Empires to Ruins

“Inspired by the nostalgia of the music we grew up listening to in the 2000’s, we blend aggression with intricacy and hard-hitting riffs with melodic sensibilities to deliver a fresh sound that gets fists pumping but also elicits thought.”

Up n’ Comin NI is excited to introduce this week’s artist Empires To Ruins, a 3-piece band from the north coast of NI. The band are made up of long-time friends Glenn MacLennan, Paul Stewart and Kyle Shirlow.

Music has been a passion for all 3 guys from a young age. “We started playing together nearly 20 years ago and have been heavily involved in the north coast music scene over the years. We have been involved in several bands / projects both together and separately, but we reunited once again in 2023 to work on a new project, which eventually became Empires To Ruins.”

While there continues to be so many bands and artists that inspire Empires to Ruins, the artists that have had the most influence on their sound would include 'Biffy Clyro', 'Bullet For My Valentine', 'Foo Fighters', 'Funeral For A Friend', 'Rise Against' & 'Reuben'.

Empires to Ruins released their debut single “Peacekeepers” in late March 2024. Recorded and produced by Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studio. Combining the bands passion and strong messaging, the track was always going to be a hit. Since its release, this track has been featured on various independent platforms and playlists, such as 'XRP Radio', 'This Is The Music', 'Future Hits' & 'Punk World Radio'.

“Words can have a profound impact dependent on the context. A recent example came from Neal Calderwood. With some encouragement he helped Glenn to realise that he was capable of performing the vocals in the outro of our single “Peacekeepers” an octave higher than planned.”

Unlike many bands today, all members are involved in the songwriting process. “The first stage in the creative process is getting a 'spark', this could be riff, a lyric line or a chord progression and isn't the sort of thing you can sit down and come up with: it has to come to you. Without this, songwriting can be forced and you'll probably never get a decent final product, it's got to flow naturally. All the songs get sent back and forth multiple times online with each of us chopping and changing / adding our own ideas. Working in solitude can be great for working on new ideas, but collaborating with others just opens up so many creative avenues and can elevate songs to new levels. Then when we hit rehearsals they usually get chopped and changed again as we stumble across little things that come from the creative ether that inundates us when we play together.”

The bands debut single ‘Peacekeepers’ and their upcoming single ‘Losing Faith,’ are both fast and aggressive songs that some listeners have referred to as ‘post punk’ / ‘post hardcore’, but the band don’t want to “pigeonhole into specific genres. We’re constantly evolving, trying new things and refining our sound. Some of the more recent stuff we’ve been jamming is a bit slower and more tonally unusual. The best solution would be for people to just give us a listen and decide for themselves.”

Unlike most deeply passionate music you hear today, lyrically, Empires to Ruins tracks are written in the 3rd person. The music tends to explore topical issues that the band feel strongly about, but from a different perspective than we, as listeners, are used to. “Take ‘Peacekeepers’ as an example, we delve into themes of conflict, exploitation and oppression from an outsider’s perspective.”

“Achieving over 7,500 streams on Spotify for our debut single, despite coming from nowhere a matter of months prior and having never played a gig. We’ve honestly been blown away by the hugely positive reception we’ve had so far. We’ve had reviews and features on music blogs and publications, as well as a generous helping of radio air time, all in the space of a fortnight - not bad for 3 stressed out Dads with full-time jobs!”

“Due to work, family commitments and frankly a shortage of venues on the north coast, it’s very difficult for us to find gigs. So much so that we’re actually yet to play a live show as Empires To Ruins. We’re currently working hard on our setlist with the aim of hitting the stage sometime in the near future - either locally or further afield.” If you are a booking agent reading this… get these guys booked!

“It’s very hard to be a unique artist in the modern music industry, as most things have ‘been done’. By virtue of the fact that we’ve been told that we sound like an array of different bands, few of which sound overly similar, we must sound at least somewhat unique.”

To stand out, the band have started a “short covers” series where they record and produce covers of random or unusual songs remotely and release them on their Instagram. Even the farmer from Bangor who chased Rihanna off his field has made it into the short covers series!! Definitely worth a watch.

So, what’s next for Empire to Ruins?

We’re just going to keep plugging and see where it goes. It is and has always been a passion project and we’re under no illusions about how difficult it is to break into the industry, especially given the limitations we have. The next big event will be the release of single #2 ‘Losing Faith’. We’re also in some talks to finally do that long anticipated first gig, hopefully we will get that before the end of the summer. Watch this space and follow us on Instagram to keep up to date.

Make sure you follow them and keep up to date with all their songs, events and gigs: 

Spotify: Empires to Ruins

Instagram: empirestoruins

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