INTERVIEW: Ethan Trembath - Alien Weaponry [Download Festival]

Three teenagers, known as Alien Weaponry, from a tiny town in the small South Pacific nation of New Zealand have managed to capture the imaginations of people all over the world with their unique thrashy groove metal sound and commanding live performances. This in itself is surprising, but perhaps the most unexpected element of all in their success is that many of the band’s songs are delivered in a language that is unknown to international audiences – New Zealand’s native language, Te Reo Māori. Captivating audiences everywhere, the band recently signed to Napalm Records and now are set to return to Australia as part of the 2019 Download Festival. We had a chat to bassist Ethan Trembath about the rising success of the band and their upcoming appearance at Download.

Andrew: So it’s exciting times for the band at the moment as it has been for some time so how are you feeling at the moment?

Ethan: We’re feeling good man, super stoked that we’re heading off to Australia soon so everything seems to be going pretty well for us.

Andrew: Yeah that’s good to hear. You’ve done shows in Australia recently right, it was earlier this year I think?

Ethan: Yeah it was 3 or 4 months ago we kicked off a tour in Aussie.

Andrew: How did it go?

Ethan: That was great man! We never expected to pull crowds like that, I mean we’re packing out so many venues and it was really odd to see that people actually knew who we were over there. So it was just a great experience, had a bit of a look around especially in Brisbane, had a day off in Brisbane to just have a look around the city and had lots of fun meeting all the fans so it was great.

Andrew: Obviously first time seeing these places as well so did you do anything special at all that you had been wanting to do for some time?

Ethan: Yeah for me and Henry (De Jon, drums) it was our first time out of the country and Lewis (De Jong, guitars) had been to Cairns once so we just seemed to look around and talk to some awesome people. We went to a sushi train because we don’t have sushi trains over in New Zealand so it was nice so it was just a really cool experience.

Andrew: So the Download Festival is not only a big deal for Aussie and New Zealand bands but for any band coming down our way to be a part of a historical event like that. How are you guys feeling about being part of a big event like this?

Ethan: Oh man we were just blown away when we heard the news so just being on that poster with those other bands is just wicked. I mean we’re so stoked to be coming over, I guess we haven’t played a big festival like this in Australia yet so it will be interesting to see what crowd we pull and how they react to us. It’s going to be lots of fun I think.

Andrew: Judging by the reputation and the feedback that you guys have been getting in Australia, I think a lot of people are keen to see you guys, certainly for those that have never seen you live before. Just on your end though, are there any particular bands at the festival that you are pretty keen to go see?

Ethan: I’m definitely very keen to see Ozzy, never seen him before so that’s going to be really good. There’s just a huge array of bands so hopefully we will get enough time to go see as many as we can, especially in Europe there seemed to be a lot of hectic places so you can’t really see too many bands because we’re not really given the chance but Ozzy, Slayer definitely, Alice In Chains is a big one because of the new album and really keen to look at that, and Anthrax especially. So yeah super exciting stuff and I know that Henry and Lewis are super excited, I think Alice In Chains is probably the most exciting thing for me.

Andrew: Yeah absolutely I think there’s a lot of people on the same page as well. I think Alice In Chains is a band we don’t get to see too often down our way so certainly they are one of the key bands. You mentioned Europe, how was your experience over there and what’s the crowds been like for you guys?

Ethan: Yeah the crowds, especially at all the festivals were insane! We’re pulling crowds exceeding 10,000 people at some of them which was real mind blowing for us. Before we went over there the biggest crowd we had played in front of was probably a thousand people, so it was just crazy to see these metalheads all in one place because coming from a small country, you’ll be lucky if you see a metalhead every month. In Europe you will just see metalheads walking down the street, that never happens here so it was really cool to be in that really cool environment and talking to all the people and just going hard, it was awesome.

Andrew: I suppose from their end it’s not often they see metal bands coming from New Zealand so were they surprised to see you guys coming over there and not just doing a tour there but actually doing well too?

Ethan: Yeah well we’ve all been really surprised from the reception. Especially that we sing in Te Reo, it’s bad enough singing in english, for some them it’s not even their first language. So it’s completely fine to them, they picked it up and every now and then you see people in the crowd singing along to our Maori lyrics which is amazing.

Andrew: That must feel fantastic to hear your native language be sung other people.

Ethan: Yeah definitely man. I mean it would be a great thing if we can inspire the whole entire Germany to start speaking Maori, maybe our next goal is to inspire more people to pick up our language and possibly look into their own.

Andrew: Yeah absolutely! I mean is that one of the reasons you prefer to keep your native language in the songs?

Ethan: Yeah definitely that other than we just really enjoy speaking Maori in our songs because it’s a really beautiful language to write in. But definitely when we see people from overseas speaking Maori, it’s definitely really heartwarming and just very inspiring to keep on going with it.

Andrew: Yeah I’m sure it would be and also because of that fact and because the music is fairly thrash oriented as well, do you get comparisons at all to bands like Sepultura who have in the past incorporated their own native language as well?

Ethan: Yeah that’s a real big one, Sepultura. We actually saw them in Summer Breeze in Germany and it was kind of odd to us because we don’t really see the resemblence but for quite a few years people have been comparing us to Sepultura and especially early Sepultura. So that’s interesting, we’re kind of a bit different because we’re more groovy than the average thrash band, I feel. I mean people have compared us to Silverchair before, not just the blonde hair and stuff but the sound of the music.

Andrew: Who are some of your main influences? Who are some of the bands that you would say compare more closely to?

Ethan: Well that’s funny really because we all take influences from everywhere, all kinds of different music. So I mean on a day to day basis we’re listening to a lot of reggae, maybe that’s a New Zealand thing but as far as metal goes, early on when I first met these guys they introduced me to metal where I was listening to bands like Trivium and Rage Against The Machine and Metallica was a big one because Robert Trujillo is a beast. I would say Henry takes a lot of inspiration from Alice In Chains, Slipknot used to be a real big one for me but yeah, it changes all the time because of all the music that’s out there.

Andrew: Yeah that makes sense because when I listen to some of your songs, I do hear a varied mix of different influences. But I guess one of the main things that people have been calling you is a thrash band but I wouldn’t necessarily call you a thrash band because you do have a wide range of influences.

Ethan: Yeah definitely.

Andrew: Big news as well is you recently signed with Napalm Records. You’ve been around for a few years now but that must be a big deal because singing to a record label like that and getting all these tours and stuff, do you feel the future of the band is looking really good at the moment?

Ethan: Yeah man we’re definitely in a real comfortable place at the moment. We’ve been with Napalm for just shy of a year now and they’re doing such fantastic things for us really and they’ve gotten us all over the world now. We’re heading off to America soon, that’s super exciting and super stoked to be going to Australia. We’re definitely looking pretty good at the moment so having lots of fun and happy we’re we are at.

Andrew: So how did the signing to Napalm work out? How did you actually get their attention?

Ethan: Lewis met this guy at a conference that we went to and he got talking with them and he turned out to be New Zealand’s man for Das Maschine which is a management company in Austria I believe and we signed with them and we’ve been with them for a bit longer than Napalm and then they introduced us to Napalm and Napalm gave us an offer and went backwards and forwards and it worked out really well. We’ve been working with them for a bit now so it’s been going really well.

Andrew: Yeah and that opens up all kinds of different opportunities. You mentioned that you are going to the US soon, I believe you are supporting Ministry on that run.

Ethan: Yeah man we’re super stoked to be doing that as well.

Andrew: Yeah Al Jourgensen, I’ve spoken to him a couple of times and he’s a very interesting character so I’m sure you guys will have a few stories to come out of that tour I suppose!

Ethan: I hope so!

Andrew: Yeah especially with what’s going on over there politically and all that. I know that you have a bit of political thing in some of your lyrics so are you a little wary about going over there?

Ethan: We’re not too worried about it but we’re definitely a very political band. We seem to talk about New Zealand’s political status or whatever but we’re not too worried about it, there’s definitely a lot going on in America which seems to be always so that’s going to be exciting.

Andrew: I spoke to Mike Muir from Suicidal Tendencies a couple of years ago and we talked a lot about politics as he’s a fairly political guy as well and he said no matter what country you go to, there’s always something going on politically speaking with the government and stuff like that. You are obviously very passionate about what goes on in New Zealand so how has things been going there at the moment?

Ethan: Well we’ve been pretty lucky really because Jacina Ardern seems to be doing very well, we’re really enjoying her. We mostly just talk about New Zealand’s history and what happened back then, there’s a lot of fucked up stuff that happened so we seem to talk mostly about what happened and mostly acknowledging that it really happened because a lot of people kind of turn their shoulder to it. So we’ve been kind of sharing our stories, what we’ve heard and our views and it’s been going really well.

Andrew: That’s good to hear and obviously music is a good gateway to get that message out there. Was that one of the reasons you got into music in the first place?

Ethan: Yeah definitely, I mean we started pretty young and when you are that young it’s pretty hard to have strong view points. But once we actually started taking notice to what was going on around us and all the stories that we were being told by Neil, Lew and Henry’s Dad on the past, we really were interested and intrigued by it so we started writing music to do with it. So I guess music is a really great vehicle to kind of get what we really think, out there while people are also enjoying listening to it.

DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL AUSTRALIA 2019

Sydney Saturday March 9 || Parramatta Park
Melbourne Monday March 11 || Flemington Racecourse

PLUS

SUM 41 (Only Aus Shows)
PENNYWISE (Only Aus Shows)
THY ART IS MURDER || POLARIS
TWELEVE FOOT NINJA || SLAVES || VOYAGER

Tickets on sale now from www.downloadfestival.com.au Download is an 18+ fully licensed event