BAND INTERVIEW: Burn Absolute

Written by Jesse Smith

Burn Absolute is almost as fresh on the scene as you can be, but certainly as silent. Popping into the scene In March of this year with their first ever release “Through My Eyes” featuring Shawn Spann of I The Breather which features heavy guitars, bouncy riffs and everything else that makes a solid metalcore song. Since then, the band has released two more singles and are set to release their anticipated first EP titled “Catharsis”. As they gear up for release day, we were able to get a hold of them for some quick questions! 

What’s up guys! Thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us! First let’s talk about the band’s origin. How did you form and how did you come up with the name “Burn Absolute” ? 
Burn Absolute originally started as an online project between drummer Anthony Marrujo and Guitar player Micky Branez. After jamming for some time over the internet guitar player Ryan Earley joined the group. Shortly after this the group recruited vocalist Robby Anttila, creating what we now know as Burn Absolute. The name Burn Absolute came while Anthony was listening to Parkway Drive and heard a part where they chant “Burn” and it just stuck in his head until the word absolute came into thought creating; Burn Absolute. 

You guys are pretty fresh with releasing music. 3 singles in and each keeps getting better. What is it like being a fresh face in 2023? What are some of the hardships you’re finding being an independent artist and what are some things you’ve learned that are now easier? 
It is definitely an uphill challenge being a new band in 2023. Lucky for us, we all have prior experience being in bands and have a strong mentality of teamwork. Something we’ve noticed is the importance of networking with other bands and community members. We’ve learned being task oriented is your best bet to make sure you take everything one step at a time and don’t rush the process.

I saw that you guys were working with Shawn Spann of I, The Breather. How did you get connected and what has the process been like between you two?
Shawn is an amazing person and has been nothing short of a godsend. Robby met Shawn a few years back when working on a different project. From there they kept in contact and when it came time to record our demos we couldn’t figure out what we wanted to do for the choruses. After some trial and error; Shawn stepped into the picture and decided to help us out. We plan on working on many more tunes together in the future.

What is  it like being a new band doing the DIY touring circuit? You’re about to head out for about a week with Catcher and the Rye & The Pine Drape. How did you put together that tour and was it more difficult to book a short tour than you originally thought?
The tour kind of came together randomly. Being our band is very unorthodox and cannot play local shows as often as most. We thought it was best to do small regional tours to make the most out of us meeting up. We booked the entire thing by ourselves and along the way we made friends with Catcher and the Rye and The Pine Drape. DIY is definitely hard but it has brought us very valuable lessons. 

What is next for Burn Absolute? Other than the next tour, what are you working on?
We are already demoing out our next EP. We plan on taking our storytelling and songwriting to the next level. Production, writing, and presentation are our main focus moving forward.

Now for some fun questions! Who in the band is the band dad, and who is the trouble maker?
Anthony is definitely the band dad; without him we would likely be all over the place. Robby is likely the troublemaker but it’s always in good fun. 

If you could open for any band, alive or dead, who would you pick? Just one.
That is a very hard question and I’m sure everyone has their own answer, but I would have to say The Acacia Strain.

Does the band have any pre-show rituals? Does anyone have one personally?
Aside from pre show warm ups; I tend to think about the set, envision myself on stage, and get into the mindset of telling the story of Cartharis.

Thank you guys so much for answering questions! Is there anything you want to plug?
Many thanks for the opportunity to share more about ourselves. You can find our new EP ‘Cartharis’ on ALL platforms August 5th! We will be on tour from August 18th-22nd in the southeast. We will also be invading Florida with Omenkiller in November!