Libricide is a multi-faceted modern rock band based out of New York, USA, fusing styles and taking stages to create an original sonic experience that broadens your mind and gets stuck in your head.

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to Libricide? How long has the band been around?

 Harun: I was part of several bands starting from high school all the way through college and afterwards before starting Libricide. Nothing crazy notable. Libricide itself has been around since starting it as a solo project in the early/mid 2010’s in its earliest format.

Dylan: I’ve jumped around many bands throughout the Long Island local circuit when I was first starting out. None of the bands lasted for longer than 6 months to a year. One band I was in for a good length of time prior to joining Libricide was a progressive/alternative rock band called Harmonic Dissonance. We were an active band for about 2 1/2 years & released a 4-song concept EP entitled “Vagabond” during that time. That EP is still available to stream on select platforms, particularly Bandcamp.

While we made great music & enjoyed being in a band together, we ultimately disbanded as all of us drifted apart both personally & professionally. It was a sad breakup & I do miss what we did, but it would eventually pave the way for myself to join forces with the group that I am in today & that is Libricide.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Harun: Luckily we’ve loved and still love the name since we came up with it. After leaving my last group before this one, I was trying to come up with creative and suitable names for the type of project I was envisioning; great, catchy music that made it cool to think again. I mulled over several options for some time, but in the end “Libricide” made the most sense mentally, visually, romantically, branding-wise and in relation to the music we wanted to make.

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

Harun: Initially I wrote the majority of the music simply out of necessity, including the entirety of the first album. As we write more and expand to newer horizons however things have become much more collaborative. We cover whatever feels relevant to both us and the world at the time.

The first album touched on themes of fate and destiny, love and relationships, economics, religion, and life and death (among others). The new album has themes of unity, struggle, work-ethic, loneliness, government, war, and relationships (as ALL life is essentially relationships at their core).

Dylan: It is a real collaborative process. There really isn’t a set format on how songs are written. Typically, one of us will bring in either a “finished” or “unfinished” idea & we then collectively build the song up; writing new parts as needed along the way to make it sound even bigger than initially envisioned. Many tunes including the title track “Consilience”, “It All Might Fall” “Everything Is Easy” & even our latest single “Silence” were all conceived out of those sessions. Lyrically its similar, but I would say Harun has a strong vision for how a solid story should be written & to tie that in with great lyrics to compliment it all.

I’ll write lyrics from time to time depending on the environment of the song & if I know it’s something Harun can relate to while singing them. One of the tunes off the new record “Deliver Us” is a great example of that. For the most part however, I do try to stay out of his way as all of that does come far more naturally to him than it does me. Plus, he’s the singer. He’s got to sing something he can relate to in order to deliver an organic performance. Otherwise, the song falls flat on its face.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

 Dylan: There are plenty of bands & artists out there that inspire me to do what I do. I would say groups such a Van Halen, Alice In Chains, Foo Fighters, Dream Theater, Rush, Rage Against The Machine, Guns N Roses, Periphery etc.

Harun: I’d say it’s not just bands and not even just the music anymore, but a plethora of artists and entrepreneurs across different formats and genres that have been inspiring me lately. With a focus on not just the music, but culture, authenticity, and the numbers game. Hip-hop’s been getting an exceptional amount of love lately; and I’ve been inspired to the see the hustles of many artists who started out totally independently like ourselves.

If you’ll notice though even the hot rappers right now incorporate a much wider scope of genre into their music; from “singing” to R&B, to rock & even punk. There’s something to learn from everybody if you’re looking for it. Some artists I’ve been a fan of doing it big recently are Childish Gambino, Russ, DaBaby & Sueco, among others. Again, not just music, but HUSTLE.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?

Harun: Not particularly- only in the sense that it was more so a whole FEAST of artists I got into heavy during high school. My mom used to play Queen records when I was young. My uncle would take my sister and I to concerts. Alanis Morrisette’s Jagged Little Pill was actually the first album I ever bought…. But I soon discovered everything from Third Eye Blind & Garbage, to 2000’s Nu-Metal, to Tool, Bjork, Radiohead, Pink Floyd and so on. Megadeth & Metallica came later… as did hip-hop and everything else from there.

Dylan: Van Halen was probably the main inspiration for me to get better at guitar and to eventually start forming/joining bands later in life.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Dylan: Before any show, I isolate myself in an empty room to get myself in a positive headspace. I will take a few deep breaths while having my eyes closed. I do many hand, arm, muscle & upper body stretches before I even start warming up on the instrument. When I do start warming up, I do a series of chromatic exercise that I call “the spider exercise”. I turn on a metronome, set it to a decent speed & then start playing from the 1st fret all the way up to the 12th fret. Then I repeat the exercise backwards. As a backing vocalist, I do a series of vocal warmups including but not limited to doing a series of scales while chromatically ascending to each new scale.

Harun: I typically have vocal warm-up exercises I’ll run through before sound check and then again before the actual performance. Stretching, pushups, positive visualization; anything I can do to get amped up and have the audience feel that on stage.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Dylan: As a guitarist, I would say playing with Yngwie Malmsteen, Ace Frehley of KISS & Ron Bumblefoot Thal of Guns N Roses.

Harun: For me it’s getting to play with some of the big name acts we’ve shared the stage with thus far (let’s hope it’s just the beginning!). We also had Ted Jensen (The Eagles’ Hotel California, Green Day’s American Idiot and MUCH more) of Sterling Sound Studios master this latest record (his discography is LONG and EXEMPLARY- check it out) and that’s pretty amazing!

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Harun: Past OR PRESENT!? That’s a tough one… Past: The Beatles, Queen, Led Zep; any of the greats during that time because obviously that was the golden age of classic rock. Today: It’d be cool to tour with some of the big name acts we grew up on that still perform… Alice In Chains, Incubus, 311 (we’d probably make great tour support since we’re also influenced by a lot of these guys), Slash/GnR, Bad Wolves is killin’ it right now, the list goes on.

Is there anything else you would like to add?

 Our new album Consilience is out everywhere Friday, April 8th! We are also doing a record release show/party that SAME NIGHT at The Chance Theater in Poughkeepsie, NY with Tantric! Early-bird tickets and exclusive merch are available at: www.libricide.com/store.

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