HEAVY Music Interviews HEAVY Magazine

Interview by Kris Peters
Last year's The World Is A Vampire festival might have been promoted as an internationally led concert event headlined by The Smashing Pumpkins, but for me, it will forever be remembered as the first time I saw or heard a Sydney band called Battlesnake. After a continual chorus of praise for the band from one of my friends there, I reluctantly peeled myself off the comfy interview lounge and trudged to the main stage under duress from not getting my own way.
But by the time I got halfway there and heard the rumblings of deep, throbbing metal notes coupled with possibly a naughty word or two for effect, I suddenly had something else to focus on rather than my own petulance.
With a raw-sounding mix of huge Black Sabbath drenched riffs and the toughness and fortitude of Judas Priest in their prime, Battlesnake were systematically winning the crowd over one set of ears at a time. It was a brutal and welcome initiation to a band and music I hadn't even known existed just 12 hours earlier and I have followed the rise and rise of the band ever since.
So when the opportunity came knocking to have a chat with Samuel, Elliott and Dan preceding the release of their new album The Rise and Demise of the Motorsteeple I strapped myself in and prepared for war.
Battlesnake style.
"We've been sitting on it for a while, and we can't wait to share it with the world," Dan enthused when we ask him how they are feeling with the album so close to birth.
"There's so much going on," Elliott picked up. "I almost forgot we had the album coming out!"
"Same," echoed Dan and Sam.
"We're in the middle of organising the next Europe tour, and we've got all these launch events happening. It's really exciting, but yeah, I kinda almost forgot (laughs)."
Unable to hold our tongue any longer, HEAVY asks what the hell the name of the album actually means.
"It's pretty obvious," Sam deadpanned. "The Motorsteeple is this gigantic, colossal church on tank tracks that drives the waste eternally, and it has no brakes. The album is about the rise and demise of the motorsteeple. Pretty bleeding obvious…"
Seeing we got no sense out of any of them regarding the title, we try our luck asking about the album musically.
"I guess an expansion of the sound that we've been working on for a while," Elliott measured, "and some new, exciting flavours to come."
There's a few surprises that you will hear," Dan teased.
"We kind of branched a bit more out into the electronic thing," Elliott continued. "We've got an old-school dub chorus in one of the songs. I feel like we got super weird with it. Every time in the studio we thought no, it's too weird we probably shouldn't do that, we'd come back the next day and say nah that's fucken sick, we have to keep that. I think it's just proof that we need to keep getting weirder (laughs)."
In the full interview, the boys discuss how The Rise and Demise of the Motorsteeple differs musically to their self-titled debut album, their breakthrough success because of The World Is A Vampire tour, how they capitalised on that momentum moving forward, the challenges of writing the second album with more attention and expectation on them as a band, their musical inspirations, how and where to draw the line between imitation and inspiration, their recent European tour and plans to go back, how overseas crowds reacted to their live shows and sense of humour, the upcoming Australian tour and more.


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Interview by Kris Peters
My first introduction to Apocalyptica was in 2007 through the song I'm Not Jesus, which featured Slipknot vocalist Corey Taylor in an even more powerfully destructive performance than usual.
And that's saying something.
And that, in a nutshell, is the best thing about artists collaborating with different bands, often outside of their comfort zone. It allows music listeners a free pass, if you will, to be open to and listen to music they would normally discount all because another musician they love and respect is singing or playing on a song with them.
And so it was with Apocalyptica, who over the years have collaborated with Lacey Mosley (Flyleaf), Brent Smith (Shinedown), Dave Lombardo (Slayer) and Ville Valo (HIM) to name a few.
A three-piece instrumental cello band, Apocalyptica started life as a Metallica covers band, so it was only fitting that their 1996 debut album, Plays Metallica By Four Cellos, featured their own versions of Metallica songs.
Cello metal, if you will.
Since then Apocalyptica have released another nine studio albums, some cello versions of other band's music and others a mixture of covers and originals and some also solely original music, but it was their connection with - or more so their commanding performance of - Metallica songs that has connected Apocalyptica with much of their global fanbase.
Some are drawn to the reworkings of heavy metal classics because of the novelty value, some out of curiosity, and most by the fact that their versions and takes on a genre far removed from their own are breathtaking in their sonic beauty and suffocating in their musical density.
And so it is that Apocalyptica have returned to where they started for their tenth album, Apocalypotica Plays Metallica Vol 2, which came out on June 7. Featuring cello-driven versions of previously untouchable tracks like The Four Horsemen, Ride The Lightning and Blackened, the biggest - and possibly best - surprise on the album is the use of the actual bassline laid down by Cliff Burton on the original recording of The Call Of Ktulu.
HEAVY settled in for a chat with Apocalyptica's bandleader Eicca Toppinen to find out the story behind how that came to be and more.
"With all of Metallica's involvement in this album, we didn't think about it when we started working on it," he began. "All those ideas started to come up when we were working on the music, for example, The Call Of Ktulu is one of my favourite songs of all time from Metallica because the colours and the vibe of the song has something super powerful. Some years ago I realised that a lot of those sound elements in the song that I always loved and was always fascinated about, I realised they were actually made by bass. 
Then came the idea wouldn't it be so cool to get that bassline? Last spring I sent a message to Lars Ulrich and I said we're working on this album and I would like to have a call with you because there are a couple of ideas that are rising from the process. I talked to Lars and said, this is probably pretty crazy, but I was thinking we are working on The Call Of Ktulu, and it would be amazing if we could get that, and Lars said 'this is such a great idea. I love that you always have these out-of-the-box ideas, but I have no idea how to make it work' (laughs). Even he was like, that might be difficult. James needs to approve, then Cliff Burton's family needs to approve then we need to figure out what kind of contractual things there are, because the album was released in 1984 and the record company from that time might have some rights on the actual recording and stuff. 
Then things happened smoothly. I went to Sweden to see Metallica last Summer and was hanging out there all weekend and what happened was really cool. I was invited after the first show into this very casual dinner, and I'm sitting there with my girlfriend and Rob Trujillo is coming in, and he said...

Interview by Kris Peters
Golden Robot Global Entertainment is a worldwide brand that prides itself on being home to some of the most legendary bands and up-and-coming artists in the world. Starting with just one band in 2015, the company has expanded quickly to meet demand and spans a multitude of genres and styles. They are a truly global network, with bands such as Filter, Orgy, The Answer, Shepherd's Reign, Rose Tattoo and countless more on their successful roster.
But there is much more to Golden Robot Records than meets the eye, with Mark Alexander, Golden Robot Global Entertainment Manager, joining HEAVY to tell us about some exciting new developments that will benefit musicians and artists of all levels of experience and stature.
"Golden Robot Records started nearly ten years ago now," he began. "It basically started because my son was on Australia's Got Talent - he was about nine at the time, he's 21 now - and he nearly won the show. Coming out of the show, we thought, we don't want him to be a novelty. We want him to have some sort of legacy. So we put him together with a couple of great guys and fantastic musicians - Steve Balbi was one of them - and they made this great album. They called it Orbiter and the band was called Moon. When I shopped that around, nobody was interested, nobody gave a shit. So I thought, you know what? I'm gonna do this myself. I'd given everybody a little present to thank them, a little golden robot, and when it was time to name the company we named it Golden Robot Records. We started off hard. We were signing some great bands in the States and Europe. I was working with Derek Shulman, who was the ex-president of Roadrunner Records, and him and I went along and got involved in quite a lot of things from about 2015, and we just kept growing. (but) this is a different year for us. We've had the hits and misses over the years. We've had some things that have gone to number one. We've had some things that have been a disaster, but that's the business. The good thing about being an Aussie and working in the global world is if you make a mistake, you can apologise and fix it and get on with it. If you're doing something well, we'll celebrate it with you. It served its purpose, and it served us well, and we've worked with some great bands. We've got global distribution through physical and digital - and we've just changed recently to an even better set up - great PR, great marketing people. My team today is the best it's ever been. We've had a few changes over the last six months, and I've got a really good team that just gets on with it. We're just in it for the music and to get the word out about Aussie music across the world. It's exciting."
In the full interview, Mark tells us about the new developments at Golden Robot Records including Robot Distro, how to best get your music out there for mass consumption, what sorts of things a band should have done as a unit before seeking representation, how to successfully negotiate the music industry, how this all helps Australian bands and music, their new singing with rock band ORGY, future developments and more.


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Interview by Kris Peters
Australian music was a melting pot of talent in the early 90s with bands like Tumbleweed, Regurgitator, Spiderbait, Magic Dirt and the Superjesus planting the initial seeds that would see them still knocking crowds dead to this day - some 30 years later.
Punk upstarts the Hard-Ons were also a major player in the thriving scene, but it is an offshoot of that band - formed after internal bickering led to one of the band's many breakups - called Nunchukka Superfly who made perhaps the biggest impact of them all despite never releasing an album and disbanding after a few short years.
In that time Nunchukka Superfly - Ray Ahn and Peter Black from Hard-Ons, Massappeal drummer Peter Allen and former Harpoon frontman and future Drones co-founder (and now JJ McCann Transmission main man) James McCann - earnt a fierce reputation as a must see live band, managing to record an albums worth of material that was seemingly lost to the ether and never to be seen or heard again.
Until now.
The masters of that album found their way back into the hands of McCann, who dutifully passed them along to the rest of the band, ensuring the collection of now timeless punk rock tunes would finally see the light of day.
The band released Nunchukka Superfly 95 earlier this year and announced a run of shows in celebration, proving there's still life in the legs and lungs of this Australian musical enigma. And where there's life, there's hope, as evidenced by the fact Blackie and James reached out to us here at HEAVY to talk about the past, present and future of Nunchukka Superfly.
We start with the album and ask how it felt to finally release it after so many years.
"I guess you could call it strange," Blackie mused, "but at the same time it felt really good, and I think we can thank James for that because I didn't even have a copy of the recordings. I forgot what it was like even. But James got in touch about a year and a half ago and said mate, have you heard that fucken thing we did all those many moons ago? It's really ferocious. We should release it and I remember thinking yeah, yeah, maybe one day. He sent me a copy, and I was like holy fuck he's right. This is mad."
"I had it on cassette for years," James added. "And I think we all had a cassette copy initially, but I wore that out eventually. In Sydney Jason, who recorded it, was working across the road from where I lived at the Hopeton Hotel on the weekends, and he said I have that DAT tape of that Nunchukka Superfly recording, do you want a copy? I said yes, and I sat on that for years because I didn't have a DAT player (laughs). I had access to this old 90s DAT player about ten years ago at a friend's studio, so we plugged in the old player and put the cassette in and BAM, there it was loud and clear, and somehow I had stored it away well enough to obviously have not lost it. That was the start, then I got it digitized and sent it to Blackie and Ray."
In the full interview, Blackie and James talk more about the release of their debut album, Nunchucka Superfly 95, after many years, and the upcoming reunion shows. They shared their memories of the band's formation, their last show in 1996, and their chemistry during the first jam session, expressing excitement about the reunion and the potential for future collaborations.
Blackie and James also discussed the process of obtaining and digitizing the original recording of their debut album, emphasizing that no alterations were made to the original recording. They reflected on the quality of the music and the positive reactions on social media and strong initial sales, including overseas interest, and expressed pride and gratitude for the continued interest in their music after so many years.


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Interview by Kris Peters
JJ McCann is a musician well-travelled, negotiating over 30 years in the Australian music industry with his soul and integrity intact.
Better known as one of the founding members of Nunchukka Superfly and his work with The Drones, McCann has busied himself with other just as talented bands over the years, with the one common denominator being McCann's driven approach to his craft and his humble and unassuming nature.
Last year McCann released his first album under the monicker of JJ McCann Transmission called Hit With Love, collaborating with legendary producer Rob Younger of Radio Birdman and the New Christs who produced every second great Australian rock record in the 80s and 90s (Died Pretty, Hard-Ons, Lime Spiders, Celibate Rifles, Hoodoo Gurus). It proved a masterstroke for McCann, who reached a much wider audience with the album and created enough quality material to still be drawing singles from the album almost 12 months later.
But talk to McCann and you get the impression his days of caring about status or success in music are long behind him - if in fact they were ever there. Instead, you get an artist who creates music for the thrill and love of the final result and the opportunity to share a common love with friends.
Just the way it should be.
With Nunchukka Superfly finally releasing their debut album recently and about to go on tour, McCann is understandably busy these days, but not too busy to be down for a chat with HEAVY.
"It was officially released last year," he said of the new solo album. "It was kind of a staggered thing that was followed by a couple of film clips, with the last one coming out in March called Amphibious Skin. It's been going well. It's been released here in Melbourne on CheerSquad Records and co-released with French label Beast Records. It's the first record I've released in Australia in 14 years. Everything else I've released in Spain or France, generally because there wasn't a lot of independent labels around 15 years ago, believe it or not. It's picked up a bit since then in Australia."
In the full interview, JJ talks more about Hit With Love and the writing and recording process, working with Rob Younger, what sorts of things Younger contributed to the overall sound of the album, the changing tides of music and the importance of sticking to your own path, the release of Nunchukka Superfly's debut album and upcoming shows, future plans and more.


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Interview by Kris Peters
Not content with fronting one of this country's most loved rock outfits in Hammers or saddling up behind the kit with blues funk trio Hot Cobra, Gold Coast-based singer, songwriter and guitarist Lucas Stone has now thrown his considerable clout behind his solo project, recently releasing the wicked 5 track EP Deathbed.
As if juggling two other bands with a hectic personal schedule wasn't enough, Stone also decided to write and perform the EP on his own, enlisting the help of a select group of musicians to add vocals and depth to his musical vision.
Raw, caustic and welding Stone's love for authentic emotion within heavy music with malevolent riff violence, Deathbed is simultaneously cohesive and yet stylistically indefinable; a true representation of who Stone is, his passion for the heavy realms, and what he has journeyed through to reach this point in his career.
HEAVY caught up with Lucas Stone last night to chat about the EP and more.
"Really cool," he replied when asked how Deathbed has been received since coming out on May 31. "I'm pretty busy with the Hammers stuff and I have squeezed this in amongst everything else. I had a bit of help from Tiana, but I was a little bit rattled from what was going on. I was maybe a little vacant for parts of it, and then it happened and was out, and the reception has been amazing. A lot of messages from fans of Helm and Hammers and even just friends and people that have followed my career online. It blows you away. It's cool to see people connecting with it on a level you hope the music does."
We ask Stone to tell us more about what he was going for musically on Deathbed.
"Honestly, I was going for nothing," he shrugged. "This was the release that… I've had some decent success across a handful of bands - namely Scalene, Tension, Helm and Hammers - and I'm happy with that. Those four bands specifically have given me a really cool, left of centre career in music. I'm no rock star, but I don't really care too much. It's more about the fact that I've been able to write this music with my own sense of integrity and no pressure from outside influence. I'm quite a selfish songwriter, I will admit to that, which has probably been detrimental to my career (laughs). This one specifically rings true with that more than any of them because I didn't even have any reflective sounding boards off anyone, because I wasn't in a band forum. It was all 100% a selfish project where it was 'I wanna do this' or 'I wanna do that, and I'm just gonna do it how I wanna do it."
In the full interview, Lucas talks more about the musical side of Deathbed, the guest artists who appear and why and how he chose them, playing everything himself and how that created a different sounding release, how Deathbed defines him as an artist and person, touring plans, upcoming stuff from Hammers and more.


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