Stepping up to the plate on the Halestorm Australia tour and joining the epic rock shows in place of Black Stone Cherry will be New Zealand Rock outfit Villainy who have just released their third album ‘Raised In The Dark’. We chatted to both Thomas Watts and Neill Fraser about the upcoming shows as well as their experiences in Australia plus stories from their stint with AC/DC.
Andrew: First of all congratulations on the New Zealand Music Award for best rock album, must be a great feeling to have that award!
Neill: Yeah thank you so much. It’s been a pretty crazy ride on this record and it’s really amazing to bring that one home.
Andrew: Awesome! So “Raised In The Dark” has just been released, what’s the response been like so far?
Thomas: It’s been really great! It debut at number 2 in the New Zealand charts, we missed out to everyone’s favorite Ed Sheeran – Thanks Ed! But off the back of that our New Zealand tour entirely sold out which is crazy for us, it’s basically been a levelling up experience and it’s been great and what’s been really cool is different people kind of find a different album that they gravitate towards. It’s not just everyone is really digging the singles and they’re not caring about the rest of the album, there’s been good feedback from the album as a whole which is super fulfilling for us.
Andrew: Yeah for sure obviously that’s what you want from an album is to have a diverse listening experience and having different songs you like to choose from. Playing them live must be a real treat to see that real first person response right in your face like that.
Neill: Yeah I think for us getting out on the road and seeing this work live is the most rewarding part. Bering able to play the songs and get a reaction and people are singing along or dancing or whatever they’re doing, I think that’s what really motivates us and that’s what’s so cool about getting across to Australia and do that.
Thomas: Yeah totally, the first track “CUT”, the single that’s out at the moment, I remember writing that, the riffs and then there’s a stupid, big, bouncy riff and I was playing it on acoustic guitar and was like, ‘I really hope this song, this riff turns out to be an actual song because if we get to play this live, I’m going to feel pretty bloody good about that’. The fact that it’s on the album, currently it’s the single, it’s such a good feeling.
Andrew: Yeah definitely and speaking of Australia, the other big news is you guys will be supporting Halestorm on this quick little whirlwind tour.
Neill: Yeah we’re really looking forward to it. They are an amazing live band and we’re playing some really cool rooms with them and I think it’s our first time in Australia for about 3 years so it’s going to be great for the welcome back to our Tasman neighbors.
Andrew: Yeah Australia is obviously a place you’ve been to before, what’s your experience been like on previous tours?
Neill: Really cool. We’ve kinda done the hardcore Australia touring thing, we’ve driven town to town. We did a tour a few years ago with Kingswood down the coast, we’ve done some shows with Jihad and a few other bands that I think are now broken up. I’m trying to remember who they were Tom?
Thomas: Sedonia and Jericco.
Neill: That’s right, that’s going back a bit.
Thomas: One of the things is all our albums we’ve recorded in Melbourne, we kind of felt like that was a really sensible thing to do just because we knew recording, the process of actually leavng your regular life for us in New Zealand and actually just getting to go really deep on the songs has been really good and actually move over to Australia for months at a time has been great. So being in Australia doesn’t feel like being in a weird foreign country if you know what I mean?
Andrew: Yeah and there’s obviously a huge similarity and connection between Australia and New Zealand obviously so there’s that going for you guys as well but recording in Melbourne has got to be a cool experience as well. Getting away from home and making things a bit different for you guys I suppose.
Neill: Yeah it means you get to really immerse yourself in the process, ignore normal distractions of the places that you know, every time we’ve been living together. So you kind of spend 8 to 10 hours in the studio and then you go back to the Airbnb or whatever and kind of absorb what you had done for the day and then get back into it the next day.
Thomas: It’s a very funny one because a lot of the time we’ve come back from Melbourne and people will be like, ‘So what was Melbourne like?’ ‘I don’t know’. ‘What about the laneways?’ I don’t know, we literally don’t go to them. Basically living together, go into the studio, going back to the accommodation. It’s basically this weird kind of experience where you’ve spent a long time in Australia and for us it’s been a long time in Melbourne, but literally apart from going out and playing the odd show, it’s never been a tourist in Melbourne which is kind of an odd little insight.
Andrew: Yeah for sure, that gives you a different experience than other bands who don’t necessarily hang out at that place. Does that influence the music a little bit or do you kind of separate the two together?
Thomas: I don’t know, I definitely think that the experience of being in a foreign country and also one of the other things that’s great about Australia is that Australia has got such a well developed music culture and so getting to go out and seeing good bands every night of the week isn’t something that you can really comfortably do in New Zealand. There will be a couple nights a week whereas the quality of music in Australia is great, it’s kind of a whole level up. It means that for us when we were first recording our albums, we were also going out to various kind of pubs around Melbourne and absorbing as much live music as possible. I don’t know if it influenced the sound but it influenced the work ethic of the band.
Andrew: New Zealand has a great music scene as well, some great bands coming out. One of my favorite bands from New Zealand is actually Devilskin, love those guys and have seen them live a few times. What’s the music scene in New Zealand like at the moment? Is it comparable to any places in Australia at all?
Neill: I think it’s all different obviously in all cities, I think the population in New Zealand is the same as the population of Sydney or something right? So touring New Zealand is about hitting as many towns as you possibly can, we went out on the road in July in Winter and sold out every single show which is awesome and really a testament to the strength of rock music still in this country.
Andrew: Yeah that’s a great thing to see as rock music has kind of dived up and down a bit over the years but it does seem to me anyway that there is a bit of a resurgence coming back. Do you guys kind of see it that way at all?
Neill: I don’t think rock ever actually died, it kinda just fades a bit from the mainstream. But when you go out and play to like 1500 on a night it’s pretty clear that people want to come and out and see a real live show and they want that rock experience. That’s not to say that other live shows aren’t amazing but I think the rock scene is unique and you get to really feel the power of a group of musicians playing.
Thomas: Yeah I think that notion of real life musicians and the actual sound coming out of the actual guitars, do you know what I mean? There’s no trickery, there’s no laptop on the side of the stage where all the cool things are happening from. To say that Neill can sing beautifully in tune as in the fact that he’s got sweet some auto tune in his voice or that he’s singing to a double of his voice or anything like that is literally down to being quite good and I think there’s a real need for that in the music industry because you kind of get to a point where when you are listening to say a lot of EDM – which is totally fine, EDM is a wonderful genre for what it is – but you kind of get to a point where you actually want the real cathartic connection with the people up on that stage and I think that’s one of the things that’s been a massive driver for us.
Andrew: Would you say that’s one of the main reasons you guys have been quite successfull? Because you guys have done quite a lot and shared the stage with some great bands and captured a lot of audiences that seem to be hungry for this kind of music.
Neill: I think our approach has always been to play for real and not have any tricks but also to have fun with it and involve the audience and just be a bit stupid and try not be afraid. Not be afraid but be a bit vulnerable as well.
Andrew: So Halestorm is a great band to be supporting but you’ve supported some other great bands as well. Has there been any particular highlight or one that has stood out the most for you so far?
Thomas: For me supporting AC/DC on their stadium tour of New Zealand was just crazy. It’s a whole level of playing stadiums with 40-50 thousand people and we played in Wellington which is the capital of New Zealand and had to setup in a rainstorm so having to deal with all those logistics on a massive stage, trying not to slip over. Our tech had to go to Bunnings to pick up a shower curtain to put over the top of our pedals to stop getting electrocuted, that kind of things! Just the scale of things is crazy.
Andrew: That must have been a great experience, did you get a chance to hang out with those guys at all and maybe have a bit of a chat with any of them?
Neill: I wish I could say we did but they were on stage and off stage in a flash, we were focused on doing our own thing and never got the opportunity sadly but hopefully there will be another tour one day.
Thomas: They have a car waiting for them as soon as they come off stage which takes them back to their accomm. A friend of mine was actually catering for them and so Angus Young likes to go off stage and go back to his hotel room where he has a vegemite and cheese sandwich.
Neill: It’s a true story!
Andrew: Nice, there you go!
Thomas: What else would you eat after you’ve played a stadium?
Andrew: That’s true!
Neill: That’s very hardcore.
Thomas: It’s a religion
Neil: [laughs].
Andrew: [laughs] Well it’s very exciting for you guys to be supporting Halestorm, it’s going to be a great bunch of shows.
Neill: Can’t wait!
Andrew: After the tour what have you got planned?
Thomas: So we are back to New Zealand and then we are going out for three shows over on the summer run hitting some beach towns and then some festivals next year and then probably writing the next record.
Andrew: Cool well congratulations on everything, congratulations on the New Zealand Music Award and the support shows with Halestorm. It’s been an absolute pleasure seeing you guys really rise to where you guys are now. Thanks for your time, really appreciated!
Thomas: Thank you.
Neill: All good, can’t wait!
MJR BY ARRANGEMENT WITH UTA PRESENTS
HALESTORM
WITH SPECIAL GUESTS
VILLAINY
Friday 6 December – Sydney, Enmore Theatre
Saturday 7 December – Brisbane, The Tivoli
Monday 9 December – Adelaide, The Gov
Tuesday 10 December – Melbourne, The Forum
Tickets from mjrpresents.com or halestormrocks.com
