BRITTLE

Melbourne four-piece Brittle just released their second EP titled ‘The Owls’. With five catchy tracks including ‘Burn My Bridges’, this EP is sure to pave the path for these alternative rockers.

Alicia Bolton from Press Record had a quick chat to vocalist Ben Whiting about ‘The Owls’, their upcoming Australian tour and playing alongside Katy Perry!

First of all, I’m curious as to what Brittle means or what it stands for?

Brittle is just a name we came up with when we were seven years old and started playing together. It grew with us over the years. So yeah it has no real meaning, it was just spontaneous and seemed to stick after a while.

And how did you guys come together?

We were all childhood friends, and Billy the bass player is my cousin. We were all just playing for the same bands at the same time and kind of fell together. We met Geoff at high school and we were originally a three-piece band.

And you guys grew up in Ballina but moved to Melbourne to pursue your music?

Yeah we started off in Ballina (NSW) but moved to Melbourne because there’s only so much you can do in a small town like Ballina. We were playing at the same venues over and over and wanted to get out and explore the industry and you know, pick up our game. We moved two years ago and have been given a better crack at it and picked up management. So that’s worked out to be awesome.

For those who haven’t heard your music, how would you describe it and who’s influenced you over the years?

Well we’re a rock band. I hate relating to other bands and categorising our music and ourselves but we listen to all types of different music. We relate to various bands from The Academy Is all the way through to Nirvana. It really varies. We’re across and between there somewhere.

You guys have just recorded a new five-track EP titled "The Owls" which will be unleashed on June 14. What can fans expect from this?

Well it’s basically just five songs that show a snapshot of the band and where we’re at now. We wanted to go for a live raw sound and that’s what we achieved.

Is it similar style to your first EP ‘Chinese Whispers’ or have you taken a new direction?

You could say it’s a lot more organic, more real and a lot edgier. Yeah that’s the difference between this and the last, it’s organic.

You’ll be touring this EP around all Australian capital cities from June through to August. Where are you most looking forward to playing?

Well straight up I can say we’re most looking forward to playing in Byron Bay because it’s our hometown and we love it there. We’re also looking forward to playing in Brisbane because we haven’t been there for a while so that’ll be awesome.

What can fans expect from your live shows?

I guess since we’ve been together for so long, nine years, we’ve really worked on producing a tight show. That’s what we’ve got going on and it’s really exciting. So yeah, you can expect a really tight show.

Cool, we look forward to it.

Your producer Mark Opitz also worked with KISS, INXS and Cold Chisel. How was the experience of working with such a successful producer?

Yeah it was good. It was a massive learning curve for our band. He’s a really inspirational guy, not just with music but also with life in general as well. He really kicked our ass and helped us to develop a sound that we’re going for. I’m really happy with it.

I heard you guys played with Katy Perry…is that every dudes dream?

Hahaha yeah, that was a bit different. It was cool. The fans were not our average fan base but we still had a really good time and it was cool.

What’s behind the name of your new EP The Owls?

Originally we chose owls because of the artwork we wanted to create for this EP. I’m a massive artwork fan and good art relates to the sound. We thought owls would be awesome to play with artistically. Then there’s also the tie in that bands are like owls. We come out at night and do our thing just like an owl. I’m actually in the studio at the moment and have no voice ha-ha.

Which musicians inspired you to want to create music, and were you always interested in alternative rock?

Well our family inspired us because they’re really musical. We grew up listening to The Police and even reggae music so we never just wanted to play one specific style. We love jamming and basically we just love music.

I guess we started playing when the pop punk rock scene was really big and that’s what we were doing at the time. When we were 13 years old, Blink 182, Sum 41 and all those types of bands were our idols and that’s what drove our band.

Do you plan on going overseas anytime soon, and if not then where would you like to tour?

Yeah we’re planning a trip to America in March next year. We want to tour over there and record, as well as meet up with American musicians and gain experience. That’s our goal.

Do you have any festivals lined up over there or are you just going to tour and play gigs?

Yeah we have a few bands to tour with. I think first we’ll go to LA, because that’s where it’s all happening. Then we’ll jump on tours with American bands as much as we can. We want to go to New York and everywhere really.

What are you plans, dreams and hopes for Brittle in the future?

We just want to keep recording and playing music, build a fan base, all that sort of thing you know. We’re not in it for the fame, we just want people to respect our music.

Yeah that sounds great. On a final note….Do you have anything else you’d like your fans to know?

Make sure they come see us on tour!!!

Cool, thanks for your time Ben!

No problem Alicia, speak to you soon.

To check out the new EP and find tour dates in your area, head to www.brittlerock.com

WINTER AT THE HIFI

If you’re into loud music, a great venue and plenty of quirky little bars to drink yourself silly after the gig then look no further than West End’s The Hifi Bar (Brisbane).

In June the Hifi continues to boast many awesome local and international shows including American bandSTRUNG OUT (18+), indie garage rock band BRITISH INDIA (18+), DAPPLED CITIES (18+) andDEEZ NUTS (AA and 18+ shows).

Also, check out Press Record’s interview with Deez Nuts front man JJ Peters.

July does not fall short of June as the HIFI hosts THE YOUNG BLOODS TOUR feat. THE AMITY AFFLICTION (AA and 18+). Following this OPERATOR PLEASE (18+) are set to perform their much anticipated sophomore album ‘Gloves’ then explosive 10-piece bandMISTA SAVONA (18+) will warn the nation (pun intended)…and that’s only the first half of the month!

In the second half of July THIRSTY MERC (18+), USA punk rockers BOYS LIKE GIRLS (AA and 18+) and San Francisco duo OM (18+) take the stage, followed by Melbourne psych rockers BLACK CAB (18+) and up-and-coming Brisbane disco punkers TIN CAN RADIO(18+).

Metalheads prepare yourselves!! August at the Hifi is metal mayhem with the DAMNATION TOUR featuring TESTAMENT (USA) (18+) kicking off followed by American post hardcore quintet SENSES FAIL (USA) (18+) who will take the stage with bounds of kinetic energy, then alternative metal band CKY (USA) (18+) are sure to impress.

Indie band the MIDNIGHT JUGGERNAUTS (18+) will put on a psychedelic show at the end of August, followed by Christian glam metal rockers STRYPER (USA) (18+) who will finish the month off in style.

For tour dates, a truckload of fantastic support bands and other great shows coming your way go to www.thehifi.com.au. Create an account at the Hifi website to purchase tickets, receive email updates on all your favourite bands and win great giveaways.

Melbourne Hifi gigs can be found on the same site.


FOR MORE MUSIC NEWS HEAD TO WWW.PRESSRECORDONLINE.COM

Rolo Tomassi

ROLO TOMASSI

Eva Spence is one cool chick. After breaking into the hardcore scene with ‘mathcore driven synth’ tracks, she’s kicked sexist remarks to the curb and proved that chicks can scream. On the verge of releasing her new album ‘Cosmology’, Press Record’s Alicia Bolton had a chat to Eva, the gorgeous UK vocalist of Rolo Tomassi.

So what’s going on in the world of Eva Spence right now?

At the moment I’m relaxing in my bedroom at home. We just finished touring the UK last week so I’ve had a couple of days to recharge my batteries and enjoy a bit of time on my own.

How did Rolo Tomassi come together?

Well we’ve all known each other since we were about five or six years old and we went through school together. When we hit secondary school we all started getting into different kinds of music and started developing a more concentrated musical taste and since we were all friends we were getting into the same music at the same time. We were originally in two separate bands which we all started when we were 11 or 12 and it was kind of pop punk stuff but when we were between the ages of 14 and 16 we decided that this wasn’t what we were listening to anymore and we wanted to start creating music that would reflect what we were all listening to at the time. That’s when we started Rolo Tomassi.

For someone who hasn’t heard your music before, how would you describe it?

Um, well we get asked that question a lot and it’s a little bit hard to pin point exactly what we do, but we found the best way to describe it is progressive hardcore.

I heard your band name was taken from the character from LA Confidential…

Yeah I think it was James the keyboard player who actually came up with the name. He just thought it sounded cool.

I saw you guys at The Brisbane Soundwave Festival this year, it was the first time I’d heard you guys and I thought it was great…

Oh thank you. When we all came back off that tour we all said it was the best thing we’ve ever done as a band. It was just such an incredible experience. Australia is somewhere that seems like light years away and I never thought I’d be able to visit. We were asked to do the Soundwave tour and it was so incredible and overwhelming that we’d actually been asked to go and tour over there. We all had an amazing time over there. We’ve all told our booking agent we want to come back before the end of the year. At the Soundwave festival we were touring with loads of my favourite bands.

Who were some of your favourite bands at soundwave?

Jimmy Eat World, Sunny Day Real Estate, we watched a bit of Glassjaw, Four Year Strong, Set Your Goals, Gallows, Architects, The Weakerthans as well, they were one of my favourite bands for years and we were actually playing the same stage as them so we got to see them a bunch of times. Paramore were amazing, they absolutely blew me away. AFI and Jane’s Addiction who we did our sideshows with aswell, they were amazing. We were just running around everyday trying to catch loads of different bands. The Get up Kids aswell, they were our favourites.

What was the highlight of being in Australia?

It’s really hard to say. On the first day in Brisbane we went to a nature park and held Koala bears which was really cool because that’s another thing I never thought I’d be able to do. We had a look around there and walked around with Kangaroos and things and I guess it’s very stereotypical but it was just so crazy to see.

Also, I guess just being in the band environment. The way it works is they split all the bands in between three huge hotels so we just got to hang out with bands all the time.  It was so amazing to speak to bands we’ve absolutely loved and worshipped growing up. You see these bands who we would consider famous backstage and it was kind of, it was just crazy.

Your new album comes out May 24^th and it’s called Cosmology. What does the album name refer to?

All of our friends are at university now, none of us have bothered with that yet, we just took years out to do band, but quite a few of our friends are studying the sciences  and in some of their exams there’s a module called Cosmology, which is the study of the universe and humanity’s place within the universe. It’s a bit crazy but the band is all we’ve been doing in the last 18 months since the last album was released so it just kind of centered our universe. So that’s why we decided to call it Cosmology because this is what we’ve been putting all our energy in and our lives have been revolving around it.

How did you get into progressive hardcore? It’s not very often you hear girls screaming and I think it’s great to see you’re doing something different.

Well I guess the band that kind of changed it all for us was the Dillinger Escape Plan. We all saw them at Readings (festival) the first year we went. We kind of just walked past the stage and although we’d heard screaming music before, we’d never heard the technicalities that they were performing on stage. Also what they were giving on stage was something that we’d never seen before and that was the turning point that made us want to start the band in the first place.

When we first started out I played keyboard and James played guitar and we were looking for a vocalist. We tried out a couple of people and no one just seemed to fit so I just kind of said, well I’ll give it a go. I didn’t know if I’d be very good but I really wanted to have a go and it turned out that I could just kind of do it. As I practiced my technique improved and my voice is how it is today just from practice and developing a technique that doesn’t affect my throat.

As a female, did you find it hard to break into the hardcore scene?

At first yeah - The first couple of shows we played I just stood with my back to the crowd screaming at the drum kit because I just felt embarrassed and nervous and it was just really weird because they only people that I’d screamed to before that were the other four members of the band, and it was a very strange feeling to be doing this thing, a natural noise, in front of people. We used to get so many sexist remarks because when we first started the only bills that would accommodate us would be hardcore bills and there’d be these tough guys in the crowd who would just shout really sexist things at me through the whole set and it’d just be disgusting and pointless because you come to a show to watch music regardless of the gender of the people in the band. We pretty much had that happen to us for two years but since ‘Hysterics’ was released, it has kind of stopped now. I can’t even remember the last time I had people shouting at me, which is incredible. I think people are really starting to take us seriously now and ignoring the fact that I’m, you know, a girl and actually seeing that we’ve all worked really hard and I’m not that bad at being a vocalist.

I hear you’ve just returned from touring in the UK, how was that?

Yeah we got back on Thursday, it was amazing. We were on tour with an English band called Biffy Clyro who are doing incredibly well for themselves at the minute. We don’t sound anything like them, but they’re amazing. They’re a band that we’ve all loved for years and we never would have thought they’d be fans of what we’re doing, but they actually contacted us and asked if we’d be interested in opening the tour for them and we all said yes. They were very sweet guys. We also toured with the Twilight Sad who we got on with as well so it was all just incredible.

What’s planned next for Rolo Tomassi?

We have a bunch of UK festivals lined up this summer because last year we performed around mainland Europe so we’re going to do loads of UK festivals. I think for the rest of the year we’re hoping to hit up America and hopefully back to Australia. We all want to go to Japan. This is just a pipe dream at the minute but this is what we’ve been pestering our manager to happen. We just want to be on tour because we’ve worked really hard and it seems like forever since the album was recorded. We’re just so keen to get the album out, tour the new record, play to as many people as we possibly can and just keep working hard.

Okay well I’ll let you go, thanks heaps for your time, it’s been great talking to you.

Thank-you bye.

For more interviews check out www.pressrecordonline.com

COG

COG

Twenty ten marks 12 years of tunes, tours and triumph for progressive rock trio Cog.

Celebrating this, Alicia Bolton talks to drummer Lucius Borich about the band, the new ‘Sound of three’ DVD and a couple of side projects Borich has going on.

Hey dude, how are you?

Not too bad thanks for asking

Cog has become one of the most successful bands in Australia with one of the strongest and most dedicated fan bases in the country, how did you guys get to this point and where did it all begin?

Well we’re just releasing a DVD (called The Sound of Three). 12 Years is a long time and there’s a lot in there (the dvd). We were high school friends. Flynn and Luke are brothers and we’ve all grown up in the same area and same environment around Bondi. I guess when you live in the one place and you’re young when you cross paths you become friends. When you’ve all got similar interests, one of those being music, you kind of gravitate towards each other so that’s kind of like what happened. Flynn and I used to play in a few other bands and we knew of each other and basically, I think it was 1998 and I was in America, I was living there for a while and that’s where I formed the idea for COG. Flynn contacted me and said well, what am I up to? So I just told him what I was doing and he was interested in starting a new project as well, so we just started communicating and then the rest is history really. You know, it was 12 years later and what is it, two albums and, well three albums really and basically the DVD has the whole story.

So growing up together what style of music did you guys like and how has this affected the style of music you guys play?

The spectrum of music, or should I say the record collection of music that I’ve got is just really big and really vast. I’ve got many different styles, it can range from anything from jazz to reggae, to full on metal to blues, you know, latin, you name it. I guess I’ve just been very interested in many different styles of music. When it came to COG I always gravitated more towards the rock, heavier rock kind of thing, but for me it was very important to be in a band that was progressing rock music in some way and wasn’t just using old templates of older rock bands. I guess the only thing you can say that really influenced me was bands that would push the boundaries of traditional structures and songs and stuff like that. You know like, Led Zepplen and Pink Floyd or even Genesis or whatever. They take you more on a trip, on a journey. There’s a fine line between having that element to your music and also having more of a like pop straight element like Police or Devo and bands I was listening to back at that time. A lot of 70s bands and then 80s bands influenced me, obviously because I was growing up listening to all sorts of styles. When the grunge scene happened, the Seattle scene and bands...There was a group of bands coming out at the time in the mid 90s whether it was Nirvana or Savage Garden or Tool or Rage Against the Machine …There was a certain sound that was happening and it was of our time and it made sense to turn it up a bit louder and I guess be in that genre or the progressive rock genre in a sense. Kind of create a genre that was more of a true expression of ourselves. It wasn’t like we were trying to copy anyone at all, but we were using the freedom just to be able to push the boundaries of song writing. That was probably one of the rules or templates we followed.

Whether you’ve toured with the bands or not, who have been some of most inspiring musicians you’ve come across in your time?

Well I’ve been playing with Ezekiel Ox a lot. He used to play in a band called Mammal and I’ve been playing in his new band. I played drums on his new album. He’s fantastic in the sense that he has so much energy and time for music and he’s doing a lot of different projects. He’s inspiring to be around with his enthusiasm towards these projects and how he looks at himself as being someone who everyday can have the opportunity to create. I’ve also had my Father who’s been around a long time and he’s a musician. I’ve toured a lot with him and he’s like twice my age. I just played with him the other night actually at the RSL. He’s inspiring to play with because he’s my age times again and I’m just like holy crap this guy is playing unbelievable guitar and just immersing himself in what he loves to do.

That’s really great hey…

Yeah it’s really inspiring to be around people who love what they love to do and I think that’s the biggest thing whether it’s on tour with bands or just friends around my local community.

Yeah definitely. Okay so just back to the DVD quickly…

How long did it take to make the DVD and did you face many difficulties or was it mainly just smooth sailing?

It was pretty difficult. I had a lot to trawl through in terms of footage, photos, interviews and stuff like that. You could imagine over 12 years of accumulating stuff you’d end up with a lot. It basically took me three months to go through it all and then select what I thought was going to be okay to put on the DVD. Then I gave it to Silo who basically edited it and helped cut it and took all the really good bits out and put it together properly. He aligned it with the script that was written. It was a really hard task, quite emotional at times because the band at the moment is on a fragile edge. It’s the hiatus period, we’re in a limbo state you could say.

Oh okay yeah…

I’ve been reminiscing about a lot of fantastic, amazing moments and sometimes that was pretty heartfelt. It was pretty emotional at times but you know with a box of Kleenex tissues I managed to get to the end.

So it all turned out well?

Yeah it turned out really well. I’m really proud of it and I think it’s a great documentation of you know, from inception to now and everything in between. It’s a 47 minute documentary and it shows a lot about the band and it’s going to be really good for any kind of fan who wants to get closer to us and just understand what it took to do what we did.

Yeah, 12 years is a long time. Since everyone is celebrating 12 years of COG, if you could pick three stand out moments during your time as a band what would they be?

Definitely one would be playing with System of a Down at the Horton Pavilion. We were a very young naïve band but we got the opportunity to get on stage and support that band and they were absolutely blowing up at the time. I remember it was (at the Horton Pavilion) a very big venue and that really impressed me. It stuck in my mind that’s for sure.

How long ago was that?

That was probably 2000, I think.

Obviously playing at Big Day Out in 2006 was another stand out moment. That was fantastic because we played on the main stage.

Have you noticed your crowds changing? Like in terms of how people react to your music?

Not necessarily, the dynamic of that has always been pretty much the same. I think what I’ve noticed is it depends on what night you play. If you play on a Friday or Saturday night then everyone is more likely to um….

Get rowdy!

Yeah well more alcohol so they break free and express themselves a bit more and the crowd becomes different. If you play during the week on like a Wednesday or Thursday, they’re a little bit more like well I’ve gotta go to work tomorrow so I’m just going to observe tonight.

Haha true… What about any weird fan encounters like entertaining stuff that’s happened in regards to fans?

There are so many things, a lot of weird things have happened. Those kind of things come and go. You have a little laugh and move on. Don’t try and waste space in the mind hard drive one would say.

You’ve also just announced that you’ll be re-releasing the re-mastered full-length “Just Visiting” Album on iTunes. Why did you guys decide to do this?

We basically did it as a CD. We got a label called Destra but that fell apart. We actually put the two EP’s together and put it as an album CD release, as the way it should have been. When the record company kind of folded there was no more distribution going on and it wasn’t being manufactured so it went underground for a little while and it’s just been sitting there waiting to rear its head again so we’re going to digitally release it. We’ll probably do a physical copy at one point in time but these days everyone’s just downloading the MP3 versions…

Yeah MP3 downloads are taking over. Giving people access to the digital copy is a good idea in the modern era…

Yeah exactly. We’ll do it that way first and then maybe we’ll go and do the physical product again because the artwork is really nice on the physical product.

So you guys are touring around Aus at the moment?

Yeah we’re about to kick off on that tour. It’s only a really small tour to tell you the truth. We’ll be doing the major capitals pretty much and that kicks off in a couple of weeks so we’ll do some rehearsals to get the cob webs out and hit the road and promote the DVD.

For fans coming out to see you guys in the next few months, what can we expect from a your live shows?

Pretty much the people who’ve come to see COG more than once, twice or three times won’t get anything they haven’t seen before. The DVD is like a celebration, it’s a moment to reflect. Getting up on stage and playing all those songs again and basking in those songs. It’s a great feeling to play those songs.

Yeah for sure…So what kind of set will you guys be playing on this tour?

It’ll be a mixture of everything we’ve done in the past. When I say to you that it’s nothing they haven’t seen, it’s because we’ve been playing these songs for 12 years. Unfortunately there are no new songs or anything. Basically what we’ve brought to the tour that’s different is we’ve got a few suprises in terms of support bands and things like that.

Can you give away any of the support bands?

Well in Sydney we have The Butterfly Effect because we’ve been friends with them for years. In Adelaide we’ve got Snap to Zero who we used to play with a lot and they’re a really cool Adelaide band.

What about Brisbane?

Ah well that a suprise!

Haha, okay we’ll have to wait and see.

So what do you enjoy doing in your time off from the band?

The band’s been on a hiatus, so I’ve got a lot of creative time to do other things. I’ve been immersing myself in music and playing on other people’s projects but I’ve also started a few projects of my own. Hopefully I’ll have an album out with my new project by the end of the year. The band is called Floating me and it’s myself and Jono Stockman from Karnivool, and there used to be a band in the late 90s called Scary Mother and we’ve put together an album. We’re really excited about it.

That’s what I’ve been doing musically, but I also do a lot of research in the political realm. I’ve got a website which I’ve almost finished called Rabbit Hole News (www.rabbitholenews.com). It will be up and running in the next few weeks and Rob from Dead Letter Circus is helping design the look of the site. I’ve got over 800 links there and it goes into some pretty full on topics, hard hitting and controversial topics. One could define it as conspiracy theory topics and all different areas on research just to understand what’s going on in the world today. It’s taken a long time to put together but that’s another area of what I do in my spare time. Plus I’m a Father so I do that as well.

That sounds really interesting…

There’s this thing called the truth movement and a lot of it is about online stuff because we can disseminate information so well and so fast now. For the first time we’re able to really see, read and understand a lot more than we ever have. It’s a fantastic medium and what I’m really trying to do is look at lots of different areas and bring them all together to this news page. People can read it and either take the red pill or the blue pill (as they say in the matrix).

                                                                                      

Okay Lucius, well thank-you for your time, just before you go is there anything else you’d like to let your fans know?

Okay well that was a pretty good chat actually. Check out Rabbit Hole News, it’s not for the faint hearted. I’m 39 and I started doing all this research nine years ago especially since September 11 happened. The whole thing that’s come upon us about terrorism and surveillance and this term called the New World Order (conspiracy theory) which has been there for a long time but is now more prevalent in the mainstream media through what the politicians are saying. It can actually get pretty scary and disheartening and can freak a lot of people out but I think what one has to remember is there are a lot of us and there’s only a few of them.

Yeah, have you seen the Zeitgeist movies?

Of course.

Are you creating something along those lines?

Those sort of things are more of a starting point, which is fantastic. When those came along I was like yes someone is also doing some fantastic things and putting it out there. That’s along the lines of what I’m talking about very much so but once you really get into the depths of the research what the Zeitgeist movies do is give you a place to start, and then you can search deeper and find hidden agendas and secret societies and the way the world works really. Investigate and open your mind and I think it’s really important for us as a human family really to make sure that we can be free to express the way we want to express and live the way we want to live.

Yeah definitely. Well thanks heaps for your time today.

Yeah no worries, you take care huh!

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