ALBUM REVIEW: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - "Skeleton Tree"

By: Victor Van Ommen

Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 09/09/2016
Label: Bad Seed Ltd

Musically, “Skeleton Tree” trudges through with sparse instrumentation, drones, and swells. This makes for an immersive, emotional listen, pulling at the listener’s psyche. There’s no let up, either, with each song diving deeper and deeper into darkness. By mastering the art of minimalism, The Bad Seeds have turned to making vast soundscapes, by focusing on accents instead of a steady drive.

‘Skeleton Tree’ CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Jesus Alone
2). Rings of Saturn
3). Girl in Amber
4). Magneto
5). Anthrocene
6). I Need You
7). Distant Sky
8). Skeleton Tree

The Review:

If you’re wondering why the cold, dark days of winter seem to be approaching fast, it’s thanks to Nick Cave’s new album, “Skeleton Tree.” Cave has dove deep into his well of inspiration, spinning dark tales of dealing with life and death, and unleashed this collection of eight songs on the world.

Cave’s melodramatic voice adds depth to the already bleak backdrop. His voice is full, coming more from the throat rather than the diaphragm, resonating rather than bellowing. The quivering he lets slip isn’t so much technique as it is him living the lyrics. By doing this, Cave has saturated his lyrics with an overwhelming amount of feeling, which may or may not be based on him mourning the death of his 15 year old son. There seems to be a disagreement in the online blogosphere about the inspiration for these lyrics, but what is for sure is that these eight songs are fueled by Cave’s struggle with the existence and his faith in higher powers, wrestling to find a purpose in such a mundane life, as well as contemplating death and what this means to the living.

Musically, “Skeleton Tree” trudges through with sparse instrumentation, drones, and swells. This makes for an immersive, emotional listen, pulling at the listener’s psyche. There’s no let up, either, with each song diving deeper and deeper into darkness. By mastering the art of minimalism, The Bad Seeds have turned to making vast soundscapes, by focusing on accents instead of a steady drive. Minor chords are played for effect rather than melody, percussion is few and far between and when it does hit, the element of the song it brings to the fore could shatter glass. The album feels fragile because of this, as though at any moment we’ll hear Cave completely break down.

“Skeleton Tree” is a commanding listen, one that sits heavy on the shoulders, and judging by how the weather has turned, Mother Nature has scored herself a copy of this exceptional slab of wax as well.

‘Skeleton Tree’ is available everywhere now

Band info: official

Space Bong And Beyond - An Interview with Kegan from Space Bong

When my friend Lachlan from Art Of Catharsis and Adrift For Days offered me the chance an interview wit Space Bong, I jumped at the chance. As Space Bong are one of Australia's premier and legendary Doom/Stoner Metal bands. They released a classic landmark album in 2009 with The Death Of Utopia – which has won praise across the globe.

Space Bong will finally be releasing their 2^nd album Deadwood To Worms in Sept 2015. Before then here's my interview with Kegan (Vocalist) from these legendery Aussie Doomsters where he discusses pretty much about everything in this epic interview. So get comfortable as it's time to venture into the realm of Space Bong!!!

Hi guys, How are things with you today. Thanks for doing this interview.

Thanks for giving a fuck to interview us, Sludgelord.

· Where have you guys been for the last few years? Seems you have been gone forever. Welcome back though as I’m a huge fan of your work.

Thanks for having us back! The main writers and motivators behind Space Bong have been playing in other bands for the past few years, namely Funeral Moon and Night Hag. I've also been preparing for a tour through the USA to undertake further education and experience in ecological building projects called Earthships. We’re also prone to having a revolving door of Adelaide’s grimiest musicians who, for various reasons, can’t handle the intensity of the bands music and dynamics. But, Space Bong has always been there, and until one of us dies, it probably always will.

· Can you give a brief history of how the band came together and where it is now?

Dave (guitarist and main song writer behind Space Bong) and I have been playing in bands and living together for over 10 years. As a few bands began to lose steam and we started being influenced by the more fucked up side of crust, grind and sludge, there was an obvious movement in the direction of the Space Bong sound. Everything around us screamed hate, drugs, FTW. Doom and sludge provided the creative outlet. When we began playing, punks and metal heads were starting to get along, going to the same shows, squatting warehouses, playing alleyway shows, generally fucking shit up together. We were lucky enough to be amongst things at that time.

The punk undertones of sludge and doom, the DIY ethos, are critical elements to our existence. When we shifted from a crusty grind sound to a deep sludge/doom vibe, people got it. The Death Of Utopia was a natural transition for a lot of people in our milieu. Things have continued ever since. Surprisingly, despite all the fuck ups, splits and down time, we've had the support of many good people who continue to believe in the authenticity of what we do. We hope that the honesty of our music cuts through, because it's basically a representation of who we are as beings in the world.

· Why did you choose the name Space Bong for the band?

Chrisfits, one of our original singers, come up with it off the cuff. Only later did we realise that he inadvertently stole it from a Jetsons episode that he watched as a child. But maybe, just maybe, he was high at the time.

· You released a classic debut album back in 2009 – The Death Of Utopia. Has it surprised you the response and praise it’s received over the years. As it’s classed as a modern classic.

You wouldn't believe how surprised we are. I'm not sure what happened. Anna Vo (one of the greatest human beings on the planet) from An Out Recordings, originally based in Sydney, Australia, released The Death Of Utopia for us. I don't know what she did, but something otherworldly occurred. People somehow heard it and vibed with it. We were all pretty messed up during and after that album, so no outreach was done to promote it from our side. We definitely played shows throughout Australia, but didn't push things besides that.

· Looking back then – Did you know you had something special? Would you now change anything about it?

I don't think we really knew what we were doing. Dave wrote really heavy long songs. I was in a pit of self-hate and despair. That was all we knew. The recording process, like all our recording processes, was torture. The lyric and vocal writing process was always last minute and sporadic. I've lost so many lyric sheets that I've nearly given up all together. It's lucky that The Death Of Utopia even exists, to be honest. The guy that recorded it last all the recordings on his computer. All we had was a rough mixed cd that Dave found after we realised that the original recordings didn't exist anymore. If it wasn't for that stroke of fate, the album would've been lost to the vortex of shit that seems to always swirl near us.

· How would you describe your own sound? Blackened Sludge, Doom Metal, Sludge Metal, Stoner Metal. Or all of the above.

I personally like the term blackened sludge because of it's relation to darkness and the dank aesthetic of hate and drug abuse. Musically, I think it's honest to say that we have definite elements of heavy stoner metal, which somehow become something else when brought together with our darker stuff. To me it becomes indistinguishable once lyrics and vocals are added. It's just heavy, dark and messed up.

· You’ve just released a new EP/Cassette Single – In Doom We Crust. Where the main point has to be the new single – Deadwood To Worms. And one that will be from your eagerly awaited 2nd album. What can people expect from the album? Is the album going to be as heavy as the new song?

Deadwood To Worms is definitely not the heaviest song on the new album. There is much heavier. The new album is very much a continuation of The Death Of Utopia, given that the songs were written not long after. Thinking about it now, it has a very similar flow, although the detail to song writing, structure and bleakness of the riffs are a step up. There is a little surprise at the end of the album to get peoples bleak rump asses bumping.

· Was it a hard or easy album to record for? And did you ever expect that it would take over 6 years to release your next record/album.

We've never been a highly organised band. We've always suffered from drastic fractures mentally and personally, making the writing and recording process painful and long. This album has been recorded for 3 years or so. It's taken us this long to settle down as individuals and a group. Now that we have, things are looking better for our longevity and productivity. We have every intention and the material ready to record our next EP before our long recorded LP is even out. All things remaining the same, Space Bong will have 3 new recordings out within the next 12 months.

· You’ve performed with some legendary bands over the years. Who has been your favourite to perform with and the reasons why?

It's always a kick to perform with the bands we have. Looking back I can't even believe that we've played with the bands we have. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine we'd get the chance. I think the ones that have stood out for me are Neurosis, OM and Wolves In The Throne Room. These bands have provided us with the solace and inspiration that we all need to continue to create and focus on what inspires us about this world. To share this time and history with these musicians and music lovers is the greatest of honours that we'll go to the grave smiling about.

· It seems Space Bong can be a very hard band to be apart of at times. How do you all cope with the struggles of being in the band? Was there anytime you all thought – That this is the end of Space Bong as a band?

I don't think we've every truly considered breaking the band up. Giving up on Space Bong would mean giving up on music and ultimately, death. It's not that we take the band seriously or anything like that. It's more that we take living life seriously. There is no distinction between music and life for us. It's all the same game. While we may have very divergent lifestyles (now), we all understand one another, our pains and trials. When things were really, really fucked up, we were there for each other, experiencing the same shit, day after day, for no other reason than suffering and self-abuse.

Some of us have evolved and occasionally we get out of the swamp. But you can’t forget that sort of interpersonal intensity. You can look into a person a know if they know. There is a genuine friendship that transcends the petty bullshit. Whenever I’ve wanted to kill someone in the band, all it takes is to look at them and the hate subsides.

· You’ve been classed as one of Australia’s Best Sludge/Doom Metal Band. Do tags and descriptions like that ever become a burden and a hard thing to live upto?

I don't think we've ever seen ourselves as being one of the best sludge/doom bands in Australia. We've played the most disgusting, despicable of scenes and sets imaginable. And regardless of what anyone else thinks or says, we're just going to be what we are. Good or bad really isn't the thing. It's a spectrum where ultimately everything is just a slight variation on the same theme. We have good and bad days. What makes us good/bad, I don't really know. We are what we are. That seems to be enough.

· Australia has a rising Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal scene currently at the moment. Tons of great bands such as Adrift For Days, Aver, Shelfin, Horsehunter and Ya̧nomamö. Is the scene getting any better in Australia or do you get more recognition from abroad? How do you think the Aussie Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal scene can be improved upon?

Australia has some of the most underrated extreme music bands in the world. Take three: Whitehorse (Melbourne), Drowning Horse (Perth) and Mounrnful Congregation (Adelaide). This is a master class of the most extreme music that can be heard anywhere. These bands have toured the world, or could easily do so. Each major city in Australia has at least one band that plays to an international standard and is recognised for it. I think the issue with Australia is that while we have such bands, there's a massive gap between them and the up-and-coming bands who are happy the fill the void without making any musical or artistic jumps into original creativity.

These genres are saturated with ambitious parasites and leeches, as in all areas of human life, that learn how to promote and show-pony before they learn how to become authentic, genuine human beings. As I've mentioned, I see no separation between music and life. When that distinction begins to be made is when the 'fake' begins to show. At that point, it becomes nothing but a false spectacle where everyone is acting for the sake of fame and drunken glory. Egos become more important, crowd attendances and sales become the object. It becomes a pissing and shit throwing contest. This is probably the most cynic view that anyone could have of what's happening in Australia.

We are a geographically large continent with an incredibly small population. Everyone knows everyone else. Rivalries and bridge burning between friends is a reality. But there is a genuine group of bands and individuals who are sincerely dedicated to their art and the spirit of cooperation for the higher goals of self-expression. The assholes and egos will be crushed as the honest caregivers of our art rise up to support the growth of new and young bands that carry on the human spirit into deeper, darker realms. For those that care, keep watch of Horsehunter (Melbourne), Tombsealer (Adelaide) and Drowning Horse (Perth). These bands own their variations of the craft.

· Which bands and artists influenced you all as musicians?

We were all originally influenced by the doom and sludge masters: Electric Wizard and Iron Monkey. Thrown in the mix with GG Allin, Turbonegro and grindcore. These days I'm more influenced by things like Corrupted, Primitive Man, ambient, black metal, esoteric buddhism/existentialism with a healthy dose of nihilism and deep ecology. We all have very broad tastes in music that take us from the extremes of classical music to Taylor Swift to Gorgoroth.

· You guys have been touring quite a bit recently. Do you play gigs in your home town or do you have to travel further away to perform regularly.

We've just returned from a stretch of touring which took us 5000kms ie. 3100 miles, in 6 days, playing 5 shows. In total we travelled 7000kms to play 7 shows. This is a decent tour by Australian standards. Australia is the hardest of all 'developed' countries to tour due to our geographic largess and small population. We don't have the density to make touring a regular, viable thing, unless you play clean jean stoner rock or lowest common denominator heavy metal.

We like touring. Staying in our home town results in psychic stagnation and a self-delusional, small town mentality. We've built up a very dedicated following over our 8 years which we appreciate beyond measure. We're even more surprised than ever by the support.

· In 5 words or less – describe the live Space Wrong experience.

Meditative doom misanthropy on punk.

· How important is a physical product to a band like yourselves.

As we refine our aesthetic and philosophy I think the physical becomes a manifestation of our deeper selves. Our past releases have been supported by the creative art of one of Australia's leading tattooists, Amy Duncan. Without her efforts on The Death Of utopia and The Passion Of The Crust, we'd be nothing. For future releases we'll be collaborating internally. 

The way we work is that I come up with the lyrics and themes, while our other singer, Jamie, comes up with the artwork given his day job as a tattooist. We're only just starting this type of working relationship, but are using the next LP release as the debut of our collaboration. We've got a good 5 months to work on it, so I'm really excited to see what we can come up with. As for other physical manifestations of Space Bong, I work with other Adelaide artists, such as Kerri-Ann Wright, using my lyrics as the creative direction.

· Where do you see yourselves in 5 years time as a band and individually. Or is that too hard of a question to answer.

Either dead or having done a fuck tonne of writing and touring. It could go either way. With the current line up and level of commitment, I think we can begin to indulge in the idea and planning to head overseas in 2016. There are those bucket list events, like Roadburn, Heavy Days In Doomtown and Maryland Deathfest, that keep people like us inspired. We're constantly on a knifes edge. Day-to-day I'm constantly struggling to balance my desire to live this doom life to it's logical conclusion.

There are multiple paths open to journey down, some more destructive, creative, painful and happy than others. At this very moment, I'm content to take the musically creative path. When the struggle of this commitment becomes too much to bare, I may choose another path that leads to an existence outside of society, living off-grid, self-sufficient in the bush with significant others. Until that point, I'm keen to live in the (un)civilised world to create music and culture that reflect these dark days.

· What is the songwriting dynamic in the band? Is it down to an individual or is it a group process.

Fundamentally, Space Bong is the musical brainchild of David Gibson. I'm his vocal accompaniment and rehab counsellor.

· If you could give your younger selves advice before starting the band. What would it be and why.

If I was my younger self, I'd tell my older self not to give my younger self any advice. The process is the process is the process. Nothing can or would be different. All is perfect and as it should be. All the chaos has been perfection. Maybe one piece of advice would be not to be such a snotty nosed piece of shit punk asshole.

· What is your musical setup when recording in the studio or playing live. Is it an advanced or basic setup?

We have a very basic set up when we play live. Recording is no different. We have very few frills. Although, we have done noise collaborations in the past with such artists as Die Like a God. In the future we'll be working with a well travelled harsh noise artist Default (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rm_AtYQwhs) on our LP tour in order to capture the complete depth of our recorded material.

· Apart from the new album, What else does 2015 have in store for the band? Anything you like to share with us.

We are setting up to release our LP, Deadwood To Worms, on vinyl in September through the label I've started, FALSExIDOL Records (https://falsexidolrecords.bandcamp.com/) and Sydney's Art As Catharsis.

We're also looking for overseas labels to help distribute in Europe and America. We're gonna back this up in October with a string of massive Australian shows with Adelaide doom/death band, Tombsealer, and the infamous Drowning Horse from Perth, who are also releasing an LP on FALSExIDOL Records.

We've got a couple new songs which we'll be recording mid-year to have ready for a release not long after the LP. Splits with other bands could be on the cards. Then, we've got a big one: a full length album entitled, Hits From The Bong, that will be a covers album of non-metal songs made doom. Bands will include the likes of Howlin' Wolf, Turbonegro, Syd Barrett and many more unsuspecting musical classics.

I'm also going to enter the international band touring game with my first tour of an American sludge band that is currently ripping humanity a new psyche. They're out done by none. Very excited for Space Bong and them to hit the road together next March.

· Finally do you have anything to say to your fans and our readers?

Thanks for doing this interview. It's been a long time coming, but we look forward to dooming in

warehouses, alleyways, clubs, crack dens and rehab clinics throughout the world in the next few years. Let's hope the reaper doesn't strike us down before then. Much hate and bless to you Sludgelord.

I want to thank Kegan from Space Bong to talking to us here at Sludgelord HQ. And for Lachlan at Art As Catharsis for arranging this interview. Space Bong will release their 2^nd album – Deadwood To Worms – in September 2015. You've been warned!!!

Words by Steve Howe and Kegan

For More information

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Interview with CLAGG

Today on Sludgelord it's my pleasure to be interviewing Aussie Sludge/Doom Metal Heavyweights CLAGG – who over the course of 11 years and 4 outstanding albums have laid claim to one of the heaviest and loudest bands around.

Their latest release – Gather Your Beasts – has been 4 years in the making and is starting to make waves within the Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal scene with it's constant onslaught of sublime riffs.

I called the album - “If you are a long-time fan of Clagg, you are going to love this album as I did. The band should be proud of this album as I feel it is their best album to date. Just sit back and enjoy the awesome riffs that Clagg have delivered here. Gather Your Beasts is a truly stunning album from Australia’s Premier Doom/Sludge/Stoner Metal band.

Clagg have never sounded better than they do on this album. The production is immense through out. Gather Your Beasts is another outstanding album from this truly great band.”

I asked Anthony Viccars would he be up for an interview with us here at Sludgelord. And he  kindly agreed to talk to us at Sludgelord which I am only too happy to do.

So lets gets started with the mighty – CLAGG

Q1 – Hi Anthony, How are things with you today. Thanks for doing this.

No problems at all Steve, we really appreciate the great review and all of the time and love you put into the mighty Sludgelord blog.

Q2 – Can you give a brief history on how the band came about to where it is today.

Sure, we consider ourselves the Napalm Death of Doom in Australia given to the fact we have had so many members in the band over our history. I’m the only original member left after 11 years and we’ve had a countless amount of bass players, a few less drummers and a couple of ex singers & guitarists.

I think part of the evolution of band members has helped to create the sound we have now. Definitely a lot more darker and oppressive than our earlier works – We were kind of like a cross between Fu Manchu and Earth when we started (strange combination of bands which sounds even shitter in real life than conceptually) I feel the sound has definitely been honed now and the current line-up has a lot to do with shaping of the final output of Gather Your Beasts.

Q3 – How would you describe your overall sound. Stoner, Doom or, Sludge or a mixture of everything.

Bogan rock for Stoners.

I dunno to be honest, I generally find it quite funny that the 3 x genres all get lumped in together when really how can you compare a band like Kyuss – to a band like Grief?

Anyway, we sound somewhere in the middle of Kyuss and Grief

Q4 – Congrats on your new album – Gather Your Beasts.. It's a great album you have recorded there. Are you happy with the final version that you have released or would you change some things.

Thanks a lot. Absolutely stoked with the final record, I think it’s by far our best recording to date. The addition of Dav and Dase to the band have added a huge amount of depth to the final recording and they were both absolute wizards in the studio. This is the second recording we’ve done with Jason Fuller at the desk and, just like Lord of the Deep we’re stoked with the work he’s done on these albums.

Q5 – Was it an easy or hard album to record for. And would you change anything about it.

For me personally, this was an impossibly difficult album to record. The actual recording process was a piece of cake, but getting the band to the point we were ready and comfortable to record this album was immensely arduous and stress, which is why it took us so long.

Q6 – It's been 4 long years since your last album. Why the long wait. Or was it case of taking your time with this album.

Yeah generally we had a nice history of releasing an album every 2 or so years. We had the best part of an album ready to be recorded in late 2011 – did the obligatory pre-announcements of the imminent album release through Social Media and all of that jazz. Then unfortunately we had a bit of an internal shake up which resulted in guitarist and the other last remaining original member Tom leaving the band.

We pretty much went on hiatus for the best part of a year and had at many times contemplated ending the band at that point. It was a big impact for all us as Tom was such a critical component to the Clagg sound (pretty much all the riffs on our albums to that point had been written by Tom and I).

It wasn’t really until I was at a local Melbourne show watching extreme brutallers Portal and Absu where Dase; guitarist of the black metal band Encircling Sea who were supporting that night approached me and suggested he’d love to play bass in the band. We then recruited our now 2nd guitarist Dav Byrne from the Melbourne Doom band Agonhymn and started jamming again. The new line-up was, in all honesty, a refreshing kick start for the band. Heaps of energy, new ideas and tonnes of bad jokes and even worse Aussie idioms.

We shelved about half the previous songs we had ready to go, kept a couple, wrote a couple more and head into the studio as soon as we could. We really wanted to re-establish ourselves with this album and prove to the world we are still a force to be reckoned with. I personally feel it is the best album we have done and I’m tremendously proud that we came back from the brink of destruction to produce it.

Q7 – What is the albums overall themes. Or would you like the listeners to find this out for themselves.

Your bet is as good as mine. Our vocalist Scooter writes all the lyrics & song titles and is the mastermind behind the general themes for our albums. They are generally the last thing to be penned down once the basic song structure is pulled together so I like to think he draws inspiration from the riffs and lets the pen scribe thereon after.

He’s a big fan of history, fantasy and HP Lovecraft so if you can imagine a Lovecraftian style orgy involving elves and goblins in a WW2 German Bunker you could get a picture for what Gather Your Beasts is all about! Either that or read his lyrics which are posted on our Facebook page.

Q8 – Who designed the excellent album cover and what are the themes behind it.

We’ve used the same amazing artist for Gather that we did Lord of the Deep. He’s a Melbourne artist by the name of Boyd Synnott and he’s absolutely amazing. We basically gave him a rough overview of the lyrical concepts of the album and let him go away and create whatever he feels is a nice (and of course brutal!) portrayal of the themes. He’s criminally under rated to be honest, I think he’s one of the best artists we have going in Australia. He’s done a handful of bands artwork including the Melbourne Thrash lords King Parrot albums. (he also features on their awesome ‘Shit on the Liver’ video clip, playing the freaky ticket inspector, check it out on Youtube).

Q9 – Where did the name CLAGG come from. Any specific meaning.

The name Clagg derives from an Aussie brand of shitty paste called ‘Clag’ that most kids used in primary school growing up in Australia. Like us it’s sludgy, thick, cheap and doesn’t really work.

Years ago we thought it would be a fun name, I guess the name has just stuck with us now. I think it has a much more sinister meaning in other parts of the world; if the Urban Dictionary descriptions are anything to go by that is! Either way, both descriptions are suitable enough to describe the Clagg experience.

Q10 – Which bands and artists influenced you as musicians.

When starting the band we were tragic Earth fans. Initial jams mainly involved smoking weed, hiring loud guitar amps, turning the lights off and literally droning out for 6 hours straight. Occasionally riffs would form out of the drone which was where our first songs and initial sound was shaped. We started incorporating more riff based / structured songs which were absolutely influenced by the sludge bands we was listening to at the time: Iron Monkey, Eyehategod, The Melvins, Bongzilla etc.. Personally I was also quite influenced by the Melbourne bands I would watch play live at iconic venues like the Tote, the Punters Club etc as a teenager.

Bands like Blood Duster, Pod People & Peeping Tom absolutely blew me away and really was the driving force in starting the band at the time.

Most people in the band have quite eclectic tastes from Death Metal, Stoner Rock, Leo Sayer to albums where every lyric is replaced by the word ‘my dick’. I guess that’s the combined formula you’ll need to write an album which sounds like Gather Your Beasts!

I generally feel there is a consistent sound to both Lord of the Deep and Gather Your Beasts which you could define as the Clagg sound now. It took us a while to get there but when I listen to the 2 albums I can hear a lot of similarities.

Q11 – How big of a help has BandCamp and the Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal community been in getting your music across to fans.

Bandcamp has been fantastic; as a music fan it’s my first port of call to discover new bands so as a frequent user who finds awesome music through the website it’s great to be a part of it – and hopefully people are finding us and enjoying our music. We’re pretty much the last band in Australia to get our music on Bandcamp so it has been quite a revelation since we’ve done so; “You mean people actually will pay for our music instead of downloading it from torrents?” Cool!

I just think it’s a great website for musos. It’s easy to use, no need for advanced HTML coding to get a nice looking website where people can hear your music and get a bit of a feel about what your band is all about.

Q12 – The album is receiving a lot of praise from fans and critics alike. Are you please with the responses so far.

The praise we have received so far has been overwhelming, we’re stoked that people enjoy the album. Particularly since we had been dormant for so long and had some of these songs written years ago it’s great to finally have a strong recording of them for the fans (and critics) to listen to. There’s an amazingly healthy blogging community across the stoner/doom/sludge scene who, like yourselves have a very loyal and sizeable following.

Getting the album out through to this community really is critical in the success of bands gaining any kind of exposure internationally. Living in Australia there’s not a lot of exposure we can get without these types of websites and we’re stoked that the feedback on the album has been positive.

Q13 – What is the songwriting process in the band? Is it a group collective or is just down to one individual.

Varied to be honest. Some songs are formed around the theme of just 1 riff and, once jammed on for hours and hours on end then more structure evolves. We’ll take the songs / riffs home; listening to them; add parts and then continue to jam on them. Alternatively a song can be pretty much written start to finish by 1 member and then we just nut out the more intricate details in rehearsal. Either way, the songs are absolutely 100% crafted by the band collaboratively.

Like a lot of guitarists I speak to; I generally come up with riffs when I’m not ‘thinking’ about writing riffs. I find the more you try and force the writing process, the more difficult it is; and generally the weaker the output you get by it. The frustrating part about this is trying to remember those damn riffs when they just come to you out of the blue! I’ve remembered Scooter calling my voicemail just to whistle a riff to me so he wouldn’t forget it. Made for an interesting re-interpretation experiment converting a whistling voicemail into a sludgy doomfest through the Sunn Model-T

Q14 – You have had an epic career so far. What have been your favourite highlights so far.

Personally for me it’s ALL about playing live. I get a lot more enjoyment out of playing than I do recording, and even jamming. The live show gives you this absolute feeling of pride for the work you’ve put into recording and rehearsing your craft.

So my favourite highlights over the 11 years would all be live experiences. Along with a fellow Doom lover and drummer of the Sydney band – Nathan Millett, we have been running a relatively successful Doom festival in Australia called Doomsday. It’s been going since 2009 and from 2010 onwards we’ve been able to secure international headliners to tour the country alongside of. So being a part of organizing / curating / playing (and financing) a successful running Aussie festival where I get to play alongside bands like Acid King, Cough, Church of Misery and The Atomic Bitchwax has been a great highlight for me in my time in the band.

Other than Doomsday another highlight has been playing the ‘Dark Mofo’ dark arts festival down in the island of Tasmania in the south of Australia in the middle of winter this year. The festival was conceived and curated by the MONA (Museum of Old and New Art) museum which in itself is an amazing story: David Walsh, enigmatic mathematical genius who made millions exploiting casinos all around the world pumps $300M into creating a museum build into the ground in Hobart to showcase his elaborate and amazing art selection.

In itself the museum is a huge drawcard for tourism in Tasmania, however in the dead of winter MONA run a 2-3 week long dark arts festival which brings art, music, food and everything in between together which Clagg were fortunate enough to be asked to play at. We played alongside a swag of enigmatic and obscure Australian bands; as well as Japanese legends Boris and Mono. The event was run so professionally, we were actually treated like ‘artists’ which was quite a kick and the whole experience was truly amazing.

Playing a show at my favourite Melbourne pub at the time – The Green Room back in 2005 with Electric Wizard and Dismember was another huge highlight for me.

Q15 – Do you perform many gigs in your home-town or do you have to travel further away to perform live regularly.

We mainly gig in our hometown of Melbourne but we try to get interstate across the rest of the country once a year. As I mentioned earlier the Doomsday festivals are a great opportunity for us to tour interstate to Sydney, Brisbane, Canberra and Adelaide. Touring in Australia is painful because our major cities are so far away for each other and there really is no appetite for Doom in the regional cities. So you’re looking at a 10hour drive or costly airfares to tour interstate which is why we generally keep it down to once a year.

Q16 – Are you all full time musicians or do you all have full time jobs

I must admit when I first read this question I laughed out aloud! Definitely NOT full time musicians and we all have fulltime jobs. Who says Doom doesn’t pay? We do!

I actually reckon even these doom gods we’ve all grown to worship have regular day jobs. I’d imagine Jus Osborn probably holds down some high pressure 7 figure salary senior executive role at a multinational conglomerate, and Al Cisneros probably works at Walmart stacking tube socks or something.

Q17 – In 5 words or less describe the CLAGG live experience.

Drunken, Bogan Tiprat fuelled Obliteration

Q18 – I am a big fan of the Aussie Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal Scene. Lots of more great bands starting to come through which I think your a big part of by influencing a lot of great bands. Have you noticed everything different about it over the last few years. Is it easier to perforrm and release new records. Or has nothing changed much since your last album in 2009.

There’s always a steady flow of simply mind blowing bands to come out of Australia which are all generally criminally under rated & unknown to the extent they should be on a global level.

I’ve been lucky enough to travel to Europe and the US a handful of times and witness some of the bigger bands in the genre live and; seeing that I can hand-on-my-heart say that Australian bands not only match up, but they blow these international bands out of the water.

The current crop of bands I’m very impressed with in Australia are Sons of the Ionion Sea & TTTDC – amazingly tight 70’s inspired riffers led by the brothers Grammenos. A new bands I’ve seen only recently in support of Kadavar and Blues Pills is a local Melbourne band called ‘Child’ who play more on the psych side of things.

On the heavier side of things, Melbournes crushing Death/Doom band Whitehorse and finally getting the international exposure they deserve after about a billion album releases and countless US tours. They’re playing Maryland Deathfest AND Roadburn in 2014 flying the Aussie flag high. Sydney band Yanomamo are killing it at the moment; Summonus, Looking Glass, Hydromedusa, Agonhymn, Encircling Sea, newer doom bands such as Horsehunter and Dire Fate… I could go on and on.

I think there will always be a steady flow of amazing Australian heavy bands; it’s flattering to think that we may be at the point where we have influenced some of these bands the same way that bands such as Pod People, Christbait, Peeping Tom and .dISEMBOWELMENT influenced us.

Q19 – What are your views of bands using websites like Kickstarter and Indiegogo to fund their new album releases. Some people and bands are for it. Some are not. Would you consider doing some thing like that yourselves.

I reckon it’s a great idea – if your fans are willing to throw a few bucks your way to help speed up the funding of an album then I can’t see why anyone would be against it? We haven’t really used it as; after being around for so long you can generally save up enough cash from shows / merch sales to fund your own releases over time (it also helps when you only release an album every four years too!)

I’ve noticed some Aussie bands using these websites to fund international tours lately too, which again I think is a great trend. We’ve had a lot of fans message us asking us to tour internationally to their home town to which we generally respond with – We’d love to! Book us a tour!! Websites like Pozible enable crowdfunding to make these kind of tours possible and allows the Facebook warriors to put their money where their mouth is so to speak to help bring these bands to their city / country. Something we’re very keen to do as international touring is the #1 priority on the Clagg agenda for 2014 / 2015.

Q20 - What are the most and least rewarding aspects of participating with the band? Obviously, the reality of how expensive it is being in a band could be considered as a negative aspect.

The cash thing doesn’t really bother me. I think everyone in the band acknowledges that we’ll make no money out of this thing so establishing that early in the bands infancy avoids it ever being an issue later on down the track. It also helps you to not take it too seriously and do it for the fun of playing heavy music with your mates over a few beers.

I really can’t find anything unrewarding about playing in the band. It’s a huge outlet from the general burdens of day to day life, without something as substantial as Clagg to keep me and my mind occupied I think I’d go insane.

Perhaps dealing with flakes within the industry is one thing I don’t like. The dodgy promoters, mixers, venue operators, bands, labels etc who aren’t true to their word and ARE generally just money hungry can test us at times. But this is a very limited issue and, as you get a bit older you can spot the sharks a mile away and steer clear of them.

Q21 - What pisses you off most in music. Or do you not let the bad things in music stop you from performing and writing songs

Absolutely nothing.

.. Actually… not being any good at drums! I wish I could play Drums!!!

Q22 - If you could provide words to wisdom for people wanting to start a band – What would they be.

Never bitch about not making any money. You sound like a douche

Q23 - Finally do you have anything to say to your fans.

Hi Morgan! How are those Light Ices going down?

Well guys, thanks for doing this. Best of luck with your new album. Don't leave it so long next time. Keep on making brutal awesome riffs.

Thanks a lot, and thanks again for the continued support of Clagg and Australian heavy music!

Gather Your Beasts is available to buy from BandCamp now.

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