Once Human just unleashed their new album, Scar Weaver, to the world via earMUSIC, and I had the chance to speak with frontwoman Lauren Hart about the making of the album and videos, how she started her journey of metal vocals, her involvement in animal rescues, and more. Check it out below. 

Congratulations on the release of Scar Weaver, it’s an absolutely incredible album – just to start off, how are you feeling now that it’s out? Excited, relieved, exhausted, where are you guys right now?

Oh, I’m excited and relieved. We’ve held onto this album for quite a while because of the whole world shutting down, we wanted to release it even a year before it actually got released, so we’re just super grateful that it’s out. I’m really excited about the response, and looking forward to hearing what everyone thinks of it.

Well, I’ve been listening to it, even up to just a few minutes before speaking to you, it’s absolutely a killer album, I’ve been loving the singles that have been coming out, and you guys really have some awesome stuff on your hands.

Thank you.

Now, this is Once Human’s third full-length album, and it’s got everything, it’s brutal but meaningful, and I just want to start kind of general before really digging into it, moving from Evolution in 2017 to Scar Weaver now, how did you first approach constructing this new album?

Well, there’s a massive difference in the music writing this time around, so Logan was on tour with Machine Head doing the 25th Anniversary Burn My Eyes reunion, and when he came home, Max Karon, our lead guitarist, had written ten full songs for the album, and they were done. And Logan thought they didn’t need to be touched, so this whole album musically was written by Max, and then I’ve written all my lyrics. But previously, music was written as a collaborative effort between the three of us, so that’s one of the biggest things is you really get an inside look at Max’s brain and his emotions, and he was allowed to be 100% himself in the writing. So that’s Scar Weaver. 

That’s really cool, and also kind of explains why, like you said, you guys kind of had this on hand already for a while, but you just couldn’t release it, because you went into it with ten songs ready to go.

Yeah, we did, we were ready a while back, but then when we were sitting in a house, in a studio, for this whole time, things did get changed and songs were rewritten just because we had the time. And I, of course, took my time with the lyrics because I’m a perfectionist, so time is not a good thing for me *laughs*, I need deadlines.

So if you had all the time in the world, you’d probably end up changing it a hundred times, right?

I’d never be done! It’s never done! 

Well, you got it done, though! It’s locked in, and it is where it is now, so you can’t change it now.

*laughs* No, I know, I’m happy with how it came out, I always am. Once it’s delivered, it’s done, but I’m really happy with how everything turned out, no regrets at all.

Awesome. Lauren, you are notably one of the most powerful vocalists in metal today, and of course, everyone notices the growling vocals alone which are so impressive, but it seems like you’re including even more clean vocals than ever before, which are every bit as powerful. So what drove the clean vocals for this album?

100%, it was the touring that I did with Kamelot for two years prior to this album. I grew a lot with them. Before touring with them, I was still very unsure of myself when it comes to clean vocals – a little bit insecure, I guess you would say. I always felt very confident in my screaming, but the cleans, I was staying in my safe zone a lot in previous writings, and not really exploring things outside of my comfort zone. So Kamelot really threw me into the deep end, and I had to sing songs that Alissa White-Gluz and Elize Ryd from Amaranthe sang, and it’s a completely different genre, style, but then doing it every night on stage, I really grew into my own voice and discovered my own voice from that. I wouldn’t call it extreme confidence, but I did overcome some fears, and I think that really shows on the new album. 

Absolutely, it’s a great infusion of the clean vocals – it doesn’t distract from your incredible screaming vocals, it’s kind of peppered in to have something a little bit different. So that also makes me wonder, when you first started becoming a vocalist, did you start from screaming right out of the gate?

Yes! Okay, so the first time I ever heard a woman screaming was The Great Kat, you know, but I wanted to be a guitar player, and she sort of screams a little bit on her album that I listened to. But then when Wages of Sin came out, I heard Angela Gossow screaming, and at first, I thought it was a guy, and when my friends were like, “no, this is a girl, here’s her photo”, I was like, “this beautiful, amazing woman is screaming on this album?!” I just felt so inspired to go in and try it. It was my boyfriend at the time, now my ex, I was a teenager, after his band would be done rehearsing, I would go in and ask, “Can I please just play with you guys on the microphone? Let me scream and you guys just free jam or whatever?” and they would let me and I would always come out of that tasting blood and screaming completely wrong. There was no YouTube to tell me how to do it. But yes, I always was into screaming. And by the way, if you taste blood you’re doing it wrong! I didn’t know what I was doing back then, but then I grew and I learned. I took some theatre classes which taught me how to breathe, project and speak right, which is what I now use in my screaming in order to not injure myself. Also, I’ve been recently working with a vocal coach as well, that’s really helped me along with the screaming. So the cleans came a lot later for me. 

I love that, I feel like that’s a unique journey for you – a lot of people do just dive right into it, but usually there’s maybe a little bit of a singing background, or they took a few lessons here and there then discovered their screaming voice, but you were just like, “I’m just going to jump right in and scream like everyone I was inspired by”, which is cool.

Yeah! It made me feel something, you know, it just felt so good listening to it then actually getting on a microphone and doing it felt, almost therapeutic in a way. So I got hooked on that.

Well now everyone is hooked on the sound of your voice, so I think it worked out.

Thank you!

Of course! Digging a little more into Scar Weaver, I wanted to ask about the music video for “Erasure”, because you’ve been saying lately that that’s one of your favorites, so can you talk about what made that video so special for you, and some of the process behind it?

I just love the visual. So that area where we did all the extra footage with, I call her “Lady Death”, the black dress stuff…that was shot at Red Rock Canyon, and that’s a place that we would hike very frequently. I posted a lot of photos up there, and a lot of people were like, “You guys should do a music video up here”, so we did. And we made the poor videographer hike up a mountain to get those shots in the middle of summertime in the desert. So, props to him for doing that! But the message of the video as a whole, director Robert Graves really made it come to fruition. It’s about blood diamonds, and I think he really paints the image so beautifully and painfully about the story that the lyrics are painting here. These things that are going on still to this day, basically, how humans, their rights are stripped away and they are enslaved and tortured for the sake of these rocks that, ironically, are given to people as a token of love. It’s a very emotional video to me, and I feel like the director Robert Graves did a really good job of putting it together. 

It’s an important message, like you said, and it’s also visually very impressive. I definitely think it made a lot of sense to put this in the setting of nature…and Red Rock is awesome, by the way, I’ve been there myself, it’s a beautiful place and crazy impressive, so, good choice.

Yeah, it really looks like a diamond mine. It was crazy. This is Red Rock in Nevada, you’d never expect it, down the road from all these casinos is this gorgeous nature *laughs*. 

Exactly! But the nature was there first though.

True, very true.

You mentioned hiking, and I notice from your social media that you’re big on fitness and hiking – is that something that’s a lifelong passion for you, or something you’ve discovered in more recent years?

No, I remember my dad would bring my brother and I to the gym as kids, and I think it all started then. It was like this family event and I enjoyed going there with him, and back then they had these funny little bikes where you could see your bike going on the screen and my brother and I would race each other, it was a fun little time. But I never stopped going to the gym, I was constantly there, and hiking has been a passion of mine – the hikes in Australia are the most beautiful hikes you would ever imagine. There’s so much nature to explore and an animal around every corner, so I’m hooked on hiking and I’ve been really lucky to explore parts of Switzerland and Germany and so on while on tour. It’s really just where I find myself, and find peace, and refresh my brain, is when I’m out hiking in nature.

That’s beautiful, and really important to be able to find that inner peace, whatever environment you feel that in. Coming back to Scar Weaver, another thing that people can’t stop talking about is the collaboration with Robb Flynn on “Deadlock”, and that’s such a cool track. Your voices work together so well on it too. Can you talk about how that collaboration went down in terms of the writing, recording, just making it all happen?

Well, I’m really grateful it did happen, and I don’t think it would have happened if it wasn’t for the end of the world. And it’s one of those things that restored hope in me that good things can happen in the worst of times. And I think it wouldn’t have happened because Rob simply wouldn’t have had the time, he would have been on tour, he would have been super busy – so he had the time to sit down and do this with us and I’m so grateful. We didn’t expect him to say yes – Logan immediately thought of Rob for this track because of how it sounded. I guess you could say it has some Nu-Metal-type riffs in there, we just really heard a voice like Rob’s singing on it. We asked, and Rob really loved the track, and said, “yeah, let me try something”. He sent something back to us, I had already written a chorus prior to sending it to Rob, but when he sent it back, my chorus was gone and his was on there – and it mopped the floor with my chorus, he put me to shame! Now, I can’t even remember mine, his was so much better. Rob knows how to make those hooks, and then we didn’t expect him to say yes to doing a video with us, but he did. Then this amazing video came out of it too, and then we were able to play it together on stage when we were on tour with Cradle of Filth. That was so much fun, it’s been a massive dream come true, and I’m really glad people like it.

Absolutely, it’s a killer track. Don’t knock your own songwriting, of course, you definitely come up with some awesome stuff yourself. But sometimes that is part of the nature of collaborating, sometimes your ideas kind of get knocked out of there, but you’re still happy with what comes out at the end.

I know, I’m just such a huge fan of Rob, and I’m a huge fan of Machine Head, so of course I’m just going to fangirl out on anything he sends, especially if it’s on a Once Human track, it’s like, “Oh my God, this crushes!” 

Great job on both you guys’ part, and of course, everybody involved, the whole band. Which brings me to ask – personally, I really loved the “Cold Arrival” single, I was fascinated with that one when it came out, I think I had it on repeat for a couple of days at least.

Oh, thank you.

It was just epic and powerful, so of course I want to ask about your ideas and the songwriting behind it, but it also kind of leads me to ask about production as well. All the songs on Scar Weaver sound amazing, but “Cold Arrival”, there’s just something about it, the tone and everything that comes through – the vocal layering of clean and growls together, just everything. I just wanted to ask about the process behind that song and what you guys put into that.

Well, I can only speak for the lyrics here, because Max did the writing of the music on this song. I know that the chorus was a standalone riff, the main part where I scream “cold arrival”, that was a riff without a song around it at first, and I told Max we have to build a song around this. And we used to say, “can you write something around this Danny Elfman riff?” *laughs* It had this Danny Elfman-type sound. So that’s really all I can say about the music because Max wrote it, I don’t want to speak for him. But lyrically, the song is about a friend of ours that died in 2020. He was our fitness coach in spin class and became a friend to the three of us, Max, Logan, and I – we would all go to his spin class nearly every single day, and a lot of times it was just us in the room. Jared would play metal music for us, he let us borrow his spin bike for the tour – he was just a really great guy, and really young, really healthy. He just died unexpectedly and it really did a number on me. I was not expecting it. I think everybody sort of prepares themselves with their grandparents or something, you understand what’s going to happen in the near future, you prep yourself. But this was a very young man, just suddenly gone. It was also my very first experience with death, so I did a lot of my grieving process in the lyrics, it’s a very sad song. It’s difficult for me to listen to it because of that.

Well, I’m very sorry for your loss. It hits hard, something like that, and especially someone so young, so I’m very sorry to hear about your loss. I guess the consolation is having that creative outlet for yourself, that you were at least able to pour that grieving into making something amazing out of it – sonically, lyrically, everything that you could draw out, and hopefully help yourself feel better in the process.

Yes.

Something else I wanted to ask you about, “Eye of Chaos” seems to be a fan favorite from Evolution, I feel like a lot of people tend to refer to that song and video as a great example of the sound and image of Once Human overall. I was wondering if there were some Once Human songs that are band favorites, or personal favorites for you, Lauren, that you feel represents you the best. 

Well, definitely “Eye of Chaos”. That one, I think, a lot of people love, and a lot of people that are learning screaming apparently like to choose that one. So it’s really special, it was also – going back to one of your first questions, sort of what helped me come into my own as a writer, and sort of when the penny dropped and I was able to connect lyrically with something that happened in the world. The lyrics to that song had come together a lot like “Erasure” lyrics, it was something that had happened in the world that I learnt about and felt really compelled to write about, something that affected me deeply. “Gravity” is another one I feel fans really loved. It’s hard to say on Scar Weaver just because I really feel like we know what hits people the hardest when we play it live, and we have yet to play these songs live. But what I’ve been hearing is “Cold Arrival”, “Only In Death”, but yeah, I think definitely “Eye of Chaos” would be the one. 

I think it will definitely be exciting to see what people gravitate toward once you get out there and play Scar Weaver live. Outside of the music world a bit, I saw from your Instagram that you recently got involved with an animal rescue organization, and you definitely have a lot of animal-related posts, so I’d just love to hear more about this, your involvement and love of that.

Well, I’ve only just discovered Animal Tracks, I was just there last week – it’s an animal rescue in LA, and I was invited by my friend Jess. Yes, I have a history of being involved in animal rescues and working as a veterinary technician in Australia. I’ve really devoted a lot of my life to animals, and do whatever I can. It’s something I’d like to do more of, that’s for sure, I would love to spend more time at Animal Tracks, and if anyone out there is listening, you can go check it out. There’s a fundraiser as well, if you’re interested in saving some animals and giving them a nice, new home. A lot of these animals come from – either they’re retired circus animals or surrendered pets that people realize, “oh, I can’t have this wild animal in my house”, or injured wildlife in general that end up here. And it’s really sad to see all these wild animals in cages, but at the same time, where would they be without this place? Animal Tracks, I saw, really provided good enrichment, they pair the animals up or put them in groups so they’re not lonely – everybody needs a friend – except the solitary animals, of course. I really thought that they did a good job, and I look forward to spending more time here and doing what I can.

Awesome! That’s great, and it’s easy to hear that you have a genuine interest and passion for this. I’m an animal lover myself, so I totally relate. This has been really awesome getting to know more about you and talking about the new album today, so I’d like to wrap it up with a little view of what’s on the horizon for Once Human?

Hopefully, we tour and we don’t come home for a really long time. I guess it’s just up to the world to see if that happens. We’re releasing, unfortunately, in unknown territory, so we will have to see. But that’s the goal, and hopefully we can make that happen.

Well, everyone is waiting for it to happen, so hoping for the best over here. Thank you again so much for your time today, this has been awesome talking with you, Lauren.

Thank you, you too! 

For the latest on Once Human, visit: https://oncehumanofficial.com.