INTERVIEW: Ignite reignite their band with new album, new singer, new tour
Photo: Ignite’s new self-titled album is now available. Photo courtesy of the band / Provided by The Orchard with permission.
Ignite, billed as a melodic hardcore band, are back on the music scene in a big way. Their new self-titled album introduces to listeners their new lead singer, Eli Santana, and they are celebrating by heading out on the road in the United States. They stop Thursday, May 12 at the Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, New Jersey, for a headlining gig with support from Silence Equals Death, Rest Assured? and Bullet Brigade.
“This U.S. tour is going to be pretty fun because we have some headlining shows, but we also have a few shows where we’re jumping on with other bands,” said Brett Rasmussen, bassist for Ignite. “We’ve been playing five or six new songs a night, mixing in with another old 10, 11, 12 and having fun playing all the eras. The new stuff we’re super inspired by it because obviously we just wrote it and recorded it a year and a half ago.”
Rasmussen said he has been blown away by the fans’ reaction to the new album, which features the single “Anti-Complicity Anthem.” He was a bit worried because the band changed its singer, which some diehard devotees don’t always accept, but the band members and now their fanbase have embraced Santana. Rounding out the band are Nik Hill (guitars), Kevin Kilkenny (guitars) and Craig Andersen (drums).
“It’s a big shift to bring in a new voice, and you never know how people are going to react,” he said. “We were super happy with the results, and we were super happy with the songs and the sound, the music, Eli’s voice. And that’s all we could really go with. That’s all you can trust. It’s us five in a studio with our producer, Cameron Webb, who we have the utmost confidence and trust in, so at the end of the day, when that album was done, we couldn’t be happier with the results. At that point, you just kind of throw it out there to the world and go, all right, I hope everybody hears what we’re hearing. That’s always an interesting thing being a musician and being a songwriter / artist. We do it for us. We do it because we’re stoked on the music, and that’s really the only agenda. When it connects with people, it’s so cool. It’s such a bonus to the whole process, so, yeah, the response has been amazing from top to bottom.”
Santana was a longtime Ignite fan before he joined the band, and he also traveled in the same circles as Rasmussen and company. They would see one another at metal concerts, and Santana became close friends with Anderson, Ignite’s drummer.
“We were trying to find a guy that would fit and not only do justice to the back catalog but also a voice that we were inspired by,” Rasmussen said. “We played with a few guys, and it wasn’t really clicking on anything. It wasn’t really where we wanted to be, and I talked to our drummer, Craig. I said, ‘Hey, maybe hit up your friend Eli and see if he knows anybody that would be available to sing.’ We didn’t he know he was a singer at the time because he had only been playing as far as we knew guitar. … But he asked if he could lay down his vocals on a demo. We were like, yeah, go ahead. We were looking for somebody that fits and wants to do this, and that’s how we stumbled onto him.”
The songwriting in Ignite is a collaborative effort. Sometimes a band member will bring a song that is completely finished and ready to be practiced, while other times a band member will bring in a riff or baseline that needs to be fleshed out. For “Anti-Complicity Anthem,” Rasmussen brought the music, and Hill penned the lyrics.
“After we connected with Eli, then we got him on the recording of that, and it really brought the song to life,” the bassist said. “That’s how that song worked, and then we came to find out Eli is a great songwriter.”
Rasmussen added: “There’s definitely agendas in the lyrics. A lot of times songs tell a personal story that people can connect with, and we definitely have those songs, too. But over the years and through this new record, if there’s an issue that we think needs light shed on it, or if there’s an issue that we think needs some resolve or something needs to be made aware of, we feel that’s a great platform what we’re doing to shed light on these issues. We’ve got some stuff on the album on homelessness and some immigration issues and marginalized groups that we’ve decided to write songs about. It’s just a great platform to shed light on these issues that we feel maybe aren’t getting the proper attention that they need.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Ignite’s new self-titled album is available now, and they will headline a concert Thursday, May 12 at the Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, New Jersey. Click here for more information and tickets.
