The ‘Butterfly effect’: pettiness, regret and injustice

Metal On Loud – Interview with John Knight of SYNAPTIK – Feb. 2016

Thank you very much for your time spent with Metal On Loud Magazine  and commitment to your music and fans! There are a few questions which I would like to ask before Synaptik lock up in the studio to surprise us with a new album! You have found a unique sound of your band: melodic death metal brutality, progressive metal complexity and melodic clean vocal…What metal subgenre influences your music most of all?

John Knight (JK – vocals): Each member brings their own influences from different genres. Personally the Progressive Metal sub-genre influences me the most, it is just unleashed, free to do whatever it chooses, experimentation, it keeps the music fresh and makes us all excited as musicians.

Synaptik is a UK band…What countries have you performed live in? What audience was the most welcoming and perceptive?

As yet SYNAPTIK haven’t performed outside of the U.K but this is something we are very eager to arrange and wheels are in motion, if any bands, fans or promoters wish to contact us then we can hopefully arrange some gigs asap. We have performed in Europe in previous bands, France & Germany mainly and the audiences were so cool, so we are eager to get over there when it is possible.

If you go on tour with another band – what band do you dream to collaborate with?

Again, personally I think it would be amazing to gig with Watchtower, their singer Alan Tecchio is a good friend and he also provided some guest vocals on our debut album, he has been a big influence on me and also been very supportive, seeing them live again would be ace.
    
Also Queensrÿche, great band and they have a new lease of life with Todd on vocals. I chatted to him when he was in Crimson Glory, he is a really cool guy. So for me it would be one of those, but there are so many cool bands out there.

What music the band members listen to? What are your personal music preferences?

I listen to metal mostly, Queensrÿche, Dream Theater, Angel Dust, Death, Maiden, Jag Panzer, Psychotic Waltz, Dio, but also enjoy bands like Lamb of God, Twelve Foot Ninja, Atheist, Nevermore as well as Kate Bush, Sam Brown, Alanis Morrisette. We all have mixed tastes as you would expect from progressive musicians, we enjoy classical, jazz, black metal, also newer progressive bands like Porcupine Tree, Tesseract, Sky Harbor, Aliases,  etc.

The band has a history..what are the most memorable moments of the history?

The highlights for me thus far have been supporting great bands Exodus, Conception, Skyclad to name a few and being asked by Steve Harris to open up for Iron Maiden, that was amazing experience. Playing Download Festival and hanging out with some cool people who I admire greatly, Slipknot, Slayer, Iggy Pop, Arch Enemy, Opeth and sharing a drink with Dimebag. (R.I.P).

Playing music is amazing in itself but when it also gives you a chance to meet  & talk to other like minded people it’s an incredible bonus. I hope to meet more great music lovers around the world over the coming years with Synaptik.

Let’s talk a bit about your latest album “The Mechanism Of Consequence”… Can you tell our readers what is behind the main topic of the album, music…what is different compared to your previous releases?

“Mechanisms…..” is Synaptik debut album,  the title and artwork I came up with after a very painful and stressful couple of years in my life, the fallout from this event was very destructive. It made me realize that one stupid mistake can escalate into something nightmarish, the consequences can grow and it then sadly affects everyone around you as well. The ‘Butterfly effect’: pettiness, regret and injustice.  

One of the songs is also about this “Your Cold Dead Trace” (which Alan Tecchio kindly sang on and features in the promo video)
90% of the lyrics are written by myself and reflect human emotions and situations that everyone can hopefully associate with, loss, war & pain.

What are your own favorite songs? Why?

From the Synaptik album? My personal favorite is  a track called “As I Am, As I Was” it sums up Synaptik’s sound the best I feel, nice dynamics and melody, but also heavy and progressive.  Kev (Bassist) likes “A Man Dies” (which we have a lyric video for on our websites)

Can you, please, introduce your band members to our readers…

John Knight – Vocalist
Ian knight – Guitarist
Kev Jackson – Bassist
Jack Murton – Guitarist
Pete Loades – Drumist

People may remember my brother Ian, Kev & I from previous bands Inner Sanctum (UK) , Twisted Autumn Darkness & Fifth Season  

What music, besides Synaptik, would you recommend to listen to?

Just off the top of my head………Psychotic Waltz – incredible band, melodic, original, hoping for a new album soon. Watchtower – Technical Metal masters, Porcupine Tree – great Prog from UK, Jag Panzer – Ample Destruction album- classic heavy metal album, Nevermore – Loomis is amazing guitarist, Kate Bush – Ninth Wave/Hounds of Love – amazing, Twelve Foot Ninja – great tracks, fun videos, Aliases – friends band from UK, ex Sikth guitarist Pin and Leah- awesome melodic technical Metal.

Well, as we know – and it’s a great news! – the band is about to go to a studio to record a new album. Imagine, you are to make a teaser of this album right now…what would you say? What will be a surprise for the fans?

Expect a progressive step up from the debut album, 5 new tracks of melodic progressive metal with both brutally heavy riffs and dynamic melodic passages. We have grown together over the last couple of years as musicians, constantly striving to improve as humans and musicians and we hope this is expressed in our music, all things that make Synaptik stand out from the crowd. We can’t wait for you all to hear them. Snippets will be released on our twitter and instagram accounts over the time in studio so make sure you add us ‘synaptikmetal’

Thank you again for your great music and interesting replies! Metal On Loud Magazine team wishes you a lot of inspiration and success!

Thank you for your time and questions, loving Metal On Loud and the fantastic friendly and open people within its online community. Spread the Synaptik word. Appreciated, see you all soon.

SYNAPTIK on the web:
– www.synaptikmetal.com
– www.facebook.com/synaptikmetal
– twitter.com/Synaptikmetal
– www.reverbnation.com/SYNAPTIK
– soundcloud.com/synaptikmetal

“The Mechanisms Of Consequence” is still available from:
https://synaptikmetal.bandcamp.com/releases