STACK #150 Apr 2017

MUSIC NEWS

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is alive and kicking. And yes… girls are usually pretty stoked after a night with me. Michael, not so much. Last time we spoke to you, Lexxi told us his dream is to go to the zoo and poke a silverback gorilla in the eye. In our post- Harambe world, is that still a goal? Well, you have to admit that would be an exhilarating experience. I think it would be worth angering some of the animal protection You've said you’re going to keep playing and partying until a bandmember ODs.Why do you think you’ve evaded the reaper so far (and congrats!)? I think the drugs help. That and I don’t make left hand turns when I drive; I’ll do three right hand turns to achieve the same result with less risk. You’ve been going strong for 16 years; what do you do when you feel your supply of creativity is drying up? How do you re-amp yourselves? We have an endless supply of inspiring experiences on the road. I can’t imagine hitting a dry spell. But if it happens, we’ll just get high and f-ck some b-tches and I’m sure the songs will start flowing like ***** ***** [ Good Lord - Ed ]. ZKR groups. F-ck… I’d like to poke some of those f-ckers in the eye as well.

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STEEL PANTHER

Lower The Bar by Steel Panther is out now via Kobalt.

EXTREMELY CRASS 'N' CRUDE CORRESPONDENCE FROM SATCHEL (GUITAR) PLEASE AVERTYOUR EYES IFYOU HAVE ANYTASTEWHATSOEVER

The album is titled LowerThe Bar – who do you think should be lowering their bar, and how low should they be going? Lowering the bar is essential to being a happier person. Think about it. If you go out looking to f-ck a 10 and you wind up with a 6, you’re bummed. But if you’re happy just f-cking something that isn’t canine, then you wind up with a 6, you are f-cking ecstatic.

Walk Of Shame details a girl leaving a hotel after a wild night. Instead of “walk of shame”, I prefer “stride of pride” – shouldn’t gals be proud of spending the night with you? Well, you are obviously a “glass half full” kind of person. But the reality is most of us are gonna f-ck some sludge piggies after nine or 12 shots of Patron. The walk of shame

NORTHLANE We spoke to rhythm guitarist Josh Smith about the Sydney metaller's fourth album, Mesmer.

to “question everything you know.".What do you guys do to try to actively subscribe to that idea? Wear tinfoil hats and tape over our webcams. Seriously though, I think what matters is your mindset, realise there could be an agenda behind anything you read

This is true – so we’d just sit a phone on record at front of house and muck around with riffs. Then afterwards Jon would take these jams and see if there was any magic in

You’ve written about intensely personal issues and very macro issues in this album. Did it take a bit of time to overcome the idea that you should be doing only one or the other? In the past it would have been one or the other but we weren’t afraid to do both this time around. We removed that filter we had set in our minds of what band we needed to be or should be and wrote about things that moved us. On previous albums, lyrics and music were composed independently and then brought together in the studio; this time lyrics and music often blossomed spontaneously together. How do you think that affected the way the songs finished up? It actually made the songs come together in a final form slower, but the vocal and music definitely work more seamlessly

together than ever before. They were purpose written to dynamically match and emotionally interconnect. To me that has a huge overall result on how the songs feel. Jon says many of these ideas (or the evolution of initial ideas) were born out of soundcheck jams; how do you remember ideas you’ve come up during those minutes with when your mind is also on a show you’re about to play?

Mesmer by Northlane is out now via UNFD.

there he could work into something more. Working on the road is nothing new to us, we are always writing on the road when we are inspired and keeping our days full. In opener Citizen the lyrics refer to “Big Brother’s eyes” and Intuition encourages listeners

TOURING 10/05 - 27/05

or believe and take everything with a grain of salt, don’t be afraid to contest an idea ever. One of my favourites is Solar ; the guitar details are beautiful, as is the way you play around with the verse, bridge and chorus time signatures. Did the elements in this song in particular begin very separately, or did it flow out as naturally as it plays? Solar actually came together really naturally, both musically and vocally it was very immediate and flowed from the get go. It’s the best example we’ve ever had of a song just forming naturally from ideas that feel right to us. ZKR

Read the full interview online at stack.net.au

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APRIL 2017

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