Latest / HEAVY Music Interviews / Destructive Patterns With BRENDAN DAVINE From VERONA LIGHTS

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Destructive Patterns With BRENDAN DAVINE From VERONA LIGHTS · HEAVY Music Interviews

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Hey, this is Brendan from Verona Lights. You're listening to the Heavy podcast.
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Melbourne's Verona Lights have very recently dropped a new album titled Minos an accomplishment.
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The band is excited about, proud of and also kind of relieved about
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two given that it was an album that took around three years to reach the
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point of release. You're listening to the Heavy podcast. I'm Z and today
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I have the pleasure of talking with Barona Lights vocalist Brendan about the new album
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and what the band are up to. Let's go never Go, said once
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nut show. Hey, I'm as and you're listening to the Heavy mag podcast.
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Today I have vocalists from Melbourne band Verona Lights Brendan with me. Hey,
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dude, how are you go in? How's it going good to be
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here? Yeah? Thanks for joining me. You guys have just dropped a
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new album and we'll get to talking about that real soon. But I want
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to get like the housekeeping type questions out of the way first. So can
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you give us a brief background of Rona Lightes for listeners that may not be
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overly familiar with you guys. Yeah, So the band's been around for a
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while now they dropped their first album long before I joined, they had a
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different vocalist, different bass player. Music was very different. It was a
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lot. It wasn't heavy at all. There was not really any heaviness to
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it, but there was still a style that we've kept now. After they
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released that album, vocalist left based player left. I shwooped in and brought
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some of my death metal background, and we got in a guitarist's brother on
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bass, and he's brought in his background of music and we've sort of blended
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together to make what was the band's second album, which had a bit more
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heaviness to it, a bit more old rock, and now with Minos the
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new album, we've sort of dipped into even heavier as we've gone along.
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I don't know if that's going to keep happening, but it's just been a
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constantly changing sound and a constantly changing feel, and it's yeah, it's evolved
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a lot, but it sounds like it's been a very organic and natural evolution.
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Though. Yeah. Yeah, we've all brought in just different influences and
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felt more comfortable bringing those influences in as time has gone on. So if
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you listen to the first album and listened to Minos back to back, you
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would think they are completely separate bands. Yeah. Well, I was going
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to actually ask about the influences that you guys all share and are you very
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similar in your musical taste or is there some vast differences and how does that
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sort of affect your songwriting and what their end result is in terms of the
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songs that you guys produce as Verona Lights, there's some overlap with our taste,
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but we all sort of have our own extremes that we go. I'm
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definitely into, I think the heavier side of things out of everybody. Again
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to death metal so long, so I really like to you know, kick
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and scream and punch faces in. They had a lot of new metal influence,
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which again there's crossover. I love it a little bit, but like
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they they're really into new metal in ways that I just have never been.
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Yeah, but we all love yeah similar bands like Deaftones, we all love
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death Tones, we all love even a little bit of red hot Chilli peppers,
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bit of funk, you know. And Yeah, like I said,
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it has evolved over time with that first album bringing in just a couple of
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members. Influence from a little bit of new metal, a little bit of
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like poppy rock, a little bit of like there's the prog elements in there
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for sure. And then when I swooped in, it was, hey,
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guys, I've just done death metal forever, So I'm going to scream if
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that's cool, you know, to be really sick. If we had like,
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you know, almost a breakdown would be nice. Yeah, all right,
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let's do that. And then with this new album, Sorry I should
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backtrack with Addressed here, which was the last album. I didn't write any
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of the music, and neither did our bass player. That music was already
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sitting there when we joined. They had just been sitting there for years.
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And like, I got to do the lyrics and the vocals how I felt
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was right, but I didn't get to actually write any music. So with
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the new album providing riffs and ideas and a bass player wrote like two or
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three of the songs all by himself, like with no input from us,
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he was like, hey, guys, what do you think of this?
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We were like, yeah, sick, We're going to use that in its
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entirety, no edits You're great, yea. So it was a collaborative effort
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and yeah, bringing in just all of our influences in different ways. And
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that's why I think this new album got even heavier because I was allowed to
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write stuff. Yeah, that's awesome. I want to talk about the writing
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process. But just as a side note, when you said, like,
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your background is very much in death metal and you bought the screaming element to
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the band, were clean vocals new to you or because you obviously do both
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in for Anda Lights, So was that something that you developed from joining the
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band. Yeah, I'd only ever done so. I'd almost exclusively been doing
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harsh vocals, which I really worked on for a long time to try and
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expand my range with harsh vocals. I'd sort of done clean singing before,
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but I was not really confident with it, and I just I'd never had
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the practice, didn't have the time, and didn't have the motivation to work
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on it. Really, I find that very surprising having heard your music,
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and I love the dynamics of your voice, So that's cue that's something I
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wouldn't have expected at all. It was rough, to be honest, Like
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i joined Verna Lights, I was like, oh, you know, I've
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never really done the clean singing thing, but I'd like to give it a
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go, like we'll see. And it was the kind of thing that I
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did at home or in the car, you know, I'd stick on a
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CD and just sing along with that. But it's not something I ever Yeah,
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I'm going to be a singer, you know. And I've gone back
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actually recently to listen to like the audition tape that I sent in and listen
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to like the first demos I did when we were like getting a feel for
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sound and fuck I like, I'm not one to talk myself up ever,
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but like listening to some of those demos, like, oh shit, okay,
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I've actually improved over time, because I was gonna say, did you
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always listen back on those flat flat flat? Flat? Sharp? Sharp flat?
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We've all got to start something, for sure. The boys have really
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helped me develop my voice as well, like playing with different dynamics of clean
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singing and throwing in elements of harsh singing as well. Like still a learning
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process. I'm still I still don't think I'm a fantastic singer or anything competent.
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Maybe I can hold a tune, but I'm still learning and still developing
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and still exploring. That's the way to be as well. I think that
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it can be quite limiting to stick to one style of vocals, and when
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you, yeah, combine the two, the world just opens up a whole
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whole lot more so. But yeah, that's that's really cool. I did
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not know that about you guys. So I'm going to chuck another like stock
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stand in question your way the band name? Is there a story behind it?
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As far as I'm aware. Every time so, I think Mick,
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a guitarist, came up with the name. Every time I've heard him ask
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that question, he's given a different answer. But as far as I'm aware,
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this is your opportunity now to make up another answer. No, no,
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not say the record straight, just come up with another story. Let's
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just we'll start the legend of like the band. As far as I'm aware,
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it was he was in Italy, he was in Verona and he saw
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the lights. They looked really nice. Thought that'd be a nice band name.
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Ah, that's really quite wholesome. That's boring, and yeah, but
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it's really Yeah, it's quite wholesome. Cut that. Now, I'll even
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tell a fake story where so let's talk about the new album then, Minos.
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It's been our almost a week I'll get to discussing the lyrical themes and
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stuff in a bit, but let's talk about the production first. So the
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record was a fairly significant amount of time in the making. I mean,
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no, it's no Chinese Democracy. But tell us about the writing and recording
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process. We started writing music even before we'd released Address to the Other last
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album. There were songs sitting there that were just on the cutting room floor.
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We're like, do we put that in? No, it's it's not
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quite there yet or whatever. And it was there were rifts that had been
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sitting around before I'd even joined the band. I had riffs from you know,
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four bands ago. You know, we all had sort of fragments and
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pits and pieces that were sitting around, and it wasn't until Okay, dressed
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years out we can sit in that for a little bit and come back together
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and go, Okay, let's piece together what we have, write some new
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stuff and throw it all in. And before we knew it, we kind
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of had like half the album, well what felt like at the time,
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half the album just sitting there ready go, and we're like, oh,
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we're going to put another one out so soon, Like this is going to
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be great. Famous last words. Yeah, well exactly, and it just
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took so much reworking. It was always ah, that could go on a
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bit, a little bit longer, that could go on a little bit shorter.
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We wrote like I think three full songs that got cut in the end
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because we were like, no, it's not there yet. It's it's not
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good enough, you know. And as time went on with that writing and
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creative process that it's not good enough, was like, yeah, but we've
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got something has to go there. And it was this constant battle of something,
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We've got to release something because we've got this stuff sitting right here ready
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to go, and yeah, but it's got to be good, you know,
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if everyone's waiting for this thing, it's got to be good. Yeah.
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The hardest thing in the end for writing the writing process was again we
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had this mishmash of griffs and ideas and they would go well together musically,
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but I could not think of anything to go lyrically or vocally. Like there
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were just these three minute songs, five minute songs where I just I didn't
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know what to do with them. Like nothing was clicking right, you know.
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The melody that I was coming up with would sit awkwardly or the timing
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would sit awkwardly and I didn't know what to do. I sort of got
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over that for the most part, but when it came to what is the
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title track? So do you do you think that was a little bit of
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like writer's block then or was it just absolutely Yeah, it was writer's block,
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and it was pressure on myself again that I've got to come up with
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something. I've got to come up with something. Go go, go,
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go go. Nothing's happening. Yeah. Have you seen have you seen the
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old Tenacious D HBO episodes like TV show that they did back in the day.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah remember that. Yeah, to remember the episode
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where they're like forcing songwriting and it's just like they're sitting in a waiting pool
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trying to like get inspiration from That's what I imagine. You're just sitting there,
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like in your underwear, eating ice cream in a waiting pool, like
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Jack Black, just like, come on, make it happen something please awful
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process. But I mean, what did they say you can't manufacture in Spirado?
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That's that's that anyway, I just threw you right off course there.
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No, it was good. So you got there in the end, did
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the pandemic have anything to do with sort of the hold up as well,
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because you started to release stuff. You released at least one song right pre
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COVID, and then all of a sudden that shit kind of hit us hard.
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Yeah, so we because we record everything in house, and that was
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sort of that was the way we did it. We would go to the
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studio and record all our bits and pieces and then you know, sort of
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work through a worksheet style. And then once the pandemic hit and we were
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all locked in our houses and I couldn't drive over there to do vocals for
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a day, it was very oh shit, what do we do. We've
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got all this music and it's got no vocals, and you know, again
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this is what was killing me. And again added to the pressure was musically,
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the album was ninety nine percent done. Literally, I knew what I
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wanted to do. I had demos for everything. We just could not get
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the vocals on there. Thankfully, we did a go fundme or a Kickstarter
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go fund me. One of the crowd sourcing I think was go fundme,
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where we basically called upon everyone to say, hey, we need some we
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need to get me some recording equipment. So that I can finish this album
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at home, because who knows how long we're going to be inside for.
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If you guys want to do it, then it's there. And it was
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very much. You know, we don't expect anyone to actually do this,
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but if you can fund a mic, a little mixer, or just just
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the very bare essentials to get what I needed to get it done, you
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could get it done. And some very generous people were kind enough to help
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and sorted me out with some year that helped me get the rest of it
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done. So I think probably eighty percent of the vocals on the album were
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done in my house, just here where I'm sitting now. What did that
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feel like though, to have people come forward and actually contribute like that,
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because I know, like in my own band, I'd just be like,
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oh my god, we're not worthy, you know. But absolutely unreal is
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that we took the names of everybody who contributed to that. They're side cover
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of the album of the CD album because it literally wouldn't have happened without those
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people. Yeah, that's super cool. I love that. And so was
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the album entirely self produced or did you guys utilize studio and a producer all
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self produced, Yeah, as his own studio. Guitarist has his own studio
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where he records mixes, and we actually mastered it in house as well.
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With the last album, we sent it off for mastering, and the earliest
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angles we dropped they were mastered separately. But everything else, Yeah, he
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just did pretty much by himself with us in is he go and turn that
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up? That's there? That's super cool. Convenient is what it is.
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Yeah, well, that's that is exactly right too. I was fortunate enough
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to review the album, so I had it in my possession about a month
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before its release, and so I've had a few decent listens. But one
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thing I kind of skipped over in my review that was published because I was
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I was scared to look like a dickhead if I was on the wrong track
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basically. But there appears to be a recurring theme in the lyrics or recurring
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lyrics throughout the record. So is it a concept album or a story of
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sorts or was I on the right track? Can you shed some light?
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Yeah, it is. It is a concept album. It's pretty loose in
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its concept, but there is strings that sort of tie it all together.
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I went really hard with a sort of concept and story on the previous album,
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and I wanted to sort of continue not necessarily that story, but continue
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along that same thought pattern from last album. So yeah, no, there
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is absolutely if you follow through the track listing, it sort of is meant
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to take you on a journey on a on a a contextual journey. Yeah,
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because the the ending tracks, I'm Sarah is like I felt like I
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heard like sort of throwbacks to previous tracks, yeah in that in that song.
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But like I said, I was like, well, I'm not gonna
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I'm not going to say anything about that in cases completely wrong. But yeah,
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no that's cool. So where does the story kind of lie then?
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Are you willing to divulge that information? I'm definitely one for everyone should take
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what they what they get from hearing it. But I mean, that is
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entirely different from what I feel from what I felt when I was writing it
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and what I feel when I listened to it now and what I take from
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it now versus what I was putting into it when I was writing it.
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In the last album, I keep calling back to it just because it was
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so you know, it was a huge part of putting together this one.
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I wanted them to fa on. There was definitely a clear cut story of
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a person sort of rediscovering themselves and finding they didn't necessarily like the person that
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they were, And at the end of that album was well, which way
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do I go with this? Now? Do I go back and fix those
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things or do I try and forge ahead and create a new now? You
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know which way is the better way to go? And is that what that
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album ended with? Did you say, yeah, oh I love that.
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I love that open right, Yeah, that's awesome. And Minos is kind
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of if Addressed You was a story of self discovery, Minos is an album
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of self destruction almost. It's the cyclical mental health things that we go through,
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you know, the cycles that we always go through when we're struggling.
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That is, I want help, I can't ask for help. You know,
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I'm going to do better. I can't do better. I'm sad.
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Of course you're sad, you know, like it's it's those same cycles that
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we're both Yeah, exactly. And so that is again using Greek mythologies just
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because Greek mythology is so interesting and the words are so pretty. They really
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are, aren't they. Yeah, And they make you sound so much smarter
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when you use them. Oh, it's fantastic. Yeah, I get away
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with much. Yeah, I mean it's it's there's something about Greek gods that
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are so human and they're petty, and you know, they might be strong
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in some aspects but are incredibly weak in other ways mentally, and the way
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that the way that they put themselves out in these stories, and there's something
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relatable about that, Like, there's something relatable about that in the way that
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we want to be perceived and the way that we put ourselves out to the
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world, hiding our own weaknesses and sometimes embracing them and showing them, and
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how we all do that in our own different ways. You know, someone
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might wear it all on their sleeves and be totally fine with everyone seeing their
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weaknesses, and others will hide that and it just creates this really interesting interpersonal
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thing between people, and you know, you know who you're talking to.
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You know, if you're talking to someone who is vulnerable or not, and
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well, you're how much vulnerability you're willing to show on the outside. And
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that combined with again that cyclical mental health stuff that no, I think we
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can all relate to on some level. Absolutely and especially on the on the
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back end of the pandemic, which really, you know, I feel like
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if people didn't struggle beforehand, they suddenly worked out what it's like to be
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in the shoes of people that do so. Yeah. Absolutely, And some
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of the tracks on there lyrically I wrote before the pandemic, and while I'm
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recording these vocals in isolation, thinking fuck, this is fitting. Yes,
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yeah, this all worked out. Yeah, but to take it back,
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I'm waffling on about shit. I love it. It's good. I could
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do it today, so I better know. I draw on a lot of
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that Greek mythology, a lot of personal experience, and use those things to
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mirror again normal mental health struggles that a lot of people have and abnormal ones
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as well. And that's what the album is. It's sort of coming to
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an acceptance and understanding of your own suffering and of your own way of dealing
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with trauma, with mental health, mental health, with those cycles, with
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how you choose to overcome if you can overcome some some can't. And that's
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that's, you know, something that I had to do with while writing the
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album. Lost lost a good friend while I was writing it to their mental
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health I should say, I'm sorry to hear that it was something to draw
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from and there's a metri there that I get to have and my little letter
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to them, you know, and to myself and to everybody. Yeah.
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Yeah, well, and then you've also got the aspect of creating and music
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being very cathartic and being an outlet for those sorts of emotions. And you
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know, I think everyone comes into our life for a reason and everything has
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a lesson and you know, I guess if you can take anything from that,
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you can say that you you're here and you've got you've learned something from
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your friend, and you've also been able to give the world something creative.
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And if that's if that's a legacy, sorry, if that's a legacy for
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that person, then you know that's it wasn't in vain. Yeah, I'm
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I'm sorry if I just took us down a little emotional path, but yeah,
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no, used to be. It's an emotional album. There's a lot
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of feelings in it. I can't help myself. I've put my feelings in
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my music, in my lyrics, in my votio, and that I will
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say that shines through one hundred percent to listening to it, you can you
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can tell. And I'm pretty sure that's something that I did write in my
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review that the emotions portrayed are very obvious, which is, you know,
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it's something that I feel like a lot of vocalists, uh miss the mark
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sometimes because they're the focusing on technicality, which you know is great to sound
23:12
perfect and whatnot, But what do you do you lose some of that emotion
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or you can be so emotional that the vocals kind of sound a bit.
23:22
Yeah, to find to find that sweet spot is like to me, it's
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a kind of a really great vocalist. So I think and I think you
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nailed it. Thank you. That means a lot from a vocalist as well.
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To pat each other on the book here, I wanted it to be
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that way. I wanted it to be an emotional experience. I still get
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emotional listening to these songs that I've been listening to for five years. You
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know that's awesome. There is an ultimate message in there of mental health struggles
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are going to be with many of us for a long time, if not
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forever. Yes, how we choose to deal is sort of our own battles
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and our own journeys to go through, and you know, we all have
24:08
our we all have our battles. You know that's accepting that, especially as
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creative people. I think it just comes. It's just one of those hand
24:19
in hand things. I think. I don't know whether it's the sensitivity of
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the creative mind or what it is. We just see the world differently or
24:26
something, but more just miserable. I know there's been like I went a
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couple of years ago, I went to therapy and then I was like,
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oh, do I want to do this because maybe I won't be able to
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write songs? Absolutely get happy? What do I write about disco? What
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am I going to do? So one of my favorite songs on the record
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is The Sleep, and I have insider information that that song was originally only
24:56
an interlude. So is that is that right? Yeah? Yeah, it
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was going to be just a little musical break before Sam Sara, which is
25:07
the big you know, the hitter yes down at the end? Yeah yeah
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yeah. So what what was it that made the Sleep become a real boy?
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I don't know, I really, I really don't have an answer for
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that. It was very much the idea was again you mentioned it before Sam
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Sara has those callbacks to the rest of the album. It was meant to
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be almost a dream like state before entering the last track. It's meant to
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be this. Well, it was meant to be a almost unintelligible but kind
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of pretty days that you would get lost in and then the thumping drums of
25:48
Sam Sara would sort of bring you back in. That was the idea,
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and so I was like, okay, I'll put some vocals in there.
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I'll throw some lines down and we'll just we'll layer them in the mix and
26:00
we'll just have them floating in the ether. There shouldn't be something to focus
26:03
on. They'll just be present. And then it was well, hang on,
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that was a pretty good line. Let's do that again, but louder
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and oh, okay, we've got a spot here. Maybe I'll put a
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little bit more vocals in and there's a big spot here. Put a guitar
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solo in there. He doesn't do guitar solos. We have to talk him
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into it. It just it just became a song. There was no purpose
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to it. It was just adding and adding and adding and adding to it.
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So again just that organic growth and yeah, yeah, it's a very
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impactful song. And the first time I listened to the album, and I
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was at work and I was just working away and just sort of, you
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know, letting it, sort of just consuming it, and then that song
26:45
come on and I stopped what I was doing and I messaged your guitarists and
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I was like, the nude right song. So that's how I know that
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it was only supposed to be an interlude at first, because he told me,
26:56
oh, we weren't even going to make that a whole song. So
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yeah, yeah, super good. I love that one. So do you
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have a favorite song on the album? There? Don't you hate it when
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people ask you that question? Do you have a favorite child? They're all
27:08
my babies. Yeah. I think it's either going to be like there's there's
27:18
two tracks that really like for the again for the emotional weight, but I've
27:22
put into them as anchors. I really I really enjoy that song and sam
27:26
Sara's That's I'm probably more proud of Sam Sara as a music piece than I
27:32
am of anything I've ever done. I just really love that track. Yeah,
27:34
totally fair. We can't talk about the songs on the album though,
27:38
without talking about the titular track. Which is Minos and the inclusion of guest
27:45
vocals from head pas Jared Gomes. So how did that come about? Well,
27:49
I was talking before about the writer's block, that struggle of I don't
27:55
know what to do here, I don't know what to do here, And
27:57
Minos was that last song that I had no vocals for. It was just
28:02
too hectic. I could not put anything down. I said, let's let's
28:06
get a guest vocalist on. This is my little catch of like, make
28:10
it someone else's problem, make it someone else's problem. Yeah, it really
28:17
was that, and they'll do something that'll inspire me and then we can you
28:22
know, we can work on it together. And we had a few people
28:25
we wanted to work on. We had some instrumental people in mind that we
28:29
approached and said, hey, do you want to like make this a full
28:32
instrumental jam and you throw some guitar stuff on, some bass stuff on.
28:37
Another vocalist friend of mine. I approached them, but they're also releasing an
28:41
album very soon, so it was a bit busy. I couldn't ask him.
28:45
And it just came around that Jared was open to give us a hand
28:51
with it. So we've been in contact with him since we supported head Peer
28:55
when they came out to Melbourne a couple of years back, and we've just
29:00
I only just found that out and that's so badass. I love that.
29:03
It was really cool how much weed was like being thrown around so much.
29:10
I went and saw them on their last tour and I saw someone just piff
29:12
a massive bag of on the stage. Yeah, it was basically throwing several
29:21
hundred dollars on the stage. But you know, I've never seen a green
29:23
room use that literally. Yeah, So what's the prob? Like, what
29:30
was the process behind his role on the song? Then? I know you
29:32
sort of just touched on it bit. So was it completely vocal free?
29:36
When you send it to him? Completely and utterly vocal free? It was
29:41
just the instrumental track and we said, dude, here it is, have
29:44
had it, have had it? What have you got? What speaks to
29:47
you? And he messaged us back and said, this is sick. Give
29:51
me a minute, you know, And he sent us back, Yeah,
29:55
what ended up being on there? And that's awesome. So did you give
29:57
him an idea of what the rest of the songs on the album? Like,
30:00
just like so that there was a tie in theme or Yeah, I
30:04
gave him the rough outline of like, Okay, this is what the album
30:07
about, and this is what this song it's place in the album, this
30:12
is what it is talking about. You know, this is what we want
30:15
the themes to sort of explore. And yeah, he really went for it.
30:22
He did what was now the first verse and that's sick book. And
30:27
that then inspired me to go, Okay, now I know something. I'm
30:32
gonna now pepper in my stuff. And we blended what he had with what
30:37
I came up with, and that sort of became the track and we worked
30:40
it all out like a puzzle. Yeah, that's awesome and the two your
30:45
two vocal styles really compliment each other two. And I must say, like,
30:49
it does sound like you know, you guys have sung together a bunch
30:53
of times like that, and it really sounds very tidy. And I say
30:57
that because, like, having guest vocals seems to be a bit of a
31:02
trend at the moment with a lot of bands, more so than it has
31:04
been in the past. And so I feel like as a listener, oftentimes
31:10
I'll be like, I'll listen to a new song and I'll say, you
31:12
know, this band featuring this person and you're like, oh, they've given
31:17
they've given them the chorus, or they've given them their own verse, and
31:19
it kind of just is a bit it's a bit contrasting, like that guest
31:23
person really stands out, which I guess in one way you want that.
31:29
But at the same time, yes, it sounds sometimes it can sound like
31:33
having that guest vocalist there just for the sake of saying featuring such and such,
31:38
whereas I do find with minos, like the blending of the vocals,
31:45
like you can tell his style, you know, if you're familiar with his
31:48
band, then you could listen to that track and go, oh, hang
31:51
on a minute, that's Jared, you know. Yeah, But at the
31:55
same time, it sounds like though your vocals and his voe belonged together and
32:00
the song is a complete package, rather than just like, hey, we
32:06
just stuck this cherry on top, you know. Yeah, yes, kudos
32:10
to you for that. I think it's yeah, it's yeah, Well,
32:13
the song wouldn't exist if it wasn't for his input, your inability to come
32:17
up with something. Yeah, honestly, yeah, and he smashed it.
32:24
The writer's block helped in some way. It did. It was a blessing
32:28
in disguise. Everything happens for a reason. Once I heard what he did,
32:32
it just unlocked something in my brain that went, oh, okay,
32:37
those moments are great too. Blend. Yeah, let's talk about your music
32:40
videos. So you've released a video for The Watcher, which came out last
32:45
year. You've got a lyric video for Comfort, which was what's a couple
32:51
of months ago, Yeah, and then the visualizer for Minos are you are
32:55
you going? Are you planning any other visual media to accompany any other song
33:00
on the album or I'm not. There's nothing planned right now, Like,
33:05
we haven't got anything in the works currently. We've got ideas that are sitting
33:09
around. They're like, oh, that could be cool and that'd be fun
33:13
to do. You know, there's still like half the album that we haven't
33:15
made anything visual for. So Labyrinth of Gold we did God mid Pandemic,
33:22
so mid Lockdown, so you know I recorded my parts of it. If
33:28
you go back and watch that video, I'm actually sitting on the floor of
33:30
my bathroom. I'm in the toilet because it was the only room that had
33:35
tight enough walls that I thought would fit the visual side. It's just a
33:37
funny thing. The things that we were forced to do during the pandemic,
33:46
we had to get creative, even more creative. Yeah no, nothing nothing
33:52
planned as of yet, but a million ideas. I've got a notebook that
33:57
is just full of like I'd love to try this, I'd love to do
34:00
this, I'd love to film here for this song. You know, a
34:04
lot of that sitting around doesn't make you jealous of people that have budgets,
34:08
like decent budgets for creating videos, because I don't think people realize just how
34:16
difficult it is to pull that shit together on my shoestring budget. You can
34:22
see it in your head, but they're actually making it happen, And just
34:27
finding locations is an absolute pain in the ass. Yeah, find a location,
34:31
rent the location, get film and audio and have someone directing, and
34:37
someone moving the cameras around and lighting, and we're gonna need actors maybe you
34:40
know, yeah to edit it. The editing. Yeah, no, we
34:50
I think we've done every The most elaborate music video we did was the first
34:55
one I ever joined when I first joined the band, which was half on
35:00
green screen and half walking through the woods with the GoPro. That was it.
35:02
Yeah, someone delaborate we've ever had to do and again big ideas,
35:08
no budget. Yeah it sucks you guys. Played a show at the Bendigo
35:14
Hotel to launch the album on October twenty first. How did that go?
35:17
That was awesome. We played with Terrestrials, good friends. They dropped a
35:22
single that night as well, which is amazing. Love Terrestrial and some really
35:29
other sick bands Four Miles and Ivy Black played and I'd never heard of either
35:34
the band, and they both surprised us a lot. It was any night
35:38
at the Benda Hotels a good night. I love the Benny and I couldn't
35:43
think of a better place to launch an album. And a lot of friends
35:45
there and got to share some new songs with new people and say hey,
35:51
we've just released this, enjoy it's out to the world now, and you
35:54
know, formally send it off. It was a really good night. I
35:58
got a little bit. We had a fifty minute set, which is longer
36:01
than I'm used to. I had to play the stamina management game a little
36:05
bit. You know, some songs like okay, chill, chill, put
36:08
back, clip back, clip back. For some songs, I can't help
36:10
it. I just I've got to get into it and get by the end.
36:15
Oh my god, it's the eternal struggle for me. You you tell
36:19
yourself in your head, like just dial it back. I'm not I'm not
36:22
going to go I'm going to pace myself. Second year up on the stage,
36:27
adrenaline all goes to shit. Yeah. I was very horse by the
36:31
end of the night. But totally work. Yeah, totally fifty minutes.
36:35
Yeah, that's a dick. Well, I mean because in you know,
36:38
the usual circumstances. Yeah, it's what's thirty to forty minutes tops that you
36:45
get sometimes forty to forty Yeah, if you're really lucky throwing in that extra
36:49
couple of songs and them all being tracks that I love, you know,
36:52
throwing myself around for live, it just it was like a marathon. It's
36:58
really good. Had you been holding any of those songs back from like your
37:04
live set prior. No, they're all tracks we've played before in dribs and
37:09
drabs, you know, throughout the last couple of years. But there was
37:14
something about playing some of the new ones back to back. It was just
37:17
like, oh, new music, even though it's not new to us,
37:21
it was like, oh do you and hearing them, you know, and
37:23
playing them back to back was so exciting, so cool. Yeah, awesome.
37:29
And how has the reception been overall for the album now that it's been
37:34
out for almost a week, Really really positive. Had a lot of really
37:37
good feedback, one very lovely review from Heavy mag, and yeah, a
37:40
lot of friends and family reaching out and saying they really like it. People
37:44
that I know that aren't into heavy music going yeah, you know, I
37:47
didn't like this song very much, but you know, because the heavier ones,
37:52
but still saying, oh, but there's other stuff on the album that
37:54
I really like, you know, it's still good. Yes, I do
37:58
think that there is a bit of a universal appeal, like because it's not
38:04
just all heavy ra in your face stuff like it's And when I wrote my
38:10
review to one of the biggest standout things for me was the track ordering.
38:16
If if. If you're old school and you listen to an album from start
38:20
to finish, And I know lots of people with you know, streaming services
38:24
and that these days we don't do that, but I really appreciate well thought
38:30
out track ordering and the flow of one song into another, and that doesn't
38:37
have to be in in the case of like a concept album. I know
38:43
you said it's a loose concept album, so obviously you want to tie things
38:46
in, but even just songs that are standalone songs, it's quite important,
38:50
I think, to have a really nice flow. And what I appreciated about
38:55
Minos was that, you know, it gets you to a point and and
39:00
it lowers you down, and it gets you back to that point again,
39:02
and there's a lot of breathing space. Who Yeah, it's great, really
39:08
well done. In terms of your track ordering, thank you. It was
39:12
something that we spent a fair bit of time nailing down because, like it
39:15
being loose concept, there was definitely a rough order of where things should go
39:20
lyrically, But even up to the week before released, it was like,
39:23
oh, I've just listened through it again, can we move this track two
39:29
tracks later? You know, there's a lot of this fine tuning of where
39:31
we wanted it to go. And yeah, I mean that's this is the
39:36
one that felt the best. The amount of thought put into it to me
39:38
shows I'm glad because, like you said, with streaming services, you never
39:44
know what anyone's going to hear first, especially with Spotify, will show this
39:47
is the most listening to song like yeah, but you don't have the context
39:51
of what came before it, so it's not the same. Yeah, exactly
39:57
exactly. I know. I found with the ups that my band has released,
40:02
the first tracks always get like heaps of listeners, and then the poor
40:07
last track, which are always put last because they're impactful, they're the last
40:13
song for a reason, because you want to end with a bang or whatever.
40:15
And it's like, oh no, the interests dropped off by the end,
40:19
like you know, and I don't think it's got anything to do with
40:22
the song and its quality, or it's just listener retention and very bad attention
40:30
spans of people these days, so too. It's interesting though, we're just
40:37
about with regarding reception of the album as well. And you said before the
40:42
Sleep being a song that has stuck out to you, it's like the most
40:45
played song and it's the second last track on the album. I saw that,
40:51
and yet the last track on the album, the biggest one. It's
40:53
not even close. So strange. It's really come out of nowhere as being
41:00
something that people like listening to, which is great. I love that people
41:04
it's being enjoyed, but it's so odd of all the times I feel like
41:07
this sort of thing as well really highlights that because there's a lot of people
41:13
in the industry that want to tell you the formula for how you do this
41:16
and how you do that and make your songs stand out, Like if you
41:21
follow this formula, then you're more likely to reach more people and impact this
41:24
and that. I think it's all a load of toss. Absolutely. I
41:28
think it's just a matter of you know, because what you've just said is
41:31
a perfect example that you just really can't tell which way it's going to go
41:37
and what songs people will latch onto. Honestly, I think in the current
41:43
day of being a creative person, there is this focus on algorithm, this
41:47
focus on the numbers, and I know, and it's exhausting, it is,
41:53
and it sucks your creativity out of what you're doing. I think if
41:57
you think too hard about, oh, you know, we haven't written a
42:00
song that doesn't have this popular thing in it, so we better do that,
42:02
it's like a funk off. Write what you want to write, right,
42:07
what feels good, what comes out? Yeah, right on? So
42:14
what is the next step for you guys? Then? So I know you've
42:19
just told me earlier about the album prior to Minos being open ended, and
42:23
you've kind of followed on from that with Minos. Is that going to be
42:28
a continued direction or are you going to look at just clean slating it for
42:32
the next next lot of songs and please tell me we don't have to wait
42:37
like three years for the next lot of new music. Oh, I was
42:42
going to say, I'm looking at your face right now, and you're like,
42:44
how can I lie to her right now? So regarding new stuff,
42:51
for sure, our guitarist is currently rebuilding his entire home studio that's going to
42:58
have enough room for U. Yes, I saw that on social media.
43:00
Yeah, he's been working really hard, like actually building this building from scratch.
43:07
So once that's done, it's pretty much going to be our HQ somewhere
43:09
that we can go have a couple of beers, chill out, whip out
43:14
some guitars, and write some music together. And that's going to be it's
43:16
going to be set up so that we can record and write and just go
43:22
through you know, that creative process regularly rather than Okay, guys, i'll
43:27
see you in six months. Writing session that's going to be fourteen hours long
43:34
and everyone wants to die but on the end of it, so do you
43:36
got You guys all live within fairly close proximity to each other, within about
43:40
an hour of each other. It's, you know, not too bad.
43:43
Melbourne's all right that when you guys write, are you do you? Because
43:47
I know these days, with all the technology we have and the ability to
43:52
send files and stuff like, I started in bands before we had any of
43:57
that, and you possibly did too, and so writing songs had to be
44:01
jamming and you had to remember it next week because there wasn't really any way
44:06
to record it or put it down or anything like that. That thing go
44:08
the thing where you did the thing? I guess I always I'm used to
44:15
being part of like what they call a jam band, and our songs come
44:20
together when we're all in the room together and we're all sort of bouncing off
44:22
each other. And I feel like that seems to be a way of writing
44:27
that is disappearing more and more. So, what about you, guys,
44:30
how do you do you do a bit of both or are you more inclined
44:36
to write when you're all in the room together. Yeah, it is a
44:38
bit of both. It is a bit of both. It'll be we will
44:43
all have a riff or a vibe that we come in with. And you
44:49
know, I might write half a song or a full song by myself,
44:52
but it's always with the intention of it being changed. So you know,
44:57
I'll have five minutes of music and go all right, guys, let's go
45:00
for it. What do we got? You know? All right, Frankenstein,
45:04
take that out? Take that out. You come in with a skeleton
45:06
and everyone sort of starts to build the flesh around it. And that's how
45:08
Minos was built. It was a lot of us having, you know,
45:13
a skeleton of a song and then we all just throw parts into it and
45:16
then mold, mold, mold, mold. Look what I've made, and
45:20
we have a finished piece. You know. There was a lot of that.
45:23
Yeah, and that's that's sort of been the process for this whole thing.
45:27
Again addressed ya. The last album was written before I joined, so
45:31
I didn't get to musically, Like I still had some say on some parts
45:37
of that album. I got to change some of the music, but I
45:39
didn't get to write, whereas this one was like I had input on the
45:43
on the writing and yeah, we all just sort of reformed it. There
45:46
are songs that didn't make it under the album for one reason or another.
45:52
There was one song that I've been I've had sitting in my pocket since high
45:57
school. It's just like, oh, it's a really cool riff, a
46:00
really cool thing that I just want to use, and guys, let's try
46:04
this. And we tried it. We wrote a whole song around it,
46:06
we had it pretty much finished, and then we got the album listing and
46:08
said, you know what, it's not very good. Let's get rid of
46:13
it. That is the process I always I always feel like mixed emotions when
46:20
it comes to throwing a song out, because you've put time and effort and
46:24
emotions and thought yeah, and then just to like just beIN it and you're
46:30
like, can we salvage this? But sometimes there were lyrics from the ditched
46:37
song that I then put into other songs on the album, so it ended
46:40
up being kind of recycled cycle bin. Yeah. Sure, and those lyrics
46:46
probably fit better, much better in the end. Yeah. Yeah. And
46:54
you're saying before about like the open endedness of the last album and the concept
46:59
of this album. The openness at the end of the last album was like,
47:04
Okay, you've gone on your journey of self discovery. What do you
47:07
do with this information kind of thing, And that's where it ends off.
47:12
This album. Minos is very much I have this information and now I'm feeling
47:16
about it. I don't know what to do about it. I just have
47:20
it and I'm in it, and I don't feel good. I just feel
47:23
bad about it. And you know, the other way that that could go,
47:29
the other path out of that is moving forward and exploring what else you
47:36
can do, you know, rather than sitting in this misery, I suppose
47:40
is taking things, learning from these things, and then moving forward. So
47:45
I guess whatever we do next is going to be the moving forward. It's
47:49
going to be something completely different. Whatever whatever happens happens, you know.
47:53
Yeah, So Minos is like the shadow work, and the next one is
48:00
possibly going to be what eventuates from from that, hopefully healing and yeah,
48:07
yeah, or it'll be even yeah, who knows. We might go for
48:15
my death on the next time and back some skulls, who knows. But
48:17
yeah, I'm really I'm looking forward to seeing where we go from this one
48:23
because we now, as far as I'm aware, besides a few rifts here
48:30
and there, we're not coming into this with any ideas like any new music
48:32
we make now is going to be completely off half, completely fresh, completely
48:36
based on the now you know. So I feel like we left our baggage
48:40
behind on the last two albums. You know, all the stuff we've been
48:44
holding on to is out and now it's so that. Yeah. So your
48:49
next your next one is going to be a very very clean slate. Yeah,
48:52
and I'm super interested to see where it goes. So then, how
48:58
you are you guys writing at the moment or you're just kind of doing the
49:02
gigging thing and basking in the release of of Minos. We're basking, you
49:12
know, such a long wait and so much time and so much pressure,
49:15
and there's there's this release and relief now that it's out for people to It's
49:22
doing gigs, it's meeting other bands, and you know, making friends and
49:28
just taking it all in, you know. Cool. Even now with meeting
49:32
new bands and making new friends and playing heaps shows, we get to hear
49:37
all this new music that we can soak up, you know, and and
49:39
hear things we go, oh, I like this sound of that. Let's
49:43
try that, you know, be inspired. Writing and releasing music really is
49:49
like you know, you you start off so enthusiastic and so full of ideas,
49:54
and then by the end you kind of like this dirty, hung out
49:58
sponge that yeah, just looking a bit sad and to round by takeaway containers
50:06
and yeah, you've got to kind of like dry out and freshen up again
50:13
before you can you start the process all over again. Yeah, and I
50:15
think, yeah, before we start ringing the towel, it's it's it's definitely
50:21
a let's just enjoy that this is done. Let's enjoy that that creative process
50:27
that we went through is now over, which is a good thing and also
50:30
a bad thing. And yeah, sit in it for a minute before we
50:36
really start getting at work. I mean, I can't imagine I already have
50:39
you know, riffs building also on the couch for guitar for five minutes and
50:44
come up with something. They go, oh, I've got to show that
50:45
to the boys. You know, it won't take long before we're already raring
50:51
to go. I think, yeah, for now, it's just enjoying,
50:54
enjoying other people enjoying you know. Yeah, absolutely, So what gigs have
50:59
you got coming up? Then that's a good question. We have a show
51:05
on We have a show on the sixteenth of December at Bad Decisions, we're
51:12
going to be playing with Ransom Review, Outer Worlds, Ransom Review and Out
51:19
of Worlds. But there was another band, and Bad Decisions is in Fitzroy.
51:22
M hm. You have you played there before? I have not played
51:25
there before. I don't think. I don't recognize the name. It's a
51:30
really little venue, sort of long and long and narrow. It's it's a
51:37
fun little place on Titan Sweaty my favorite. Yeah, no, I never
51:40
played there, but it looks sick looking at pictures right now, looks awesome.
51:45
And is that all you've got coming up? Or you got plans for
51:47
any sort of getting out and about in the new year. There are whispers
51:52
on the wind, hushed tones of touring around the country. Nothing has been
52:00
firmed and this I'm going to use this interview to actually pressure the band into
52:04
doing it. So, guys, I really would like to tour. I
52:07
know we've been talking about it. Let's let's do it. Let's let's let's
52:12
let's do it. I would like putting it out to the entirety of Australia
52:16
and the world right now via Heavy mag and the people want the people want
52:22
it. Do you guys want to let us know, we'll do it.
52:25
I want to do it. Yeah, I will help you pressure your band
52:28
aids since making that happen, Yeah, thank you, thank you very much.
52:31
I would love to. I just I love touring, I love gigging,
52:37
and I just love playing music. And if I fucking do that in
52:40
front of as many different people as I possibly can, I'm happy. Yeah.
52:44
Hell yeah. Do you prefer gigging over the recording process? Oh?
52:49
Fuck yeah, yeah, no, I have the recording process. I mean
52:52
that was probably a really dumb question to ask, after what you've just said
52:57
and how long Minos has taken and well, and also like, I mean,
53:02
we've had a lot of fun gigs recently, and I just went through
53:06
five years of not fun recording time. But I mean it depends on the
53:08
day. Some days I will have a lot of fun recording. Like,
53:12
oh, I'm really on a ball with this. I've got twenty layers of
53:14
harmonies that are going to get buried in the mix, and I enjoyed making
53:16
them all. There's something about that pursuit of the perfect take that I enjoy
53:21
as well. It's frustrating, but it's also like, oh, I'm going
53:23
to get it. I'm watching it all come together is quite exciting, you
53:28
know, like actually hearing it. You know, there's a difference between that
53:32
physical aspect of performing something and then like watching something come to life outside of
53:38
yourself is quite few. Yeah, but I do love gigging again. It's
53:45
that adrenaline that we were talking about that just comes out and you're on stage
53:49
and you don't really think about anything else. You're not thinking, Oh,
53:52
I hope I sound good. Oh I hope I hit that note right.
53:54
It's no. No, I'm going to perform in front of these people,
53:59
and I'm going to entertain, and I'm going to take you on a journey
54:02
with me, whether you want to come or not, and I'm going to
54:05
sweat all over you and it's going to be great. And possibly sing aggressively
54:10
seeing Backstreet Boys into people's face. Oh yeah, absolutely, Yeah, it's
54:15
still one of my favorite things I've ever seen. Just experimenting for context,
54:21
you chucked a Backstreet Boys song like in one of your like just a little
54:27
section of one of your songs. When I saw you guys live, Where
54:30
was that Bendy? The Bendy Bendy? It was? And it was a
54:36
vibe. Well, we've been playing that song live since our first gig.
54:39
You know, it's it's a it's a sort of a song that goes into
54:43
every set, and there's only so many times that that second verse, you
54:47
know, there's only so many times I can do it verbatim. And once
54:52
I realized that there was sort of this, you know, oh, I
54:57
can throw a lot of songs in there. Okay, that's the beauty of
55:00
pop songs too, is that you can go. Yeah, there's a lot
55:05
of them that will fit in those little slots, which is always a Stevie
55:07
Wonder superstition that fits in there. Well, I expect I'll be waiting for
55:12
that at the next gig. Then there's a few surprise you. All right,
55:17
Well, we should probably wrap it up so that we can both get
55:22
to having our dinner. I suppose, yeah, hungry. Yeah, So
55:25
before we do, where can people find you and your music online? Do
55:30
you have physical copies of the album available? We do? The best place
55:37
to look for that would be on our Facebook page. That's sort of where
55:43
everything gets linked out of I'm also looking into doing vinyl releases because I love
55:49
Nyl. I love vinyl so much, so that's something that I'm looking into.
55:52
I would really like to make it happen. But now we do have
55:55
physical CD. Just make one copy just for you. I honestly, it's
56:02
on Spotify, it's on Apple Music, it's on I believe it's on band
56:07
camp now, so if you want to buy it, download it there.
56:10
It's on YouTube, it's anywhere that wherever you get your music, you'll find
56:14
it. Just look up Bino Lights, Minos or hit our Facebook page.
56:16
Everything's linked there for people to get a hold of a physical copy. Just
56:21
DM you on Facebook. I think so. Yeah. I don't know if
56:24
we've put them up on the store yet on the merch store. I will
56:28
double check that by the time this comes out, they will be on the
56:31
merch store. That's that's your first job to do when we wrap things up.
56:38
Awesome, Well, I hope you enjoy a ton of success with this
56:45
album. I think it's a really solid piece of music and I can't wait
56:50
to hear what you guys are going to come out with next. And yeah,
56:52
thanks for chatting with me today. Thank you so much. This has
56:55
been really fun times and this has been my chat with Brendan and Verona Lights.
57:00
Make sure you check out the new album Menos on your preferred music streaming
57:05
platform, preferably from start to finish for the ultimate experience, and look out
57:09
for the band playing shows around Melbourne. I know they would absolutely love the
57:13
support. Tell them heavyset you and hopefully you'll see them touring around the country
57:16
in twenty twenty four. Thanks for listening and remember life is better when it's
57:21
heavy. Say shylight, stay light.