Getting to Know… The Abstraction | Interview 🎤

In the 399^th Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from Rotherham, UK solo music project, The Abstraction.

“Firstly, I’m a solo artist in the metal scene.” Right on, The Abstraction (William Martin)! He adds in his response to our first burning question, “I wanted to do something that’s completely, unapologetically me, so that’s what I’ve chosen to do.” Cool! We get the inside scoop on The Abstraction’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and current, and future musical endeavors. He has plenty to say! So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… The Abstraction: Interview No. 399!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes The Abstraction distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off? What were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

Hey! Well, a few things really. Firstly, I’m a solo artist in the metal scene, which although becoming more popular, is still pretty rare! I wanted to do something that’s completely, unapologetically me, so that’s what I’ve chosen to do. Secondly, There’s definitely a unique blend of older/new metalcore sounds, with a mix of other influences in there that I’ve not heard anyone else do yet. Thirdly, all the music is towards a concept. Abstraction means the quality of dealing with ideas rather than events, and everything we release is themed around people’s experiences throughout life, which ties in to the name. And finally, if you’re a bit of a guitar nerd, I play everything in open C, which aside from Devin Townsend, isn’t really done in metal at all, which has forced further creativity in my writing.

My vision was to create an emotive EP around people’s life experiences, and make it instrumentally versatile and have each track stand out on its own, whilst keeping a consistent sound throughout the EP.

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

My goals are pretty much the same! It’s more a project for myself than anyone else. But my main aim is for it to connect with people. For them to relate to it and feel the emotion that is written in the lyrics and backed by the music. If I can achieve that with just one person, then I’ve done what I set out to do. Also, I will be working on how I can play this live as a solo act and have some interesting ideas on how I can make this work, so watch this space.

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

That’s actually a tricky question, as I’m more adverse to listening to music when I’m writing, as I try not to let what I’m listening to at the time influence my writing too much to keep it as original as possible. The bands that were a gateway into this kind of music would most certainly be the big, metalcore classic bands, such as Killswitch Engage, Avenged Sevenfold, Bullet For My Valentine, All That Remains, Bring Me The Horizon, Parkway Drive etc. But nowadays, it is most certainly bands more in the realm of Polaris, Periphery, Tesseract, Wage War, LetLive, Veil Of Maya, Unprocessed, Oceans Ate Alaska etc. The earlier bands really helped me hone in on my craft as a guitar player, but the more recent have helped me really mold more of a style and sound that stands out from the crowd.

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.

God, there’s been a few. The one that comes to mind first is a show when I was a lot younger. The sound guy had left a box of cables behind me on the stage that I hadn’t noticed. I stepped back and fell arse first in the box and couldn’t get myself out! So, I continued playing until the end of the song before getting myself out and continuing. I’m pretty sure my ego was left in the box.

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

Again, a tough one. My old band Rise Of Athena had a song called “59”, which was so good. Really fun to play live. So much going on, an unorthodox song structure and a huge sing along section at the end that always had the crowd singing back to us. It was just a song that was really popular from us and people connected with more. But, that aside, the feedback I got from my debut single from The Abstraction, “Phoenix”, was really incredible and took me by surprise. And when something is completely your own it really means that much more to you.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Haha. I’m not sure I’d ever call myself cool by any means! I’m a 34 year old single dad with 2 jobs, with a keen interest for metal music! I’ve had some real interesting jobs over the years, such as a prison officer, and a whole realm of crazy experiences most people wouldn’t even believe. but honestly, the things I’ve seen and done, I think I’d be here all day talking about it. Maybe I’ll just do an autobiography and you can read about it there! Haha!

Closing out, what is The Abstraction currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

I’m still working on completing my debut E.P., Project I, which should be complete and released in full by the summer, which will feature 5 tracks including the debut single, “Phoenix”. My second single Son is released on 22/01/24, which I’m super excited about. A really emotive subject and the song itself is huge and diverse, and I think it’s going to wow a lot of people and show what I’m capable of for sure.

Thank you so much for sharing taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Thank you for the opportunity. It’s been great.

Getting to Know… The Abstraction: Interview No. 399 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; The Abstraction; Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Królestwo Nauki, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pete Linforth, Tumisu from Pixabay]