Recently RockRevolt got the opportunity to speak with Northlane guitarist, Josh Smith, amidst playing Australia’s Big Day Out Festival. Aside from getting used to the several second phone delay, we had a great chat about touring, bands, and musical growth. Check it out!
This is your second tour of the U.S. and first headlining tour of the U.S. What was your first experience touring here like?
Coming over for the first time we weren’t really expecting a whole lot and it’s safe to say that our low expectations were surpassed by quite a bit. We were all really overwhelmed at how well everything went for us on that first tour. It was one of the motivations behind us doing our own headline shows this time.
Northlane is wrapping up the Big Day Out Festival in the next week, after which, you have a pretty hectic touring schedule with bands like Bring Me the Horizon, Stray From the Path, and Architects. Which band are you most looking forward to touring with?
Well, Stray are very good friends of ours. We’ve toured with them on a few occasions before. We’re really looking forward to seeing them, and of course Bring Me the Horizon. The biggest one for us is definitely Architects. They’ve been one of our biggest inspirations for so long. To be able to tour with that band is just like a bucket-list thing for us. It’s a huge deal and we’re really, really excited for it.
You’ve worked some already with Drew York of Stray From the Path. Any future collaborations we can look forward to?
Gee, I don’t know about anything like that this far out. I’d like to think we’ll get to work with those dudes again. In this industry you never really know because things change so quickly. There are always so many factors. When it comes to having something like guest vocals on your record, there’s so much at play besides whether or not you’re friends with the person doing it. Like, management has to agree to it, and the other band has to think it’s a good idea for them. I can’t really say for sure but I’m going to say one thing though: we’ll be friends with those guys for the rest of our lives, so I’m sure something will happen sooner or later if it’s going to.
Are there any bands you haven’t worked with that you would like to?
That’s not really a question that I’ve been asked before to be honest. One thing I would love to do would be collaborations with some artists that don’t really play metal – try and come up with something a little different. One of our favorite artists is this guy who goes by the name of CloudKicker, who just writes instrumental music from a whole bunch of different genres. I’m sure our primary songwriter, the other guitar player, John, would love to work with him. There’s another guy called Ott who’s like a dub producer that we’re huge fans of as well so we’d probably love to work with him too.
Singularity just released last year hitting #3 on the ARIA chart. What was your biggest influence during the writing process?
Our biggest influence? Shit, terror? (Laughs) The Singularity writing process was extremely rushed to the point where we were finishing songs in the studio, in New Jersey, when we were supposed to be recording. As far as influences for writing goes, I don’t know but we were scared shitless we weren’t going to get the thing finished in time.
Yeah, you recorded the album in between your 200-some touring shows?
Yeah, it was just stupid. (Laughs)
What made you want to pick up a guitar when you were younger?
Well, I’ve got an uncle who’s a really good guitar player. I always wanted to be like him and play guitar as well. Especially when I was a younger guy and I first started getting into metal; that really pushed me to want to learn guitar and play it. It was partly because of my uncle and partly because of my friends and the music I was listening to. I picked it up at a pretty young age and started jamming with my friends when I was like 11 or 12 years old. For me, the biggest thing that drove me to play guitar was so I could have fun with my friends, not really so I could play guitar, you know? That was the main motivator and then as time went on; I sort of learned to grow with and love the instrument.
You guys have some interesting cover art. What’s the story behind that?
Well, they’re both a little different, but I could probably start with Discoveries. The concept behind that, and you really need to have the physical artwork in front of you, is that the cube itself represents the universe and as you open the booklet you’re “discovering” it. If you have a look at the booklet in Discoveries, it’s actually the cube on the front unfolding itself as you go along. There’s a similar thing happening with Singularity as well where, by opening different layers of the booklet you sort of see different things that were part of the same picture that you couldn’t see before. There’s even a secret sleeve inside the Singularity artwork as well.
Even some of your shirts and merchandise have some pretty intricate designs. Is there some symbolism there?
There’s a bit of symbolism. Not so much of that is the focus of our merch. I think that when it comes to our merch, especially these days, we’re trying to get stuff made that we like enough personally, that we would even wear. I think there are a lot of bands that don’t really put a lot of thought into their merchandise and its stuff that they wouldn’t be caught dead wearing but will expect their fans to buy.
It’s a nice change of pace.
Generally, our merch is just a reflection of what we like as people.
I noticed a distinct difference musically and vocally between Discoveries and Singularity. Do you think that’s Northlane maturing and becoming more technical? Or was it maybe more just experimenting musically?
To be honest, I would just call it organic growth, really. Discoveries saw us really start touring properly and when you start touring you learn a lot on the road about what works and what doesn’t work and what you like you like to play and what you don’t like to play and what people like and what they don’t like. You also learn about how your compositions translate live as well. So, I think what the biggest difference was, when we went to record Singularity, is we had that knowledge from all that time we spent on the road. It helped us put together a record that translates better live and on recording.
Out of Discoveries and Singularity, what songs do you enjoy playing live the most?
It’s hard to say because there’s favorite on both records. I think the Singularity songs are definitely better suited for playing live and for that reason they are a little bit more fun. I think my favorite song’s probably “Scarabs” just because it’s fairly challenging. After you play that song, it’s all downhill from there and I can drink as many beers as I want. (Laughs)
Watch Northlane’ Quantum Flux [Official Video]
[embedplusvideo height=”370″ width=”580″ editlink=”http://bit.ly/1foFAsx” standard=”http://www.youtube.com/v/MIajmLP46b4?fs=1″ vars=”ytid=MIajmLP46b4&width=580&height=370&start=&stop=&rs=w&hd=0&autoplay=0&react=1&chapters=¬es=” id=”ep5621″ /]
Looking forward, aside from your extensive upcoming tour schedule, have you started writing and working on new material?
We have. I can’t say anything more about it than that. I think what people need to realize is, as musicians, you’re always working on new material. We’re saying that now but realistically our next record isn’t going to be recorded for quite some time, but it will happen and, yes, we are working on new material.
What do you think the future holds for Northlane, as a whole?
That’s probably the big question for anyone who plays in the band. Hopefully, the future’s bright for us. We’re just going to continue working as hard as we can, and writing the best music we can write, and making the best business decisions we can make for a band and for ourselves. Hopefully, that will take us to where we want to go!
Check out Northlane out on tour starting this February!
~Alex Horn, Journalist
CONNECT WITH NORTHLANE HERE:
FACEBOOK | TWITTER | MYSPACE | ITUNES
