Revocation have been one of those bands in the underground metal scene that always had that certain thing that was going to make them stand out among the rest. In a genre that can be highly competitive, more so today than ever before, the Boston tech metal act have forged themselves a signature sound all of their own that combines their many influences. From tech death to prog and thrash, classic rock and jazz fusion and classical notations, Revocation are a band not pinned to one style so easily despite the thrash tag that’s been thrown onto the band since their breakout from the underground. Their last album “Great Is Our Sin” was a brilliant return to what many consider their trademark sound but still moving forward in their progression but now the band have come to the end of that album cycle and ready to move forward to the next stage with work on a new album. But before that, the band return to Australia a year after their last tour down under as part of this year’s Direct Underground Festival which will see the band do an east coast run with a couple of small shows on the side. We spoke to bass player Brett Bamberger ahead of the tour to talk about the next phase for Revocation and what people expect to see on their upcoming Australian run.
Andrew: So how’s things been? What’s Revocation been up to lately?
Brett: Oh man we had a really crazy tour cycle off of “Great is Our Sin”, closed it out with a 9 week US tour with Cattle Decapitation, Revocation, Full Hell and Artifical Brain and it was a good way to close it out. It was a really successful tour and we got to reflect and look back and loved everything that we did on the cycle and immediately took a month and a half or 2 months off. We jumped right back in the studio and we just finished tracking yesterday for our new record.
Andrew: Oh wow! I was actually going to ask you if you were working on new material because it has been a couple of years since ‘”Great is Our Sin” came out and it looks like you are, how has it been going so far?
Brett: It was great, I’m really happy with it. The material I think Dave (Davidson, vocals/guitars) and Dan (Gargiulo, guitars) handed in the songs maybe a year ago even so we’ve had them, we’ve been working on them. Everybody went in very prepared for this recording session and I think it’s going to be our strongest effort for sure. It’s typical for anybody in any band to say this but I feel like we keep getting better and better but I know for sure we’re all progressing as musicians still.
Andrew: Yeah it does seem like you guys have come a long way, I mean I know you joined the band a little after around the third or fourth album or something but the progression of Revocation I have seen over the years has been amazing. Even the last album “Great Is Our Sin” I thought was one of the best albums you guys had done so far.
Brett: Thanks man, I’m really happy. We don’t stop working, Dave and Dan and Ash (Pearson, drums) are always getting better and better so they are always inspiring me to play harder and faster and better myself. It’s a good dynamic, it’s a healthy dynamic and we all push each other to keep growing because this is what we want to do with our lives. We want to have the longevity of Cannibal Corpse and bands like that and keep making records and keep touring and keep working essentially.
Andrew: Yeah definitely. Where are the ideas coming from? What’s inspiring you guys at the moment?
Brett: You mean musically or lyrically?
Andrew: Yeah do you guys jam out stuff or do you come up with ideas in your own personal time? How does that whole process work?
Brett: Well Dave and Dan are the primary song writers, Dave will write about 7 or 8 songs per record and Dan will write maybe 2 songs per record and they pretty much hand us these fully written compositions. And so Ash will put drums to them and I’ll put bass to them and then we’ll get in the room and work on any arrangements and little tweaks and things like that are done in the studio. We don’t live in the same town , Ash lives in a different country in Vancouver, Canada and Dave is up in Boston, he just moved to New York though, Dan is in New York and I’m six hours south. So it’s a remote project, we all trade ideas online and write, I’ve got my workstation here as does everybody and we all just do it that way. When we get to the room, everybody knows what the hell they are doing so it’s pretty much come show up prepared.
Andrew: Yeah I’ve heard you guys all live apart so I guess that must be difficult but I suppose the internet saves a lot of that stuff and you are still able to do this. I guess if you tried this 20 years ago it would of been impossible right?
Brett: Absolutely, you would need to be in the same town. I was doing it 20 years ago with my old bands and the internet wasn’t a thing really [laughs]. I mean it existed but it’s not at the capacity that it’s at now.
Andrew: Sure and we’re pretty excited to see you coming back to Australia in May. It’s amazing that you guys have been coming down to Australia regularly or semi-regularly over the last few years so it’s good to see you coming back.
Brett: Yeah we’re really excited! We got nobody to thank more than Dave Haley and Psycroptic, those are our good friends, those are our ride and dives. We do a lot of talking with those guys, a lot of travelling with those guys and I love Dave’s style with how he gets bands over there, I love working with him and he always has opportunity available for us so whenever he throws one on the table, we pounce on it just because we love not only Australia and the fans there but the people that bring us over there we always have such a positive experience.
Andrew: Yeah Dave’s a top guy and certainly has brought over some killer bands over the years and it’s always good to see a band like Revocation down in Australia. You were here I guess about a year ago doing a tour of the country.
Brett: Yeah Thrash, Blast, Grind Fest with King Parrot, Psycroptic, Whoretopsy was on there and goddamn it why am I forgetting the name of the band but I love the band so much.
Andrew: Yeah that was a killer tour, I managed to catch you when you came all the way over to the west coast.
Brett: Oh was it Black Rheno, were they on the show?
Andrew: Yes you are right, Black Rheno were on that show.
Brett: I love that band, I love those dudes and that was the band that was slipping my mind because I put up too much sheetrock today [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs]
Brett: But yeah that was a good tour, you caught one of the shows?
Andrew: Yeah definitely. Every time you guys come over I always see you, every time you have been to Australia so far. This will be the first time unfortunately that I will miss you because you are only doing the east coast run this time around.
Brett: Yeah it’s unfortunate.
Andrew: Yeah but with the new album now in the works you’ll probably be coming back down again maybe a year later or 2 years from now or something?
Brett: Yeah let’s see what’s up. We’re starting to plan out our cycle right now, we’ve already filled out plans from September to January for 2018 and everything else is going to be falling in line. We’ll be getting mixes back and then after that we’ll get to gauge the enthusiasm from the label which I think they will be enthused and then we plan our cycle and talk to our management and booking agents about all our wish lists and how we want it to go down and then we start crafting it. We’re at that point where we have the luxury of doing it that way so I can’t wait to come back there, we’re definitely planning on coming back and doing some headline tours in Australia.
Andrew: I look forward to that! This time around you have a few mini-festivals and previously I know you have been here a couple of times before so how do you find the Aussie audiences? Are you finding that they are starting to come around and becoming more familiar with Revocation now?
Brett: Yeah totally! The last tour was a testament to that, they were really rabid. People were singing along and going crazy at shows and it was a lot of fun, it’s fun for us not only because we get the energy off the crowd but we get to watch our baby grow a little bit more and watch people get into it. It’s really gratifying, we love Aussie crowds.
Andrew: So what can we expect this time around? Because obviously it was only a year since the last time you were here so will you be changing the setlist and throwing different songs into the mix?
Brett: Yeah we’ll be playing some old bangers, we broke some out and we really like playing them. We actually just spoke about the setlist two days ago which I’m grateful for ’cause I know you guys would be asking today. But yeah we’re going to bring some songs that we haven’t played out there before, nothing new off the new record, that’s not on there but when we come back and headline towards the middle or end of our record cycle that’s when you can expect a lot of those songs, just not yet. But some older stuff that we’re really excited about, so much fun, real mean, heavy stuff.
Andrew: Is there any songs in your back catalogue that you’ve never played live before?
Brett: Oh my god yeah! There’s songs in the back catalogue that you could probably show me and I’ll be, ‘Wait a minute, what record is that off?’, because I didn’t play bass on it. I got to tour with those guys in 2010 before I was in the band when I was playing in the Binary Code and I listened to “Existence Is Futile” and “Empire Of The Obscene” a lot, really liked it a lot and that’s obviously why I said yes when they asked me to come along. But there’s so many songs, Dave is such a writing machine that there’s so many songs that we have not played I’d imagine.
Andrew: What’s some of your favorite songs to play from the earlier material then?
Brett: Earlier material I really like playing “Existence Is Futile”, I like playing “Unattained” a lot, that was always good. A lot of stuff, I like playing “Leviathan Awaits”, “Empire Of The Obscene”, those songs all kick a lot of ass for me but they’re in D so we won’t be doing some of those.
Andrew: Yeah that title track for “Existence Is Futile” is just brutal and an amazing song, I remember hearing that for the first time and thinking, ‘Jesus Christ that’s just an amazing song’ so I would love to hear that one live for sure. But “Brain Scramblers” is probably another one a bit out there as well.
Brett: We were talking about doing that but that one is not going to happen this time around but we were talking about doing it on this record cycle once we get moving, probably September we might break that one out but who knows.
Andrew: So before you come to Australia do you have any last words for the Aussie fans at all?
Brett: Thanks to everybody for supporting us as always. We do have two shows that got added, we’re doing Saturday April 28th in Brisbane up at the Crowbar with Psycroptic our good buddies and then we’re doing Sunday April 29th in Sydney at Frankies also with Psycroptic. We’re really grateful to have the opportunity to come out so we just can’t thank everybody enough for their support.
Andrew: Awesome man! Have you ever been to Frankies Pizza in Sydney? That’s going to go off completely because that’s a very small venue.
Brett: Yeah I think Dave did these a little more punk rock style which I’m so down with because I came from the basement and that’s how I learned how to play music so I always love doing smaller clubs with minimal PA and minimal stage. I prefer to just be standing at eye level in a basement just ripping it up having a good time.
Andrew: That’s a floor show as well and they got tables in the back which I think they better move out the way for you guys when you come on stage!
Brett: They got pizza, might have to order a couple of pies!
REVOCATION performing at:
April 28th – Brisbane, Crowbar w/ Eternal Rest & Amicable Treason
April 29th – Sydney, Frankie’s w/ Black Rheno (Free show)
May 5th – Sydney, Max Watts (DIRECT UNDERGROUND FEST)
May 6th – Melbourne, Max Watts (DIRECT UNDERGROUND FEST)
Tickets: Soundworks Direct
