Project Description
Interview
With
GRAVEMIND
Interviewer: Vicky Hebbs
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Death metal band Gravemind playfully describe their music as “kind of like a slap in the jaw, followed by a long and uncomfortable silence” and cite influences like Tool and Rage Against the Machine and The Devil Wears Prada. Intrigued? Read the interview and then go give them a listen!
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How did you all meet and decide to start producing music?
Myself and Damon went to the same college in Tasmania, and we bonded over our mutual love for The Devil Wears Prada. I met Aden when he came into my old job at a music store in town, and he used to check out Periphery CD’s right next to me at the counter. I figured he djented, so I asked if he wanted to join our band at the time. This was in 2013. We’ve been playing in bands ever since. Mick is a decade long friend, and Karl is just an all round legend. Together we make the Gravy Boys™
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How would you describe your sound to anyone who has not heard your music yet?
Kind of like a slap in the jaw, followed by a long and uncomfortable silence, complete with strong eye contact and the smell of burning incense. Comparatively? Maybe Northlane meets Thy Art Is Murder?
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You began making music and touring as a band in 2015. Do you think in three years there has been much change or growth on the Australian independent metal scene?
I think a lot of bands in our scene are getting more and more competent on doing things on their own, without the need for management or labels at a local level. As one of us succeeds at something, we generally tend to share our methods.
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Is there a certain outcome or effect you hope your music has on your listeners? What would you hope your music legacy to be?
We’ve yet to carve our ‘music LEGACY’, but we’d hope that our listeners feel like they can be their true selves when they listen, and explore what that means to them. If our music can poke at certain parts of you that make you feel uneasy, and you trust us enough to not squander that privilege, we hope our listeners can gain a new perspective.
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Most of your songs seem to have an epic story or background narrative. Can you share the inspiration or origins behind your latest release, Lifelike?
Lifelike is the first release with no real background narrative, it’s just personal. We love doing narratives, and we’ve done that for the past three releases. For Lifelike we wanted to do something no one expected, and take risks. Those risks have paid off. Luckily we’ve got some great fans that have so far been very open to the idea of us trying new things.
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Who are your musical influences? Are they all metal or are you inspired by different genres?
For each of us, it’s quite different. For Damon, who writes all of the instrumentals, from my perspective, the influences that shape Damon’s writing for Gravemind would be August Burns Red, The Devil Wears Prada, Rings of Saturn perhaps. He listens to all sorts though, I know he’s a big Stone Age fan, and all of the boys in Gravemind fuck with JT pretty hard.
I take a lot of inspiration thematically from Tool, a lot of my passion for music stems from Rage Against The Machine and these days I get a lot of inspiration for our fellow Aussies that have carved a name for themselves, Thy Art, Northlane, Karnivool.
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If you could bring anyone onstage to play with you, who would it be? (Alive or dead)
Freddie Mercury.
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How does a live show compare to making music in the studio? Do you prefer performing or are both just unique experiences?
In the studio you have a lot of control over how your music is perceived by your audience. You can generally work out the feel of it, and every time you listen it more or less puts out the same vibe. Live is a whole different kettle of fish. It completely changes the meaning of the music based on so many different factors. Whether we feel like being jovial, ominous, energetic on stage. Sometimes it just comes down to the smell in the air. It’s hard to say which I prefer. I love the control from the studio, but in general, I love when you go to see a band live, and you haven’t quite dug their music on record, and then it totally puts into perspective what the artist is going for and you subsequently dig the record.
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Where do you see yourselves or hope to be in your musical career in a year or two? Are you planning to release an EP or album at some point in the near future?
We’re working hard on an album at the moment. The only realistic plan we have at this point is to become an overnight success and tour the world with Slipknot.
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Do you prefer playing festival shows or gigs at smaller venues? Or is there a unique appeal to both?
We’ve played some pretty small festivals in the past, and they’re great because they really push you. You have to be on your A game, because a lot of the audience probably hasn’t listened to a single one of your tracks. Small gigs are fantastic, especially if they’re a headline show and you know the people there are there to see you, so you can really do your absolute worst to them. Crack open the skull, and scoop out the insides.
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