We spoke with Atlantic Rift about “Lucid Thoughts” and more!

Q: “Lucid Thoughts” has a really immediate energy. Can you walk us through what sparked the idea behind the track? What was that first moment when you thought, “This could be something”?

Struan – this one is best answered by max since he wrote the instrumentation and brought it to us in a semi-completed state.

Max – At the time of writing, I was listening to a lot of melodic death metal, bands like early In Flames, Insomnium, Dark Tranquility, Soilwork, along with others, so whether it was a conscious choice or not, I naturally gravitated towards that kind of riffage. The very first riff that was written for this track was the third riff that appears in the verse, after the vocals kick in, after the chuggy section. The harmonies and a lot of fretboard movement made it quite fun to play, and after realising there were countless possibilities where I could take that riff, I based the whole song around that.

Q: It feels like you’ve hit a new stride with this release. Did the process of writing and recording “Lucid Thoughts” feel any different from how you’ve approached songs in the past?

Struan – not too different, we like to put a fair amount of effort and energy into each song we make, especially the ones we release. Writing was very back and forth on this track though, going through several stages of development before finally settling on what we released.

Max – The very first iteration of this track was written on a 6-string guitar, and back then, it sounded very much like a melo-death track. Aidan then recommended trying it out on 7s, as around the same time we were experimenting with 7 strings, so everything that was written prior for Lucid Thoughts had to be transposed to a different tuning. There is something about low-tuned guitars where some previously written riffs felt a lot..groovier? As everything we’ve written in the past, whatever tuning it was demoed in, the final version would be more or less the same as the demo, just better played, recorded, and performed.

After further adjustments, we made a concerted effort to make the track sound as continuous as possible, almost like waves of intensity and release. Once a rough demo was tracked, everyone seemed very pleased with the main chorus section. Then it was the case of making transitions feel smooth and making them sound like they belong

on the track and don’t feel out of place. There was definitely a lot of back and forth with adjustments, and many versions of the same track before we settled on the final.

Josh – I think this was the song out of all our tracks so far that has Max’s flavour all over it. I think we pay homage to a few artists in particular on this track which might otherwise be overlooked too. Invent animate – Darkbloom at 3:17 the blast I really loved emotionally. I wanted to capture a certain energy during the climax of ‘Lucid Thoughts’ where you have the solo guitar and the blast beat. An emotional synergy that feels raw and rewarding for the listener but is also heavy and carries that attitude metal has.

Woj – Lucid Thoughts was recorded at the same time as our earlier releases this year Void and Delve however it had changes made to it through the year. The writing part was the usual as it’s always been for us like Struan has mentioned, everyone gets their say in the song writing process.

Aidan – Although recorded at the same time I think it’s fair to say Lucid got a lot more attention and critique throughout the writing process than the other songs we released earlier in the year. I think although that can feel like you’re going maybe too heavily into the details at the time it’s produced one of the tunes we are most proud. Personally, I tried a lot of melodies before settling on the ones in Lucid and am the most happy the cleans in this tune from anything we’ve released so far.

Q: The title “Lucid Thoughts” has this dreamy, almost surreal feeling to it. Did that vibe influence how you approached writing or producing the song?

Struan – lyrically yes. The whole idea is putting the thoughts of the self into words in the form of a conversation between the overly positive, egoistic and almost narcissistic, side of the self, the overly negative, self-loathing side of the self, and the more neutral, and possibly grounded/true self. This vibe needed to be captured in the way the song flowed and I think we settled on a good balance for that.

Max – As Struan mentioned, we wanted to leave the title as a bit of an interpretation for a listener, rather than using a chorus line as a title. For a while, when we didn’t have a title, we just referred to it as “the melodic one”, until Struan talked us through the lyrics.

Woj – the name of the song maybe didn’t necessarily have an input on how we approached the song itself, like Max mentioned we didn’t even have a title for a while. When it comes to production though, this is the first time we had drums live on the records and that goes for Delve and Void as well because these 3 songs were recorded at the same time.

Q: You’ve put out tracks like “VOID//DELVE” and You Can’t Save Yourself. How does “Lucid Thoughts” fit into that journey? Do you see it as an evolution or more of a return to what you do best?

Struan – it’s not so much an evolution or a return as it is another step on our journey. It’s its own thing and isn’t defined by what came before or what will come after.

Max – Wouldn’t say an evolution sound-wise, other than the writing approach. It is more technical in terms of all instrumentation compared to what we have written previously, and we do want to keep pushing ourselves in our technical abilities and writing and just have fun writing and performing, so in that aspect, there will be more music utilising a similar approach.

Aidan – it’s definitely a shift in sound and writing style whether that be towards using more technical playing or just paying extra attention to the structure and how things flow. Each song we’ve been writing recently seems very different to the last (to us at least) and I think we all find that motivates us a lot actually.

Q: From a production angle, what was the biggest challenge in bringing “Lucid Thoughts” to life? Was there a moment in the studio when something just clicked?

Struan – there were a couple spots, mostly the clean vocals, that really clicked in the studio, but the biggest challenge was coming up with a non-explicit version of the lyrics that still captured the original vibe of the song from the original conceptions that also didn’t mess too much with the vibes carried by the flow and the cadence of the vocal parts.

Max – I think definitely the vocal aspect, like vocal harmonies, and adding layers to bring atmosphere – it’s the subtle things that we normally wouldn’t even consider when bouncing ideas to each other, but they do elevate the track and give it new ‘flavour’.

Woj – a big challenge was making sure the song sounded balanced I guess. The song is quite riffy at parts and also it’s a fairly fast song as well so making sure the ambiance in the song was right and wasn’t clashing with everything else that’s going on in the song so it wasn’t “overdone”

Q: The lyrics and instrumentation seem to play off each other really well. Is there a particular line or section that feels like the emotional core of the song to you?

Struan – for me it’s the interplay between the vocal sections that is the core, the whole idea for this interplay came from the way the instruments had that vibe to begin with so it was much to do with matching those energies and going where that took me.

Max – I love the chorus section, the melodies with a combination of Aidan’s clean singing on top with Struan having growls underneath in a different rhythm, with the lyrics that appear in the pre-chorus. The lines “I’m here to help, I’m here to heal, I will make you even stronger still” made me feel various positive emotions the first time I heard it, bringing a sense of reassurance and contentment.

Woj – once again going back to what Struan said earlier, the idea of the song is a conversation within yourself with the good side of yourself and the bad side of yourself so having a conversation is bouncing thoughts back and forth that’s why we wanted to make sure the lyrics and the instruments bounce and almost feed off each other. For me the whole song means a lot as it goes through a story of almost all emotions but the part of the song. For me what gives me goosebumps is anything from the clean solo, into the heavy blast beats into a different variation of the song which I think builds up really nicely to then explode with emotion which goes into a satisfying outro.

Q: You’ve described your sound as Scottish metalcore. How much does being from Scotland influence your sound or the way you write and perform?

Struan – I’m not sure how much it influences writing, but it definitely influences our vibe, and for sure our performance, the crowds in Scotland give so much energy and that helps with giving that energy back, there’s also a certain level of rebellion that’s inherent in being Scottish so that comes with an attitude that exists throughout us as a band.

Max – It’s a difficult one to answer, because there are many bands that we played with before in Scotland that would describe themselves similarly; however, everyone has their own sound (I hope that’s true for us as well), and we haven’t come across bands that sound like each other, even if they have similar influences. Performance-wise, definitely, there is a symbiotic relationship between crowds and artists; you want to give back to the audience when they’re enjoying themselves.

Q: Since releasing “Lucid Thoughts”, what’s been your favorite reaction from fans? Has anyone’s feedback changed how you think about the track?

Struan – for me it’s the live reception, this song always seems to get such a great engagement when we play it live, I think because it’s both bouncy and relatable, so that general reception always feels good when performing. I’m personally quite locked into how I relate to the track so others’ feedback doesn’t really change how I see it myself.

Max – The reaction from playing the song live and seeing people moshing always feels good. To us, it is one of the best compliments we can receive, as it shows that people are genuinely enjoying themselves. The comments on socials were very wholesome and overwhelmingly positive as well – I’m just happy that people are appreciating what we do and continue supporting us.

Q: How do you see “Lucid Thoughts” translating to your live shows? Are there moments you’re especially excited to play on stage?

Struan – We’ve been playing this song at live shows for quite a while and it’s done great! In fact we often play our new songs live long before they get released, although not always, so it’s definitely worth coming down to see what might be coming next. For me I love seeing max play the solo live as it’s one of the best things I think he’s written emotionally so seeing that live never gets old.

Max – I believe we started playing this song before we even had a title for it, without any production that we use now. For me, the section i always look forward to the most would either be the second verse – due to its bouncy feel, Struan’s vocal flow, fun guitar tapping, Wojtek’s slapped bass part, and Josh’s syncopated drumming – or the section that appears just before the last chorus, as it is essentially an intro riff, with a half time drum feel and alternating tails/endings that work in reverse from the intro, giving a feel of the familiarity of an intro and circling back to the start.

Q: To wrap up, what’s next for Atlantic Rift for the rest of this year? Should fans be expecting new music, more shows, maybe something bigger on the horizon?

Struan – We have a couple shows before the year ends but after that we are getting our heads down to really grind out some stuff we’ve been dragging along so once we do that we hope to have some special stuff ready for next year, but the best place to keep up with that will be our shows so make sure you keep an eye out for when we are playing if you want to hear what’s new.

Max – There is quite a lot of material that is being worked on at the moment that we can’t wait to share with everyone!

Josh – Expect sounds you’ve not heard from us before ! We are definitely pushing ourselves in these next releases to come.