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SOUNDWAVE INTERVIEW - Marc Hudson of DRAGONFORCE

2/19/2015

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Dragonforce are no strangers to Australia and once again they are heading over for the biggest festival on the heavy music calendar, Soundwave. I had the pleasure to talk to vocalist Marc Hudson about the tour, their latest album “Maximum Overload” and what it was like to go from relative obscurity to one of the most respected vocalists of the power metal genre.

In 2011 Marc went from to singing in unsigned bands to fronting one of the most exciting bands to come out of the U.K. in years, his first show was supporting Iron Maiden so his initiation to the band was not for the faint of heart. So how did he handle this trial by fire, his response was “It was actually a lot of pressure, I think at the beginning I found it kind of tough but yeah at the same time it was so cool because obviously joining the band from pretty much never playing in front of a decent size crowd before to suddenly they had me playing in front of I think it was about 40,000 at the O2 arena in London. But yeah it was really cool, I mean as you can imagine it wasn’t exactly easy. Now days after being in a band for some time it’s become a lot easier but the beginning was really quite hairy “

Dragonforce released their sixth studio album “Maximum Overload” in August last year and for the first time in their career the band chose to enlist the services of a producer. Marc reflected on what it was like to hand over some of the control to an external influence, that being Jens Bogren (who has previously worked with Opeth, Katatonia, Devin Townsend and Paradise Lost). “The recording process was quite different, we all took it in turns to fly out to Sweden to go to his studio. Yeah it was interesting because he has worked with a lot of different bands, and his influences are kind of different to say Sam’s for example, but he kind of saw some things in our music that he kind of wanted to extenuate and bring out. So I think the influence he had on the band some of the songs ended up kind of heavier and thrashier sounding, which I thought was really cool. And then at the same time he has a really good ear for catchy melodies and stuff. It was good to have some fresh eyes looking at it and giving different opinions and I think the end result is actually really good. I think the overall mix, the way it was produced as well as some of the influences you can hear from him, overall has resulted in a what I think is a pretty diverse and good album.”

The vocalist formerly known as “Mr. Scream” by previous band mates commented on how well the album has been received both by the fans and the media alike. “Really well actually, because this is the 2nd album that I have been on with the “Power Within” before that, but that for me this was the one that the fans were going to judge me on being the first performance. I really think that this one has been a huge step up from that, not to say that the album was bad or anything, but I think this has been quite an evolution from that we have taken all the good stuff and kind of improved on it. So I think that the fans have appreciated that, as all the comments we’ve read and everything have been along those lines. And the album itself has done really well in different territories and we have been in the top 20 album charts in Germany now, which is pretty unusual for a power metal album because it is normally dominated by pop and stuff.  So yeah it’s definitely done well and hopefully the success will continue.”

As well as the Soundwave shows Dragonforce will be undertaking some sidewaves with the giants of British heavy metal Judas Priest. In almost what could be seen as a handing of the baton between one legendary band and the new champions on the scene. The singer was very humble when speaking about the shows “Yeah I haven’t actually been thinking about it too much because it’s one of those things when I first started singing and everything, I was always thinking it would be so cool to be playing with Iron Maiden or Judas Priest and those kind of bands, and now obviously this just came up, it’s quite a big thing, but the band have actually toured with Halford before and they know each other which will be cool as I think they area already kind of friends and everything. But I definitely think it’s going to be… I think it’s going to be a good night for everyone, bands and fans included and everything. Yeah two kind of British metal bands that kind of share influences with, we obviously think about Judas Priest, but were more power metal, so I think the fans will be pretty happy with the spread they have in front of them that night so it should be pretty cool.”

For those unfortunate enough to never have witnesses the adrenalin charged stage performance that is a Dragonforce show Marc described what to expect. “Our performance on stage I think is an energetic one, especially now after we’ve been touring for a little while and we are really well rehearsed and everything. We are going to be playing songs that are going to satisfy all Dragonforce fans, the kind of guys that have there from the beginning listening to Valley of the dammed all the way up to the new fans that have kind of just joined and just started listening to the last couple of albums. But we are really playing a good spread across from the very early to recent, so it should be a diverse set list with hopefully a couple of surprises, but also playing the songs that people are expecting to hear so that’s more important as we don’t come to Australia too often so that will be the case I think. So yeah, a high energy technical performance I think.”


Interview by Mike Trandafil
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Justin Broadrick from GODFLESH

10/12/2014

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Godflesh are widely renowned as having played a major role in the development of the Industrial metal movement. Hailing from Birmingham in England, the two piece will play their brutal, relentless and unforgiving brand of sonic mayhem on these shores for the first time as part of the 2015 Soundwave Festival. They will join both Fear Factory and Ministry in what could only be described as a dream come true for fans of the genre. Vocalist/Guitarist Justin Broadrick took some time out to talk to Live Music Adelaide about their new album, breaking up, getting back together and he even hinted at some sidewave shows.

Godflesh disbanded in 2002 following a really traumatic period in Justins life. He was suffering through a break up both personally, with the ending of a long term relationship and professionally with original bassist and founding member G.C. Green leaving the band. I asked how hard was it for him to pull all the pieces back together from a personal perspective and how the eventual demise of Godflesh came about. “We immediately set about touring the album “Hymns”, you know it was all wrong, it wasn’t Godflesh anymore. It was a good band but it wasn’t Godflesh. So it all just accumulated and went bad, it went to shit basically. Unfortunately I was going through a lot of real bad personal problems at the time as well, I was really thankful that I had something ongoing. Forming Jesu out of the ashes of Godflesh and having that material to work on during such a painful period was really the only creative outlet that I had of expressing a lot of the pain I was going through at the time. I certainly needed to express it because I think without any form of expression I would have been in such a throe of depression that I would have found very little way out of it”. 

With all of that behind him we fast forward 12 years, the original line up is back intact and the brand new album “A World Lit By Fire” has just been released. The frontman explained how the writing process came about after the bands extended hiatus. "I first started writing new material about halfway through 2011, so really what we wanted to do was play shows and perform to the best of our abilities and play the early material, that is the most inspiring to us you know. We didn’t need the inspiration but I felt like I just wanted to perform the material I loved most and what I loved most about Godflesh to get us back, get the ball rolling again you know. That lead into the compositional process in a really fluid way then, once I started writing it was never-ending really in a way the inspiration. I had to really hold the reins in the end to stop myself because I could probably write seven albums in one go now, which is great. You know I dried up back in the day, before we split up I was drying up. Whereas now it’s a bottomless well, I’m clearly very excited to get back into that compositional process, I really wanted to get back to it you know. Towards the end of the 2000’s with my project “Jesu” it definitely felt like I’d done more than I’d set out to do with that project and I was definitely missing the whole Godflesh process.”

When I broached the topic of how well the new album has been received by both the fans and the media alike, Justin was ecstatic about the initial reaction they had been afforded “I mean we’ve been stunned, when we finished this album we were really proud of this record. We still feel and we did feel as soon as we’d finished it that this was one of the best records we’d made in over 20 years. It’s up there with the classics for us, with the first three albums we made you know. The last great album we feel we made as Godflesh was the “Selfless” album in 1994 and we feel this is up there with that if not better. It’s up there with our best records, we made it for ourselves first and foremost, we just didn’t know, and we made it in such a vacuum. We recorded this in our own studio, I wrote it in my own studio, we produced it ourselves, we even engineer these records ourselves. So we had no other input whatsoever, not at any stage and this is on my own record label. So it’s not like we’ve got A&R people or people surrounding us going yeh man, that’s the fucking best album you’ve ever done, we had no one around us telling us anything. So it’s made in such a vacuum that by the time we finish the record and get it out we have no idea how this is going to be received. So we’ve been bowled over with the responses it's ridiculous actually. It couldn’t be any more positive, which makes us feel like god, well we have obviously made a record that has made an impact, it’s a real shot in the arm you know, it’s mad." 


Godflesh’s first trip to Australia will be for the biggest heavy music festival of the calendar, Soundwave. They will be playing alongside some of the bands that helped them shape the genre. His reaction to this reunion on the other side of the world was “Yes it’s incredible, it’s absolutely incredible. I mean these are people I have toured with, people I have known for years as well and on the flip side it’s great to see Mayhem as well, great black metal. The vocalist from Mayhem, Attila has been a very close friend of mine for a number of years as well you know. It’s going to be quite a big family of us.”

To my question on whether he had been given any insight of what to expect when they hit the stage in Australia, his response way “I’ve only spoken to people who have worked tech over there or have been over there as visitors but a lot of people have just said that it is an amazing experience. What I hear is really positive things, so we’re really excited, were just as excited to play some sideshows you know.”

The Godflesh singer/guitarist’s parting messages to their Australian fans was “I just couldn’t be more excited to play to people who have been either waiting years to see us or even people who have come to it in the last couple of years, last year, last month who just want to see this band. It will be an absolute pleasure to play to an Australian audience and I just hope people lose their shit to us.”


Interview by Mike Trandafil
 

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The Color Morale are next on the Soundwave hitlist... Check em out!

10/12/2014

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There is 8 days to go before The Color Morale set off on tour in the UK and Europe, and front man Garret Rapp is taking the time to talk to LMA about the excitement of being invited to play Soundwave Festival in 2015, the reinforcement of hope,  what keeps him going and what The Color Morale are about as a band…

Congratulations on being part of the Soundwave tour next year. How excited were you when you heard the news?

Yeah, very excited. Australia is probably our favourite place that we’ve been to as a band, and to be able to come back over with one of the biggest and most respected festivals in music is a pretty cool opportunity.

'Hold On Pain Ends' has been out here for about a month and has already hit no 28 in the US Top 200. How has the fan feed back been?

It’s been great. We’ve grown quite a bit as a band since the last release. I’ve already seen dozens and dozens of tattoos and heard tonnes of stories and connections of how the lyrical content has touched people. Its been very successful already. A lot of people view success on a pay scale, a record sales quota, but for me I measure success in a different way with our band. The level of connection tells me at this point that it’s been very very successful.

How much do your fans stories and experiences impact the writing of your songs?

Completely. 'Know Hope' was a record that I get very personal about. It came from a very urgent detrimental time of my life and I made it a goal through that entire record cycle to be at the merch table, to keep my ear to the ground at all times and really listen and observe what kids are going through and struggling with. In doing so, it kind of laid the foundation in what I chose to write Hold On Pain Ends about. It was a record that deals with very harsh topics. Anything from suicide to eating disorders to self-harm. Very straightforward, very urgent subject matter.

Its amazing that you can reach out to people the way you do. Would you say that was the driving force as a band?

Absolutely. That’s been the purpose of our band since day one. The purpose of what we do our entire career as a band. When I was a kid I never had anyone giving me positive feedback in life, so for me, this is something I’ve created that I need personally you know. A lot of kids will look up to you as a band, a singer, a front man and ironically at the same time, I look up to them as they look up to me. I think I need them a lot more than they need me.

I found it touching and relatable how Know Hope came about and also know how hard it is in my mind to flip negativity to positivity. Is it something you have to keep reminding yourself as well, or do you think the message has sunk in as deep with you as it has your audience?

I think so. I think it’s a reminder every day. It’s a topic of conversation I have with kids. I wrote a lyric that says you can stay in a positive life with a negative mind. They are both energy and it shouldn’t matter which one you choose to subscribe to. Some people call it god and the devil, some people call it sobriety or addiction. For me, I apply myself every day with a negative outlook, to get something positive from it.

You like to have a lot of fun on stage also. What are some of the highlights people can expect to see coming to your show at Soundwave?

If you haven’t seen a band that doesn’t plan anything, I don’t have a dialogue that I read out, or a prompter. Our band doesn’t synchronise anything, its just kind of a very raw authentic musical connection. The things I say between songs are how I feel in the moment. Its just about bringing how we feel in the moment. For me, I can't not operate that way.

How would you introduce yourself to fans that haven’t heard the color morale before?

Whatever it is you’re struggling with or going through or whatever it is you want to celebrate, put on our record and I promise you that on a scale of what we go through daily, positively or negatively, we explore the boundaries of that with our music. By all means, put us in your stereo and go stand in front of the speakers and blast it!


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Jimmy The Robot talks Soundwave 2015

10/11/2014

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In 2010 Mr and Mrs. Goodman first kissed their son Jimmy The Robot goodbye as he and his Super-Friends The Aquabats set off on their first adventure Downunder to play Soundwave Festival.

After falling in love with our country (and our Moreton Bay Bugs), Jimmy and his super friends are coming back our way for Soundwave 2014.

We spoke to him about touring, TV, detachable robot parts, stage antics and of course, Soundwave Festival. See for yourself why we cant wait for The Aquabats to take the stage next year…


How excited are you to be coming back to Australia again and under the soundwave banner like 2010?

I’m very excited. I had a fantastic time last time and am super stoked to be coming back especially the fact that it’s our winter here and your summer there.

What kind of feedback did you get from us aussies after your first visit here?

It was all very positive. We were really excited. As well as playing the regular festival dates, the sidewave shows and pub dates we played with reel big fish went really well and we saw plenty of followers that picked up on us after we played there, and the tv show aired in Australia, we have done really well and hope to expand on it when we come again.

How did the Aquabats get steered towards television?

We tried and tried for years and finally someone said lets make it. It was always a kind of goal for us. We are a very visual band and made lots of videos. Not just music videos, sometimes just shorts of us messing around, goofing off trying to entertain everybody. It was always something we wanted to do and we tried a couple times making different pilots and finally we found someone that said “ok, lets make a whole season”, so yeah, someone finally believed in us.

Do you think your television efforts has boosted the bands popularity here in Australia?

I think it helps. They are shows that kids will easily gravitate to but also that parents who sit with their kids can also enjoy. We try to put material in there that the adults get, so its not just kids frivolous action. We are having a laugh as well so it’s not just candy but also some substance. Hopefully all the generations can be into it.

 You guys seem to have a great time on stage. What would you say are your favourite things about playing live?

Playing live, you get that instant reaction from the crowd. If you do something and they like it, they let you know immediately, and also for something they don’t like. We love filming shows, but playing live is something we definitely look forward to doing. With the tv show, you don’t get any feedback for months sometimes so its definitely a cool thing about playing live. Something we love about playing live.

Have you ever thought about filming your shows in front of a live audience?

The way the show is set up, it would be a little tricky. I mean we always have people around but everything has been on location except for a handful of video shots in front of a green screen or something like that. The majority of the time we are off and running you know, which would be hard to keep an audience up with. In fact, for a pilot we did do a segment of a show from a live concert where we interacted with the crowd and had them there and we kind of like ok, well throw it to this video segment which would have the narrative that would go in between live performances and what not. That didn’t wind up in the show for the regular season but that was an experiment that we really enjoyed.

What is your favourite memory from soundwave 2010?

That was the first time we had ever been to Australia so everything we saw was brand new. The concerts were fantastic. We also went down to the Sydney fish markets and had Morton Bay Bugs which was awesome. Everywhere we went we got some awesome food and everybody we met was fantastic, everybody was on the same page and onboard so we really had a good time. We felt at home immediately. It’s not entirely different from California but it was fun to see the little differences. We were super stoked and on our sideshows we played, the fans knew our songs which was awesome and it was a great deal of fun and I can’t wait to come back.

Do you find its more fun being on a festival line up rather that headlining your own shows?

I think so. It certainly helped us out a lot being in a country for the first time. We got to play in front of lots of people who maybe didn’t know a whole lot about us, which is great. They don’t have to commit to a whole night of a band they don’t really know, but are able to walk by casually and hopefully stick around and be entertained and what not. To try to break into somewhere you have never been, its fantastic. Playing the sideshows with reel big fish was great. They brought their fans and I think we brought ours and I think our fan bases overlap quite a lot so it helped us a whole lot.

How do Mr and Mrs. Goodman go with you travelling overseas and being so far away?

My parents? (laughs) they’re good for it they’re happy for us to get out there and experience the world you know. That’s the whole point. They thought I had abandoned them but it was really more about remembering your roots and also about exploring everything the world has to offer. Australia is a nice chapter to add to that experience.

You have detachable robot body parts. Does that impress the ladies anymore than a normal man would?

I haven’t tried that out so I couldn’t speak from experience but I cant imagine it would hurt.

What advice would you give any up and coming bands trying to break into the music industry?

Fortunately for us, we had some success early on. We had a little bit of a different thing. Not the same old band which allowed us to form a pretty steady and sturdy fan base. We put out a couple of records, had a little success on the radio and this was in the 90’s you know, when mtv made a big difference in the world of music. Now it’s all on the Internet. Mtv doesn’t even play music anymore so we use the Internet a whole lot to keep our fans informed about what we are doing. Giving them new material and if it wasn’t for the fan base we had we would have ended a long time ago. I guess I would say to be true to yourself for a start and make something that you believe in and hopefully other people will believe in that as well and anytime you get low, self esteem wise or musically or whatever, you’ve got to lean on the fans because they’ll give back to you and that will give you the strength to keep moving on forward you know. We would have given up years ago if we didn’t have people lifting us up all the time like” we need more material, we love you guys” you know. They fed us and hopefully we can feed them.

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BURTON C. BELL from FEAR FACTORY

9/14/2014

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Burton C. Bell is nearing an incredible milestone; in 2015 he will have been the front man for the Californian band Fear Factory for quarter of a century. In an industry that chews bands up and spits them out this is an incredible achievement that only a small percentage of musicians ever achieve. Don’t expect elaborate celebrations or gratuitous back patting from this U.S. quartet, their focus is squarely aimed on completing their ninth studio album.

Although I was unable to pry the elusive album title from Burton he did update me on the progress of the new album. “The lowdown is we are currently working on it. We currently have nine new tracks that sound fucking amazing and currently we are writing lyrics and putting vocals to all the tracks. I think Dino and I have finally decided on an album title but we’re not ready to release it just yet but I think we have a really good album title that’s going to fit with the concept. Sonically it has Fear Factory all over it but I think it’s going to be much more crafted, much more focused with the sound, it’s still the Fear Factory sound but it sounds raw and will just be ravenous to hear.”

Fear Factory are a band that have always marched to the beat of their own drum, the Californian quartet have rewritten the rules when it comes to heavy music and in doing so have garnered plenty of admirers along the way. Bands such as Machine Head, Spineshank, Chimaira, Slipknot, Static X and Coal Chamber have cited Fear Factory as an influence to some degree. I asked the vocalist whether it puts pressure on them when writing an album that they are looked upon as visionaries of the genre. “On my part, no. If all those bands you just mentioned name Fear Factory as one of their influences I am fucking honored. Those bands are just amazing in their own right, they’ve done great in their own careers and I can proudly say that I am friends with all those people, good on them it’s fucking awesome. It doesn’t put pressure on me, we just do what we do and that’s what we’ve always done. Fear Factory is the only Fear Factory, our personalities that we have, our style, lets us create the Fear Factory sound so I don’t feel pressure. The only pressure we put is on ourselves to make a great record.”

Fear Factory are no strangers to Australia, since 1993 they have regularly frequented our shores. Each tour has covered all the major capitals, so what is it about Australia that keeps them coming back? “It’s the fans that keep us going back, I mean Australia is a beautiful place, it’s a great country. It’s a really different world from where we’re from in North America, it’s the fans that keep bringing us back. It’s the first continent as a whole to really accept Fear Factory completely, we were there on our first album. We did like two weeks’ worth of shows like on our first record and that’s unheard of in 1993. Ever since then I think we just laid a lot of groundwork, playing a lot of shows, playing small places, just doing as much as we can. We really reached out, we’re like American ambassadors to Australia.”


Fear Factory’s next trip to Australia is in early 2015 as part of the biggest event of the Australian heavy music calendar, the Soundwave Festival. So which bands as a musician and music fan is Burton looking forward to playing alongside. “All of them. Soundgarden, this will be the second time we’ve played with Soundgarden on a festival in Australia, we did the Big Day Out with them back in 95 or 96 I think. It was their last tour as Soundgarden for quite some time, so to be back on tour with them again will be fantastic. Ministry, old friends of mine, I’m looking forward to being with those guys. Godflesh, I’ve been a fan of Godflesh since I was eighteen, to tour with them again and see Justin (K. Broadrick) diddle away on the guitar. Who else is playing? Lamb Of God, get a load of those guys, great people, Randy (Blythe) one stubborn mother fucker, what a great vocalist he is. I am looking forward to hanging out with all these people.”

I put the Fear Factory frontman on the spot by asking what where the highlights of a career spanning nearly twenty five years. “Playing with Metallica. Opening up for the Sabbath reunion in Birmingham England. Playing with Ministry, playing with Godflesh, playing with the original Sepultura. What else? In my career I was asked to do vocals on Geezer Butlers first solo record, a highlight for my personal career. Going to Russia, going to Japan, going to South Korea. There’s like so many highlights, it’s like every day on the road is a new gift, it’s hard just to name one you know.”

Burton C. Bells parting words to their legions of Australian Fear Factory fans is “We’re just fucking excited to finally be on this fantastic tour, Soundwave. We’re just beyond excited to finally be on it and we’re gonna make sure that Fear Factory sounds great and all the Australians out there are going to see a fucking awesome show.”


Interview by Mike Trandafil

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DAN JACOBS from ATREYU

9/8/2014

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Fans of Orange County Metalcore band Atreyu all breathed a collective sigh of relief on July the 1st when the band released a statement officially announcing that they’re back making music and playing live again. Today I had the pleasure of speaking to guitarist Dan Jacobs and got the lowdown on the reasons behind this hiatus and their return from this self-imposed exile. The news is even better for their Australian fans as they are set to grace our shores as part of the Soundwave Festival in February next year, which for the first time will be a two day event.

I couldn’t kick the interview off without asking the question, why the hiatus, which was arguably at the bands most successful period of their career to date.  Dan was very philosophical in his response “We started touring when we were in our teens, we toured for eight years straight. We were stuck in never neverland for a while and then we got a chance to get out of never neverland, and find out who we are as individuals outside of the band. We were a little bit burnt out, we loved what we did but we just needed to take a step back and just kind of find ourselves as individuals outside of the band and get excited again. We didn’t want to get too burnt out, we didn’t want to force the music out or be putting on a show were not excited to play. If were not excited to play our fans won’t be excited, so we took a step back. Unintentionally I think it was the best thing we could have done for our career, were so excited now ourselves to play again, we’re really excited for our fans again. It just feels good, we just can’t wait to get back and start playing again”.

The band starting giving their fans a subtle indication that things were beginning to stir in the middle of 2013 but it wouldn’t be for another year before an official announcement would be made. I was curious to know what the catalyst that finally got the momentum going was. “I’ve been beating away at this for the last couple of years trying to get the dudes back together, I know I missed it more than anything. I know they did too, I don’t know if everybody was just ready yet as they still had things they needed to accomplish. I just kept chipping away at it until I finally got to a point where I think everybody was comfortable again and was ready. We all went and met up for dinner several months ago and it started growing exponentially from there.”

Atreyu’s last music release was in the form of the album Congregation For The Damned in 2009, I was curious to find out if there was any new music on the horizon. “We actually have a song that is coming out tomorrow, I guess for you guys it will be today, September 5th we’re releasing a new song. It’s called ‘So Others May Live’ it’s kind of like our record ‘The Curse’ but on steroids, it’s just very heavy. It’s Just everything we’ve ever learned about music and ourselves in the past fifteen years is all put into this song and we’re really, really  excited and that’s kind of the first thing we’re putting out. As far as a new record there probably wouldn’t be anything until next year but right now we’ve put this song out so there’s something out there that says hey we’re back, we’re coming to take names and be brutal and heavy and do it how we used to do it back in the day. Yeah it’s just exciting I think especially fans of the old Atreyu, this is what they have been waiting for a long time”. 



The last time Atreyu were out in Australia was with the Taste Of Chaos tour featuring Atreyu, Bullet For My Valentine and Avenged Sevenfold. This time they will be joining the Soundwave Festival as part of its first two day event. I asked Dan how different it was playing a festival event as opposed to regular shows “It’s a totally different vibe when you’re playing like big stages in front of a lot of people it’s hard to play like a club show or kind of a more intimate show, it’s got just a totally different vibe. There are different ways which you work the crowd, in the way you play and move and the things you do, the songs you play. Everything has to be tailored to the type of crowd you’re playing to. Playing a festival crowd is one of the most exciting things you can experience, you go out there and there are so many bands, everybody is there to soak up music. So you just go out there, you’re like you know what, there are so many good bands, we want to shine, we want to stick out, we want people to remember us, so everybody has got to bring their ‘A-Game’. Which is really cool especially for the fans you know because you’re at these shows seeing these bands that have come out there and want to prove themselves, no matter how big or little they are or how long they have or haven’t been around, they want to come out there and prove themselves to the fans that they are just as good as every other band out there. It’s really cool, it’s really exciting, especially for the fans they really get the best of it”.

A music festival in Australia is a long way from Orange County California but will make for an unlikely location for a high school reunion, the Atreyu guitarist explains “The Aquabats and Gerard Way have members in both of those bands that I went to high school with, so it’s really crazy that we’re all coming over to Australia and playing shows with guys in bands that we went to high school with. It’s like it all coming full circle in Australia, it’s crazy, it’s very surreal.”

Dan Jacobs left these parting words for all the Atreyu fans in Australia “Hold onto your asses because we’re about to come over there to fuck some shit up!!”


Interview by Mike Trandafil

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HEIDI SHEPHERD and HENRY FLURY from BUTCHER BABIES

9/4/2014

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There is always plenty of eye candy for the women on the Soundwave Line up, and this year, the eye candy for the men is well and truly covered by the Butcher Babies. But don’t let the looks of the two sexy front women Heidi Shepherd and  Carla Harvey fool you… they can also sing and scream like they are ready to rip your head off in a second… BALLSY!!

It really is not just about looks though. Butcher Babies have been rocking the US metal scene for a few years already, releasing two EP’s and a full length album ‘Goliath’, which peaked at #3 on the US Heat chart!

It has been a quick ride for them so far, with this year being their first trip down under with the Soundwave Festival. When I spoke to Heidi and Henry about it, they both couldn’t contain their excitement!

Heidi - You know what’s great about this particular tour is that this is another country I’ve always wanted to visit my entire life. My parents have gone, my sisters have gone and I’ve always wanted to go and never been able to, so now being able to go and play music I think is kind of a huge dream come true. It’s such a legendary iconic festival to play so the whole band is really excited.

There had been rumours flying around and our agent told us we were a good possibility, which is something we have been itching for for the past couple of years, so everyone was really excited. I actually have Henry in the car with me and both of us were like whoaaaaaaaa!


Henry- we really couldn’t believe it. We always wanted to go to Australia and this is actually a dream come true. I couldn’t wait to tell my Mum that I was actually travelling abroad. I told her ”you know what, music is totally worth it”!

Their full-length album had been a long time coming, with some parts of songs written right back when Heidi was just 12 years old! The band themselves had been working together for years, but to actually hear their music in full on a CD was like a dream come true for all involved…

Heidi - We have been writing this album for years and we had been a band for four years before we even released that album, so it kind of just culminated everything that we had thought of between the time of the band being together and even prior to. I’ve been writing since I was 12 years old, and with the rest of the band, we’d been coming up with all these ideas for years and finally got to put them on paper. You know this is something a little bit different and we didn’t know how people would react but I think they were ready for something different and the reaction has been undeniably 100% positive. It’s just incredible.

Henry - Yeah it’s really taken off and also we didn’t realise how heavy it ended up. Everybody was like ‘Hey I can’t believe how heavy you guys are!’ That was our goal as a metal band. We wanted to come out really aggressive, balls to the wall and swinging! What’s funny about that is I still don’t think its heavy enough (laughs) so we are writing our next album right now!


Goliath isn’t the only great experience they have under their nipple tape. They’ve also toured with Marilyn Manson, Rob Zombie, Danzig and Black Label Society to name a few, and are renowned for the energy and atmosphere they create during their live shows… They are a flat out fun, hard party band that knows how to bring it!

I asked Heidi how she feels about their looks being the first thing people would judge the band on, and both her and Henry’s response were so great, it’s all here word for word…

Heidi - If they saw what I looked like right now they wouldn’t think that, make-up can do wonders for anyone!! People will obviously perceive something that they aren’t really comfortable with as a threat or just something that they won’t even give a chance. I think seeing a female in general in the music industry, especially with metal, has been an uphill battle for us (women). Regardless of what you look like, regardless of what kind of sex appeal you bring, it always is.

Right now we are kind of coming to a time where it’s becoming more acceptable and we are more than grateful to be a part of that movement.

But it has been very difficult and I think it’s frustrating. People think ‘Oh she has big blonde hair flowing around on stage and looks like a cheerleader’, and a lot of people are afraid of that. They don’t think it belongs, but for me it’s about the passion and it should NEVER really be about what you look like. Yeah you can dress up and put on makeup and wear your hair a certain way but really what speaks volume is the PASSION!! So people who dismiss a band by what they look like or what they think they might be like judging by their appearance, I think they are really missing out on the real passion and the real love that comes from music.

On a positive note, one thing that’s really outshined the negative  by 1000% is having young girls who look up to us saying stuff like “ oh my god, I didn’t know that girls could try and be pretty and still like metal”. Or girls could dress up like a girl and still like metal and I think that’s something I wish I had when I was younger. I wish there was women in metal that would have been a positive influence. That’s one thing that I am very grateful for about our career - we can effect and inspire young girls, we can reach out to them the way I wish I had been when I was younger. That is worth it.


So, great stage presence, great sound, great atmosphere and two gorgeous inspiring women backed by some talented metal musicians like Henry Flury on guitar, Jason Klein on bass and Chris Warner on drums, The Butcher Babies are a must see staple of the 2015 Soundwave Line up!

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A conversation with PATENT PENDING singer JOE RAGOSTA

8/13/2014

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Patent Pending are another one of the bands in the first wave of Soundwave announcements, and this has them happier than am 80’s kid with a new Super Nintendo! The pop-punk 5 piece from Long Island, New York have been across the water before, but not yet to Australia. They’ve been busy getting their name out there in England, touring with some amazing bands and recording crowd funded albums!

I spoke to lead singer Joe Ragosta about all of this and lots more… Check it out!

(By the way, if what we crammed into 15 minutes is any indication of what they will be like on stage, these guys are definitely on my MUST-SEE list! The energy coming down the phone line was inspiring!)


MD- Given that you are the second band announced for soundwave, how’s the band feeling about finally coming to Australia and under the soundwave banner no less?

JR - First of all, just going anywhere aside from our hometown is exciting for us. But to go to Australia, that is the thing that you dream of, you make yourself believe at a young age that it would be impossible. You know, your band could never be in a position where they could go to Australia like to Americans it sounds like a made up place somewhere you know. It’s so so so exciting and an immense honour being on Soundwave festival - world renowned at this point - and to be the second band announced… The whole thing seems fake to me. Do you guys have the show Punked down there?

MD - Yes

JR - It feels like we are being punked and it feels like at any point during this interview you will be like oh, we are fucking with you, you’re not really welcome down here.

MD - Why has it taken so long for Patent Pending to reach our shores?

JR - We started the band when we were little kids and it took a long time to establish a name here in America. We were lucky enough to be bought over to England with our buddies from Bowling for soup and then we spent 2 years developing our career there and now that’s going unbelievably well and I think it led to AJ from soundwave hooking up with our guitar player mark and getting to know each other and AJ inviting us down. It’s a really bizarre thing to even get to go Australia. You never think its something within your reach so I think it took a long time coz we never even thought it was possible.

MD - How do you feel about being compared to bands like A Simple Plan and Blink 182?

JR - I think its incredible that anyone is able to pinpoint a band that we sound like. We are such a bizarre band with so many different genres mixed into what we do. I grew up idolising blink 182. They are incredible. Simple plan, I watched for an entire summer on tour so to be compared to them I think is awesome and its exciting to be going down there to show people how we differ from those bands.

MD - You cover quite serious issues in some of your songs like suicide as well as a lot of funny stuff. Are they written based on personal experiences and observations?

JR - We have a song called All Star Hipster, that’s a full blown rap song. I thought, ‘what’s the funniest way to make fun of every hipster I know? Rap about them! Then you have a song like one less heart to break which deals with the heavy issue of suicide and that’s a personal experience that happened over here. People in my family have suffered from depression for many years and friends of ours have gone through it - we have gone through it. We wanted people to know that you have a place to go in music and have a place where you can go and just have fun. By having such diverse subject matter we’re kind of taking our own advice and that’s just to be ourselves and do whatever the fuck we want to do. Its also good to know that we can help people going through trouble as well as have a Mario brothers song.


MD - Crowd funding campaigns… I found out Brighter was actually done through a crowd funding campaign. What made you push that way?

JR - With our band, we have something that we call the second family (which is actually the name of our last album before Brighter) and it’s a very unbelievably supportive and friendly community that our band has developed in the 13 years of struggling to make a name for ourselves. When people heard we were going to make a new album, it wasn’t even ‘Oh we should consider crowd funding’ or anything like that, our fans were like ‘Yo, when the fuck can we crowd fund this shit?” They were coming to us saying what can we do to get some cool items that are going to be different than just the album. They wanted to get involved in the album. They wanted to put their opinions in our artwork and everything as well as help support us during that project so crowd funding was kind of lead to us, but by the crowd in a way.

MD - Did it apply more pressure to the band to get the album out as quick as possible, make sure it is a really good album, or did you just go with the flow and do the best you could?

JR - We always have the mentality of get it done as fast as we can and don’t take a lot of time but if always takes forever, we never get it done quickly and in the end, we care so much about what we are doing. We went down to Nashville Tennessee to record and I allotted 3 weeks for the recording of that album but it ended up taking 8 months. So the pressure to get it done quickly was really really present at about the 4-month mark (laughs). I’m glad we did what we did and took the time that we did and I love that album.

MD - It’s a really good album! I also saw the crazy dance you did partway through the song to pick on Justin Bieber. I was cracking up through that. Is it all serious business in the studio or do you have as much fun there as you do on stage?

JR - The hours that we work and the hustle we put in to what we do, if we didn’t fuck around while it was happening, we would lose our damn minds. So there will be moments when we are like ‘no one is sleeping for the next 48 hours!’ and we find a way to laugh about that, so its all-serious business, but a lot of what we do is fun. We write songs about Mario brothers sometimes so its not the worst thing in the world when we are stuck in the studio working on something because we are making Nintendo noises while we do it…

MD - So delirium kicks in and takes over?

JR - Oh yeah. By the 3-month mark we were delirious, by the 7-month mark, I don’t even know if we were still speaking English. Its like we made up our own language of push the button, record the song type of thing.


MD - (Laughs) the band is a bit of a family affair with you and Robert still working together and Michael singing before, what kind of dynamic does that create when you are on the road?

JR - How in the hell do Australians know everything? Where did you find this information? My brother used to be the singer of the band and he left coz he wanted to start writing comic books, start a family and work on a new band, so he and my other brother Robert are actually in another band together called ‘This Good Robot’ and they are awesome. Our guitar player mark also plays in the band and tour manages the band Zebrahead, so he’s doing quite a bit coz as you know Zebrahead are globetrotting down to Australia. So when marks gone, Robert fills in and the family dynamic is just like ‘Hey man, what are you doing today and he’s like ‘Nothing’ and I’m like ‘Well we’re going to England so suit up!’ You’re just ready to go and its really fun and its really cool sometimes to have that different feel on stage and then sometimes everybody plays at the same time so its real exciting! The brothers thing… The Ragosta’s are very very loud and obnoxious. The rest of the band are even more fucking loud and obnoxious so really the dynamic is… everybody is really loud and obnoxious so it’s a lot of fun.

MD - Brilliant. I love it. What is your favourite song to perform live, and why?

JR - The song ‘Brighter’ which is part 3 in a story from One Less Heart To Break, Second Family and then Brighter is the third part. I love to play the song Brighter coz it means so much to me and it kind of tells the story of what we are still doing 13 years later. Playing that song is always exciting!
I also love playing the song called ‘The Whiskey, The Liar And The Thief’ because that song feels like a pirate tune. Sometimes there’s a little crowd swim during that song, it’s just really fun to play.

MD - For those that have never heard Patent Pending, what can we expect from your live performance?

JR - Absolute American mayhem. If you will. We are completely out of our minds. Rules are, there are no rules except for stay hydrated. So for a Patent Pending show absolutely anything can happen and I mean anything from improv hardcore songs to crowd swimming Olympic competitions – anything! I think people should expect a lot of fun, a lot of excitement and a lot of curse words.

MD - What’s the craziest thing you have ever done on stage?

JR - I gave somebody a haircut the same week as their graduation. That did not end well at all. It turns out I’m not a haircutter. Other crazy shit that’s happened…. Oh, we made our guitar players mum crowd surf! It was one of the funniest things I ever saw in my entire life - it was the fucken best!

MD - How did she go with that?

JR - She was very resistant at first and then we created a monster. She loves it now.
More crazy shit, for whatever reason, this year people want to get engaged during our song ‘Spin Me Around’ that I wrote about my wife. It’s like an acoustic ballad.


Oh and this other couple wanted to get engaged during a different song. The guy came up to me and said ‘This is our song’ and I said ‘This is your song?’ He was like ‘No but that’s what I sing to her coz she’s a psycho!’ The song’s called ‘Psycho In Love. So imagine somebody declaring their eternal love to someone during that song! That was a really weird and bizarre moment but it was really cool.

MD - That would be adorable (laughs) what are 3 things you are looking forward to doing in Australia?

JR - I imagine everyone says koala bears and kangaroos, is that correct?

MD - Yes (laughs).

JR - I want to somehow meet Chris Lilley very badly! I want to try figure out how to make that happen. I want to try and convince as many people as I can that I’m Australian by saying ‘Serse’ (serious) a lot. I’m looking forward to all the flying coz I think your shows are really far away from each other so we get to fly to every show? Is that right? I love being on an aeroplane coz I’m not responsible for anything.

MD - We can put a call out to Chris Lilley and see what happens if you like?

JR - My dear sweet Jesus Christ. If anything of the sort can happen I would just lose my fucking mind. If this is at all true, this would be the greatest thing that ever happened to me.

MD - We will put the call out then!

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Front man MASATO introduces COLDRAIN

8/8/2014

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Until Soundwave made the announcement that Coldrain were the first band to feature on the Soundwave 2015 line up, only the die hard Japanese Metalcore followers would have heard of them. After researching them over the last couple of days and having the opportunity to talk to lead vocalist Masato, it blows that they haven’t hit our shores sooner, but it’s fantastic that they are now!

The band formed in 2007 in Nagoya, Japan and threw themselves head first into making a name for themselves, starting out with handing out demo discs after each local show and climbing from there. They are no strangers to hard work and absolutely love what they do, releasing either an album or EP each year since their formation.

It wasn’t until signing with Raw Power Management at the end of last year that the band scored the opportunity to come Down Under, something that – although they have been waiting for years to do – the strength and sound they have right now is the one they want to bring across.

“I think it’s a good thing that we get to start over again fresh. We still have that 7 years to back us up so while its always good to be a rookie, to be there with the strength we have right now is great and we’ll never have that fresh feeling in the band here in Japan again. All around it’s a really good feeling.”

So when I asked Masato what folks could expect from Coldrain’s live performance, here is what he told me…

“We are all for the energy, all for anything anyone wants to do. We put in a circle pit, mosh pit, crowd surfing. Most important is all the singing. If everyone can hear our stuff, learn some words and sing along, its definitely gonna be a great time and we  hope we get that exposure before we get there so everyone can sing with us.”

This is the band that managed to get a circle pit around the PA tent! Who wouldn’t want to see that?!


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