Track Premiere & Interview: Great Falls – ‘Kettle Logic’

Post-hardcore/noise rock trio Great Falls have upped the intensity on “Kettle Logic,” the second single from their forthcoming album, A Sense of Rest. Angular riffs and guitarist/vocalist Demian Johnston’s shrieks lead the charge, with drummer Phil Petrocelli and bassist/Decibel scribe Shane Mehling giving the song a greater sense of weight with their forceful playing.

In addition to a stream of “Kettle Logic,” Mehling answered a few questions about A Sense of Rest, which is out December 21 on Corpseflower.

A Sense of Rest is Great Falls’ follow-up to 2015’s The Fever Shed. Has anything changed in the band and/or your lives that affected the writing process for A Sense of Rest?
Demian and I changed the tunings for our guitar and bass. This answer is boring and I’m sorry.

The description for the new album says it focuses on themes of “death, family, art, and immortality.” Were there specific events or instances that you were zeroing in on, or is it more of an open-ended exploration of those ideas?
Demian’s daughter is growing up and he’s had some health issues and we’ve all been doing this a long fucking time. I think almost every artist has some lingering hope their art will find immortality, the same way we look to our children to keep us alive in their hearts. But that’s not really how it works. Did you see Coco? Great movie. This album is the opposite of that.

Was it a grueling process to write A Sense of Rest or did it come pretty naturally?
Good lord, it’s always grueling. The only way we can write music is if it’s a punishing, arduous slog. All three of us have to be happy with every part and it takes forever. Plus we work on all these little things we think are cool and probably no one ever notices. Then there’s the transitions; we spend hours every practice just trying to get from one part to the next. It’s all pretty ridiculous.

Once the album comes out, what’s the next move for Great Falls? Back to writing, tour dates, time off?
We’re deeply back into writing again, but we’d like to tour for a couple weeks around early April of next year. We really need to start booking that. If any bands wanna play a bunch of shows, they should let us know.

Can you tell us about the track we’re premiering today? What was the writing process like for it?
Our working title for this song was “Half Hour” because it took a half hour to write about 90% of it, and then we spent eight weeks trying to write the remaining 10%. In hindsight, we should have come up with a less optimistic name.