IN FLAMES and NUCLEAR BLAST RECORDS are happy to announce exclusive anniversary vinyl re-issues of the band’s …
While the Aussie scene might feel overcrowded with bands playing djent-inspired metal. Even when there’s a lot of fish in the sea, you’re bound to catch a big one at some point.
Thankfully, when we cast our nets into the world of technical metal, we caught Mitch Burgess, clean vocalist of the Melbourne based Arkive, who just recently dropped their massive-sounding new EP Sonder.
MORE: Our review of Arkive’s Sonder
Talking us through the writing process and fantasy references littered throughout the disc, we gained a little bit of insight to what makes a grassroots deathcore band work so successfully in modern-day Australia.
HYSTERIA: How long have these songs been kicking around for?
Mitch: I’d hate to think how long the skeletons of these songs have existed for, but the process is not short with us. Our lead guitarist is a perfectionist with everything, so if he’s not sold on it it’ll be re-worked until we find something that we all like. It took us a good 12 months to write to the point that we were happy, before another 4 months of the tracking process if you include pre-pro and sketching vocals and stuff.
With that perfectionism, how did that affect the dynamic of the band?
No not really—he’s a genius in addition to being a perfectionist. When it comes to the vocal part though, I take the tracks away and workshop it for awhile before taking it to the band which we believe is worthy, and then we have to re-evaluate everything, but we get there eventually.
Well, this isn’t the first content you guys have released. How has the writing and producing process changed for this band over your formative years?
The initial EP we did only just had the members that we have running now. The biggest difference is that last time our harsh vocalist stepped into the process with a disc already written, whereas this time around we worked on it more collaboratively. We’re pretty stoked with where it’s at, and I wouldn’t change any of these dudes for the world. It’s hard to say where to next, but at the moment we’re trying not to pin ourselves into any specific genre. We have a wide range of music that we listen to, because this EP is a vast attempt at everything we could do.
What influence did you personally bring in?
I was initially from an indie band! So I guess I bring the aspect that’s a little less heavy? I bring an alternative genre I think in terms of what I bring to the party. When the music was being written, it was done so with me in mind, I’ve been given space to create these hooks, and then we spent a bit of time making sure they were as hooky as possible. We tried to give room for that big, belty chorus.
If there are too many “I’s and me’s and we’s” in the music it takes away from it in my opinion.
[MITCH]
So, you’ve gone from indie into some of the heaviest music going around. What attracted you to these guys, and what is something unexpected you’ve found from playing this genre?
What drew me in was that after my last band broke up I needed an outlet to sing. I met these guys on ‘Melbands’, and I turned up to practise and suddenly I was in. The most surprising thing I’ve learnt from playing with these dudes is how sore your neck can get after a show!
Well that must be tough now that you guys have started doing full length tours. How has being on the road changed the way the band has operated?
I doubt there’s a band in the world that doesn’t change when they hit the road, because lack of sleep is a real issue! We practise long and hard though, so we can play three shows in three nights to a quality standard.
What does Sonder represent for the band?
I don’t think anyone has anticipated this as much as we have, but we are a little bit terrified to see how it gets received. We’ve worked so hard on it, so it’s scary to see how it gets received. This period is about presenting the best version of us at as many shows as we can. We’ve got the EP launch coming up at BANG! We are so keen for that one, and then we play The Revenance on the 10th, so those should both be huge shows.
Lyrically this is such an interesting disc with its commentary on consumerism and all. What message were you trying to get out to people?
There was no solid message in the lyrics, because we wanted to create an artform with different interpretations. To fresh ears though, those songs could mean something entirely different. We just wanna talk about people to be honest. That’s the overall theme of the entire thing I guess. Lyrically we are as far from a metal band as any I think. Lyrically, Court and I will collaborate on the writing, just the two of us sitting together talking at length on what phrasing would work where. We’re both heavy readers as well so we pulled sentences from works we both love.
What were some of those books for you?
We’re both crazy fantasy readers man. The Stormlight Archive is huge for us. Everstorm is taken from that series, and those same themes are represented in this EP. We read the same book at the same time with similar minds working, which makes the process really fun. It’s just what happens naturally. You smash through a book series when writing lyrics for six songs, and suddenly you find the themes overlap naturally. If there are too many “I’s and me’s and we’s” in the music it takes away from it in my opinion.
