INTERVIEW: WILL HYDE - INSPIRATION, ISOLATION, AND WHAT’S NEXT

Imagine the first time you hear a record of your own voice, or the silence right before someone clears their throat and tells you how they really feel. for will hyde, this uncharted territory has been years in the making. Evie had a chat with will about his recent releases, his process, time in isolation, personal experiences and inspirations, and what’s coming up for him in 2020!

(This is an email Q/A so we’ve left everything just as will wrote it - straight from the…Will’s…mouth'!)

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QUICK FIRE 

If you could go anywhere right now (pretend lockdown/ the pandemic isn’t a thing) where would you go?

i would love to go to the States!! i wanna go back to LA & NY soon.

If you could have 3 wishes what would they be?

great question.

1)   for everyone in the world to live in the present moment (that would take away anxiety, depression - living in the past/future like many of us do).

2)   for people to be happy. if we were happier, there wouldn’t be a need to bring negativity into the world.

3)   for equality in society. we’re all humans. sexuality/skin colour don’t need to seperate us. we all wanna be loved. we ain’t different, come on my people.

What is one thing you have put on your “bucket list”?

hmm. i actually haven’t thought about this or about a bucket list! i think i wanna spend some time in a silent retreat for a while at a temple in the future. i wanna meet Ekhart Tolle! 

Favourite song you are currently grooving to?

i love ‘not fair’ by kid laroi!! i always forget what i’m listening to i had to go to my artist spotify playlist haha (songs that remind me of u - quick plug).

Do you have any pets?

i do! i just got a puppy - his name is Bear. he is a labradoodle. when he yawns he makes a really cute teddy bear sound. i also have a few fish (they don’t get as much attention anymore which feels tough to say). 

Best piece of advice you’ve ever received?

hmmm. don’t wait for happiness. happiness will never come if u wait. success won’t change how u feel about urself. the only way u can start feeling better is to make peace with who u are NOW. :)

 And now for the serious stuff; 

How have you been coping in lockdown? Have you found any inspiration to get creative?

i have been finding it very good for me. i have been learning a lot about myself. i get lost in my head too much, i need to connect with the present moment more often. when i get lost in my head, life doesn’t feel as exciting or satisfying. i actually haven’t felt an effect of lockdown, purely because i got used to working from home when i first left school. routine is important. taking time for myself has been important. i’ve been reading! i’ve been writing a bit. i made two songs which feel super good to me. so it has been positive, yet i haven’t forced anything. i only really make music when i feel inspired!

You started off as one half of teenage electronic duo SŸDE, what led you to follow a solo career?

i like answering this question because it was a defining moment for me. i had a picture in my mind of who i wanted to be, what i wanted to stand for, the people i wanted to keep around in my circle. all of those things made my heart scream to follow my next chapter. we had a great run in SŸDE, a lot of moments i’m proud of, yet i had my darkest days during the period. i found it tough to be myself & the art i was creating while apart of the group just wasn’t me. i felt like i didn’t know how to be myself after leaving, i had to teach myself to be authentic to me. that was a really positive experience. the biggest catalyst was my depression/anxiety which forced a lot of internal change within me. i wanted to write about it, sing about it - the only way i could do that would be to go out on my own. very grateful for those times.

Can you please describe us what your creative process is like, how do you find inspiration for your music?

for sure! i like listening to a lot of music. especially during this period. just sitting back and taking in a bunch of different sounds has always been positive for me. honestly, the only music i listen to is stuff that makes me feel. when i feel something, that inspires me - because i have the opportunity to pass that on and give that to someone else. hopefully they feel some type of emotional connection to the songs i create. music is a gift that keeps on giving. from there, i generally just go about my day & melodies, track titles and production ideas flow thru my brain. when i think i have something great, i will work on it - take it to my notes and flesh it out. i mostly do this process by myself now. i like working with friends who are producers. i enjoy hearing how other people can interpret something i’ve made and make it better. collaboration is amazing like that. i always like to have a solid idea before entering any studio :).

 ‘easy for u’ is very groovy with a deeper message; it seems to be a bit about the kind of push and pull struggle of a hopeless relationship. Was this song based off an experience you had, or can it relate more broadly all kinds of relationships?

well thank u! i’m glad u felt that. it is based on experience yet i also want to keep my songs applicable to every relationship. there’s love in friendships, ur relationship with ur parents & of course intimately. the hard thing about the struggles of relationships is that it can feel very personal. usually people are just acting in their best interest but it does feel like something could be wrong with me. that’s a maturing thing i’ve let go & can understand now. it takes a few sobering conversations to reach that perspective tho, for sure.

What inspired you to write ‘meant to be’?

i remember going in to the studio session with fergus & dylan thinking about the concept of fractures. how a relationship can be so broken & over but it feels like u could still make something of it. i find for me that getting over people takes time. even tho i make decisions about who i want in my life quickly, if there was a connection, it still is a human that i’ve had memories with, you know what i mean? so sometimes it feels like we really could make amends. the trouble is, humans don’t really change! as much as i can want them to! they don’t usually. that’s a tough reality. a good lesson i’ve learned tho! on & up.

What do you hope people will take away from your work?

i hope people take away that it’s honest & authentic. i don’t want to sugar coat things & i just wanna do me. i spent too long doing the opposite. i hope people see a maturity in it too! most importantly, i hope people can find peace or happiness thru the music. that would be so special! that’s what i do it for.

You have been very open about the topic of anxiety and the challenge of overcoming adversity. How has the challenges in life influenced your music?

thank u. that means a lot to me. i like to think so! in the biggest way possible. it has shaped everything i have done. because of what i have faced, i am the person i am today. i wouldn’t change anything for the world. it has taken me a lot of pain to find peace & start to find true happiness. all of the sobering conversations i have had with myself, when i would cry about shit that was happening in my life, it all has a purpose. that purpose could be as simple as saying this & then it helps one human out there. if it does that, maybe my purpose has been fulfilled. not sure, but either way that’s how i think of it!! i also feel a freedom now with everything i’m creating. i find expressing myself so much easier. because i know myself a lot better. now that i’ve taken a lot of my shadows out of the closet to face, i can be free-er. it feels great!

Who are your favourite Aussie artists? What music inspires you?

i like a lot of the pop underground stuff coming out of the states at the moment. chelsea cutler, jeremy zucker, lany, gracie abrams, sasha sloan. all so dope. from australia, my home, kid laroi is a star. he’s doing a lot for australia. i think ruel is a stud, matt corby is a musician that i was fortunate enough to collaborate with & he is just a truly talented person. probably one of the most gifted all around musicians i will meet in the world.

 What does 2020 have in store for you musically?

i have a lot of music coming out!! i’m excited to show different sides of me, i’m fortunate to be able to release music & so i’m just enjoying putting out layers. i have more acoustic performances that i’m recording for the new songs coming out. i have music video’s dropping. hope u love it <3.

Where can we find your music?

u can find me on social media!! ( below :) ). thank u for the interview - this was a lot of fun & i’m grateful for ur time.

FOLLOW WILL HYDE 

INSTAGRAM (pics of meh)

TWITTER (where i post a lot of how my brain works)

FACEBOOK (my mum checks me on this so u can too)

YOUTUBE (there’s good juice on here so try that 1 too).

INTERVIEW: NEON PATTERN SUNDIAL (FKA BEN ALPINE) IS TAKING IT ALL IN HIS STRIDE

Hey there Ben! First off, a huge congrats on your debut single 'All In Your Stride'! How has the single been received so far? Any favourite critiques?
Thank you! Yeah the reception has been really great and to be honest a little overwhelming! I’m not sure what I’d expected, but I don’t think I realised I’d be spending the entire release day responding to messages from friends and reading blog posts about the song. It was so cool though, definitely very very stoked and thankful.

Ben Madden wrote a review on the song which was so cool to read. I just feel like he took from the song exactly what I want people to, especially saying that “you’ll feel positive about your day by the end of it”. Otherwise it’s just been so cool to hear from friends. I had shown it to a few people that I’m close with as we were making it, but tried to keep it under wraps for the most part. So it was awesome to now have people really dig into it and ask about the details in the artwork and things like that, which is exactly what I want people to do.

Tell us about your creative processes; how did 'All In Your Stride' come to be?
I don’t really think I can say that I have a definitive creative process as that sort of thing always changes. it’s sort of split up into two parts….

Firstly, I’ll create the demo mostly by myself. I’ll just work on it whenever; in my bedroom, on trains, at uni, mostly with headphones. I’ll just record everything really rough and try to not get too caught up in lyrics or synthesis or getting the right take.

Then I’ll bring the demo to my friend and producer/mixer Marc Scollo, and we’ll go through and flesh things out, tidy up the arrangement and basically re-record everything at a much higher quality. Marc is basically like 49% of the project if you ask me. This is where we replace the sample drums with a live kit, and start arranging vocal harmonies and all that stuff. Usually the song changes a lot during this process. I definitely rewrote some of the lyrics right before recording them...

All In Your Stride was in it’s ‘demo’ stage for over a year before Marc and I started on what became the final production. And I started it at a time that I wasn’t very inspired so it sat dormant for months and months before I picked it up again. I rewrote a lot of the lyrics at the last minute which seems to be pretty standard for me at the moment. I don’t really consider myself that great of a lyricist and feel like I have a lot to learn.

My friend Bek Nafiz was pretty important in the process, we did a session mid-2018 that basically got the entire foundation of the song down. It was her idea for all those funky guitar lines. I should also mention Alex Siderov who played drums on the track.

I'm very intrigued by the single's cover art, it's quite beautiful. Tell us about the concept and the images you've used.
Yeah! The artwork seems to be getting a lot of attention which is so awesome. It was basically all Jack Mackinnon. I just gave him a bunch of photos I had taken that reflected the aesthetic of the song to me. Which were mostly these vast landscape images that gave off this optimistic feeling, to me at least. He picked those ones and put them together that way and I loved it immediately. He absolutely killed it I reckon.

The photos are either from my travels or places that I’ve spent a lot of time and are all important to me. I picked up photography about 2 years ago, and I wanted the aesthetic of this project to be very rooted in reality and that sort of dreamy representation of it, so using those photos was a no-brainer.

Some of your influences include Hippo Campus and The Japanese House, how do these artists inspire you and your music?
Like everyone I listen to a lot of different music, especially electronic music and a lot of pop, but I feel like those two artists reflect the more ‘indie’ guitar-driven side of my sound, especially on All In Your Stride. I was listening to Bambi by Hippo Campus and Good at Falling by The Japanese House a lot during making this so the input was definitely there, both of those albums are some of my favourites. The Japanese House’s tuned and harmonised vocal arrangements were 100% a huge thing for me.

COVID-19 has had an extreme effect on the music industry, and I’m sure you’re missing festivals and gigs as much as me. What was the last gig you went to? Any events you were looking forward to that were cancelled/postponed?
The last show I went to was my friend Earnest Jackson’s single launch for his song Sweaty, which is a massive tune and their performance really went off. Before that I saw Golden Features who is always amazing. And I was getting really really excited to see Bon Iver and Tame Impala before they both got postponed!

Give us your Top 10 songs that are getting you through lockdown.

In no particular order! A real mix here of random stuff I’ve picked up and had on repeat...

Phone Numbers by Dominic Fike & Kenny Beats

Ego Death by Ty Dolla $ign, Kanye West, FKA twigs & Skrillex

Firing Rifle by PNK FME

Day After Day by Goldwater

You by Tennyson

Nirvana by ELLIANA

Playing On My Mind by The 1975

Motion Sickness by Phoebe Bridgers

Strobing Light by Ishq

All The Way by Tom Cosm

Finally, what’s next for NEON PATTERN SUNDIAL?

I don’t know how much I want to say! I’ve got a bunch more songs ready so there will definitely be another single sooner or later. A lot more on the way.

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INTERVIEW: CHATS WITH MELBOURNE POP-PUNKERS PAPERWEIGHT (FKA NORTH SIDE STORY)

How has Covid been treating you guys?
Actually, we’ve been quite lucky - we had a lot of our projects finalised just before Covid hit, so we’ve been able to stick to our release schedules, even during lockdown. We filmed our music video the week before that first lockdown was put into place - phew!

You’re about to drop a new single - what can you tell me about it?
Our new single “The Kids On The Ground” is a bop! It’s all about the bittersweet reality of growing up, moving forward and embracing a place in time. It's a celebration of good memories that are no more, and thus was written with the intention of being upbeat and happy with an undertone of bitterness.

What has been the toughest thing for you guys through Covid, being that you are a new band?
Not being able to gig! After all, nothing beats the experience of a live show... we were so ready to get out there and smash it - but best believe, when we’re able to, we’ll be one of the first back on the stage.

Who are your biggest influences?
Haris: The Beatles, Twenty One Pilots, Blink 182, New Found Glory, Green Day.
Luana: Sum 41, Heroes For Hire, Simple Plan.
Basil: Led Zeppelin, Blink 182, Metallica, Rage Against The Machine.
Tom: Blink 182, Ben Folds, The Beatles.

What made you decide to become musicians? Was it from a young age, parents/family influence or a band you heard and that made you think ‘yep, that’s what I want to do?’
Basil: I started playing drums when I was 13. At age 10, I’d play on my older cousin’s kit - it was the one thing I looked forward to every week!
Luana: I do come from a musical family, but my real lightbulb moment was when Joel Little from Goodnight Nurse gave me his guitar pick at the first local show I ever attended - that was all I needed to pick up a guitar!
Tom: School of Rock! Having a family full of different musicians helped broaden my music taste and I now appreciate all kinds of music.
Haris: I don’t come from a musical background, but I don’t have any memories of any time in my life where I wasn't completely enamoured by music/creative storytelling. I guess it has just always been there.

What is on the horizon for Paperweight?
We are always writing and creating. The hardest part is being patient with our release schedule - all we want to do is show everyone everything as it happens! But rest assured we have plenty of things lined up that we truly can’t wait to share. 

Your dream line up to tour with?
Haris: Cannibal Corpse, Baby Metal and The Wiggles would go off.
Luana: Sum 41, Simple Plan, Zebrahead
Basil: All the bands I’d have wanted to tour with don’t tour anymore...
Tom: Blink 182, New Found Glory, Sum 41

Top 3 favourite Aussie acts at the moment?

Haris: With Confidence, Between You & Me and The Dead Love
Luana: Between You & Me, Drastic Park and Terra
Tom: Children Collide, Stand Atlantic & Down For Tomorrow 

Catch Paperweight's 'The Kids On The Ground' below and jump on their socials to keep up to date with what they are up to.

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INTERVIEW: SYDNEY RAPPER TUKA PERSONIFIES HIS SOUNDSCAPE WITH HIS NEW ALBUM ‘NOTHING IN COMMON BUT US’

Pictured: Sydney rapper Tuka breaks genre boundaries with his new album, Nothing In Common But Us
Image: Supplied 

For those who are accustomed to the Australian hip-hop scene, the name Tuka would almost be synonymous with Blue Mountains hip-hop trio, Thundamentals. Iconic moments for the hip-hop group like their 2012 cover of Brother by Matt Corby for Triple J’s Like a Version segment (amassing over 4.9 million views) may also spring to mind, as well as their popular light-hearted tune Sally. Tuka is one third of that trio, and is hoping to define himself as a solo artist with his new album, Nothing In Common But Us. 

In the last five years, Tuka had a semi-hiatus from his solo career, making two albums with Thundamentals and subsequently touring those albums. A major defining moment in that five year period for Tuka was a relationship which influenced a large part of his work. 

“Nothing In Common But Us is from my perspective, it’s about personifying a relationship into the one character,” he said.

“I definitely got the idea for the album from spending a lot of time with someone and them uprooting a lot of things that I didn’t know about myself.” 

Listeners are greeted by tracks such as the first single from the album, Wish I Knew, which was co-written with The Presets’ Julian Hamilton, and premiered on Triple J’s Good Nights. Tuka is renowned for his warmth when it comes to hip-hop songwriting, however this track finds him experimenting with deep house influences and breaking down the barriers of conventional genres. 

“I guess the sonic soundscape was a victim to whatever I found exciting, that didn’t put me in the box of being a hip hop artist - I wanted to be an artist in general for this one,” he said.

“Dropping a genre or trying to create my own genre was the objective, there really weren't any rules.” 

Nothing In Common But Us expands upon hip-hop more broadly and invites the listener to sit with a wide spectrum of emotions, with Tuka including spoken word poet Anne Casey to explore these feelings and as an ode to his relationship with poetry. “When I saw Anne perform it just hit me right in the head because it’s what I was writing about, and she actually coined the phrase ‘Nothing In Common But Us’, within that poem,” he said. 

“...and so afterwards I talked to her on the side of the stage and we had big chats, and I asked her if I could use that line and she was so cool about everything I asked her.” Oftentimes, you can catch Tuka heading to Glebe in Sydney to share wine with friends and listen in adoration to poets who grace the stage.

“You just watch all of these people come out of the woodwork, they’ve had this whole life of experience, and they’ve put a lot of effort into writing a piece of poetry about their perspective and a lot of the time it’s just so beautiful,” he said. 

Tuka also collaborated with rising Brisbane indie-pop star Sycco (the brainchild of Sasha McLeod), who features on his track Click Bang. 

“Oh my god, she’s a genius! When I sent it to her I didn’t send her any harmonies or anything, but I just sent her a lead,” he said. 

“She got it first try, I didn’t even give her any notes. She just came back with her own take on it and I loved everything about it.” 

It’s hard to tell what’s in store for the rest of the year for Tuka, as the live music scene is on halt due to COVID-19, but Tuka assured us that it’ll be full of the thing he loves most: writing music. 

“All I have to do is write music, and if I told myself that when I was a 17-year-old kid when I started this, I would have been elated! And I am, I am very happy - I’m in a super privileged position where I can wake up and I write a song and that’s my responsibility for the day – and that’s absurd.” 

“I’m using COVID to just do a proper reset and hopefully write some of the best music of my life that will be relevant when I go to play it live, whenever that is.” 

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INTERVIEW: CHRISTOS ON ISOLATION, INFLUENCES, CATALOGUE-BUILDING, AND WORKING WITH HIGH-PROFILE PRODUCER JAMES ANGUS

New BackBeat team member Milli had a chat with up-and-comer Christos (Chris Kallis) about his latest release, his writing process, and building his creative catalogue.

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How does it feel to be releasing music through this weird time- were any of your methods changed or different?
It definitely is a weird time at the moment but I personally think its a good time to be releasing music. A lot of people are still stuck at home with not much to do so us artists have to use that to our advantage! I've just tried to be more interactive online as that's where a lot of the attention is during this time. 

I know you come up with songs based on your life experiences, what do you think is the best topic to write or sing about?
For me writing about relationships that I've been in is the best topic. Whether its being in love or being hurt, it's something a lot of people can relate to and I like to express these emotions and feelings through my music in hopes of connecting to my listeners.

 I noticed that Movin’ leans a bit more towards the ‘cloud rap’ type genre than the other songs you’ve put out and Calling is different still, would you say that your style differs depending on the song? 
For sure, I like all of my songs to sound different in their own way. At this early stage of my career I'm trying to build my catalogue to show my versatility as an artist. I love experimenting and I'm always trying new things with my music and style.

 How would you describe your sound? 
It's hard to limit my music to just a single genre, I would describe it as a mixture of a few genres. My sound is mainly Hip hop, R&B and even Pop while my style is melodic rap.

Who are your influences or musical idols?
A lot of the new gen artists like Juice, Trippie and X. I love how those guys have underlying messages that are usually quite sad, coming from their own struggles and experiences, similar to my music. Each of those artists still produce their stuff in an upbeat and vibey way. When I am creating music across genres, other influences would be Travis Scott and Don Toliver.  Funny, because I grew up listening to a lot of bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Violent Femmes and Red Hot Chilli Peppers. A lot of Michael Jackson, Andre 3000 and Chris brown too. It was just always something that was playing at home or on the radio.

 What were you thinking about when writing “Calling?”
I remember pulling the beat up, vibing to it for a bit and I instantly had a melody in my head that I wanted to use. From here I wanted to take my listeners on a personal journey of an up and down relationship. Each verse kinda builds on this, making it something people are able to relate to with their own experiences. You know when someone is trying to reach out to you but you know you shouldn't go back down that road with them? That was the motive for this track. 

How was it to work with James Angus?
Basically I was looking through his BeatStars and stumbled across this really cool beat but it was super short! Only like a minute long I think. I hit him up and sent him the demo I made and he liked it so he extended the beat for me, sent it over and I made it into a full song! It was really cool to work with him being the high profile producer he is. 

What do you do in your spare time, when you’re not creating?
When I'm not making music I'm working some part time jobs and spending time with my girl, friends and family but managing my own career as an artist definitely is the most time consuming!

 What are you working on right now?
I actually just finished filming a music video which I plan to drop a few weeks down the line so stay tuned for the 'Calling' visual! At the moment I have a bunch of unreleased music that I'm planning to release over the rest of the year.

 Last question- Ice cream or cake? 
That's a tough one because I enjoy eating them both together.... But it's gotta be ice cream. 

 Actual last question: top 3 current Aussie artists and why?
There are loads of talented Aussie artists breaking through at the moment but some of my favourites would have to be Oliver Amun, Vic August and Youngn Lipz. I feel like they are all making dope music and their melodic rap style is what I'm also doing with my own music. 

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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: GRACE FARRIS - ‘ALL THE PEOPLE’. GRACE TALKS HER WRITING PROCESS, GROWING UP WITH FAMOUS FAMILY, AND THE STATE OF THE WORLD

What inspired you to write ‘All the People’? 

‘All The People’ was one of those songs that came to me so fast that I even and often asked myself or the universe where did this come from? It came through within an hour and then I had a full song. Including the feel, the groove, the bass, melody and lyrics, the arrangement followed soon after. I feel though that I was tuning into the worldly events happening at the time that really affected me in one way or another and ‘All The People’ came through as almost a song of reassurance for me and for my greater community being the people of the world. We all have our darkness and our lightness to face every day and I feel ‘All The People’ is such a beautiful and very much a uniting song of strength and love. When I wrote my song ‘All The People’ it was one of those rare songs I knew was meant for others to hear and not just for me. Some songs and art is just for myself and some songs I know is for other people to listen to and to share. 

Was the idea of the track a slow process or was it something that came to you quickly?

I did not have an idea before writing ‘All The People’ which is unique for me. Some songs I have a feeling about what I am going to write about or a certain emotion I honour while I am writing. Although ‘All The People’ came into my life and through me like a beautiful gust of wind. I wrote it so quickly that the minutes felt like hours and seconds felt like minutes. It is still to this day one of the most awe inspiring songs I have ever written and I still wonder where the understanding for exactly how it wanted to be came to me so quickly. Around an hour to be exact and then the arrangement followed soon afterward.

In light of the recent world events it seems that the notion of coming together is incredibly important right now. What message are you hoping to reach your audience through the lyrics?

My biggest message in my lyrics and music is to come back to yourself and who you truly are and what is your own path in life is as a person as well as coming back to how I can serve within my own community. This is my biggest message that I feel shines through in ‘All The People’. This is usually the place I come from when I am writing. I never write music because someone wants to hear something in particular. I write from the heart with the intention that it will help me find solace in processing these emotions as well as help others in finding and feeling the same emotion and feelings I felt or feel. Which is something that happens naturally because It comes through very naturally. Which is such a beautiful feeling. ‘All The People’ is all about uniting and coming together to do the best we can and to be the best we can for our family, friends and others we meet along the way. I knew it was a very grand song when it came through and I knew where it needed to go as soon as it came to me. The music and the feeling is the most important component to me when writing a song. This came through very strongly for my song ‘All The People’.  

The track is incredibly funky, it has effortless amounts of groove brought forth by the combination of drums and the sax. Has the track changed considerably from its conception? What was the recording process like with Tony Buchan?

I knew as soon as I wrote ‘All The People’ that it would be a heavily funky, groove based song. I felt its power and its heart the minute it came out. I had the song two years before I went to record ‘All The People’ so I knew it better that I thought anybody ever could. So when I approached Tony and I was wondering for a long time who to choose as a conscience and producer. I decided Tony could grasp what was going on in my head the most after all of these years. Tony was amazing and his musicianship and knowledge is so incredibly wide. I knew exactly what I wanted for all of my songs and compositions as well as the arrangements on my album ‘Grace’ so to have someone that understood this was a very important and a wonderful feeling. ‘All The People’ was one of my songs I spent the most time on in terms of sound and feels, especially the bass throughout and the way it felt was so important to me. I spent hours and hours and hours getting the bass just right and one day I finally heard it. I would be up all night long figuring out all of the layers, vocals, bass. I wanted to work on ‘All The People’ in the studio as long as possible until I heard in the studio what I could hear in my mind. I was so strict and so focused and firm on creating what was in my head for so long for each of my songs on my album ‘Grace’. I am very much so happy and proud with how each of my songs and compositions turned out. My song ‘All The People’ is one of my greatest songs and I am so proud and so glad it is now there for the world to listen to it.

You have been surrounded by music from a young age, having a father renowned for his songwriting talents with INXS. What was growing up like in such an artistic family?

I was raised in a very normal way. Although we were surrounded by beautiful artwork and beautiful architecture and went to some of the most amazing schools in the world. I think at the end of the day my experiences in nature are what grounded us as a family and me as a child. My father and mother made sure that our childhood was as protected as possible and that nature influenced us as much as possible. If we felt like making art we would. Although I enjoyed history and science and geography so much. I painted a lot growing up and started writing at a very young age. I thought most families were as creative as my family, although this was not always so. I was surrounded by nature everyday growing up. This is the foundation of life and I really honoured this as well as the innovative nature of mankind, which I had a huge appreciation for. I had written over 2000 songs by the age of 18 as well as poems and stories. This came to me so naturally and very much so by my own will and joy for writing. 

You seem to be extremely passionate about the environment, being an ambassador for both Sea Shepherd and the Jane Goodall Institute. What is it that inspires you to take environmental issues into your own hands?

I have always been surrounded by nature in its natural state and all at once I find mankind's ability to be creative and innovate equally fascinating. I have found many moments of solitude and some of the greatest moments up until now have been in nature in its natural state. I find you are able to listen to the real rhythms of the earth and your own self rather than others or other people's inventions. I feel that so many children grow up without being in the natural world and the beauty and peace it can bring to someone's life. Being the ambassador for “The Jane Goodall Institute” I am shining a light on her program “Roots and Shoots” which involves families and children and anyone who wants to be involved in growing their own plants and food and growing their awareness of being more connected to the natural world and its need for us to honour it. I believe that Jane Goodall’s work along with many other scientists and people of this nature provide information that is just so wonderful and so integral in the health of our amazing home. My awareness of the natural world has come from many different sources. I grew up around and surrounded by the traditional indengous Aboriginal people of Australia both up in Arnhem land and in Garma festival as well as in my home all of the time. Weaving baskets and learning about the knowledge of the Aborgininal elders and in particular about the plant  medicine in different parts of Australia that have influenced me greatly. I grew up on a working farm and near the ocean which brought a lot of solace and comfort to me when I felt I needed it, which also led me to become the ambassador for “The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society”. I garden and bush walk a lot and enjoy looking and being around trees for long periods of time. Listening to the birds and other creatures and the elements is the most uplifting and peaceful feeling to me. My own organisation “The Grace Earth Organisation” will be launched in November/December 2020. My organisation will be a place for people to come and find out more information on the many different ways to help us all to be much more mindful about our footprint and the health of our local environments. It will cover many different topics and areas and will have information from other institutes and organisations as well as there being events to help raise awareness about our connection to the natural world and our place and impact on our ever changing home. 

Your debut album, titled ‘Grace’, is set to release later this year. What can fans expect from the new music?

My album ‘Grace’ is one of the proudest moments in my life and I already had 6 of the songs for around 15 years and 4 of them around 2 years before I went on to record my full album ‘Grace’. When a song comes to me I can hear what it wants very clearly and quickly. I listen to the song and what I feel the song is asking to sound like once recorded. This is something I thought very long and hard about for each song I wrote. I consider myself a writer first and foremost and I write everything from the heart, including the arrangements and each layer for each song has its purpose and its place. I loved writing each and every song for my album ‘Grace’. It is one of the greatest achievements of my life and I am so looking forward to others being able to enjoy and listen to my music, dream and find a world of their own within the music. 

What are your favourite Aussie artists? What music inspires you?

I really enjoy Australian music. There is so much art and amazing music in Australia that I have so much respect for. I enjoy ACDC, INXS, The Seekers, Paul Kelly, Nick Cave, Slim Dusty, Yothu Yindi, Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu. The music that inspires me the most and I always seem to come back to is classical and traditional indigenous music from all over the world. It feels so beautifully raw and so wonderfully uplifting to me. I have always gravitated towards this kind of music. Hymns and opera music inspires me greatly too and always has. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart inspires me greatly. When I first heard ‘Clarinet Concerto in A major and A minor, K.622’ I felt it’s lightness, darkness, softness and suspense he carries throughout these entire pieces in particular. So many times these pieces of music have brought me great solace. It is so brilliant and has inspired me more than I can even say. I do not know how to not think of Mozart’s music when reflecting in particular on my own musical arrangements to bring my writings to an accompanied setting.

When I first heard ‘Four Seasons’ by Antonio Vivaldi I laughed and cried with happiness and all of the emotions one might have in each season going about their daily life. I could feel in his compositions the very essence of our natural world and how we change and turn to move with the beautiful season’s we all adjust to through every year. I love how the leaves on the tree’s turn red and yellow in the Autumn and bare in the winter, and how all of the animals and land gets quieter and much more silent, there is a median feeling in this section of ‘Four Season’s’ that is just so incredibly beautiful. Then in Summer and Spring everything feels bright and warm and passionate and so sensual. This very essence is found so deeply and so beautifully in ‘Four Seasons’. This Artist has inspired me so greatly. 

“Jules Massenet” When I first heard ‘Meditation From Thais’ for violin and piano. This artist has inspired me so much and I will forever be learning from and unveiling the incredible intricate writings and compositions of Jules Massenet. 

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INTERVIEW WITH NATHAN CAVALERI: PLAYING WITH JIMMY BARNES, BATTLING LEUKAEMIA, MENTAL HEALTH, AND COMING BACK STRONGER

As a kid, having the opportunity to play with the likes of Jimmy Barnes, Diesel and other music legends would have surely been a transformative experience. Could you please describe to us a bit about what that was like? 

I went from busking out front of my mum’s coffee shop, to playing on Hey Hey It’s Saturday to playing to 10,000 plus people per night supporting Jimmy Barnes and Diesel on the Soul Deep / Hepfidelity tour. At 10 years old, this was my first real snapshot of what a life in music would feel like. I loved it. Tour buses, semi-trailers, road cases, rehearsals, security, backstage passes, riders, dressing rooms, sound checks, driven by a management team and crew all working to put together a night for both the artist and the audience. It was my first experience on a real stage and as a sponge, I absorbed it all. Watching Jimmy and Diesel sing and play their hearts out leaving nothing but puddles of sweat on stage was a pivotal point in my career. I learnt that playing on stage is not just about expressing yourself. It’s about connecting. For them, it seemed as if they played like it was their last night no earth and as a kid going through Leukaemia at the time, this really resonated with me.

 Is there a favourite artist you have played/ worked with? 

I have 2 favourites for different reasons. B.B.King and Diesel. Having the privilege of playing 3 songs on stage with B.B. in the middle of his set for 3 weeks on one of his US tours is an experience that I’m still digesting! I learnt so much on tour both through observation and receiving advice. It was also the first time I witnessed blues music on a big stage and was able to see how powerful a blues show can be. My relationship with Diesel has many dimensions. I was learning from him at 10, and I’m still learning from him today. We’ve always bonded over song-writing, production and gear but now as an independent artist and father of 2, our connection has expanded into the world of music strategy as well as the more “human” aspects of being an artist. I love and respect him dearly.   

How do you think the highs and lows of your life have influenced your music?

Battling Leukaemia as a kid took a hobby into a form of self-expression and therapy. Even during recent years when I decided to call it quits, song-writing and playing even if alone, brought me catharsis. My empathetic imagination allows me to make art of what I see and feel - Be it experiences that someone else has had or through reflecting on my own, my music is definitely hinged to the dynamics of my life and is the reason why my stage shows and recordings are anything but linear. Weeping melancholy melodies to stink face triggering struts.. It’s all in there!  

 ‘Before You Check Out’ is a beautiful melody, carved by the acoustic guitar and gentle vocals. It has a powerful message, one that you have described as being “a song for those who are low on hope”. What would be your message to those who are struggling in these current circumstances? 

There’s always a way. Just because you can’t see a path, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. No matter what people say, there’s always a way and there are millions around the world who are proof of this and there are MANY paths to suit all different walks of life. The master key for me was learning to adjust my perception of adversity / discomfort / pain. When we start to see our pain as indicators rather than bullets, the situation goes from bring a battle to an opportunity for growth. I can see and learn more when I’m having a conversation rather than throwing punches or covering up. Most of my growth and resilience has come from challenges in my life. Don’t demonise them. Embrace them. Learn from them and trust that despite how it feels, it’s leading you to good places! An awakening is suppose to feel fucked because unfortunately, growth can only happen outside of our comfort zone.  

‘Hug’ is another beautiful track, with the lyrics; “All my hugs come from behind, no matter how many times you walk away from the crime”. Could you please expand on those lyrics? What does the power of forgiveness mean to you? 

For years I misunderstood the definition and purpose for forgiveness. I believed that the act of forgiving was the same as condoning and also believed that it’s purpose was to bring relief to the offender. I couldn’t be more wrong. My new understanding is that forgiveness is for the victim and is a form of acceptance. Holding a grudge, wishing something wasn’t so, hating on a past self are all acts of resistance. As long as that resistance is there, our past will continue to haunt us. For some, the past is haunting them daily through memories that are played on repeat. When we reach a state of full forgiveness we’ve accepted and are therefore released from the past. My song “Hug” is about making peace with abandonment. “Better the back of your head than the front of a lie..” means that you are willing to face the truth no matter how much it hurts. “All my hugs come from behind” is a metaphor for forgiving someone who has turned their back on you. 

The album ‘Demons’ is set to release on August 9th this year, followed by an album tour. What can fans expect from the new music? 

When I was a kid, I had something to play but now I have something to say. It was written at a time when I wasn’t intending on returning to the stage which kept the writing process from being corrupted by business goals. The sentiment of these songs are inspired by my own experiences and those around me. Organically, almost all of the songs relate in someway to how we relate to our “demons”. Whether profound or tongue and cheek, the attitudes of each song mirror the dynamics of my life and are amplified by styles of music that move me the most - Psychedelic folk, hiphop, funk, country all brought together by all my favourite types of blues. On stage, I string these songs together by sharing my own personal stories.  

 What are your favourite Aussie artists? What music inspires you?

My favourite bands are all over the place - Teskey Brothers, Ash Grunwald, Diesel, Julia Jacklin - OMG Julia Jacklin, Thelma Plum, Baby Animals, Cold Chisel, Guy Sebastian, Dope Lemon, LOVE Dope Lemon, Delta Riggs, Kingswood, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, TAME IMPALA! All different types of music inspires me…If it takes me away and makes me feel something, I’m in! 

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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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SIR WINSTON’S POSITIVE BEATLES PLAYLIST

 In all of this iso hubbub, Sir Winston is pulling through with the classics. He’s created a playlist of his fave beatles tracks to help him through iso, and we have a feeling all you Beatles fans out there will love it too. 2 hours full of Beatles boogie goodness coming your way! ->

Listen on Spotify: Keep positive and feel good with this playlist of Amazing songs by The Greatest Band Of All Time!

Check out the press release for Sir Winston’s own latest release ‘Hollywood Hills’ HERE!

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A GENTLE REMINDER IN THE FORM OF MUSIC FROM PEAK PARK’S NEW SINGLE: PLEASE DON’T BE SO HARD ON YOURSELF

 Pictured: Callum Lausberg, Mitchell Summers, and Thomas Hoeft from indie-rock band Peak Park.
Image: Todd Riley

As July begins, 2020 is half way through and the winter months are in full-force. Winter, along with a second wave of COVID-19 in Victoria, presents a somewhat difficult time, especially for those who are confined to the safety of their own homes. Enter Melbourne three-piece project Peak Park, who have released their new single, Please Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself, and you’ve got yourself a seasonal remedy which is sure to provide a sense of comfort amidst the uncertainty.  

 Please Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself, released on 25 May, touches on feelings of shame surrounding mental health struggles, and is an attempt to bring relief in the form of a four-minute track.

Multi-instrumentalist, producer and mixer of Peak Park, Thomas Hoeft, spoke of the source of inspiration which led to Please Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself.

“The complete process of writing, recording, producing and releasing this song in and of itself ended up being an enlightening journey for us to realise how important song writing is for our own mental health,” he said.

“It wasn’t till we started recording and finishing the mixing process that we began to critically discuss what the song was about and why we’d written it.”

This process allowed the three-piece to really tap into vulnerable moments people may encounter when facing troubling thoughts.

 “The themes explored in the song can be quite intimidating and confronting but the challenge for us (or anyone for that matter) is to find your own way of expressing these emotions,” he said.

“You should also never feel ashamed for talking about them. It’s a nice notion to be reminded that sometimes you need to cut yourself some slack.”

Pictured: Peak Park helped each other with their mental health during isolation periods of COVID-19.
Image: Todd Riley 

Hoeft added that during COVID-19 the band collectively helped each other to maintain a healthy mindset. 

“We’ve been fortunate enough that through the band the three of us have become quite close and have created an open forum to discuss our emotions and to rely on one another,” he said. 

“Talking to friends and family and admitting when things are rough has really helped me get through iso, and working on music when I’m stressed is also a big thing for me.” 

The song itself encompasses a whirlpool of genres: the beginning starting as what seems to be a lofi-bedroom sound, which quickly transcends into a synth driven indie-electronic mood, and then eventually culminates in an alt-rock breakdown (my favourite kind!) reminiscent of English alt-rock band Foals.

All of these components blend and build upon one another, ultimately creating an incredibly unique sound for Peak Park.  

 Hoeft said if Please Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself reaches even one person, the band would be “incredibly stoked”. 

“The hope is this song speaks to at least one person and they feel a sense of comfort or reassurance through the music and lyrics,” he said. 

Please Don’t Be So Hard On Yourself is a gentle reminder from Peak Park to take it easy, and whilst doing so, absorb all of the swirling sounds they’ve so wonderfully produced. 

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If you, or someone you know needs help:

Lifeline on 13 11 14

Kids Helpline on 1800 551 800

Beyond Blue on 1300 224 636

Headspace on 1800 650 890

MensLine Australia on 1300 789 978

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services

LGBTIQA+ Support 

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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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INTERVIEW: DAMON FROM ALIENIST TALKS NEW SINGLE, COVID TIMES, AND FAVE LOCAL ACTS

Picking up the support slot for Northlane and Gravemind on your home turf after only playing a handful of gigs is not a bad way to begin your bands career! Wollongong’s Alienist got to do just that earlier this year. Having released one single Social Faker back in October the guys were ready to take on the metalcore world when Covid struck laying to rest gigs for the foreseeable future.

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How did Alienist come about and where did the name come from?
We haven’t been around for too long, only about one year. We formed from a failed cover band and decided we wanted to start writing our own music so it just kind of started from there.

We had a massive list of names that we all thought of and through the process of eliminating the lame and taken names, we landed on Alienist. We thought it was fitting because of the psychological analysis definition, and we tend to do that with our lyrics, about the world and society anyway.

You’ve all been in bands before then?
Yeah, we’ve all played music here and there for a long time. A couple of us have more experience in touring and bands than what I do, but we are all experienced in different ways. We got started and released our first single Social Faker and then started playing gigs in October 2019,

And then you score supporting Northlane and Gravemind!
That’s right. I think we had only played 3, maybe 4 shows and then Social Faker was in a competition run by Unearthed that I think got added automatically and yeah we got a call from triple j and they asked us if we wanted to play with Northlane and Gravemind on the Wollongong leg, so that was pretty insane.

You’ve recently released a new single. Tell me about Severance.
While we were gigging we just kept writing and adding songs to the set list. Severance was a later one that we wrote for the setlist before the Northlane gig.  After Northlane, we decided to take it to the studio and record it. We’ve been going to the same producer Clay Segelov, at The Brain Recording Studios, in Sydney.

The song itself is about something that we all feel, separating yourself from the world, there’s a lot of ideologies and things like that that the world likes to portray and support that a lot of us just don’t agree with.  It’s even more relevant now because we all know that unfortunately the world isn’t in a great place at the moment. Sometimes you just need to take a step back , you know, cut yourself off from the world,  look at yourself, and take that time to not get involved in all the drama, the horrible things that are going on at the time.

Who does most of the writing for you guys?
Mostly me, I have a whole set up at home and usually I’ll write a lot most nights on my own. There’s probably dozens and dozens of songs worth of material there but you know we sort of scrape through that and make sure we pick the best parts.  We also like to get together and have a couple of the boys come over and I’ll play guitar, but we’ll bounce off of each other with ideas. Jake does his drums parts, he’s an incredible drummer, and then the lyrics I’ll do with my screamer and that’s pretty much what we do. We practice every single week, make sure that we jam out the songs so they’re perfectly tight. We just love playing together. Even if we didn’t play in the band together, in terms of gigs, I think we would still get together every week just ‘cause we love each other so much

So you guys have known each other for years?
I met Anthony and Chris only a couple of years ago but Lachlan, Jake and I have been friends for a very long time, since school.  Since then though, all the experiences we have shared, it doesn’t matter how long we have known each other I suppose. I can’t imagine being in a band where you’re not great friends. The band is definitely a family, were brothers.

In a post-covid world if Alienist could tour with any other Australian acts who would be in your line-up?
Oh, that’s hard, there are so many Australian bands that we look up to.

Polaris – in terms of writing and influence they are up there for us in that regard. Northlane, Gravemind, Alpha Wolf, Make Them Suffer would definitely be up there, Dealer would be amazing. They are definitely the ones that stand out.

Covid doesn’t seem to have stopped a lot of bands from releasing new music.
Yeah, as much as covid sucks it’s been really good for bands in terms of their online presence and listening numbers, and hopefully it’s given everyone a chance to write a lot more music and spend time perfecting the craft and the sound. It’s really good to see how much everybody cares about the music in the industry.

Everyone is bringing it in the scene at the moment. In Hearts Wake are killing it with their new stuff, and DVSR are starting to release their stuff, and obviously Justice For The Damned with their new album. They’ve adopted a much heavier hardcore type sound it’s pretty insane.  All the new releases are just insane actually, there’s no flops at the moment.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what Windwaker release, I know they’ve been working really hard. They have a very unique sound, and even though they have softer bits as soon as they hit with the hard-heavy guitar riffs, the stuff they write …  it’s just incredible

I’ve also noticed that a lot of overseas radio shows and the like have picked up Australian releases and are spinning them.
Yeah we got picked up by a few people in the UK and the US. It’s really nice to see that they are looking at the smaller bands in the metalcore scene and just picking them up regardless of country.

What does post-covid look like for you guys?
Post-covid is hopefully incredibly busy. During covid we recorded a song in collaboration with a rapper in isolation. We did it remotely with our producer over zoom calls. That is hopefully going to come out in next month. We’ve been working tirelessly on our EP that we are going to record in the next couple of months. Obviously waiting patiently for venues to re-open and hopefully jump on a tour or jump on a lot of shows. Hopefully, we will have an EP out by the end of the year, and a music video and a single, and we’ll just keep pushing this train and hopefully get somewhere with it.

I’m so keen for post-covid shows, seeing as there won’t be any overseas acts for a while I’m hoping for some pretty sick line-ups to tour together.
I’m so excited for it all to start up again too.  Hopefully by Sept/Oct we will be back in the swing of things.

Finally, what are your top 3 Aussie acts at the moment?
Number one would have to be Polaris. I get more drawn to the melodic-djenty sound that’s going on at the moment so for me personally it would also be Thornhill, Alpha Wolf or Make Them Suffer.

ALIENIST ARE:
Vocals - Lachlan Forsberg
Guitar - Damon Renes
Guitar - Anthony Vella
Bass - Chris Olliffe
Drums - Jake Ceely



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INTERVIEW: DAVID FREELAND CHATS ABOUT LUNE’S LATEST RELEASE, GHOST

Melbourne’s Lune released their debut EP Ghost this week and are even about to hit 100k streams on Spotify for the title track. Our new writer Suze caught up with Lune’s guitarist David Freeland for a chat;

Hey David thanks for taking the time to chat with us. For those unaware, can you tell us a bit about Lune.
We are a relatively new band, a couple of us are from other bands (Blind Oracle, I, Valiance) and a couple of us aren’t but we have all been around in the music scene for a while. Our first single, Ghost, came out in November 2019 we followed up with 2 shows. A release show for Ghost with In Vanity, Vatic and Advocates and a bushfire relief show with BLKLST, Foxblood and The City. We are keen for some more but for obvious reasons it’s not really happening at the moment. This project has been in the works for about 2 years or so.  

Tell us about that.
Nathaniel wrote all the lyrics and Krys did pretty much all the music on this project.  On the new stuff we will be writing collaboratively The project kind of came about as a side project for Krys so I wasn’t initially involved but a lot of it was done by Jamie Marinos and Krys then I came in later and added my production elements and Nathaniel did the vocals. So with the influence kind of stuff I think they just range from all your classic heavy bands , I can only speak for myself but a lot of like the prog metal stuff from the early 2010’s Periphery, Tesseract, and then your classics like Metallica, Slipknot and Slayer.

You’ve melded your sound; you guys don’t quite sit in a specific genre.
That’s the plan, it’s humbling to hear someone say that, it makes me feel good, like feel somewhat accomplished that we fit outside of some sort of category genre that someone has created in their mind.

I guess we are jumping onto some sort of new wave of metal. It’s probably difficult to come up with classifications for this stuff in real time, a lot of that stuff comes up in retrospect. I guess for the time being the less expectations about the way the trend is going the better, we can just completely approach it with a fresh mind.

I’m a big fan of bands that sit outside the norm of specific genres and are happy to experiment with their sound.
That’s what I’ve always strived to do, unclassifiable essentially, as much as possible but then again if someone wanted to call us metalcore, deathcore or whatever then that’s fine as well. It’s not something I personally subscribe to though. If it helps people understand it. If it gets us on a Spotify metalcore playlist then that’s fine by me!

It would have been tricky with covid because you haven’t been able to do shows and gauge a following…
Yeah it has been. The only thing you get to see is comments on social media and reading reviews and stuff its really impossible to translate that into a metric that you can comprehend

You’re not far off hitting 100k streams for Ghost on Spotify. Where you expecting that sort of response?
Yeah that’s real surprising. No way, nothing like that. Because Krys and I used to play in I, Valiance we were expecting a little bit of boost off the back of that but nothing like 100k streams. That track has surpassed most of the songs I’ve released in my 7 years!

You’ll be keen to get into live shows once restrictions are lifted..
We are talking about it. We have one member from Newcastle, Harrison our drummer, so it would pretty much be a situation where he would have to road trip it down depending on the situation. It’s also dependant on whether it’s safe to do so. We are looking at doing a Melbourne launch show as a starting point, we obviously had dates and stuff planned to go with the EP release which won’t happen, that’s all been canned. So, we are pretty much just going to take it one show at a time.

What are your plans for release day?
I’m taking the day off work and will probably meet up with the guys and take it from there. I guess then we’ll jump back in the studio and keep working on the new tracks. We’re always writing that’s what we like to do

So, you have more songs in the works for another EP, or an album or just a few single releases?
Again, it’s hard to gauge what people’s reactions will be because there are no tours or shows or anything like that. Depending on if shows start to free up and the momentum we gain from the EP, we’ll probably look to follow it up with a couple of singles. We have an album’s worth of material, but we don’t want to release it all too soon. It’s impossible to know really. I’d like to say we’ll have another couple of tracks out because we have been writing so much. The stuff that we have already written but not released on Ghost feels old already so we just kind of want to get it out there. We’ll probably talk to someone who knows what they are doing to work out a plan.

There are a few bands that are going down the single release path.
Yeah look I admire the art of the album but the thrill of having multiple releases days a year is very appealing as well. To continually assert our relevance especially right now with the way things are.

I think you guys will be okay after tomorrow, there’s been a lot of talk about this EP!
I hope so. Yeah that’s real humbling even seeing all the pre-orders come through on Bandcamp and stuff it’s just so much more than what I expected. We are literally such a puny band and we haven’t been around for even a year! The response has been so good.

To finish off what are 3 of your top Australian acts at the moment?
Justice for the Damned – They have a new album out this week too (Pain is Power) I’ve toured with them back in the day and I know they put on a great show. They work extremely hard and are one of those bands where they just get everything right and now they are getting the payoff from that.

Alpha Wolf – I’ve pre-saved their new album (a quiet place to die). I’ve toured with Mitch a lot and played tonnes of shows with them. We’re pretty close with those guys. Big respect for them they work hard as well.

King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard -I’ve got the new live King Gizzard album Chunky Shrapnel that just came out. They are probably my most favourite Australian band I froth them so much.

LUNE's debut EP 'Ghost' is available everywhere now HERE and on BANDCAMP

LUNE are
Nathaniel Smith - Vocals
Krys Smith - Guitar
David Freeland - Guitar
Tyler Hendley - Bass
Harrison Mills - Drums

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INTERVIEW: ON THE PHONE WITH PROG METAL LOCALS, RELIQA

Sydney’s Reliqa have had a massive year. From supporting Sevendust when they toured, to playing Big Sound in Brisbane, and making the Good Things Festival band final. Things aren’t slowing down for them either. Recently releasing new single “Mr Magic” early in May, which is one of the standout single releases this year, the band has now signed with Destroy All Lines Agency.

I caught up with Reliqa vocalist Monique Pym.

Congratulations on your recent signing with Destroy All Lines Agency.
It’s awesome, so cool. Basically, it happened the day we released Mr Magic, or maybe the day before. That must have sparked something, I don’t know exactly how it came about but we received an email and spoke to Bailey Graham who is our booking manager over there. He has been super awesome so far. It’s fantastic to work with someone, and a company, that you have respected for a long time. Bailey is really on the ball and is genuinely passionate about our music too which is something important to us. He’s on top of his game and I really respect that.

You have some talented bands on the bill with you.
There is such a diverse range on there. We’re working in the realm of the more progressive side of stuff. That was never really a realm of music that I had explored until lately. A lot of people have been calling us progressive, that’s a title that has been a little bit thrust upon us but I’m okay with that. And considering that’s kind of our umbrella genre now I’ve been discovering bands like Circles, Dead Letter Circus who we have known for a long time and Ebonivory who we share the roster with. We played with them towards the end of last year, they are genuine guys and extremely talented.

I am loving Mr Magic. It’s probably my single of the year so far. Where did the concept come from?
Mr Magic was the first time we really approached a song that was fully fleshed out from a personal perspective rather than our previous music that has been very conceptual, and storytelling based. We decided to make a conscious effort to step in a different direction this time. To write something that is important to us on a more topical scale. It came about when the bushfires were happening over the summer period. It was a time of absolute crisis for the whole country and when you’re in a vulnerable position you look to the people in power and say how are you going to help us through this? What sort of navigation are you going to give us moving out of the crisis? You get angry when they don’t respond in a responsible way. I don’t need to name names, but we know someone who was spending some time outside of the country… Not to get too political but it is absolutely driven by things like that. I am going to mention this though - there’s a lyric in the song that kind of hits the nail on the head. I’ve never really spoken about it, specifically in that realm. At the end of the song there’s a lyric that says, “I’ve got a trick for you, play on your perilous act, I’ll watch you disappear, at any minor setback.” That was the one where I was like Boom!!

You’re trying to demand accountability from these people who have the power, they have the platform and they have the listeners to really do the right thing. You rely on them to do that but time and time again they really let their people down. The song really comes from a place of anger.

What’s going on now in America is absolutely telling to how we were feeling in Australia at that time. You want someone to look up to, to do something and guide us through.

That’s their job!
Yes, you’re right. I get a little fired up about it. I’ve been trying to stay as switched on as I can. While all of us have been in a place where we are looking to someone to help us a lot of us haven’t been in the situation of being completely oppressed by the police state and things like that. You’ve just got to say something. If you have any sort of power, influence or platform to put out a message then it’s time to use it. I think that’s really where the song came from.

Hopefully, we can use some of this crisis and really make sure that this thing won’t happen again, I’m not talking about the virus because that may well happen again. I’m talking systemised oppression and things like that. If these things are still happening in 2020 then we can’t let them happen in 2021 and so forth. We need to stay switched on and be willing to listen and learn.

And to speak up and call people out
Exactly. I read somewhere that being not-racist isn’t enough anymore, you need to be against racism. To call out the people who are saying and doing the wrong thing. If we’re tying it back to the song and the motivation to the song it’s about all of us having accountability, not just the people in power. We all have accountability to do the right thing. It’s a bit of a call to that.

What does the future look like for you guys? Is there an album in the works?
There are a few things on the table. We are definitely working as hard as we can. We have discussed the idea of a larger release like an EP or album and we are excited to jump into that but at the same time we are taking this time to experiment with out release strategy a little bit. It’s something we’ve really thought about coming into 2020.

There are bands like RedHook, who have inspired us. They have done some amazing things, touring internationally and major festivals, and if you look at the music they have out, it’s all singles. It makes you think how incredible that is. I admire them because they are such hard workers.

We want to see how we go with a few singles first, gauge the interest for an album.  Any artist knows an album is such an amazing intricate piece of work, you invest so much. And we are used to writing conceptually too and we really like doing that. We have two English majors in the band so writing narratives and stories is something which interests us.

Meanwhile we are going to focus on working with Destroy All Lines, getting some solid shows lined up, hopefully some festivals, and using those singles as a consistent steady flow for us until we are ready to release an album.

The last 18 months have been massive for Reliqa. What would be your most memorable moment?
We were thinking about this recently. When you sit down and look back, the last 12 months have been big for us. It’s been exciting so it’s hard to pinpoint just one. I would probably say my personal moment with Reliqa is Big Sound 2019. Travelling on the road with my band was so much fun and so ridiculous. Being able to play outside of our comfort zone in Brisbane, where we hadn’t hit until then. Discovering that we had a whole fan base up there we didn’t realise we had. We had so much praise it was surreal, it was like ‘Is this really happening ‘. The Elephant Hotel, which was night three, was particularly special. We had a great crowd and it was an outdoor venue, like your typical festival. It was a perfect set up. I got off stage and actually cried a little bit, which I never do. We had support from a bunch of people that I got to meet for the first time too. Shout out to Browny from Wall of Sound!

That’s how I discovered you! He put up a post about you guys.
He makes me so happy. He’s such a dedicated guy. I remember meeting him the first night of Big Sound. I looked out for him. When we found each other, we had the most massive bear hug!! It was such a special moment. And meeting Tim Price and Ophelia Symons for the first time too. It’s more of a personal thing getting to have a milestone like that but even from a band perspective it was pretty massive.

What are your top 3 Aussie artists right now?
Northlane - I had a hard time getting into Northlane to begin with. You know they’re one of those bands that you want to like but it just didn’t click. The last year Alien came out and I was like far out this is a whole different realm of music that I haven’t heard from them before. Maybe I just wasn’t listening enough or properly. I feel like that album really clicked with me and I’ve been obsessed with it since. It’s been a massive influence for me. Instrumentally, Mr Magic’s chorus was kind of inspired by Bloodline. Enemy of the Night blew me away. I really admire and respect their confidence to be able to be so raw and so real with their lyrics. It really hits close to home for a lot of people

RedHook – RedHook are definitely one of them. The first time we ever played together was supporting Sevendust last year. She was an idol for me, she is such a legend. We became friends and we have played with them a few times throughout 2019. I admire what they do, I went into that earlier. Testing the water with a different approach through releasing singles, especially as it’s kind of taboo in the metal industry. A lot of heavy music fans want albums and bigger releases so to try the single style is quite interesting. I think they are doing it justice and I admire them for that.

Voyager- You can’t go past Voyager; They are doing some unique and awesome things. When I first listened to their new album ‘Colours in the Sun’ I was blown away. You know when you find the music and you’re like right that’s it, that’s me in a nutshell, that’s my sound. The mood I was in and what I was feeling, I chucked on the album and Colours started playing. I was like YES! I got up and danced around and got crazy to it. I’ve been listening to their music avidly since then. I always mention them when asked who inspires you or has a sound you want to reach. Voyager hands down really take that title. We got to play with them in Sydney last year which was really cool. I’d really like to reconnect with them sometime in the future, I’d love to play with them again.

Thanks so much to Monique for her time and awesome words. Check Out Mr. Magic and their previous releases now, and keep an eye out for more!

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OLY SHERMAN’S ULTIMATE ISOLATION PLAYLIST

We’ve already heard the sort of vibes Sydney songwriter Oly Sherman has been working with for 2020 on his January release, ‘Madness’, and now we’re getting more insights into this talented musician’s building stock of work. Releasing his new single ‘Homeboy’ this month, Sherman swathes polished songwriting in slick production and indie influences. Another strong step forward for Sherman, ‘Homeboy’ is one of his most intimate offerings yet.

That in mind, check out his top 10 tracks for getting you through to remaining iso times!

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Vernal Pools by oso leone

• I knew of the band a fair while ago but have just recently got back into their sound. What particularly grabs me about their music, is how clean their drum grooves are. 

War of My Life by John Mayer

• Again, another song which I’ve known for a while. I remember listening to this song in my bed on holidays with my family. I feel like this stuff from John is super underrated, and his song writing, especially within this track, really influences my own. 

LA Egypt by Vinyl Williams

• Completely out of the realm in regard to the music I release, but I love this band. It really doesn’t get more psyche rock than these guys at the moment, and they are always constantly releasing music. 

Keep It Low by Hablot Brown

• A band I discovered whilst on tour. I fell in love with the Hablot boys music so quickly. They are super vast musicians, and they know how to make a beat. I’ve pretty much vibed with most of their songs in the last month or so. 

Chemicals by SG Lewis

• The man can write no wrong. SG is always my go to guy for a vibe. As soon as I heard the synth hook on this song I was completely sold, and could not stop telling anyone about it. 

She Don’t Have to Know by John Legend

• Again, I’ve been going back into the archives a lot recently, and this song is always stuck on my mind. Probably something that I didn’t notice or admit much at first, By John Legend would also have to be one of my biggest influences. 

Straightfaced by Spacey Jane

• I had actually heard this bands name floating around for a while now but never actually managed to listen to any of their music. I heard this song on the radio, and loooved the ending. The rest of the song with the lyrics made the rest of my mind up. 

10th Avenue by Charli Adams

• Another recent discovery, I really love how Charli’s vocals fold into each other, and blend so easily, without sounding like she’s trying at all. Big ups on this song. 

Fools by Drugdealer 

• Love this song for its super 70’s feel. I always chuck this band on when I’m doing chores.

• CHECK OUT THE FULL PLAYLIST ON OUR PLAYLIST PROFILE BELOW!

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INTERVIEW: ASHENMOON’S GARRY BEERS - NEW MUSIC, THE CURRENT WORLD CRISIS, & LIFE AFTER INXS

I had a wonderful chat with Garry Beers, bassist of world-renowned Australian rock band INXS and now, Ashenmoon!
Personally, I grew up listening to INXS and handfuls of other classics, some of which are also thrown in throughout the interview, and this might just be the biggest interview I’ve done. Garry was a wonder to talk to and I can’t wait to see what else Ashenmoon has in store for us.

We covered the new releases and the writing process, the effects of the current COVID situation, environmentalism and dog rescue, his high school dance featuring AC/DC, life during and after INXS, and a bunch more.

It was a phone interview so I’ve culled sections down to what makes most sense, but my appreciation for this experience is astronomical. Thankyou to Garry, Toby, and Jimmy, and everyone else involved for bringing this new project to life, and for Garry’s time chatting to me from wherever he may be at the moment!

Enjoy!
-Jahmiele

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JAHMIELE:
So Ashenmoon started as a ‘passion project’ between you and Jimmy and Toby, and ‘passion project’ is a kind of a favourite term of mine. Was there any deliberate intention going into that to make it a fully published act or was it sort of just ‘let's have fun and see where this goes’?

GARRY:
We were already in a corporate covers band called Stadium so it was already fun. We just really wanted to see how we’d go with original material, so we just sort of played together and hung out more. We listen to each other's bits of music and songs and, and um, and then beginning of last year was just in my little home studio which is where we started everything. Yeah. Just spent the whole year just putting together the songs, honing them and rewriting them and starting all over again and talking about just, just taking our time. There's no one watching the clock. It's just made the record that we really wanted to make, all 3 of us.

J: Yeah. Awesome. I think, I guess that's probably the best way to go about it. No pressure,

G: Exactly! There’s no record companies breathing down our neck, the no deadlines, and yeah obviously no real touring schedule to keep in line with. I think we'd all been looking for someone to write once in a while. I know I had.

J: Okay. Amazing. And the debut for Ashenoon came out as the double single. Was there any kind of background between each of those tracks? Like I know a lot of songs aren't necessarily written with a particular dramatic meaning behind them, but was there anything like that with these ones?

G: Yeah. It just all this happens to be pretty indicative of what we wanted to say about, y’know looking after the world, looking after each other and look what happened. I mean, it just seemed to be a pretty bit of a no-brainer to get that one out now. And Mosquito, you know, Toby's Australian, he’s from Melbourne, and he just had the big fuzz bassline and my little singing, and that all came together and sounded a bit like a mosquito, someone actually commented saying it sounded like Cartman from South Park! He just grabbed the acoustic and started writing the song and it became Mosquito. We wanted to write a song about, a metaphor for mosquitos.

And we keep using the word ‘organic’ but it really was that way. I produced it and recorded it, and Toby at that time was living just up the road, and Jimmy was always here with a bottle of red wine anyway. We just sat in that little room, day and night and had fun, recording guitars here and there, laying down keyboard. A friend of mine owns a studio up the road, we got an English fella called Jason Gamble in to play drums on the majority of the album, so you know it just really grew like good music should grow. I mean, there's no deadline no pressure, the songs just came to life by themselves

J: Yeah. That's amazing. And I take it that you previously knew Toby before all of this. How has it working together on something like this? Do you prefer working with someone or on your own when it comes to song-writing and putting things together?

G: No, I'm definitely a working with someone kind of guy. I mean, I do write a lot of music but as far as you know, vocals and melodies and lyrics, I'd much rather leave it up to a real singer, a real composer. I met Toby 3 years ago at a party so the friendship is still pretty new, but became pretty much best mates. I met Jimmy at a party when I first moved here 14 or 15 years ago, so I’ve known him forever but we never got around to playing in a band together, so I asked him to join Stadium my corporate band. And then he joined and Toby joined. We wanted to see how far we could take it, and rename it because we wanted it to be different again, so we became Ashenmoon and here we are!

J: All right! And knowing so many names, like you would have worked with a lot of people over the years, and coming into the new ‘modern era’ of technology with the different ways of promotion we have now and all that kind of thing- what is it that you've seen change over the last, what is it, 30-40 years, something like that?

G: Yeah, it's been a while. Um, you know, it's funny you look back and you miss the age of CDs, and CDs replaced vinyl. I’ll always complain about downloads, seeing how the qualities isn’t great, and you don’t get the visual. Like I remember vinyl records as a kid, sitting there and pouring over every word and every image on the album cover while listening to the music, and I feel like it’s a forgotten art in many ways so, you’re hearing the first few singles but when you hear the whole album later in the year it’s a journey just like the good old, you know, Zeppelin records, Queen records, every song had its place. You know, we worked out which song goes to the next song and their running order and then it’s got side 1 and side 2 just like the old-fashioned records. When it’s out and you hear it on vinyl you’ll get the real idea of what it’s all about.

J: I'm sure you've probably been asked this already, but is there any kind of meaning behind the band name, Ashenmoon, where did that come from?

G: I think it's just an interesting visual image, really lending itself to artwork, but it's also got a really big sorta quality to it, and then also we wrote Dustbowl about how we know we abuse the planet, we abuse animals, we abuse each other, and what we’ll be left with is pretty much just a barren planet, so I guess it's a bit of a downer way of what describing it, but I think ultimately it's just, it just sounded cool. And then we did all this stuff ourselves. We found an artist when I went to our Facebook page, and Toby did a lot of the artwork, and then I did the graphics for the actual name, I used to do graphic design at school. So, it’s been a real, at home kind of project. And a friend of Jimmy’s, that he played in a band with at school back in Massachusetts, mixed the album so he's been a really strong part of the project as well. So, it's been a really good team and a really good time.

J: So, you've mentioned a couple times now the whole environmental effect that we're having and things like that. Is that something that you're personally passionate about?

G: Yeah, I am. I mean I'm more into my life and particularly more into dog rescue and finding homes for dogs. A real big issue is humans just don't get it. I mean, they just don't get it that the planets gonna give us a big kick in the ass that’s what it’s doing right now. You don’t eat bats, you just don't abuse animals. Mother Nature is just gonna, y’know, take you out. I mean, that's, what's going on now. It's taken an interesting turn. I mean, you see the planet’s actually recovering a bit because people aren't driving, industries are shut, the planet’s kind of having a bit of a breather right now. So, maybe there's a good side yet.

J: Yeah. There's a lot of things they've already seen, you know, positively changed since we've been absent.

G: Yeah, yeah, yeah. No one knows what the future's going to hold, I don't think you can ever get back to normal. We just have to see what, what we have to adjust to in the rest of their lives. I mean, it's interesting I have 8-9 year old twins and like there obviously not in school, we're failing miserably at the home-schooling thing. But it's just, it's just interesting time for that. I mean, they’ll look back at their second-third grade as the weirdest time in history, so I'm just really intrigued to see what's going to happen as the world tries to get back to what we’d considered as normal, you really can’t go back to what was normal anymore.

J: Yeah. I think there's a thing going around at the moment that was, uh, comparing what our, our prior our previous normal was and that we shouldn't go back to that because that's gotten us where we are.

G: Yeah. I think, that’s totally it. Totally. Ultimately, they’ve been talking about it for years that there’s gonna be a super-virus. Here it is and you have no idea what it is, what it’s going to do and where it’s gonna go and I mean, it seems like it’s a lot better in Australia out here, and that's just phenomenal.

I’ve been saying I’m just happy to have music out at this time because I've always thought music is a good healer. Music is always there for people when they’re happy or sad. So I'm just hoping Ashenmoon can help with that and maybe take people's minds off what's going on a bit.

J: And you’ve been quoted as saying that ‘not since your days with INXS, have you felt more connected to music until this’, this record and this band, I guess. What is it about this particular project that you feel so much more connected than your previous supergroups and things like that?

G: Well INXS was a six piece, um, you know, Andrew and Michael were the predominant songwriters ofcourse , that's just the way it is when we got two of the best songwriters in the world in your band.

Absent Friends with Wendy Mathews and Sean. Um, was just, that was just a fun band, you know, party band, that was a fun project too. And then the other time I tried to get a project I was called Mudhead, but they never released the album. It got a 5 star review but just didn’t release it, it became too hard.

I haven't really found the right people to write with and that I believe in. And that gives me the confidence to put all my time and effort into something that I know is going to be worth it, and that's what happened here. Toby has become one of my best friends. He's a good Aussie guy. Jimmy, I've known him for 15 years. He's one of my best friends. He's from Boston, he's a character. He's always got his bottle of red wine in his back pocket, and he’s just there to play. It's just kind of the same ideals that I've always had. I just want to play, I've always wanted to, so it's great to find like-minded people that still love music. A lot of people lose the passion for it. I couldn't imagine not being passionate about it and not playing, so, it’s great that I’ve got a new outlet and I’m loving it.

J: Fantastic. I guess that's a little bit more difficult to come by these days, is the genuine passion for it.

G: Yeah. And think I'm very lucky. When I was growing up deciding which Zepplin album to buy, you know, Zepplin, Deep Purple, and Queen were all releasing records and The Beatles were still releasing records. So I was really lucky to grow up in that time and be completely surrounded by amazing and also Australian bands. I mean, AC/DC played at my school dance so there's really, there's no experience like that. I just think having had that experience, I can't not be passionate about music and I think Jimmy's the same.

Jimmy did this beautiful thing, he started writing a big piece of paper with all these names and songs and I was like ‘What’re you doing?’ and he said ‘I'm just writing down which guitar player is gonna play on this record’ and it did a list of all his favourite guitar players, which considers that they all influenced him and taught him how to play, you know all the Jimmy Page’s and Jimmy Hendrix’s and he wanted to give them credit, so he sat there and wrote down all the names. I thought ‘that’s really cool!’ because you gotta remember where you came from and that's what we're all about too. We're just trying to put out a record that the people that inspired us would like to hear. And I know that if another band put this record out, I‘d love it just as much, but just because it's mine and I’m writer, producer, you know, I'm very connected with it and very proud of it.

J: Well, all of the acts that you've been a part of - I've had a quick listen to Absent Friends and things like that - they all definitely seemed to have a particular sort of cohesive similar sound to them, and so does Ashenmoon, I think. So, who would you say are the primary inspirations and influences that you've had that have added up to these creations?

G: I guess it changes. I mean, I'm really kind of boring in the fact that it's very rare that I hear something new that is, that inspires me or doesn't make me just go back to wherever we originally came from. I mean, it's kind of sad, but I mean the last artist that really, really changed my world was Jeff Buckley, and that was a long time ago now. So, I always go back to the Zepplins and the Queens and all the bands that you still would be hearing in 50 years’ time. And I don't know if you’ll be hearing many of artists on the radio now in 50 years time, but you'll always be hearing the Beatles and queen and hopefully Ashenmoon. I mean, we just want to make a record that was like, that was a good old fashioned record that just takes you on a trip. So I think we've done that.

J: And you mentioned, I think right at the start, something about, in terms of putting together your records and not currently having to keep to like a touring schedule or something like that. Does that mean that we are to expect some sort of tour from Ashenmoon or anything like that?

G: Oh yeah. We'd love to play it. I mean, we’ve actually we've actually taken this time. We've all been tested (for Covid-19) we all trust each other, you know. So we did a video of Dustbowl on Toby’s rooftop last week. And yesterday we set all of the gear up in my garage, we're going to start doing live broadcasts onto our Facebook pages and stuff. We just spent the day doing that. We're setting up our PA and sound we’re gonna start working that out and start trying to get ourselves out live to people as best we can. As soon as this clears up, if it gets back to any sort of normalcy as far as heading out to play we’ll be there, cause yeah, we got together to play together, we’re not answering ads in the paper or getting drunk at the bar, we just love playing together and we are a really good band live. I mean, I think we're actually probably better live than on the record to be honest.

J: Well, I think that's a good thing.

G: It is. Yeah. I mean, nothing more disappointing than seeing a band that can’t play. I ended up with one of the best rock singers in the world and I'm in a band with one of the best rock guitarists in the work so I'm pretty happy.

J: Well, to be perfectly candid you are, you are all clearly to a certain extent, you know, famous and very well-known and incredibly talented musicians and individuals. So, what is it like having that background/reputation behind you and knowing that there's going to be people waiting for your next thing and knowing that it's got to be, you know, to a certain standard?

G: I always second guess. We really pride ourselves on our performance. INXS was the same, we sort of critiqued every show, that made us better, and Ashenmoon is no different. I mean we love playing and we love playing well and we love playing properly and you know, we’re not one of those bands are gonna stagger out with a bottle of Jack Daniels and not want to give people their value for money, and we obviously also make them come back. And it's not just a side project, we’ve just signed this two-album dissolution deal with Golden Robot Records, we’re just going to keep going. We can't wait to get some more recording done. So even though we just got our first record out we just, I just want to get out there and play. I can't wait to bring it to Australia.

J: Well, that's, that's fantastic. That's the best thing to have, I guess that's exactly what you want.

G: Yeah. I'm pretty happy right now. I mean, as far as an album, I mean I still sort of sit there with a glass of wine still going ‘wow, this is pretty good’. And I’m not being egotistical, I just got the right team because I had the right circumstances and we just pulled it together. We made what we think is our statement, and in the process, we became a band. We had a first proper band meeting today. It’s like being back in school again. I was setting up the garage I was hanging, like cellophane paper behind the band so it looked cool, and it all fell down when I opened the garage door, but yeah, we’re just having a good time.

J: Ah good ol’ days!

G: I mean, yeah, these are the days. These are the days.

J: Well, it's good that you can know that you're creating something that you're proud of.

G: Yeah. And I get caught up with all my critics and my wife, my kids, the whole. It's just funny, because like my kids, they’re growing up. This is ‘Dad’s band’, Ashenmoon, and every now and then they hear and sing INXS and they’re like ‘oh that’s right, Dad’s other band!’ They haven’t really discovered INXS yet, I haven’t really had the time to show it to them.
In fact I'm just discovering all these YouTube sites that have all our videos and all this stuff from live performances I've ever seen before. So, you know, it's just interesting. Actually Toby's the one that does all our social media stuff so he’s the one that’s been sending me the links. In fact, he sent me a link to this, I didn’t even know it existed but Andrew and Michael did and interview on a rooftop in London I think it was. They play a bit of The Stairs, acoustically, and we just latched onto that because I've always wanted have Toby sing The Stairs, that I always thought was one of Michael's best sets of work. So, we did an acoustic version, as per the way Andrew was playing it on the rooftop. So we've just finished that, that’s just been finished now, so that'll be coming out cause we've been getting you could say bored, so we’re doing acoustic versions of all our songs just to give you, but as it turns out we’ll have a heap of original material to put out as well, so, we just can’t help ourselves.

J: And what was life actually like, during and after the INXS era?

G: During was obviously massive. It was my life. I mean, we’d make a record with all our time and we live and breathe that and then we go on tour for sometimes 12 - 18 months, just keep touring the world over and over again, that’s how we lived. And then we have a bit of a break and then do it again. I didn’t have much of a home life. I still managed to have a dog, but I didn’t see much of her. And we did that from high school, so, you know, it was a pretty massive part of my life and I was and always will be very proud of INXS. When that stopped, obviously it was a horrible way for it to stop with Michael, but that was out of my control. I had no, I had no say in it. So me personally, I just sort of went into that ‘she’ll be right mate’ mode.

And Michael’s still around, I still dream about him all the time. He turns up like nothing happened and we start playing again. So, I know I have a guardian angel as well, I think maybe it’s Michael, maybe my dad, but he's still around. That sorta spirit isn’t gonna leave. I've just been kind of concentrating on my, on my personal life since all that happened. Moved to America, fell in love, got kids, you know, so I'm just trying to do that, but then as luck would have it, I meet the Australian singer that I’ve always wanted to meet, at a party in Los Angeles, it’s very L.A. y’know, the whole story.

And we tiptoed into it, we didn’t rush straight into making a record, we got to know each other better and - I'm sitting, watching my dog chew up my kids toys…

Yeah, it's cool. Life. You just take it as it comes around and adapt. It was a horrible way for INXS to end, but also I enjoyed the time of JD Fortune. I mean, that was a pretty good incarnation of the band. We made a great record called Switch, went platinum in America, sold a million records. So, I mean, it wasn't too shabby. Then that stopped so y’know. So, and I remember touring Australia with JD was great. Yeah.

Life’s a journey and I’m just happy to be on it. Above ground, still playing.

J: Well, that's awesome. That's amazing. That's, that's really nice to hear that you've gone on regardless of whatever setbacks and you're doing the best you can, sort of thing.

G: Yeah. You know, my legacy is always gonna be just making music, whether I do it in my garage or I do it on a laptop. I'm just happy to have a band that I can get out and play with.

J: Yup. Okay. Well, I only have one more question... What we try to ask every single person that we interview is; what are your top current top three Australian artists at the moment - they can be old. They can be new, but just Australian artists that you're really in love with right now.

G: No, I'm really out of, out of the loop. As far as Australian bands down there, I spent the last year just concentrating on my stuff. So, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, but I mean,

J: It can be old school stuff!

G: If I'm homesick, I just put on Chisel. Yeah. I play Circus Animals to death. I play Letter To Allen endlessly to all who’ll listen. I was actually was actually in my studio, just the other day with a tech, and I put on Ariel, a band I grew up with when I was a kid and he just thought it was the most amazing thing he’d ever heard. I just always go backwards. I mean, as I said it's hard for me, I'm a bit of a music historian now, I’m a bit anal that way. And I think when I hear something, I go ‘Oh, that's a rip-off of so-and-so’, which I shouldn't say that, I’m sure people would say that about Ashenmoon ‘well Ashenmoon’s a bit of a rip-off isn’t it?’. I just tend to listen to what I listened to and just get on with my day. But yeah, it’s hard to figure out when you’ve got half an hour to listen to some music, it's just hard to not put on old Genesis or…

J: For sure, go with what you know.

G: It’s like pulling on an old pair of jeans.

J: You pick what's comfortable.

G: Yeah. Australia's got some, Billy Thorpe, Richard Clapton and you know, obviously I said Chisel, and Oil and all that stuff, all the bands that influenced us, taught us how to play, you know, some good stuff.

J: Yeah. Okay. Well I think I've already gone over time technically but thank you so much.

G: Oh, you're welcome. It's really nice to talk to you.

J: Yeah, you too. It's great. It's a bit of an idol moment for me, so thank you so much.

G: Can’t wait to bring the band to Australia and be down there and play.

J: I'll definitely be there. Okay. Well thank you. Um, have a nice day!

G: You too, stay safe, see you down the track!

Once again, a huge thanks to John from Golden Robot Records for the opportunity, and to Garry for the fantastic chat. We’ll be waiting for what’s coming next - ‘See you down the track’!

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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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TRAVALLEY TALK NEW SINGLE DEAR BABE, RED-HOT VIDEO CLIPS, AND UPCOMING INSTAGRAM LIVE EVENT

Picture: Travalley talk all-things new releases and Instagram live events.  Source: Drew McCarty 

The live music industry in Melbourne has seen a huge stand-still due to COVID-19, however, bands such as Ballarat’s Travalley have used this time to hone their skills, keep positive, and release ear-tingling tunes. 

From starting out in Ballarat as a four-piece, to a now Melbourne-based duo consisting of brothers Levi and Sam Mellington, Travalley have cemented themselves as an exciting alt-surf-rock duo who are the gift that keeps on giving. 

On May 5 the dynamic duo uploaded their latest single, Dear Babe, which was followed closely by their hilarious DZ Deathrays and Dune Rats inspired video clip, which shows Levi and Sam scoffing down some red hot chillies, displaying the boys’ larrikin-style nature almost perfectly. 

Speaking on the inspiration behind their comical clip, Levi said both him and his brother wanted to portray their fun-loving characters. 

“We just don’t really take ourselves too seriously and we like to have as much fun as possible at the expense of ourselves,” he said.

“We’re happy to make everyone laugh just by doing something dumb.”

Their commitment to making enjoyable content for listeners is more than evidenced here - possibly a little too well, as Levi detailed the after-effects of inhaling far too many piping-hot chillies in a small amount of time. 

“So we recorded it about four or five weeks ago and my stomach lining was just wrecked,” he said.

“I’ve only just been able to really start eating properly again.” 

Sam, on the other hand, took a face-first dive into the chillies, with milk being poured all over his face afterwards.  

On the inner-workings of Dear Babe, their fourth release of 2020, Levi spoke of using an old sun-kissed guitar as his starting point for his creative processes. 

“I have this really really shit guitar, well it was good - but I left it in the car on a 40 degree day at work, and when you leave acoustics in the car they crack because they expand,” he said.

“So I always go to that guitar first to write the songs, because if it can sound good on that, it’s going to sound good anywhere.” 

Have you ever gone blank or had word vomit when you’re trying to act cool in front of the person you like? It’s a feeling most people may have encountered on a typical night out. Levi encapsulates this somewhat humbling and relatable experience lyrically throughout Dear Babe. 

“I guess it’s one of those songs that everyone relates to because you picture it in your head like, I’m gonna say this, or I’m gonna say this, I’m going to act this way, and sound real cool and real sexy and then you get to the stage and you're like nah, this is just not working - you just freak out and go blank,” he said.

“It’s kind of like an ode to everyone to just say, ‘It’s fine, you don’t have to be cool or sexy.’” 

With an exciting, quick pace setting the scene and a Jungle Giants inspired chord progression, what’s not to love? The song is fun and upbeat, and keeps the listener on their toes all the way throughout with explosive drum beats courtesy of Sam, and tantalising vocals from Levi. 

On Saturday May 23 the Ballarat boys are going live on their Instagram (@travalley_) for an hour (yep, you heard it right, an HOUR) of covers and originals. 

Pictured: Travalley are going live on their Instagram for an hour on Saturday May 23. Source: Instagram screenshot 

“So it’ll pretty much be like 80 per cent of our songs and then maybe four or five covers,” Levi said. 

Levi and Sam have a glistening path ahead of them once restrictions ease, and they can channel their energy from Dear Babe into their live shows. 

Levi hinted at a possible “Trav-fest”, in the works, with a night of indie-pop, alt-rock, and DJ sets on the cards. But I won’t spoil all the details! More on “Trav-fest” to come in the future. 

For now, sit back in Melbourne’s winter sun when you can and enjoy the tranquil tunes of Travalley. 

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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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