With over two decades of groundbreaking music, Killswitch Engage remains a powerhouse in the metalcore genre. As the band celebrates the release of their new album – a true blend of raw energy and deep emotion – we had the privilege to speak with their frontman, Jesse Leach, about this pivotal moment and their vision for the future.
Before going into the new record This Consequence, can we just take a minute to talk about what you did to commemorate your 25th anniversary with this special collector’s edition? How does it feel to have your career encapsulated in this way? What are your thoughts on the selected items and their significance for the band’s legacy?
Jesse Leach (vocals): There’s an overwhelming sense of gratitude, first and foremost. It’s just incredible, really, that we get to do this. I get to be part of this legacy as well, because I was in and out of the band. To look at the whole picture and to see the determination of especially those four guys that I get to share the stage with is inspiring. It’s great and beautiful. The reason that we continue to do this is not just the band, but the fans. The community of people that have surrounded us and continue to support us and give us a sense of purpose. It’s everything. I see it on a regular basis when I talk with our fans, when I interact with them online. It’s a blessing. It’s really hard to put into words how grateful I am for it. And then exciting, too. I still get to go and do this at my age. I started even just being an artist when I was 14 years old. I’m now 46, and it’s mind-blowing to me that we still get to do this as we get into our older age. A bunch of old guys still kicking around.
25 years is already a long time. But it seems that now is really your time to shine because you have all these older bands, iconic bands that are stepping out a bit. Now is really the time for metalcore bands to headline big festivals and carry the torch for the next generation. Do you feel any kind of pressure with your creative and performance approach for this particular record?
Jesse: I think the only pressure applied is the pressure we apply to ourselves. The outside pressure is there, but I think we’re protective of our own energy as a unit. We have these internal conversations about making music that makes us feel a certain way because you can’t present something to other people unless you’re moved by it. We’re pretty good as a band to make sure that we’re all happy and it passes our standard, our quality standard. I know I’ve written a good song when I have tears or the hairs in my arms stand up or I can feel the energy in this. Thankfully, every single song on this record does that in some way, shape or form to one of us in the band. And we discuss it very intensely when the songs are done, like why this works or why it doesn’t and what songs are going to make it on the record and what songs are not on the record. So the pressure comes from us first. Then once the song is released and it’s out there, of course we want people to like it and to understand it and to relate to it. But once it’s out there, it’s really not ours anymore. It’s yours. So, you know, as far as pressure goes, the outside pressure doesn’t really affect what we do.
You just released a single that really feels like an instant classic from Killswitch, “Forever Aligned”. But on the lyrically side, it’s like you explore themes of connection and love beyond the human experience. It’s very interesting. How did you approach the subject and how does it come inside of you just to express these kind of feelings?
Jesse: Yeah, I think it comes initially from human love, the love that I’ve experienced from my wife who has given me a different kind of love than any I’ve known, which is a love that demands improvement, maybe demands is a strong word, desires for the betterment of me. Someone who looks at me and says, I love you, you’re great, but I know you can do better, which is also what I get from my band too as an artist. And that’s real love. It’s something that won’t just settle. It’s something that continues to evolve. And as our relationship continues to unfold, it does that. It continues to grow.
And then for me, it’s receiving that type of love, trying to give that love back out to other people and then sort of going, well, where does it all come from? Where does love come from? The existentialism of like, well, if love exists, it’s the most powerful thing that we as humans could ever attempt to understand. So it brings my brain into, well, where does this come from? To me, it’s the closest thing that we have to describe what I believe God is. This great spirit, this energy that flows in and out of the universe. That is what I believe God is. And love is pure. It’s precious. It’s beautiful. Human beings are flawed. We have all these issues and we grab onto love with all of our might. And when we give it away, it isn’t always pure. So it’s the balance between human love and what I believe is a much greater thing than humanity. And that is, call it what you will, the universe, God, that pure, beautiful thing. And I contemplate it on a regular basis. And I think the world works within love. It’s like love is here. And if you don’t have it, it creates greed. It creates lust. It creates hatred.
It creates all of these ugly things. But when you lean into love, it creates kindness, compassion, generosity, all of the things that we need more of in this world. So the contemplation of love is something I always wrestle with and something I always want to put in the forefront of my music, whether it be the lack of love or the abundance of love. It’s important to me.
Throughout the songs, you talk a lot about like cause and consequences, like rebellion against control. How does these messages resonate with you and your audience and within the band as well?
Jesse: I think what’s important, I like the word you used, being rebellious and sort of questioning, I think is super important in this day and age of misinformation, in this day and age where we are fed some type of an agenda on a regular basis and it’s shoved down our throats through our phones and through social media and how that information can be manipulated to divide us on a regular basis. As an observer of that, and it all started for me, like I may have always sort of been that way, but I saw it happen on such an intense level during the pandemic that it made me, first of all, retreat away from it because it made me sick. It made me angry.
But as we came out of it and as it came time to start writing for this record and people were asking me, well, what do you have to say? What are your lyrics going to be about? Like speak on this. That’s when I realized that’s what I wanted to aim at was deciphering and reading between the lines of why these agendas exist, why division is so important to the powers that be to keep the common, the many in this control, in this division. Why is that? Because there’s power there.
They’re afraid of the power that people have when they come together and realize that we have so much in common. Our commonalities are far greater than our differences, but our differences are so sharp and they’re so acute that they can be used as weapons against us. So if you have a bunch of people, thousands of people that are divided in bickering and fighting, the few can do what they want and people are not really paying attention because they’re so distracted with fighting against each other.
So for me, it was weaving through that and going, well, why is that? And what is that? And are we really being fed something that is the truth or is it just their version of the truth? So my big thing here is think for yourself. Get out of those head spaces of indoctrination where you’re just reciting what you’ve been told or you’re reciting something that you’ve been grown up with, you know, you raised with this idea. My household is left. My household is right. I am a conservative. I am a Christian. Look outside of that. What do you really feel? What does your heart tell you? And then why do people differ in their opinions? Hear people. Have a discussion about these things.
Don’t just fight and bicker over a difference. Maybe have a discussion with your neighbor who flies a flag that you don’t agree with. Why do you do that? Let’s talk about it. And I know that sounds ridiculous to some people, but I’ve done it. And the amazing conversations that I’ve had where I’ve been able to shift somebody’s point of view or they’ve been able to let me see another side of them. And then finally you find a common ground where you can stand on and your differences are a little bit less.
And to me, that’s what’s going to make this world a little bit better of a place where we wouldn’t have as much conflict, as much war, as much poverty, even if you just understood how to help the problem. So it’s a constant struggle. And to me, I’m going to champion that to the day I die pushing against the status quo and asking people to think for themselves and don’t just swallow what you’re force-fed and realize that the agenda being thrown at you for, for a regular basis, there’s a reason why they’re doing that.
So look around it, think about it and make some changes because it’s like little teeny changes have a ripple effect and your compassion, your kindness, the shift within yourself can change the world in some way, shape or form. It’s important. Yeah.
It really feels like, like nowadays, everybody wants to say something to put something out there, like on the social networks, but nobody’s listening to anybody. You can’t take a step back and think for yourself if you’re always trying to promote yourself or promote some ideas. You also have to really listen to each other, which is something very difficult to do.
Jesse: And that’s something we’re lacking these days. I think everybody’s lacking it. You know, you can even look in your own relationships, the lack of listening, what it does, you know, when you don’t, when you don’t validate somebody’s feelings that way, that that hurts them and makes them feel unseen. And if you have an entire society that feels unseen, the pain and the hurt that goes with that, that’s a sickness. We are living through a very sick time in this world where people don’t feel hurt. They don’t feel seen. And if we were able to take a little more time again, to hear each other out and have compassion for each other, it sounds fickle and funny and strange, but you could prevent wars if we only were more understanding and actually listened.
It’s, it’s awful. And it, it really gets me emotional, but, it also gives me purpose because I know I’m putting that energy out there through my lyrics the best that I can. And again, I’ve realized I’m just a singer in a band, but at least I’m trying.
Well, when I first listened to the new record, I think the song that really caught our attention and just stayed with me was “BRKN Glass”. It felt very different. It’s very heavy, the pace is slower and the work that you did with the voice is very interesting. Do you think that this song stands out as well?
Jesse: I do. That was the first song that I demoed. Justin, the drummer wrote it. And then I demoed it and sent it back and it was the first song after sort of many failed attempts really to start this record off. That song was the first one where we’re all like, yeah, yeah, that’s it. That that’s cool. Like that’s different. When I heard the music to that, I was immediately like, this song is so cool. It begged for something different. So when I demoed it, it was good. And then when we got in the studio, Adam and I really worked on the harmonies to make them sound sort of discordant and strange and even topically the song is, is from the eyes of someone who’s being abused and speaking to their abuser. And there’s enough of a generality where the store, you can sort of fill in the gaps of the story.
I’m not giving you a direct story, but if you’re really paying attention to the lyrics, it’s really about revenge. And at the end of the song, the last thing that is said is now I watch you collapse, but you don’t know why, why does this person collapse? So to me, that’s, that was the fun of putting this song together. It’s dark. It’s foreboding. It’s it’s anxiety inducing, but you as the listener fill in the blanks, what does it mean to you? And I like that. That was fun to do that. And also important to address abuse. You know, it happens all too often in relationships. People are living with abusers on a regular basis and people have no way to escape.
So moving forward, you know, as I like to champion these types of things, I’d like to work more with, with people in domestic violence. And it opens up a conversation that we can talk about these types of things that are swept under the carpet and the idea of broken glass. You know, I have a picture of a room with shattered, broken glass and things torn everywhere. And someone’s sort of crying in the corner, you know, like that happens way too much in homes and people don’t speak about it.
Is that something that you want to put out there? Like to have a video for this special song to really address the subject, is that something that you want to do?
Jesse: Yeah. I wish, I think that song didn’t get the vote for a video. It does at least allow for the conversation to happen when I’m asked about that song, I can sort of put it out there. And it’s something that I’ve written about before as a song called “Quiet distress” on an album. And it’s something that I think is important to just continue to bring up because it’s just an awful problem. A lot of people deal with and don’t ever talk about.
You talked a bit about the way you work with Adam. He mentioned that he helped you refine your lyrics and it seems like you had a very intense relationship during the writing of this record. Can you tell us a bit about this special way of working with him?
Jesse: Yeah. I think that the rewriting and the frustration also came from just working with everybody. You know, this was the first album in a long time that I can recall even that it was the five of us. So I submitted a demo in the early days. I would write a demo, send it to Adam, Adam and I would work on it and present the finished song to the band. And hopefully they liked it. If not, we tweak a few things, but this process was me running demos and sending it to all four of them. So getting four different opinions. That just made it even more difficult. And made me question myself as a writer. There was a point where I was like, am I even good enough to do this? It was hard. It really pushed me to dig deep within me and also to like look outside of myself and start writing about not just me and the way I saw the world, but to touch on other people’s stories, to really look at, you know, information that I’ve been given from fans or from people that surround me in my life on a daily basis. What do they go through? What are their thoughts on this? So, and also just rediscovering my vocabulary, not using words, you know, cause those guys would call me out.
You’ve used this word so much in these songs, like, don’t do this. You know, the joke is we call it lyric police. So there were certain words and certain themes, like the theme of fire, no fire in this album. We all joke about it, but you know, it really made me sort of go into the thesaurus and find different words and, and not even just what they mean, but how they sound on the ear. I would write out a bunch of different words that mean the same thing and say them and listen to the way that the syllables hit. So it was very intense, but I look back on it now and it sort of gave me a whole new set of tools to move forward as a writer, to know that I can expand myself as a writer, to know that there is ways to sort of exercise the brain and, and improve upon and sort of diversify myself as a writer.
But Adam, getting back to the question about Adam, Adam has this great way of seeing the big picture as a producer. He has this great way of taking my sort of chaos. I’ll come at him with like five sheets of paper with just, and he’ll go through, he’ll sit in his chair and he’ll just go, that line’s great. What are you saying here? Like, tell me about that. Okay. So that line, then that, that works with this line. So he’ll be able to like pull from my chaos. And then within 15 minutes, we have a song and I’m like, oh wow. I didn’t even see that. Or I’ll come with him with an idea that’s pretty much there. And he’ll just say, this is great. Well done. I’ll come in with a new line. I’ll say this is great. But maybe right here, instead of doing that, do this and do that. So the little teeny tweaks. But he’s always able to see that big picture as a producer. That’s why he’s brilliant at what he does. He takes my weaknesses and makes them strong. And I think any good producers should do that. Allow the artist to exist, but hold them in the direction of like, I know you can do this, but let’s try it this way. If I’m wrong, we can go back to that. And nine times out of 10, he’s right. So we go that way.
What was the hardest song to write?
Jesse: Hardest song to write. It’s all a big blur. It’s really hard. I want to say “Forever Aligned” took a few versions to get lyrically. And then the way that song starts out, it’s very intense. And I think some of the vocal lines I was doing early on just didn’t work. And then we decided to go on the beat, which was difficult. So yeah, I think that song probably had the most versions. I think I want to make three or four times where a song like “Aftermath” was written in a half hour. You know, Justin sent the demo over, I sent it right back and everybody was like, there’s the song, it’s done. So it runs the gamut. But I like that. I think inspiration doesn’t always come immediately. Sometimes it does, it’s like lightning in a bottle, you get it and you’re like, wow, there it is. Other times you really have to sit and sift through and work with it. And the feeling that you get when you finally come out the other side of it, and you’ve written this thing, it’s worth it. From what I remember, “Forever Aligned’, that’s probably the third or fourth version of that song that actually made it.
You also have a way to find very strong titles, very impactful. Titles like “Discordant Nation”, “The Aftermath”, “Abandon Us”. Each time, it’s something very strong and you want to find out what lies behind those words. And I think that’s something very special as well with the band and something that you really master.
Jesse: Thank you. I think it’s difficult at times, trying to find something that’s profound, yet simple. And I think I did most of the titles, but Mike, who does all the artwork helped me sometimes. He’ll go, I like this, but this one doesn’t work. Keep it simple. And again, draw people in. But I like that you mentioned “Discordant Nation”, because it’s a play on words. You could say it and it means discordant nation. But then if you say it quickly, discordant nation, it’s like somebody who’s discoordinated. I loved when I came up with that. I was like, ah, that’s fun. It’s wordplay. It’s the way the word sounds and how it’s actually spelled. And it works. It works for that song because it’s really what it is about, is the chaos of controlled society, the chaos that’s passed down to us through the powers that be to keep us discordant, if you will.
When we saw the titles, we wanted to listen to that song first, but since we respect the album as a whole, we have listened to every song in the way you intended us to listen to them. But still, there was something very striking about this title. And the song is very, very well done. So it really matches.
Jesse: I love that you did that. Not everybody does that.
So our time is almost up and to finish our media is called RockUrLife. So last question: what rocks your life, Jesse?
Jesse: What rocks my life? Love. Love is everything. It’s everything. It’s tied to all the things that are good in life. And if you’re not happy, if life isn’t good, it’s your lack of love. So yeah, love is everything.
Website: killswitchengage.com
