Interview: Brutal Harmony

Brutal Harmony
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What is the story behind your band?

The vision behind Brutal Harmony is to bring our brand of  raw metal music set to a storyline that is dark and twisted with classic horror themes.

Brutal Harmony was started as a side project. How do you split your time between your different projects?

Well, in the beginning of the project, we were just playing around with the idea of  what we thought would be different and fun at the same time. So Brutal Harmony was created as a side project to a couple of other more serious bands that we were playing and touring with. As the writing continued, we realized this was more exciting and in many ways  better than what we were already doing in the other bands. So as of February of 2016, Brutal Harmony is our sole project, and we invest 100% of our time and effort into BH.

How would you describe your sound?

Dark, Melodic, and Soulful Metal.

 Do you really live up to the “brutal” aspect of your band name?

We believe the music and our live stage  show will live up to our name. The songs, videos, and the stage show to come with share the story of the Brutal Harmony. We have a story board for the BH band member characters that will play out in our up-coming shows and videos.

The whole mask thing has been done before by bands like Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Gwar etc… How does your overall image affect your band?

Our mask represent those with no name, no spirit, or humanity. The masked characters are known as  The Unity Of Fate.

Who are your key influences?

I would have to say various classic metal bands such as Slayer, Anthrax,  Black Sabbath and many, many others.

What are some key themes and messages that you cover with your music?

Classic Horror Movies , Unrest, and the balance between good and evil.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

We would say, all of the above [laughs].  Vinyl most certainly feels warmer and in our opinion, is the best format.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

Our single “FEAR”. It has all the elements that makes Brutal Harmony what we are.

Tell me about Sonic Outlaw Records. I can’t find much information about them online.

Sonic Outlaw Records is a new independent metal record label set to launch with Brutal Harmony in June 2016. The label is licensed and registered and geared up to roll out and sign a couple more artist before the end of 2016.  The label is owned and financed by a group of private investor’s. There will be much to see later this summer.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

Honestly, we feel our greatest achievement is doing what we love to do as much as we get to do it. Not everyone has that ability and we’ve seen so many great musicians quit music over the years, not because they want to but because life, family, jobs wouldn’t allow for it. The fact that we have all always found a way to overcome those hurdles we think is our greatest achievement so far.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

Slipknot is one of our very favorites but there’s just so many great bands out there these days it’s hard to narrow that down. Be easier to say who we would not collaborate with probably…….

What plans do you have for the near future?

We are still in the process of booking the rest of this year out but so far we have some great shows coming up. Main priority for this year is to finish the album to follow up the single release of Fear. Once that is done we will be hitting the road a lot harder.

Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.

The song “flying purple people eater” is reeaallyy hard to get out of your head once it gets in there…….


Brutal Harmony:    Facebook    Website    Twitter    Youtube

 

EP Review: Gregory Tan – Far And Away

Novacrow Far And Away
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Gregory Tan is a Singaporean composer living in Melbourne, Australia. As well as working as an in-demand sessions player, he composes for a music licensing site that supplies music for many commercial ventures, from HBO television shows to fast food ads to Disney films. So I guess that it’s fair to say that Tan knows a fair bit about instrumental music.

And so he should. He’s completed the ABRSM Violin Syllabus, and recently obtained a certificate of Specialisation from Berklee College in Blues, Classic Rock and Jazz guitar.

Tan is no slob, having studied music at high levels, and writing music for his profession. His recent EP, Far And Away, features four beautifully crafted instrumental tracks.

Far and Away sounds more deliberate than many other post-rock releases, with every song capped around the four minute mark. Often post-rock suffers from being too drawn out, with long slow build ups being broken by clichéd crescendos. The four songs, each starting with “A”, are meant to evoke a sense of wandering and escapism without resorting to the same old stale trends we associated with post-rock.

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“Afterthought” commences with deliberate drumming that lay the path for some wondrously uplifting sleepmakeswaves-esque  guitar riffs. The layers build up joyous harmonies that add life to the rigid drums. The mood lifts and wanes dynamically, never quite staying still long enough to be predictable.

The reverberating chords in “Avalon” set a light ephemeral feel, with the percussive bright cymbals, snare rolls and tom toms providing the skeleton. The song races and explodes with energy at times.

“Atlas of Dreams” sounds somewhat unsettling, with frantic shrill strings chiming in, although lovely tone. Tan shared with me that “Far And Away was created with the intention of combining dissonant melodies with progressive arrangements to evoke a sort of atmospheric tension”, and you can hear that combination of beauty and danger evident here.

The most cinematic sounding track is “Autumn Crossing”, with swelling pads and a galloping tribal beat. As it picks up there is a definite Dorena feel, and I can picture sprites leaping about in the wilderness, although there is an underlying ominous presence as well, with dark simmering china cymbals and a forlorn violin being played in the background.

At first listen, Tan’s previous release, Ostinato, was about as literal as the term modern-classical could denote. The compositions were clearly written as a form of homage to the classical greats, but with in-your-face tones played on electric instruments. By comparison, Far and Away is more subtle, and less rooted in classical style, with more modern post-rock leanings.

By using his diverse compositional knowledge and combining old and new instrumental styles, Tan has created an EP that takes the listener on an exciting journey that seems familiar, but takes constant unexpected turns.


Far And Away can be found on here

Links

 Joseph James

 

Live Review: Drax Project at San Fran, Wellington

drax project ep release tour
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Drax Project

San Fran, Wellington

Friday 20 May 2016

Drax Project (the word drax being made by combining the words drums and sax) is the latest up-and-coming band from Wellington. They formed when some students from the School of Music began busking and playing covers in town on busy nights to earn a bit of coin. After gaining some attention they started playing the pub circuit and writing their own material. In 2014 they  dropped their debut EP, and armed with some new original material, started making more waves.

This rise from a busking covers act to bonafide band has culminated with them signing to Universal to release second EP, T/W/OO.  They have a hybrid sound drawing from many other genres to create smooth soulful pop tunes.

This gig at San Fran was indicative of their seemingly sudden rise in fame. In some ways it was fairly professional – this was the only time I’d ever seen a curtain used to cover the stage between sets at this venue, and they had images projected on the back of stage throughout the night – but fell short telling in other ways – namely the sound levels. This is not a reflection on the band, but rather people manning the sound desk.

Volume and sound mixing is hard to get right. I am not advocating for having it excessively loud (like at the Mogwai gig last year), and I always wear special earplugs at shows.  But the band needs to be loud enough to hear clearly. And I can understand that it isn’t always easy to perfect. I’ve seen Rise Against – one of my favourite bands – play four times at different venues, and their mix has been fairly bad every time.

The first set was surprisingly different. It’s not often that I’ll see a band that uses either cajon (a percussive box that the drummer sits on and slaps) or upright bass, let alone both. The four musos sat aligned at the front of stage, treating the crowd to a set of unplugged numbers. The distinctive pitter-patter of the drumsticks on the cajon, the rhythmic strumming of the two guitars, and the deep regular hum of the bass was crowned by the gorgeous vocal harmonies.  It’s just a shame that I could barely hear all of these elements together at any given time, seeing as everyone in the bar was having a conversation.

The second set fared better, possibly because the electric instruments were amplified more, meaning that we could hear more elements of the band. I’ll give them this – they can play! I guess that’s what you should expect from music students, but they really were impressive. I liked that the drums had trigger pads to bring in new sounds. But the best parts were when singer Shaan Singh ripped loose on saxophone between verses. The solo material was well received, obviously familiar to the audience, despite being so new. The audience sang along to the popular songs, prompting Singh to say “wow, you guys are louder than us!” The band also played plenty of covers to extend the set time, drawing from their wealth of experience playing these covers hundreds of times together back in their busking days. Two big hits that went down especially well were reimagined versions of Ginuwine’s “Pony”, and Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me A River”.

They have the talent, they have the songs, they have the popularity, and they have a big label backing them. This was a sold out show, and if they get their sound mixing sorted out I expect that they’ll sell out many more to come.

 

Joseph James

Interview: Novacrow

Novacrow
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Novacrow are a UK based hard rock band with a generous dose of zombies and sleaze added to the mix – think along the lines of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. They’ve just released debut EP Black Syrup, so I sent them some questions to learn more about the band.

What is the story behind your band?

Kitty: Seeing as the truth is pretty straightforward, in that Jonyx and I started making music together and we acquired Freddy and Torben for Novacrow purposes, here is an extravagant backstory.

Jonyx: Originally conceived on the planet of Sexlexis in the Andromeda system, we were sent to dominate Earth through the power of pelvic-thrustingly good music. Unfortunately Sexlexis became struck with the extremely erotic disease ‘Sexlexia’ and we were given the task of finding a cure, the fastest way to spread the word…Novacrow! (continuity errors in storyline may occur…)

Torben: …and then I joined

Where are you from, and what prompted you to start?

K: I have always loved playing in a band and I think the four of us were drawn together, because we all enjoy making lots of noise and embarrassing ourselves. Jonyx and I are from Wolverhampton, Torben is from Norfolk and Freddy is originally from Italy.

How would you describe your sound?

Freddy: A sextastic sonic force.

K: Fat juicy riffs, sleazy vocals and groin-grabbingly good choruses.

T: Top stuff.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

F: Our EP ‘Black Syrup’ is a must listen for anybody who enjoys being a person. I’d say ‘Fat Frog’ off it would give the best idea of what we’re about.

J: Black Syrup, it’s the tits!

T: I’d personally go for Fight the Horde, I consider it a stomping song.

Why kazoo? It’s definitely not a conventional instrument.

K: Kazoos are just hilarious. We first used one when we did a terrible cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Valentine’s gig. People loved it, so we thought it would be funny to add a bit of kazoo into all of our shows. We ended up recording it on the opening track of our EP, Fat Frog.

Torben, you appear to be the punk in a band of metalheads. Does this cause any conflict?

T: When I first joined I wanted to play everything much faster, but whilst punk is my favourite genre, I grew up on metal, owning every Opeth record and listening to them on repeat. Gojira were also big for me, and still are. But having said that, I wouldn’t say it has caused tension, at core we’re all just looking to have fun playing music we love.

Sadly, rock music is still male dominated. Do you find that you’re treated differently to other bands because you have a female singer?

K: It’s hard for me to be objective as (obviously), I’ve only ever been in bands with a female member, but I’d say that we are treated differently to an extent. ‘Female fronted’ is regularly treated like a genre, which is a bit strange, as we often find ourselves billed alongside a load of symphonic metal bands. To us, the fact that we have a female member isn’t an important part of Novacrow. I’ve had my fair share of derogatory comments, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of snide remarks to stop me from rocking my ass off.

It looks like you have a lot of fun playing on the zombie/horror theme. What are some more creative examples of where you have taken this theme?

K: We did a big cheesy B-movie music video for our single Fight The Horde!!! Which was super fun to film. We’ve used this in our live shows too, in one we used a giant screen to show clips creating a ‘storyline’ and had zombies coming on stage and out into the audience. At our EP launch we did zombie face painting too, so we had a whole crowd of the undead.

Between you all, the band covers recording, production, writing and art. Tell me about your DIY motives.

F: For us it pretty much came naturally, we all seem to fit together like a sort of jigsaw puzzle. John has the most experience in photo editing and designing, so he just took on the role of artwork designer. I’m a producer of my own accord outside the band, so I took command of recording, production, and video editing when needed. This leaves most of the artistic direction up to Kitty, so she’ll write most of the songs and we all chip in accordingly.

And then there’s Torben.

Paint me a picture of what I should expect to see at a typical Novacrow gig.

Kitty: Picture yourself at a dingy venue with a cheap pint of beer in one hand. Novacrow comes onstage and suddenly you are weak at the knees. Each member is dazzlingly attractive and unimaginably talented. Their music is so fantastic, you feel faint. Their stage banter is so hilarious, your sides actually split from laughter. The crowd around you are going wild, foaming at the mouth, tits everywhere. You fish out your wallet and you’re literally throwing handfuls of money at the band, they are just that good….

Kitty, I saw that in the list of books you read last year you covered a lot of classic literature and graphic novels, especially some dystopian texts. Talk me through some of your favourites. I know you have a degree in English Lit, so I’m expecting some good recommendations.

K: YES. Excellent question. There are so many incredible novels that everybody needs to read! Obvious choices include Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse 5 and any of Poe’s short stories.

My longtime favourite author is Stephen King. His first person narratives are unbeatable and I love his great sprawling fantasy epics. It, The Stand, The Dark Half and The Green Mile, are a few of my top choices.

In terms of a quirky recommendation, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, or Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I’ve also just finished the trilogy of 1Q84 novels, by Haruki Murakami, which were fantastically written.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

F: I mostly download my music, and when I buy CD’s I’ll import them to my laptop. I ain’t got the time to pick out a CD and put it in a CD player and shit, I just want it THERE!

Torben: MP3s or digital music, whenever I travel or walk I have music in. I have a vast collection of CDs which I listen to whenever I can, because I love having a hard-copy of the music I love most.

Tell us your best tour story.

F: We once played a biker club in the middle of Derbyshire and camped out on their fields. There was a HUGE slug that turned out to be just two regular slugs. There was also a lot of booze, some cooked chicken, a broken pump, and a giant fake plastic horse. And Showaddywaddy.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

K: The fact that we’ve somehow tricked people into believing that we’re a real band, rather than a group of attention seeking idiots. I’m super proud of the EP and the excellent feedback we’ve had from it.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

F: The almighty GWAR.

K: Wednesday 13, Rob Zombie, Skindred or Alestorm.

T: Murder Dolls or Green Jellÿ who were great fun to play with… anyone who’s up for fun and some heavy music basically.

What plans do you have for the near future?

K: Loads of gigs, working on new material and general badassery

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