{"id":206537,"date":"2024-12-02T19:48:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:48:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.angrymetalguy.com\/?p=206537"},"modified":"2024-12-02T19:48:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-02T18:48:06","slug":"interview-with-fellowships-matthew-corry-and-callum-tuffen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.angrymetalguy.com\/interview-with-fellowships-matthew-corry-and-callum-tuffen\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview with Fellowship’s Matthew Corry and Callum Tuffen"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Anyone who knows me will know that I attended 2024\u2019s Mad With Power festival in Madison, Wisconsin for one reason: Fellowship<\/b>. While the opportunity to engage in lowercase fellowship with various friends and colleagues was enticing, I also couldn\u2019t pass up the opportunity to experience the<\/i> Fellowship<\/b>: England\u2019s rapidly up-and-coming power metal band, and an act that has been very special for me since their earliest days, performing their first-ever show in North America. Likewise, I wasn\u2019t about to miss my chance to sit down with Matthew Corry (vocals and lyrics) and Callum Tuffen (drums and songwriting) and pick their brains about what makes Fellowship<\/b> tick. On the day prior to this interview, I was fortunate enough to witness the band debut three new songs alongside the cover art and tracklist for their upcoming sophomore record, <\/i>The Skies Above Eternity, which gave us much more to talk about than I had anticipated.<\/i><\/p>\n

I was escorted backstage to meet Matt and Cal (by none other than Ty Christian, vocalist of Lords of the Trident<\/b> and founder of Mad With Power), and was genuinely surprised to find that Matt, the little hobbit man who lives in my phone and sings directly to my soul through my earbuds, is basically as tall as I am – and I\u2019m 6\u20193\u201d. He and Callum greeted me as warmly as one might expect from a band famous for songs of camaraderie and self worth. When I told Matt that he and I had spoken on occasion through Twitter DMs, he responded with a delightfully genuine \u201cOh, right! Eldritch Elitist<\/b>!\u201d in what might be the highlight of my tenure at this blog. We then shuffled into a small, hot interview room; what follows are Matt and Cal\u2019s own words, lightly edited for the sake of clarity and flow. I began by asking Matt and Callum how they came to headline an overseas festival with nothing but a debut LP under their belt.<\/i><\/p>\n

Callum:<\/b> \u201cI spoke with Ty a bit about this. They like to bring in the bands that haven\u2019t really \u201cmade it,\u201d so I think that\u2019s part of it. We\u2019ve known Ty for quite a while, and he\u2019s probably one of the most supportive guys in power metal today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/b> \u201cFrom what I\u2019ve heard, a couple of years ago, shortly after our Fellowship<\/i> EP first came out, people were already trying to get Fellowship<\/b> over here. They saw Ty as \u201cthe method\u201d for getting Fellowship<\/b> over here within a couple of years, as opposed to having to wait five or six years for us to get big enough to be viable. They just kept poking Ty, and Ty, being the wonderful human that he is, said \u2018you know what? Let\u2019s try it.\u2019 He emailed us and asked \u2018are you guys up for it?\u2019 And hell yeah, we were up for it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Callum:<\/b> \u201cI always had this fear that it wouldn\u2019t actually happen, but here we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Ty himself had actually covered Fellowship<\/b>\u2019s \u201cGlint\u201d on Lords of the Trident<\/b>\u2019s YouTube channel, long before they had signed to Scarlet Records or recorded their first LP. Matt has a small cameo in that video, so I\u2019m curious whether that video happened before talks began for Fellowship<\/b> to join the Mad With Power roster.<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/b> \u201cYeah, that was way<\/i> before. After \u2018Glint\u2019 came out, Ty messaged us, initially saying how much he loved the song, and if we would mind if he did a cover of it. I sent him some files and he did the cover, which blew us away. I think that was the first\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

Callum:<\/b> \u201cIt\u2019s just crazy good, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/b> \u201cYeah, so<\/i> good, and it was the first sort of \u2018proper\u2019 vocal cover of any of our stuff – which is difficult stuff. So there were immediately \u2018buds for life\u2019 kind of vibes. And then he started talking about the New Wave of Nice Metal Buds, which is so our vibe: positivity, support, all that jazz. And after that, I did a little opera video with him, for fun, and I got to show my cat to the internet. Around a year later, he emailed us saying \u2018it\u2019s time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Wave of Nice Metal Buds that Matt refers to is Ty\u2019s code of conduct, by which the festival is operated. It was created to promote kindness, inclusivity, and mindfulness within the Mad With Power community, and applies to the bands and fans therein. While it\u2019s difficult to say whether this code of conduct is responsible for the festival\u2019s atmosphere, it should be noted that the Mad With Power experience is indeed one of utmost positivity. In other words: The vibes are on point.<\/p>\n

Since Fellowship<\/b>\u2019s inception, I\u2019ve found it remarkable how well they balance their atmosphere of utmost sincerity against the cheese and excess of power metal, especially when similar bands – most notably Twilight Force<\/b> – conduct themselves as if they are \u201cin\u201d on a shared joke with their audience. Cal and Matt had clearly considered this contradiction, as it stems from their unique songwriter-lyricist partnership.<\/p>\n

Callum:<\/b> \u201cSo\u2026 When I say Twilight Force<\/b> is a huge inspiration for me, they\u2019re not the only ones. In power metal, yeah, of course, they\u2019re an inspiration for me. But I take a lot of inspiration from other bands. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019d pick up on the influence from our songs, but there are elements from bands like early Avenged Sevenfold<\/b>, and a lot of older pop stuff, like Elton John<\/b> and ABBA<\/b>. I try to get across that it\u2019s never meant to be \u2018jokey,\u2019 but at the same time, I wanted to make people feel happy, the way that kind of music makes me feel. All I can do is put out the best stuff I possibly can, that makes me feel good, and hopefully, it comes across that way to everyone else.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt:<\/b> \u201cI think lyrically, this is one of those unique musical combos that I don\u2019t think either me or Cal really expected, or would have sought out naturally. Cal\u2019s music is not the type of thing that I would ever write, and I don\u2019t think my lyrics are really the type of thing that Cal would immediately go for. But once we ended up putting them together, it became this symbiotic marriage. We never thought it would go crazy the way that it has, we never dreamed of coming to the States or anything when we first collaborated. I think the first thing we ever did together was record \u2018Glint.\u2019 That was almost like my trial for the band, in a way. And after the day of doing it, we just sort of sat around a pub. None of us had a drink, we just sat around a pub.\u201d<\/p>\n