KZRN // Lost Among The Living And The Dead

Ahead of the release of their debut EP Lost Amongst The Living, we sat down with lead vocalist of KZRN Caiden Crafts to discuss all things music and the making of the new record. 

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HYSTERIA: What music were you listening to during the writing and recording of the EP?

Caiden: Myself and Travis [Jones] are massive fans of early 2000s metalcore. Bands like Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, Shadows Fall and Lamb of God. All of these artists influenced the making of this EP. There is even a bit of Bullet for My Valentine and Spiritebox in there, and early Parkway Drive. It was a big nostalgia trip for us writing this record, and a lot of people who have heard the album have told us the same thing. We really wanted to capture that early metalcore sound on this EP, but also inject some modern elements into it as well.

What was the concept behind the making of Lost Amongst The Living?

Caiden: All of the lyrics to the songs have a base idea that comes from a personal experience of mine. Because the music was originally written years ago, as I started to write lyrics to these songs, they started to create a story that was different to what my experiences were. There is now a concept that loops them all together that is outside of my personal experiences. Hear Me is a bunch of different feelings all mixed together; Realm is a song about dreams; Scatterbrain is about being really depressed one day; Human was about a boss I once had who did not care at all for the wellbeing of his workers. The New Way Out was the only song that was written purely to the concept of the EP.

The concept behind the EP is about being lost amongst the living, in life but also in death. The idea is that a person who suffers a loss in life or some form of grievance goes searching to find solace and answers. During this time, they come across the ‘Red Demon’ (refer to the EP cover art), who is basically the Devil incarnate. The Devil traps the person in their world and the person has to try and find their own way out of this dark place. When they do eventually come out of this dark place, they do so as an entirely new being, because the individual who went in, is not the same person who is coming out the other end. The Demon represents the cold and depressing part of life, which we all face and have to come out the other end from.

I loved the notion of creating a story instead of exploring all of these different ideas in isolation. The lyrics, as well as the ideas themselves, felt a lot better when framed in this context. The great part of creating a concept album is that even though all the songs started as separate pieces, there is something that now brings them all together in cohesion, and they make sense next to each other as part of the story.

I loved the notion of creating a story instead of exploring all of these different ideas in isolation.
[ Caiden Crafts ]

What was your songwriting process for the album?

Caiden: A lot of the songs that appear on this release were conceived and written by Travis years ago. At the time, I wanted to start up a metal project, so I asked Travis if he wanted to work together and he already had a bunch of stuff that we could use. Interestingly, although the songs were already written, there are a lot of parts that ended up on the final recordings that were only written recently. For example, Hear Me was written in 2014, but the bridge part was added last year in 2021. So we revisited the songs that were half complete and finished them together.

Let’s go through the tracklist. Hear Me; tell me about how that song came together, in particular, the incredible opening guitar riff.

Caiden: That opening riff has an interesting backstory. It was not originally featured at the beginning of the song. Prior to this, the song basically started when the drums came in. On one of the days we were recording, we did a guitar and bass session for all 5 EP songs; this session lasted for 14 hours straight, which is just insane! To put it into context, at one stage I left the studio to go and play a gig with my other band, and when I came back, everyone was still recording.

It was about 1:30am in the morning and I just had a thought for Hear Me, which was going to be the first song on the record. I decided that we needed to have some sort of intro and that the song could not just start on the drum beat. We came up with that guitar fade reverse idea at 1:30am in the morning when all the guitars had already been done. Our sound engineer/producer Jack Hartley said he was loving the reverse guitar bit, which he had put into the verse. We decided to move it into the intro, and there you have it! It was one of those ideas that you could only come up with after being in the studio for 14 hours straight and being completely out of it.

The music gets more aggressive on Enter The Realm.

Caiden: It is definitely more of an aggressive song. This is the part in the story where the Demon traps the being in their world, therefore it needed to convey the feeling that the protagonist is very much in danger. I think you can hear that in the tone of the lyrics and music.

Scatterbrain is my favourite track on the record. What was the songwriting process for it?

Caiden: Up to the end of the second chorus, this song has remained largely unchanged from when Travis first wrote it. We then added the breakdown and outro to finish off the track last year; so, it was two different pieces coming together. What comes to mind when I think about this song is that it is one you can bang your head to from start to finish; definitely a mosh song!

Human showcases some really heavy and fast playing. What inspired the writing here?

Caiden: Travis was listening to a lot of Hatebreed when he was writing this song, and I think it also has a slight The Ghost Inside remnant in the riff and chorus.

The New Way Out is a powerful, riff heavy song to close out the record. Was this always going to be the final track?

Caiden: We originally thought this was going to be the song to open the EP, primarily because of the slower intro. The song definitely went on a bit of a journey. We ended up editing it quite a bit, including throwing in an outro and another guitar solo. Personally, I found this song the hardest to write, and because of this, it was the last one we ended up finishing. Naturally, it had to end the record then. It was a really cool realisation because it meant that I had no choice but to conclude the EP’s story with this song. The song was therefore written to have a feeling of triumph and positivity, because it is at this point when the protagonist finally conquers the Demon in their life and finds the clarity they have been searching for.

You guys collaborated with other musicians on this EP. Who would be your dream collaboration in the future?

Caiden: Definitely Howard Jones from Killswitch Engage. It would be the absolute pinnacle to have him be a guest vocalist on one of our songs, or just collaborate together on a joint project. 

We use a radio transmitter effect when recording in the studio, which is one of the elements that links a lot of our songs together. We basically call that the ‘Howard’, because he uses a similar sort of effect on a number of Killswitch Engage songs, such as ‘This Fire Burns’. So there you have it, I now have a vocal pedal that I call the ‘Howard’. 

Courtney Laplante from Spiritbox is another dream collaboration. She just has an unbelievable voice. As does Michelle Braiser, who is a Melbourne singer, writer, actor and sketch comic. I would love to work with her on a song as well.

Your vocals on this album sound incredible. Where did you learn to scream?

Caiden: I got really into metal once I had left high school, so I bought a bunch of instructional DVDs and started doing the exercises. Obviously with the indie band I used to be part of, I wasn’t able to practice this skill. Therefore, once I started wanting to get into metal, I revisited these vocal skills again and dedicated myself to it. I even got lessons here in Adelaide, because there are some things that you just learn better with a teacher. I’m still learning to use my voice live though, because I never was a lead singer before KZRN.

Where do you see KZRN in the future?

Caiden: Personally, my goal is to be in a touring band and I have known this for a very long time. I would love to take KZRN overseas to Europe and the United States. The USA especially loves 2000’s metalcore; the genre never dies there. As a group, we just want to keep writing music and putting it out there. The great thing about KZRN is that I can inject a lot of my personal feelings and ideas into the songwriting process, which is always so much fun. I didn’t really get this opportunity with the indie band I played with. We’re all just having a really great time at the moment, so we just have to keep releasing music, playing gigs and having fun. 

Have you guys started writing new music?

Caiden: We are definitely writing new stuff. My brain has already got 2023 planned; that’s how I like to operate. We have our next batch of songs ready to go and we will probably be back in the studio in July of this year. There will most likely be one more release before the end of the year, and then a bunch of singles next year. I want to be one of those bands who never stops and just keeps releasing new music, regardless of where the music takes us, whether it be interstate or overseas. So yes, there is definitely new music on the way!
Lost Amongst The Living is out 8 April 2022, released independently.

Purchase and stream here.