Ahead of Electric Eye Heavy Fest happening on 5 October 2024, I got to sit down with some of the bands and chat about what has been happening, and what fans can expect to see at their sets. I spoke to Jason from Tasmanian death metal band and Electric Eye headliner, Psycroptic about what fans can expect from their set.
Steph: Hey Jason, thanks for speaking with me. Psycroptic have been going for 25 years now, since 1999. Can you please tell me the origin story and how the band began?
Jason: Hey, sure! The band started back in, I think it was 1998, 1999, with Dave Haley and Joe Haley, the guitarist and drummer, who are brothers. They started the band, started writing, and then they actually pilfered Cameron Grant, the original bass player, from a band called Magoria that I used to play in. So basically, yeah, they stole our bass player and then there was talks about me originally singing in the band, but it didn’t end up happening. They got Matthew Chalk, he was from the northern end of Tasmania. And long story short, after about four years, it didn’t work out with him. Me and Cam, we’d sort of grown up together and I was good friends with the other guys, so I think I was just the obvious choice. They got me in the band, I think it was about 2004, yeah so 20 years ago pretty much now that I did my first tour with the guys. My job started out and originally, it was talk of me just being a session sort of position. I went did a European tour with them and everything went really good. Then there was a bit of tension in the band and basically i ended up full-time in the band!
Steph: Wow, that is a long time, congratulations on your 20th anniversary with Psycroptic!
Jason: Yeah, thank you and it’s been it’s been a hell of a ride! It’s basically almost half my life I’ve done it for now. It’s pretty awesome to look back on everything we’ve achieved over that time.
Steph: What would you say are some of your highlights during that 20-year period?
Jason: I just think that its all the shows and all the friends we’ve made. I mean I’ve got mates basically all over the world now. And we have had the opportunity to tour, play, and make friends with bands that we idolized back when I was a kid. My first European tour that I ever did was with Dismember which were a really popular band for me or an important band to me when I was growing up and coming up in the scene. We have toured with Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Obituary multiple times. Macabre, that was a really big one. European festivals… I mean, looking back on it, I really started during Covid, when there was no touring and stuff going on. I really had that time away from it and had time to reflect a lot on just all the crazy shit that we’ve actually had the opportunity to do over the years. We have played festivals in China, and we played an underground show in a restaurant in Mongolia back in like 2010. There’s just been all sorts of insane shit that we’ve been lucky enough to have had the opportunity to do. Before all of the COVID stuff, we were so deep in it and it was just constantly happening and an evolving thing. A lot of the time, we didn’t really get the time to sort of just stop and reflect on all the shit that we’d actually done. When we did actually get that little point in time where we could stop and go what the fuck, we have been all of the corners of the globe. This stuff that is so awesome and it’s just the whole package really. I suppose the greatest part about the whole thing is I’ve had so many awesome experiences, and it’s been with the members of the band who have essentially become my best friends in the world, getting to do it with them. You know, it’s just such an awesome experience.
Steph: That sounds awesome, what a rich experience! You guys haven’t released any music for a little while. What’s been happening behind the scenes?
Jason: We are pretty deep into a new album at the moment. I was actually in the studio with Joe, our guitarist, last night. I think we have got about seven songs written completely that we’re getting recorded at the moment. There’ll be another stack of songs we’ll get written probably over the next month. We are hoping that somewhere later this year that we may have a couple of singles or a single to drop and hopefully look at next year sometime for getting a new album out. So that’s sort of the plan at this stage. We have also had all sorts of stuff going on. Dave’s had his first child earlier this year as well. So that’s kind of taken his time up a bit lately. There is always things happening behind the scenes. There’s been some shows going on and stuff. I think we’re sort of at a point at the moment where the pace has just slowed down in the public eye. But there’s still a lot going on behind the scenes at the moment, which is cool. So, the creative process, it’s something that we do spend a lot of time on. When we do get into that album mode, we just take the time that we need. We don’t like to rush these things. We need to let it marinate and happen.
Steph: What is the creative process with writing music for Psycroptic?
Jason: It is just kind of shared ideas. The process for it really is Joe, our guitarist. He’s also the studio engineer so he’s kind of the mastermind behind the music and really where it starts, with him. He will write the basic backbones of all the songs on guitars, he’ll do basic drum programming to it and then it gets sent out to the rest of us to sort of work on our parts. We never actually jam out as such, as a lot of other bands do. Everything with us is really that we all write in our parts individually, and all of it comes together in the studio. And then we have to learn things after the fact, which can be interesting sometimes. Because it always seems that the most difficult songs that we write, always end up being the ones that kind of hit first, and we have to learn to play live. So we kind of back ourselves into a corner a little bit there sometimes, but it’s the way we’ve found works. Joe and I both live in Tasmania, he only lives 30 minutes away from me, but Dave lives in Melbourne and then Todd lives in New Jersey. so our options for just getting in the jam room and kicking it old school pretty much aren’t there anymore. We found what works, and that’s good.
Steph: It’s been a while since you guys have been to Perth, are you excited about the trip?
Jason: Yeah, about five or six years. I am looking forward to getting back over west very much. I actually saw something that Dysie put up online the other day, about how we hadn’t been over there for six years. I was trying to think the other week when it was and I knew it was a long time but yeah I didn’t think it had been quite that long! It’s going to be good to get back over there. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is the four-hour flight and the shitty time difference for us. But we’ve always had a really good time and a really good response when we do get over there. So we are looking forward to it because for us getting from Tasmania, all the way over there, it’s pretty much as expensive as it can get when it comes to flights within Australia. We don’t get to do it all the time, but when we do the turnouts are great, the experience is always really good. It seems to be an event made of it, which is really good, so that’s awesome.
Steph: Speaking of, how did you guys become involved with the Electric Eye Heavy Fest?
Jason: I’m not sure actually to tell the truth! I am not in the loop when it comes to booking and all that sort of stuff. I just get text messages from Dave, our drummer, and he says are you available on these dates? We’ve got shows! and I just give you yes or no. And then next thing, there’s flight details in an email for me, so yeah. I mean I don’t know how it all comes about, Dave takes care of a lot of booking. I know Brad and Dysie from Soundworks up there, we’ve always had a lot to do with them when it comes to booking and management. They’ve always sort of got their eye out for us on opportunities and stuff, so somehow I imagine they’ve had something to do with it along the way. They work some magic and weave it together!
Steph: What can fans expect from your set on October 5th?
Jason: A good of old and new, really. We’ll be playing three or four songs off Divine Council so it’s a good mix! It is a good sort of slamming set. We have just done a bunch of shows around Victoria, Tasmania, Sydney, and Queensland, so we’re pretty well in form at the moment. It should be a good show, and should be an energetic show. The usual thing, we don’t like to stand there like statues. Even though my beard’s getting grey, I try to keep active. I just don’t mind to cover that up now.
Steph: You mentioned talk of an album in 2025. What else is coming in the Psycroptic world?
Jason: There’s a US tour for, I think it’s February, February or March. That’s about seven weeks with Nile and Six Feet Under. And apart from that, we’ve got Froth and Fury Festival in Adelaide. I think that’s November and then apart from that not too sure. Hoping to maybe get over to Europe next year sometime as well. I am sure once everything’s finished with the album, that everything is going to get crazy hectic as it always does. It should get pretty busy for us, I think, I hope.
Steph: And how do you go about with the release of an album? Do you do anything to celebrate?
Jason: We’re all very blase. I’m hoping this time around it shouldn’t be such a long wait from when the album is finished to when the album’s released. So we’ve overlooked Divine Council because of all the COVID bullshit and all the backlogs with vinyl pressing. I think we’d finished that album nearly 18 months before it was released. So we had the thing. We were all really stoked and excited on it when we actually finished the album. But from that point to the point where it was released, the album was already quite old to us, so the album release wasn’t really the exciting part of it. I think the American tour that was following the album release was the thing that we were really looking forward to with it. Because at that point that was sort of our first tour back, whole Covid experience. I hope that this time around once we finish it, that it should be back to hopefully only, you know, three – four months from when we submit the album to the label to when they release it. And then all the excitement can start because it’s a much nicer thing when the album’s still fresh and exciting when it’s released.
Steph: I can imagine that it would be like knowing what you’re getting for Christmas a year in advance, and then Christmas happening and its not so exciting.
Jason: Exactly, yeah. That’s probably the best way best way I’ve heard it described because a lot of our friend, friends in other bands, they had the same thing. It is kind of like a real bummer because you finish your album, you submit it to the label, you’re all stoked on it, and then it’s just like …yeah… right… I’ve literally got to wait a year, a year and a half, until this actually sees the light of day. And you know, you’re trying your best not to send downloads of it to your friends to check out and all that stuff, sneak peeks, like oh this sucks. Just sitting on it for too long.
Steph: Given how busy you are and how the band is with schedules, what do you like to do to relax in your downtime?
Jason: I’m not much of a relaxing person. I am one of those psychos that goes on big runs and goes to the gym and hikes and bushwalks. And decides that if there is no Psycroptic work going on, then I’m going to write an album for something else. I very much like to try and keep highly creative. For example, at the moment, I’m working on the Psycroptic album but I’m also working on writing a Domination Campaign album at the moment, and another album for the black metal band that I’m part of as well. So my life pretty much consists of work, writing music, touring, and I hang out. I’ve got two kids, so they kept me very busy as well. But as for relaxing, not much of that really goes on. But that’s the way I like it.
Steph: Thank you so much for your time for chatting with me. It’s been really lovely getting to chat with you and hear about your musical process and what’s coming up for Psycroptic!
Jason: No worries, thanks Steph!
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