RISE return with “Always,” a heartfelt anthem of resilience and friendship, exploring loss, renewal, and creative evolution while staying true to their signature sound and deeply rooted emotional authenticity.
1. Your new single Always carries a strong message about support and positivity—what inspired the theme behind this track, and how personal is it to the band?
The track is deeply personal, as it really does come from the heart, having support during difficult times is genuinely empowering. We were friends first then a band, we are still friends now, so many years later.
2. The vocal performance from stayMellow really stands out on this release. How did this collaboration come together, and what did he bring to the emotional depth of the song?
stayMellow (Sam) has worked with us for a couple of years following the untimely death of our original singer. The style of stayMellow’s delivery is uncanily similar to Steve’s (original singer) in terms of range and power. We did try some different approaches on the vocal takes in the studio, but we all agreed that the raw, edgy vocal worked best for this track.
3. Brian, the guitar work on Always is particularly detailed and expressive—can you walk us through your creative process when crafting your parts for this track?
I tend to take the basic track and work at different ideas and sounds, we (Paul and I) will then bounce stems over to each other and develop out the ideas and concepts. This track was pretty spontaneous and the initial ideas were the ones taken through to the final mix. The solo was a mix of two ideas which I merged for the final track take.
4. You’ve mentioned that the “RISE sound” has been developed over many years—how would you define that sound today, and how has it evolved since your early days?
Our style hasn’t really changed over the years. We accept that this may not work for everybody, but are trying to be honest to ourselves first and foremost and we write what we want to play. To some, we may be men out of time, but that’s OK with us.
5. Working again with producer Rob Whiteley, what makes this partnership so effective, and how does he help capture your energy in the studio?
Rob is very much a man of detail, he is meticulous in his approach. He tries to get the best out of each of us; we also trust him, which is a key element for any producer working with a band.
6. With Always focusing on positivity in a darker world, do you see this track as a direction for future releases, or can fans expect different themes and sounds from RISE moving forward?
We are working on a 5 track EP for later in the year (tracks are already complete.). The sound overall is still very much RISE. We do try to keep the positivity going, having said that, one of the tracks is a little darker, but it works for the song. A couple of the songs are a little more complex to play, but overall, we believe that fans and followers will like the fact that we have kept our style going.
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