Northlane interview done by Mike De Man. Questions answered by Josh Smith (guitarist).
Northlane is a djent, or prog, depending who you talk to, band hailing from the great city of Sydney, Australia. Before we get into anything, my first question has to do with one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen you guys do. It was on YouTube where I found out, but will the band ever bring back the awesome days of covering Mortal Kombat live again?
Most definitely not, sorry but what’s done is done! Maybe we’ll cover something else.
Since we’re on the topic of playing shows, Northlane has been out on the road with some amazing acts including Of Mice of Men, Veil of Maya, Karnivool, Bring Me The Horizon, House Vs Hurricane, August Burns Red, and many, many others. Out of all your tour stories, which one will you remember forever?
I think the most memorable end to a tour was the first time we toured with Parkway Drive in Australia. Back in those days (we’d just been signed) we had this little 8-seater van we used to tour in called Franklin. The tour finished up about a 15 hour drive from Sydney in a place called Mildura. Apparently it was raining closer to home, the rain spread and our route became blocked by some of the worst floods this part of Australia had ever seen. We were cut off by floodwater multiple times, even drove through some that was about 4ft high and completely brown on some closed roads just to get home and hit two Kangaroos on the 26 hour journey that got us back home. Poor Franklin!
I’m sure among those stories, there were a few laughable ones as well. What’s the most ridiculous thing you’ve ever done out on the road?
Driving through a closed road due to construction under 4ft of muddy water. That was so incredibly stupid of us but hey, we’re still here.
With all of the friends in bands you guys have met here, there and everywhere, I’m sure if you could, you would jump right onto tour with them. If Northlane could set out on a headlining tour with a set of four bands regardless of size or genre, what bands would they be?
Deftones, Architects, Karnivool!
From what I understand, the name Northlane came from the song of the same name written by ARCHITECTS. Are all the members of Northlane ARCHITECTS fans or just a few?
Of course we all are, how could we not be!
When it comes to fluctuations of genre combining and fusions, I’ve always noticed some really groovy space sounding songs. What made the evolution of band lead to the spacier, more melodic djent found in your singles “Quantum Flux” and “Rot”?
It’s just a feel of music that we enjoy listening to. Ambience creates suspense and emotion, it sounds cool and we like it.
Recently, there was a new set of vinyls being announced as Northlane memorabilia. Where did the idea of releasing one song each vinyl come from on your recent merch package?
It was an idea our manager had, and a very cool one so we’re glad that it was seen all the way through to fruition. Hopefully there’s one left over for me!
To dip back to the past for a minute, when Northlane was still working up through the ranks when Hollow Existence was first released in 2010, what made you stick with it and see the band come through to be what it is today?
Well, when we started this band we realized that it would be a huge waste of time to not give it 100%. We made it our number one priority from that very early stage and never lost sight of our goals, even when times were tough. We would only regret not doing this later in life, if something is worth doing, do it properly.
With the new addition of Marcus Bridge to the band, Northlane has played a couple shows and recorded an entire album. How has Marcus affected the progression of Northlane since the days of Singularity?
He’s brought a fresh energy to the band and a new creative palette to work with. His voice is extremely versatile so we found he could add more dynamic to our songs, and that fits in with the writing style of node. It’s not so 100% all the time, there’s ups and downs within the songs and his voice is finely attuned to that. Plus he’s an awesome dude to be around.
Now with Node, your new album, coming out this year, there are plenty of grande opportunities to look at for what the future holds. Is there anything specific the band is looking forward to doing after the release?
We can’t wait for our headline tour in North America this August! it’s going to be great touring with some good friends, especially our aussie mates In Hearts Wake.
