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to challenge the audience in a way that’s not
necessarily a technical thing, but that challenges
everybody’s groove ability, in a sense.” Gaster
hasn’t changed his kit set-up much since the
band’s inception almost 15 years ago, and still
doesn’t believe that he has “figured the damn
things out”: “I try to pull the most sound I can
out of the fewest things,” he says. “I like a lot of
tone coming off the drum, and that’s why you can
get to a lot of sounds.” He believes that recording
in Texas for the first time, with lauded producer
and long-time accomplice Machine, rubbed off
on the album. “Texas is a very unique place,”
he says. “I think a lot of the folks there kind of
consider themselves to be a separate country
altogether. There’s a lot of energy there. It’s
beautiful, very scenic, the hills are amazing.
But I will say that I’m a fan of being able to just
go to the local shop and buy a beer or something
to eat, and that’s wasn’t really a luxury for us
out there.”
visit NEWS MUSIC
Peaches’ new album Rub is
full of all the rhythmically
mesmerising, lyrically
convention-choking stuff that
we expect from her, along
with freshly pulsing beats
and experimental sounds and
that very dry, droll voice that
couldn't come from anyone
else's throat. It was co-written
with her pal Vice Cooler,
whom she says she met a little
over 15 years ago. “Let me
tell you a bit about him,” she
proposes to STACK. “He grew
up in Alabama and he had two
choices: to get into meth or to
get into music. So he chose
music. He used to host bands
in his basement, bands would
come from other towns. This
is when he was 14! He started
to do a solo electro show and I
took him on tour a lot. We have
a very similar aesthetic about
what music should sound like.
He knows what I'm about.
We set up in my garage in LA
and then we started together
for ten hours a day, every
day for a year, and made the
album.” Among the bangers
on Rub (Wave Your Dick In
The Air is a favourite, as well
as the characteristically clever
role-swapping going on in the
title track) sits Free Drink Ticket,
which drips with derision. “To
me, it’s about when you’re in
love and something happens,
Preachin' with peaches
Q1/ New vocalist Marcus Bridge is absolutely
killing it. Did you expect the open audition
process would produce someone who would
contribute creatively to the band?
Thankyou for the kind words! He will be stoked.
[Contributing] was extremely important, hence why
we asked not only for people to cover a song but after
shortlisting the best applicants asked them to write
lyrics and vocals over a track that we’d only released
as an instrumental. Throwing someone into the deep
end with the touring schedule we had was a tall order;
this was the scariest part, as we really couldn’t predict
how anybody new would handle touring. To Marcus’
credit he turned out to be extremely chill, easy to get
along with and super professional at his craft, so it
was smooth sailing from the moment we boarded the
flight to Europe for his first tour with the band.
Q2/ Did you always feel that the band would
pull through the line-up turbulence OK?
There absolutely were moments of self doubt. This
is something normal for any artist: surely you need to
have self confidence, vision and determination, but
you’re always second guessing everything, and that’s
how you improve. There was a moment of terror when
we realized how vulnerable our position was, but we
stayed calm, put together a sound plan of action and
used the situation to our advantage. In tough times
there’s always an opportunity, and this was one of the
biggest opportunities we’d ever stumbled across.
Q3/ What has the rehearsal schedule been like
in the lead-up to this mammoth tour?
We worked our butts off in rehearsals leading up
to the North American dates. Now that we’ve had a
chance to play these new songs on tour we’re making
the most of a brief respite at home, but that being said
we all still practise every single day!
Q4/ Do you think Node's diverse style has
gained you new fans, or old fans were open to
the fresh take (or both)?
It’s absolutely been a mixture of the two. Only time
will tell what it really does for the growth of our band,
we definitely have a lot more flexibility now as to
what tours we can play and how we’ll fit onto things
like festival lineups, plus we’ve gained far more radio
support than ever which all helps. At the end of the
day though, what matters most is how we feel about
the record, and it’s the record we wanted to release,
so we’re happy.
Node by Northlane is out
now, through UNFD.
POP THE CLUTCH:
JEAN-PAUL GASTER
Clutch fans are an eclectic mob, but they all
share a very red-blooded esteem for the
blues-psychedelic-punk style of the Maryland
outfit, who have just released their eleventh
album Psychic Warfare. Instead of deliberately
veering away from the sound of their last
release (2013’s internationally acclaimed Earth
Rocker), the four-piece decided to embrace their
fundamentals. “We really hit a mark with Earth
Rocker,” says drummer Jean-Paul Gaster. “It was
very well received; we did things on that album
that we hadn’t done before… it set the bar very
high. We’re always searching for new sounds
and new things to get into, but at the end of the
day it’s still the same four guys playing the same
four instruments. We get together and maybe
we’ll even try to do a reggae song, and it will
just sound like Clutch playing a reggae song.”
This time around Gaster focused on listening to
the syncopation of frontman Neil Fallon’s vocal
rhythms, and the ensuing beats are full of this
juicy swagger which sometimes threatens to
tip off-balance. “My favourite drummers are
the ones that, when they play, you can hear the
melody of the rhythm,” Gaster says. “Guys like
Ginger Baker and Bernard Purdie and Elvin Jones.
I’m a great fan of syncopation. I like a drummer
Psychic Warfare
by Clutch is out now
via Rocket.
josh smith
NORTHLANE Read our full interview with Jean-Paul Gaster
online at .
Rub by Peaches
out now through
emote Control.
and that person that you
loved, you hate. Not just hate
but you want to, like, kill him –
you want to off him. Those are
real feelings, so I wanted to
express those,” she explains.
Acts of evasiveness and lying
are also returned to, themes
Peaches expounds acutely.
“That somebody I love would
lie to me like that – I can’t
understand why people are
so repressive in this society,”
she says. “All these politicians
or prominent people hold a
certain regard for family or
conservative values, and then
you find out that they have
same sex lovers or whatever.
So it’s like, ‘Why are you doing
this? Is it just for the secret?’
Why are people so into their
secrets instead of really living
their lives?”
Node, Northlane's third album and the first with the
group's new frontman, reached #1 on the ARIA chart last
month. The five-piece are touring in November:
check for details.
084 OCTOBER 2015
continued
NORTHLANE (L-R) Jon Deiley, Alex Milovic, Marcus Bridge, Nic Pettersen, Josh Smith.