All photos by Jesse Darland Photography

Even though shows are scarce for the time being, new bands keep coming together and new music keeps being recorded. With that in mind, here’s another band that came together recently and is trying to do things a little bit differently – Dayton, OH’s Echobreak. I had a chance to chat with the boys over the past week.

Let’s start at the beginning. How and when did the band come together?

Justin Law (guitar): Well, Brandon and I have been playing music together for a while now, we brought Matt in on a metalcore project we were doing. We got through a whole EP with that, and I decided I didn’t want to play metal anymore so we scratched the EP and started forming this band. We have been at it for a while now perfecting as much as we could before the release.

Brandon Walls (guitar): Like Justin said, we’ve been playing together for a decade now. We had a popular band in the early 2010’s called Witness. The metalcore band before this one was called Arcane Lake. The EP we recorded was entirely about Dark Souls, haha! When Justin wanted to change what we were doing, we collectively went along with it as a band, looking back I think we can all agree it was the right move.

We did struggle with finding a singer for the longest time. I eventually asked my brother, Devin to sing for us. To be honest, I knew he was a good singer, but he had not done it for so long we were kind of worried. But when he laid the vocals on “Dreamcatcher”, I think we were all taken back by how well he did, especially since it’s his first recording he’s ever sung on!

That’s definitely makes the story even more awesome! Who would you say are your biggest musical influences?

Matt Dornbusch (bass): A lot of bands actually! Some of the main influences I take for this band would be Too Close to Touch, Picturesque, Survive Said the Prophet, Slaves, and a lot of K-pop haha!

Devin Eckard (vocals):  Starset! I love astronomy, and their perspective of it beautifully fuses into the music they write.

Justin Law: My personal influences for the band is where the J-Rock influence come from. I’m very into bands like Coldrain, Survive Said the Prophet, My First Story, and CLVTE

Brandon Walls: For me, My Chemical Romance has always been my biggest inspiration. I loved how they made every show or album release a special moment. Their theatrics were always top notch, and they have such an intimate connection with their fans. Once shows are allowed again, I think their influence will shine through for us, especially in the theatrics department. We have a lot of things we are prepping for 2021.

What an interesting mix! Tell me about how you came up with the band name Echobreak?

Justin Law: The name came to me when I was listening to a band called Moonfall. They have a song called ‘Echobreak.’ I thought it sounded cool. The name ended up forming its own meaning to us. For us it means breaking through the negative thoughts and emotions that play like echoes in our mind

Devin Eckard:  I like to define the meaning of our name as traumas that create a ripple effect throughout life, and finding a way to overcome those traumas.

I like that, especially in 2020. Back to your music – you initially mentioned Japanese and Korean culture – how do you feel those cultures specifically influence your writing?

Justin Law: I’m very big into Japanese music and culture. I’m definitely a huge anime and video game fan. Aside from that, something about the passion in their music really appeals to me! K-Pop is something I just started to dabble in more, but some their beats and vocal melodies are so cool! It’s always something fun to jam out to! 
 
Matt Dornbusch: Our love for anime, J-Rock, and K-Pop has hugely influenced our writing style. It’s just what we jive to!

Excellent. Everyone has to start somewhere, right? Speaking of which, if you could tour or play a show with one local band, who would you choose?

Brandon Walls: We can’t just chose one band to be honest! Once shows are allowed we really want to play with Atimera (shout-out to Michael Waters and Mike Coletti!), and Shot Down South, Even though both of those bands are heavier than us, they have supported us in one way or another for quite a while now, and have helped us with a lot of behind the scenes stuff. We also hope one day we can play a mix show or something with Inferious. They may be a deathcore band, but Shaun O’Shaughnessy is one of our producers and he has helped so much with this project. He’s been there since we were Arcane Lake.

And if you could support a national band on a headlining tour, who would that be? (feel free to include multiple answers if there are disagreements)

Justin Law: Oh man, I’d cry if we ever had the chance to tour with Coldrainor Survive Said the Prophet.

Brandon Walls: Starset! My biggest dream is to tour with Starset! Their live shows are top notch!

If your theatrics are anything like you promised, I think you’d fit right in with Starset! What kind of plans do you have in store after the release of this single? Any plans for an album/EP?

Brandon Walls: We don’t plan on putting out an EP for a good while, it might be few years honestly. We plan to release a series of songs for 2021, then after that we are going to try to explore with our sound, add more J-Rock elements and experiment with K-Pop and EDM. We also would like to have some cool features outside of our genre to make an appearance on a few songs, maybe a few remixes and acoustic versions of our songs too.

It sounds like you guys are heading in the right direction. But, the elephant in the room must be addressed – how do you feel COVID-19 has affected your band this year?

Devin Eckard: Well, it hurt quite a bit at first, we had plans to release “Dreamcatcher” a lot earlier, but pushing it back actually turned out to be a good thing because it gave us more time to focus and form the true identity of the band. We were also able to refine better ideas for the band that probably would have never came to light if COVID never happened.

That’s wild! Who would have thought it? Is there anything else you’d like to add for our readers?

Brandon Walls: Check out our Debut single, “Dreamcatcher” on all social platforms!

Justin Law: We appreciate anyone who has supported us thus far, and those who do in the future! Stay tuned because it only gets better from here!

Matt Dornbusch: MORE IS COMING! We’re hungry to perform and we’ve come to give you an experience of a lifetime!