A QUICK Q&A WITH FRASER HEARTLINE

Our gal Ashlee had a e-chat with Fraser from Heartline for q quick Q&A about their latest EP ‘i call for the sinking warmth’

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Firstly, congratulations on the release of the EP! What was some of the inspiration behind ‘i call for the sinking warmth’? 
Thank you! Most of the inspiration came from personal issues at the time, there was just so much frustration we wanted to release through music. 

Can you walk me through the creative process that you went through to produce the EP? 
So first our guitarist Fraser started working on the structures and textures throughout 2019 and 2020, and then our vocalist Luke was able to begin building the lyrical content. 

This is probably a tough one…but what’s your personal favourite song off of the EP?
Personally, I (Fraser) think under the willow is my favourite overall, just because it sounds so unique and it’s such an important turning point on the EP. 

You guys were added to the Adelaide show as one of the support act for Belle Haven’s ‘Nobody Likes A Hospital’ tour. How did it feel to play these new songs live?
Amazing! We’ve spent so much time creating a live show that does these songs justice and to see people really get into it was heart-warming. 

I know it was only released a few days ago but how has the response been so far to ‘i call for the sinking warmth’? 
So special. We’ve had so many messages and people really seem to like the whole thing. Knowing that it is connecting with people has made all the work worth it for sure. 

Who are some of the Aussie acts you’ve been listening to right now? 
Northlane, Thornhill, Void Of Vision and Windwaker are our favourites, but for a bit of a different vibe we can’t go past Up Late and Ecca Vandal, they’re crushing it. 

What can we expect for the future of Heartline? 
Lots of music, sooner than you think. We’ve been busy. And of course hopefully some tours before the year is out!

Check out Ashlee’s heartening review of the new EP HERE!

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INTERVIEW: SUZE CHATS ‘ABSENCE’ WITH INFINITE ILLUSION

Infinite Illusion have just dropped a new single ‘Absence’ and the boys have definitely taken it up a notch. Liam McDonald filled me in on what has been happening with the band.

How heavy is this new song!!

It’s funny because it’s our heaviest but also our lightest at the same time and I don’t really know how that ended up working. Dynamically it is so different to anything else we have ever done. We like it.

Me too. When I first heard it I was like Wow that went next level!

A lot of it has to do with the fact that our first lot of stuff was written by Sam when he was 15. We are all mid-twenties now, so Sam wrote that nearly a decade ago. We’d all been doing our own thing and when it came around to release it was a joke. We were all just hanging around and were like ‘hey do we want to release some music?’ and it just spiralled from there. And then we just kept going. This is the first real song that we wrote as a band now.

It wasn’t what I was expecting

I don’t think even we were expecting it. We got a new member at the back end of last year and we completely changed everything. We didn’t really have any intention of releasing any other music to be honest, we were a bit stale and then we got a kick to keep going. This is the first song that came out of it. We’ve got a few more coming after this. We are actually going into the studio the day before Absence comes out to start recording another couple of songs. I think after that we are planning to do an album, I’m not 100% sure. We’ll see how we go.

What’s the story behind the song?

The story behind the song is pretty interesting actually. Dan hit me with a concept, I write the lyrics for all of our stuff, but the concepts are somewhere I have always struggled I guess. Well not struggled but I tend to box myself in to certain topics and that kind of thing. It was really good Dan hit me with a concept of PTSD and reclaiming a loss of identity. Which is actually something I resonated quite well with but didn’t put a lot of thought into. It’s a personification of that kind of feeling, of being trapped and trying to come back and overcome depression, anxiety, PTSD, whatever it might be. It’s a very metaphoric story behind reclaiming who you are before mental health kicks in, as opposed to who you are after. And that’s were if you listen lyrically as it goes along it’s very much a song that literally tells a story. It starts off you’re being held back, you’re falling apart. This thing is attacking you. As it gets further along, the chorus tells the main story. As it gets closer to the breakdown, the breakdown hits in the song “I’ll break your fucking jaw myself” is literally a line about turning around and throwing back. Just fighting and getting out. I remember when I sent the boys that lyric, I loved it and I remember writing it and going that’s really cool. I honestly didn’t think I would get away with it, I thought the boys were going to come back and be like you can’t do that its ridiculous. Instead they were like no that’s staying. A lot of the song built on that lyric, that pre breakdown lyric stayed and I edited everything else on the side to really create that story of a reclamation identity. Fighting back against something that I think a lot of people in our scene deal with.

Dan wrote this song at a time when he discovered he has PTSD. Through 2019 he definitely had this big breakdown. He was in a couple of other bands as well and he overwhelmed himself and it broke him. We bought him in as a fill in drummer. I’m good friends with him so I asked if he wanted to fill in for a couple of shows. It was like an instant click, between me and him especially with these concepts and lyrically. And really translating that into music as well. I thought everything kind of clicked and he’s got these incredible experiences, he’s older than the rest of us, that we can write about and really tell some cool stories. This is the first one where we are really focused on the story telling of the song. Even though the music is important I think for us playing this live, when we get that chance, will definitely be a little bit more emotional than anything else we have done. I honestly think it comes across in the track as well.

Like I said when I listened to it I was like what the hell happened between Ill Intent and here?

We took a break to reinvent ourselves in all honesty. We took that break intentionally and everything fell into place.  We have been sitting on this song since January, obviously with a few things kicking in it pushed it back a bit further than we would have liked. But it gave us time to really think about who we were as a band. I think above anything that is a positive. We weren’t being forced to play shows, we had time to pull back and just think “What are we doing here? Who are we? Are we just another metalcore band? Do we want to attach ourselves to politics or mental health? What do we want to do?” We all have different political views so that was a big no, but the one thing we all absolutely resonated with was mental health. Having someone who has had such heavy experiences, my best friend died when I was 16 and Sam has lost a couple of friends, To The Grave losing Josh. We saw all that and we were like this is where we need to be. I think this is the one where we can actually help give people, not so much a space, but give them a soundtrack to that space. And just really focus on doing that. I think that is why lyrically we are pushing this content so much. Lyrically, above anything else, its quite a powerful song and we are really proud of it. I’m proud of the lyrics that I came up with, they came so naturally as well which makes it better.

It wasn’t forced, it came from an experience. It’s not something that you guys have just thought ‘Oh I’m going to write about this cos I can’

Pretty much that’s exactly it. Experience tells those stories better that anything. I think as well when we were writing it we had a big discussion: do we censor it or do we just make it violent. I’m not a big fan of censoring things, I don’t think it’s ever a bad thing to feel uncomfortable. I feel being uncomfortable is a huge part of growth. Obviously people are scared to feel like that, scared to face those truths. We made the song vivid for that reason, if it does make people feel a little uncomfortable that’s okay. It could be good; it might not be good and that’s a risk we had to take.

There is no point writing a song like that and not being real about it.

Definitely. We did get a lot of push back from quite a few people being ‘Guys this is a little bit graphic, you could really trigger some people with these lyrics’ We pulled them back a little bit, but it ended up being like what we had written to start with. The guy that we produced with was just like nah don’t pull back, just do it. You’re not going to make an impact if you are being safe. We were just yep that works let’s just do it.

I would totally back him with that one. If you want something to have an impact on people, don’t water it down. It’s not going to have the same effect.

Exactly. This song is all about that impact for us I think. Our last record wasn’t bad, I’m not a huge fan of it, I would never listen to it. That was the big one for me. This album we really wanted to make that impact. We want people even above anything else to just know out name. Even if they don’t listen to the song, that ok. I just want people to get used to seeing our name around because we have every intention of keeping it there.

You only have the one single ready to go?

In terms of all our demos, we have about 7 or 8 that are being recorded over the next 3 months. The plan is 3 stand alone singles, reinventing our sound and image off the back of those. Then we will do another record. Whether that is an EP, or an album remains to be seen. That depends on a lot of factors.  We are just playing it by ear, one single at a time. None of the singles that we release will be on that record. The record will be totally stand alone as the new version of us. Ill Intent gave us a start but it’s definitely time that we left that behind and really focused on the new version and sound that we have. Except for maybe Afterthought, that’s the only one that will stay around for a little while. We really like that song, and we think it’s a lot more modern than the rest.

I liked the EP!!!

I don’t think it was bad, it just wasn’t anything special. Musically it was good, technical, heavy breakdowns, big riffs. It was cool but there was nothing new about it. It was good if you liked it, but it didn’t hold people. I think it didn’t give people a reason to stay.

This one will if the first single is anything to go by.

I’m a lot more confident with this one. I’m not sure if it’s because I’ve been listening to it by myself for the last 6-8 months! I took a break of listening to it then I came back to it. I was like yes this is good. Its really hard a musician to sit there and praise yourself, questioning could you have down stuff better. But coming back to it, I actually took this lesson off Mikey from Gloom, come back to it and if you still like it, its good.

I’m a classical piano player. I have been my whole life. So for me to join a metalcore band is kind of unheard of. I remember one of my old conductors from an orchestra I played in a couple of years ago was like ‘What the fuck are you doing? How do you make that noise, it’s disgusting’. I was like yep it is but its fucking sick!!

It’s a cool genre to be in. I think as a small band above anything else, its really really cool to be in metalcore. I’ve been in other bands over the years, nothing heavy. Blues and rock and one cover band that I don’t talk about! I’ve played big blues festivals and stuff.  But there’s nothing quite like the support I have experienced in metal. There is nothing quite like the community, it’s so amazing to see a community that is so supportive of each other.

So there will be no touring with this!

There’s nothing in the pipeline. Collide, we have had to push back twice now. Unify is looking like it’s not going ahead as well. It’s shit but at the same time at least we aren’t dead. You have to take the positives. I think it has given a lot of us time to grow as well. Time to reflect. I was working stupid hours, and I know the other guys in the band were the same. We had no time for ourselves. We can either use this time to loathe in the fact that everything has been taken away, or we can use this time to become better. Really reflect on past practises, how we do things and who we are. Make time for other things in our lives. Take the positives out of being forced to do nothing.

I started Recurrent Verse at the end of April and it’s just gone crazy. I’ve already posted 60 articles and I’m getting more everyday

That’s mental. That’s so good. It’s good to see some new publications around.

I only do Australian bands because there is so much happening here. Aussie metalcore is my passion.

That’s the cool stuff. I don’t know what it is about Australian metalcore but far out there is something in the water here. Jesus some of the bands that are coming out like Elision and Inertia. Deadlights, I’ve always been a huge fan of those guys.

I am so keen for new Deadlights. Mesma is in my top 10 all time albums.

It’s such a good record. Elision’s new stuff has been incredible. The technicality in those boys is amazing. They are a very talented bunch of dudes. I have so much respect for them. Inertia as well, they are one of those bands that I think has the ability to blow up. Outloved have just announced a record. I was like omg this is like listening to BMTH but not listening to BMTH!! It had that impact on me. It was like listening to one of my favourite bands. It was so good to hear. There is just so much good stuff out at the moment.

There’s so many new cool bands coming through too like Ghost Complex, Canyon, Tides Collide, Dweller, Wake the Blind so many good bands

And Lune. I forgot about them. Then you look at the big boys and what they are releasing. Alpha Wolf’s record I thought was really good. There’s more coming from other bands. That 2 year cycle has now reduced to 1 year. To see so many bands releasing stuff is so good. I honestly don’t think I have heard a bad release this year.

I haven’t either. Someone said to me that everything I write is always so positive, do you just not review bad bands! I said to them honest to god there had not been a bad release this year.

I think album of the year has to be Make Them Suffer or Currents. They are my two.

I would say at the moment mine would be Alpha Wolf, Make Them Suffer, Saviour and We Set Signals.

Saviour’s was sick too. It means everyone has to step up or you are going to get left behind.

Diamond Construct is another one! Who would think adding a DJ would work… I’m loving all this experimentation in the scene.

It’s super important to do that metalcore has always been such a non-accessible kind of genre. It’s always been you like it or you don’t. That is definitely changing now, metalcore as a genre is changing with bands like BMTH leading the way. Whether you like AMO or not, it has set a standard for what you can do in metalcore. I personally thought it was their best record.

I personally think that 'Absence' is Infinite Illusions best release so far! After talking to Liam I think we are about to see big things come from the boys. Bring on 2021 when hopefully gigs return, and we can see 'Absence' played in a live setting..

‘ABSENCE’ - OUT NOW

CHECK OUT SUZE’S REVIEW OF ABSENCE HERE

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INTERVIEW: ILLYRIA TALK WARMING UP TO NEW MEMBERS WITH ‘FROSTBITE’

With a new line-up, Perth based Illyria have just released a new single Frostbite. Don’t be deceived by the beautiful, melodic beginning to this song because things heat up to a frenetic pace pretty quick! I’m loving everything about this tune and how it captures so many elements seamlessly. I caught up with vocalist Ilija to talk bands, black metal, self-production and everything in between!

Hey Ilija thanks for taking the time to chat. What does the world need to know about Illyria?
We’re a very small band from Perth just making our way through in this very competitive and busy world. We are currently working on our third album. We play a form of progressive metal that has black and post rock elements it and because of the whole crazy 2020 scenario we are just trying to consolidate and find our feet again.

It’s trying to navigate releasing stuff in a whole new way I guess

It’s not only the whole studio thing. We really miss being on stage and doing the whole live performance thing because that’s another service you provide as a live band. When you’re in Perth, which is so isolated, it’s kind of restrictive.

That’s it. It’s not only having no gigs but having that distance as well.

Especially with the border restrictions. I understand that, but obviously you have to find new ways of getting your music out there which has been a very big learning process.

Totally. The good thing is more people are taking to social media and things like Spotify to discover new music seeing as there isn’t really any other way at the moment. People are engaging more with the bands to which is good to see.

It’s very true. We have noticed an influx for sure. It’s the retention now that we are learning to maintain. It’s cool that you have 25,000 people listening to you this month but how many more are going to keep listening. There’s a lot of new bands and endeavours that are coming in that you have to stay on top of, so we are just still trying to find our way through this. It’s a big learning curve.

It’s good that everyone is in the same position but it’s also really good because it means that everyone is involved. And everything you do doesn’t just represent your backyard it represents the whole planet really. We definitely keep that in mind when we release our music because I think we can safely say that our biggest audience is everywhere but Perth. Not saying that we don’t succeed here, its great but we have a lot of loyal fans in Europe and the Americas and you have to honour that as well.

You having that black metal element would get you a lot of that European audience. Black metal in Australia isn’t as big as it is overseas.

When I created this project it was because of that dire need and urgency that I wanted to bring that sound to somewhere new like Australia. I was living in Europe at the time and got exposed to the sound while I was there and feel in love with it and wanted to bring it back. It’s worked really well. For me personally I actually enjoy the post rock side, the members that used to be in the band were more the black metal side. I still love black metal, but I don’t get into the dark, gloomy clique sort of thing. For me it’s more a way of expressing an atmosphere and ambience to my liking without getting to depressive. I like to think that our music is a little more upbeat, a lot more Australian in some kind of way. We like to bring that charm in.

I think the best way we like to explain our sound to people instead of whipping out genres is us just saying it’s a roller coaster ride of emotion.

I’m not a fan of the genre label.

Yeah. It’s hard to bottleneck bands into genres in my opinion. I think the best way I like to explain it is I like to bring up emotions instead, I think people get that more. We definitely take pride in our music and lyrics.

So who does most of your writing?

I do most of it in terms of the way its all arranged, the foundation of it. I write the guitars and vocals predominantly and the bass player and drummer will review what I’ve done and then we come together and amalgamate it all and put our own bits of flair in. It’s initiated by me or the other guitarist and then we get together and refine it.

Have you guys toured over this side of the country yet?

As Illyria we have only played in WA, but we have all toured over east with other projects. We were looking forward to taking that leap of faith, but this year has been quite the hinderance and I don’t think we are going to be able to do anything anytime soon.

Where did the name Illyria come from?

I was in Ancient History class in year 11 and my first name is Ilija. I was trying to make a solo project at the time and I was struggling with it all and my ancient history teacher got out a map of the Roman empire and one of the provinces was called Illyria’ I had a chat to my teacher and asked how you pronounced it and he was like yeah its Illyria! I told him what I was thinking of doing and he said that it was perfect because it had my name all over it! We did a google search and there was a band called Illyrian at the time, but Illyria wasn’t taken. Google searches for us are interesting because there is a Buffy the Vampire character named the same and historical roman stuff comes up! It’s very charming and it represents me very well. What started as a solo project has now turned into a band 7 years later. I’m very grateful for the journey and for being on this call right now.

That’s is actually a very cool story. What’s the story behind Frostbite?

Frostbite is actually the first song by Illyria that wasn’t written on guitar by me. We have a new line- up now and have two new guitarists. One of them is a good friend of mine and Matt’s that we used to play in bands with called Steph en. He’s a tremendous guitarist to work with, in fact I even consider him one of my massive influences. He’s not played in bands for the past 5 years and he has all these songs banked up. I really liked this demo when I heard it. It’s the first song that I have truly gotten to just focus on the vocals. I wanted to provide something a bit different for the listeners to hear the new line-up. And that we are going in a different direction but still holding on to some of the past. We are just building up our chemistry and the fluency within all of our sounds and styles in the new line-up. Bringing in two new quality guitarists that are far, far better than me technically I really wanted to showcase their ability. Instrumentally this song is quite different. It’s a bit more ambitious but I know thematically and lyrically I don’t think I’ve strayed to far from the path. It’s still about all the typical emotional struggles and battles. I really hope that people like the new package that we are providing. We are working very hard to get our next release out.

You guys have produced everything yourselves?

Yes our bass player produces everything, our new guitarist is a videographer, so he filmed the music videos. And we all have experience in engineering our audio. Everything is through experience and sheer will and desire to do it ourselves. There is actually a whole consortium of self DIY producers in Perth and we all just get together and help each other out. It’s like we are shifting back in to musical tribalism in a way, bartering our services. That works for our dynamic because we are a small community here in Perth.

We love that by self-producing we are not limited to deadlines. We normally take 3 years to release an album, its really nice to have that freedom to go with the flow, to fuel this passionate hobby with four other blokes that you really get along with.

Finally who are your influences?

It ebbs and flows doesn’t it? When I first started this band it was bands like Deafheaven and Lantlos were definitely at the forefront, but you can’t ride on that saddle for to long and you’ve got to find new moments to latch on to. Lately it’s been American Football, Fallujah, Between the Buried and Me and random prog bands from the 70’s. I’m just really stretching out and trying to find stuff that I can latch into to keep writing albums that don’t sound stale.

ILLYRIA ARE:
Ilija Stajic – Vocals/Guitar
Andre Avila – Guitar
Stephen Barrett – Guitar
Daniel Hacking – Bass
Matt Unkovich - Drums

INTERVIEW: KYLE FROM BABIRUSA TALKS ‘HUMANOID’, DREAM LINEUPS, AND ALL-AUSSIE FAVES

On the back of their first three releases Brisbane Deathcore outfit Babirusa (or Pigdeer as they may now be known!!) are about to release their debut album Humanoid. A concept album that follows the journey of 343, vocalist Kyle Williams sat down with me to talk about the band and the album.

Hey Kyle thanks for dropping by for a chat.  Who are Babirusa?

So originally the band was started by Dean and Tate about 6 years ago.  Roughly 2 years ago Dean moved in with Rangi and I’d always go round there and hang out. Dean had recently started up the band again after about a 4-year break so Rangi and I jumped on and started doing some stuff. Checking out what they had written previously. Reece came around and he and I started writing lyrics and trying to see what we could come up with. It was decided that Reece would join the band too. It all just fell into place. Basically we were all just hanging out and it happened!

Your album Humanoid is out on the 28th August.

Yes the album. Originally there was just an EP written about 6 years back, but we added on to it and just decided to go with the full album. The whole album concept is based around a character known as 343 as he’s being ripped between reality and a cybernetic world run by a sinister artificial intelligence.

“Upon re-entry 343 quickly finds that he should not have chosen to return to the Cybernetic world as he is captured and held against his will. Told by a disembodies voice that he is akin to this technological entity, a mirror of sorts, and that he should be willing to cast aside his body if only to elevate himself to a higher form and plane of existence. The voice eerily telling him that it is time to become a part of all things… Unable to understand exactly what was meant he begins to panic, wanting desperately to wake up and be rid of this nightmare. In a catatonic state, his mind races as he feels more fear than he ever imagined possible, questioning the very essence of his being and the reason for the existence of all humanity if he is to be turned into something unknown against his will”

You guys all collaborate on the writing process?

Dean and Tate usually write their thing and Rangi adds his drums. Reece and I then sit down and write the lyrics together. We’ll change the song up a bit if needed, sometimes we will add a bit to the instrumental side too. It’s a step process, it’s pretty cool though and it works well. A little conveyor belt to get the song ready.

Did you guys have any gigs lined up for the release?

No, we were hoping to tour off the album, but nothing is confirmed yet. With restrictions we aren’t sure what we are allowed to do gig wise or what’s even available. We will just keep pushing our presence online. Making a post and having people share it really gets the reach out further, especially at the moment.

What bands do you guys draw your inspiration from?

We’re all very different. Tate listens to a lot of Volumes, The World Alive, Issues etc. Dean and I are more into bands like Within Destruction and Vulvodynia. Reece is an old school boy, his would be As Blood Runs Black and that era of Deathcore and Rangi listens to bands like Meshuggah, and Animals as Leaders. He’s also in a punk band called Pandemic so he listens to that kind of indie rock stuff as well.

What would be your dream line up to tour with?

Signs of the Swarm, Slaughter to Prevail, Within Destruction and especially Vulvodynia.

What about an all Australian line up?

Inhibitor, The Gloom in the Corner (they’re the sort of band you can get up on Spotify, hit shuffle and the content is always good) and Thy Art is Murder.

If you’re a fan of Deathcore then you don’t want to sleep on these guys. What they have released so far has been damn good and I’m keen to listen to this album from start to finish.

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Babirusa’s album Humanoid is out on all platforms on the 28th August.

Hit the link to pre-order the album HERE

Babirusa is:

Rheese Peters – Vocals

Kyle Williams - Vocals

Tate Senhenn - Guitar

Dean White - Guitar

Rangi Barnes – Drums

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INTERVIEW: BRISBANE’S HARDCORE ‘HEADWRECK’ TALK NEW MEMBERS, NEW SINGLES, DREAM LINEUP, AND AUSSIE FAVES

After their previous band disbanded in 2018 three Brisbane mates decided to continue their music journey together. After some searching they added a fourth member and in late 2019 Headwreck was born. Their first single As Is (featuring Luke Harriss from She Cries Wolf) also dropped at the same time. Headwreck have just released a killer second single Good Grief. I caught up with vocalist Connor Hickman

You have a new single! I was excited to see it pop up on my newsfeed. It’s been a minute between singles for you guys.

We released ‘As Is’ in December last year and we were actually trying to push for ‘Good Grief’ to be out mid-April. With all the quarantine and stuff we just got shut down. I had to fly to Mt Isa for work and then we couldn’t get our promo photos done. It was just a nightmare.

It’s a bizarre time that’s for sure.

It is. We’ve been trying to stay as busy as we can and working towards trying to get more new music out by the end of the year.

As in an EP??

Oh no. That’s the big scary thing! We are just big believers in the whole single game. We really like doing that. Not everyone always stops and listens to the whole EP apart from a select few. It’s better for us to just stick to singles and put out our best work. Our drop box is full of music so it’s good to just try and figure out what’s best at the time and drop that.

The single game seems to be the way a lot of bands are going now. Redhook being a great example of how well it can work.

That’s the exact example I was talking to Callan about the other day. I didn’t realise that they hadn’t actually done an EP or album

Speaking of Callan how did he end up in Headwreck?

He’s been involved in the band one way or another since day one. We actually asked him if he could fill in on bass and just from that it developed so much further. Instantly he was helping with aesthetic ideas for our graphic designs for logos and ideas for music videos, helping with song writing and the vision process of what we were going to do next. He told us from the start that he wouldn’t be able to be in the band because he’s super busy with Days Like These stuff and that was all good with us.  We actually asked him before we played with She Cries Wolf back in February, probably about 30 seconds before we went on stage, if he wanted to be our full-time bassist and he said yeah! We did kind of put him on the spot a bit…

And speaking of She Cries Wolf how did Luke (Harriss) end up doing guest vocals on ‘As is”?

We approached Luke ages ago. When we were recording As Is, originally we really wanted to have a feature of some sort. we talked about it and decided we may as well shoot for the moon and ask Luke. Growing up in the Brisbane music scene I’ve been watching She Cries Wolf since I was 15-16. Luke’s always been approachable and happy to have a chat with me. I shot him a message and just said Hey man would you like to be on our first song, and he said yes. We got him to record his section and it’s all history from there.

What’s your writing process?

So it’s pretty much bare bones. We self-record ourselves so it makes it a lot easier. Jamo spends a lot of time writing stuff and coming up with ideas. He’ll record an instrumental and put it into a drop box and we will nit pick at it for a bit, make changes and restructure songs a little bit. We complete the instrumental part and then I come along, start listening and think about what I want to write about. Then I do what I think pretty much every other vocalist in Australia does, and looks to the phone notes and find one of the 1000 little one liner’s I’ve written and try to work off something like that.  So I put some lyrics to it and then Jamo, Callan and Sam have a look at it. We may reshuffle and reword things a bit and then we record it. We sit on the demo for a bit till we are sure we like it and then record it. Jamo has a little home studio and we do the final take then he will mix and master it all.

It’s good to be able to do the whole process ourselves Factors like the cost, being able to sit on it and listen to the song to make sure it’s 100% what we want. I feel you get a much better result, from a vocal stand point, you ‘ve got all the time in the world to perfect it. I think that’s the way of the world now.

And with social media and music platforms these days you can release it and hit your audience immediately...

100%. With both singles that we have out we’ve done a little campaign before with Ophelia from Collison Course. She is an absolute gem. I was saying to the boys the other day that she obviously really cares about what she does, and we are so thankful to her for that.

If you could tour with your dream line up who would that be?

We’ve actually been asked this question a couple of times and I’m not sure if the boys would have the same answer, but I have a very definite one.  Days like These (Callan’s and Jamo’s other band) we always joke about it and say how much fun it would be. You know the four guys in Headwreck and the 4 guys in Days Like These but 2 of them overlap!! So the 6 of us plus Andrew who does the photos and filming for us.

You’d only need one van!!

Exactly! And it just sounds like so much fun because we are all really good friends. It’s actually something that is super achievable for us too which is really exciting.  Before the world ended we actually had a show booked and Sam was getting married the next day, so he wasn’t able to play the gig. So we were looking at who we could get to replace him and instantly the first person we thought of was Noah!! Sorry if you read this Callan…. Then we were like we can’t have 3 members of Days Like These and me playing and then straight after them playing again. It’s going to look pretty stupid!! That gig ended up getting canned with Covid.

Who are your Top 3 Australian acts?

Alpha Wolf: they are just so so good. I remember seeing them in 2017 for the first time with their new line up and being absolutely blown away by how good they were. And that’s a band that you can listen to their discography from start to finish and really appreciate the progression. Their new song Akudama and the video for it is crazy. I saw a comment on the YouTube video –

 Producer: How many special effects do you want

 Alpha Wolf: Yes!

Slowly, Slowly:  I first heard Aliens a couple of times on JJJ and have been absolutely hooked since then. I try to see those guys live as often as I can. Benny’s just so amazing. It’s definitely a genre that I have always listened too – bands like Violent Soho The Smith Street Band etc.

Stepson: I’ve always loved these guys; they are the nicest people. Here’s a story for you.. In 2015 I was going to catch about 3.5 hours’ worth of buses to try and go see them on the North side of Brisbane and I actually managed to convince one of my friends who had their license to go. That was the second time I saw them and I spent most of the set singing along,  it was such a good show. Since then I’ve been hooked on every release. I get so excited for the music that they put out.

I’m pretty confident with those answers and I’m so glad you said Australian.

Special mention Ocean Grove, Trophy Eyes and Columbus

People are taking the time during lockdown to explore the bands more and spend the time listening to the releases and discographies-

I think its way better to sit down and listen to someone’s discography. Say a band drops an EP, it’s so important to listen to it right through from start to finish. Give yourself the chance to sit and relax and really appreciate why they picked those songs in that order, why there’s a little flow on bit at the end of one song that rolls into another. Just little things like that, like we talked about The Rhapsody Tapes before. You listen to that and it’s pretty much one song for that whole album because each song flows into the next. The songs have been picked for that reason; it’s been made like that from start to finish. And some of the songs on there if you listened to them on their own you’d be like well that’s a bit weird. The way What I Love About a Natural Woman flows into Beers, that’s just how an album starts, it brings you in and puts you in the mood and then bang straight in to it. Same with Slowly Slowly, their lyrics are so unique, I can’t even explain it. You almost have to read it to make sense of it, they’re so good.

Another band that I have just started to get into that I’m beating myself up for not doing sooner is Bloom. They are so good, and their lyrics are awesome. They are going to be huge they are just so good and so personable. I was watching the hate5six full live set; you could see that their music is obviously pretty important to them.

You can find Headwreck’s latest single Good Grief on all platforms.

HEADWRECK ARE:

Vocals -Connor Hickman

Guitar – Jamo Benadie

Bass – Callen Batson

Drums – Sam Conroy

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