Born of Osiris has just finished their most recent European and Canadian tour. Cameron expressed that they’ve just gotten home from two months of non-stop touring. He’s looking forward to doing “normal/human things” like cooking, which he doesn’t get the chance to do while on tour. However, he stated, “he’s ready to rock” when it comes to this interview!
We asked Cameron what the highlights of the most recent tour were.
Where do I start? Well, Europe was really cool. Serbia was a highlight, it was my first time there, it’s a really interesting place, just from the get go, I was fascinated to be on castle grounds, and it looked like an old fortress- maybe it was? The venue was a small, tiny place, but the vibes were immaculate as everybody showed up and were just going crazy. It’s cool when you go to a country for the very first time and you see people singing the lyrics, crowd surfing…just going nuts. I never thought I’d even be standing in that country doing anything there; it’s just amazing to be there, so yeah, Serbia was a standout for my first time there.
A familiar favorite for me is Budapest. I just think it’s a fascinating place, and a lot of people came out for that show. I really liked the venue. So yeah, Europe was excellent, it was lots of fun.
Moving on to Canada- we were only home for a few days, and then we were thrown right back into the world of touring, and Canada was really cool. It’s the first time we’ve done a entire month in Canada, most tours we’ll kind of graze a few places there like Toronto, Montreal, Ottowa, Vancouver…. those are kinda I guess the main ones, but we covered a lot more ground then that, so we did cover those cities but we did a lot more too, some kind of more if you want to call it…. a bit more ‘obscure’ markets like Sudbury, we played Halifax for the first time also, that’s on the east coast, it was an insane sold out show.
We had nine sold-out shows on the Canada tour, and we didn’t even expect it to pop off like that, so it’s really great. Oh, we played Victoria for the first time, that’s the west coast, and it’s just gorgeous, Halifax is also gorgeous, they’re both like coastal cities. Victoria is just amazing, it’s close to Vancouver but it’s a different vibe, in my opinion, it’s more pure, it’s more naturey, a little more beautiful, it’s kind of technically close to Seattle and Portland, which I’ve been to many times, living and touring in the United States so much, but visiting Victoria and having the place being so close to those other familiar destinations but also totally different, cleaner and like all the tourists and did not discover Victoria yet so let’s try keep the place a secret! We took a ferry to get to Victoria, which was cool. Let’s see… where else, Thunder Bay was cool. We didn’t expect to play there; everybody was surprised we went there, but I had a great time.
To sum it up, Canada and Europe were incredible. I’m very happy to also have a little break for two months, with things coming to a standstill, and to have a nice little break here.
What’s the meaning behind the band name “Born of Osiris?”
So the meaning behind Born of Osiris… Osiris, being the Egyptian god of the Underworld, implies that essentially the band members (we) are the sons, so we are the offspring of Osiris, the name is… so we were spitballing with Sumerian records very early on, when they signed us and we were still under the name “Rosecrants” which was our local band name and they were like “Guys you’ve like you gotta change that band name its really bad” They were right I mean, “Rosecrants” is not a great band name but I was worried though, I said “what about all of our fans? If we change names, none of our fans are gonna know who we are” because we were pretty active in the local scene for being in high school, we would play shows every weekend and we developed a pretty decent local scene. We had a good amount of people come out to see us every weekend, so I was actually worried those people won’t know who we are or where we went, you know? Ash Avildsen and Shawn Keith looked at us like “Trust us, it’s not going to matter, just change the name”, so we were like okay. So yeah, Osiris plays in with the Sumerian records theme, the
ancient Egyptian mythology theme, so we kinda were sitting at dinner one day in LA, after we’d done our first record and were like, well, what about “Sons of Osiris”?, and were all like oh yeah, that’s really close, so close, so cool but what about born of?…that’s way better! The name developed pretty quickly, and I think we lucked out because what I think whats even harder than making good music is coming up with a good band name!
Do you add those mythology themes into your music as well?
We sneak it in once in a while, ever so subtle, but I think we don’t capitalize on it enough to be honest.. I know there are other bands that do like “Nile,” for example. I mean, amazing band, shout out to George Kollias… sickest drummer alive! I think its something that we really should take more advantage of and I’ve even brought that up to the band lately, I said what if we do it, our name is Born of Osiris, I think it’d be cool if we went all in and it doesn’t have to be permanent but even for the next album lets go all in on the theme let’s encorporate lyrics and stories from Egyptian mythology. I think some people are waiting for that, so it would be a cool avenue to visit and just really go all in on that concept.
The new album “Through Shadows” was released on the 11th of July. What was the inspiration behind the album?
Now, “Through Shadows”, the title is actually taken from the song “Through shadows”, but the entire phrase is actually “Through shadow, light remains”. Now we were originally looking to call the album “Through Shadow Light Remains” because that’s the entire concept, but we went back and forth with Sumerian, and they said that’s too long. I know that longer album titles are kinda in right now, but I agreed too. I think short and sweet is better, especially for an album title, so we shortened that and came up with “Through Shadows,” but the meaning of
“Through shadow, light remains”, is that through shadow- being the dark times; the temptation, the grieveances and the loss that we experience, the hardships in life, that’s the shadow. Light remains; light is hope. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel, it’s the reward for being resilient, standing your ground, for making the right decisions, respecting yourself and others, respecting your body, making good decisions…instead of taking shortcuts or the easy way out. It’s about resilience and you know long story short; “Through shadow light remains” is a story of resilience and encouragment to stay strong; for people who are experiencing troubled times.
That’s a beautiful description and meaning.
For sure, it’s real-life stuff. I think everybody can relate; we all have tough times, for sure.
Born of Osiris has such a distinctive and unique genre-bending sound. How did you create your musical identity?
Great question. The sound actually started with me; I recorded every instrument on the band’s first two albums, everything besides vocals, guitar, bass, keyboards, so in complete honesty, Born of Osiris’s
sound starts with me. I was very young when my older brother Brian taught me how to record, where I started on a “test cam four track” on tape, moved to a digital eight-B-track, then eventually Pro Tools on a computer, and now I’m using Logic Pro.
I started very young. I started before everyone… like no one else, at least in my area or school, was recording themselves at all at that age. I do think having a supportive family and older brother, who just helped me and gave me a kick in the butt to be like this, is how you do it.
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That’s actually how the band was able to get discovered on MySpace. I was posting demos on MySpace.
I recorded the music, and Ronnie and Joe would come over and do the vocals in my parents’ basement. They would record the vocals, and those were our first recordings. We went under the name, and most people might remember “Your Heart Engraved” and “Rosecrants” for the die-hard fans who’ve been following us since early on. People who had Myspace and knew our following there, that was just things that were recorded in high school, we had joke lyrics at the time too. I don’t think we took it very seriously. We were just kids having fun while making music and recording, because it was fun with silly joke lyrics,
and that was another thing when Sumerian signed us, they were like “Listen guys, you’re gonna have to change these lyrics.” and we were like “But they’re funny” but they said “No, just change them.” So a big part of growing up is Sumerian records definitely having very good points and things for us to change, and
thank god, because we had lyrics like “your motorcycle sucks,” like imagine those lyrics in a Born of Osiris song! I don’t think anyone’s gonna get them tattooed on them because it’s profound!
But you asked how it started, and I feel I should mention that’s how it started, but also, now how it’s going is very much a collaborative effort. Currently me and Nick Rossi, who’s our guitarist, and is also just a brilliant songwriter, as well as an insane guitarist and an absolute machine and a very dear friend of mine, he’s a powerhouse of a musician. Ronnie, of course, is just naturally talented; his talent goes to the moon, so it’s been very much a collaborative effort. It started with me, and now we’re making the best music of our careers together, and I’m always happy to have the help.
In terms of your music changing throughout the years, how has this shown up lyrically? How do you create the lyrics? What’s the creative process behind them?
This time around, the lyrics were actually made about each other. I think we didn’t realise that at first,
but we were writing themes that would first appear, as we were just talking about a friend or someone we knew, and I think halfway through the lyrical process, we realised that these unspoken things were where we’re talking to each other through the lyrics and we’re talking to each other through the band and tackling serious issues like addiction or self-doubt. We’re dealing with loss, we’re telling stories to each other and giving advice to each other and telling cautionary tales to each other through the band, and this album was very focused on our circle together and sending each other messages, which then can be seen by the world, and hopefully everybody else can take something from that. It’s a message of hope, and even as simple as “Hey, you should stop doing this,” it ended up being a message to each other.
I love the visualizers that accompany the songs online, and also the visuals for the music videos released. Do you have much creative input into these, and how are the ideas created and executed?
Sam Beck is very much the guy behind all of those visuals. I’ve known him for a long time, and he’s also a great musician, which really helps as the music resonates with him, which then really shines through his video production. Even things like cues matching the music with music videos, that’s one thing that drives me crazy, if shots aren’t aligned with the rhythm of drums, etc, but Sam is very much at the forefront of the rhythmic pulse of how the video should look.
I’m just really impressed with what he comes up with; he also did some of the single artwork as well… We do tell him vaguely what we have in mind and he really goes deeper with concepts and things, like for example “The War That You Are” visulaiser, that’s the very last visulaiser we released, its a battle scene with medieval knights in armour and stuff and that’s about as much as we told him we were like “well the song is about a war within yourself, which is why its called “The War That You Are” and it’s about dealing with your own demons and we thought we’d portray it through a battle scene and bit more metaphorically so we didn’t give him a lot to work off of. I don’t think we need to. I think he hears the music, and we give him a short paragraph and what the concept is. I should also mention we’ve had zero revisions on anything across the board; anything he sends us, we’re like, “Perfect, let’s run it,” so shout out to Sam Beck, he’s amazing!
What is your favourite song from the new album?
Ooh, that’s a tough one because it changes every week. I will have to say “A Mind Short Circuiting” is my favourite because of the drum beats and all the tempo switches are really fun to play live, and I like to watch the crowd react right before the tempo switches, and I get to hit that bell on my drums, and I see the mosh pit go crazy! I’m just like hitting my drums as hard as I can, especially during that part where I can just feel it, it feels electric! That’s why I really like playing that song.
I’m very inspired by “MESSHUGAH” and Tomas Haake as a drummer too and I do think a lot of that influence rubbed off on that song too and so I really think its a nod to our gent godfathers in MESSHUGAH but with a little bit of a Born of Osiris twist of course and with some classical thematic elements; its the music starting out like a movie scene, you can imagine a scene that starts off in Mexico with the drug cartel like opening movie credits and then it goes into just fierce low tune guitars and drums with an outro that’s electronic and where I get to play to the beat, its almost like a little drum solo I get at the end of that song too, so for those reasons and the live aspect of that song I would pick that one for sure.
Tell us about your upcoming tour dates and plans, and what we can expect from a live Born of Osiris show?
We have the “Through Shadows” USA tour coming up. That starts this fall, the first show is in Madison, Wisconsin, on September 25th, and it’s a pretty long tour, we go throughout the United States, and it actually ends in Chicago at the Bottom Lounge on Nov 9th, with lots of dates in between there. That’s the headline tour with (support acts) “Browning”, “VCTMS”, “Axty” and “Lost in Sepreation.” They’re incredible bands, it’s going to be insane, throughout, you don’t wanna miss a single one of those bands, so make sure you come out early, cos Lost in Separation are insane, and if you miss them, I’ll be very mad at you!
Definitely come out to support all of the bands.
Our setlist is also very exciting for this tour, we’re re-introducing some songs… I don’t want to give too much away, but we’re reintroducing some songs from “The Discovery” and we’re also introducing some songs from “Through Shadows” that we have not played live yet before.
We also have some people joining us on stage, an additional guitarist and a live bass player joining us. I don’t think I’m allowed to spill the beans on who it is yet, but you’re actually the first to learn this! It’s a full band, it’s gonna sound massive, and we’re so excited. I’ve loads of practice to do, and this time the drums are gonna be me instead of the other way around, so I’ve gotta practice, but we’re ready to rock for sure!
That’s a long tour! Are there certain things you miss and also look forward to while on tour?
I do miss my own bed, that’s for sure. I miss my boyfriend Sergio, me and him have been together for seven years, so yeah, I definitely will miss him. My studio, and honestly, it sounds silly, but I’ll miss my alone time too. I really appreciate my alone time to create and reflect, and yeah, just making music and being immersed in new ideas and things that are harder to do on the road, as you can imagine, there’s just a lot of being surrounded by people. I love people and I’m absolutely a social person, but at the same time, I think everything in moderation is important, and sometimes big crowds and stuff for me means I do go a little crazy when I’ve been on tour for a while. I go for a lot of walks on tour. I put my headphones in and walk, I mean, walking is great exercise, but a lot of it is mental exercise, and I like seeing my surroundings if the weather’s conducive to that, especially in Europe. My goodness, a new city every day! Europe is very walkable, as you know. You’re in the UK?
I’m in Ireland currently. Dublin, by the sea.
Wow, you’re in Dublin! Gosh, that is so cool.
Have you been?
Yes, I’ve been two times; we played a couple of shows there before, and it was gorgeous, and we’re coming back! That’s another secret! Oops! We’re coming back. You’ll be there? Cool. I didn’t say it’s in January, but I didn’t say that, but keep a lookout for the Europe tour being announced, and I’m saying all this stuff I think I wasn’t supposed to, but that’s okay! It’s all good! Europe, we’re coming! We’re coming back!
What else does the future hold for Born of Osiris?
We’ve already started working on another album! It took too long to put out this last one; it took four years! We generally would put out an album every two years. For example, “The New Reign” was 2007, “A Higher Place” was 2009, “The Discovery” was 2011, “Tomorrow We Die Alive” was 2013, “Soul Sphere” was 2015, “The Eternal Reign” was 2017, “The Simulation” was 2019, “Angel or Alien” was 2021 and then we broke the cycle!
You’d think it was bad luck, but it turns out it was not because we’re firing on all cylindars right now and people love “Through Shadows” and we’re loving playing the songs live and the reception has been really good and that album did take so long because there’s so many moving parts involved in it and that’s why it took a long time and during that time we were also working on this next one so that’s been in the world for quite some time so we’re already working on some of the material right now and just looking at the best way to format it, put it together and make it exciting!
Bottom line, you want it to be exciting, fresh and new, and surprising. We want it to surprise people, and I don’t want to make anything because I think it will be played on the radio or because I think it will reach a mass appeal. I want to make music because we think it rocks! We want to make music because we love it, and we think it’s interesting, and we will just enjoy it because it’s entertaining, because at the end of the day, we all want to be entertained.
That’s great! You’re really doing it for all the right reasons. You can tell through your authenticity and uniqueness, and you can feel the passion when you play.
I appreciate that.
Is there anything else you’d like to chat about today or anything else you’d like to promote?
Well, I guess since you asked…. A lot of people don’t know I have a solo project, it’s called “Unsolicited,” and I actually not long ago put out a new album with that. The album is called “Life Energies,” so yeah, I did put that out a couple of months ago, and I’m really proud of that too, and it sounds like old Born of Osiris with no vocals on it. There’s some chill vibes with some very intense technical death metal vibes to it as well, a lot of genti stuff, so if you like progressive instrumental metal, I’ll just put that out to you. Check it out, it was a lot of fun to make.