Northlane took the music industry by surprise releasing their fourth album Mesmer to the world with no leadup promotion. Ahead of their Australian tour, John Goodridge chats to lead singer Marcus Bridge about the making of the album.
How did you enjoy the twitter party for the release of the new album?
It was a bit of a brain explosion trying to keep up with everyone but it was good.
You’ve taken a different approach to most bands in the release of this album. Did you brainstorm ways of releasing it?
Early in the process we were definitely leaning towards doing this surprise release but I guess as we went on all these other ideas came up. We’ve always released our albums in unconventional ways. A lot of that comes from Josh and Luke at the label and it comes from all sorts of places.
I see you had a pop-up record signing in Melbourne and Sydney. How did they go?
They were awesome. The response so far has been overwhelming. For so many people to come on such short notice is really exciting. It’s so crazy to get so much support from so many people after everything that Northlane has been through.
There’s been a big swell of support on-line for the album, which must be pretty satisfying.
Yeah, definitely. It’s been a pretty crazy few years for Northlane but there is always that transition period and I guess the older fans needing time to get used to it and I guess me getting used to it as well. With Mesmer it’s a lot more comfortable and we’ve figured out what we want to do with our music so this is a lot more up our alley.
How long do you think it takes for a new singer to become accepted in the band?
For me it took a while to get comfortable, maybe six to eight months, then after that it was still a lot of growing. Once everyone started seeing me more comfortable on stage and open to the fans, people couldn’t help jump on board. We’re picking up some old fans and new fans so it’s just been working really well. It takes time but it works out in the end.
Did it feel different recording Mesmer compared to Node?
Absolutely, I was just so much more ready to throw out my own ideas this time. With Node it was maybe four or five months with me in the band and a lot of that time was on the road, which is not the best environment to write music and get together to really gel on stuff. I was still really proud of that but with this extra time to gel and figure out what we wanted to do with our music it’s become more comfortable. I’m extremely proud with what we’ve done with Mesmer.
Was it hard to fit the recording in amongst your busy touring schedule?
It wasn’t too hard. We did have it set out pretty early last year so we were just getting ready for that time. It still was in between, we finished a run then flew to America, spent just over a month there and came back, did an Australian tour and went to Europe. It was quite hectic and even on that European run we were getting the mixes back and send our recalls back and send notes. It was pretty hectic but I feel we were ready for that and ready to get it done and that was the time that allowed itself.
What was the response of trying out the new songs on audiences?
We played Intuition at Unify Festival, and that was a crazy experience. That was the first time anyone had heard the song and the response we got from that was so surprising. When you play a new song without anyone hearing it prior, people can be a bit lazy without taking it in but the vibe at Unify Festival was so good and people getting into it so it was probably the highlight of my weekend.
I understand that Mesmer is a nod to the German physician who invented mesmerising (hypnosis). How did the band go about putting ideas together for the album?
With Northlane, Josh and I work on these ideas together, so the more worldly and out looking songs are written by Josh and it’s the stuff that he’s super passionate about and keeps him awake, like the environment or “Citizen” which is about surveillance. One of the things we tried this time around is that a few of the songs are bit more personal. We want our songs to be about what we’re seeing or feeling at the time so some are personal and a song about surveillance is relevant right now.
One of the songs which is getting a lot of discussion is “Paragon” about Tom Searle from Architects. Can you tell me more about that song?
Not long after Tom had passed away, Jon (Deiley, guitarist) had this song instrumentally in the works for a little while; he had spoken to Josh and said that this song had to be about Tom. From there Josh started writing using references to Architects lyrics but putting a different spin on it. Unfortunately I was never lucky enough to know him, the other guys were closer to the Architects guys but I came in a bit later and never got the chance to meet him. Obviously it means so much to so many people and you hear all these beautiful stories from so many people within our music scene so it was important to us to pay tribute to him. It was something we just felt we needed to do.
Another strong song is “Meridian” about Josh’s grandmother passing away. That must have been a difficult song to write.
Absolutely, with a lot of these songs we were going through similar things. That also resonated with our drummer Nic, whose grandmother also passed away and that was a very tough time for him and his family so so many moments that mean a lot to us for many different reasons. It was one of the first songs that was a bit more personal for Mesmer, so it gave us a bit more courage to open up and write more in that vein of things.
It must be confronting to out your personal thoughts and feelings into a song, which you then perform in front of an audience.
Absolutely.
I guess you’re looking forward to touring the album through Asia, Europe, Australia and Canada.
I can’t wait to start playing some of these new songs live. It feels like a while since we’ve gotten to do something fresh. “Intermission” was such a taste of what’s to come so I’m really looking forward to it. Going to new places as well, like some of Asia and we’re playing a show in Israel, which will be pretty outrageous. We’re playing places that we’ve never got to go to before, as well as some that we have, so excited to get back to it.
I notice that you are doing quite a few regional towns, which is good.
The last tie we did a regional tour we had such an awesome time. It’s definitely a different vibe; a lot of the time you’re playing to a rowdy audience and it’s a great time. You’re playing in little pubs sometimes and everyone wants to buy you a beer. It’s always different and a bit more personal and I think it’s important to give that chance to people out there.
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