Northlane

4 March 2011 | 1:51 pm | Staff Writer
Originally Appeared In

Featured in the 2010 Blunt annual as a band to keep your eye on in 2011, Northlane give us an insight into their upcoming album and G# tuning.

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Featured in the 2010 Blunt annual as a band to keep your eye on in 2011, Northlane give us an insight into their upcoming album and G# tuning.

Hey Josh, for the internet uninitiated could you please tell us your role in the band and favourite KFC dish?

I play guitar as well as manage and keep the band organized. Those original recipe fillets man! Holy shit they are good. Same coating as the original recipe chicken but the pieces are just breast meat and don’t look or taste like they’re from a deformed turkey.

Northlane began sometime in 2009 in Western Sydney and has gathered a large amount of recognition and interest since then. What do you think you could attribute your success too?

We spend a lot of time playing our instruments and are very self-critical about everything we do. We are always looking for ways to improve. The time we put in preparing the songs comes out in live shows and makes recording much smoother.

In a recent press release Northlane announced album details and that the full length would be mixed by American metal merchant "machine" (responsible for Upon A Burning Body, The Amity Affliction, Suicide Silence). How did this desicion come about and how hard was it to book in time with such an illustious produced ?

It’s being mixed by Will Putney, who works with the machine at the machine shop. Pretty much, our EP was a budget job, cost us barely anything and we weren’t happy with how it turned out. We really wanted to go all out on this CD and get something that did the music the most justice it could. It wasn’t too hard to book with him to be honest, raising the cash wasn’t easy. We were just very lucky he was available when we needed the mix done!

Hollow Existence was one of my favourite Australian releases from last year and still recieves a daily thrashing now. Considering how popular "death-core" was at its time of release, where were you drawing influence from at the time you wrote it? I'm sensing a definite Sumerian vibe around it.

You’re right about Sumerian bands having a huge influence on us, other ones worth mentioning are Misery Signals and Architects on that CD.

What can we expect from the full length and how does it progress from Hollow Existence?

Our full length is a product of the things we liked best about our EP, with a more mature vibe. More layering, melodies, a deeper lyrical message, heavier with more influence from heavy grooves and at the same time more of a post-hardcore influence in the melodic/ambient sense.

I saw your re-recording an older track for this release in G#. Is such an extremely low tuning quickly becoming the new trend in Australia?

It’s becoming a global trend dude! We’ve written about ¾ of the new stuff in this tuning, the rest is in A# which was the tuning on our EP. Different tunings give a different feel and approach to songwriting. That particular song, which we have put on the album sounds much better in the lower tuning.

Sydney is proving to be a breeding ground for Australias heaviest and most recognised metal bands with Resist The Thought, Thy Art Is Murder, Buried In Verona and of course yourselves all consistantly touring throughout the year. Whats in the water there and does all the talent make it difficult to secure good supports?

There is a huge amount of bands in Sydney, a very high standard of bands and a lot of talent. There’s also a lot of copycats. The sheer amount of bands does make it hard when starting out and this seperates the best up-comers.

Backing tracks and auto-tune are become more and more prominent in Australian bands as the technology becomes more accesible. How gay is running gang vocals and extra guitar/vocals tracks through a PA (think of a band that recently completed the No Sleep Till tour)?

Not at all, bands want to be able to recreate their recorded work when playing live and this isn’t always possible without using samples. Personally, we use looping with our guitars when we play live to make the songs sound as similar as we can to the recordings, while other bands use sampling. If you have the technology available, you may as well use it.

Considering your impressive touring schedule, a few support bands must have caught your eye over the past year. What are some up and comers you think we should know about?

Stories and The Helix Nebula from Sydney. Statues and Make them Suffer from Perth. Stories are the best new band I’ve heard or seen in the last few years, amazing songwriters and they aren’t even out of school

Essential tour albums?

Antidotes - foals, room for squares – John Mayer, thriller – Michael Jackson, the grey space & inside story – horrorshow, Blue sky noise – circa survive, everything by city and colour, self-titled - Animals as leaders & the discovery - cloudkicker

Should 127 hours have won the oscar?

Inception should have won best picture. 127 hours was still pretty good.

Regional or Rural shows?

Rural crowds are much more appreciative and really care about bands who make an effort to come through their town.

Should Soundwave have more locals on the bill?

Absolutely yes, respect the hard working locals. They shouldn’t have a local stage though, they should be mixed inwith the internationals

Plans for Northlane for the rest of 2011?

Recording & releasing our album followed by a ruthless amount of touring.

Final thanks and shout outs?

Thanks to our supporters, Davey lads, Tom Johannesen, Afends ClothingTRX cymbals, Pork Pie Drums, Bernie Rico Jr guitars