Walter Schreifels' music CV is a list of post-hardcore greats; Gorilla Biscuits, Rival Schools, Quicksand and more. Vanishing Life is his latest band and boasts input from members of Rise Against, Bad Religion and …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. 'Surveillance', the supergroup's debut album, drops at the end of November and Walter told PT all about it.
From the off, he’s clear to point out that he doesn’t see it as a supergroup but more of a dream project that just happened to take off. It started at Groezrock in 2013 as an off-the-cuff idea between successful musicians. I point out that he seems to constantly work with people from other bands and Walter explains why:
“When I first started doing hardcore, I was in multiple bands and that’s how I learned. I like to collaborate with other people. I get from every experience, even producing. A supergroup is an idea from the 70s when all these bands would get together, like Asia. We’re just punk musicians who get together and we’re purists,” he says.
I last saw Rival Schools back in 2011, when they were supporting …Trail of Dead and I ask if that’s where this all started to come about.
“Touring with those guys, we picked up a lot. It came together, quite spontaneous, at a festival. It was all “yeah let’s do it” and in the back of my mind I thought it would never happen but then it got followed up on. The tapes that we made got passed on and Geoff Rickly [Thursday singer] heard it. It was more motivation to follow it because we were getting immediate praise,” he explains.
At the time, Walter thought that Geoff Rickly and …Trail of Dead’s Jason Reece would also be contributing vocals to ‘Surveillance’ but it was not to be. Demos got sent around with different parts and, although Walter has written some guitar parts, he wanted to focus solely on singing duties.
“I did play guitar on the album but, as far as performance, I wanted something different,” he begins, “I wanted to challenge myself. I also wanted to not worry about taking a guitar to the airport. I wanted to be free but it’s a challenge because you’re up there without something to hold onto for security. I’m going to go up and see what happens.”
The majority of songs, musically, were actually written by Bad Religion’s Jamie Miller, who can be considered the band’s drummer. He also recorded the album’s two ambient pieces. Zach Blair (Rise Against) and Walter then added in some of the others. Walter took responsibility for all of the lyrics on ‘Surveillance’.
Having listened to the album, I’ve picked up on a recurring theme in the lyrics and they match the record’s title. I ask what were the ideas and messages that he’s trying to get across in his words.
“It goes with surveillance. The evolutionary pivot we’re on, in terms of media saturation and people trying to find their humanity in this saturation. All the stuff like the invention of the telephone, air travel, nuclear weapons and space travel. I don’t think our DNA has really caught up with that yet. It’s about finding your humanity in all that and also having a kind of sense of humour on it,” he tells me.
Walter is a father to a young daughter and, using my own experience as an example, I ask if he was consciously thinking about how she might grow up being affected by the media. He says he wasn’t but moves on to discuss just how it can affect children.
“I wasn’t thinking about it in that way. These little kids; what is their take on things? How do we help them when they need something to help navigate with this world. It’s very seductive to leave the kid with the iPad when you need some time to yourself and before you know it the kid’s glued to the screen.
“I’m afraid of the fact that we’ve got drone strikes. We can see someone from a satellite and just kill them with a remote control from the other side of the world. That’s the society that we live in. Kids coming up into that world, it’s a lot of violence. You can’t be blind to it but you have to find your love and your happiness. It’s important to see it out but there’s a lot of competition from social media and the paranoia that it induces. It’s trying to manipulate people to buy things and to vote for things,” he muses.
Walter makes it clear that this is just what he’s talking about but it’s not necessarily something he thinks about in his day-to-day life.
So, what song is he most proud of?
“I think the whole record’s strong. I think ‘Realist’ is most interesting to me cause it’s deep musically but also it’s simple and I like the lyrics. It’s just kind of funny and serious. It’s got a lot of power,” he enthusiastically says.
Vanishing Life plan to tour the album and will be heading to Europe in the new year, with dates in London and Manchester. Given that the members all have other bands going on, it’s potentially a big ask to have them all free to play shows around the world. Walter’s optimistic about keeping everyone together on the road, for Europe at least.
“Zach is in the middle of recording a Rise Against record. He won’t be on the US leg but, as far as I know, will be on the European leg. We’re kind of excited for this thing to go from the concept to people actually having the record,” he says.
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‘Surveillance’ is available now via Dine Alone Records, and Walter is putting together one hell of a lineup for his Togetherfest tour, which includes Vanishing Life, Trash Talk and Youth of Today. They’ll be playing London on February 25th 2017, which Vanishing Life headline dates thereafter.