Interview with Pete Devine of Pete’s Rock News and Views (https://petesrocknewsandviews.com)
PD: How would you describe yourself or your band as an artist?
Oathbound: When it comes down to it, we’re just a group friends that love playing heavy music together and are honestly flattered that anyone listens to us! We try to write music that speaks from and to the heart but don’t take ourselves overly seriously either.
PD: Can you tell us briefly about your background – i.e. where you’re from, how you came to make music, etc. What is the band’s lineup?
Oathbound: We are from the Pacific Northwest of the USA. We originated from Seattle, Washington, but through several lineup updates, we now have members between both there and Portland, Oregon. I think every single one of us are obsessed with music and have wildly different musical tastes that we somehow are able to coalesce into what makes us Oathbound. Oathbound is fronted by CJ Brunke on vocals and reared by Taylor Harper and Viktor Schultz on guitars, Travis Morlan on drums and Steve Schwarz on bass.
PD: Who and what inspires you to make music, both in terms of musical and other influences? What do you like to write about in your songs?
Oathbound: There’s a feeling you get when you hear the perfect chorus. A rush of dopamine that makes you genuinely feel something – whether it’s sadness or excitement. Whatever the emotion is, it’s 100% real and keeps you coming back for more. It’s as necessary as the air we breathe. That’s what inspires us – it’s the chase of creating that feeling in others.
PD: What are your aspirations as an artist?
Oathbound: I think setting our sights on “being a rockstar” is foolhardy and unrealistic with the state of the industry, so we try to focus on incremental growth and doing the next best thing that will get our music to reach new ears. We live by the mantra “no off days” and try and be the hardest working band there is.
PD: What is the proudest moment in your music career so far?
Oathbound: There has been quite a few proud moments because I don’t think any of us ever started this thinking we’d amount to anything more than a jam band. But things tend to grow and snowball and now we’re so much further than we ever thought we’d be. I think the most validating moment for us was being featured in Loudwire as one of the top 11 most anticipated progressive metal albums of 2026. It kinda came out of nowhere and was incredibly surreal. We don’t stop to celebrate the wins often, but we
felt pretty good about that one for a while.
PD: Promoting one’s music is such a challenge these days, especially with so many new artists emerging from bedrooms in the day of the home studio. How is that going?
Oathbound: It really comes down to hard work, consistency and a refusal to let obstacles stand in your way. Literally everything we know about marketing our music or editing content we have taught ourselves through hours and hours of making mistakes until we get things right. We try to be sponges and soak up as much information as possible to give ourselves an advantage over other bands that are all trying to claw through the noise. We are lucky enough to have been able to build a little momentum over the years, but consistency is the key.
PD: And how do you book and promote your live shows and tours? Any performances coming up?
Oathbound: As far as tours go, we have a booking agent that handles a majority of that stuff. That’s incredibly stressful and exhausting work that we are glad to hand off to someone else! We’ve got a short run on the west coast of the USA planned for May but we’ll be back out on the road in June for a few weeks all over the west and Midwest supporting our album, Colors in Grey.
PD: What do you think about downloading music online? What about streaming sites like Spotify?
Oathbound: It’s pretty clear that physical media has become a novelty, and as much as some folks wish it would come back, I don’t think it’s gonna happen. Does Spotify exploit artists? Absolutely. Do small artists have many other reasonable choices? Absolutely not. That leaves you with trying to learn how to play the game the best you can if you want to achieve your goals, whatever those are.
PD: What song do you wish you’d written and why?
Oathbound: 100% Master of Puppets. Some may feel like it’s overplayed but it’s undeniably the song that made Metallica the juggernaut they became. It’s got all the elements of a movie in terms of how the song feels like there are several acts. It’s like you’re listening to a story instead of a song. It’s a masterpiece.
PD: Is there anything you don’t like about the music industry, which you would change if you could?
Oathbound: I don’t think there is anything about the music industry that doesn’t exist in every other industry in humanity. There are awesome people and there are terrible people, same as anything. Naturally I wish there was more money to be made, but then again, we aren’t doing this to be rich. We’d play K-Pop if we wanted to make money, not metal.
PD: So, what are you working on at the moment?
Oathbound: We just got home from our spring tour and we’re reloading for a summer of more touring. We’re also right in the middle of writing the next album, so we’ll be shoe horning studio time into our schedule later this summer in hopes of having new music out in early 2027.
PD: Where can we learn more about you and buy your music/merch online, have you any Social Media links that you can share?
Oathbound: Head over to any of the links below and poke around! Thanks so much for the support!
Oathbound Social Media Links
Website www.oathboundband.com
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/oathbound_band/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Oathboundband
TikTok https://www .tiktok.com/@oathbound_band?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc
YouTube http://www.youtube.com/@Oathbound-Band
Spotify Link https://open.spotify.com/artist/4NClWLg0H7Hq76KHTI2yKI?si=11dxLn-cQBuxeG3YMR9mdg
OATHBOUND links:
Band/Artist location – Seattle Washington
Website – Facebook – You Tube – X (Twitter) – Instagram –
Apple – Spotify – Amazon – Deezer – Lnk.bio – TikTok –
Check our page for OATHBOUND
