The Re-Evolution Of DEVILSKIN With PAUL MARTIN

Interview by Kris PetersGood Things 2023 will be underway next week, with the annual music extravaganza kicking off next Friday, December 1 in Melbourne before hitting Sydney and Brisbane over the following two days.Every year the Good Things line-up manages to top itself, with this year's show being no exception.Headlined by Fall Out Boy and Limp Bizkit, Good Things also welcomes Corey Taylor, Devo, Enter Shikari, Hanabie, Bullet For My Valentine, Behemoth and plenty more, covering a wide range of genres and tastes.But, without an abundance of heavy metal, where would ANY festival be? And this year organisers have secured the talents of one of the best in the business with Sepultura making the trek from Brazil.HEAVY sat down with guitarist Andreas Kisser earlier this week to find out what Sepultura have planned for their visit."I'm excited," he said, a massive smile running across his face. "It's been since 2018 we don't come back to Australia. The lockdown delayed everything by two years, and now we finally have this chance to play our new album, not only at the festival which is amazing with a very diverse line-up, but also our sideshows where we can play a longer setlist with more songs. It's gonna be a great way to close this amazing year for us. It's fantastic."We ask Kisser what the general feeling is backstage at big shows like this, with many bands catching up with each other after prolonged periods of time."That's one of the best things about festivals," he smiled again. "It's not only the bands, but crew people that we know around the world and friends that we made in Australia that are following Sepultura for so many years. It's a great atmosphere. Who knows, some collaborations may happen and ideas and stuff. It's great. It's very fertile (laughs). It's a great situation to know people and to meet your idols."With Sepultura doing sideshows starting in Fremantle on November 26, we ask Kisser what fans at these shows might get that the band might not be able to explore fully at the festival appearances."At the festival shows we have a shorter time," he offered, "around 40 to 45 minutes or something like that. For the sideshows we have our own headline show, so we can play our complete show the way we are presenting everywhere in the world. So we have a little more time to play newer and older songs. It's gonna be a more complete setlist for the fans, but on the festival we are going to represent of course the whole history. We're gonna play new songs and a few classics (laughs). It's gonna be very well represented of what Sepultura is all about. We're very accustomed to doing that, especially in Europe. When we do the festival run we have all types of different set times and stuff, so we're accustomed to building… we have kind of like a spine of the setlist that we are changing according to our limitations, but we're prepared. It's gonna be a beautiful celebration."In the full interview, Andreas talks more about what to expect, what has changed with Sepultura since they were last here in 2018, his entry into Sepultura and how it came about, how their sound has changed over the years, changing with the music industry and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

24 Nov 202313min

Interview by Erin EddyWhile She Sleeps are just one of the many massive bands that are included in the lineup for this year’s Good Things Festival. As such they will be on Aussie soil as of November 30, kicking off their stint here with a headlining show in Melbourne.HEAVY had the pleasure of chatting with bassist Aaran and vocalist Loz about their impending trip over here, as well as the release of their sixth studio album, Self Hell, which is dropping on March 15, 2024.The boys eagerly told HEAVY that they’re keen to escape the UK climate and enjoy some Aussie sunshine and that they will likely be taking the opportunity to get amongst it at Good Things and enjoy some of their favourite bands.We also discussed the new album and the direction their music is taking.“I think it feels like a natural progression, but also we’re trying to do something fresh for our fans,” Aaran explains. “We like to keep our fan base on its toes in terms of knowing what to expect from a new record from us. We’ve said it many times, but we don’t want to be a band that finds our sound then just sits in it.”Listen to the full interview to get the low down on the upcoming album, Self Hell, as well as what to expect when While She Sleeps is in Australia.The band will be performing at all three Good Things dates, as well as playing side shows on November 30 at Stay Gold in Melbourne and December 5 at The Brightside in Brisbane.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

22 Nov 202322min

Interview by Kris PetersOne thing that has always typified Australian music is the internal support system encouraged by those within it.Band members often share their talents amongst two, three, or sometimes four other bands, with his fellow bandmates offering words of encouragement and respect rather than bemoan the fact their guitarist, or their drummer is not exclusively a part of their musical gang for want of a better word.Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule, but as a whole Australian music is made up of and populated by like-minded musicians who just want to play.Aussie rock outfit Palace Of The King is no exception, sharing its members with other bands such as Jon Stevens, The Screaming Jets and The Superjesus, an outside collective that adds nothing but starch to the Kings when all return to the fold.The proof of that is in the band's latest single Tear It Down, a high-energy rock track done only as Australian rockers can. The song is lifted from Palace Of The King's upcoming album Friends In Low Places, which will be released via Reckless Records next month.HEAVY sat down recently with vocalist Tim Henwood to find out more. We start by asking how Tear It Down has been received."It's been great," he beamed. "Because it's quite a full-on written song. I don't know if you've noticed, but we've been putting a new song out pretty much every eight weeks for months now, and I've been trying to mix it up. The last one was a bit more of a cruisy Americana, Black Crowes kind of thing and this one's much more fast, risky, kind of 70s-tinged Queens Of The Stone Age type of thing. I've been trying new stuff, so every time I put a new post up saying here's a new single fans of the band have piped up and said 'I wasn't expecting this', so I gave them a bit of a banger.In the full interview, Tim talks more about Tear It Down and what the song is about, how it sonically represents the new album, the overall direction of Friends In Low Places, producing and recording his own music and the pros and cons involved, a brief history of the band, the album launch tour and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

22 Nov 202315min

Interview by Kris PetersOne song can tell a dozen stories and stir even more memories, but there's only so much that can be told in a four-minute window.The real stories, the ones that were happening while the public story was being written, generally remain in the hearts and minds of only those directly involved - and usually with good reason.But now, in an unprecedented move and one which would have possibly drawn consternation a mere 15 or so years ago, Aussie rock legends Choirboys are opening the vault of secrecy with a stunning new live performance combining music and tales.Forming in 1978, Choirboys rose to prominence on the back of songs such as Run To Paradise, Boys Will Be Boys and Struggle Town, songs that reflected their surroundings told in an uncompromising and honest fashion to great effect.They remain the honest toilers of the Australian music scene, traveling far and wide to play a show with their humour intact and their passion for music unwavering.So it is fitting that a band like Choirboys have elected to tell their story through a mixing of live songs and behind the scenes stories titled Run To Paradise, The Stories Of Australian Rock & Roll. It is a live-action event unlike any seen before in this country as told by frontman and one of the most down-to-earth guys in the business, Mark Gable.Gable joined HEAVY recently to chat about the show and life as a Choirboy. We started by pointing out the sheer magnitude of touring the band has committed to over the next 12 months."I think considering the condition of the Australian music industry at the moment and how I feel about doing pubs and all the rest of it…," he trailed off, "and it was Tim Freedman I spoke to at the ARIA Awards and I went 'Tim, you've inspired me' and he said how come, and I said you know, Blow Up The Pokies because I just don't wanna do pubs anymore because all they do is have people go in and gamble. Of course, Blow Up The Pokies was about The Whitlams bass player who ended his own life because he gambled, and he couldn't deal with it anymore, and that's why the song was written. Tim goes, 'that's a bit extreme isn't it Mark?' (laughs). I was just thinking, I'd rather do interesting things, so hence we're doing lots of festivals. And the theatre show is part and parcel of that because… I think rather than just re-iterate the same old, same old, I would rather make it interesting, and the theatre shows are the beginning of that. The stories and the stuff that we've seen on the road and the stuff that's happened - the legendary stuff - I talk about that in the theatre show and also celebrate the music that we've seen which still exists, but a lot of the bands have come and gone. It's a different world out there now so we have to celebrate the way it was. Actually, I'm enjoying the new world; the internet world of new Australian bands who are breaking all over the world because of what we have now."In the full interview, Mark talks more about the theatre show and what to expect, how Choirboys have survived so many years in the industry, using other people's music to tell a story, the early days of the band and their initial vision, having to research and relive old memories and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

22 Nov 202321min

Interview by Simon Russell-WhiteAs the saying goes 'get busy living or get busy dying!' This is certainly true for Greg Puciato, (the living part that is) multi instrumentalist and vocalist for Better Lovers, The Black Queen, Killer Be Killed, Jerry Cantrell's Solo Band, his own Solo band and, of course, vocalist for the now very deceased Dillinger Escape Plan.He is a man with an already distinguished career, and yet again he has turned up the heat on the majority of his above mentioned projects and is hitting our shores with his Solo outfit in Summer 2024. It feels like five minutes ago that he graced us with the first-ever Australian tours for The Black Queen, but believe it or not that was almost five years ago! Where does the time go?!Celebrating his second solo album Mirrorcell the follow-up to his debut 2020 record Child Soldier: Creator of God, this is the first time us Australian's will see Greg live as a Solo artist, with his band of course!Given the limited time with Greg I kind of wish I had a buzzer so we could talk about each project for the exact amount of time, the man is literally that busy! Recently having joined long-time friends Will Putney (producer and guitarist in Fit For An Autopsy) and three remaining members of now very deceased Every Time I Die (Jordan Buckley - guitar, Clayton "Goose" Holyoak – drums and Steve Micciche – bass) to form a new band Better Lovers. In short, this is a band that celebrates friendship, kinship and the pure love of music!Having just dropped their new single Two Alive Amongst the Dead, "this was actually the first single as a complete band, we wrote and recorded between shows on our first tour" explained Greg. Hopefully, we get to see Better Lovers in Australia sometime soon.Moving right along, recently Greg was given the honour to join Alice In Chains legend Jerry Cantrell (guitar and vocals) for a run of live solo shows, during this interview we capture Greg explaining a moment where a once long-time idol has now not only become a band member but a dear friend of Greg's, he talks about those little moments where he simply cannot believe the position is in and how a moment with Jerry on stage took him back emotionally.Greg also owns a record company Federal Prisoner which will be releasing the next The Black Queen record as writing has actually begun.The man simply doesn't stop, Greg expresses feeling partly overwhelmed with the amount of projects he has on but as he explains so well, is aware that time is against us all, so the time is now.Greg hasn't sat for many interviews for a little while, I wonder why?He went on to laugh about the chance of the Killer Be Killed boys suddenly giving him a call, to cut another record and/ or tour.He went on to explain how much Max Cavalera (ex Sepultura, Soulfly, Nailbomb and Killer Be Killed) loves to tour and is a huge influence on him.Who knows we may see another Killer Be Killed record in the future, this is something that seems very damn likely too.Greg Puciato has the incredible ability to separate styles and musical abilities between various projects, so make sure you grab a ticket for his first-ever Australian run of solo (with previously mentioned band) shows in January 2024, it promises to be a fun time.Tickets from destroyalllines.comBecome a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

21 Nov 202314min

Interview by Kris PetersIt is hard to fathom that Seattle rock outfit Candlebox have never toured Australia over the course of their 30-year existence.Since emerging from the popular music location during the mid-90s grunge scene, Candlebox have gone from strength to strength, with a remarkable number of record sales and music streams starting with their 1993 self-titled album which sold over 4 million copies and introduced Candlebox to the world with songs like Far Behind, You and Cover Me.It is even harder to comprehend that it takes Candlebox calling time on their illustrious career for the powers that be to coax them over to our part of the world, but that is just what has happened with the band poised to bring The Long Goodbye Tour to our shores in January next year.With a global tour planned, and the recent release of Candlebox's final album of the same name, frontman Kevin Martin sat down with HEAVY to talk us through what has been a stellar slice of music history.We start by jokingly asking how and why Candlebox have neglected their Australian fans for so long."I've been trying to come there for thirty years," he smiled in return, "so you'll have to talk to the promotors about it. It's been a dream of mine to come out there. I have an extended Australian family over there that I love very much. I've been coming to Australia for the past 23 years and my affinity for that country goes beyond. I think I was Australian in a past life. It's just one of those things. I love that country, and I've tried to come for 30 years. I don't know why it's taken us so long. We've asked several times about coming for some festivals with Stone Temple Pilots and the guys in Live, but I guess maybe the Australian promotors just didn't think we were popular enough, but I cannot tell you how excited I am to be coming to play there. I'm looking forward to playing in the country that hopefully, at some point, I will call home."We bring up the fact that it will be a bittersweet moment for both the band and their fans seeing them here for the first and last time."I think so," he sighed. "It's gonna be more interesting for me, I think than it is for them. I'm gonna give them two hours each night of my very best, but saying goodbye to this career has been strange. All Summer long there's been times standing on stage in front of 10,000 of my closest friends, thinking to myself this is gonna be the last time I sing this song with these people. It's a strange emotion, but I think for me being home during COVID and spending time with my wife and my son and realising just how much I missed of that life with them… was pretty Earth-shaking for me. And I sat down with my wife around September of 2020 and said I think I'm pretty much ready to put all this music thing behind me and be a husband and a Father, is that okay? And she says I would be beyond grateful but are you sure you can put that away? And I said I don't love it as much as I used to. I think it was being home for such a long extended period of time that I realised that music was no longer the love of my life, nor my mistress. It's almost as though she had become a close friend that I would bump into every now and then and didn't like seeing that much. I don't wanna be an artist who phones it in. I don't wanna be that guy. So when we went back out on the road in 2021 I made sure that the shows would be played where we wanted to play. The events that we were involved in were events that I felt were a good place for Candlebox to be, and it was all leading up to this goodbye tour of 2023 for the 30th anniversary of the debut album. So I was very conscious about what I was doing."In the full interview, Kevin talks more about the final tour, what to expect, how to wrap up 30 years of music in one show, the early days of Candlebox and where they fit in, if he has achieved everything he wanted from music, the success of their self-titled debut and why he thinks people gravitated to it, the changes in music over 30 years and how Candlebox has survived, the response to their new album The Long Goodbye and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

21 Nov 202313min

Interview by Kris PetersOne of the most endearing aspects of music is its natural ability to connect on so many levels. For the music lover one song can have a profound effect on your mood or dictate your path to an extent, but on the flip side, from a musician's perspective, music has so much more to offer.While many are content to stick to a limited scope in terms of creative output, others need more plentiful and different outlets to satiate their hunger.Faith No More bass player Billy Gould is one such person.Universally lauded and loved for his role in the band that has helped shape the sonic direction of music on so many levels, Gould also feels the pull of other sides of the musical landscape. Desires that need to be fed but can't be satiated in a full band or within hard rock/metal constraints.These musical callings are far removed from the universal appeal and acceptance afforded to Faith No More, but for Gould at least, they are of equal, if not greater, importance.He found that a number of years ago with the project Talking Book, an outfit that relies more on musical textures and exploration to paint an immersive sonic landscape more in touch with your inner being than your impulsive urge to purge your sins.Along with Talking Book bandmate Jared Blum, Gould is preparing to release the soundtrack for The Eclipse on November 24, a film that forced Gould to tap into a fresh side of his musical mentality and express his creativity like never before.HEAVY had the pleasure of talking with Billy Gould recently, and we start by asking him how he is feeling on the cusp of the soundtrack release."Good," he enthused. "We've never really worked on a full feature film before like this. For the first time we didn't know if we were doing it right (laughs), but it came out alright. The director was really happy. I saw it on a big screen, and I was really happy with the way it all came together. It was a little intimidating when we first decided to take it on."We ask how he came to be involved with the movie and director Natasha Urban."I've known her for a decade and a half," he said. "She has made a lot of other films that are interesting. She made a film in Nepal following a young girl as she grew up in different stages of her life and what happened with her family and I just kept in touch with her. We had spoken earlier about Talking Book records and I sent her a copy of that, and she liked them so she kind of knew the stuff we did. She is really into visuals. Obviously, as a director she is a visual person, and she sent me some photos when she was in a place called The Valley Of The Moon in Uganda, and we almost used that as a cover for an album back in 2011. So w kept in touch and when she decided to do this film she said I was the first person that she really wanted to do it. She knew the aesthetic that I take into things like this, and we saw some clips from the film, and they were very… evocative, with some stuff filmed in Super 8. Some of it was very textured, some of it was very saturated and to me her visuals are like what we do with sound, so I thought it would be a good match."In the full interview, Billy talks about the pressures of carrying a whole soundtrack on their backs instead of contributing just one song, the process of writing musical scores to a movie, creative music with a cinematic feel to it, how different writing for a movie is compared than with a band, how the writing process forced him into a different headspace and how he coped with that, the origins of Talking Book and future plans and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

16 Nov 202313min

Interview by Kris PetersThere is so much music being released on an hourly basis in the modern age that sometimes it is necessary to hedge your bets and look into outside interests that could possibly align with your own in an attempt to combine forces.This is much easier said than done, especially considering that something like that would usually involve having to work with other people thus reducing the individual impact of your work. The smarter - and infinitely harder - way to do things is to diversify on your own, but that then poses even more problems of having to make two projects work rather than one.The lucky (or more lateral thinking) few manage to dip their toes into two projects and weave their sonic tapestry into one wholesome product, as seen recently with US rocker Kurt Deimer who has combined his love of film with that of his music.In recent years Deimer began work on a horror movie franchise called Hellbilly Hollow, writing, acting and producing the films to an ever-growing fanbase. And what one thing do all good horror films possess?A metal soundtrack.Which is where Deimer found his niche, slotting his new track Doom into Hellbilly Hollow in the pivotal closing scene.Deimer has so much more going on both musically and on film that HEAVY just had to make time to chat with him to find out more."I have two movies coming out in 2024," he corrected. "Scared To Death and then Hellbilly Hollow which is my horror franchise that I started. Doom features in the epic final scene of Hellbilly Hollow, which I why I originally wrote the song. It's just a slammer, man. It's bringing rock and roll to the world the way I do it and hopefully everybody sees that it doesn't sound like everything else.""We needed a good, epic song for the final scene. I wrote the song originally for the movie, that's what inspired it, and you can have a lot of doom in a horror type movie that's scary and a lot of scenarios that create that doom feeling. But I also write to try to help people realise other things that are going on in the world and things I've gone through in my life. I wanted to also point out that drug abuse - whether it's heroin or cocaine or any drug of choice, pills, whatever - can also create doom in ones life."In the full interview, Kurt talks more about Doom and how it fits in with the movie, other songs that will appear on the soundtrack, the storyline of Hellbilly Hollow and the whole franchise, having a role in the Halloween remake, other new songs he has recorded and what he plans to do with them, his love for Hoodoo Gurus and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

15 Nov 202310min