DG: I’ve already answered the question about bands that inspire me, but re: where the name Karnivool comes from. That’s one question I can never answer very well, as the name Karnivool was around before even I was in the band. Kenny originally played guitar and sang with a couple of lads from his high school, Brett and Andrew. They used to play Nirvana and Carcass covers and had a few originals floating around, as well as the name Karnivool which they used loosely as band name for when they played at their local high school parties. I actually joined the band to play bass in ‘98 and that’s when the originals started to become the focus and we scored a few local pub gigs, and the name “Karnivool” tagged along. No one is really partial to it, but it’s just one of those things that stuck. There’s some ancient folklore that someone called the original three guys “a bunch of clowns” or something as stupid as that. Apparently! That’s the best story I have anyway! Plus I guess it’s still relevant today. Hah!

DG: We’re hoping to make it to the US around the end of your summer. Nothing concrete as yet but we’re working on it. The new CD is coming along well, slowly but surely. I talked about it quite a bit in the questions above. We’ve got a great new writing space set up, we’ll film some footage of us working there and throw it up on the myspace site, so you can get a taste of our writing world.

DG: Yes we’re definitely coming over to tour the album, but we don’t know exactly when as yet. We’re aiming for around August or September, including the UK too. The best thing to do would be to sign up to our mailing list on our website or myspace.com/karnivool and we’ll fire you through the dates as soon as we know.

DG: I still struggle with that to date! There’s a famous quote from a poet called Paul Valery, which says “A poem is never finished, only abandoned”. This goes for all art and anything creative. There is always going to be something better than what you just played, sound is infinite. Nothing is right or wrong. It’s all about setting your own goals, your own rights and wrongs and then then doing the best you possibly can within your guidelines. I think when you realise that, and stop trying to perfect, naturally, you’ll accomplish more. Easier said that done though! As I said, I still struggle with this and am always wrestling with the concept of infinite possibilities! Aaargghhh! Sometimes you just have to leave things how they are! That’ll do pig… that’ll do. In regards to recording acoustic material in the future; that’s definitely something we’d be keen on, but nothing we’ve really given much thought to. We did record a b-side on the media only Roquefort single which was said single done as a raw acoustic jam. Hopefully we can do more of this in the future. I love stripping the songs back like that, you get to hear the song naked, almost a truer version. Warts ‘n’ all!.

DG: Yes, except for Lifelike. Ray our old drummer was an amazing player but was just not right for the direction we were headed. I took the role as drummer for the Themata recording and then we found “gun for permanent hire”, Steve Judd.

DG: We have even more whacky guitar tunings on the new stuff! But if you’re referring to the main Karnivool tuning of B F# B G B E, then that came about from the first song that I wrote… basically I was just messing around with low drop tunings while not paying any attention to the high string. I liked the sequence of natural harmonics you could make and it just made sense to have the low tuning, while keeping the first strings high. The best of both worlds I guess. We still use that tuning for a few songs on the new album, but as I said before we’re continuing to experiment with other crazy and wonderful tunings. I think it’s good to put yourself out of your comfort zone. If you get too used to one tuning, you find yourself going for things that you know work. Where as if you muddle everything up again, you can stumble around the fretboard finding new chord shapes many other happy accidents!

DG: The writing for the new album is much more of a full band effort than Themata was. We’re still using the Themata method, which was to lay down tracks and write section by section on the computer, but we’re combining this with full band jams and improv sessions, which we’ll record, pan out the gold and then head back to the computer session and work on incorporating everything. It’s a lengthy, finicky and often very tough process, but definitely worth it in the long run I think. Steve is writing the drums parts, as he’s a million times the drummer I am. I may have some input or direction in the early stages when riffs and ideas are being thrown around, but after that I’ll leave it to him. Everything he plays is awesome. I still sequence drum parts for our demo’s, but 95% of the time I’ll sequence in what Steve played in a jam. He’s got a great beard too.

DG: Hmm don’t know yet. I doubt it, but I reckon there’ll be something equally as twisted..

DG: Well I answered Roquefort above. “Themata” is an old greek word; the plural of Thema. A Thema is gut assumption or intuition about the workings of the world or life itself, a philosophy you can’t prove with hard evidence, but something you instinctively know is right and are willing to back. “Mauseum” is something from the weird and wonderful depths of Jon’s brain, you’d have to ask him.

DG: The new material is definitely quite different, but as I said before I don’t think it’s so far removed from what we were doing on Themata that many people who dug Themata will be not into what we’re doing now. We don’t really mind who will and won’t get into what we’re writing, we can’t think about that when writing anyway. We have a hard enough time pleasing ourselves. Never fear, it will still sound like Karnivool. Even if we put out a jazz album or an electro pop album it would still sound like Karnivool. Hmmm there’s an idea…

DG: Yeah that was an interesting show wasn’t it? It’s obviously very annoying when the power cuts out, but it was an amazing feeling to have the crowd keep singing the tune and keep the momentum going until the PA came back to life. I think shows like that are all the more memorable. I also think The Foundry run the power to kitchen separately from the stage now! ;)

DG: Probably when I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana. That opened up a whole new world for me. The same with a young folk at the time I think!

DG: Haha! I think if we played a show with Jesus he’d definitely headline it. The new album is coming along well, especially well at the moment. We’ve had our fair share of hurdles, and the writing process is often very dysfunctional, but I think that’s just the make up of this band and it ultimately benefits us in some weird way. I wouldn’t like to put an approximate release date on it. But I can say that if we get it out this year it would be a miracle. OK, let’s just say we’re aiming for early ’08, and that’s probably the best case scenario. We like to get things right, and if it takes a little longer than people (including ourselves) would like, then so be it. Plus, Themata is currently seeing a worldwide release, so we’re going to be touring that in the midst of writing and recording the follow up. We do know that the finished product will be worth the wait.

DG: It’s been amazing. We all pinch ourselves occasionally about how far we have come as an independent band in Australia, but also still completely aware and focused on how far we have to go. Nothing has happened quickly with us, except for maybe Steve, who came in after Themata was recorded. Karnivool were playing for years and slowly building up a strong local following in Perth. Even when Themata was released in early 05, it took a good two years of solid national touring before there was really a decent national awareness of us and the album. We prepared to work hard on the same slow and steady build overseas, while continuing our Australian pursuits.

DG: Hey thanks! I think the more riffy playing on Themata could be contributed to the major influence I took from Meshuggah. In case you don’t know they’re a Swedish Metal band who just write the most mind bending, weighty, guttural riffs that you could imagine. They are still a major influence these days, on all of us actually. Being a drummer, I’m into the rhythmic side of guitar playing and much as the textures you can create.. I think I play the guitar like a drummer sometimes… haha. That could be good or bad depending on how you look at it!

DG: Thanks! I like both festivals and club shows for different reasons, but If I had to choose, I’d definitely go with the club shows. There’s nothing quite like the intensity of a closed room full of people all there for the exactly same reason. Karova rocks, say Hi to Patty for me!

DG: Funny you ask that, we only actually played the songs off Themata together as a band after the album was recorded. It’s quite the reverse of how most bands work. Themata was written as a studio album, tracking, overdubbing and structuring on the computer, almost like the whole writing process was pre-production for the album. So I guess you could say that you think the recorded songs translate well to a live setting as opposed to us capturing the live energy on the album. The new album is going to be different as a lot of the songs are being written from improv band jams, we’re going for that much more organic ‘band playing in a room’ vibe this time around, which will involve this time the challenge of capturing that spontaneous, live energy.

DG: Yeah you’re right, there are shows where the magic happens and others where you just can’t seem to make it gel. It’s always a tough one trying to get back on track and get the vibe when things aren’t sounding and feeling like they should. I’m definitely not a model showman when it comes to that, I have been known to not deal with it very well if I’m having a bad show and it definitely comes across out front. But taking these incidents into account, I have learnt that if you force yourself to block it out and start fresh from the next song it really does wonders for getting the vibe back, as opposed to sulking or getting frustrated. No one in the audience wants to see that, and most of the time the shit you’re getting uptight about, the majority of the audience didn’t pick up on anyway!

DG: Drums were my first instrument. Our vocalist Kenny came with me in 1994 to check out what was to be first set of drums, a crappy 5 piece Power Beat. I asked him to tag along and give his expert opinion on the kit as I knew he was a muso. “Yeah it’s great man! Get it.” So I did. A few years later I was selected to study drums/music at the conservatorium fresh out of high school. Having rules rammed down my throat really wasn’t my thing, so I left after a year, plus by this stage Karnivool had picked up locally and for some strange reason I was playing guitar in it. I think I was naturally drawn to the guitar because, for me, it was a better platform to write music on. Kenny showed me my first couple of riffs and I taught myself from there, while continuing to get private drum tuition up until 2000 when I left the conservatorium. I still consider myself as a drummer at heart, and I get by far the most pleasure from playing them as opposed to the guitar, but what’s even better than any instrument is creating songs and hearing them come together, which for me is most easily done on the guitar. So, in regards to your frustration, there’s nothing against committing yourself to more than one instrument, I don’t see the point in declaring yourself “a drummer” and staying clear of other instruments. I found that having a grounding in guitar really helped in the development of my drumming and vice versa, plus it really helps you to communicate with other band members! Good luck with it.

DG: No not really, we just have to be on our toes and organise everything well in advance. The same thing goes with The Cat Empire as Hoss is out on the road with those guys a lot of the time. Karnivool have had a lot of down time, especially in the writing process. There’s often big gaps where other members can go off and do their thing. I’ll keep writing and recording on the computer and the folks that are still in town will come in lay down their parts or ideas. We haven’t had any major clashes of schedule yet, but if that does happen we’ll just have to deal with it rationally. I think members being in other bands have a positive effect on the Karnivool as it keeps the creative juices flowing at times when they are prone to drying up.

DG: As I mentioned before, I think we grew up a lot as people and musicians in the time after the EPs were recorded, but as I also mentioned the songwriting process for Themata was dysfunctional and awkward at best but somehow it turned out ok. I still scratch my head and wonder we ended up finishing it at all. I don’t think I personally approached the songwriting on Themata with any real sense of foresight. I knew vaguely what kind of album I would have liked to have written, but in general I think we all just fumbled our way through the process and then somehow got it together at the end when we forced to have the songs ready to begin tracking. I don’t think we’ll ever find a set method for songwriting, which is definitely not the easiest way to go about creating, but on the positive side, not finding a method, will mean not finding a comfort zone, which in turn will mean not becoming complacent and therefore the chances of writing interesting, unpredictable music is much higher. At least that’s why I tell myself! This goes for the guitar too, as I mentioned before, I love changing up the tuning a fair bit to put myself out of my comfort zone so that things don’t get stagnant. You’re unfamiliar with the layout so it forces you get creative and see the guitar in a different light. When I write a riff I generally try to write something that a) I haven’t heard before and b) moves me.

DG: Anyway, keep up the good work. Much respect... Thanks mate! I use mainly my Gibson Les Paul Custom these days through a Peavey 5150 I and then through whatever Marshall cabinet I get my hands on, usually the 1960As. FX wise, I still use the trusty Boss GT3 multi FX mainly just for delays and chorus these days. On top of this I also run an RC2 loop station and a crybaby wah. On Persona and Themata I used my PRS CE24 guitar. Hoss’ setup is quite the mothership these days. He now runs a midi pickup on his guitar which goes through Pro tools and then through Reason on his laptop. This allows him trigger any sounds he desires while blending with his normal guitar sound if he wants. For instance, a viola or a trippy synth sound mixed with a delayed guitar sound: very cool! The addition of a 2nd guitar was inevitable. Having Hoss on board does free me up a lot, but still we have that many sounds and layers going on these days that we still have our hands tied and toes tapping frantically to cover everything. But that’s what makes it fun and challenging!

DG: Re: influences see above! As far as getting pumped before we play, we always used to throw on Soundgarden’s Superunknown album before we played to get us in the mood to rock! These days we’ve been listening to a wide variety of styles before we go on stage, not really to pump the adrenaline so much as to just inspire us and get us in the mood. We’ll just as likely put on a dub album or something by The Police as we would, Tool’s Aenima. We went through a whole tour, playing “Like Drawing Blood” by Gotye before we played, which really helped us to play a good show.

DG: That would be New Day. That was the first tune we wrote for the upcoming album.. It’s quite a different direction from Themata that tune, we threw it together quite quickly before a tour last year. I’ve always said that my favourite songs are ones that grow on you, songs that you can’t quite grasp at first. But how can you consciously write a song like that? I don’t know… but I think we did it with New Day. I’ve never had one of our songs grow on me like that before. It’s going to have a minor nip, tuck and polish but I’m really looking forward to hearing it fully recorded. New Day isn’t an accurate representation of what the new album will sound like, although the space and general mood is close to what we’re working on in some current pieces.

DG: I’d have to say: Kurt Cobain, Karnivool vocalist Ian Kenny and my dad. When I heard Smells Like Teen Spirit, I just thought, that’s what I wanna do! Kenny was mates with my brother back in school, he used to come around with his long hair, his ripped jeans and cardigan, obviously trying to look like Kurt himself and played Nirvana songs through his crappy Squire and a little Drive practice amp. He showed me my first two riffs. My dad was a musician and a guitarist, he used to play acoustic and sing folk tunes in bars and was a couple of bands as he was growing up. I grew up around music because of him and he showed me the ropes. The fact that I bought a drumkit, also made me curious of the guitar, and I started paying about a month after I started playing the drums.

DG: Change wasn’t originally conceived as a two part song. We had written about 60% of Change as a whole piece and were desperately trying to finish it in preproduction for inclusion on Themata, as we thought it was shaping up to be an absolute cracker. Due to the nature of the song, the time needed to spend on it and the time we didn’t have we decided do the thing that annoyed everyone so much, (hehehe) and chop it at the peak of the climax, and then finish the 2nd part for inclusion the next album. The title “Change” seemed fitting as this was the last song (mostly) written during the Themata sessions and almost signaled what we thought could be a change of direction on the next album. A perfect “to be continued”… It seems we were pretty spot on going by the general feel of the new material. It just wouldn’t have found its place on Themata. We still haven’t finished it to this day. It’s quite the opus! But it’s shaping up to be one of the highlights of the new album.

DG: If you want your sound to really cut through the mix while still having balls and grit, then the best thing I can suggest is, a) lower the pregain, b) crank the post gain c) crank your midrange. The midrange is the most important part of the guitar sound, the lows get swamped by the bass guitar and the highs will get lost amongst the cymbals and vocals.

DG: Yes we’re definitely coming over to tour the album, but we don’t know exactly when as yet. We’re aiming for around August or September, including the UK too. The best thing to do would be to sign up to our mailing list on our website or myspace.com/karnivool and we’ll fire you through the dates as soon as we know. Yo Drew was wondering how you switch between your effects on your GT3 to your 5150 Chunk so fast? I have the amp myself but need to set the effects pedal on clean and then hit the effects button on the amp foot switcher (or I get distortion + effect). Do you have a custom built switch or do you just hit the effects pedal and the amp effects pedal really fast? :) I’m not completely sure what you mean, but I’ll run you through my setup and that should give you an idea. I have my GT3 and other FX running through the FX loop on the back of the 5150, and then my guitar direct through the front of the amp, So this allows me to use the natural amp distortion as well switching FX on and off by hitting the green FX button on the footswitch, plus I can also run a combination of amp distortion and FX. I do have the standard original 5150 footswitch, it has two switches as opposed to the three on the 5150 II switch. I actually don’t use a clean sound as such, I run the clean sound on crunch mode and just roll off the guitar volume knob for a “cleaner” sound (you can make the clean sound crunch with a switch on the front of the amp, if you’re using the 5150 I, where as if you have the 5150 II there’s a whole separate channel for the crunch). The 5150 I sounds better though  I only use the red lead button on the footswitch as a boost, and the pre gain sits at around 2 for that channel. I hope that answers your question somehow?

DG: I’m good thanks! I think classical music is the most amazing music ever created and it almost makes my brain explode trying to comprehend how anyone can write something as amazing as a symphony. I took a fair bit of influence from it in the earlier days, especially in late high school when I studied it, and it helped me get to get a grounding for melody and harmony, and also comprehending the infinite nature of it, there’s just so much you can do with it as a opposed to your standard scales and modes. I tend not to listen to it much these days, even though I know I should. It tends to make me feel extremely incompetent, the sort of music that goes beyond inspiring and makes you want to burn your instrument and get a day job. Haha, I know that’s wrong and I probably should revisit it. I’ve had the idea for years to study a classic piece, like Beethoven’s 5th and model a Karnivool song around its structure and themes. I think that would make for a pretty interesting listen.

DG: Well as may have gathered by now, “Roquefort” is a strong tasting French cheese. This was a nickname/working title for the song that stuck, we just couldn’t imagine it being called anything else. The song was originally written with the horn section, and therefore it gave it a slight tongue-in-cheek cheese vibe, and due to the swing/big band vibe of the song, Rock-a-Forte (strong rock fff.) sounded like something you’d stick up the top of a jazz chart. The lyrics are open to interpretation. But for me Roquefort is all about love and loss, I find it quite hilarious/ironic that lyrically, these issues far removed from potent French cheese! I do think that the upbeat, positive sound of the song works well juxta-posed against the serious, sometimes melancholy lyrics. For me, it’s like encouraging yourself or someone in a dark period of their life to bounce back, and look on the bright side!

DG: Steve will be playing the drums. As far as unsigned bands, (I don’t think they’re really unknown these days) I’m digging Dead Letter Circus and Bushido… I think if you like us you’d be into these bands, plus we’re taking them both on our upcoming Australian run. Myspace.com/deadlettercircus Myspace.com/bushidomusic I’ve also been listening to a lot of NZ dub band Kora, and really digging Mike from Fourth Floor Collapse’s new project Microsleep. Myspace.com/koraroots myspace.com/microsleep

DG: As I mentioned before, our songwriting process isn't always smooth sailing, sometimes we'll get a roll and we'll be unstoppable but a lot of the time we'll hit a brick wall with a song and walk away for a while, sometimes up to a year or two before coming back to finish it. COTE for instance. We always have tonnes of random pieces and half finished songs on the go, a lot of which never are finished. Every song that we finished made the cut for Themata, all except the Sleeping Satellite cover. It's obviously not the ideal way of going about things, we'd prefer to write a stack of songs and choose the best, but we just don't work like that. We often build songs piece by piece, and polish every section before moving on to the next, If we lose direction or interest the song is left behind. We are consciously trying to change this on the new album, by trusting ourselves more and acting on instinct. Work on the foundations of a whole song and then build and furnish from there! It’s a much more sane way to write and the output will be much greater.

DG: I mainly used a friend’s Premier Maple kit which had toms in 8”, 10”, 12”, 14” and 16”. I used various combinations for different songs. The snares changed around a lot, most of the time they were one of three Brady snares that were kindly lent to us by the Bradys themselves. I mainly used a Pearl Masters Kick in conjunction with the Premier toms. Roquefort and Sewn and Silent were recorded using a beautiful old 1960’s Rogers kit that belonged to the studio we recorded the drums in. Unfortunately the studio burnt to the ground about 2 weeks after we got out of there, so I may have been the last person to ever play it! As far as mics go, I really can’t remember and when I queried Forrester who recorded it, his response was “All of them, especially the red ones.” So I can’t really help you out there I’m afraid

DG: We’re in currently in our Karnivool studio writing, demoing and doing pre-production for the 2nd album. Things are definitely headed in a different direction from Themata, but the tangent isn’t so great that we have lost any of what makes us Karnivool. So in other words, it’s definitely not a Themata Part 2, but not radically different. Without giving too much away, it’s a lot more open and free, natural and spontaneous. This album will be a much better representation of what we’re really about than Themata was. We’re extremely excited about what is coming out. As far as influences go, I could go on forever, but to name a few current and older major influences: Nirvana, Soundgarden, Rage, Pink Floyd, Tool, CCR, Meshuggah, Devin Townsend, Radiohead, Bjork, Aphex Twin, The Bronx, Cog, Gotye, NIN, Subtruck, Mew, The Police… many many more. It may change tomorrow, but you get the picture! I just love music in general at the moment, more than ever! Except certain bands that are very popular at the moment. Pure fucking shite!

DG: Jon hasn’t had any bass training, although he studied jazz guitar at the same course I studied drums. I think that comes through in his bass playing. He’s completely self taught on the bass, and born with a really good ear!

DG: I think the main reason for the change was that we grew up! A lot happened in those 3 and a half years that changed us as people and as musicians. The Persona EP was written with no goals or preconceptions in mind, It was just a bunch of young dudes jamming out and having fun. Of course that is still the case now and for Themata, except for the fact that we now expect a lot more from ourselves. Between the extra life experience and the rapid changes in musical taste over that period I think we managed to fulfill our expectations and come out with a much more rounded, mature album. The same is happening again with the new album!

Previous Artists: Select a Past Ask Robb Rivera
Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/bielerbr/public_html/hot_seat.php on line 104

Warning: mysql_num_rows(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/bielerbr/public_html/hot_seat.php on line 105

Ask a question!

your question