Endless Heights

Sydney youngsters Endless Heights are without a doubt one of the most passionate melodic hardcore bands in Australia right now. Now with an EP under their belt, they are quickly becoming one of Sydney's most electrifying hardcore bands. We caught up with KYS' own Jem Siow to see what's up.

Introduce yourself and your role in the band?

Good day! My name is Jem and I play the electric guitar in this band.

You guys play Xbox more than anyone I know. What’s your favourite game and who in the band is the best at it?

All of us except for Diaz own an Xbox 360 (who owns a PS3 so still immerses himself in games in some respect) and I’d say our favourite game collectively would be Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. But that doesn’t matter, I just picked up Red Dead Redemption a week ago and that has got to be the most unreal wild-west shit I have ever played. There’s SO much to do in it! Holy shit – forget about the rest of the interview and let’s just discuss how fantastic this game is. Nah. But I’d definitely claim being the best at any game in the band. 0% arrogance, 100% Asian. Word up.

You recently dropped your new EP entitled ‘Prologue’. Tell us where this was recorded and how you think it turned out.

In January we went up to the Gold Coast and spent a week with Sam Saljooghi (Ghost Town) who recorded and mixed the 6-track. For most of us, this is pretty much our first band, and one of our first real experiences recording in a studio (and even then this is a makeshift one in his infamous shed), so we went in with little to no knowledge on the whole recording process past messing around with midi drums and practice amps in our friend’s computer room. All in all, we’re happy with how it turned out and learnt a whole lot in the process; extremely fulfilled about the whole experience in general.

Are there any plans to press the EP onto CD or vinyl?

Right now 4/5 of us are finishing our last year of highschool and as much as we are both down for the core and up for the punx, completing our final exams are a priority for us. This means for the latter part of the year we’ve pretty much slowed down… For the mean time we’ve put ‘Prologue’ in its entirety for download online where you can literally ‘name your price’ – get it free or pay whatever you’d like (but why pay when it’s free am I right?)! We’ve got everything we need to press this except for the time to invest. Having said that we plan to have another PHYSICAL release out early next year.

Your sound has evolved a lot from your 2008 Demo to the present day. What was the catalyst for this change?

Yeah, I guess we all matured as musicians and the scope to which we appreciate music in general broadened diversely within the space of a year and a bit, and is still ever-growing, and will never stop. Most of us are little 17 year-olds and still growing up; the whole process of this band for us like everything, is a learning one. Music is about progression so in our next release we’ll probably sound real similar to Owl City or Ke$ha.

How is an Endless Heights song written? Give us a step-by-step walkthrough.

Okay so pretty much, I will write a chord progression and general basis of a song. These riffs are general rip-offs from the juiciest parts of any of the past 3 Paramore releases (anything from All We Know Is Falling to Brand New Eyes with all the film soundtrack extras in-between). Christian (who also plays guitar) will the write lead parts over these chord progressions. Already having a general idea for the drums, Diaz does his part and then Joel will write the lyrics with us contributing. Of course it’s not as simple as that – throughout there is a lot of discussion and a constant process of fine-tuning, and focus on specificities – but that’s the general idea.

What are your primary influences and inspirations, within music and outside of it?

Music-wise, for ‘Prologue’ we borrowed a lot influence from bands such as Paramore, Balance and Composure and Circa Survive. I guess you can say a lot of inspiration was borrowed from pop/punk, emo bands if you like and we just give it a more melodic and ‘hardcore’ spin. Diaz would disagree; he pretty much just listens to rap and anything else down-tuned with gain at 11.

What message do you convey to those who listen to your music?

Joel’s lyrics are pretty personal. The messages we communicate are our perspectives on life and its inherent ups and down. We’re only young, but this is how we see things now. Contrary to the ‘depressed’ image that’s characterised bands similar to our style, we try to be as positive as we can be in everything we say.

You guys have come under some scrutiny for your religious affiliation in the past. Here’s a chance to quell any false rumours about you guys in relation to religion.

Most of us are spiritual in some way in our lives. We all have contrasting views on religion; these personal beliefs and values shape our perspective of the world, just like it does with everyone else. Of course this is going to influence the way we write our music as it influences everything else we do in life. We aren’t a ‘Buddhist’, ‘Hare Krishna’, ‘Christian’ or ‘Religious’ band for that matter, this is as far as it goes for us – take from it what you like!

What has been the most exciting experience on stage for you guys?

One time Christian’s mum came to a show. Other than that, probably when we played with Have Heart halfway through ’09 – the place was packed and the reaction was unreal.

What are you ranked in your Maths class? Don’t be modest, I want the truth.

See, this is just plain stereotyping. You wouldn't have asked me this if I wasn’t Asian. Well, I think I’m somewhere in the top 5 in my class and Matty Jay is not far behind. Joel does extension maths though, contrary to his pasty white skin and is killing it. The most arithmetic Diaz does is trying counting how many beers he sank the previous night. Chich is doing…well.

Shout outs?

Yeah man, if you wish to enjoy the full Endless Heights experience, hit us up on xbox live here: gumbyxunit, and I will get at you between maths papers

Legions, Phantoms, Relentless, Hopeless and Shinto Katana will have or have dropped new releases which should not be missed. I guess I should say Fixtures because Zach is an only child. Fixtures. Also, to anyone who has met a forty-year old man by the name of Alex Carolan – I apologise on his behalf. He does not represent us in any way, shape or form.

Hook us up with a link to your bass player’s sister’s facebook?

Owwwwwww Josh you salty dog! Listen… just download our EP here: http://endlessheights.bandcamp.com. Thankya!