Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Absence Makes The Riffs Grow Stronger With JENNI And MARTY POWELL From RIFF RAIDERS

Transcript

Absence Makes The Riffs Grow Stronger With JENNI And MARTY POWELL From RIFF RAIDERS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, I'm Jenny and I'm Marty and we're rif Raiders.
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: We're here to chat all things. Welcome to Mars, our
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: third studio album.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Fantastic. Thanks for joining us today. Both years a pleasure
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: to be So, as you mentioned, Riffraider has recently released
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: your third album, Welcome to Marth. So I know it
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: hasn't been that long, but how's the early reception been
• 0:22
  Speaker 2: for it?
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: It's been great, the whole double teamy thing, it's been
• 0:32
  Speaker 3: really good. We've got lots of positive feedback from both
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: the fans.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: And media so far at these early days. But yeah,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: really happy with the response after our little little break.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and can you tell us a bit more about
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: the album from a musical point of view and what
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: you've you gone for this time around?
• 0:53
  Speaker 4: Yeah, being our third record, the last album rock and
• 0:58
  Speaker 4: Roll Dadrian, we did a lot more over Dumby and
• 1:01
  Speaker 4: going for a bigger production sort of sound.
• 1:03
  Speaker 5: So this time we sort of stripped it right back.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: And bought the bass and drums right up into the
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: picture and kept the guitars pretty dry and simple and
• 1:12
  Speaker 4: really showcased the vocals.
• 1:13
  Speaker 5: So the idea of the band Refraiders.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: We do a few different styles of hard rock, which
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: hopefully ties together under the theme of Welcome to Mars
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: this time.
• 1:22
  Speaker 5: We think that's the early feedback we're getting.
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: So that was the approach, you means the recording was
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: done reasonably quickly after gigging the songs for.
• 1:29
  Speaker 5: A while and really locking in a type performance to
• 1:32
  Speaker 5: do that.
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yes, what he said, fair enough your religious
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: singles Welcome to Mars, Nothing to Lose, and Breaken Halo,
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: So that's all someone third of the album? Is that
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: a good swnic representation of what do you expect?
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Look, I reckon it's sonically definitely. You'll notice that though
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: all three of those tracks are different in themselves and
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: obviously Broken Hal's got that more of an influence from
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: places like Hailstorm or Ghost early Days, that sort of thing,
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: whereas Welcina Mars and I Suppose Nothing to Lose as
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: well sort of have that more traditional classic rock feel
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: to them. So that really gives people a good indication,
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: a good taste for the different kinds of themes of
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: rock you'll find on that album.
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, along those lines, the pressure he says that it
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: does feature eleven tracks from almost every rock flavor. So
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: I'll love rate on that a little bit for us.
• 2:31
  Speaker 4: A stretch I reckon do, ever, So let's pull that
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: back into reality.
• 2:38
  Speaker 5: I mean, we're talking about almost almost every rock flavor.
• 2:42
  Speaker 4: Come on, yeah, So you know we don't have to
• 2:44
  Speaker 4: tell you given your awesome magazine. There's so many different
• 2:48
  Speaker 4: types of rock music. But I suppose we're drawing from
• 2:52
  Speaker 4: the seventies and the nineties and the naughties in terms
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: of the riff based stuff that was around then and
• 2:58
  Speaker 4: giving it our own spin. So there's a bit of
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: open tune sort of stuff that might be in a
• 3:03
  Speaker 4: Zeppelin sort of vibe there, but not ripping that off.
• 3:06
  Speaker 4: And then you've got your as Jen said, or the
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: hailstorms sort of approach. And then there's a bit of
• 3:11
  Speaker 4: thin Lizzy duweled lead breaking towards the end, and a
• 3:14
  Speaker 4: bit of power pulp which is different again so ties
• 3:16
  Speaker 4: it all together. But still each song has a riff
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: and have meloted chorus. So that's sort of what we
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: go for, right.
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: How how difficult is it to get music covering so
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: many broad spectrums of rock to come together cohesively on
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: an album?
• 3:32
  Speaker 5: Well, that's right. I mean, what we do is I
• 3:35
  Speaker 5: write the.
• 3:36
  Speaker 4: Songs just to try and come up with a good
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: song that works live and the band likes to play,
• 3:40
  Speaker 4: so it's not a formula as such. And sometimes they're
• 3:44
  Speaker 4: just too far away from the spirit of the band
• 3:47
  Speaker 4: so that we don't do them, or I don't even
• 3:49
  Speaker 4: bring them to the band, and other times it still
• 3:51
  Speaker 4: feels like it's in the family. So it's still a
• 3:54
  Speaker 4: little bit of a colectic our approach. But we're working
• 3:57
  Speaker 4: on a new album at the moment, excitedly to really
• 3:59
  Speaker 4: get another one out next year, and we are probably
• 4:01
  Speaker 4: going to more stick into one lane, so be interesting
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: how that goes down with our small fan base where
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: they're disappointed we stopped doing this, or finally you can
• 4:10
  Speaker 4: explain what this band is, it might help.
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: That's exactly right.
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: But the name like welcome Mrs. It'd be easy to
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: assume that it's conceptually based.
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Is that the case.
• 4:26
  Speaker 4: Well, yeah, not the whole album, but just that idea
• 4:29
  Speaker 4: of being able to go somewhere else and you know,
• 4:32
  Speaker 4: just lose yourself and leave you with earthly problems behind.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: And it's a bit of a parody of a song.
• 4:37
  Speaker 4: It's sort of I'm not a fan of that show.
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: But I remember that Big Bang Theory had a really fast,
• 4:42
  Speaker 4: smart opening theme tune saying all this science stuff about
• 4:47
  Speaker 4: a thing. So with this song, I pulled up with
• 4:49
  Speaker 4: pedia page and worked out that Mars two muns and
• 4:52
  Speaker 4: moons and a blue sky and you know, days twice
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: as long as he just nerdy stuff like that put
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: it into.
• 4:59
  Speaker 5: The lit part is yeah, Yeah, the part is yeah.
• 5:03
  Speaker 4: So the vibe of the song is we're up here
• 5:05
  Speaker 4: and that's why we've been gone a little while, and
• 5:07
  Speaker 4: you should come up and join us. And then it
• 5:09
  Speaker 4: sort of twists in the middle that's saying, well, we
• 5:11
  Speaker 4: can see that you're sort of stuff in your own
• 5:14
  Speaker 4: planet up a little bit down there, so maybe you
• 5:16
  Speaker 4: should stay where you are and we'll just hang up here.
• 5:20
  Speaker 5: We come to the party planet.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's pretty sure, Especially it says that you guys
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: haven't played live since twenty twenty three. So most bands
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: when they do new material or their road chest, a
• 5:35
  Speaker 2: lot of the songs live to sort of see what
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: works and what doesn't. So if you haven't been played live,
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: what was your process with these songs?
• 5:43
  Speaker 4: Probably six or seven of the eleven were certainly played
• 5:46
  Speaker 4: live before that.
• 5:47
  Speaker 5: We did good. You're so definitely tested.
• 5:49
  Speaker 4: All that out and as Jen knows that the last
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: couple were held back on purpose before I recorded.
• 5:56
  Speaker 5: So they're really new and fresh, so welcome to Mars
• 5:59
  Speaker 5: is one to lose. We've literally got them together a
• 6:02
  Speaker 5: couple of weeks before, so we weren't working out on
• 6:04
  Speaker 5: the studio.
• 6:05
  Speaker 4: But it was exciting and you know, just trying to
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: catch that spontaneity. But you're right, it's a bit of
• 6:10
  Speaker 4: a risk with the new stuff we're writing.
• 6:12
  Speaker 5: Now.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: We'll go out and play gigs again and see how
• 6:14
  Speaker 4: it goes down, and if we can play them properly,
• 6:17
  Speaker 4: we reckon gen so.
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: Fuss so good.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: What was the reason behind taking a bit of time.
• 6:24
  Speaker 4: Off, Well, to be honest, the first thing was one
• 6:31
  Speaker 4: of the videos we did, which is the workman of
• 6:33
  Speaker 4: Mars ones really be successful. We started on a green
• 6:37
  Speaker 4: screen at ABC Studios in a day with another video,
• 6:41
  Speaker 4: and the guy that did it for us, he has
• 6:43
  Speaker 4: a big, fancy production company. He said, this is going
• 6:45
  Speaker 4: to cost you, guys fortune if you want to be
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: on Mars, and that he said, I can get my
• 6:50
  Speaker 4: interns and you work experienced guys to work on this slowly.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: Then you get an awesome video. So that took like
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: a year.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: It's a bit more than what we anticipated when he
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: said slowly, we're been thinking months.
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: But it did take up there of them.
• 7:06
  Speaker 4: The thing got thirty thousand views when we put it out,
• 7:08
  Speaker 4: which is incredible for us, so really excited.
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: Was worth the weight.
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: And our selfish bass player decided his white had a baby.
• 7:15
  Speaker 4: In the meantime, it comes out.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: That's no commitment, is there? Yeah?
• 7:24
  Speaker 4: So I mean so he sort of said it was
• 7:27
  Speaker 4: their second one and he had another young one.
• 7:28
  Speaker 5: I going, okay, we'll see you in a year or so.
• 7:30
  Speaker 5: So D and I have kids as well, so we
• 7:34
  Speaker 5: get it.
• 7:34
  Speaker 4: And then our teenage kids just dragged us under every
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: commitment for seven days a week as well. So we
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: certainly never stopped playing music or anything, but it just
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: the gods are working against us, and just.
• 7:47
  Speaker 5: This year it seemed right to come back out and
• 7:50
  Speaker 5: get it going again.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: And that's where you are getting it going again, is
• 7:54
  Speaker 2: that rock is not dead. Three at the Prince of
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Wales in Melbourne, August twenty eighth.
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: So that's no coming back.
• 8:02
  Speaker 5: No, I am champing at the bit.
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: I can't speak for the rest of the band, but
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: I'm yeah, not me, I'm.
• 8:07
  Speaker 5: Ready to ready to rock. Yeah.
• 8:10
  Speaker 4: It was such a good offer to be part of too,
• 8:12
  Speaker 4: so I think it was a great way to bring
• 8:14
  Speaker 4: the album out and work towards that, wasn't it.
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: Absolutely yeah, really good good way to launch, relaunch back
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: into the live and also yeah, bring out the celebrate
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: the album as well as maybe here a few of
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the netunes.
• 8:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, then the light off straight. So you've got bands
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: like a Wicked Smile, there's audio ray and color duel,
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: dreadful sides differ, indication of how strong Australian music is
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: at the moment, I think absolutely yeah.
• 8:41
  Speaker 5: All bands with their own sound, definitely yeah.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: And when you get good promoters like Shane and the
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: Rock Is Not Dead team putting things together in such
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: a good way that's worked so well for both the
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: bands and the fans, that's just such a well run
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: just it's you know, it's just going to be one
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: of those pleas measure to be there events. So yes,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: I strongly suggests people get tickets right now.
• 9:08
  Speaker 4: Hell yes.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: And I can imagine you's have been in the in
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: the practice studio getting ready for the live show is
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: going to be anything different when you come back.
• 9:17
  Speaker 5: Yeah, it's we've changed our sound a little bit, so it's.
• 9:20
  Speaker 4: A three piece with a vocal and testing some of
• 9:23
  Speaker 4: this new stuff, so definitely down that break in the
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: halo vibe. So it'll be a bit. We've try and
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: make everything a bit different each time. So yeah, we
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: won't be doing a massive back catalog at all. We're
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: really just forward focusing and we've been. We started cranking
• 9:36
  Speaker 4: up again late last year, so you know we have
• 9:39
  Speaker 4: August as our finish line for not just this show
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: and starting other shows and then getting me to record again.
• 9:45
  Speaker 5: So it's been really resuminating.
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now do you guys remember the first time we
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: ever heard one of your songs on radio? And what
• 9:52
  Speaker 2: was it?
• 9:52
  Speaker 5: And where were you? Biff Raiders?
• 9:58
  Speaker 4: Well we live like you mean it, yeah, and I
• 10:01
  Speaker 4: think it was on Triple R on Austraight in mood
• 10:03
  Speaker 4: something like that, Neil Rogers. So that was really exciting
• 10:06
  Speaker 4: and we would have been in the car coming home
• 10:09
  Speaker 4: from rehearsal or something, so we're going, wow, there we go.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: I remember a time where I heard one of our
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: tracks on the radio when we weren't aware that it
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: was going to be played, so you.
• 10:20
  Speaker 5: Know, we have not tuning in to hear it.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: It just spontaneously came on and it was in the car,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: and it's just the most incredible feeling like this, you know,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: some someone wants to play it, people want to hear it.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: It's just fuck, that's me.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: That's really Yeah, that's the best.
• 10:37
  Speaker 5: I love it.
• 10:38
  Speaker 2: Sah I goes, well, thanks for your time. Welcome to
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: Mars is Our Now. Refraiders are back on August of
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: twenty eight. That rock is not Dead three. I'm sure
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: we're going to be hearing plenty more from you. So
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: thanks you, mister Black.
• 10:50
  Speaker 5: Yeah, good on, Chris, Thanks so much. Cheers Chris,