Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Flicking The Switch With NICK McLERNON From MAKE THEM SUFFER
Transcript
- 0:24Speaker 1: My name is Nick mcclernan.
- 0:25Speaker 2: I play guitar in Make Them Suffer and we are
- 0:28Speaker 2: coming out with our self titled record November.
- 0:32Speaker 3: Eight, Beautiful net thanks for joining us today.
- 0:37Speaker 1: Pleasure pleasure to be here.
- 0:40Speaker 3: Make Them Suffer release your self titled album one November
- 0:42Speaker 3: the eighth. So how do you feel on this close
- 0:45Speaker 3: to release date.
- 0:47Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest with you, I don't feel a thing.
- 0:52Speaker 2: The last two years we've been through very many, many
- 0:55Speaker 2: ups and downs, a lot of downs. We struggled through
- 1:01Speaker 2: adversity rather many many adversities to be here, so I
- 1:08Speaker 2: think that's desensitized us to or at least me. I'm
- 1:11Speaker 2: not sure if I'm speaking on behalf of the rest
- 1:13Speaker 2: of the band, but I certainly feel desensitized to everything
- 1:20Speaker 2: and lead up with it to the record coming out.
- 1:22Speaker 2: I mean I might feel different. I'm sure I'm going to.
- 1:25Speaker 2: It's all going to catch up to me when the
- 1:27Speaker 2: record actually does come out.
- 1:29Speaker 1: But right now, this.
- 1:31Speaker 2: Is the first time in two years I've actually gotten
- 1:35Speaker 2: to relax and not think about music like we've been
- 1:38Speaker 2: touring and writing since Dooms, which was released, and since
- 1:43Speaker 2: Alex joined the band. So this is the first time,
- 1:46Speaker 2: I actually don't have to think about music.
- 1:49Speaker 3: I've tried not to ask you too many thinking questions today. Then, bro,
- 1:56Speaker 3: so this is going to be the band's fifth album,
- 1:59Speaker 3: So what is now the wrong time to put your
- 2:01Speaker 3: name to it and make it self titled album.
- 2:04Speaker 2: I could go so far back with this, like I'd
- 2:08Speaker 2: be here, we'd be here for three hours.
- 2:11Speaker 1: But in short, a lot of it's got to do
- 2:15Speaker 1: with a lot of it has.
- 2:19Speaker 2: To do with Alex joining the band, and she was
- 2:25Speaker 2: the missing piece. You know, we've these past ten years,
- 2:29Speaker 2: we've released ten records and sorry ten records.
- 2:32Speaker 1: Four records and ten years.
- 2:35Speaker 2: And over that time, I feel like we were still
- 2:37Speaker 2: learning on how to become a band. Like we've had
- 2:40Speaker 2: a couple of different but a few different member changes,
- 2:45Speaker 2: and that whole time it felt like nothing, you know,
- 2:48Speaker 2: something was always missing.
- 2:49Speaker 1: And when Alex joined the band.
- 2:52Speaker 2: She came at a time that we thought we were
- 2:54Speaker 2: about to break up and we were going to lose
- 2:57Speaker 2: ten years worth of work. And so when Alex joined,
- 3:06Speaker 2: we went back to the writing process.
- 3:11Speaker 1: And that combined with.
- 3:12Speaker 2: All the touring we were doing at the time we'd
- 3:15Speaker 2: released Doom Switch and Doomswitch was self produced. It was
- 3:19Speaker 2: from where I was sitting at least, it was positively
- 3:23Speaker 2: had a positively unanimous reaction, and it sort of gave
- 3:28Speaker 2: us this self belief, the sense of self belief that
- 3:32Speaker 2: this was the band's final form. It took us ten
- 3:37Speaker 2: years to reach this final form, to for aw everyone
- 3:41Speaker 2: in the band to finally be looking down the same direction,
- 3:46Speaker 2: looking at the same direction.
- 3:48Speaker 1: And when we were coming up.
- 3:51Speaker 2: With the album title, Sean one day was just like, Hey,
- 3:54Speaker 2: I've got an idea.
- 3:56Speaker 1: Why don't we just call that album? Why don't we
- 3:58Speaker 1: just self title it?
- 3:59Speaker 2: And everyone was like, oh, yeah, that actually that actually
- 4:04Speaker 2: make that actually makes sense.
- 4:06Speaker 1: So sweet.
- 4:08Speaker 3: So can you come to the album a bit deeper
- 4:10Speaker 3: from a musical point of view? And what are you
- 4:11Speaker 3: going for with it?
- 4:14Speaker 2: Well, lyrically you'd have to ask Sean, but I can
- 4:18Speaker 2: definitely tell you from you know, an instrumental point of view,
- 4:23Speaker 2: like I like telling people that they're a meaning behind
- 4:26Speaker 2: the songs sonically as well. And the difference between this
- 4:32Speaker 2: record and all the other ones we've done in the
- 4:35Speaker 2: past is that the songs are written to be performed
- 4:40Speaker 2: and played live. And when you when you watch songs
- 4:47Speaker 2: live in many examples, the songs that are being performed
- 4:55Speaker 2: have different meanings because you're digesting them sort of fourth
- 5:01Speaker 2: dimensionally compared to when you listen to the songs through
- 5:04Speaker 2: headphones and speakers, you're having a third dimensional auditory experience.
- 5:11Speaker 1: And when you.
- 5:11Speaker 2: Watch a band perform the those songs live, it becomes
- 5:17Speaker 2: something fourth dimensional.
- 5:19Speaker 1: So when you watch the songs that.
- 5:21Speaker 2: Are being played off to make them, then you make
- 5:24Speaker 2: them suffer record live, we're a very we're a very
- 5:29Speaker 2: active we're very active live performers. And the meaning and
- 5:38Speaker 2: the message behind all these songs, I like to think
- 5:45Speaker 2: I do. I have a large part to play in
- 5:47Speaker 2: writing the music the span So I like to think
- 5:50Speaker 2: that the songs are a very very good and honest
- 5:57Speaker 2: representation of theies that we've based these past couple of years.
- 6:04Speaker 2: Like you can feel it, you can feel it in
- 6:06Speaker 2: the music. It's like a rage, except rage isn't the
- 6:09Speaker 2: right word. You know, it's not a hatred sort of thing.
- 6:12Speaker 2: It's just it's just a type of intensity that can
- 6:16Speaker 2: only be explained through watching the music being performed play live.
- 6:20Speaker 3: Yes, now you've released the singles Doomswitch, Every Tap and
- 6:24Speaker 3: Ghost of Me Mate, So overall, would say they're a
- 6:27Speaker 3: good sonic representation of what to expect, or are they
- 6:29Speaker 3: only just gotion and surface.
- 6:33Speaker 2: I think every song's different. You know, it really depends
- 6:35Speaker 2: on who you ask. Like I've seen people who have
- 6:39Speaker 2: said every single so far sounds the same, and.
- 6:44Speaker 1: You know they're yeah. There are folks that say, no,
- 6:45Speaker 1: they all sound completely different.
- 6:47Speaker 2: So I like to think that all the songs have
- 6:50Speaker 2: their own style, and you know, they bar maybe one
- 6:54Speaker 2: or two might sound the same, but I think I
- 7:00Speaker 2: think everything. I think every track's got its own thing.
- 7:05Speaker 3: Well. I had listened to the album while I was
- 7:07Speaker 3: writing the questions up yesterday, and I can tell you
- 7:09Speaker 3: emphatically that not no two songs sound the same. Alee,
- 7:13Speaker 3: that the scope and the and the diversity is of
- 7:16Speaker 3: touched on this album made it's it's mind brow and
- 7:18Speaker 3: he's done a really good job, right, So anyone who
- 7:20Speaker 3: says telling them stick it up there, ask because I
- 7:22Speaker 3: don't know what the job.
- 7:23Speaker 1: Is part agree. I couldn't agree with you more that.
- 7:28Speaker 3: The first track on the album of The Warning is
- 7:30Speaker 3: it's a bit of an ambient and dreamy start and
- 7:33Speaker 3: then sort of goes into moments and chaos it's why
- 7:36Speaker 3: it's a different way to start an album, but it's
- 7:38Speaker 3: pretty effective. Why do you choat that.
- 7:40Speaker 2: One, Well, I mean, I think starting the album that
- 7:44Speaker 2: way goes back to our.
- 7:45Speaker 1: Never bloom roots.
- 7:47Speaker 2: The first record, the first record we ever came out with,
- 7:54Speaker 2: had the exact same thing. It was a operatic, operatic intro,
- 7:59Speaker 2: and we're just doing the same thing as we did,
- 8:03Speaker 2: you know, ten twelve years ago or whatever it was now,
- 8:08Speaker 2: So it's a bit of a throwback.
- 8:09Speaker 1: But then we've got the new elements, kind.
- 8:11Speaker 2: Of those future futuristic elements thrown in as a as
- 8:17Speaker 2: a sort of way to say, oh, hey, but we're modernized.
- 8:20Speaker 3: Now.
- 8:20Speaker 1: We're modernized, but we haven't forgotten our roots sort of things.
- 8:24Speaker 2: So that's the sort of that's that's the real purpose
- 8:26Speaker 2: behind that intro track.
- 8:29Speaker 3: I have somebody Else's to spider too, bro Like, in
- 8:32Speaker 3: the modern age where people stream a lot of music
- 8:34Speaker 3: and everything gets shuffled and stuff like, do you still
- 8:37Speaker 3: put a lot of thought into the first song on
- 8:39Speaker 3: an album or is it sort of not really as
- 8:40Speaker 3: important these.
- 8:43Speaker 1: No.
- 8:43Speaker 2: I think I think there was a lot of you know,
- 8:46Speaker 2: we were thinking about that very consciously. I think when
- 8:49Speaker 2: that song was written, everybody was immediately like, yeah, that's
- 8:54Speaker 2: the first track. You know, that's gonna it's gonna come
- 8:57Speaker 2: in with that. So uh, you know, I know in
- 9:01Speaker 2: the past that we've we've definitely done that in the
- 9:04Speaker 2: past and consciously written a song to be like, that's
- 9:07Speaker 2: gonna be the first track. This one kind of happened
- 9:09Speaker 2: by accident, but when it was written, everyone was definitely like, yeah,
- 9:15Speaker 2: that's the first one.
- 9:16Speaker 3: Yeah. This album is also self produced by the band mate.
- 9:20Speaker 3: So what are some of the advantages and disadvantages are
- 9:23Speaker 3: doing that in house?
- 9:26Speaker 2: Well, working with a top level producer. You know, there's
- 9:30Speaker 2: a science behind behind how people consume music, and you know,
- 9:36Speaker 2: you typically, like everyone talks about the pop structure all
- 9:41Speaker 2: the time and why that's so effective in you know,
- 9:45Speaker 2: attracting new listeners. So producer, especially a person that is
- 9:51Speaker 2: considered to be you know, world class, is able to
- 9:59Speaker 2: harness that science and in you know, in consequence, you're
- 10:06Speaker 2: tracking new listeners that way.
- 10:08Speaker 1: So the American market, I like to think, is you
- 10:14Speaker 1: know that that territory, you know, people who live there
- 10:16Speaker 1: are very very receptive towards that kind of song structure,
- 10:22Speaker 1: and I think this time we were kind of like,
- 10:27Speaker 1: as as a band that would self produce a record,
- 10:33Speaker 1: we would try, we would want to try and harness that.
- 10:39Speaker 1: You know, we were trying to blend both worlds, So
- 10:41Speaker 1: both worlds being there's a sense of there's a commercial aspect,
- 10:48Speaker 1: like just a slight commercial aspect that we've applied through
- 10:52Speaker 1: learning on learning how to apply this science to music
- 10:56Speaker 1: from the past producers that we've worked with, and combining
- 11:00Speaker 1: it with like the.
- 11:01Speaker 2: Raw authenticity of I guess what the band is trying
- 11:08Speaker 2: to express. So, you know, a lot of a lot
- 11:13Speaker 2: of music. This is obviously just an opinion, but I
- 11:17Speaker 2: think a lot of music gets lost because that raw
- 11:20Speaker 2: authenticity doesn't get translated properly, right, And we we're just
- 11:27Speaker 2: lucky enough to have worked with some world class.
- 11:29Speaker 1: Producers who know how to.
- 11:34Speaker 2: Who know how to translate it. So we're just trying
- 11:36Speaker 2: to apply things we've learned in the past through working
- 11:40Speaker 2: with some of the best in the world to our
- 11:45Speaker 2: rawdy the lack of a better.
- 11:47Speaker 3: Term, right, sweet it's been broad chams mate like it
- 11:52Speaker 3: sound blends. There's a lot of souls in the metal.
- 11:54Speaker 3: There there's a lot going on, but it's sort of
- 11:55Speaker 3: mainly melodic death, heavy metalsonic elements in there. But how
- 12:00Speaker 3: difficult is it together the balance of everything you do
- 12:03Speaker 3: right in the creative.
- 12:04Speaker 2: Process, it's it's quite it's usually quite natural. It usually
- 12:14Speaker 2: is quite natural. Like if something doesn't come naturally, then
- 12:19Speaker 2: you either put it aside, come back to it later,
- 12:23Speaker 2: or you ditch it. You know, there are so many
- 12:28Speaker 2: in the process of writing this record, there were so
- 12:30Speaker 2: many things written that are just like cast the decide
- 12:33Speaker 2: we might use it for the next one. Actually, a
- 12:36Speaker 2: lot of our songs.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Are written that way. We use things we've.
- 12:41Speaker 2: Written or used in the past and applied in the
- 12:44Speaker 2: future records. But this yeah, this time around, we've just
- 12:49Speaker 2: sort of we've really gone with the flow. And you know,
- 12:55Speaker 2: in the past we've gone we may have gone.
- 13:01Speaker 1: Does that fit the rest?
- 13:02Speaker 2: Does that fit the sound of the rest of the
- 13:05Speaker 2: rest of the record?
- 13:06Speaker 1: Is that really what we're trying to represent?
- 13:10Speaker 2: And this time we're just like, if it sounds good,
- 13:12Speaker 2: then put it on, Like just chuck it on. You know,
- 13:15Speaker 2: who gives a fuck about like, oh, what's this going
- 13:19Speaker 2: to mean in the context of the record, Like we're
- 13:21Speaker 2: not thinking about that at all. We're just raw again
- 13:25Speaker 2: raw and honest about raw and honest about our sound
- 13:30Speaker 2: like if it sounds good, it sounds good.
- 13:32Speaker 1: Put it on the record.
- 13:34Speaker 3: So well, you've been honest enough to create a crack
- 13:37Speaker 3: over an album. Broad but your self titled album is
- 13:40Speaker 3: out in November the eighth. It's bloody awesome work made.
- 13:43Speaker 3: Congratulations and best of luck with it.
- 13:45Speaker 4: Appreciate it. Chris own costs at as.
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