5 Min Origin Stories with Imonolith's Ryan Van Poederooyen

Today, we get to learn about Imonolith's origins from their drummer, Ryan Van Poederooyen. 

If you wanna know why, check out this VIDEO.

They're out on tour this spring in Europe and their debut album is being released on 3/27/20.

You can preorder that HERE.

1. Is there an event you can point to you that made you say, wow, that's the instrument I want to play? Not like guitar or drums, but the reason why you play the model you do?

RVP - When I was in my teens, I was saving up to buy my first real acoustic drum set. I remember vividly when I went to finally buy my drum kit at a big music store in Vancouver, BC, Canada. 

It came down to two drum sets: Pearl BLX Kit and a Sonor Hi-Lite Kit. I absolutely LOVED the Sonor Kit most but could not afford the price. They were called the Royals Royce of Drums at the time. Haha. I ended up getting the Pearl Kit for my first kit. But, fast forward many years later and I’m endorsing Sonor Drums. 

I never forgot that day I bought my first kit, I never forgot that Sonor sound and ended up playing and endorsing my dream drums in the end!

2. How do you write a song?

RVP - It usually starts with a guitar riff in mind, sometimes it does start with a vocal melody in mind but it’s usually a guitar part first. 

Once the main riff is laid out, it’s all about complimenting that riff. Having flow. I think it’s important to write a song that captures you and keeps you interested, rather than just a bunch of cool parts mashed together. I’ll always complete the instrumental part of a song first. 

Once it’s done, I start working on Vocal melodies. I’ll usually just worry about syllables and use random words so I can get the melodies down. Once I’m happy with all the melodies, I work on the lyrics. Sometimes the melodies change slightly if I’m on a roll with lyrics and want to use certain words in the song. 

Otherwise that’s how most of the songs I write are written.

3. How many concept records do you own? Could you ever write one?

RVP - Only a handful. My favourites are Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime and Pink Floyd - The Wall. 

I’m not a huge fan of concept records, don’t hate them by any means. The ironic thing is our debut album, 'State of Being’ has a theme to it. It’s about how people deal with various states of being throughout their lives. 

Every song on the record lyrically is about various states of being. It’s not necessarily a concept record but it does have a theme to it. I don’t think I’d be interested in writing a full on concept record where I’m at now, but never say never.

4. Who's influence is most evident in your music? The least?

RVP - I’d say Pantera, maybe ? I’m influenced by so many different artists and genres, as are the other members in the band. 

It would be really hard to peg our influences to even 3 bands.

5. Which one of your songs is the one your the most proud of?

RVP - That’s a tough question. I love all the various songs on the record for different reasons. I’ll go with the song ’The Reign’ for this interview. Haha.. 

It’s our heaviest and fastest song, that maintains a groove and catchiness throughout. It’s an intense song but the lyrics are positive. The song is about not succumbing to society saying what you should be in life. It’s about being yourself and doing what you want with your life.

6. Sum up your latest record for us.

RVP - State of Being is a record of variety, lyrically and musically. The overall message is a positive one, even though it may seem dark at times. 

The record itself is about how people deal with the various states of being that they go through in life. Musically it can be heavy, it can be catchy and then it has songs in between that go left field. We didn’t want to write a ‘heavy’ album or a ‘catchy’ album.

We just wrote what we thought were great songs. The end result was ’State of Being’. We’re all very proud of it and can’t wait to support it on tour in 2020 and 2021.