One of the top prog rock acts in Australia right now, Caligula’s Horse are pushing forward and forging a path that is heading towards big things for a band that have worked pretty hard since their formation in 2011. With a new album ‘In Contact’ just released and an upcoming national tour that sees the band return to the road, we get a few words from bassist Dave Couper to get the lowdown on everything going on with the band right now.
In Contact is the latest album for Caligula’s Horse; what were some of the things you wanted to achieve with this album?
Dave: I think it’s important to note that come the middle of 2016, there were some concerns as to whether we would even make it to 2017 as a functioning band. Piece by piece, we began to restore function, and I think the experiences we’ve taken in had a profound effect on all of us, especially on Jim’s lyric writing and storytelling. If nothing else, we wanted to make an album that really will make people sit up and take notice of both power and passion, and of success and struggle.
With the success of the last album Bloom, did you feel any pressure or motivation to equal the quality and success of those songs on the writing and recording of In Contact?
Dave: We care about the art first and foremost. We write material for ourselves first and hope it will find a great reception afterwards. It’s not about equalling or outdoing the success of what has come before, although we are always trying to refine the production process to get the songs to translate powerfully through excellent engineering, mixing and mastering.
If there was pressure involved, it was more about the time frame in which we had to achieve the album. Because of the stresses of having our first line-up change in 2016, then the hectic nature of touring Australia firstly with Opeth and then with Sleepmakeswaves in early 2017, we had to get the recording done swiftly. That it was done is a testament to the work ethic that Sam and Jim embody in the songwriting and demoing processes, the ability of the new guys (and this old guy author here!) to learn and smash out our parts, and some clever arranging of mixing responsibilities between Sam and two other high quality mix engineers.
How would you compare the two albums and what they stand for in contrast to your earlier work?
Dave: In short, Bloom is “colourful and uplifting” thematically, whereas In Contact is a darker, more intensely emotional work. I think In Contact is quite a bit heavier than anything we’ve done in the past, and a little more diverse, which is augmented in part by what Josh has brought to the drumming table.
Has touring become a bigger deal now with bigger shows and lengthier trips on the road or have you managed to balance tour life with personal lives given the success of the band over the last few years?
Dave: It’s definitely a bigger deal now: our first 63 shows happened in the first four years before we headed to Europe in October 2015; our last 67 shows have happened in less than two years. It’s been pretty hectic, and I’m not entirely sure that “balance” is a word that totally describes where we are at yet. I wouldn’t change any decision about tours we’ve done: every experience has been absolutely stunning, and I always remark on how phenomenal it is to have played even one show overseas, let alone the 33 we have so far. We’ve played with a multitude of our heroes, and in career terms, we’re at that point where headline tours of Europe, bigger festivals, and the possibilities regarding touring the Americas and Asia are growing. But there are many kinks to be ironed out to make these processes easier and less financially problematic.
At least I can say that from a performance and an internal-harmony point-of-view, the current line-up has us at a peak in all areas, even if the financial side of things still needs to be more streamlined. The June tour of Europe was, for all intents and purposes, a phenomenal success even by our standards. We had an amazing team around us, bringing high quality to the sound, the logistics, the sale of merchandise, and many other tangible factors that made it a breeze to play the shows despite the pressure. The crowd response in every city was so positive, regardless of who we were supporting or what festival it was, that we can see the positives in how things will go next year after In Contact has had time to be absorbed by the fans.
With the upcoming Australia tour, what can fans expect this time around? Are setlists becoming more difficult to put together with each new release?
Dave: They can expect a very powerful set indeed! There’ll be a good segment of In Contact in play, and at least one older number making its long-awaited live debut. In my opinion, it’s becoming easier to put together setlists because of the addition of this new material. As long as we maintain the energy and dynamics throughout a show, we’ve got enough of a variety of material to make things work in different orders.
Perth has always been a hard market to crack but Caligula’s Horse always return on the back of solid crowds each time. What keeps you coming back given it’s such a difficult trek to make financially and logistically?
Dave: Perth is a mixed bag from a financial and logistical point of view. Sometimes it’s incredibly expensive to get there, and early on we didn’t have as many sequential shows like a Perth-Adelaide-Melbourne run to offset the costs. If you plan ahead enough, and we generally do now anyway, then there’s no reason to avoid Perth, and it actually annoys me quite a bit that a few big international bands are skipping either Perth, Adelaide, or both (and in some special cases, even skipping Brisbane which is just asinine!).
The crowds have always been great for us in Perth, which is unsurprising because the live scene there is already great, helped significantly by the fact that Perth has a number of really high-calibre bands in the wider genre.
How does each city compare to each other in Australia? Do some places do better than others consistently or has it been different on each tour?
Dave: I hate to “name names”, haha! We are happy with everywhere we’ve toured in Australia thus far. There have been some small fluctuations in some cities across various tours, but while I am the “numbers guy” in the band, when it comes to these tours, I’m always more interested in the response from the people who turned up rather than fretting about whether a crowd was not as big as we’d hoped. That way, the onus is on us to deliver the best possible show every night so that the response is equally excellent everywhere, and that will translate to a bigger show in each place the next time. Again, maybe there has been a pattern of behaviour from other bands that they stop touring a place because they think “not enough people turned up last time”, without considering that it could be because of setting an overly-high ticket price, or that people got bored when the last performance was monodynamic or overly self-centred. Getting setlists right is, as earlier stated, really darned important to us!
How does the band prepare for a tour and for each show?
Dave: Our rehearsal process is planned fairly well in the six weeks leading up to a show. Being that we have our various employments and studies and such, it is still easier for us to rehearse once or twice a week, instead of doing what a lot of prog and metal bands do and cramming in full-day sessions in the last week. We break down songs from a segment of the set list each rehearsal, making sure is where it needs to be. Obviously there’s a big emphasis on the new stuff, but it’s come together incredibly well. Funnily enough, doing film clips for two of the new songs really adds to the performance-tightening experience, because we like to play the songs at a much faster pace to add to the visual effects of the video. Doing that particularly for songs like the already-fast-paced “Will’s Song” sometimes leads to the humorous situation of returning a song to normal speed and feeling thereafter like “it seems too slow now!”.
What is your view on progressive rock and metal in Australia and has there been an increase of fans and bands following the genre in your perspective?
Dave: As far as Australian underground rock with progressive undertones or overtones is concerned, we see ourselves as part of a plethora of Aussie bands heading overseas and killing it, as well as doing big national tours! Fifteen years ago, Australian metal and prog was, in my opinion, not up to the standard of the big international acts of the time. Right now, by contrast, fans overseas are asking if “there is something in the water Down Under” when it comes to bands like Voyager, Ne Obliviscaris, Twelve Foot Ninja, Sleepmakeswaves, Chaos Divine, Plini, King Parrot, and so on, let alone the big alt prog bands like Karnivool, Dead Letter Circus, Cog, and The Butterfly Effect, and let alone the vast commercial successes of the metalcore, hardcore and post-hardcore Aussie acts led by Parkway Drive and Amity Affliction. I think the numbers are going up for every one of these bands across the board, and whether they get radio play or not, there is definitely a very vibrant and healthy scene around the country right now. Once Australia has a big metal festival back in play, with more emphasis on Australian bands than what Soundwave used to have, the whole thing will be in really good shape.
How did you get into music in the first place and what drove you to be in a band?
Dave: I started singing when I was four, my first song being Belinda Carlisle’s “Heaven Is A Place On Earth” (still a great track!). I took up violin when I was eight. My primary school music teacher Ms Hendry was a pivotal influence on my understanding of rhythm and my acquisition of perfect pitch. I started playing guitar at age twelve, and began writing songs at fourteen. Bass and keys came a bit later.
I did a Bachelor of Music at QUT from 2000 to 2003, and formed my own band around that time. Had I not had that band, I probably would never have met any of the eventual members of Caligula’s Horse.
I started focusing on bass guitar in 2009, for reasons that require another full interview, perhaps when we’re bigger! As a result of that tangent not panning out, I auditioned for a band called Quandary (Sam, ex-drummer Geoff, and a keyboardist), and as the history goes, Sam and Jim recorded the first C-Horse album, asked Geoff and I to join, and here we are six years later.
Being an artist, and being in a band, is all about connecting with people. I think a lot of people I went to university with did music for the hell of it, not understanding that there is both a lot of work that needs to be done, but also that you need to create the product for yourself, then have enough confidence to be able to show other people the material in order that they resonate with it. I am certain that there were many of my colleagues who had more natural talent and charisma than I did, yet just about no one from QUT seems to have done anything much in the world of original music. You must persevere, and you should look for the right combination of teammates, so to speak. Caligula’s Horse has managed that, both with the initial line-up and now with the current group.
Who are some of your biggest influences and of Caligula’s Horse’s influences?
Dave: I grew up listening to Pink Floyd, Genesis, Kansas, Yes, Jethro Tull, The Who, Deep Purple, and pretty much every other 70’s band that populate the pantheon of rock and prog greats. I matured into my teen years with Van Halen, Metallica, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, and Pantera, but also enjoyed the pop rock of Tonic and Collective Soul.
The three bands that really shaped me once I got to university were Dream Theater, Opeth, and Pain Of Salvation. There’s obviously so many other artists and groups in the mix, but these three were huge for me, and to some extent for all the C-Horse guys.
As for the music of Caligula’s Horse itself, or more pertinently Sam and Jim’s tastes, I think Steely Dan are a constant thread in the tapestry. Sam is big on interesting chords and harmonic structures (and “Purdie shuffles”, lol!), which Walter Becker (R.I.P.) and Donald Fagen were the masters of, and I reckon that we try to strive for the highest quality production in 2017 that those guys aimed for in the late 70’s, notwithstanding that they had bigger technical hurdles than we face today. Also, while most of the male artists and groups we are influenced by have a fair crossover between the five of us, it might be worth mentioning the specific influence that the music and lyrics of Tori Amos has had on Jim, and after going through her enthralling back catalogue I can totally understand why!
If you could be a fly on the wall for the recording of any classic album in history, what would it be?
Dave: I hate to be boring, but there are three obvious choices: The Beatles Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, Pink Floyd Dark Side of the Moon, and Michael Jackson Thriller. The recording techniques involved in the two earlier albums, and the general production process of Thriller, are unique moments in time, never to be truly replicated in this day and age of ProTools and the recording simplicity afforded by our intricate synths, software and effects pedals. If you’re forcing me to pick one of the three, then Pink Floyd: in fact, for me the “fly on the wall” period would need to have been for the year leading up to the recording of the album and then the recording. I recently went to the Their Mortal Remains exhibition at the V&A Museum in London, the Pink Floyd 50th anniversary celebration, and got to see so much in the way of old gig posters, instruments, handwritten notes, stage props, and filmed interviews with the band, the crew, and associated artists/designers; it was utterly fascinating stuff!
What is the meaning of life?
Dave: Be excellent to each other, and party on dudes and dudettes! The golden rule, essentially, as brought to us by Bill and Ted (and Rufus, of course). There’s a lot of people out in the world right now who claim their personal philosophy is based on the golden rule, yet spend much of their lives doing the exact opposite. We try to spread love, beauty and truth through our music and as people, simple as that! Don’t be afraid, either!
CALIGULA’S HORSE
IN CONTACT AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES
Thursday, September 28: Jack Rabbit Slim’s, Perth
Friday, September 29: Fowler’s Live, Adelaide
Saturday, September 30: Max Watt’s, Melbourne
Wednesday, October 4: The Basement, Canberra
Thursday, October 5: The Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
Friday, October 6: The Factory Theatre, Sydney
Saturday, October 7: The Triffid, Brisbane
Tickets on sale NOW via wildthingpresents.com & Oztix
BUY IN CONTACT HERE
