By: Staff
Creativity knows no borders, and the revolutionary new EP, "World Over", by INTERCONTINEN7AL proves just how far music can travel.
This innovative project brings together contributions from every corner of the globe, including an unforgettable opening guitar riff recorded in one of the most unexpected places on Earth. The result is a genre-defying journey filled with progressive rock, Latin rhythms, acoustic folk, and plenty of surprises.
At the heart of it all, this collective of visionary artists who turned the challenges of recent years into an opportunity to create something truly extraordinary, is Matt Smith. Their story is as unique as their music, a tale of global connections, innovative recording methods, and an unwavering passion for collaboration.
In this exclusive interview, we’re diving into the details of how this historic project came together. From its bold beginnings to the meticulous process of weaving together sounds from all seven continents, this is a journey you won’t want to miss.
Get ready to be inspired by the people, the process, and the music itself. Read the full interview in "The Cage" Music Blog below!
Begin Interview:
Hello Intercontinen7al, we’re thrilled to have you here for this interview! We've had an amazing time exploring your music and diving into your creative journey. Now, we’re even more excited to get a deeper look into both your brand and your personal and professional inspirations.
What inspired the name INTERCONTINEN7AL, and how does it reflect the characteristics of the band?
Matt Smith here, founder of INTERCONTINEN7AL. Thanks so much for taking the time to speak with us! I decided to name the group INTERCONTINEN7AL because it's straightforward and to the point yet also unique, because I felt that having the number in the name signified and hit home how truly "intercontinental" the band really is. The 7 in the name was inspired by the band Tool’s song “7empest”.
We read that the global lockdowns during COVID-19 lead to the creation of INTERCONTINEN7AL. How was the ultimate idea formulated?
That's correct, the origin of INTERCONTINEN7AL goes back to the start of the pandemic in 2020 back when I was living in Columbia, Maryland. I was part of a local rock band called Toast, which also included Jamie Miller, Ben Gaither, Emily Betz and guest singer Becca Drayer. Since we weren't able to get together in person during the onset of Covid, we investigated how we could continue working together, albeit remotely. After some digging, I discovered this app BandLab, and shortly thereafter I was uploading guitar riffs into the app as Jamie tried out recording some drum tracks. Soon after, things started to progress rather quickly from there once we were making all these international music connections within BandLab, which I go into further detail below.I distinctly remember being in my backyard in that summer of 2020 when an idea suddenly popped in my head out of nowhere: how about we create a virtual that borrows from the concept of the Sonic Highways record that Foo Fighters had recently put out (where they created music with local musicians from cities across the US), and try to elevate the framework by inviting even more international musicians and trying to include every continent, even Antarctica.
BandLab played a pivotal role in your formation and collaboration. Can you walk us through how you used this platform to connect with musicians from every continent?
Sure! So in some aspects BandLab acts as a social media platform for musicians, where you can interact with any other BandLab users across the world. We realized the potential of BandLab’s public community and decided to publish some of Toast's new song ideas – making them “forkable” and labeling them with hashtags (ex. #needsvocal) so that other users of the app could add their own ideas into the mix. I posted an acoustic progression of mine called Aslin, which was heavily inspired by Alice in Chains Unplugged songs, and within days, we received several vocal submissions, including North America’s Hope Gray’s backing vocals and South America’s Gustavo Prida’s lead vocals (sung in Spanish). These new additions took my little song idea and transitioned it into No Somos De Este Lugar. Invigorated by this quick turnaround, we tried it again where I posted a blues idea between myself and Jamie, and this soon evolved into the song When I’m Gone, with Robert James Shoveller from Australia on lead guitar.
As we were making these connections using forking and tagging capabilities, I also started reaching out to friends, former bandmates and family members whowere fellow musicians (i.e. bassists Devin Heritage, Alex Burke), and also utilized Explore andCreator Connect features that are in BandLab to focus on artists by location as well as their instrument of choice to build more internationalmusician connections (i.e. guitarist Josh Pearlson of Africa). I also looked into musicians’ profilesthat we were connecting with to see who they were collaborating with, or who was commenting on their songsto try to find other participants, to include Nerse of Asia. Poland’s Marcin Nawrocki was actually recruited after he had "liked" one of my song ideas (called Albatross Flight) for potentialcollaboration. After all the networking that we were conducting for these various geographical locations, we still had to figure out how to actually get folks from Antarctica involved...
To recruit musicians from Antarctica, I personally contacted over 20 different active research stations to check and see if there happened to be any researchers on site who dabbled in music and would be interested in participating in our project. Fortunately I actually heard back from not just one but two different stations, and was able to find Aymar de Lichervelde and Stijn Thoolen. These two awesome artists ended up virtually recording guitar and percussion, respectively, from their locations and added these elements to our progressiverock song “Manor Hill”, finalizing a dream to have a composition with instrumentation from all 7 continents.
What were some of the advantages and challenges of this method compared to traditional recording in person processes?
I feel that one main advantage of this process is allowing for a free exchange of ideas into the platform, where you can basically "throw things at the wall to see what sticks". Everyone can take their time to develop their creative additions independently, and then present them into the digital studio when they are ready to share. It feels a lot less "pressured" than an in person recording environment, which is often susceptible to time and money constraints.
One challenge that would occur is the varying quality of recordings that were received for songs - and I add myself into this list as sometimes my best takes on guitar parts were from demoed recordings that I did on my Samsung! Once in a while we would have to request bandmates to try recording their parts on a different microphone, or in a quieter environment, to limit the amount of noise that may be picked up in the background. Fortunately, BandLab and other DAWs that we used offer state of the art noise reduction plug ins, which we leveraged to significantly improve the quality of independent "stems" for the overall mix.
Your EP "World Over" includes tracks featuring instrumentation recorded on all seven continents. How did this unique global recording process shape the sound and identity of the EP?
The roots of the band stem from a primarily rock and acoustic act, but as more artists from different continents were included into the mix, these early songs like Manor Hill would start to take shape and almost mutate into something unexpected. It was important to me to make sure that rock wasn't the only genre being showcased in the group, and fortunately our fellow bandmates were open to experimenting with other genres and trying out things that perhaps were not in their wheelhouse so to speak. Without BandLab opening the floodgates, we would not have been able to incorporate elements of bossa nova, Latin or Middle Eastern music into these tracks.
The track "Night Shift" has a guitar intro recorded in Antarctica. What was the story behind this specific recording, and how did it influence the rest of the song?
I was actually working on this song "Night Shift" for quite a while, going back to maybe 2012 or so, and after finalizing the various parts and lyrics I added it to our INTERCONTINEN7AL virtual project folder and began inviting other members to see if they were interested in joining. Due to the length of the song - which allows for more space and room for different musicians to jump into - as well as the various folks that were already starting to add to it (like RJS from Australia), it seemed to be a strong contender for another "7 continent" track. I also felt that my friend Aymar who had performed the "Manor Hill" introduction from Antarctica would be perfect for this tune, so I had reached out once again to see what he thought of it. I felt truly blessed when he agreed to participate on the song, and after we discussed the key of the song and the main chordal structure, he wrote another terrific instrumental intro while he was at his research station.
Each song on the EP explores a variety of genres. How did you decide which genres to focus on, and how did you ensure they felt cohesive as a collection?
I tried not to focus too much on what the genre of the song was going to be, but how realistic it would be to incorporate that much instrumentation and participants into the track. As I mentioned previously, longer songs such as Manor Hill or Night Shift tend to open things up naturally, simply due to the fact that there's several minutes of music that can be "colored in", enabling space for individual guitar solos to fill in the gaps and add some flavor to sections of the song. A song like "Butterflies", on the other hand, came out of a bossa nova chord progression that Aymar had composed. Since he was the primary writer, and he was able to record it in Antarctica, it immediately became a goal of mine to try to make it work in a "7 continent" process - but Aymar and I also made sure to only complete this effort if it made sense for the song and elevated the material. We were able to find that middle ground of adding a wide variety of artists' influences, but making it so that people weren't stepping on toes in the final mix of the song.
With 21 different musicians contributing to "World Over," how did you coordinate such a large and diverse group to ensure the final product was seamless?
I guess I served as the "executive producer" of this project since 2020, and I would often do one-on-one communication to recruit specific bandmates for these songs when we were targeting them as "7 continent" tracks. I was able to plot out how the continents could be represented on these tracks based on their respective musicians' instrument options (ex. Nereo providing bass from South America, or Tnbt performing drums from Asia). I would then continue to work with them throughout the process to gather their recorded tracks, and provide any feedback or suggestions on any alternate takes. Lastly, Marcin and I would work on mixes together, to figure out the best possible way to round out the tracks and make them ready for digital stores.
Your influences range from Pearl Jam to Prince, Tool, and Porcupine Tree. How do these artists inspire your songwriting and approach to genre-blending?
I don't want to speak for all the other members of the band, but what I can say is that for me personally, I grew up loving and absorbing rock music at an early age. It absolutely made a massive impact on my life. Just to pick one of the bands mentioned above as an example - Pearl Jam is my #1 group of all time, and I continue to be inspired by Mike McCready and Stone Gossard when it comes to trying to write memorable guitar riffs and solos. McCready is also a major reason why I play a Fender Stratocaster! As I became more involved with writing original material, I would appreciate how PJ would incorporate a wide variety of styles into their "recipe" of the group - drawing from hard rock, punk, blues, folk, and even World music on the album No Code. This taught me that it's important to not simply stay in your bubble when it comes to writing, and to aim to keep yourself open to all types of influences. If you listen to interviews of these other great artists to hear who influenced them as they were honing their craft, its often times not just those that seem to be the "obvious" choices. Just recently I found out that Maynard Keenan from Tool adores Toni Mitchell, quite a departure from progressive metal!
The EP spans genres like progressive rock, bossa nova, and Latin. How do you strike a balance between exploring diverse musical styles while maintaining a consistent identity as a band?
In my humble opinion, I believe that since our group's main identity is our existence across all 7 continents, it automatically opens us up to explore a wide scope of genres. If we were to pigeonhole ourselves into simply alt rock or folk, for example, I think that would be extremely limiting our group's creative possibilities and potential. All of our songs happen organically, and so if someone like Aymar who is a huge bossa nova fan has an original riff in that swim lane (for our song "Butterflies" off the EP), it inspires me as a bandmate and co-writer to try to stretch out of my comfort zone from a songwriting perspective and attempt to write some additional parts to the composition that may be a bit out of left field for me - while still maintaining my overall guitar style so to speak.
How has the band's connection to different continents and cultures enriched your musical palette and creative process?
I personally feel like a much more well rounded musician now that I am being exposed to playing on genres of music that I normally would not have been drawn to or exposed to, like bossa nova or bluegrass. I hope that others in the group feel the same way - that their musical "toolbox" so to speak has been greatly enhanced and expanded.
Mixing and production were primarily handled by members in the USA and Poland. How did you overcome the logistical hurdles of collaborating across time zones and languages?
Fortunately for us, we are not beholden to anyone with regards to timelines - we are completely self-contained and can set our own internal goals with regards to releases, and have control over how long we need to complete mixing and mastering of our songs and records. Marcin Nawrocki and I have such a wonderful working relationship, and have become very good friends over this process. Language is not an issue because he speaks English very well - which is fortunate because my attempts at Polish would be dreadful, haha. Because we get along so well, we completely understand if there are any circumstances that arise with regards to needing more time to mix or review a particular song. We communicate over BandLab messaging mainly, and so we can just sync up in more of a "live chat" during the hours of the day when we are both awake (I think his home in Poland is 8 hours ahead of me here in Colorado). He has taught me quite a bit with regards to the production process, and so I have been able to handle quite a bit more of it over the last couple of albums.
"World Over" is being called a historic milestone in music. What impact do you hope it has on the music industry and the concept of global collaboration?
It would be fantastic if this EP inspires other up and coming musicians to consider the possibilities of collaborating with individuals who are not in their geographic region - and perhaps opening them up to learning about other cultures and walks of life in the process. As for the music industry, I hope that it shows that in the growing era of artificial intelligence and the ease of making synthetic music, what wonders we can create when we reach out to those in other parts of the world to create something authentic and true.
What’s next for INTERCONTINEN7AL? Can we expect more groundbreaking projects or albums that push the boundaries of global music collaboration?
Absolutely! So we have already begun discussing ideas internally for our next album - Volume 7 - and are looking forward to continuing to bring diverse genres into the mix! In addition, we now have a digital "mixtape" of sorts hosted on various digital platforms called The Best of INTERCONTINEN7AL. For those of you who are just learning about our group, make sure to give this a listen as it showcases some highlights from our multiple volumes.
Intercontinen7al, thank you so much! We appreciate you taking the time to talk to us.
End Interview
We’re happy to have shared Intercontinen7al’s exciting journey with you and uncovered such inspiring insights about their creative process.
Now, click the links below to experience their incredible work firsthand!
Check out this latest release and listen to more on Spotify & YouTube
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