Many, many moons ago we featured a band called Invoker from Shelby, North Carolina, as Band of the day. This isn’t them… Following on from the release of Four Wall Nightmare in March, Andreas Meier from their Swiss namesakes took time out to rattle some answers off for us.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Hi there! We are all living in or around the city of Lucerne in the centre of Switzerland.
How did you meet?
Peter, Raphael and I have known each other since the early school years. Peter’s younger brother David also became a friend and we all shared the same interests in music. After Peter’s and my former band split up we decided to start a new band with David on vocals and Raphael on drums. The only thing left that we needed was a bass player. We asked Patrick whom we knew from other hardcore shows if he would like to join us and he fitted perfectly.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We have played together since spring of 2012.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The idea of the name “Invoker” had his origin in my job, as I worked as a software programmer for a while. I was working on a project where we had to use something called “Invoker-methods” in the software code, which were to be used to invoke other sub-programs within the main program. I really loved the sound of the name “Invoker” and introduced it to my bandmates at the time when we were still searching for a band name and they all liked it too.
What are your influences?
There are many influences as we all listen to a lot of different music genres and artists. If we had to name a few we would probably say bands like Landscapes, Hundredth, Modern Life Is War, Caspian and Deafheaven. Of course, that is not a final list because we all get influenced by everything we are listening to without even recognising it.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Invoker is a band that has its fundament in hardcore but also includes everything that we think is suitable for our songs and the atmosphere of our lyrics. That is why our songs have calm acoustic parts, fast punk beats, climatic post rock melodies and even heavy breakdowns. I would say the fact that we do not set ourselves any boundaries is the reason our music is as it is and what makes it unique.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
David our singer writes lyrics based real events. They all broach the issues of depression and hopelessness and the struggle to sleep at night and are a way for him to process these problems.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Always a heavy task to describe our own shows but in a nutshell I would say they are tense and full of emotions. We don’t know exactly how many shows we played but we would say it’s around 50 shows.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Well, the wildest thing I’ve seen I would say: Any The Dillinger Escape Plan show. I have never seen any band go so wild like TDEP! The wildest thing we’ve done ourselves would probably be that one time where we were climbing on everything possible when we played a show in a bar near the city of Bern. We just felt like playing on top of speakers, the bar, the drum or hanging off the ceiling while singing. During the last song of this set, Peter hit the guitar so hard that he broke his wrist. That sure was a crazy one!
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Raphael is playing a brand called S.C.S. Drums, which are custom drums built in our hometown Lucerne with a Tama snare, and Paiste Cymbals. Patrick plays a Fender Precision bass on an Orange Terror Bass 1000 amp and an Orange OBC 212 Speaker. Peter and I are both playing Schecter 7 string guitars on a Marshall JVM 410 and Engl Powerball 4×12 PRO speakers.
What are your plans for 2017?
To play as many shows as possible all over Europe and maybe even start working on the next record.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
If it would be on a tour, we definitely would love to support our pals in Landscapes. We had the best time playing shows with them. As an opener, we would have our good friends in Defender with us. They play awesome live shows and have a great record coming up. These guys need to be checked out!
