Akercocke were first formed back in the late 90’s in London amongst the UK extreme metal scene, their first album “Rape Of The Bastard Nazarene” leading the way in creating a twisted mix of death metal and hardcore/post-punk. The band broke up in 2012 and reunited again last year with the release of a new track “Inner Sanctum” which eventually led to the release of their first album in 10 years, “Renaissance in Extremis”. We speak to vocalist and guitarist Jason Mendonca about the news songs and how it all came together.
Steve: How’s things in the Ackercocke camp?
Jason: Everything is great man! We are just going to wrap up some live dates in the UK this weekend then it’s going to be back to the studio so all good in the hood (laughs).
Steve: Great so you have more material to put out?
Jason: Well we are going to start working on new material actually and we are just gently putting idea’s down and seeing what’s up and really starting to think about writing some new songs over the weekend.
Steve: For yourself are you constantly writing? How do you come up with new idea’s?
Jason: It comes in fits and starts really, I don’t really have any sort of control over it. Sometimes things just pop into my head at the most obscure times and I generally make a note of them there and then and then at a more convenient time sit down, think about them and develop them. The song “Insentience” on the new album, this is going to sound really weird but it’s absolutely true, it was pretty much dreamt. I had this week where I woke up in the middle of the night and I had these riffs in my head and I literally mumbled them into my cell phone and went back to sleep so the working title of that song was “Murmur” because I didn’t want to wake my neighbours by sort of ‘Wooo!!’, shouting into my phone so I murmured these melodic idea’s into my phone and at the end of the week I thought that was pretty weird. I went through all the bits and pieces and literally the song wrote itself.
Steve: What a great way to come up with a song! (laughs).
Jason: Yeah strange but true!
Steve: So would I be fair in saying with the new album “Renaissance In Extremis” for lack of a better word, you’ve gone for a real old school sound?
Jason: Not really. I think what we tried to do was put all the instruments back in their natural pitches, all the old material is tuned to C to full steps down from normal pitch which is kind of Suffocation kind of territory but we wanted to get some real clarity on this one and have lots of space between the instruments. So we thought you know what, as an experiment let’s put them back in their rightful intended tuning and see if that helped with clarity and it really really did so there was no really intention to make it sound old school, it was more just trying to get the clearest production we could.
Steve: I guess I should back that up by saying when I listened to the track “Unbound By Sin” I picked up on this old school vibe, I don’t know if it was just me?
Jason: Oh yeah, I’m with you! It’s no secret that we are massively influenced by early Death so there is definitely some Death vibes going on in that one, I actually wrote that song in 2007 immediately after “Antichrist“.
Steve: So it’s been locked away in the vaults for a while?
Jason: Yeah man absolutely.
Steve: So the space between the last album, 2007’s “Antichrist” and now, what did you do? Did you keep yourself musically busy or did you take a break from music in general?
Jason: Yeah I took a break from music in general. I mean the other guys kept playing, David Gray and Matt Wilcock went on to do The Antichrist Imperium which is still gong strong and Sam Loynes, David Gray and Peter Theobolds went on to do a couple of Voices albums and Paul Scanlan was busy with a multitude of musical project. It was really only me that ducked out and had a couple of children (laughs).
Steve: That will keep you busy!
Jason: Absolutely buddy! They keep me very busy.
Steve: I can sympathise, I have a little boy myself and he loves metal!
Jason: Oh ace that’s fantastic!
Steve: So I’ve listened to the new album in it’s entirety and it really takes the listener on a journey, is that what you were going for or were you going flat to the floor pedal to the metal?
Jason: It’s quite a difficult question to answer because we always want the albums to roll as a sonic journey, you know, start to finish but these songs were put together over such a period of years. This one does flow as a kind of musical journey and is down to two things, one is a lot of luck and secondly our drummer David Gray did a fantastic job compiling the album and I think the order of the songs that he put together really lends a lot of weight to that kind of journey aspect. So yeah that’s how that came about really.
Steve: Yeah and I guess as the front man it’s tricky to pick but from the new album do you have any tracks that you love to play live?
Jason: I love playing it all. For me a lot of it is really quite challenging but my absolute favourite from the new one is “Familiar Ghosts“, I really dig that one.
Steve: How is it going over on the live front with the crowds?
Jason: It’s been mental. We are really, really lucky we have a set of hardcore fans, new fans, old fans but people that have been following us for a long time. I mean we’ve been going for 20 years or something but the reception on this current tour has been so warm it’s been really humbling given that the new material is an absolute joy to play live that it makes for a really special evening.
Steve: Speaking of special evenings and you probably get asked this a billion times so do forgive me but do you guys have any plans to head down under?
Jason: Oh mate! There is nothing in the pipeline yet but if we get an opportunity to come back down we would jump at the chance so all you Aussies out there, put your hands in your pockets and we’ll come down (laughs). We haven’t been down since 2007 when we toured with The Amenta and The Berserker and it was a phenomenal tour so we’d jump at the chance to come down and see our Aussie fans.
Steve: I’d certainly be in the front of the queue just to see you guys live, would be amazing and to share the stage with the Amenta and of course The Berserker would have been great as these guys are some of our great exports.
Jason: For sure bro, our drummer Dave played back to back sets for The Berserker and Ackercocke but hey, he is the duracell bunny of drumming (Laughs).
Steve: That paints all sorts of cool pictures!
Jason: (laughs) Totally man!
Steve: So I’m going to back track slightly, musically what have you been listening to of late? Anything of note that fans and people should know about or do you step away from music when you are not doing your own thing?
Jason: No I’m constantly listening to music. I’m not constantly listening to heavy metal, I listen to all sorts of stuff but from the metal world there is an Irish band that I discovered on last year’s tour called Mortichnia and they just blow my mind completely. They are a black metal band but they have this kind of post rock black metal hybrid thing going on and the most inhuman vocalist I think I’ve ever heard and their first album I would recommend everyone goes out and buys because for me it’s been a complete revelation. I caught them live in Dublin and they literally blew my mind, I sat and watched the whole show then went up and said, ‘Please sell me your album’, so from heavy metal that is the most significant thing I’ve heard. Oh and the new Voices album I’ve been blessed to be given a pre-release copy and mate, it’s absolutely staggering. I think they’ve always had their own original spin on music period but this one is something all on it’s own, it’s phenomenal.
Steve: I’ll definitely check them out.
Jason: Wicked!
Steve: So this is a little bit tricky but I love to see the reaction I get. If you could be remembered for one song and one song only, what would it be and why?
Jason: For me personally I think it would be “Shelter From The Sand” from the 2005 album “Words That Go Unspoken , Deeds That Go Undone“. I just think it’s my all time favourite Akercocke song, it covers the breadth of extremity to melody in a way that I don’t think any other song has had. No good reason other than that it’s just always been my favourite song. Not to say I don’t dig the new material, I totally dig it but there is something about it that I think was a real standout moment in our career.
Steve: Well it’s been great chatting with you today, I really appreciate your time. Good luck with everything, good luck with the kids (laughs) and we hope to catch you live at some point in the future.
Jason: (laughs) Likewise mate! Thank you so much for your time, I really enjoyed the interview. You take care, cheers!
