pretty much wrote any genre; I’d just pick up the guitar and create a riff. We needed time to step back and let the dust settle, to let the excitement of releasing new music fade away a little and delve into why we were making music and what we wanted people to feel. I wanted us to write for the listener; instead of being selfish songwriters. I wanted us to give our all and create an escape. It’s a continuous process; we’ll keep getting closer. I just want our music to be a service to people, something that makes them feel better. I want it to be good for their heart and soul.

Three of the five of you sing on Drifter; how’d that go?

Joey: One day, I’d like to get James on bass, Mitch on vocals and Ethan on drums, just to switch it up (laughs). I’m not going to say we do everything, but we’re musicians. We grew up around it.

Any last remarks?

Mitch: We wanted to thank everyone who’s checked out our music. Stay tuned; there’s more on the way!