2021 was a wild time. Art is a reflection of the world through the perspectives both conscious and unconscious of the artist. Filtering takes time so there is a delay between the events that inspired the feelings that would later form the work. So it makes sense that 2021 and 2022 were a really special time for art of all shapes having taken time to process the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. The ramifications of which we are still feeling today in this new year of 2025. All of this to say that a record came out back then that had a huge and lasting impact on me.
Twisted World Perspective by West Virginia mathcore act fallfiftyfeet came out in July of 2021 and is dedicated to ‘the friends we’ve lost’. fallfiftyfeet play the exact style of chaotic metalcore that I’m a sucker for. Having cut my teeth on The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza back in the day (Didn’t we all?) I was primed to fall hard for this band. Twisted World Perspective is a showcase of everything I love about mathcore. It’s unpredictable, aggressive, fearless, and fun. For an even more in depth look at the album be sure to check out our review.
I was able to speak with Dave Wallace (Vocals), James Becca (Guitar / Vocals), and Anthony Buck – (Guitar) of fallfiftyfeet about their origins as a band, influences, and an artist’s viewpoint on their work. Dave and James played in bands in their youth together and a lot of the material that would go on to become Twisted World Perspective was directly lifted from those formative experiences together.
Dave: ‘James and I met on Tumblr and were in another band that toured constantly for a good chunk of our teens and twenties. We were recording the album that would turn into Twisted World Perspective when we decided to rebrand to fallfiftyfeet. We found Anthony through a YouTube video he posted covering our song “Shortcuts to Hell” I believe. He filled in for us throughout 2022 and at the end of the year, we asked him to join officially.’
James: ‘Our first album Twisted World Perspective was the culmination of Dave and my work and growth together over the years. We were playing shows, touring, and recording, which gave us the knowledge that made us ready to show up to this band with our shit together, somewhat.’
Anthony: ‘As mentioned, I filled in for the band for most of 2022 and joined after I felt like we all had similar goals and a love for music in general.’
That’s some pretty solid background on how the band got together. But how did they all get into listening to and eventually making heavy metal music?
Dave: ‘I love metalcore so that’s why I like making this kind of music!’
James: ‘I was listening to scene metalcore and emo shit, my chances of starting a band were slim but I did it anyway. My biggest criteria when it came to songwriting for all of those early years, was ‘Is it fun to play? Could someone else write this?’ I was very focused on originality, but I was also influenced by many different kinds of bands and artists. I really wanted my love for variety expressed in my music. I feel that set us apart and having my own sound was very important at that time. Metal was always the #1 to me and dearest to my heart growing up.’
Anthony: ‘As far as what influenced me to create a metalcore band, that goes back to when I was a child growing up. My dad was into metal and hardcore and I got first dibs on his huge CD collection. That exposed me to bands I would have never heard of. Especially in elementary school before the internet was a thing everyone had (Yes, I’m that old). I think when you obsess over stuff like music at a young age, it becomes part of you.’
“Shortcuts to Hell” opens with classic metalcore riffs and an energy that is infectious. Not even a minute into this monster a tempo switch hits like a ton of bricks. Leading straight into a heavy breakdown section. This track is all over the place and fairly representative of what’s to love about this band and this album. The closing overlapping vocal threesome repeating like an orgiastic mantra the lines ‘Exhausted, and now I can let go / Maybe with this I can finally find bliss / But I’ll never be whole again’ leaves me awestruck to this day. It really is something else, especially to end what is otherwise a mostly conventional metalcore jam.
It is these kinds of twisted perspectives that fallfiftyfeet have on offer. Throughout their entire catalog you won’t ever get comfortable or know just quite what to expect. They simply won’t let you. fallfiftyfeet blends chaotic and melodic elements together in ways that are sometimes seamless and other times quite jarring. How do they go about pulling these opposing sonic elements together and smashing them apart?
Dave: ‘I think we all just have a very eclectic taste in art and music and we do our best to kind of meld all of those things that we love together in our own unique way.’
James: ‘I just write what I want to hear. If I wanna hear something that to my ear sounds like a fresh approach to doing something, I do it because I’m not afraid of the consequences. I always liked melody in metal, growing up there wasn’t a lot of non-melodic stuff I enjoyed. I got into writing with odd time signatures fairly young because I liked playing weird ass riffs that sounded unlike anyone else’s. Now my approach tends to differ but some riffs just come out the way they come out. And it’s fun to groove with that.’
Anthony: ‘We all have a number of influences that go past the metalcore genre… Why limit ourselves, ya know? Especially when our output is genuine and true to ourselves. I don’t think we intentionally have a plan for ‘pulling off’ the sound – we just go with what we want to hear, and chase that until we’re satisfied.’
I’m going to switch it up now, because isn’t that exactly what an agent of chaos and mathcore fan would do… and go from looking at fallfiftyfeet’s origins and debut album to their most recent release, the single “Running from the Sky”. Released just last month in the beginning of January, “Running from the Sky” puts aside the experimentation for the moment and opts instead for a straight up metalcore banger assault. The lyrics and music video take on a fairly anti-theist bent on feelings of apathy mixed with a little rage and gasoline. ‘Nothing’s guaranteed / Every step is a leap of faith / Running from the sky / Every path led to a lie / In this never-ending search for purpose / It’s just so easy to feel worthless’
All of fallfiftyfeet’s projects have a very distinct feeling to them. Their debut album Twisted World Perspective has a rough jagged rawness to it, Lonely if You Go is more melodic, and Traumatic Entanglement has a hazy nightmarish quality. Do they approach each output with this intention or is it something that has developed organically?
James: ‘I think it is a natural flow that comes out when you write songs in certain eras. Whether it’s the lyrics or the music, usually, in the moment it’s not something that’s thought about. Though afterwards, we do seem to discover these strings that tie a project together. Also, we’re just people who really appreciate a good record. So we wanna build something that people are gonna remember and if they resonate with it they come back because they can’t find anything else like it.’
I am endlessly fascinated with the relationship between art and music. And all of fallfiftyfeet’s releases have stunning artwork. How were these pieces developed and incorporated to best represent their unique sound?
Dave: ‘Twisted World Perspective and Lonely If You Go were both done by our buddy Anthony Grasso. We first found him when he was doing live painting during a band’s set in Florida. He had also done work for our friends in Blind Tiger. For Lonely If You Go I had a pretty concrete concept for what I wanted to do for the art and he knocked that out of the park. However, for Twisted World Perspective, I had something completely different in mind. I eventually told him to go crazy and show me what he envisioned for the artwork. He sent back the first rough draft and we were blown away. The Traumatic Entanglement artwork was something they had been sitting on for a while. When Nick (from Wounded Touch) showed it to me I thought it was perfect.’
Traumatic Entanglement released last year was a split between fallfiftyfeet and Wounded Touch, a metalcore band from Michigan. (If you’ve yet to hear their 2022 album Americanxiety do yourself a favor and check it out for a devastating demonstration of brutality.) The haunting artwork for Traumatic Entanglement was done by Arif of Wormrot, just one more connection made between art and music. The EP features two songs from each band. An easy highlight from this release is fallfiftyfeet’s track “This Could Be Your Last Exit”. The gang chorus vocals spotlight the nightmarish thematic focus of the project. ‘Nightmares / getting harder to wake up from / detail horrors in my R.E.M / I thought sleep was going to bring me to peace / but all it does is torment me’. So what was the writing and recording process like for the band and as a collaborative effort?
Dave: ‘In all honesty, the only thing that was collaborative on the split was the title. Nick (from Wounded Touch) and I came up with it pretty quickly. I just knew I didn’t want to release a split called ‘Split’… He suggested the title be ‘Trauma Bonds’ and I presented the title ‘ ‘Tumultuous Entanglement’ so we just took both of them and smashed them together. There’s some lore for you. We both already had our songs written and recorded when we decided to do it so it all worked out quite nicely.’
In fact fallfiftyfeet have been involved in several collaborations with artists such as Dr. Acula, Greyhaven, ZOMBIESHARK!. How has the creative experience been working with other bands?
Dave: ‘James booked Greyhaven a long time ago, back in the Cult America days and we’ve been huge fans ever since. ZOMBIESHARK! is one of our best friends and I wanted someone I loved to do some gnarly ass vocals on that track. Dr. Acula is one of those random bands my sister showed me back in middle school and I’ve been obsessed with them ever since. I wound up showing them to James at some point and he loved them too. I had heard that their original lineup was reforming and we decided to see if Rob would put some vocals on the track. He said yes and then pulled out at the last minute and we were heartbroken. Luckily about 15 minutes later he messaged us and said he would make it happen and he sent the files that night.’
Throughout fallfiftyfeet’s work a constant thematic focus is anxiety. Whether personally or more broadly concerning the state of the world. Why is it so important for them to use music as a vehicle to explore feelings of dread and angst?
Dave: ‘I am a very anxious person. I kind of just channel my negative energy into my lyrics and that’s how it’s always been. I’m bad at writing positive lyrics no matter how hard I try. To put it bluntly, a lot of the stuff I write about is pretty much what’s running through my head every day and my lyrics are just my way of getting those thoughts out of my brain. Shit just makes me feel better I guess and I like the idea that someone could hear what I’m going through in my head and maybe get some relief or relate to that.’
James: ‘All my lyrics are derived from stream-of-consciousness writing. I might have a line in my head sometimes but I usually write very plainly just to get out my emotional feelings. Whether it’s depressing, introspective, angry, or whatever, I just write from my point of view. That aspect of it probably does give it a heightened amount of dread and angst because if I’m only writing down stuff when I have so much going on in my head.’
Anthony: ‘Ultimately making music that connects with people is a huge deal for us, so touching on those feelings is pretty essential yet authentic for the band.’
fallfiftyfeet are known for cathartic explosive live shows with lots of crowd involvement. Whereas some bands are known more for their studio work aspiring to recreate that sound from studio to record to performance, others bring a unique energy to every show. The relationship between music and the scene that supports it at the ground level is foundational to the success and growth of any band and the rewards are felt by all involved.
Dave: ‘I notoriously am not a huge fan of the studio, but there is a certain sense of accomplishment you feel after finishing an album and hearing it all back for the first time. Live shows are my bread and butter. It just feels very blissful to lose yourself in a performance. Nothing else matters for that 20-30 minutes. It makes all the lame shit us and other bands may go through on the road worth it. Also, playing a show after like 6 months of not playing out is an INSANE feeling.’
James: ‘The studio rocks but I don’t like going too overboard with things I can’t physically play or do vocally live. It is fun to experiment sometimes, but overall I want to be able to represent the studio pretty well live. If we do crazy shit, we are gonna do it live. That’s the cool part, we pull it off.’
Anthony: ‘I find us to be more of a live band, but I think our efforts in the studio hold up its own experience as well. I find live and album experiences to be separate and I don’t think either has to portray the other. Hopefully, when people listen to the new record they can imagine us going hard though haha!’
What’s next for fallfifftyfeet?
Dave: ‘THE SKY’S THE LIMIT! LET ME PLAY A GODDAMN ARENA!’
James: ‘I write music and play shows because it’s the only way I know how to live. If I didn’t have this outlet, I’d have been dead a while ago. So I see us going and playing shows, and making more records. Hopefully people fuck with it, and if not, I’m still gonna do it anyway.’
Anthony: ‘The Garza Podcast.’
