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Behind Crimson Eyes.
 Forget the tired old themes of vampires and blood which pretty much every 'screamo' band seems to be obsessed with. Melbourne's hardcore kids Behind Crimson Eyes, for one, are going all oriental and cherry-blossom-y, as vocalist Josh Stuart explains. "Kevin [Orr, guitar] and I have been watching a lot of Japanese and Chinese movies, like 'Hero' and 'House Of Flying Daggers', and we thought it would be a really cool idea to develop a story on that theme. We started doing some research on the net and came up with this story that was part Japanese history but incorporated a fictitious character."
In the end, they came up with the idea of a bloke who loses his family and tries to come to terms with all the emotions that go along with such an experience, "Revenge, anger, hate," Stuart lists. "It's the first volume in a trilogy of releases that tell this story, that's why it's called Prologue. Then there's the two single names after it, The Art of War/Cherry Blossom Epitaph."
As for the record's mumbo-jumbo description, 'a double A-side single', Stuart simply chuckles "I think it's just a fancy marketing term so you can take the CD to radio! Basically, it's a four-track release, so I guess it's similar to an EP, just a bit shorter in length. It's just got the two singles that they're going to be pushing to radio. The next volume is probably going to be the same length, and that'll be early next year. Hopefully, we'll do a full-length album sometime mid-next year too."
They're busy little bees, aren't they? Having completed a nation-wide tour with Gyroscope just three days ago, as well as giving the Melbourne punters a little 'Taste Of Chaos' a few weeks back, Behind Crimson Eyes are getting ready to blow Brisbane's socks off tonight with their first headlining tour.
"I'm a bit nervous about it all," Stuart confesses. "It's a lot more pressure. When you're the supporting band, you're not really expected to be as good as the headlining band. And you're not really expected to pull that many people either," he laughs. "So I'm a bit nervous, yeah. We've got the Bleeders from New Zealand coming along, and Angela's Dish from the Central Coast, and we're really stoked to have them with us because we're big fans of both. But I think the nerves are also because we've had so much on lately, today is probably the first day that we've kind of had off - even though we're still playing a show tonight! It's becoming a little bit overwhelming and it's definitely taking its toll on the body. But when you start a band, this is what you dream of: going away on tour and playing in different states. It's the dream, so we're grateful for it."
If the band's performance at the recent Taste Of Chaos tour was anything to go by, Stuart and the guys clearly have nothing to worry about. "And that felt like a dream too! We woke up the next day and we were like 'were we really there?' It was so insane. Being on a big stage in front of so many people, with bands that we're huge fans of, it's amazing. And it's also such a good experience to see how shows work in general. Even touring with Gyroscope, I mean those guys have been around almost eight years now... we learned so much from them."
Speaking of longevity, Stuart is fairly optimistic (though very modest) about the band's future. "Eight years is a long time for any band. For now we're just making short-term goals; to finish this full-length album and for this tour to go good. After that, I'm not really sure. It would be cool to go overseas and play over there sometime in the next two years. Sometimes you think your band will never be able to get to that stage, where it's just absolutely massive. But then, we never though we'd get to the stage where we are right now, either!"
Nina Bertok
 | dB Magazine proudly presents Behind Crimson Eyes' all-ages show at the Enigma Bar on Fri 18 Nov with The Bleeders. |
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