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Interview with
SIMON AISTROPE
(Guitar)
from
ALT.

(30th May 2023)

Interview with Dave Bruce

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How did the band come together? Is there someone who is a “driving force”, or do you all make decisions together?
The band has actually been around for some time, we were under a different name for a years until Dan (vocalist) was the only original member left. From there we wanted to go into a different direction and really make something our own, and alt. formed from there in late 2019. Everyone actually has their own entirely different roles in this band, it works quite nicely, but ultimately we make all decisions together.

How would you describe your sound? Why do you think fans resonate with your music?
Our sound is quite unique I’d like to think, we take influence from a huge range of different styles and artists, anything from heavy metal to synth pop, and, in the end I think that’s why a wide range of people are able to resonate with it at least sonically – there is a little bit of everything in there for everyone, we absolutely don’t tie ourselves to any genre. Lyrically, our songs can be quite in depth also (credit to Dan), and of course that will also be something many can resonate with in their own way.

Which artist’s music and/or performance, past or present, inspires you today? 
For me personally, I don’t think its any specific artist or performance, more so buts and pieces of experiences from multiple artists etc. For example a day at Soundwave festival, where you’re seeing all your favourite bands in the same place, there to serve the same purpose and seeing/feeling how everyone around you is feeling in those spaces, has always been something that inspired me to make music and become a part of that concept. It is something that cannot be emulated by anything other than live music.

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Your new album ABEYANCE is about to be released! Describe its origin and evolution. 
Abeyance originally started out as an EP for us, nearly two years ago now. We had a few writing sessions with some favourite artists of ours (Landon Tewers and Marcus Bridge) and it started from there with 2 or 3 songs. After those songs we kind of had a direction for what the rest were going to sound like and it went from there. The band started to grow a bit and the advice we were given was just make it an album, we wrote 3 more songs and that’s it! The theme of the album came together once we had written two of the main singles, it became obvious that there was two sides to this and Dan ventured into that quite a bit.

What are the signature tracks, and which is your favorite to play live?
The first single Wraith was quite different for us, there is a few other tracks on the album that could be called genre-bending in the same way. APEP is our first ever track with a vocal feature (Jack Berlin, Void Of Vision) which was really cool. Another stand out song for me is A.D.D, I just resonate with it so much and it’s probably my favourite song to play live, so far..

Any tours or events coming up soon? What are you looking forward to, and what can the fans expect?
We are just about to head to New Zealand for the first time ever with Thornhill, we are super excited for it! Once we get back from there, we head around Australia with Windwaker and Caskets (UK), which is shaping up to be an awesome tour, playing some new venues and cities for the first time! There is a few more things in the works for the rest of the year, but expect us to be playing as much as possible and upping our live show every time!

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If you could perform with any music artist, Alive or Dead, who would you choose? And why? 
They’re still a band, but Linkin Park with Chester Bennington would have been an absolute dream. What an inspiration to not only us, but millions. I think we’d all love to play a show with BMTH also, they were heroes of ours, and their approach to writing and doing whatever the heck they want is un-matched.

What are your long-term aspirations as a music artist and how are you progressing towards them?
A big goal of ours has always been to have music take us overseas, and be the reason we get to see other countries and cultures, I feel like that would be such a satisfying achievement. We are heading to NZ as mentioned earlier so we’re at step 1!

With that in mind, what piece of advice would you give to an artist starting out? 
I think the one piece of advise is to make everything as professional and as engaging as possible from the get go, you have to make every move with the idea of capturing new fans in mind, aka give people something to latch on to. Make sure you put maximum effort into your music videos and go all out with the production of your songs and content and the growth will follow.

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What is the best thing about performing to a live audience? What’s been the career highlight so far?
The best thing is definitely looking out into the crowd and seeing how people are connecting with your music, it reminds you of how you feel in those moments seeing bands yourself and its extremely satisfying. Someone could be having the worst day ever, but if they are connecting with music at a show, it could be a big release for them. A highlight for me was touring with Northlane, Sleep Token and Plini, it was our first ‘big’ tour and very inspiring for all of us.

Finally, a few questions for some quick answers –
FAVOURITE:
Album – Hollow Crown by Architects.
Artist – Sleep Token, at the moment. Otherwise, Nirvana.
Movie – The pick of destiny? I don’t watch many movies.
Place to visit – Bangkok, Thailand.
Venue to play – Thebarton Theatre or The Triffid.
Food – CHICKEN SCHNITZEL!!
Drink – Monster Pipeline Punch or Grape Powerade.
Person in History – Kurt Cobain or Jimi Hendrix
Tattoo – (If you don’t have one, what would you get?)  The eagle on my arm, its a nod to my dad who has a small one on the same arm. Or the home job chicken on my leg that looks like Big Bird haha.

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NEW ALBUM ABEYANCE OUT FRIDAY 16 JUNE

ABEYANCE
Track Listing:

01. PARASITE
02. WRAITH
03. THE GREAT DEPRESSION
04. A.D.D
05. BACK TO EARTH
06. APEP FEAT. JACK BERGIN
07. FRIENDINTHEDARK
08. THE ONLY GOOD THING
09. ABEYANCE
10. BETTER OFF LEAVING

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Photo Credit: Neason McGuiness

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Follow ALT.
Facebook – Instagram – Spotify

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ALT.
Upcoming 2023 Shows

Supporting WINDWAKER
Australian Tour 2023

FRIDAY 21 JULY – JIVE BAR, ADELAIDE
SATURDAY 22 JULY – MAX WATTS, MELBOURNE
THURSDAY 27 JULY – THE BRIGHTSIDE, BRISBANE
FRIDAY 28 JULY – HAMILTON STATION HOTEL, NEWCASTLE
SATURDAY 29 JULY – CROWBAR, SYDNEY

Tickets from destroyalllines.com

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AMNPLIFY – DB