Getting to Know… Into The Unknown

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In the 439^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from symphonic rock band, Into The Unknown.

“We have quite a diverse catalogue of songs … from ballads to heavy rockers, all with the symphonic elements in the background.” Excellent, Into The Unknown! Rupert Withers, the bassist, adds that Into The Unknown had “no goals or visions at the beginning, just a desire to make music.” Rupert answers our burning questions about Into The Unknown and provides the inside scoop on the genesis, goals, musical influences, and current and future musical endeavors. Fun fact: this is Into The Unknown’s second interview with The Musical Hype. They first graced us with a Q&A in 2019 (Interview no. 30) as a three-piece band. So, for a second time, with some significant changes, let’s jump right into Getting to Know… Into The Unknown: Interview No. 439!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Into The Unknown distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

We believe that we have our own sound, and that sound is evolving now that we have brought new band members into the fold but still maintains the underlying identification. We have quite a diverse catalogue of songs though, from ballads to heavy rockers, all with the symphonic elements in the background.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Into The Unknown form, and what were some of your goals or visions early?

The band formed originally when three of us got together to record one song! I always wanted to try a rock version of Chris DeBurgh’s “Don’t Pay The Ferryman”, and I was doing a recording session with Ryan, we didn’t really know each other at that point, we’d met a few times through mutual friends and bands, but we got talking and realized that we were on the same wavelength, so decided to try the song. He suggested Lucie, who was the singer in the band, that he was playing with at the time. It went well, so, we started recording some other stuff and writing some songs, and that’s when we realized we could record an album. So really, there were no goals or visions at the beginning, just a desire to make music. Two original albums, two covers albums, and an expanded lineup later, we’re still going … we now have two guitarists, a keyboard player, a drummer, and a new singer (as well as myself on bass).

Let’s talk more about goals. Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Yes, everything’s evolved. As I mentioned before, there was no goal before, we were a three-piece so no real intention to gig, just record. Things are different now, that with a full lineup, we have been in rehearsal, and therefore, intend to hit the road in 2025, supporting the forthcoming new album. The other goal is the same as before … to make the best album we can.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

For me, I’ve been very influenced with this band by Nightwish, and Within Temptation … that’s fairly obvious, I think; no symphonic rock band can say that they are not influenced by the two giants of the genre. But I have varied influences as well, particularly a lot of the 80s & 90s rock bands … however, everyone in the band writes the music, so the influences are really wide. Ryan is a big fan of AC/DC and Guns n Roses, James is into the heavier side with GWAR, Ghost, and Lordi, Paul is a huge Meatloaf and Bon Jovi fan, Richard is into Prog metal, but Natalie hasn’t been involved much with rock and especially symphonic rock, so, she is much more influenced by jazz, pop and musical theatre. Lucie, before her, was also more pop-orientated, so there are Adele, Lady Gaga, and Miley Cyrus influences too.

Ah, the fun stuff. What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance? Feel free to be creative.

Be creative? You mean make it up? We haven’t actually toured as a band yet (although as individuals we have … me probably most of all of us, as I used to tour as front of house with some big bands.) I remember once, a long time ago, at a Marillion show, where they were on a sound curfew, which meant they were not allowed to make any noise before a certain time, as the venue had other events going on … in this case, it was a yoga lesson. The band was allowed to load in and set up but not soundcheck before that time. As you can imagine, things were all ready, and the crew was literally doing a countdown to start soundcheck. On the dot of the allocated time, the PA sprung to life, but the yoga teacher hadn’t finished .., so the irate woman ran to the power distribution and pulled the plug! This was at a time when synthesizers and computers were old, so needed to be powered down carefully in case they were damaged. [There was] a lot of alarm and despondency until they were able to get things back up and running.

To this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

That’s hard, I really like most of the songs that we’ve recorded. In a way, though, I think one of the recent cover recordings might be a current favorite… “Assassing” (originally by Marillion). Growing up, this was one of my all-time favorite songs (but surprisingly not my choice to record it). We recorded the music before Natalie came in to record the vocals, and truth be told, she wasn’t keen on doing it. However, she persevered and sang her interpretation of it. It was hard for me to mix as I was so used to the original, but I have to say that both Natalie and I now love the finished version.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left-of-center we should know about Into The Unknown? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Not a secret talent as such, but not enough people know about this, but I am a producer and started working in Dolby Atmos for music very early on …I believe that my studio was one the first hundred studios in the world to get set up! I have also spent the last few years developing a 3D audio style, which hopefully (if you listen on headphones) you can hear on our latest album.

What is Into The Unknown currently working on or promoting that you can share? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure.

Well, firstly, we have just released a new covers album, called The Other Side of the Wall, Part 2. The way that this came about was that back when we first started recording, as a three-piece, we couldn’t rehearse the songs, so what we did, was start recording some covers as warm-ups before recording the originals. There was never any intention to release them, they were a bit of fun. When we finished the first album (Out of the Shadows), we realized that we actually had enough songs to release, so we decided to put out a mini album, digital only, and called it The Other Side of the Wall. The songs were not the standard covers, we had taken some unusual choices and played them in our style. This proved to be quite popular.

We started working on our new studio album (album number three as we don’t really count the covers as full album releases) and, due to circumstances beyond our control, Lucie left the band. Natalie eventually joined us but had never sung symphonic rock before, so we thought that it might be a good idea to ease her in gently with some covers, again some unusual choices, some symphonic rock classics, and even ourselves! (We re-recorded Monsters). Thus, Part 2 was born.

We are also working on the new album, hopefully, due for release early to mid 2025. It’s going really well, we think that there’s some strong songs on there and were probably 75-80% written and recorded.