Interviews

Tyler Di Palo – Signals ‘We Aren’t Afraid To Take Risks’

Kayla Hamilton

Nov 30, 2024

7 min read

Earlier this month, Adelaide’s very own Signals dropped their brand new EP Poetry Of Spite (you can read our thoughts here). In a year that has seen this young metalcore band go from strength to strength, we knew straight away that we had to strike while the iron is hot and get to know them before they blow up.

Joining us fo a chat about their new material and the year ahead is guitarist Tyler Di Palo.

First of all, welcome to Wall of Sound! For those who may be new to Signals, can you give us a rundown of the band and how you came together?

Thank you for having us! The beginning of Signals goes back to early 2019. At that time we were just jamming in the shed instrumentally without any vocals, doing covers just for fun and wrote some songs. We didn’t really know what we wanted to sound like but we knew we wanted to do something heavy. We started talking to Calem [Pepper-Freeman] our vocalist just as a friend before we even knew he did vocals but after he mentioned that we figured why not have a jam and after that we knew it was a great fit. Gradually all kind of our individual influences kind of melded together, fast forward a few years and here we are.

Now the EP has been out for a week, how has the reception been so far?

The response has been great! It was awesome to finally get these songs out after what felt like ages. Some of the things that stick out about what people have said is that they really like the balance of experimentation and heaviness, and I think that’s exactly what we were going for so it’s great to hear that it comes across. We have also gotten a lot of support from new fans which is a great feeling so overall we are really happy.

It’s your first extended release since Screaming Out Into Nothing – can you give us some insight into how you approached putting together this EP?

The first step of putting together this EP would be listening to and playing the songs from Screaming Out Into Nothing as well as our other releases. I think that’s a really important aspect, to listen to your music and examine how it feels when you hear and play it so you can pick out the things that you really want to hone in on.

The writing and recording process for this release was pretty spread out compared to Screaming Out Into Nothing, and I think what that resulted in is a lot more growth for the songs and more ideas to creep in.

We recorded the EP with Jack Hartley at Interim Studios and that is probably one of the most important things to mention, Jack really understood where we were coming from and helped us to get the takes and the overall feeling that we wanted to capture.

Over the years a signature Signals sound has started to emerge, but the original rawness has remained, how have you approached refining your music?

The biggest thing for us is that we aren’t afraid to take risks – there’s never a conversation about whether a song qualifies as a Signals “sound” or not, because as long as it’s us playing it I think it will sound like Signals. As well as that, it’s about having the confidence to push our ideas to the extreme. For us, if we like something we try and see it as far as possible rather than just halfway, and try not to worry about whether it’s gone too far or whether people will be annoyed by it.

I’ve read previously that you guys have a bit of fascination with VHS found-footage style horror and that is evident in your visuals, but it also sounds like it has bled into your actual sound. Was that always the intention?

Actually that’s not something we have thought about consciously, but it definitely makes sense. Everything that we are inspired by, whether it’s music or horror movies or VHS is something that we wear on our sleeve and really represents who we are as people so I think in that way the whole package ties together, like it authentically is us. In a way I think our love of noise music/feedback and the VHS look comes together in a way, like they complement each other.

Beyond the horror aspects, where else do you draw influences for your music?

In terms of music, the main bands that influence us are bands like Code Orange, Vein.FM and Converge among so many others. On this EP, there are also some moments where Godflesh’s influence creeps in, especially on the guitars. We also have all watched so many hate5six sets, and that definitely has a massive impact on us both recording and live. Those sets always capture so much energy and that’s the experience we want to bring.

One track that hooked me was ‘Cold Blood’- it feels a little slower, groovier and a little more experimental. What was the mindset when constructing that song?

Funnily enough, I think the biggest part of writing that song was to fight every instinct we usually have when writing songs. A lot of our songs revolve around parts coming and going quickly or playing everything fast and that is not intentional at all but we are just like that. For ‘Cold Blood‘ we really tried to limit ourselves to keeping a solid groove and making sure all the parts have room to breathe. Honestly I don’t really remember how the initial idea started, and it went through so many different changes to make sure that the song flowed in the way that we wanted but really happy with how it turned out.

Like how the ending of ‘Cold Blood’ sounds like the fade out of a live set, the whole EP manages to maintain a real live feel throughout. Is that something you guys deliberately tried to capture?

A lot of credit goes to Jack Hartley for that again. The way we recorded this EP was almost like a live feeling, the drum and guitar takes were hardly edited and we wanted it to sound like we were all playing these songs in a room together. The flow of all the tracks is something that is also really important for us, making sure there are peaks and valleys so that the whole thing comes together as a sort of story.

Along with the EP release, SIGNALS has been able to play some pretty big shows this year and I managed to catch your set at Froth & Fury. What was it like coming back and playing this time around compared to playing the first one back in 2021?

Froth and Fury 2024 was unbelievable for us. It’s awesome to see not only how much the festival has grown since then but also how much we have as a band. We’ve had so many new experiences, met so many new people, shared the stage with some of our heroes, and yet the biggest thing I think we learnt from Froth and Fury 2024 is that we are still just as hungry as we were then and still have so much left to do. And that’s really exciting for us.

Now we are starting to wrap up 2024, what are the plans for 2025?

2025 is shaping up to be one of the best years yet. There is some stuff that we can’t announce just yet but we are certainly looking and recording and releasing more music, touring as much as possible and see where the year takes us. We kick things off at I’m Not A Burden Fest which is at Unibar in January.

Interview by Kayla Hamilton (@kaylazomboid)

Poetry Of Spite is out now. Get it here.