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Maintaining Your Focus With MATT WICKS From GRINDING EYES · HEAVY Music Interviews

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  Speaker 1: Matt from Grinding Eyes, and we've got a new album
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  Speaker 1: coming out called out of.
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  Speaker 2: Focus, due out this week on the fourth.
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  Speaker 3: It is indeed, Matte, thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having me in. Good afternoon evening.
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  Speaker 4: Indeed, Now, as you say, Grinding guys release your third
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  Speaker 4: studio album, out of Focus, this Friday, April fourth, So
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  Speaker 4: how you feel about it.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sort of good. I'm actually relieved to get it out. Actually,
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  Speaker 1: it's been backlogged for a little while, and we recorded
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  Speaker 1: it over a year.
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  Speaker 2: Ago, so it's it's just nice.
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  Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, couick it and get going, and you should
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  Speaker 1: actually do the fun part of tearing it.
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  Speaker 3: Now, how do you go with things like that?
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  Speaker 4: As a band of brother You say you've recorded it
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  Speaker 4: over a year ago, Like, no, people and especially musicians
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  Speaker 4: change a lot over the course of twelve months. So
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  Speaker 4: now this song's music's coming out, have you moved on
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  Speaker 4: from it in some respect?
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  Speaker 2: Absolutely?
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  Speaker 1: Referbly like a halfway through writing a new record now
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  Speaker 1: and dived into new material, and then when you go
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  Speaker 1: out to sort of get this one going, you got
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  Speaker 1: it almost go back and relearn the songs. I'm listening
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  Speaker 1: to some of them going what's going on here?
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  Speaker 2: You sure that's me? I'm not actually sure that's actually
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  Speaker 2: leave me. Yeah, there's some sort of weird gm ones
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  Speaker 2: going on here. I don't remember doing that, but no,
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  Speaker 2: you do.
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  Speaker 1: You sort of get lost in it, and then you're
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  Speaker 1: sort of in some sort of floating limbo till you
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  Speaker 1: get the album out, you get to tour, and then
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  Speaker 1: you get to sort of really work.
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  Speaker 2: It for crowds. So that's the main thing I think.
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  Speaker 3: Wait, so tell us a bit.
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  Speaker 4: More about how to focus from the use of your
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  Speaker 4: point of view than what are you were going for
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  Speaker 4: twelve months ago?
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  Speaker 2: Ah.
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  Speaker 1: Well, with this album, I suppose we sort of concentrated
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  Speaker 1: a little bit more on the sounds. Where previously we've
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  Speaker 1: pretty much done everything live, we'd sort of dived straight in,
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  Speaker 1: just start recording, do sort of a lot of long.
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  Speaker 2: Sessions and sort of see what comes out.
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  Speaker 1: This one, we tried to refine it a little bit more,
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  Speaker 1: do most of the songwriting, and actually played most of
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  Speaker 1: these songs live for a couple of months, so they
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  Speaker 1: became a life of their own.
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  Speaker 2: So we sort of wanted to really harness.
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  Speaker 1: More of a a tighter formatted set of sound where
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  Speaker 1: we could mess with it more in the studio than
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  Speaker 1: just having this sort of raw, organic rock and roll
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  Speaker 1: feel of it.
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  Speaker 4: So you've released the singles We've slowly got to hold
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  Speaker 4: on and in the Reflection, So they a good sonic representation.
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  Speaker 3: What do you expect or are they just crashing?
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  Speaker 1: They're sort of They sort of would probably bookend the album,
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  Speaker 1: I'd say pretty well, but there's a lot of stuff
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  Speaker 1: in between it that I would say they don't really
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  Speaker 1: touch on. So I think when you put out a single,
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  Speaker 1: you sort of wanted to represent and stand alone a
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  Speaker 1: little bit itself. So, yeah, this album's pretty broad. It's
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  Speaker 1: got a lot of different a lot of different atmosphere
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of different sort of vibe happened to it.
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  Speaker 1: Some of it's really dark, some of it's really heavy,
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  Speaker 1: some it's really quite ambient.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, there's a lot in there.
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  Speaker 4: One of those singles in the Reflection also open to
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  Speaker 4: the album with a the sixty sort of psychedelic vibe
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  Speaker 4: and there's haunting Organs going on. Then they get smashed
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  Speaker 4: by a massive layer of fray guitar. It's an almost
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  Speaker 4: mesmerizing track in Descent. Is that why you chose it?
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  Speaker 4: There's the first representation the album.
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  Speaker 5: I think, so yeah, because it does start off like that,
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  Speaker 5: and it does like when everything kicks in, it does
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  Speaker 5: have a real sort of I remember an engineer saying
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  Speaker 5: to me, it's it likes.
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  Speaker 2: It slaps you in the face like a cold fish.
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  Speaker 2: And I sort of like that when the whole.
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  Speaker 1: Album ficks in and the guitars come in and it
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  Speaker 1: is a bit of a face slap to you.
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  Speaker 2: So I think that was why it ended up being
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  Speaker 2: the first song on the album.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, that was sort of quite intentional to really
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  Speaker 1: have it set up so it doesn't sort of, you know,
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  Speaker 1: move anything, It doesn't.
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  Speaker 2: Sort of ponder along. It's that it is.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, you start from going and you get the intensity
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  Speaker 1: straight from the second bar pretty much.
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  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 3: You Know's have managed to create a fresh sound in
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  Speaker 3: an established genre by blending shoegames. Right, there's little Chandi
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  Speaker 3: Brock in there, there's garage partners.
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  Speaker 4: There's a lot of different things in there. Like was
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  Speaker 4: that a planned musical or malkamation or.
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  Speaker 3: Did it develop more naturally?
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  Speaker 1: No, it just happens organically. We really try to never
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  Speaker 1: pigeonhole ourselves as such. So whatever happens in the rehearsal
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  Speaker 1: room pretty much stays. Really, we sort of don't really
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  Speaker 1: refine it as such. We've all got pretty diverse different
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  Speaker 1: music tastes, so it's sort of a melting pot of
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  Speaker 1: everybody's tastes. And half the time, when you least expect it,
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  Speaker 1: the song comes out totally different from what you're expecting.
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  Speaker 1: But you know, if you like it, somebody else is
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  Speaker 1: going to like it somewhere. So we don't try to
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  Speaker 1: fuck with it too much. We to sort of try
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  Speaker 1: to let it do its own thing, breathe naturally, and
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  Speaker 1: don't try to, you know, you know, make it something
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  Speaker 1: that really isn't, so it goes in its own, its
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  Speaker 1: own direction. We just let it be its own beast
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  Speaker 1: and do it.
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  Speaker 4: Bronni Guys featured as past and present members of bands
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  Speaker 4: like The Mess, all Those Treatment and Laurels, Tomato, Dray Queens,
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  Speaker 4: and Bliss. When you come together and start a band
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  Speaker 4: like this from other bands, how did you decide how
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  Speaker 4: much of those other bands to bring into your new project?
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  Speaker 3: If that makes sense.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it's this with grinding eyes that it.
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  Speaker 1: Came from really just just a lot of friends. We
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  Speaker 1: would basically just spend time and it was more sort
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  Speaker 1: of would you say, drunken late night impromptu jams pretty much,
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  Speaker 1: and it really was a bit of a side project
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  Speaker 1: for us, or really at the start, I wasn't really
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  Speaker 1: even living in Sydney when we sort of first started it,
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  Speaker 1: so it was like I would come in and out
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  Speaker 1: and we were just had to get together. So I
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  Speaker 1: think for everybody it was a bit of a breath
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  Speaker 1: of fresh air. So it's away from everybody else's band,
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  Speaker 1: I think wasn't I don't think you would try to
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  Speaker 1: steer away from your other projects, but you definitely didn't
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  Speaker 1: want it to be a carbon copy of it, so
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  Speaker 1: we sort of were trying to broaden the horizons, push.
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  Speaker 2: It a little bit different different directions.
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  Speaker 1: So I think, like we said before, everybody's got such
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  Speaker 1: different diverse music tastes, so it really wasn't going to
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  Speaker 1: sound like one specific person's project.
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  Speaker 2: But it's good to.
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  Speaker 1: Have the experience and the know how of everybody that's
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  Speaker 1: doing stuff, so we've got experience to burn pretty much.
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  Speaker 1: But you try to stay away from making a sound
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  Speaker 1: anything like you've already done. I think, yeah, hit the
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  Speaker 1: rope soon for an Australian tool Mate, starting in Sydney
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  Speaker 1: on April the eleventh and Hidden Port, Kemblar, Bendigo, Melbourne,
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  Speaker 1: qu Or Torquay, before finishing counsel Mate on the twenty
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  Speaker 1: first of April. Like how much of the new album
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  Speaker 1: are going to be playing on that? There will be
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  Speaker 1: playing a lot of it actually, like said before, Or
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  Speaker 1: there's a couple of songs we haven't actually played live much,
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  Speaker 1: so we've been trying to flush them.
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  Speaker 2: Out a bit and trying to relearn them. So I'd
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  Speaker 2: say ninety.
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  Speaker 1: The center of the set will be pretty much the
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  Speaker 1: new album, a couple of brand new ones that we've
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  Speaker 1: got that are going to be off the next album,
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  Speaker 1: and then maybe a couple of the old the old
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  Speaker 1: classics I've got us going at the start. So yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we don't try to set too much in stone before
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  Speaker 1: we sort of start playing.
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  Speaker 2: It's sort of trying to gauge at a little bit
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  Speaker 2: show by show.
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  Speaker 1: Some shows really take you by surprise, and stuff works
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  Speaker 1: a little bit better than other stuff. Sometimes if it's heavier,
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  Speaker 1: or sometimes if it's a you want it to breathe
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  Speaker 1: and space out a little bit more, you go in
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  Speaker 1: that direction.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, so answer your question, I'm waffling away from it. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: I'd say the app the set will be this album,
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  Speaker 2: I'd say nice and.
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  Speaker 3: From there pro you're off to Europe to support.
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  Speaker 4: I can either say Peaks Peaks, Peaks, Peaks, Peaks, Peach
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  Speaker 4: Pigs or Peaks.
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  Speaker 3: Time seven, but you can't over for their money runner shows. Mate.
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  Speaker 3: That's pretty exciting.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, no, it is very exciting for us.
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  Speaker 1: We did a run with them in Australia and New
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  Speaker 1: Zealand last year and we're fortunate enough they are asked
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  Speaker 1: us to join them with in Europe this year for
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  Speaker 1: their album runs.
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  Speaker 2: So yeah, no, that's great.
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  Speaker 1: We're sort of teamed up with a couple of other
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  Speaker 1: friends like O C's and Graveyard and a couple of
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  Speaker 1: other bands that we're peed up with as well, So
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  Speaker 1: the Pigs are main piority for us.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: So it's gonna be a super fun run and yeah,
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  Speaker 1: we're looking forward to it.
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  Speaker 4: So where can people keep up with Grinding Eyes or
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  Speaker 4: by themselves some merch?
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  Speaker 1: I would say social media and go to the old
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  Speaker 1: legendary band camp that always does well for us and
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  Speaker 1: they don't take massive cuts and they have a great
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  Speaker 1: let us know who's ordering and who wants what camp is,
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  Speaker 1: so I'd say hit bancand up and if not, just
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  Speaker 1: social media.
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  Speaker 4: Fantastic matter right, Well, thanks for joining us. Out of
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  Speaker 4: Focus is out this April. The boys hit the road
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  Speaker 4: from April the eleventh, so keep in eye on their
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  Speaker 4: socials and catch them in and how near you.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you very much for having me