I Exist is going to blow your mind. Sometimes life can take us down so many amazing paths. Writing for the music industry has brought me so many wonderful experiences that I would not have had otherwise. Last year, I had the esteemed pleasure of meeting someone truly special. Occasionally, we meet someone in our lives where you truly click. It doesn’t make any sense, it is more of a cosmic meeting of the minds. After several evenings spent with I Exist’s lead singer Brian Lennington in anticipation of their new concept album and virtual reality package, I was intrigued. It’s pretty new age stuff. One look into those deep blue eyes, and listening to the cadence of his voice live, is enough to make you realize you are in a room with someone truly passionate, an innovator.
As a fan of their older music, I was so excited to see their progression into the world of EDM from their Rock roots. I couldn’t wait to share my thoughts, because new music this fucking fire is not discovered every day. Their new album Consciousness is a journey through the past and present styles of live electronic music, overlayed with entrancing melodic verses that evoke a sense of yearning.
I Exist consists of members Brian Lennington and Cameron Bailey. I had the chance to ask Brian a few questions about the album, and the long road both he and Cameron traveled together to create the world’s first Virtual Reality concept album. Without further ado, here is the low down on the very exciting few years in the life of indie darlings and now EDM crossover rising stars, I Exist. You heard it here first. I Exist is going places. They came to shake up the literal reality through which fans experience music.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me today Brian. You have had a very eventful past few years. Can you tell us a little about what your driving force behind creating this album and the virtual reality art that accompanies it has been?
For sure, well I think a lot of these crazy ideas just come from us always trying to out-do ourselves and improve upon whatever we’ve done in the past. So our first album way back in 2009 was like a traditional full-length album, back when CDs were still a thing. Then we were like, okay, how can we 10x that for our next release?
So we started talking about the idea of doing a multi-part concept album, which eventually turned into Humanity – which told a story with a voice actor and a full orchestral theme and everything. A few years later, when we decided to start touring full time, half the band decided that they couldn’t do it, so instead of just stopping there, we put our heads together and came up with this crazy idea which turned them into holograms. So we played like 150 shows like that… kinda crazy… but it worked.
When we were coming home from that tour, we thought again, how can we top all of this stuff for our next release. That’s right when VR started becoming a thing, and even though neither of us had any experience with developing or coding, we decided then – ya let’s make a full album that people can experience through virtual reality.
How did you come up with the concept for the new album?
We’ve always been a little over the top, but I think you have to be true to yourself and true to whatever sound you might have inside of you. So our last album was called Humanity, and this one is called Consciousness. On one hand, you’re a little full of yourself if you think you can even deliver on these massive concepts or like “who are you?” to even try. But our goal has always been to point to that bigger thing, or to whatever bigger perspective that we can sometimes get to as people. So if people can feel something they maybe haven’t felt before, or think a little differently… or even get a little more “woke” for a split second, then we’ve done our job
I Exist has always had so much talent and did a lengthy tour for your last album. A personal record for something that was completely crowdfunded. For someone who has followed you from your earlier album and tour, what can your fans expect to hear differently from you?
Well if you saw us on the hologram tour, you might have been able to sense it then, but that was definitely a transition time for us. We didn’t have a real guitar player or bass player, and even though we were playing these dirty rock bars, we were performing a lot of synth-heavy stuff. Our taste in music was definitely changing, and we could tell that our friends were going through the same thing.
I knew something had to change as I kept feeling more and more guilty for inviting my friends to these loud metal shows that they really didn’t want to be at! They were there to support us, but not really having a great time. So our heads were in the same place. A part of us always wanted to reinvent our sound, so went back home and hid in a cave for two years to work on our electronic music production.
So they can expect more bass, more synth, more “beat drops” – but hopefully not just in a surface level, festival kind of way. We’re still I-Exist, and we want to keep that part of ourselves, we just want to use these new textures to enhance it.
Do you feel that as artists growing in your musical style will be well received by your current fans?
I can imagine three types of current fans. The first are just like us, who love listening to new music and are always looking for something new to experience. These people are going to love it! The second type of person may not normally listen to electronic music but might have connected to our earlier stuff on a deeper level, so they can hopefully listen through whatever changes and still connect with the new stuff. But then the third person might be a little harder to please. They are stuck firmly on whatever year and whatever genre that they like, and that is that. They may not want to come with us on this new adventure, but we still have a ton of love for them and are really thankful to have had whatever connection through our older music.
What would you like to say to those fans that have been here for the band since the beginning?
I’d say thanks for being here and thanks for listening. Sometimes, especially today, the most valuable thing we can give each other is our attention, so just having the chance to play a show or to have a song online that is even listened to really means a lot and keeps us going. Knowing that there are people out there, who are just as emotionally connected to certain sounds and certain ideas, is the coolest thing.
Your first single, “Find Dreams” has been described as a mixture of rock and electronic music. In fact, I would personally relate it to a mixture of EDM, Odesza, and obviously I-Exist’s unique sound. How do you feel about the electronic influences that are becoming more prevalent in today’s music?
As an underground electronic music fan for the longest time, it’s been pretty crazy seeing the whole EDM phenomenon. It’s been awesome… and different. I think it’s great that more people get to experience it and get a taste of the culture. There’s always been different genres though, some lending themselves to just partying, and others with a more meaningful vibe.
It’s really been a life goal for me to fuse a lot of the sounds and production from electronic music, particularly Trance, with it’s massive and emotional feel – together with the real-ness and raw energy of a rock song. I think today, now more than ever, people are ready for something like that. So it’s really exciting to finally go all-in with that concept and see what happens.
Who are your biggest inspirations as an artist and musician?
For both Cameron and myself, the darker, more progressive bands from the ’90s and 2000s, like Tool, were a huge influence. So they kind of set the bar for what you can achieve as a band in our minds. The first time I saw MUSE was mind-blowing and we’ve always been compared to 30 Seconds to Mars and Linkin Park.
But all of that music seems so far in the past now, and here we are sitting in 2018 like… okay! It has been a really different feeling this time because in the past we were trying to be “as good as” or something like the biggest bands. But in some ways, to this new generation, they don’t even exist anymore, and we have a chance to be something totally new.
It’s honestly been terrifying in some ways, making music in a world that may or may not understand you… but we’re going for it.
What has been the biggest challenge over the past three years while finalizing this concept album?
Figuring out “the sound” really and how we are wanting to come across. It felt like we had to purge all of the dark metal demons that were inside of us from our last record! It’s nice to have that, to bust out when the time is right, but growing through it was a big challenge. Also, just music production, in general, has had a massive learning curve. We used to go into a traditional studio with a producer who would record all of the instruments and deal with all of the mixing and mastering.
For this new record though, and for our new sound in general, we had to learn all of that on our own, because the production makes up so much of a song’s identity now.
What has been the most surprising or exciting aspect of working on the new concept?
It’s exciting when you know the mix is where you want it to be. When we listen to it next to Seven Lions and Illenium and it’s finally at least in the same ballpark sound-wise, that’s really exciting. Obviously, we still have a long way to go, but it’s okay to celebrate sometimes!
With the digital shift in the music industry, and album sales being altered to the number of clicks, how do you feel a virtual reality concept album will be perceived by the masses?
Well we know it’s still so early for this new technology, so it may not make sense to a lot of people yet. But I think as people warm up to the idea and try it for themselves, they’ll start to understand how powerful it can actually be.
Apart from going to a movie theatre, there really is no time at all in our lives when we get to disconnect and give something our full attention. Ironically, you’ll have this techno-zombie-future mask strapped to your head, but the magical part is where it can take you and how immersive it can really be.
How will the virtual reality portion of the album work?
Like we talked about earlier, our albums have all been really cinematic, so imagine it starts like a movie would – with ambient music that sets a mood and then with a voice that starts to tell you a story. But instead of a movie, imagine being completely surrounded by this world; you can look left and right, up and down, and start to really feel like you’re there.
But instead of a movie, our songs start to play, and the world starts moving with the beat of the music. Your hands turn into three-dimensional paintbrushes and… well, I guess you’ll have to see for yourself!
You chose to crowd-fund the concept. Now that the music is completed, how excited are you to be putting the finishing touches on the VR portion of the album?
It feels awesome to have a song finally out there and with so much of that work behind us – and the feedback has been really positive. What’s great about crowd-funding is that it lets the world decide if they want to help or not. Thankfully for us, we have some of the best friends/fans/family that we could ever ask for and they’ve been incredibly supportive.
You created an app for the release. Can you tell us a little more about that?
Well it’s been about a year and a half since our initial Kickstarter announcement, and so much of the project has grown and evolved. A big takeaway for us was even though VR is an incredible technology – and even today it’s still gaining popularity – the truth is most people don’t have a headset or the right tech to fully experience it. We wanted to create that same immersive world, but in a way that EVERYONE could at least check out in some way. So we started developing an app for iOS and Android and began throwing around the phrase “Multi-Dimensional Album”. So whether you are in VR or looking through your phone as a portal, you get to explore the space and listen in a way that we’ve really never seen done before.
You are always keeping fans on their toes! How will you be handling the album release?
We’re planning on releasing everything on a song by song basis – and everything with the app and VR world will also be episodic. So when a song drops, you can expect a few days later for a new part of the world to open up and experience… and then another part will open up, and so on. That way we’ll be able to give everyone on social media a bunch of content to keep coming back to.
Anything you would like to add?
It’s been such a crazy long journey at home and in the studio, and in so many ways, we can’t wait to share what we’ve been working on with everyone! We’re going to put all of this programming stuff we’ve learned into our new live show too, so expect an all-new I-Exist once we’re back on the road. Thanks again for everyone’s support, we’ll see you out there!
Thank you so much for your time, Brian! I know we all look forward to seeing I Exist in a city near us soon!
Listen to “Wait for You” above, and follow I Exist on their Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to hear all the latest singles releasing from Consciousness, and for all upcoming tour dates.
