HEAVY Music Interviews HEAVY Magazine

Interview by Kris Peters
Tasmanian entertainment machine Luca Brasi are headed to this side of the ocean next month to celebrate their latest album The World Don't Owe You Anything with a tour of the same name.
It is an extensive tour by Australian standards, taking in Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sydney and Newcastle but if past tours and reputation are anything to go by we are in for a nationwide treat. Luca Brasi will be bringing the beautifully named Spanish Love Songs with them for the trek, promising nothing but a night of great music, laughs and good old-fashioned mateship.
Frontman Tyler Richardson joined HEAVY to tell us more.
"Yeah man, it's nice to go and play places that don't get got to as much as they should," he smiled. "So it's nice to go back to those towns. We come from Tassie and quite often back in the day we didn't get all these tours, so it's nice to be able to go and play them."
In the full interview, Tyler talks more about their upcoming tour with Spanish Love Songs, expressing excitement about playing in overlooked towns and the significance of returning to their origins in Tasmania. He emphasized the need to mentally and physically prepare for the extensive run of shows, highlighting the importance of maintaining gig fitness and being mindful of looking after yourself. Tyler also reflected on the band's journey in finding their musical identity and returning to creating music that resonates with them, despite the challenges of popularity and commercial success. He expressed his genuine excitement for live performances and his gratitude for the opportunity to be on tour, as well as their plans to start writing new songs and spending time with their friends from Spanish Love Songs.

Interview by Kris Peters
The struggle most bands find these days is keeping together a stable line-up to help them grow both musically and professionally.
A variety of obstacles face most bands currently doing the rounds, with member retention being the common ailment of bands on a global scale.
Brisbane metal outfit Engraved are no exception.
Since relocating from Sydney last year, Engraved have been plagued with the age-old problem of members internally combusting, halting their forwarded momentum every time the band starts to make serious inroads in the national metal scene.
But, hopefully, Engraved's run of bad luck and/or poor judgement is about to end, with today's announcement that Cairns product Panda is joining the noise maestros as vocalist.
Each incarnation of Engraved has had promise but fallen by the wayside for one reason or another, but after chatting with the band recently it seems their luck might just be taking a turn for the better.
HEAVY caught up with guitarists Dan and Cory, bass player Phil and new vocalist Panda for a chat about their upcoming appearance at Beyond The Darkness at The Back Room on September 14 and plenty more.
"It sounds like an excellent gig," Cory affirmed. "I am quite excited. The last Beyond The Darkness gig was actually my first with the band and was kind of like a trial by fire. I went out and very quickly all of our scepticisms and nerves disappeared, so I'm excited to come back out and smash it again."
"This will be your anniversary with us, too," Phil added.
In the full interview, the conversation shifted to personal updates, with Cory sharing news of his engagement. The band members introduced themselves and discussed their upcoming headlining show as part of Beyond The Darkness in greater detail, outlining the fact it is a benefit concert for the GI Cancer Institute. They also discussed their upcoming gigs, including Nowhere Festival at the Mansfield Tavern, and recent line-up changes within the band.
The Engraved band members shared their journeys of joining the band and discussed their upcoming music releases. They expressed enthusiasm for the new material and assured fans that the essence of the band's original vision will be preserved while incorporating refined elements. The band members also touched on branding updates and new merchandise, with Dan taking the lead on these initiatives.

Interview by Kris Peters
While the annual APRA Music Awards have always celebrated the abundance of talent coursing through the Australian musical landscape, the focus has always been on the more mainstream artists and side of the industry.
Hard rock and heavy metal have long been touted for inclusion, but for varying reasons have never quite made it onto the big stage for Australia's most prestigious awards.
Until now.
The 2024 APRA Music Awards will, for the very first time, include a category which rewards and recognises this country's strong and growing stronger metal scene with the inclusion of the inaugural Most Performed Hard Rock/Heavy Metal Work category.
The point could - and will - be argued that heavy music should have been included long before this, but in the overall scheme of things, the fact this category has been introduced is recognition and vindication of how much heavy music is progressing in our own backyard. It is just reward for a scene and genre that has never claimed to be for the masses, but through sheer weight of listening numbers has ensured long overdue acceptance in the public spotlight.
Nominees for the category this year include Alpha Wolf, Polaris, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, The Amity Affliction and Parkway Drive, all bands who have played a significant role in the increased growth of heavy music both here and abroad.
To celebrate this landmark event, HEAVY tracked down Winston McCall from Parkway Drive to discuss just what something like this means to Australian heavy music.
"It's sick," he smiled. "It's awesome that they have added that category. Awards are humbling in general. I'm really stoked for more recognition for our scene and community, full stop. Because right now it just seems like… it's honestly bigger than it's ever been. The more that we can do to push that forward and make people recognise it, the better for it. For us to get an award, sweet, I'm stoked the award exists with a bunch of really, really cool bands."
As good as it is to have APRA finally recognise the heavy music community, their hand has been pushed somewhat by the continued expansion of artists within this genre. It is a sense of pride to everyone in the metal scene, and one not lost on the bigger fish like Parkway Drive.
"Yeah, 100%," McCall agreed. "And that's the way it works. At the base of that, the really cool thing is being involved in a scene where situations like that come about because of the community behind it. It's like an engaged scene of people. Everyone pays attention to everything that's going on. Everyone supports everything. Not every scene is doing as well as ours at this point in time. Post-COVID it's been difficult, but I look out there, and I see people who still care about this music that is their passion and still support it 110% and look at where it is now."
In the full interview, Winston expressed pride in the Australian music scene and the community's support for the genre, discussed his upcoming attendance at the awards night and his lack of preparation for a potential speech. The conversation also included a lighthearted exchange about sending photos of outfits and the casual approach to the event.
Winston also reflected on Parkway Drive's 20th-anniversary tour later this year, expressing gratitude for the band's journey and the community's support. He shared insights on the band's supports for the tour and discussed the challenges of managing the unexpected popularity. Additionally, Winston discussed the band's upcoming European festivals and Australian tour, hinting at new music in the works but expressing a preference to focus on the existing material during the tour.

Interview by Kris Peters
Hailing from the quiet town of Taree on the New South Wales Central Coast, emerging metal outfit Diamond Construct are anything but.
Brash, loud, and in your face with no respite, Diamond Construct are a hurricane of musical intensity that is only just starting to gather real force.
Since dropping their self-titled debut album around the turn of the decade, Diamond Construct have been working tirelessly on the live circuit, landing shows with Alpha Wolf, Justice For The Damned, Stray From The Path and Bury Tomorrow, with recent times seeing them perform at CVLTFEST plus hit the road with two of the Japanese bands on the bill, Crossfaith and Paledusk.
Last year saw Diamond Construct sign with prestigious US label Pale Chord, subsequently releasing three killer singles, Hell Inside You, Switchblade OST and Jynx.
All three are taken from the band's new album Angel Killer Zero, which will be unleashed on April 26.
HEAVY caught up with Diamond Construct frontman Kynan Groundwater to find out more. We ask him if those trio of singles are a good sonic representation of what to expect from the whole album.
"I think it's a pretty big picture, but it's not the full picture," he measured. "There's so much more to dive in on in the album. When writing such a big piece and body of work like Angel Killer Zero and having that diverse sound that we've had over the years, it was hard to fit everything into just 11 songs. If anyone thinks that they've heard it all from those three, they've got another thing coming. Because there's so much on that album. There's a song for everyone."
We ask him to further explain Angel Killer Zero from a musical perspective.
"It's not a concept album, but it's definitely got themes and concepts about it that tell a bit of a story," he replied. "So, obviously from start to finish it runs smoothly together with some of the interludes, and it's got some exerts from video games and stuff that I love to play. I love the anime stuff. We've got the robotics voice introducing some of the themes about the album, so that's something that came into it earlier in the piece. Musically, it's just a big expansion of DCX2. We went back and revisited the sound of what made us popular in the first place with Psychosis and Enigma, and then we blended that with the heavier sounds from the self-titled, which we know a lot of people like as well. It was just a big meshing of that, as well as adding in so many more elements that we haven't explored yet."
In the full interview, Kynan talks more about what to expect from Angel Killer Zero, how it differs to their self-titled debut album, the anime connection and how it translates to the album, the themes explored on the album, signing with Pale Chord, their upcoming regional tour and what to expect and more.

Interview by Kris Peters
For almost three decades now, Sum 41 have acted as a connecting force between pop punk and heavy metal. People who generally hate anything other than pure metal or pure punk found themselves intrigued by the musical amalgamations unleashed by the Canadian outfit, genuinely conflicted by their own elitist attitude and unexpected attraction to the band's music.
To say Sum 41 have never fit in is an understatement of epic proportions. But the fact remains they never wanted to.
Not even for a second.
Their music has also appeared in movies and television, taking punk and metal to places never before dreamt of, all the while displaying a contemptuous attitude towards conformity and control that has stuck with them throughout their whole career.
With the band announcing they would soon be disbanding, Sum 41 have released an album befitting of their entire service to the music industry.
Titled Heaven :x: Hell, the double album pays homage to both sides of Sum 41's musical spectrum, with Heaven being ten tracks of snarling, high-energy pop-punk while Hell consists of the same number of metal anthems with crushing riffs and solos and massive, fist-pumping hooks.
It is an album that not only sums up almost thirty years of music, but also caters to all fans of the band, offering a humbling and appreciative parting gift to their legions of supporters.
HEAVY caught up with guitarist Dave Baksh to head down the musical rabbit hole that is Sum 41.
With Heaven :x: Hell coming out last month we start by asking Baksh how the fans have reacted so far.
"It's wild," he beamed. "It is absolutely wild. I don't know if my algorithm is getting rid of the bad comments, but most of the comments have been really, really nice and gracious. After putting so much blood, sweat and tears into this record, it's nice and vindicating."
Being Sum 41's last album ever, HEAVY presses Baksh as to what sorts of things were discussed by the band leading into the writing and recording process.
"The odd thing was in the early stages of the record it wasn't even going to be a double album, let alone our last album ever," he explained. "We just all kind of mentioned - every single one of us - on a phone call with Derek that maybe we should just take all the songs we have and put them out, because there was nothing that we heard from the demos that we wanted to cut. I think thanks to that, we were able to lean into the heaviest stuff we have ever done, and lean it to that classic sound with the updated appearance."
In the full interview, Dave discussed various topics related to Sum 41's legacy. He shared insights into the intense effort and emotional experience of creating the band's last album, discussed the radio decision behind the singles, reflected on his personal preference for playing pop punk, and explained the decision to release a double album as the band's farewell. Baksh also opened up about his early experiences with punk rock and heavy metal, highlighting the challenges of merging pop-punk and heavy metal and the elitist attitude that emerged in the heavy metal community.
He emphasized that the band's musical legacy is not for them to decide, but rather for the fans to determine, and expressed his dedication to the band's work and sacrifices made for their music. Baksh also shared his plans to continue in the music industry and explore other artistic endeavors, such as voiceover work and background acting, and expressed his excitement for the future and the prospect of trying new things that take him out of his comfort zone.

Interview by Karly Jewell
Rapidly rising US rock outfit Crossbone Skully have yet to even release their debut album, yet still have managed to generate a vibe and feel seldom afforded to fresh bands, no matter their genre.
But when the founding member and main man is none other than Tommy Henriksen (guitarist and musical director for Alice Cooper’s band and member of Hollywood Vampires) you can sort of get a feel as to why anticipation and respect is already at a premium.
To date Crossbone Skully have set the music world on fire with the singles Evil World Machine, The Boom Went The Boom (feat. Phil Collen), I’m Unbreakable and I Am The Wolf, furthering expectations for the band's debut album which is scheduled for release later this year via Better Noise Music.
The album features first-class recording musicians including Nikki Sixx (Mötley Crüe), Jamie Muhoberac (My Chemical Romance, John Mayer, Seal), Chris Wyse (Hollywood Vampires, Ace Frehley, the Cult, Ozzy Osbourne), Tommy Denander, Glen Sobel (Alice Cooper, Hollywood Vampires), the late UFO bassist Pete Way, and producer/mixer Mike Plotnikoff (AC/DC, My Chemical Romance, Aerosmith), with the legendary Mutt Lange (AC/DC, Def Leppard) coming out of retirement to produce.
HEAVY got the opportunity to catch up with Henriksen for a face-to-face chat last weekend while he was in Melbourne with Alice Cooper.