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Filling The Void With SAM BETTLEY From ASKING ALEXANDRIA · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Yeah. My name's Sam Bedley. I played bass in Asking Alexandria, and
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  we're about to come over to Australia in the very near future. The not
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  Fest going to be playing twenty first, twenty third and twenty fourth in Melbourne,
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  Sydney, Brisbane. It's been a long time. It's been a long
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  time since we've been there, so I'm really excited to get back beautiful Sea.
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  Thanks for joining us, right yeah, man, no, thanks for
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  having me, No, said Asking alexand headed back to Australia this March is
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  part of the Not Fast line up, so she's not that far away now,
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  bro. You're packed and ready to go, and I packed, No
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  way, no way, not a little bit like you. I'm just like
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  scrambling a little bit trying to find my stuff. But it's a it's all
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  good that sometimes that's the best. The best trips happen that way, you
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  know. But it's kind of just crept up on me. I didn't realize,
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  like, how, you know, we've between now and then we're going
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  to We're going to South America. We're going to do pretty much only a
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  couple of days before we were in Australia. We're going to be in Columbia,
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  so it's it's it's a real busy art to the busy start of the
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  year. So it's not yet started. But in about three weeks we you
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  know, the ball starts rolling and we get going. So it's like the
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  calm before the storm. Right now, I'm at home and in Nashville,
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  I'm just chilling. You know, I've got my dream. I'm just I'm
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  still just kind of waiting for it all to kick off. But you know,
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  when it does, I'm excited. Like I said before, it's been
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  such a long time since we've made it over there to Australia, and every
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  time we come, we love it. It's awesome, the show is great.
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  Might just make sure you're check it bags before you get on that plane.
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  Well, they've got us coming back home for like two days, so
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  I might switch them. So all, I like, you've got some pretty
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  big shows, all a long way from home made. So how do you
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  prepare yourself mentally physically to do that the way I've always really done it in
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  the past. If anybody tells me and shut the entire schedule, I'll just
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  be like by size, I just have to take it right, you know,
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  step by step, so I will really get my head fully in the
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  zone for not festing everything what it brings in Australia and all of that until
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  probably we're done with South America really because that's the first thing that we're doing
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  this year. So if it is overwhelming sometimes to get all these dates throne,
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  especially if you've got the whole year planned out, sometimes a year and
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  a half planned out, it's like, all right, well, I know
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  it's there, but I'm just going to focus on what's in front of me
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  right now. So that's usually what I do. I just take it by
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  Otherwise it's overwhelming. But honestly, that doesn't go without saying, like you've
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  got high you know, you've got a bit of a highlight. You know
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  what's you don't dig into each thing, but you know we're going to Australia
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  in March. You know we're going to be going here in February and back
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  to the UK. You know, you do, you do? You get
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  excited like you would like a vacation, but it doesn't become work until you
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  like start like really digging in right before the show, right before like flying
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  out there. For me personally, how to handle it apprissire breakfast. You're
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  right, I suppose you're like, not many people look at it that way,
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  but it would be overwhelming, Like you look at your next calendar from
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  next eight in Manson, if you start trying to take in everything you do,
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  and you'd just be like, what the that's That's what I look like
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  on every single flight as well. I hate flying, so putting myself through
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  that as well. It's flight by flight. I take it flight by flight,
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  you know, Oh good, best light up road. Like, you've
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  got some pretty big names in there, like Pantera, Lambic God, Disturbed,
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  Household yourselves, who Skindred? Like, is there anyone there that you
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  haven't played with before? And we haven't played with Honestly, no, I
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  think we've played with pretty much everybody on this lineup. It's it's you know,
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  we were looking up to do a lot of the festivals in this last
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  European run. We did. We we you know, we've on some of
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  the one of the off dates for the festivals. We played with Disturbed.
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  Those guys are awesome. What an amazing and huge, incredible fantasy live.
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  Yeah, Panterra, I mean that was just a whole thing, you know,
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  like everybody went out for that was a huge party. Lamb of God
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  honestly one of my favorite bands growing up, and my good friend Art is
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  their drummer. Now it's crazy because he's you know, we toured with with
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  that for years when he was in the winds of Plague, you know,
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  back in like doing waptal with each other and hanging out. So it's really
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  cool. It's gonna be a huge There's gonna be a lot of friends and
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  a lot familiar faces, a couple of people we've not played with now.
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  Honestly, I'm looking at I literally have it in front of me. I've
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  got the ad might in front of me. I can see because and honestly
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  everybody really I'm excited. I'm excited together. It sounds like a big gang
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  on that point, Like what's the like backstage and show? So this like
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  is it just a big ptch up of mates and then all of a sudden
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  you got to switch on and go out and do your job. Can be
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  Yeah, it really depends. It depends on how they've got itself back there
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  as well. Depends on let's see there's multiple days, who's doing what they
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  You know, sometimes you just like passing ships and you'll believing as someone's arriving
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  and you'll be like, ah, but it's you know, on the very
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  rare occasion, you get a day where you're you know, you're all friends
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  and you've all been doing it for so long. You catch a day where
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  it's like you're looking around and it's like a little bar area and you're like,
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  Wow, how in what other circumstance do we ever get to do this
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  because we're always moving, we're just moving past all these bands. We're just
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  always to just get everyone in one little area for a day. It's like
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  it's amazing. It's refreshing for us because it's like we could finally hang you
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  know, patch up on like years. So it's you know, it's going
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  to be a bit of that. I think in Australia definitely. And I'm
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  glad you brought up that you've played with Benira, mate, because I don't
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  buy into all this bullshit. But there's so many people around the world carrying
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  on about Pantier and coming back and sound that you know whatever they say,
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  but you've played with them, mate, Like how good are they in this
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  incarnation? It's awesome? Man. I think it's I think it's a celebration.
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  Honestly, when you look when if you're a fan of the band,
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  I mean, if you're a fan of heavy music and you can't tell me
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  you don't go to the pan Terri sho and enjoy it, you're looking too
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  much. I think people sometimes look too much into things like that, you
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  know, the ins and outs of everything. But honestly, I saw it
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  as a celebration and a bunch of a lot of people coming together and it
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  was just amazing. It was awesome, it was it was sick, you
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  know, it was. It was nothing but a good time. So I
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  think if you get the chance to see Pantera, gun check them out.
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  Though it's it's gonna be awesome. Yeah. I have many good things to
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  him. Mate. I can't wait. I just can't wait. Yeah,
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  yeah, I get it. Yeah. So the not first side shows were
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  announced just today, made and asking Alexander will be doing two shows with wage
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  War, one in Melbourne on March, yes, one in Brisbane on March
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  of twenty six. So how different of those headlining shows going to be in
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  not first appearances? Wolf? I mean, we'll find out. I don't
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  know, yeah, but we'll we'll soon find out. But honestly, Wage
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  War a band that we've been trying to tour with for years, and we
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  actually had a tour in the US fully booked. It was US Falling Reverse
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  and Wage War. It was all booked. It was practically a full sold
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  out tour, and then COVID hitters and we've not had the chance to tour
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  those guys since that tour pretty much crumbled. So, I mean a few
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  of them lived down the road from around here in Nashville, So you know,
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  it's kind of cat. I love the band. I think they're awesome.
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  I'm always playing Wage War, So for me, it'll be uh be
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  nice to actually catch up with those guys finally and and and have a good
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  time. You know, all these side shows I think, I think what
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  you know, we obviously we obviously posted our one with wage War today.
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  I was so stoked just to see us together on the bill. It's it's
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  it's nice. I'd love to I'd love to do more with wage People will
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  always ask what to expect from you guys. That live show is right,
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  but as a band, what do you expect from your crowds? It's a
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  good question. Well, we always go out there like before we go out
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  there, we go out there as if it's going to be the best show
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  ever, right, And it's a bit of a cliche thing when people say
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  like, oh, yeah, you know, the show we give what we
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  get back from the crowd and there's a real synergy between the crowd and the
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  performer, and there really is. It's not bullshit like it's if you know,
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  I think that Australia is crazy, and I think that the people in
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  Australia are crazy too. So I'm expecting big things because I've seen I've been
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  there before and we've you know, we definitely put it up on a pedestal
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  for sure, So I think the shows are going to be great. But
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  what you get from that energy from the crowd is it's adrenaline. You're literally
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  getting a main feed straight to You're adrenaline just starts going and the show just
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  becomes something you don't even You can only rehearse and plan and figure so so
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  much out. But when a show clicks, and this is what I was
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  trying to say about Pantario, when something plant when I would just playing with
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  them in Europe, like there's just like when it when it when it clicks
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  with the crowd, with the fans and the crowd and the band, and
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  you just know it does, and they know it does. You don't you
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  don't need to be anywhere else in the world right now, like this is
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  it and it's just for us, you know what I mean. And it's
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  that's the difference between a good crowd, like a loud crowd that make them
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  you feel welcome and make you feel excited and stop making you think about all
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  the things that you don't need to be thinking about, you know, like
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  you just forget about all the nonsense and all the technical stuff and all this.
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  You just start enjoying it. And that's when you get the best little
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  sweet spot of a band, I think, when they just start just freestyling
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  and going for it. Last year, Asking Alexander and released the lightest album
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  Where Do We Go From Here? So? How how was that received?
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  Like there was a great album that did get the recognition of deserved. Yeah,
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  yeah, I think so definitely it was really well received. I think
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  we went into this album definitely took a step back and kind of looked at
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  our discography and you know, we've been around for a while now, We've
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  got a vast discography of different you know, journeys into different kind of tapping
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  into different styles of music and stuff. But we're definitely on this last one
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  honing a little bit on our roots. It gets a little bit heavier,
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  but it's definitely in keeping with the sound that we've created in the past five
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  to ten years. I just think that it's a it's definitely got more than
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  just a nod to some of our older stuff. And we're doing that and
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  releasing this record with some of these heavier tracks on and seeing the response,
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  like we really we've started playing them as well live like recently, and it's
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  just like, damn, let's do some more heavy stuff. We've got a
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  bit of a got a bit of a fire under is now. It's like,
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  yeah, this is sick. This reminds me of like, you know,
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  back when we were when we had Reckless and Relentless come out and it
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  was just like chaotic and I love that. So I think that there's some
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  heavier, heavier stuff on the horizon for us. For sure. You're gonna
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  make a lot of people happy about here, and that Yeah me too,
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  man, me too, trust me. So in this January, you drop
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  the EP Dark Void, which features five versions of that album single Plasi song
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  Nothing Left. So what was the reason behind dropping anything like that with so
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  many versions of the one song on it. Yeah, just a few different
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  takes. I think that really you can kind of have a personally, I'll
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  go into the stripped down version for me because it is one of the heavier
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  songs on the record. So hearing the stripped down version for me with Danny
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  and the piano, it's just beautiful. It gives you a chance to kind
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  of I'm sorry, it was beautiful. It was beautiful. Ah, yeah,
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  thank you. I appreciate that. And it's a it is a powerful
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  it is a powerful song, and I think that it just gives it the
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  spotlight they need. Sometimes you can really get into the heaviness and the and
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  the music, but lyrically, Danny, I think he's always delivered lyrically,
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  and I think sometimes when the heavy stuff comes out, people just they just
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  focus on that. So it gives it it's on spotlight, I think.
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  And and obviously we've always we've always had a different Again, in the beginning,
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  we had a lot of electronic in our music and stuff. We even
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  released a and if he stepped up and scratched where it was our first album
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  completely remixed by all DJ's. It's crazy. It was a way ahead of
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  its time when we did it, but it's kind of going back to doing
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  that, and it was you know, I thought it just fit nicely on
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  this, you know, with this record nod in our head to our older
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  stuff. Doing something like this with the stripped down version of it, just
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  gave it all these different perspectives. And yeah, I think it gave the
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  softer strip down one the spotlight it deserved honestly for dark BOYD. And it
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  just because, like I said, like it includes there's five versions of the
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  album's single diploid. It includes the album version, then to strip back piano
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  version. Like you say, there's a radio edit, there's a Sollivan King
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  remix. So it's not like you're listening to the same song five times.
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  Every one of them sounds that little bit different and it gives you a different
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  perspective into what the song's about. I mean, the Sylvan King one is
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  really heavy in its own right, you know, it's it dropped, it's
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  sick. Yeah, I remember listening. I remember that getting sent to me
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  while I was at the gym and I was like, okay, that was
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  the rest of the gym was just me playing that all right? Sweet,
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  but yeah it was. It's fun. It's nice to do things like that
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  for sure. Yeah. And I guess what people missed too, it's a
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  serious side of that because it was released to coincide with Blue Manday, Like,
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  I started dealing with depression and anxiety and things like that. So what's
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  what's your connection with things like that? Me personally, I've got quite a
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  connect. I don't really talk about him much, which is kind of like
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  a new thing for me really even doing it. I've kind of said this
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  in the past, like doing interviews for me and press in general is quite
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  a new thing. I've been in the band since the beginning. But like
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  you could probably count on this hand how many interviews you probably see me in
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  years, just because just see who you were before he did this. A
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  few. Yeah, But I mean since this record, so for me going
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  into a lot of anxiety that's down to my own personal anxiety and a bit
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  of depression here and there this time of the year and at the beginning of
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  the year when Blue Monday, you know, when it just fit perfect,
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  and I was asked by some of the team if I wanted to say something
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  about the release, and I just think that yeah. I was like,
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  okay, yeah, I'm going to actually say something about it, and I
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  am going to say that I deal with this as well because I need to
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  start sharing a little bit more and that's one of my new things now,
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  like I'm gonna start sharing a little bit more about myself to the world instead
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  of just trying to. You know, it's been fifteen years and I'm very,
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  very very private person. And it's like not because I don't do stuff
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  or I would like to share, but I'm just I don't know. I'm
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  just get in my head a little bit, and I think there's more people
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  would admit that then you think, you know, it's it's crazy. Well,
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  you've done a great job today. Short not you managed to have a
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  bloody Yeah. Well that's another thing. I probably talked too much because of
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  it as well. I've got I'm all right, I've got my drink.
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  I'm good. It's lunch story. I thought about having one, but then
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  I thought maybe that'll to beg bad. I actually said, I was like,
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  I was like, because I got told earlier in the day that might
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  happen. I was like, oh, have you heard anything yet, and
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  then my team was like no, yeah. I was like, well,
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  I'll just putting my kids down to bed, so maybe just tell them to
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  go and grab a beer and then I'll be right back. Very good mon
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  Mo. We appreciate you doing it seven. Like I said, I was,
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  I'm sure notice. But it's been a pleasure speaking with you. You're
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  over here as part of not Fast in March two side shows March twenty Melbourne,
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  twenty six in Brisbane, so we're looking forward to seeing your brother's being
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  fast too long. Awesome. I really appreciate it and I can't wait to
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  get over there. Thanks for your time. Is little brother will catch in
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  the mind or say