Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Structure From Chaos With LUKE FORD From MORTALITY

Transcript

Structure From Chaos With LUKE FORD From MORTALITY · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, I'm Luke Forward. I played bass in Mortality. I'm
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: an original member. The band consists of myself, Darren mulaney
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: on vocals, Aaron Peters on drums, Aaron on guitar and
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: Jason on guitar. And we're back. So it feels good, mate.
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: It's been a long time coming and we're pumped. Where
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: got our eyes set on the Necrosonic Festival. Now we've
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: done our first show back and the Ecrosonics you know
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: in our sights and we're looking forward to getting up
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: to Brisbane and see some old friends, see your mate
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Ken and and get it on.
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, follow, thanks for joining us.
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: Say rather, we've overcome a few hurdles, sagetti e, but
• 0:51
  Speaker 3: we've finally done it.
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: We have we have you feeling better.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: I'm feeling much.
• 0:55
  Speaker 3: Been a big six weeks, I'll tell you that much.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: No, we've got a hell of a lot to get
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: through here today, mate.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: So we'll start off with the fact that, as you say,
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Mortality are back from the dead and said to resume
• 1:08
  Speaker 3: hostilities as part of Necrosonic Perstival the Mansfield Tavern Prinsborde
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: on August at thirty first.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: How you feel. It may like it.
• 1:15
  Speaker 3: You're excited and you're nervous. You've been anxious, so I
• 1:17
  Speaker 3: could be we're ready.
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, we're ready. We've been rehearsing for close to our years,
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: so it's good to get out of a room and actually,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: you know, see people, see people respond to what it
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: is that we're doing. So you know, you never really know.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: We thought it was good, we thought we were doing well,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: but until you get in front of the crowd, you know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: and you've got all the additional elements that can impact it,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: you don't really know. But you know, everyone's been doing
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: music a long time and played in various bands over
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: the years, so it was good when we did play
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: last week to get the reaction that we were hoping for.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: So yeah, not really apprehensive, more just ready to ready,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: destroyed to be honest.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Ah damn straight now.
• 2:03
  Speaker 3: Necrosonic is an awesome new festival feature in thirty bands
• 2:06
  Speaker 3: across thirty stages and twelve hours, showcasing bands like Creps
• 2:10
  Speaker 3: like Crop, Dick Low, Astro, Death, Misery, Potion, Plenty more
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Mate Like It's about time Australia actually got another festival
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: that was just pure metal.
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: Isn't it.
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, look it's you know, metal always seems to
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: take a hit, and especially look Sydney has been had
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: it rough, especially after COVID, as did everybody, but even
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: prior due to lockout laws in Sydney and also people
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: moving next to venues and then making complaints about the
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: venue that they chose to move next to, costing venues.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Excuse me, you know, thousands in legals to defend it.
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: It costs no one to send an email and complain
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to council, but it costs cost venues, you know, like
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands of dollars to defend So even if
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: they win, they lose. And in an industry that you
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: know is tough on a good day, you know, that
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: can be the final mail in the coffin for a
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: lot of cases. So it's good to see, you know,
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: venues opening up, neck festivals opening up. It's good to
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: see little hole in the wall places opening up, bigger
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: venues taking on music again. It feels like everybody's ready
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: to come back and you know, go and see music again.
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: Aside from yourselves made, there's going to be twenty nine
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: other bands playing on the day.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: So here are you most looking forward?
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: To catching up with on the day look on mates
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: with low, But I want to see psychops like I'm old,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: so I want to see psychop big. I want to
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: see Misery. There's a few bands I've never seen on there,
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: like say, I've never, I've never, you know, just a
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: little a few little bands like that. Not little bands,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: but a few bands like that that have just you know,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: I've seen over the years but just never been able
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: to see them live. So I think we're on about
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: five forty five, so I'm actually really looking forward to
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: not only playing, but then you know, I've got I've
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: got the evening to run a mark. You know, obviously
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: we're effectively on tour, so look out.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: Now More Charity started life back in nineteen ninety two
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: in Sydney, Mate, So what was the music site scene
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: like back then they gave birth to the band and
• 4:22
  Speaker 3: where did it fit in Initially?
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: Initially the metal scene was on a bit of a
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: downward trajectory. Bands like Addictive, Mortal Sin and all those
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: guys have sort of I don't had their moment, but
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: they've gone off and either gone overseas to play or
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: you know, gone off to do other things. So there
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: was a bit of a gap and there was a
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: few bands like us near Fabia, cry Genic, Suggression. We
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: all just kind of were just a bunch of young
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: guys and we started our own you know, I'm not
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: inten but we started our own little scene. A lot
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: of that was based around the Lewisham Hotel and a
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: lot you know, obviously other venues, but there was a
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: scene created, and I think people our age really appreciated
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: having something that was their own. You know, it wasn't
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: their older brothers band, it was their So we created
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: quite a good following, and a lot of our you
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: know peers did the same. You know. I ended up
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: being a lot of cross pollination in some of those
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: bands and just having your own scene, you know, seeing
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: every own in your t shirts and you know, eventually
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: us getting to play with you know, Seple Tour and
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: it was just you know, sort of stepping stepping, stepping stepping,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: and it was it was great. And until we brought
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: out the album, you know, that was over you know,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: three or four years. But yeah, we just worked our
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: arses off, to be honest. We we posted everywhere. We
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: literally were military style about our advertising, our flower and
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: water mixture was on point. I found a poster in
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: a car park got twenty years later, still there on top.
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: It's like the owners are just going to ask it,
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: We'll just sleeping. It just was not coming off. So
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: we were very very hands on with the advertising and
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: just we're relentless in our advertising. Always had stickers, always
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: had posters, and it works. You know, we didn't have internet,
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: so we had to be the Internet and you know,
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: just just try and ram it down people's throats as
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: much as we could and and it worked. Yeah, we
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: assume nothing. We just you know, it worked really hard.
• 6:46
  Speaker 3: Musically, you create an aggressive blending of thrash, death and
• 6:50
  Speaker 3: green veederal that wasn't really as wide spread back then
• 6:53
  Speaker 3: as it is in the modern aids. So where did
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: the sound come from? And how tough was it to
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: actually bring together?
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Initially it was just.
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: A natural progression. I think initially it was. I mean,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: we listened to the same dance as everybody at our age,
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: you know, Linda Sligher, Metallica, Sepulteer, Anthrax, everything, So it
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: was just a natural progression. And obviously the more you
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: play together, the more technical you can become. And then
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: you know, miss Sugar released Destroyer, Race Improve and then
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: Fear Factor you released The Manufacturer, and those albums just
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: did something to my DNA. I don't know what it was,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: but it, especially Masugar, It just opened up the palette
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: of things that you could do with songwriting that took
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: it away from standard format and it just got my
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: brain thinking in a different way. So it wasn't actually
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: difficult at all. It just was a progression that changed,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: you know, the way of thinking. It wasn't really intentional either,
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: It just it's just what came out. You know. We
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: just sort of echoed things that we were taking in
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and as a result, that's what came out. And we're
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: just fortunate that everyone in the band was on the
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: same page and could keep up with each other with
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: the lineup that we had. You know, by the time
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: we release Structure.
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: So Spreaking a Structure, there are significant changes in the
• 8:15
  Speaker 3: band in the lead up to that album, and when
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: you released it, it sort of land into a more groove orientate,
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: a death metal sound from the thrash you soule earlier on.
• 8:24
  Speaker 3: So what were the reasons behind that shift in sonic balance.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I guess it was just trying to I mean we
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: just got heavier. It just music that we were listening
• 8:34
  Speaker 1: to and a progression of what it was that we
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: were playing sort of as I said, now, mindset change
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: a little in the way we were writing songs, as
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: I mentioned previously. So it's just it's just a progression
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: of playing together and you know, appreciating heavier, more extreme music.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: I mean, the first time I heard Napalm Death, I
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: laughed and thought it was ridiculous, and now they're one
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: of my favorite bands. So it's just just over time,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: started to just get more brutal over time. I think
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: that's what happens to most people.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: Get me made, but metal ledges get more brutal.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that never changes. So yeah, again, just natural progression.
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: There was nothing forced about it or anything.
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and you disbanded about six months after the release
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: of Structure Made. So at the time, was that something
• 9:23
  Speaker 3: that felt permanent or was it genuinely up in the air?
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: No, we were done, Yeah, the album. There was a
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: delay in the release of the album, you know, for
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: a thousand different reasons. But you know, will kids and
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: were broke and your record label were on its independent
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: and you know, it was what it was. It was
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: just there. It was delayed for a year, and that
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: it just really took the wind out of our salves.
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: At that time, the metal scene really shifted because Navana
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: and you know, the grunge scene happened, and metal shows
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: were just they just weren't getting people. So we released
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: an album that we're proud of, but maybe it was
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: too a bit progressive, a bit too progressive for the time.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: It was received a lot better after I found out
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: people actually liked it years later. I didn't think anyone
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: liked it. So it was years later that I got
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: all the feedback and there was reviews from overseas and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: so ship it was everybody then. So that's sort of
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: another motivator for us to do what we're doing now.
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: And a lot of people hadn't gotten to see players live,
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: and you know, the other night, for example, was the
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: first for a lot of people, and we were happy that
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: they you know, the feedback was that they were blown
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: away by you know, we didn't like I said, we've
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: been in rehearsal, we're for nearly a year getting this right,
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: so yeah, cool.
• 10:56
  Speaker 3: It ultimately took COVID really together the ball wrong again
• 10:59
  Speaker 3: for you guys, in terms of reburse So tell us
• 11:03
  Speaker 3: how that came about, Like, how was a seed sown?
• 11:05
  Speaker 3: And how when did you decide that, yes, that we
• 11:08
  Speaker 3: are geting another crack.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: It was Darren the singer and I actually we were
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: just writing were board, so we're just you know, obviously
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: with modern technology, we've all got studios in our house,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: so we were just sending tracks back and forth. He
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: was singing on them, and I was just writing all
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: the music, and we're just writing song after song, and
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: in the end we're like, shit, this sounds like mortality,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: but what are we doing? You know, we're trying to
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: think of that. We had some stupid names or band
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: names is hard to come up with possible stupid, so
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: we were we'll come up with these daily, just terrible names.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: So in the end we just realized what it was
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: that we were writing was mortality. Let's let's you know,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: let's have another go at this. So again, it was
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: just a progression until we realized, you know, I guess,
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: I guess it's in our dna to be this band,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: and we're just fortunate enough then to get you know,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: the right people, because sat, I mean, that's like a
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: lot of to get the right people who cannot only
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: gel with the way that you play, but as people
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: which are equally as important. You know. I just we're
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: so fortunate with with with who we've got. You know,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: these guys are all gun players, and you know they
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: push us. We push them, and not only just you
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: know in the playing side. You know, they keep us honesus,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: they motivate us. If we're slacking off, they'll kick us
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: in the arse. It's good.
• 12:42
  Speaker 3: Speaking of writing made you have been doing a little
• 12:45
  Speaker 3: bit of blade mate, So are you just sort of
• 12:47
  Speaker 3: playing around? Are you actually writing with the focus for
• 12:50
  Speaker 3: an album or ev Oh?
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: No, Yeah, So we just wanted to get through these
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: We started writing. Then we just put it on hold
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: until we get through these shows because we just want
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: to make sure, you know, we'll giving and everything we
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: had in what we wanted to do for these shows.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: But yeah, writing is well and truly underway. We've written
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: songs with scrap songs. We've written songs with scrap songs.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: I think there's a bit of pressure to make sure that,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: you know, they reach a level of proficiency that we're
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: happy with that anyone would expect of where this band
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: would be now. You know, not just a continuation of
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: but it needs to be a progression. So yeah, the
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: riffs are you know, you'll spend a Saturday on one riff,
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to get your head around it, and
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: then we'll delete it and we'll start again. So you know,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: it's just it's not a quick process. But I think
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: once we get through these shows, which is our main focus,
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: and you know that, well, then that'll be the main
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: focus absolutely, Like this isn't a reunion, this is we're back.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: So we need to write new music and we want
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: to write new music, and especially we're lucky that we've
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: had the album to learn to play together because it
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: needs to sound like Mortality as well. I don't want
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: to sound like a different band, but it needs to progress.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: So yeah, so it's coming, definitely coming beautiful.
• 14:11
  Speaker 3: And you did play your first show back as a
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: band just last weekend, not Believe made.
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: So how was it, How was the response out of
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: field to be back out there again?
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: Was it a venue called Darling Nicky's and it was fantastic. Yeah, Well, look,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: to be honest, you never really know he's anyone going
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: to turn up, I don't know. And to be honest,
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't care, like I just wanted to to play.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: But then everyone came, so yeah, it was a full house.
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: You know, all the Mortality shirts got sold. We probably
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: could have made more. You know, we had Shane doing lights,
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: who does lights of Fear Factory, so he's he's you know,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: he's lighting the whole place up. Just epilepsy. Warning people
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: if you're coming to our show, it's pretty sick, but
• 15:04
  Speaker 1: it's it was fantastic to get on that stage again
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: and just built out these songs and give them justice
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: and see see people seeing it for the first time
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, for a long time now for the
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: first time in a long time. It was great. We've
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: had a review, a few reviews come in and it's
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: all been, you know, overwhelmingly positive. So yeah, it couldn't
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: be happier again.
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: Yeap for being honest for that.
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: A few years have gone under the bridge since years
• 15:35
  Speaker 3: up on stage last, So it tells your life show
• 15:39
  Speaker 3: different now than what it was back when you when
• 15:41
  Speaker 3: you when you first started, like it has it lost
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: anything your father's.
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: Signed, No, it's actually progressed. Look, a lot of us
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: have were playing in bands over since you know, the bands,
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: but I was in a band called Him and Nine.
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: The other guys are in Days and Maloney was in Crygenic,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: so there's a lot of stage time between us after mortality.
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: And like I said, we made a conscious effort to
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: make this. We didn't want to come back as good
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: as or you know, some old guys having to go.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: We wanted to come back stronger. And but I think
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: being a bit older as well, we're definitely more focused now,
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: not as distracted by things, and you know, it's you know,
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: we're taking it very very seriously, so you know, we're
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: really thinking about every aspect from you know, the way
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: it looks to the way it sounds. And also now
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: having two guitars. We used to only have one with
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: Craig Fiegel, who unfortunately just passed away a couple of
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. So now we've got two guitars and the
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: sound is just yeah, it was it was, you don't
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: I didn't know it was missing until I heard it. Yeah,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: it's you know, it's just fat. It's really good, very happy.
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: So if anything, it's bigger than ever.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Fantastic. All right, thanks for your time, tho.
• 17:04
  Speaker 3: I've road been a pleasure again today and find out
• 17:07
  Speaker 3: about the band. Mortality will be at Necrosonic Festival in
• 17:10
  Speaker 3: Brisbane and the Mansfield Tavern on August at thirty first
• 17:14
  Speaker 3: thirty bands, three stages, twelve hours of metal, while Morphage
• 17:17
  Speaker 3: as for bringing on