It was not so long ago that Iowa rockers Saul ditched their progressive, poly-rhythmic sound, for a more mainstream beat. And they don’t regret any of it.
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Saul has been reeling in the near overnight success of everything since late last year, when founding members and brothers, Blake and Zach Bedsaul, were able to leave the monotony of their 9 to 5s and focus on music full time. As they approach the release of their debut full-length, Rise as Equals on October 23, they looked back on the unexpected opportunity to work with Disturbed’s David Draiman on their single “King of Misery” and how saying goodbye to their former sound was the best decision they have made.
“Back in the day we would talk about wanting to tour with bands like Periphery, but it’s a hard audience,” Blake told American Songwriter. “Zach and I have been playing together forever as brothers. We always wanted to do music and our styles evolved a lot over the last few years. We used to be very Tool, with more poly-rhythmic vibes, riffs in 5/7 and stuff like that. In the recent years we wanted to go more metal, 4/4 and 6/8 vibes, that worked and felt good. in the last three years we met up with Wil and I stepped down from bass, then Myles came in and it was just a perfect fit.”
And what better-suited metal icon to navigate their first single, “King of Misery” than Nu-metal band Disturbed’s frontman David Draiman. Saul and Draiman weren’t brought together in any particularly interesting way or notable occurrence, it was a simple friend of a friend case scenario set into motion by A&R Darren Dalessio at Saul’s label, Spinefarm Records .
“It was definitely more vocal melodies and some lyrics he did,” Blake said about Draiman’s contribution to the song. “He had a say in the music but more so kept the vibe and we ran with it. It was great to work with him, he was an amazing guy, very humble and down to earth. A guy in his position with numbers-ones and all that you didn’t really know what to expect, but he was super nice and easy to work with. It’s a lifelong friendship now.”
“King of Misery” wasted no time jumping into the heavy mainstream riffs that Saul set out to wrangle, followed by vocal melodies, textures and small idiosyncrasies that are reminiscent of Draiman’s own style but through Blake’s vastly different and warmer vocal range.
A radio voice for sure, you would never know Blake got his start as a bassist in Zach’s high school cover band. “Zach had a cover band doing Oasis and stuff like that, y’know how you start,” Blake remembered. “And one day he comes up to me I’m like 16, and says ‘our bassist is terrible do you think you could do it?’ And me being a cocky teen, I’m like ‘yea!” So, I went out and bought a 4-string Fender P-Bass and a 200-watt Peavy and started plugging away, learning the songs. After that was done with sports and just dove in.”
After years of playing bass alongside Zach, Blake effortlessly jumped into the additional role of vocalist in Saul, out of sheer practicality. Zach noticed Blake’s skill early on, when their bandmember potentials were sparse, ultimately forcing Blake to step into a vocal space.
“When Zach and I started our band, we had people come in and audition for the band vocals and after the tenth one I told Zach, ‘I think I can do it better than these guys’ and I just kept doing it. And the last few years I told Zack I need to step down from being the bassist/vocalist to just vocalist and we can get someone else in here. And Will (Mcllravy) was at one of our shows and he came back to our jam spot after. He started playing bass and I was like ‘hey dude ever think about playing bass for Saul?’ And it was done.”
With a natural connection as brothers, Saul set out to define a similar familial structure with their fanbase. But it was hard to avoid tagging them as something that bands like KISS and others had done before. But after writing their song, “The Equals,” which got its name from a lyric on their previous EP, they knew they had the perfect name for their devoted fans, who they have always placed on an equal footing with themselves.
“We wanted to get out of the idea of calling the fans ‘The Army’ or ‘Saul Nation’ or whatever just because it’s been done several times,” Blake said. “And we had a lyric from our opener on Touching in Parallels about ‘rising as equals’ and Zach loved that and we started using that term and calling our fans ‘Equals.’ When we decided to put out a full length- the first thought was to call it Rise as Equals. Because the band is equally as important as the fans, they go to shows, buy merch, request us on radio. They’re the driving force of the band and that was our way to show appreciation.”
The positive outlook portrayed in “The Equals” was not always a constant outlook of Saul’s, especially a couple years ago when Blake and Zach were struggling with the reality of the harsh limitations in the music industry. They wrote their latest single from Rise as Equals, “Looking to Fight” as they tangoed with the idea of -what if? And how they would assimilate back into their dreaded, 100-hour work weeks and relatively mundane domestic lives if music did not pan out.
“It was a tough time right before the release of our Aeons EP and ‘Brother’ single,” Blake said. “We were talking about if it didn’t work, that this would be our last hooray and we’d go back to our 9-to-5. And I became bitter about that (possibility) and home life and started drinking and sulking. The song is about trying to overcome that mindset.”
Ironically, the song that grappled with their struggles and concern over not making it in music went on to become their latest single from Rise as Equals, propelling them even further into stardom.
“Everything is just bigger now,” Blake said. “Instead of ‘we want to tour,’ it’s more like, ‘well what’s Disturbed or Shinedown doing?’ The goal is the same, but the platform is bigger.”
When Blake remembers how he and Zach started, recalling Zack’s first guitar, a Harmony that he bought off a rack at a local JCPenney, complete with a monstrous 5-watt amp, he is more than thrilled at how far they have come as artist and brothers- who have always had the same dreams and fought side by side to accomplish them.
“I wouldn’t want to be in a band with anyone else,” Blake said about his brother. “We’re best friends, we have the same mentality and we’re always shooting for the stars.”
And Saul is not letting anything slow their progression, not even the pandemic as they are using every minute to their advantage. They have been working on new songs for a second release, and most recently they have been keeping their hands busy, gutting and remodeling a new tour bus they recently acquired, so they are waiting and ready when the time is right to hit the road.
Rise as Equals is available everywhere on October 23 and you can order a copy and become one of ‘The Equals’ here.
