Hailing from the Dallas TX, mothaltar blurs the line across different genres with their dedication to combining complex, blistering riffs with beautifully cinematic soundscapes. Their latest single, “Original Vision”, encapsulates their dedication to multi-layered songcraft.
We had the chance to catch up with Franco of mothaltar to chat about the single, the band, the state of the scene, and more as part of our Refrain Interview Series!
Refrain Music Blog: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. You have a new single out now. What’s it called?
Franco: Thank you so much! It is always an honor to be given any type of interview so we are thankful. Our single is called “Original Vision” it just released and man, are we happy to finally get this one out!
RMB: What is the song about, in terms of lyrics?
Franco: The song is absolutely about temptation and insecurity. We symbolize “strongholds” in life with a key. Our very own moth key that our guitarist Isaiah actually welded. How crazy, haha. In the video, you will sort of notice the unhealthy relationship and attention the main character gives the key until it becomes extremely dangerous to him by the end of the video. Not unlike us from the day to day life when we choose to give attention to things that will greatly hinder us if unchecked.
RMB: Is “Original Vision” part of an album?
Franco: So the single is a stand-alone as of now, but what was birthed out of this single is what really makes us happy. We do want to release a full album and have plenty of creativity and songs to do so, but being a younger band you really need to weigh the costs. I’ve seen plenty of bands in our situation that release albums that go absolutely nowhere because there is no following or proper marketing put behind it.
RMB: How does it differ from your previous work?
Franco: The BIGGEST difference now is Isaiah Short, our guitarist. He was the one who introduced us to thematic sounds. I would also say adding to that, our band has had many changing guitarists which always hinders progression. You really need to have musicians who completely understand how to move forward as a unit and know that bands have good days and bad days. This single will be sort of our motif because we introduce “evil” so to speak in our song and now whenever you hear particular strings or drones in future songs you will think “OH wait? Is evil coming?” because we want to tell a larger story and have a more cinematic approach to our releases coming out.
RMB: Tell us a little about the band. Who all is in it and how did you form?
Franco: So we have myself as the vocalist, Isaiah & Kevin as guitars, and Aaron as our drummer. We are looking for a full-time bassist by the way. We formed sort of back in 2020, I would say end of 2019 because I got an old friend in AZ to help me produce a single and I literally started posting it to forums and pages anything you could think of to sort of sift out any potential members and people who would be interested in making this a career choice. Aaron and I have been together the longest since 2020. I am very thankful for who we have now. Our previous EP ; Prologue was cool but it had too many different pieces and was thrown together versus now with this core 4 we really are heading somewhere as a band. I cannot picture being mothaltar now without these 4, the previous people I am thankful for but this really is that perfect chemistry with enough friction.
RMB: What’s the story on how it was recorded?
Franco: We are very fortunate. Let me start off with that notion first. We do all of our stuff digitally with our main man; Mattias Ohlsson; he is really responsible for helping us find our sound. He is based in Sweden and his company is called; “Mo Metal Productions’ ‘. It’s great because he is super talented and is sort of growing with us if you will. This means we can talk to him often and he’s a genuine fan of us, and us of him so it’s a great growing relationship/ Yes the process is always long haha. We have members with differences in opinions of how something should sound and that can be pretty tedious at times. The best story we have off of this one was myself, Kevin, and Isaiah pretty much cornering Aaron, our drummer, and forcing him to agree to blast beats this song. That was truly a drug out WAR between us all. Pretty hilarious. We won because we wanted to do what serves the song best always, and you know what? Everyone LOVES the blast beat section the most. How interesting.
RMB: Who are some of your biggest musical influences?
Franco: Ok so Isaiah and I will always say “The Contortionist” because we truly just admire that band. For us, that is the biggest influence and it helps keep us in line with each other and the vision of future releases. I would say for Kevin he admires “Enterprise Earth” the most and Aaron we can say like the band “Starset” , the hardest part of mothaltar is not trying to be any of these bands because we literally cannot be, but taking that emotion they evoke in us and remembering to get to that place with our sound. These bands contrast in a lot of ways so that’s always good in my opinion.
RMB: What’s the one thing you are most proud of in your career so far?
Franco: Man! this music video. It may not seem big and will pass us by as a band because many will come, but to get a group of local metal guys to put the funds down for a quality music video is a big milestone. Most metalheads are emotional and wanna take shortcuts haha. So for us to say man we did this, means to us that anything together as a band is possible. That is the momentum you want as a band.
RMB: If you had to pitch your music to a potential fan in less than 10 seconds, what would you say?
Franco: “Dude. Check out these freaks, they move.” – that has actually worked for me once. So I am the 1-0 uncrowned champ haha.
RMB: What’s one piece of advice you’ve gotten that you think everyone needs to hear or that has meant the most to you?
Franco: If you really want to make it, be patient and spend quality time on everything. A lot of bands in our scene don’t make it because they just quit. Get good guidance about making competitive music, but do not give up in your formative years. Being successful is more about consistency than it is a viral song.
RMB: If you could go back in time, what’s a piece of advice you would give to a younger you?
Franco: Oooh man younger me. Ok. I would honestly say trust God with what you love. Sometimes the church world can condemn music they don’t understand, but trust that you feel called to write heavy music. You can trust what you are feeling. You belong in this scene.
RMB: What’s coming up next for your musical project?
Franco: We are planning a strong end of the year. We have more small tours lined up potentially, and music that is queued up and ready to be mixed/ mastered. There are a lot of moving parts on the back end of things so let’s see if all of that stuff that I can’t talk about yet lines up for mothaltar.
RMB: Anything we haven’t thought of that you want to talk about? Now is the time!
Franco: I feel that we have talked about a great amount in this interview! One thing is this, just know that the scene is not dead. Metal is here and thriving and we are making a push to be a staple in our respective metal genres. Thanks for your time!
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