North Carolina's progtastic Between The Buried And Me are coming back to Australia in november, including a stop off here in RAdelaide to rip the roof off the Adelaide Uni Bar when they play the Parallax II in full among other things. Guitarist Paul Waggoner took some time to chat to LMA about touring Australia, the new album and lots of other juicy goodies!
How excited are you guys about returning to Australia?
We are so excited, Australia is one of our favorite places, so we are super pumped and it gives us a little vacation from the American winter. We get to go down to Australia while it’s nice and warm and sunny. Yeah we are excited and can’t wait to get down there.
How many times have you played here before?
Ahh.. Let’s see, I think we have done three or four tours there, so not very many times. The first time we went we actually did it in a van and kind of did the eastern part of Australia I guess, where we went to a lot of little rural towns, so we got to see a lot of Australian country side. It was a lot of fun. When we have been there since we have just done the fly in thing, where you fly from city to city, which is also very cool. The first time we ever came we will always have a special place in our heart. I felt like we really got the full Australian cultural experience.
And how do you actually find Adelaide to the rest of Australia in respect to your fans?
It’s great you know, all of the cities are really great and Adelaide obviously is right up there, we have played some great shows there. Even from the very first time we went there the show was great. I love the area and there’s good coffee there so we really like Adelaide.
I hear you will be playing Parallax II: Future Sequence in full, tell us a little bit about this album?
Well the album is sort of a part two of a conceptual piece that we have been working on. Part one was an EP which was the introduction to the story so Parallax II is definitely where the action takes place in the story and it’s very scifi-ish, intergalactic travel, lots of fun stuff like that. Its kind of a sad story I guess but its fun to do and playing it live is really cool because it was written to be listened to from start to finish, that’s how we wrote the record. To then present it live in a way we wanted it to be heard is a really challenging thing for us, it’s really rewarding because I think it kind of gives the crowd the full experience. It’s a lot of fun to do. On this tour we are on now in the States it has gone really well and been a lot of fun and we can’t wait to do it in Australia. It’s a lot of music and it’s actually over 70 minutes long so there’s a lot of stuff going on, but again it’s a lot of fun to play the songs.
Was there anything in particular that influenced this album?
I don’t know if there was a particular influence, we all listen to so much different music, from heavy metal to progressive rock and jazz to classical. So any kind of music that we listen to always kind of finds it’s way into the music that we write, it’s an influence and an inspiration and as far as the lyrical sci-fi thing we are all kind of casual fans of sci-fi and space and space travel and all of that stuff. Just the idea of being able to travel to distant worlds and travel back in time or forward in time. So we just though that that idea was suitable to the music that we write because we write complex music, you know very long songs and we thought that, that lyrical concept would be pretty appropriate.
How excited are you guys about returning to Australia?
We are so excited, Australia is one of our favorite places, so we are super pumped and it gives us a little vacation from the American winter. We get to go down to Australia while it’s nice and warm and sunny. Yeah we are excited and can’t wait to get down there.
How many times have you played here before?
Ahh.. Let’s see, I think we have done three or four tours there, so not very many times. The first time we went we actually did it in a van and kind of did the eastern part of Australia I guess, where we went to a lot of little rural towns, so we got to see a lot of Australian country side. It was a lot of fun. When we have been there since we have just done the fly in thing, where you fly from city to city, which is also very cool. The first time we ever came we will always have a special place in our heart. I felt like we really got the full Australian cultural experience.
And how do you actually find Adelaide to the rest of Australia in respect to your fans?
It’s great you know, all of the cities are really great and Adelaide obviously is right up there, we have played some great shows there. Even from the very first time we went there the show was great. I love the area and there’s good coffee there so we really like Adelaide.
I hear you will be playing Parallax II: Future Sequence in full, tell us a little bit about this album?
Well the album is sort of a part two of a conceptual piece that we have been working on. Part one was an EP which was the introduction to the story so Parallax II is definitely where the action takes place in the story and it’s very scifi-ish, intergalactic travel, lots of fun stuff like that. Its kind of a sad story I guess but its fun to do and playing it live is really cool because it was written to be listened to from start to finish, that’s how we wrote the record. To then present it live in a way we wanted it to be heard is a really challenging thing for us, it’s really rewarding because I think it kind of gives the crowd the full experience. It’s a lot of fun to do. On this tour we are on now in the States it has gone really well and been a lot of fun and we can’t wait to do it in Australia. It’s a lot of music and it’s actually over 70 minutes long so there’s a lot of stuff going on, but again it’s a lot of fun to play the songs.
Was there anything in particular that influenced this album?
I don’t know if there was a particular influence, we all listen to so much different music, from heavy metal to progressive rock and jazz to classical. So any kind of music that we listen to always kind of finds it’s way into the music that we write, it’s an influence and an inspiration and as far as the lyrical sci-fi thing we are all kind of casual fans of sci-fi and space and space travel and all of that stuff. Just the idea of being able to travel to distant worlds and travel back in time or forward in time. So we just though that that idea was suitable to the music that we write because we write complex music, you know very long songs and we thought that, that lyrical concept would be pretty appropriate.
And do you feel like your albums grow from one to the next?
Oh absolutely we are always trying to evolve, we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We are always trying to push ourselves further each time so this was no exception, we had to really put it all out there and see what we were capable of and give the fans something new. That’s our objective every time we write. With the next album we write you know…we’ll have the same mentality. We don’t want to do another Parallax, we want to do something else and move onto the next thing, to me that’s what life’s all about, trying to move forward trying to evolve and continue to grow as a musician and a person.
I have heard that this is your best record yet. How do you feel about this?
To me it’s our best, I always feel like the most recent album is the best and I don’t necessarily think our fans feel that way you know... Everyone has a favorite record. For us we really are proud of it, we put a lot into it and we really pushed ourselves. I love the music, I love the songs and most albums have some things that you would do differently but with this record I don’t know if there is, I really just love how it came out and how it came together and I love playing them live. We think it’s our best work for sure.
I also had a chance to watch the Astral Body music video, which by the way was fantastic! Why was such a concept picked for this song?
Tommy the vocalist, he writes all of the lyrics and basically talked to the video director who happens to be our drummers brother, we sort of keep everything in the family. Tommy just tried to communicate to him the lyrics and the idea behind them and the whole thing about astral travel and astral projection. He just really took the ball and ran with it, we gave him complete creative control. Tommy just gave him the general idea of what the song was basically about and all the imagery was out drummer’s brother, ‘West Richardson’. He just ran with it and I thought that he did a great job and it was just a fun video to watch.
What can fans expect from this tour?
Well hopefully it’s going to sound good, obviously they are going to hear the record from front to back and you know we will probably play an old song or two. But I think obviously when you travel overseas you have to scale back a little bit and we can’t do our full production that we normally do in the States but we are going to do the best we can to bring the experience to Australia and hopefully give people a good show and have a lot of fun.
Where do you see yourselves in the future?
Ahh.. well it depends how far in the future, you know in the next 5 years or 10 years hopefully we are still doing what we are doing. We have a pretty unique synergy wish one another, we are able to feed off of one another’s ideas and really create something that is pretty unique. So hopefully we will just keep doing that and you know we are all getting to the age where we are getting married and having kids and all that sort of normal grown up stuff but the band is our chance to still be kids, to be imaginative and really not hold back. It’s a rare opportunity to still be doing stuff like this in your mid thirties and to be honest I’d like to still be doing it when I’m in my mid forties because it’s a lot of fun. Hopefully we will just keep plugging a long and writing music that we are proud of and hopefully people will still like it because ultimately that’s what enables us to keep doing it.
For the Adelaide music lovers that haven’t heard of you before how could you describe your music? And how could you intrigue them to go see your show?
(Laughs) That’s tough, I think for anyone who has heard our music would say that it’s very complicated and technical. I thing for the average person there is still something there for them, I think there’s a little something for everybody. There’s times when the music is really intense and heavy and times when it’s very stripped down. I would say for the people that haven’t heard us, if you want to hear something unique that perhaps you haven’t heard before that might leave you scratching your head then come on out and check it out. You might be in for an experience.
You can purchase tickets to their show at the Uni Bar on Thursday 21st of November here.
Interview by Shannen Murphy
Oh absolutely we are always trying to evolve, we don’t want to repeat ourselves. We are always trying to push ourselves further each time so this was no exception, we had to really put it all out there and see what we were capable of and give the fans something new. That’s our objective every time we write. With the next album we write you know…we’ll have the same mentality. We don’t want to do another Parallax, we want to do something else and move onto the next thing, to me that’s what life’s all about, trying to move forward trying to evolve and continue to grow as a musician and a person.
I have heard that this is your best record yet. How do you feel about this?
To me it’s our best, I always feel like the most recent album is the best and I don’t necessarily think our fans feel that way you know... Everyone has a favorite record. For us we really are proud of it, we put a lot into it and we really pushed ourselves. I love the music, I love the songs and most albums have some things that you would do differently but with this record I don’t know if there is, I really just love how it came out and how it came together and I love playing them live. We think it’s our best work for sure.
I also had a chance to watch the Astral Body music video, which by the way was fantastic! Why was such a concept picked for this song?
Tommy the vocalist, he writes all of the lyrics and basically talked to the video director who happens to be our drummers brother, we sort of keep everything in the family. Tommy just tried to communicate to him the lyrics and the idea behind them and the whole thing about astral travel and astral projection. He just really took the ball and ran with it, we gave him complete creative control. Tommy just gave him the general idea of what the song was basically about and all the imagery was out drummer’s brother, ‘West Richardson’. He just ran with it and I thought that he did a great job and it was just a fun video to watch.
What can fans expect from this tour?
Well hopefully it’s going to sound good, obviously they are going to hear the record from front to back and you know we will probably play an old song or two. But I think obviously when you travel overseas you have to scale back a little bit and we can’t do our full production that we normally do in the States but we are going to do the best we can to bring the experience to Australia and hopefully give people a good show and have a lot of fun.
Where do you see yourselves in the future?
Ahh.. well it depends how far in the future, you know in the next 5 years or 10 years hopefully we are still doing what we are doing. We have a pretty unique synergy wish one another, we are able to feed off of one another’s ideas and really create something that is pretty unique. So hopefully we will just keep doing that and you know we are all getting to the age where we are getting married and having kids and all that sort of normal grown up stuff but the band is our chance to still be kids, to be imaginative and really not hold back. It’s a rare opportunity to still be doing stuff like this in your mid thirties and to be honest I’d like to still be doing it when I’m in my mid forties because it’s a lot of fun. Hopefully we will just keep plugging a long and writing music that we are proud of and hopefully people will still like it because ultimately that’s what enables us to keep doing it.
For the Adelaide music lovers that haven’t heard of you before how could you describe your music? And how could you intrigue them to go see your show?
(Laughs) That’s tough, I think for anyone who has heard our music would say that it’s very complicated and technical. I thing for the average person there is still something there for them, I think there’s a little something for everybody. There’s times when the music is really intense and heavy and times when it’s very stripped down. I would say for the people that haven’t heard us, if you want to hear something unique that perhaps you haven’t heard before that might leave you scratching your head then come on out and check it out. You might be in for an experience.
You can purchase tickets to their show at the Uni Bar on Thursday 21st of November here.
Interview by Shannen Murphy
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