The Refrain Interview: Between The Echoes

Alternative emo outfit Between the Echoes has returned with their latest single ‘Phantom Limb‘. The track, which is the second of the band’s album rollout, features the captivating vocals of Stephen Christian (Anberlin, Anchor & Braille). Comprised of layered visuals and a dark figure haunting the protagonist of the narrative, “Phantom Limb” conceptualizes the need to gain power over one’s self and not fall victim to what the band describes as a “dark passenger.”

The band has also carefully crafted single and album artwork that visually represents the shadowy dance happening between the listener and the siren. On one side, she is beautiful and alluring, and on the other side her darkness is shining through, reminding us that just because it may feel good, doesn’t mean it’s good for us.

We had the chance to talk with Between The Echoes as part of our Refrain Music Blog. Check it out below.

Refrain Music Blog: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview. You have a new single out now. What’s it called?

Between The Echoes: You are most welcome!! Yes, our latest single is called “Phantom Limb”.

RMB: What is the song about, in terms of lyrics? Any overarching messages or themes?

BTE: “Phantom Limb” is part of a conceptual album that is to be released in the Fall of 2022. The album is titled “Awake While Dreaming”. We take the listener on a musical journey into someone’s consciousness. Each song (lyrically and musically) relates to what we may find buried deep within someone’s head and the darkness that we all carry. We personified this darkness as a Siren, and you will hear her calling to the listener in the background of many of the songs, just like the voice inside your head that pulls you towards your own vices may do. In “Phantom Limb” our main character has realized that he has been allured by the Siren and he’s now angry, panicked and trying to figure out a way to break free from her shackles. You will hear the intensity of his frustrations come through in the wickedly talented feature done by Stephen Christian of Anberlin. Stephen perfectly captured the rawness of emotion we were going for and we hope the listener relates this emotional journey to the dance they too have with their own dark passenger.

RMB: How does this single differ from your previous work?

BTE: “Phantom Limb” is our second single and while is very much interconnected with out first release “Call of the Siren”, it has a much heavier and raw feeling to it. “Call of the Siren” is the listener’s first introduction to the darkness (aka the Siren) and builds the story of being seduced by our own personal vices, whether it be a voice inside your head telling you that you’re not good enough, it could be alcohol or drugs, or even a toxic relationship. Whatever the darkness is for each of us, that is what the Siren represents. By the time the listener gets to “Phantom Limb”, there becomes an awareness that the darkness is not good for them and a frustration and anger at being deceived and entangled in her web of darkness. “Phantom Limb” is about being so angry, you just want to break anything and everything to be free from it. Musically, “Phantom Limb” matches this story with heavier guitars, higher energy and a rawness that would come through when one feels very intensely about something.

RMB: What’s the story on how it was recorded?

BTE: The recording process is a little bit different for Between the Echoes as we don’t all live in the same place. It involves a lot of passing ideas back and forth and tweaking through the net. All of the music was recorded at Revelator Sound in Columbus, Ohio. Lead vocals were recorded in at our signers home studio and our feature on “Phantom Limb” by Stephen Christian (Anberlin) was recorded by Christian McAlhaney (Anberlin, Acceptance, Loose Talk). The album was Mastered by Troy Glessner at Spectre Studios (Silverstein, Underoath).

One story that truly solidified the magic we were creating as a band, was in the process of writing “Call of the Siren”. Our songs start off with guitar ideas created by Chad, and then all the other parts form around that. After a song is musically pretty solid, the process of adding vocal melodies begins. In the case of “Call of the Siren”, Chad had finished the musical parts and had sent Marv the song to begin playing around with some vocal melodies. All the while, Katie was tossing around conceptual ideas to build the story that the song would be sharing. One of the ideas she was considering was personifying the darkness as a Siren. This idea had not been mentioned to Marv while he was working on vocal melodies because we felt it very important that he organically create a melody with no constraints. One of the things that Katie had secretly hoped was that there would be room to add a haunting Siren call in the background. Marv knew none of this, yet somehow when he passed back the song with vocal melodies, low and behold, already lingering in the background was the most perfect Siren sound ever! As an artist and creator, moments like this help you to realize that when you are truly in the flow of your project, everything flows out exactly how it should! From that moment on, we adopted the idea of letting the song “tell us” what it was to be. No more trying to figure it out, just allowing things to come together very organically.

RMB: Tell us a little about the band. Who all is in it and how did you form? How long have you been together?

BTE: Between the Echoes has been a band for about two years. It began as a passion project by Chad who wanted to record some musical compositions he’d had floating around in his head for several years. Along came Katie with a conceptual idea for this project and the two started creating together. The only missing piece was a lead vocalist. They began searching and came across Marv. They reached out to him and
passed a couple songs his way to see if he had any interest in this project. He did and so the project was formed. Over the last two years we have been passing back and forth music and each organically adding our own personal touches to the songs.

RMB: Who are some of your biggest musical influences?

BTE: Individually we all have varying influences but as a whole, and what had really drawn us all together on this project is our mutual love for 2000’s alt rock/emo music. We all share a great love of Saosin, Anberlin, Thrice, Jimmy Eat World, etc.

RMB: What’s the one thing you are most proud of in your career so far?

BTE: Although, we are at the beginning of our journey with this project and can’t wait to see where the road takes us, as a whole, we are incredibly proud of the fact that we created an entire full-length conceptual album despite being an entire ocean apart. The chemistry was there and we persevered. We are also infinitely grateful to Stephen Christian for joining us on “Phantom Limb”. To have a singer that all three of us have been listening to for over 18 years, dig and be willing to sing on our project is very surreal.

RMB: If you had to pitch your music to a potential fan in less than 10 seconds, what would you say?

BTE: Between the Echoes is a three-piece passion project created by Chad William, Katie Jean and Marvin Albert. The band formed through their shared love of similar alt rock bands (Saosin, Thrice, Jimmy Eat World) and quickly realized they had created a distinctive musical chemistry. Together, the band aligned to create a full-length album that takes the listener deep on a journey within one’s consciousness. There, the listener will meet the darkness we all carry within ourselves and face their own shadows. What will the journey be for you?

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?

BTE: As an artist, the magic of creation occurs when you are able to align yourself with the frequency of that which you wish to create. As we mentioned earlier… allowing the music to tell you what it is to be.

RMB: If you could go back in time, what’s a piece of advice you would give to a younger you?

BTE: Don’t let others stifle or hold you back from your passions. Everyone today believes they are a critic and that their opinion matters. It doesn’t. Enjoy those who connect with what you create and ignore the rest. As long as you create art that you are passionate about and love, that is truly all that matters.

RMB: What’s coming up next for your musical project?

BTE: We are still in the middle of releasing this project. There are two more singles coming out in August and September, followed by the release of the full album, “Awake While Dreaming” in October 2022. Once all of that has occurred, we are already in talks a couple special projects and the next conceptual idea we want to start tossing around. Lots and lots of ideas.

RMB: Anything we haven’t thought of that you want to talk about?

BTE: The only thing we’d like to add is that to go along with our concept, we created a series of four music videos that are all interlocking in story arcs. Each video links another pit stop along the conceptual journey into our main character’s head. You will visually see the Siren and how she toys with him trying to lure him into the darkness and all of the emotions and turmoil this creates within his head.