Astro Elevator are Putting Us Into a Kaleidoscopic Trance With Their Latest Single

Astro Elevator, the daring quartet hailing from the vibrant musical scene of Melbourne, have unleashed a sonic storm upon listeners with their latest single, "Kaleidoscopic Trance," released on January 24, 2024. This electrifying track offers a tantalizing glimpse into their forthcoming second album, "Cosmo Vortexia," promising a musical odyssey that transcends boundaries.

Formed in the midst of 2019, Astro Elevator draws inspiration from a diverse array of musical influences spanning the realms of 60s garage psychedelia to the intricate landscapes of 90s and 00s progressive rock. Following the triumph of their debut LP, "Lysergic Liquid Maze of the Psychotropic Triptonauts," the band experienced a meteoric rise in popularity, evidenced by sold-out hometown shows and their inaugural interstate tour in 2022.

"Kaleidoscopic Trance," a compact two-and-a-half-minute musical journey, stands as a testament to Astro Elevator's evolution. The track builds upon the foundations laid by their debut, incorporating complex song structures and a more progressive approach to songwriting. In this latest release, the band's distinctive fusion of driving energy, spaced-out jams, and dueling guitars takes center stage.

Immersing listeners in a swirling maelstrom, "Kaleidoscopic Trance" catapults them into a sonic journey spiraling ever upward. The band deftly navigates the delicate balance between control and chaos, with a formidable rhythm section propelling burning comet-tail guitars through an ascending progression of escalating intensity. The track reaches its zenith with thumping beats and wailing guitars reminiscent of titanic battles, only to clear the air with a pulsating width, leaving audiences in a state of stupefied awe.

All the tracks are crafted and performed by Astro Elevator, showcasing their collective musical prowess. The single was meticulously recorded and mixed by Rohan Sforcina at Head Gap Studio in Preston and masterfully fine-tuned by Lachlan Carrick. Dr Cheeto Feather Pants contributed additional recordings and played organs, while Inktally lent their artistic touch to the mesmerizing artwork design, and Tony Roberts encapsulated the band's essence through captivating photography.

"Kaleidoscopic Trance" emerged organically during an intense creative session, embodying the unmistakable influence of Mars Volta with its chaotic drums and driving guitars. Clocking in at two minutes of unbridled energy and fury, the track invites listeners to embark on a personal and enthralling auditory journey with Astro Elevator.

Astro Elevator · Kaleidoscopic Trance

Backbeat caught up with Astro Elevator to find out more about their influences, team, and upcoming releases and shows.

Can you tell our readers about your new single 'Kaleidoscopic Trance'

Kaleidoscopic Trance is the first single off our forthcoming album. We wanted to make a short, hard hitting, energy packed psychedelic song. The song weaves in and out of an ascending progression with a bombardment of swirling delay drenched guitar solos in the middle, where the song finally releases the tension and breaks free. While it all seems to be chaotic and frantic, the driving rhythm section keeps everything tight and in control. Hopefully the listener will be engaged to wonder where it's all going. The song packs a lot of punch for clocking in at just over two minutes!

Who did you work with for this single, and what does the name of the track mean?

We recorded and mixed the album at Head Gap Studio in Melbourne with engineer Rohan Sforcina. The name of the track comes from the song's lyrics. The ascending progression of the song, along with the ferocious drum fills kind of made me picture something trippy. Like transportation, freefalling and spinning down a tunnel of mesmerising and reflecting colours, so out of that imagery came Kaleidoscopic Trance.

What are some of your go-to records to listen to, when you're either chilling or working on new music?

Lately I've been listening to a lot of 60's garage/psych playlists. Finding forgotten hidden gems from the birth era of psychedelic music. Some other artists that have been getting a run lately include Tom Petty, Lee Hazlewood, The Flaming Lips, The lemon Twigs, Dr John, Elea Craig, The Allman Brothers, Bob Dylan, The Grateful Dead, The Pretty Things, The 13th Floor Elevators

Can you tell us about the upcoming album, and what can we expect?

The album is titled Cosmo Vortexia. It has a few really progged out songs, some clocking in at over 6 minutes. We're experimenting with textures in sound and dynamics. We like to challenge ourselves to come up with a sound that's unique and interesting to record and play live. It's an album where the listener can really sit back and go with the flow, letting them join in on a journey into the unknown. It's only 6 songs long but there's always a lot going on

Anything exciting coming up over the next few months?

Yes, we have the single launch of Kaleidoscopic Trance on Feb 9 at The Beast. A second single will be out in a couple of months. We also have a small run of shows planned for NSW in May. Then we'll release the album and continue playing and touring as much as possible

What other bands are from your community, and who should our readers get across?

A few bands that we've played with that stand out, Sons of Zoku, Maisie, Scatter Light, Skerzo, The Black Heart Death Cult, Zelkova

What do you like to do, outside of writing, recording and playing music?

We're all pretty chilled out when we're not working on music. Other interests include camping, hiking, watching weird documentaries, movies, reading, NBA, jujitsu, guitar making. Although music consumes a lot of our time, it's all of the band members main passion and hobby

Any last words! 

Stay High!

BEN & LOUIS FROM ASTRONAUGHTY TALK ‘CHANGING HANDS’ AND WHAT’S NEXT

We had a short chat to Ben & Louis from Melbourne indie-pop-rock-ish band, Astronaughty, about their latest release last week.

‘Changing Hands’ is definitely our favourite official Astronaughty release so far and the fact that it comes with such a funky retro style video has us swooning. It’s a little warm, a little fuzzy, a lotta groovy.

Here’s what they had to say!

“Here comes Astronaughty with a bad mama-jama. And she’s as fine as she can be. This is a DIY dance number at its purest. Recorded and mixed entirely in our Brunswick East Garage, so you can enjoy an iso-boogie on that daily dog walk down the Merri Creek. We slapped together Nonna’s finest ingredients for this tasty caprese. Mangiare!”

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You’ve just released ‘Changing Hands’ along with your first proper music video, how does that feel?
Feels great! It’s good to put something out there again. It was a lot of fun to make! It had a great response from friends. '

Following your releases from last year, ‘Gravity’ and ‘Camera Shy’, what’s different for you guys this time around?
We got to put our own spin on everything this time because we recorded the track ourselves in the same garage that the music video is set (which is also where we rehearse). Nick helped edit the music video, and Ben mixed the track. So it had a real homegrown feel to it.

There seem to be a range of influences and sounds mixed between your live and recorded tracks – how would you describe your sound, or even what you want your sound to be?
A mix between 70s stuff like Todd Rundgren, Big Star, and Japanese city pop artists like Tatsuro Yamashita, as well as newer indie rock stuff like the Strokes, Arctic Monkeys

Favourite track to play (recorded or not)?
’Never Perform Again’, its an absolute shtumper!

What’s next for Astronaughty? Michael mentioned a possible album at the end of the year, is that right?
We’re actually going into the studio in a couple of weeks to smash out an EP, which also includes ‘Never Perform Again’, which we’re excited about! We’re mixing the best of both worlds that we’ve had with changing hands and the previous stuff - this time we’re recording professionally again, but then bens going to produce mix it all (so we still have creative control

What are each of your current top Aussie acts - old or new, but Australian (or NZ if you like)?
Tame Impala, Gabriella Cohen, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Karate Boogaloo, Good Morning, Julia Jacklin.

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TRUTH HURTS WITH THE MOTION BELOW

“The Motion Below are back to finish what they started with "Truth Hurts", part two of their mini music series that encapsulates the inner turmoil of a man lost within himself and ultimate descent into madness.”

Jahmiele had a chat to vocalist Ryan Matheson about the release, the process, mental health, how to get the best out of your own band, and whats coming up next. We had a lot more to say so be sure to check out the full interview in the upcoming podcast episode!

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Jahmiele: So, Truth Hurts is the most recent release with the video and everything, and the second half of the series. Why did you decide to do that in a two-parter?
Ryan: We had spoken about doing a multiple part like thing, for quite a few years and um, we just sorta like never got around to actually completing it. And then after we did Chronus complex, um, last year when we went into the studio, we were going in for two singles and we'd spoken about like, like addressing a particular topic and wanting to attack it in like a multiple part series. So me and the boys like had quite a few conversations about it. And, um, Tom and Aidan had this idea that they wanted to address substance, or not necessarily like, uh, um, what's the word? Like addiction, but it wasn't, we didn't want it to be addiction in the sense of like it was particularly substance abuse or any type of like alcohol or drug. We just wanted it to be addiction in like an umbrella term. So it could be multiple things or it could be anything that someone could be dealing with or something like that. 

J: So make them more relatable across the board.

R: Yeah, exactly. So the main thing was we wanted it to be particularly about the vicious cycle of addiction though. So even though like it wasn't necessarily about substance, it sort of loosely was based on that particular concept of someone being addicted to substance. So sorta how people or people will be addicted to whatever it is and their daily life will be based around solely that particular thing that they do. So whether it's drugs or alcohol, they'll go through the cycle of getting up on any day that you will usually sleep in for majority of the day. Go about doing a few things and then end up reverting back to the substance, so the substance rules their life. And then from there, you know, they sort of, in like the story, the protagonist knows that he's addicted to something and the substance is ruling his life and you can visually see it in the music videos that he's struggling with that fact. And even though he's trying to free himself from the chains of addiction, he can't and he feels ostracized from the rest of the world and paranoid I guess. And because of that he ends up just drawing back to being addicted to something and ends up basically losing his mind because of that.

J: One of the things I kind of picked up in the music video was when he went to walk out the front door and saw someone, it was kind of like a confrontation he didn't want to deal with. 

R: Yeah. Basically. It was pretty much, yeah. He felt like as soon as he went to walk out the door, he felt like the rest of the world was sort of like just, you know, everyone was looking at him, is basically the deal. So, he feels like as soon as he leaves his comfort zone, which is his own, his own house, um, he feels as if he's being ostracized from the rest of the world and everyone is sorta just judging him from a distance, I guess. And that's why in the video he ends up just turning back around and going straight back into the house where there's nobody else. 

J: And what would be like the ideal message you'd like to convey when talking about all of these things to your audience?
R: I guess in a positive sense it would be to try and make sure that if someone is in that position, then I guess try not to do what we sort of orchestrated in the video and actually reach out to people. And you know, even though if you feel like you are being ostracised from the world, there's always someone that's going to be there that's gonna want to listen to you and gonna want to help you. Like, all you have to do is ask for help.

We obviously don't want to send the message out to people that ‘this is what you should do’, it was more sort of like, we want it to orchestrate, we wanted to attack that message in a way that, you know, people could relate to it in a personal way and then hopefully they would obviously do something positive about it.

J: Yeah, for sure. The videos for Dead End and Truth Hurts were both directed by Martin Wood. He's worked with a bunch of amazing local bands including some friends of mine. It all looks amazing, but what was it like working with Martin?
R: He’s so easy to work with. He's such a good dude and he just like, he just has the knack, he knows what his vision is and how to attack it. So we first met Martin when we shot our previous music videos with Colin Jeffs, and Martin assisted on those videos. So that's how we kind of met him. And then when we did the singles we wanted to work with him because we had already worked with him before and because he's Melbourne based as well. So that was kind of why, but working with him in general, like we told him what we wanted, what the vision was and how we wanted them to come out and he just took that idea and then just, just basically everything, the whole video, like all of it was his idea.  We sat down with him on a phone call one night and he was like, ‘This is what I've got’, like ‘this is what I think we want to, how we want to do it’. And you know, ‘this is the setting that I've got’. And even with Dead Ends, the idea of having that backdrop behind us while we’re playing, and you can visually see that it's clearly a backdrop we’re playing in front of, that was all his idea as well. He took ideas from different band concepts and music videos that he's seen in the past and worked on, and we sort of took those and tried to, I guess use it in our own way. And like all of the story in the actual videos themselves, all of that - he shot it all obviously, but the way that the actor sort of portrayed himself in the character, that was basically like just him. We just sorta just like stood there and watched and we were like, ‘Yeah, man, that's cool. Like your ideas are great. We trust you.’ Pretty much. So yeah, it's really good. he's really, really good to work with.

J: So where did the original interest in metal in particular come from? What are your roots?
R: I guess when I first started playing music I personally was like more of a rock fan, like I was always playing Green Day covers and stuff like that. And then as I guess I sorta got that into music and got a little bit older, obviously spanned out to like Escape The Fate and Parkway Drive and all that kind of stuff in high school. And I just sort of went from there. My first band we started when I was in Year 12 I think, we were more like a death core/melodic metal core band. All the inspiration from back then was definitely like those, you know, early two thousands, post-hardcore bands like Bullet For My Valentine, Escape The Fate, Parkway Drive, all that kind of stuff. And I'm sure the rest of the boys would agree, like we all pretty much have the same sort of roots there.

J: I think you'd also been asked a similar question to this before, but it's a few years later. Um, what important things have you learned in more recent years as a band? Are you still doing what you set out to do? Have you got like different perspectives or anything has changed?
R: I think, um, like the vision was always from the start- So obviously like the name itself, The Motion Below, like we always felt like we were sorta like the underdogs. We always wanted to be the band that sorta come out from underneath from nowhere, creating waves, you know, whether it's in a local level or not, that slowly emerges through, you know what I mean? And like over the years, like most of the bands that were around when we first started aren’t even around anymore. And I think that sort of goes to show, I guess in a sense, out of determination and like what we originally set out to do. I suppose like from the beginning, we went through a phase where we tried to do everything DIY and you know, like, I guess, I don't know, we sort of tried to do things where we tried to save as much money as we could.  

And no matter how hard you do it, it works for some bands, but if you try and DIY everything, it just doesn't work. You need to put the money into the band, into the right places, you know, to make the content, make those music videos, make the band sound good in the studio and take the time to make sure all those things will make you look good. Especially online like these days. Especially like obviously in the music industry and especially now with everything going on. Your online presence is everything. And if you know, someone sees you online and you have a really crappy image, you have poor quality music, your music videos aren't produced well, all that stuff, It takes away from your band and who you are. And we have definitely learnt, especially through all the process of like basically through the cycle of Chronus Complex, doing everything right and putting the money into those particular things, Like PR studio, all of the content that you create, it is really important. And we personally ourselves have seen the results putting that money in, in the last year than we have before that. I think that's like a really important thing that people sort of like don't grasp until you actually do it.

Don’t get me wrong, it costs a fortune. Like it costs money to do your band that way. But the results in saying like, I was talking to our PR agent this morning and we're all talking about how well Truth Hurts has done in the last week. And literally a year ago we had 29 monthly listeners on Spotify and like, you know, no one listened to our band, no one cared who we were, And then from that stage we made sure we did everything right. And as much as it burns out a hole in your bank account, you know, the results show. So doing those things and putting the money into it and obviously putting the money where your mouth is, it gives you results 

J: You get the delayed satisfaction.

 R: Exactly. And if you look now like almost 12 years on from release of State of Decay, sorry, 12 months. And, um, we're now, you know, comfortably sitting at over 10,000 monthly listeners. The new single came out a week ago and it's on 7,000 streams. Like, you know, the numbers don't lie. Yeah, that's sort of like one thing when we're at shows and hanging out with all the bands and friends and stuff. Um, especially bands that are younger, younger than us and sort of ask us for those that like, you know, advice or how a lot of people seem to be really impressed when we did Chronus Complex cause we sort of obviously like went from a band that was just a, you know, a local band like everyone else to sort of somewhat making a name for ourselves.  And I've had a few conversations with a few bands and like, you know, how did you do it? Like what's it like working with those people and stuff like that. And I always tell people like, you just have to put the money in. Like that's sort of at the base of it all. That's where it all stems from. Because if you put the money in, you'll get the results.

J: For new bands who haven't quite started and grasped what to put their money towards - what would you say is the first priority? 
R: It would be production. Like making sure you go to producers and engineers that are going to give you the best product. So like, in the past we've gone, don't get me wrong, previous producers we’ve gone to have been fantastic, but we didn't have that hands on experience where we went into the studio with material and we sat down for, you know, three days straight and just tore everything to shreds in pre-production. And I think it's really important these days, especially in an industry that's so built up, you know, so oversaturated, there's so many bands in Australia alone and you know, a lot of bands sound the same and when you're in an industry that is so oversaturated and everyone's trying to do the same thing, like, you know, it's hard to make a name for yourself. Production step one is really important because you can stem from there….

Once you sort of grasp the concept of letting all the right people sort of have some type of artistic direction over your music, it opens up a whole new world for your band.

Of course as musicians, we’re artists, like you do have to make sure that you still maintain some type of integrity to what you're creating. We have a really good relationship like that with our producers where they know - I suppose we've worked with them for so long now they know what our vision is and they just help bring it out that step further where we can't do it ourselves.

J: You supported Buried In Verona at Max Watts? You’ve said was your favourite venue to play because you had that massive final, final show for them. Who would be part of your sort of dream lineup to be a part of? 
R: Oh man, that's a hard question. Um, God. I think a big one for all of us would probably be Kill, Switch, Engage. Anyone who saw us in the early days, we used to play My Curse at like every single show.
Probably Parkway Drive.
Bullet For My Valentine. Architects.
These days Polaris, like that would be sick. Those guys are just insane. I think that'd be a big one. especially being in Australia. And Wage War. I mean the boys love Wage War. We went and saw them when I came out early this year and yeah, that really good. Get onto em.

J: Is there anything else coming up for you guys?
R: Obviously it’s hard to do anything at the moment. So, well we've been sort of trying to think of ways to obviously keep engaged with our audience once Truth Hurts sort of starts to die down a little bit. We’re hoping to see, you know, release a few different things, like some play throughs and maybe some covers and stuff. At the end of the year we might be going back into the studio to do another record.

J: Backbeat’s priority is to support Australian music specifically, mainly. We try to ask everyone we interview what their top three current Australian artists are at the moment. They could be new or old, but Australian.
R: Yup. Um, Polaris. Yup. Um, Oh God. Who else? Um, I gotta think about it. Polaris um, geez, that's a hard question. Well, obviously definitely Polaris. I think Alpha Wolf at the moment, they’re making waves there. They're doing great at the moment, and To Octavia, they're really close friends, so definitely To Octavia.

J: Was there anything else you wanted to check in and chat about? Any last words?

R: Check out Truth Hurts!

LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW IN PODCAST EPISODE FORM HERE!

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MODERN OPERA ARE USING SELF-QUARANTINE AS AN OPPORTUNITY TO EXPERIMENT

Modern Opera are on the cusp of something amazing. Having only premiered their first two singles in the past two months, the self-proclaimed “weird bedroom pop” band produce anthemic tunes that could rival the quality of bands well into their third album. The five-piece Melbourne group, made up of members Jordan, Jack, Harrison, Ernie and Michael, have so far released ‘Blindfold’, as well as the recently released single ‘How To Stop Myself’ and have already established themselves as a pop act worth discovering.

With a laundry list of musical inspirations including The Japanese House, The 1975, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean and Frank Sinatra, the band connects with these sounds in a new, unprecedented way. Their enamouring and layered output shaped by this caught my attention instantly, so I had to catch-up with lead singer and guitarist Harrison about what makes Modern Opera a band so worth listening to.

Despite only just recently releasing two official singles, the members of Modern Opera have been working on multiple musical projects together for nearly two decades. Throughout the years together, line-ups and band names have come and gone, but like a phoenix, Modern Opera was born from the ashes of a music project Harrison and Jordan decided to wrap-up last year.

 “Just over one year ago we played what we decided was our final show as our previous act, and spent the last 14 months figuring out who we are, and how we wanted to do things,” Harrison explains. “Blindfold came out almost a year to the day of that final show.”

‘Blindfold’ is the opus that signalled the arrival of Modern Opera into the scene. Filled with sparkling highs and melancholic lows, it’s a single that reflects a band completely in the creative zone. Fittingly, the meaning behind ‘Blindfold’ is as layered as its production style as, according to Harrison, it hides a darker undertone behind its lush sound. 

“[It’s] basically a song about anxiety and a panic attack wrapped up in a love song packaging,” says Harrison. “It’s about learning to face up to the costs of lifestyle at the same time as you’re unexpectedly falling into something you didn’t know you needed, or even want at the time, and suddenly that connection is your anchor for everything.” 

‘Blindfold’ and ‘How To Stop Myself’ are songs that are intentionally different. The former was made in a studio, with outside help on its production but the latter, was made in a makeshift studio in Modern Opera’s own garage. Due to COVID-19 and the necessity of self-isolation, Harrison and the band decided to hide away in their own homemade studio and from that, after a 5 day straight songwriting bender, ‘How To Stop Myself’ was born.

“It’s the best thing we’ve ever done and we’re really excited about it,” says Harrison about the new single.

From his own experience experimenting during self-quarantine, Harrison gave some nuggets of wisdom to bands still making music during this crisis.

“Just find the fun in creating things that you love and want to hear, however you can. That’s the only reason to be in this industry anyway,” says Harrison.

 If their two singles aren’t exciting enough, an EP could be on the horizon for Modern Opera. An album on the other hand, might not be on the cards for another few years according to Harrison. 

“We are currently writing and recording like we’re doing an album...and most likely packaging up an EP or two in the next 18 months,” he explains. 

“The thought of putting my name on the “debut album” that defines us makes me fall into a heap of uncertainty so it’ll probably take a while to get that one worked out.” 

With the group “not sticking with any formula” of what they do, what we can expect from Modern Opera over the next 18 months could be the unexpected. With such a solid sound under their belts, whatever direction the band take next will be a step in the right one. With two songs down, and a whole heap to go, the future for Modern Opera looks bright ahead.

CHECK OUT MODERN OPERA AND A HEAP OF OTHER AMAZING LOCAL ARTISTS ON OUR BACKBEAT PLAYLIST NOW!

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PHONER CHATS WITH MIKEY FROM GLOOM IN THE CORNER

The Gloom In The Corner are a concept band exploring the depths of human melancholy through a vessel of their own creation. The past few years have been a meteoric rise for the band, where they performed at Bigsound 2019, at Unify Gathering 2020, won the triple j unearthed competition to play Download 2020 Melbourne (which was unfortunately cancelled), and then took out a spot on The Faction’s Hardest 100 of 2019 with their song Misanthropic.

I was lucky enough to score an interview with The Gloom in the Corners vocalist Mikey, on the launch of their powerful new single ‘Violence’.

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 Dan:  So, to start things off; where does your new song ‘Violence’ fit into the Gloom catalogue and which aspect of it are you most proud of?

Mikey: Which aspect? Okay, we’ll do the easy part first. It fits in right at the start. The best way to think of violence is like a theme song for a TV show, or a theme song for a movie. It introduces the band and the story at a pretty face value that people can mosh along to. As far as the aspect I’m most proud of…fuck! I mean the artwork is definitely up there…. Sam smashed it. I think the breakdown too…because of how ignorantly heavy it is. I remember when we got the mix back from Jeff and I’m just sitting in my car and it just shakes because it can’t handle bass or anything below 80 hertz.

D: That’s how you know it’s good…

M: One hundred per cent.

D: You have such a rich lore and a heightened sense of world building within your songs, does that come from a love of books and if so what are some of your favourite authors?

M: It very much comes from books, but not just books but also TV shows, comic books, video games - we try to implement subtle little nods to them throughout our music. Favourite author? I’m looking at my shelf now…I think the Scarecrow series by Matthew Reilly. And Skulduggery Pleasant; Sherlock is my love note to Derek Landy from that series. I think, definitely if I was going to point it at one book I would definitely say Skulduggery Pleasant. I think everybody else in the band would agree with me.

D: Everyone likes the same book?

M: It’s more so they all know I cherish the series. Punisher as well…especially the Netflix series, especially characters like Jay. I wanted them to be able to relate him to somebody like Frank Castle or Sherlock with Skulduggery. Our recent Australian and American markets, not many people are too super familiar with Skulduggery pleasant. I’m one of three people that I know who’ve actually read it.

D: It was a very specific time in Australian books.

M: It just kind of fell under the radar, unfortunately.

D: When you first started the storyline that has continued throughout the years, did you expect it to be where it is now? And if so, did you have it mapped out?

M: Look, yes and no. It’s a complex answer, about as complex as the lore.

D: Let’s hear it!

M: I had an end goal, more or less. I had an ending to where I wanted this story to end up, it’s just the journey that kind of gotten me there. For example; when I originally wrote Fear Me, the original plan was, at least in my head, for it to jump into the next arc. I kind of expected Fear Me to be its own thing and then we’d move on from there. Then we kind of realised, okay we wanna do an EP and I can talk about Ethan, James’s brother and that’s what became of Homecoming. And then we decided again that we were going to push back the record and so I was like what are we going to do here, and that’s where Sherlock came up. So, even though Sherlock has been in the story for a long, long time (since Fear Me started), he didn’t actually have a name until Flesh and Bones became an idea. I was very careful in the way that I implemented him into the story and kind of wove him in to make sure that nothing contradicts or retcons itself or anything like that. And then here we are again with the three singles coming up; we’ve pushed back the album again so I’m like, okay cool I think we can finally end this arc before we move on to the next arc.

D: What made you want to take a conceptual or narrative approach to music even from an early stage?

M: I think it comes from a mixture of my love of storytelling, and storytelling in general. On top of that, around the time we started doing Fear Me, I was kind of just sitting there like, so many bands doing stuff like Villains or Sworn In or down tempo heavy bands, etc. and I thought how could I make this different to everybody else….I’d already semi-written the story before when I was in high school. I used to write short stories so I kind of just picked and chose characters and events that I wanted to incorporate into the story and kind of completely rewrote it. And so it came from a mixture of my love of story telling and also being like, cool I want to do something different here and something that people are going to go “Oh okay, this band is different for this reason”.

D: Now, ‘Violence’ is one blood-soaked ride into the history behind The Glooms.  What events inspired the writing of the track?  

M: Me playing a fuck load of Doom 2016. I mean if you couldn’t hear that in the influence then like you need to go play that game…I’m not biased against saying that Mick Gordon’s writing definitely influenced the track, as some people have picked up on (thank you Music Feeds.) We had thrown around ideas for how we wanted to start these three tracks and I said ‘fuck it let’s just do something absurdly heavy’, and to me one of the heaviest records came out in 2016-and still to my opinion holds up as one of the heaviest records in later years--was the Doom soundtrack. Violence was kind of a little love sonnet to that game; I’d been playing Doom for years and years even before 2016 came out… It’s my little love note to that.

D: It’s so cool you can weave all these creative outlets into a song.

M: I try to do it as subtly as possible. The Witch Hunt breakdown is the time warp code for Futurama. The tabs for the guitar is that time warp code. I’ve got a few subtle game quotes, etc. hidden throughout songs as well. It’s my little way of giving the nod to those games that have very much so inspired me growing up. Same thing with TV series’ and books and movies, etc. As far as stuff that actually influenced Violence, I think I just sat down and said ‘fuck it, I’ll write something as heavily as possible’ and that’s what came out of it.

D: What was it like working with Jaime Marino (whose worked with bands such as Alpha Wolf) and what does he bring to the table as a producer?

M: He’s basically there to make sure we’re not doing anything dumb-

D: As all good producers should.

M: It was awesome working with him. He understood what we wanted to do from him being in his old band Sentinels, which was a concept band too, so he understood what we were trying to do and why we were trying to do it, so it was refreshing. He made sure if anything didn’t fit--or if anything stood out that he thought was weird--that we’d go back and revise it. Thankfully, not to toot our own horn, I mean this in the most modest of ways, but I feel I don’t actually have to do that much to these songs which is so refreshing to hear because all the way throughout the process we’ve been told ‘you need to change this, you need to change this and this’, and I feel like this time around we did something semi-right? He was awesome to work with.

D: What are the main differences from working with a label (I know you guys have signed to Collision Course) on this record as opposed to self releasing?

M: It’s interesting. Collision Course came about because we went to Tim for marketing. He’d been wanting to work with us for a while and we’d been wanting to work with him and he said I’m starting a record label and I’d like you guys to be the flagship of it to get things started and that’s how that deal came about. I can’t speak for every record label but Tim has been super flexible to work with and it’s been an absolute pleasure working with him for this release. He’s been super encouraging of our ideas and understands what we’re trying to do and how we’re different to other bands that are doing heavy music in the aspect of the story and everything. And he’s fully on board; he’s a huge nerd too and he gets it and loves what we’re doing. I can’t speak for every label like that, some labels will be like ‘you need to rewrite songs like this’ or ‘you need your marketing to be like this’ etc. etc., but he’s been super flexible and understanding and it’s been super awesome working with him.

D: What can you tell us about the cover artist?

M: We’ve consistently had Sam Mayle from the U.K. He’s done everything since Homecoming and if we ever re-did Fear Me I’d love for him to do Fear Me well. The art is the first piece of the three singles, so you’ll get three standalone pieces of artwork that make up one big picture. If people haven’t picked up on it already it’s basically our recreation of the last supper. It’s going to include old characters, new characters, and it’s our nice little way of finishing up the story and showing everybody’s characters that haven’t had proper artworks done for them before and everything, as well as bringing back a few old ones and showing people like ‘Oh yeah I recognise that character, that’s cool’ and that kind of thing.

D: Gloom In The Corner has been around for a few years now. Have you noticed any significant changes to the Melbourne music scene (prior to the pandemic, of course)?

M: I mean some of my favourite bands have come and gone. It’s kind of hard to pinpoint one defining thing. You’ll find this in every music scene wherever you go, there will always be bands that try to emulate other bands in the scene. But that’s going to happen with every scene. Not going to pinpoint that to just Melbourne. My main take from it as well is that all ages shows have dropped off, which is sad to see, but from my understanding, a lot of the demographic who would go to all ages shows now all go to 18 plus shows. So, there’s not enough entry level all ages shows for kids who were my age to go to. And so they just say ‘fuck it, we’ll just wait till we’re eighteen’ and go to eighteen plus shows…which sucks. Hopefully after Covid-19 it kind of revitalises because all ages shows are a hell of a lot of fun to play.

D: What is the craziest thing that you’ve witnessed as a front man?

M: After a show I had a kid come up to me, say hi and proceed to do a death core scream in my face and walk away like it was nothing and said ‘Thanks man’ and I’m kind of standing there like what the f*ck just happened. I also saw someone eat sh*t real bad at that same show, that was a real bad one.

D: What’s in store for Gloom in the aftermath of the pandemic?

M: Hopefully touring and hopefully we get to do the full length as well!

D: Well it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you.

M: Thank you for having me, it’s been awesome.

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Thanks so much to Mikey for his time and words.
Be sure to check out the new release ‘Violence’ and give em some love. 

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