God Program - Sound In The Signals Interview
I recently had the opportunity to interview Sean from God Program. We discussed how they formed the band, the vinyl pressing of their EP, ‘Forever Lasts Another Year’, what they hope listeners take away from their music, lyrical inspiration, their songwriting process, what’s next for the band, and more. Check it out below.
First, thanks for the interview.
No problem! Thank you for having us.
Can you tell me how you got together and formed the band for those who may be unfamiliar? How did you initially become interested in music?
The band started with Marla having the idea of wanting to front a band in the emotional metalcore/post hardcore realm. I have been playing in bands for years and obviously being in a relationship with her made the starting process very easy. I would run riffs by her to see if it was the style we should be aiming for and we’d just go from there. I was playing in a band called Slavestate at the time which Joey played drums for and figured God Program would be something he’d be into. Ran it by him, had our first practice in his living room and we’ve been going (semi) strong since. After that we filled out the rest of the line up. Jay was close friends with Joe and recommended having him join. Nick and I grew up together and had been in our first bands together so it just made sense to have him join us.
I think most of us had music as a presence in our lives growing up in one way or another. Eventually, you get to the point where you want be a part of it and start playing it. Whether it’s because we had something to express or because we were tired of just sitting on the sidelines and wanted to get in there to play instead of just watching.
It was recently announced that your EP, ‘Forever Lasts Another Year’ is getting a vinyl pressing. How closely did you work with the labels on the vinyl pressing packaging and variants?
We worked with Grant (Bitter Melody) and Eric (Dropping Bombs) pretty closely to get everything rolled out. They luckily made it very easy for us. They came to us with the idea of doing the one sided 12” with a screen-printed B side and we loved it. We pretty much provided the artwork, chose the color schemes and then they arranged it all for us. They’ve kept us updated every step of the way and essentially handled the entire process for us. We’re super thankful and appreciative that they chose to work with us on this.
Your band has a ton of hype. I saw that the vinyl pressing is almost sold out. What do you think it is about your band that has helped you gain so much attention? What do you hope listeners take away from your music?
Damn, thanks for thinking we’re a hype band! Haha. I don’t think we really recognize any hype firsthand but we’re super appreciative of anyone even giving us the time of day. I think we’ve gained attention just by trying to play out a bit and forming relationships with bands in the scenes both similar and dissimilar to us. We’ve been playing in bands and attending shows for years and I think the support from our friends in “the scene” has really helped us from the start. It also helps that our style of music has kind of came back into vogue recently.
I passed the second question off to Marla and she says “I want people to acknowledge and appreciate the raw emotion and honesty put into our music hoping that it provides as much of a cathartic experience to our listeners as it does for us”.
My favorite song from the EP is “26”. Can you tell me about writing that song and more about the lyrical inspiration?
Musically, we came together after the last EP trying to put together some songs and Nick came through with most of/if not all the riffs for this one. The rhythm section jumped in and contributed their part while I took more of a composer position and tried to help make the track the flow. We were going for a more early 2000s melodic metalcore sound with a bit of chaotic screamo flavor towards the end.
Lyrically, Marla says “It is a track I wrote at that age (26), it was a time when I was feeling a profound sense of time passing, life being bad and just generally getting worse, the idea that things don’t “get better” and the eventual embodiment of that trauma. Using those feelings, it became what is was while writing it”.
What’s your overall writing process like usually? Do you start with lyrics or music?
We’ve always started with the music. It’s usually a battle for us to get together between living in two different states and the mounting responsibilities of adult life so we’re usually piecing songs together bit by bit. Nick and I will come up with riffs, sometimes play those together to get a general idea then get everyone else on board. Lyrically, Marla usually has themes, lines and imagery that she wants to incorporate at first. Then the full songs are usually not finished/fully realized until the last minute due to her perfectionist nature. She’s not alone though. I think we’re very particular about what we put into the songs and we’re constantly swapping things in and out during the creative process usually up until it’s studio time.
I’ve seen your band compared to artists of the classic Ferret Records and Trust Kill era of music. What about that era is special to your band and do you have a personal favorite album from that era?
I think I speak for the band when I say that era is important to us because when we were all first getting into -core music they were the prominent labels putting out the bands we loved.
There are literally too many great albums to name. I loved this question and I tried to get an answer from everyone but failed. Here’s what we got.
Sean: It Dies Today “The Caitiff Choir” and From Autumn To Ashes “Too Bad You’re Beautiful” - IDT “Freak Gasoline Fight Accident” was probably one of the first metalcore songs I ever heard and I was so hyped on it. Both bands were favorites of mine at a young age and the albums definitely stood the test of time.
Marla: Disembodied “If God Only Knew...”, Poison The Well “The Opposite of December” and Martyr AD “The Human Condition in Twelve Fractions
Nick: Misery Signals “Mirrors” - He says the album was “probably my favorite album when I was 13”
Do you have any plans to release any music this year? If so, what can you tell us about it so far?
We had a lot of both turbulent and stagnant times between the last record and the current one and the pandemic really didn’t help. We’re trying to keep the ball rolling now that we were able to get the EP out. We’d like to aim for a full length record next but really anything is possible and it’s all up in the air. Ideally, I’d like us to get at least a new single out by the end of summer. We might also have a comp appearance in the works.
Thanks for taking the time to answer the questions. Do you have anything else that you would like to add?
Thank you to anyone who has supported us during our short existence as a band. It’s become more than we ever thought it would be. Thank you to Bitter Melody and Dropping Bombs for putting in the work to get our music out into the world and finally, thank you for doing this interview with us.
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