Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Bowstrings & Breakthroughs – NE OBLIVISCARIS’ TIM CHARLES on 'Citadel', Classical Roots, And Pioneering Metal With Violin

Transcript

Bowstrings & Breakthroughs – NE OBLIVISCARIS’ TIM CHARLES on 'Citadel', Classical Roots, And Pioneering Metal With Violin · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hi.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: My name's Tim Charles. I am the singer violinist for
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: Nail Viscaris and excited to be here chatting with Heavy
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: mag Beautiful.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much, Neilbliviscarus has been around since two thousand
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and three, but it was with Citadel that the band
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: really hit the international stage. Looking back, what do you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: think made that album such a breakthrough for the band?
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: I guess a big part of it was the fact
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: that it was our second record and it was the
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: first one that had proper label support. You know, our
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: first album, Portal of I, was initially self released on
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: my own record label, Welcome Records. You know, we ended
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: up adding a record deal to get licensing in Europe
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: through Code six sixty six. But you know, the release,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: as far as the international element for a Portal of
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: I was fairly small, whereas Citadel was you know, a
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: proper could deal with Season and Miss. It was in
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: stores around the world, so there was just a lot
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: more coverage of it, and I guess it was also,
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: you know, our chance to keep continuing to explore different
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: sounds and you know, mature a little bit in regards
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: to the way we record, the way we mix and
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: produce the record, you know, like port of our first record,
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: it took us nine years to get from the band
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: starting to doing that record and Citadel we did all
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: in the space of twelve months. But we learned so
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: much over the previous decade that it meant that, you know,
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: we were able to put all of those lessons together
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: and put out an album that really made a big
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: difference in our career and put us onto the international scene.
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: So it sounds like a label backing for you guys
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: at that time really was a good decision and did
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: really help you guys. Yeah.
• 1:58
  Speaker 3: Absolutely.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: You know, the industry is changing a lot and it's
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: quite different now in twenty twenty five. Back to then,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: you know, we signed that deal. It was twenty thirteen
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: we signed the deal. The album came out in twenty fourteen.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: But the reality was that if you wanted to even
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: get a booking agent in Europe or the USA, if
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: you didn't have a record label, they probably weren't going
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: to look at you. And you got to remember this
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: is you know, before streaming was a big thing, and
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: so you know, it's difficult to break yourself as an
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: artist because there wasn't a free way for your music
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: to spread like there is now with something like Spotify,
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: and so, yeah, it really was kind of essential because
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: we got this record deal, and then when we were
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: pitching ourselves to booking agents and things like that, we're
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: able to say, hey, we have a new record coming out,
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: it's with this label, and then they would take us
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: more seriously in regards to well, I like you music,
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: and I can see that you've got you know, backing
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: from the industry, and so therefore people would be more
• 3:04
  Speaker 2: willing to stick their neck out and go, Okay, yep,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: we'll put you on our booking agency, we'll put you
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: on this festival, all that sort of thing.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, interesting, And like you said, I guess nowadays
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: it's easier in certain senses with the Internet. You can
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: just put your music out there for anyone to listen
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: to and hope for the best.
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Now, I wouldn't necessarily say that is a recommended
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: strongty or works, no, but you can and it does
• 3:31
  Speaker 2: work for some. You know, there are some artists that
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: manage to go viral on social media and they get
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: enormous followings without having done a record deal yet. And
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: then some of them decide to then sign with label
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: and some don't. So there are avenues to be more
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: independent these days if you would like, but you know,
• 3:48
  Speaker 2: there's it's definitely a multi choice pathway the music industry
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: in twenty twenty.
• 3:54
  Speaker 3: Five, Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: And you guys just released a remastered tenth anniversary edition
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: of Citadel. How did you approach this redmaster and what
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: changes or enhancements are fans going to hear in the
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: updated version?
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, So when we were creating this record, you know,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: Jens Bogren mixed and mastered both Portlovye and Citadel, and
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: he's an incredible producer and engineer and has done some
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: of our favorite records. When we were doing Citadel, the
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: initial mix that we got was kind of not the
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: right direction that we wanted, and we spent a lot
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: of the mixing process kind of moving it back to
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: what we wanted as a band, how we wanted it
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: to sound. And even though the final result is very
• 4:50
  Speaker 2: high quality and a lot of fans really enjoy the production,
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: for that the reason we then changed to working with
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: Mike Lewis on Ern and then ex August because we
• 4:59
  Speaker 2: wanted to explore some different ways of doing things to
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: see how our music would sound with a different touch,
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: and on Exul, the production we really thought suited the
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: music the best of the four records that we had done,
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: and so the idea was really going to Mike Lewis
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: and saying, hey, would you be able to bring a
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: little bit of the Exule touch to the Citadel album.
• 5:24
  Speaker 2: As far as the differences, you know what, To be honest,
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: some people might not be able to put their finger
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: on exactly what is different, but it's a little bit
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: more open, there's a little bit more space in the
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: mix that makes it sound slightly heavier as well. These
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: are all things you know that are you know, slight
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: slight adjustments, but whether something makes a two percent or
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: a seven percent difference, anything we can do to make
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: it a bit better is something that we really valued.
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: And there's a really fun process to go through and
• 6:02
  Speaker 2: really delve into the record again and spend you know,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: one hundred hours listening to the record NonStop and every
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: nook and cranny of the weight it's supposed to fit together,
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: and discussing different ideas with Mirke Lewis and going back
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: on a few different things, and we're really happy with
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: with how it came out.
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, So would you say that there's little details
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: then in the songs on Excel that you've you've just added.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well yeah, with Citadel, it's like little details that
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: kind of come out a little bit more, and just
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: the vibe in certain sections is a little bit different
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: as well, and maybe a little bit more open, a
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: little bit heavier, a little bit more detail in what
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: you can hear than the original version.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: Yeah, nice explanation. And is there a song that you're
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: excited to play live?
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Absolutely, I think that that record in its entirety.
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: You know, I absolutely love Painters of the Tempest, you know,
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: part one, two and three, you know, twenty three minute song.
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: That's something that you know, we did in full quite
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: a bit when the album first came out in twenty fourteen,
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: and then we hadn't actually done that in full for
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: about a decade because it obviously takes up so much
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: of the set. Yeah, and that was a song where
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: you know, we did we did this set list of
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: playing both Cidel ex Al in Europe last October and
• 7:32
  Speaker 2: getting the chance to play that big, epic twenty three
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: minute song again. I found it so satisfying because it
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: is something that's, you know, definitely, I think one of
• 7:42
  Speaker 2: the best songs that we've ever written and something I'm
• 7:44
  Speaker 2: still really proud of, and so yeah, it's great to
• 7:49
  Speaker 2: be able to revisit that stuff whilst also getting the
• 7:52
  Speaker 2: opportunity to showcase the latest record, ex All, which has
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: been our most successful album to date. Yeah.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: Yeah, definitely.
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: With longer songs, I've always wanted to ask musicians, do
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: you guys always remember what note comes next with those
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: longer songs, or like, do you stuff up sometimes?
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: Well, yes, we stuff up sometimes, but it depends on
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: the musician what sort of stuff. I would say, it's
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: very very rare that I make a mistake that is
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: not remembering what comes next. I'd make mistakes because I'm human,
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: and maybe you get mixed up, or your fingers fumble,
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: or you lose concentration for a second or those sort
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: of things. So no matter how much you practice, there's
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: always going to be some imperfections in every performance. But
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: thankfully we're able to laugh them off a lot more
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: of these days because we were very confident in what
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: we are as a live act, So you know, if
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: we make mistake live We're more likely to make a
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: joke about it then to feel embarrassed, I think. But
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: when it comes to just remembering that the songs, I
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: think it helps a lot if you were the one
• 9:03
  Speaker 2: who wrote it, and so it definitely sticks in your
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: mind when you're the one who writes the stuff. And
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: I think for me personally, you know, I grew up
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: studying the Suzuki violin method. I learned a lot of
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: stuff by ear. It meant that, you know, from me,
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: peeking something up by ear and memorizing pieces is very
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: much second nature. You know. When I was at university,
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: I'm playing twenty minute violin concertos from memory, and that's
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: just something that I had to do as part of
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: my you know, normal practice of being a violinist. So
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: whilst these sort of length of songs are maybe a
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: bit more unusual for a heavy metal band, I guess
• 9:46
  Speaker 2: from the classical world, which you know I come from
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: like equally both because I'm like very much a metal
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: head going back from a teenager. But at the same time,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I've been classical violentce since I was six years old,
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: and you know, i'd be playing like a Beethoven string quartet,
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: which is in four parts over twenty five minutes, and
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: that sort of approach of having an overarching theme over
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: a piece of music but splitting it up into parts,
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: I guess is part of where that came from in
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: the way that I write music for Nabluscarras.
• 10:20
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's so interesting and amazing to think about.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I never really thought about that as you're classically trained,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: and how that would transfer into longer metal pieces.
• 10:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's crazy, it's cool.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think there's definitely a lot from my experience
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: as a classical musician that comes across and informs in
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: different ways the way that I write, the way that
• 10:48
  Speaker 2: I perform, and I think because like I said, I'm
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: kind of equally you know, both of you know, an
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: obsessive metal head whilst also having spent you know, years,
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: you know, I studied you classical violin performance and composition
• 11:01
  Speaker 2: at university and I was thinking, well, maybe I'll join
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: an orchestra, and then Neo was in its infancy while
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: I was studying at Union. Eventually I said this was
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: a lot more fun.
• 11:13
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I definitely agree with you there.
• 11:16
  Speaker 3: I think metal would be more fun.
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: And just touching again on the violin, we've seen you
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: push boundaries.
• 11:22
  Speaker 3: In metal with your violin work. Do you ever get
• 11:24
  Speaker 3: a moment.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Where you think, I can't believe I'm playing this kind
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: of music with a violin.
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah, every now and then I think that it's been
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: such a wonderful thing to not have people to copy,
• 11:38
  Speaker 2: because as a metal violinist, I mean I could have
• 11:44
  Speaker 2: listened on one hand the number of violins that I
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: heard playing in metal, and none of them were actually
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: like you know, well not none of them. Most of
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: them weren't even full time members of the band. You know.
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: Often if there was a violinist, it was a guest
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: on certain songs, or maybe they're not heavily featured in
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: the song, but they've got a solo somewhere. And for
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: enable Askaris, I was trying to interweave the violin throughout
• 12:12
  Speaker 2: the whole song. Like some songs I was playing quite
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: a lot, you know, from the beginning, and I was
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: trying to work out and essentially invent ways that sounded
• 12:21
  Speaker 2: good to me and to my bandmates for the violin
• 12:24
  Speaker 2: to fit in metal, and there wasn't really anyone to
• 12:26
  Speaker 2: copy that was doing violin in the way that I
• 12:29
  Speaker 2: was doing it. The people that I had heard doing violin,
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: most of them were do more doing say folk playing
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: folk violin playing in a metal context, and I don't
• 12:40
  Speaker 2: really play much from there, you know, as a violinist,
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: you know, my background is very much classical, but I
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: also studied does myself. You know, I played a lot
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: of jazz and improvisation and that comes into my playing
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: quite a lot as well. But then also I was
• 12:55
  Speaker 2: just really inspired by guitarists. You know, Jeff Loomis from
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Nevermore one of my absolute favorite guitarists, you know, John
• 13:02
  Speaker 2: Pertucci from Dream Theater. I would listen to these guys
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: play guitar and I would want to play like that.
• 13:08
  Speaker 2: But on the violin, I would hear our lead guitarist
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: Benji playing, and go, man, that's sweeping patterns, so cool,
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: Like can I do that on the violin? And so
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: I was really inspired by by metal guitarists as well.
• 13:21
  Speaker 2: And you know, it's been really cool to see now,
• 13:25
  Speaker 2: you know, in twenty twenty five, you know, there are
• 13:27
  Speaker 2: not a lot, but there are a few more bands
• 13:30
  Speaker 2: with non traditional instruments like metal. You know, you know,
• 13:34
  Speaker 2: I just put out a song with Imminence from Sweden.
• 13:39
  Speaker 2: Their singer at Eddie Burgh is a great violinist as well.
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: We've become friends and they're exploding all around the world,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: and that's been really fantastic to see a band with
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: a violinist doing doing so well in the heavy music scene.
• 13:55
  Speaker 2: And hopefully there's more to come.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I really think that you are probably the trailblazer
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: for playing violin in metal songs like the whole way through,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: like you were saying, because I just thought about that.
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: And whilst I do know a few bands that do
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: feature violin maybe here or there or in certain sections.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: Of songs, you're so right. I can't really think of
• 14:15
  Speaker 3: other bands or.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: A lot of other bands that have a full time
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: violinist in there as well.
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's definitely an unusual element. Yeah, I guess it's
• 14:26
  Speaker 2: also not that common to have a violinist that's also
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: you know, one of the main songwriters, you know, like
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: a primary you know, member of the band. And so
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: that was always the thing that it was like looking
• 14:42
  Speaker 2: for a way of how do you include the violin
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: in a way that is artistically making sense and not
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: being forced, like I don't want to just look at
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: something like like I just want to keep myself busy. Yeah,
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: I only want to play if it's essential to the
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: to the song. A lot of it was just experimenting,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: experimenting with different ways and different sounds of playing. Yeah.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, interesting. And if you guys could do a cover
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: of any non metal song, what would it be and
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: how do you put your unique spin on it?
• 15:17
  Speaker 2: Any non metal song? You know? I remember we've never
• 15:20
  Speaker 2: done a cover before. Yeah, I remember, going back many
• 15:31
  Speaker 2: many years, we talked about the ideas of doing covers.
• 15:35
  Speaker 2: I remember the idea of doing Moonlight Sonata by Beethoven
• 15:41
  Speaker 2: as somehow turning it dow into a metal song was
• 15:43
  Speaker 2: an idea that came up. I remember another one that
• 15:47
  Speaker 2: I thought would be kind of cool was Street Spirit
• 15:50
  Speaker 2: by Radiohead off their Ben's album. But yeah, it's one
• 15:58
  Speaker 2: of those things where I guess, every now and then
• 16:00
  Speaker 2: we have these ideas, but it's never ever, it's never
• 16:02
  Speaker 2: gotten to the top of the to do list. Yeah, yeah,
• 16:06
  Speaker 2: we get it done. You know. I'm sure we might
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: do it something sometime because it would be fun to do.
• 16:11
  Speaker 2: But yeah, just never quite cut around to it.
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: Oh please, if you guys, I think you guys next
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: band meeting need to talk about doing Moonlights and not
• 16:19
  Speaker 1: love I love that song and hearing you guys do
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: it in a maybe a bit more of a metal
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: way would be awesome.
• 16:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, I'll chat to the guys and I'll let
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: Good thank you And Psycroptic, I didn't know if I
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: was going to say that, right, Psycroptic, you guys are
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: touring with and there've been.
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: A huge influence on you guys.
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: What was it like the first time you saw them
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: live and how did it impact near Bliviscars.
• 16:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, when we were starting in two thousand and three,
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: the event started. We were playing our first shows in
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: two thousand and six and so a Coptic we're really
• 16:58
  Speaker 2: just starting to step up to be one of the
• 17:00
  Speaker 2: the leading bands in the Australian metal scene. You know.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: They were kind of trailblazers touring off to the US
• 17:06
  Speaker 2: and Europe at a time when that was really rare.
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Like here in twenty twenty five, there are so many
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Australian bands touring around the world from the heavy music scene,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: it's quite extraordinary. But you go back twenty years and
• 17:19
  Speaker 2: it was quite a rare thing and Psycroptic were one
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: of the only bands doing that to the level that
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: they were. It was like them and Parkway Drive and
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: like a couple others and that was it. And I'm
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: not exaggerating. You know, you could count them on one hand.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: So that was really inspiring because that showed us what
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: was possible for an Australian metal band. As far as
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: seeing them live for the first time. Man like, I
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: remember just being hypnotized in particular by how tight the
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: band was, and especially Dave Haley on drums, you know,
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: as a drummer, he was the tightest drummer that I
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: had ever seen at that point, you know, I remember
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: I seeing him and then also you know Derek Ridy
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: for hay To to all, you know, around the same time,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: and both of them just completely blew me away. And
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: both of them, you know, those guys I mentioned, were
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: influencers on our drama Dan Presland in those early days
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: of Nailbscarus as well, So you know, just setting that
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: bar of professionalism of being incredibly tight, releasing consistently great records,
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: and you know, it's really nice, you know, to be
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: able to do this tour together because you know, we've
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: only played together a couple of times. You know, we
• 18:28
  Speaker 2: opened for them, I think it's two thousand and eight,
• 18:31
  Speaker 2: I think in Melbourne and Canberra, and that's that's it.
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: And so here we are, seventeen years later, finally getting
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: to do a tour together. And yeah, definitely honored to
• 18:43
  Speaker 2: have them part of this tour. Yeah, oh, that's that's
• 18:46
  Speaker 2: so nice.
• 18:47
  Speaker 3: And you mentioned that you're going to the US. I
• 18:49
  Speaker 3: believe was it next week?
• 18:51
  Speaker 2: Yes?
• 18:52
  Speaker 3: How do you feel about that?
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: Like coming all this way and now being able to
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: tour much more regularly overseas.
• 19:01
  Speaker 2: It's something I'm really grateful for. It's a very special
• 19:04
  Speaker 2: thing to get to perform your music and have people
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: turn up just period. The catch, of course, is that
• 19:11
  Speaker 2: unless you're in Vegas and people travel to see you,
• 19:14
  Speaker 2: you have to travel to the people so that they
• 19:19
  Speaker 2: all have a chance to come along. And it's one
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: of these wonderful things to be able to see the world,
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: to be able to meet people around the world. It's
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: something that's really impacted the way that I view, you know,
• 19:33
  Speaker 2: the world at large and the way humanity interacts and
• 19:36
  Speaker 2: all that sort of stuff, as well as just the
• 19:39
  Speaker 2: opportunity just to play our songs each night, to be
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: able to six nights a week, hop on stage in
• 19:44
  Speaker 2: a different place every night and have people turning up
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: and excited to hear the songs that we've written. And
• 19:51
  Speaker 2: that's something that's such a privilege.
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 19:53
  Speaker 2: I'm such a huge fan of music, and you know,
• 19:56
  Speaker 2: from when I was in high school, I was obsessed
• 19:58
  Speaker 2: with bands, and I would be the guy in the
• 20:01
  Speaker 2: front row like flipping out about the fact that, oh
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: my god, I can't believe I'm here seeing like Devin Townsend.
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: That's like two thousand and three. I remember being at
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: the Corner Hotel in Melbourne. You know, I would have
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: been like twenty one seeing him for the first time,
• 20:17
  Speaker 2: and he was one of my absolute favorite artists in
• 20:19
  Speaker 2: the whole world. And you know, those sort of scenarios,
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: it was all the time for me because I was
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: that obsessed with music and bands, and I just dreamed about, Oh,
• 20:32
  Speaker 2: wouldn't it be so cool to be up on that
• 20:33
  Speaker 2: stage maybe opening for these bands. So to then be
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: now in this situation where we're we're not just you know,
• 20:40
  Speaker 2: opening for these bands, We're headlining those venues and we're
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: doing our own thing, you know, creating our own history
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: with the music that we create is something that I
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: think that I always try to remind myself that, you know,
• 20:56
  Speaker 2: the fifteen year old or even just the twenty five
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: year old Tim would have just been flipping out about
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: the fact I get to do this, So it is
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: a real great privilege.
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, you're on the other side of it now.
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: I totally know how that feels. Although even though I
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: am not in a band, but I can only imagine
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: you must pinch yourself a little bit.
• 21:15
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and look to be honest. One of the other
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: things that I appreciate the most is the fact that
• 21:24
  Speaker 2: you know, our band has got to the level where
• 21:26
  Speaker 2: there's now this mutual respect with some artists that I'm
• 21:31
  Speaker 2: huge fans of. So it means that you know, you're
• 21:35
  Speaker 2: hanging out at a festival in Europe, for example, and
• 21:38
  Speaker 2: you run into a band backstage that I'm a huge
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: fan of. But then also now they're friends because hey,
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: we've toured together and we both love each other's bands,
• 21:47
  Speaker 2: And that's that sort of thing, which you know, I
• 21:50
  Speaker 2: take a lot from because you know, I do hugely
• 21:54
  Speaker 2: appreciate the talents of other musicians and for some of
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: those people that I enormously appreciate what they do to
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: be able to come back and say, hey, we love
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: what you do as well, something that I kind of
• 22:05
  Speaker 2: don't take for granted, and it's a really kind of
• 22:07
  Speaker 2: special thing that I cherish as well.
• 22:09
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, how nice. And speaking of other musicians, what
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: are you listening to at the moment?
• 22:16
  Speaker 2: What am I listening to at the moment? You know,
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I was just listening to Immin instruct a kind of
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: an updated version of their album The Black just the
• 22:28
  Speaker 2: other week, called Return of the Black, and I was
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: listening to that last night a couple of times in
• 22:35
  Speaker 2: a row. There's a song with me on that record,
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: Come What May and finally Enough. I don't really love
• 22:40
  Speaker 2: listening to like myself, and so I was kind of
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: getting to that song and then I hear me and
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: I'm like, maybe I'll skip this one. I've heard this
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: song about a hundred times. But I absolutely love those guys.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: They're a fantastic band. You know, become become friends, and
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: it's been really great. Aside from that, I mean, there's
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: so much good stuff out at the moment. I've been
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: listening to the new Lacuna Coil album, Rivers of Niall
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: put out some incredible songs just recently, The Halo Effect,
• 23:12
  Speaker 2: kill Switch, Engage, the Spirit Box is actually amazing. I
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: hadn't really got into them before, but I've been really
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: enjoying their new record. The new Sleep Token song was fantastic.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: I mean, there's a lot of really good stuff. At
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: the moment, I've got like a playlist in front of me.
• 23:31
  Speaker 3: Yeah, you've got a good brange of artists there.
• 23:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and then but look in amongst that, I'm also
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: you know, going back to older records. So I guess,
• 23:43
  Speaker 2: you know, I've been listening to a lot of hardcore
• 23:45
  Speaker 2: music like mad Ball, who are in your cardcore band,
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: and I kind of got in the mood for them
• 23:49
  Speaker 2: because I discovered the Sydney hardcore band Speed Yes, and
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: they reminded me of mad Ball. And so now I've
• 23:56
  Speaker 2: been listening to all this mad Ball because I just
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: went and saw Speed here Elvin a couple of weeks ago. Yeah.
• 24:03
  Speaker 2: And at the same time, you know, every time I
• 24:04
  Speaker 2: pick up my daughter in the car, we're probably putting
• 24:07
  Speaker 2: on Bring Me the Horizon, which is her favorite band,
• 24:09
  Speaker 2: or Katie Perry, you know, And you know, I've kind
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: of learned to appreciate everything, you know, having a teenage
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: daughter and who's opened lots of lots of music, and
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: it's just great to explore lots of lots of different things,
• 24:26
  Speaker 2: you know. Like I said, I was just at Speed
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: the other the other week, but you know, I went
• 24:30
  Speaker 2: and saw Billie Eilish a few days before that as well.
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: You know.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a lot of good music and a lot
• 24:36
  Speaker 2: of different areas and it's always interesting to see people
• 24:39
  Speaker 2: form and see what's out there.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's so good that you've got
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: an open mind to music, especially I know, having kids
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: as well. I was always like, I will never ever
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: listen to pop, Like I hate pop, But now that
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: my kids are into some pop artists, I can appreciate
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: talent when it's there.
• 24:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that, you know, pop music is something
• 25:02
  Speaker 2: that as a genre I don't listen to on a whole,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: but I make exceptions for a particular artists that grabbed me. Yes,
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: And there are some artists as well where maybe I
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: don't love the songs exactly, but I can appreciate they're
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: incredibly talented. I can appreciate that maybe they're a fantastic singer,
• 25:23
  Speaker 2: and I can appreciate why they're doing really well. But
• 25:26
  Speaker 2: you know, I mean to be honest, Like, one of
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: my favorite bands from more than twenty years has been Coldplay.
• 25:31
  Speaker 2: They're like one pop artist that I absolutely love. You know.
• 25:36
  Speaker 2: I kind of learned to do a lot of falsetto
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: clean singing listening to Coldplay when I was about twenty
• 25:43
  Speaker 2: twenty one years old and then kind of just stuck
• 25:47
  Speaker 2: with me. And it was something that you know, my
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: sister was really into them and my mom and every
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: time a new record will come out, you kind of
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: talk about it and at the same time, then a
• 25:56
  Speaker 2: few minutes later I might be listening to Emperor or
• 25:58
  Speaker 2: a Model and everything in between, you know. So I
• 26:03
  Speaker 2: think that the ability just to appreciate that there is
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: good music in every genre and just respect people for
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: the fact that we all have quite different taste.
• 26:12
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and that's okay, Yeah, yeah, definitely.
• 26:15
  Speaker 1: No.
• 26:15
  Speaker 3: I like your way of thinking. And last questions for
• 26:19
  Speaker 3: fans coming.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Last question for fans coming to the show, can you
• 26:23
  Speaker 1: give us a little sneak peek into what the VIP
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: experience might be like?
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so the VIP experience is something that we just
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: did this for the very first time in Europe last October,
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: it went really well, so we were kind of keen
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: to include it this time as well. Essentially, we have
• 26:41
  Speaker 2: about an hour before doors opportunity for everyone to come in,
• 26:46
  Speaker 2: get any of your nail Uscas memorabilia signed by the band,
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: take a photo with all of us. Then generally we
• 26:53
  Speaker 2: have a bunch of time to kind of hang out,
• 26:55
  Speaker 2: ask questions and just take a bit of time to
• 26:58
  Speaker 2: kind of to hang out with each other, which is
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: really really nice. You know in Europe. Sometimes I was
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: bringing along my violin for a bit of show and
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: tell a little things like that as well. You know,
• 27:10
  Speaker 2: we also have this you know, custom Nabluskas tote bag
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: with this really special limited edition item that Zen actually designed,
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: which was this eggs all key in this kind of
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: special black and gold pouch and it's kind of this
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: limited edition special item that you can only get through
• 27:34
  Speaker 2: these VIP experiences you know, as well as you know
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: VIP Lamin and all that sort of stuff. So you know,
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: it's one of those things where we haven't done it
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: in Australia before as well, because you know, we used
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: to obviously be hanging out a lot at shows here
• 27:49
  Speaker 2: in Australia and it felt like maybe a silly thing
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: to do, but the reality is is that because the
• 27:55
  Speaker 2: shows have gotten a lot bigger. Like last time we
• 27:58
  Speaker 2: played in Melbourne, for example, you know, there's like twelve
• 28:00
  Speaker 2: hundred people there and I didn't meet one fan the
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: entire night because I can't go out into the crowd
• 28:06
  Speaker 2: because it's like there'd be too many people wanting to
• 28:08
  Speaker 2: talk at once. So you're backstage, you play the show,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: and you don't meet anyone at all. And so that's
• 28:15
  Speaker 2: why we thought it would be a good opportunity to
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: be able to offer fans to be able to catch
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: up in a way that you know, we can hang
• 28:23
  Speaker 2: out a bit and get to meet people and hear
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: I guess what their journey has been like with with
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: our music as as well.
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I absolutely love that. As a fan, I
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: think it's so nice when bands do that and you
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: get that opportunity because and that's what so many fans
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: want as well, is the chance to just you know,
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: maybe even meet their favorite artists.
• 28:45
  Speaker 3: So yeah, well Doug, you guys, I'm so glad that
• 28:47
  Speaker 3: you're doing that.
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, thank you very much for your support.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: No, no, worries and we can't wait for June. Thank
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: you so much for all your time today.
• 28:56
  Speaker 2: Thank you very much. Angela appreciate your time.