Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Heavy, Theatrical, and Unapologetic: The Rise of NECKO
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I'm Alec.
- 0:01Speaker 2: I'm Alex.
- 0:02Speaker 3: We're Neko.
- 0:04Speaker 4: Fantastic, guys. Thanks for joining us today.
- 0:07Speaker 2: Thanks for having us, Chris. Thanks for having us, Chris.
- 0:09Speaker 2: My pleasure, guys.
- 0:10Speaker 4: So, Neko released your new EP in Neko... What is it?
- 0:16Speaker 4: Neko 2?
- 0:17Speaker 2: Yeah.
- 0:18Speaker 4: Back on May the 15th, guys. So, how's the reception
- 0:21Speaker 4: been for it?
- 0:23Speaker 3: Been good, man.
- 0:24Speaker 1: Just.
- 0:24Speaker 2: It was.
- 0:26Speaker 5: I think we caused a little bit of a stir,
- 0:29Speaker 5: especially with the first single. People seemed to dig track one,
- 0:34Speaker 5: You Got What I Want, and then from there kind of,
- 0:37Speaker 5: you know, it was the springboard to a really cool
- 0:41Speaker 5: few months leading into the launch of the EP and
- 0:45Speaker 5: the show, the launch show in our hometown.
- 0:49Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 0:49Speaker 4: And then the sort of young band coming through, like
- 0:51Speaker 4: in the modern age of music, like how do you
- 0:53Speaker 4: engage people the response of an album you know like
- 0:57Speaker 4: back in the old days used to be chart positions
- 0:59Speaker 4: or sales and shit but these days there's so much
- 1:02Speaker 4: string and shit going in like how do you gauge
- 1:04Speaker 4: whether it's been a success or not.
- 1:06Speaker 1: I feel like i mean charts are still very important
- 1:09Speaker 1: um things like we aria charted we had a few
- 1:12Speaker 1: placements there which was cool um and we had a
- 1:16Speaker 1: few itunes placements as well Um, so that just kind
- 1:19Speaker 1: of shows that it's actually being sold, you know, they're
- 1:22Speaker 1: like their sales.
- 1:23Speaker 2: So it's doing well. God, um, obviously streams are very important. Everyone.
- 1:28Speaker 2: It's kind of a numbers game at the moment.
- 1:31Speaker 1: So we got our streams pretty like significantly higher than
- 1:34Speaker 1: we've had them before. Um, which was great. So it
- 1:38Speaker 1: just showed that people were listening to it. And, um,
- 1:41Speaker 1: I mean, selling out a three 50 cap room kind of,
- 1:45Speaker 1: also helped show that there was some demand for it. Um,
- 1:49Speaker 1: so it all kind of, we kind of tried to
- 1:51Speaker 1: make it, it's one big, um, project.
- 1:53Speaker 2: So, yeah.
- 1:54Speaker 1: Yeah. Sweet.
- 1:55Speaker 4: So can you dive into the EP a bit deeper
- 1:57Speaker 4: musically for us and tell us what you were going for?
- 2:00Speaker 5: Man, I think this one, this one's a little bit
- 2:02Speaker 5: different to the first in, in the sense that the
- 2:04Speaker 5: first one was kind of really, the goal was to
- 2:07Speaker 5: create something that was so true to the 70s influences
- 2:13Speaker 5: as possible, whereas the second EP, we felt like we'd
- 2:16Speaker 5: been gigging for a while. It was time to start
- 2:19Speaker 5: to develop the sound of what Neko is, and I
- 2:21Speaker 5: think a lot of that had to do with inputting
- 2:25Speaker 5: some of our other influences, whether it be R & B,
- 2:28Speaker 5: whether it be heavier metal stuff, whether it be pop stuff.
- 2:33Speaker 5: I feel like there's six tracks, and I feel like
- 2:36Speaker 5: you can kind of group them into pairs of in
- 2:40Speaker 5: a way, like, I feel like there's like the, the
- 2:42Speaker 5: poppy pair, which is, you've got what I want in sinner.
- 2:45Speaker 5: There's the sort of heavier rock, almost metal adjacent sound,
- 2:50Speaker 5: which is bathed in glory and him of the broken.
- 2:52Speaker 5: And then you get that kind of like more balladeering, um,
- 2:56Speaker 5: you know, that, that, that darker sort of slower mystical
- 3:00Speaker 5: style of rock that.
- 3:01Speaker 3: We do, which is beggar on a throne of gold
- 3:03Speaker 3: and what remains.
- 3:04Speaker 5: And it kind of happened naturally, but it's kind of,
- 3:07Speaker 5: us feeling out where we kind of want to go.
- 3:10Speaker 3: Maybe we'll do it all forever. Maybe we won't.
- 3:12Speaker 5: Um, but this, this EP definitely was explorative, you know,
- 3:17Speaker 5: for us.
- 3:18Speaker 3: Yeah.
- 3:18Speaker 2: Great.
- 3:18Speaker 1: Awesome.
- 3:19Speaker 4: Because there's only six tracks on the EP guys, I
- 3:21Speaker 4: want to run through them one at a time and
- 3:23Speaker 4: tell us a bit more about the song musically and
- 3:26Speaker 4: how it fits in with Neko moving forward. So we'll
- 3:29Speaker 4: start with, uh, you've got what I want.
- 3:32Speaker 1: Um, Yeah, it's the track that when we played it live,
- 3:38Speaker 1: even from the start, it got such a great crowd reception.
- 3:40Speaker 1: We just knew we had to record it. There was
- 3:46Speaker 1: an early demo before Alec even started the band. It
- 3:51Speaker 1: was pretty much an R & B song, like very
- 3:54Speaker 1: slow and there.
- 3:55Speaker 2: Were sections missing. But the skeleton of the song was.
- 3:59Speaker 1: There and Reno heard it Like we were just going
- 4:03Speaker 1: through the archive and he was like, man, we got
- 4:05Speaker 1: to bring this back.
- 4:06Speaker 2: And it took a bit of convincing, but we decided to,
- 4:10Speaker 2: you know, rework it. And we love it. I think
- 4:15Speaker 2: it was one of the best decisions we've made.
- 4:17Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that groovy kind of rock that's very easily
- 4:24Speaker 1: digestible for a lot of audiences. You know, you don't
- 4:28Speaker 1: have to have done your homework to understand it. So
- 4:31Speaker 1: we really, really love it. It's got that nice hook.
- 4:34Speaker 1: Me personally, it's got that bass intro that really, I
- 4:42Speaker 1: love playing live and it's, yeah, it just feels like
- 4:45Speaker 1: a really good first track to just, you know, be like,
- 4:50Speaker 1: this is the sound. And then, you know, we subvert
- 4:53Speaker 1: expectations later, but yeah, that it's kind of, how I
- 4:56Speaker 1: feel about that tune.
- 4:57Speaker 4: And we'll move on to the song Hymn of the Broken.
- 5:01Speaker 5: Yeah, that track is kind of something in the way
- 5:08Speaker 5: of a medieval sort of, I suppose, like ode to
- 5:14Speaker 5: early metal. That's the way I hear it anyway. It was,
- 5:18Speaker 5: for me, listening to bands like Dio, Sabbath, These guys
- 5:25Speaker 5: back in the 70s, that was, you know, Queensryche. These
- 5:29Speaker 5: sort of bands, they were a part of my dad's
- 5:32Speaker 5: collection that really stuck with me. And I wanted to
- 5:36Speaker 5: do something a little bit heavier and a little bit darker.
- 5:40Speaker 5: And the boys, you know, seemed to dig it. That
- 5:45Speaker 5: was a song that was written quite early as well.
- 5:48Speaker 5: The only thing that really changed was the vocal. And
- 5:52Speaker 5: then we built it around that riff. and then just
- 5:56Speaker 5: to do something completely different to blindside everyone, a piano.
- 6:01Speaker 2: Solo in the bridge.
- 6:04Speaker 5: So it's quite interesting when you're listening to it, it
- 6:08Speaker 5: takes itself on a journey. And yeah, it's something that
- 6:13Speaker 5: we feel is so unique to us, a song like that.
- 6:17Speaker 4: How did the fans react to the piano part? Did
- 6:20Speaker 4: they take you like they hoped they would?
- 6:23Speaker 2: Well, as the piano player, I'd hope they would take
- 6:26Speaker 2: to it, you know. But I actually, saying that I.
- 6:30Speaker 1: Have heard a lot of, you know, positive things about
- 6:32Speaker 1: that section that it's what we tried to do and
- 6:36Speaker 1: make it just more like a vibe rather than like,
- 6:40Speaker 1: this is going to be a piano solo. Listen, I'm like,
- 6:43Speaker 1: you kind of want to get lost in it. And
- 6:46Speaker 1: it was, yeah, very important for me as a developing
- 6:48Speaker 1: piano player when we recorded it.
- 6:51Speaker 2: I'd only been.
- 6:51Speaker 1: Playing piano for probably, six to nine months so i
- 6:55Speaker 1: was quite new to it and listening back you know
- 6:58Speaker 1: i probably wouldn't play something similar to that again but
- 7:03Speaker 1: it's a nice you know time capsule um you know
- 7:08Speaker 1: development so i always smile when i hear.
- 7:10Speaker 4: It yeah that's awesome okay uh sinner is next sinner
- 7:15Speaker 4: was a part of the archives as well.
- 7:18Speaker 5: It was, um, we did, we did do some writing
- 7:21Speaker 5: closer to the EP, but it's, it's interesting that the,
- 7:24Speaker 5: the first three, um, were written quite early. Um, so
- 7:29Speaker 5: Sinner was one of those demos written for the first EP,
- 7:33Speaker 5: just like you got what I want was in, when
- 7:36Speaker 5: I heard it back when it was written, I was
- 7:40Speaker 5: thinking this is too poppy to put in this first record.
- 7:42Speaker 5: This is, this is too much of a risk. Um,
- 7:45Speaker 5: if we do this, no, one's going to understand what
- 7:47Speaker 5: Neko is. We want to, you know, nail out our
- 7:51Speaker 5: flag down. And again, came up when we were discussing
- 7:55Speaker 5: writing for the second DP and the boys just sat
- 7:59Speaker 5: there and pleaded with me and I said, okay, I'm
- 8:04Speaker 5: going to have to rewrite some of the lyrics, I suppose.
- 8:06Speaker 2: Cause they quite.
- 8:07Speaker 5: Rudimentary in the demo and, um, yeah, developed a little
- 8:12Speaker 5: bit of a story and. You know, it definitely took
- 8:19Speaker 5: from some personal experiences that helped to make.
- 8:22Speaker 3: It a story, you know.
- 8:25Speaker 4: Fair enough. Back a little bit, mate. It's quite interesting
- 8:28Speaker 4: that you say that you had that song for the
- 8:30Speaker 4: first album, but you didn't want to put it on
- 8:32Speaker 4: there because you didn't want to give people the wrong impression,
- 8:34Speaker 4: I guess. But did you think it was more between
- 8:37Speaker 4: the first and the second one you got more confidence
- 8:40Speaker 4: in yourselves and your ability so you didn't mind experimenting.
- 8:42Speaker 1: A bit more? I think it was just more broadening,
- 8:47Speaker 1: you know, what the sound was. I think as a
- 8:50Speaker 1: first release, you kind of want to give people the
- 8:54Speaker 1: right idea of what the general vibe.
- 8:57Speaker 2: Of the band is.
- 8:58Speaker 1: But I think as you, you know, play live more
- 9:01Speaker 1: and obviously there was a lineup change as well. Like
- 9:05Speaker 1: I wasn't on the first EP. I mean, I love
- 9:07Speaker 1: all the songs on it, but I wasn't on it.
- 9:11Speaker 1: So when I joined, I guess I am a bit
- 9:14Speaker 1: more of that poppy side. I definitely love bands like that.
- 9:19Speaker 1: So I was definitely pushing for this tune. And I
- 9:24Speaker 1: guess when you have a lineup change, the sound just
- 9:26Speaker 1: does change organically. So it has kind of broadened and
- 9:31Speaker 1: become a bit more poppy. But I mean, I still
- 9:33Speaker 1: love rock and roll. It's hard not to. But I
- 9:36Speaker 1: think that's kind of why it was right at the time.
- 9:38Speaker 3: Yeah, sweet.
- 9:42Speaker 4: Next, we've got.
- 9:46Speaker 2: Bathed in Glory.
- 9:47Speaker 5: Bathed in Glory was a riff that was written quite
- 9:52Speaker 5: close to the recording of the second EP. It was
- 9:58Speaker 5: something that kind of was a little bit feeling like
- 10:03Speaker 5: it might go into like an alternative tuning. You know,
- 10:07Speaker 5: we experimented in Dadgad, did a little bit of that,
- 10:11Speaker 5: ended up deciding that it would stay in Drop D,
- 10:15Speaker 5: but it's just a heavy blues-soaked riff with these sort
- 10:21Speaker 5: of grand archetypes in, in, in the lyrics and paints
- 10:27Speaker 5: a picture of, um, you know, something that's, something that's
- 10:33Speaker 5: gone terribly wrong, but I love that it's, it's got
- 10:37Speaker 5: an ability to, to give the listener whatever they, whatever
- 10:43Speaker 5: they want to take from it, whatever they want it
- 10:44Speaker 5: to be and apply it to the, to their own life.
- 10:47Speaker 3: I've heard people say, this makes me feel like I'm
- 10:51Speaker 3: in a castle somewhere.
- 10:52Speaker 5: In, you know, hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I've
- 10:56Speaker 5: heard people say, oh, that's quite heartbreaking. I've heard people say, oh,
- 11:00Speaker 5: what is it? Like, tell me, like, I can't work
- 11:02Speaker 5: out what that's about. And I think that's the beauty
- 11:04Speaker 5: of songwriting. So it's quite dark and medieval sounding once again. Yeah,
- 11:11Speaker 5: when I see the cover art of Neko 2, I
- 11:12Speaker 5: think of that track. I think that kind of represents
- 11:16Speaker 5: the sound.
- 11:18Speaker 4: Very cool. Now, the imagery, the name of this next
- 11:21Speaker 4: song conjured up is awesome, but Beggar on a Throne
- 11:24Speaker 4: of Gold.
- 11:25Speaker 2: Yeah, we had fun with that title.
- 11:29Speaker 1: Yeah, that tune was another one of just us three collaborating,
- 11:36Speaker 1: no outside or previous help. We came into the studio
- 11:43Speaker 1: with that, general idea of the song and we had
- 11:47Speaker 1: like we recorded it um and we were like the
- 11:52Speaker 1: day before we were meant to leave we kind of
- 11:54Speaker 1: listened back to it and all kind of looked at
- 11:57Speaker 1: each other like oh this is not this is not
- 11:59Speaker 1: gonna come out you know like this is not good
- 12:02Speaker 1: um so our producer was kind of like well you
- 12:04Speaker 1: guys better fix it very soon or you know you've
- 12:08Speaker 1: just paid for a very expensive demo so he went
- 12:12Speaker 1: to bed And the song got rewritten and we tracked
- 12:19Speaker 1: it all the next day. Like we re redid that chorus.
- 12:22Speaker 1: And then we, it's now probably our favorite song to
- 12:25Speaker 1: play live, especially on, on record. We, there is a
- 12:32Speaker 1: little guitar solo at the end, but we didn't really
- 12:35Speaker 1: know what the song was going to turn into.
- 12:37Speaker 2: But as we played it live more and more, we
- 12:39Speaker 2: realized we could really stretch that out.
- 12:42Speaker 1: And I think it went from four minutes to now
- 12:46Speaker 1: it's usually about 10 minutes when we play it live.
- 12:48Speaker 2: It's just a big, you know, constructed solo at the end.
- 12:53Speaker 1: And, you know, we'd always love to record a song
- 12:55Speaker 1: like that, but it just wasn't our time when we
- 12:59Speaker 1: did this second EP. So I'm sure down the line
- 13:03Speaker 1: we'll get a song like that on record, but for
- 13:06Speaker 1: now it lives in that live sphere.
- 13:08Speaker 2: But Just the acoustics of that song, the vibe of it.
- 13:12Speaker 2: It's one that I do listen to and just flow
- 13:16Speaker 2: with it.
- 13:17Speaker 1: So it's nice to have that as a positive thing.
- 13:20Speaker 1: I know a lot of artists don't listen to their works.
- 13:24Speaker 1: They just hear the creative process, but that's one I
- 13:26Speaker 1: can kind of separate myself from.
- 13:28Speaker 4: Very cool. And then we wind up with What Remains.
- 13:33Speaker 3: What Remains is super special.
- 13:35Speaker 5: I know he's not here with us now, but Reno,
- 13:38Speaker 5: And that song was really close to our hearts just
- 13:42Speaker 5: because it was a demo for the first EP, but
- 13:44Speaker 5: differently to You Got What I Want and Sinner that
- 13:47Speaker 5: were kind of ready to go. We just had to
- 13:50Speaker 5: reshape them, rework them. What Remains was really in an
- 13:55Speaker 5: early rudimentary stage. There was a riff there, there was
- 13:59Speaker 5: a vocal, but there wasn't a structure of a song.
- 14:03Speaker 5: It was just kind of ideas, you know, and we
- 14:08Speaker 5: just had this plan to, you know, let's Reno and
- 14:11Speaker 5: I would talk about all the time early before Alex
- 14:13Speaker 5: came into the picture, let's build this audience up.
- 14:17Speaker 3: So then when we released this song, it's appreciated.
- 14:19Speaker 2: It's so it takes time.
- 14:21Speaker 3: It takes time to get going.
- 14:22Speaker 5: And, um, you know, when you're, when you're discovering a
- 14:25Speaker 5: band for the first time, you might not want to
- 14:26Speaker 5: listen to a minute and a half before you hear drums,
- 14:29Speaker 5: you know? Um, so that's a song that look at
- 14:36Speaker 5: the end of the day, I think because we were
- 14:38Speaker 5: so emotionally attached to it, it didn't matter how good
- 14:40Speaker 5: the song came out, we still would have been slightly disappointed.
- 14:43Speaker 3: Because we just had this idea of how grand it
- 14:46Speaker 3: was going to be. I'm really proud of it.
- 14:49Speaker 5: Like Alex said, similar to the piano solo, it's a
- 14:52Speaker 5: capsule in time. And when I listen to the song,
- 14:55Speaker 5: I picture exactly where I was standing.
- 14:57Speaker 3: Tracking the song.
- 15:00Speaker 4: That's wicked. Speaking of building the crowd up, from what
- 15:03Speaker 4: I gather, you guys have done things the old-fashioned way.
- 15:06Speaker 4: You've gone out and you've toured relentlessly building up your
- 15:09Speaker 4: audience instead of relying on social media and all the
- 15:12Speaker 4: modern things you've got these days. So why decide to
- 15:14Speaker 4: do it that way when it probably would have been
- 15:16Speaker 4: a lot easier if you had to just plaster yourself everywhere?
- 15:19Speaker 1: Well, I think there's a difference between a fan and
- 15:22Speaker 1: someone that follows your account.
- 15:25Speaker 2: You know, I think the fundamental....
- 15:31Speaker 1: Core of our band is live and we love playing
- 15:35Speaker 1: live you know so we would have done those 100
- 15:37Speaker 1: shows or 150 shows regardless of if there was anyone
- 15:40Speaker 1: in the room um and we just know that's our
- 15:44Speaker 1: strong suit like we know we can put on a
- 15:46Speaker 1: great show and we know that if people are in
- 15:49Speaker 1: the audience that they're gonna well if they like that
- 15:52Speaker 1: music they're gonna like it and they're gonna you know
- 15:55Speaker 1: appreciate that i think you know, social media is very
- 16:00Speaker 1: useful for a lot of things, but I think it
- 16:02Speaker 1: can also distill everything into something it's not meant to be.
- 16:08Speaker 2: And I think.
- 16:11Speaker 1: If you see us live, you kind of get it.
- 16:15Speaker 1: And it's hard to put that across in a, you know,
- 16:18Speaker 1: get ready with me video that isn't.
- 16:21Speaker 2: Really our brand, you know?
- 16:22Speaker 1: So we, Did all those shows because we wanted to
- 16:25Speaker 1: do it. And, you know, playing around the country, playing
- 16:28Speaker 1: our own songs, that's the dream. And obviously to bigger
- 16:32Speaker 1: crowds would be nice, but, you know, it doesn't matter
- 16:34Speaker 1: who's in the crowd as long as we're, you know,
- 16:37Speaker 1: doing what we love, then, you know, as far as
- 16:39Speaker 1: I'm concerned, I'm happy.
- 16:42Speaker 4: Well said, brother. And speaking of playing live, you kick
- 16:45Speaker 4: off an extensive headline run of shows in Warrnambool on
- 16:48Speaker 4: September 18th. Then you head through the ACT, New South Wales, Victoria,
- 16:53Speaker 4: back to New South Wales, finishing at Sydney's Crowbar on
- 16:55Speaker 4: November 6th. I like the way that you've spread it
- 16:59Speaker 4: out a little bit instead of just trying to cram
- 17:01Speaker 4: the whole tour in two weeks. It's a smart idea.
- 17:04Speaker 3: Yeah. Also, we just announced today two other shows.
- 17:07Speaker 5: So there's a Queensland show now, which is in Southport
- 17:10Speaker 5: Gold Coast, and one also down the New South Wales
- 17:15Speaker 5: coast in Ulladulla as well. It'll be our first time
- 17:17Speaker 5: heading to a lot of these places. So, yeah, I
- 17:22Speaker 5: think that it was really important to us to get
- 17:29Speaker 5: a feel for where we're at countrywide. I wouldn't say we've, like,
- 17:35Speaker 5: I wouldn't say we've, like, taken over or dominated Sydney or.
- 17:39Speaker 3: Anything like that.
- 17:40Speaker 5: It wouldn't go that far, but it definitely felt like
- 17:42Speaker 5: after that sellout, it's like, okay, we know what we
- 17:45Speaker 5: have here.
- 17:45Speaker 3: We know we have a following here. Let's go in
- 17:49Speaker 3: and spread the word.
- 17:49Speaker 5: If we can do that here, we can do that
- 17:51Speaker 5: everywhere with the power of what we do live. And
- 17:54Speaker 5: that might be, you know, playing to smaller audiences for
- 17:56Speaker 5: a little while, but the way that we built it
- 17:59Speaker 5: up in Sydney, like you said, it wasn't TikTok.
- 18:01Speaker 3: It was, it was playing week in week out to
- 18:03Speaker 3: 20 people.
- 18:05Speaker 5: And then, you know, you release something and then 300
- 18:09Speaker 5: to 300 to 400 people show up. It's like, wow,
- 18:10Speaker 5: there was we really created that from the ground up
- 18:13Speaker 5: and we want to do that around the country.
- 18:15Speaker 3: So starting with this tour.
- 18:17Speaker 4: Very good, bro. Thanks for your time, guys. Been a
- 18:20Speaker 4: pleasure speaking with you. The EP Necrochew is out now.
- 18:23Speaker 4: The tour kicks off later this month. So where can
- 18:25Speaker 4: people get tickets or get themselves a copy of the EP?
- 18:29Speaker 2: You can go to our link tree. You'll find our
- 18:31Speaker 2: store there as well.
- 18:33Speaker 1: And you'll find, um, all the ticket links there or
- 18:36Speaker 1: most of, um, at least for the one, the shows
- 18:38Speaker 1: that are coming up. Um, but yeah, everything about us
- 18:42Speaker 1: is on that. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube,
- 18:46Speaker 1: and yeah, hope to see you guys at a show.