PREMIERE: EARTH CALLER // Drop Wicked New Video For ‘I Am No Good’

Venomous metalcore monsters from the 613, Earth Caller have dropped a creepy yet enthralling new video for single I Am No Good, exclusive to Hysteria. Watch below.

MORE: THE HYST LIST: The Top Ten Musical Bamboozles That Scramble Your Brain // GHOST: Arise From Leviathan’s Shadow // MAX & IGGOR CAVALERA: What Remains Still Slays REVIEWS: I PREVAIL: Trauma // DEVIN TOWNSEND: Empath

I Am No Good made its sonic debut on triple j’s Short.Fast.Loud with Josh Merriel last night. Stream it here.

The clip was directed and recorded by Adrian Juric. Artwork for the single was made by Chris Zagas. The track itself was recorded, mixed, and mastered by Beau McKee.

It seems way too soon for new music, considering second album Crystal Death is barely a year old. However, the single isn’t part of a new album; though it is part of a new release schedule that should keep their loyal Earth Dogs satisfied for months and years to come. We spoke to frontman Josh Collard about the behind-the-scenes of the clip, their new approach to releasing tunes, and his dealing with suicidal thoughts and depression over the last few months. Be warned: this gets very real, very quick.

It’s only been about a year since Crystal Death, is this sort of just a once off single or is it part of a new album?

It’s part of a collection of music that we have coming out. I can’t sort of divulge too much at the moment, but basically what I can say to our fans, or to just anybody listening, that we will push the boundaries of how much content bands have been putting out recently. We’re going to drop a lot of new music this year.

So are you moving away from the album thing? We do have Spotify now, we chop things up into playlists. The album seems to be dying.

I’m in two ways about how I feel about it, because obviously I’m an old school kind of guy. I grew up in the time where if I wanted to hear a band I would catch a train into the city, I would look through the record store until I found their album, then I would catch a train home and then I would be listening to it. So albums are a special thing to me and I have a nostalgic sort of feeling toward them I suppose. But I guess that’s just it, it’s like becoming a nostalgia. People’s attention spans these days are getting shorter and shorter and you need to … and it’s because there’s just so much out there, you need to show them why they should pay attention to you. That’s just how it is. And I think the best way to do that is [like this], rather than dumping a whole lot of time into something that can be consumed in about an hour, you know?

Maybe it’s best to just put your time into going single by single and just releasing the best possible product that you can to your fans.

Life gets hard for everybody but the only thing you can really do is just push through it. You just gotta not be a pussy and stand up get up when you get knocked down and fucking just push through it.
[JOSH]

The concept for this video is so simple, but it’s so powerful. Boiled down, it’s you walking around with a blindfold on through the woods. But there’s so much more to it than that.

Well yeah, firstly I don’t mind saying it’s a simple concept. I’m glad you understood it, we just wanted to drive the point home. And the point … The reason why that song was created and released… I had some real life experiences about struggling with depression and suicidal thoughts kind of recently. And I wanted as always when it comes to the difficult stuff to deal with, I wanted to face it head on and make some music about it because I’ve found in the past that has been the most cathartic thing to do and not just for myself but for anybody who listens to our music. My favourite feedback that I ever get from anybody…I’ve had a fair few times, surprisingly, people saying to me some of my lyrics saved their life and stuff like that. And that’s always obviously the best feedback to get. The art that I made played a part in saving a life.

As someone who struggles with mental health, people come to you with saying ‘you helped me with my mental health.’ I mean, that could go either way. When you’re in that low position, does it feel like a burden or do you feel liberated by that?

No. To me, it never feels like a burden, it makes me feel like I’m just like a regular person with having regular people issues. It sort of normalises it a bit for me and actually makes me feel more connected to the Earth. That makes me feel happy. I’ve never been one to enjoy all the social … How do you call it, I guess just the social politics in the music industry. I’ve never really enjoyed that, I’ve just enjoyed being friends with people who inspire me. I don’t take any of my self worth from how high up the social ladder I may or may not be.

But having said that, there are times where because you’re living in that world of where people really take that shit seriously that it can fuck with your head a bit, you know. You’re not invited to this thing or you are invited to that thing but not that thing and what the fuck’s going on there. All that kind of shit it contributes to it, but namely I guess just to direct the conversation back toward the song itself. The song is just about having to constantly take a moral inventory of who I am as a person and whether or not I’m behaving in a way that’s either a positive or a negative toward my trajectory in life. I’m always trying to veer it onto the path of what’s good and healthy for everyone is what’s good and healthy for me. And that life gets hard for everybody but the only thing you can really do is just push through it. You just gotta not be a pussy and stand up get up when you get knocked down and fucking just push through it.

Death, With Crystal. // Photo: Supplied

Does the title reflect that?

Yeah, for sure. The song itself is self-critical. The number one reason why people feel depressed is because they’re telling themselves that they’re no good. And I just wanted to create a piece of art that shows that side of the equation, like how much damage we do to ourselves, with being self critical and just trying your hardest to be the best you can be.

Coming back to the video itself, the visuals and locations are fantastic. Where did you find that abandoned amphitheatre?

It’s a place in Fairfield [in Melbourne’s north-east suburbs] called the Boat House. When we got out there, when we got the first edits of the video clips back I actually showed the bloke that owns the rehearsal studio that we practise at and a number of other bands practise at too. And he was in a band himself in the nineties and stuff and he instantly recognised the location from old music videos from his time and stuff. But yeah, nobody’s recently used it as far as I know in metal. The director found that for us.

It seems like one of those “miracle locations” that just looks incredible no matter what.

Dude, as soon as I saw it for the first time I was just like, fuck if I knew it was going to be this good I should have brought some bonfire type shit had some flames going in the background. It just opened up the creative pathways in my brain so much, but it just turned out really good. It looks like we’re playing in a Colosseum or some shit like that.

As for the style of the song, it has a bit of a European flavour to it. Is a bit of experimentation going on within Earth Caller, now you are free from the album constraint?

I would say that the body of music that we have coming out over the next however long, that will be some of the most experimental music that Earth Caller has put out, I would say. We’re trying new sounds, we’re trying new things. I’ve found myself very inspired lately in terms of songwriting. And it’s definitely having an effect on this sort of stuff. I can definitely see how you would say that it’s like a European metal sound with the guitars and everything like that. I’m glad that you recognise that. It’s true to what I had in mind for the song.

I Am No Good is out now on all streaming and digital platforms.

EARTH CALLER ‘I AM NO GOOD’ RELEASE SHOW

MELBOURNE // Stay Gold // 6th April
BRISBANE // Dead Of Winter Festival // 13 July (Tickets)