Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Reward For Effort With MATT FACK From THE OMNIFIC
Transcript
- 0:30Yeah, what's up everyone. This is Matt fac from the Omnifik here,
- 0:34the two based band. We've got a new album coming out called The Law
- 0:37of Augmenting Returns, which is coming on June seventh, and yeah, come
- 0:42over that to be our throw it back to Chris. Yeah if I mate,
- 0:45thanks for joining us today, mate, Oh, pleasure to be here.
- 0:49Pleasure to be here. Now I'm going to say straight off the bat,
- 0:53mate. I love the album title, The Law of Augmenting Returns,
- 0:56Like it just flows off the tongue, doesn't it. Yeah, yeah,
- 1:00yeah, A lot of like thought went into went into that because the whole
- 1:04concept was, like, well, the law diminishing returns seems to be like
- 1:07a pretty pretty common concept mainly I guess in like the commerce world, but
- 1:12in life when you think about it, I guess like the more you do
- 1:15something, the less like return you get from that. So I was like
- 1:19trying to think, like what could we sort of I guess do to like
- 1:23be like, what's the opposite, Like the more you do something, the
- 1:25more reward you get out of it? And like I guess augmenting also relates
- 1:30to music like diminished to augment it, So I was like that that fits
- 1:34to music as well, and yeah it's I guess you can say it's got
- 1:38some cool meaning to it, you know, then I reckon there's probably seventy
- 1:41five percent of people out there that listening music will have no fucking idea what
- 1:45it means. I can learn something new every day. Then, So the
- 1:52law of augmenting returns. Is your sophomore album later and it's coming out of
- 1:56June and seventh, So how you feel on is it? Is it a
- 1:57bit easier but a second one coming out made? Or is there a bit
- 2:00more pressure or I guess like you can think about it like your own personal
- 2:07pressure, like I want to outdo myself from the prior record. I guess
- 2:13when it comes to just being creative like nah, I wouldn't say like the
- 2:17pressure of like pressuring myself to do something, because it all kind of flows
- 2:21naturally when you're feeling like in the moment, Yeah, like it's yeah,
- 2:25I'm just thrilled it sort of just came came about as it did without pressuring
- 2:31putting pressure on ourselves. I guess. So yeah, that's I guess that's
- 2:36how we all would feel about it. Yeah, for sure. Man.
- 2:38So drive into it a bit more, a bit deeper from the musical point
- 2:42of view, made and tell us what you're going for with it or That's
- 2:46always an interesting one to think of when it's instrumental, because sometimes it could
- 2:50just be like as simple as that's a cool riff, I'm just gonna work
- 2:53on that cool riff. I guess what what we were always trying to do
- 2:58is see what we can expel or more so for this record, there's a
- 3:01lot more elements from actual live musicians that aren't from the band, Like we've
- 3:07incorporated some live trumpet and trombone, which is a new element to our recordings,
- 3:12which we think is a next step to it while still staying true to
- 3:15our to our roots. We also recorded with a bass v I, which
- 3:19is like halfway to a guitar before, which like I guess, being the
- 3:23bass band, we try to stay like just for the for the joke,
- 3:29I guess I'm never incorporating a guitar, but we we got halfway there on
- 3:34this record, which was which was good fun had how did it actually field
- 3:38with that bray like like like you say, you sort of you're breaking your
- 3:40own number one card and a rule by getting close to you're getting that on
- 3:45there man, So had a few. Was it a good experience? Yeah?
- 3:49Well, like there was just some parts to the music where like say
- 3:53we wanted like a big, beautiful ringing out chord. It was like,
- 3:58this sounds good on our bass, but imagine if did it like on like
- 4:01some thinner strings for example, but it's still tuned to a base. That
- 4:05sort of made it obvious that we needed to go down that route. Just
- 4:15today made you release a single, Will of the Whisp, which the press
- 4:18release says is your most progressive song to date. Would you agree with that?
- 4:25Yeah, I think I definitely think so. Actually, I guess definition
- 4:30of progressive can change for everybody, but for this track, it feels the
- 4:33most story like, like it's following a story. Like the music video obviously
- 4:42has its own stories that might assist people in thinking that, But my interpretation
- 4:45of listening to the track, it's like kind of taking you through different like
- 4:49levels of like a game for example. It's kind of like progressing further and
- 4:54further until the end, which, like I always set to associate progressive music
- 4:58with like storytelling through me, So yeah, that's my sort of assessment of
- 5:03that track I'll run with that one, brother, thank you. And you've
- 5:09also released the singles album Matrice's, bass Camp and Bat Mackerel, So those
- 5:14four together would they would they be a good good summation sonically the album made
- 5:18or is it what sort there's it's I'd say it's a good like those singles
- 5:25there we did. We did kind of like choose them as a team to
- 5:28be like the different sides to the album. I guess like he got some
- 5:32like as you mentioned, progressive for that song, and then Matrice's, the
- 5:36previous one we released like a month or so ago, was more of the
- 5:41technical heavy side we could do. And then yeah, Fatmacarel again was like
- 5:46almost like a metal song, like a short metal song, which was cool.
- 5:49And then bass Camp was like trending more towards what i'd call a rock
- 5:54anthem almost. So yeah, I think that that's a it's a good starting
- 5:58point. But the other four tracks on the record do explore a few different
- 6:01things as well, So yeah, I think each track has its own place
- 6:05on the album. I suppose it as an instrumental band too, made Like
- 6:10juse, this thing would be a bit more difficult for you because the instrumental
- 6:13music sort of it goes more on moods and feels and groove rather than some
- 6:18you know, the lyrics catching you for it. So is it a longer
- 6:23process selecting what songs you think would best resonate with people? Sometimes? Sometimes
- 6:29it can like the way I like to think about it, and it's obviously
- 6:32a different thing for everybody. But I find like being the one who composed
- 6:38a song, you can I usually try and then like, say I've composed
- 6:42a song, I'll usually try and not be the one to say that's a
- 6:45single, because you're so biased towards it, right, You're like, yeah,
- 6:47it's my song, Like that's a single word song. It's just the
- 6:49way you naturally think. But I find like what excites you the most when
- 6:56you listen to the full album, Like usually that's a telling point personally at
- 7:00least. And then if some if everyone kind of seems to have a similar
- 7:03opinion on a song, then usually pretty confident that that could be a single.
- 7:09Oh so, how would you say overall that the law of ogmenting returns
- 7:14differs musically to your twenty twenty one day we will escapades or like differently,
- 7:20Yeah, I haven't actually thought about that. It's I think we've just kind
- 7:25of expanded what we know, like we've all matured, like we've we're three
- 7:32years older since then, Like we're kind of like mature. You refine your
- 7:35own sound and you sort of know what you want to tell a bit more.
- 7:42And then, as I mentioned earlier, we've added more live musicians to
- 7:45this record, which kind of enhances, like more opinions I guess have gone
- 7:48into the creative process. So I think it's a more like mature album,
- 7:55if that makes sense? Is that good? I don't know. Some people
- 7:58like the immature style of but like, yeah, for me myself, like,
- 8:05I think it's a it's a polished like composition, yeah, which is
- 8:11what we start to do, sounding more mature and more polished in this spane
- 8:15call mate. So that yeah, amazing? Three years does it has not?
- 8:22Indeed, another thing that press release says made it says that you've pushed
- 8:26your creative boundaries to unprecedented heights on this new album. So would you agree
- 8:31with that statement? And if so, how unprecedented highest? I guess if
- 8:37you think about it, what if you told us that this was the record
- 8:39we released three years ago I'll probably be like, Wow, I wouldn't have
- 8:43considered anything like that. Yeah, Like I guess it's yeah, like when
- 8:50you make your own record, you just do what you do. But then
- 8:52when you look back on it, like maybe a year later or a year
- 8:54and a half later, like because we actually did record this record, we
- 8:58started in January last Yeah, so it is a long it's been a long
- 9:01process. But something I think makes me confident still releasing these songs now is
- 9:07like they still feel fresh to me a year and a half later, So
- 9:11when they're fresh to someone now, it's still going to be strong. So
- 9:16yeah, I feel like those that kind of thought really makes me feel like
- 9:20we have pushed those heights and like now I think, like, what can
- 9:24we do after that? It's yeah, you're always try and push the banjo,
- 9:26I guess. But yeah, I think when we did create these songs,
- 9:28it was at the time the omnifix like what we were all trying to
- 9:33say musically. And you also actually reassembled the same production team that you used
- 9:41on Escapades, mate, So how how important was having that team back together?
- 9:46I guess in the final outcome? Yeah, well I guess, I
- 9:48guess if it ain't broke don't fix the kind of thing. Like we were
- 9:52just super stoked on what we had with Escapades, and like we knew we'd
- 9:56be able to get what we wanted with the same team because they nailed it
- 10:01the first time around and again they've nailed it this time around, which has
- 10:05been Yeah, exactly what we wanted. And you touched on this a bit
- 10:11before. Man, But you've got a few guest spots on the album.
- 10:13So you've got Tim Warrior and Luke Taylor from Hartline, there's tidn Hershog and
- 10:18Rowan Sharma mate, So wat choose those guys to bring onto the album?
- 10:24And then what did today sort of bring to the overall sound? So I'll
- 10:28start with Tim. So Tim, Tim's probably the least progressive of them all.
- 10:33He's actually like a I'd say it's just like a barbershop style singer,
- 10:39which we use for the start of the record, and he's phenomenalies. He's
- 10:45got a YouTube channel and everything doing really well. And fortunately, like I
- 10:48sent him the concept we wanted and he was all on board, so that
- 10:54I feel like the opening to the record is something really unique to like all
- 10:58prog music. I've never heard anything like it. So yeah, his addition
- 11:03to this this album was like something I think we'd never be able to achieve
- 11:09without someone like having him on boards. Yeah, he's He's the very first
- 11:13thing you hear when you press play on the records. That's cool. Yeah,
- 11:16Charles Charles Baerirto, he's the famous YouTuber. Have you heard of him
- 11:22before? Yeah, he's huge, huge in the base community. He's phenomenal.
- 11:26Like, we ended up meeting him when we were over in America last
- 11:28November, but he had actually already recorded this part for the album, so
- 11:31it was just great to finally meet him and his unbelievable abilities on playing on
- 11:39the bass like really opened up this solo section to just be like how far
- 11:46can you take the bass guitar, which is his expertise. So yeah,
- 11:50his solo is really cool. For that. Kai's solo is like almost like
- 11:54a cinematic piece. He because he filled in for us on bass in like
- 12:00November a couple of years back, and like he's an exceptional bas player from
- 12:05Australia, and I was like, I'm going to like give him a section
- 12:09of the record just like kind of like paying him back for helping us out.
- 12:13And like he's taken the song to a new height. So well,
- 12:16so yeah, that's he did exceptional for that. And then Rowan, we've
- 12:22written him down as featuring as a solo for the last track, which is
- 12:26like definitely his shining moment. But he also did a lot of the extra
- 12:28programmings. He's like a keyboardist. He played on I think half of the
- 12:33tracks on the record, just kind of thinking about things like we would never
- 12:37have thought of when it comes to say, like a keyboard or a piano.
- 12:39So yeah, his input on that kind of took took some of the
- 12:46programming to that level where we'd never be able to achieve. Nice. Now
- 12:50you're about to kick off a European tour over July and August, which will
- 12:54be your first ever summer festival run over there, mate, so that sounds
- 12:58pretty exciting. Oh mate. The festivals are kind of like a dream when
- 13:01you start doing your doing your bands, so actually having it being a reality
- 13:07is gonna be like phenomenal. And some of the bands on those festivals,
- 13:11things like My Sugar's on one of them, which is like, wow,
- 13:18how do you go overseas man? Like just like Australians are passionate as fuck
- 13:24about everything, but especially for their own own bands and music. I guess.
- 13:28But how do you go as an instrumental band overseas? Like you just
- 13:30sort of did it take a bit to win people over some times? Or
- 13:35oh I haven't thought about that. I think. I think like in Europe,
- 13:41as you mentioned, in Australia, people get around a lot of stuff.
- 13:43I say, it's pretty similar in Europe. Like it's like a lot
- 13:46of people just love music for the sake of it being music, and like
- 13:48you showing up all the way from Australia and doing your thing usually gets people's
- 13:54attention, which is cool. So yeah, like it's just been like it's
- 13:58always a great experience going over to Europe, which could have been about it
- 14:03for time now, which is cool as okay, And then you've finished that
- 14:09up in August, my friend, So what do you got planned after that?
- 14:11You go to do a home run? Yeah, yeah, yeah,
- 14:16we've got we've got something planned. I don't think it's announced yet, so
- 14:20I won't anything, but yeah, we'll do some Australian stuff as well.
- 14:24Is it all right? Mat Well, thanks for your time today, brother.
- 14:28The law of augmenting returns is out June the seventh, and I was
- 14:31fortunate enough to have a listen before chatting with you today, mate, and
- 14:33very mature and polished, unreal thank you. I appreciate. I know she's
- 14:39a fucking cracker of an album bro, so hopefully she gets the respect he
- 14:43deserves. Appreciate that, man, Appreciate that. After Lee said SA to
- 20:18have to do the ant a b anthing, a