Conjurer Find Their Voice On ‘Unself

British metal heavyweights CONJURER have released their incredible third album, Unself, via Nuclear Blast Records. CONJURER have evolved radically since the release of their debut album (Mire, 2018), and their second release (Páthos, 2022) saw them lauded among the most exciting British metal bands. Whilst award nominations and accolades accumulated, the four-piece band retained their very simple mission: to make heavy music and have fun whilst doing so. Preferring to use their spotlight to showcase technicality and musicality rather than centring politics or opinions, CONJURER lived in the moment and embraced everything that came their way.

Within the tumult of forging a renewed identity as a band, on Unself there is a more intense, more personal voyage of discovery unfurling for vocalist/guitarist Dani Nightingale. Diagnosed with autism at age thirty one, their long-held view of self, and perception of their place in the world began to unravel. Unself documents much of the piecing back together around the diagnosis, alongside the realisation they were non-binary. This record is the sound of four individuals living with more purpose and as a consequence creating with more purpose. Unself sees them reaching out to offer community, catharsis and connection. CONJURER remain true to their original mission – they’re still having fun, playing interesting heavy music – but now that music is imbued with the power that comes from opening themselves up to others, at first within the band, and now beyond. Drummer Noah See reflects on the journey that brought it to life.

Congratulations on the album, was the hardest part of the process letting go of these songs when they’re pretty much done, given that you had them for a while?
Not so much, this is my first record with the band. I’ve heard many stories about the processes of the last few records, particularly the last one, Pathos. Obviously, it was written during the pandemic, and I wrote a record with my old band during the pandemic, and I know what the process is like. It can be strange, it can feel kind of lonely at times. But generally speaking, Conjurer have been a band where every note has been one hundred percent agreed on, confirmed, arranged and then it’s time to go to the studio and record it, which is nice, because it’s a lot of work beforehand, but you can go into the studio and just focus on performances and things like that. It’s not too creative, but you can just track the record and not have to worry about anything else.

This time round, I think we wanted a bit of wiggle room because there was still arrangements, lyrics and vocals where it wasn’t one hundred percent down by the time we got into the studio, but that was a good thing, because we could discuss that in the studio and trust our gut a little bit more. I think nine times out of ten, those parts have become everyone’s favourite parts, the bits that were spontaneous, or agreed upon in the room, as opposed to formally arranged beforehand. I think that’s what making music’s all about, it’s about the moments that you create and invent these kind of things, and you remember, oh, I remember when we wrote this riff, or I remember when we finally finished this song, or someone suggested this lyric, and it becomes something for us, at least, that we listen back to and think of fondly.
So, in terms of getting into the studio to record, it was very easy to go, okay, we’re about ninety percent done, but that’s fine. I think we’re very happy with the music, so letting go is easier than I think, and I think we thought it would be.

Did you have a vision of where you wanted to take the album sonically?
Yeah, I was talking to the guys about their previous experiences, I think in particular Danny who’s one of the main contributors musically, I think they had an idea of… even if it’s just the process, the way that I wanted to write the record, how that was going to move, or how they wanted to attempt that moving forwards. Like I was saying, not being so one hundred percent everything has to be perfect in its place beforehand. Also playing the songs live, because Pathos was written in the pandemic, it wasn’t really jammed together as much, as far as I was aware. So a lot of the songs came together on the guitar, all the riffs were written with the previous drummer, Jan, who didn’t necessarily have to get up on stage and play them on guitar. So it’s like, oh, this chord’s really interesting, and that chord’s really interesting, but no thoughts about how that’s supposed to be done consecutively. That’s for the guitarists to figure out.
Touring some of the songs of Pathos, it was very claustrophobic, and every note is played is just one hundred percent concentration the whole time. So I think this record, it was like, let’s find something that sonically because Pathos felt very much like a band establishing their own sound. Whereas Mire was very well put together, taking influences and then making it their own. But then this one is, okay, no, we’re actually going to make our own sonic palette here.

This record is taking that palette and going, okay, how do we make it a bit more about the energy and the performances, and not so much about notes and filling every single second. That’s the main thing. But in turn, it makes for, I think, a better listening experience from front to back, and also just more fun to play.

Going from being more structured to having that wriggle room, did that challenge the band a lot more in some ways, do you think?
I think so. We’re very indecisive at times as well, so that’s probably the hardest part to get over deciding and it’s not so much one person’s decision, or a couple of people’s decision to have something. The process for the first section of the writing, Danny would come up with some riffs, and I tried my best to write some guitar riffs. I think I’ve got one part on the record, but for the most part, I thought, you know what, Danny is the soul of the music of the band. I’ll try my best and keep doing stuff, but I found myself being better used to produce and help arrange their ideas. So they would come to my place, and we’d record and piece stuff together from there.

When they were starting to get a bit more fleshed out, we would bring them to Conor and Brady, and we would jam them. That’s when it was, okay, we’ve played four versions of this song for four hours, and everyone’s got a completely different opinion, and no one’s going to budge, so we’ll just move on. So that’s probably the hardest thing, deciding as a group, even though everyone had very strong opinions about what they wanted.

That was such a big thing for producer Joe Clayton, who engineered and produced the album with us. That’s why we wanted him in particular, he’s basically like a fifth member of the band. So we go, okay, we’re trusting you with the objective opinion here. That was probably the toughest thing, decision making. but having Joe there was really helpful, because he could say, you know what, actually… we did tell him, don’t worry about offending anyone. If you think that idea is the best, you say it, and if it’s not, then it’s not.

Do your influences play a significant role in this, or is this just the way that the band evolves between albums?
I think a big part of it is looking back, or taking our touring experience. That’s probably why the band takes so long, generally speaking, to put out records. We want to live with them, and we want to tour them, and we want to understand why stuff works and stuff doesn’t, or why it feels a certain way. Not necessarily saying anything’s wrong or right, but going, which ones do we prefer? What avenues do we prefer?

This record, for me, it was like, well, the live energy of Mire that was all written in a jam room, written just as a local band, and the EP just like that but with the kind of palette we were talking about, of Pathos, of a unique sound. So it’s like, how do we not necessarily merge those two things together, but take that from that, and take that from that.

I think the influences are far more broad as well, from what I can gather. Also, using them effectively, we were talking about that quite a lot. Say, a band like Neurosis, one of my favourite bands. Brady and Danny will talk about that and go, well, we love Neurosis, we don’t want to sound like Neurosis, but what do they do? What’s great about them is the vibe and the atmosphere that they create and you go, okay, well, how can we effectively create our own atmosphere in the same way that Neurosis do for themselves? That was such a big thing for us, not just saying, oh, I like that band, I’ll do that. It’s going, what’s cool about it? How have they done that, and then how have they used what’s cool for them in the right way, and how can we find our thing and use that in the right way? So it’s just taking those influences and the bands that really inspire us, and looking a little bit deeper, a couple of layers below, to find that for ourselves essentially.

So what were your thoughts as the album was starting to take shape and come together?
I thought, this is really good. Yeah, I was really excited. I think it’s turned out really close, if not exactly how we wanted it to turn out, which was really, really great. There’s always parts of the process, I’m sure, if you’re speaking to lots of artists and musicians, and if you’re a musician yourself as well. There’s different parts of the process where you write something, you get super excited, and then you listen to it over and over again, and you hate it, and you never want to hear it again and then you love it again, and it’s this kind of back and forwards.

But for the most part, it’s been like, no, this is really great, this is awesome, this is really cool. We’re just talking amongst each other, just being like, I think this is the best stuff we’ve done, or at least the happiest we’ve been to put a record out. We’ve had all the space to do it. We spent a while tracking, having a good community around the album’s been really helpful as well. There’s never been really too many lulls, just excited for the next step, and the next step, and the next step during the process, which has been really fun.

Are you excited to get back out on the road? Is it likely that in 2026 you might get down to Australia for a tour?
I hope so, that’d be great. I’d love to do some support stuff. I love Australia. I’ve got lots of friends there, my brother’s moved to Melbourne. Friends up the East Coast and in Perth too. Touring Perth is tough, but it’d be amazing to come back. We’ve already been talking to people about who to connect with for support slots. Once we start playing these songs, they’ll come to life again for us. Playing them for people who’ve heard them will be exciting. We’ve already played one of the album songs on tour with Make Them Suffer, and a couple of singles before they came out. We’re just excited to get back out with these new songs. They’ll give us flexibility too, because they’re not all nine minutes long. Just good vibes, basically.

Interview By Rob Lyon

Unself is out now via Nuclear Blast, purchase HERE…