Formed by members of Derry metal giants Hybris and Death Warrant, Proxist are one of Derry’s freshest metal bands. Having released their debut EP “Syst3m Fa1lure” in September 2012, and a recently released music video, Proxist are now gearing up for the release of their second EP “Through Blind Eyes” and are fast proving to be a force to be reckoned with.
I sat down with lead vocalist Darryn McCartney to have a chat about his beginnings, the band and the upcoming EP!
Hello! You’ve been on the Derry metal scene for a good few years now, how did you get from your beginnings to where you are now as a musician?
Darryn: The first time that I really got into music was around the age of 14. I’ve always wanted to play music, but I never really felt that I was any good at anything. I started playing piano, but I didn’t feel I had any real talent; I wasn’t really interested. But then when I heard music like Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Pantera I thought, “I could do that”. So then when I was 17, I was jamming with a few mates and I just let rip and they thought it sounded good, so I just kept doing what I was doing. We covered some Sabbath and Pantera and then from that I got into my first band, which was Hybris, when I was around 18 or 19. Over the years I’ve refined my voice and tried to develop my own sound.
You made quite an influence on the local scene with Hybris, and now you’re gaining momentum with Proxist, which is short for Project Exist. Tell us about the formation of the band.
Darryn: Steve (Caldwell, Drummer), and I were both in Hybris and Death Warrant respectively, and Proxist at that time was a side-project. He’d send me some songs, I would write something to it and send it back and then he would make it sound awesome. After we wrote our first song, it started to come into being as its own band and we got more members in and that was it. We became Project Exist because it was a project and it actually existed; we were actually doing something.
You then released your debut EP “Syst3m Fa1lure” in autumn of last year. How do you feel the EP reflected what you wanted to do, and how will the upcoming release differ?
Darryn: The way I look at “Syst3m Fa1lure” is that we didn’t know what we wanted to sound like. We have a bonus track called “Synthetic Creation”, which sounds very like Fear Factory, but then there are songs like “Grave Digger”, which is very Down-inspired and has a groove feel to it and “Termination”, which is more like thrash metal.
I’m still happy with it, and I’m still proud of it, but at the same time I knew we could do better. But with the second EP, we really think we’ve found our sound.
Your upcoming second EP, “Through Blind Eyes” is set to be released this summer. Tell us a little bit about the writing process for that.
Darryn: Steve would write a part of a song, as would Paul (Sandy, Guitarist) and Kevin (Sandy, Guitarist) and then they’d record it and send it to me, I’d give my own input and we’d all come together and chat about it. Then Steve would do a basic mix of the tracks and I’d add my vocal and lyrical input, as would Steve. He does a lot of vocal parts and harmonies with me; both live and recorded. We have completely different voices, but they work well together, which is a relief (laughs). That’s basically how our writing process works.
You take a very DIY approach to your music. Do you find you have a lot more freedom being an independent band who records their own music?
Darryn: Well, first of all, it saves a lot of money. A lot of bands these days don’t have a whole lot of money, and it’s so hard to make it on the scene.
And when you go into a big fancy studio and the engineers are sitting there, it’s a bit daunting and nerve wracking. Sitting isolated from everybody in the booth just doesn’t feel natural to me. But when we record at Steve’s it’s just us, so if I mess up we can have a laugh about it, and I don’t have to worry about things and think , “Aw my god, I need to get this right or there’s 50 quid just wasted”, so there’s a lot less pressure. I think more bands should put their money into getting home recording equipment for their first EPs. Then, when you really know what you’re doing, you can take it to a studio. It’s all about trial and error.
You also released your debut music video for Grave Digger recently, which employs a Claymation style approach. Tell us a bit about that.
Darryn: We already had two versions of it out before, but we came up with the idea of making an official music video. I find it hilarious, but it’s a good hilarious, you know? It was made by our guitarist Paul, who also does all our artwork, and his brother Kevin gave him a hand. It was fun to watch them making it. At times I was thinking “Oh god, is this gonna work?”
We also held a wee competition, just to get a bit of buzz going, and the winner, Glenn Rossborough (Intermission, Wyldling) got his brains eaten by Zombified clay versions of us (laughs).
I’m proud of it, and they (Paul and Kevin) should be proud of it too. I think it’s really good. It’s different.
How has Proxist been received on the local gigging scene?
Darryn: Any time we’ve played our home town, we’ve got a great response. Whether it’s friends or people who have never seen us before, or never seen Hybris or Death Warrant, they seem to like us. We can go to Belfast and people there could love us, or people there could hate us. People in Belfast are really into their Black and Death metal, but then there are people who love Power metal and Battle metal, so it just depends on the night.
So with all your plans for the very near future, where do you see Proxist going from here?
Darryn: Our plans are to keep getting gigs under our belt, keep plugging away at it and just see how well we can do and how far we can take it. As Paul Monk (MakingMonsters) always says to me, it’s just a matter of hard work and a bit of luck.
Thanks a lot!
Proxist's debut music video can be viewed here, and you can stream their EP "Syst3m Fa1lure" in full via the bandcamp link below.
"Through Blind Eyes" is due for release this summer.
