Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Backstage With IN HEARTS WAKE At KNOTFEST BRISBANE 2025

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Backstage With IN HEARTS WAKE At KNOTFEST BRISBANE 2025 · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We're back again at Not Best Not Best twenty twenty five,
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: and we've got the pleasure today of speaking with Jake from.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: In Heart's Wake Welcome. Hey, hey Goment.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: So you guys your first cab off the range today,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: and I don't think we've ever done an interview this
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: early before. Like, are they testing your or are they
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: testing us?
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Great question.
• 0:19
  Speaker 3: I think they're testing both of us to see the
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: make sure they're awake and that catering is functioning early
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  Speaker 3: is it?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it works, it works as coffees. It's all happening,
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: nice NICs.
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  Speaker 4: Now.
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  Speaker 1: The first show of the Not First twenty twenty five
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: is in Melbourne on Friday, which was two days ago.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: So asking the obvious question, but how was it?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: We've seen the photos.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it was really good.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: I'm glad they started down in Melbourne. From what I hear,
• 0:42
  Speaker 3: you know, it was one of the bigger ones. And
• 0:45
  Speaker 3: it's good because because everyone's able to push and promote
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: how good it was, the other city's have a chance
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  Speaker 3: to go, oh wow, this is happening, let me come
• 0:53
  Speaker 3: and like come.
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: So it started with an explosion is probably the best
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: way to put it.
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  Speaker 3: And how was your said man It was way better
• 0:59
  Speaker 3: than I thought it was going to be because we
• 1:01
  Speaker 3: had guests dropping in and doing things for people coming
• 1:04
  Speaker 3: from New York people, you know, Jamie. We had a
• 1:06
  Speaker 3: few put it this way, people coming and doing things.
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: But it wasn't rehearsed. We talked about it. When that
• 1:12
  Speaker 3: shit happens, you don't know how it's going to go.
• 1:14
  Speaker 3: There's an organized chaos and it's a trust and it
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: went really smoothly.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: So I'm pleased me that's happening today.
• 1:19
  Speaker 3: We're going Yeah, well, the surprise that had in Melbourne,
• 1:22
  Speaker 3: if you know then it's not a surprise, but yes,
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  Speaker 3: it's happening today and it worked.
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: So don't look it up.
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  Speaker 2: Just stay surprised. This is.
• 1:32
  Speaker 4: Not yet.
• 1:34
  Speaker 5: Well good all right. So we did have a chat
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  Speaker 5: a couple of moments ago. I did review your last album,
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  Speaker 5: and I'll give you a bit of a backstory. So
• 1:41
  Speaker 5: when I jumped in to review it, I actually thought
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: i'd reviewed you before and possibly shit canjas, but I hadn't,
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  Speaker 5: which is a good thing. So I jumped in and
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  Speaker 5: it was an absolute fucking banger of an album.
• 1:55
  Speaker 4: How has it been received?
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  Speaker 2: Really good?
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  Speaker 3: It's like I feel like this record is use of
• 2:01
  Speaker 3: a better term. It's what comes to mind, like meat
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: and potatoes, like the solid stuff that you just like.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: It scratches an itch and it feels good to have.
• 2:11
  Speaker 3: But it's not the most exotic cuisine that you might
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: order at some fancy restaurant, but it does that roast
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: in a really well in that it was what we
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: felt it needed to be created at the time. With
• 2:23
  Speaker 3: all the anger expression, the passion, and the drive to
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: reclaim the band and just be a heavy four piece
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: rather than putting bells and whistles and wanting to recreate
• 2:33
  Speaker 3: the genre. It was just really satisfying. So I'm stoked
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: with how it's been received.
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  Speaker 4: It's really heavy and really solid, and it just keeps
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  Speaker 4: up that pace all the way.
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  Speaker 3: It keeps up the pace and it's authentic to how
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: we were feeling. Rather than just trying to be a heavy,
• 2:46
  Speaker 3: relentless record. It was like, this is how we feel,
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  Speaker 3: So it just perfect alignment of the two.
• 2:51
  Speaker 5: Yeah, and we just talked about your collabs on stage,
• 2:55
  Speaker 5: people coming up, so the album's full of them too.
• 2:57
  Speaker 3: The album is all of our albums have always been
• 3:00
  Speaker 3: by one. It's just something we've always done for the
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: moment one is collaborate.
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  Speaker 5: Yep, so big question, without pissing off any of your friends,
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  Speaker 5: what's your favorite one?
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  Speaker 3: Look, the favorite one, it's probably two, it's twofold. I
• 3:17
  Speaker 3: really enjoyed working with Winston because I've always looked up
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  Speaker 3: in like as a kid going to some of his
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  Speaker 3: first shows. I was the young teen they're going to
• 3:24
  Speaker 3: them and just admiring what they were doing back then
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  Speaker 3: and still the mod what they do now. Getting to
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  Speaker 3: collaborate with him was just a really really cool and
• 3:34
  Speaker 3: great opportunity as far as unique opportunities go. To collaborate
• 3:38
  Speaker 3: that Michigama song on the newest record, we got the
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  Speaker 3: Michigan's best artists happen to all be playing in town,
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  Speaker 3: thirty minutes away from the studio, and we said, hey,
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  Speaker 3: after the show, would you all come, and we're all
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  Speaker 3: trying and to co write this thing together.
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  Speaker 4: Oh yeah, that's one. You've got four that's four or
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  Speaker 4: five guests on or something.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, And the whole songs about just how tough it
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  Speaker 3: is and how you got to enjoy the cold in
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  Speaker 3: Michigan is how it can all relate to this is
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  Speaker 3: like you know, it builds a tough brood, So we
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  Speaker 3: got King, like David from King and everyone who wo
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  Speaker 3: just like lend us their cars put us up over
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: the years recording there, we gave them a spot.
• 4:12
  Speaker 5: Okay, cool without the live collaborations that might happen today.
• 4:18
  Speaker 5: Have you got any more coming up for future releases?
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  Speaker 5: Anything you can let us know about collaborations? Yeah?
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  Speaker 3: No, Usually the song will speak, the song will speak
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: what who needs to be involved, rather than lining up
• 4:31
  Speaker 3: the artists first, so there's nothing lined.
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  Speaker 1: Up and actually interjack there. Like I've heard a lot
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: of people say that, like the song will speak to
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  Speaker 1: the artists, Like what do you actually mean by a
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: lot of musos out there with people that non musos
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  Speaker 1: who think like how can this song speak?
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  Speaker 3: Like it's kind of like it's like who whose voice
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  Speaker 3: is going to sound good in this? Or like what
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: actor would suit that character in the role of a movie,
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: Like you're probably not going to put the rock in
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the next June film unless he was playing like the
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  Speaker 3: j Mamoa character, and you know, wouldn't put him as
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: a lead tim the chant.
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  Speaker 2: It's gonna be someone much more vulnerable.
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  Speaker 3: And so I feel like it's creating the setting and
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  Speaker 3: being like oh, Winston's a good narrator for something like
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  Speaker 3: this that feels really speaks to this sound.
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  Speaker 2: But I feel like that's kind of what I mean
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  Speaker 2: in that sense. So either the story or the sonic song,
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  Speaker 2: the song itself musically will determine.
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  Speaker 4: I feel that one in particular, he did fit in
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  Speaker 4: really well, like it was just meant to be there.
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  Speaker 2: That's right.
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  Speaker 3: And him and I we bumped into each other cleaning
• 5:28
  Speaker 3: up the flood, like cleaning up from a flood, and
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: that's how.
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: So the story was like, we know what happened, let's
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: tell it.
• 5:34
  Speaker 5: Yeah, all right, So talking about stories, I'm pretty sure
• 5:38
  Speaker 5: I fucked this up in the review. The whole concept
• 5:41
  Speaker 5: between the two albums, the tarot card concept.
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: Can you give it to me in your work?
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  Speaker 3: Sure, there's twenty two major arcana tarot cards in every
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: tarot deck. There's seventy out cards in the deck, twenty
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  Speaker 3: two of major arcana. That means the archetypes, the Hermit,
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: the full all these characters are always found in Star
• 5:57
  Speaker 3: Wars and a lot of the Rings. You know, the
• 5:59
  Speaker 3: wizard as the Wizard as the magician. So those archetypes
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: have always been in the tarot. X because there was
• 6:05
  Speaker 3: twenty two way back when my mum's at Tara Reida
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  Speaker 3: still is. We did divination and it just so happened
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  Speaker 3: that we had eleven songs. We picked eleven cards that
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: were appropriate for the meetings of those songs. There was
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: always eleven left over that hadn't They was just we
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  Speaker 3: knew they were there.
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  Speaker 2: It wasn't like we have to do it, but it.
• 6:21
  Speaker 3: Was just an awareness this was the perfect time to
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: come back, revisit it twelve years later and finish off
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  Speaker 3: that story.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so that's that's my spield.
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  Speaker 4: Awesome. So you do think about your songwriting.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Definitely, Yeah. Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So there's even hints of how the Tarot cards look
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: is in the lyrics and some of the songs, and
• 6:38
  Speaker 3: also those collaborating artists they might represent those storytellers of
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  Speaker 3: those archetypes in the song.
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so very yeah, pretty intentional.
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  Speaker 5: It sounds like I need to read some more lyrics.
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  Speaker 1: So there's anything like Tarot cards associated with speakiness and
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: stuff a lot, there's anything speaking come out from the
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: songs that you write about the.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: Specific I wouldn't say spooky.
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  Speaker 3: Look, everyone thinks it's the common thing is thinking that
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  Speaker 3: Taro's might be like an Ouiji board or like we're
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: summoning spirits or we're fortune telling you know something that's
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: to come, But it's not all that.
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  Speaker 2: It's sort of saying, what is also.
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: One of the things we're not seeing that are happening
• 7:16
  Speaker 3: in our lives right now, what's in the shadows, what's
• 7:19
  Speaker 3: behind us, what's around us? So I don't feel like
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: many of them have in fore warning. However, when we've
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: dealt with the elementals of our records, like a fire record,
• 7:29
  Speaker 3: that's when it was spooky. You're writing a worldwide suicide
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: record and having a woman on the front holding a
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  Speaker 3: needle as one of the many things that she was
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: showing the current stage of the cycle of the world.
• 7:37
  Speaker 3: Pandemic hits like within three months later and we had
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: a song worldwide suicide and pushfires breakout.
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: So you've had some moments.
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: But I feel like as an artist, if you're on
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: the pulse of like feeling into where the society is
• 7:49
  Speaker 3: at and the psyche of the world, whether it's your
• 7:51
  Speaker 3: scrolling or whether you're having conversations, you're generally.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Feeling like what's about to happen? Because that's to come
• 7:58
  Speaker 2: through I feel, Yeah.
• 8:01
  Speaker 5: So talking about what's about to happen, what's about to
• 8:03
  Speaker 5: happen with the band, what's on the cards at the moment,
• 8:05
  Speaker 5: new music or anything on the way, not yet.
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: This is right now.
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  Speaker 3: It's like, let's tour this thing and really show what
• 8:12
  Speaker 3: we can do as a four piece and also surprise
• 8:14
  Speaker 3: people rather than showing at the van as one man down.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: Let's show us what we're like, stronger than ever with
• 8:21
  Speaker 3: our four foundational members.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: So that's we're in the phase of that.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: But three point zero like it's coming because now I
• 8:27
  Speaker 3: feel I feel that we've really solidified what we can
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: do and there's been no worry or any bad feedback.
• 8:33
  Speaker 3: The tours are selling up more than they were before,
• 8:37
  Speaker 3: so I'm excited for what's coming.
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because setting us up for something big, awesome.
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: We're going to have to call it quits today because
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: somebody else wants your time, brother, But thanks very much.
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: You're always a please to chated with.
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: Thanks j