A slurry of influences from five guys coming together from five different bands, Alleviate has managed to craft a unique sound within the metalcore scene with their want to simply craft the music the way they wanted instead of following the ‘premade template.’ The results are obvious when you listen to their upcoming debut, DMNS, and see the band move from brutal, visceral riffing and breakdowns and snap their fingers and launch into a beautiful, melodic chorus. We had a chat with guitarist Ramon Kluft, drummer Yunus Proch, and screamer Marius Wedler to get a better grasp on how the band came together, how their songwriting lead them into more interesting territory, and if having four producers in the band led to any challenges in the writing process, among other topics.
Dead Rhetoric: So how do five guys in different bands come to form one on their own?
Ramon Kluft: The band basically started with Timo [Bonner] and I as a fun project. In 2020 we were gaming together on PS5 playing some GTA and we were already working together for something with his other band, Our Mirage. Timo came up with the idea about me coming to Germany and writing an awesome song together. One thing led to another and I went to his city in Germany and we wrote “Die For Me” together as a fun, side-project. We had the idea of having the rest of the band come join us so we sent out that song to them and said we wanted to release this song and if they wanted to join.
We were lucky enough that everything started, but pretty quickly, like in a few weeks, it was a complete and full band effort. Yunis [Proch] contributed some amazing drums for the song and Marius [Wedler] had some awesome screams, Marc [Baker] had some great ideas for making the song a bit heavier…so it feels like we were all together from the start as a fun side-project. But it turned out to be much greater!
Dead Rhetoric: Do you think some of this came about because in thinking back to 2020, you had a little more time on your hands in that period?
Yunus Proch: Yeah, we all had some time. Timo asked me if I wanted to program some drums for the song and they really liked it, so they asked if I wanted to be in the music video. It was kind of a fun thing but they wanted to release it as a demo, then we decided to get another screamer so that Timo could do the clean vocals and some shouts, and then we asked Marius. We all knew each other somehow and then it just randomly happened. We were all happy about that, so I guess we were lucky.
Dead Rhetoric: What are some of the unique qualities that you feel Alleviate has to offer given the fact that all of you are also in different bands?
Ramon Kluft: I feel like every band that we have been in/are still in is completely different than what we are doing right now. The challenge is, of course, to create something that has all of our influences. We are all so used to different styles that we can sort of combine it into one style that makes us unique.
Yunus Proch: Also, we all have a mindset that we want to play live as much as possible. Everyone in this band, even though we have our own bands, like Timo also has Our Mirage and is working as a music producer so it’s basically his job.
Ramon Kluft: In this band, there are four music producers. We all have different visions of how a song should turn out. But because we are all producers as well, and work with other bands too, putting that vision to life becomes much easier. Everyone knows how to do it instead of relying on each other. One person can make the changes themselves, for example, like if I write a riff and program some drums I know that the drums that Yunus is going to send in are going to be much different than the demo I send in, but it’s always a ‘next level’ of the song. Since we all have the same mindset, but different visions of it.
Dead Rhetoric: If you have four people who are fluent in producing, are there any challenges in that same scenario?
Yunus Proch: We had some changes because of other things, like the distance between where some of us live. So that leads to challenges in recordings together. Ramon is able to be recorded by himself, so he sends his tracks to Timo. Marius tries to come over when he has the time.
Marius Wedler: But I do have a microphone at home, so we can finally start recording at home for me too. I just rearranged my room. For example, for the video shoot for “Broken,” I had to fly in Germany to join the video shoot. The last three years have been a challenge for me because of exams, which I have just finished. We have a concert next Saturday, so it’s going to be big deal. I can join every time now, it makes things way easier than they were. But recording-wise, I guess there is one person that says to change this and that, but in the end, we want everyone to help and have a voice and have everyone like what we do in the end. Even if there are some disagreements, in the end, we are all fine with it. We are going to be listen to it and be happy and go out and play shows, so it’s not a big problem.
Yunus Proch: Also, what you said about doing exams, we are all working full-time or studying, so that’s one of the biggest challenges. We are bringing up a high quality product, whether it’s video or audio, but we are still working 8 hours a day. It’s kind of hard to do at times, but other than that, we are most of the time pretty straight-forward with everything.
Dead Rhetoric: You did a collaboration with Nik Nocturnal, could you go into what brought that about?
Marius Wedler: I don’t know it first-hand, but I know that Timo and Nik have known each other for a long time. They have been working on things ever since Timo had his first band, like helping each other. When we got the first song out, Nik instantly reacted to it. We got a comment from him, and he was always there in our streams. I guess out of fun, Timo asked him if he wanted to be a part of a song on the album. He asked him about doing a vocal feature, and Nik was like, “yeah, send it over.” We had a demo already and I did the vocals, so he joined in and we were happy.
It was a big opportunity for us. He’s a big guy on Twitch in the US and everywhere. He’s doing a lot of stuff for the metal scene, so it’s also a big honor for us. He’s a fun guy and we were happy with how it turned out. We got him into the video – he was cut in, obviously, he was not in Germany. But we were happy to get him in it too. “Gravity” is such a nice song.
Dead Rhetoric: You formed in 2020 in the pandemic. Do you feel that time period helped to stir up the band’s lyrical concepts in terms of positivity, or was it something you were just shooting for to begin with?
Ramon Kluft: I think it’s closer to that we were shooting for it from the start. A lot of our lyrics are about mental health and the hard-hitting moments in life and we have all experienced those in life, and some of us are still experiencing them. Ever since “Die for Me,” the way the song turned out and how it connected us together as a band – it also connected to the audience. We knew that it was our place to be. That was the route we wanted to go on. Especially after “Broken,” because we got so many messages about how our music helps them with daily struggles. We got some really hard-hitting stories from some people that I will never forget. But it lets you connect in such a special way. From that point on, we knew that was what Alleviate was.
People being helped by our music, that is the greatest gift of all. That’s the whole reason we make the music we make. I think it’s really special that we can help other people with struggles with our music. The funny thing is that the audience that contacts us might not understand that it is also helping us as individuals. For me, personally, it’s such a great gift and why we make this music.
Dead Rhetoric: You did mention the focus on mental health, which you didn’t see nearly as much, say twenty years ago. What makes that piece so important, and like you said, such a special piece to you?
Ramon Kluft: Personally, but I think I can speak for all of us, that we are a big advocate about breaking the stigma on mental health. I think it’s really important, especially nowadays, that people know that it’s okay not to be okay. We all know how that is, because we have been there. Some of us are still there, and it’s okay. If we can just help each other by talking about it, or with music or any art, if we can break that stigma, the world will be a better place. I think it’s really important we portray that.
Marius Wedler: As we all know, 10 years ago, it sounds like a long time ago but it wasn’t. But there were other themes in music. Talking about that 10 years ago wasn’t very common. Then one day, bands started to – if we make an impact on this, it’s really nice.
Dead Rhetoric: Discuss how you come up with breakdowns, as Alleviate tends to drop heavier ones than other metalcore bands at the moment.
Yunus Proch: This is what we initially wanted from the band. To have a song that you could bring up a chorus that would be catchy and repeated a few times, and have evil riffs and breakdowns in between. It has contrast, and we like all that stuff. We like catchy stuff and hard stuff too. We were playing around with those contrasts. We have heavier songs like “Forevermore” and we have softer songs like “Alive” and “Trying to Survive” or a song with no breakdown. We bring in our influences, like typical metalcore bands but also more deathcore bands and hardcore. We just try to bring in everything we like. If it’s got a heavy breakdown, than we say go for it.
Ramon Kluft: I also think that it has to do with our belief that we feel the sky is the limit. We can do whatever we feel we want to create. We don’t want to portray ourselves as a typical metalcore or hardcore band. We like those styles, so why not incorporate it in the music that we do? The songs on the album, because we have written a lot of songs for the album, these were the 10 songs that we felt portrayed us the best. So the sky is the limit, why not use everything we can do? We just want the best for our songs.
Marius Wedler: Also coming back to your first question in what makes us unique, I guess it’s like we all have different music favorites – harder and softer. But in the end, I remember a party at Timo’s house. We were singing Dayseeker, which has the nicest, catchiest choruses you can have, but on the other hand, we were listening to Chelsea Grin and screaming our hearts out. So I guess that is who we are and we do what we like. I guess you can hear that in the music. This is also like the situations in life and your mental health, there are always ups and downs, heavy and soft. It captures all those dimensions.
Dead Rhetoric: You said you wrote a lot of songs, can I ask how many you wrote?
Ramon Kluft: 25. We wrote 25 demos, and these are the 10 that we believe were the best ones, and the ones that portray us the best in what we want show the outside world. The other songs aren’t bad at all, some of them are actually really great, but we always went with a gut feeling with the songs, and if it didn’t have that feeling, it didn’t make it. We might rework some of them or try to create something else with them, but we wrote a lot of material [laughs].
Yunus Proch: Also, it shows a balance between catchy and harder stuff. So we wanted to bring up all of that stuff. For sure we will experience that more in the future. But for now, not every song is super heavy so we aren’t ‘just that deathcore band number ____.” There’s a more versatile experience I would say.
Dead Rhetoric: I’m going to go with metalcore, since it’s the closest framework I can wrap the band around. When you hear a metalcore song that isn’t your own, what draws you to that song?
Marius Wedler: The first band I was listening to was As I Lay Dying. They were pretty hard back in 2006-2008, so I liked the melodic part of the guitars and the riffs. Also a good chorus, as well as the lyrics. So it I went with something nowadays, I would go with Veil of Maya or Currents. They have the melodic part, they have heavy vocals, and they have fucking nice riffs. That’s top notch for me.
Ramon Kluft: That makes me think – what does make the metalcore sound special, to me. I think it’s really important that the song has a mysterious vibe to it, as well as the song telling a story. I think that’s really important – that you get drawn in to the story of the songs and you want to listen again and again. You want to understand the story behind it, and just a mysterious vibe. If I can go a little bit outside of the whole metalcore scheme, such as deathcore. Brand of Sacrifice is super unique and their music is very mysterious that you don’t hear in other music. I really enjoy it. It’s completely out of the box. There’s also Disembodied Tyrant. It’s so out of the box with so many layers of classical and orchestral that you don’t hear in deathcore music. That really drives me. It’s something new and mysterious, and I want to understand what’s going on.
Dead Rhetoric: You have released a large number of singles before the release of DMNS. How do you feel the response has been to the band over the course of this roll out over the last few years?
Marius Wedler: I would say that promotion-wise, it was good for us. We don’t know if it would have been done differently. We have like four music videos out there now and more coming. It was good to release them that way, because at least every song got some attention. There’s still some songs that are under the radar, but in the end, it was the best thing to do if you are starting out a band because we have nothing released yet besides some singles. Just throwing out an album and asking people to listen to it isn’t going to work out well. Also, with the financial factors, we had the chance to already play some shows, there was a little bit of money to do merch and print designs.
Also, those troubles we told you about. We already had some songs out, like “Die for Me” and “Broken,” and we knew that they needed to be on the album, since they were the reason we went into this direction. For time and finances, we had to decide to do it that way. There was a small number of people who that were really disappointed, with like YouTube comments, who said they wanted more new songs on the album, but most people were very positive. We have thought that maybe people would be disappointed, but that was a small number, and the rest were really positive.
Ramon Kluft: We strongly believe that every song has such a nice message behind it that such a story, that every song deserves the attention. If you just drop one or two songs and then release an album, a lot of the songs get neglected, and we felt that was a shame. We were really fortunate that Arising Empire gave us the opportunity to release it in a way that we wanted to.
Dead Rhetoric: Lastly, what’s your plans for the rest of 2024?
Ramon Kluft: We have a lot of shows already planned, and some we still need to announce as well. I think we are planning on doing a release show for the album. For us, that would be a super nice way to celebrate the album. We are also already working on new music. We always keep on going with writing music. That’s pretty steady at the moment. We have a lot of shows, and as Marius said before, we are planning on shooting some more video clips. It’s going to be busy, but a good busy.
To be honest, Yunus and I talked about this in the afternoon. It’s crazy that as a new band we have existed for almost 4 years and people want to interview us. It’s so new to us! I feel like now that we have the momentum, we need to keep it going and not fade away. That’s a thing – when you think about starting bands, they release a lot of music at one time, and then you don’t hear from them for a long time. Then all of a sudden they are back, but many people have forgotten and it’s not a steady factor. We decided to just steadily keep on doing things, releasing music and doing shows.