Q&A: Haley Roughton of Gore. on New EP ‘…Then You Cannot Love Me’
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
☆ STORY BY FAITH LUEVANOS ☆
MODERN METAL MEETS THE EVANGELICAL—in the second chapter in Gore.’s story...Then You Cannot Love Me, out everywhere now. The seven-track EP serves as a sister track to the band’s 2025 EP, If You Do Not Fear Me…, bridging a year-long connection. Composed of lead singer Haley Roughton, guitarist Alex Reyes, bassist Devin Birchfield and drummer Wills Weller, the band’s sound and visuals, as Roughton describes it, are “at the juxtaposition between beauty and filth,” paired with her undeniable faith.
…Then You Cannot Love Me was always intended to be released a year after its counterpart. Roughton shared, ““We always wanted to release it like that. We wanted a more looming, cynical sound in the first EP and as time went on, we wanted to develop the sound towards something closer to what we want to sound like as a band together.
What started as a viral moment for the band has transformed into something beautiful. Today, the band is currently opening for I Prevail on their Violent Nature Tour, alongside artists like Polaris and Amira Elfeky.
The Luna Collective sat down with Roughton to discuss the new EP, how she learned to project her voice, and more. Read the full interview below.
LUNA: Thank you for chatting with Luna today! For our readers who may not be familiar with your music, how would you describe it?
HALEY ROUGHTON: Hey there! I would describe Gore. as emotional gore, not like slasher gore. All the music we write is heavy but yearning, and touches on all sorts of topics regarding love, grief and irreconcilable emotions.
LUNA: For some backstory, how did the band form?
ROUGHTON: The band formed in 2022 when I went to a studio in St. Louis to write some songs with Ben McGuiness and Caleb Freihaut. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with the songs or what I wanted them to represent until after we got done writing them, which those songs ultimately made A Bud That Never Blooms. After that, I knew I wanted to form a band around the sound developed from those songs. Devin [Birchfield] and I were Internet friends for years, Alex [Reyes] and I knew each other from the local scene in Houston, and Wills [Weller] was introduced to us later from our label since Toothgrinder was signed to Spinefarm.
LUNA: Your two new singles, "Crucified" and "Lead Me To The Slaughter," are the stepping stones towards the release of your new EP. How do these two tracks set the tone of what's to come?
ROUGHTON: These tracks set the stage for a brighter style that’s to come in this EP. Though the lyrics in each of the songs are still quite dreary and dark, fans can expect a lot more singing and more memorable choruses than the last EP.
LUNA: You're currently on tour with I Prevail and Polaris. How has it been to test out the new tracks in front of different cities and crowds?
ROUGHTON: It has been incredible. I feel that both “Lead Me To The Slaughter” and “Crucified” have been very well received by the crowd-and especially with “Crucified” I was nervous given the tour bill being so much more on the heavier side. But I’ve been pleasantly surprised.
LUNA: How did you learn that you could sing/scream the way that you do?
ROUGHTON: I was dating a dude in a metal band back in the day and when we broke up I was like, well… this can’t be that hard. So I just tried in my little apartment in Houston and realized I wasn’t actually half bad.
LUNA: You're a NASA spacewalk engineer, which is incredibly cool! How do you balance these two professions?
ROUGHTON: I have my 9-5, and my 5-9. I use my vacation time to tour, and I don’t get many breaks for myself at all. But I always remind myself that I am beyond lucky to even have the opportunity to do both.
LUNA: There's so much care and attention to detail not only in your lyrics, but also in the visuals. When it comes to the visual identity of the band, what would you say are your key symbols or staples?
ROUGHTON: The band has an overarching feminine vision, with lots of softness/floral elements. Key symbols are the juxtaposition of beauty and filth, along with lots of rich Christian imagery, not worship nor blasphemous, but simply a part of the human condition that we all experience, as religion has shaped all of our lives in some way.
LUNA: Any final thoughts you'd like to share about what's to come?
ROUGHTON: We cannot wait to release …Then You Cannot Love Me to all of you soon, and beyond that we have some incredible news coming for you later on.
