The five artists that have most inspired The Gloom In The Corner

7 May 2020 | 3:19 pm | Alex Sievers
Originally Appeared In

The Gloom In The Corner pull inspiration from Jack White, Defeater, Oceans Ate Alaska, Ennio Morricone and... Taylor Swift?

The really interesting thing about inspiration is that it often doesn't have or even need to align with the work that you do and the art that you make. As that's the core difference between inspirations and influences. Inspiration can arrive in many different forms, in a host of varying mediums, stoking a fire in one's belly to create something different, something better, and to push oneself harder. When you hear the equally melodic and djenty, conceptually narrative-driven nu-metalcore sounds of Melbourne's The Gloom In The Corner, you can hear clear heavy music influences from the likes of Loathe and composer Mick Gordon; Dealer and Alpha Wolf; Slipknot and The Devil Wears Prada, and so on. Yet when I recently pressed the four-piece about what artists inspire them the most, I half-expected acts like Defeater or Oceans Ate Alaska, but to also hear about Jack White, composer Ennio Morricone and even T-Swizzle was quite surprising. But I'll hand it over to the band now so they can tell you all about it!



Mikey Arthur (vocals)

Defeater:

"I remember I first discovered Defeater when they dropped the [now long deleted, for whatever reason] music video for their song ‘Bastards’. Though I quickly discovered they were a concept band, I didn’t really fully delve into it until the record ‘Letters Home’ came out, and I got to the last minute of ‘Bled Out’, where that repeated line And all I see is that bastard in me, and all I see is that bastard in me” from ‘Bastards’ returns. Quickly surfing through the internet, I found a rundown of everything that had happened in the story and went back and relistened to the older records to grasp the emotion of the story being told. I’d seen and heard of bands doing concept records before, but this was the first time I’d ever seen or heard of a band doing a continuing story over multiple releases (in heavy music), and it was such a sick and refreshing take on music and storytelling. If I was to pinpoint musically what made me want to start Gloom, Defeater is most likely at the top."

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Ennio Morricone (and various OST composers):

"There have been a lot of composers I’ve taken influence from over the years; Tyler Bates with the Punisher and Watchmen scores, Ramin Djawadi with Game of Thrones and Westworld, and of course Hans Zimmer (I don’t think I need to list any of his work, y’all know who he is). But if I was to pinpoint my soundtrack influence from anywhere, I’d be pinpointing Ennio Morricone. When I was something like six months old, my dad sat me down in front of the opening of The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly. I think ever since then I’ve always had a love for his work, especially the soundtracks for The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly, and Once Upon A Time In the West (we actually used a resampled version of the intro to ‘The Man With a Harmonica’ live once, though I swapped out the harmonica because it was “too westerny”). Though I’ve been exposed to hundreds of film scores from various amazing composers (thanks to my dad bootlegging them straight from the movie to tape and forcing us to listen to them on long drives), Ennio Morricone, to this day 23 years later, is still my favourite. Specifically ‘The Ecstasy of Gold’. That’s still my favourite song of all time."

Matt Stylianos Stevens (guitar)

Jack White:

"Jack White is an incredible inspiration to me and all the music I write. Unapologetically pushing boundaries melodically and tonally with his guitar and voice, some of the sections he writes don’t make any sense to me but they sound great and that’s why I love his music. He influences me to push how I create guitar tone, he manipulates effects to colour his guitar sound in so many different ways such as extreme distortion or like analogue synthesizers. The out of the box thinking strikes a strong balance between catchy and interesting which is at the core of why I can’t stop listening to Jack White."

Paul Musolino (bass)

Taylor Swift:

"For someone who is quite susceptible to musical influence, I find inspiration in so many forms of music. Whether it be Rage Against the Machine from a young age, to Led Zeppelin and Metallica, Meshuggah, and The Acacia Strain. Although I have found that I have been motivated to write especially heavy music through very not-heavy genres of music, so that’s why I’m going to discuss how listening to Taylor Swift has sparked me to create some very heavy and aggressive tracks."

"The album ‘1989’ is what kicked it off for me. I was never a fan of Taylor before this point, but after a couple listens I started to pick out little highlights within tracks that gave me ideas for tracks of my own; whether it be rhythmically, the composition or dynamics of her tracks. My admiration for Taylor Swift has bled on to her latest and some of her older work. Songs such as ‘Wildest Dreams’, ‘This Love’, ‘Lover’ and ‘I Know Places’ are all perfect examples of songs that I’ve drawn inspiration from and I can honestly say it’s helped shape me as a musician and has changed the way that I approach songwriting, purely because it has taught me how to analyze songs in a way to break them down to their most basic forms. It has taught me how to ask questions like ‘why was this section added?’ or ‘how has this specific element changed the song?’. These are the main reasons why Taylor Swift has shaped me as a musician and I’ll always hold her music in high regard."

Nic Haberle (drums)

Oceans Ate Alaska:

"Oceans Ate Alaska are a huge inspiration of mine, leading the path I have taken in drumming and writing music as a whole. Growing up I listened to a lot of radio rock and popular metal from the 80s and 90s which could be quite formulaic. OAA taught me how unpredictable and non-linear music can be. Chris Turner's drumming on tracks like "Escapist" and "Covert" changed the way I viewed drumming. The intricacies and ingenuity of the drums and how they weave seamlessly into the tracks blew my mind and ultimately directed my journey as a musician in a new direction."