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Post-hardcore bros Crown The Empire will soon be hitting our shores. They’ll be handling main support duties for countrymen Motionless In White. This will be the band’s first Aussie jaunt supporting their latest body of work, Retrograde.
The release proved to be a polarising moment for the band, who switched things up from the previous offering, The Resistance, which put the band in some killer real estate on the heavy metal map. Going from a seven piece band to a four piece is no easy feat, but the change in personnel doesn’t appear to have taken any of the wind out of Crown The Empire’s sails.
Ahead of their arrival we caught up with the band’s vocalist, Andy Leo. We join Andy as he explains to us his newfound passion for Thai kickboxing, Muay Thai.
Andy: When I’m on tour I lose my mind, so I have to do something physical. I wanted to try it, and it’s great. I’m only like 135 pounds. (61kg.) I’m not a big guy by any means, but going on tour a lot and being around drunk people, I didn’t want to get punched in the face. I’ve had to fight a girl man, and that sucks.
So, being well protected, being able to choke a guy out with my legs, or break an arm and leave, is a skill that I feel like is a cool thing to learn. You feel like a ninja or something.
Hysteria: Wow. It’s just so remarkable that the thrill of performing live as left you with this unquenchable thirst for excitement, and now as a result you’ve now engaged in combat sport, to kind of quench that thirst.
Andy: I don’t know. There’s obviously something going on, but this is a great little time killer for me.
The thing is you said you were only about 130 pounds, but the thing about Muay Thai is it’s the smaller dudes that actually get better. But the thing is we have to spend more time focusing on the technique, because we don’t have these sledgehammer arms and legs, so that means when we throw down with some of the bigger dudes, we’re slippery, hard to catch.
Hell yeah, that’s the dream. I got complimented the first day. He was like, “I didn’t know you were like, really flexible. I couldn’t do this shit my first day.” I was like, “Okay, I have this. There’s things that I have.” It’s a really cool way to learn about your body, too. There’s taller guys with lankier builds who’ll favour using this type of move over this. So it’s like playing chess, but everybody has different pieces. It’s just a fun thing to do. I really recommend it if you’re down. Who knows, we can throw down when I’m in Australia, who knows.
The problem is people, especially now that the metalcore world has shifted, it’s obviously not doing well. People are either jumping ship and becoming something that they never were, which will disappoint fans.
The Australian tour. This absolutely sneaked up on us. You guys are going to be here in a couple of days now. You must be stoked to be hitting Down Under.
Yeah, absolutely man. Some of the best times I’ve had have been in Australia. It’s its own culture shock in a way, but everybody speaks English, so it’s not like, unlike, so crazy that you get overwhelmed by it. Everybody’s been really friendly, and the fans have always been super nice and recommended cool spots for us to go. It’s really fun, and it’s not often that we get to go out there. 18 hours is a long trip, but it’s always well worth it.
What are you excited about the most returning to? Do you have any favourite little haunts that you’re excited to get back to?
Yeah, there’s a place in … I want to say Melbourne, that has chicken wings, and we went there and all of our faces were melting. We’re like, “This is so hot!” Nobody expected it, but we had such a good time that we want to go back, but we can’t remember the name of it, so we’ll have to wait until we end up there to see. But that was really awesome, and I have a few friends up there that I want to reconnect with.
Everyone here is super excited about the show, and it’s also a nice interesting show for Australian fans, because of course there’s you guys, and there’s Motionless In White.
Yeah, absolutely. You don’t want to keep playing in front of the same people. They’ll get bored of you, and if they’re not putting out the same energy it’s hard for you to get motivated, and to put on the best show. Everybody can feel if a front-man is less confident, you know?
But that being said, Motionless In White? Incredible dudes. Some of them live out in LA. Couple of them are gaming nerds, and I’m a gaming nerd myself. So we have common threads, and I think it’s really exciting. Normally we wouldn’t have jumped on an offer like this, but we’ve had encounters with them in the past, and it’s been something that we’ve thought about doing for a long time, so why wouldn’t we want to combine some forces with somebody we haven’t really before, and do it somewhere kick-ass like Australia?
You’re a gamer. What are you playing at the moment?
Here’s the thing. I’m just now being able to branch out about talking about it, because it takes away from the mystique of the rock-star mentality, but you know what? Fuck it. This is who I am, this is what I do.
I just got Destiny 2. Very into the grind, and they have no shortage of it. I want to be able to do more shit with fans. We did this… essentially like a meet-and-greet for Call of Duty where I got to play with fans, and the game developer. Yeah, it was really awesome. They told us, “I’m sorry man, I haven’t heard of your band, but you guys are doing something right, because people haven’t really responded like this for a long time.” To shut myself of to an avenue of another way that we can connect with our fans just seems like a dumb thing to do. So I’m looking into getting into Twitch. I just started playing Total War. Just came out with Warhammer, I think last year.
It’s like chess, but they add a dragon. I’m a huge fan of problem solving, and being under stress. I love to just outsmart another person, so there’s also that kind of element.
So, Retrograde. It’s now coming up to a couple of years old, and you guys have toured it a lot. You’re about to come down to Australia to tour it. Where’s your head at with the follow-up, or any new music?
Yeah. We’ve already started working on new stuff. Obviously the idea is making change, with going from seven people to four people. Everybody’s opinion matters so much more, and now that we all know that we all care, and there’s now no malice, there’s no ego in the way, we can really focus on making this band the best version of ourselves that we can be. The problem is people, especially now that the metalcore world has shifted, it’s obviously not doing well. People are either jumping ship and becoming something that they never were, which will disappoint fans. They just sniff it out. You can’t outsmart your fans, you can’t bluff the whole world.
So with Retrograde, it pretty much did get killed in the water pretty quick, because of the departure of Dave, but we learned so much musically.
Listen to the entire Crown The Empire interview on Hysteria Radio!
Catch Crown The Empire on tour with Motionless In White
METRO THEATRE, SYDNEY – TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 19
BRISBANE, THE TRIFFID – WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 20
ADELAIDE, THE GOV – THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 21
MELBOURNE, ARROW ON SWANSTON – SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 23
MELBOURNE, 170 RUSSELL – SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 24*
*All ages shows except September 24
For complete ticket information, visit www.motionlessinwhite.net or www.livenation.com.au
