Metalcore Band Windrunner Release Track By Track Breakdown of New EP / Make Announcement

Vietnamese metalcore band Windrunner have sent in a track by track breakdown of their brand new EP entitled Sen. Check out the write up below, however, the band has also just announced that their vocalist is leaving the band.

“With heavy hearts, we announce that our vocalist Duong Bui will be parting ways with WINDRUNNER. On the bright side, Duong is pursuing higher education and we can’t be happier for her. We have grown up together as people and musicians and this chapter will be among the best of our lives. What a crazy and beautiful ride it has been. We thank everybody who has helped us in any way to achieve so much during this time.

All the best to one of the strongest women we know, you will always be a part of the WR family <3

For the rest of us, stay tuned for what’s next.

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“Hi guys, it’s Duong. It’s been the greatest journey I’ve been through with the boys in WINDRUNNER and I’m heartbroken to leave. We’ve had tons of fun, emotional and serious moments with each other as a family and as musicians, inspiring one another to write a lot of music together. I am honored that my voice and soul are a part of our music. We’ve been through so much hardship together like all young people, and we all feel so blessed to be able to experience so many cool things, meet new friends and perform at many amazing places for the best audiences together. I will forever treasure those moments we had and the music that we created as the best chapter of our youth.

No matter what happens, I believe the band will continue to surprise you with WINDRUNNER’s music, and I will always be there to support my boys. And about me, I will never stop making music and doing vocals regardless of where I am, so you might see me again in no time. 😉
I wish WINDRUNNER’s boys all the best!

I want to say thank you to all the brothers and sisters, all the friends and people who supported us along the way. You made us feel like the luckiest musicians!
From Duong with all the love”

Now check out the track by track write up below:

Rose
Rose is the first song that Trung and Duong wrote together back in 2012 for another band and this version is actually closer to the first version, which starts with the piano passage. For this song, we wanted to put more emphasis on the piano and also tried to mix things up a bit with the addition of male vocals, performed by David and also a guitar solo towards the end.

Cedar
Early on, when talking about which songs to do a remix of, Cedar was instantly the first pick because it is actually one of our favorite songs on “MAI” but it never got popular as it wasn’t released as a single. It’s a positive song, so we made it into a fun alt-rock, bouncy kind of jam. The lyrics embody our relationship as a band, as we have been friends for so long, almost like we grew up together, so even with Duong’s departure, we are still happy to have spent our youth and this chapter of our lives together.

Sakura
We wanted to make Sakura different from the rest and the initial idea was a lo-fi hip hop vibe. However, when Trung started designing the synth sounds, he accidentally made a pulsing gong type of sound that sounds like a bronze bell used at Vietnamese temples and that literally sparked the rest of the song, turning it into a more ambient song with a traditional Vietnamese music vibe. We believe that the traditional sounds of the bell, flute, dan tranh and percussions really mixed well with the western chord progression and melodies to represent who we are and how we approach music.

Lotus
Lotus was also one of those songs that we really liked but wasn’t the popular one among the rest of the songs on “MAI”. We completely changed it up from the riffy, fast-paced, straight up metalcore original, to a more ambient pop rock track. There’s a debate within the band about which is the better version of the two, but in the end we actually chose it as the first single of the EP because it shows how we can sound totally different, but still sound like WINDRUNNER, or at least we hope so 😀

& 06. Orchid & Sakura D.A Remix
D.A is one of our good friends from back in the day when we first started playing music. He was a drummer in a metal band at the time, so naturally he was really into our music. On our end, we listen to a lot of different kinds of music and have always been interested in how our music can sound breaking out of the boundaries of a typical “metal” band, which is the reason of making this EP in the first place. So when we talked about the idea of working together on some songs in EDM styles, D.A was immediately in and he did an amazing job on his 2 favorite songs of ours. With this EP, we hope to present the different sounds that could be possible with our music.

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