thewindthewind
All That Remains (left to right): Oli Herbert (guitars), Phil
Labonte (vocals), Jeanne Sagan (bass), Mike Martin
(guitar), and Jason Costa (drums). Photo by Justin Borucki
their brutally synchronized 6-string assaults with
lyrical melodies and cascading counterpoint, all
in service of tuneful compositions. We recently
caught up with Herbert and Martin to talk about
the strong hooks, clean vocals, and dynamic
playing that works hand-in-hand with jackhammer rhythms, death growls, and hammer-fisted
riffage on For We Are Many.
How do you divide guitar duties between
yourselves?
Oli Herbert: I usually come up with a lot of
the guitar riffs. Mike has good judgment when
it comes to what’s too much. He’ll say, “That’s
a little crazy—maybe you should tone it down
a little bit.” He’s good at arrangement. He’ll
say, “How would that sound with the drums,”
whereas I’m thinking about putting it with a
string section. I kind of orchestrate, but we all
contribute to creating the songs. Mike also has
a really good right hand—especially for the fast,
rhythmic triplet stuff. He has an excellent sense
of timing that I don’t possess. My hand is not as
clean as his, so in the studio Mike takes care of
all that stuff. Things that involve more left-hand
finesse and chord switches, I’ll take care of.
Mike Martin: We’ve done it enough times that
it’s pretty easy to sort out. If someone has a riff,
we can tell right away who’s going to record it.
Whoever records the first part of the riff has to
record the harmony to it, just to keep the tight-
ness with the hands. If it’s a really difficult right-
hand riff, I’ll usually track it. If it’s something
really difficult with the left hand, Oli usually
takes care of it.
I understand you and your bandmates have
very different influences. Does that make
it difficult to write parts that everyone is
happy with?
Herbert: The disadvantage is that it does make
it difficult to get people to agree—trying to
work around everyone’s completely different take
on what the music should sound like. But it’s
an advantage because I think we have a unique
