Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Fire And Brimstone With DAN From ANCIENT REMAINS

Transcript

Fire And Brimstone With DAN From ANCIENT REMAINS · HEAVY Music Interviews

0:16
A waste, blessing it to our beds, keeping us all alive. Yeah,
0:22
good day. I'm Dan from Ancient Remains, local heavy metal Brisbane band,
0:26
followed by Jaden Lee guitarists, Calvin Baker on drums and Cody Lawson on
0:31
bass. Beautiful Dan, thanks for joining us this afternoon. Thanks for having
0:36
me. No ways, the Most Ancient Remains releasing your new EP, Burn
0:41
It All, on Wednesday March at third inth Mate, which by the time
0:44
this comes out will either be tomorrow or today. So how you feeld about
0:48
it? Yeah, very excited for it because we obviously we did a single
0:51
release for it, the title being Burnt It All and then followed up by
0:55
Chill the Fuck Out, dedicated to our neighbors we pissed off for so long.
1:00
Yeah, then following it up with the other two that are now out
1:02
on the Wednesday, which is tomorrow for us speaking now, and yeah,
1:06
just in the works on even other demos beyond that as well, Like we're
1:08
not going to stop there and we intend to keep going in the future.
1:12
So tell us a bit more about the EP from a musical point of view
1:15
and what you're going for with it. Yeah, No, worries. It's
1:18
basically the evolution of where we started to where we are now basically, and
1:22
that's where we're following from because we've had a few single releases since then.
1:26
But with this one, it was some of the earliest songs that we started
1:29
writing, which were started when we all lived in a sharehouse together, which
1:32
we still do, but we just moved to one that's not so much asbestos
1:36
made. Yeah, and it was basically days of you know, every Friday
1:41
afternoon, come home, there'll be thirty people over having some drinks in the
1:44
backyard with a fire occasionally then met by the police complaining by the same neighbor
1:49
that didn't like us very much for good reason. So we wrote a song
1:53
dedicated for them, which evolved from that, so Chill the fuck Out was
1:57
for them. Live Your Life, which is out tomorrow, which is just
2:00
about doing whatever the hell you want and then get right out of my face
2:04
again still sort of aimed at that sort of energy. But then the title
2:07
track being burn it All, is basically everything we've experienced over those years.
2:13
Taking the lessons from whatever you've gone through, burning the crap that you don't
2:16
need, moving on, take the lesson from it and leave the rest behind.
2:22
Cool. You mentioned your previous singles, so you're released, stuck,
2:27
It'll be killed, and the ancient will remain. Back in twenty twenty two,
2:30
so how do the songs on Burn it All reflect your growth musically?
2:34
I guess from that period to now, Well, the Burn It All is
2:38
really the growth one that we're moving on with because some of those were written
2:40
at the very similar time and it just evolved when we sat on the songs
2:45
for a bit and just adjusted as we went along, but still playing it
2:49
live and then occasionally there'd be a new version of it. So We're Stuck
2:52
was basically about trying to self reflect on everything that you might be stuck because
2:57
he wrote it during COVID, so you know we uck in COVID. Maybe
3:00
you're stuck in a ted end job like I was myself, and you know,
3:04
just you might be stuck in a relationship you don't like, wherever you
3:07
may be. You can reflect on that, and as most metal heads do,
3:12
we don't really like to conform, so we don't like feeling stuck.
3:15
And Killer be Killed because it's a killer be Killed world, and then the
3:20
entry remain really stands for what music we love, what we enjoy to do,
3:24
because that music, even though it might have started, you know,
3:28
decades ago, it's still around from people like us, people that inspired us
3:32
to then move on through the generations of music and hopefully we can take this
3:38
generations by the next generation also and this genre stays strong. And then basically
3:44
we still kept with that anti establishment sort of vibe to go onto those songs
3:49
to inspire them to be be who you are. Don't let people tell you
3:52
what to do. I don't let people tell you who you should be.
3:54
And that message is still strong in that all right, now you're sort of
4:00
on this a little bit before, mate, but I want to go into
4:01
it a bit deeper. Like I've had to listen through the EP, and
4:05
what stands out to me is that every song's got to say an identity like
4:09
it. It's not all the same sort of metal. It's say they all
4:12
stand on their own merits. So because there's only four songs on the EP,
4:15
I want to run through them one at a time and just just go
4:17
into into your thought process. I guess behind each song, so we'll start
4:21
off and burn it all. Basically, I try to make anyone sort of
4:27
self reflect what they might be going through if it can help in any way,
4:30
and I write about what I might be going through at the time or
4:32
what anyone might be able to help them through. For myself, it was
4:35
a bad relationship, but I believe everything happens for a reason, and I
4:40
tried to take what I learned from that, even though it was a bad
4:43
scenario, I just took the best out of it and took the message and
4:46
just burned the shit that happened, basically and moved on. And I hope
4:50
people can do the same thing too for their own scenario, whether it be
4:54
someone that's you know, just falling out with a friends to you know,
4:59
base having a bad job that you need to get out of, or even
5:01
family problems or even unfortunately, you know, people passing away that it might
5:06
be close to. You know, look at the good times, don't look
5:10
at the bad, you know, burn that shit. Yeah, then there's
5:14
segfo or, as the Naughty Kids would say, chill the fuck out.
5:18
Yeah that needs to be bleeped on Triple M, doesn't it. We don't
5:21
believe nothing on every brother Well, likeily, that song says it quite a
5:27
few times. So yeah, Chill the fuck Out is really one of those
5:30
early songs we wrote because we aren't defined by any genre. We write what
5:33
we feel we like, and that's why we're inspired from such a wide variety
5:38
of metal. And that's more of a punk song in my opinion, and
5:42
similar with some of those songs on that album and these singles that we're releasing
5:45
soon are much more of a evolved metal core sound. Really, and from
5:50
that was basically the days of having parties, having people over, and at
5:56
some stages we don't have two noise complaints at our house. We go to
5:59
our neighbors play and have two noise complains at there, then we were right,
6:01
probably time to go to go home. And that could near enough be
6:04
every weekend and every time we do live rehearsal with a live drum kit in
6:09
the living room, I'm you know, I'm miked up with my vocals.
6:13
We got guitars blaring. We pretty much played till they rocked up and if
6:16
they did. Technically, if you read the law, you don't need to
6:20
turn it off. You can turn it down. But then when they come
6:23
the next time and I can, yeah, probably shut it down and then
6:26
dragging tomorrow because you kind of allowed to do your first twenty four hours And
6:30
basically that's that whole message was for those neighbors that just did not like us.
6:35
O kind of reminds me of the first time I moved down to Brisbane
6:39
from cans. I'm me and I made out a place at Morningside and I'm
6:42
like, but there's a block of units next door to us, so there's
6:44
about eight units in there, and we'd come home on the Pierce and just
6:46
craking the music up, and there's always one person in there that call the
6:49
coppers on us. Fight out there one night off my face in my jocks
6:54
only, and I've got my ninja sort out, and I'm standing on the
6:57
fence between our properties, and every time a light went on, like is
7:00
you are you the fucking knock off again? They've either called them again because
7:05
oh shit, there's some lunatic with a knife or whole shit, I'm not
7:09
call and he's gonna come up and not one of my final moments. But
7:13
it's sort of pop sit memories every now and then. It's all about making
7:16
memories, isn't it, And stories and they work great for podcasts and they
7:19
make great for memories and for me, they work well for vocals and they're
7:24
good to tell your kids as they go up too. Yeah, exactly right.
7:27
We try to tell the next generational learn from our mistakes, but we
7:29
kin'd of just do the same shit. The third song is actually like the
7:36
way you've done this. It's get right out and then in brackets afterwards over
7:40
my face a play on words. Yeah, so basically yet straight up punk
7:45
with that. And there was the day we all met basically that we made
7:49
ancient remains that song came out, so it goes to show how much we
7:53
loved each other. Basically, that was just a jam where I met Calvin.
7:58
He came over because they bought it. Let on a drum kid.
8:00
He's a drummer and we're just having a jam. He brought his best mate,
8:03
Jaden, and then we all instantly hit it off. We made that
8:07
song there together. I think I was twenty years old, they were nineteen,
8:11
and we just structured it together slowly. Very soon we moved out together
8:16
and that was still the first song we wrote. And then none of us
8:18
really knew anything about vocals, and we kept jamming. That sort of came
8:24
out and then about a year later, I rewrote the vocals again because I
8:28
learned a lot from playing shows and talking to other people about structures. And
8:31
then basically I always try to self reflect most of my lyrics. If anyone
8:35
can listen to it and go, yeah, I've had a similar scenario.
8:39
We've all got that sort of person that you could be speaking to and you're
8:41
like, you know what, just fuck off, get out of my face.
8:46
And you know, we've had a few, even through that house where
8:48
you've had a party where you might have fifty people and you know they know
8:52
fucking twenty of them and you just be sitting there listening to them drown about
8:56
some bullshit and was like, I'm fucking over this conversation. And we've all
9:01
had that. So yeah, those lyrics came pretty easy. And the EP
9:05
finishes off with live your Life. Yes, same similar message as much as
9:11
it says it in the title, basically, live your fucking life. Don't
9:15
let anyone tell you what to do. Don't let someone like, if you
9:18
have a dream, why don't you go through it? Someone says that's not
9:20
safe. You know who fucking cares? You get one go round? Why
9:26
not do what you love? And for us that's music. We have sacrificed
9:28
a lot for our craft and you know, several relationships have come through it,
9:33
and several friendships have come through it, and just yeah, and there's
9:37
nothing better for us than you know, basically being one of my best friends
9:41
making music and then showing it to people on either tour or local shows,
9:46
and then eventually recording it to release the masses. Basically, now you did
9:52
mention this before, mate, but you're already back in the studio working on
9:56
new stuff before the EP even comes out. We want to down top of
10:00
ourselves this year. We're really cranking down. We were there this whole weekend,
10:03
hence my voice kind of sounds like this. Now I'm there again on
10:07
Thursday because we're getting ready for something called Cube Effect and basically it's a Brisbane
10:13
City Council based competition where you can showcase who you are and they choose some
10:20
finalists. I guess for it, and we're in that for a performance and
10:24
then we record a song to showcase, which they provide and pay for a
10:28
video filming in a couple of weeks which will be showcast next month in about
10:33
a month from now, and then what's you some new material sounded like,
10:37
is it is it similar to the stuff on the EP? Or is it?
10:41
Oh well, I fucking hate this word. But evolved? Has it
10:43
evolved more since then? Yeah? I wouldn't even say evolved. I basically
10:48
the way I put it as we're not specified by a genre, so we
10:52
play what we feel is good music, and you know, those inspirations come
10:56
from anything for me, from Lincoln Park to you know, Lamb of God
11:01
and you know everything in between. And if you make a riff that like
11:05
Jade could be playing, could be very punk, I love it, and
11:07
then he could play something else and it's very Parkway Drive. I'm like,
11:11
I love it. I'm not going to not play it because it's not our
11:15
genre. We're not our genre, so this one will be kind of in
11:18
my opinion, it's more of a modern metal core twist with thrash influences.
11:22
But in our early days we were very punk and thrash and just kept you
11:26
know, evolving into that. I guess, like, so evolve would be
11:31
a linear term. I guess There's one party of buyer that really stood out
11:37
to me made it. There was a bit that is sentence from Triple M
11:41
in Brisbane where they say we should have had ancient remains for the NRL Brand
11:45
Final. Now, is that a stitch up in what you guys wish had
11:48
happened or is it faedigan? So the funny thing is actually Calvin, our
11:52
drummer, got on Triple M and we even got a bit of our stuff
11:54
played from a freak accident slash it was to happen. Calvin is known as
12:01
the four X hero because long stories still with that. There was a bit
12:07
of a fire on the side of the road near the airport. Calvin's a
12:11
fridgie and he basically pulled over and was like, that's not I'll mate because
12:15
some blow bro just flicked a butt out the window and if you're watching this
12:18
that you watch it. Yeah, we're not impressed, but thanks that kind
12:22
of helped us out. So he's gone to go put it out and he
12:28
looked around and he went it's either the Apprentice's powerade and he just bought bought
12:31
that for four blucks fifty from a server, you know, so he wasn't
12:35
too happy. And he goes into the ute and he found a can of
12:37
four X that I shook up. After a gig, we played it was
12:41
a free rider, so I thought this would be funny. I shook it
12:43
up in his van, put it in there, and he found it.
12:45
So he cracked it open and pulled the fire out and it got recorded and
12:50
he plugged it and it got on seven News, It got on Yeah,
12:54
it got around and yeah, so he's known as the four X Hero and
13:00
basically four X supplied in with merch hat shirts and even a case for him
13:05
for his troubles, and then he went on Triple M for an interview and
13:09
yeah, so like they're calling, you know, all these sorts of nicknames
13:13
that some he probably wish stuck, some that he that didn't, and yeah,
13:18
like we were even talking to those boys, and yeah, it's got
13:20
some of our stuff played through there, and hopefully there's a bit of a
13:24
relationship there for future stuff to come out because being local in the Brisbane scene,
13:28
we all know, well I've been Australian, we all know Triple M,
13:31
and that plays more of our stuff compared to you know, your electronic
13:35
CRAPERO point five, oh whatever you want to call that radio station, and
13:41
that's not our scene. So yeah, that's more of the mainstream. When
13:43
I'd put it, they probably wouldn't play Chill the fuck Out, but that
13:46
way, Yeah, that's a fucking music and fucking life is a beautiful thing
13:52
if you just sit back and enjoy the ride. Sometimes, yeah, one
13:56
hundred percent, Like you know, I do believe everything has for a reason
14:00
and such a weird story, Like I feel like you gather stories to eventually
14:03
say when you were old, and we're still in those years where we can
14:05
gather those stories. And that's a prime example of one. I was sharing
14:11
stories. I've got one. I've got my own Triple M story. This
14:13
is fucking years ago, like before mybile phones even came out. Like I
14:16
was driving back I think from Ipswich to Oxley and on Triple M there was
14:20
a competition with green Day were coming out and whoever had the best middle name
14:26
won two backstage passes to Green Day And like, I'm my middle name is
14:31
fucking awesome, and I'm driving along and I'm looking for a phone box so
14:33
i could fucking stop and ring didn't go past one at all. Fucking finally
14:37
got home, I've rung them up. I've gone. It's competition still going
14:41
because I've won it and they've gone. Mate, you've missed it by thirty
14:43
seconds. But what's your middle name? And I told him and they've gone,
14:46
mate, you would have won that fucking hands down. They got me
14:48
introduced a few things, went into the fucking studio. They gave me a
14:52
bonus prize, which was a hoodie in the fucking Blowfish CD. Can I
14:56
give this back and them something else? But there may be a my middle
15:00
name stud Ah. I thought it was going to be the words fucking awesome.
15:05
Haha, No, it's stud And they said, mate, you would
15:07
have won that fucking hands down because I didn't go past the public phone box,
15:11
but I didn't make an in in time. Yeah. Right, And
15:13
that one bloke that was sort of sitting around the front, you know,
15:16
probably asking people or can I borrow four bucks? That bloke around the phone
15:18
probably got in there. I got his number two that cut through the fucking
15:22
cigarette and the cut that got me fucking phone box. Yeah, we need
15:26
these contacts, you see. Yeah, we could end up just doing a
15:30
public message. Now. I also understand you guys got a bit of new
15:35
merchandise either out or coming out soon. Yeah that's right. Yeah. So
15:39
the one that I'm really excited for is obviously times of the word you want
15:43
to use is evolving, but styles come in and out, and the one
15:48
that we're bringing out soon is basically like American style jersey, so a nice
15:52
big baggy fit with obviously answer it remains in nineteen the year that we all
15:56
met, the way that we started to form, and we only brought some
16:00
samples in of each size and we couldn't even get them at the bag before
16:04
people wanted them, and like some have even gone around the world. Now,
16:08
one of them that we brought it in was already in Canada and we
16:14
went to a show and I had to take people's phone numbers because they're like,
16:17
I saw just a friend of ours wearing it that I want one of
16:19
those. I do know if it's because we played well or just looked cool.
16:22
So a bit bit from Cole may, a bit from b and we
16:26
hope that's the result. But yeah, that'll be for quite a while.
16:30
That'll be the one that will be flowing out. And if anyone sort of
16:33
once one just direct message us, we always stay on top of that.
16:37
So we're already getting pres for it as we speak, and they're already being
16:40
made very cool now dart to run out of time, so I'll skip through
16:45
this briefly, but you've got a few gigs coming up. You got one
16:48
April was Sick to the Trifford. You got April and twentieth at the Mansfield,
16:52
and May you're playing the tom Cater and Brisbane and you're playing McKay,
16:56
playing Townshill. In the early June you're playing the Sunny Coast Mate, so
17:00
down the eighth get round. Yeah, we're trying our best. So there's
17:03
actually a little bit more than that I can sneak away. So those are
17:07
the ones we're collecting, and they come up as they go some unforture,
17:10
we can't always do them, but yeah, so there will also be the
17:14
cube effector sort of performance as well. In the early April. Then we
17:18
got obviously that m U d u in for April twentieth, and then that
17:22
when we start that tour in May, and already starting to look at doing
17:26
a following one, and then in late August we will be going overseas for
17:32
the first time. Yeah, seem tell us where you go on Sunshine?
17:36
Are we ready for it? I can? I think I'm a fucking has
17:38
any guests, But I'll wait for you tell me alrighty, we are going
17:42
to Japan, Japan? Fu. Yeah, what's what's the appeal in Japan?
17:49
I've never been fair enough, but no, we've We've got a couple
17:53
of you know, like you for your artists where you can see you do
17:57
have like a fan base where you can see where they are up there.
18:00
Seems to be a bit of a growing one there too. It seems to
18:02
be a bit of a scene as well for our type of genres that we
18:06
play. And yes, I feel like it's just everything comes together for it's
18:08
a reasonable place to go where it's Europe is the place to be, but
18:12
you also need a very open checkbook. Yeah, this is a very great
18:17
middle ground start because obviously this will be our first overseas shows basically, so
18:22
it's a good starting point. We've got some contexts there now as well.
18:25
We're speaking some more people. And that's what I've learned a lot about this
18:29
game. It's contacts really do help. And if you go somewhere and you
18:33
do well, you go back and people spread the word. Like as you
18:37
said, we're going to Townsville again and Mackay. Every time we go to
18:41
Mackay, the crowd seems to get bigger and the same people show up and
18:45
they bring their friends. So hopefully we can still just keep improving on that
18:48
no matter where we go. Well, I'll tell you from first hand experience,
18:52
mate, you're gonna love Japan. I've been over there with about eight
18:55
different bands before, and it's just like I was just tour manager and I've
18:59
never felt more like a rock star in my life. It's just they just
19:02
love their fucking metal over there. It's insane. The culture is insane.
19:07
That's exactly where we're going because this is what we're hearing, you know.
19:10
Yeah, it sounds like the Land of Milk and Honey. So like you,
19:11
basically you try and listen to who people have been there before. So
19:15
don't think coming in into any industry. Music is a very strong example thinking,
19:19
you know everything, listen to those that have been there before. That's
19:22
why we're inspired by, you know, certain genres, because those people have
19:26
been there before. I love listening to it. I'm going to listen to
19:29
that advice, even if it's a structure of a song or such a powerful
19:33
impact saying we're just even experiencing going on a tour, it's just take that
19:36
life lesson. Yeah, I think I've worked out a couple of months ago
19:40
that with all the bands I've been there with, we played with about one
19:42
hundred and ten like local support bands, because there's another four or five bands
19:45
on every show, and probably out of one hundred and ten, I've probably
19:48
paid to go and see a hundred of them. Again. That's that's how
19:52
good to pull the quality of bands where like they just well, you know,
19:56
over hear musicians all diversifying, know, like you learn the guitar,
19:59
you learn a bit, drums, you know, you'll have a bit of
20:00
everything. But they're brought up like if you're a guitarist, you play the
20:03
fucking guitar, you know, just specializing that and the musicianship over there made
20:08
it's mind blown. Yeah, that's the thing I discipline, isn't it with
20:12
us? Like because we write all of our stuff together, there's no that's
20:15
your job. You stick to it. Like we're very open minded with our
20:18
creating. So Calvin will be sitting on his drums and he'll hum a guitar
20:22
riff jade being got that magic here. He'll listen to it and he'll play
20:26
something and then I might hear and go I've got another idea for it.
20:30
Cody, who's a very well trained musician, he'll go what about this?
20:33
And songs can quickly come together. But then we will sit on him for
20:37
quite some time to nail it out. And then I just love sitting there
20:41
and just thinking. I go over my notes that I've been writing since I
20:45
was fifteen. For vocals. If I've written a good hook, I write
20:48
down and I have hundreds of word files filled with these, and I just
20:55
go through and what's the message for this song? Either a be get out
20:57
of my face, whatever I think is a great to that a tone.
21:02
I'll piece those together, get my ideas, and I just write a whole
21:04
new structure. And I could sit there for minutes rhenish old song. Or
21:07
I could sit there for in some scenarios six weeks. Yeah, wow,
21:11
yeah dedication brother. Oh like I'll finish like yesterday, a twelve hour day.
21:17
And then I got home, fixed up some of the sort of music
21:19
stuff, and then I set my computer for an hour and I train and
21:22
write, like you know, this is this isn't a joke to us,
21:25
so this is what we care about. This is genuinely the biggest part of
21:29
our life and we care about it. I remember talking Corey Taylor once and
21:33
he told me that he can he can literally spend like weeks on one word
21:38
in one line of song, just trying to find that one fucking right word
21:41
and coming back to it. It's like they're they're the little things in music
21:45
that the little attention to detail that it sort of separates you from, you
21:49
know, being on that level to stepping up in the world. Yeah,
21:53
i'd agree with that. I mean, he's probably one of my all time
21:57
favorites and biggest inspirations. I mean, if you listen to what we do,
22:00
that might become apparent now. But yeah, like I would agree with
22:04
that because I've written a whole song before and we've played it live for a
22:07
year and then I've revisited it because I've learned more of what I might even
22:11
be better at, or something's come across my plate before we recorded it.
22:15
So perfect opportunity to resort of visit that. Because music is forever, you
22:21
know, progressing and not evolving. Yeah, yeah, I mean, yeah,
22:27
if you want to call it that, that's fine. I do see
22:30
it as a linear curve. Yeah, I would listen to his advice very
22:36
much, because I mean, just look at the success that all that everything
22:38
he touches tends to gold, even with his work from with Travis Barker to
22:41
obviously Stone Sow and then you know, joining Slipknot when he did, and
22:47
we all look up to him as a bit of a hero really likewise rather
22:51
likewise fuck Cory Saalo. He's talking about ancient remains and you're e B.
22:56
Burner. All is out. It's either today or tomorrow, but it's March
22:59
thirteenth when this comes down and put only four songs on it. But like
23:03
I said before, mate, every song's got insad identity and it's it represents
23:06
a different side of what you guys do. And I think all together it's
23:10
bloody, bloody good effort. Yeah, it's just fair. I do appreciate
23:12
it because, like you know, everyone has different styles of music and some
23:15
people like one certain band, like I like all sorts of genres, so
23:19
this could be a like our band. We try to make it appeal to
23:22
as many as we can. So one likes a bit of a punk song,
23:26
hopefully you like this one. You might not like our other one,
23:27
but I don't care because someone else likes that one. That's the whole point
23:32
of music. It's different, always blessing me to our bad. It's keeping
23:51
us soul alive, realsing, it's ever lasting. And I saw way o
24:02
I say yes, said well when I say now hello, that he shouting
24:30
on the already for the time and he's got all the shop. I mean
24:36
shot June, that was you will never be a sound And wait, take
24:41
a player, tell you what tis a stout shout? Fuck it up?
24:56
Open away eyes what you're saying. I'm fata mamma, b can't right,
25:00
I can be holy monny now welcome to the days. Can't remembered you,
25:32
Charlie. John's just a pleasing a we joed out. Just he sorry Tea,
25:37
say yes, I have chat always shot, always trust in a soul
25:47
sho far const a noise complace. We'll never shut him down banging on the
26:27
door. We'll answer and say, chuck us all that we wore at the
26:47
bottom of a power and a bottle holds off roscot too. It's all wilt
26:55
on his side. Shoot your shot costs a pie. No song, no shot