Post-Rock, Post-Metal, Post Plastic Tracks & Weaponised Hooks

The term 'post', when applied to a certain type of band, conjures all sorts of images and all manner of debate. Dropping acts into convenient boxes is a polarising issue, and certain labels and genres are just naturally divisive. Two bands who can possibly wear that tag are soon touring Australia together. The pairing of US five-piece Rosetta and Sydney's sleepmakeswaves makes a world of sense, but even between these two bands there is division, the former being more recognised as 'post-metal' and the latter identified more as 'post-rock'.

As a prefix, in its purest form, 'post' generally refers to an event or activity that comes after, but as a musical context, it goes a little further than that. Guitar players from both bands — Rosetta's Matt Weed and sleepmakeswaves' Otto Wicks-Green — are only too happy to give their own takes on if they even consider their own bands to be post-rock or metal, and what that classification means to them.

"With sleepmakeswaves, it's been a helpful descriptor," Wicks-Green explains. "It's helped people who might like our kind of music find our kind of music. It's certainly described a certain approach to songwriting that we have inadvertently fallen into, which is the forgoing of the traditional structures of rock music, like verses or choruses; we don't use those structures. I think the instrumental thing is identified with the whole thing as well, although not always.

"If people are interested in more arty, meandering compositions then I think that label helps them work out that there's a body of bands that broadly do that thing of looking for spaces between the structures and looking for ways to get to places musically without those signposts."

Weed arrives at a similar place, although via a slightly different route. "I think for Rosetta, post-rock is not used as [often as] post-metal," he explains, "I think mostly the reason for that is that the vocals are mostly screamed, even if most of our instrumental trappings are associated with what would typically be known as post-rock. There's this sense of, 'Oh they're a heavy band because they have screaming vocals.'

"But just like Otto said, if people know what they're looking for, and if that's a tag that helps them find it, then that's cool."

Weed also sees some disadvantages in the term, and in lumping bands into categories in general, from a creative and an image-related perspective. "Where it hurts a little bit is when you try to go outside the box a little bit in terms of composition," he goes on, "or maybe in terms of other trappings of what you're doing, such as album artwork or the way you choose to present yourself in a live context.

"For example, if you come across as people who have a sense of humour, it can be a little confronting to audiences who are expecting something that's really, really serious all the time," he says to laughter from Wicks-Green. "When it's supposed to be transcendent, and it's like, 'Hey, these are human beings who are more multi-dimensional than this very sombre, straight ahead hunting for transcendence' type of thing.

"So for Rosetta, there's been a downside and an upside to it."

Whatever the case, this style of music could be considered an acquired taste, existing well outside of the mainstream. But while it may be a style of music that inhabits its own niche, this individuality is becoming an increasingly popular hook. Wicks-Green attributes this to the absolute authenticity pursued by bands who play this genre-defying style of music, suggesting that it gives people something very real to hold on to in these ridiculous times we live in.

"This style of music is written purely out of the desire to express something real," he explains. "What a lot of these bands have in common is this non-mainstream stuff; these are people who are writing music to really say something and express something that means a lot to them. I know that sounds a bit schmaltzy, but that's been my experience.

"In this strange world we live in, where nothing seems to mean much and everything's commodified, this is one little nook that I've found that connects to something important. It's about the lived experience of being human, stripping back the layers of grime that we find ourselves enmeshed in this hyper-capitalist hellscape we live in! People gravitate to something that's real, so when they find their first steps into that world, it's a very compelling thing."

Weed agrees, and gives his own slant on the value of authenticity, narrowing it down to post-rock or metal being a beacon of credibility in a scene awash with vacuous, plastic, style-over-substance rubbish. While this type of music is a very hard sell, the rewards for bands and listeners alike are so much greater in the long run. "When people are searching for significance, frequently one of the biggest encounters that they're going to have is with art that violates their expectations. To some extent, I think of art as being a form of expression intended to communicate, but also intended to violate on some level.

"When you think about most mainstream pop music that's being made now, it's just weaponised hooks. It doesn't really have any art in it anymore. Otto used the word 'commodified' and I think that's really apt because so much of what is being produced right now is just a reflection of consumer memories and expectations; it's unable to grow anywhere new. Part of what's interesting about what's happening with underground music right now is that I think people are realising that, if you want to have an encounter with art that's significant, that changes people's minds, that confronts people in a way that's unusual and different, number one, you're going to have to go digging for it, because it's not going to present itself to you, and number two, you're going to have to contribute to it in a meaningful way. There's a sense of investment on the part of listeners that I think is unique and will sustain this kind of musical thinking as the years go on."