Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Unravelling Reality With BRADY DEEPROSE From CONJURER
Transcript
- 0:11Speaker 1: Hi, I am Brady. I play guitar and shouting in
- 0:16Speaker 1: the band Conjurer, and we are putting out our album
- 0:21Speaker 1: UNSLF on the twenty fourth of October twenty twenty five.
- 0:26Speaker 1: This is our third record and it is I think
- 0:32Speaker 1: a bit of a departure from everything we've done before,
- 0:35Speaker 1: maybe not stylistically so much as in the approach and
- 0:41Speaker 1: in the resulting album. I think we've made an album
- 0:45Speaker 1: that is head and shoulders above anything we've done before,
- 0:49Speaker 1: and I hope people give it a go and get
- 0:52Speaker 1: into it.
- 0:54Speaker 2: Fantastic Brady, thanks for joining us. Un good to see
- 0:56Speaker 2: your smile and face again.
- 0:59Speaker 1: Yeah, no, thank you for me. It's genuinely a pleasure
- 1:02Speaker 1: to chat to people about this album all bro.
- 1:07Speaker 2: So, as you say, Contra are set to release your
- 1:09Speaker 2: third studio album and self on October twenty four, So
- 1:13Speaker 2: how you feel about it? You just sort of summed
- 1:14Speaker 2: it up pretty well then, But how do you feel?
- 1:16Speaker 3: And you're confident?
- 1:18Speaker 1: Yeah, I think it's It's funny because with all of
- 1:22Speaker 1: our previous releases, we've not really cared about the reception.
- 1:27Speaker 1: Like it's been a very specific point to be that
- 1:30Speaker 1: we make this music for the four of us. We
- 1:33Speaker 1: put it out there and if people like it, that
- 1:36Speaker 1: is wonderful, and if they don't then that's also fine.
- 1:40Speaker 1: You know, we can't control that. However, on this album,
- 1:46Speaker 1: I feel like we've put so much more of ourselves
- 1:50Speaker 1: into it than ever before. It feels so much more personal,
- 1:52Speaker 1: it feels so much more emotionally vulnerable. That while, yes,
- 1:57Speaker 1: if people don't like it, whatever, that's not something I
- 2:01Speaker 1: can control. I do really hope that people connect with
- 2:06Speaker 1: it in the way that I have. You know, I
- 2:12Speaker 1: love this album. It really means a lot to me,
- 2:15Speaker 1: and I hope that it kind of scratches that itch
- 2:19Speaker 1: for at least some of the people that listen to me, at.
- 2:22Speaker 3: Least some of them.
- 2:23Speaker 2: So can you dive in on a bit deeper from
- 2:25Speaker 2: a musical point of view and tell us what you're
- 2:26Speaker 2: going for this timmer at.
- 2:29Speaker 1: So, I think after Pathos and the circumstances around it
- 2:35Speaker 1: were so unique. We recorded in the Pandemic in our
- 2:43Speaker 1: rehearsal space in Northampton, where we had been you know,
- 2:47Speaker 1: for a couple of years at that point, with exclusively
- 2:51Speaker 1: our own equipment, and you know, our own front house
- 2:55Speaker 1: engineer at the time tracked everything that we did not
- 2:58Speaker 1: have access to anything more than that, so we we
- 3:07Speaker 1: didn't even get to play some of those songs in
- 3:10Speaker 1: a room together before recording them on the album. So
- 3:15Speaker 1: for me, this album is kind of a direct reaction
- 3:20Speaker 1: to that. We wanted everything to feel low pressure. Again.
- 3:24Speaker 1: We've recorded that album in a week and a half
- 3:27Speaker 1: and we were recording up until two am on the
- 3:30Speaker 1: final day of studio, just get like pushing to get
- 3:35Speaker 1: over the line. So we were like, we don't want
- 3:38Speaker 1: any of that on this record. So we took a
- 3:43Speaker 1: full month to go into the studio, and we went
- 3:47Speaker 1: in with not fully complete ideas so that we could
- 3:55Speaker 1: be in the room and work together and be collaborative.
- 3:59Speaker 1: And you know, Pathos was a very dense, complex layered
- 4:04Speaker 1: album that didn't ever really let up. It was layers
- 4:09Speaker 1: upon layers, and it was claustrophobic, and we wanted this
- 4:13Speaker 1: record to feel organic and wanted to have a real
- 4:18Speaker 1: tangible sense of space. And so yeah, doing a couple
- 4:25Speaker 1: of weeks of pre production of us getting in the
- 4:30Speaker 1: room and playing the songs and Joe the producer being
- 4:33Speaker 1: there and kind of being a part of that from
- 4:36Speaker 1: jump was so important and it really got us to
- 4:40Speaker 1: the point where the songs felt good to play and
- 4:45Speaker 1: felt emotionally resonant before we had even got into the studio.
- 4:52Speaker 1: So yeah, I think that it's a record that is
- 4:57Speaker 1: so much tied to emotion and tied to the process
- 5:01Speaker 1: and is like a product of the process that went
- 5:04Speaker 1: into to making it. So yeah, I think I hope
- 5:10Speaker 1: that when you're listening to it, you can hear and
- 5:13Speaker 1: feel that it sounds and feels different.
- 5:16Speaker 4: You know.
- 5:18Speaker 2: I'm actually glad you brought up this space to image
- 5:20Speaker 2: because there's a quote in the in the press release,
- 5:22Speaker 2: and I'd listen to the album myself you can hear
- 5:24Speaker 2: where this comes into it. But the press release says
- 5:27Speaker 2: that you've leaned into utilizing space, gifting the listener a
- 5:30Speaker 2: little breathing room, which serves to make the heavy elements
- 5:33Speaker 2: you're all the more intense. So basically, that just means
- 5:35Speaker 2: that sometimes it's what you leave out with news you
- 5:37Speaker 2: cannot what you put in. But can you elaborate on
- 5:40Speaker 2: that concept for us a bit more for people who
- 5:41Speaker 2: don't quite understand.
- 5:42Speaker 1: You, Yeah, for sure. I mean it's like, why, for
- 5:46Speaker 1: the most part, when you dig into like a specific
- 5:51Speaker 1: genre like death metal, the bands that I'm the biggest
- 5:56Speaker 1: fan of are the ones that sit on the fringes
- 5:59Speaker 1: and don't just give you ten brutal death metal tracks
- 6:02Speaker 1: in a row or grand or that don't just give
- 6:05Speaker 1: you that intense, you know, twenty minutes of brutality, because
- 6:10Speaker 1: for me, after the first couple of tracks, after the
- 6:13Speaker 1: the initial hit of adrenaline from that sound has worn off,
- 6:19Speaker 1: it kind of dips, and I feel like you to
- 6:24Speaker 1: really make effective impactful music, you need the ebbs and flows,
- 6:29Speaker 1: you need the peaks and troughs. That kind of journey
- 6:34Speaker 1: that you take the listener on is something that I
- 6:37Speaker 1: really appreciate in music. So when people, you know, say
- 6:42Speaker 1: that we're a doom band, then you know, you point
- 6:44Speaker 1: them to the start of the seeringlo or if people
- 6:49Speaker 1: say that we're a death metal band, you point them
- 6:51Speaker 1: to U Foreclosure or you know whatever. It is like,
- 6:56Speaker 1: there is the antithesis of that is also on the record,
- 7:00Speaker 1: and it's something that we are really conscious of not
- 7:05Speaker 1: just doing the same thing and not just being being
- 7:10Speaker 1: more of a multi tool than a hammer. I think
- 7:13Speaker 1: is the way of looking at it and just knowing
- 7:17Speaker 1: that style and genre and trope all of These things
- 7:21Speaker 1: are tools that you have at your disposal, and I
- 7:26Speaker 1: think we were trying to craft It's a good metaphor.
- 7:29Speaker 1: We were trying to craft the perfect machine on the
- 7:31Speaker 1: last record, whereas now we're trying to craft something that
- 7:36Speaker 1: allows us to express the emotion behind how we're feeling.
- 7:41Speaker 1: And I think that is the biggest shift. It is
- 7:43Speaker 1: like a pointed attempt to convey emotion as opposed to
- 7:50Speaker 1: a pointed attempt to write perfect songs.
- 7:54Speaker 3: It makes sense, makes sense now.
- 7:56Speaker 2: The album opens with the title track, Unself and so
- 8:00Speaker 2: Affected broy Like it starts life as a beautifully orchestrated
- 8:03Speaker 2: piece of acoustic music and then it explodes in a
- 8:05Speaker 2: wall of rage towards the end, Like, what was the
- 8:08Speaker 2: thought process behind opening with that?
- 8:10Speaker 3: Because it threw a curveball straight up.
- 8:12Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I love the idea that there will
- 8:17Speaker 1: be a number of people that put this record on
- 8:19Speaker 1: and for about thirty seconds, I like, this must be
- 8:23Speaker 1: the wrong album.
- 8:26Speaker 4: Love that.
- 8:27Speaker 1: I love that when a band surprises you right out
- 8:30Speaker 1: the gate with what they're about. But this was an
- 8:35Speaker 1: idea that kind of came pretty much fully formed to Danny,
- 8:37Speaker 1: and they had talked for quite a while about this
- 8:41Speaker 1: intro idea that they had and actually tabbed it up.
- 8:45Speaker 1: So I got a guitar profile that was, you know,
- 8:48Speaker 1: a minute and a half of acoustic guitar strumming and
- 8:52Speaker 1: then noise, and I was like, what is this. This
- 8:57Speaker 1: doesn't make any sense. Like they were like, yeah, vocals
- 9:00Speaker 1: and I'm like imagining Danny's screaming over that acoustic guitar
- 9:04Speaker 1: and I'm like, this doesn't make any sense whatsoever. And
- 9:07Speaker 1: so we during the pre production we were like, well,
- 9:10Speaker 1: track all the parts, and then I said, Danny, you've
- 9:15Speaker 1: just gotta go in there and do the vocals, like
- 9:18Speaker 1: show us what this is like, because I just still
- 9:21Speaker 1: don't don't get it. So they went in and the
- 9:26Speaker 1: vocal take that they did in that pre production session
- 9:29Speaker 1: is I think pretty much the vocal take we used
- 9:32Speaker 1: on the album, and it was like an instant light
- 9:35Speaker 1: bulb moment for me. I was like, oh, I get it.
- 9:37Speaker 1: This is amazing. Like it was one of those you
- 9:41Speaker 1: hear something and you're like, well, there's no possible way
- 9:45Speaker 1: this doesn't open the album now, and yeah.
- 9:49Speaker 2: I.
- 9:50Speaker 1: Love something that's challenging and something that is different and
- 9:54Speaker 1: something that does grab your attention, but in a completely
- 9:59Speaker 1: different way to a bus beat and some Tramo guitars.
- 10:03Speaker 2: I like the way you sort of you had the
- 10:06Speaker 2: crossover I guess between the acoustic and all out warfare.
- 10:09Speaker 3: Like so you've just got like a buzz.
- 10:11Speaker 2: It starts softly and then it just gets louder and
- 10:13Speaker 2: louder until chaos comes. Like how many different things did
- 10:17Speaker 2: you try before settling on that to be the right transition.
- 10:21Speaker 1: I think that this was from Jump, the having the
- 10:26Speaker 1: feedback from the guitars fading slowly, that was there in
- 10:32Speaker 1: Danny's tab from Jump. That was how they imagined it.
- 10:34Speaker 1: But getting the kind of eerie rumble. We work with
- 10:40Speaker 1: Tom Ragsdale, who makes music under the name sulk Rooms
- 10:44Speaker 1: and is also the kind of electronic part of Paine,
- 10:50Speaker 1: the band that Joe plays in. He came into the
- 10:53Speaker 1: studio for a day and played some piano for us
- 10:57Speaker 1: and brought all of his gizmos. I don't know what
- 11:02Speaker 1: the stuff that he uses is, but we were like,
- 11:05Speaker 1: we need some ominous noises, we need some rumble, we
- 11:08Speaker 1: need some drones. And he kind of crafted those parts
- 11:12Speaker 1: with us in front of us, and we tracked them
- 11:16Speaker 1: all so that that kind of like.
- 11:18Speaker 4: Low end.
- 11:20Speaker 1: Rumble. We've just been calling it. The rumble was something
- 11:25Speaker 1: that Tom brought to the table and we were like, yes,
- 11:27Speaker 1: that is that is the unsettling feeling that we want
- 11:31Speaker 1: this to create, and it just hen't really complimented what
- 11:34Speaker 1: was going on. So I think this record has been
- 11:37Speaker 1: very collaborative. We've had, you know, opened ourselves up to
- 11:42Speaker 1: other people coming in and you know, lending their expertise
- 11:47Speaker 1: and advising and just kind of being a part of
- 11:49Speaker 1: the process more than ever before. And it feels feels
- 11:53Speaker 1: great to create something together, you know.
- 11:56Speaker 2: And then on the flip side, Broyer like the album
- 11:59Speaker 2: closes it out with the World Is Not My Home,
- 12:01Speaker 2: which is an adaption of a century old gospel song.
- 12:04Speaker 2: Like when I was reading through that, it sounded like
- 12:06Speaker 2: a really strange choice, and then I put the song
- 12:08Speaker 2: on and it's like, fuck me, it just can't see
- 12:11Speaker 2: between the eyes, don't it.
- 12:13Speaker 1: Yeah, that was another one those like clean vocals at
- 12:17Speaker 1: the end of that track. Danny by the end of
- 12:21Speaker 1: studio was like belting that out Nope for Noe. It
- 12:26Speaker 1: sounded you know, perfect, And one of the very last
- 12:30Speaker 1: things during the mixing I was like, can we just
- 12:33Speaker 1: go back to one of the pre production takes because
- 12:37Speaker 1: there was something about the emotion in their voice that
- 12:43Speaker 1: would get me to well up every single time, and
- 12:45Speaker 1: I was like, I'm not getting that from this perfect take,
- 12:48Speaker 1: and we dropped you know that first, that first take
- 12:54Speaker 1: back in there, and I was like, well, that that's
- 12:55Speaker 1: the one, like the the delivery in that track, so
- 13:00Speaker 1: everything for me and the taking this dis gospel song
- 13:05Speaker 1: that was originally you know about the idea that this
- 13:10Speaker 1: world is not my home and that's fine because I'm
- 13:12Speaker 1: going to heaven and that's my real home. And it
- 13:15Speaker 1: was like a positive message as opposed to this world
- 13:19Speaker 1: is not my home because it is so fucked and
- 13:22Speaker 1: also I am trapped here being really the way that
- 13:26Speaker 1: we we are looking at this and kind of in
- 13:32Speaker 1: the folk tradition taking that song, re interpreting it, kind
- 13:38Speaker 1: of changing the lyrics. I'm just so thrilled that we
- 13:44Speaker 1: get to do that and to kind of bookend this
- 13:47Speaker 1: album with this song that sums up the themes of
- 13:51Speaker 1: the record is Yeah, it's so exciting and it is
- 13:55Speaker 1: so thematically spot on to what we're trying to do
- 14:01Speaker 1: that I could not be happier with the way we
- 14:04Speaker 1: started and ended the record.
- 14:07Speaker 2: And as a metal band, though, bro, Like, what's your
- 14:09Speaker 2: thought process? You're like, what goes through your head? Like
- 14:11Speaker 2: if someone said he start with an acoustic song and
- 14:13Speaker 2: finish with a gospel song, It's like it just doesn't
- 14:16Speaker 2: sound right, you know, Like, what's the thought process behind
- 14:19Speaker 2: actually putting that in place with your music?
- 14:22Speaker 1: I think as much as we make heavy music, I
- 14:28Speaker 1: don't think there's ever been a point where we've thought
- 14:32Speaker 1: of ourselves as an out and out metal band, you know,
- 14:35Speaker 1: Like we definitely when we started there were ideas that
- 14:42Speaker 1: we put to the side because we're, Oh, that's not
- 14:45Speaker 1: heavy enough, or that's not this, or that's not you
- 14:47Speaker 1: know whatever. Whereas now, if someone's passionate about an idea,
- 14:52Speaker 1: it doesn't really matter what it sounds like, if it
- 14:55Speaker 1: feels authentic and if it is like the right I
- 15:01Speaker 1: guess vibe is the only word I can use. But
- 15:03Speaker 1: if it's the right vibe for what we're creating, no
- 15:07Speaker 1: one is turning around and saying that's not heavy enough,
- 15:11Speaker 1: you know, that's not metal enough. Like ideas like let
- 15:15Speaker 1: us live for you know, it's a single on the
- 15:18Speaker 1: record for the most part, it's pretty much just chords
- 15:21Speaker 1: all the way through, Like you could remove the electric
- 15:25Speaker 1: guitars and play that on an acoustic comfortably. It's that
- 15:29Speaker 1: kind of vibe. So I think what this band is
- 15:34Speaker 1: is always evolving, and that is something that keeps us
- 15:39Speaker 1: excited about it and keeps it fresh. And not really
- 15:44Speaker 1: knowing what the next record is going to be or
- 15:48Speaker 1: what the next song is going to sound like until
- 15:51Speaker 1: we're in it is what keeps the magic alive. I
- 15:55Speaker 1: think the second we started repeating ourselves or limited ourselves
- 16:01Speaker 1: or trying to make something quote unquote more metal or
- 16:07Speaker 1: more anything, and we've lost the plot by that point,
- 16:10Speaker 1: and we're going to get bored and we're gonna not
- 16:12Speaker 1: feel enthused. So yeah, I think anyone that has expectations
- 16:20Speaker 1: or assumptions about what this band is is already way
- 16:25Speaker 1: off the mac.
- 16:27Speaker 3: I've not agree with that completely.
- 16:30Speaker 2: They are contra a completely successful tour of Australia in
- 16:33Speaker 2: twenty twenty four, and I heard a little whisper that
- 16:35Speaker 2: you guys are already planning to possibly come back next year.
- 16:38Speaker 3: Is that correct?
- 16:40Speaker 1: Yeah, we're working out. I mean we had such a
- 16:41Speaker 1: good time. We're lucky enough that we're at the point
- 16:46Speaker 1: where we pretty much have a good time everywhere we go,
- 16:48Speaker 1: but Australia felt so special. It is so far away
- 16:55Speaker 1: and yet obviously you know, through historically so tied to
- 16:59Speaker 1: the UK and culturally so much similarity. Like, it feels
- 17:03Speaker 1: like such a private privilege to go out there and
- 17:07Speaker 1: play our music to these people that I think really
- 17:12Speaker 1: get what we're doing on like an instinctual levels. So
- 17:16Speaker 1: of course we're trying to come back as soon as possible,
- 17:20Speaker 1: probably towards the end of next year if we can
- 17:23Speaker 1: make it happen. But yeah, it would be our absolute
- 17:26Speaker 1: privilege to get to come back and play some of
- 17:29Speaker 1: these new songs for you guys there.
- 17:31Speaker 3: Before we go.
- 17:32Speaker 2: Bro, I'm not sure if I was during this last
- 17:33Speaker 2: time I spoke to you a bit. I've got a
- 17:35Speaker 2: new segment I've started called photo Bombs, So I'm shroven
- 17:37Speaker 2: through your social media before we better chat, and I've
- 17:39Speaker 2: come up with a few photos I want to know
- 17:41Speaker 2: a little bit more about. So the first one I
- 17:43Speaker 2: believe was actually taken on your last visit to Australia.
- 17:50Speaker 1: Yeah, that is us and Connery the Koala at a
- 17:56Speaker 1: lone Pine I wanted it to feel like like a
- 18:02Speaker 1: high school prom photo and only me and now already
- 18:05Speaker 1: committed to that that vibe. So yeah, there's the four
- 18:09Speaker 1: of us and then Marry us, our front of house engineer.
- 18:13Speaker 1: That was such a lovely time. I appreciate you You've
- 18:17Speaker 1: taken us to to that a bit. It's like it's
- 18:20Speaker 1: like the traditional thing, like every band across the world.
- 18:25Speaker 1: You don't tour Australia for anything other than getting the
- 18:30Speaker 1: Koala photo, you know. That's that's what it's really all about.
- 18:34Speaker 1: And yeah, to do that on day one was fucking awesome.
- 18:38Speaker 2: I'm glad we could help it out. Now the second
- 18:40Speaker 2: one is not quite so straightforward. It's okay, So it's
- 18:48Speaker 2: I want to know, like where was this taken and
- 18:50Speaker 2: what's you go.
- 18:51Speaker 3: With the shirts?
- 18:55Speaker 1: So this was taken at Arctangent Festival in Bristol in
- 19:01Speaker 1: the UK, backstage just before we played the last Kirsty's
- 19:11Speaker 1: Mauntle handset. So this was the in fact, now this
- 19:14Speaker 1: was the This was two sets ago, so got I
- 19:18Speaker 1: remember what year it was, maybe twenty twenty two, but
- 19:23Speaker 1: we had these Kirsty's mount hands is influenced a little
- 19:31Speaker 1: bit by Baroness, like big fans of the band, and
- 19:37Speaker 1: we have this ongoing joke that we are a Baroness
- 19:41Speaker 1: tribute band or that we are trying to take the
- 19:43Speaker 1: mantle of Baroness. So I was like, oh, why don't
- 19:46Speaker 1: we do a I can't believe it's not butter rip
- 19:50Speaker 1: shirt that is, I can't believe it's not Baroness, And
- 19:54Speaker 1: it has become a bit of a running joke with
- 19:57Speaker 1: this band too, it's it's us in Pie. So the
- 20:00Speaker 1: first time we did it, we wore pine shirts they
- 20:03Speaker 1: walk under a shirts, and since we started making merch
- 20:06Speaker 1: then it's just well, you've got to wear your own
- 20:08Speaker 1: march because it's the most unself aware thing you can do.
- 20:14Speaker 1: So yeah, we went out there and we ripped it
- 20:17Speaker 1: in our own T shirts. And that is our ex
- 20:22Speaker 1: drummer Yan with the banjo on the far left of
- 20:27Speaker 1: the photo, who played the banjo part which is in
- 20:30Speaker 1: the new Kirsty's Motorhands song that we have not finished
- 20:33Speaker 1: recording yet, and then our good friend Lily Wait in
- 20:36Speaker 1: the middle, who played the automatone to introduce one of
- 20:41Speaker 1: the tracks. So yeah, it was I mean, it's very silly,
- 20:47Speaker 1: but we have we have a lot of fun.
- 20:51Speaker 2: It was right, you did it brother, all right Rady, well,
- 20:53Speaker 2: thanks for your time. Wrote the album un Selfies out
- 20:55Speaker 2: October twenty fourth then like they had a privilege of
- 20:58Speaker 2: having a sneak listen and absolute bulltair Brosa.
- 21:00Speaker 3: Congratulations and hopefully we see you next year.
- 21:04Speaker 1: Thank you so much. And I have to add as well,
- 21:07Speaker 1: we set up a store in Australia with imprint merch
- 21:12Speaker 1: so if anyone wants to get some merch or pre
- 21:16Speaker 1: ordered the album on violin CD, you do not have
- 21:20Speaker 1: to import it from the UK or the US and
- 21:22Speaker 1: pay all those charges. You can get it in good
- 21:26Speaker 1: old fashioned Australia direct from them.
- 22:00Speaker 5: Your don to so your b ol god.
- 22:07Speaker 4: H b outside whis like all they call.
- 22:31Speaker 5: It job job all card to job god God joy
- 22:40Speaker 5: lit y.
- 22:44Speaker 1: Your diy, that's joy Like why.
- 22:50Speaker 5: Do y'r car my doll?
- 23:03Speaker 4: Jo Mayor in the wall shot July style lock shot,
- 23:16Speaker 4: I Stop Fries, the three man of or Chop World,
- 24:29Speaker 4: come down, very talk, no t.
- 24:44Speaker 5: So so showier Gon.
- 24:48Speaker 4: Don more shoulder on bothered Boles born shower, tilS schils down,
- 25:00Speaker 4: lost time Yo side where don't want Christy Waters bursts out,
- 25:17Speaker 4: I'll burn, I cry off that, while also I don't ride.
- 25:22Speaker 4: Why y'all boughs? Yeah, why