Genre: Metal
From: Sydney, Australia
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1. Your new album “Stand In Defiance” has been out for a few months now. How has the response been thus far?
The response has been pretty good to be honest, we have almost sold out of our first batch of self pressed cds, we have got a few online sites selling the record and its going strong, the biggest response has been from the tracks being played live, people seem to think we have improved drastically over a short period of time. Some people say it was like we went away to USA, and came back a new and improved band. I would have to agree, but hats would have to go off to Logan for that he did things studio wise with us that none of us realized we could do, forever grateful.
2. You guys worked with Logan Mader (ex Machine Head) on the record. How did you guys hook up with him and how did the process go?
The hook up was a lot easier than people would think, we were tossing up on putting a lot of finance into the band, either making some sort of tour take place, or do a really crazy record with someone of credit, to give us more experience and a life time of memories. We tried to set a tour up, we did have a big International locked in to come and tour with us, I won't name them as it didn't happen but it would have been amazing. Things fell through back in Australia with new festivals popping up at the time we wanted the tour to happen, so we knew it would probably fail due to that. I emailed Logan, within a 3 day period he responded with a yes, he told me the cost for the venture, within an hour the band and I agreed on it. We organised a Deposit and locked it in, We then had roughly a year for preparation. I sent Logan the rough demos of the Record about a month before we went out, he was excited to work with us, Then the fun began... We recorded drums in a studio that a lot of known bands have recorded at like Queens Of The Stone Age. We did guitars/Bass & Vocals at Logan's personal studio, it was such an insightful project, he knows exactly how to remove your nerves and get you comfortable in what you do to give you the best of you, cant really ask for more than that! All the instrumental side of things got nailed pretty fast, and I had 3 days to do vocals, we did 2 songs a day, my best days were probably the first and last, even Logan got impressed which is hard to believe haha! If anyone gets the chance to work with him, I highly recommend it he will totally give you the best he can get out of you.
3. What do you want listeners to take away from your music?
Energy and fun, and whatever they perceive the tracks to mean or be, is actually what it is... how can you tell someone an opinion is wrong? We just try to write the best music and most fun music that we can, We have a lot of fans under 18, so that's really promising for when they can come to shows lol. We always want people to get out of our music what we put in, and that's passion and confidence, belief in what you do, because no one can tell you otherwise. So really, if we can inspire one person who sees us and goes "I wanna do that too" well, you can.
4. You guys have played past shows alongside Jefferey Nothing (Mushroomhead), Hed Pe, and more. Any crazy show stories?
Crazy stories lol, well... I don't know how crazy we can get but we do have a lot of fun, playing alongside Jeffrey Nothing and Hed Pe was a huge experience, we didn't get to talk to Hed Pe that much as they and Jeffrey Nothing had a locker room away from ours, but the guys in Jeffrey Nothing were awesome! Our guitarist even gave them a string or 2 lol. The most crazy thing on that night for us was getting like 10 free pizzas haha. When we were onstage we were nervous, we had our crowd of like 40 people down the front rocking out making it enjoyable, and several hundred at the back and corners of the room, the good thing though everyone seemed to watch and enjoy, we looked to the side of the stage and we saw the bassist and guitarist of Jeffrey Nothing throwing us Metal Horns and watching, they told us they liked what we did and if we ever came to their hometown we would be taken care of, I guess we should give them a call lol...
5. What can people expect from your live show?
Fun, Humor, Intensity, Borderline Nudity hahaha... Our shows are a lot of fun, we do a lot of crazy silly things onstage after all a show is not a record, anything can happen so just go with it! One thing we have started doing is stripping off at a certain point in set, we do keep our boxer shorts or underwear on but it seems to add to the fun of the show, the creepiest part however is when a guy you don't know comes up to you and tells you "You guys sounded better when you took your clothes off" LOL.
6. What is your favorite track to perform live? Favorite crowd track?
That's a hard one, I'm really into "Defiance", "Maniac" and "In The Eye Of Fire" from the new record, but I always have a smile when we do something from our older record like "SiN City", due to the fact is has a film clip circulating a lot of people know it, was really blown away at our CD launch playing to a sold out room mentioning "Sin City" and they lost it and went crazy, so that's gotta be a favorite!
7. What’s your stance on illegal/legal music downloading?
That's tough also, I rarely if at all illegally download music, I'm still a hard copy CD kind of guy. Being in a band you get an understanding of how much money you really do make for your art and know that every single bit of money goes a long way, however if someone is getting it for free, is that really bad? It could give you another bunch of fans you hadn't reached yet, its all subject to opinion really. For me, I really would rather people to buy music as it keeps the artists that you love and listen to alive, financially. However, music is art, and art is enjoyable let anyone enjoy it however they can.
8. What’s the music scene like there in Australia both locally and country wide?
Honestly it's hit and miss, sometimes even the better/bigger local bands play to nobody which is a crying shame. But I guess that could happen anywhere, a lot of the bands went through a selfish period, everyone was a rockstar and everyone was better than everyone else. Then people grew up and realized a scene is only what everyone makes of it, we are now best friends with bands we had heated wars with, its just how it goes. Metal as a whole is a brother/sisterhood. It's family, we have some of the coolest fans going, usually we see at least 5 or 6 regulars wearing a Tensions Arise shirt, and that makes it all worth it. When the nights are going right and you have a crowd cheering you on feeding you back the energy you give them, there isn't a thing in this world like it.
9. You guys have two videos out for “Welcome To Sin City” and “Maniac”. How did those shoots go and tell us a little about both the meaning of both songs.
"Welcome To Sin City", was the brainchild of one of my good friends, well he's more like a brother Buzz Burnsen (The Death Movement) and his brother Ian. They wanted to work with us, all we had to do was get appropriate clothing and turn up, they had all the sequences set up, what they wanted you to wear etc, we found a small street for the scene of sin city and started filming late one afternoon, finishing around 5am the next morning. There was a pizza shop on that street, they gave us cheap pizza and used their own promotional sign for us changing it from the company's name to Tensions Arise, if you look closely in the clip its seen for a few seconds pretty damn cool! Sin City showed exactly what we want, "Welcome to sin city nothing is real" so the main person saw a lot of things and is perceived a certain way, but which is real? It was done so clever we are still blown away by it! As for the "Maniac" clip, we actually had Buzz again who we didn't realize has a mass amount of footage of us from various things, be it onstage, or being silly etc, and he put it all together and made it flow, its such a fun clip. I go back and watch them both a lot, very proud of them. This clip probably shows the true Tensions Arise, with intensity and fun, you wanna know how a Tensions Show or hang out goes? Watch "Maniac". Be A Maniac with us!
10. What’s next for Tensions Arise?
We have a few shows early next year, our first major Sydney show back from break is February at Club Venom with some of our favorite bands and people, its also my baby brother, our drummers birthday, so it should be wild for sure. We got the chance to play on our countries capitals biggest festival event which is a 2 day event with like 20 bands or something called Shenanigans. We close the first night we are so excited for that, we are playing with some of our countries biggest bands from all over the country. Gonna be a wild party that's for sure, I'd like to apologize in advance for the drunken mess I will be for those days! I'm also in the process of trying to get on some tours outside of Australia to get some fresh Maniacs coming our way, we believe in us, we want the rest of the world to believe also. I think we are looking at certain radio stations and things of that nature as well, so if you haven't heard of us yet, rest assured 2013 you will, and probably wish you had sooner!
11. Any shoutouts?
Just everyone, the Maniacs, the bands, Logan, anyone and everyone who we have come in contact with, because every single person negative and positive is the fuel to the fire, so I, we thank you.
