Gladstone, Australia’s DE MEMORIA have headed over to the US to record their debut full length with Jay Maas of Getaway Studios (HAVE HEART / BANE / BACKTRACK / SOUL CONTROL / H2O / CEREMONY / and a lot more)! I was super lucky to catch them right before their takeoff to ask them a few questions.
Grab their “Conversations” EP for free – DOWNLOAD HERE!
Hey guys! What’s up? Are you safe away from the big Australian fires that haunt your lands this year?
Hello! Fortunately we’re in a more humid area of Australia, we’re just not safe from the heat. That’s only a worry for our friends down south!
Yeah, and you’re leaving soon, so you’ll be even farther from the danger, right? You’re heading over to the US in February to record your debut full length. Tell us more about this adventure. How did you put it together?
Yeah, we are heading to Boston in February to record our debut full length with Jay Maas of DEFEATER fame. What started as an ambitious “what if” between us guys quickly snowballed into a reality. We have been planning and discussing with Jay since we released our EP, all it took was an email to start it off.
When exactly was that? Please shoot us a story about your beginnings and writing/recording of your debut EP.
In January last year Joel our vocalist approached all of us and asked us to join his solo project that he had been writing for. He had written a 5 track EP and had recorded a few demo’s with Dean our guitarist, so the whole slow early writing process was completely skipped. We formed and played our first show within 2 weeks. In April, Dean recorded our EP over the course of a few weeks and then it was up from there.
What are your thoughts looking back on it? Do you have any goals when it comes to the copperation with Jay Maas? How would you want to transform your music and develop as a band?
I think we’d all agree looking back we’d like to have taken more time with the mix. We rushed it because we had some things lined up with the release which didn’t go through, unfortunately.
Honestly, we have no idea what we’re gonna get from our time with Jay. He’s a very experienced musician/producer, so I can see a lot of quality input coming from his end. I think after spending two weeks with this guy that has recorded and been involved with so many of these bands that we adore, the process itself is going to be a development. It would be impossible to have traveled that far and put this much effort in to come out worse for wear.
Do you have any plans for the US besides doing the studio work?
We’ve got two weeks in Boston with Jay, then three of us are sticking around to see New York and L.A. We’re really hoping to see some shows while we’re over there.
Nice. I envy you, man [smiles]. I still haven’t had a chance to go to the US, despite the fact of traveling quite a lot!
Anyway, did you have such happenings in mind while forming this band, before reaching out for more? Have your goals with changed since day one?
I’m honestly not sure what the initial thought process was. I know the first email was sent to Jay on a bit of a whim, and when he responded and seemed interested we kind of thought holy fuck, this could be a thing. The initial forming of the band was just for a bit of fun, but things panned out so well. I mean, we sent the first email before we recorded the EP.
How many gigs have you played already, guys?
We had a fairly busy year last year. Played a fair few shows all throughout the state. In September we opened for DEFEATER and BLACKLISTED, so that was one to cross off the bucket list.
Are you looking forward to this year’s Break The Ice Fest?
It would be awesome to go to it, but it’s about 25 hours away. We live 8 hours north of the most northern capital city so getting to things like that is hard, but so worth it in the end.
I hope you’ll get there as one of the band playing, to be honest. It’s hard to believe you wouldn’t go stronger and develop this good drive of yours.
So, what’s next for the band in the coming months after you come back from the US?
[laughs] So do we! I know my plan for when we get back is to get a bit of rest. But we’re hoping to do a lot more touring. Play shows, release the album, play more shows.
What’s the fartherst place you’ve visited with the band so far?
Furthest we’ve traveled is Brisbane 8 hours south. We haven’t left the state yet.
So please tell me about what I’m interested in the most [smiles]. I wonder, how is your local scene? Can you please draw us a picture of it?
We come from a tiny town 8 hours from our states capital. Our scene at the moment is small, but we have a dedicated group of 100-200 people come out to each show. A lot of bands from all around travel and try to have us as a stop on their tours, which as you can imagine would provide a lot of different types of bands. Australia in general is ridiculous, it’s a melting pot of so many different styles and niches. Australia has awesome hardcore and will continue to.
Give us some cool local names of bands, activists, etc.
There are too many pro-active and supportive promoters to list. We’re big fans of MILES AWAY, RAIN DOGS, HOPELESS, CARPATHIAN, MIDNIGHT IN ALASKA and THE BRODERICK. A few more bands that are closer to home that we’ve played with are ONLY SLEEPING and NUCLEAR SUMMER.
I remember HOPELESS playing at Fluff Fest in Czech Republic, they were stoked after the gig! Have you heard about this party? Are there any European festivals or places you’d like to visit on tour?
Fluff fest sounds awesome, and we would love to be able to play a show in Europe one day but we aren’t holding our collective breath. Hopefully once the album is released we can make a move on playing more shows, we haven’t even been around for a year yet.
Ok, what else, gentlemen? Would you like to add anything else?
Anything else? Umm, tuneal snakes rule.
Ooooo-K [smiles]. Whatever is fine with you [smiles]. [see the image below to find out more about the tuneal snakes :)]
Thank you so much for the chat! Please drop me a line as soon as you get back from the States. Let’s make another exclusive feature of it, shall we? Thanks for your time!
And thank you for caring about us and what we do. Would love to chat again.
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The band has issued the following update from their American trip and published some pictures / videos from the studio:
“Recording update – America rules, American food rules/sucks, huge Dickies jackets are $11, beer is cheaper than bottle water is in Australia, snow rules, snow sucks, Jay is loose and Graeme blocks toilets daily. Also..drums are going well.”
… and published some pictures / videos from the studio:
Tuneal is not a typo, it is Jasper’s pun for tuning whilst being a tunnel snake. FYI.
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BLACKLISTED/p
