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New Beginnings With SAM WOLSTENHOLME From AEON NEXUS · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:23
  Nine Iron Costs Never. Hi. I'm Sam from a on Nexus. It's
• 0:30
  my new project that I formed last last year and now we've we've hit the
• 0:36
  ground of ground running this year with some shows out our debut single release that
• 0:42
  will be leading up to an EP in a few months. But yeah,
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  so we're progressive metalcore, so inspired by bands like Spirit Box, Tessa Act,
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  Architects, North Lane, that sort of thing. Yeah, and and
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  uh it's it's It's been a real passion project for me for quite a while.
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  I wanted to front a heavier band and so learned to scream and found
• 1:12
  some amazing musicians to work with and here we are. Betiful Sam, thanks
• 1:18
  for joining us this evening. Thank you. I was going to start with
• 1:22
  this later on in the in the interview, but I think we might get
• 1:23
  it over and done with first, just so people know who you are and
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  what this project is about. So music lovers, especially around the Brisbane scene,
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  we probably know you better from your time in Seraphic, but now started
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  this new band, AI on Nexus. So that was about the band and
• 1:38
  how it came to be, how you came from Seraphic to this and what
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  you're about basically well as I said about Yeah, about about five years ago.
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  Now, there was a lot going on in my life. When there
• 1:55
  was loging onto my personal life, basically everything changed. I I went through
• 2:02
  a lot of a real transformation, I think, and I was a bit
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  lost. I've been I've been at at least musically, you know, I
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  was in seraphic. I'd been doing symphonic metal for a number of years,
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  and but then suddenly kind of my life imploded. Then I listened to the
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  album Alien by North Lane and it really resonated with me, completely changed my
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  life. And I'll be honest, it was it was just something. It
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  really stuck with me. And then it just began. It began this love
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  affair that I now have with metalcore. And you know, I kind of
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  I had a vague idea in my mind of wanting to do something like that,
• 2:49
  something heavier, but I thought that that could never really be a possibility
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  for me because I'm because I'm a classically trained vocalist, even though you know,
• 3:00
  I've been doing metal for a number of years. But yeah, and
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  before before I was, before I did metal, I was actually training and
• 3:13
  studying to be an opera singer. So I thought, you know, those
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  two worlds could never collide. I could never do harsh vocals. That's not
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  a thing, and so it was kind of, you know, it was
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  always kind of a dream in the back of my head that I thought,
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  no, that's not possible. But then yeah, I know, some time
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  went by, Seraphic decided to go on hiatus. The pandemic really killed us
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  all, to be honest, you know, like it's it was a real
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  challenge for a lot of bands, and we were no different. And so
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  then musically things kind of were a bit of a standstill for me, and
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  I thought, why not revisit this stream, give it a go. So
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  I committed to start of last year, I committed to getting some lessons to
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  learn the proper technique for for harsh vocals, and that's what I did.
• 4:08
  I learned I did it properly because I wanted to make sure I knew how
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  to do it properly as safely, and discovered you know how much I loved
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  it, and then just sort of went about the emotions, put out an
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  ad, then jammed with the members who are now today and on Nexus,
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  and we were just, yeah, I got along really well creatively. We're
• 4:30
  all vibing and collaborating writing this great music together. And yeah, so last
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  year was a really was a really transformative year in terms of I think,
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  I think maybe backing myself and learning to have a bit more confidence in myself,
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  you know. I think I had a lot of negative self talk around,
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  like and limited limiting self beliefs around you could you can only ever be
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  a clean singer, or you can only ever do this kind of style of
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  metal, or you could only ever really do this, and I I was
• 5:12
  then I got life really forced me to a point where I actually stopped and
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  I thought, well, what do I have to lose? I could just
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  give it a go and see what happens. And yeah, I learned to
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  scream. I discovered that, you know. But as soon as I got
• 5:28
  to handle the technique, I discovered how much I loved doing it and wasn't
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  too bad at it. And then yeah, and it just all sort of
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  fell into place as I found the right the members to work with for this
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  project. And yeah, now now here we are releasing music, and I
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  think the biggest point of difference, as well as the fact you're seeing metal
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  metal corey stuff, is you've pitched the keyboards. You just out the front.
• 5:50
  You're the sole front person now, is that right? Yes, that's
• 5:55
  right. Yeah, that was definitely that's that was very much a conscious choice
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  for me. Well, as you'll you'll hear into Twin Hurricanes, the song
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  that we've just released, and then in future singles which we will release very
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  soon. Piano does feature in our music, but it's not front and center,
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  like it wasn't seraphic. You know, There's there's lots of synths as
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  well that I've written for this band, and obviously a lot going on with
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  the rhythm section guitars based drums to add to really give that more progressive,
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  modern flavor. But in terms of performing live, it was definitely very much
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  a conscious, conscious choice for me. I wanted to, you know,
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  it's something that has heavier elements, like metal core elements. I wanted to
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  really get more involved with the crowd, get really up in there and just
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  you know, start those circle pits and get like just really really feel really
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  connected with people and rile them up. Because who doesn't love going to a
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  metal gig just the singer is growing absolutely at ship, you know, Like
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  that's that's what I wanted to do, and I, and you know,
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  as much as I loved playing and singing, you know, accompanying myself in
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  seraphic like it, and that was a real point of difference for us for
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  sure. I definitely missed that. There was a sense of like real energy
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  that I wanted to have as a front person. And now I feel so
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  so that's what I wanted to have in this band. And yeah, so
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  ya, all right, we'll move on to the single you've just released,
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  which is your debut single called Twin Hurricanes. It came out last Friday.
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  So how's the early reception been to it? Okay, it's been great,
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  Like it's only been a couple of days, but yeah, a bunch of
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  stream Yeah, we're getting like a lot of people talking about it obviously,
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  but a few press opportunities as well. But like over overwhelmingly the comments the
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  feedback that we've received have been so But also I think quite a bit of
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  surprise towards me in particular. I think people thinking, wow, you know,
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  listening to the clean vocals and then suddenly screams come out and Sunder screams.
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  Yes, yeah, yeah, I switch in, especially in Twin Hurricanes.
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  I switched in between them back and forth quite quickly and quite frequently,
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  so I think a lot of people are like, oh wow, and the
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  Yeah, the feedback we've got is that it's really it's it's heavy and catchy,
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  but it's also you know, really different and unique and yeah, like
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  people are really vibing it. It's been awesome. Yeah. Cool. So,
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  as a band release in your debut single, like, what something go
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  through your head? Like? Do you just release the one song that you've
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  got? Now? Do you release the song that you think best represents the
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  band as a whole? Do you think do you release the song that you
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  feel is is your strongest way? What sort of thought goes into it?
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  Yeah? I think so okay, well two things here. So we do
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  actually have and I can say this, we do actually have an EP,
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  all recorded, all ready to go, ready to release. But just things
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  being the way they are nowadays, we're we're following the waterfall single release kind
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  of format. So yeah, so instead of just coming out with here's five
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  songs, have a listen, knock yourself out, I think because we're new,
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  we're wanting to I guess keeps the momentum a bit more consistent. So
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  instead of just releasing everything all at once, or wanting to release a couple
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  of singles and then like, oh yeah, then this this is part of
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  an EP. But so we're actually going to be basically just like one after
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  the other. That's the that's the plan until it culminates in the EP.
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  But in terms of choosing the first single that we would release, twin Hurricanes
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  was definitely it was a more of a his choice because there it's it's like,
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  it's you know, it's a really accessible length. It's short and snappy,
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  it's you know, three and a half minutes, it's a very it's
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  a commercial I guess it's a conventional song structure, the more conventional song structure
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  than some of our others or other songs are a bit more progressive, bit
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  more unconventional in the way they're structured. Ten Hurricanes is very much like verse,
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  chorus, snappy, breakdown, bits, you know, all all the
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  bits and pieces that people love, all packed into three and a half minutes.
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  So we just thought it's a it's a good like, short, short
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  and sharp, impactful way to just be like, we exist here, we
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  are you give you a couple of live shows too. Before releasing your first
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  single. So did the reactions to the song's lives have any any impact on
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  what you released first? Like did you wait to see which ones went down
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  better? And a little bit. But we did kind of have the we
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  were already to have to plan in place to release two in Hurricanes first,
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  but but we did notice that that one has has resonated, like seems to
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  get a bit of a raucous crowd. It's the song in the shows that
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  we've done, it's the song that we've opened with both times. And it's
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  really really fun because, you know, because when you we're all we're playing
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  to crowds of people who don't know us. Twin Hurricanes opens with a good
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  riff and then and a verse of clean vocals and then suddenly a verse of
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  big harshes, and so we've really we've noticed that it's been a really great
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  kind of crowd reaction. You know, open with the riff and then the
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  and then the singing, the clean singing. Everyone's like, oh, this
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  is nice, you know, this is cool. Yeah, love you boys.
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  And then suddenly I come in with the harshes and everyone's like what exactly?
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  Like worth it's kind of from there another yeah, So it's a really
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  and it's a really great and we noticed that we really like kind of coming
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  out of the gate like that. We really grabbed the crowd's attention with that.
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  It's a bit of a bait and switch for almost so so we thought
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  that it would actually, yeah, it would actually be quite impactful as the
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  first single for sure. So let's focus on twin Hurricane is a bit more
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  then, So tell us a bit about the song from a musical point of
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  view and what you're going for with it musically. Yeah, So this it
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  was a combination of things that it started from just an amazing riff that my
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  bassist and guitarist came up with sort of jointly, and it just it was
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  such a it was a really great groove. And I met, like,
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  you know, they recorded it just at a jam one day months ago,
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  and I was like, this is great, and I was sitting at my
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  piano and playing along with it. I just thought, this has a great
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  potential to be a song. But just just the snappy nature of it.
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  I could just hear a piano male really well with it. And then I
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  wrote that it just all went really well together. And then then kind of
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  the lyrics flowed from that, and then I guess it was just it just
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  kind of lent itself to, you know, with those those catchy, kind
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  of earwomy melodies and though and that one, a few couple of hero groovy
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  riffs. It just really lent itself to. What we're trying to do is
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  basically just have like I guess the radio single, you know, the one
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  that it's like everyone's like, oh my god, that chorus is stuck in
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  my head, or oh that riff was really good, oh, oh my
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  god, the breakdown. You know, we wanted to have that single where
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  people make those comments that that's the one that get stuck in their head.
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  So yeah, good guys. Now, the press release says that it delivers
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  a multi layered modern metal core soundscape, like did you elaborate on that a
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  bit? Yeah, so, so I guess I guess that speaks to everything
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  that's going on there. So there's there's a bit of complexity, I guess
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  in the rhythm section, certainly bass and guitars, but drums as well.
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  For us, for a song that follows a fairly conventional song structure, there's
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  the individual parts. You know, there's some really interesting drum fills that my
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  drama does, and then those groovy riffs again, but in terms of the
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  layering, like you've got the piano in there, like the main piano riff
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  that drives it, and then you've got quite a several layers of synths as
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  well to give it that more, to give it a modern edge, but
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  also also taking a bit of a bit of flavor of I don't know,
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  like Blade Runners sort of eighty eighty sinths as well. We wanted to hark
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  back to that. Yeah, and then there's lots of vocal harmonies as well
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  in places, So it's a it's a track that's you know, while it's
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  it's catchy, and it seems fairly sort of I guess stock standard in the
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  way it unfolds, there's a lot that just it's deceptively layered, like there's
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  a lot going on all at once, and we wanted to we wanted to
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  create a really fresh, a fresh, catchy sound inspired by the modern metalcore
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  bands that we love, you know, like architects like spirit Box, but
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  but but including a lot of a lot of different colors and textures and all
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  those layers. Yeah, along those lines like loosely sort of point like,
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  musically, you sound sort of mixes gent grooves with the aggression of raw metal
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  and slaced with some ethereal pop sensibilities, Like it doesn't sound like it should
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  work together, but but somehow it does. Like how much trol and error
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  went into knowing how much was enough for one thing or too much of another
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  thing? Oh my god, trial and error? Like that? That that
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  is the phrase for it. Our songwriting process is the definition of that.
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  All of our songs and and as and now as well, where we've done
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  this ep where in the we've written, where in the process of writing like
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  three more songs of them, we've got heaps on the go, but every
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  song has undergone countless revisions, Like we are perfectionists about it, but we
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  I guess we wanted to make sure the sound was original, and we wanted
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  to like, you know, our real flavor and bringing in all those a
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  lot of different influences that we individually have. But by the same token,
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  we wanted to make sure that while we're creating this layered sound with a lot
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  of different things going on, that it didn't sound too cluttered, like there
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  were still elements that shone through, whether it's whether it's an amazing like a
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  bass solo even because my bassis trapper is a freak in the best way.
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  So whether it's that, or whether it's a great drum fill or whether it's
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  or whether it's a vocal melody, whatever it may be, we want to
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  make sure that individual elements shine through when they need But yeah, like it
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  with our songwriting process really is we put a lot of effort into it that
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  every song undergoes countless iterations to get to a point where every single every single
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  section, every single bar is very intentional, like it has a purpose.
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  It also has a purpose. It's very sort of intricate machine. Yeah.
• 17:29
  So you mentioned the EP, which I'm not going to press you too much
• 17:30
  about now, but is Twin Hurricanes a good sonic representation of what you can
• 17:36
  expect from the Holy p or is there going to be some more more twist
• 17:38
  and turns? There will definitely be more twist and turns there. I would
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  say, yeah, there are some elements on Hurricanes of Twin Hurricanes that absolutely
• 17:48
  are there through through the EP, but every difference. So there's five songs
• 17:56
  on the EP, and each of them have has a slightly different flavor,
• 18:02
  and uh yeah, so I think, as I said before, some of
• 18:07
  the songs on the EP are a bit more a bit I guess, a
• 18:11
  bit more progressive in nature, less like hit you in the face kind of
• 18:15
  riff a bit more. Some of them are a bit more slow burn,
• 18:17
  like it takes a whilder to build up and build up and build up and
• 18:19
  building the tension and then suddenly then there's a there's a really intense heavy section
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  and but yeah, so like there's there are some elements that will definitely be
• 18:33
  there in other tracks. But yeah, we've we've intentionally wanted to create a
• 18:41
  unique experience every track on this EP. Nice. Now, you've played two
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  live shows already, one of which I was fortunate enough to catch it.
• 18:48
  Mos when you support a witch Grinder and you guys breed me away. It
• 18:52
  was a fucking really good show. But you've also got one covered up soon
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  so everyone else can check you out and make sure I'm not lion. Yes,
• 19:00
  ye don't know. You're definitely not helpful and anyone's like there for sure.
• 19:03
  Yeah, so we have we have a show on May nineteenth at the
• 19:06
  bright Side. It is our single launch show, which is very exciting.
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  So we're headlining big thanks to Schema Collective who helped us put this on.
• 19:15
  So there if anyone doesn't know about them, they're a local arts arts I
• 19:21
  guess advocacy or organization. They work with a lot of bands, a lot
• 19:25
  of local artists. Yeah, do amazing work and they've helped us. They
• 19:29
  helped us get our first show, which is great, and they've been really
• 19:32
  they've been helpful in getting us this show. So it's Courted the Floor.
• 19:36
  That's the name of the show. It's actually going to be the first in
• 19:38
  a series, of course of the Floor shows that has the aim of showcasing
• 19:44
  lineups of local core bands, whether they be hardcore, metalcore, death call,
• 19:49
  any any kind of core. The idea is that, you know,
• 19:52
  giving these local bands a platform two yeah, to throw down and be seen
• 19:56
  by by local by punters. Yeah. So that's that's the first one.
• 20:02
  So it's this coming Sunday the Monday, sorry, Sunday, May nineteenth at
• 20:07
  the bright Side and joining us on the lineup will be Ocean Shores, neurot
• 20:14
  Assist and Revenant to three really exciting mostly fairly new up and coming core acts.
• 20:22
  So yeah, it's gonna be good. Yeah, it's good, all
• 20:23
  right, Sambell, Thanks for your time. It's been a pleasure getting to
• 20:26
  know the new band better. But what you put out so far is bloody
• 20:30
  good. So I look forward to hearing some more of it. Nine I
• 20:55
  will curs never mine are done Shore, the passing storm me of God,
• 21:04
  I should I know when you said way and then gret me out? Yeah,
• 21:11
  the tempree your eyes the same, No, that sack all. I
• 21:27
  want fly shot, I want shry walking. Yeah, so I wonder you
• 21:37
  want no way? Do? I wonder you know you just say not last?
• 22:07
  You need a pradage to build, doesn't any Oh? I got dot
• 22:22
  com? Yeah I won't bat really. Day included the detect and UNTENDEDNT