Musical Chairs With JACK & DYLAN From DEAD POET SOCIETY

Back in the Summer of 1997 the seeds of a band who have thrived over the ensuing quarter of a century were sewn from humble beginnings.When guitarist Aaron Butler returned from Florida armed with a bunch of tascam 4 track recordings and a mind recently blown by the music coming out of the scene he had just left, the initial strands that were to become Frankenbok DNA had begun to fester.The musical inspiration brought home from the US was the catalyst for a band that this year celebrates 25 years of music, and one which was set to redefine the way heavy metal music was played in this country.Along with vocalist Adam 'Hutchy' Glynn, Butler began scheming and manipulating an idea, in the process setting off a chain of events that will manifest at The Tote in Melbourne on December 10 when Frankenbok play a special anniversary show featuring each of the five major incarnations of the band from their 25 year history.Original vocalist and fellow founding member Hutchy embraced Butler's early eclectic vision, veering off in his own unique sonic tangents and giving voice to a form of music that until that point was the sole domain of international superstars and visionaries.It was a form of rap, metal and hard rock given a uniquely Australian fabric and one which was to revolutionise many aspects of the Australian heavy metal scene.Hutchy went on to record one album (Greetings & Salutations) and an EP (Loopholes & Greatest Excuses) before leaving the band just when the toils of their hours of hard work and dedication were starting to bear fruit.It was the first sign of fracture in Frankenbok's fledgling journey, but one which was to be repeated a number of other times over the ensuing years.Each time a member left another folded into their place, with the Frankenbok faithful welcoming each new addition without question. But it was the departure of Hutchy - who at the time was integral to the sonically diverse nature of Frankenbok's music - that caused the biggest and most lasting ripples.That's not to say incoming vocalist Adam B Metal wasn't equally as important in the continued evolution of Frankenbok, but it was the sporadic experimental techniques that Hutchy brought to the table that formed a massive part of Frankenbok's core sound.After deliberately moving in different directions to his former friends and bandmates for a number of years, Hutchy finally rejoined what has been dubbed the "Frankenbok Family" earlier this year when the ambitious decision to attempt to reform each significant Frankebok line-up for a one off celebration recognising the entire history of the band was floated.It was a suggestion that at the time seemed almost too left of field to stand a chance of succeeding, but now, less than two weeks out from the show, the planets have aligned without dispute and all of the past and present members of the Frankenbok Family are ready to once more flex their musical muscles.HEAVY sat down with Hutchy for a frank and open discussion about his time in Frankenbok, the factors that resulted in his premature exit, what to expect from the anniversary show and much more.We start, of course, with the start..."I remember hearing from Azza's fiance at the time, Sonya, and she rang me and we caught up and she told me that Aaron was coming back," Hutchy recalled. "I was very excited because when I first met Aaron all those years ago he was playiing in band's with Tim and I just really liked what he did. I knew him throughout high school and he was just one of those guys that stood out and I always wanted to approach him back in the day when I was younger and less confident and hit him up to do something. He came back and he had these tapes with the recordings he had done - it was quite different to what he'd previously done - and at the time my band Bacterium was on the way out, so I said to him I'd love to do something and would you be open to me putting vocals over this stuff and he said yeah sure.He said what do we do for a drummer (the recorded tracks were all done using a drum machine) and I said you have the drum machine so let's just start from there and build."Despite the excitement that inevitably surrounds any new band project, Hutchy says the aspiring revolutionaries still had a semblance of a musical vision from which to mould this new beast."My old band was a bit more Mr. Bungle influenced," he recalled, "so lot's of metal crossed with funk jazz combinations, so I wanted to be a brutal death metal band. I was really into Damaged and Napalm Death and Bloodduster, so I didn't really want to sing clean at all. I just wanted to do growling and screaming all the way through, so if you listen to the earlier stuff that's where the vocals kind of were. The drum machine gave it a kind of quirky edge to it, a really tacky, tinny, casio sound and sound and that inspired some of the vocals as well, in the sense of the weird stuff I was doing back in the early days."In the full interview, Hutchy gives a comprehensive look at his time with Frankenbok, the problems that led to his departure, other musical projects, reconnecting with the band and much more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

30 Nov 202239min

Most musicians will tell you that creating music is their lifeline. Most serious music fans will also attest to this. Almost all of us can summon a song or album to mind that we really connected with at a turbulent time in our lives, and in turn it became the soundtrack to our survival. Music, of course is just as synonymous with happy occasions, however Ville Valo and his former band HIM, don’t exactly conjure up images of sunshine and rainbows. The frontman of the iconic gothic rock band is about to release his first solo album under the moniker VV. He opened up to HEAVY about how writing this album helped him survive the uncertainty and unhappiness of the pandemic, and how creating music has always given him purpose. Valo has not deviated far from the sweetly melancholic, brooding gothic aesthetic that HIM is well known for. “I still hate happy music.” Valo muses, “Sad, melancholic music makes me really happy. That’s my thing.”Valo graciously dedicated time to deep dive with HEAVY about what it means for him to be releasing this solo record, titled Neon Noir, after being part of HIM for some twenty plus years. He jokingly remarked that Neon Noir is “like a HIM album, but it’s played a bit worse and sounds more like the 80’s.”Valo is no newbie to composing records, after all he was responsible for all the song writing in HIM. However, on Neon Noir he also plays all the instruments and mentioned that when writing for HIM he would compose songs keeping in mind the individual styles of his band mates and what sound they would bring on board. He noted that the difference now is that he can infuse influences that he didn’t necessarily share with the other members of HIM. “They weren’t such huge fans of Duran Duran and The Sisters Of Mercy and The Chameleons, all that sort of stuff, so I was able to put all that influence onto the album.”Check out the interview to reacquaint yourself with Ville Valo and learn more about Neon Noir, tour plans and everything in between!Neon Noir is to be released in true gothic style on Friday the 13 th of January, 2023.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

29 Nov 202241min

Such is the wealth of talent currently in Australian music that you don't even have to win a battle of the bands style competition to be a winner.When Melbourne melodic metal outfit Primitive failed to win their place on the local Good Things line-up last week their disappointment was only shortlived.Not long afterwards the band got the nod to support Soulfly at both of their Melbourne and Sydney side shows, going a long way to numbing the pain of missing out on the full festival.It has been a massive year already for Primitive, who released their well received EP With The Rats And Snakes in August and have been making waves ever since. They close this year out by supporting Exenobiotic in Melbourne and see in the New Year playing alongside King Parrot and Unearth.Not bad for a band who are less than half a decade old.Frontman Tim Gauci sat down with HEAVY to discuss a whirlwind last half of 2022."Honestly, it was probably one of the most fun shows we have had," he enthused of the Good Things battle. "We had the two shows, the first heat and the final, and because it was done during the middle of the week it was a little bit of a nervous thing figuring out if we were gonna get people there or not but because there was an effort to go there and support our friends and support us during the week - it was free entry - it ended up just being a really good, fun vibe. The shows were great. We played as best as we could. I won't give us any less credit for not winning, but I think we did a great job and had a great time. I can't say anything bad about it. All of the other bands were great and we met a lot of new people and made some friends along the way so there's really nothing more you could ask for. Other than getting a festival slot of course (laughs). In saying that, it eventuated into some good things, so we can't complain."In the full interview, Tim talks more about how Primitive approached the shows, finding the balance between enjoying yourself and competing, choosing the set list, what Primitive learned as a band from the experience, scoring the Soulfly support, the reception to With The Rats And Snakes, upcoming shows, new music and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

29 Nov 202210min

To pigeonhole Melbourne outfit Unscored into one set genre would be worse than difficult.It would almost be criminal.With a musical disparity that belies their youth, these four high school friends are refreshingly yet to be tainted by the expectations of the music world at large.Instead they are still encompassed in their own sonic bubble where anything is possible; a place where music dictates direction and expectation fades quickly into the background.After introducing the world to their craft with Cowboy and Static in 2021, Unscored are now preparing to unleash Big Fkn Aorta, a track which is lifted from next years debut album Amorphis.Accompanied by an even more eclectic music video, Big Fkn Aorta is an amalgamation of everything and nothing, highlighting a band in their infancy with nothing to prove and everything to gain.Daniel (guitar), Carter (bass) and Harry (vocals, guitar) sat down for a chat with HEAVY to strip back the layers of Big Fkn Aorta and things to come."It's a song that was written in the first lock down," Harry began. "I feel like it's quite accurate of that because it's a bit of a suffocating type of song. It's loud, like a massive wall of sound. We wanted to go with something that was a bit unsettling, that's kind of the vibe of the song. The music video really captures that as well.""We really tried to go for the contrast of loud and soft, melodic base with crunchy guitars and wavey vocals and get a sense of contrast musically through the whole song," Carter added.In the full interview, the boys run us through Big Fkn Aorta in more detail, disect the awesomely creepy music video, discuss the lyrical content, the rest of their debut album and how this song reflects the overall sound, why they chose it to represent the album, this weekend's launch party at Whole Lotta Love and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

29 Nov 202210min

US alternative rock outfit Mom Jeans are returning to Australia after a three year absence early next year for The Sweet Tooth Tour with fellow US rockers Microwave.The band's latest album Sweet Tooth, released at the start of this year, saw Mom Jeans deviate from the emo foundations that launched their first two albums, instead focussing on more of a late 1990's, early 2000 style pop rock and pop punk nature.So named because the band members universally refer to the new sound as "ear candy", Sweet Tooth saw Mom Jeans strike an even bigger market and justified their decision to spread their metaphorical wings somewhat.HEAVY caught up with frontman Eric Butler to find out more."Nothing too crazy," he laughed when asked what Mom Jeans have in store for the tour. "It's been so long. Especially now, but in general it's so hard getting across the ocean and trying to play gigs so we're more or less trying to give whoever manages to make it to these shows their monies worth as much as we can and make sure that we take advantage of the time and play as many songs as we possibly can in the amount of time that we have. We try to treat every tour like it's the last one we're gonna get to do and we try and leave it all out on the field in that respect. We're gonna give it our best and we're gonna play loud and have a lot of fun. We're gonna play a whole bunch of songs from our new record and a bunch of old ones too. We don't play any favourites in the catalogue, so we're gonna practice as much of our songs as we possibly can and be ready to take requests. That's our goal."In the full interview, Eric talks more about the run of shows, why they are bringing Microwave with them, the reception to Sweet Tooth, how their fans reacted to the sonic change, why they changed things up, memories of previous trips Down Under and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

28 Nov 202214min

Electric Callboy are a band like no other.By blending modern trap with alt rock, pop punk and many other genres, the German entertainment machine transcend musical barriers in a way that allows them to appeal to a broad spectrum of music lovers.The band will make their first visit to Australia this weekend as part of the Good Things Festival, which starts in Melbourne on December 2 before hitting Sydney on December 3 and Brisbane on December 4.Celebrated for the energetic live performances, Electric Callboy are champing at the bit to give Australian crowds their first taste of the band, with vocalist/keyboard player Kevin Ratajczak sitting down with HEAVY to prepare us for their run of shows."We've been around for more than ten years now," he began, "and we've travelled to so many countries but we've never been to Australia and it has always been on our bucket list. From the stories we know about Australia the people are nice and laid back and relaxed totally matches our lifestyle so we can't wait. We've already got many messages on social media and everyone is very excited. This makes us even more excited so let's go!"Electric Callboy are no strangers to playing the festival circuit, having appeared on most of the worlds biggest concert events, so we press Kevin as to whether the thought of playing a new festival still excites the band."Absolutely," he stressed. "Festivals are always a different situation. You can play your own headlining shows or support shows but festivals are so many people coming together that are not coming out for you in particular, so I love to be in other countries and having people in front of the stage that haven't heard about us before. Or they have heard of us and just wanted to check out those crazy guys from the internet (laughs). Either way I love festivals, and to be in Australia... come on. Leaving the cold Germany in winter and arriving in Australia in summer at the beach... there is nothing better."In the full interview, Kevin talks more about what to expect from an Electric Callboy show, who he is most looking forward to sharing a stage with, their blending of styles and how it works, the band's universal appeal and the benefits of that, keeping the flow of a set list with so many moving musical parts, their latest album TEKKNO and how it was received, the early days of Electric Callboy and where they fit in, side shows in Australia and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

28 Nov 202212min

It's not often a band can lay claim to having an entire musical movement named in their honour, but that's precisely what was bestowed on UK rock outfit Ride early in their career.When British press dubbed the band "shoegazers" for their shy disposition and head down, focused concentration on their guitar pedals when playing live little did they know the term would become synonymous the world over with the style of music performed by Ride.To this day shoegaze is a recognised genre, and one which might not have been birthed had it not been for the unassuming quartet.When Ride debuted their album Nowhere in 1990 they unleashed a musical monster which has resonated with fans around the globe ever since.It is widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of the shoegaze genre, spawning the track Vapour Trail which is now considered the blueprint for the man made genre.Now, some 30 years later, Ride are taking to the road to re-introduce fans to the album that started it all, with an Australian run of shows scheduled to commence on November 29 in Adelaide.Drummer Laurence Colbert sat down with HEAVY to talk about the tour and 30 years of Nowhere."Luckily we were pretty young when we recorded it (Nowhere)," he laughed when reminded that anniversaries such as this remind us of just how old we are. "so the thirty years doesn't weigh quite so heavily, but it's always a bit of a shock when that number comes up. Thirty years, my goodness (laughs)."Although Ride will be playing Nowhere in its entirety as part of the celebrations, we also press Colbert on what else fans can expect."You're gonna get a very energetic, lively and truthful, authentic rendering of that album," he affirmed. "The album was recorded basically live in the studio, before the days of digital editing etc, etc. The band were very new and very young. It was our first album. So we weren't really doing many clever studio techniques or anything. We just went in and played it. And that's what you're gonna get live, with the exception of lots of experience and lots of practice (laughs). We're getting good at doing these songs, so I think you're going to get a real exciting, live, electric version of it."Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

28 Nov 202213min

For just over 20 years American hard rock/metal outfit Fozzy have been riding a gradual wave of success.After starting life as a cover band in 1999, Fozzy released two albums mainly comprising other band's material before deciding to release an album showcasing their own orginals with All That Remains in 2005.That album spawned the singles It's A Lie, Enemy, Born Of Anger and The Test, in the process establishing Fozzy as a band to look out for in their own right.Chasing The Grail followed but it was with 2019's Sin and Bones that the Fozzy train started gathering steam.Do You Wanna Start A War (2014) preceded 2017's Judas which saw Fozzy break free from their shackles and hit the stratosphere of metal.This was helped in no small part by the titular single, which became frontman Chris Jericho's entrance theme song for his highly successful wrestling career and introduced Fozzy and their music to legions of fans that have remained strong ever since.Now, following the sustained success of this years album Boombox, Fozzy are set to hit Australian shores for a series of shows with good buddies Buckcherry, starting in Brisbane on Wednesday, November 30.HEAVY caught up with Fozzy's guitarist and founding member Rich Ward for the lowdown."I'm so excited to be coming over to Australia for a big tour," he beamed. "I'll be looking forward to seeing all of you guys at the gigs and playing some crushing riffs and having some fun. It's been since 2018, so it's exciting to get back on that plane again and come and visit my friends."We press Ward on what to expect from the shows."Big set and travelling with our friends in Buckcherry, which is fantastic," he smiled. "We've toured with them previously and built a great kinship and brotherhood with those guys, so riding down the road with them is gonna be a lot of fun. It's gonna be a double treat for the audience because I think both bands feel like they belong on the same bill, but we are very different in other ways as well. Buckcherry is much more rooted in classic rock n roll, where we're kind of rooted in classic heavy metal. Still living under the same big tent, but it's gonna be fun. The same ice cream, just a little different flavours. It's gonna be a fun gig. It's always fun when you get to see friends of yours again on the road and I've got so many friends from Australia that I look forward to seeing every time we're over. I love the culture. I love the climate. It's exciting. I'm an American, so every time I get to travel and tour I feel like a bit of a tourist too. I try to find a great coffee shop and a nice meal and soak up some of the local flavours."In the full interview, Rich talks more about what to expect from the shows, what's different about Fozzy and their stage show since their last visit in 2018, their relationship with Buckcherry, the early days of Fozzy and how they grew from a covers band to playing their own material, having a well known wrestler in the band, the reception to Boombox, the gradual ascension of Fozzy as a band, his status as a guitar player and more.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/heavy-music-interviews--2687660/support.

28 Nov 202220min