FeaturesBlacktoothed - Making Headway

Blacktoothed – Making Headway

Set to be releasing their third album (and second for Arising Empire) is Blacktoothed. A band with a sound that merges some metalcore heaviness with some rock energy and vibes. It’s a unique feel within the hard music world, bolstered by a two-vocal approach and a playful feel that should grab fans from all over the musical spectrum. We spoke to guitarist/vocalist Matti Keitel about this newest effort, as well as finding the band’s sound, standing out from the crowd, challenges of being a newer act, and much more.

Dead Rhetoric: Were there certain things that you wanted to do differently or try this time for Headway?

Matti Keitel: I think with Blacktoothed especially, I don’t know if you have listened to our [first] album, but it was very diverse sound-wise. The goal is always to narrow down the sound [laughs]. I’m a little torn apart, because I like writing on the spot and what comes out comes out, and you have different little genre elements. I kind of want to keep that, but I also want to have a ‘Blacktoothed’ sound, and I tried that with this album because I’m mainly the songwriter. So we tried that, and I don’t think it’s as diverse as the previous album sound-wise, but I don’t know if we have sound our sound either [laughs]. 

Dead Rhetoric: If that’s the case, then what are you shooting for with the ‘Blacktoothed’ sound? Are you aiming for anything specific to hone it in?

Keitel: I think it comes in the moment. It’s like it becomes a sound I want to go for. But ask me in a year and it’s probably going to be a totally different sound. It’s also like a thing in the rock genre: you can do anything, basically. It’s still rock music. I like the diversity though.

Dead Rhetoric: It’s funny you mention it, because I haven’t heard the first album, but I’ve heard all of Headway and I thought it was pretty diverse!

Keitel: It still is, and I think it’s more extreme, but more in the genre. We have a lot of breakdowns in this album, compared to the last one, but I think the sound, when it comes down to the instruments it’s been narrowed down.

Dead Rhetoric: With it being toned down, by your standards, are you trying to make it easier for people to ‘find you’ with a sound? There are some bands that are all over the place and that’s who they are. It comes with it’s own challenges too. But is that something you are trying to do, reigning it in, in order to get on tours and things like that?

Keitel: We are always in a tough position, I feel, since we are with Arising Empire and we are in with a bunch of metalcore/hardcore bands. We are kind of the softer side of that. We always find it hard to connect to the other bands, but we are still part of the same scene here in Germany, so we are trying to hop on these tours that are mostly metalcore bands. We toured with The Amity Affliction last summer and Emmure. It was wild! We are about to go on three more dates with Cabal and Miss May I. So we thought it can’t get any heavier than Emmure, but now we have Cabal. How did that happen? We are very soft compared to these bands. So we are torn a bit. Should we go heavier to match with these bands so it would be easier to hop on tours, or stay in the rock lane? 

I don’t know if you know this, but when Papa Roach called out for these covers for “Leave a Light On,” we did it and it went really well. The management was so happy with the version we came up with, they put it on their page. That was huge for us. We feel that music a little more than the metalcore stuff. But there’s no rock scene in Germany, for our size band.

Dead Rhetoric: There’s more of a metal scene…it’s like the opposite in the United States.

Keitel: Absolutely yeah. I’m all into bands like Point North. This modern rock music, which we totally lack over here.

Dead Rhetoric: What can you say about the vocal dynamic between yourself and Hendrik?

Keitel: I write the songs, and I basically write finished songs. When Hendrik and Dave hear the songs, they are done and have my vocals on them. So Hendrik comes over and sings whatever parts fit. Sometimes we decide some parts sound cool with his vocals and sometimes with mine. I feel like it just adds to our sound with two vocalists on the tracks. So far it has been received very well from the crowd. I just sing a few parts and he is the main vocalist. It just adds another layer. 

Dead Rhetoric: To circle back to what you were saying about fitting in, there’s probably a part of the crowd that’s okay with it. I know when I go to shows, and I’m stuck with four or five of the same types of bands, it gets tiring. It might be an advantage to have that difference.

Keitel: Absolutely. I feel like you are ahead of us over in the States, with diverse line-ups. I think there was Knocked Loose and Boston Manor or something a few years ago. I thought that was wild! I feel like now, it’s slowly translating to Europe that it’s okay to have diverse line-ups and that’s a plus for us. The best example is still the tour with Miss May I [laughs]. I’m very glad that it is translating over to Europe now.

Dead Rhetoric: You have a really broad sound – is it something that appeals to more than just the metal crowd, to you?

Keitel: Probably. We haven’t found that crowd yet. We are very lucky we get to play tours, but I don’t think we have managed to find our crowd, especially in Germany. It’s easy with the streaming platforms to get a crowd, but I don’t know how much of a crowd would turn up if we did a headlining show over here. This is a bit tougher.

Dead Rhetoric: What are some of the challenges of moving your way up? I know you said it’s easier to gain traction with streaming, but what are some of the challenges you face as a newer band trying to squeeze into a crowded market?

Keitel: I feel like a lot of the options we got this year, with tours, were so random. I feel like for some things, you can’t really ‘work for.’ You can’t guarantee that as you work your way up, you get ‘this’ tour or whatever deal. What I like is that we have a team of different people doing different things, such as booking agents or radio promotion agents. It’s cool – it’s basically networking. It’s really tough to get into these inner circles, so to say, but it’s a cool thing to know that now you have these connections. 

But you don’t know if they do anything, and sometimes you get a random email asking if you want to jump on a few days on this tour…which didn’t even come from our booking agent that we are working with now. It’s so wild and random. I feel that is the toughest thing. There are months when nothing happens, then you get that random email. Then you have big plans! But you can’t count on anything, which is tough.

Dead Rhetoric: What can you say about the album cover? Both your albums have more of a brighter palette than many bands in the scene.

Keitel: I feel like everyone who is working with us, including the artist that made the cover, they are putting us into this rock mask and then they just create stuff that doesn’t look as ‘metalcore’ [laughs]. I’m a simple person. I write music and I love it. I’m very happy to have other people do stuff that they are good at. Same with the artwork. 

I’m happy to give it to our artist and that’s okay, so that’s what we take. We are very easy going with these things and take what we get [laughs]. It was part of his idea for the cover. Of course, we brainstormed the ideas. We wanted birds. That was what we threw to them, and that’s what came out of it. 

Dead Rhetoric: You said you do all of the writing, what’s your process like? What inspires you to write something?

Keitel: Mostly, I have a lot of vocal ideas in my head. I have a million memos on an app on my phone. Sometimes I will do nothing with it, and other times I hear it back and be like, “ok!” But it’s not sentences, it’s just words or whatever. They probably won’t make any sense to a native speaker. But I put some words into it and throw some instruments around it. It’s pretty easy. But I always start with the vocals. The vocal melodies, and then everything comes around that.

Dead Rhetoric: So in terms of lyrics, what are one or two songs that have the most meaning to you?

Keitel: It’s great that you can produce sounds with your vocal chords that you don’t have the words for when you speak them. I think “Antidote” is most personal to me, because it’s about a cycle of mood swings where you have a low day and you kind of know that it’s going to be better the next day, but you know that you are still in this cycle and it’s repeating and it’s grating. I really feel that song, and it translates really well to the instrumentation. 

Also, I think the song, “Walls,” I wrote it first for Headway. It was after the JULI experience that we had, and I was doing a lot of the work – especially social media and everything. It was new for us, since it was the first one re did with Arising Empire. Everything was more professional and I did most of it and I felt like I could not do it another time. I needed to put up some walls and personal boundaries. I felt like with this song, I was going to do that now.

Dead Rhetoric: Where would you like Blacktoothed to be? Like, what are some goals for the next few years or so?

Keitel: Definitely hop on a full tour, I think Europe is the most realistic for now. We are working towards having a longer tour in the second half of 2025. So getting into this touring routine would be our next biggest step. Music-wise, it’s always a bit silly. This album cycle is not even finished yet, but I’m already writing new stuff. I think I have 11 songs so far. They won’t all end up being recorded, but the album cycle and my own don’t match. You are always ahead of time and it’s really annoying. I would love to put out new stuff but it won’t happen since we are in the Headway cycle. 

One big, necessary step, since this is our second album with Arising Empire and we don’t have vinyls, and it’s really annoying. I don’t even own a cd player anymore. So for the next record, we have to do vinyl.

Dead Rhetoric: So are you a vinyl fan then?

Keitel: Yeah, we have a player at home and my husband has tons of them [laughs], but its just nice to have. It looks really cool, if you touch it, it feels nice. It just feels more professional. I think all metal bands do it, so it’s a must have. Every time I see the flyer for the preorder and it’s just the cd and one shirt, it looks kind of naked. It needs something else.

Dead Rhetoric: So you are writing more now, do you think that is honing in on what you think Blacktoothed might be?

Keitel: For me personally, yeah. I feel like the sound I am going on now – I put three songs together, which is a lot for me. Usually I would write one and another would be totally different. I am really feeling it right now. But ask me in 6 months when it gets recorded and I might say something different. You always love the last song you wrote. Then five songs later, you say, “oh, what did I do?” [laughs].

Dead Rhetoric: What do you think the future of metal holds? What do you want to see as a group that is going to be moving through that space?

Keitel: Definitely keeping up the diversity in line-ups. Even for me, it was refreshing to be on the tour with Amity and Emmure, because we are watching these other bands who are totally different. I was not a fan of Amity, but listening to their set every night, I became one! I love that. I also like that metal is getting more diverse in terms of gender. There are more women in the rock and metal scene, and it’s refreshing to see. Even the fact that it’s sometimes not just one woman in the line-up now, that’s great. I appreciate that. 

Otherwise, it’s still no fun to be in the music industry as an artist. If it would be any easier to throw your hat in the ring, even if you aren’t with a certain booking agent…or even the communication. I don’t like that. If you aren’t going to take us, just write us. We can deal with that. But with no answer you are sitting there waiting and you don’t get paid for that. There’s so much time that goes into it, and what you get paid for is so little that it goes right back into the band. If you can make a living, for the time you put in, it would be great. Even if that is unrealistic.

Dead Rhetoric: What are your plans for 2025?

Keitel: It’s hard to plan. Every other week our booking agent asks us if we can do a 6-week tour, which is insane because we all work jobs. You always have to think about if you can make it happen, so we can throw our hat in the ring, then you don’t get anything out of it. We have one thing that we are waiting on, which is a 4-week European tour that we were directly contacted for, so that’s our hope. Otherwise, we just have to wait, simple as that.

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