Project Description

Interview with
ADRIAN GOLEBY
from
CALIGULA’S HORSE

Interviewer – Deb Kloeden

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New album ‘Rise Radiant’ is the 5th studio album for Caligula’s Horse and the first in 3 years. It’s been a quick 3 years.

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Can you tell me a little about it’s genesis? – influences, messages, growth as a band.
I think growth is the perfect word for it. When I think about the overall themes and how much we’ve kinda conceptualised towards all those themes. I think growth & development, your own sort of personal development are huge parts of all our lives right now. Josh, Sam & Jim are now all Dads. Sam having his first child, wrote most of this with his baby sitting on his knee which is CRAZY to think that he did all that, he produced this whole thing & arranged this whole thing with the needs of a child somehow still being met, so that’s pretty cool. Overall I think we’re trying to go for something a bit more mature, a bit more personal. It’s something we’ve talked about in the past. The singles when I think about it are not really a true indicator of the album.

That’s interesting. I’ll jump a question then.
The first single and opening track on the album is ‘Tempest’. It makes a grand entrance covering all the extremes of the album in one song.
Yeah it remains somehow palpable, it’s so crazy that when you listen to it, it’s accessible.

Does this song have a special meaning for you?
Perhaps not as much as some of the other tracks. This was a bit of a debate about what we were going to release for the first single. It seemed the most obvious sonic choice as a taste. But I’m always an advocate for the underdog. Why not ‘Resonate’, why not ‘Autumn’? Come on. Have people not grown up enough to know what is there? But it’s not the first thing I think of when I think what a crazy journey this has been.

The order of the songs on the album seems very considered. Was there a progressive plan to their placement on the album?
Yeah definitely. When you move into a new house or something like that and you’re putting your books in the bookcase for the first time since that last house, you kinda stop and consider, have I really covered all my bases, or what I want to do with the organisation of this and you start to concoct a plan for the books you haven’t quite got yet. There’s spaces on the shelf. That’s how we approached it. We had some songs that were written that were geared towards this idea of a departure from the concept album ‘In Contact’. When some of the songs had been written, we kinda knew where they would fit as an album, so I’m really glad you picked up on that. It’s amazing. I’m definitely an ex-shuffle man. I grew up just shuffling everything, but the older I got I realised that (order) is pretty important. Especially as being in Sam’s house and putting a piece of paper on the kitchen table and saying ‘well, we’ve got these things, and judging by the way those flow, we’re kinda missing some of these things that we haven’t spoken about’. Sometimes it’s that music theory side & sometimes it’s just the over arching feel.

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The second track ‘Slow Violence’ really interests me, both the lyrics and the music. The lyrics seem to have a religious influence & contain many biblical words. Is there a religious undercurrent in the band’s messages?
I don’t think so. It wasn’t the intention; it’s more a cultural reference more than anything. We’re been thinking about cultures that have been involved in strong elements of evangelical messages. Perhaps a bit more about hypocrisy in culture. Jim is the worst in the band at hiding meanings the more he develops through his craft of lyrics and the more that he’s pushed himself as well it’s something that we definitely came up against. What’s the story and what something actually means or what does he feel strongly about? What was interesting was seeing the comments on the video when it first came out. Someone from America saying ‘I used to like this band but now they’re dead’. Anti-religious sentiment. I don’t think I want to listen to it any more and I just went, damn that’s a pretty thin line of whether you accept something. It’s interesting. I think Jim was the only one of us who went to a private school or at least one with a Christian undercurrent. I should ask him. Maybe we should both ask him.

I may be biased, but I hear a King Crimson influence in the music with the discordant riffs and staccato beat. I’ve read that they are one of the band’s influences. Is this King Crimson familiarity intentional or coincidental?
I think most of the influences the band has had lately are more new metal based. I don’t know if I’ll get slapped for saying this. The King Crimson influence is interesting. I’m pretty late to the party with them, but I know Sam and Josh are pretty big fans. Recently I saw Primus, Les Claypool & John Lennon’s son, Lennon/Claypool’s ‘Delirium’. Have you heard of them? No I haven’t. Oh, they’re fantastic. If you want to know what it would sound like if John Lennon sang over Primus, then go nuts. But they covered some King Crimson stuff and it was unbelievable to watch.

Tell me about the lyric writing. It’s mainly Jim & Sam right?
Yeah, it’s far more manicured by those guys.

What comes first … the lyrics or a riff / melody?
I guess the earnest idea probably tends to come first so if it’s Sam sitting there, and going well, how am I thinking about music, what am I interested in, that is generally what comes first. And I know that he tends to prefer writing form first.  He will take an idea that excites him and then, how will I want to piece this whole idea together? He’s very picture oriented in that way but he’s not so biased in that ability that he doesn’t think of the tiny detail. So it will often come from a tiny seed of that. It will probably depend on how he’s feeling about it. He will often pass the buck to who ever, and Jim is usually right up for it. This is what he lives for, this is what he’s best at in his world. What pictures can I paint? This really excites him. And that usually ends up being a back and forth. The one exception on the album I guess would be ‘Resonate’, which Jim brought to the table more or less melodically intact. He can’t help himself. He’s so good at just writing things that just stab you in the heart.

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Tell me about the recording process. Do you have your own studio?
Oh that would be paradise wouldn’t it. We record at Studio Circuit, although a lot of what we do, because of this whole technology thing that happens around us can be done somewhat remotely. I recorded some demo guitars and stuff from my house. Sam does a large chunk of the process through inbox. When it comes to the studio part, we go to Studio Circuit, which is kinda of this little emerging hub on the Gold Coast where a lot of bands are recording at the moment. A lot of people are going there. Dead Letter Circus are the first ones that come to mind, but other bands such as Stranger and I don’t really know where to point my stick, but it’s a real place where there’s the perfect vibe, there’s the perfect studio owner who will just welcome you and help you when ever you need and that’s our main place. I definitely would probably keep going back there. I can imagine where days might be dead where bands in our sort of arena can’t really book a studio to write in as well. It’s like, is everything done, we’ve got the studio next weekend, hope you like your parts.

Do you record as a complete band or are individual recordings layered together?
That is a really good question, especially for what we do.  Because all of the drum parts, if we just think about drums being the most logistically annoying part to do. I don’t what drummers thinks about me calling it that but they can just deal with it. Part of the process that astounds me, not being an audio engineer sort of person, is the love and care that goes into Sam and Josh discussing, hey what is the right step in the song. There is so much love put into seven different snares being tried out, that soaks up a lot of time, so what we usually do is we record in the most efficient way possible after that. Sam and I off course share guitar parts but as far as guitar parts go, if it’s something that has Sam’s idiosyncrasy in it, which is the Caligula’s Horse sound, we’ll try massaging it into place. But if it’s something that is very Sam-centric, very bendy, then I like to think that his guitar parts are basically angrying out the sound. It’s just ridiculous how agile he is. My fingers don’t naturally perform that way. But when it comes to the layering and texturing, we’ll do those parts together. Bass, this is Dale’s first album. Dale was of course in Opus Of A Machine, and also went to university with Sam doing audio engineering, so he’s just excited to get in there and put some signature on it. He’s been craving that. Then we polish everything off with Jim’s parts, and through out that, Sam’s taking it home and he’s refining it and editing it and re-cueing it. The guy’s been a powerhouse through this whole project. It’s furnished by Sam’s intent.

Apparently there are two covers on this album as bonus tracks, which I haven’t heard – songs originally by Peter Gabriel & Split Enz. What drew you to covering these artists?
When we were in Mexico we had this discussion about which songs we were going to add as the bonus tracks. The guys were talking and saying well, these songs are really important to us culturally where we are in our growth. I didn’t grow up with any of that music so I don’t have a strong attachment to Peter Gabriel or Split Enz although I do kind of with Crowded House. It’s not like they’re part of my wheelhouse, but to the guys those songs are really seminal in their musical development. I’m a tiny bit younger than some of them. I really came into my flavour with Silverchair and stuff like that, so I missed some of that. It’s so strange. Now I’ve heard those covers more than I’ve heard the originals. My Peter Gabriel box was ticked by a different UK artist called Newton Faulkner, who basically as far as I’m concerned, shares the same voice box somehow.  He’s probably one of my favourite artists at the moment. I can’t get enough of his voice. Those choices do really represent where the other guys, the old guard as I should call them to their faces, where they are in their own development. In this album, you may have noticed this as well, there’s no ego to this heaviness, there’s no dick waving machismo going on, it’s just, hey this feels real good.

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How have you added the band’s personal touch to these songs?
I think Sam has a particular flavour for desinence and tension that he exercises whenever he possibly can. His way of adding colour is so addictive. I mean I was a fan of the band before joining the band, so I feel it from that level of, ‘hey that’s really exciting’. I like the way you’ve constructed these harmonies. That’s the way that he thinks. When it comes to arrangements, we see Sam as an amazing guitarist and producer, but arranger is the part that perhaps gets buried in the overall big picture. He’s not just filling that bookcase in that way, he’s building it too.

Rise Radiant is due for release on 22nd Will you be launching this album with a live stream, given that we can’t go to live gigs at the moment?
Actually we are working on some things for the same day that it comes out which is a total surprise as it’s not something that was in our original release plan.  It’s not anything live stream but it is concert intent for people who are missing out on the live experience right now.

The album art always interests me. Who is responsible for the artwork on this new album?
It’s not Connor Maguire who did the artwork for In Contact. But the album before that, Bloom, was Chris Mangos. Chris is from Brisbane and, name a band and he’s probably done something for them over the last couple of years. Chris did the artwork for this based on our very broad brief, which was quite simply national park ephemera, this national park looking thing. It represented these aspects of what we think the album should be represented by visually speaking. Chris, with his bazaar talent that he’s worked very hard for, he really did create something quite serene to look at.  

The deer in the mountain scene is a pretty peaceful scene. Does it reflect any of the messages or themes from the album?
Definitely. It represents the journey ahead, the big thing that you’re striving for. You’ve made it this far and you’ve conquered all the hills up to this point.

What is your favourite track?
I would definitely fluctuate. It goes between Salt and Resonate. Resonate is such a wild card in there that. It gives me an immense feeling of appreciation for some harmony and it’s a reprieve. It’s a breath of fresh air, it’s so necessary for me. I’m really feeling that one at the moment. I remember it was incomplete on my jogging playlist, which is how I like to digest demos, it’s half done. One day Sam and Jim got together and they just put it in the drop box and I’m going, wait guys, are you joking? This is beautiful. This is so great. Thanks. It’s so earnest from Jim. I like it when he’s able to tap into that side of his expertise.

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A little bit about you. Apart from being a talented guitarist, you also have an interest in photography & videography. Do you incorporate these talents in the band?
I’m basically the chief content creator for Caligula’s Horse, as well as pretty much every other prog band at the moment. I’m outside a stranger’s house because we’re filming a music video at the moment. I’ve done a film degree at JMC in Brisbane. I did leave early though. I didn’t finish the full bachelor because they said there was no future in music videos. So I thought ‘let’s do a hundred or so of those and see how that goes. Maybe they’re right’. But the thing that interests me is that I need visuals. I like music, but I like more when I can see it. I like when things move in time. I like when that intention is captured. When you see a band and you see them move, and you go ‘Oh, that makes so much more sense’. The perfect is example is Static-X. I got to see them in 2007 or something like that. I didn’t even like them at all, and then I saw them, and I went ‘Ahhh, of course it’s that. This is fantastic. Thank you for performing that act for me. I just wish I could capture that and bring that home with me. I kinda spiralled into that. I never grew up liking music film. This is going to blow your mind as a photographer, but I’ve never even shot on film. It’s not in my world, but my world has increasingly led me into animation and things like that. I’ve worked for Neblett Scaris, Twelve Foot Ninja, Voyager, and Butterfly Effect not long ago. I like to think that people trust me as a filter for their image. It’s quite empowering in that way.

Have any future tour dates been selected yet?
Whenever we’re allowed to I guess. I think we’re kinda on the precipice. Next year is looking to be the smartest option unless something comes up that shakes our world, but we’re pretty careful about this. We know we’re a pretty small piece in a global puzzle. If our new album makes people happy then that’s doing the job. It sucks that eight days from now we would be landing in the US and doing our first headline US tour which is a childhood dream for me. But what ever, I’d just rather people just be happy. We heard about this happening in February, start of March we were saying ‘OK, this doesn’t look great’, and the US had almost no cases but they’re kinda terrible in any emergency situation for no particular orange faced reason. But the climate that we’re in says just be patient and everything will go back to a medium that we can all work together on. The tour is for the audience and if the audience doesn’t feel safe, then what are we doing.

Is there anything else you would like to share about the new album?
I think I’ve crossed all the T’s and dotted all the I’s. I’m stoked and so glad I got to talk to you. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me.

Thank you Adrian, and good luck with the new album release.

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RISE RADIANT
TRACK LISTING:

01. The Tempest
02. Slow Violence
03. Salt
04. Resonate
05. Oceanrise
06. Valkyrie
07. Autumn
08. The Ascent

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Follow CALIGULA’S HORSE

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CALIGULA’S HORSE
launch
VALKYRIE
third single from new album
RISE RADIANT
out May 22

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Caligula’s Horse, hailing from Brisbane, Australia, a leading light in contemporary progressive metal worldwide, are set to release their fifth studio album, Rise Radiant, on May 22. Produced by the group’s Sam Vallen, and mixed by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Devin Townsend Project, Leprous), the record is their most focussed and potent artistic statement to date.

Recently, the band were pleased to launch, Valkyrie, the third single from Rise Radiant.

Drummer Josh Griffin comments: “Valkyrie is a song that’s very close to our hearts. Its themes of learning patience, ending the war inside ourselves, and celebrating the journey are more timely and appropriate than ever before. We all had an absolute blast putting this one together, particularly some of the fun interplay between us all and getting every last drop of groove out of it. We’re all incredibly proud of this track. Valkyrie encapsulates everything Rise Radiant represents. It’s vibrant and colourful, dark, groovy and heavy!”

Watch the video for Slow Violence, directed and produced by the band’s own Adrian Goleby & Dale Prinsse, here.

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The band previously launched the track The Tempest, which Guitar World described as a “time signature-shifting guitar masterclass”. Listen here.

Rise Radiant has already been receiving fantastic reviews, with Prog Magazine calling it “the best yet from Caligula’s Horse, a triumph of passion and performance.”

The band have also launched a new interview series that sees the band discussing the new album in-depth via video call. Watch the latest instalment, where they talk about Slow Violence, here:

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Guitarist Sam Vallen comments: “Rise Radiant is the album we’ve been working towards for almost a decade. It represents everything we love about Caligula’s Horse – the colour, the ferocity, the introspection, the extremes – all tied up together in a way we could never have managed until now. As a band, we’ve never felt tighter, more inspired, or more driven than in the creation of this record. We’re tremendously proud of Rise Radiant, and we can’t wait for you to hear it!”

Rise Radiant is an uncompromising exploration of the human experience dressed in vivid musical colour and virtuosic performances. It is an anthem for the regeneration of self-belief, an exploration of the themes of legacy, and a rallying cry for survival. Comprised of 8 tracks, Rise Radiant will be available as a limited CD Digipak, Gatefold 2LP + CD & as digital download. The formats also include 2 bonus tracks, covers of the Split Enz track Message To My Girl & Peter Gabriel’s Don’t Give Up, which also features a guest appearance by Lynsey Ward of Exploring Birdsong.

Pre-order RISE RADIANT HERE

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AMNPLIFY – DB