PROMPTS & HEAVENSGATE // Gig, Pies, Van, Repeat

Prompts (Tokyo, Japan) and Heavensgate (Melbourne Australia) are currently on the road with The Gloom In The Corner as part of their ‘Trinity’ Australian tour.  With both groups freshly signed to Melbourne-based Indie label, Greyscale Records, these shows mark the first time for both acts playing multiple dates across our shores.

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We caught up with both bands before they hit the stage at Melbourne’s iconic, Espy, to chat about how they’re finding Aussie tour life so far, about their recent releases and so much more.

“We was pretty worried about this tour because this is our first Australian tour,” Prompts vocalist PK reveals. They weren’t sure what to expect of Australian audiences but as it turns out music fans here have been really kind to the group thus far and they’ve received a “Mind-blowing” response according to Prompts guitarist, Matsuno.

The band commented on the differences between Japanese and Aussie audiences – in particular their “Moves” sharing that Japanese audiences are really quiet and stand still, whilst Australian audiences are “far more energetic.” 

“Japanese people – when they come to a show they are just really focused on the show. So that they’re not talking when the vocals are going to talk/speech. In this area (Australia) everyone just talk when the vocal speech.  In Japan, just ‘shhhh’ – nothing.”

The band also share that in Japan there are way more girls at shows, and the moshing is different – it’s more of a hardcore mosh than metal mosh, like here.  “I think the Australian vibe is more happier,” PK insists. 

With Prompts here for the first time and Heavensgate on their first ever national tour, it seems both groups are quickly learning about life on the road and the lack of sleep that is the norm for many touring artists  The night before our chat, both bands had played the Adelaide leg of the tour getting up at 5am to make the long drive to Melbourne in time for load in and sound check.  But some of the sleep-deprivation may have been self-induced with Heavensgate choosing insisting on introducing Prompts to a humble Aussie delicacy – the meat pie.

“Beers, which led to pies, and then led to us getting three hours of sleep before we needed to drive all the way out here … it was all O’Connolly’s, shoutout to O’Connolly’s.” Heavensgate vocalist Nazareth Tharratt recounts. Thankfully, it seems the pie quest was worth it with Prompts bassist, Piguri, exclaiming they were, “very nice” and could eat them, “every day.”

We stay on the topic of food for a little while longer having a brief chat about how Japanese food in Australia and the Korean influence before moving onto the topic of how these new label-mates were discovered by Greyscale and signed so quickly in their careers.

“Actually we have a best friend in Japan, a band called Paledusk,” PK shares, adding that he noticed the label watching their stuff on socials. They recorded a single and sent it off and things snowballed from there.  Their last single, Locust was released independently prior and inspired by biblical imagery and the seven deadly sins, but is definitely a precursor to what’s to come with this new signing.

Conversely, Heavensgate had not released any music prior to being signed. “We had essentially a release we’d already done that was completely different to what we have now and it sort of just felt like what we were doing wasn’t really genuine.”  After getting together with guitarist of Pincer+ and studio-member, Josh Ang, the band decided to regroup and create the EP that ended up getting them signed.

As for the rest of the year, Heavensgate are planning for a “Big and busy year,” according to guitarist David Wilder. Prompts are also planning on a massive year and more international travel heading to the Philippines next to play Pulp Summer Slam with Parkway Drive and many more heavy hitting acts.