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No Rules, No Limits: SIXTH WONDER Conquer With BURNOUT · HEAVY Music Interviews

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: My name's Nick, I play drums in 6th Wonder and
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: our new song Burnout just came out yesterday and you
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: should all go listen to it.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: My name's Rebecca, I'm the vocalist in 6th Wonder and
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: we've just brought out a new song called Burnout.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: Fantastic, thanks for joining us guys.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Thanks for having us.
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: My pleasure, so as.
• 0:19
  Speaker 4: You say 6th Wonder just dropped their new song Burnout,
• 0:22
  Speaker 4: I know it hasn't been that long yet but how's
• 0:24
  Speaker 4: the early reception been?
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: It's been pretty good, to be fair. I think we were.
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: I personally was a little bit nervous to release this
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: one just because it's quite different compared to everything else
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: we have released to date, just to see what reaction
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: would be. But luckily it's been very, very nice and
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: everybody seems to really be digging it so far, which
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: has been great.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: It's been good fun for me. It's the first single
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I've been involved in, which I joined so late I'm
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: not even in the music video, but I'm on the song, so...
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: It's been nice seeing everyone's comments on the music video.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: At least I could just like snook and be like,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I wonder what they think of this.
• 1:03
  Speaker 3: Don't judge me. That's awesome.
• 1:06
  Speaker 4: So tell us a bit more about the song from
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: a musical point of view and what you've gone for with.
• 1:12
  Speaker 5: It.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I've wanted to make kind of a sort of ED
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: soundscape type thing. I wanted it to be like a
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: sort of slow build and then kind of descend into
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: madness to kind of represent what the the lyrical themes
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: are which is just building yourself up and constantly working
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: yourself to the brink of being able to not take
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: any more for it to then hit and everything to
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: kind of fall apart around you so kind of creating
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: that kind of really big build obviously with very long
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: intro with no instruments for about a minute and a
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: half other than just synth programming things um that was
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: intentional just to kind of create more of like a
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: that's unease.
• 1:54
  Speaker 5: Sort of like because people are used to hearing more
• 1:57
  Speaker 5: more from us right away so again.
• 1:59
  Speaker 2: Just another little experimentational thing but everything kind of worked
• 2:03
  Speaker 2: into this sort of early 2000s sort of weird stuff
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: which obviously is reflected in the the imagery of the
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: cover art and everything as well but just trying to
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: tie all of that in together to make what it
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: has became.
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I think for me as well being the first one
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: I was involved in like I was saying it's great
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: listening back to the stuff that they had released already
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: because i think there's like more of a proggy nature
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: to to this one it's a bit of a longer
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: song and the development is kind of more gradual like
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: rebecca was saying and that's like totally in my wheelhouse
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: i love kind of starting with a theme and then
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: like just carrying that all the way through a song
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: and um i just yeah i enjoyed writing drums for
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: it i think it was just a great song for
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: me to start working with the band so.
• 2:47
  Speaker 4: So Nick, you can sit this one out because you
• 2:49
  Speaker 4: weren't there, but Rebecca, tell us about the music video
• 2:53
  Speaker 4: and how it ties in with the themes of the song.
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: So this song is my baby, Fuli. Everything I very
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: much was taking creative control of. The music video, I
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: had the idea that I really wanted this sort of.
• 3:11
  Speaker 5: Like almost.
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: Sort of like the backdrop that you're currently sitting in
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: front of that is the real place that we shot
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: at I wanted that sort of green blue split I
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: wanted that kind of Windows XP look just to be
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: that kind of really weird why are they there type
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: thing and then to kind of go in with the
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: sort of uncanny valley style makeup and the 1950s clothing
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: I just wanted us to look really really out of
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: place but to be acting as if everything was normal
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: is why I was like the smile was painted on
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: it's plastered on my face throughout the entire music video.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I just wanted to give just a very uncertain feeling
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: because it's such a long song as well to watch
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: like a full music video for but I just wanted
• 3:57
  Speaker 2: to kind of keep that almost grip on the person
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: watching because it's like why why why are they doing
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: all of this?
• 4:06
  Speaker 4: Good. Burnout follows on from the singles missile and Is
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: This What You Want From Me. So are they standalone
• 4:12
  Speaker 4: singles or are they part of a bigger musical picture?
• 4:16
  Speaker 5: All standalone. None of these songs are linked whatsoever.
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: Right.
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: There's no plans for an album with them or you're
• 4:23
  Speaker 4: just working one song at a time at the moment?
• 4:26
  Speaker 5: At the moment, we're working a little bit at a time.
• 4:28
  Speaker 5: Maybe check in with us next year. But at the moment, singles.
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: No worries. So talk us through the massive single Missile then.
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: Apparently it all sparked from messing around with the synth
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: loop pattern on the Apple loop. So what was the
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: creative simulation like when Dylan and Nathan took the electronic
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: backbone and laid on the heavy elements with it?
• 4:48
  Speaker 5: It was really interesting to watch how this song developed
• 4:50
  Speaker 5: because I could just... When I was.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: Again, as you said, it was just Apple loops that
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: I was messing about with that I'd kind of changed
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: the synth pattern slightly for. I'd seen... I could hear
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: that I wanted it to be like a really good
• 5:05
  Speaker 2: live song because I could hear really good drums on
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: it and I could hear how I wanted the guitars
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: to sound but I wanted it to still kind of
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: I don't know circle around that initial sort of synth
• 5:16
  Speaker 2: pattern which is why the guitar riff is also the
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: synth pattern and just that kind of really is hammered
• 5:21
  Speaker 2: in that this is the song but yeah hearing it
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: go from what initially was it didn't change too much
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: to be fair but things were added and it just
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: lifted it to this new.
• 5:33
  Speaker 5: Sort of I guess it's probably a rockiest.
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Sounding song rather than metal I know there is still
• 5:39
  Speaker 2: a breakdown but it is pretty live rock is kind
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: of what I wanted the sound to be and I
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: feel like it kind of did that.
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: So this new material that you're writing like how how
• 5:51
  Speaker 4: is it different from the music on your debut EP
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: prologue like how's the band how's it maturing I guess or.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Changing I feel like the approach that we have to
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: writing is slightly, it's not too dissimilar to what we
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: were doing before but I feel like as musicians we've
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: all kind of developed in our writing styles and the
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: way that we work together.
• 6:14
  Speaker 5: We obviously have a.
• 6:16
  Speaker 2: New member with fresh ideas on board in Nick here
• 6:19
  Speaker 2: so just kind of bringing all those elements in together
• 6:22
  Speaker 2: I feel like is sort of changing the way that
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: we approach our writing styles. And I feel like we're,
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: although Prologue was very collaborative, I feel like we're heading
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: down a way more collaborative route to kind of age
• 6:40
  Speaker 2: into the next year with the sort of new stuff
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: that we're doing at the moment.
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: It's been great for me just being able to start
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: working on that process with the guys and me and
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: Nathan especially, it's just I've been working on ideas back
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: and forth, summer demos, some were very early versions of Burnout,
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: so it's been great for me just to impart a
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: little bit of what I like my taste and stuff
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: and then you know I'm not stubborn stuff can change
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it's like it's good to have your baseline and then
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: other people's influences can mold that you know so it's
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: it's been amazing yeah.
• 7:11
  Speaker 4: So it's a bit newer to the band like um
• 7:12
  Speaker 4: what do you what do you think you bring to
• 7:14
  Speaker 4: the sound like what elements do you bring into the picture.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Um I mean I've seen a little bit of progginess
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: I do like I mean one of my favorite bands
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: and drummers is um Periphery and that's just I love
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: their musicality and that's something that's definitely part of the
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: way I play drums um But then we all have
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: such varied influences that are not metal. And I think
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: it's amazing when those influences are clear in each person's contributions.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: And yeah, I like groovy drums. I like stuff that
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: builds and develops. And I think Burnout is a really
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: good example of that. So it's a great one to
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: be involved in first. And yeah, I'm excited to work
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: on new stuff next year.
• 7:54
  Speaker 3: Very nice.
• 7:55
  Speaker 4: Now, it's no secret to the faithful that Sixth Wonder
• 7:57
  Speaker 4: actually started out as a university project to get a grade.
• 8:00
  Speaker 3: So at what moment, Rebecca, did you sort of.
• 8:02
  Speaker 4: Stand back and look at the reception of First Track
• 8:05
  Speaker 4: and say, rightio, we've got something going here.
• 8:07
  Speaker 3: Let's turn into a proper band.
• 8:09
  Speaker 2: I think it was just kind of seeing how accepting
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: people were of the song off the bat. It's not
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: like anything I'd ever done before. I did like kind
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: of pop things before.
• 8:23
  Speaker 5: So it was very.
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: uh like drastically different but for everybody to just not
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: really question that I just moved into this metal space
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: and which is like oh okay that's really cool that
• 8:32
  Speaker 2: she's doing that okay well awesome um and people people
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: seem to enjoy the first song so I think at
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: that point we're like well we'll just try it out
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: and see see.
• 8:42
  Speaker 5: How it goes and here we are.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: When I was really young I actually knew Rebecca at
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: uh we were like I don't know how did we
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: first meet in like a a rock school of some variety.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: It was not metal music, put it that way. I
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: remember seeing the first Sixth Wonder stuff and I was like, oh,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: this is pretty cool.
• 9:03
  Speaker 3: I was like, is that Rebecca? People talk about your music.
• 9:09
  Speaker 4: They take a notice of the self-described gent pop sound.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: How do you strike that balance?
• 9:14
  Speaker 4: You've got the salty, sweet, massive radio-friendly pop hooks, and
• 9:17
  Speaker 4: then you've got the soul-crushing technical prog breakdowns.
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: How do you bring them together, I guess, without sacrificing one.
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: Or the other?
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: I think it just kind of naturally goes that way.
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: everything that I write I feel like I'm not intentionally
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: trying to make it kind of pop sounding it just
• 9:37
  Speaker 2: kind of goes that way so I guess that's just
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: my my writing style um and especially when I bring
• 9:43
  Speaker 2: things to Nathan he's already he's got a million ideas
• 9:45
  Speaker 2: all the time um so there's always going to be
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: something that works with what I'm doing or he'll just
• 9:50
  Speaker 2: write something on the spot around what I've done um
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: I feel like because we are we're quite in tune
• 9:56
  Speaker 2: with each other particularly myself and Nathan just when it
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: comes to that like core writing process I feel as
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: if we're able to bounce off of each other and
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: recently speaking with Nathan he'd mentioned that when he's writing
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: something he will often adjust something that he's written to
• 10:12
  Speaker 2: think what would Rebecca do with this I think she'd
• 10:14
  Speaker 2: probably do something like that so I'll write it in
• 10:16
  Speaker 2: this way instead of the path I was already going
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: down which I think is really really cool and it
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: shows a really great maturity in his writing and understanding
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: of the greater picture of what the sixth wonder sound
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: could and should be.
• 10:31
  Speaker 5: Yeah, that's my answer for that. I was just talking
• 10:33
  Speaker 5: about Nathan.
• 10:34
  Speaker 3: You've had a pretty good tour schedule too, guys.
• 10:37
  Speaker 4: You've supported Malavara, especially the Radar Festival. You've got some
• 10:41
  Speaker 4: gig with Skindred coming at the moment up. So how is,
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: I suppose as a band who's sort of still youngish,
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: like how does that intense live environment translate to the
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: material you're working on now?
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: That's a good question.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: I don't know, I think how you structure set lists
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: has maybe changed, and certainly in my mind, from the
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: first show I played with these guys back in, what
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: was it, June time this year? I don't know, now
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: that Burnouts came into play, you're totally thinking more about
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the live set up in terms of songs and how you,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: like the journey of the set list, especially with the
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Mal of Orator, you're only getting 30 minutes. So you're
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: trying to think about how you present yourself really well
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: 30 minutes and it's like it's maybe harder than people
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: think when you're picking from songs and stuff and I
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: don't know it's like it was a big discussion where
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: Burnout goes on the set for example it's like because
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: we wanted to play that on the Malibu Tour and
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: yeah that was like a bit of a back and
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: forth in rehearsals because there was a differing opinions on
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: what songs you don't keep and what ones you sacrifice
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: you know but I don't know all those shows were
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: amazing and I wasn't overthinking it really I think Radar
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: was probably the highlight of last few months but I
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: don't know, Rebecca's opinion might differ.
• 11:59
  Speaker 5: I would agree, definitely.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: I think as well with our last tour it was
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: like our first time properly working with in-ears for a
• 12:09
  Speaker 2: run specifically, which I think, me personally I feel like
• 12:14
  Speaker 2: that changed a lot for me and I felt like
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: I was able to have a lot more vocal control
• 12:18
  Speaker 2: because I could actually hear myself on stage which, unusual.
• 12:22
  Speaker 5: Usually cannot do that um so it was nice.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: To kind of have that that difference and I feel
• 12:27
  Speaker 2: like that already has lifted for me my live presence
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: um because I have audio um but uh I think
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: genuinely it's been um it's been really good just um
• 12:42
  Speaker 2: trying new things I think and just creating more of
• 12:46
  Speaker 2: an atmosphere, especially like what Nick was saying with creating
• 12:49
  Speaker 2: the set lists and how to present ourselves with the
• 12:52
  Speaker 2: kind of order of stuff, because it really does make
• 12:54
  Speaker 2: a difference. It doesn't sound like a big thing, but
• 12:57
  Speaker 2: the order of the songs can really like make or
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: break the flow of the set. So just trying to
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: get into that has been really interesting.
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: Talking of touring guys, like I know we're a long.
• 13:08
  Speaker 4: Way from you over there, but have there been any
• 13:10
  Speaker 4: discussions about coming over here?
• 13:13
  Speaker 5: Oh, 100%, yeah.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: If we could have the money to do such a thing,
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: we would absolutely love that.
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Some of my favourite.
• 13:22
  Speaker 5: Metal bands are Australian as well.
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: You have such a great metal culture over there, and
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: I think we want to be part of it, so
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: get us over there. Sure, yeah.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: I was actually talking about this yesterday as well I
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: was thinking about it I was like you know playing
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Australia is such a big deal I think it's not
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: even like a UK thing it's US as well it's
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: such a big deal to go play out there and
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: yeah it'd be amazing it'd be such an ordeal I
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: think it would be so good and I just you
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: know from following bands growing up every time they were
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: like announcing shows in Australia it was like always a
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: big deal to play in Australia so yeah I've never
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: been myself so I'd love to play.
• 14:07
  Speaker 3: Well, if you make it over, let me know and
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: I'll be your chaperones.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: Hell yeah.
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: Brilliant.
• 14:12
  Speaker 3: All right, guys. Well, thanks very much for your time.
• 14:14
  Speaker 3: The single Burnout is out now. Everyone in Australia goes
• 14:17
  Speaker 3: out and listens to it.
• 14:18
  Speaker 4: It might help the cause to get you down here,
• 14:20
  Speaker 4: but in the meantime, best of luck with everything.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Thank you very much.
• 14:23
  Speaker 5: Thank you very much, Chris.