2011 – David James Young

INTERVIEW: The Getaway Plan (AUS), November 2011

Posted on 01/05/2016 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

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Damn, dude, remember these guys? Very much of a time and place for MySpace kids from Australia. “Where the City Meets the Sea” was an end-of-school anthem. We all kinda grew up with this band. Then, we kinda moved on. Having them back in 2011 on a reunion tour was like “Oh, hey! Cool!” Then it kind got old. They’ve since made two albums no-one listened to and half the band has left – which is especially funny when contrasted with one of the quotes in this interview.

This one’s a Q&A. I initially didn’t quite like doing these, but I think I’m a bit more used to it by now – I do a lot more these days in terms of formatting. This one’s a bit too casual for my liking – I’d occasionally fall into the “hey bro, what’s goin’ on?” line of question formatting. Still, it’s funny to read now.

– DJY, May 2016

***

AHM: Hi Matt! The Getaway Plan had only split up for something like 18 months when the reunion was announced. It’s probably the shortest break-up time we’ve ever seen! What triggered the idea in the four of you that perhaps you’d made a mistake?
MATT WRIGHT: It was more that our relationship as friends got better. Eventually, we got into the flow of just hanging out and talking – after awhile, the idea came up to make another record. It seemed silly not to.

With that said, you had already settled into your own band [Young Heretics] when the announcement of The Getaway Plan getting back together. Surely there were worries that the same problems would arise again, and that maybe the whole thing could turn bitter quickly?
Not at all. It was all really, really clear and obvious from the get-go. It just worked. All the problems that we had before were irrelevant – it just felt great. We are really dedicated to this band now.

In April, the band headed out on the Reclamation tour, which was the first official tour that you guys had done since the split. How did you find it?
It was absolutely amazing. The shows ruled, dude – especially the two shows we did at the Metro in Sydney. The tour was everything we hoped it would be and more, man. Back when announced the single reunion show that we did, the response was fucking insane. The show in Melbourne sold out in, like, seven minutes or something. It totally threw us. We were laughing at the fact that it happened, we just couldn’t believe it.

You guys premiered a lot of new material on the tour, including a song with Jenna McDougall [of Tonight Alive] on vocals. Is that song going to be on the album?
Yeah, it’s called “Child of Light.” Jenna wasn’t available to sing on the studio version, unfortunately. We did, however, get a children’s choir in for the song.

A children’s choir? No shit!
Yeah, dude! It was fucking crazy.

That’s so stadium rock – it seems like that would be something that you wouldn’t have even considered trying in your early years. That must have been a really interesting experience for you guys.
We’ve always been a little overly ambitious when it comes to recording and stuff, but to pull that off…man, it was just incredible. On this record, we’ve got orchestras, choirs, double basses, horns, everything. We kind of went all out for this one [laughs].

You might as well! This is, after all, your triumphant return.
Exactly!

Let’s talk about the writing of Requiem. One can only imagine it was a very different experience to creating Other Voices, Other Rooms.

It was quite different; because Clint [Ellis, guitarist] was away for most of it, off touring with [the] Amity [Affliction]. He’s left them now, but it was pretty difficult for him and us trying to balance those commitments.

So, with Clint gone, did that mean you were writing most of the guitar parts?

It was more like we were writing songs without lead parts and then letting Clint come in later to record his parts. For the most part of the writing, it was just me, Dave [Anderson, bassist] and Aaron [Barnett, drummer] in a rehearsal studio together. Clint came in around February for a week and got to recording instantly. He was loving the songs – he’d been listening to what we’d been doing thanks to that thing called the world wide web. Maybe it’ll take off [laughs]. It was alright in the end – we were closer at the end because of it. He’d actually written a lot, too. He’d been writing on the road. It was still pretty stressful for all of us, though.

With Amity growing so popular, was there ever a fear that he might choose them over you?
I dunno. I think that now that we’re back, the idea of anything changing, any members moving or anything like that…[trails off] …it’s not gonna happen. [laughs] But if it did, you’d be sure that it would definitely mean the end of this band. We wouldn’t be The Getaway Plan anymore. But everything has turned out so well, and we’re all so happy with the record – I can’t see this changing anytime soon.

Did you make a point to change your sound from the one established on Other Voices, Other Rooms?
We didn’t really intentionally try to do anything. You should expect something different, though – quite different. It has been four-and-a-half years since our last record. We’ve grown a lot in that time, and have a much greater understanding about working with one another. I’m not gonna say that it’s a Young Heretics and Amity hybrid…but it’s pretty different. There’s a song on the record which is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever written, which is really caustic. You’ll know it when you hear it. The whole thing is really diverse, though.

One last thing: With all of this new material, is there any chance of hearing some Hold Conversation tunes on the Requiem tour later this year?
We’ve kind of decided as a band that we’re not really going to be playing those songs anymore. They were great for awhile, but it’s been so long and we broke up for two years – those songs just don’t mean as much to us anymore. Imagine you’re a kid, right, and you do a painting when you’re four years old – imagine being asked to paint that picture for the rest of your life. Those songs don’t really represent the people that we are anymore. It’s not that we’re embarrassed by them, but they just don’t fit stylistically with us as a band. The setlist is pretty full as it is, anyway.

So we’ll never hear The New Year again live?
Aww, never say never – but, for now, it doesn’t look like it. [laughs]

INTERVIEW: Northlane (AUS), November 2011

Posted on 01/05/2016 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

www.benclementphoto.com Copyright BenClementPhoto 2011

I have no issue in claiming Northlane as one of my favourite Australian bands these days. I might not be in that mosh/metalcore scene – and I don’t feel like I’d be particularly welcome if I was – but I admire the growth and the evolution of Northlane’s sound. There are few heavy bands in this country that can step to them; and them’s the facts. I knew something big was on the way when they put out their debut, and that’s where this interview takes place.

Adrian was a talented vocalist, albeit a bit of a brat – he once blocked me on Twitter because I corrected his your/you’re usage. Still, he was a kid. He was growing up as Northlane were exploding, and he couldn’t handle it. No-one’s holding that against him. In fact, it ended up being a blessing in disguise – with Marcus on board, they’ve been able to reach their full potential. Anyway, this interview’s fine. It’s fun, even. Adrian was a good kid to interview because he was just so stoked on his own band – and you can’t really blame him.

– DJY, May 2016

***

Names are a formality worth skipping, according to Adrian Fitipaldes. To the twenty-year-old, everyone is either “mate,” “man” or “dude” – variations of which we are constantly given throughout our interview. There is one name, however, that Fitipaldes wants to engrave on every mind he encounters – the name of Northlane, the band he has fronted for the past couple of years and the band that have finally delivered a huge debut album in the form of Discoveries. “We’ve been working really hard on it,” he enthuses on the line from Melbourne. “What we really want it is to make an impression; to impress everyone. This album’s been in the mix for awhile, man.”

“We went over-time a bit at Electric Sun studios,” he continues, discussing the developmental stages of Discoveries. “John, our guitarist, is a bit pedantic and can be a bit crucial with his lead tones. He ended up re-recording a lot of his parts just to perfect them. We had to do the vocals for ten tracks in two days – which was brutal on me! Then we kept going back and forth with our mixes and mastering, just to continually refine it and make it the best we could.”

Electric Sun Studios, a popular recording studio in Blacktown in Sydney’s west, wasn’t actually the band’s first choice. Adrian reveals that the band initially wanted to head overseas to lay down Discoveries. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t in their budget to do so, which ended up being a blessing in disguise. “If you want to save money, you’re gonna have to do it in Australia,” explains Fitipaldes. “The thing is, though, we really love everything that’s come out of Electric Sun – and, in my personal opinion, it’s the best studio in the country. They have so much experience in the industry, they’re so easy to work with and they have such great ideas. Y’know when you have an idea of what you want something to sound like? They showed me exactly what I wanted to hear.”

Needless to say, a lot of effort has gone in on the band’s behalf to make Discoveries as bold and ambitious as a debut record can be. It’s worth noting that you shouldn’t be expecting more of the same in relation to the band’s first release, the six-track EP Hollow Existence from 2010. According to Fitipaldes, the respective contexts surrounding each of them could not be more different. “On the EP, we were working off a budget,” he says, “and we just wanted to get our name out there as soon as possible. We didn’t really give the production aspect much attention, so that was something we really wanted to step up when it came to this record.” He then adds, with an out-of-character ocker drawl and tongue placed firmly within cheek: “Jus’ wanted to show ‘Straya that we’re not f**kin’ around, ‘ey?” He cracks up, before shouting “don’t put that swear word in there!” in mock-horror.

The differences between Hollow Existence and Discoveries increase when discussion turns to the musical direction taken on the LP. “The EP has got different elements to it,” says Fitipaldes, “but I think the record is really honing in on our musicianships, and setting us apart from other Australian bands. We really want to stand out, and show that we’re not just copying other bands – we’re actually formulating our own ideas, and we’re doing stuff that’s different. I mean, you still want to please your fans and be a part of the hardcore scene – you still want to have the energy and the passion that the hardcore scene is all about. But, at the end of the day, you’re not going to please everyone. Not everyone’s going to like it, and you have to accept that.”

For what it’s worth, Discoveries is an impressive record. Not content to stay within a mould or a limited set of ideas, the album is a strong collection of material that has its foundations laid in hardcore but has no issue with expanding into territory that’s more melodic, heavier, darker and even more electronic – sometimes within the same song. Northlane make no apologies for it, either – they refuse to compromise integrity for popularity, or to get rid of a more out of place section to make way for another boring breakdown.

“I think you’re going to see a lot more of it really soon,” comments Fitipaldes on the topic of hardcore bands in Australia breaking free of generic structure. “Especially in Sydney. I feel it’s been really over-saturated with generic genres. It’s getting tougher and tougher for bands to stand out from the rest. Hopefully, in the next few years, we’re going to see some really cool bands coming up. I mean, there already are some cool ones coming up – I just want to see some more!”

INTERVIEW: This is Hell (USA), October 2011

Posted on 01/05/2016 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

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I honestly have no recollection of this interview, so it’s nice to know that I threw in a whole slab of context in case I ever forgot about it. I’m not crazy about my formatting or approach here – the whole “rock & roll” angle is a bit cringeworthy. Still, I think you can see me experimenting a lot through my early Hysteria writing. There’s something there, I just don’t know exactly what it is yet.

This is Hell are cool. Apparently they’re big wrestling fans. Tight. I don’t really listen to them much anymore, but I got love for them all the same.

– DJY, May 2016

***

Hardcore New York punks This is Hell have been kicking arse and taking names across seven years and countless live shows. Barely a year since their last album, 2010’s Weight of the World, the band have kicked back into action with a new drummer and a cracking new album in Black Mass. Guitarist and founding member RICK JIMINEZ took a break from the road to speak with AUSTRALIAN HYSTERIA MAGAZINE about touring, guitar heroes and getting to tour with your best friends.

There’s a distinct difference between being in a rock band and being rock & roll. Being in a rock band can often mean you’re taking your interview calls from the comfort of a hotel room or even your own house. Being rock & roll, however, is taking an interview call in the middle of nowhere, somewhere between signs on a Californian freeway on the side of the road as your tour van awaits repairs. “We were on our way to a show,” explains Jiminez, “and the van just started smoking, so we had to pull it off to the side. We’ve been having troubles with this van for awhile now – same as the last one we hired, and the same one before that.” He’s clearly more than a little agitated about the whole ordeal, and Australian Hysteria offers to call back another time. Jiminez declines, however – after all, “this’ll give me some time to take my mind off things.”

There’s plenty of better things to talk about than shitty vans, too. For one, the band have just wrapped up production on their fourth album, Black Mass. Storming out of the gates at breakneck pace with thundering riffs, blasts of drums and the kind of no-bullshit attitude that has gotten them a worldwide following, Black Mass stands proudly amongst the finest work the band have done thus far. It also doubles as the most versatile that the band have ever sounded, ranging from their throwbacks to proto-hardcore to a balanced diet of Bay Area thrash metal. This was not quite intentional, according to Jiminez, but more of a happy accident on the band’s behalf.

“The way we all write individually is actually quite different to the way we write as This is Hell,” says Rick, who has been a part of the band since its inception alongside vocalist Travis Reilly. “I think, with writing this album, it was a matter of going back and finding what it is that made us want to play music to begin with. For me, with the stuff that I learned guitar on and the stuff I grew up on, it was the early Metallica, Slayer, Testament and what have you. It’s interesting, because although bands like that have always been loved by me and inspired me to write songs to begin with, they’ve never really been a prominent influence on This is Hell.”

“It was never me listening to a thrash metal band and turning into a hardcore song,” he continues. “It was more to do with taking that influence of their work and just playing with it, seeing how it came out. I think that’s definitely what separates this album from our last few – it really bridges together everything we’ve learned as a band.”

Fans will also be quick to note the shift into considerably more melodic territory than what had previously been attempted in the band’s body of work. Again, Jiminez emphasises that this was simply a matter of where the band ended up musically, rather than just deciding it would sound that way. “We never kind of sat down as a band and said ‘y’know, I think this would sound better if we were singing’ or ‘maybe we should rewrite that part’ or whatever. We’re never too self-conscious about that kind of thing, it’s never something that we’ve ever really made an executive decision on. The most important thing when we’re writing and recording is that we all agree on it. In this instance, we found that the direction we took on this record was the best thing to do.”

The band have been playing a few shows to warm up to Black Mass‘ release, but the big test of its quality will come when the band take on a massive U.S. tour near the end of the year. “Yeah, we’re going out on the road with Underoath, Comeback Kid and the Chariot,” mentions Rick casually, as if this kind of mammoth bill is part and parcel of the job. “We’re really excited about heading out with those guys. We’ve toured with them all a bunch of times – we were with Comeback Kid last time we were in Australia, actually – and they’re all such great guys, super-supportive of us and what we do. It’s going to be a lot of fun.” When Australian Hysteria asks if such a bill could ever come true here in Australia, Jiminez simply laughs and says “We’ll see.” He likes the chances of the band being back in the country in 2012, however. “We had such a blast last time,” he offers. “You lot sure know how to take care of us!”

With that, it’s back to the broken tour van and the rock & roll life.

INTERVIEW: La Dispute (USA), October 2011

Posted on 01/05/2016 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

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Here’s one that slipped through the cracks from my time writing for Hysteria. I have been a La Dispute fan ever since their debut Australian tour back in 2009. I gotta say, it’s a remarkable transition to go from playing abandoned houses and rehearsal studios to the Corner and the Metro. I’m glad I got to see it all go down. This feature is okay – I think Jordan was still getting used to the idea of people talking to him about his band, and I think I was still getting used to the idea of talking to people about their bands. Call it a work in progress!

– DJY, May 2016

***

As an album, Wildlife is the type of release that feels wholly satisfying – and that has almost as much to do with the context as it does the album itself. The album in the wake left after 2008’s Somewhere at the Bottom Between Vega and Altair, its particularly fiery take on emotive post-hardcore resonating with audiences worldwide. As excellent as Somewhere was, however, it simply couldn’t tide over the band’s more eager fans – a new album was needed to quench their thirst.

“Yeah, it’s been nearly three years since the last record,” says Dreyer, calling from California in the midst of the band’s seemingly endless touring life. “We’ve been keeping occupied with some smaller releases in that time – we did another Here, Hear. EP and we did a split with our good friends in Touche Amore. This last year or so, though, has just been spent piecing the record together. We planned ahead and put a lot of thought into how it would sound – and we honestly couldn’t be prouder of how it’s turned out.”

Although Dreyer feels that Somewhere and Wildlife are quite different records to one another, he is also aware that the comparisons between the two are inevitable. When it’s suggest that there is more of a linear concept to Wildlife than there was on their debut, Jordan notes that particular train of thought is on the right track. “We definitely had an idea of what we wanted it to sound like and what we wanted it to be about,” he said. “It’s important to us to create something that is very much an album experience, something that you can listen to from start to finish. We didn’t want that to be the only way that you listened to it, though – we really wanted to make sure that each track had its own individual merits, too. Essentially, we wanted Wildlife to be something perceived both as a whole and by the sum of its parts.”

In this regard, it’s safe to say that La Dispute have succeeded. As well as containing some of the best songs the group have ever written – the devastating “King Park,” the unbridled aggression of “Harder Harmonies” and the bare-bones honesty found in “a Letter” – it flows with a very smart sense of cohesion and connectivity. It’s quite safe to say that Wildlife is the band’s crowning achievement, with a sound that not only expands from the foundations laid on Somewhere at the Bottom, but also expands into new musical territory previously untouched.

“We weren’t exactly looking for a specific sound,” says Dreyer on the songwriting process of Wildlife. “It certainly required us to cover a lot of different areas, because of the lyrical nature of the songs. We never sat down and specifically said that we were going to write a heavier record or a softer record or whatever. More than anything, we just found what we were writing and recording was a natural progression from what we had done in the years previous. A lot’s happened in that time, y’know, and we’ve all experienced a lot of things – it just felt like we were bringing everything that we had learned to the table this time around.”

As with any La Dispute release, the album has a strong lyrical focus. With a myriad of literary influences (see the Here, Hear. experimental EPs for proof of this), the songs bring its listeners into a deeply personal and often quite dark area of the characters’ lives; and this is arguably more prominent on Wildlife than there has been on any other of the band’s releases. “A lot of the songs on Somewhere were about other people,” says Dreyer, who is the band’s sole lyricist.

“It was kind of my first proper attempt at conveying my ideas of storytelling. I feel that’s definitely progressed on this record – I felt as though I really needed to step up and convey a more personal perspective on what has happened to other people. There were a couple of interactions that I’ve had with people these last few years that ended up being turned into songs. I felt it was important that their story was told, but also that my viewpoint on their story was conveyed as well.”

Although nothing from Wildlife was previewed when the band toured in January of this year, the quintet were still able to effortlessly hang the Sold Out sign on several of their tour dates; once again engaging a cult craze with many fans travelling to a series of shows or even the entire tour. “That was pretty incredible,” says Dreyer with an incredulous laugh. “I mean, the shows were a bit bigger than last time, and we made a lot of new friends – and we got to see a lot of people from the first time around, too. That was really special – Australia is always so good to us, and we just can’t believe our luck sometimes.”

FBi Radio’s “Out of the Box” – October 22, 2015

Posted on 28/10/201520/10/2016 by davidjamesyoung in Uncategorized

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In October of 2015, I was asked to be a guest on Out of the Box, a one-hour lunchtime program every Thursday on Sydney community station FBi Radio. The premise of the show, which was hosted at the time by the absolutely delightful Ash Berdebes, is to look at a person’s life through the music that they love; with the guest programming eight songs that mean something to them. I was honoured to be asked on the show – which has also featured really cool guests like Paul Mac, The Umbilical Brothers, Ólafur Arnalds and Evelyn Morris aka Pikelet – but I was fretting quite a bit over what to choose. I think I put together a fairly solid and diverse list; all songs that meant something huge to me at different parts of my life.

Here are the songs I chose. You can also listen to the entire hour, which features a pretty honest chat with yours truly, by streaming it through FBi’s Radio On Demand by clicking here.

A huge thank you to Ash for asking me on and for her producer, Rachel, for doing a great job. I worship this station, and couldn’t believe my luck that I got to be involved with a show.

***

Sesame Street – Imagine That

I picked this song for two reasons. The first is that it is the first song I remember truly loving and knowing all of the words to. I would have been three, maybe four when I first heard it. I was fascinated by all of the music on Sesame Street – Jim Henson would go on to become one of the biggest parts of my upbringing, through both Sesame Street and the Muppets. I think the reason that this song stuck out to me was that it was about using your imagination but also remembering that being you is the best because no-one else can be exactly like you. Ernie sings it, and I’ve always loved Ernie almost entirely because of this song. There’s also “I Don’t Want to Live on the Moon,” which also clocked me square in the feels. I forgot about this song for a few years and then rediscovered it. The day that I did I cried and cried and cried. It all came flooding back to me. I also picked this song because I knew for a fact that it would have never been played on FBi before.

The Cruel Sea – Takin’ All Day

The Cruel Sea were the first band I ever saw live. I bought Over Easy when I was eight years old because I liked the cover. I later saw this video on rage and felt very grown-up for liking an “adult” band playing bluesy rock music. I wanted to play drums, so I wrote to Jim Elliott, the band’s drummer, via their PO box. He wrote back and we stayed in touch for many years. In 2002, they announced a show in St. George’s Basin. My dad took me – even though it was an over-18s gig – and I got to meet Jim and had a poster signed by the entire band which is still on my wall to this day. James Cruickshank recently passed away, and I know a lot of people are rediscovering The Cruel Sea – I hope this helps.

The Forest – The Bear

Flash forward to 2008. I’m in my final year of high school and a lot is going on – I’ve discovered that I have Asperger’s, having been diagnosed as a child but never told; I’ve ostensibly come out as bisexual at a Catholic high school and I’m angry, confused, lonely and trying to find sense in what’s happening in my life. Around this time, I see a band play at a local community hall called The Forest. They’re a “skramz” (emo/post-hardcore/indie) band from rural Queensland. Although they identify as Christian and I was quite outspoken against Christianity (high school rebel!), their music was so intense and passionate that it got through to me. As long as I treated the imagery as just that, we had an understanding.

I bought their self-titled, homemade EP that night. Every day before my final HSC exams, I would play it as loudly as I possibly could – somedays I’d even scream along if I was walking by myself. Javed, the band’s lead singer, works in video games now and lives in Sydney with his wife and his beautiful daughter. He may be done with this band, but I’ll forever be grateful to him for that EP and getting me through that time in my life.

Parades – Hunters

I loved Parades. More than I’ve loved a lot of bands. To this day, I have no idea why they put up with me – I was probably so annoying and so clingy. Still, they became friends – really good friends. People I trusted and cared about and wanted to hang out with. foreign tapes was another album that got me through a lot – a major break-up, more struggles with anxiety, the utter loneliness of my uni degree. The hours of travel I undertook to see these guys play – eight times in total before they split – was always made worth it.

I picked this song from the album because I once screamed the “SO IT GOES ON ENDLESSLY” part so loud I started crying. In the front row. These two other guys thought I was crazy. I lost myself in the moment. Parades allowed me to do that. I wish they were still around.

Lemuria – Mechanical

2012 features the worst thing that has ever happened to me – the untimely and accidental death of my mother to a one-person car crash in April – as well as the best week of my entire life – going to one major international gig a day from Monday November 12 to Sunday November 18; seeing Radiohead, Refused, Beck, Silversun Pickups in Adelaide, Ben Folds Five in Adelaide, Harvest in Sydney and Coldplay. The soundtrack to both of these parts of my life was the album Get Better by Lemuria. I discovered the band through a random blog some years before but had never properly given them a listen until one of their songs came on shuffle not long after my mother’s passing. It helped me through and was there for me whenever I needed it – there were weeks where it was all that I listened to. It made me feel like there were others out there that were just as lost and confused as I was.

Getting to meet Lemuria when the came to Australia in 2014 was such a huge thing for me. Nearly broke down telling them what their music meant to me. One of the highlights of my life was getting to sing “Lipstick” from Get Better with the band at Black Wire Records. I chose the last song from the album because of all the times I have screamed along the “SHUT UP” refrain until I literally couldn’t anymore; as well as it being a highlight of their show at Hermann’s Bar – surrounded by friends singing along so loudly that Sheena, the band’s singer, gave up singing into the mic and just let us carry it.

mowgli – Slowburn

Cameron Smith, Curtis Smith, Dave Muratore, Eleanor Shepherd and Jay Borchard have all been friends of mine for quite awhile. Eleanor, the bass player, I’ve known since we were in primary school. I met Cameron in 2008, watching his old band Epitomes play every other weekend. Dave was brought in as the lead guitarist for a band I was playing with at the end of 2009; a few months after meeting Jay for the first time at a La Dispute show – which is, ironically enough, the same situation in which I met Curtis, Cameron’s brother, in 2011 to complete the set.

I bring up the fact that I am friends with all of them – even though Curtis is no longer in the band – purely because I want to state that the fact I think mowgli are one of the best bands this country has produced in the 21^st century is not because they are my mates. It’s because their music speaks to me on the same way that The Forest did all those years ago – they capture my rage and my passion and my disconnect from the world around me. I have seen mowgli play live over twenty times, and each time I am utterly blown away by their talents. This was my favourite song of 2013 by a considerable margin – I still rank it as one of my all-time favourite songs. I think everything about it is perfect.

The Smith Street Band – Belly of Your Bedroom

This was included as a shout-out to Poison City Records, the Poison City Weekender and the remarkable friends that I have made through both. I was almost intimidated by the scale of the Weekender at first – I arrived at my first at the age of 21, incredibly anxious, nervous, excited, overjoyed and overwhelmed. I’ve since felt immediately at home there – I almost feel like part of the furniture. The Weekender is a time when I am connected with friends from all over – some that I see every week, some that I only get to see for that weekend. Once all the shows and the side-tours surrounding it are done, it feels like the end of camp to me.

I have made so many great mates through the community that Poison City has created – the fact they have made the queer, anxious yeti (as I sometimes call myself) feel so welcome and so loved speaks volumes about the environment of it. At the centre of the Poison City universe is The Smith Street Band – I chose my favourite song of theirs, which ostensibly deals with being the weaker part of a relationship (been there, done that, bought the t-shirt) and features the vocals of another dear friend, Lucy Wilson.

Georgia Maq – Footscray Station

Since 2009, I have played solo under the name Nothing Rhymes with David. I’ve been lucky enough to share a stage with some remarkable songwriters. None have challenged me in the same way that Georgia Maq has. I find her music endlessly fascinating, remarkably engaging and uniformly brilliant. I see so much in her that she is often too self-deprecating and unaware to see in herself. I fear that she will never, ever know how good she is. Each time I watch her perform, I more or less sit in stunned silence – when I’m not compelled beyond my will to sing along, of course.

I find the storytelling in this song so incredible – it took me a good half a dozen listens to fully comprehend it. Everytime I’m in Melbourne and I find myself out at Footscray station, I think of this song and I can’t help but smile. The first time I saw her live, she couldn’t believe that I knew every word to this song and that I was in the front row singing along. I couldn’t believe I was the only one.

INTERVIEW: Keith Buckley (USA), September 2011

Posted on 03/02/201503/02/2015 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

Got to have a cheeky double-dip in this interview, as I was speaking with the devilishly handsome Keith Buckley about both the impending Every Time I Die record as well as his side-project at the time, The Damned Things. It was a good time to be a fan of Keith in Australia, as he toured both at the same time as a part of that whole Counter-Revolution clusterfuck. He’s a great interviewee and a lovely guy. ETID just came through town last month and they crushed, as per usual. I also got to speak to Keith again when Ex-Lives came out, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.

– DJY, February 2015

***

In the last eighteen months or so, Keith Buckley has been leading a double life – for the first time in his career, he’s lent his voice-box to two different bands. On one side of the coin, he’s been hard at work with Every Time I Die, the southern-fried hardcore rockers of which he is a founding member, working on a follow-up to their highly-acclaimed fifth album New Junk Aesthetic. “We are in the studio at this very moment,” Buckley himself confirms over the line from California. “This is my last interview, and then I have to go and record the vocals.” The as-yet-untitled record is projected for a late 2011/early 2012 release, and Buckley is already considerably enthusiastic about the sound of it.

“This is our first record with our new drummer,” he comments. Founding member Mike Novak left the group in 2009, and has since been replaced by new skin-pounder Ryan Leger. Buckley goes on about the energy of the new material – “It’s got so much more energy than our previous records – we’re really excited about it!” Interestingly enough, however, he’s reluctant to give the usual spiel about how it’s “the best record I’ve ever worked on.” It’s nothing personal – it’s just how many musicians like to drum up interest about the new material. So where does Buckley stand? Does he honestly feel the new record is going to be their best?

“The thing is,” he replies, “is that it’s not just another Every Time I Die record. Our old drummer was with us from day one. Everything you’ve ever heard of us being recorded, that’s been the rhythm section. So this is a completely new drumming style – it’s a new sound; it’s a new energy. So, when we’re looking at everything that we’ve ever done and then comparing it to the way we sound now? This is definitely some of the best stuff we’ve written. And it’s all thanks to our new drummer – he’s made us see it all in such a new way.”

Of course, let’s not forget about what else Buckley has been up to in this aforementioned double life. Teaming up with some unlikely pals from thrash metallers Anthrax and pop-punk stadium-fillers Fall Out Boy, Buckley spent most of 2010 and a part of 2011 fronting The Damned Things. The supergroup was a passion project for the five members to make some good-time rock & roll with a hair-metal and hard-rock edge to it. After three or four years in the pipeline – “You know what it’s like with our schedules,” says Buckley – the band finally released their debut album, Ironiclast, in December of last year. Although Keith maintains that he’s “not the type to get too finnicky in the studio,” it was notably different when it came to recording Ironiclast.

“I was singing,” explains Buckley, who had never previously done “clean” vocals on a record before, “and I wasn’t fully aware of what I was capable of with my voice. I was finding out things that I could and couldn’t do, just experimenting with them. It was a challenge, because I wasn’t comfortable. It wasn’t like I had to invent a willingness to do it – I didn’t have to pretend that I like rock music. It was just something that I’ve always liked but have never had a chance to do. I was pushing myself physically with what I was doing with my voice, but it was never like I didn’t like the musical style – I just had to take a different approach to it.”

It should be pointed out at this stage that it was never going to be a case of Buckley leaving his band in favour of The Damned Things – although that didn’t stop a myriad of worried fans approaching Keith while he toured Ironiclast. “Everyone worries about it,” he says, “because nobody every thinks to ask outright. I have never, ever said that I wanted to tone down Every Time I Die. I never said I wanted to leave or anything like that, y’know? It was just another opportunity to write and make music, which is what I like doing. So I did it!”

A simple enough reason, certainly. But here comes the challenge – for the first time ever, Buckley will be bringing both aspects of his double life on tour at the same time. “Yep,” says Keith with a laugh, “I’m gonna be workin’ two shifts in Australia.” While both bands were scheduled to be a part of the doomed Soundwave Revolution, both The Damned Things and Every Time I Die will still get their chance to perform in the country; the former as a part f the Counter-Revolution festivals and the latter doing their own set of headlining club shows. “It’s gonna be quite different to what I’m used to,” Keith says of performing with both bands. “Normally, I just get set into the one style and run with it – but this time I’ll be going between the two. I’m not sure how it’s all going to turn out, but I sure can’t wait to find out!” Likewise, buddy.

INTERVIEW: Thrice (USA), September 2011

Posted on 03/02/2015 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

With news that Thrice are most likely returning in the year to come, what better time to revisit this interview in support of their last album, which I felt was crucially underrated. Seriously, go back and give it a spin. Yellow Belly alone is one of the best songs they ever did. I liked this interview a lot, particularly the interruption from Teppei’s kid. I love it when I’m interviewing a parent and the kid somehow gets involved. It’s happened a couple of times and I think it’s the cutest. Anyways, this was a feature article; so a different approach to how I normally did things at Hysteria; and I was glad I got to shake it up as I was getting sick of transcripts. I think it shows in this story.

– DJY, February 2015

***

“It’s over there, on top of the jacuzzi!” Not exactly what one expects to hear in the middle of an interview, but it’s clearly a matter of importance which requires Thrice guitarist Teppei Teranishi to break from the interview in his Washington home. Turns out that it was his four-year-old son inquiring as to the whereabouts of a lost toy. It’s all but a fleeting moment in an extensive discussion with the 31-year-old, but it also serves as a left-of-centre reminder that Thrice are not the young men who formed the band in high school, coming up with their band name out of desperation and sticking with it when they developed a local reputation.

The band’s line-up – also consisting of vocalist/guitarist Dustin Kenrue, bassist Eddie Breckenridge and his brother Riley on drums – may have never changed throughout their history, but the musicians themselves certainly have. Their latest offering, Major/Minor, is the sound of a band confident in their own abilities, surrounding themselves in familiarity and returning to record in their home studio for the third consecutive record… “Well, sort of,” interjects Teranishi, unsure whether his correction is accurate or not.

“I never know whether to count The Alchemy Index as one or two albums,” he says, referring to the band’s ambitious four-disc concept album split recorded over five months and split across two releases. “I guess, technically, we’ve done two records where we’ve worked in our home studios. The next one was [2009’s] Beggars, which we had mixed by a guy called Dave Schiffman – and this time around we got Dave to produce and engineer the album.”

Recorded between Los Angeles’ Red Bull Studios and the aforementioned home studio, Teranishi agrees that having someone like Schiffman, who knew exactly what the band wanted to get out of their studio time, was an invaluable resource in the recording of Major/Minor. “It definitely helped,” he affirms. “We actually worked with him on [2003’s] Vheissu, where he was an engineer. Ever since then, he’s been a really close friend – whenever I had questions about recording or whatever, I’d always go and ask him. Working with him on this record definitely helped in keeping things concise.”

In what’s become typical of new Thrice material, Major/Minor sounds little like its predecessors. Often it defies description, but if pressed one could certainly note that it takes minor aspects of the band’s previous records – notably Vheissu and Beggars – and takes them in ambitious and bold new directions. Typical Thrice, you might be thinking…although Teppei himself isn’t entirely sure that’s the case. Even if it is, it’s certainly not intentional on their behalf.

“It’s never really an intentional thing,” he says after considering the direction taken on Major/Minor. “We’ve kind of always just done what was natural or normal to us at the time – we never tried to push anything. I think that’s actually why our records have all ended up sounding so different, y’know? Every time we make a record, I feel like part of it is always a reaction against the last thing that we did. I don’t know if it’s our short attention spans or whatever, but that’s the way it’s always been.”

“It was like with The Alchemy Index,” he continues, elaborating on his statement with an example from the top of his head. “It was quite a heavy record, very moody; and there was a lot of thought that went into it. So when we came out with Beggars, it was kind of a reaction to all of that. It was a lot more organic and natural in the recording process – and, in that respect, I think the transition between Beggars and this record is the least jarring transition we’ve ever made. Obviously, I think it’s completely different – I don’t think it’s the same at all. But I do think that it picks up where Beggars left off; and that the progression is much easier to note.”

Of course, it’s easy to note progression when the first track on your latest record is better than every track on your last album combined – in this instance, the snarling, grandiose driving rock of “Yellow Belly.” The song was built from the riff up as Teranishi jammed with the Breckenridges while Kensrue was away. He points to the song as something that perhaps best defines where Thrice are in 2011.

“It’s pretty energetic, and it’s got a pretty solid groove to it, I think,” he says on the song. “That’s something that I think is recurrent in the new material, that it’s really groove-based at its core. Actually, the album title – Major/Minor – actually came from “Yellow Belly.” That was the working title for the song because it flip-flopped between major and minor on the root notes of the song, giving it sort of a strange feel. As we got to writing more and more, I began to feel that it was something that we were doing on a lot of the songs, and it just began to make sense that’s what we’d call the album.”

The band are currently preparing for an extensive U.S. tour alongside Michigan kids La Dispute, but before we wrap our interview, Teppei gives a small hope to fans that were left disappointed by the band’s controversially pulled Australian tour as a part of the now-cancelled Soundwave Revolution. The plan, at this stage, is to tour Australia in the new year with a new promoter – although nothing is set in stone yet.

“We don’t know exactly when,” he says, “but we honestly will make sure that we get to Australia as soon as possible – it’s honestly one of our favourite places to play.” In the meantime, repeated listens of Major/Minor will just have to suffice – and, given the album’s lasting replay value, it should just be able to tide us over.

INTERVIEW: Title Fight (USA), April 2011

Posted on 03/02/2015 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

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I did this interview in bed. No, seriously. I forgot it was happening and then had the phone given to me at quarter to eight in the morning, leaving me to scramble to grab my recorder and try to remember what questions I had. It’s also worth mentioning that the first time I heard of Title Fight was when I was asked to interview them. Joey from Hysteria used to spring a lot of relative unknowns on me at the time, but they all ended up being favourites – The Chariot, letlive., these guys. Learning on the job!

Anyway, for an interview that was essentially Wayne Brady’d, this turned out alright. Not great, but what can you expect given the circumstances? I got to do another Title Fight interview this past December, and it turned out WAY better. I’ll share that here eventually.

– DJY, February 2015

***

After building up a solid underground reputation, Title Fight are ready to break through to the other side with their long-awaited debut album, Shed. Combining a sense of melodic pop-punk and ruthless hardcore, Shed is the kind of album that will last in your mind far longer than its half-hour playing time. Australian Hysteria caught up with Jamie Rhoden from the band to discuss the new album, a change in recording style and their inaugural visit to the country.

AUSTRALIAN HYSTERIA: Hey Jamie, how’s your year been so far?

The year has been really good! Although we haven’t done much with it so far. We finished recording in December of last year and were pretty much home until now. We did a short tour of Canada with Comeback Kid and maybe two other shows besides that. Our record came out at the beginning of the month, and people are excited about it! We go on tour in two days.

It’s understandable that people are excited. That’s a pretty long time to be sitting on the record! Was than an executive decision – “the man” making you wait that long?

[Laughs] No, we kinda chose that time ourselves. We were trying to push for it to come out earlier, around March, because they said that the record will take two months to get from the final production stages into the pressing and all that other stuff that I don’t understand. Then everything took so long, with the mastering and the artwork and taking forever to get into contact with people, so it got pushed back a little bit. We weren’t mad at anyone – I mean, it would have been cool, but it’s really good timing for us. I think it’s worked out for the best.

Fair enough. You must be excited now that it’s finally out there, though?
Yeah, it’s definitely a big weight off our shoulders. We’ve been anticipating this for a long time – it’s our first full-length and our first release with SideOne [Dummy Records]. It’s a really big thing for us, and we had a lot of pressure. People were always going to say whatever about this – “they signed to SideOne? They sound like this now! They suck!” All that usual crap you hear whenever a band does something. So far, though, people have been really supportive. I’ve got no complaints at all!

What was the recording process for Shed like? Was it all that different to when you guys have recorded previously?
A huge difference. The other two or three times that we’ve been in the studio, it was literally somebody’s basement that we turned into a studio. We were there for three days, and finished all the songs in the studio. We were unprepared and rushed – we wanted to get everything out as soon as we could. With this one, we spent basically a year writing the album itself, and then when we went into the studio, we did two weeks of twelve-hour days. It was our first time in a real studio with a producer. All these things were really new to us, but we tried our best to make the most of them. Even though two weeks is a really long time, a lot of people who go into these big studios will be using them for months at a time. They have a day for a drum part, a day for a vocal take. We got everything done at once. It was a long time for us, but there was still a lot for us to pack in. I think, for our first time in a situation like that, we were as prepared as we could have been.

With that said, being in the studio for such an extended period of time, was there ever an underlying fear that perhaps you might be overthinking the process?

Sometimes. I think in the writing of the album, that’s especially what happened. We were afraid that we were going to write a song and we’d get reactions like “that songs sounds exactly the same as this one,” or that “that song sounds nothing like this one.” Just this fear that we would write something that wasn’t “us.” We kind of got to the overthinking point when we were really focusing on the writing, where that fear would keep creeping into the songs. “I don’t want it to sound like this,” or “I don’t want it to sound too much like that,” or whatever. We had to sit down and say to ourselves: “Why do we care?” Why do we care what it is, as long as we’re happy with it? Let’s just do our own thing – and that’s just what we ended up doing.

A debut album is always seen as a pretty big landmark for a band – was it important to make a strong first impression?
Yeah, we had that idea when we were going into record it – we wanted to make a statement, I guess you could say. I think it’s a great example of who we are as people and as songwriters and as a band at this point in time. We really wrote songs that we needed to write.

What songs from Shed would you show to someone in order to best represent what the album is about?

There’s a couple of songs that come to mind. There’s a song that we wrote called “Society,” and the entire idea behind the song is that we’re the kind of band that writes these short, fast, aggressive songs. Why can’t we write a short, slow, angry, aggressive song? We drew influence from bands that we all love but perhaps doesn’t come out that much in our music. I think it’s a cool song that kind of sticks out in its own way, and I don’t know how people are going to react to it. I’m really excited about showing it to people.

You must be looking forward to playing these songs live?
Oh, yeah. The last time we recorded was in December of 2008. We’ve been playing pretty much the same songs since then. Don’t get me wrong, those are great songs. At the same time, though, when you do the same thing at every single show, it gets fairly boring and redundant. We’re just excited to play anything new at all. But the fact is we really like the songs that we wrote, and we’re really excited to play them.

Tell us about the tour you’re about to start – we’ve heard it’s pretty massive!
Yeah, we’re doing a full U.S. tour, and it’s with Touché Amoré, The Menzingers and our friends in Dead End Path. It’s a tour that we wanted to be big, but we also wanted it to be on our terms. We wanted to be touring with bands that we like, that are diverse and that we can have a good time with. It’s gonna be cool – it’s our first-ever proper headlining tour in the States! We’ve toured a lot in the past year, but we’ve never had something big like this before.

Sounds exciting. And then you’re bringing Touché to Australia with you for the first time!
Yeah! I don’t know if we’re bringing someone else out or not – we’re working on it, but we don’t have any more info yet. But we’re coming in September! It’s our first time crossing the equator, and it’s gonna be really cool. We love going to places that are extremely foreign to us, and it’s definitely gonna be a crazy experience. Especially with Touché! We can’t wait.

INTERVIEW: The Wonder Years (USA), April 2011

Posted on 03/02/2015 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

I’ve been a huge Wonder Years fan for years and years and years now. Genre regardless, I see them as one of the realest bands one could hope to encounter in the current musical climate. There’s no bullshit here, no genre politics, just a group that want to be the best band that they can be in their own way. I’ve interviewed Dan Campbell, their lead singer, twice now. Despite being a fan, I felt slightly unprepared for both; and, in turn, they’re not features that I think are my best. Dan does give me some pretty good insight here, though. As I’ve said before, I really start to find my way as an interviewer around 2011. Everything here is purely for archival purposes – and for my own measly entertainment.

– DJY, February 2015

***

Last year, The Wonder Years released a remarkable sophomore in The Upsides, subsequently tearing venues across Australia apart with en-masse singalongs and stage-dives aplenty. Having just warmed up crowds for Parkway Drive, we now turn our attention to the band’s brand-new album. Entitled Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing, there is no doubt it will keep both old and new fans satisfied with its aggressive streak and endearing choruses. Australian Hysteria got the chance to catch up with the band’s irrepressible lead singer, Dan “Soupy” Campbell, to chat about the album, the shows and that funny-looking bird that’s turning up everywhere…

Australian Hysteria: Hey Soupy, how’s it going?
Dan “Soupy” Campbell: Hey, it’s goin’ good! Got a little bit of a headache, but we’re on tour and we’ve pulled over to do a couple of interviews. We’re in the middle of a seventeen hour drive, so I’d rather be doing this than sitting in the back of the van doing nothing. [Laughs]

Let’s talk about the new record. It’s come out quite quickly – about eighteen months, in fact – since you guys released The Upsides. Was that a conscious decision, to get the material out as soon as possible?
Y’know, it’s not like we were writing along the way and just needed to put out all these songs. It was actually that we had toured non-stop for about a year, and then we said ‘Okay, let’s take two months off and write a record.’ The difference between our first record [2007’s Get Stoked On It!] and The Upsides was a couple of years because we were in school and we weren’t able to take the time that we needed away from that to focus on writing a record. Now that we’re a full-time band and don’t have anything else holding us back, we were able to say when we finished touring and to take that time to write a record. I mean, you can only tour so much before you start boring kids at shows.

How much of this material was written on the road?
I think that there are two songs on the record that had started before we sat down to write the record. Neither of them were finished products, though. They were more like little ideas. So, really, everything on this record was written during that two-month block that we set apart to write the album.

What has the response been like to the new material when you’ve been playing it live?
It’s been great, actually. I’m a music fan, and when I go to a show and I hear a band say “Hey, how about we play a new song?” I just go “Goddammit!” [Laughs] It’s like, I don’t wanna hear a new song. I wanna hear the songs that I know. So, for us, it was like “Let’s not play any of these songs until the kids have heard it.” So we released Local Man Ruins Everything and made sure people had a couple of listens before we started playing it at shows, just so that people could be engaged with it and be a part of the experience. I think a lot of Wonder Years shows are about the group experience. It’s less us performing towards you and more about all of us doing it together – the crowd and the band. For us, it makes more sense to let you in on the song than for us to spring it on you.

Suburbia I’ve Given You All and Now I’m Nothing – That is an incredible title that you’ve put to this record. Tell us a bit about it.
It’s actually based on the first line of an Allen Ginsberg poem, America. His line goes “America, I’ve given you all and now I’m nothing.” So it’s a bit of a re-contextualisation of Ginsberg. The record is, to an effect, rooted in that poem. I feel like it’s consistently in dialogue with America the same way that Ginsberg was in his poetry. It made sense to co-opt that line.

It might seem weird to some long-time fans to see the same band who used to sing about Cap’n Crunch not too long ago write these very heavy melodic punk songs. Was there a notion to make Suburbia… more of an aggressive record?
I’d like to start by saying that while this album was written by the same people that wrote Get Stoked On It!, I don’t feel like it’s the same band. A lot of times in life, you’re a different person as you grow up. Obviously not physiologically, but you know what I’m talking about. I think where we are, in our mental and emotional state right now, it’s completely different from when we wrote Get Stoked On It! I almost consider it a completely different band.

As far as the aggressive edge to the record, I feel that the answer to that is twofold. The first is the production of Steve Evetts. Steve’s goal was to capture the raw live energy from when The Wonder Years play shows and to translate that to record. I think he did an amazing job of it. Secondly, I think it’s a lot about how people perceive it. We’ve had people listen to Local Man Ruins Everything and tell us that it’s so awesome that we’re way more aggressive. We’ve also had people listen to the song and tell us that it’s so awesome that we’re more chilled out. It’s really about what you, as a person, take away from a song.

Geoff Rickley from Thursday wrote this awesome article for Alternative Press where he said that for the several months in-between recording and releasing a record, it is your record. But as soon as the fans have it, it is their record. They’re going to perceive it based on whatever schemata they already have in their brain, they’re going to receive it differently. So, you might think it’s more aggressive, and someone else might think it’s more chilled out – and, in some respects, I agree with both. The goal was to do all of that. We wanted to make a record that was louder and quieter; faster and slower; harder and softer than anything we’ve ever done. Why just stretch in one way? Why not prove to people that we can do all of this and still be a pop-punk band?

He’s on the front of The Upsides reissue, he’s on the cover of Suburbia…, he looks like he’s the seventh member of the band in the new press shots. Who is this bird, and what can you tell us about him?
He’s a pigeon. We’ve named him Hank. He’s a bit of everything. I would describe Hank as a physical manifestation of The Wonder Years. I know that’s a bit of a mouthful, but what I mean by that is a pigeon that, as an animal, lives exclusively where it is not wanted. It’s a tough life, but the pigeon doesn’t give a fuck. I think, for a long time, this band was a band that couldn’t get noticed by anyone in the music industry. A lot of times, that would indicate that it’s time to pack it up and move on to another project, onto a new part of life. The thing about The Wonder Years – and the thing about this current pop-punk movement in general – is that we all said “Fuck that! Fuck you if you don’t want to be on board. We’re going to do this ourselves.” While the pigeon doesn’t have the consciousness to say something that, I feel that’s more or less how the pigeon would respond.

That’s very true about the pop-punk movement. We had some great pop-punk tours in Australia last year – you guys, Fireworks and Valencia, to name a few. Even though not all the shows sold out, all the reports would talk about just how passionate the fans were, and how big the energy was in the shows. How important has The Wonder Years’ live show become?
I think our live show is everything. I think that our live shows show the passion that we have for this music that can’t be shown in our records. You have to be there, you have to watch our faces. You have to see what we do. You have to be a part of it. The great thing about The Wonder Years is that it’s a shared experience. I remember the first show we played in Australia was a sold-out, 300-capacity room. That’s amazing for us. It doesn’t always have to be 3000 people there for it to be a unique experience.

A lot of the time, the greatest shows I’ve ever seen have been in basements or houses or legion halls. It doesn’t have to be a huge sound system with a fucking laser system and a fog machine. Sometimes, your favourite show is watching your favourite singer throw himself off a speaker stack into a crowd. That’s what a lot of pop-punk does right now. As a scene, we kind of banded together and said that we don’t need the rest of the world. If you want to be a part of it, you’re welcome. But if you don’t want to be a part of it, it’s not going to stop us. That’s the same way with Man Overboard, Transit, Fireworks, Such Gold, Title Fight…we’ve come together and we’ve said that we’ll be here, whether you like it or not.

Anything else is contrived and derivative. If you’re spending all of your time as a band trying to get signed to a major label, then you’re not doing it right. There are bands out there that can make entire careers out for themselves without any use of a label, especially now with the advent of the internet. I mean, look at Odd Future [Wolf Gang Kill Them All] right now – they’re killing it. They did it by themselves. If you want it bad enough, you can get it.

INTERVIEW: The Chariot (USA), March 2011

Posted on 31/01/2015 by davidjamesyoung in Interviews

I had never heard of The Chariot before I was asked to interview their vocalist and mainstay Josh Scogin. I’m forever grateful to Australian Hysteria Magazine, as by writing for them they introduced me to a band that would become one of my absolute favourites over the next few years. Even beyond their untimely split, I still love them. No-one delivered a set quite like them, or put out music with the kind of vessel-popping intensity. I fell for them utterly and completely, and I may well draw that back to when I interviewed Josh. He was a really interesting and intelligent guy, particularly when we got talking about how his faith correlates with the music that he makes. His new band, ’68, are fucking great, too.

– DJY, January 2015

***

They go through band-mates like you go through hot dinners, but Douglasville natives The Chariot are never ones to give up or lose momentum. A relentless beast of touring throughout their native U.S., the band will finally make their maiden voyage down under this coming April, bringing along fellow American metalcore stalwarts Oh Sleeper with them. Ahead of this exciting double headliner, the voice behind The Chariot, Josh Scogin, was on the line to discuss life on the road, tourism and what faith really means within his music.

Hey Josh, thanks for talking to Australian Hysteria Magazine. Whereabouts are you at the moment?

Hey man, no worries at all! We’re actually in Indianapolis, Indiana. Haste the Day are about to play their final ever show, and we’re on the tour with them. It’s kind of awesome, and kind of weird – it’s emotional for a lot of them. A lot of their families will be coming out for this show. Ultimately, though, it’s been really awesome – they’ve been really great shows, and they’re great dudes. It’s been a really pleasant touring experience.

How long have you guys been on tour now?

Well, we’ve been on this tour for about a month, but we were on a tour before this one. We’ve been gone since about January, I think – quite awhile! We’re pretty excited about playing this show and then getting on home.

And these shows have been with your new guitarist, Brandon Henderson – is that right?

Yeah, he actually used to be in a band with our other guitarist [Stephen Harrison]. He’s been playing with us for awhile now.

It’s well-known that the band has gone through a lot of line-up changes. Is it hard to keep things cemented as a touring machine?

I guess it should be hard, but it’s actually been a very easy process. It’s always been friends that we’ve known for awhile – it’s always made a lot of sense. It’s never been weird, y’know – the last change we had before this one was with a guy who toured with us for a year and a half, doing the lights and guitar tech stuff. When our guitarist at the time left, it just made sense – it was obvious that he should join because he’s our good friend, he’s like-minded and he knows where we want to go with the band. So, I guess it’s supposed to be a daunting task – but, like I said, it’s always just made sense. We’ve never had to do auditions or anything like that.

Yeah, so there’s been no Chariot Idol!

[Laughs] Yeah, yeah! Exactly!

It’s also pretty remarkable that you’ve been able to keep a consistent flow of new material coming – for example, the proximity of Long Live [released in November 2010] in relation to Wars and Rumors of Wars [released in May 2009]. How important was it to get that album out as soon as possible – did it come naturally at the time?

We wanted to put one out pretty quick. We thought we had a lot of good material, and it was better than just sitting on it. I write a lot of stuff, so there’s the common ground of being able to move forward even when certain members change. It was just one of those things where we were trying to get on a couple of tours, and we thought “Well, we could stay at home this summer – or we could record.” It all just fell into place – we were all writing, anyway, so it wasn’t like it snuck up on us or anything. We just went with it, y’know?

Are you the type to write material while you’re on the road at all?

I personally don’t write anything on the road. I’ll some times write down some lyric as a little separate entity or something, but I’m usually really busy on the road – it’s hard to just sit down and pick up a guitar and write. When we’re at home, though, it just comes naturally. It’s a really easy process to just hit Record on a computer and lay down a couple of ideas. So, we write a little on the road – I know our guitarist writes a bit, anyway. I think it’s when we’re at home, though, that a lot of the ideas tend to come to life.

Do you think the environment of home assists in achieving the right state of mind for creating music?

Maybe. For me, it’s funny, though; I come up with a lot of ideas that I like at the worst of times. [Laughs] Like when I’m driving, for instance. I’ve gotta just keep remembering, or I’ll just forget it, y’know what I mean? It’s kind of one of those things, though, when you’re always writing – things can come naturally. I never really have to sit down and go “Okay, I have to write a song today.” You just go for it; and when you’ve done that enough times, you don’t have to force anything. It cuts out a lot of the forcing, making it a more organic process – that’s we thrive on.

Definitely. Are you and the band looking forward to your Australian tour?

Oh yeah, of course! After this tour, we go to Europe for a couple of weeks, and then we’re headed for Australia. We’ve been trying to come down for, like, three years. I don’t know, man, it’s always just been one thing after another. But we’re so excited to finally come down there and learn about the culture and the people. Hopefully the shows are cool – that’s obviously a part of it. For us, though, it’s the ability to learn new things, and see the country. That’s what drives this band – the ability to do stuff and see things that we would have never gotten to see otherwise. That’s just brilliant to us. It’s something that we’re just too excited to do.

Are you much of a tourist, or more of a sight-seer? What kind of traveller are you?

I’m kind of both. I’ve done Europe several times, and I like seeing the tourist-y stuff that most of the locals probably take for granted. But I also really enjoy meeting someone and getting to know them – being, like, “Hey, how are you doing? What do you like doing? Where do you like to hang out in your country?” To be able to do that stuff is really cool. If we weren’t in a band – like, say, we just said to ourselves “We wanna go to Australia and visit” – we would probably only get to see the tourist stuff. Being in a band, you get to meet new people, meet locals and find out where they hang out, what they like, where they go to eat. To me, I like both. I love the tourist stuff, but in Europe we get to experience stuff that we wouldn’t get to otherwise.

Oh Sleeper will be joining you guys on this tour, as well. They’re regarded as a Christian band, as are The Chariot. Is there ever a conflict of bands that associate themselves with Christianity performing what is traditionally regarded as “the Devil’s music” – i.e. rock music and heavy music? Or is it liberating to be able to do that?

I get the reaction to a lot of earlier bands within the genre, but I don’t really get exactly why it became known as “the Devil’s music.” With that said, I don’t also necessarily get why Christianity receives its own genre in the world, either. To me, it’s funny that it would be attributed to one side or the other. Unless you knew the lyrics were full-on in talking about Hell or Satan or what have you, I don’t see how music all by itself can be Christian or not. To me, it’s just music. Just because I’m a Christian, doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like heavy music. It’s just a form of expressing yourself – it’s like art. Like, I love art, and as a painter you’d never think that “these painting are Christian, these paintings are Satanic.” If it’s just a painting without connotations either way, how can you associate it with anything? Music’s the same: just because it’s heavy, it’s referred to as “the Devil’s music.” I always think that’s pretty funny, to not necessarily have any background on it and claim it as such.

You’d think the stigma would come from rock and heavy music having that history of sex and drugs and that kind of lifestyle, as far back as Elvis and moving on to Sabbath and Ozzy and what have you. At the same time, though, you’ve got bands who are trying to break that premonition and move away from that stereotype.

Of course. I mean, I didn’t grow up in a Christian household – I’m at where I’m at today because of my life’s path and what’s brought me here. It’s not like I’m riding the coattails of some pastor or one of my parents. It’s a very mutual respect that I have with people who are either believers or non-believers – I can relate to both. I know where they’re coming from in either direction. It’s cool to just play music, to play rock and roll; and maybe one day be able to bridge the gap and make people realise that it’s just music. Hopefully, it can even be a blessing of some sort. Just because the media throws “Christian metal” or “Christian-core” on it, doesn’t mean it’s exclusive – that’s not what we’re about. It’s silly to throw a whole genre on something just because the band is from a label, or because you might tour with a band or two who are affiliated with what you’re affiliated with. You just can’t think about it that way, y’know?