Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Raw, Real & Gritty With LUKE GRUNTS From CLEOPATRICK

Transcript

Raw, Real & Gritty With LUKE GRUNTS From CLEOPATRICK · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It's up on loot grunts from Cleopatrick.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: Beautiful, Thanks so much. This is your first time touring Australia.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: What's been the most exciting or surprising part about finally
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: bringing clear Patrick here.
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: I think, well, exciting has been just seeing like the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: excitement coming from the fans. Like we've had people asking
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: us to come to Australia for a really long time,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: but it's never really been in the playbook because it's
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: quite far away and we're an independent But yeah, just
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: being able to satisfy that request for some people has
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: been really awesome. And then the most surprising thing is
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: finding out that we're missing a lot of the country.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: There's also a lot of disappointed people, of course, which
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I didn't expect. But I guess it is much like
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: Canada in the way that it's very vast and the
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: cities are very separated. Yes, and it's not even to
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: just travel to a show when it's happening in the
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: same country. So I guess that's a good reason for
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: us to come back.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly. And that just means the next time you
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: can visit all those areas that look it happens with
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: every artist, even major capital cities get missed here on tours,
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: so it's not just you guys.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, good. Yeah, I felt pretty bad when we
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: first shared the tour.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: And you've just upgraded your Melbourne show to the Corner
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: Corner Hotel after selling out. How how does it feel
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: to see that kind of demand in a country you've
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: never played before.
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: It's still cool, Like, I guess it's just it's nice
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: as an artist to have like the that kind of
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: a stamp where you just know the show is going
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: to be awesome. I mean, we don't really have many
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: bumber shows, but yeah, like now I'm just sure about it,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: Like Melbourne's going to be crazy, and then as a
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: by product, I feel like the other two are going
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: to be really crazy too.
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah, definitely. And I found you guys on Instagram, which
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: is crazy to me. How much of an influence or
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: not influence, but how big of a part did social
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: media have in your career.
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: It's been like an interesting partnership I've had with it.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: Like I definitely don't play the social media game as
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: much as a lot of other bands, much to the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: should grin of the industry. People are honest, but I mean, yeah,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: there's part of it that can feel a little facetious
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: to me, but definitely in the start, like when we
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: first started having people like outside of our little bubble
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: listening to our music, Instagram, Twitter and stuff, was like
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: how I was able to connect with them, And back
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: in the day, I was really into like actually connecting
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: with them, like developing relationships online with these people, speaking
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: with them and kind of learning about them. Now I
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: can't do that as much, But in the beginning, I
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: think that that was how we were able to like
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: really create a very like strong core fan base from
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: the start because kind of like we're able to make
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: those early joiners to the cars feel like like they
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: were just our friends.
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: Definitely, definitely really authentic. It's like a double edged sword,
• 3:19
  Speaker 2: isn't it, because especially starting out in the beginning, it's
• 3:23
  Speaker 2: really helpful for you guys obviously to connect with fans,
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: but now I guess it can be It's also like
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: social media is not always the best place.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: Is it. Yeah. I think that I could easily spend
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: a lot more time working on our social media then
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: like that could eclipse making music very quickly, and in fact,
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: some ways that's kind of promoted like like that's what
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: you should do if you want to make it. It's
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: all about building up these numbers. But I think it
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: would all fall apart if I kind of took that approach.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I think that the core of what this thing is
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: would crumble. So that's my excuse.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's fair enough. And what can Ozzie fans expect
• 4:12
  Speaker 2: from the live show? Will there be any surprises or
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: special moments just for this tour?
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: I think that the goal is to give them the
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: most standardized classic Cleopatrick show because they just never had that.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: So it's like all the greatest hits, some of the
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: new record for the fields. Yeah, the goal is to
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: give them like a crash course at Clio Patrick for
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: the night. Well, it shouldn't be too hard.
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's WEIKD. Have you ever been hearing yourself aside
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: from touring? Obviously?
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: No, No, I've thought about it. When I was younger,
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: I saw Scooby Doo Goes to Australia and it's like
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: with a band and stuff that the vampires, and I
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: was like really into that movie and then kind of
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: as a byproduct, I was really to Australia and Jack one. Yeah,
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: but no, I never made it down so though.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's also very excited to welcome you. We're really
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: big on like snacks and coffee here. Is there anything
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: that you're like wanting to try most from here?
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's the coffee actually, because I am like I've
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: accidentally become like a coffee snob. Yeah, and and my
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: fiance are like really into it, and yeah, I'm hoping
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: to get like a really nice coffee every morning in
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: Australia because I heard it's kind of like upper echelon
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: of coffee quality.
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, we're really big snobs with our coffee as well.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: What's the coffee like in Canada? Is it I've been
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: to America and their coffee, in my opinion, tastes like
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: dirt water. But what about Canada.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: Canada's pretty sweet actually, Like there's if you're in like
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: a major city, there's a handful of cool spots that
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: were like they got the cool beans and the cool
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: vibe and the soft jazz music playing and nice. You know,
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: that's kind of what I'm looking for. Yeah, yeah, you know,
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: in rural Canada, it's going to be the same as
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: the US. It's like a lot of instant coffee and stuff.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: But you know what, I like that stuff too. Yes, yeah,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: I think that there's a magic to it. There's a romance.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no that I can understand that. And your
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: latest record, Fake Moon, blends low fibret with expansive production.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: How do you translate that sonic mix into a live setting?
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that was really fun, Like like when you're making
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: Fake Moon, the goal was actually to make a record
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: that it was like we'd have to really do some
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: like high level meta analysis of our live show in
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: order to recreate that, and it was like the right
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: amount of challenge. Like, so live you just use some
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: different equipment, the sounds kind of like bloom into what
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: feels more of like a studio production. When we play
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the old stuff, it really feels like a garage band. Yeah,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: and then there's these moments where it cross feeds into like, yeah,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: I kind of feeling like a little more surreal, I
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: guess the cold way to put it. So, yeah, it's
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: been really fun and I think it makes the set
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: like just that much more exciting.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely. And with this album in the studio,
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: did you guys lay the tracks down pretty quick or
• 7:31
  Speaker 2: do you like to really take your time making sure
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: everything sounds perfect.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: This album took a really long time, and there was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: like the stuff that we did in the studio because
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: we had like a chapter where we worked with the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: producer that went really quick. But other stuff, like a
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: lot of the stuff that I worked on kind of
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: solos as songwriting and like demoing ended up becoming like
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: what appears on the record that's forever because I was
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: learning like the language I wanted to use with the
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: like computer plus the guitar thing going on, Like there
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: was like a lot of discovery that needed to happen. Yeah,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: and so yeah, that part was a long process, but
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: in the end it did come together quick.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah. And you've described Cleopatrick's sound as the audio
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: equivalent to a PlayStation to PlayStation one graphics. Can you
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: unpack that a little bit?
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, Yeah, it's like I think that with our older music,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: there was like a lofa thing to it of like
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: we like the sound of the guitars clipping and bury
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: the vocals in the wall of you know, riff. And
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: then as as we've grown, the like kind of logical
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: step from that, as we've deep into our knowledge of
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: like production and stuff has been to find like a
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: new angle on that kind of like using technology, and
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: so the usition one graphics thing comes from, like I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: just got really obsessed with recording on my map book
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: with then like degrading the audio and a bit crushing,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: like pulling information out of the recording, and it gets
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: all these weird resonances and just like basically breaking a
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: lot of rules and not being like tender with the music.
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: But in the end it's shaped up to make this
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: record that does feel really like low Polly and kind
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: of like liminal, which I think is really beautiful.
• 9:38
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's really awesome how you've experimented into that and
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: pushed it further, and that is really like the best
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: way to describe, like you're so you've hit the nail
• 9:47
  Speaker 2: on the head. It does like I had a PlayStation
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: one and two, but it does sound exactly like a
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: soundtrack to a game.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's like someone tried to make it as
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: realistic as possible, but they're limited by the technology.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, exactly. And what was the most personal song
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: for you to write on the on Fake Moon.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: Well, it's a good question. I think that probably love
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: You and it was like some of the other ones
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: feel like there's like a little character that lives between
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: me and the song, but that one's like really personal.
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, oh lovely. And you've cited influences as diverse as
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: Radiohead dijon Caelphone. How do you decide what to draw
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: from and what to leave behind when creating your own sound?
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: M hmmm. I think that it's firmly planted in like intuition.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Like I really when it came time to make this record,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I really had this like deep feeling in me that
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: it just had to be what I was hearing in
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: my head, Like it couldn't. I couldn't like recreate what
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: we had just done because I knew that that's what
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: like a lot of our fans wanted. And that became
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: this huge internal battle of like needing to satisfy like
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: an artistic value I had versus like, you know, this
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: is also how I make my living, and I didn't
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: really know what would happen to jump off the edge
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of just making what I wanted, like making a selfish record.
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: But I'm really glad I did because I think that, yeah,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: it's deep into like what people can expect from this band.
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: And I think now like we're going to start making
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: our next record shortly. And it's cool knowing that, like
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: nobody can predict what it's going to be, not myself,
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: because I have to just go back to that intuition
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and kind of find what's going to happen.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: And did you have any new influences for Fake Mode?
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely, Like like when we made all our old music,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: we're listening to a lot of stuff that kind of
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: sounded like that. I still think that we tried with
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: our old records. We tried to make something that nobody
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: had made before, was like the thing you wanted rock
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: to be. Yeah. But then like after that, just touring
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: so much I was I started listening to like more
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: music than I had ever consumed in my life, and
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I really became more open minded about music, and so yeah,
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: like a billion different influences seeped in and I just realized,
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: like the well goes so much deeper than I thought,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: And that kind of realizations would allowed us to make
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: a record that's so different.
• 12:33
  Speaker 2: I can imagine, like, do you with all that musical
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: information that you were picking up, where you like, oh,
• 12:39
  Speaker 2: I want to take things from here here and here.
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: I think it was like I mean subconsciously. Yeah, there's
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: probably a lot of like little light bulb moments listening
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: to songs and being like, wow, well that made me
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: feel so wonderful or whatever. Yeah, but I think that
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: I did. I ultimately felt like making something tender and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: pretty and beautiful was like, that's that's where it had
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: to go next. Yeah, just to contrast what we've done before.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: Definitely, And it does contrast so nicely with the heaviest
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: stuff that came before. And cleopatrick songs often balance emotional
• 13:23
  Speaker 2: weight with sonic intensity. Does one of those elements usually
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: come first in the writing.
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: Process, Yeah, it's it's the emotional weight. Like I've always
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: felt that the songs are really about things, you know,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: like we don't we don't make rock music about like
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: chicks or whatever, you know, the low hanging through it
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: or if if there is a mention of that kind
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: of thing, there's there's usually like a little analogy behind it.
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: It's metaphor or something.
• 13:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: So yeah, that not to sound hoity toity, but that
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: is where it all stands from. Like the only way
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that I think Ian and me feel that we can
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: like perform songs or record them or like have any
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: work to put out there, is it has to be
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: grounded in like a really real personal feeling.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I think that's why I like you
• 14:16
  Speaker 2: guys so much, because like a lot of the music
• 14:19
  Speaker 2: that I like does not focus on like that low
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: hanging fruit of typical you know, your stereotypical topics of
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: women or whatever, like. Yeah, yeah, Between the two of you,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: who's more likely to lose their passport on tour?
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: Oh? Neither of us are tour manager. Jake is probably
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: the most likely to lose. What's important that has happened? Yeah,
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, loose pockets. It's so funny, It's awesome.
• 14:52
  Speaker 2: What did you do?
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: We found it? Put in some work and find it,
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: Oh jeez, very diligent. We're organized guys.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's good. That's awesome. And is there a
• 15:06
  Speaker 2: particular moment, maybe something funny or just playing weird that's
• 15:11
  Speaker 2: happened from any of your tours in any country you've
• 15:14
  Speaker 2: been to.
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, definitely, it's hard to pick one. I think
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: what I've been reflecting on lately is just this guy
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: that Ian and Jake and I met in this bar
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: in London, like the first time we had gone over
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: to play in the UK. Were like, I really feel
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: like we were kids and basically just met like a
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: pirate and he was like so drunk, and we have
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: all these video clips of him like trying to explain
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: some high level thing to us, but he's just laughing,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: and then we're laughing with him and he says, it's
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: not a joke. Yeah. I was recently going through some
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: of that audio and just remembered this, this character.
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: That's so good. Maybe you can include some of his
• 16:01
  Speaker 2: audio into a song one day.
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: Yes, Actually, you've just spoken the future.
• 16:13
  Speaker 2: That's awesome. And if you could recruit any Australian artist
• 16:19
  Speaker 2: part or present for one off collaboration, who would it be.
• 16:23
  Speaker 1: It's a tough one, it is. I mean, okay, like
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: I just want to say AC DC, but then I
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: really think about it. I just want to hang out
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: with them. I don't know if I really want to collaborate,
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: and I just want to let them do their thing. Yeah,
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: I think that. I mean, there's a singer songwriter that
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: I love called Julia Jacqueline.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I feel like I've heard of her.
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just incredible and I love her music and I've
• 16:57
  Speaker 1: actually got the media A couple of times, like at
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: festivals we've played and one time when I saw her
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: playing Toronto, And every time I've completely botched the interaction,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: like I get so nervous. Oh, I like embarrass myself,
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: But I'd sort of like to mend that embarrassment by
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: like collaborating making a song.
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: That's a good idea, don't worry. After speaking to a
• 17:22
  Speaker 2: lot of my music idols, I do the same, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: then I walk away from the interview going why did
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: I say that? Or why was I like that? It sucks,
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: doesn't it?
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It's so funny. We put on a pedestal.
• 17:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, exactly, exactly. And last question, you guys have been
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: friends since childhood. What's one thing Ian still does on
• 17:44
  Speaker 2: tour that makes you shake your head?
• 17:47
  Speaker 1: I shake my head sometimes. Well, we often share hotel
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: rooms and sometimes he'll set an alarm, but then he'll
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: slip through it, and then it's just kind of turns
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: into my alarm because we're getting that up, like usually
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: within like ten minutes of each other. But sometimes I
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: was just there and it's like so classic, and he
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: always makes it a song. It's never like a stock alarm.
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: It's like Brian storm Arctic Monkeys. I'm sitting there.
• 18:17
  Speaker 2: Oh that's wonderful. Oh Luke, We're so excited to see
• 18:20
  Speaker 2: you guys here so soon finally, and please come back
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: again as well. Yeah, we love you so much. Thank
• 18:27
  Speaker 2: you so much for your time.
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you