Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Guitars, Riffs, And A Little Bit Of Aussie Heat: RICK SCHNEIDER On Polaris And Knotfest

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Guitars, Riffs, And A Little Bit Of Aussie Heat: RICK SCHNEIDER On Polaris And Knotfest · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Today. My name is Rich Schnada. I play in the
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: band Polaris and I'm here to bok some shop and
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: whatever else is going on. So awesome to have you here.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: It's so good to see Polaris on the not first lineup.
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: What was your reaction to finding out you were selected?
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean we're always stoked. Like any kind of
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: festival in Australia, we're tough to be a part of.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: But to be not first Slipknots playing like, I mean,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: I don't even need to go into the other bands
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: to say, like that's kind of the pinnacle thing, Like
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: everyone is stoked on that. Everyone. As soon as we
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: got the offer, I was like, all right, well we'll
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: make that work. And then everything else fell into place.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Beyond that, Yeah, so crazy. Did you guys celebrate or anything?
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: We didn't. Actually, I mean we're as we're growing up,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: you know, we spend a little bit or less time together,
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: we still get to see each other, and I think like,
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: once we have the offer and we all get to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: see each other again, I was like good, but at
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: the same time like, yeah, no, we're all stoked. Personally,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: I'm like the least Slipnot fan out of the guys,
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: so I know, I know it's a bit of a
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: mark against my metal cred, but no, the other guy
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: if they heard me say that, I'll be like piss
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: off because they adore the band, And yeah, it's going
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to be sick.
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: We'll let it slide.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I guess.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Do you have any idea on the set list so
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: far or any surprises that you could let us hit on.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: There won't be too many surprises. I think we're just
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: really aiming to make this one like kind of the
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: heavy hitters in every sense, so you know, whether it's
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: like we'll definitely be playing like the new singles off
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: the new record Nightmare in Humane, but like we also
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: just want to be like, okay, well let's pick something
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: off the first record, So we're probably gonna play Lucid.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: We're probably going to try to get a couple off
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of the Death of Me as well. We're just trying
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: to like kind of keep it as balanced as possible
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: while also keeping it as modern as possible, while also
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: keeping it as heavy as possible. So it's kind of,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: you know, trying to tick every box that we can,
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: but we have ample enough times so it should be
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: a good.
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: One, Yeah, definitely, So there'll be something for all your fans.
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: I reckon hope. So I mean, maybe, you know, the
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: softer fans will maybe only get one of you know,
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: maybe only one song will take that box. But for
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: the fans that Slipknot and people who want to go hand,
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: then to get a few a few boxes stick there. Mad.
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: That's awesome.
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: What bands are you looking forward to performing alongside?
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Oh, it's it's sick to be able to perform alongside
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: baby Metal because the last time they were in Australia,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I think it was for good things. I attended that
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: day and I enjoyed seeing them, but I was like,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: all right, well, you know, it would be cool to
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: be able to like actually kind of see that from
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: the other side. But also, I mean this has gone
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: way back to who was important to me when I
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: was younger, and that's a data remember for sure. So
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: I'm incredibly key to see them play.
• 2:32
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, They'll be so awesome. And what's your
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: absolute favorite song to play live?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Of yours absolute favorite to play live probably Hypermania. It's
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: it's like, again, it's got heaps of energy to it,
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: but it's also like in the guitar part, it's a
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: little bit more simple, Like it's kind of one of
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: those songs where everything ergonomically fits into shape, so it's
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: kind of like less stress, big payoff kind of. It's
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: always a nice one to play.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: I'd have to say it's one of my most favorite
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: to listen to, So I'm glad.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: That it's to play. Thank you. I'll be listening out
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: for your voice when we play it. Then you've played
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: all around the world.
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: What's special about playing to an ouzsy audience?
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: I mean other than just the accent and the general
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: behavior of the Aussies, Like, you know, you get a
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: touch of the aussy kind of mentality when you're in
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: places like Spain, or you're in places like Scotland where
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: they kind of go go just as crazy as we do.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: But at the same time, like there's something comfortable about
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: being around your people, Like it's always nice because especially
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: now that we do play internationally so much, every time
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: we get to play home, it's like a bit of
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: a homecoming every single time, because it might have been
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: it might have only been a couple of months since
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: we played, or it could be the better part of
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: a year. So like in the case of this one,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: we had our regional tour mid last year, so we'll
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: be almost, you know, nine months since we've lost on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: a show in Australia where we finally get to come
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: back and do a big festival like not Fest. So yeah,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: I think that's you know, that's the comforting part of it.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, And it must always be nice to come back
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: to Australia, I.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Imagine, Oh for sure. I mean pending. I'm a man
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: that likes the cool weather. So right now it's overcast,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: it's twenty two degrees. It's a nice day. But you know,
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: when we come back from a tour in December and
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: we've been over in like European winter, get back here
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and it's like forty two degrees, it's like, okay, I
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: could let that, you know, I could leave that behind
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: for a bit, but no, it's still home.
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, awesome. Your role as guitarist is hugely important in
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: Polaris as your sound to me really stands out because
• 4:29
  Speaker 2: of you. With the songwriting process, Are you the one
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: that first lays down a tune for the others to build.
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: On Generally, yeah, Like it's almost always instruments first for Polaris.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Like it's probably one maybe two songs on the record
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: where Dan will come together with something that's more like
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: lyrically kind of sound and be like, this is what
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: I want to do. Here's a rough guideline, and then
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: we'll work from it. But most of the other time,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: it's just throwing rifts at the wall until one sticks
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and then eventually, you know, moving on to the next part,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: moving on to the next part. And once we get
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: that skeleton where we go okay, this is instrumentally interesting enough,
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: is when we kind of go back and go, okay,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: now how to vocals work and then refine it from there.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: But typically, yeah, it's the pressure on the rifts and
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: the guitars first, and then everything else falls into place.
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: Once that's feeling good.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: Wow, that's insane. When you're on tour, are you guys
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: pretty wild or are you fairly chill and relaxed?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Nah? I think we're fairly chill. Like it's probably Bible
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: six years ago now where we started to make the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: kind of you know, it's a soft rule, but at
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: the same time everyone abides by it where it's like
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: no more than two beers before the set, and that means,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: you know, you could go out for lunch and you
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: have a beer and you're like, all right, that's one okay,
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: And like, you know, we definitely if it's say the
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: end of a tour, or if we flu link up
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: with some bands that we're like really mates with, then
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: sometimes we can get a little bit more out of hand.
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: But typically speaking, everyone likes to get their their rest
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: and their sleep, and yeah, just a night cap and
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: then a good night's rest is usually better off than
• 5:53
  Speaker 1: going until three four am.
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. Do you know It's so funny. I've interviewed
• 5:59
  Speaker 2: a few bands on the Not Fast line up now,
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: and a lot of them usually have the same answer.
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: They're like, no, we want to put on the best
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: performance we can and we don't want to go too hard.
• 6:07
  Speaker 2: And I'm like, yeah, I respect that. As a thirty
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: something year.
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Old, yeah exactly. I mean I just turned thirty one
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the other week, so you know, we're all getting older.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: But it's also like you you'd feel like saying it
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: to other people, like, oh, what do you do. I'm
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: an accountant. It's like, oh, so you must get pissed
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: on the job every day. It's like, now I'm building
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: my job.
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, crazy, Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: It eventually gets to that point where professionalism needs to
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: you know, go above your you know, partying desires, especially
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: as you say, thirty years old, you have a good
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Saturday and you're paying for it on Friday, So.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Exactly exactly it sucks. Do you have any advice to
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: ousie bands starting out looking to break into the music scene.
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: Oh, I mean it's such a different landscape to when
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I was younger and kind of getting into it, so
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: like it's just tough now, I'd say, honestly, social media
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: is like the best thing to do, like, and that's
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: not just like don't just post on Instagram, like, get
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: on TikTok, get on it tube, like get your music
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: out there in every single avenue that you possibly can,
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: because you don't know which one of those is going
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: to pick it up. Like you could get ignored on
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: Instagram for five years, you could get picked up on
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: TikTok in one day, like and for me, I'm out
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: of touch on that. So I've always been kind of
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: second fiddle for all social media managing and so yeah, yeah,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: I mean I wouldn't have the daftest clue, But as
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: far as the music started of it just make music
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: that satisfies and pleases you. If you're happy at the
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: end of the day, then you hope that someone else
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: in the world will hear it and be you know,
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: just as thrilled as you are to hear it.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, And for you guys, did social media at
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: the time play a bit of a bearing for your
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: success or not really.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: Maybe not so much a bearing on success, but it
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: definitely helped us get started, like having Facebook groups and
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: just being able to like kind of co mingle with
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: other bands that we had barely interacted with, and then
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: getting on shows like we played out at Saint Mary's
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: probably like I think it was like four or five times,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: and that had a you know, a Facebook page attached
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: to it, and they were, you know, posting what bands
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: are on, if they had spots, just things like that,
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: like kind of just keeping you into the ground and
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: being involved as much as possible. And back then it
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: was Facebook and a little bit of Instagram and now
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: it's all manner of things.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. And what moment for you was the
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: moment that you really said to yourself, Wow, we've made it.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: I mean, I probably chalked that up to like the
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: first time we're going over to America, I think because
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: like the first time we went to Europe was like
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: we're finally doing something, but then actually going to the
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: US was like, oh, now we're gone, like we've gone everywhere,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: like we're not everywhere, but you know what I mean.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: But but yeah, no, it kind of felt like we're
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: finally into our stride by the time we were hitting
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: America and everything kind of started to feel more comfortable
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: and less stressful. And yeah, I think that was the
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: time when we you know, there's always more, there's always
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: a step beyond where you're at, and so it was
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: never like we've wrestled on our laurels and being like
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: we've made a boys, this is it, Like we're coasting now.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: But I think yeah, once we started to get into
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: the international scene, it was like, okay, we're actually you know,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: we're amongst the other bands that we used to aspire
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: to be like, so it was cool.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, crazy, And what sort of bands have you been
• 9:06
  Speaker 2: listening to at the moment? What do you like?
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I've been listening to a bit of ALT I believe
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: they're from somewhere in Europe, but it's a double LT,
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: so not Alt Australia. Yeah, I had to. I had
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: to do a double take. I was listening to them
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: on Spotify and they came up on Spotify Radio. I
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: was like, is this Why have they got another l
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: And then I was like, yeah, okay, it's another band alright,
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: But yeah, I've been listening to them a bit. The
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: New Architects singles, the New spirit Box I've been listening to. Yeah,
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: I'm just kind of keen to new music. It's always
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: it's always a weird time of the year when you
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: get to like mid January and you go like, when's
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: anything coming out? And then you realize, like, oh, everyone's
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: in the same boat. They're just you know, enjoying the holidays.
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: And once we get back to February and March then
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: we'll be back to our regularly scheduled programming. We'll get
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: some new records and yeah, I'm kind of excited for
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: the twenty twenty five releases.
• 9:49
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely me too. Aside from guitar as well.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: What are some of your hobbies.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Recently? I got a three D printer, so I've been
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: printing all little nickname accident or not, knickknacks. I've been
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: trying to make it. I don't want to be the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: guy that has like fifteen thousand Pokemon figurines around my
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: house that I printed. So I'm just making little brackets
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and little holders and little things to kind of make
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: life a little bit better. So I also learned how
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: to Rubik's Cube the past couple of months, which is fun.
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: Just crack three minutes the other day. Other than that,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: I just played video games and my partner and I
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: actually we bought a house towards the end of last year,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: so you know, this is kind of a side hustle now,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: just making sure the house is neat and tidy and
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: you know, slowly making improvement. So yeah, it's been keeping
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: me busy.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: Oh damn, I wish we had enough time. Otherwise I'd
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: like to see that Rubik's Cuba deciphering.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: That'd be awesome. Yeah, once I get it to under
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: one minute, then I'll start showing it off on interviews.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: But until I get to that point, it's, you know,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: too much dead air.
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: Oh what's the weirdest or coolest thing you've been given
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: to given by a fan?
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: One of the coolest things, because actually this is something
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: I should have mentioned, but We've got a bit of
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: lego around the house as well, and a fellow over
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: in Ireland actually he makes customized band lego sets, so
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: it's like a little stage with like kind of their
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: roles like guitars or whatever else, and he gets like
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: the minifigus. It was so great because like it was
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: like everyone kind of had their thing, like getting Ryan's hair,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: getting Rick's hair, getting the beer, getting this, getting that.
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: He's like Jamie's how couldn't find the right one, so
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: he ended up getting a thaw figurine and then like
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: cutting out some of the top fringe and like sculpting
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: it a little bit differently. So that's probably one of
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: the the the coolest things that we've received. I think, well,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: that's so cool.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Are they pretty big like on social media?
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: I believe, so, yeah, I'm trying to remember the name.
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: I think I've seen a few of them that you wouldn't.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Have seen it before, because yeah, I've seen like since
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: we've received outs, I've seen like another probably five or
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: six from other bands that I know personally received theirs,
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, that's so sick, that's so cool.
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: What are you most looking forward to it? Not Fest.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: I mean again a data remember Slipknot. That's going to
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: be like a kind of just two or force every
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: single night getting smashed by them. But I'm just excited
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: to play again, to be honest, like it's been it's
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: been a little while now since we've done a festival
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: and last one was good Things, which kind of we're
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: us out of the water. Like I remember in Sydney,
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: we're like, okay, well we'll try to get the circle
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: pit around the sound desk and we're like, yeah, we'll
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: see how we go. We've tried that before and you know,
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: everyone looks at you like you're a weirder but but
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: no Sydney, it actually happened and we're like, holy shit.
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: So we've just kind of been eager to get back
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: out on a festival stage again back home and just
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: just rip it.
• 12:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's that's awesome, and I just know it's
• 12:38
  Speaker 2: just going to be so good at not Fest. I
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: can't wait. Rick, as a huge fan of Polaris, I
• 12:43
  Speaker 2: can't wait to see you guys play not Fest. I
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: know your meletal faces away as usual. Thank you so
• 12:47
  Speaker 2: much for your time.
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: You're more than welcome, and thank you beautiful.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much,