Everyone enjoys music for many different reasons. Some people love catchy pop songs. Some love the smooth sound of R&B. Others might prefer a more aggressive sound like metal. But what if there was a band that combined all of the wonderful aspects of each of those genres together to create a treat that everyone can enjoy sonically? This is what Wilmington, NC natives, Shallow Signals are aiming for. Shallow Signals have worked hard to come together as a group and crack this code to create something that they are proud of and hope everyone can enjoy. In just a few years, they believe they may have found the sound they’re looking for with their new single, “Bleed For Me,” which was released today, January 17th, 2025.
Recently, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the members of Shallow Signals to discuss their new release further.
MSM: Hello everyone! Thank you for sitting down to talk to me about your new single, “Bleed For Me”. To start things out, can you introduce yourselves and tell the readers a little bit about your roles in the band?
Maultsby: Alright, well, I'm Evan Maultsby. I'm the guitarist, and point of contact for the band.
Strickland: I'm Brandon Strickland. I do vocals for the band.
Cianciola: I am Jason Cianciola. I play bass in the band.
Gutierrez: I'm Justin Gutierrez. I play drums in the band.
MSM: So, your new single, “Bleed for Me”, just came out. If you could describe the single with three words, what would they be?
Strickland: I would definitely say, if we're basing it off of the tone of the song, I would say it's energetic. I guess these two words can go together, it's kind of depressing and gloomy as far as the mood of the song. Just as far as the lyrical content stuff goes, I don't know, aggressive? It's fairly aggressive. It's kind of back and forth. It's like self-reflection, but it also gets fairly heavy at times. For the whole theme of it, the song's primarily about vices.
MSM: Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the song?
Strickland: As far as inspiration for the song itself, it really comes down to just being overwhelmed by vices. You've got vices and things that bring you down, and then you end up getting to a breaking point with them, which leads to a lot of self-reflection. Circling back to looking at things that vices have caused. Thinking back on the negative impacts on your life that vices have caused, whether it be from alcohol, a person, however anybody wants to interpret it. A lot of the verses are based around that self-reflection, and when the song gets heavier, it's kind of like reaching that breaking point, I guess.
MSM: So, did any of the song's lyrics or themes come from just your own personal experiences, or was it more of a collective reflection of all of the band's thoughts?
Strickland: Writing is a collective process but as far as like...the lyrics and stuff, the theme of it's definitely personal. Most of the lyrics that I write about are all things that I've experienced.
Maultsby: When Brandon wrote the lyrics, I interpreted it as you're in a relationship with somebody, and you're doing so much for them, but in the end, you’re asking, “Would you bleed for me? Would you do the same for me?” He interpreted it as vices, which could be the same thing in ways for some people. So I feel like it kind of means something different, but still similar to all of us, in a way.
MSM: How does the band collaborate when writing new music? Does everyone contribute to the songwriting, or does one member usually take the lead?
Maultsby: Sometimes it is a little bit different than this, but usually how it works is I’ll sit down and come up with a melody on the guitar. I usually try to start with a hook, that's how I express myself. Then, before too long, I'll have the bare bones of a song. I’ll meet with the rest of the band and be like, “Hey guys, here's a song that I came up with, or here's a riff that I came up with, do you guys like this?” And most of the time, if I'm being 100% honest, it's either like, “Oh my god, we gotta write to that right now!”, or it's like an almost crickets kind of situation. That way I know, it either goes to the graveyard, or we're moving forward with how it is right now. Then Brandon will usually come over; he'll usually be inspired right away and start writing. He'll have lyrics to a song that are meaningful and deep, pretty quick. Or if it's more difficult for him to come up with something, I’ll pick up on that pretty well, and I'll either change something, or we'll start from scratch.
Strickland: What catches my attention and makes me want to write to something usually, when Evan starts off with a guitar part, the first thing is usually a chorus or hook, and if I can hear a melody, I can just start humming along to it and come up with something that makes sense that I think is catchy. Then I'll pick a topic, whether it's something that's got me happy, sad, pissed off, frustrated, whatever, and go from there.
Maultsby: It's got to vibe with everybody 100% before it just becomes a song. After Brandon and I go through it, Jason will come by, he records the bass, but he'll have input on it. As we go along and move forward through everybody's parts, we're also constantly changing ideas, so the song can change at different points throughout the whole thing. Then Justin will come over to write his part. After all of that, we get to do all the fun stuff, add the post production effects. Then, when it's done, everybody usually kind of looks at it like, “Yeah, this is great! This is badass, I approve.”
MSM: Were there any unique sounds or techniques used in production that you're excited for people to hear?
Gutierrez: The outro! I mean, we've never done anything like that in our songs. Did you write it?
Strickland: Yeah, I was wanting to end one of our songs in a different way. You always want to change things up to try to get people's attention, whether it be song structure, sounds and samples, melodies, whatever. The overall tone, lyrically, you always want to try to get people's attention however you can. I know that a lot of the stuff that I write is really depressing, and I stick to that theme, because I guess I'm a sad boy. But you have to change the sound a little bit. Toward the end, we've got a lo-fi sound going on. I pulled one of the vocal melodies in the chorus and I sampled it and put it onto my MIDI keyboard. Then I made a melody in itself. It sounds like everything's chopped up, but every note that you hear at the end of the song is me hitting different keys on a MIDI controller from my vocal sample.
Maultsby: Yeah, I am excited about a lot of the post-production in general. I feel like a lot of our older songs are so straightforward instrumentally. As we release more songs, I feel like our production has gotten better each time. So there's a lot more synth elements in “Bleed For Me” that are making the song sound more full. I think it's a beefier song in the production value, compared to when we did “Find My Peace.” It's miles ahead of that one, so we're excited about it.
Gutierrez: Yeah, it's bigger, it's cooler. It's much cooler.
MSM: How do you approach blending clean vocals with breakdowns into songs? How do you creatively balance that?
Strickland: I draw a lot of inspiration from Architects, The Plot and You, Dayseeker, Beartooth, bands like that. Obviously we're not trying to be them, but I can say creatively, I draw a lot of inspiration from the way they write. I guess you could say I've got a more poppy background, too, like pop music, R&B music. I grew up listening to a bunch of R&B and stuff like that. That pop formula has made its way into heavier metal music, and I love it. I like having that element and having the more catchy choruses and having the verses be more chill, then just turning to the more aggressive sound that hits people in the face. That never gets old. I can tell you, the bands that I've named before, every one of my favorite songs by them, people will be like, “Oh, it's mainstream, it's overplayed, blah blah blah.” To me, those are the best ones, because you've got these clean vocals going and then when that breakdown comes in, it makes the breakdown that much bigger. It has more of an impact. Obviously, no disrespect to the heavier bands, those bands are super talented, but I feel like a breakdown is more impactful if you're not screaming the whole song.
Maultsby: If you're heavy 100% of the time, which part is the heaviest part? There's no distinction. So when I write something on the guitar, I try to think of his vocals. He has a good sense of when to mix clean and scream vocal sections. I try to write a chorus that's going to be catchy and melodic, because that's just what we like to do. I like that, I think Brandon likes that. And then what breaks it up from that, is the verse in your face that goes into a djenty part, and then it goes back to a catchy chorus. I think that there's an appeal to our music because of how we break it up, and the way we write it. It's like there's something that everybody can enjoy. At the end of the day, that's success to me when it comes to a song.
MSM: What is your overall vision for Shallow Signals, and how does “Bleed For Me” fit into your plans for future projects?
Maultsby: I would say that “Bleed For Me,” to me, is more the direction that we're planning to go. I think that this song is a little more like what we wanted to do with the other songs, but we had to write and work to build up to this one to get to this point where, okay, this one is our sound. I think that this one really embodies what we're trying to do.
Strickland: The single definitely fits in the scheme of things. I feel like the main purpose that this single serves for our vision is that we're going to have a song that is exactly the direction we've been wanting to hit. I mean, I feel like our last song, “Imposter,” was too.
Maultsby: Yeah, I feel like “Imposter” was like, “Alright, we're almost there.” And then this one was like, “OK, yeah, this is what we want to do.” So, I mean, I think “Bleed For Me” is a good embodiment of what kind of sound that we want for the future. My vision with the band as a whole, I would love to get the music across to as many people as possible, whether it's playing to a big venue, a small venue, you know, 200 listeners, a million listeners. As long as it makes a difference to somebody, it's great. But also, if nobody listened to our music, would we still make music? My answer would be yes, because at the end of the day, it's for me, Brandon, Justin, and Jason, whether other people like it or not. However, if I can say I made something that I'm proud of and other people like it too, then I'm really happy.
Strickland: Writing these songs is therapeutic for me to get the stuff off my chest. So again, like he said, even if nobody listened, would we still write it? Yes, 100%. But I also like when other people listen to it and enjoy it. Everybody takes in art in a different way, different forms in different ways. But for the people who do enjoy the lyrics and the meanings to songs and writing, there's no better feeling than writing depressing shit and then knowing that you could potentially be helping people who are going through the same struggle. So, it's therapeutic for me, and I would love for it to be therapeutic for other people if they feel that way. Because nobody wants to feel alone in a bad situation and a bad headspace. So yeah, that's a big part of my vision for the band. It's not buying a G-Wagon or a million-dollar house or anything. We just have fun with it and whatnot.
Gutierrez: I just want to keep playing fun shows, and as long as we're writing songs that I enjoy playing on the drums, it's going to be good for me. It's always a bonus when we get to play the good shows. Even if it's one or two people that come up to us after that really got something out of it. That just makes the whole thing worth it. We've met a lot of cool bands over the last couple of years and made some really good friends. I kind of took a big hiatus from playing drums after high school. I mean, like, eight, nine years, so getting back into a scene like this has been really cool to do. It's kind of like chasing a dream that I had when I was a kid, so being able to do that again has been awesome.
Cianciola: I think every new song we write and record, we learn more about what we want to do, and we learn new tricks and tips, and learn what not to do, and I'm looking forward to seeing what a song, maybe five or six songs down the line, is going to turn into and what they're going to sound like.
MSM: Yeah, I feel like every time I see you guys and you’re playing a new song, I'm like, “Man, that's the business!” It just gets better and better every time.
Cianciola: We appreciate that.
MSM: So what's next for you guys after this release? Are you already working on new material?
Strickland: Sounds like it! Evan hit the space bar a minute ago before this interview, and we were like, “damn!”
Maultsby: Yeah, so I try to keep riffs going. I'll have either one or two, or it'll end up being a bunch of different riffs and different models just ready to go to try to turn them into something. I think that one thing that we could improve on is releasing music a little quicker than we have. Granted, everybody's schedule's different. But I try to bank a couple of songs and have them as close to having those bones all together so I can say, “Alright, we released this one. Here's one that's 50 to 60 percent done now. Where do we go from here?” But at this point, we're booking out our year, too. We're trying to get shows lined up. We've had a good response from the preview of this single, so there's been more bands that we haven't previously done anything with and bands that we've done stuff in the past with that have been like, “Hey, we want to book—we want to get together. Let's get something happening for 2025.” That's kind of where we're at now, is continuing to write new material and continuing to book shows into 2025 and just kind of see where that goes.
MSM: That’s awesome, it sounds like you guys are on the right track! What's one last thing you'd like to say to your fans or new listeners checking out your new track for the first time?
Maultsby: Thank you!
Gutierrez: Turn it up!
Strickland: If you're going through a hard time, listen to the lyrics. I sincerely hope that it gives you some peace and that it helps you out!
