TesseracT, a band that sit outside the bounds of any genre specificity, pioneers of the ever-evolving metal scene and unstoppable force of off-kilter riffs, soaring melodies and disorientating atmospherics release their fourth studio album Sonder on April 20, 2018 through Kscope. We talk to vocalist Dan Tompkins ahead of the release about the new songs plus the news of an upcoming Australian tour.
Andrew: Congratulations on the new album “Sonder”. I was lucky enough to have a preview earlier and it’s fantastic as always, you guys always seem to push the envelope. What can you tell me about the recording and writing process for this one?
Dan: The writing process was different this time because we included everybody in the band. The way it worked in the past is Acle [Kahney] who is the main guitarist and song writer, he would produce all the instrumentals and I would just do my thing on top of that. The reason for that is because the band is scattered as individuals, for example the bassist has only just moved back from Shanghai and he was in Shanghai for a good few years so for all of us to get in a room and write ideas was a little unrealistic so it would be down to Acle. This time around it’s been a little bit different, everyone contributed musical ideas and we’ve been writing “Sonder” for well over a year. We started out with little seeds, for example “King” was written first and main riffs were written by James [Monteith] our second guitarist, half of “Juno” was written by Amos [Williams], second half written by our front of house engineer and second producer Aiden [O’Brien]. So yeah we’ve all had fingers in the pie, if you like. The way we create music is very much about piecing together huge jigsaws of sounds which can be a very time consuming and complex process and for me a lot of this stuff, not momentarily produced, can be very complex. The downside to the process from my perspective is that ideas can change it at the last minute and considering it can take me weeks to learn, it can be a bit of a setback [laughs]. But we made it work this time, we would of liked to have had more time in the mixing process but we wish to meet our deadlines and that’s because we get presented with opportunities through out the year like touring with Megadeth which is something you’re not going to turn down and lots of other things got in the way. So yeah we kind of feel like it maybe could of sounded better in places, I don’t feel like it’s our best moment which is yet to come in all honesty but I think it’s a good album and we really could take a lot from it.
Andrew: Yeah sure I suppose that comes with each album, that you always feel that you can do better. Every band has that motivation to continually do better than the last time. When you go back to the first album and you compare it to the last 2 albums including this one, it seems like you have added a lot more elements to the music. There’s a lot more melody going on, would that be fair to say? Is that something that you’re conscious of?
Dan: I think we’re all sensitive to the addiction of melody that perhaps began before all this maybe because when I think back as being much more well rounded artists with a stronger singer, Acle was experimenting with single tracks which was linked to conceptual movements so it was a collection of melodic songs. This time with “Sonder” we really have been conscious of adding little elements from each album into the song writing process so that’s why you might hear some aggressive vocals in places. But also the added instrumentation, a lot of it was from Aiden who is our front of house engineer and second producer. He did something really cool which was approach our fanbase and ask them to provide live film recordings of every day sounds they experienced which perhaps they wanted to offer. So for example we had people sending in a sound of the knife slicing food or meat if you like, there was a chef that was preparing food and we recorded that which was really interesting. Or things like somebody recorded a thunderstorm travelling down an air conditioner vent in a high story building. So you can imagine the vibration and the sound, it sounded incredible. So all these amazing tastes of everybody’s day to day lives so he basically pieced all these sounds together and created patches of synth sounds if you like, perhaps with complex individual sounds and he kind of threw those into the album in various places and he’s added a very subtle but complex texture to the overall sound of the album and that’s another benefit of him incorporating interesting approaches.
Andrew: I don’t know if this ties in with the theme of the album, obviously I guess this is not a concept album but there seems to be an underlying theme that ties all the songs together.
Dan: Oh yeah absolutely. I mean Acle has a tone, the way that he writes is he wouldn’t overtly say he is an emotional man or he really kind of like procrastinates on philosophy or anything like that but he’s a very deep guy when it comes to music. You can feel that in the way that he writes, there’s a real mature tone, a contemplative tone when he writes music. I love that, it’s very much a reflection of the way he writes music.
Andrew: Yeah that’s interesting stuff! I do want to ask you about this special version of the album that’s coming out, I guess it’s a binaural version or something. Tell me a little about the idea behind this and what inspired you guys to do this.
Dan: Yeah we used a new monitoring system when we recorded a few tracks from “Polaphones with the ear monitors where you can push certain sounds to be received in different areas around you. So you could move it right in front of your face or have a guitar right next to your right ear. It’s a very interesting concept and I don’t think many people have mixed in that way, it’s a very subtle difference if I’m very honest and again you have to be wearing your headphones to experience it. Acle has had a go at it and miced it in this different way, it’s a little bit gimmicky I’ll be honest but it’s a cool concept.
Andrew: Yeah it’s a cool idea and is this something you experience on stage? Obviously this is not what fans hear but to you guys when you play onstage with ear monitors, is this what you guys are experiencing and hearing?
Dan: No we haven’t taken that into our live show, it was only a one off. We may move to it in the future, we’re still working on that but it’s only something done in the studio.
Andrew: OK well speaking of the live show, obviously you have a whole string of dates lined up for the rest of the year and I see you guys have planned a tour for Australia a bit later in the year which we ar very excited to hear about.
Dan: Yeah you know something, speaking to other people about this tour as well, every time we come to Australia we never get a chance to chill out and hit the beach and I am going to work my hardest to get to the beach! I gotta say the Australian fanbase are brilliant, we love to see you guys. There’s a real passion and energy that we don’t experience in other places, you really bring it. We sell out shows, the fanbase is strong, we always have an amazing show and we always finish thinking that was really worth it. It’s a long way to travel you know but it’s an opportunity we wouldn’t want to miss out on for sure.
Andrew: We saw you guys the last time you played here and admittedly it was the first time I had seen you guys live and it was such a great show. We had a great time and so as I said it’s great to see you coming back. You mentioned spending a bit of free time in Australia and obviously something that is part of being in a band is you get to travel to all these places but you obviously don’t have the time to go see what to do. Was there anything else you wanted to go see and do that you mised out last time?
Dan: Pretty much just hit the beach like I said!
Andrew: [laughs] Just the beach then!
Dan: I’ve spent time with the kangaroos and koalas, we’ve done all the typical tourist type stuff which is amazing!
Andrew: Well we are looking forward to this tour and the new album coming out. I better let you go, thanks for your time, really appreciate it and we will see you later in the year!
Dan: Yeah likewise, thanks a lot. Catch you soon!
Tesseract Australian tour 2018
with special guests Circles
Tuesday, September 11: Capitol, Perth
Thursday, September 13: The Gov, Adelaide
Friday, September 14: Melbourne 170 Russell, Melbourne
Saturday, September 15: The Metro, Sydney
Sunday, September 16: The Triffid, Brisbane
Tickets through Live Nation
