BY STEPHANIE STEVENS
Former drummer of Korn, David Silveria is back and as impactful as ever with his new band BREAKING IN A SEQUENCE. The band hails from Huntington Beach, CA and has made a bit of noise lately with their newest single TWINE. This is the band’s first new track since their debut EP ACRONYM. With an edgier and harder tone, the guys are delivering a really powerful enhanced sound for themselves. Their debut EP has been streamed endlessly on Spotify since its release and tracks like HESITATION, PITY and ANYTHING BUT RIGHT had me reliving the songs over and over; But with this latest track in TWINE the guys are really invigorating their creative abilities and I can’t wait to see what is coming next from them I had a chance to catch up with singer Rich Nguyen who gave me some details into what the band name means, how they approached writing for the new track TWINE, live shows and advice on touring. STEPHANIE: Tell me the meaning behind the band name and who came up with the name? Rich Nguyen - The name can really mean whatever you want it to mean. The thought initially in my head was like software code or DNA and when a virus or disease enters a system it breaks the sequence to get in. I thought that was intriguing and liked how it acronyms to BIAS. The other guys felt the same. These days the name (to me) means breaking back into music and changing it up a bit. I feel like rock and metal these days all meshes together because of how it's recorded and presented to the masses. It's all over produced with the same guitar tones, drum samples, perfect gridded drums and super auto tuned vocals. I understand that it's quicker and more cost efficient to do things this way, but it's taking the "soul" out of the music. Every band's aim these days is to be a robot basically. There are certain things that all musicians do differently and that is unique to their own technique, when you over produce and perfect this, you lose the evolution of that and it takes away the stylistic aspect of things. I think people need to start seeing (or hearing) that rock and metal need to be humanized, because it's supposed to evoke emotion when you hear it whether it be sadness, happiness or anger. Robots don't feel emotion; robotic music doesn't inspire emotion. STEPHANIE: Where did each band member come from and what was the biggest factors were you looking for to make a cohesive unit? Rich Nguyen - We all know David came from Korn. Chris and Joe have played music together in many projects since they were in high school. Mike was actually Joe's guitar tech in David, Chris and Joe's last project together. I came from left field, as the home studio musician playing and writing music for fun. David, Chris and Joe all were in another project together and they decided to leave that project to start a new one. They put out a worldwide singer search and got a few hundred submissions back from singers all around the world. 3 standouts got a track to sing over and came down to a live rehearsal. Not set on any of the singers they sent the track to me and I took it and changed the arrangement of the song and sent it back with my vocals on it. I guess that made me stand out from the others and they ultimately chose me to be their singer. Mind you, that in the beginning of this band, they were looking for a singer that could sing, not a screamer or anything like that. We started as a "rock" band but naturally started to gravitate to a heavier "hard rock" sound. This in turn made us heavier and started me screaming over certain parts in songs. In the process of tightening up the songs we all decided that we wanted to thicken up the sound a bit with a second guitar. Mike came out of the shadows at that point and asked to try out. He had secretly been sitting there at rehearsals learning the songs, so when he came in he already knew everything and added his own spin to his parts. We all got really lucky, because we all just clicked together musically. It was all random chance that all 5 of us would get together to play music and actually have a "chemistry" together. STEPHANIE: You guys have written some killer tracks so far, how do you go about writing and getting ideas out, is it a full band job or do certain members tackle certain elements? Rich Nguyen - Writing process is for us a smidge different from other bands. I live far away from everyone else and only come down to practice once a week. The guys will all get together 2-3 times during the week to rehearse and write. They all write together in a room. It could be a riff that someone brings in or someone starts jamming to a beat David is warming up with, whatever. But they will play together and record the jam in its most basic form. They will send me that jam session and I will listen to it with fresh ears. If it's something that I think can work, I will dice up the arrangement and rebuild it to how I think it should sound. I'll send it back to the guys and they make improvements to their parts and send it back to me. At that point I will start listening to the song over and over again until the vocal melodies just appear in my head. Once they are solidified in my head, I will do syllable counts on every line and start writing the lyrics within those counts. After I have the lyrics, I track the vocals on the song and send it back to the guys. They will then rewrite everything around my vocal parts. It's unorthodox, but it seems to work for us. STEPHANIE: Your newest single TWINE, you and Dave came in with new flavors to your sound was that something you guys talked about prior and how easy was it to incorporate the new elements? Rich Nguyen - As we started playing together more and more, David started to come back into his own. He started hitting harder and really feeling the music again. I think that at rehearsal one day he just decided to use his electronic kit for the intro and bridge of TWINE. We loved how it added another atmosphere to the song and it stuck. I really started following David's lead as he started hitting harder and feeling it again, I started singing harder and took new approaches to my vocals. I wanted my vocals on the song to be kind of like "well I wasn't expecting that type of vocal line over this music" type a deal. It was all very organic and definitely wasn't forced. STEPHANIE: You guys are working on a EP which you tried getting out in 2021, what’s going on with it and do you feel in these days that singles and EP is the way to go now instead of full lengths?Rich Nguyen - We were trying to get the 2nd EP out in OCT 2021, it just didn't work out. There were a lot of logistics that we just couldn't get lined up in time for a proper release. We decided that since it couldn't be done, we'd release "Twine" for the fans to have something before the end of the year. We are looking at an early 2022 release now. Well in my eyes, these days’ singles and EPs are the way to go, especially when you are an unknown like us. I think established bands can put out full lengths and not waste songs, but in the current landscape, a single, EP or LP only has the lifespan of about 90 days, then it's considered old. So us putting out all of material in one shot would have really worked against us in 2020, since COVID really destroyed any momentum that we may have had. People really haven't heard us, since we couldn't play to support the first EP. Depending upon how things end up, we will hopefully be able to go out and support EP2 properly and then maybe release a full length as the follow up record. STEPHANIE: HESITATION is one of my favorite tracks from you, can you tell me your thoughts on the track and listening to it now would u change anything about the song since it’s been a bit since you wrote it and I’m sure you have grown as musicians? Rich Nguyen - Thanks! Hesitation was actually the first track that they sent to me for my audition. That song started it all for us! It's really evolved in the way we perform it now live now. We've evolved a lot as a band and if we were to write it today, it would be less radio friendly and slightly edgier. We started as a rock band, and have progressed into more of an experimental, hard rock band. I feel that Hesitation was very straight forward in its approach (by design), but I still think it's a great song and enjoy performing it live. STEPHANIE: Making a brand for yourselves in a new band and also wanting to experiment at a early age in your career, is there certain rules you follow or do you believe trying new things help your growth as people and musicians? Rich Nguyen - There are really no rules or boundaries that we've imposed upon ourselves. We just go with the flow most of the time, if something comes up, we work thru it, if not, we always try to have a short term goal to work towards. It's all baby steps, but the milestones and achievements add up after a while and they are very good for self-confidence and drive to push on. STEPHANIE: How important to you is a live show and what do you feel your band does that differs from other bands in your genre? Rich Nguyen - I think live show is very important. It's a chance to show your art to an audience and get live feedback on their perception in that moment in time. I feel like we haven't really played enough yet (thanks COVID!) to really come into our own to offer a different experience live. But going back to what I was talking about earlier about new bands recordings being robotic, live is where the humanity and style comes back into the music. All of the subtle human nuances, mistakes, etc... add to that humanity and soul of the music when it’s live. STEPHANIE: Who is the biggest inspiration to your craft and have you ever been able to meet that person? If you have what was the one thing you remember about the conversation? Rich Nguyen - I don't think I have just one inspiration, but I do get to write and play music with one of the biggest icons of yesteryear, from one of my favorite bands ever. One thing that really stands out to me is the passion and love of music. Even after accomplishing and experiencing what maybe only a small percentage of bands get to achieve in their career, David is still playing and not because he has to, but because he loves to. It's an honor to be in a band with him. STEPHANIE: If you could cover one song in a different genre, then you play what would you cover and why? Rich Nguyen - I cover songs all the time from different genres, just to learn new techniques and different note progressions. I generally pick songs that challenge me to learn something from them. Thru 2020, I did post a few covers on FB / IG that I did for fun. STEPHANIE: How is the tour world for you guys for the rest of 2021 into 2022? Rich Nguyen - We just did a short stint at the end of OCT. It was fun. We are hoping to get onto some bigger tours in 2022 as an opener for the more established bands out there. STEPHANIE: Best advice for a touring band? Rich Nguyen - Get Apple Airtags for your trailer and gear (if you are in the apple ecosystem) or some sort of tracker for your gear. There are too many stories of bands getting their gear stolen on the road. You can track the Apple Airtags anywhere as they use low power Bluetooth of ANY Apple device to triangulate their location. Also, you will get notified on your phone if something gets left behind! STEPHANIE: Anything else you want to add that we didn't hit upon or that you’re up to you want fans and new comers to your band to know? Rich Nguyen - Please follow us on all socials and streaming platforms; strength in numbers! @biasbandoc - Breaking In A Sequence Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to listen to our music, came to our shows and have supported us! The best is yet to come! Stay tuned!
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