Rock Music News: Archetypes Collide are finally living the dream (2024)

It’s been a long road to this point for ARCHETYPES COLLIDE, but after almost a decade as a band, they just released their self-titled debut album via Fearless Records.

Spanning 12 tracks, Archetypes Collide’s self-titled is exciting for the band, to say the least. After two EPs, a handful of singles and covers, and touring around to get their road legs under them, they captured the attention of Beartooth‘s Oshie Bichar, who began working with the band in the studio and helping to shape their sound. Mixing everything from Linkin Park and Bring Me The Horizon to The Chainsmokers, and Stranger Things-style retro synths, into a unique musical identity, it’s a diverse but singular mission statement brimming with authenticity and hope. ARCHETYPES COLLIDE aren’t bound by preconceived notions or limitations. As vocalist Kyle Pastor explains simply: “Why not take every shot, in every direction, under the umbrella of hard rock and metal?”

We caught up with Kyle on his lunch break from work in Phoenix, Arizona to talk about the journey to the debut album, touring with Trivium and Beartooth and how he reminds himself how lucky they are to be living their dream. “It’s a busy life, but it’s a fun one,” he tells us.

So Archetypes Collide 2023 is a very different band from the one that began in 2014. You finally have an album out in the world.

It’s super exciting. We’ve put a lot of years into writing music, obviously, playing shows locally and just kind of building our fan base and to finally be put on a national level and do national tours.

We did two last year, massive festivals, and then, of course, our first full-length album. You know, it’s kind of the dream. As an independent local artist, you don’t really have the funds to do things on a big scale like that with a large album and to have 12 songs. It’s been really cool to put what we do on steroids and just completely go all out.

So yeah, and I think with having Fearless Records, our label, alongside us to invest in that relationship and to really see this out has been such a really cool experience for us to put it at the next level.

With Fearless, if you could have picked any label, they must have been high on your list, right?

Oh yeah, definitely. So it was funny cuz, like back in the day, we would just joke about labels like this, you know, we would just like, oh yeah, one day we’ll sign to blankety-blank, or we’ll sign to this label, we’ll sign to them. And it’s like, oh, they’re genuinely interested: let’s do this. Let’s make something happen. And honestly, since day one they’ve been good to us. You would think a label would be a bunch of people in cubicles just, you know, running crazy and doing stuff but there’s like eight or ten people that we work with, like first name basis, that they just have a crazy work ethic and they love what we do, and like we feel that genuine care that they have for us and it just pushes us to work even harder. So it’s a really cool atmosphere. Really good people.”

So finally having the album out, do you feel like all those years of experience have made this album different from what it would’ve been say if you’d released it five years ago?

Yeah, I think there’s definitely been a maturing phase for us. What’s really interesting is last year we did two tours. We did one with The Amity Affliction and then with the band Secrets and so we were on the road, I mean, counting the festivals, probably a good four months, maybe closer to five months out of the year.

I think we played a total of like 70 shows last year, you know, it was a local band before then. We probably played maybe 12 shows a year, you know, one a month or something like that. And I think it’s shown through in our music that now we have this new perspective of how live shows feel, how to engage people, how to have fun, how to write things that are more enjoyable live.

And I think a lot of the new stuff that we have on this album is kind of written in that context of, hey, like, we love the live show. We love the energy that it has and to capture that in a recording is really difficult. But I think with having that knowledge, having that experience, it’s been a lot more exciting to write these songs and to write ’em in a context that makes sense for live shows. And this tour we have coming up with Trivium and Beartooth is gonna be huge. We’re so excited to play all these songs that we’ve been writing just for this reason, to be able to play loud, to play it big and to go all out and have fun and yeah, it’s gonna be sick.

Matt from Trivium is obviously a great performer. The charisma he has on stage, his ability to control the crowd and engage with people. Caleb’s the same way and I think it’s cool, as a frontman, to kinda learn and see how people do things. That’s what I look forward to is just kinda learning the tricks of the trade.

For a debut album, the record is extremely polished. It does not feel like a band’s debut album.

You know, and I think for us, it’s just a testament to like, we’re not strangers to this. We enjoy the songwriting process. We enjoy the recording process and just writing fun, good songs like that. There’s so much fun in that. The songwriting process and just getting into it and writing the best songs we can. And so I think that just shines through on this album. I think sometimes it can get misconstrued where people might actually think that maybe they’re just an industry plant or whatever, and they’re brand new and people were writing songs for them or stuff like that. And it’s like, no, we’re coming up on essentially 10 years next year that we’ve been consistently writing, recording music. We just kept chipping away, chipping away, and eventually, we got our break a couple of years ago and we’re running with it.

And so I think it’s really cool to see the progression. We’ve kind of set ourselves up to this point where now we’ve got a full backing with a label. We have management, we have a booking agent, we have the full team, right? And everything leading up to this point has prepared us for this moment.

So it just only makes sense for us that we just put our absolute best out and just go all out in what we do. And the response we’ve gotten is absolutely insane. So we just love it. It’s so much fun.

So what’s next for Archetypes Collide?

Right now it’s this tour with Beartooth and Trivium, which is gonna be huge and we’re just stoked about it. So we’re getting everything dialled in.

I think one of the things about your band is it proves that if you just stick with it, things can happen. Yeah. Honestly, that’s gonna be inspiring for a lot of people.

Yeah, it really is. And it’s not even rocket science. Like we look back at, you know, the stuff we did in 2014 and at the time we thought we were trying to be as polished as possible and we’re trying to do the best we can. And you look back at it and you’re like, yo, that kind of sounds terrible. Like, it’s just what it is. And so, honestly, the bigger thing for us is just the consistency. Like just be a good person. You’re gonna attract good people that wanna hang out with you. And then you can do some really cool things. And when you surround yourself with people that you know are genuinely good people, and they have good work ethics and they want the same things as you, things just work out.

I mean, that’s everything in life. You surround yourself with the people that you wanna be like. It all comes down to who you hang out with. Who are your people? What’s your circle? Right. And I think that’s been a huge success for our band, is we’ve always been a tight-knit circle and just a good group of guys that we just get along and it’s proven to be very beneficial to us in this industry. So it’s exciting to see. With even more consistency down the road with the platform we’re on now, just how much bigger this thing can get.

Cause it already feels like it’s blowing up for us.

Watch the full interview below:

ARCHETYPES COLLIDE’s debut album is out now on Fearless Records