Left to Suffer just got back in Atlanta from a two week tour with Brojob and played with Spite, Varials, and a few other heavy bands in Atlanta last week. In a continued effort to learn about the magic in the music scene in Atlanta, I hit up Taylor Barber, the vocalist from Left to Suffer, to ask him a few questions about what it’s been like to be in the 2020 heavy scene.

How long ago did you form?

Taylor: We’ve been together for about two years making music, but we were all in a band before this. 11 months ago we met with our now-manager, and we had just recorded a song with a new producer, and it sounds way better than our old stuff, and sounds way more involved and modern, so we took that direction and just made a new band. We started running with Left to Suffer and it’s just been money ever since.

Was locking down a lineup tough? Or is it the same lineup from before?

Taylor: From the tail end of the last band it’s the same lineup, they had a different vocalist before me and they were cycling members for about a year, and then with this lineup it was like, we vibe with each other, let’s rebrand - because it wasn’t the same band as before.

Does the band name have any significance?

Taylor: Yeah, the meaning behind our band name, so everyone is “left behind” by someone, family, friends - if you make a decision and people don’t mess with it, then it’s like “alright I can’t fuck with you anymore”. And so they - and so being “left to suffer” is a common theme between the group of the 5 of us, because we all had different career paths in mind and then we all just fell into this music thing, and we loved it.

Do you do this full time?

Taylor: We’re teetering on it - we all have side gigs and part time jobs, because you know - You’re not going to make a ton of money at first. You have to work and spend money to make money, but eventually the goal is to do this full time.

Any big influence on the sound/songwriting process?

Taylor: We all have different music preferences, like - I like PALEWAVES and Movements, and, you know, softer bands, but I’ll also listen to bands like Dealer, Spite, Whitechapel, you know what I mean? We all root around wanting to make ignorant heavy music, so that’s what we make, but all the different tweaks and transitions are all varied by our interests.

Yeah, I think every band is like that, because you have what, 5 people in the band? There’s so many different influences that you get some unique takes on stuff.

Taylor: Exactly. Well, I feel like you NEED that, because if you just all listen to the same genre then it just becomes a regurgitated mess over and over and over, it’s gonna need a new sound eventually.

What bands do you think are really killing it right now? either with branding, new releases, etc.

Taylor: Killing it? Dealer, Hollow Front, Sleepwaker, and we just went on tour with Brojob and Hunt the Dinosaur, and both of those bands are just so good to see live.

And Brojob has the funniest little market niche.

Taylor: But they also have this band that’s a serious band called Cold Harbor, but they get all the jokingness out with Brojob.

Yeah, it’s cool - because they have like, an almost novelty band, but they’re really fucking good.

Taylor: Yeah, you can’t help but like it, but the lyrics... are extremely… you know.

You only have 6 songs out, you're a Georgia local band, but you've managed to secure half a million plays on Spotify alone since your first release. What would you say, besides just talent, was the biggest help to getting those numbers?

Taylor: Just to be real with you, our manager is a wizard. He knows what he’s doing behind the marketing, everything that goes behind us just making the music, and then the roll out for each song - release on bttv, release on lambgoat, release on all these different platforms to try and get the audience. There’s a lot that goes into it. Huge shout out to Jeff Menig for getting us there. That dude is absolutely insane.

How tough is it to finance & support yourselves on tour?

Taylor: Oof. It’s borderline impossible. And I feel like that’s what separates the people who really want to do it, and the people who just view it as a hobby. Like me and my band have gone broke throwing everything we have into this project. And it’s obviously paying off at this point, we’re on the come up and we’re doing our own thing, and it’s really rad to see that we have a group of people that really has the initiative to sacrifice almost everything to do this.

Do you think it's harder for bands or fans to afford being in music now than it used to be, 5-10 years ago?

Taylor: Well, yes and no. I don’t think heavy music is as prevalent as it was in the early 2000s, but it’s starting to make a revolution comeback. Metal was the most highly listened genre on Spotify last year.

Really?

Taylor: Yeah. that’s a fact. you can look it up. It’s starting to make that come up again. I think we’re on the verge of the first wave of a comeback of rock music. Like, Dealer is heading that shit, Spite and all them, just these young bands killing it.

I was watching a Netflix documentary a while ago that was saying that the music of the 90s was formed from this desire to have things be more raw and real, more honest and less polished. Like, the 80s were all glam and all fashion, and the 90s was just this desire for people to be able to be themselves. And things seem to cycle every 30 years, so we’re starting to see people get bored with monotony and they’re rejecting the status quo, looking for people who are talking about plain jane shit, real issues, and music not being so overproduced.

Taylor: yeah, absolutely.

Frankie Palmeri from Emmure said that he rejected most of his old lyrics. Do you think that there’s going to be a point where you go say “why did we write this?”

Taylor: Yeah, there’s a possibility. I feel like everyone grows. The more you mature, you’re gonna not like the first stuff you make. It just happens, you grow, you make new things, you start getting really excited on the new stuff you’re making.

Like Hundreth.

Taylor: Yeah. So like, you start pushing out new content, you evolve as a person, your livelihood is changing, you’re progressing as a person, so yeah I might look back and go “ugh, yeah I could have done better than that.”

The metal scene has been a bit of a boys club for a long time. There’s six bands on this bill, and I’m fairly certain they’re all men. Is there something getting in the way of getting more women & non men in heavy bands and in the heavy music scene?

Taylor: There’s gonna a lot of guys that will be like “this is a guy thing” you know what I mean? But I think it’s evolving more now. Like, women can do anything. Everyone is equal, we’re all playing the same field - if someone says women can’t do metal, shame on them. It kind of comes to a point where, because of that mentality, women are scared to jump in to the scene, because some bands give backlash to women, which is whack. I totally feel like they (women) should - It’s a genre of music, not just a social club. There shouldn’t be like that. If you wanna make music, make music. That’s the point where I stand, where I’ve always stood.

Yeah, I think a lot the bands around Atlanta are used to working with women, but not so much in other places.

Taylor: Dude, yeah, the women that work here are like, stronger than anyone.

What are a few things you wish people know about being in a band?

Taylor: It’s not glamorous. Everyone’s like “You get to go on tour!” Sleeping in a van, upright, with six people, is not the most fun thing ever. You got to have the drive. Once you get to the point of having a bus with bunks and room to walk around, it’s one thing, but when you drive 6-12 hours in the same spot with no stops, stuck in a van, for 30 days straight, it’s not as like “oh my god”!. It’s amazing because we get to play music every night, but for the people outside looking in, they don't get the sacrifice and the grind that goes into it behind the scenes of “i’m playing a show every night!”

Do you think that the strain of being on tour has affected you in other ways? Like work, relationships, mental health?

Taylor: The finance is the biggest thing, because you literally have to not work for x amount of days while you’re gone. I mean, you’re still working - but you’re not getting that payment up front. You have to put in the back work on the first couple of tours, you’re not making any money, you’re doing it TO make money eventually, but a lot of people lose their drive when they hit that. But I mean, everyone has their own take. Not a lot of people can handle doing it.

Any lessons you've learned after your tour with Brojob?

Taylor: A ton, you gotta sleep. You gotta find time to go to sleep. There were a lot of us staying up late, hanging out, smoking, whatever, you know, then you wake up the next day at the venue and you’re tired. It’s just so easy to fall into a bad routine and just feel like crap over and over again. You’ll snowball into feeling like a pile of shit.