It’s pleasing to find Noah Sebastian in good spirits as he joins Kerrang! today. Just a couple of weeks ago, the Bad Omens frontman was forced to postpone a handful of shows on his band’s U.S. headline run owing to a particularly nasty throat infection. You’d think it might dampen his mood, but despite only recently recovering, he’s diving headfirst back into the swing of things, and informs K! that prior to our conversation he was enjoying playing around with a new computer set-up he’s had installed, which he’s going to be using to work on music.
This small talk is symptomatic of his approach throughout our time with him. Noah is absolutely fixated on his band, every answer he gives is contextualised by what it means for Bad Omens or how it affects their music or current trajectory. Far more at ease talking shop than anything bordering on the personal, whether it’s by design or not, the mentality he presents is refreshingly driven, painting the picture of an artist who obsesses over all the small details of his creative output, as well as everything that goes alongside it.
That drive is paying dividends. Last year’s excellent third LP The Death Of Peace Of Mind has catapulted Bad Omens – completed by guitarist Joakim ‘Jolly’ Karlsson, bassist Nicholas Ruffilo and drummer Nick Folio – into the big leagues, garnering hundreds of millions of streams, radio hits in the States, and cementing their status as one of contemporary rock’s major players. Theirs is a true metalcore crossover success story, and for Noah, it’s now a case of simply bettering what they’ve already done, rather than looking to emulate the achievements of others.
“I feel like we’re now at a place where I have my own North Star when it comes to creating – I have this newfound respect for myself,” Noah begins. “I don’t mean it in an egotistical way, but I just want to make music that I don’t hear other bands making. It’s difficult to reinvent the wheel when making a rock album, and The Death Of Peace Of Mind is very all-over-the-place, very experimental, to the extent that if you were to hear some songs in isolation, you’d never guess that we were a rock band, and vice-versa. I’m in a cool place right now where I feel like it’s up to me to make new music to raise the bar.”
Noah is genuine when he says his desire to raise the standard in rock isn’t about ego. Despite having a rock radio hit in the U.S. – the massively anthemic Just Pretend – he pays no attention to airplay or chart positions. His studio time isn’t spent searching for Bad Omens’ next banger. Every move he makes is in service of the music and his constant desire for self-improvement. He is, “My own template, my own guiding light,” he says.
“It’s just me trying to impress myself,” Noah explains of his approach. “I don’t care about what’s popular – I just like making music that I’m proud of. I’m my own biggest fan. Making [the music] perfect and better than the thing I did before… I think that’s Bad Omens’ secret weapon. All the other things that then happen are a result of that. People can see that it’s authentic, that we’re just trying to have fun and do cool stuff.”
The Death Of Peace Of Mind and its subsequent success has, Noah says, “solidified my confidence in myself as a songwriter and singer”. The way he speaks – being his own North Star, wanting to raise the standard of rock music in general – certainly backs up those statements of confidence. But Bad Omens have been no overnight success story, nor has Noah always been so self-assured in his frontman status. The emergence of this enigmatic rock star has been the result of painstaking work, long bouts of creative isolation and a firm commitment to being the very best.