Interview with Northlane

Hello! It is Adam welcome back to bringing it backwards? A podcast where both legendary and rising artists tell their own personal stories of how they achieved stardom. On this episode, we had the incredible opportunity to speak with Marcus bridge of the band north lane, over zoom video. Marcus talks about being born and raised in Sydney and how he got into music. His mom had an acoustic guitar, so he became interested in playing that, but he was also a singer, a girl that he had a crush on, heard him singing in the halls. And she had a song that she had written and needed somebody to sing it. So he ended up performing the song that she asked him to sing. 6 (2m 7s): And, and that's where he caught the bug for performing. And from there on out, I want her to be in a band. He played in various bands through high school and out of high school. It wasn't until 2014, when north lane singer ended up leaving the band, he was also a fan of the band. He tried out and he, he got the part. So he told us all about the stress of now kind of filling the role, the shoes of the old singer recording, the first record that he did with a band called node. And then the massive success of the record ends up going. Number one on the Australian charts wins a bunch of awards. 6 (2m 49s): He talks about the milestone moments of the next two records, where the band was when COVID happened and all about this brand new record, which is called. You can watch the interview with Marcus and myself on our Facebook page and YouTube channel at bringing it backwards. It would be amazing if you subscribe to our channel like us on Facebook and follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and Tik TOK at bringing back pod. And if you're listening to this on Spotify, apple music, Google podcasts, it'd be amazing if you follow us there as well, and hook us up with a five star review. 7 (3m 25s): We'd appreciate your support. If you follow and subscribe to our podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts, 6 (3m 31s): We're bringing it backwards with north lane. My name is Adam, and this podcast is about you, your journey music. And we'll talk about the band and the new record and everything happening with you guys. 8 (3m 44s): Perfect. Sounds great. 6 (3m 46s): Awesome. Awesome. First off. Well, I know you, you joined the band, what? 2014, 2015 era. 8 (3m 53s): Yeah, I believe it was the end of 2014. 6 (3m 56s): Okay. So I want to talk to you about, you know, getting up to that process and then joining the band. So we're where were you born and raised? 8 (4m 4s): So I was born in somewhere in Sydney, I think camp down, if that means anything. Yeah. Born in Sydney and lived there most of my life, kind of all over the place through Sydney, I guess at some point I lived in Queensland for about a year, but yeah, I grew up around there and we had a no 6 (4m 27s): Right from Sydney. There you go. I, I dig it. Are you coming from a musical household at all? 8 (4m 33s): Not necessarily. I think like my mom used to play guitar a little bit and my uncles kind of were into like heavy music, but there was no one who was like kind of directly playing music or anything like that. I was, I was definitely around a lot of music, but was never really getting pushed to like play or anything. 6 (4m 53s): Okay. So you didn't get thrown in like piano lessons at six or anything like that? 8 (4m 57s): Yeah, no, nothing like that. I had to kind of find my own way into it. 6 (5m 2s): And yeah. And how did you do that? Like what got you into music? 8 (5m 6s): Well, there are a few different kind of points that I think about when it comes to you when I started and one of them was just, yeah, my mom had an acoustic guitar laying around and I wouldn't, I just pick it up and like try and play like rhythms on it. Like I wasn't playing chords or anything. I would just be playing rhythmic stuff and kind of like slowly trying to like write something on this guitar, but not really knowing how to do it. And that was when I was maybe like 10 or 11 or something. But then from there, when I went into high school, I had a friend who she was playing a piano song. What was it? It was Boston by Augustana and she needed someone to sing it for her performance. 8 (5m 54s): And she'd heard me sing just like in passing, nothing serious and then asked if I wanted to try and yeah. Seeing that for her performance. So I did that and was very nervous, but it felt really good. It felt like, oh my goodness. It felt like something I wanted to be doing from, from such an early point. So from there, I kind of just asked my parents for a guitar or for something to, to try and learn how to play music and kind of just found my own way from there. 6 (6m 24s): So you weren't like in the chorus or choir or anything like that, or this person just heard you singing in the hallway and was like, oh, Hey, Cool voice. 8 (6m 34s): I think her and I kind of had like a little bit of a, had a little bit of a thing going on. We'd have a crush on me and I was a bit the same to her. And I was like, oh yeah, I'll help. And she was kind of wanting to get me involved, but yeah, I would definitely, I'd never done anything serious like that. I think like the school would have put me in like a quiet group, but I was never serious. I was like, now this is lame. I'm not doing the choir. Yeah. From that. Then I was just like, well, music's pretty awesome. Actually it gives me such an awesome feeling being up there and performing. So yeah. 6 (7m 10s): So then you got the guitar or you started what playing around on the acoustic that your mom had. 8 (7m 14s): Yeah, I had, yeah, this acoustic guitar for a little while. And my uncle actually taught me about drop D Turns that guitar tune that to drop D and this would play power chords on that switch switch was there for me in terms of like starting to try and write songs. It was actually really, really helpful. Cause I, I wasn't thinking at all about music at all. I was just like, what, what sounds good under something I might sing, which it all sucked, but I mean, for me it was still like, it was a starting point for me and yeah. I just felt really good. 6 (7m 51s): Yeah. I mean, it's interesting that you went straight to drop D so you must've been into what have you music at the time, 8 (7m 56s): A 6 (7m 57s): Reason to have your music 8 (7m 58s): Somewhat. I mean, I, I was more like into like pop punk and I'm like point 6 (8m 7s): That's what I love. I still, to this day 8 (8m 10s): That's been my, like the <inaudible> trip through lockdown. It's just pretty much going back and listening to all this mid two thousands. Like Amaras stuff, 6 (8m 19s): The records that you, I'm just curious because I love that it's that genre. So what, what were your, some of your favorites? 8 (8m 27s): Yeah, well like fallout boy and my cam, I think corsetry. And if I were like two of the big albums to me when I was growing up and yeah, all of my cam there's heaps of other stuff, I guess like from first to last as well. Gorgeous. I can't, I there's so many that I can't. 6 (8m 48s): Yeah, right now I'm not going to put you on the spot. 8 (8m 53s): Yeah. From there, it was just kind of trying to just ride, I think with the acoustic, I was trying to just write acoustic music at that point too, but still kind of with the emo tinge to it. So I guess 6 (9m 7s): I, then I think dashboard rights and I'll drop D even though he's got the pretty voice and the, you know, kind of the higher ends, but, and somebody told me he's his tuning is like all, like I don't, I, it was something along the lines of like, he almost tunes every string to D or like some weird, like 8 (9m 26s): Open D situation, 6 (9m 28s): Some bizarre tuning. And, but it's interesting. Cause you can have dropped you obviously be very heavy and like dark and, and, but then his, you listened to like, you know, screaming, infidelities and you're like, oh, okay. This is a pretty song. 8 (9m 44s): You can do anything with drop Damon. 6 (9m 47s): That's awesome. So you're doing acoustic stuff. How old are you at this point? 8 (9m 52s): This is me maybe 13, 14. And yeah, from there actually I had a music teacher in the music class who I wasn't doing music at, in high school at this point, but she'd heard me singing at this school performance and had a group of kids like in the year below me who had started a rock band and like needed a singer. And yeah, she's like, do you want to maybe try singing for these guys? So yeah. I went to the music room at lunchtime and hung out with these guys and they were playing hell song by some 41. 8 (10m 35s): I was like, okay, this is, this is interesting. This isn't. Yeah. I don't know. I hadn't thought about starting like a punky or pop punk kind of band thing. I was just trying to play music or do whatever really. I wasn't really thinking about the broader scope of what a band would be, but that would then turn into yeah. Like my first band out of, out of high school, kind of that band or a form of that band kind of stuck around until I was like done in high school and that's kind of where I started building up my musicality, I guess. 6 (11m 8s): Sure. And then did you continue what playing in bands or for awhile there? 8 (11m 13s): Yeah. So I actually moved school like for the last couple of years of high school and met a few other like-minded people there and started a slightly more like heavy, like, like I like to call it rise, call from back in the day. There's all those bands that came from rise that had a very, Yeah, we were just trying to write like that kind of music kind of Memphis may fire kind of breakdown, silly music of that era, but which I still love as well. 6 (11m 47s): Yeah. Matty Mullins is a neighbor. Is my neighbor 8 (11m 50s): A legend. That's also, 6 (11m 53s): It's pretty funny. 8 (11m 55s): Yeah, no, I still sweat some of those early Memphis may fire out, but even then just kind of fallen off of the heavy scene a bit. But yeah, it's, that was kinda my first little, that was my first serious issue thing coming out of school. I was like, okay. I could maybe go play some shows and go up the east coast trying to do this for a little while. Yeah. That's yeah. I think there's always been some kind of musical thing that kind of followed whatever I was doing before, after that I was in another kind of emailing band that was like piece of Vail meets panic at the disco. 8 (12m 35s): Okay. And that would have been like the last thing I did before joining north lane, actually. 6 (12m 40s): Okay. And, and with, with the band, were you a fan of the band prior to joining them? Like, I mean they needed, you came in with, on the third record. 8 (12m 51s): Yeah. So they released two albums already and kind of made a, somewhat a name for themselves around the place. And yeah, that was incredibly scary. I, I had was a big fan actually of that previous album of singularity. And there was a time where me and my friends would just kind of get together, like after school or whatever, and just watch the quantum flux music video and just be like shocked by the, by the riff, by the, by the drums in it and just be like sweating this band to my friends. So yeah, it was incredibly surreal to then find myself like actually on the day that they announced that they were looking for a new vocalist. 8 (13m 38s): I had like a friend messaged me, but I also had Josh, our guitarist messaged me saying that he'd had a bunch of people recommend me to try out. So it was just really surreal to like never really have not really have a relationship with them personally or anything in, in our world that we might've crossed over in. But then to have him would have Josh messaged me, asking me to try and join out, joining the insight. 6 (14m 3s): Yeah. I mean, how incredible it is as a fan of the band. And then, I mean, that must've been kind of a big shoes to fill, I would think. Was it weird, like coming into a band yeah. That you is established, they've got some things going on and then it's, I mean, not the sound like all the other members of a band or an important, but like the voice of the band and like the guy fronting the band, you've got to kind of take that slot. Correct. 8 (14m 31s): Absolutely. And I, I think it's quite interesting north end had kind of built a certain reputation up, particularly with the old vocalist. And I think it took quite a while for people to get over that and to get past that, that I was this new guy with a pretty different style to, to Adrian. Yeah. And for me that would just meant like, okay, look, I'm never going to be the same voice as, as they previously had, but all I can do is just try my best, do the best I can and put as much effort into what I'm doing as I can. 8 (15m 12s): And hopefully as time goes on, people kind of see them. I'm not here to try and, you know, make a name for myself off what people have already made. I'm trying to build something new and push this even further. Because I think for a lot of people, they thought it was a matter of me just kind of coming in and being like, all right, well, this is, this is my party. Now this is what we're going to do. It's going to be all singing, no screaming anymore. It's going to be really soft and blah, blah, blah. Whereas that's not at all what I was coming in to do. I was just trying to fit into what the boys wanted in the music. And I guess what made sense to me as well, 6 (15m 52s): Did you like have to submit some sort of, I, from what I was reading online, they had people submit like videos or something like that. Did you do that? Or 9 (16m 2s): The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharger home with supersonic wifi, it's ultra fast and incredibly powerful with the ability to connect hundreds of devices at once, go to infinity.com/supersonic to learn more restrictions, apply actual speeds, vary. You're not guaranteed. The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharge your home with supersonic wifi connect, hundreds of devices at once. And experience three times the bandwidth for more reliable connections with advanced security that blocks billions of threats at home. And now on the go it's game-changing next level, wifi only from <inaudible> go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions, apply actual speeds, vary and not guaranteed. 9 (16m 49s): The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharger home with supersonic wifi, it's ultra fast and incredibly powerful with the ability to connect hundreds of devices at once, go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions apply actual speeds, vary. You're not guaranteed. 8 (17m 5s): Yeah. So I think a couple of them are on, on YouTube still. We, they had everyone do an audition of two songs, quantum flux in dream awake, or you could choose from one of the two songs and I did dream awake and I think I took quite a different approach to it than a lot of the other people auditioning had done. Whereas I just, I just kinda sang a lot of it, which I think is also where people kind of came up with the idea that I was just gonna come in and just sing over everything. And there wouldn't be any screaming or anything like that. But I guess I was trying to show a different side of what, you know, what a song could be, I guess, if I was to be in and yeah, they were really into it and then asked me to try writing, writing my own vocals over one of their instrumental songs. 8 (18m 2s): And once again, they w they seem to be into it. And yeah, here I am, I guess, 6 (18m 9s): Did that instrumental make the, that node record or no. 8 (18m 13s): No. So that instrumental, it was a singularity, it was like the title track from the previous album. It was more just like a matter of, yeah, you you're familiar with this song that we've already put out, but then what would you do if you had the option, 6 (18m 26s): You added vocals to it? Ah, I understand. That's interesting. 8 (18m 31s): Quite strange because yeah, I'd never listened to that song. I'd ever thought of it with vocals in mind before. Yeah. This audition thing came up and it's just like a weird it's. It was a cool way of doing it to be honest. Like, I didn't think, I would've thought that would be a good idea. 6 (18m 48s): Right. It's kind of a bold move, especially if you're a fan of the band, it's like, okay, this song is already done. It's on the record that I like. And now they want me to put lyrics in like a melody, you know, singing to it. 8 (19m 0s): You want me to take ownership of it now? Something isn't mine, but I'll do my best. 6 (19m 6s): Right, right. Wow. With, I mean, just like getting, you know, you're in the band and then like, are you playing shows right away or do you, are you guys working on that record that you ended up, you know, on the note album? Was that the first priority or was it okay, this record's done. We need to play some shows and get you in front of our fans. And then are you having to just sing the, you know, previous records? 8 (19m 32s): So the timeline of everything, it was pretty much like I joined the band, we got together and started writing a rod, which was the first song I put out and was kind of the reveal of the new vocalist for everyone before we headed out on tour. And then it was maybe like six weeks or something. Maybe, maybe two months between me joining the band, us having to like rehearse and get prepared for two a which, which my first tour with Northland was heading to Europe for 25 days in a row or 25 shows in a row, no days off with Parkway drive, having Shelburne and con effects. 8 (20m 17s): Wow. So, and obviously, and being from Australia as well, like Parkway is such an iconic band for us and influential band for anyone who playing heavy music in Australia. So for me to becoming into this band that I like was already a fan of then going on to, with one of like my favorite heavy bands from Australia ever, we haven't shall burn and current effects as well. Never having done like a, to have that long. That was absolutely terrifying. And then we, I think we went straight, we went home, played like a little festival here is like the reveal for Australia U S to play. Yeah. Second to with north ends, August burns, red headline to America. 8 (20m 60s): So a big way to be joining the band and then straight into recording node. We went, as soon as that two were finished, we had yeah. Jumped on the bus and went to New Jersey record with will Putney. That's crazy. I think we were chipping away at music on the tour and trying to figure out what we do and when we get to the studio, but just because there was so much going on, like, I don't think we really, we didn't really lock down too much before we got into the studio. And I think a lot of the album kind of came together, at least for me, vocal in trying to make that match the music that kind of came along together in the studio. 6 (21m 42s): Yeah. I would imagine being more. Yeah. You're probably kind of overwhelmed and focused on everything else. Right. Okay. You're the new vocalist for this band. You gotta know the songs you're coming out to these crowds that you have to win over essentially with, you know, they might've been a fan before and it's like, okay, now I got to come out and kind of prove myself to these people. And now we need to write a record and we have this one song that I kind of helped with or helped write. And we have an album talking about pressure. I mean, w what is it hard to, to kind of handle all that right away? 8 (22m 16s): Absolutely. I think as well with, with Adrian and the previous vocalist, he had a very particular style of lyric writing, which was very a spiritual and kind of, I dunno, a bit open to interpretation in a, in a kind of psychedelic way, I guess, which was something that like, I like really enjoyed listening to, but it wasn't the kind of thing I'd ever written before. And I just always felt coming into the band that I didn't want to feel like whatever I was writing was going to be like, how did this disjointed feeling to what north end had done prior? So I didn't really know what to do in terms of lyric writing. 8 (22m 59s): At that point, I was leaning on Josh guitars quite a lot. And, and Putney as well, kind of had a big hand in kind of guiding us through the vocal process on node. Yeah. It was a lot of pressure because I think as well, once again, people might've expected me to just come in and start writing like email lyrics and 6 (23m 23s): Totally not. 8 (23m 26s): Yeah. Yeah. So for me, I just wanted to make sure that I wasn't kind of destroying any legacy, but still kind of managing the, put my own spin on things, which was, yeah. Quite a difficult process. And I was stressing out a lot in the studio. I was stressed out every time we go into the studio that I I'm very good at doubting my myself. So, but that was definitely the most stressful point. Cause I think I also got, I got like food poisoning the first couple of weeks. So I was like, wow. In the toilet, just exploding. And then, yeah, I was just, I was wrecked by then. 8 (24m 9s): Cause I was just like, I'd never done any kind of extensive touring like that and had never been, I'd never been overseas before I joined north lane. I, so 6 (24m 18s): Yeah, you're experiencing so many new things all at one time. Wow. 8 (24m 23s): Yeah, it was quite, it was to be honest, it was like a blur for a good few years. Cause I was just kind of on the north lane train, just seeing where it took me. And at some point we kind of were able to slow down and I was like, wait, what have we just done? Like, I just played it like a couple of years of like European festivals and, and going to Europe like twice, twice every year for the last couple of years. And it's just like this from going from doing nothing like that to like the most, almost as much as you could possibly do, kind of took me out of feeling too stressed about like what people would think. 8 (25m 3s): I was just like, I was going to do it. 6 (25m 5s): We're like, yeah, going right. Just going forward at that point. You wow. Then, I mean, what a validating way to, to kind of put your stamp on the band with the first record. I mean, it goes number one in Australia. 8 (25m 22s): Yeah. That was, that was really a dumb to me for that to happen. And at this point as well, we've, we've received three REO rewards, which is like our equivalent of 6 (25m 38s): Grabbing 8 (25m 40s): In the, in the hard rock category. And that was not anything I ever thought would happen. Like I'd never thought playing, especially playing yeah. Like heavy music. That that would be something that I would have on my like mantle or whatever is an award for her writing. A heavy album is so insane to my brain 6 (26m 2s): And 8 (26m 4s): Yeah, just having that support from kind of from day one, I mean, there were a lot of people who were a bit off it and had allegiance to the old sound, but as time's going on and stuff has kind of snowballed people, who've just been constantly yeah. Just really positive about everything we've been doing and kind of, we've been building a, I suppose like a new fan base in a different direction, I guess. 6 (26m 30s): Yeah. It will end. I mean, you've been in the band longer than, than the other guy was right. He had his on two records and now this is your fourth album coming out and I mean to come out the gate with a number one record says a lot. 8 (26m 47s): Yeah. Still doesn't make sense to me because I, yeah, I think because that album is so surrounded with like stress and like not being sure of what we're doing, it's, it's hard for me to feel that that's what is a deserving award or a milestone to have reach, but I don't know I'm yeah, that's me just being negative. 6 (27m 13s): I think it's a huge accomplishment. And, and what a way to kind of come out the gate and validate yourself in a band that was had, it was already established, but then to kind of elevate them to the next level, that's really an amazing thing to kind of accomplish there. 8 (27m 28s): So, 6 (27m 29s): So from that record, like what would the next album you guys put out? What, what would you say like a milestone for it would be 9 (27m 36s): The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from Xfinity supercharge your home with supersonic wifi connect hundreds of devices at once and experienced three times the bandwidth for more reliable connections with advanced security that blocks billions of threats at home. And now on the go it's game, changing next level, wifi only from Xfinity go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions, apply actual speeds, vary and not guaranteed. The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharger home with supersonic wifi, it's ultra fast and incredibly powerful with the ability to connect hundreds of devices at once. 9 (28m 19s): Go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions apply actual speeds, vary. You're not guaranteed. 10 (28m 24s): Turn any day into a parte with amazing cocktails made with Stella Rosa wines, like the tropical Stella Rosa Rita mix, Stella Rosa pineapple with orange liquor, tequila, guava juice and lime juice shake. What your mama gave you then pour over ice and enjoy. Find more delicious drink recipes@stellarosawines.com slash cocktails, 11 (28m 50s): Stella Rosa, 10 (28m 51s): Stella bright, responsibly, 8 (28m 56s): Well Mesmer was for me the first, what was like the first step in me feeling comfortable writing my own kind of lyrics and writing from my own experience. Yeah. That's I guess the other kind of north lane train just kept going and it was still full, full speed ahead for everything like touring and whatever it was. But I still wasn't quite sure where I stood in terms of what I was going to write about and yeah, like how I kind of bring my own, bring my own voice into what we're doing, but we worked with David Bender on that record. 8 (29m 37s): And for me, he really helped. He really helped me with my confidence in writing. Yeah. Writing from my own experience in writing stuff. That meant something to me. And there's two songs that he and I kind of sat in a room and, and put together together, which was heart machine and fade and there, yeah, a lot more personal and a lot more directed at like my own experience than anything I'd written with Northland or been involved with with nothing before that. And those songs seem to do, like, it seemed just to connect with the fans a lot, not a lot more, but a lot in a lot more personal of a way than anything we'd done before. 8 (30m 24s): So for me, that was just kind of a good confidence boost to then try and push that even further as we move forward with new music. 6 (30m 36s): I think that vulnerability, 8 (30m 37s): Yeah, I think cause that's yeah, like I said earlier, coming from being a fan of like emo and like that, oh my goodness. Early era, like pop like earlier, like mid two thousands pop honk, like that's the kind of lyrics I like writing and like to listen to and connect to. And I just had to find that way to transition those kinds of things into Northland's music, without it being unnatural. And yeah, this was kind of that first step for me. I think kind of being able to talk about stuff that might be a bit darker and a bit more personal and a bit more hard to listen to, but that meant a lot more to me I think. 6 (31m 19s): Yeah. And I mean, you continued with that on the alien record as well. I mean, bloodline, if that's a heavy song in itself right there. 8 (31m 28s): Yeah. A hundred percent. That's where it all kind of led to. I was like, okay, now that I've done this, I mean, I've kind of been given permission to push this as far as I want it now, now that I've been with the band, as long as I have at that point and people people know what to expect of me somewhat, they kind of getting to know me a bit better. Yeah. Now I can talk about yeah. These things that I never really have ever gotten the chance to talk about in music, which is, yeah. So talking about my upbringing in a, in a bit of a sketchy household yeah. For lack of a better term, 6 (32m 7s): I mean talking about again, a vulnerable thing to do to get, to kind of come out and put that all out there for everybody to eat. I mean, it's not like your band, it was a small, you're not a small band. Right. So you're, you're putting this out here and there's millions of people that are going to hear this story and, and, but that's amazing that they're, you know, that's what people are connecting to. And I think it's just the, yeah. Just being raw and real with it. 8 (32m 37s): Yeah. That's, that's the music I've connected with most yeah. Is personal stuff. And even if it starts saying, I relate to directly it's, it's someone being vulnerable and I mean, not pretending everything's okay. Cause a lot of the time it's, it's not, I mean, it's kind of, you're doing yourself a disservice to not acknowledge that or try and unpack that in a healthy way or in a way that helps you understand it better. And yeah, that's what I really love about music as well as being able to express those feelings in, in a way that's like creative, but also lets out so much energy through yeah. 8 (33m 17s): Whether it's screaming or singing or whatever, it's, it's just such a wild release, 6 (33m 22s): Like a therapeutic moment for you I guess. 8 (33m 25s): Absolutely. 6 (33m 27s): And both like, I mean, since you've been in the band, all the records have been nominated or won. Right. You've won an award for the heavy metal or heavy album of the year and the aria awards. I mean, that's crazy. 8 (33m 43s): It's crazy. I mean, I feel like if we were in the same year as Parkway drive, we wouldn't win. So we've been really lucky with our draw there, 6 (33m 53s): But still, I mean three in a row. 8 (33m 56s): Yeah. No, 6 (33m 56s): I guess we're hoping for right with this new one. 8 (33m 58s): Yeah. We'll see how we go this year. It's yeah. I'm, I'm incredibly, incredibly proud of all of that because yeah. Like I said, it's, it's such an odd thing in the heavy music world to kind of get that acknowledgement from like the, the more widespread music community, not just your scene, I guess it's it's really, yeah. Surreal to be honest, that that being said, like, I don't know. I think people kind of expect us to be like, oh now we're award-winning, we're an award-winning pair. That's so sick. But like to us, that is kind of the just little trophies, you know, they're not, they're not the thing we were trying to be in a band for to get an award. 8 (34m 44s): Like we didn't start a metal band or a heavy band to be like, okay, now we're going to be a number one band. Like we're going to be at the top of this now it's oh yeah, for sure. Like that's not what we were trying to ever achieve. It's just an awesome acknowledgement that people around Australia are involved in a part of it and into it really surreal 6 (35m 6s): That's yeah. It's so amazing with, with alien in that album where you guys, I mean, you put the record on 2019, how much were you able to, I mean, it came out what the end of the year, right? August 8 (35m 22s): Of 6 (35m 23s): 2019, I think. 8 (35m 24s): Yeah. 6 (35m 25s): So then you have like September, October, November, December, and then we start getting into 2020 where the world kind of closes. Like, did you get, were you able to do a big enough tour or support the record in the way that you hoped? 8 (35m 38s): Yeah. Luckily I feel like we did get to get, and most of all we wanted done, I think we might've had a one more us tour that was booked and maybe had to get canceled before it got announced. But besides that, I think most of the touring for the album at least was pretty close to being done. Yeah. We, we were lucky, we were one of the bands that released an album in like March of 2020, and then didn't get to tour it at all that we were really lucky that we avoided anything like that, which would have sucked for anyone who did go through that. But I mean, obviously we would still like to have to it through the last couple of years and do other stuff or, or maybe release this album sooner. 8 (36m 25s): There's a lot of stuff that is kind of messed us up a little bit over the lockdown period, but we're still, yeah, just lucky that we were able to still give alien the live fit deserved, I think. 6 (36m 37s): And you did a documentary over the lockdown, right. Did that, where does that filmed around the same time or was that all happening or was that prior? 8 (36m 47s): Is that the negative energy? That was so we filmed that at the oh yeah. While we're on tour for the album. So for, 6 (36m 57s): Okay, so that was shot on tour. You just put it out when, yeah. When you guys got back and then so when you get back from the road and it's 2020, and how do you adapt? Like what, at that point, what are you guys all thinking and, and how do you move forward? 8 (37m 12s): Yeah. Well, for me at least I really struggled too. I don't know. At first I was like, okay, cool. We've got time to write music and, and be creative and use this as a time of inspiration. Not, not kind of like, don't look at this as a bad thing. Look at it as a good thing, but a few months in like, or it was just like, where do you draw inspiration when nothing's happening? And everything's kind of up in the air and everything's uncertain. So I mean, we, we knew we needed to start working on new music and John always is, he's always ready to go with that kind of thing. 8 (37m 56s): Like he would just be experimenting with sounds as, yeah, as we're kind of getting to the end of an album cycle, he'll just start working on stuff and eventually send us a little demos and stuff when he's ready. But for me, I was just like, can't, I don't know what to write about. I don't know what to talk about. Cause for me, I've always wanted to try and put like a positive spin on things like, and not just leave things sour and negative, but everything I was trying to write was, yeah, it was like that. I was just kind of not feeling good, not feeling like, like I knew what was happening or like, I didn't know where we were going to be in a year or two years or knowing that it was going to be two years until we played a show. 8 (38m 45s): Like there's all these different parts that like I really struggled with, which kind of then turned into what the album is about subject wise. It is just quite a negative inward. Look at me. Just kind of struggling with, I guess, navigating the world at the moment. Yeah. 6 (39m 7s): Yeah. I mean, I, I've heard artists talk about this similar subject where it's, you know, the pandemic happens and you know, you've got a lot of time on here as you want to write a record and it's like, how inspired can you be if you're not. 8 (39m 21s): Yeah. 6 (39m 21s): Like you hear it out living life. Right. I mean, you're just kinda okay. Hanging out. So I, yeah, I'd imagine that being very hard to 8 (39m 31s): Yeah. Get creative. It was good in a way, like to focus on like your home life. Like obviously just being here with my partner, it felt like I was kind of settling into like a very simple life of just, you know, making dinner and walking the dog and doing that kind of stuff was kind of nice, but it just made me realize how much, like I need to be having this release of energy by playing shows and, and interacting with people at a show and just feeling like I'm doing what I'm kind of meant to be doing. 6 (40m 6s): I mean, how big of a moment are you guys like to, to have the song chosen for the Tom Clancy game? Was that a huge deal for you? Or are you guys video gamers? 8 (40m 15s): Absolutely. Yeah. I'm not coordinated at court or can kind of stay coordinated enough to play a rainbow six. I don't think there's a bit too much going on for me. I'm a bit more of a fortnight boy. I gave it, I gave it a bit of a tribe when we went in. Yeah. We got announced for that. The rest of the guys are a lot more handy or 6 (40m 37s): Are they big gamers or do they play that game? I guess be the, 8 (40m 41s): I think Nick, like Nick is John likes to game as well. I think we're all pretty different in what we like to play there, but I think, yeah, Nick, Nick would probably be the primary 6 (40m 52s): Primarily gamer, but that's such a cool thing. What a cool moment to have. 8 (40m 57s): Yeah, absolutely. Like it's I mean, despite, well, besides that, it's just interesting to have a song. Like I just, you remember when you would play a video game when you were younger, like if it was like burnout or need for speed and just hearing new music on that, like that's where I would find a lot of new music or not new music, I guess, but 6 (41m 20s): He could discover bands from there. I mean, FIFA always has a great soundtrack. Madden would have good sound like the sports games would have great ones. The Tony Hawk games. 8 (41m 32s): Yeah. It was an era when those so much like metal alternative music in those games and to be a kind of a part of that journey of someone may be discovering something new that they hadn't ever even considered through. Just a game they enjoy. That's really exciting. 6 (41m 49s): Yeah. It's a, it's so cool now to see. I mean, I obviously it was happening before. Like I remember when I heard it thrice on Madden, my like my, I was like, cause I was a fan of that and I'm like, oh my gosh, like they've made it to the point where they're on this video game. That was like so crazy to me. And, but now like with, with Fortnite, as you said, you know, or some of the other games that are happening that became real big over the quarantine, you'd see these bands, like, you know, we're breaking, not breaking, but like they're coming out on these games and it was crazy to see like what 8 (42m 24s): Even on, in Fortnite, like I've heard architects and stuff pop up on the like radio in the car or whatever. 6 (42m 31s): Right. It's crazy. 8 (42m 32s): Yeah. Like who knows, who's going to hear that someone who's never heard of architects before and just suddenly they're like, oh, this is cool. I might check out what this is. And maybe I'll be a fan of this band. Now there's so many opportunities for someone new to find your music through something like that. It really awesome. 6 (42m 51s): Yeah. Well tell me about this new record. It's coming out. What next in About a month? Yeah. A few weeks ago. 8 (42m 59s): Yeah. So yeah, I'm excited. It's been, it's been a long time coming. We recorded this about a year ago now and yeah, like I said, it's kind of, kind of a look at my experience trying to navigate going through the last couple of years. And I guess also trying to step away from the more like detailed, personal aspect of like alien and trying to be a bit more broad with what I'm talking about in the end. I feel like we've all gone through pretty much the same thing. 8 (43m 43s): I'm not speaking about being trapped in lockdown as if it's like a unique experience. So for me, this album at first, I didn't want, yeah, like I said, I didn't want to be writing this negative thing, but the longer that kind of things went the way they did, I just couldn't help. But find myself just, I don't know, unlocking or like unpacking the things that I was going through and, and the emotions I was feeling and just the idea of everything being pretty crap. And it's not really gotten any better in a long time. And I guess just trying to deal with that. 8 (44m 23s): Yeah. Was mama. 6 (44m 26s): Yeah. I was the record done. When, when bass player left the band did, he was completed. He, I don't know if you want to get into this. I'm just curious. 9 (44m 39s): The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharge your home with supersonic wifi connect, hundreds of devices at once. And experience three times the bandwidth for more reliable connections with advanced security that blocks billions of threats at home. And now on the go it's game-changing next level, wifi only from Xfinity go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions, apply actual speeds, vary and are guaranteed. The next generation of wifi technology is here and it's only from infinity supercharger home with supersonic wifi, it's ultra fast and incredibly powerful with the ability to connect hundreds of devices at once. 9 (45m 21s): Go to <inaudible> dot com slash supersonic to learn more restrictions apply actual speeds, vary in not guaranteed. 8 (45m 26s): Oh no, that's all good. Yeah. He left before we got into the studio. Yeah. He kind of left towards the end or he left off to the like last two as we did just cause I think even before COVID he was kind of feeling like touring wasn't for him. I think he came and he joined Northlight after being in a touring band for so long. And he used to think like, I don't want to tour anymore, but he had this urge to do it again. And I think he might've just jumped in a bit too soon again. And wasn't Yeah. Which is totally fair as well being the only, like he was from Toronto. 8 (46m 9s): So being a Canadian, having to come to Australia for, to have the cop that jet lag and have to like rehearse and then be stuck somewhere. You're not familiar with for like three weeks. And like, it made sense like being the only person kind of being thrown out of their comfort zone. So yeah. So this was a primarily, just yeah, the four of us or it was the four of us, which is, I guess not too, too big a change. Cause that's almost how it was before. 6 (46m 44s): Right. It kind of was there, it wasn't like a change, the writing process or anything like that. 8 (46m 50s): Yeah. So there wasn't too. It wasn't too bad of a transition out of that. I don't think we weren't too, too worried, but yeah. That's that was still all, there's still all this other tension that was 6 (47m 3s): Externally. 8 (47m 5s): Yeah. 6 (47m 6s): Did, did you guys record the record in Sydney? 8 (47m 9s): We recorded it in Melbourne or in Victoria in a place called Mount Dandenong, which is maybe like an hour and a half, two hour drive from Melbourne And yeah, we rented an Airbnb place, which it seems like it was accommodation for like a wedding reception type thing might have, like it had like six, six rooms and like a cinema in a bar and stuff. And we just flew Chris Ben Carter. Who's the engineer on obsidian. 8 (47m 50s): And one of our old friends from, from pretty much from when Northland started, we flew him up to Melbourne and set up a studio in the cinema. John set up like a little guitar tracking station in his room. I set up a vocal tracking area in my room and we all kind of just chipped away at our own different things up in, up in the Dandenongs. 6 (48m 15s): Wow. Is that a process that you guys would do again or do you prefer more of a doing the studio? 8 (48m 26s): I enjoyed it. I think maybe. Yeah. I mean, maybe not that place again, but I think it's always good to kind of get a new perspective when you're recording or writing, but to be honest, yeah. I think we've always tried to do something like to record in different places and try and get a new experience out of it. I think the guys have recorded with partnering a couple of times before I joined, but I've only recorded with him once and every album has been different for me. So yeah, I didn't, I didn't necessarily prefer this any less or more. I kind of felt a lot of pressure doing the vocal stuff, like recording it myself. 8 (49m 6s): So I don't know if I'd want to do that again. That being said like, yeah, I'm really proud of what we've done up there and what I was able to record there as well, just cause you know, when you're doing vocals stuff and or yeah, you're doing vocal stuff and it's, you can be very particular about what you want it to sound like. And if you know what you're doing, you could just do it. But if you're trying to explain it to someone else, like it, it's, it's so hard to get that message across. So for me it was like a win, win, lose kind of thing. I was like, okay, I get to do what I want with it, but I also have to do all the work. So that's a bit stressful. 6 (49m 44s): Sure, sure. I like I've interviewed will Putney before. He's a great guy. Oh, that's cool that you had a chance to do at least do the one record with him. And I'm actually just curious real quick. Was it hard kind of going, I mean, I know there's a lot of motions going on around that first album and kind of everything that had happened and was it w you know, going in and you knew that they had done the two records prior with him, was it like, was that a know, like a hard dynamic for you to kind of go in and be like, okay, he's used to recording this other guy and this first two records, and now he's going to record me. Like, was that even something that crossed your mind? 8 (50m 22s): Yeah, definitely. I mean, but that's, I'm sure there was nothing like, yeah, nothing going on there. That's just me being paranoid me. 6 (50m 31s): Yeah. I mean, I would have been paranoid that's I guess, where I was going with. 8 (50m 37s): Yeah. Like I, yeah, like I've always had that same kind of like attachment to singularity that I'm sure a lot of old north end fans have, and that comes out of them recording with partners. And to me, I'm like, yeah, am I ever going to live up to what he might expect of me recorded singularity? Am I going to ever live up to that? 6 (51m 3s): You exceeded it. 8 (51m 6s): You made it really like comfortable to be honest. Like he was such an awesome dude and definitely made sure it didn't make me at all feel like some new guy, like just trying to do the bit, like, he, he definitely realized I was like stressing out and then helped me kind of find my way through that. The only thing that was like, funny about recording with partners, he just, I just, because, you know, being an American, he would see the music being consumed by the American audience. So then sometimes ask me to sing words with an American accent. And I'm like, that's not how I'd sing it. 8 (51m 47s): I would never sing it like that. People, people might not understand you if you don't do that. And I'm like, yeah, but then my voice disappears. So there's a little bit of a very minor clash there, but That's fine. Yeah. That's like the only thing I remember being kind of funny, cause it was like, I just wouldn't, I wouldn't sing like that. I wouldn't say I wouldn't put that really exaggerated R on something or whatever. It might be interesting. 6 (52m 15s): It's really fascinating. Yeah. Yeah. Just thinking about accents and how that would all kind of comes into play too, when you are. Yeah. Like you said, recording with a guy from the, from the states, that's like, well, I wouldn't say it that way. Well, yeah. Cause you're not from, or yeah. You're not the same accent as V 8 (52m 32s): Yeah. He's looking at it also by the, how people hear it, which I think is like also really interesting. And I think in some, in some places it might make sense to seeing something a certain way. Well, like this isn't about singing, but there's a lyric in a song called enemy of the night where we would call, we would call like a petrol station or a gas station. Yeah. Petrol station. Whereas around the world, it's different. You might call it a service station or 6 (53m 3s): Whatever. 8 (53m 4s): So like for me, I was, I spent a lot of time on that lyric being like, what do I, which one do I use, which is going to be the most universal for people to be actual, like, to be able to understand just we, those kinds of cultural differences that you got to have to think about. 6 (53m 21s): And it's interesting. I wouldn't, I've never thought about that, but when you are riding at kind of have to find the most broad sense of the term. Cause obviously there's a lot of slang, not even slang, but words that mean the same thing that you would use in a different like, like I've noticed with a lot of people that you talk to that are from Australia, say loads or the UK, they load loads of this. And in 71 I'm like, yeah, there's a ton of this. You know, it's like just the same thing. It's not, 8 (53m 52s): We don't use ton as like a, a form of measurement in Australia or like, not as much as only we know we do. 6 (53m 59s): Yeah. But we would just be like, oh, there's a bunch. Like we got there, there's a bunch of blah, blah, blah. When it's like loads of blah, blah, blah. And I noticed in like UK, they do that as well. But I love that. I wish I said that I should start because I think it sounds way cooler and cleaner than what we, we do over here. 8 (54m 21s): Vocabulary. Yeah. 6 (54m 23s): I love it. Well, thank you so much for doing this Marcus. I mean, this has been awesome. I appreciate you being so flexible with yesterday. I mean, we had some bizarre weather and tornado warnings and all that. 8 (54m 34s): Well, glad you glad you came out of that. Okay. Was, yeah, that's pretty hectic. We don't get that when they get to what it is over here. So I wouldn't want to know what that's like. 6 (54m 42s): It's crazy. Cause I w yeah, my family, we were from Southern California in San Diego, lived there for our, basically our whole lives. And from California, we moved to Nashville a year ago, last February. And we never experienced anything like tornadoes before here. And it's just like, either the sirens are going off. And then it's like, I'm sure that a lot of the people that live here or grew up here are probably like, you guys are freaking out 8 (55m 9s): Another one, don't worry about it, 6 (55m 11s): Where it's like, and then we're in this neighborhood, Facebook group and trying to like, you know, on Twitter looking. And it's like, it's one of those things where it gets dicey because there's a lot of people who have moved here in recent years from other places in the country that aren't comfortable with it yet either. So everyone's kind of on the same like uneasy page. But I bet if I called up somebody that I knew had lived here for 15 years, they'd be like, you're all right, dude. Like, don't worry about it. 8 (55m 39s): I didn't budge. They didn't budge yesterday. 6 (55m 41s): No, it was pretty equal. There was a lot coming up through like Alabama and you know, it coming up through the south and kind of dying out when they got here. I mean, the winds were gnarly. You could hear the house shaking on the winds, but it wasn't like tornado. We could've done this. So, but I appreciate you being flexible. 8 (56m 1s): Of course. Now my pleasure. Thanks. 6 (56m 3s): Yeah, I do have one more quick question for you. I want to know if you have any advice for aspiring artists 8 (56m 9s): Advice. Yeah. I mean, it's, I feel like the advice that we give, like anyone in my band gives is always so boring. Josh's like, go-to is just practice a lot. But yeah, I think for me, something that was, has always been important to me is just to be passionate and to always put like all of your effort into the thing you're passionate about for me, like I was, I've been playing music since I was yeah. 12 or 10, 12 ish dabbling and slowly building up my abilities. 8 (56m 51s): But I always had this thing where like I knew I didn't want to go overseas to travel, like just to, for leisure. I wanted to go overseas to play music and I didn't want to do anything besides playing music. And that meant like there was a lot of struggling like me trying to just get by making ends, meet, just trying to make this music thing work. And I think I was really lucky, but also I think what happened with Knorr thing was that they could see, even though I was in like a, more of a local band thing, just kind of doing the rounds, they could see how passionate I was for that, how much I wanted to be doing that and how much I brought to Northland, I guess as well. 8 (57m 37s): So for me, I think it's just so important that whatever you're focusing on doing in your life, whether that is creative musically or anything else is you like put all of what you are into that. Because I feel like if you're not putting a hundred percent into the thing you're passionate about, it's never going to happen or it's going to be really hard to make that happen. Because if you don't, yeah. If you're not focusing on it, you're, you're getting distracted and not thinking about pushing that as far as you can go to then, and also practice