[Interview] Halcyon Way thoughts ...

Which bands or artists do you consider as inspirational sources?

J : What makes the Halcyon Way sound unique is that we have a lot of different influences that really run the gamut of types of rock & metal. First and foremost, we write for the songs - if it's not a catchy chorus it won't make it. We want our stuff to be challenging musically, but for the average listener we want it to be songs they can bob their head to and sing along to. So the thing we have to strive for is balance as we write - we don't want to write 3 chord songs that are boring to play, but we don't want things to be so technical that the fans need a music degree to understand what's going on. Having said that, I'm heavily influenced as a guitar player by bay area thrash - Testament, Exodus, old Metallica, and so on. But I'm also influenced a lot by Queensryche, Fates Warning, old Dream Theater, and stuff like that. Then the newer wave of metalcore/death metal bands like Chimaira, Daath, Devildriver, Arsis, and things like that. I also listen to a lot of meat and potatoes hard rock like Monster Magnet or King's X. So personally I mix it all up in my writing style. Steve (Braun, vocals) is heavily influenced by Michael Sweet, Tony Harnell, and a lot of hard rock singers like that. However, he also loves death metal and growls so we can achieve an interesting interplay there with me doing the death growls and then switching right over to a big harmony vocal part. We love to do vocal harmonies like Stryper or King's X, and that's a key component of our sound. Ernie (Topran, drums) is heavily into progressive metal and black metal - he always adds a lot of interesting drum parts and layers to the material. We have an interesting dynamic when we write, because I'll be like "play the caveman beat BOOM-PAH-BOOM-PAH" and he's like "no, how about this" and it'll be some crazy shreddy drum part that somehow works. So we end up in the middle most of the time and it makes the material better. So we have a lot of things that we all listen to and are influenced by, but when we write together we're able to turn it into cohesive and memorable songs.

Full interview - http://www.rockyourlife.fr/interview/english/halcyon-way-22-05-12