We recently connected with Paul Padgett and have shared our conversation below.

Paul, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

Honestly a lot was self taught, when I was 16-17 I became very interested in learning how to do harsh vocals after listening to extreme metal for a while, listening to bands like WhiteChapel, Oceano, The Acacia Strain, Elysia and Suicide Silence really inspired me to try it out. Back then there wasn’t really any helpful tutorials on screaming, one that was notable though was Phil Bozeman of WhiteChapel doing quick videos of what he does. I feel like I learned pretty quick while not knowing if I was doing it correctly in a way that would be harmful but I just did it almost everyday and within a year I went to start a band.

I stopped doing vocals for quite a few years, I was my biggest obstacles but I missed playing shows and being in the scene so much I decided to pick it back up in 2019 and really honed in on paying more attention to vocal health and basic fundamentals, like breathing, proper use of the diaphraghm and staying properly hydrated, as well as tonal awareness, which helped develop my craft and technique further, i couldnt always practice at home so on drives to and from work I would do vocals in my car probably looking like a maniac aha. I watched some videos here and there to see if what I was doing is correct and learn new things and tried to apply them in my practice but all in all,

I just did what is natural and tried out new things that I thought would be cool to use to expand my range and see if they work. I’m very hard on myself and think I need to improve more constantly, it’s my peers that also push me to strive to improve we have such amazing talent in our local scene and and we’re always hyping each other up and improving ourrespective crafts.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I’m the vocalist of CRUELINTENT, a deathcore band from Toronto, Ontario.

I became involved in what I do because I love heavy music and wanted to make my own music and make peoples head bang and invoke something in them whether its awareness on world issues or to convey messages that can resonate with someone if theyre going or have gone through hardships, just to establish connection at any rate, also telling stories is a great creative output to have which I would like to explore with a bit more in later material.

I’ve been told numerous times that CRUELINTENT is different from everyone else and that we have our own sound. I don’t know how to explain it myself, I feel that we are differernt but also not at the same time. We do use a diverse range of sounds and styles while having it still be cohesive where there is a signature to our sound but in the end it’s still deathcore, just our own version of it though, as cliche as that sounds.

There’s nothing like performing music to a live crowd with your friends, the atmosphere and energy is the best high and I’d love to do it for as long as I can, whether there’s 10 or 300 people, there is nothing like it and it’s all worth it, the time, money, stress, sacrifices and obstacles, if its your passion and what you love to do, it’s all worth playing that 30 minute set

One of the biggest highlights outside of the band was helping host a show with Northlane, Texas In July, Structures and Intervals back in 2013, biggest show I ever was apart of and the venue was packed.

I think our biggest accomplishment as a band was opening for Signs of the Swarm and To The Grave with a sold out crowd in Toronto back in November just months after we opened for death metal legends Decrepit Birth and Psycroptic. Hoping for more opportunities and to accomplish more by next year, we will see what the future holds.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The best way to support artists, is pretty simple and it’s to actually support them come to shows, be present and engaging, tell your friends about them, share them online and like a post, it just takes a moment and in a world where everything is algorithm based that goes a long way. We are always grateful for whatever support we get.

If you’re at a show and have money to spare buy some merch, come say hi, most musicians enjoy that aspect of just talking to people that appreciate what they do and it definitely helps us continue doing what we love, knowing that people genuinely enjoy our craft means the world, without those people no bands would survive. I feel like we should bring back the old school street teams and post flyers and all that stuff we kinda lost since social media took over

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

What we do as creatives may seem to be irrational and a little crazy to people outside of it, like why would you spend all this time and money and drive hours just to play to a few people in the middle of nowhere, the starving artist feeds off that entire experience and the hustle of it, as I mentioned before, there is nothing like performing music for others especially if it’s your own original songs. It has its hardships but it’s worth it, just as people make sacrifices for their day to day jobs we do that with music, whether it’s our homelife, work, whatever, we do it all so we can pursue our passion. It’s not even for hopes of making it big, sure it’ would be nice to achieve that level and get some money doing it, but it is not the main focus, you do it for the love first, if not then you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. I’d love to be a full time touring artist but it’s not for the money, it’s for the experience of getting to do what I love everyday and visit new places and even go to other countries around the world that’s the dream. Everyone has a dream like that, artists just get a bad rep becuase yes its not the most pragmatic thing to commit yourself fully to but even then some business are created on a risk of throwing everything away and investing your time and resources to bring an idea to life and see it manifest.

I do feel there is less of a discord now than there used to be and that there is more understanding now that art is a a necessity in life and is a driving force of what contributes to shaping and transforming society and propagating ideas and social change whether on a micro or macrocosmic scale, especially music, it is food for the soul, it is what helps us on our good and bad days and also bring us to realizations and can spark our own creativity and desire to create something ourselves. There is also the whole community aspect of things which is incredibly important, it’s like a big family and it’s awesome to see so many people support and build each other up and I feel our local scene here in Ontario is for the most part a healthy and supportive one, there is no shortage of talented bands and musicians here across the board and it will continue to grow.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/cruelintent
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/CRUELINTENTBAND
• Linkedin: https://beacons.ai/cruelintent
• Youtube: https://youtu.be/fSUGDeG5UwY?si=4Gx1aA2BJfHp7GYO
• Other: Spotify : https://open.spotify.com/artist/2jnum9HTxtOYjI37NFN3CaApple Music :
  https://music.apple.com/us/artist/cruelintent/1622500097

Image Credits

All photos by Tera Hey (@shot.by.demon)