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Liam Christenson from The War Between Us
Late last week I caught up with Liam Christenson from The War Between Us. Liam told me about his Creative Influences, pursuing his musical goals and maintaining Creative Focus.
Thank you for taking the time to chat with me this week. Please tell the readers a bit about yourself and The War Between Us.
Liam Christenson: Thanks – its awesome to hear from you. The War Between Us started as a passion project between myself and Dan the guitarist. We just wanted to write some high-energy emotion driven rock n roll/punk. The more we wrote, the more we realised that we cared enough to make it a band. We brought in Nick on bass and Sam and drums and the rest is history. I write and do vocals and have been involved in the punk and hardcore scene since I was 10 years old.
Tell me a bit about the inspiration behind your band The War Between Us.
Liam Christenson: Lyrically, (with The War Between Us) it was a deep introspective look at how I see the world and how I fit into it. I’m not afraid to pull punches – be it personal battles with my mental health to politics and even my dog. I guess I’ve used writing as an emotional outlet. From an instrumental perspective – it started out just me writing riffs to the best of my very poor musical ability and then consulting with Dan – who is thankfully a great musician – to turn them into actual workable songs. Now Dan runs the show instrumentally, thank goodness (and our listeners breathe a sigh of relief).
Where did song writing start for you and what is your origin story?
Liam Christenson: I have always written songs. My family are classically trained musicians and have always encouraged me to pursue creative endeavours so writing music is pretty second nature to me. I spent my early years in the outback in indigenous communities. My parents were both school teachers and we moved around a lot.
We finally settled in Newcastle in my teenage years where I fell into the scene and started a semi-successful touring band. We toured and recorded for 7 years before I left to pursue other opportunities. I got a degree and a ‘real job’ before I realised it wasn’t for me – I consider the War Between Us to be the beginning of my third life and I’m stoked to have found such an awesome group of people.
The War Between Us is clearly influenced by a range of different Heavy Bands but where does the overall Hardcore/Metalcore/Post-Hardcore genres sit for you? What are your go to’s?
Liam Christenson: I’ve been into Metal and Hardcore my whole life. From the Gothenburg Sound and Norwegian Black Metal of the early 90’s through to 80’s New York Hardcore. It’s interesting that people find influences in the band that we were never aware of before. It’s pretty cool that they are so different to our own influences when writing.
For us, the only real influence that we could specify, would be that we really wanted to channel the energy of The Bronx. They are a favourite of ours. When it comes to Metalcore, at the moment I’m really loving From Sorrow To Serenity, If I Were You and Dayseeker.
What are your biggest obstacles when it comes to writing new music? How do you overcome them?
Liam Christenson: Honestly, Dan and I will jam it out. I jump on drums and Dan on the guitar and we just jam it out until it works. Its not always straight forward and its not a full proof method but helps to have someone to bounce off. Dan and I are not ego driven and generally keep our emotions out of the process. That works really well for us. We then show Nick and Sam for their input. Nick’s a chiller and Sam is an absolute beast of a drummer and makes everything sound good.
How did you go about finding the right musicians to work with?
Liam Christenson: It’s been a process – we’ve had a few changes from the very start to now because people have different life commitments. The band is a no pressure environment and it’s always up to the individual how involved they want to be. Luckily, we’ve got a great group of super talented mates so its been a pretty easy process to manage.
Many of us creators work on projects outside of our 9-5 jobs. Do you have any advice for balancing careers with passion projects/side hustles?
Liam Christenson: Honestly, the 9-5 life has ever been great for me. I did for a decade and it didn’t fit so I definitely understand the struggle. That being said, I still juggle numerous projects and am pursing a career in academia and the guys all work full-time too. I guess it is just about finding people to keep you accountable and motivated and have the same expectations of you. We keep things very relaxed. We get together on nights that suit and if it doesn’t that’s fine. We just do the best we can with the understanding that this is fun for all of us.
Do you have any upcoming events/projects/releases you would like to discuss?
Liam Christenson: Understandably, Covid-19 has gotten in the way of a few of our plans but we are currently working on a full length album that we will record in 2021. Hopefully be then we can start looking at getting into some venues and playing shows.
Personally, I’m the process of working on a spoken work poetry EP, Dan is working on repairing all the damage on his drift cars – quite possibly the most expensive hobby I’ve ever witnessed. Nick is working on taking over the world one cryptocurrency and conspiracy at a time. Sam has been busy crossfitting his way to glory and has just finished shooting and editing a film clip for incredible band Post Truth. Check them out here:
https://orcd.co/responsestotrauma
Thank you for taking the time to do this! Where can readers listen to The War Between Us?
Liam Christenson: Everything we have out can be found at this Link: https://linktr.ee/thewarbetweenus
Thanks!
Where to find The War Between Us
The War Between Us on Facebook
The War Between Us on Spotify
The War Between Us on Apple Music
The War Between Us on Youtube
The War Between Us on Instagram
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