Hope Drone are a Marco black metal outfit from Brisbane, Australia. We have featured their self-titled album here and we're definitely excited for more music from them. They're a rather mysterious bunch, so we're very happy to have Karl (guitar) answering some questions about their music, their future plans, that time when they opened for Deafheaven and dingos. Gorgeous! You can listen to their debut album on their Bandcamp.
1. Hello, mates! How you doin’? How’s the weather down in Australia?
We’re doing well, the weather is actually decent now that we’re going into autumn.
2. Coming from a country in Eastern Europe, we imagine you guys met while riding the great Australian outback, got pissed off at the scorching sun, carved drums and guitars out of brittle wood and decided to form a band. Is this really how it was or did you actually met in highschool or something? Also, Hope Drone is an interesting, yet ermetic band name. What does it signify for you? Why did you choose it?
We all already knew each other from playing with each other’s bands and the formation of the band kind of just happened naturally over time. The name was chosen because we needed a name, and trawling our music collections the name of an unrecorded Godspeed song came up and seemed to fit pretty well. I think it ended up suiting the music and isn’t too stereotypical.
3. Speaking of which, when we first came across your music, we were half-expecting it to actually be drone. Granted, there’s a definite drone element, but what are some of the bands and/or sounds that have influenced and shaped your sound?
This answer would be different depending on whom you ask but some bands we all enjoy are Russian Circles, Rosetta, Year of No Light and Wolves in the Throne Room. For me personally I take a lot of influence from Neurosis as well as bands like Swans and even Locrian more recently; as well as orchestras, reverb and delay pedals and idiosyncrasies I’ve picked up playing guitar over the years.
4. You’re from Australia so we’ve GOT to ask this: what are the five ESSENTIAL Australian metal bands we should all be jocking? And you can’t say Destroyer 666, Portal or Sadistik Exekution.
Bands you should be check out that aren’t necessarily metal but are all intense and interesting: Idylls are doing great work, Heirs as well. Our friends in Encircling Sea. At Dark. Our guitarists other band, The Fevered.
We’re doing well, the weather is actually decent now that we’re going into autumn.
2. Coming from a country in Eastern Europe, we imagine you guys met while riding the great Australian outback, got pissed off at the scorching sun, carved drums and guitars out of brittle wood and decided to form a band. Is this really how it was or did you actually met in highschool or something? Also, Hope Drone is an interesting, yet ermetic band name. What does it signify for you? Why did you choose it?
We all already knew each other from playing with each other’s bands and the formation of the band kind of just happened naturally over time. The name was chosen because we needed a name, and trawling our music collections the name of an unrecorded Godspeed song came up and seemed to fit pretty well. I think it ended up suiting the music and isn’t too stereotypical.
3. Speaking of which, when we first came across your music, we were half-expecting it to actually be drone. Granted, there’s a definite drone element, but what are some of the bands and/or sounds that have influenced and shaped your sound?
This answer would be different depending on whom you ask but some bands we all enjoy are Russian Circles, Rosetta, Year of No Light and Wolves in the Throne Room. For me personally I take a lot of influence from Neurosis as well as bands like Swans and even Locrian more recently; as well as orchestras, reverb and delay pedals and idiosyncrasies I’ve picked up playing guitar over the years.
4. You’re from Australia so we’ve GOT to ask this: what are the five ESSENTIAL Australian metal bands we should all be jocking? And you can’t say Destroyer 666, Portal or Sadistik Exekution.
Bands you should be check out that aren’t necessarily metal but are all intense and interesting: Idylls are doing great work, Heirs as well. Our friends in Encircling Sea. At Dark. Our guitarists other band, The Fevered.
5. At first we were going to ask you what you think of Sunbather, but then we noticed you actually opened for Deafheaven in your hometown Brisbane back in January. Holy smokes, that’s great! Was that your most GORGEOUS concert experience to date? We bet it was! And did you get to hang out with George Clarke and Kerry McCoy? They seem to be really chill dudes off-stage.
The show itself was really good. The dudes in the band, like most people in bands are the most normal people you could meet and were friendly enough. Sunbather wasn’t really a huge record for me personally when it came out but I’ve got nothing against people who enjoyed it.
6. Here at TZEEEAC, we usually refer to post-black metal as Marco black metal. Marco is the co-founder of TZEEEAC and he usually wouldn’t be caught dead listening to horrific black metal, but Chester seems to think that by combining black metal with shoegaze, drone, ambient, etc. you get a mellower, melodic flavor of black metal that Marco could potentially listen to without being a fan of the genre. What’s your take on this? Do you feel that Marco black metal has the potential to bridge the gap between the black metal crowd and music fans who aren’t particularly excited about seeing some huge Norwegian monster shriek about Satan?
Black metal is a really difficult genre to define but I feel at the end of the day the gap doesn’t need to be bridged at all and people should simply listen to the music that resonates with them. Having said that, I’m sure someone who transitioned from shoegazey/droney stuff into more ambient/atmospheric black metal may develop a taste or appreciation for more traditional stuff and vice versa.
7. Consider the following scenario: it’s late at night, you just finished performing the best show in a while and you are now hungry as wolves (or dingos). What fast food places are you hitting and what do you order to satisfy your
I’m terrible at eating before a show and after I’ll usually end up just eating left overs at home. If I had to pick a fast food I’d say burritos.
8. What does the future hold for Hope Drone? Any new EPs or splits in the works? New merch? More tours?
We have another record which is nearly finished being recorded, I’d like to do an EP or something as well if time and resources allow us. Probably going to tour at some point but the extent, time and location of said tour is currently unknown.
9. Black band t-shirts or white band t-shirts? Pick a side.
Neurosis t-shirt.
10. Guys, thanks so much for talking with us and sorry for all the bad jokes. We get overly excited when communicating with people from other continents. Please leave us with a traditional Australian saying and feel free to add whatever else you like. Cheers!
Thanks for the interview and interest in our music. Sharing a traditional Australian saying is a bootable offense unfortunately.
No comments:
Post a Comment