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Photo – Sam Tan

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Interview with
ROHAN STEVENSON
from
I BUILT THE SKY

(27th May 2022)

Interview with Dave Bruce

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Photo – Elgin Huang Jiale

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‘Nothing Short of Spectacular’ – HEAVY MAG

‘The kids’ a natural’ – Drew Goddard, Karnivool

‘Some of the best guitar work ive ever seen’ – Belwood Music

‘Fantastic guitar playing with some very finely tuned song writing skills’ – Josh Smith, Northlane

‘File it alongside some of the great instrumental rock/metal records of our time’ – Heavy Music Magazine

‘Everything you need in an instrumental song – slippery riffs and big feels!’ – Plini

‘Steve Vai levels of guitar trickery’  – Overdrive Music Magazine

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Photo – Robert McCoy

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Have you always wanted to be a musician? When did you get the song writing bug?
Yes, ever since I was about 12 years old I wanted to be in a band and tour, since learning my first few chords from that age I got interested in making different progressions and ideas for my original bands of the time. We wrote some bangers back then (not really).

How would you describe your sound? Why do you think people resonate with your music?
It’s essentially instrumental progressive metal, I think there are 2 main types of listeners for my music, other guitarists/musicians or admirers of instrumental music.
There’s lots for musicians to bite off in the music and the riffs tend to be a lot of fun to play, that is the reason I write them the way I do, its fun, challenging and bit unique. For non musicians, there’s a lot of different moods throughout and I think people connect with that, the music can be useful for studying, driving and occasions where you prefer music without words.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today?
I keep coming back to the classics, I am obsessed with bands I grew up on like the Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, Blink 182, Saves The Day, Elliott Smith and on and on. I love hearing music from my past and reflecting on where I was when I first discovered the music. Listening to these earlier artists very often gives me motivation to create.

Your new Album ‘The Quiet Place Away’ will soon be released! Describe its origin and evolution.
My first experiences with music and guitar was through the acoustic guitar, ever since I started i’ve loved the sound and the idea of it being quite organic and natural, with very little manipulation of its original tone. I’ve released several albums and always seem to wind up having an acoustic track in the mix, somewhere along the way I thought I should dedicate the time to making a fully fledged album or EP. Lockdown helped to facilitate the time it required to write and finish and the whole experience was very engaging and enlightening. 

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Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
YES, I am planning on bringing my new album to the stage, starting with my album launch show at Northcote Social Club on June 24th. Now that I have so much material I have a lot of options when performing. I hope to bring a good mix of acoustic and metal songs to my shows from now on. More shows to be announced soon.

How has COVID affected you to date? What have you introduced to balance the losses from missed events?
When something has such a dramatic effect on your career and the world, its a pretty scary thing to face up against. My only way forward was to basically except it and focus on the things I can control, so while being stuck at home was definitely rough, I tried to be productive and write music and keep busy with my creative side. Now that we are seeing the other side of things, I have new music and a new found love for the stage.

If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why?
I’d love to perform with Dave Grohl, I think we would come up with some pretty awesome tunes together.

Do you have any long-term aspirations as a music artist?
Oh 100%, I am not going back to a real job that is for sure, i’m in this for life. No plan B’s here.

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What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
Best thing about performing live is being able to have the time of your life with your friends on stage, and have those interactions with the audience from stage or off stage in which it is evident that you play a big role in their life through your music. I’ve had moments in different countries where people have told me in person that I have helped them through a difficult time and made a real difference to their life, there is something really special about that.
Career highlight would have to be crowd surfing in Madrid while playing the final riff in the set and it somehow working out with no incidents.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Sunk Loto ‘Between Birth and Death’
Artist – Elliott Smith
Movie – Signs
Place to visit – Rosebud, Victoria
Venue to play – Max Watts
Food – Chocolate
Drink – A cup of tea, white, no sugar
Person in History –  Jimi Hendrix
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?)  I have no tattoo’s or piercings at this point in time, I kinda want to have a sleeve full of musical related pieces but this is a big reason why I have none, I cant decide.

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About the Sound:

Love prog but bored of the norm? come and visit ‘The Quiet Place Away’ and experience something new innovative and oh-so satisfying.

The album features gorgeous string arrangements throughout, curtesy of Jake Willson (UK), Piano/Keys/Synth’s performed by Australia’s own Ian Peres (Wolfmother, Ash Grunwald, Xavier Rudd) production, mixing and mastering by none other than Forrester Savell who has worked with the best in prog/rock and metal worldwide (Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus, Animals As Leaders, Twelve Foot Ninja and more) all lead by Rohan’s exceptional guitar lead compositions.

From the delicate to the dense, the album has it all. Some standout tracks being ‘The Quiet Place Away’ which kicks off the album, a definite mood setter from the get-go, lush strings engulfing Rohan’s smooth guitar textures that provide a very chilled out and satisfying ride.

Moving through the album, the next notable track is also the first single called ‘Let Yourself Dream’ which showcases some of Rohan’s more intricate guitar playing with a gorgeous video clip to go with it in which Rohan claims “Was a dream I actually had, so I thought I’d re-create it for the video”.

As we continue on the songs become more elaborate and begin to really push the boundaries of acoustic music, feeling more like… Progressive Acoustic? is that a thing?? we don’t know but it should be. ‘The Visitor’ encapsulates this perfectly starting out very chill, but soon blooms with the most glorious of harmonics that just wash across you, the song continues to build and grow reaching some really unexpected harmonic lines, ear catching piano licks, and strings that feature the most pleasing of arrangements, all in all a strong feature from the release.

‘This Is Astral Travel’ introduces some 5/4 time signature goodness but in the most hookiest of ways, this is going to be one of the tracks that won’t leave your head after hearing it, the way the song kicks in is glorious a proper musical journey to escape into. ‘Time Travel Experience’ starts of quite sweetly with a nice melodic riff which leads into some more odd time fun and melodic layering and interesting chord progressions, this song is very dynamic from subtle to absolutely huge, weird to say that for an acoustic song, but listen through for the pay off when ‘that bit’ at the 2:30 mark kicks in, almost haunting in nature. The last track ‘See You Next Time’ leaves us with a more stripped back track and an uplifting mood to end on after such a wild journey from previous tracks. A great finish that proves adding all the bells and whistles is not always needed to produce a great song worthy of a place on the album.

About the Art:

The artwork is also a large reason why we can see that Rohan ain’t playin so to speak, commissioning artist Pat Fox who has worked with such high-profile artists including Tash Sultana, Northlane, The Amity Affliction, Taking Back Sunday and many more, to literally create ‘The Quiet Place Away’ Pat loves to work with real world concepts, so after discussions took place about artwork direction for the album, the decision was made to create and bring to life ‘The Quiet Place Away’.

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Photo – Sam Tan

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Follow I BUILT THE SKY
Instagram – Facebook – Youtube – Cameo
Spotify – Patreon – Email – Website

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Photo – Sam Tan

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Press Release May 2022 (below) HERE

I BUILT THE SKY
announces brand new
studio album
‘THE QUIET PLACE AWAY’

+ Launch show at
NORTHCOTE SOCIAL CLUB
on June 24th

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AMNPLIFY – DB