Interviews (248)

• July 12, 2024
• Colleen Johnson
• 548
• 0

The other night I headed out to a very Aussie heavy bill where I chatted with Melbourne’s Windwaker all about both their current first North American tour and this casual thing called their brand new album that was hitting in two days. That album, the band’s sophomore effort, HYPERVIOLENCE(7/12 via Fearless Records), just hit, and it’s a sonic blast of sound. Fearless’s repertoire is no stranger to the kind of music Windwaker is presenting, being the perfect home for the band. It also marks the first album with frontman Liam Guinane who filled some very large shoes. Previously spending time in the band as the guitarist, Guinane was a natural choice, according to bassist Idney Salvestro of the band. And it’s rightfully so, in Wednesday night’s performance, Guinane juggled clean vocals, guttural screams and even a little bit of rapping without fail.

 

While the band put out a six-track EP in June to give a taste of what was to come, definitely dive into the tunes today! I chatted with Guinane and Salvestro swiftly after the band jumped off stage, where we talked about everything HYPERVIOLENCE, how their first North American tour was going, and bringing Guinane back in the fold! Find our chat below, as well as their brand new video for “Tabula Rasa!”

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New England Sounds: To jump right into it, you were in New York City last night. A fellow Melbourne band with Thornhill is on this tour with you. You’re out with fellow Aussies in  Northlane. You’re out with a US representative of Invent Animate. But maybe considering this is your first North American tour, maybe preparations you made going into this run. Australia is such a broad country; I know the drives are perhaps not a thing as much, maybe more a flying situation, maybe for you it’s driving. 

Liam Guinane: It is pretty big drives, like you can do touring in Australia in multiple ways. You can fly it, and it’s the more privileged way of doing it. 

Indey Salvestro: Yeah, the budget is driving, and you can fly it if you have money. 

Liam: Yeah, but as far as comparing the drives over here and that climate, it’s pretty similar. Driving inter-state back home is usually nine to ten hours, on average. 

Indey: Honestly, it’s exactly the same as at home, in terms of hours and between cities. There was one massive drive at the beginning; I think it was fourteen hours, which was when we went from-

Liam: Melbourne to Brisbane? 

Indey: No, here; when we went from Canada down to Minneapolis. 

Liam: How long was that? 

Indey: It was like twenty-something hours. We did that one over two days, but you can also do that in Australia. So I think we’re used to driving long distances, and it’s kind of that thing where it’s like, oh, it’s only three hours. Three hours is a small amount of time; some people may say, “Oh, that’s so long,” but three hours is easy for us. 

Liam: I’m unsure if I’m answering the question, but the difference is that the population here is much more dense. We can drive for about four hours and still have an entirely new group of people. 

Indey: Yeah, I feel like the cities or small towners in Australia, you leave the city, and there’s either nothing or farms. And then little tiny towns, we call them “pass-through” towns. Where there’s just a main street of the town, and you just pass through. Stop to grab food, and then you usually just pass through, and that’s it. And that’s it; the whole town is just this main street. And I’m sure there are places like that here, but most of the time when we’re driving around here, there’s at least a big service station or a Walmart. We could be stranded for a while in Australia if we don’t find something good. 

 

NES: Then, I was looking at the artists you’ve toured with; I know there’s one I’ve covered a lot, at least when they play here a bunch (at the Paradise, the venue for the night), Enter Shikari. They’ll be back with You Me At Six with their final run. Many of the bands you’ve toured with have played here. Maybe advice you got from other bands when it came to playing your first North American tour? 

Indey: Don’t go into the wrong areas. 

Liam: Yeah, like, don’t turn up the wrong streets. I think the facilities in these venues on these North American tours are great as well. 

Indey: Yeah, that’s a big difference actually from Australia. 

Liam: Like whenever we’ve toured Australia, we have to shower at the accommodations. Whereas, like a lot of the venues on this run, they have like shower and laundry facilities. So that’s been an entirely new thing to consider as far as packing goes. And with our luggage as well, as far as clothes go, we only have an overnight bag worth of clothes we could take. So now we’ve had to think about laundry and that’s not something we’ve had to think about in Australia. We just don’t have enough clothes. 

Indey: You have to prepare as if you’re camping. You’ve got to be able to live without laundry and showers unless you can shower. Because sometimes we’re just the opening band and don’t get access to the shower. Life gets too busy. I’d say that most of the advice we were given on traveling in America was about finding the right spots. We have friends who have obviously done it before and have given us apps to use. And locations to visit in certain safe towns where you can stop in the RV.  You can’t stay in certain spots, obviously. Walmart carparks are secure, but all the advice is literally about being able to function enough so that you’re getting enough sleep. And getting enough shower time and laundry time (both laugh). 

Liam: As well like, utilising the bathroom when you’ve got one. That’s a little too TMI. We’ve got a bathroom in this caravan. But we’ve got rules about it. 

NES: I know the rules (laughs). 

Indey: Yeah! No pooping on the RV. 

Liam: Well, I didn’t want to say it, but he did.

 

NES: And then, obviously, a lot is happening for you. You’re in the middle of this tour, but your new record comes out in just two days: HYPERVIOLENCE. It’s your sophomore record, correct? The first one came out in 2022. You did release quite a selection of songs in June that will be on this record. I’m sure in hopes (that people would check it out before the gig).  Kids knew some of the songs tonight, and it went off well, but when did you start working on this sophomore record, HYPERVIOLENCE?

Liam: We started working on HYPERVIOLENCE in November 2022, I think. This was around the time we were on tour with Enter Shikari and Northlane on a regional tour around Australia. 

Indey: It was pretty much as soon as Liam came back into the band. We started writing again because we had new members. Connor had just joined that year as well. So we had two new members that we had to work out. We basically had to start writing straight away. 

Liam: Yeah, because we had a single released, “Left In The Dark”, that we needed to put out. One, as a promotion for the tour, and two, as a bit of a like consolation for anyone who was listening to us already at that point. Just to be like, Will’s amazing, but you’re still in the same safe hands, too. So yeah, we started on songs like ” Sirens” and even “Break the Rules” very early on. So yeah, maybe early 2023, I think that first writing week would have been. Then we finished it in December of last year. 

 

NES: Sure, because it’s always a difficult transition period. 

Indey: Especially with a singer leaving. A singer leaving the band is the hardest one to move forward from. A lot of bands don’t survive it. We honestly were like, “Oh god, we might not survive this.” 

Liam: Yeah, what you’re tapping into encapsulates what this album was for us. Getting reacquainted and comfortable with each other again in our writing, not to say we were uncomfortable writing together. 

Indey: It was a new dyanmic. 

Liam: Yeah, we’ve grown a lot. 

Indey: Different influences. 

Liam: Yeah, we had a whole pandemic to grow and to evolve. I’d been away from the band before coming back. Just kind of getting reacquainted, getting back into the flow of things. I learned about how the band has been writing since Love Language. So it was seeing how I integrated into that and how they integrated around me. 

 

NES: How was it to re-unite as a band and to bring you, Liam, back into the fold? How was that experience? 

Indey: It was awesome for us. Liam was the first choice as soon as we knew we had to replace our vocalist. We were like, well, Liam was already in the band; he always had a great voice. Not that we needed him to sound like Will, but people already used to associate his voice with Will because they were both on the Empire EP. And a lot of people couldn’t tell the difference back then, I remember. So when we had that discussion, the first thing was, well, I’ll call Liam to see if he’s keen. We had a couple of other people we were thinking about, but as soon as Liam got back to us with a yes, it was alright, it’s done, let’s go! And it made sense from every perspective: PR, the music, friendships. The chemistry was already there because we were really good friends. And Liam was one of the first people I met in Melbourne. When we first moved there. 

Liam: Yeah, nearly ten years or so. 

Indey: Yeah, so we go way back. Establishing a relationship with a member of your band, especially when they’re new, is one of the most difficult things. Eventually, when you settle down and realize who the person actually is, if you don’t get on, it doesn’t work. Even if they’re the best at whatever their position is. 

Liam: It’s like being friends with someone and becoming roommates. And not knowing how you live together.

 

NES: Then you still have some time on this tour. The album is about to come out. Do you have any hopes or goals for Windwaker in these next few months?

Indey: The biggest thing is that we hope the record does well. We’re really trying to push for it to grow and for the band to grow as fast and dramatically as possible. 

Liam: We want to return to North America as soon as possible. We’re having such a good time, and it’s been one of the best tours of our lives. 

Indey: By far. 

Liam:  I mean, every time we do a tour, it feels like it’s the best tour we’ve ever done. Then we do the next one, and it’s the same but better. I’ve got some sicky vibes, but we’ve been having a great time and want to return as soon as possible. 

Indey: Yeah, we just want to keep touring. We’ve had really good receptions to the new songs. 

Liam: It’s going well! 

Indey: It’s tailored to the US market. It’s (the album HYPERVIOLENCE) exactly what we wanted it to be. Yeah, we’re just happy to grow our careers, dig into that market, and get into the rest of the world naturally as much as we can. 

Liam: And come back with some more music as well. We’re still writing right now. 

NES: Where do you fit it? You have six of you here (laughs). 

Liam: I’ve got some of it in a drawer in my bedroom. (Pointing to the loft bed), Connor’s got some stuff up there. I don’t know; we can use our laptops because it’s become pretty portable. We use our musical instruments as well. 

Indey: That’s one good thing to come out of Covid. Is that you learn how to work anywhere.  And music, you can do anywhere now. Especially MIDIS and plug-ins have come so far that you can quickly make a pretty good demo. So yeah, I’d say, ambition-wise, album three is already in the works. 

Liam: On the way. 

Indey: Touring America and keep having really good fun times together. 

 

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Pick up your copy of Windwaker’s new album HYPERVIOLENCE here!