Interview: Getting to Know Ruled By Raptors

Brit hard-hitters Ruled By Raptors will release their explosive mini-album, A Shadow That Never Moves, on Friday 2nd October. Marking a clear evolution in their sound, the record pushes their blend of progressive elements, high-octane riffs, and melodic vocals into heavier, more expansive territory. The first preview arrives with the single and video, Sleep Dep., out Friday 29th May. In this interview, we get to know them a little better.

1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.

Chris had been in a band since 2011 that had done a few things nationally and that band became a bit of a ship of Theseus situation, with members coming and going, settling down. and we all joined gradually throughout 2016. At first, we focussed on gigging and touring their last EP, but when we started writing together for the first time there was a shift in sound. Both Chris & Matt suggested that we didn’t sound the same and should start over as a new band rather than always trying to sound like them. So in 2018 that band ended and we began recording our first EP as Ruled By Raptors hitting the ground running in 2019.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

Generally we just say Post Hardcore, but we have a lot of influences and we all like a large variety of music and styles, so we don’t always sit flush in that category.

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

We’ve got quite a bit on, our new single ‘Sleep Dep.’ comes out on the 29th of May, then we have another 2 singles after that before our mini-album drops on the 2nd of October. With all that we’ll be releasing videos and touring in support of the record.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

Just generally getting back to doing things again. We have a lot of announcements coming up for stuff that we’re doing around the UK, which we’re very excited for. The last couple of years, have been very intermittent for us as Chris’ mam took ill, other than a few gigs away in 2024 and 2025. Last year was pretty much when we knew where things stood and we began working on the mini album again and then we won Metal 2 The Masses in Newcastle and played Bloodstock on the New Blood Stage. So we made an active effort at the end of the year and start of this one to just get everything finished and make a massive push!

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

It’s been a bit of a journey to be honest. We wanted a quick follow up to ‘Silent Sound’ which itself was delayed because of covid. Chris’s mam had been ill just before we went to Lincoln to record with Sam Cook at the end of 2023, and then when we got back she was taken into hospital again and she stayed in for 6 months, so Chris and his wife rushed to get married in the August after she got out. With that, everything was just put on hold. We did a few short stints away, long weekends, that sort of thing, just to keep us out there, but pretty much everything was on hold. Eventually last year we got back together, we wanted to make some small changes to the recordings we’d done, we still didn’t know how things were going to be and so we asked Sam if we could take the recordings away for Matt to mix at our own pace. Which to be honest was just as well because Bloodstock happened and we had to focus on that! So the last 7 or 8 months have just been focussed on getting this record finished, the videos, artwork, everything. We’re just relieved to get it out there and share it with the world.

6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?

A lot of our music is about politics and mental health struggles. Chris writes the lyrics from a personal point of view or at least bases them on his own experiences. He had already been diagnosed with OCPD 15+ years ago and in the last couple of years, he has been diagnosed with ADHD and is now on medication for it. Some of the tunes on this record are him working through his issues caused by his problems and how he feels it affects others. As a whole, we’ve all had our own mental health struggles and we do make an effort to discuss that at every show on stage, music is very cathartic and it can be so incredibly healing both creating and performing it.

7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?

We don’t tend to have a lot of problems creating it, there can be days you just struggle with writing, etc, but we tend to draw a line under something, record it and put it aside on a dropbox drive to finish off at some other point. In all honesty there are a few tracks on this mini-album where the music was written before ‘Silent Sound’ and the lyrics were scrapped and started again. Sometimes it’s just not the right time to finish that tune and it’s best to just start again and work with something else so you have that adrenaline rush, but always keep it around just incase you find that connection with it again!

8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?

Honestly this is a one we really struggle with. We have come up with a schedule of posting but honestly having to keep up with each social website and then what their algorithm demands, the closed doors, the pay walls, it’s all very taxing. It often feels like you figure a website out just so you can reach out to the people who already like you and then they move the goal posts. We’ve learned though that it’s just imperative to stay vocal or you just get lost in the void, as for the success in likes and follows, we haven’t really had a lot of that, we’ve been fairly lucky to be involved with MC Lars since 2019, where we’ve done two tours with him and then also played Slam Dunk Festival as his backing band, so that’s really helped open up some doors and then obviously winning Metal 2 The Masses and playing Bloodstock last year has been massive benefit to us.

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

Haha, it’s rarely enjoyable. We do try to make fun videos for announcements, etc though. We also divide a lot of the social media stuff between us and cover for each other to help kill the monotony of it.

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

The only thing we can ask is that they give us a chance. Check out our music or our videos and then get down for a gig. It’s amazing how many people will do one or the other and not both. Sometimes for whatever reason you don’t connect with a band’s recordings, but you might be won over by them live, and again, some people can’t connect with a live band without knowing the music first. People forget that a band has two faces, live and recorded and sometimes you need to see both to fully understand them.

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

We’re all massive Newcastle United fans, although that hasn’t really been all that relaxing this season. We all are gamers to some degree too.

12. Where can people find you?

We are everywhere. Instagram, facebook, youtube, bandsintown, songkick, bandcamp, tik tok… and we are @ruledbyraptors or ruledbyraptors on all of them. The best place to go though is our linktree www.linktr.ee/ruledbyraptors where you can get to all of our socials!