Interview w/ Kenny & Drew from Karnivool
Australian rock group, Karnivool, has finally made it over here to the U.S., and we were able to sit down with the guys and catch an interview with Kenny and Drew at a recent show, here in Tampa, FL for the masses. Here's how things went down.
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What’s up guys, how are you doing? Pretty good When did you guys fly in? Monday, we flew into L.A. and then drove to FL. How was that? It was good Did you drive straight through or did you take a couple breaks here and there? It took us like 3 days We stopped off in a few places like Tuscon and Dallas to spend the night And many truck stops |
So tell us, everyone wants to know, where did the actual name came from, how did you guys come up with Karnivool, and am I pronouncing it right by the way?
Yea yea, totally
That’s actually something we don’t really know, because, the name was around before even I was, the band has been going on for 10 years now, and I kind of joined the band, and that’s when we sorta, decided it was a Karnivool, the start of Karnivool, but, before that the name was sort of floating around before that.
Yea, I actually think, we had a few other guitarists, and I think one of those guys came up with it when we first started out, so it’s gone back awhile
It’s one of those names that stuck
Yea, it hasn’t gotten a really good story to it
We’re just a bunch of clowns
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That’s how you do it in rock, definitely. So your album Themata was released here in the states and the U.K. about 6 months ago, how has the fan base increased, have you seen CD sales go up, more people know who you are now? Well since the record got released here through Bieler, that first part of marketing, sales have slowly began to pick up, and obviously the fan base online definetly is a reflection. We’re getting a lot of feedback online, I still think that’s the best way we can gauge things these days, about how it’s going in a place so far from home. You know the people contacting us over the internet saying they bought the album. It’s still increasing, and the fan base keeps growing exponentially, and it’s sorta spreading off in to, like, a lot of European countries and stuff like that, it’s just the word of mouth from the internet I think, and the release of the album in the UK and the U.S., so it’s looking really promising, but this is the first time actually playing in the U.S. or overseas at all. Yea, it’s a, a breaking of our American Cherry Cherry popping |
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How was the show last night, did the crowd accept you?
Yes, it was a good way to start, we we’re just glad that none of our gear fucked up, it ran very smoothly so it was a good first show.
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So we’ve heard that on the recording of this album, no of you guys actually we’re in the studio recording together, is that true? Well we were in the studio together, but we didn’t record the tracks live, I mean I played the drums and the guitar on the album. So that’s why we couldn’t play together as a whole band, because we didn’t have a drummer at the time, so I cut the drums on the album. And then, it was a pretty elaborate recording session that went on for 9 or 10 months, and we did it our selves, we sort of traveled around. Yea, we recorded the record in about, over 10 different locations, of Australia I guess, along the west coast from Perth, and the South West from Perth where we come from, southern Melbourne In shacks on the hill you know, in the middle of nowhere Kicking people out of their shacks, setting up the Pro Tools rig and just getting into it Just crank up the guitars as loud as you want, and no ones going to complain |
Did you guys record it your self to, or have separate engineers?
We did a lot of it our selves actually, a lot of it
Well we did it sort of in conjunction with a friend of ours, Forester, whose um, came to the U.S. for a little while, who did an album for Helmet recently
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So is there anything you guys like in Australia, that you know you wouldn’t have over here that you made sure to bring with you, pircutres of family, favorite food?. We didn’t really know what to expect, we never been here before, but obviously we knew it was going to be really different, and it takes some getting used to, cause theres a lot of similarities between Australia and the U.S. but there’s a lot of differences as well. Like the food thing is one, it’s just very different, the stuff over here, sort of getting used to. As far as getting ready for… When your really on tour, you sit in tour mode, and it’s about eating shit food, and doing shows, so everything he said, and I mean we only been 2 or 3 days into it. And we got devices and everything you know, load up on good music We got I-pods and all that stuff Pictures of families and our pets, that sort of thing That’s the strangest thing, some of the dudes carrying their pictures of their pets I do that Do you, what pets do you have? I’ve got a cat and a dog |
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So what’s the most memorable thing that has ever happened in a show, anything mess up horribly, or what sticks our in your mind?
Well, I don’t know, our bass player has done, some pretty, unruthly stuff on stage, he um, we just played a show before we came out, in like, the top of the WA and he played in this dog suit, like full on, and this is like 30 plus maybe 40 degrees (celcius), and I don’t know why, actually he did, he lost some type of bet, but just full on, head to toe dog suit, he almost killed himself.
And another thing he did, remember that time, he thought it was a good idea, I don’t know what you call the bottles of beer, the stubbies, we call them stubbies, long necks?
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Yea, we call them bottles Bottles, yea, he thought it was a good idea to lob one out at the end of a show, and it sort of, he had a sweaty hand, so it slipped, and just like flew like a rocket straight through the crowd, like Noah was parting the seas, the crowd just spread, and he’s just kind of just like, oh shit. Then later, there was just like a 1,000 people there, one of our friends comes back and goes, John, look what you did, and lifts his shirt and you see this massive welt in the shape of a bottle Hit him square in the chest Out of a thousand people it managed to hit one of our mates If it were to hit him in the face, it would of killed him But no, no, now major catashropies that I can think of, I mean we’ve had times that our geared screwed up, and you know we’ve made a meal of that, but there’s never been (anything big) Do you play pranks on each other on the road? Not like any major ones, probably just little ones just to shit each other. Yea nothing, yea, nothing like shitting in each others bed or something, I know bands who do that. |
So a lot of people in the U.S. want to know how it’s like in Australia, what’s the music scene like, is it as hardcore, well not hardcore, but in the sense do fans go crazy over your shows like in Japan or the U.K., or is it more midly intimate like the U.S..
Um, we’re kind of South Australia, like uh, U.K. or Japan we haven’t been there, but we have been touring nationally Austrailia for a couple of years. Like the metal fans, are some of the most loyal, and compassionate music lovers that we um, come across. But all and all it branchs into more music, like people are there, and we understand are just music lovers, and it’s not necisarily about what band your into it, it’s just about good bands.
Especially the place we’re from, Perth, on the West coast, it’s the most issolated city in the world, so it’s a different sence, of, commdodority between the bands. But yea, Australia as a whole is just a great scene, it’s really good.
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Do you guys have a new album planned any time soon in the next year or so? Yea Yea, um, Themata, we actually released in Australia, the one we released here 6 months ago in the U.S., about 2, 2 and a half years ago in Australia, so we’ve been working on the second one for quite a while now. Yea, we take time with our records. Plus we took time touring with Themata in Australia for quite awhile time So yea, we’re trying to push Themata over here at the same time, we’re sort of in the creative mode at the moment. We hope to get the second album out next year. Well that’s all we have for you, is there anything you want to say for your fans back home or here in the U.S.? There’s not much to say, just come see our music, and come see a show. Yea come see the band, see what it’s about. |
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To visit Karnivool's MySpace page click here
By. Drew Zambrano
