INTERVIEW: KEYAN And Invent Animate's Marcus Vik

Adelaide-based shred-lord, YouTube sensation and Fender/Jackson endorsed artist KEYAN has joined forces with the incredible Marcus Vik of Texan metalcore leaders Invent Animate on blistering new single ‘Arrest’, which just dropped last week.

‘Arrest’ suggests the notion that even the darkest sides of one’s being still share the same heart, and the song conveys this lyrically portraying a person battling an internal conflict, struggling to come to terms with the worst version of themselves. Marcus Vik lends his vocal prowess to the track, bringing the narrative to life with scorching delivery and haunted melodic moments. Music Feeds had a chat with KEYAN and his counterpart Marcus about the art of the feature and balancing technical musicianship with emotional connection.

KEYAN – ‘Arrest’ Ft. Marcus Vik (Invent Animate)

KEYAN

MF: KEYAN, Congratulations on the release of your latest single ‘Arrest’ featuring the incredible Marcus Vik of Invent Animate – could you tell us a bit about the single? Is there an underlying theme, and what was the process of creation like for you?

K: Thank you! ‘Arrest’ is the last part of a cardiac themed trilogy which consists of my previous singles ‘Pulse’ and ‘Arrhythmia’. It’s meant to be the heavy closer, with callbacks to all tracks within the saga. In a weird way, the idea of putting vocals on a track like this for the first time, along with the implication of the track titles, makes ‘Arrest’ feel as though it’s the end of a personal chapter in my life altogether. Creating the song was super fun as I was not so focused on making it guitar-centric, since I knew there was going to be vocals that would be taking the spotlight majority of the time.

MF: When you’re writing a song and you have an idea of who you might choose to collaborate with, how do you ensure that your parts not only stand out but also leave room for vocals and other instruments to shine?

K: The writing process of ‘Arrest’ was fairly different to what I usually do. I always knew that Marcus would be a great fit due to his range in both cleans and screams, and I made sure that I was writing parts that would allow him to show those qualities off at their full potential. Syncopation is something that I try to incorporate in my music most of the time, and having the added vocal textures along with simpler but more direct riffs ended up working together much easier than expected. I almost like to view the entire track as one big instrument rather than a bunch of things coming together.

MF: It can be easier for listeners to hear raw and intense emotion from the voice as opposed to how instruments can convey a sense of emotion. ‘Arrest’ does a great job of telling a story through both instrumental and vocals – how do you personally channel feeling through guitar, and do you find it challenging to translate your ideas into something listeners can connect with emotionally?

K: Before I even pick up the guitar, I like to put myself in a box of a certain mood or emotion. Doing so helps me tap into that feeling and how it can then be expressed on the fretboard. The underlying emotion of ‘Arrest’ both lyrically and instrumentally is something between shame and anguish, so using things like dissonant panic chords, unpredictable whammy inflexions and extremely down-tuned guitars were some of the characteristics that I leaned into for this track in particular.

MF: As a guitarist, how did you develop that balance between technical proficiency and emotional expression in your playing?

K: Technical proficiency is almost an expectation in my style of playing, but I always want to prioritise the emotional expression. When songwriting, I often start with a very basic foundation in both rhythm and melody, with the intention to add embellishments later on. My threshold for technicality is determined by whether the initial idea is interesting or not in its simplest form. If I believe it is, only then do I feel confident enough to give it some ‘razzle dazzle’.

MF: It can take so many years to master your craft. How do you stay motivated to innovate as a guitarist, especially in a genre where technicality is often expected?

K: I think the beauty of being a musician and especially a modern guitarist in this day and age is that you can just open your phone onto Instagram and be inspired by another person who you’ve never met or seen before in about 7 seconds flat. There is so much stellar musicianship on display no matter where you look that it’s almost impossible not to be motivated. Despite the technical expectations within the genres that I revolve my music around, it’s never really something that I prioritise. I’d much rather focus on making a chorus, hook, or riff that people resonate with and if that ends up being technical, even better!

MARCUS VIK (Invent Animate)

Music Feeds: Marcus, When you choose to collaborate with other artists, what is it that draws you to a project? And what was it about KEYAN and ‘Arrest’ that appealed to you?

MV: Something that determines if my conscience can allow me to do a feature is if I like the song and the quality of the production. I’ve recently started to use more of a panicked approach to screaming and as soon as Keyan sent this song I just knew that I wanted to be on it.

MF: When collaborating on a track, what’s been your experience inserting yourself into a musical world that wasn’t originally your own? Do you find it rewarding or more of a challenge in songwriting for yourself?

MV: It’s actually pretty common for a singer to feel this way with his own band. Back in Aviana (2016/17), I literally got thrown into an album that was almost finished and it didn’t feel like it belonged to me too until it was pretty much finished. I could say the same with this, as it’s not just a regular short feature, it feels like a thing I was heavily involved with and I’ll cherish that. Keyan had pretty much the whole song fleshed out on vocals before, but we collaborated a lot to find a way to utilize my style to its full extent.

MF: How did you find your unique voice, both technically and emotionally? How would you summarise your vocal journey and what inspires you to keep pushing the boundaries of your vocals?

MV: My vocal journey started pretty much like everyone else. I joined a local band playing covers before I’ve even tried to sing or scream, so I just did it even though it sounded terrible because it was fun! It wasn’t until I secretly joined Invent Animate back in 2018 that I started to explore the world of “professional vocals” with exercises, and eventually I ended up with an arsenal of muscle memory and knowledge that can fuel my voice and style to the extreme. A destructive way to constantly push your development is to write and record vocals that you cant do live yet, because then it forces you to practice your butt off to finally reach those heights.

MF: As a vocalist you’re frequently at the front and centre of a song, delivering lyrics that can be deeply personal. Do your lyrics often dictate how you’re going to perform a song, and how do you find the balance with creating a moving and vulnerable performance without sacrificing the consistency in your performance?

MV: I tend to make sure that the style and emotion represent the lyrics, delivering the best context to a song. When a song is written instrumentally first, it’s very important for everyone involved to be completely open to the fact that the emotion, structure and closure of the song might completely shift and I think that is the hardest thing to acknowledge in the beginning process of a song. My job is to use every tool I have in my bag while still trying out stuff I’ve always wanted to do with my voice. I find it harder and more challenging to write vocals over lyrics that come from my own heart, as you’re always your biggest critic.

MF: Both Invent Animate’s music and ‘Arrest’ tend to feature organised chaos with the instrumental backbone. When the instruments are on their own journey, how do you work synonymously with the music to make sure your vocals complement the instrumental pathways while also standing out on their own?

MV: In recent years, I’ve made sure to communicate with the writer of the instrumental track to make sure that there’s room for interesting vocals delivering the emotion whenever it’s the vocals’ turn. Toning down an instrumental during the vocal parts is a common recurrence in my songwriting and it’s sometimes important that it almost feels like the instruments are playing around the vocals and not the other way around. In Invent Animate, we often find ourselves changing a lot of the instrumental track during the vocal writing process to cater to the vocals, with everything from rhythm to the structure itself. A trick is to acknowledge the short and long times where the vocals are taking a breather, and to maximise the instrumental’s potential whenever that time occurs within the song.

KEYAN will launch the new single live at Crown & Anchor in Adelaide on December 29, presented by Destroy All Lines. Tickets on sale now!