HEAVY Music Interviews

Interview by Kris PetersHelmet - led the whole time by frontman Page Hamilton - have been a mainstay on the hard rock scene for more than three decades now.Although never quite cracking the global mainstream market Helmet have still managed to play an influential role in the lives of countless music lovers, with a fanatically loyal underground fan base that rivals any other.Now, after a prolongued absence for them from our shores, Helmet are set to return this April for The Best Of Helmet Australian Tour taking in Newcastle, Sydney, Hobart, Perth, Canberra, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide.Known for their frenetic two hour plus live shows, Helmet have long held an affinity with Australian crowds with Hamilton admitting the band are pumped for the run of shows."We started this thing out in Prague back in early September, and it was kind of daunting at first trying to figure out how to make a set flow with 30 songs and just two hours of Helmet music - no opening band. But we got a groove going after a couple of shows and we added a bunch of songs that have never been performed live before and some that haven't been performed since 1991, 92. I find that when you bring new stuff - or new old stuff - into the set, it injects new life into the rest of the things that you've played quite a lot over the course of 30 years. It's been really fun. I'm surprised at how much fun it's been and I love doing it."In the full interview Hamilton runs over what to expect from the shows, fitting 30 years of material into one setlist, how Helmet's music has changed over the years, his greatest musical achievement, some of his side projects and what's happening with them, the early days of Helmet, his early vision and how it has changed since, steering clear of musical trends, what he has learned along the journey and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

20 Feb 202313min

Interview by Kris PetersBreed them young, I have always said, which is exactly what the good folks in the education system have done with high school band Roach Toaster.Originally formed at the urging of their music teacher, Roach Toaster have gradually traversed the usual school rising band routine from being a band with potential to a band that is realising that potential and now the young rockers are preparing for their first ever performance on a big stage when they open for Infectious Rogues' album launch at The Paddington Tavern in Brisbane on April 23.Joining them on that bill will be seasoned campaigners Dreamkillers, PistonFist and Palladone, with all five band members trading school uniforms for rock attire to chat with HEAVY earlier this week."We're very, very excited," the whole band answered as one before drummer Jack took the reins. "It's the first real gig that we've had," he offered. "We've played at the Noosa busking competition around the end of last year but this is the first real gig that we've had. It's a good way for us to get out I guess."Being a young, fresh band playing their first show, HEAVY presses the group as to how they are going to approach things and what they will be hoping to learn from the other more seasoned bands."Just stage presence," shrugged rhythm guitarist Angus. "Not standing like a statue and getting comfortable playing in front of an audience."In the full interview the band talks about forming at High School, their sound, taking influence from old school rock and metal, the addition of keyboards and what it brought to the sound, branching into originals and what they hope the songs will sound like, future plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

20 Feb 202311min

Interview by Kris PetersFor over two decades now Steel Panther have been the flagship for a new age of metal. One where the music isn't the only point of focus and the image is sculptured to fit certain demographics and moulds.Not that Steel Panther have ever subscribed to that theory, nor have they ever conformed to sociatel demands.Steel Panther are a band unto themselves, living the rock and roll dream day in and day out and proving to all who will listen (and even those who won't) that heavy metal isn't JUST about the music.It's about a lot of things.An inseperable unit for all but the last 18 months of life on the prowl - original bass player Lexi left for greener pastures and was replaced by Spyder early last year) - Steel Panther have staked their reputation on great music with enough fun and parody to kick start their own television sit-com series.Now the band who quite literally gives a fuck about their fans and their music are set to reclaim the throne they never lost when their new album On The Prowl is released on February 24.Packed full of everything we have come to love and respect about the Panther - plus a few things we might not yet know we love about them - Steel Panther have once again delivered a musical masterpiece as only they can. Or only they could get away with...Guitarist Satchel joined HEAVY for a chat earlier this week where nothing was off limits - not even the sanctity of an old folks home."I feel great about it," he answered when asked about the new album. "The last few years have been rough on everybody and we really didn't get to tour as much as we wanted to but we're really excited because this whole album I feel is one of our best records. We've got a new single that we've just released called Friends With Benefits with an awesome video, another song called 1987 that came out a couple of months ago and went to #1 on the rock charts in Germany - which is big for us because we don't really get on the radio very much. A lot of songs that are resonating with our fans so far, and we've got a lot of other great songs on the records like On Your Instagram and Magical Vagina. A lot of really awesome subjects that we tackle. Teleporter is one of them. All That And More... we have a lot of songs that are about our penisses and a lot of songs about vaginas and a lot of songs about sex and drugs, so it's great."The press release says On The Prowl is shaping up to be Steel Panthers biggest yet, so we press Satchel on exactly what part of the album is being referred to."I don't know, but it doesn't matter because bigger is always better," he smiled, "I think it will be one of our biggest records. We've got a lot of fans... and the interesting thing about our band is we tend to gather fans slower than most bands because we don't get radio play. So we're like Iron Maiden in a way, except our trajectory has been a lot slower and a lot longer. But our fans, once they find out about us, they tend to stick around. I think now we've got more fans than we've ever had and our fans can't wait for our new record and they're gonna be pleasantly surprised with it because it's great."That about as serious as Satchel got. In the rest of the interview he talks about the singles released and how they represent the rest of the album, Dweezil Zappa making an appearance on Is My Dick Enough, the inspiration for some of the songs, new bass player Spyder and what he brought to the band, answering to critics who still don't understand their sense of humour, coming up with topics to write about, conquering the world and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

20 Feb 202322min

Interview by Kris Peters,Despite the fact the COVID period is a part of our lives most would rather forget, there were a number of people who spent their time more productively due to the enforced lockdowns and regulations.Refusing to be defeated by an unseen adversary, Tim Coutts-Smith - vocalist for Melbourne fuzz rock outfit Jack Harlon & The Dead Crows - channelled his frustrations on an area that he knew would always provide hope.Music.Rather than using the time to create his own sonic landscape, Coutts-Smith instead looked deeper within to a musical time that quite possibly played a subliminal role in shaping his craft as a musician.He began listening to some of his personal favourites with a view to spicing them up considerably, before opening the process up to the public when he asked fans to suggest songs that could benefit from being he termed as Harlon-ified.A massive influx of material cluttered his social media with the main selection criteria being the chosen few would be from less mainstream artists that were not yet household names.He wittled the list down to eight tracks and sprinkled his own DNA over the new recordings with sensational results. This fuzz-drenched, genre-crossing love letter includes songs by under-the-radar icons like Bauhaus, God, Butthole Surfers, Joy Division, The Melvins, and more has hit the airwaves today, February 17 under the title of Hail To The Underground, with Coutts-Smith offering up some of his spare time to chat with HEAVY earlier today."I'm pretty stoked man," he smiled. "It's been a long time coming. I recorded this and finished it well over a year ago, so it's been a long year of waiting for it to finally come out."Even the concept behind tackling a project like this is enough to put most people off, but Coutts-Smith argues it actually provided him distraction from the world wide horrors that surrounded him at the time."It really started in lockdown when I was recording our second album Magnetic Ridge," he explained, "and towards the end of that process it was slowly disintegrating on my computer. There was one point where I nearly lost the whole hard drive and the whole album so I thought okay, I've got to get a new computer and new audio. Naturally when you get a new audio set up you wanna test it out, so I just started going through songs that I love and trying to make them as heavy as possible. Then I thought there's enough here that I should put an album out. I did a few carbon copy covers at the start just to test it out but I was finding the more I'd record, the more I would wanna add all these bits in so eventually I'm adding all of these parts that aren't in the original songs. I thought half of this record is now original so I might as well continue (laughs)."In the full interview, Tim talks more about how he chose the initial list of songs, what criteria he used to narrow it down, changing the structure of the music to put his stamp on it, which one he enjoyed covering the most, the recent 1000mods tour postponement, upcoming shows and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

17 Feb 202311min

Interview by Kyra Jade-CoombsWhen it comes to Architects in recent years, fans sure do have a lot to say. Is it a sense of ownership they feel they have over the band? Or perhaps an idea of what they THINK the band should be that they just won’t let go of? Who knows but they sure have no issue in voicing their option. Personally, I know that bands morph and change as the years go on and the Architects certainly have had their fair share of heart ache and testing times to grow through. And grow as a band they have, time after time producing new music and changing where they are going in terms of moving forward, adding to their story the way they want to and experimenting with their sound.Following up from their successful 2021 album, ‘For Those That Wish to Exist’, comes their 10th studio album ‘the classis symptoms of a broken spirit’ which dropped in late 2022. Architects are returning to Australia to tour this album starting on the 17 th of February in Adelaide and ending on the 22 nd in Brisbane with Aussie legends Thornhill and Canada’s Counterparts promising to be a massive tour that you definitely won’t want to sleep on.Heavy had the chance to have a chat with Dan Searle from Architects, the drummer and main songwriter, to cover many topics from going on major tours again, what his teenage self would say about opening for Metallica on one of their world tours, being a father in this industry, letting their hair down on the film clip for their ‘tear gas’ film clip and much more!Say what you want about them, I believe that reinventing yourself is challenging enough and being able to not only pull that off but become the most successful version of yourself that you’ve ever been takes a massive amount of courage and hard work. This isn’t something to curl your lip up at…it’s amazing. I personally have always been a fan of these guys and lookforward to seeing what they pull off next!Have a listen to the full interview and enjoy Dan’s honest chat about Architect’s past, present and future and make your mind up for yourself. Better yet, grab a ticket and go watch them do what they do best!Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

16 Feb 202325min

Interview by Kris PetersSydney based merchants of death metal Anoxia are about to unleash their debut EP, a crushing four track metal journey called Languish In Suffering.Still a band in their infancy, Anoxia have been swiftly making a name for themselves, scoring a number of high profile supports and festival slots based solely on the strength of their 2020 demo Torturous Degradation and uncompromisingly confronting live performances.Gathering old school death metal influences and presenting them with a fresh, modern sensibility, Anoxia sound like a band ready to unleash fury, starting with a slot at this weekend's Canberra Metal Festival alongside Psycroptic, Misery, Black Rheno and more.HEAVY caught up with drummer Marco Alvarez and guitarist Elias Niahos to find out more."We're pretty pumped, it's been a long time coming," Niahos smiled when asked how the boys were feeling only a couple of days out from the release of their debut EP. "We recorded and tracked a couple of years ago now but there were a few issues and it's been a long time coming so it's actually a bit of a weight off our shoulders to get it out there. We're excited for people to hear it. It's just us having fun and trying to make it as heavy and catchy as we can. Putting in effort with no corners cut, plus we have some cool artwork in there from Italy by Paolo, and we had some mates work on it with Matt Clarke who produced it and our mate Tom from Carnal Viscera who did the graphics. It's cool to get friends involved in the process as well.""It's a fortunate thing that we have actually been in the recording process and not released anything," Alvarez added. "Not as Anoxia, but this is the first release that we've been able to do that has gone public, so it's really exciting that we actually have this roaring and ready to go. I'm excited about how far things will get and just the fact that we're doing something that is a labour of love."In the full interview, the boys talk more about the EP and its sound, run us through each of the four songs and explain their origin and meaning, paying homage to the past while keeping an ear on the future, upcoming shows, future plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

15 Feb 202322min

Interview by Kris PetersSeldom does a band undergo such a sonic metamorphisis so early in their career as Brisbane doom riff machine Dark Moon Society.Starting life in 2017 as more of a punk influenced band - as evident by their debut single Night Demon - Dark Moon Society recently released their second track The Reaper, a more sludge driven, guitar fuelled number that is about as far removed from Night Demon as they could get.Not that the band are already having an identity crisis of sorts. Far from it.They are just young enough, fresh enough, and, more importantly confident enough to realise a persons musical tastes grow and develop over time. Rather than fight that notion, Dark Moon Society have plunged directly into a fresh sonic realm with vocalist Alex Pierce happy to chat with HEAVY about the new track and musical direction."The band started in 2017 and we had a bunch of songs and we recorded a bunch of them and then kind of moved on from them," he explained. "We started this new genre - for us anyway - and this was one of the first songs that was a part of that. It's kind of inspired from a bunch of different genres. It's hard for us to tell people what genre we are because it's taken from a few things. I think this song took a lot of inspiration from bands like Soundgarden. We're writing some stuff now that's heading more towards Sabbath and The Sword and stuff like that. Still that grungy, doom, stoner rock type thing but this was one of the first songs that started that era for us."In the full interview, Alex talks more about The Reaper, it's musical direction, future music plans, the musical journey planned by Dark Moon Society, the formation of the band, their recent East Coast tour, shows planned for the rest of 2023 and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

15 Feb 202316min

Interview by Kris PetersMelbourne stoner/sludge/groove/doom band Goat Sharman are making the trip to the nations capital this weekend for the Canberra Metal Festival featuring Misery, Psycroptic, Abramalin, Werewolves, Alarum, Black Rheno and more.The band have steadily gone about building a loyal, solid fan base since their inception in 2018 and released their debut self titled EP early in 2021. They are currently working on the follow up album, but drummer Max still found time to sit down with HEAVY for a chat about their upcoming shows and more."You can expect some heavy riffage," he replied when quizzed on what punters can expect from their live show. "A bit of shennanigans, some loud noises and we'll just be having a good time grooving."The style of music played by Goat Sharman is dominated by a handful of major bands, and as such the scope for drawing influence from the genre pool may not be as great as bands from, say, the thrash side of things. We ask Max how difficult it is for a band to take those influences and put their own spin on proceedings."There's elements of things that they do that we really enjoy," he measured. "We love playing around with polyrhythms and metric modulations and lots of crazy time signatures and such that we like to incorporate into our music and keep it interesting."In the full interview, Max talks more about this weekends show, which bands he is looking forward to sharing a stage with, the early days of the band, how they came up with their sound, new music, future shows and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

15 Feb 202310min