It was the second hottest day of the year when I met up with The Red Shore on September 30th. I had been covering the Australian death metal band on Ryan's Rock Show for the past twelve months, and wanted to familiarize myself more with their musical philosophy. Not to mention, I was curious to get inside the minds behind Australia's fastest rising metal outfit. Sitting at a family-owned Thai diner in the outskirts of Los Angeles on one of the last days of the group's first-ever U.S. run, guitarists Roman Koester and Jason Leombruni get me hip to Aussie rhetoric.
"A 'bogan' is like a redneck," laughs Koester. "They listen to Lamb of God and wear mockies," the Down Under term for Moccasins.
As Leombruni indulged in a plate of brown rice complimented by sautéed veggies, and the three of us made witty jokes about our slight cultural differences, I was reminded that the band hasn’t always been in high spirits. Three years prior, September 2007, while touring in support of All Shall Perish, original vocalist Damien Morris was killed when the group's minibus veered off Australia's Pacific Highway. Today, after the fog of life's unpredictability has seemingly cleared, The Red Shore is gearing up for its next effort, The Avarice of Man, to impact North America on October 25th through Mediaskare. The record, the first to debut vocalist Chase Butler's talent, is straight fucking death metal.I have to ask you guys, what do you think the ingredients are to a successful metal band?
RK: I’d say determination, self beliefs, talent, and I think most importantly drive and ambition. You’ll just have to keep going even if there’s a setback. The number one reason bands fail is because they break up. It’s so easy to break up because shit happens every day, you know? One day it’s awesome, the next day it’s horrible. You’re on tour, there are personalities, and everyone clashes. If you’ve got the drive and ambition to keep going, that’s the main part.
What gives you that drive?
JL: The music. Getting up there, playing on stage for a big audience.
RK: Yeah, and just striving to get better and better. To play a gig, get better and better, and improve on the parts and stuff that we knew before. And pretty much simple things like taking everything as far as we can, if it’s going to take us around the world to play to different people that we didn’t play to before, seeing different parts of the world, and doing things we love. I just think it’s so much better to do that than to just sit home and do a course, or a job that doesn’t really affect anyone. I want to make a mark, maybe leave a stamp, be remembered by people for years. Being on the other side of the world and having someone come up to you and say “you’ve made me want to play guitar; you’ve made me want to find interesting music.” Just inspiring people, and enjoying the whole process.
Do a lot of kids say stuff like that?
RK: Yeah, definitely. In Switzerland, a kid came up and he had one of our songs as a ringtone.
JL: It’s really cool to hear stuff like that. It’s like, they say they’ve been listening to you since the first EP or…
RK: And for 5 years! We didn’t even know if anyone had heard of us, so it’s good. People have come up and said, “you make me want to learn an instrument or something creative.” That’s what it’s all about.
What are some bands that have had that impact on you, the kind that you’ve had on kids?
RK: It’s really eclectic. Personally, I grew up on Steve Vai kind of stuff. It’s not metal at all, but this is someone who sat there and perfected their art, someone who knows the guitar neck inside and out. The work ethic is so crazy, you just keep going.
I’ve met him a few times, and meeting someone who is humble, still hasn’t been changed by fame, and isn’t too up on himself to stop and talk to you -- I think that’s the right way.
JL: It truly is. I just like bands that have my perspective on music, and know art.
RK: Yeah, that’s something that we really kind of expect in other bands -- bands that don’t just go for a fad. It’s not easy to have to be struggling with success by doing what’s treated like an art. Not like that keyboard metal scene where they’ve got the keyboard and stuff. Provided a year later, that fad is kind of gone. We like people that just stick to their own style, and are there for the long haul. Not just changing their style to match what’s popular.
Are there particular bands that you’ve worked with who fit that description?
RK: The bad ones or good ones [laughs]? We like bands like Decapitated, mostly just bands who have been around for 10 years.
JL: Or who know what they’re doing.
RK: A lot of new bands have got a “core” element to them. Nile, Decapitated -- the original ones are the ones you respect, that have been doing it for years. They’re the ones that everyone else is borrowing from. Just relentless brutality, we like that kind of stuff. But we try to …
JL: Branch out, as well.
RK: We’re really conscious to try and write music that’s physically challenging for us, and demanding and interesting for us to play. But at the same time, if you don’t play instruments that are cool to listen to, there’s a point where you can get so absorbed that it’ll be “I want to play a scale really fast, I want to be flashy.” But to someone who’s not a musician, it just sounds like notes. So we’re in the process of making something that’s challenging for us, but at the same time if you don’t play an instrument, you can start banging your head and you’ll be into it.
Is this band a humbling experience?
RK: It is, definitely. Especially being in a different country. Back home everyone knows us and the shows are packed; you’re kind of famous and whatever. But you come here and nobody knows you, and you have to start again from scratch. It’s very humbling. I fully appreciate it a lot more now, just from doing that. The main thing is, if at least one person comes up to you after you’ve played a show and appreciates it, it’s rewarding.
So, Parkway drive is the biggest band in Australia, I’m told.
JL: That’s probably definitely true.
I think they just recently sold out a 12,000 capacity.
No way…
RK: Yeah, all presale. The thing is, because of [Australia’s] location and the amount of people there, they starve for the music. You come to America any night of the week, you can see one of five bands that are all immediately successful. At home there aren’t that many bands coming out, so when they do, everyone appreciates it a lot more and they’ll go. Here, everyone kind of takes it for granted. So I guess that kind of contributes to the reason why they’re so successful.
So kids [in the U.S.] take it more for granted?
RK: I think so, yeah. Not necessarily for granted, it’s just that they’ve got a receptacle to choose from. Like, “oh, I’ll go to this show tonight” or “I can wait until tomorrow, and go see this other band.” And the caliber of bands is massive here. Back home people wait, they look at what’s coming out, and they lay out the days that international bands are coming. That’s partly why it’s more appreciated.
Do you feel kind of [sigh] when you come to an oversaturated market?
JL: It’s just because we’re not from around here.
RK: It’s been a lot harder. We’ve been roughing it a lot, and it’s changed our perspective, but it just makes us stronger. It definitely makes you more appreciative of what you’ve got back home. Just try to make all of that market for the rest of the world. It’s our first time here, so you can’t expect much. Every show, people have said it’s awesome. We’ve had people fly from Alaska, and drive from parts of Canada to come watch us, so we can’t complain.
I want to talk about “The Avarice of Man”. You have a new vocalist, how is it [with Chase Butler]?
RK: It’s a good perspective to have someone else come in, and see it from an outside and different approach. We’ve known Chase from beforehand from touring, so we’re all friends, we didn’t worry. It’s an easy transition, there’s no clash of personalities or anything like that. We knew what it was going to be like, and it’s great.
What are your objectives for The Red Shore? What are your goals, where do you want to go?
RK: We just want to take it as far as we can, and enjoy doing it. Enjoy the perks of travel, and not really have to pay for touring. At the same time, just getting people into feeling it, that’s a bonus. We do it for ourselves.
It’s challenging, it’s interesting, it’s a way of life. Seeing as much of the world as we can, having as many people listen to us as possible, and to get better and better. Move more, put on a better show, get heavier and heavier, and to shape our band and do the best that we can with it.
You mentioned bands like Decapitated that have been around for 10 years or longer. When you look at bands recording now, do you think that technology in the studio affects metal music?
RK: Definitely.
JL: I think it makes it sound over-edited and polished. If everything was recorded on tape it would be a lot different.
RK: That’s why we admire a lot of the old bands that still are real and admire it as an art. We believe, if you can’t play it, you shouldn’t put it on the album. I mean, there’s always going to be minor editing, a few kicks here and there, but we’re against all triggering sounds. I’ve worked at a studio for a living, and I hate people using drums machines now. It puts me out of business when you can just record into a pod and use programmed drums. And it’s getting to sound so good that people can’t tell. It gives people access, but it’s bad because the line between being able to tell real talent and just production is getting to be blurry. Then it’s live, and you go, “well, they’re shit!”
I do hear a lot of bands where the records are phenomenal, but they suck live.
RK: You can tell the difference between a triggered drum kit and a natural drum kit. If they’re playing really fast, it’s not going to sound like a machine gun, it’s going to sound…off.
But when you hear stuff now, it’s just this ridiculous blast. Then you see them live, it’s just not the same.
As time goes on, as bands overly polish their recordings, what’s the state of music going to be like in 5 years? Is it going to be like “Idiocracy”?
RK: It goes in waves. In two years, people are going to be sick of hearing perfect machine gun-like drums. It’s really all about the energy.
-RM
