Re-Entering The Void: Interviewing With Sails Ahead On Their Debut Album’s First Anniversary
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Self-Released
I’ve been fortunate enough to know New Jersey post-hardcore band With Sails Ahead over the past several years, ever since I found them in 2021 through their single “In Fear and Loathing.” It’s difficult to put into words the effect this band has had on me, but the lyrics “No act of god can save me,” which I have tattooed on my right wrist, do a lot of heavy lifting there. Over the past four years, With Sails Ahead has let me in on their creative process, welcomed me as both a friend and a fan, and even invited me to tour with them last December as part of the Rock Star Energy Tour. I've watched their catalog grow across multiple EPs and singles, culminating in their debut LP, Infinite Void, released in April 2024. The past year has been a whirlwind for the band, between touring and playing local shows, marketing their first record, and most recently adding their new drummer, Deirdre O’Connor, to the group.
To celebrate their first LP turning one year old in April, I had the pleasure of speaking with singer Sierra Binondo, bassist Jaime Martinez, and guitarist Joe Warner-Reyes about Infinite Void’s first anniversary and the process behind bringing their debut album into the world.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
SWIM: Thanks for coming, guys. It was really fun talking with pulses. and figuring out how I want to do all this. I'm trying to do really casual conversations with this series, and it just so happens that these first two also coincide with anniversaries.
Before we jump in, what is everybody listening to right now?
JOE: I got nothing good. I mean it's the same old.
SWIM: Closure? [Laughs]
JOE: Closure In Moscow. [Laughs]
SIERRA: I love them. I could stand to listen to them more. I loved the Audiotree, it blew my mind.
JAIME: That's one of the best Audiotrees for sure.
I've been listening to a lot of the Snooze record. I really enjoy it, just really visceral math rock. The guitar tones are really punchy in a very cool way. I'm on my K-pop fix again. That’s all I’m listening to in the car.
SWIM: Sierra’s a bad influence.
[All laugh]
SIERRA: I looked at my [Spotify] Wrapped last year, and it was like 75% K-pop. I'm like, “Oh my god, I need to listen to more music!” And what's happening is that it ends up being half K-pop still, because of my gym playlist, but then the other half, I've been really branching out into a lot of different stuff. I've been going back to a lot of 90s pop lately. Janet Jackson and Christina Aguilera. Also the new Snooze record. I recently went through and listened to Kero Kero Bonito ‘cause I was like, “Wow, I could really stand to know more of their discography.” Louie Zong is an artist I love who does music across whatever genres he wants, basically. He's very prolific.
SWIM: Yeah, something I was talking to Kevin and pulses. about was how most people aren't listening to five albums a day and constantly churning through new music. Most people are breaking down one or maybe two new releases a week, and then just going back to old favorites or only listening to music a couple of times a week, but not regularly. It's something I give myself a hard time about, but realistically, I do a lot of my music listening in the shower. Being able to have that moment where I'm not doing anything else and have a good half hour to listen to something. It's hard to do a lot of dedicated listening for sure.
SIERRA: Absolutely. I don't listen to podcasts anymore because I don't commute to work. When I'm working at a desk, I struggle to listen intently to anything. It’s gotta be like lo-fi or instrumental video game music. I won't be able to fully enjoy what's happening. I remember when the new Coheed album came out, I really enjoyed it, but most of my listening was at my work desk, and I could not describe that album to you with a gun to my head.
SWIM: One of my colleagues at Swim was talking about how good the new Japanese Breakfast album was and I could assume that it would fit the vibe of a cafe, so I threw it on today while I was working and it was the same thing where I'm registering some cool things, but obviously not doing very conscious listening. I kind of cheat that way; if something is a little bit more palatable or slower or accessible, I'll throw it on at work when I have an opening shift or I'm the only one working and can control the music.
SWIM: Infinite Void is celebrating its one-year anniversary this month. How are y’all feeling about that?
JAIME: I honestly can't believe it's been a year already. And Joe has Twizzlers to celebrate the one-year anniversary. Infinite Twizzlers. [Laughs]
JOE: I love chewing on plastic.
SIERRA: When you think about it, plastic is in everything we consume.
SWIM: Twizzlers are macroplastics.
[All laugh]
SIERRA: Ahh, it’s so weird. Weird is the principal feeling for me. I'm glad we released it when we did, ‘cause it felt like we had most of the year to push this album. I don't know what it is, but when the calendar year flips and it's a new year, I do compartmentalize and pack away anything I experienced in 2024 and leave it there. It also feels like it wasn't enough time, you know what I mean? Album cycles have changed so much. That was also a chapter of our lives. So, it's weird to say that's a year away now. Like, “Oh my god, when did we jump out of that?” I never really wanted to, but time just happens.
SWIM: Yeah, absolutely. When I asked pulses. about Speak It Into Existence turning five, David was so serious, like “Fastest five years of my life.” It's just a fucking vacuum. Post-COVID, even one year just compresses way down. I don't feel like Infinite Void came out a year ago. That’s insane.
JAIME: In a lot of ways, the album cycle still seems fresh to me, even though it has been a year.
SWIM: Album cycles never end.
SIERRA: They just stack.
JOE: I'm ready to start promoting Infinite Void. That’s what it feels like.
[All laugh]
SWIM: Give everybody a year to kind of feel it out by themselves, and now I really wanna push this record.
SIERRA: I am so stoked to announce we're now promoting our record.
JOE: I feel like I still have motivation to do stuff, you know? The tabs are coming out soon. Having just done that makes it kind of fresh. I want to record videos for all of the songs. It still feels fresh, even though it's a year old.
JAIME: And also for us to start playing some of our other songs that we have yet to play live from the record. There's plenty of stuff that we still have yet to debut live. That'll be a lot of fun to switch things up and get people to hear some of the tunes that maybe people haven't heard as much as “Darting Eyes” or “Swear Words.”
SWIM: Absolutely. I forgot, have you guys debuted “Peach Tea (Obituary)” yet, or are you doing it on this next tour?
JAIME: We did play it in Brooklyn in November, I believe. So that was the first time we played it, but we haven't played it since.
SWIM: Cool. You can save it for a tour that I can attend, and I'll be so happy. You got the t-shirt and that's fine.
Are there songs that, a year later, have flipped for you or sound new to you?
JOE: Playing “Catastrophe” live is super cool, because there are certain things on the recording that, because of how it was mixed, it's not like how it sounds live. It's cool to hear it live and have it be different from how it sounds on the recording.
SWIM: One of the great things about listening to music live is the way that the band or the artist is interpreting it, and it'll never be the exact same, hopefully, as it is on the recorded version.
SIERRA: I guess I shouldn't be surprised that everyone loves hearing “what if i fall,” everyone loves that one. And because of how much it’s been demanded, I don't love it less, but I'm like, “What about all the other stuff on the album? Do you guys not like this stuff? You just want this one?” [Laughs]
SWIM: Right. You have the singles that obviously people are more aware of, and then you have the immediately popular ones. So that leaves a small chunk of songs that you're like, ‘Well, what about these guys?’ [Laughs]
SIERRA: Yeah, exactly. I was really hoping people would take to “Oblivion,” ‘cause that's a direction I would like to explore some more. I mean the world’s our oyster, we're going to do a lot of stuff, but I thought people would be into that one because it's more thrashy and darker.
SWIM: Well, that's why you attached it to “Y.E.R. (Your Eternal Ring),” right? You were like, “What if it plays into ‘Oblivion?’ Oops.” [Laughs]
I think it's a banger. I mean, obviously, I think the whole record is a banger, but I think “Oblivion” is definitely an underrated one for sure.
SIERRA: Thank you. What I was really delighted by was that we sequenced the album in a way where the more mellowed-out songs were in the middle, and there was an intermission. I don't have to explain it to you, but this weird corner of music we're in has certain preferences, and they don't like it when you stray too far outside the box. I love that the record is so varied. I love that it has different moods. So, we were like, “All right, let's smack it in the middle and see what happens,” and a lot of people love those songs, like “Peach Tea” and “Picture Perfect Pixels.” I was waiting to see how people reacted, but I was very pleased with that, and it surprised me in a way. I was confident, but also like, “I don't understand the common listener anymore – and then everyone also jives. Awesome.”
SWM: The kids are alright.
SWIM: Obviously, it was your first record, a lot went into it. Sierra, you’ve mentioned in the past that it was a lot of stress, and it consumed your whole life until it was released. What did you learn from Infinite Void that you can apply to new releases and LP two?
JAIME: For this next batch of recordings, whether it be LP two or something else, it's just going to be a more refined approach to what we did for Infinite Void. We've recorded with each other for quite a long time, so we know how we work together. I'd like to think that the process will just continue to be more streamlined. We know what to prepare for a little better.
JOE: Going into the new batch of songs, I think, regardless of how Infinite Void turned out, we just wanna do what we want and play what we love. Not let song plays or numbers affect what we want to do. We're just going to do what we love and do what we feel like.
SIERRA: To Jaime’s point, a lot of the songs that went on Infinite Void were not jammed in real life before we recorded them. It was straight from Guitar Pro to the session, and we learned a huge lesson. Maybe there's a way to do that where you don't run into what we ran into. We discovered that things took up the same space in the stereo field, or there were phase issues with certain riffs, things of that nature. So, we are trying to ensure that we incorporate everything in real life before tracking it, just to make sure if there’s anything we want to take out. Things that we could improve while we have the chance, before committing to them on recording.
To Joe’s point, a lot of these songs are the best shit we've ever written and I did feel insane when we dropped this record and everyone just kind of turned over a new page the following week. This is what people are talking about when they say that no one’s attention span is there anymore. We had some plans to promote in the weeks following, but we were on tour!
JAIME: Literally the week after.
SIERRA: That was the first time we've ever toured a record. I just felt insane, because we had very high hopes for this record. I don't like to send demos or anything to anybody anymore, because I just don't want to hear anything in the interim where it's like, ‘Oh, the recording is done, but you can't change anything now that this person has had this lukewarm response.’ The thing was, a lot of people we know didn’t have lukewarm responses, so we were like, “Maybe we have something here. People keep telling us.” I did not set realistic expectations, but I also burned myself out trying to promote this record.
Something I learned that I will take with me is that no matter who you are, you have everybody's attention for a week. If you are strategic enough, you can expand that to three weeks. I've watched amazing records get brushed over in the last five years, and the reality is that people are just going to move on. It’s a law of nature at this point. I wish that I didn't drive myself so insane. I would probably be more strategic in that. Hit it really fucking hard and plan for three weeks of bullshit spamming people with and then just disappear. It doesn't matter, and in a way, saying that is kind of freeing.
SWIM: There's a beauty in relinquishing that pressure and responsibility. That’s the thing with the digital age and all of us having all recorded music at our fingertips all the time. That, along with the idea that something is considered outdated even if it's only a year old. If someone found Infinite Void now there would be some motherfucker out there saying, “Oh, it's from last year? Why are you listening to that?” The kinds of people who are only listening to what’s new, which is insane to me. Especially because, like you were saying, Sierra, I've been going back to a lot of 90s and early 00s stuff, and it's still there. It's still good. They're still going to make money off of it if I actually buy it. You guys can still reach people, and people will still be finding the record.
There's so much pressure to hang on to that initial attention span and get those jingly keys as long as possible for people, but now more than ever, there is freedom in letting people move on, and trusting that they'll come back to it. I do it all the time. There's something to be said about celebrating something when it's being released, being excited about it, being proud of it, getting that well-deserved attention for however long you can, but it's still out. People can still listen to it. You guys are still jamming those songs, obviously. You'll still attract new people all the time who find it.
SIERRA: Yeah, that’s true
SWIM: Is there anything that you guys didn't get around to on Infinite Void, or are you starting from scratch material-wise on the next release?
JOE: More sonic textures. More ambiance. Different sounds, production styles. Incorporating elements from different genres. Production specifically – including synths, percussion, different elements like that. I want to add vibraphone to a song. Stuff that would obviously have to be recreated with a plugin, but still.
SWIM: Speaking of percussion, you guys just got a new drummer, which is super exciting. How's it been bringing Dee into the fold?
SIERRA: She has been ready since frame one. Really, we just tell her what to learn.
JAIME: I've been just amazed since day one that we jammed with her. She knew all the tunes, and maybe there were very tiny notes, maybe a few things, but I was all for it. I was ready to just give her the drummer job right then and there.
SIERRA: We've known her for years. Joe's known her the longest out of all of us. I mean, Ciara you know her from American Stereo, right? She was in a metal band before that, too. It's one of those things where we had another drummer for so long that we didn't know who would've possibly been interested. She was like, “Yeah, I always thought it would've been cool to play with you guys, I had to jump at the opportunity,” and she really is the best person for the job. She has experience playing multiple different genres of music. Math rock, metal, and punk. All these areas that our music sort of touches. She's very creative. I love the way she plays the “Catastrophe” outro live. I'm very excited for people to see that at shows, because she puts her own spin on it.
JAIME: People are in for a treat when we play catastrophe live with Dee. It's going to be sick.
SIERRA: She learned everything so fast. It's crazy.
SWIM: That's awesome. I think a lot of the time, when people think about the identity of a band, maybe they think about the front person. That is, if the front person leaves or changes, it's either the end of the band or a huge change. But when a bassist or drummer changes, people don't register it the same. I think with you guys and Dee, it's very exciting to see how she's going to interpret the material she didn't write and put her own spin on it. This is a new era for you guys. You are such an instrumental band and every piece of With Sails Ahead, especially on Infinite Void, fucking hits, so I'm excited to hear what Dee does with it and how she puts her own identity on it, too.
JAIME: In a way, that'll help breathe some new life into the Infinite Void tunes as well.
SWIM: Absolutely. Well, thank you guys for hanging out and chatting about Infinite Void! Do you have any last thoughts on the album turning one? About the album in general? Anything you guys want to plug?
JAIME: Well, for me, all I can say is that ever since I started to pick up the bass and wanted to be in a band, the first thing I ever wanted to do was be on a full-length record. So, Infinite Void was the dream right there. This record will always have that space in my heart. I'll never forget this record.
JOE: Infinite Void was the first album I produced in full. It was a really cool experience, and I learned a lot. I'm excited for the future and being able to apply what I learned from Infinite Void to the next step.
SIERRA: I'm not even exaggerating when I say that releasing Infinite Void to me was bigger than my high school and college graduations. I’ve always dreamt of releasing a full-length album, and when you dream of that as a kid, you can't really predict what that's going to look like. I had the best possible first album experience of my life because of my bandmates. We felt so embarrassed for so long, ‘cause it was taking forever, but even though Infinite Void was a small moment for a lot of people, it was a massive chapter of my life, because it wasn't just everything that happened to each of us while we were making the record and all the things that the record is written about. We took our time with it. We actually got to enjoy the album writing process.
This is the case with a lot of things in life; you can't enjoy the slow burn. Everything is go, go, go. Fast turnaround. How quickly can you make a new song and stay relevant? Of course, you don't have to play the game. I have to remind myself of this often. I fucking fell off of making TikTok videos. I've fallen off on a lot of things, 'cause I learned that the world's still going to turn and I need to just breathe. Infinite Void is never going to leave me, ‘cause I learned so much. So much of it stays with me, but part of me is ready to move on to the next thing. I hope people still find it all the time and I want to give it its flowers as much as I can while we're not promoting some other bullshit.
[All laugh]
SWIM: Totally. Well, thank you all again so much for doing this! Love y’all so much and I’m excited to see what’s next for the band!
Ciara Rhiannon (she/her) is a pathological music lover writing out of a nebulous location somewhere in the Pacific Northwest within close proximity of her two cats. She consistently appears on most socials as @rhiannon_comma, and you can read more of her musical musings over at rhiannoncomma.substack.com.
