Artist Interview: Raining In December
Following the release of their debut EP, flowers, the Dublin-based trio Raining in December is carving out a unique space in the alternative scene. By seamlessly stitching together the technical aggression of metalcore with the ethereal textures of J-rock and post-rock, Vincent, Eoin, and Willow have created a cinematic listening experience that is as chaotic as it is beautiful. In this interview, we dive into the narrative "movie" behind the EP, their cross-continental influences, and the evolution of their sound.
Tori: Your debut EP is titled flowers. Given the intensity of your sound—incorporating elements of metalcore and post-rock—what is the significance of choosing such a delicate, natural title, and how does that contrast reflect the themes within the music?
Vincent: I like flowers and when I learned they can have meanings and carry emotions I knew I wanted to incorporate flower varieties to the EP. The title felt right to me when we were at the naming stage, it perfectly describes our fast chaotic style with the balance with the ballads on the EP.
Tori: You’ve described the EP as a collection where "each song is a chapter to the EP's story." Can you elaborate on the overall narrative or emotional arc that flowers is trying to convey across the six tracks, from "blooming" to "bleeding hearts"?
Vincent: I have my own story for how ‘flowers’ develops and concludes. I encourage others to do the same. I want each EP to be a soundtrack for a movie or a movie in a soundtrack format.
Eoin: Vinny brought forward the idea of the narrative of the EP being the downfall of a central character and we all gelled with the concept.
Tori: "Sadistic" is a powerful and provocative song title on the EP. What was the core inspiration or feeling behind that particular track, and how does it fit into the EP's story arc?
Vincent: I wanted a song that needed the main character to gradually lose its mind and its tragic ending. It was a tricky song to get right and many back and forths before it felt right to me.
Eoin: The songs fairly unusual and erratic structure, to me, lends itself to the idea of the EPs central character losing their mind, at this point in the story they don't really have a solid grasp on anything, they've lost faith, they've been forgotten and they're left with a broken, bleeding heart.
Tori: In addition to the music, you mentioned that the artwork for the singles showcases the environment and setting for each song. How important is the visual and conceptual art to the full Raining in December experience, and who leads the creative direction for these visual elements?
Vincent: Each single artwork leading up to the EP is a glimpse or scenes of the movie and the EP artwork is the cover page for the movie. We decided rather quickly on the artwork, it always had to feel right to use whenever we made a choice.
Willow: In terms of the creative direction it does usually start with Vinny, who then turns to Eoin and I for our input. For example with the EP artwork and the artwork for the singles - Don’t Forget About Me and Sadistic - Vinny found the ideas for said artwork on his friend’s instagram profile @petr.sajgal and the instagram profile of Luke Reddy @redzer.photographics - who did one of our early photoshoots with us. He sent us a bunch of options from their pages and we collectively decided on which artwork most fitted with each song, and then the EP.
Tori: There are six tracks on the EP, including "restart (flowers mix)." What distinguishes this version from any previous iteration of the song, and why did you feel it was essential to include this specific mix on the debut release?
Eoin: Restart and faith both got their own re-do for a few reasons. Primarily it was because we wanted to keep a consistent drum sound throughout the entire project, giving it all a more cohesive feel, but we also felt that the drums in the original tracks weren't recorded quite as well as they could have been and were stopping their respective songs from reaching their full potential.
Willow: Another thing for me was that the original version of Restart doesn’t have me on it, but Raining’s previous drummer, James. When I joined the band I learned Restart as it was originally played, but the parts started to slightly change over time as I adapted them to my own taste, adding my own touches. So having a version of Restart that had my touches to it was important to me. Although I did record our first version of Faith, that was done very early into me joining the band, and so the parts also developed a bit after that recording happened. Plus by the time we were looking to record the EP drums, I felt like I could do a much better time on Faith this time around.
Tori: Raining in December is noted for combining Asian and Western rock music, blending elements of J-rock, post-rock, and metalcore. What specific artists or regional scenes from Asia (e.g., Japan, South Korea) have been the most influential in shaping your unique sound?
Vincent: The Japanese music scene with ‘Ling Tosite Sigure’ has been the most influential to Raining in December especially to me who watched so many anime when I was younger. I have been recently getting into the band ‘toe’ who has blown my mind. J-Pop, Rock and Math rock are crazy over there.
Eoin: Ling Tosite Sigure is probably the most notable influence in terms of the overall sound we take from that side of the world, particularly with Vinny's guitar playing and effects. Recently I have been diving deeper into bass techniques and Kiyoshi's bass guitar playing will definitely have a strong influence on me going forward.
Willow: For myself I’ve long been a fan of J-rock, with bands like Suspended 4th and One Ok Rock. Both of those bands have incredible drummers, so when I joined Raining in December, I finally had an outlet for the influence those drummers had on me.
Tori: As a three-piece (Vincent, Eoin, and Willow), how do you navigate the often-contrasting styles—the emotional spaciousness of post-rock versus the technical aggression of metalcore—to maintain a cohesive sound that is both "intense yet beautifully connected"?
Vincent: I want a song to flow like a beautiful river in a cohesive manner, bands like Loathe, Sleep Token, Bring Me The Horizon, Bad Omens etc, all serve the music which is my thought process too in our music. If it works, it works.
Eoin: I wouldn't even say there's a thought process behind those kinds of dynamic changes in our music, we are very happy to jump right from one section to another if we can find a fun way to transition into or blend the parts together, we'll find a way to make it work. It's more of a devil may care approach to songwriting but i love it.
Tori: You've been called a "completely unique fixture in the local music scene." What does that label mean to you, and what sonic gap did you feel you were filling when you first started creating music together?
Eoin: Having a compliment like that thrown our way is very humbling and tells me that we are doing something right. Its a very motivating comment. From my experience the music scene both in Dublin and throughout the rest of the country is weighted towards the singer-songwriter type as well as shoegaze. While we definitely incorporate elements of shoegaze and other genres of rock that are very popular, I believe it's our more J-rock inspired side that is giving us our notoriety, it's a unique spice that's missing from a lot of music around the world, not just Ireland.
Tori: Can each of you (Vincent, Eoin, Willow) name one non-musical influence—be it a film, a book, or an experience—that heavily shaped your contribution to the flowers EP?
Vincent: In my previous band myself and the lead guitarist at the time [Vincent's answer ends here].
Eoin: (Love this question) One of the things that comes to mind for me, particularly in relation to ‘faith’ and its religious themes is one of my favourite fictional characters Matt Murdock aka Daredevil, specifically the current live-action version of his character. A lot of his character revolves around struggles with his faith which is something tackled directly by our song. Songs like ‘don't forget about me’ and ‘bleeding hearts’ can also be linked to his character through their themes of being lost in life and even wanting it all to end which is often seen in Matts character through his Catholic guilt. While in production of those tracks this was definitely all subconscious thought, I'm sure deep down it helped me put the correct passion into each song and it is fun to look back on with an analytical sort of lens.
Willow: My answer is going to be very nerdy. I think one of the feelings I associate with our music is a sense of grandeur. In songs like Bleeding Hearts or the chorus of Faith, there’s this larger than life atmosphere, which honestly reminds me of things I’ve loved since I was young, like Pokémon for example. I watched a lot of the Pokémon anime when I was younger, and the seasons of that would often end with these huge, larger than life, epic battles. When I watch these scenes, even to this day I get chills and the scale of it all. I think when I was recording the drums for the EP I subtly or subconsciously felt like I was on some sort anime training arc, preparing for my big epic battle, recording these songs.
Tori: How does the songwriting process typically begin for the band? Does one member (Vincent, Eoin, or Willow) usually come forward with a fully-formed idea, or is the music built more collaboratively through jamming and discussion?
Vincent: I tend to begin a song myself before sending us to a rehearsal and we refine it together. I talk a-lot of ideas I want to apply to us and I send it to the guys all the time. Sometimes we jam to get a song finished, however I find myself better at translating my ideas on my own first on a DAW and then presenting. At times ideas I would have would change and work way better than I had originally imagined.
Eoin: For ‘flowers’ and some of the more recently written tunes, that was mostly Vinny bringing his ideas or a demo to myself and willow, where we would then refine certain parts and work on transitions then once we have a solid foundation of a song to work from we begin to flesh out our individual parts, which is where i would say a lot of our flare and individual influences show themselves. However as I've heard more of Vinny's songwriting and I've grown more comfortable with how to write a “raining song” I’ve slowly been writing up small sections of songs in hopes that ill take the burden of songwriter from Vinny's shoulders, at least to some extent.
Willow: Similarly to Eoin, since we’ve started to move past the writing and arranging of the songs for the EP, I’ve felt myself step forward a bit more creatively for our newer songs. Since all of the songs on the EP had - to different extents for each song - the previous influence of our previous drummer, James, there was only so different I could make the parts without affecting how the song as a whole sounds. This is different for future Raining songs, where I’m the first drummer to touch these songs, there’s more creative freedom I have.
Tori: Now that the flowers EP is out, what has been the most surprising or rewarding piece of feedback you've received from fans who have been listening and attempting to "dissect and explore" your music?
Vincent: People had commented how great the production on the EP made my producing side very happy and during the headliner we had in Workman’s who paid to see us play, chat, buy our merch and much more. Ex Oh Promotions, friends of ours who were nothing but a joy to work with and helped however they can. Shout out to Picture Postcard and Dux et Rex for sharing the stage with us too!
Eoin: It was very flattering to see the sheer amount of people willing to spend their money on merch at our EP launch gig. Whether it was a tote bag, a shirt, a hoodie or any combination of them that was bought, its a small gesture but to small artists such ourselves it means the world and helps a ton when it comes funding the bands future ventures.
Willow: One of my favourite parts of our release gig was seeing people in the crowd recognise our songs when they started. All of the EP songs have been performed many times before, so it likely isn’t the first time that someone’s heard them if they’ve been to even one more gig before. But when you’re able to put your headphones on and stream a song, you get to listen to it so much more clearly, and a lot deeper, in ways that you can’t when hearing a song for the first time live. So when we would start a song like Don’t Forget About Me, for example, seeing people smile and look around at each other when they start to hear that intro guitar part, going “it’s THIS song!” to each other is a really special feeling.
Tori: Having worked on this music for over a year to release your debut EP, what was the biggest challenge in bringing flowers from initial concept to final release?
Eoin: I think nailing down that track list/order might have been the hardest part, personally. We wanted to keep a good balance of high tempo and heavy songs while also showing our more experimental and emotional tendencies all while trying not to hurt the pacing of the EP. This meant unfortunately leaving out some songs we do really like, but i think we juggled all of that very well, so it was a sacrifice worth making.
Tori: With the EP release, you also had a launch event. What is your favourite track from flowers to perform live, and what is it about that song that resonates most in a live setting?
Vincent: ‘restart’ always has tons of energy and seeing a wall of death in front of you is something special, ‘bleeding hearts’ will never not be the best thing in the world at the end of a set.
Eoin: One of my favourite things about our music is that each song has its own reason for being my favourite to play live, but if i had to choose then it would be between ‘restart’ and ‘bleeding hearts’. The former for its raw energy and the enthusiasm it is often met with at live shows and the latter for the fact that it seems to be a song that audiences have resonated with well, and it's not unusual for people to turn their phone flashlights on for the song, which is just the best feeling.
Willow: Bleeding Hearts is always going to be a highlight to our shows to play live as it often has a heightened level of audience engagement, as Eoin said. For me, Faith is always going to have a particular soft spot for me. As previously mentioned, one of the first things I did after joining the band was record the first version of Faith. That was the first song I felt like I learned so thoroughly that it began to feel like a small part of me. Every time we play that song live I get a bit nostalgic, as it felt like the song that really cemented me as ‘belonging’ in the band. It was also the first song I heard from Raining, when I watched them play with the previous drummer in our college one time, and made me go ‘oh my god, they’re so cool, I’d love to play stuff like that’ only for me to join a while after.
Tori: What are the immediate next steps for Raining in December? Are you already focusing on writing new material, and can fans expect a full-length album in the near future?
Vincent: Absolutely, we have the general theme and major story blocks ready for the next collection of our music. We are trying out new sounds at the moment and it is the right direction for Raining in December.
Eoin: We are absolutely getting to work on new material. Without spoiling any surprises, we have an alternate version of a song on the way that fully re-arranges and recontextualises its original version, while still fitting in with our general vibe. We were also recently in the studio recording a song thats been in our arsenal for a while but that we felt just didn't quite have a spot for itself on the EP.
Tori: If a first-time listener could take away only one thing—a single emotion or thought—from experiencing the music of Raining in December, what would you want that to be?
Vincent: Treat our music as a movie or a TV series, sit down, listen and come up with your version of the story!
Eoin: I would love for a first time listener to hear our music and come away from it with the understanding that music can be more than just one thing, and that genre labels are more general ideas than laws telling you what can or can't be in a song. You can have a super high intensity and complex rock song, and the very same song can have a soft, post-rock-esque section that focuses much more on texture and depth as you hear in ‘sadistic’ or you can have an emotional ballad that features a j-rock style breakdown à la ‘bleeding hearts’.
Willow: My first thought is about how powerful music itself is, not just music with lyrics and vocals, but the power of music alone. Unlike the other musical projects I have, Raining songs often have extended instrumental sections, with a lot of moving parts. The chorus of Sadistic, for example, is entirely instrumental, which is unusual for a chorus of any song. I think it really emphasises how impactful raw music can be.
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