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Surviving The War With JAMES MONTEITH From TESSERACT · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Hi, this is James from Van tessaat on a Heavy Radio and the Heavy
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  Podcast, and we will be coming over to Australia at the beginning of May
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  on our World of Being tour. Make sure t's check this out. Yeah.
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  Well for James, thanks for joining us tonight. Yeah, thanks for
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  having me. H pleasure. So Tessaakh returned to Australia after a sixt year
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  absence for the War of Being tour, starting in Brisbane and made the second
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  and going through Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide before finishing in Perth on May the
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  ninth. Like, it's not far away now, bro. Are you sort
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  of person you're packed and ready to go with your bag sitting by the door
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  or did leave it to the last minute. I I haven't thought about packing.
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  I'll probably We're coming via India and we leave on Tuesday next week,
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  so I'll probably packed Tuesday morning. Wow, via Indians. We've got gigs
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  in India. Yeah, we got three shows in India on the way to
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  Australia, which breaks up the journey. Well, I didn't didn't know India
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  I had a metal scene over there. That's awesome. Yeah, I know,
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  we're doing three shows there. We're doing Bangalore, Mumbai and Deli and
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  yeah, a pretty pretty healthy scene growing. It's really cool, wicked.
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  So six years since we been here last time, bro, Like, it's
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  a long time. So what's changed with Tessarax since you were here last to
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  this time? Well, I suppose, I mean a lot of time has
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  passed. We've been able to work on and release an album that everyone is
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  more happy with than we have with any record before. We've also really kind
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  of tried to up our live game and not only just focus on playing our
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  instruments, which I guess was a big focus for to make it a bit
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  more of a show, a bit more of a performance, add some theatrical
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  elements. We're basically just trying to be the in the last six years,
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  really tried to wrap our game into being an exciting rock band rather than just
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  a bunch of guys nerding out. It's actually the perfect segue into my next
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  question, mate, Like, the press release makes reference to your mind blowing
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  live show, So can you elaborate on that a bit for us? Oh,
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  that's very kind of the press release, Thank you. Yeah, I
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  think on the current on the world of being trough at the moment, we've
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  got like we're playing a good chunk of the new album because well, we're
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  really happy with that and we want to play as much as possible. We're
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  throwing in some of like the fan favorites, Brothers and Yeah, we're trying
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  to make it just like a bit of a journey from start to finish,
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  So there's lots of changes in atmosphere. We've worked a lot with the lighting
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  production. Really, I don't know, make it as much of a visual
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  experience as as an audio audio experience. It's been doing okay, quite so
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  good. And anyone that knows anything about Tessa Act and your back catalog,
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  mate, like, your music is very diverse and it is technical as fuck.
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  So does it make it difficult coming up with this set list? It
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  sort of cohesive and flows with so much going on? Ah, that's a
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  good question. I think quite often the big thing is working out which tricks
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  can tracks could link to others because generally we don't have any any gaps.
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  That's kind of once the show starts, there's always something going on, So
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  whether it's songs linking from one to the other, or whether there's like an
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  atmosphepic pause where something visual will happen on stage. So I think that's the
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  hardest part, working out which tracks have work together and how it's like putting
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  together a jigsaw in a way. Quite happy with what we've got on this
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  tour coming up, so I think everyone should come and watch very good along
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  those lines. But like you mentioned before that you try to make your show
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  more exciting, but the style of music you guys play, it's not easy
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  to do. Like you have to pretty much concentrate on what you're doing playing
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  wise, so it sort of it'd be hard to get that balance between be
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  an exciting and not striking above note. I guess yeah, I think,
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  I mean, I guess we're not sort of like a baling to escape pan
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  and leaping off things, flashing stuff up. But I think it's just more
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  just in terms of I guess, more subtle things in terms of where we
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  position ourselves on stage where, and we've got sort of rises now where we
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  can just just appear a little differently throughout the set. Also, I think
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  lots of the older songs, we've been playing them forever there's so they're complete
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  muscle memory. So as long as we don't sort of massively jar ourselves to
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  fucking the guitar or whatever you can generally get away with them and with the
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  newer stuff. I think at the beginning of the tour when we're in the
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  US, a lot of that was really trying to get that down. So
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  I suppose we're we haven't quite got that performance ready. We took us a
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  tour to really get comfortable with it. But now we've done the whole of
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  Europe, we're very comfortable with the set and so we can really focus on
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  trying to make it more entertaining rather than just am I playing the right note?
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  Have you actually got any songs or written any songs that you've found too
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  hard to reputate life? Yeah, there are a couple which we have tried.
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  One of them is the song Eden on the first album. We've tried
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  to playing playing that like a few times and it's yeah, I guess we've
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  struggled to order to kind of feel it, and I get it feeling right,
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  so we kind of shelved it. I've been campaigning to bring it back,
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  but not the other guys. Another one in the singularity of the second
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  album we had. We didn't play that on the Dream Theater at all because
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  we went out of Dream Theater. We're like, let's play the hardest song
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  we can. Of course showed it up is fair. However, we could
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  just about we could play it, but it's it's really hard work and it's
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  one of those songs. It's a long song where it's just like there's just
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  no letting up, just like you got play to the top of our ability
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  for a good eight minutes and that's quite tightly sometimes erased. We are getting
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  older, mate, that's the name of the tour suggests you're providing a new
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  album, War of Being, which comes out on September fifteen. So tell
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  us a bit more about that album musically. Is is it what Pains would
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  expect? I think it's. I mean with every Testaret record, we tried
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  to make it an evolution from the last and bringing new elements and ultimately make
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  it interesting for ourselves. And that's the first and fore most important. We
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  need to be enjoying it for us to even think it's worthy of playing to
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  anyone else. And I think we've got We had a good five year gap
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  between records, and that really allowed us to really make the record we wanted
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  to hear. I think, and it's a there's a little sort of nod
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  back to the older progressive like long songs like the tub track, War of
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  Beings, like somebo eleven minute piece of work, which is something that,
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  yeah, I feel like we've missed from the last few records. It's really
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  nice to do that again. And and yeah, I think I know it's
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  I think everyone put their absolute most into this one. I feel like it's
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  the best record that Test Rights ever made. But then I would say that.
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  Of course, I'm going to read another piece for you from the press
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  release, so we'll see if Chris is round the under the bus this time.
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  Mate. It describes it as how the new album is having the aggressive
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  intensity of One, the intricate song structure of Oldered State, the songwriting prowess
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  of Polaris in the mind bottling technicality of Sounder. Would you agree with that
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  statement. Oh, that's very nice of them. Yeah, I guess,
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  so, I think there island. I mean, we've definitely tried to make
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  the heavier bits heavier, which is a nod back to the first album and
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  uh yeah things. I mean all Today was essentially like four long pieces of
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  music. So I suppose the track I was talking about earlier was a nod
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  back to that. Yeah, I think I think it's fair to say that,
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  well that that would make it the best album if you put out there,
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  wouldn't it. Yeah, I can say it's also got a great concept
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  to the album made would sound's fascinating and I don't think I'd do a justice
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  if I try to repeat it, mate, So tell us a bit more
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  about the concept. All right, Well, it's basically I'm not the expert
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  on this, but it's basically a story about two characters called X and Now,
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  and that's a lot of it is the war of being, as about
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  war within yourself and in a conflicts and resolving them. And it's basically a
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  big scid by story involving spaceships and characters telling this story about internal conflict.
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  And that's the best I'm going to give you. You've got me intrigued already.
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  We'll leave people with a little bit to digest now. You've released the
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  title track as the lead single, But so WATCHO is that particular song that
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  introduced people to the new new music? I think partly, I mean,
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  for me, it's my favorite track on the record, but also it's you
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  know, it's the first music new music we were released in over five years,
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  so we thought would give everyone a really big chunk of music. And
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  so it's like it's an eleven minutes. It's like rights back here you go
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  have a massive, long, aggressive song. Yeah, and and the video
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  a lot of effort was put into the video to make it a real spectacle
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  and so yeah, it's just a real statement of the ten it's like we're
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  back. Here's something epic. Speaking of the music video may like it's sort
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  of centers around to feuding samurai. But what I want to know was was
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  it any of you guys in the band inside those samurai suits? So did
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  you have fired guns? Had not know? No, it was actually done
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  with there were two sorts of two martial arts experts who they were actually filmed
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  and like mapped by computers which was then turned into the CGI. So there
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  were actually real people modeled. But yeah, it wasn't us that people that
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  knew what they were doing. I was going to say, you would have
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  got to take out a lot of a lot of pent up frustration on each
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  other from over the years. If you were speaking of computer Generator, the
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  cover arts been AI generated which is sort of it's only a new thing that
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  people are getting into these days. So tell us a bit about that,
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  hm. I mean, it's quite a hot topic at the moment, and
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  we've always been very transparent with our approach to AI. Basically, Amos had
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  like a wild, crazy concept and he didn't actually start trying to talk to
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  our trying to find artists to try and bring it to lie but is struggling
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  enough to find artists that were completely getting with his ideas. And then the
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  song that did wanted to charge more than it cost to make the entire AMU
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  and video altogether to do it, and so that's why he went down the
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  AI read with it, which I know it's partly is slightly controversial at the
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  moment, but I guess our justification for doing it was is it was to
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  basically convey the art that Amos had in his head. He found a way
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  to do it with with online, you know, with with AI as at
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  all, and and I think it worked brilliantly and there'd been no way would
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  have done it without AI. And yeah, it's an interesting debate because like
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  so many other bands are getting loads of ship for using AI and nobody's actually
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  giving us ship. Yeah, maybe not many people. Maybe not many people
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  know yet they're listening to this and I'm the one throwing the under the bus,
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  not Chris. We're ready for that debate because I personally, I think
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  it's it's a difficult one because people say it's taking work away from artists,
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  but I see it more as it's a tool because AI doesn't make the art.
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  It's basically you tell it what to make from various inspirations, and that's
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  what an artist does anyway. It's basically it's like, yeah, would you
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  say photoshop was taking work away from penies or would you say yeah, and
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  then the camera was an invention that took jobs away from I think at the
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  end of the day, it's like whatever gives the best result for the person
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  using it. In this case, it's you, guys, that's what you
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  said. No brainer. You go with that like it's are you going to
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  take something that's inferior just to keep people happy at the end of the days?
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  Yeah. I think the key thing is is I think for me,
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  art is a human thing, and like the idea, it's the idea and
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  the concept and the message and that kind of thing, and like the creation
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  of it is a skill. It's not the art. I'm playing guitars,
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  like playing a scale as a skill. That playing so which blackmore is an
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  art, you know, it's kind of like there's I mean, that's the
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  distinction. And to me, AI basically is it's a tool which replaces a
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  skill. It's not art itself. We can you go down a rabbit hole
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  with that one, believe it on that note there rather, But there are
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  two really good things happening with Tessa Expon, the first being the tour of
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  Australia starting in Brisbane and made the second and the second being the album Water
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  Being, which is out September fifteenth, and I dare say you're gonna have
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  a few more singles to release before then. We don't know. Actually we
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  will probably be like another video or so from the album, but I think
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  I'll focus now once we've got this run done is getting on some new music.
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  So we're hoping to some new music. I say they're not too distant
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  future, but for us that could be in anything up to five years,
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  so people could just be patient, take it as it comes. You'll be
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  sooner than that. I don't want to promise anything. Obviously, all right,
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  James will thanks to you Tiver the Brisbane Show, so the first run
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  of the date say I'll give you away from the audience. Yeah, I
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  am grabe of beer. It's good to me mate. I'm thirsty already