Posted: by The Alt Editing Staff
At the end of April, With Sails Ahead put out their debut LP. The progressive post-hardcore band has shared the stage with groups like Royal Coda, Hail the Sun, and Eidola, and Infinite Void demonstrates a fusion of feathery hooks, dizzing riffs, and metallic edge similar to those bands. But With Sails Ahead isn’t a carbon copy; “Ryn” dives headlong into the band’s prog-metal roots, while the bouncy “Peach Tea (Obituary)” is airy and melodic. The best With Sails Ahead songs exist between the two poles–tracks like “Lemongrab” and “Picture Perfect Pixels” are blindingly technical and instantly infectious at once. Much of that is due to Sierra Binondo’s effortless, unaffected vocals. She commands attention without ever distracting from the pyrotechnic riffs behind her, even on a song like “In Search Of” that shows off nearly her full vocal range. We sat down with Binondo to discuss the writing of Infinite Void, some of the band’s upcoming plans, and her love of Cowboy Bebop.
Infinite Void has been out for a few months now. How has the reception been?
It’s been really positive. I’d say it exceeded our expectations, but I don’t really know what our expectations were to begin with–this is our debut. What’s blown us away has been people hearing things in the lyrics and music that maybe we didn’t explicitly communicate when promoting it, people being like, “Hey, I have extreme anxiety and this pulled me out,” or “this reminds me of hearing Saosin for the first time.” It’s been really heartfelt stuff. It keeps us going.
Prior to this album you had the EP in 2018 and a bit of material before that, but you were pretty quiet from ’21 until the singles started dropping here. What was that like, taking that time off between releases?
It drove us nuts. We kept getting set back personally. There was financial stuff, life transition stuff, stuff we couldn’t control. The best we could do was chip away at the album and continue playing shows. Looking back, why did it take us so long? It stinks–you have to work so much faster now, and we’ve learned how to move faster going forward, but it let us experience writing the record. Nowadays I’m sure people feel like they need to get the next thing going ASAP. I took some time off between April and now. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. We used to get together at my house, crush beers, and work on the songs. It’s one of my favorite parts of making the record. But going forward we’ll move a lot faster.
You’ve been hyping up a new song already, speaking of moving faster.
We have a song done. It was supposed to be on another project. It was going to be part of something–not With Sails Ahead. Stuff changed. We thought it’d be cool to release something before the end of the year. For Infinite Void I crafted this meticulous marketing campaign, so it’s nice to just throw stuff at the wall. We finished the song between May and July sometime and held onto it. One more release before the end of the year!
If it was for a different project, does that mean it’ll be a bit of a departure for With Sails Ahead?
We do intend on doing work like that. I like to describe it as sidequests. We’re going to push Infinite Void, but we have different interests–we love math rock, heavy progressive metal, J-rock, emo. Our guitarist Joe started listening to Thursday and Silverstein this year. Better late than never! We have a lot of different directions we want to entertain. When I say it was meant for something else, it’s still happening, just at a later date. We are going to do a lighter release, a heavier release–the most extreme spectrum of what we can do before the next LP. Infinite Void was our day to day. After being in a band for so long, you have to ask what you’ll do later down the line. If you don’t have something to look ahead to, it can be hard to stay inspired to build that community and hit the road.
It’s good to hear you’re coming back refreshed and after all that you aren’t super worn out.
In some ways we are. We try to get excited, though. If we don’t, we’ll go insane. But I get how other bands could be. We had bigger-than-life aspirations for Infinite Void–and we’re happy where it landed!–but we aren’t going to dwell on it. It’s hard to think about how I top something like “Swear Words” or “Darting Eyes.” They feel like crowning achievements. I hope people don’t just want part two.
Is that why those were the lead singles?
Yeah, we wanted to let them marinate.
Something I read about the album was that the album title was sort of a compromise, a combination of two other titles you were deciding between. Is that usually how you decide things for With Sails Ahead? Does one person bring in an idea and you work around it, or does one person have fully formed ideas you tinker the corners of?
For visual direction, I’m the guy. I’ll say, “Here’s my idea–does it suck?” My bandmates are very honest. The title I thought we all had to love–no resentment! For songwriting, Joe’s the principal songwriter for the band. They were already writing new stuff after Infinite Void dropped. We’ll go into the instrumental shells Joe brings, but we want to be more collaborative. Some of the songs were written in the same room, and we want to do that more. It’s tough, but we want to prioritize that. It was one dynamic, but now it’s shifting.
Something I like about With Sails Ahead is that you’ve got a very clear visual identity, and the Infinite Void art is a great example. How did you settle on that? Did you design that? Did you commission it?
It was a commission. I scoured the internet. I have an art Instagram for certain artists and styles, and I ended up on this artist 9Jedit from South Korea. The other artist we’ve worked with a lot, Karen Wong–that’s a romanization of her name–lives in France. We work with a lot of artists. As an artist, I value working with humans. I was looking for someone who specialized in dreamlike illustrations. 9Jedit was it. Working together there was only a little back and forth to communicate and compromise on the final image with 9Jedit. A lot of people have called the guy in the artwork Shinji, and it’s not Shinji.
Some of your artwork does have Evangelion vibes, I can’t lie. Are you guys fans?
So many people will be mad, but I watched most of Evangelion, and because of the memes I thought the ending was spoiled for me. I watched out of obligation–I’ve been watching anime my whole life and never seen this?–I love the characters, love the robots, but it wasn’t clicking. It didn’t do it for me the way Cowboy Bebop did. At a certain point I just checked out. Once you see the earth is desolate I just stopped watching. I am pretty sure no one else in the band has watched it. I hear if you watch End of Evangelion and all the other media that it makes sense, but there’s other stuff I want to watch first. Maybe my media literacy is ass, but my sibling wasn’t fond of it either, so maybe it’s not just me.
If you had to recommend three anime–popular or not–for our readers to check out if they also don’t like Evangelion, what would you say?
Definitely Cowboy Bebop, that’s an all-timer. I grew up a Toonami kid, and recently I went to see a band play the soundtrack live–it was incredible. The anime is incredible and the music is really fucking good. It’s also shonen–people see Naruto and think that’s all there is. Wota Koi is another one that I love, a slice of life about four office workers who are twenty-somethings working shitty corporate jobs and going to anime cons on the weekend. They’re normal people, relatable. It’s a very comforting anime. I wish I could come up with a cooler one for my third, but Digimon is the reason I’m into anime. I’d say Digimon Tamers specifically, a very dark pivot. It’s got themes of depression and mental health. That’s not super foreign now. If you’re feeling adventurous, try that.
You’re about to embark on a tour with pulses., Cheem, and nightlife. How did that come to be?
Sam from Cheem put us all in a group chat and said, “Let’s try and get this sick lineup together.” This was back in June or July. It’s been in the works! I was immediately in. I love all three. Cheem we’ve known for years–peripherally. We’ve never played a show. We’ve known nightlife from Twitter, and there’s slowly been a friendship building there. The timing seemed right–December worked for everyone.
Will you be playing the new song on this tour?
No, we’re not. We talked about it, but we’re doing our most accessible bangers. I think that even though there’s overlap between all four of our communities, a seven-string song would be left-field. It’d be a logistical nightmare too! We could’ve saved it for after the new year, but whatever.
What’s your favorite off the album to play live?
Either “Oblivion” or “Catastrophe.” “Oblivion” is fun, proggy. I think it’s something people didn’t expect from us, and it’s a sound I’d like to explore more. “Catastrophe” is very close to me. It’s a mirror of my life for the last thirty-two years. It feels like I vanquished whatever struggles I sang about there. It’s a song about realizing where my anxiety and ADHD came from, how it manifested, and how to deal with it moving forward. For a long time it was a big question mark, so it feels really good to sing.
What’s your favorite Pokémon?
Latias. I love dragons very much. That was the last Pokémon movie I saw in theaters, and Latias is so endearing. It’s like a dragon puppy. It’s not for moveset or competitive reasons. As a kid, if I could see one Pokémon as a companion, it’d be Latias. Wait–what’s yours?
Either Dragonite or Lapras. Lapras never gets enough love–I’ll say Lapras.
Absolutely.
With Sails Ahead is a New Jersey band, and The Alt is a New Jersey website. I’ve got some New Jersey questions for you. Is it pork roll or Taylor Ham?
It’s pork roll. Taylor Ham is the brand!
What’s the most New Jersey song?
If you asked me normally, I don’t know. But while you were asking, I had the intrusive thought of Bruce Springsteen. “Born in the USA”–that’s him?
That’s him. I think it’s got to be Springsteen. Maybe “Understanding in a Car Crash.”
Let’s pretend I said “Understanding in a Car Crash.” Great. But I do think it’s got to be The Boss. I don’t listen to him, but it’s got to be. We share a birthday!
If there’s anything else you think is important, say so now.
For the tour, we’re each headlining our respective hometowns, so the Asbury date is a headliner for us. It’s a can’t-miss show if you like With Sails Ahead. Check out “Y.E.R.” if you like seven-string songs. I know how it sounds when bands say this, but it’s the heaviest With Sails Ahead song!
Infinite Void is out now. Catch With Sails Ahead’s headlining date in Asbury Park next week, and presave “Y.E.R.,” out tomorrow.
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Zac Djamoos | @gr8whitebison
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