Black Vinegar Talks Future and New EP: Rapture
Photo credit: @rogueperspectives
Who is Black Vinegar?
LUKE: We are a progressive metal, 5 piece band, kinda from all over southern Maine. But we say that we are generally from Portland. Myself and Brian Farnsworth play guitar, Eric Farnsworth on drums, Mike Martin on bass, and Nick Chin on vocals.
Black Vinegar wasn’t always the name of this band, there was at one point a change from being called Facing Infinity. Can you detail why the name change? How does it fit better now and where does the name come from?
NICK: When I first joined the band I really pushed to change the name, I kinda hated it. [laughs] There was a self-serious pitch I gave when we were thinking of new band names, but really I thought it was a good name for this type of music and there were no other bands with that name that we could find! But for those that don’t know, Black Vinegar is a real ingredient in Chinese cooking which is a nod to my heritage.
Let’s talk about the new EP that was just released July 31st, 2026. In your opinion, why do an EP vs a full album release?
BRIAN: We all work full time and have perfectionistic tendencies. Having shorter track lists simply allows us to release new material sooner. We started working on this EP shortly after the Sins EP. The biggest difference is that we had Mike for the entirety of the making of this one. This is our first release that’s representative of us as a group with a solidified line-up.
NICK: Lyrically and conceptually, I wanted it to be a counter-point to the Sins EP. Sins was about how we engage in the 7 deadly sins and how that might just lead to our extinction. Rapture to me is about finding joy and happiness despite all the horrible things that we see in our world. There are so many existential threats that I personally get overwhelmed by, and coming up with the lyrics for this EP was a form of therapy for me to recognize that life is a gift and we can choose to participate positively, or get consumed by the negativity. We’re excited to hear what people think and to play it live! We may have some limited physical copies in the future, but otherwise is available anywhere digitally.
What does the future look like for Black Vinegar, do you have any shows up and coming?
ERIC: We’re planning another run of shows in November and starting to branch out into other cities in New England. We always make sure we have a stop or two in Maine whenever we have a batch of shows. As Brian said, we now have a solidified line up and it feels like we’re a real unit. You can expect to see a more focused effort from us as we turn the page with this new EP.
What bands are you greatly influenced by and what specifically do you love about them?
MIKE: We all share some core influences like Between the Buried and Me, The Contortionist, Periphery and Protest the Hero, but all members of the band listen to a lot of different types of music. I was classically trained on piano as a kid and later got into producing electronic and hiphop. I didn’t fully begin delving into the metal world until sometime in highschool. My biggest influences as a bassist are Dan Briggs of Between the Buried and Me, Chi Cheng of Deftones and Carlos Dengler of Interpol.
BRIAN: Mike covered most of my main influences like Between the Buried and Me and The Contortionist. I also really love the long, meandering song structures of bands like Dream Theater and Haken; as well as the riffs and breakdowns of classic mid-2000s metalcore.
ERIC: I’ll ditto influences that Mike and Brian have already said. If you couldn’t tell, Brian is my brother so a lot of his and Luke’s influences also became mine. [laughs] I’ll also add Porcupine Tree and generally anything Gavin Harrison or Steve Wilson is involved in.
LUKE: These guys covered many of my all time favorites here, Between the Buried and Me, Haken, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, but I’ll also add Thank you Scientist, Dillinger Escape Plan, and Reign of Kindo as some of my main influences. I listen to all sorts music and styles which all leave an imprint on how I approach our music, but metal influence is always at the forefront.
NICK: I’ll also ditto what the others have said. Particularly The Contortionist and Leprous with their approach to clean vocals. We also featured Taylor Pace in this EP. He is from Dissonation and Cognitive so there is certainly that very direct influence as well.
Is there any shared interest between the members of Black Vinegar?
LUKE: Being awkward nerds. [laughs]
ERIC: We make an effort to hang out, outside of band commitments. A lot of us game together, some of us play golf or do winter sports together. Brian and Luke have been friends since childhood, and I grew up around both of them, so we genuinely enjoy each other’s company.
What does your music production look like?
BRIAN: We do all the tracking at my home studio, but this is the first project where we worked with someone to mix and master the record. For the Rapture EP we mixed with Will Lederer at Expanding Sky Studio and mastered with Pat Keane. But I’d say a lot of the core instrumental ideas have originated from Luke and Mike. We all contribute the odd part here and there, but it is usually an expansion or modification of an existing part versus something brand new.
LUKE: Yea usually I have some general idea to present to the group. We typically work as a group if we are struggling to land on something and need to work it out as a band. We have regular writing sessions and a lot of times we take on homework to flesh out our respective parts and bring it to the next session to work on from there.
MIKE: I joined the band after the first EP, Sins, had been released, so Rapture was sort of the test run on how I fit into the creative process. As Luke said, a lot of homework is involved, typically me and him adding to Guitarpro files or recording little demos. Along the way critique is given from all members and drives the direction of the songs. Once the strings are mostly figured out, Eric and Nick finalize the drum parts and vocals.
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