Wings Denied hails from Washington DC and is currently travelling across the nation on This Is Hell Tour with The Convalescence, Death Rattle, and Shaping The Legacy.
The band has been categorized as progressive metal, but has a sound that’s hard to cram into one category. I had the chance to talk to the guys about their sound, their musical inspirations, and their charity work. Their new single “Nero” was released on October 10. Keep an eye out for their upcoming album which is currently in progress.
Everyone needs an introduction, could you tell me a little about yourselves and who plays what instruments in the band?
Luka Kerecin – Vocals: I speak 4 languages and have lived on 4 different continents.
Luka’s Mustache- Mustache: I am a mustache, I live on Luka’s face when I’m not crushing it.
Zach Dresher – Guitar: Outside of Wings, I’m a guitar teacher by day, and a bartender by night at a live music venue in Washington DC. Fun fact: I have a cat with 30 toes, named Toesin Apawsi.
Wes Good – Guitar: I eat faster than the average person I guess. My bandmates are fascinated by it. I’m pretty boring really.
Rob Moore – Bass: Hi, I have a degree in philosophy which has done nothing for me.
Alec Kossoff – Drums: Other than being a drummer in Wings Denied, I am also an acrobat that has worked for various circus schools around the world.
How long have you been performing together?
The band has existed for about five years, however we’ve gone through a couple member changes. Alec, Zach, and Luka have been in the band since its inception. Rob joined about four years ago and Wes joined about three years ago. This current lineup has been touring for the last three years.
What helped inspire your sound? And, what would you personally call your sound?
Personally we feel that Wings Denied is mostly inspired by everyone’s different approach and influences in music. For example Alec was a big fan of metal core and Nick Carter before joining Wings Denied, Rob likes more technical stuff and disco bass, Luka mostly is involved with all sorts of hipster nonsense, Luka’s mustache prefers to listen to the soundtracks of 1980s pornographic films, Wes only listens to “Smooth” by Carlos Santana featuring Rob Thomas of Matchbox Twenty, and Zach only listens to music which requires at least a BA in Calculus to comprehend.
With all of these hodgepodge of flavors we get what Wings Denied has become. This also makes it fairly difficult for us to qualify our genre. We operate under the umbrella of “progressive metal” but that feels a bit limiting to the sound of Wings Denied. We were once described by a YouTube comment as “The sound of cats having abortions being thrown in a bag down a spiral staircase,” and we’ve always found this to be the most accurate descriptor. However, we are anti-cat violence.
You are currently in the middle of a nationwide tour, what does it mean to be able to tour and share your music with listeners?
We know this sounds fairly cliché, but playing music to people is the reason we do what we do. When we picked up our instruments we all wanted to be able to reach people with the music that we play. Therefore, when we see people enjoying what we’re doing it means literally everything to us.
It also reminds us that we are fortunate to have understanding jobs and support to be able to pursue this dream and disappear for unknown periods of time.
Are there any musicians that each of you look up to?
Luka: Hard to answer this one as it changes constantly, but right now it’s Gregory Porter and Win Butler (Arcade Fire).
Luka’s Mustache: Not really musicians but Yosemite Sam and Ron Jeremy are my heroes.
Rob: Dirk Lance (who played bass on early Incubus) and Thunderthumbs Louis Johnson.
Alec: I have been into very groove based drumming recently and have been really into Eric Moore (Suicidal Tendencies). I’ve also moved on from Nick Carter to Aaron Carter, as he’s much dreamier.
Wes: I’ve been focusing more on compositional aspects right now and have been studying a bunch of different works of Hans Zimmer at the moment.
Zach: Daniel Gildenlow of Pain of Salvation, John Petrucci of Dream Theater, Chic Corea of Return to Forever, and ChaotH of Unexpect are some of my biggest influences. However, I’m only 5’9 so I look up to a lot of people.
Tell me a little about your charity work, and why you’ve chosen to donate to charity?
We generally believe in working to make the world a better place in our opinions. We have previously donated to SANCCOB (Coastal Bird Conservation) and are currently donating to Hope For The Day, which is a suicide prevention charity. We have all very recently been affected as a result of loss via suicide. As a result, we sat in a room together and came up with a way that we could help raise awareness and help others understand that there’s always an alternative. We looked around at several mental health awareness charities and decided that Hope For The Day was the best charity to help raise awareness in our metal community.
