We were lucky to catch up with William Richards recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, William thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

As a creative, it’s hard to navigate your audiences. I personally struggled in the beginning to find where I belonged as a performer. I really wanted to bring something new to people, something that would be unbelievable and new for people. It was hard, sometimes you just have to accept that people will listen to what’s comfortable before they listen to something new. That was definitely the case when I started doing live performances. One thing I would tell another creative just starting out, just finding their sound or voice; don’t care about what anyone else is doing. People will love you more if you stick to your own values and who you are rather than trying to do something that someone has heard before just to be accepted or understood better. Be you. Always you.

William, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I’m Will, and I’ve always wanted to be a musician in some kind of way. I went through a long while of trying to find my way in music, from being in a band with no name, to Interplanetary Decimation, my current band on hiatus right now. Then came Hate Incarnate in 2020. It started as something I could just put my mind into where everything I wasn’t doing with my band, I could do it there. Well, that certainly took form. Here I am now, five years later playing shows with some of the best local bands out there. Writing music always felt like a reflex to me. It’s something I know I can not only control, but also something that if I just let the music flow, it happens faster than I realize and then I end up with three full length albums. During the period of developing Hate Incarnate and Interplanetary Decimation, I needed a place to house the two names. Thus, MetaFaction Productions was born. I began recording music for other artists, and even began trying to formulate MetaFaction Productions as a Record Label. Turns out that is a whole lot more than what I expected, and so I took a couple years off in 2022 following some mental health problems in conjunction with my playing shows. MetaFaction Productions is something I’ve always imagined could be the place the bands and music artists of Massachusetts will all know, sort of how everyone knows the phone book is Yellow Pages; I want people to know you can DM or email us to get booked for a show. We’ve began playing shows all the way from South Massachusetts, to the North Shore, and all the way to Middle East in Cambridge! Having started this business quite literally in my backyard, I can safely say I am very proud of the direction we are headed. We always stay true to our local roots, we try to keep our shows local and our prices low to accommodate for all audience types! We don’t hyper specify on one genre, either. I feel it’s in everyone’s best interest to book all genres. You get more exposure for everyone, and people love a mix of music! You can have all one genre or a mix of genres! People love that stuff, as we’ve seen. I can call myself very lucky and privileged to be in the position I’m in. It’s taken a LOT of work, but we’re here. We did it.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Society can begin to drop the average ticket price around everywhere. A lot of small artists and bands have friends who aren’t able to pay a whole ticket fee. Some shows do a “pay what you can” style. I feel there should be a supplement somewhere where promotions can begin to drop pricing in certain aspects to accommodate more audience. Venues can do a better job by allowing more artists and bands with little to no draw to play their shows just as a bigger draw would. I feel a lot of underdogs do not get the chance they should, myself being one of those underdogs, which is one big reason MetaFaction Production’s mantra is “Invest In The Future Of Music”. We want to see everyone grow!

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

I want to see every underdog receive the same treatment any other superstar would. I want MetaFaction Productions to be the promotion any big or small band or artist can come to, and see themselves thrive. I believe everyone should have an equal opportunity to play any venue, anywhere. My goal has always been to provide a space for anyone of all walks of life or draw, whatever it is, come play your music. We want you here.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.MetaFactionProductions.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metafactionproductions?igsh=OWo4NWlxODVqNTN5&utm_source=qr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@metafactionproductions?si=ZwOriaIeE2SQeNRi