Reece Mastin: Reality bites back

                                                                                Photography: Ken Leanfore

07 May 2012

by Poppy Reid

The afternoon TMN planned to meet with Reece Mastin, The X Factor winner has already recorded his next single, propositioned Sunrise host Melissa Doyle and evaded a hoard of fans who followed him to Sydney’s Sony Music offices. Dressed top-to-toe in black, with thick rimmed black glasses framing his baby-face (sans lenses), 17-year-old Mastin looks more runway-ready than interview savvy - but he masterfully proves he’s both.

Television programmes like The X Factor, The Voice and Idol create consistent promotion for up and coming acts who in past eras would have little to no hope. Even with 21st Century formats like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter offering global reach, the likeliness of an Adelaide- based Brit topping the ARIA chart is akin to hell freezing over. Sony Music expertly spearhead the transition from television show commodity to touring superstar nowadays. As proven time and time again with acts like Australian Idol graduates Guy Sebastian and Jessica Mauboy, as well as UK sensation and X Factor finalists One Direction, Sony’s post-broadcast campaigns using social networks have shifted from nationwide targets to global operations. Case in point: after a One Direction promo tour earlier this year, the quintet have gone on to sell out a full Australian tour beginning in September 2013. Having said that, this has done nothing to quash the stigma attached to the aforementioned acts.

“I think a lot of people forget that we found Adam Lambert through a talent show and he’s an incredible singer,” says a hopeful Mastin. “We found artists like Guy, Jess and Stan Walker as well.” Like his predecessors, Mastin is well on his way to global domination. Just five months after The X Factor’s third instalment crowned him as winner and his self-titled debut entered the charts at #1, the teen has clocked up almost 110,000 followers on Twitter and more than 144,000 likes on Facebook. His recent tour of Australia and New Zealand saw him perform for over 12,000 in Perth and an arena of over 8,000 in Christchurch. With a target demographic currently resting among the tweens, Mastin admits his adenoidal zealots, were at times, confronting.

“Some crazy stuff happened [in Tasmania]. Some of it was really weird,” Mastin shifts on the couch uncomfortably. “Girls said stuff that they just shouldn’t say. It was pretty bad. I really shouldn’t repeat it. “There was one girl that, as I was going in the lift–and it was that bad that the security guards turned around and looked at me–in front of 400, 500 people she goes, ‘I wank over you every night.’ I’ve stood there, it’s a glass lift, all the security guards are looking at me; it was like, what would you say to anybody around you after you’ve heard something like that?”

On the same note, with lyrics like “Let’s turn all the lights out now, make out on your bedroom floor,” gracing his latest #2 charting single Shut Up & Kiss Me, it would be foolish to expect anything less. The ode to adolescent infatuation is the same track that brought Mastin down a peg (albeit just one chart placing) since his X Factor exposure. “Shut Up & Kiss Me didn’t take off straight away but we were like ‘okay we did have twelve weeks of promo behind [the first single]’,” he reasons. “But the kids are still buying it, it debuted at #2 on the ARIA chart which is good, Carly Rae Jepsen kicked me off.”

Mastin’s lyricism and instrumental input will be present on every track on his sophomore release, an album helped along by renowned songwriter/ producer Lindsay Rimes and pop-punk luminary Benji Madden.

“I don’t want to be stubborn but I really want to be on every song,” he says. “Writing is such a huge part of me, I’ll feel better singing a song that I’ve written. I love doing Guns ‘N’ Roses and that but I didn’t write it, I didn’t go through the experience it took to write their songs, it’s harder.”

Sparked from a late night phone call and an evening at a Sydney studio, the Madden-Mastin collaboration is the Superman referencing Give Up The Girl, and an inevitable mentorship where the Good Charlotte twin used his career to help steer his protégé’s.

“He said do whatever you want to do in the interviews but when you see something in the magazine and you know it’s not true, don’t bark back at it... The songs he’s written have gone to #1 and stayed there. What Good Charlotte used to do is the vibe of the angle I want to come from so it was cool to write something with a person like that.”

For Mastin though, his next release is as much about a #1 mainstay as it is about a reinvention. “I hope it sells well and people don’t just buy it because it’s my album. [I hope] they buy it because it’s good and they legitimately want to listen to rock ‘n’ roll instead of the generic doof doof.”

A life already charmed by any measure, Mastin freely admits to the enormous headstart he’s been given. However, with a 50/50 success rate of Australia’s past X Factor kings, this begs the question: is hunger enough to sway a nation pregnant with talent show pessimists?

“I think a lot of people do think it’s just that twelve-week gimmick,” he admits. “But I didn’t go on the TV show because I wanted to be a twelve-week gimmick, I wanted to get into the music industry and now that I’m in it it’s not like I’m going to piss it away.

Reece Mastin’s yet-to-be-named sophomore record is slated for a September release.

You Me At Six: Sinners never sleep

                                                                           Photography: Ken Leanfore

04 May 2012

by Poppy Reid

You Me At Six are a dichotomous bunch: the 20-something- year-olds could be the type of foul-mouthed, trouble-seeking vagabonds who scare your grandmother into crossing the street, right before wooing your mum with their fresh- faced guise later that night.

The five Brits are languidly sprawled on uncomfortable white chairs in EMI’s Sydney office. Drummer Dan Flint is staring at the floor, his hood masking half his face. “I’m not feeling very well, I haven’t been feeling well all day,” he offers. They’ve just recorded a Coldplay cover for Triple J’s Like A Version, which they unanimously think sounded “like a fart”- they’re discussing the Soundwave tour and ideas for the evening’s sidewave with A Day To Remember and The Used.

“We could all bend over and do a poo onstage and throw it out to the crowd.”

A wicked sense of humour was not lost on frontman and lyricist Josh Franceschi. The 22-year-old who started the band with his then pre- pubescent school and scene friends (Max Helyer, Chris Miller, Matt Barnes and Dan Flint) is nonchalantly leading the interview. His comment is particularly brow-raising given the path the band walked to gain our attention.

“It was only up until two and a half years ago that we started getting radio play,” admits Franceschi. “Until then, everything we did was solely through touring.”

“As opposed to just releasing albums and labels either giving a shit or not giving a shit,” bassist Matt Barnes chimes in: “We like to be in control, be on tour and show people that we can do it ourselves live.”

This stint Down Under may not be their first - in fact, You Me At Six have been making regular treks to Australia since 2008 - but it’s the first time they’ve toured with commercial interest surrounding them. Since the release of breakout single Underdog in Australia, the pop-punk band have collaborated with Chiddy Bang, written a theme song for a UK rollercoaster ride, watched their third album, 2011’s Sinners Never Sleep reach #3 in the UK (#28 on the ARIA chart) and even outed Noel Gallagher’s solo career after catching him recording at LA studio, The Sound Factory.

Photography: Ken Leanfore

While their ascent may fit into ‘the road much travelled’ basket, their still embryonic phase can be encapsulated in one memory of their Soundwave set when Franceschi brought his parents onstage and shouted, “Give them something to fucking look at!”

“The thing is, like, it’s all in the name of rock ‘n’ roll,” he says through a sideways smile. “I don’t think [my mother] was too impressed with that.”

“I still don’t think she is impressed with it,” rhythm guitarist, Max Helyer adds.

“She can’t be upset with what was going on. I can’t control it,” Franceschi says, continuing the polarity. “When I get onstage, my brain just goes from being a polite articulate young man to being a piece of shit.”

Parental advocacy has surrounded each member from the start though; watching their sons leave home for a life on the road is now the norm, but it wasn’t always that way.

“I think they found it a bit strange when we first started touring,” smiles Helyer. “They were like ‘should we let our fifteen-year-old sons go out on a mega bus tour with all their equipment on their own?’ But then they came down and saw the Astoria show [2,000 capacity] in London in 2008, and they were like ‘Okay, now we see why we’ve let them go and do this’. It opened up their minds to see what’s actually happened to our band.”

Granted, Sinners Never Sleep is rife with break up anthems, love ballads and adolescent aggravation, but the final track was reserved for Franceschi’s parents. With lyrics like ‘You told me just show evil the utmost respect,’ and ‘I only dreamed that when I got older, you’d be proud of me,’ it’s any wonder his parents were reduced to tears when he first played it for them.

“One of the most personal songs on that record which is titled When We Were Younger, is about my mum and dad,” he says. “It was very, kind of, difficult listening to it for them, but they look at it as a way of me paying homage to them in the same way.”

Though this attachment is a quality most would associate with an X-Factor finalist rather than a misanthropist punk band, You Me At Six seem to almost be at a point where some motherly coddling would be welcomed. “I think a common misconception about touring life is that it’s glamorous and very rock ‘n’ roll,” says Franceschi. “But there’s nothing glamorous about going to bed at 1 o’clock in the morning and having a lobby call at 6am.

“Guys back home are like ‘You guys are living the dream,’ and for a huge part we are, we’re very blessed to be doing what we’re doing but it can be very strenuous on the body and very tiring.”

Given, in December and January alone, the band had already boarded 18 flights, and after a stint through Indonesia and another round of the UK, they were awarded part of April off. Watching the five lethargic bodies let their attention ebb to the carpet is no real surprise, even less of a shock is Flint’s conscious closing of his eyelids. Interestingly, their own words come to mind: You Me At Six aren’t the kind of band to gratuitously pander to the needs of their label, nor the media; they earned their right to sell out Sydney’s Roundhouse and sit between Machine Head and Alice Cooper on the ARIA chart through tenacious touring, DIY fan involvement and lyrics that inject colour into a currently listless pop punk scene.

“I think one of our strong points is that our fans can really take something from our music and our lyrics because it is so personal,” explains Franceschi. “I don’t mind doing that, writing lyrics and being in this band has always been a very therapeutic process for me, it’s good exorcising the demons.”

Album Review: Hands Like Houses

19 April 2012

by Poppy Reid

Sometimes the best records are the ones bewildering upon first listen; and it's not until the fifth or sixth listen where you begin to settle down enough to commit each track to memory. Ground Dweller is exactly this.

The six-piece from Canberra honed their craft and exercised their patience over six years together, making this debut all the more welcome. But it’s not just its weaving of The Getaway Plan’s braised delivery, nor the lyrical aptitude of Chiodos and Emarosa, it’s the heavier concentration on samples, keys, and galloping drums that prove the band are completely unafraid to denounce their kindred predecessors.

 

From opening track Antarctica, where like its namesake, the track laces the roaring and dangerous with the sparse calm, HLH explore a plethora of samples while vocalist Trenton Todd Woodley captures the complexity of young-adult ennui.

Woodley’s voice digests in fragments through The Definition Of Not Leaving, most sweet and lush but with the hint of a thin glass shard, lightly slicing your oesophagus forcing you to mix yourself in the swallow. Orchestral-style synths conjoin layer upon layer in Spineless Crow while the album’s high point Watchmaker (Memphis May Fire) flows in the other direction with eerie chants and breakdowns reminiscent of A Day To Remember.

 

Interestingly, the most anticipated track seems to pale against its pedestal-topping counterparts. Lion Skin features two of Woodley’s most oft-compared comrades: Jonny Craig of Dance Gavin Dance, Emarosa and Ghost Hunter On Third and Tyler Carter, the ex-Woe Is Me frontman. Lackadaisical lyrics like, “there's spiders crawling from the corners of my eyes. Let them weave their little webs to snatch the sunlight from the lens,” provide the clashing mood behind a near four and a half minute meet of crazed, electronic-Vs-traditional-hardcore fusion.

At times Ground Dweller could score the next Tim Burton film, others could take you back to that honest moment when you first accepted synths’ place in hard rock music. A debut that incites more than five different emotions at once should be lauded, a debut from six Canberra kids with an intuition such as theirs should be lauded with longevity.

August Burns Red: Burning bright

19 April 2012

by Poppy Reid

As one of the few successful metalcore bands to break through their parent’s garage roller-door and land enough tours to ditch a day job, August Burns Red see themselves as a fresh sound in a scene of stale social media operators.

“As far as the scene goes I think it’s stronger than ever,” says guitarist Brent Rambler down the phone. “As far as the music goes though, it’s stale.”

Having just finished the band’s first rehearsal in hometown Pennsylvania before their third trek to the Southern hemisphere, Rambler is sounding off about the current overload labels face when up against the barrage of eager puppies begging for a contract.

“It’s so hard to find bands that are doing something different because there’s so many bands,” he says. “It’s easier than ever to be in a band right now. You can upload a song to the Internet and if the right person hears it you’re golden, you’re good to go. That never really happened before.”

After signing with CI Records in 2004, ABR were drilled into our conscience for reasons far surpassing the shocking back-story that shaped their namesake (it involves a cruel and vengeful ex-girlfriend named August and a dog named Red). Four albums of hard, fast, face melters and numerous world tours have seen the band build a solid fanbase who respect their music as much as their chosen faith - dedication Rambler believes stemmed from their 2005 debut, Thrill Seeker.

“For us people heard something different in our first record,” he says. “It seemed from the reviews that it got that it was something fresh and new. From then it just gave us such a good start and we were free to do whatever we wanted after that, we could progress as we chose.”

Choosing to progress with Christian record label Solid State was an obvious choice for ABR; having signed acts like Underoath, Emery and Norma Jean, the label’s distribution ties with EMI’s Christian Music Group provided the band with a global reach. Religious association also didn’t hinder the aforementioned acts’ career path, and as Ramble explains, it’s not something they endeavour to be identified with.

“Not every single one of us was raised in a Christian home so we’re proud of the fact that we’re not all from an upbringing where Christianity is the predominant religion.

“There are members in the band who are more conservative and the rest of us are more liberal,” explains Ramble. “For me, Christianity has always been about your own personal relationship; I think some people take it too far and I think as a band we’ve always tried to avoid that.”

Vocalist Jake Luhrs and drummer Matt Greiner are the band’s conservative Christians, both have created websites dedicated to helping others through their faith, which means Rambler can thankfully delegate when one-track interviews come the band's way.

“Every once in a while we get a person who wants to do an interview that is about nothing but Christian faith, and that to me is kind of annoying,” he says. “It’s like whoa, we’re not here to reason we’re here to play music! I don’t want to sit down and have a religious debate with someone, I’d feel very uncomfortable doing that.”

Interestingly, Rambler is adamant about his views on how religious artists should conduct themselves onstage: “I remember when I was a kid going to shows and had to listen to some guy babble about how being vegan was the best thing in the world, it was annoying. I don’t want to do that as far as religion goes.” But while you won’t catch his band preaching to their fans, you will find them defending their right to hear metalcore. “There’s always mums and dads who are in their fifties and forties who are like; ‘this is not what you should be listening to blah blah blah, no way’,” Rambler imitates with a lethargic tone, as if having to repeat the opinion of parents is in line with hearing it again.

 

“They can say what they want. I know when I was growing up my mum wouldn’t let me listen to bands like The Deftones,” he reasons. “Even though The Deftones don’t have any kind of bad message, the way it sounded was all she cared about.”

Having dealt with repression passed down through religious ideologies, Rambler understands the need to keep his band’s music uninhibited, but also wants to reach out to the unimpressed.

“I want to ask them why, and if their only response is because it sounds evil, I just want to tell them that just because it’s a different style of music doesn’t in any way mean it’s evil.”

August Burns Red are currently on a national tour with support acts Bless The Fall and Northlane

Evanescence: Brought back to life

                                                                              Photography: Ken Leanfore

by Poppy Reid

“I’m not as scared as I used to be,” admits Amy Lee. “I used to be a lot more insecure and protective, and scared to trust people.”

Since the formation of Evanescence in 1995, drama and tumultuous testing was a given. Lineup changes, romanticism-turned-narcissism and secret liaisons with depression were the norm for vocalist Lee. But 17 years on, the now 30-year-old is lighting up a Sydney city hotel room with wide-eyed rapture and animated gestures as she revels in the new Evanescence.

In true Evanescence fashion, the lead-up to a five-year hiatus was as publicised as it was painful. The firing of guitarist John LeCompt and the departure of drummer Rocky Gray in 2007 steered the pair toward former member and namesake undertaker Ben Moody to form We Are The Fallen.

“It was both of their choices to leave,” she says, before correcting herself. “Well that’s not quite true, it was definitely Rocky’s choice. They were both planning to leave, they just didn’t know that I knew.

“It was a weird moment but you know, it was definitely what needed to happen... You don’t want to force yourself to do something that you’re not really inspired to do, because that brings the whole thing down.”

Yet, the same year that marked the end of an era for the band, sparked the beginning of another, albeit a completely unrelated chapter for Lee. Her marriage to Josh Hartzler - a therapist currently involved with non-profit, sex-trafficking-aftercare organisation, Restore – and the disintegration of the band gave her a green light into Normal Street.

“At first I wanted to just not work,” Lee says defiantly, clapping her hands down on her thighs. “I’d been completely working my whole adult life and totally obsessing over and focusing on and fighting for Evanescence. I needed to just be a normal person and live in a house and go and do my own grocery shopping.”

Lee living as a housewife couldn’t be a further envisage from the corset- courting, panda-eyed, Pied Piper her zealots idolise, and even Lee couldn’t stay away from her home studio for long. From 2009 onward she experimented with new music styles and instruments (Lee even took up the harp), but no matter how much La Roux or MGMT she ingested, the output was always quintessential Evanescence.

“It was a cool thing because it made me realise that’s me, that’s who I am,” she shrugs. “I don’t have to change everything to be honest to myself at this point in time just because I’ve grown a whole lot.” Ironically, one of the biggest gripes vocally broadcast by previous members was one of the first things to change with new members Will Hunt and Troy McLawhorn.

The eponymous third album is the only Evanescence record where every member played a hand in penning its contents. “We were all able to go ‘Okay let’s try this, lets sit at our instruments and just jam’.” A new approach after finding global success in the writing of albums one and two - both of which peaked at #1 on the Billboard and ARIA Charts - left Lee understandably but ultimately unnecessarily nervous about releasing a third.

“We were thinking ‘Hey, it’s been forever, music’s changed, the industry’s changed.’ We were definitely not anticipating being #1 in the US like we were,” she beams. “I remember when it happened I just had this cool feeling come over me, I was like ‘Oooh yeah’,” Lee sinks back into the couch, almost reliving the moment. And relive and revel she should; Evanescence has proven time and time again that despite consumer leanings toward bubblegum-pop and impossible idols, music which muses about the darker sides to life and its contrary are still relevant. Lee pre-empted the comeback herself in the record’s lead single What You Want where she sings, ‘Hello, hello remember me. I’m everything you can’t control.’

“We’ve always been different to a lot of the mainstream stuff out there,” says Lee. “I remember when we were first coming out it was all about Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera, I don’t feel that it’s completely different at this point. I guess there’s a lot of music that we just don’t get into... Because there’s so much music out there that sucks.

“There’s still elements of [death] on this one. Death is always a theme, it’s not in a goth, drama way that some people interpret what I’m inspired by,” she laughs. “I like the idea that life is so much bigger than just this chapter on Earth. I totally believe in life after death and I totally believe in God and that we are small.”

Long-time fans dubious at the thought of an all-new Evanescence have been calmed, the Katy Perrys of this decade have been silenced, however briefly, and even Amy Lee herself has let her art grow whilst still standing vigil to the sound that once held no expectation.

Album Review: The Used, Vulnerable

02 April 2012

by Poppy Reid

Frontman Bert McCracken has enough fodder from his colourful, much publicised past to make an album that’s sick with autobiographical emotion and metaphorical disbelief. But five albums in, The Used have done this, well, five times already in the past eleven years, and after 2009’s Artwork saw the band’s then label unabashedly endeavour to cash in on his experiences, this release was understandably surrounded with doubt.

However, after branching out to release a fifth offering on their own and a triumph over another bout with drug addiction, McCracken truly had the open door to make another In Love and Death, or the self-titled debut; unfortunately this could be the exact reason why Vulnerable falls short.

Lyrically it’s missing the rawness from the promised self-titled leanings but instrumental aptitude and the genuine excitement of actually listening to new material from The Used overslaugh most disappointing aspects.

Thankfully, Vulnerable’s first two tracks I Come Alive and This Fire take all the best bits from 2007’s Lies For The Liars: jarring guitars, desperate vocals and lyrics displaying characteristics you either wish you owned or had the moxie to admit to.

Three tracks in and the elated feeling dissipates; repetitive lyrics are welcomed when it’s clear they’ve been bled onto a page, but parroted lines like ‘you put me out like a cigarette’ (Put Me Out) and ‘I never meant to hurt nobody, I never meant to hurt no one’ (Hurt No One) come across lazy. Thankfully the arresting and intricate guitar lines and manic percussion placate any hard feelings on these tracks.

Now That You’re Dead delivers the promise of a trip down memory lane; morally questionable lyrics, hints at necrophilia and religious iconography are what we missed from McCracken on Artwork as we realise his vulnerable yell is still solidly in tact.

Later in the record, Getting Over You may be the album’s answer to 2007 track Smother Me/Queso but it pales in comparison. Rounding out the record however is a glimmer of light that does faintly touch on Smother Me. Together Burning Bright is one of those unique moments where you begin to understand a musician instead of relating the lyrics to your own experiences.

McCracken is clearly an accomplished lyricist, able to communicate to his fans the darkest of desires, the most hopeful aspirations and the lowest strangulations of self-loathing. When he does this naturally it’s effective, but unfortunately much of Vulnerable comes across tried.

:: Read our interview with McCracken ahead of The Used's tour with Soundwave here

Live Review: Evanescence

                                                                                Photography: Ken Leanfore

30 March 2012

by Poppy Reid

Thursday March 29
Sydney Entertainment Centre

Tulle fairy skirts, ill-fitted corsets and band tees from 2007 were the accepted garb at last night’s Evanescence concert. Bringing together those who have remained keen and loyal since 2005 and those intent on some indulgent high school nostalgia, Amy Lee and her new, but stagnant players; guitarists Troy McLawhorn and Terry Balsamo, bassist Tim McCord and drummer Will Hunt took the stage.

Drawing predominantly from their eponymous third album, Lee burst onstage in a hyper-coloured tutu and black boots, opening with first single What You Want and swiftly following with Going Under, a track for the early fans.

Three songs in and she switched mics at the keyboard; through 180º hair flicks and fist pumps mimicked by minions, Lee told her tale about the afterlife for new track The Other Side.

:: View all the live shots from the night here.

The grand piano was of course expected to make an appearance, but as Lee sat onstage solo for the first half of My Heart Is Broken, any fans doubtful she could encompass the emotion she offered with My Immortal in 2003 were eating their proverbial hats before the full band joined onstage.

“We played this for the first time in five years yesterday,” said Lee before Sweet Sacrifice, and although she may have seemed out if breath it wasn’t down to her vocal capacity. Lee put her everything into that track, and the whole set in fact. Her limbs and fervour for her fans didn’t miss a beat. “Damn why'd we write that song to be so hard!” she yelled.

Finishing with Bring Me To Life, the years since Evanescence said goodbye to the track’s co-creator went unnoticed. There was no obvious hole in the lyrics that Ben Moody once filled as Lee doubled over and clutched her stomach with the pained poise she’s made her trademark.

“This tour has been so much fun,” she farewelled. “Thanks to all of you guys for making all this possible.”

Returning for a three-song encore on the grand piano, Evanescence looked more like a band than they had all night. Drummer Hunt swirled and juggled his sticks continuously through Swimming Home and Your Star and guitarists McLawhorn and Balsamo took the forefront at one point; but it was the much-anticipated My Immortal that really set Lee apart from the band. As it’s arguably their most famous release, we weren’t expecting such a raw delivery from the happily married 30-year-old. But as lighters and phone lights swayed, tiny baths filled our eyes before the house lights stopped the moment and many-a-sleeve was seen smearing our faces.

:: Read our interview with Amy Lee here.