Key Percussion

Northlane is currently touring throughout the U.S. after the recent release of their latest album "Node."  We caught up with them and got to ask them a few questions. Northlane is a group of very great guys with amazing on-stage energy and immense amounts of talent. Check out their new album with a great new sound! Nick and Marcus

 

So you guys just released your album Node that is #1 in Australia and

#2 in the U.S.,were you guys at all concerned with how this album

would be received by your fans since it was the first with Marcus on

vocals?

Nick: Yes, it was pretty stressful, and I'm sure we all had moments

where we thought, "How is this going to go?" But as we've released

more and more stuff, more people have been a lot more positive

towards it. You can kind of see the positive [from]negative shifting.

Yeah, [it's] gone well apparently. Yeah, it's gone really well and it's

good to see people finally coming around.

Marcus: Yeah, I think the album, the whole theme makes more

sense listening to it

front to back... We found it's hard to release singles because they

were more pieces of the puzzle rather than an overall representation

of the album, so obviously people

- before we released the album - almost seemed more skeptical of how the album

was going to sound. Once the album got released, we got a lot more positive

feedback because it made more sense.

 

There's also a difference in the style of your music videos for this album, there is more emphasis on thematic elements and story telling. Was this something you guys wanted or was it your director, Jason's, idea?

Nick: I suppose we kinda collaborated on it together. You know, he was really good at finding the meanings in our songs and turning it into something we never thought of. He's a really good creative mind. 

Marcus: We worked really closely with him trying to get the perfect ideas for the new videos. I don't think it was a conscious thing to make them like [that.]

Nick: Yeah, I think he had ideas. He's had these ideas for a while and it was just how he wanted to use them and he's pretty good at visually representing lyrics and whatnot. He works hard in understanding what the song's about prior to doing the clips. He had a lot to do with how it turned out.

Marcus: Every video he's done with us, it's gotten better and better and you can see he's a little more comfortable with what he's doing.

Nick: Yeah, he definitely knows what we want. He's a good guy.

 

What story are you trying to tell with Node?

Nick: Node is pretty much about empowering yourself and being the change you want to see in the world rather than talking about the change and trying to-

Marcus: Skim over it and just tell what's happening and not - even having the idea that you can do something, I think it's very important that people have the idea that when you band together, you can really make a difference in the world.

Nick: There's a lot of people who talk about what's wrong with the world, but don't want to do anything about it and I guess it's sort of pointing the finger at that. Yeah, I agree. I can definitely understand that with the way everything has been going on lately in the world.

 

So, this album features a cleaner sound, vocally, what sparked that decision? Was there a concern about straining your voice?

Marcus: I think it's the other dude's thing (Adrian). We weren't going to try and copy what's been done before. We just tried to separate the two sounds from one another. I'm sure I'm a different vocalist, I'm not the same kind.

Nick: He [has] definitely made it possible for us to delve into a side of Northlane that we've never been able to touch on before, which is massive so why not go down that route? He can sing really well, so why not? Personally, I really like it, to be honest with you.

 

So, you've mentioned before that your label-mates, Architect had a huge influence on you, including your band name, how cool was it getting to tour with them?

Nick: That was pretty rad. When we first got offered it, obviously like you said, the name "Northlane" is a track off Architect's first record. Of course, they had the words separated. When we first got offered that, we all grew up sort of listening to that band and taking influence so that was a massive thing for us to do. When we met them, they were these humble, down-to-earth guys, I guess similar to what we are. Yeah, we just hit it off. They were quite humble about the fact that we sort of named our band after them. Definitely a lot of jokes. There wasn't any spite or anything, they're very nice guys. It was pretty cool. Pretty cool. Really cool getting to tour with people that you look up to.

Both: Yeah!

Nick: Exactly.

 

Do you feel at all pressured being on the same label as Architects or Amity Affliction, who have seen a good deal of international success.

Nick: No, I think that made it easier actually. Because if you're on a label with bands that are doing well, because honestly - well, hopefully - you can do the same as what they're doing. When you hear bands like Amity [Affliction] and...Parkway Drive, for Australians, they've really paved the way. We kind of owe it to those guys for really doing the early odds and making it seem possible to really commit. Without them, we probably wouldn't have. Getting out of Australia, initially, is really hard to do for a young band, especially metal bands. They made it possible, so we kind of owe it to them.

 

So you guys have previously said you're into pop and electronic artists, do you think you'll ever test out a more electro-rock sound?

Marcus: I don't know, I suppose Johnny's been listening to a lot of electronic stuff lately. I'm sure we all know there's a little influence from that kind of stuff, but I don't really know what Johnny is gonna come up in that head of his. He's a crazy dude.

Nick: We're open to whatever, whatever change. Usually when we write stuff, he doesn't show you unless it's good. So if it's not good, we don't hear it. So, usually, no matter what, what he shows you is pretty tight. Who knows, I think he takes a lot of influence from the atmospheric sounds. Electronic music or not, he might add a lot of softer, atmospheric sections. I think especially with all this as well, I think it's kind of more of those effects that we take influence from rather than just do music itself. But who knows!

 

Part of the thing Key Percussion likes to do is to take questions from fans particularly and ask the bands personally, so I actually got stopped outside and someone watned to know a quick question: where do you think metalcore is going to go because it's been changing a lot in the last few years, particularly this year. So, where do you think it'll go next?

Marcus: I don't know. I find that metalcore is very oversaturated. I find it very hard to gain influence from many metalcore bands. I used to listen to it all the time, these days, I don't really. But i feel like that needs to happen for the genre to progress. You can't just keep taking influence from the same bands, that's why all these bands are coming out and sounding the same, they all listen to each other rather than branching out to other genres and taking from that and using that as your basis. I feel like metalcore, or metal, whatever you want to call it, it's always gonna be around. If you like heavy music, you're always gonna like heavy music. I say that I listen to heavy bands, but I still love playing and I love listening to bands live and stuff. It's just the fact that I find the stuff to sound very similar these days.

Nick: It's more so that all of those other bands almost - not ruining - but kind of making the same band we all look up to, seem not as great. It kind of ruins the good bands for you as well when they get ripped off. But no, I think metalcore will be around for a long time and I feel like it's gonna change a lot soon. I feel like metalcore is going to be like the new metal.

I grew up sort of listening to Limp Bizkit and Linkin Park and shit like that and that's not as big these days, but I feel like it's always gonna be around. Those are bands that are going to forever play, until they die. So metalcore is like the new metal of our era.