Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / AI Doomsday & Dreambound Deals: GHOSTSEEKER’s Rise From Lockdown To Launchpad

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AI Doomsday & Dreambound Deals: GHOSTSEEKER’s Rise From Lockdown To Launchpad · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hello.
• 0:01
  Speaker 2: My name is Daniel or Breene from goot Seek Up brilliant.
• 0:05
  Speaker 3: Thank you so much.
• 0:07
  Speaker 4: Go Seeker has made a huge impact with your debut album.
• 0:10
  Speaker 4: What has the journey been like so far and how
• 0:12
  Speaker 4: do you feel about the album's rapid rise in the
• 0:15
  Speaker 4: Australian heavy music scene.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Well, I like the way you've put that. No, it's
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: been really cool. But we've actually found that it seems
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: sort of resonated more overseas and it has here at home.
• 0:33
  Speaker 4: Yeah, as obviously have seen quite some success here. But
• 0:40
  Speaker 4: did you find maybe with the Internet that that's how
• 0:42
  Speaker 4: your song's got across to the overseas?
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, definitely.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: I mean YouTube is a godsend for all of us,
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: so that really got us out there with our EP
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: and got us attention.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Then we.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Started chatting with well raining Phoenix Music, so were signed
• 1:08
  Speaker 2: on with them and they're based in Germany, so a
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: good European push for us over there.
• 1:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, nice.
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: And your upcoming debut full length album, Divergence is separate
• 1:21
  Speaker 4: release on April April twenty fifth. Can you give us
• 1:24
  Speaker 4: a sneak peek into the themes or concepts that shape
• 1:27
  Speaker 4: the album.
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, for sure.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: So with this one, we did actually choose a bit
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: of a concept here, so the album's come out to
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: sort of be not as ten songs. Seven fit within
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: the concept and three are more your typical sort of
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: go seeker relevant, sort of relatable topics. But the concept
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: we sort of went with, which we thought would be
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: pretty fun to write about, was with the rise of technology.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: And AI and everything that's going on right now.
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: You hear all the good things and all the great
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: things about it, but then you also got the people,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: the conspiracy theorist's put them that way, that think this
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: is going to be the end of the world. So
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Celesta and I got talking and we thought, you know what,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: it would be kind of fun to write from their perspective, Like,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: if they're right, what would it be like. So yeah,
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: we kind of wrote about this fictional AI doomsday.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that was kind of kind of cool, weird
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: and fun.
• 2:44
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome.
• 2:45
  Speaker 4: And what's your perspective personally on say, musicians that use
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: AI to create music.
• 2:51
  Speaker 3: That's been a big thing that's happening at the moment.
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: Look, I personally don't have any issues with it. It
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: One of my favorite artists actually right now is somebody
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: who goes by the name of boy What and he
• 3:09
  Speaker 2: makes metalcore with the voice of Plankton from SpongeBob. And
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: I think Plankton's got a bloody incredible voice. Yeah, yeah,
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: I think it's I think it's very cool.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I just like good music, you know.
• 3:26
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, that's awesome, And the contrast between celeste soaring
• 3:31
  Speaker 4: vocals and your harsh and melodic style creates a unique dynamic.
• 3:35
  Speaker 4: How do you guys approach working together vocally and what's
• 3:38
  Speaker 4: your favorite part of blending these styles.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Look, our approach to it is pretty laid back, if
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I'm honest. We just we were very lucky in there
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: upon first meeting, we really clicked and vibed and we're
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: sort of on the same page with everything. So once
• 4:01
  Speaker 2: the guys get us the songs, we just sort of
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: sit down and have a listen to it together and
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: sort of go, all right, well, this is your part,
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: this is my part, this is what should we think
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: the songs should be about. We talk about that, and yeah,
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of a lot of collaboration.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: Is a really fun process.
• 4:18
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: So it really used both of you as vocalists putting
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: in ideas for lyrics as well.
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely, both lyrics and song themes. We both
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: definitely have a say yeah, yeah.
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: That's awesome.
• 4:34
  Speaker 4: And how would you describe the chemistry between the band
• 4:36
  Speaker 4: members in the studio and on stage.
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: We're best friends, that's that simple.
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's amazing.
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: And do you find that you can all have your
• 4:51
  Speaker 4: contributing input into your songs or is there sort of
• 4:55
  Speaker 4: one person or is it just Hu and Celeste say
• 4:57
  Speaker 4: at the front, going no, it should do it should
• 4:59
  Speaker 4: sound like this.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: No, So everyone definitely plays a part in their role
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: or instrument within the band.
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: Nobody gets excluded. Everyone's like super chill.
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: So there's like no bad ideas, no one gets shut down.
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: Like it's a very healthier experence.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: I'll say, yeah, yeah, oh that's nice. That's what you want.
• 5:23
  Speaker 4: And your sound head has resonated strongly with fans, especially
• 5:27
  Speaker 4: your first single Internment. What can fans expect from the
• 5:31
  Speaker 4: rest of the album in terms of musical direction and evolution.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Look, it's it's definitely on the heavier side compared to
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: our debut EP. I think it's more just it's it's
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: more nicely polished. Celeste is really.
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: Like taking a lot of time to craft her vocal parts,
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: and I think her what she's done really takes you away.
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: And I've done my best to sorry to compliment her,
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: and yeah, just I think we've just matured a bit
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: and really got a bit more comfortable with each other,
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: and you know, it shines through.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I think.
• 6:12
  Speaker 4: Yeah, and you mentioned before that you guys have made it,
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: you know, quite quite successfully overseas. What's something you're really
• 6:20
  Speaker 4: excited about in that, you know, perhaps playing to a
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: wider audience.
• 6:30
  Speaker 2: I really really want to do the whole European American
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: touring scene like here in Australia. It's it's a lot
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: of fun, don't get me wrong, but it's it's big
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: drives and we're gone. We leave for tour tomorrow actually,
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: and we're driving what ten hours roughly maybe eleven to
• 6:53
  Speaker 2: get to Sydney to play one show to Sydney, then
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: we come back home to Melbourne.
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: To play one show to Melbourne.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Whereas I don't it's a lot of fun and you
• 7:05
  Speaker 2: love those road trips, but I really want to experience
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: those sort of like what the what everyone calls the
• 7:10
  Speaker 2: grilling ones. You know we can do like thirty dates
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: in thirty days. Yeah, I think that would be very challenging,
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: but it's the kind of experience I want to I
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: want to put myself through.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, definitely, No, I can relate that that doesn't
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: sound like too much fun, especially driving the whole ten
• 7:28
  Speaker 4: hours that's nuts.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's we've found that to be the best.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: A lot of bands do the whole flying thing. We're
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: lucky enough to have some hybrid cars in the band,
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: so it's cheaper for us to take our cars, and
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: it's also just beneficial to have some wheels on you
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: as well.
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it.
• 7:51
  Speaker 4: And I guess you can all take turns as well
• 7:53
  Speaker 4: and spend some time together.
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 7:56
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, And like the funniest thing happen when you're sleep
• 8:01
  Speaker 2: deprived to the point where you feel drunk.
• 8:04
  Speaker 3: I can only imagine.
• 8:06
  Speaker 4: And on saying that, with touring, do you guys tend
• 8:09
  Speaker 4: to like to party or do you guys keep it
• 8:11
  Speaker 4: low key and just like relax and rest your voices.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: And we're all in our thirties, so nah, we definitely
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: have slowed down a bit and chill out. And I
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: think are they sitting in and watching the footy or
• 8:27
  Speaker 2: watching a movie together about as well as we'll get Yeah.
• 8:30
  Speaker 3: Yeah, good.
• 8:32
  Speaker 4: And how did joining forces with the Raw label change
• 8:34
  Speaker 4: things for the band and what do you think the
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: partnership will bring to go Seekers music and career moving forward?
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: All look, journing up with them has been fantastic.
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: I mean they've given us a much broader reach than
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: we would have previously had, which is invaluable, invaluable in
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: today's climate. And obviously they've helped fund couple of things,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: which has been fantastic. And to the future, I hope
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: they can very much help us get over there to
• 9:07
  Speaker 2: Europe and we can really make the most of this
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: partnership once we're out there.
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's wicked. And how did that come about? Like,
• 9:14
  Speaker 3: did you guys just one day wake up to an
• 9:16
  Speaker 3: email from.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: Them or Oh I could tell you the story, you'd
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: think it's fake.
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: So we Yeah, we just released our second single off
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: that debut EP we've been releasing through the dream Bound
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: YouTube channel and this was during COVID lockdowns here in Melbourne. So,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: you know, great starting a band in the middle of lockdowns,
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: you know, very intelligent. But yeah, it seems like most
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: of the world was going through it as well, which
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: benefited us, and the head of the at that time
• 10:03
  Speaker 2: got to look at our video and really really wanted
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: us and told his people to go get us. And yeah,
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: like you said, they they sent us an email. And
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: I think anybody who's been in a band for ten
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: minutes or released any songs online could tell you they
• 10:22
  Speaker 2: You get fake record label emails all the time. Yeah,
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: so yeah, we thought it was like another one of them.
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: So we're just like whatever, ignored it.
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: Two weeks later, they hits us up again.
• 10:41
  Speaker 2: It's fake, don't even entertain it. Then they hit us
• 10:45
  Speaker 2: up on.
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: Instagram with a video message courding.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Us, and so like, that's really weird.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Maybe we should look into this a little bit more.
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: Then we saw on one of their websites that they
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: had ma Sugar under their label at the time at least,
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: so we're like, oh, that's a very very big band.
• 11:12
  Speaker 2: But you know, perhaps they've got the rights in one
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: region and they're claiming it, and we're like, okay, don't
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: get too excited. Then we saw a Masugar post and
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: tag them and we're like, ah, it's real. Yeah, yeah,
• 11:28
  Speaker 2: let's see, let's reply to this one and yeah, how
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: it started.
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: Wow, and lucky you did. Imagine if you didn't.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Oh boy, the regrets we would have had.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, ah, that's crazy. That's so cool.
• 11:43
  Speaker 4: And as a band you've built a strong local following
• 11:46
  Speaker 4: in Australia. What's been the most memorable show all moment
• 11:49
  Speaker 4: from your life performances so far?
• 11:56
  Speaker 2: Oh, that's a very good question. I don't think anything
• 11:59
  Speaker 2: like super duper crazy has happened for us. Yes, yet
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: we don't have the most shows under our belt, but
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: getting to tour with our friends in or Tech because
• 12:15
  Speaker 2: I think it was like a year year and a
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: half ago and now that was a lot of fun.
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: We sort of stuck to the trail together and did
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: the long drives together and really.
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Had some good fun and stupid moments.
• 12:27
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, nice. It's all about you know.
• 12:30
  Speaker 4: I talk to a lot of artists and they usually
• 12:33
  Speaker 4: say that the friendships they make with other bands, like,
• 12:35
  Speaker 4: no matter how big or smaller band is, is like
• 12:38
  Speaker 4: just can make for everything on tour.
• 12:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And like I said, with the Australian
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: cities being so far apart, it's kind of hard to
• 12:48
  Speaker 2: do that, particularly if a band.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: If you're talking lucky enough to too.
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: With the band that's come from overseas, they're generally going
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: to fly the whole time.
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: So yeah, we got we got lucky that a tech.
• 12:58
  Speaker 2: We're also driving around and we sort of said, hey,
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: do you want to stick together for safety and friendship?
• 13:05
  Speaker 4: It?
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: So that's lovely, that's awesome.
• 13:09
  Speaker 4: And with your first full length album on the horizon,
• 13:12
  Speaker 4: how did the songwriting process.
• 13:14
  Speaker 3: For Divergence differ from creating in I'm sorry?
• 13:20
  Speaker 4: And what challenges did you face along the way?
• 13:28
  Speaker 5: It's an that's social making it a difficult Yeah. To
• 13:33
  Speaker 5: be fair, I I am.
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: Not the best person to answer this question. I was
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: the last person that joined. So when I joined Initium Novan,
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: now I can't say it musically was completely written. Celeste
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: parts were completely written, So I was just or have
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: given these half complete songs with Celeste going this is
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: what this one's about, filling the gaps.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: This is what this one's about, filling the gaps.
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: So I guess this one was a lot more collaborative,
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: as we were all.
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: In the picture from the start to the finish. Yes,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: so yeah, I guess that would be the biggest difference
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: for me there.
• 14:22
  Speaker 3: Yeah, and how did.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: You find it?
• 14:24
  Speaker 4: Sorry, how did you find that jumping into the band?
• 14:26
  Speaker 4: Was everyone I assume really welcoming and just eager to start?
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 14:32
  Speaker 2: Well, we sort of the way the Melbourne music scene
• 14:36
  Speaker 2: is if you've played in bands or you play in
• 14:40
  Speaker 2: a band, you sort of get to meet and know
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: everybody in most bands big and small. So although I
• 14:50
  Speaker 2: didn't know them personally, we knew of each other, so
• 14:55
  Speaker 2: it was kind of seamless. I guess the biggest concern
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: for all of Verse was like, oh, God, I hope
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: they're not dicks, and for them, God, I hope he's
• 15:04
  Speaker 2: not a dick.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: So I guess we are. We all passed the test
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: and we're still going.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Oh that's awesome.
• 15:11
  Speaker 4: And on a lighter note, if you could tour with
• 15:13
  Speaker 4: any band to past or present, who would it be?
• 15:15
  Speaker 3: And wife?
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: Oh? Past and present? Jeez? Present?
• 15:25
  Speaker 2: Currently, I would say one or both of Landmarks or
• 15:34
  Speaker 2: highly Suspect.
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: I think ever is too hard.
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: Yeah, Oh that's awesome and kind of touching more on
• 15:44
  Speaker 3: that too.
• 15:45
  Speaker 4: What musical influences influence you at the moment?
• 15:49
  Speaker 3: What are you listening to?
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: I listen to kind of a lot of everything.
• 15:56
  Speaker 2: I've got country songs, folksy songs, metal songs, hardcore songs.
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: Pop songs.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know some bands I've got Courtney Had when
• 16:10
  Speaker 2: she makes some like country folksy kind of stuff.
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: She's popping up a bit lately.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: Architects obviously released some music recently, so they're they're popping
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: up a bit at the moment. But yeah, I'm a
• 16:23
  Speaker 2: slave to my release radar on Spotify physically, so yeah,
• 16:28
  Speaker 2: once a week I listen to that Save the good ones,
• 16:30
  Speaker 2: Leave the bad ones, and yeah, yeah.
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that takes good.
• 16:34
  Speaker 4: It's really good to hear that you are open to
• 16:37
  Speaker 4: all the genres pretty much. I really think that just
• 16:40
  Speaker 4: makes people that make music, it really makes their stuff.
• 16:44
  Speaker 4: You can hear the influencers they're indifferent. Yeah, in their genre.
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: Gee, I worded, that's so bad.
• 16:52
  Speaker 2: I get what you're saying, and I completely agree. You
• 16:56
  Speaker 2: can if you stay in your lane too much, you
• 16:59
  Speaker 2: can get repetitive.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: And yeah you don't know that.
• 17:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, that's it.
• 17:03
  Speaker 4: And finally, when you're not creating music with Goo Seeker,
• 17:06
  Speaker 4: what do you like to do to unwind and recharge?
• 17:10
  Speaker 2: Ah ah, play with my dog, skateboard a little bit,
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: play sports. I'm just a genuinely pretty active person. So
• 17:20
  Speaker 2: if I'm not making music, I'm probably outside doing something stupid.
• 17:23
  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. It's good. You need that to unwind.
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, you know it's all of them in dolphins
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: and whatnot.
• 17:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's it. Oh, Daniel, thank you so much for
• 17:35
  Speaker 3: your time today. We're so excited for divergence.
• 17:38
  Speaker 2: No, thank you for having me, and thank you for
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: all the nice things you've said.