‘Splinter’ maintains a lot of the trademark elements of Numan’s music that made him the icon he is today, but it takes on a new level of maturity and heaviness not apparent in his early work. While the evolution of his sound was inevitable, plenty of other things have changed over the course of his 35+ year career. “I went independent a long time ago because I just got so sick of being ripped off. I’ve even had, in my recent years, a record company that were trying to take a share of merchandise because record sales were declining which is just fucking ridiculous.” This independence has given Numan the ability to control the direction his career takes to a much greater extent. “This is the first time I’ve brought a new album to Australia. The last time I was there it was a celebration of an old album, which wasn’t my favourite reason for touring. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how the new album goes, if people are even aware of it and what’s going to happen.”

So what can we expect from the new live show?

“If anyone is coming along expecting a retro nostalgic type of thing, it’s absolutely not that at all. It’s actually really quite heavy, industrial, and aggressive. From my point of view, it’s just full on. There’s only one song in the middle of the set where I can even take a breath, it’s pretty relentless. We’ve run this set now all across America and it’s just been going really, really well, so we’re bringing the same set to Australia. Fingers crossed we have the same reaction there!”

Gary Numan will be performing at HQ Complex on Thursday May 29th. Tickets available from metropolistouring.com


Interview by Melissa Donato

Written by Sofie Marsden

Horrorshow are an Inner West Sydney hip hop duo comprising Solo (Vocals) and Adit (Producer).

Emerging on the scene in 2008 with The Grey Space, an album created during high school, at a time where they linked up with Spit Syndicate and Joyride to form the extended One Day crew. 

The album was released on Elefant Traks, earning an ARIA nomination and tours with The Herd, Muph & Plutonic and Hermitude – all before the duo turned 21.

This year they are making their CLipsal 500 After Race Concert debut supporting Bliss N Eso on the Friday night, and we were lucky enough to have a chat with them about all things Horror Show...

Tell me a little about the tour your on at the moment?

Well it’s not a whole tour that we are on at the moment but it’s a one off gig that’s pretty special one. We are down in Melbourne today performing tonight as part of a special gig called ‘Apology’. Basically the gig is commemorating the 6th anniversary of the apology to the stolen generation by the ‘Rudd’ Government. It’s a free gig with an amazing line-up like ‘Archie Roach’ and ‘Christine Anu’. We are doing a special combined set with ‘Jimblah’, so we’ve been here the last couple of days rehearsing and getting it all together and yeah, the shows tonight and then we will be heading home to Sydney.

What’s your favorite thing to do on tour?

Ah, probably play shows really, I know that sounds obvious but everything else just kind of comes and goes where as that hour that you’re on stage is really the best bit of the whole thing.

Let’s talk a bit about your third album ‘King Amongst Many’, long listed for the Australian Music Prize and nominated for the J award for the Album of the year. I mean wow, how does that make you feel?

Yeah, it’s cool, the record was nominated for a few different awards and yeah we are stoked, it’s really nice to have your album recognized like that and I guess there’s only a few albums that make it onto those lists each year so it’s a big compliment to be included in there.

In the whole process of getting that album together, what did you want to share with the world? What did you want you fans and people to get out of it?

I guess the record has a lot of themes and it’s pretty heavy in concepts and ideas, there’s a lot of long songs and a lot of lyrics and I guess some of the things that I wanted to explore was about how people and things are connected to each other. Sometimes if you look a little bit deeper at something you can appreciate how it’s connected to other things in the world. That’s kind of over time I guess, there’s a bit of a historical theme to the record, it’s kind of looking at how the world we live in now has kind of been shaped to some extent by things that have happened in the past and that’s on a personal level like within your family and things like that, in terms of your own history but also on a bigger level like a couple of issues in Australian history and how they relate to now. So basically looking at people in your family and people who support you and are important to you and appreciating those connections and how they are there.

I’m always looking for inspiration all over the place but I guess with this record I started to think a lot about my own family history and how that’s kind of shaped what I do. There’s a song in there that is looking at a few generations of my family and how even though my Grandfather lived in a different world to what I live in we are still similar in some ways or what I do with my music is in some ways shaped by him and his legacy. So I guess that song was inspired by him passing away and his role in my family’s life. There’s another track on there which is about judgment and judging other people and it was inspired partly by a book that I read which had a really graphic scene in it of someone being hung and partly by Osama Bin Laden being captured and killed by the US government. There are all kinds of things that inspire my brain and make there way into the album or into what I write in some way. There’s no real rule about where to look for inspiration, I think we find it all over the place and sometimes in strange places. 

What’s your favorite song on the album and why?

That’s a pretty hard question that’s kind of like asking a parent to chose a favorite child or something like that. (laughs) You love them all and you’ve put a lot of time and energy into all of them. I guess on different days I would have different favorites but I guess one of the songs that I’m proudest of on there is actually one of the songs that we will be performing tonight, a track that we put together with ‘Jimblah’ called ‘Own Back Yard’ and in that song we are kind of looking at Australia’s history of some of the atrocious things that we have done to Australia’s Indigenous people and looking at some of the things in our history that we maybe don’t like to talk about very much but then also connecting those things to the present and pointing out how there’s still a lot on injustice for Aboriginal people and how we like to deny that or sweep it under the rug. It’s obviously a really difficult thing to write about but it’s an issue that I feel strongly about it and I’ve wanted to write about it for a number of years.

I like how you guys are kind of the voice of people’s unspoken words.

Well yeah, I guess that’s part of our job to put things into words that other people may have thought about or felt but haven’t been able to put into words themselves.

I also have to ask that little art graphic design of the two faces, how did that come about?

My friend Jimmy actually designed that for us, we were looking for a logo for the group in the early days of ‘Horrorshow’ and I was hounding this other friend of mine to design something for us, he just never really got it together and then one day Jimmy came in with what I wanted so we really have to thank Jimmy for that one!

Well perhaps we will see you bring it out on stage at a The Tea Party gig soon! But speaking of… when you roll back through with The Tea Party, do you think you will keep it to the same semi intimate structure you’ve always had, or is the sky the limit?

Well I think what the three of us in a perfect world would love is – well I know Jeff and Stewart would love this – they would love to stay in Australia longer.

I guess our mentality on things is ‘yes it is going to become bigger so why don’t we just do multiple shows in Adelaide so we can stay for a while, go to Gaucho’s for dinner, you know (laughs)?

With my solo tours I am spoiled. I can stay for a while and relax. But with the last Tea Party show, we were in and we were out, I know Jeff and Stewart don’t wanna do it like that. They wanna go to the wine regions and take their time here. So that’s basically the riot act that we’ve read to management, and with The Tea Party we usually get our way...

Well, I am gonna let you go, but I look forward to seeing your shows here on the 1st and 2nd of Feb, and know that your passion and drive for the music you create inspires me and so many people I know.

Oh well thankyou! I’ll see you there! Bye for now.


Jeff Martin and Sarah McLeod play two shows at the Grace Emily on saturday the 1st and Sunday the 2nd of February. Tickets are still available for the Sunday show here

Interview by Melissa Donato
Jeff Martin photos by Melissa Donato
Sarah McLeod photos by Supernova Photographics

It was only last February that Chris Jericho was here with his band Fozzy, but they are back in town tomorrow supporting Steel Panther and Buckcherry at the Entertainment Centre Theatre.

We caught up with Chris over the weekend to talk about this and everything else happening in the world of Mr Beautiful... 
9
So you’re headed down under to tour with Steel Panther … That will be an explosive combination! Have you ever toured with Steel Panther before?

 Ah, no we never have, I think it’s going to be a good mix up because both of us are very much the type of band that demand our audiences to have a great time. It’s a great mix as far as attitude, as far as entertainment value and we are looking forward to it. We were just here in Australia in February for Soundwave and had a great tour, our fan base is growing, it’s a real honor to be invited back, we are excited to be here, we are actually in Brisbane right now.  

 What keeps you coming back to Australia and what was it like for you touring with Soundwave?

A: It was probably one of my favorite tours of our career because it was so well organized, to do five stadium shows in the course of 7 or 8 days or whatever. Just the magnitude of the tour… the way it was organized, the hotels the flights and we did a couple of Sidewaves that went great as well. There was so much stuff going on and so many different bands, I was just really, really impressed with how everything was taken care of by the Soundwave people. Just the shows themselves, we had amazing crowds every day, I mean we were on very early, I think at like 2 or 3 in the afternoon or so and we were drawing… I think Melbourne and Sydney had 8 or 9 thousand people at those shows and then right when we were done the places would clear out as they went to the next band. I remember one night we played to 7 or 8 thousand people and the band after us played to like 80 and I’m not even kidding. I think we became a destination band, we have a great fan base in Australia, we have been coming here since 2005 and I think people were coming to specifically see us and then moving on to whoever else they wanted to see. I think Soundwave was really happy with that and that’s why they are bringing us back later to play again. So we are really honored, really stoked, we love Australia, great fans, we are ready to rock. 

Tell me a little about ‘Sin and Bones’

I mean the record is over a year old now and this is actually the last leg of the tour. I mean after these shows are done…December 14th will be the last show in Sydney, that’s the end of the tour so we did about 17 countries and I think about 130 or 140 shows. When you get to those numbers on a touring cycle you know that it as a success and that the record was received really well and this is our first release on Century Media and this was our first big step after doing a lot of crazy stuff with Chasing the Grill, so we really, we knew this cold be a big step forward for us … I mean the “best album of our career”, we really worked hard to do that and I think we succeeded and you could tell that by the way that the record was received and how the songs go over live, I mean the majority of the set is from ‘Sin and Bones’ and people are going nuts for them. I was a big success for us and it was a great step forward.

Is there a concept behind the album?

Well we really wanted to make it, our version of the Black album and what I mean by that is the Black album is a very cohesive unit of songs, it’s very well put together, all of the songs have a similar tone and a similar mood and a similar vibe and we wanted ‘Sin and Bones’ to follow that. We wanted to make it a musical journey that would take people somewhere, from song 1 to song 10 but also have it diverse but still make it a ‘Fozzy’ record and what is do best are very heavy riffs and very melodic choruses and we were really able to focus in on that. I think that’s one of the reasons why it did as well as it did.

You have been touring off the back of your latest album ‘Sin and Bones’ for a while now… When do you actually start recording the new album?

We start recording in January, I think January 15th is when the drums start and our plan is to have it out in May or June. We have a really good plan and Century Media is behind us… like I said we have a lot of momentum so you want to keep that running and continue to do so.

Where would you like to see Fozzy in the future?

A: Just keep doing what we are doing and continue to grow and you know at this point we have toured with Metallica at Soundwave and the next tour we want Metallica’s job, I mean that’s the way I think every band in the worlds should look, if your not going to be the biggest band in the world then why do it. I just want to continue to grow and continue to spread the word and a lot of people that didn’t like Fozzy before because they hadn’t herd us, now they have checked us out and it kind of blew them away so there is a lot of new fans that are just joining us and of course there are a lot of amazing old school fans as well. So we want to continue to grow, continue to play bigger and better shows and continue to make bigger and better records. I think that’s the best thing that any band can do is to continue to take steps forward and you want the steps to be bigger than the last one, that’s all you can ask for.

What enticed you into the music industry … into Fozzy? Will wrestling always be your first love? What does music mean to you?

When I was a kind, I started playing in bands when I was 12 and I started wrestling when I was 19 so I was always into music and wrestling and I always wanted to be both and never really saw the reason why not to at least try to do both. I kind of built my life around those two passions and wrestling kind of took off first but I still always continued playing in bands and writing songs. It’s just kind of an extension of what I have always done, I have always been in a band and I have always been into wrestling and here I am 30 years later from a 10 year old kid still doing it so I’m really fortunate that I had two dreams and have both of them come true.

You’ve obviously taken time out of the WWE ring to concentrate on other projects like  ‘Fozzy’ and your new web series, “But I’m Chris Jericho” … tell me how did that all come about? What was the idea behind it?

Well, I mean, I actually left WWE back in 2005 to go back to Hollywood to study acting and kind of was going through a lot of funny things, where just because I was Chris Jericho, world wide super star in WWE in some of these auditions it doesn’t matter, nobody really cares. You know there would be 10 people there with the same look as me all there to read for one line for CSI or whatever... these pretzels are making me thirsty… thanks.. next! Really? I’m Chris Jericho don’t I get another try? So I came up with this comedy world where Jericho gets ‘blackballed’ from wrestling and has to try and make it in acting… so I thought it would make a funny curve your enthusiasm… rest in development type of show and pitched it and pitched it for about a year and a half until we finally sold it as a 10 episode web series that’s up right now on ‘But I’m Chris Jericho.com” It’s been a huge hit, it turned out really funny and people dug it so it’s going great between that and Fozzy and the podcast which just started yesterday, I’ve got a lot of cool things going on.

Tell me a little about your books… of which I hear you have a new one coming out… what inspired you to write them?

Well, I mean I always wanted to write a book and I wrote and autobiography in the first one I did back in 2007, I have a lot of stories to tell so I kind of designed it to be a trilogy. That’s kind of how it was, I have written every word in every book and really enjoyed writing them I’m actually in the fourth draft of the third book as soon as I finish hanging up with you so it’s a lot of work to do, I have been working on it every day since August 9th so that’s four months of solid writing every day to get it to this point but it’s my story so I can’t just let anybody do it. I’m excited to make it a hit; the first two were best selling books.

How is it that you survive working the way you do and holding up your image…What’s your secret?

Well I just don’t put any limits on myself as a person or as a performer, its something that I feel that I can do and feel that I can do good. Like I said I always wanted to write, always wanted to wrestle, be in a band and kind of made it my life’s goal to be all thee of those things and acting and everything else, that comes in-between. I’m excited to continue doing what I do.

I honestly do have to ask this and sorry to all of the males out there that are going to read this… what do you have to say to all of your female fans in Australia?

I was just laughing yesterday about this, we were flying over here and on the plane there was at least a dozen pretty girls and I always thought Australia has amazingly gorgeous women, I don’t know what that is. Maybe because all of the convicts came here a hundred years ago and maybe convicts are hot but it’s always a blast to cone to Australia and there’s always a lot of beautiful girls around which makes the shows so much more fun. If you had the choice between a thousand sweaty guys or a thousand sweaty girls, I’ll take the girls anytime and especially when they’re Australian girls… that’s definitely another benefit about coming back to Australia again

Out of all of the people you have worked with in your career, has there ever been anyone that has really inspired you?

Well, I was always a big fan of Sean Michaels, he was a huge inspiration to me when I was a young wrestling fan. As a musician I love Metallica and getting a chance to tour with Lars and James was massive for me, so it’s always cool when you meet your hero’s.

What’s next for Chris Jericho?

Well, as I have said this is the end of the ‘Sin and Bones’ tour, we finish this on December 14th, go home for the holidays and next year it’s podcasting, it’s new book and it’s starting to record the new record in January amongst all of the other things that I have going on but they are the three main ones for right now. I think 2014 is going to be just as busy or if not busier than 2013 was.

If you had to pick one song that would be the theme song for your entire life … what would it be?

A: Ah, from an intensity stand point, Battery by Metallica, I just love that song, it’s one of the most energetic songs that just really speaks to me, maybe not lyrically but musically any time I need some energy or want to get into a certain take on the world type mode, that’s the song that I always listen to. 


Interview by Shannen Murphy

So it’s Thanksgiving this Thursday, what would you be thankful for?

Oh man, well first off, I am thankful for my kids most of all. But I am thankful for our career and that 22 years after we started people still give a fuck, you know what I mean? People like you are talking to me and asking me questions. It’s hard to believe that 22 years after we first picked up a microphone people are still paying attention. Its not millions of people but its just enough to make me happy as hell! I am thankful that we get to go to Australia, I am thankful that there is actually people in Australia that actually give a fuck and wanna come see us, and buy a ticket, and that just blows my mind. Not a day goes by that that shit doesn’t blow my mind! Not a day goes by that I am not thankful and I don’t appreciate this career we’ve been given, this life we’ve been given. I’ve been rocking stages that I don’t appreciate it! I even have to take medication to help me deal with that shit! Sometimes I sit and think about how fortunate we are and how lucky we’ve been in our life. You know I dropped out of school in 9th grade and I come from a broken home. I was destined to be nobody and to be a loser. But instead I was gifted and given this awesome job where I get to paint my face and rap the wicked shit and we have these ultra amazing people, the juggalos, who use us as the soundtrack for their lives and I am so thankful for them to! When I think about it I get so worked up and have a panic attack in a good way, that’s what the medication is for. I am extra thankful that we are still putting it down, we are still making noise, we are still kicking ass, and it blows my mind! We are gonna be kicking ass for another 20 years!

Well, thankyou so much for taking the time to talk to me, I’m really looking forward to seeing you play next week!

Listen, I hope you have a really good time! That’s gonna be a great night, we’re gonna be having fun together coz I’m gonna be having just as much fun as you I promise you that! I hope we play lots of songs that you wanna hear and it turns out to be a great day for you!

You can see Insane Clown Posse at The Gov this Wednesday the 4th of December. Tickets are still available HERE.

Interview by Melissa Donato

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

What’s the hardest thing about touring?

Well it’s not such a glamorous lifestyle as many might think. If you do it on a big level and your traveling on private jets there is that side of things but for the rest of us mortals sometimes the conditions aren’t the best, sometimes there’s no place to take a shower or no food and you really just have to adjust to that lifestyle. Of course it’s tiring and there’s a lot of waiting in airports, planes, on buses but if you love it you don’t really think about those things. I’m not saying that this touring lifestyle is for everyone because we have had a lot of past members leave because of just that and I totally get it because it’s not for everybody.

What’s has it been like working with Ozzy Osbourne?

Well that’s like the exception of the rule of what I have just said, its like the ultimate touring level, touring the biggest arenas in the world, living in the best hotels, traveling in jets. But it’s not about that the experience is just being on stage with that man, it’s just a blessing and I’m really one of the lucky few guys that get to play and work with Ozzy and I really enjoyed every second of it.

What’s your favorite show that you have played with ‘Firewind’ and why?

There have been a lot of really good shows with this band, I could probably name you at least 10 right now off the top of my head. The shows we play here in Greece are pretty intense because it’s our hometown. The fans it England have also been really, really good, it’s a really loyal fan base there. We don’t have a huge following but that fans we do have are crazy about this band, they are really, really hardcore fans that will write to us. With a tribe of fans like that it really keeps us motivated.

What other bands have you played in?

Well quite a few, when I started out I use to play in a Swedish band called ‘Green evil’ and for a little while I played in a death metal band called ‘Night Rage’ and another band called ‘Arch Enemy’. 

What are some of your musical influences that have taken you to this point?

Well a lot of guitar players, Black Sabbath Metallica, Gary Moore and Michael Schenker.

Finally what would you say to help inspire young passionate guitarist that want to succeed in this industry? 

I would first say that you should try to achieve one goal at a time, take everything step by step, know that there’s no short cuts, put in the time and hard work. Be respectful of the people you work with and the people around you, stick to your guns, play the music you like and don’t give in to any trends.

Firewind play at Fowlers Live on Saturday November 2nd. Tickets are available here

Interview by Shannen Murphy.

The latest album seems pretty journey based for band experiences, but are there any individual stories caught in them?

My lyrics reflect the way we were all feeling and what we were going through as a band at the time – it was a journey for us because I reflected on that purely as a band, not as an individual as such, even though there are parts in there written as individuals, it's mainly written about us as a whole.

Looking forward to seeing you at The Cavern on Saturday night – but for those of us that haven’t seen you perform live, what can we expect?

Just a lot of energy and diversity, and it will be very very loud and in your face. It's gonna get you to stand up and listen even if you're not a fan of what we do or what ever, you're definitely gonna know who we are after it.

When you play in Adelaide, how do you find the scene here in Adelaide to be compared to the rest of Australia?

It's been a year or two since we have been there, and we find that every time we are there the venues change, the promoters change, the scene in general changes and it seems to be on a yearly or two yearly cycle so I am excited about what we will get when we get down there this time.

When we first came down there everyone was awesome so we’re hoping for the same thing!

Sleep For The Masses is available now from the bands Webstore / iTunes  /Google Play / Big Cartel

Recoil VOR play at The Cavern this Saturday (14th) with Deprivation, Alkira, New Paradigm, Voros and A Modern Death.  Entry is just $15 and it's all ages until midnight.