Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Respect Where It's Due With ADAM BIGGS From RIVERS OF NIHIL
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I'm Adam Biggs, play bass and uh and do vocals
- 0:05Speaker 1: and Rivers of Nile. We're heading down to Australia the
- 0:12Speaker 1: about mid August and we're doing some co headline dates
- 0:16Speaker 1: with Psychroptic and with support from Slaughter Cult and Growth
- 0:24Speaker 1: and it should be a pretty pretty savage tour.
- 0:27Speaker 2: Otherwise it's going to be a savage tour through. Mate.
- 0:29Speaker 3: I'm sure there's a lot of people and It'stralia rubbing
- 0:31Speaker 3: their hands together after.
- 0:32Speaker 4: That wonderful good. I mean, how could not.
- 0:36Speaker 3: Be Exactually it's gonna be your first start back out
- 0:40Speaker 3: here since September twenty twenty three, mate, So I know
- 0:43Speaker 3: a lot's change with the band, but run us through it.
- 0:48Speaker 4: Yeah, we have.
- 0:50Speaker 1: Since since then, we've we've put out a new record
- 0:55Speaker 1: we did last year.
- 0:58Speaker 4: We put out Our.
- 0:58Speaker 1: It's our fifth studio album, is a self titled record.
- 1:03Speaker 1: It's the first one with yours truly on on vocals,
- 1:08Speaker 1: on lead vocals, alongside our new guitarist Andy Thomas also
- 1:13Speaker 1: you know, providing his his soaring, soaring, clean vocals and.
- 1:18Speaker 4: Such like that.
- 1:19Speaker 1: So it's a mix up in the lineup of the band.
- 1:22Speaker 1: And but I think we've put together you know, a strong,
- 1:28Speaker 1: strong cluster of songs to especially to bring to the stage.
- 1:33Speaker 3: It's built as a co headline tool with Psycroptic. Maybe
- 1:36Speaker 3: what does that mean in science as well? You're gonna
- 1:38Speaker 3: be alternating closing every night or playing the same length
- 1:41Speaker 3: set or.
- 1:43Speaker 1: I think I think we were playing the same length set,
- 1:47Speaker 1: but I think I can't remember if we are alternating
- 1:52Speaker 1: or not. But it's it's I'm fairly certain it's Psychroptic
- 1:57Speaker 1: closing the show for the most part. I mean, we're
- 2:01Speaker 1: on on their home turf and they're they're the you know,
- 2:05Speaker 1: they're the national death Australian death metal band, So hard
- 2:11Speaker 1: hard to argue with that.
- 2:12Speaker 2: That's right. I still lead to the next perst of
- 2:14Speaker 2: my life.
- 2:15Speaker 3: Anyone who seems like probably play live and know the
- 2:17Speaker 3: answer to this, But what's your ex damn as touring partners?
- 2:22Speaker 1: Uh well, I mean they're uh, they're legends in death
- 2:27Speaker 1: metal at large, and you know, not only just you
- 2:30Speaker 1: know for Australia, but around the world and and uh
- 2:36Speaker 1: we we did a tour with them and they Obliviscaris
- 2:39Speaker 1: in in the in North America last year and we had.
- 2:44Speaker 4: An awesome time with.
- 2:45Speaker 1: Them, and we got along great and we think the
- 2:50Speaker 1: bands both work really well together, you know, sonically and
- 2:55Speaker 1: you know on stage and backstage as well. So we
- 2:59Speaker 1: figured it was you know, high time we rip some
- 3:02Speaker 1: gigs down down Under together.
- 3:04Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 3:05Speaker 3: And last time you were here actually it was alably
- 3:08Speaker 3: the scholars Man. So it's good to see an international
- 3:11Speaker 3: band Peep coming back to Australia and playing with Australian
- 3:15Speaker 3: bands like I guess it shows.
- 3:17Speaker 2: The strength of Australian music not just here but around
- 3:20Speaker 2: the world at the moment.
- 3:23Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely.
- 3:25Speaker 1: It's it's great that you know, there's a strong enough
- 3:28Speaker 1: scene that you know, we can we can hop on
- 3:31Speaker 1: with with bands that are of really high quality down
- 3:35Speaker 1: there and and and uh you know, just tour tour
- 3:39Speaker 1: around the world with them. It's impressive and it speaks
- 3:43Speaker 1: to you know, volumes about the scene there. So it's
- 3:46Speaker 1: our pleasure to make our way across the world.
- 3:50Speaker 2: Yeah, Carol Now.
- 3:51Speaker 3: To two ones up at Necrosonic Festival in Brisbane on
- 3:54Speaker 3: August or twenty second with feature yourselves like Crop date
- 3:57Speaker 3: there which Skull, Brave Minds, Suggression and Hell of Dream
- 4:00Speaker 3: Pillows plenty more. But what a way to finish off
- 4:03Speaker 3: his soul might plan at a festival of that magnitude.
- 4:07Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be a wild time for sure,
- 4:12Speaker 4: for the.
- 4:12Speaker 3: Benefit of people that maybe got to that festival and
- 4:15Speaker 3: that that nice too much about and right, like, what
- 4:18Speaker 3: can they expect from you guys live?
- 4:22Speaker 1: Well, uh, we we like to I don't know, we
- 4:26Speaker 1: just we like to shred and shred these songs. We've
- 4:29Speaker 1: been playing a lot of the new stuff live a
- 4:31Speaker 1: lot and which is a little more on the on
- 4:34Speaker 1: the heavy side, but we you know, bring a lot
- 4:36Speaker 1: of melody and fun chorus moments and marsh stuff along
- 4:42Speaker 1: with us, and and so uh it's a you know,
- 4:46Speaker 1: it's always a progressive kind of kind of show. There's
- 4:50Speaker 1: a lot of a lot of sonic variety to the band.
- 4:53Speaker 1: It's not all yeah, bludgeoning, but we we do we
- 4:56Speaker 1: do like our circle pits and we'll be bringing uh,
- 4:59Speaker 1: we'll be bring our sax player with us. So that's
- 5:02Speaker 1: always a fun curve curveball to throw at people out there.
- 5:08Speaker 3: I guess for the benefit of those people to like,
- 5:10Speaker 3: what's three songs from Rivers and they should listening before
- 5:13Speaker 3: got to first of all that to get tonight.
- 5:15Speaker 1: The Band of b Better three songs. Okay, I mean
- 5:19Speaker 1: it's so I think, uh right now, I mean, so
- 5:25Speaker 1: the first track on the new record, Some More Little
- 5:27Speaker 1: Blues is is is. Uh, that's one I think is
- 5:32Speaker 1: That's always a pretty pretty solid live staple and uh
- 5:37Speaker 1: has been has been doing well for us.
- 5:40Speaker 4: And then if you want to reach back a.
- 5:44Speaker 1: Little further, we we can go to the Owls uh
- 5:48Speaker 1: where Owls Know my Name album, The Silent Life always
- 5:52Speaker 1: gets some play and that's a fun one. And uh,
- 5:56Speaker 1: then the title track of that where Owls Know my
- 5:58Speaker 1: Name is the Those are all live staples that you can,
- 6:03Speaker 1: you know, be pretty pretty rest assured. We're gonna we're
- 6:06Speaker 1: gonna rocket to the best of partability.
- 6:08Speaker 3: Yeah right, Klin, you mentioned you tour on the back
- 6:11Speaker 3: of last Self Taught an album.
- 6:13Speaker 2: Might say, how's your reception of that? Did it go
- 6:15Speaker 2: across as well as you did in Hyderwood?
- 6:18Speaker 4: Uh?
- 6:18Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean sometimes when when you're you know, out
- 6:22Speaker 1: there touring on a whole a whole new record and
- 6:26Speaker 1: like doing uh doing a lot of new material, it
- 6:31Speaker 1: kind of can leave people a little it feels a
- 6:34Speaker 1: little maybe a little cold, like people haven't warmed up
- 6:36Speaker 1: to the material yet and they want to listen to
- 6:39Speaker 1: some of the older stuff. But I think it went
- 6:42Speaker 1: about as well as you could hope, Like people seemed
- 6:45Speaker 1: really really engaged with the new music and and uh
- 6:49Speaker 1: it feels right at home, you know, next to next
- 6:51Speaker 1: to the older stuff too. So yeah, it's been it's been,
- 6:56Speaker 1: Uh been awesome so far. Can't wait to keep it going, Like.
- 7:00Speaker 3: It's what's song off that album was the most challenging
- 7:03Speaker 3: one to learn to play live.
- 7:06Speaker 1: Oh, let's see, I think dust Man the second track
- 7:13Speaker 1: is is like, that's brutally fast and there's a lot
- 7:19Speaker 1: of a lot of work for for years, truly, a
- 7:21Speaker 1: lot of fingers moving, a lot of screams flying around,
- 7:25Speaker 1: a lot to keep uh coordinated all in one, you know,
- 7:29Speaker 1: not not that smart guy trying to keep all that
- 7:33Speaker 1: one coordinated. Uh is tough, but it's it's really rewarding
- 7:39Speaker 1: and really fun. It's always those ones, so is the
- 7:41Speaker 1: ones that are really hard that end up being the
- 7:44Speaker 1: most fun at.
- 7:44Speaker 4: The end of the day.
- 7:46Speaker 3: You mentioned that that was your first album taken Ibra
- 7:49Speaker 3: as a Lee bicholist mate, So how was the experience
- 7:52Speaker 3: for you?
- 7:52Speaker 2: Is it dawning or is it exciting?
- 7:57Speaker 4: Yes? Is yeah?
- 8:01Speaker 1: Man, it's uh it It's not easy. It's a really
- 8:06Speaker 1: tough thing to do, especially like you know, coming off
- 8:10Speaker 1: of years and years of playing in the band with
- 8:12Speaker 1: you know, like I did some vocals, but it is
- 8:15Speaker 1: nothing compared to like singing entire songs and entire sets
- 8:20Speaker 1: on top of also you know, holding it, holding down
- 8:22Speaker 1: tricky bass lines and things like that, and also stepping
- 8:27Speaker 1: into the role of like you know, the frontman in general,
- 8:30Speaker 1: having to keep the crowd hyped and everything like that,
- 8:32Speaker 1: and a lot of a lot of stuff that I
- 8:35Speaker 1: wasn't anticipating having to deal with when when this when
- 8:38Speaker 1: this role sort of fell into my lap. But I
- 8:41Speaker 1: feel like I've been, you know, meeting all of the
- 8:44Speaker 1: challenges to the best of my ability and walked away
- 8:48Speaker 1: with a lot of decent sets. And it's been it's
- 8:51Speaker 1: been a lot of fun.
- 8:53Speaker 2: And yeah, what are you there in a position on that?
- 8:57Speaker 4: Bro?
- 8:57Speaker 2: I look a side is the level heeded do and
- 9:00Speaker 2: land to do?
- 9:00Speaker 3: Like do you do you talk to someone that any
- 9:03Speaker 3: of my from into oscar I approach at all?
- 9:06Speaker 2: Is it trial and error or.
- 9:08Speaker 1: It's yeah, I mean it's uh it's definitely just sort
- 9:12Speaker 1: of I mean, uh, it's funny, you know, like I
- 9:19Speaker 1: approached somebody and ask advice on how to do certain
- 9:22Speaker 1: things in this scene. A lot of times it's you
- 9:26Speaker 1: don't get a lot of solid answers, especially at this
- 9:30Speaker 1: at this level. I mean, everybody up on the stage
- 9:34Speaker 1: that you see, I think is just like it's like
- 9:36Speaker 1: if you don't if you don't know what you're doing
- 9:38Speaker 1: by this point, like it's maybe maybe don't do it.
- 9:43Speaker 1: So it's been kind of I've been kind of it's
- 9:46Speaker 1: been kind of a lonely journey in that respect. But
- 9:50Speaker 1: that's not an unfamiliar thing for me. So it's it's
- 9:53Speaker 1: it's fine, I'm I'm, I'm, I'm keen to do all
- 9:58Speaker 1: of this stuff, and through trial and there getting up
- 10:02Speaker 1: there and then like watching back the tapes you know after,
- 10:06Speaker 1: you know, and listening back to stuff after we've done
- 10:10Speaker 1: it and being like oh if I should not do
- 10:12Speaker 1: that again, or like you know, just just cringing my
- 10:16Speaker 1: way through some of some of the stuff, and you know,
- 10:19Speaker 1: but that's how.
- 10:20Speaker 4: You improve this, all of this anyway.
- 10:22Speaker 1: But it is a lot more, you know, going from
- 10:25Speaker 1: like bass player role to vocalist role. There's a lot,
- 10:28Speaker 1: a lot more, a lot more to focus on, you know,
- 10:32Speaker 1: as far as those every all those little movements and
- 10:36Speaker 1: things you say to the crowd and.
- 10:37Speaker 3: Stuff I got, I guess from that point, like, because
- 10:41Speaker 3: you're having to focus.
- 10:42Speaker 2: On vocals and being front man as well as playing.
- 10:44Speaker 3: Now, do you do you compartmentalize or do you do
- 10:47Speaker 3: the base playing live automatic and automatic polyp while you
- 10:50Speaker 3: concentrate on the rest.
- 10:51Speaker 1: Of Yeah, that's that's pretty much it. Like you just
- 10:55Speaker 1: I have to just make sure that my hands know
- 10:58Speaker 1: what to do and then that I don't have to
- 11:00Speaker 1: think about that. Like I can just like let that
- 11:03Speaker 1: run while the brain does the singing and the and
- 11:09Speaker 1: the rest of the you know stuff on stage and
- 11:13Speaker 1: just make you know, because I've been doing this for
- 11:16Speaker 1: a long time, I can I can a lot of
- 11:19Speaker 1: those songs. That's how I kind of relied on getting
- 11:22Speaker 1: through the old material, especially that we've been playing for years,
- 11:25Speaker 1: is that I don't have to think about what my
- 11:28Speaker 1: hands are doing at all, and I can just think
- 11:31Speaker 1: about performing the song with vocals to the best of
- 11:35Speaker 1: my ability.
- 11:37Speaker 2: Have you got any messages for Austrian fanshead it coming?
- 11:40Speaker 2: Out bright.
- 11:42Speaker 1: Yeah, we're we're excited to see you guys, and you know,
- 11:46Speaker 1: we're grateful for every opportunity to get to come down there.
- 11:49Speaker 1: So we hope to see every single last one of
- 11:51Speaker 1: you in all of these cities and let's have a
- 11:53Speaker 1: good time. You know, we don't get to get them
- 11:55Speaker 1: down there every every weekend, and so let's yeah party huh.
- 12:02Speaker 2: All right, Annibal, thanks very much for your time, bro.
- 12:04Speaker 3: Rivers of mar will be here the tour all the
- 12:07Speaker 3: thirtiesh in pers then in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane
- 12:11Speaker 3: for anyone who got confused.
- 12:12Speaker 2: Are you so well? Pets you in a couple of months,
- 12:15Speaker 2: my
- 12:15Speaker 4: Friend, Yeah, of course, we'll see you then.