Interviews : Leicohtica (Chris Orchard) – 09/03/2008

Since blazing into the Australian metal scene in mid-2004, Australian black/goth metal band Leicohtica has proven it’s a force to be reckoned with. And with a new East Coast tour announced and 2nd album in the works, I spoke with front man Chris Orchard about the band and their future…

Metal Obsession: First of all I would like to thank you for taking part in this interview for www.metalobsession.net, and now could I please get you to quickly introduce yourself and Leicohtica.

Chris Orchard (Leicohtica): “For the uninitiated Leicohtica is essentially an extremely eclectic and progressive beauty and the beast styled metal band. We pride ourselves on our energetic live shows and complex musical structures. We are a new-band for a new-age of heavy metal music, genre defying, multifaceted and aggressive. It is essentially metal music for the intelligent listener; at least we like to think we are.”

MO: You have two releases so far: a 5 track EP titled ‘In Torments Garden’ and a full length album released in 2007 titled ‘The Balance of Fire’. How has the reaction to these recordings been?

CO: “Both of the recordings we have undertaken to date have garnered far more critical acclaim than any of us could have expected. We have been constantly surprised and invigorated by the depth of discussion the releases have received. We have always found it useful to absorb the comments and criticisms of our listeners, to evaluate its validity, and ultimately take it to heart. After all is said and done we are operating a business, albeit one we all thoroughly enjoy, and we can learn a lot from our listeners. If anything though I would say that in no uncertain terms the reaction has been overwhelming.

Each of the releases however have seemed to engage vastly different audiences, and that’s good to a degree, but many of those who loved the roughness and organic nature of our EP were disappointed that we had somewhat markedly improved production values on the full length disc. It was almost as if we had immediately destroyed our cult credentials by releasing and album that was too marketable. Luckily enough for us it swung both in our favour and out of it. We lost a few fans but gained many more in the process.

Similarly those die hard black metal fans disliked our experimentation with samples and power metal vocals and the almost gothic touches on ‘The Balance of Fire’…if we pandered too much to our audience and not enough to our own creative processes then we would lose interest fast, what we do is try to present something fresh each time.

If we want to get into the actual grit of where these discs have taken us I guess the proof is in the amount of radio play, printed word, high-profile concerts and television coverage the releases have managed to obtain. If that is any marker of success then we should be extremely proud of our efforts on these releases to date!

I think if we want to discuss how they were received live rather than recorded however, I would go a step further and say that I really am excited by the crowd reactions we have seen across Australia to these songs. People seem to genuinely love hearing them, we seem to never go a show without encore, and we are always welcomed back with open arms, and we could not be happier about it. It really is our friends out there in the metal scene that make the time worthwhile and we owe a great deal to them! Thanks for enjoying our music.”

MO: Is there any word on a new album to be released in 2008? And has there been any interests in the band from records labels here or abroad, or are you willing to go it alone again?

CO: “We are very happy to announce that we are well into the throws of a new album with some killer new material! We are tentatively placing a September/October release date on it, and a second Australian tour to coincide with its release. I am a little hesitant to talk specifics about a new release and any label interest, we will definitely be keeping our cards close on that one, but we will say that there has been a lot of interest off the back of previous albums, so this could very well be the year of Leicohtica. We have also given it the title ‘The Dead Soul Orchestra’ and you can expect a whole stage show to suit the theme.

That said there are some things I am getting more and more passionate about and want to let people know about our next album. Expect an album full of intellectual discussion on many pressing social issues that we fear dog our society.

Beyond that we want to take the leap to create a fully ‘green’ product for our next release. We think its high-time that we stopped destroying our planet through greed and capitalist consumerism, we think that our fans wont mind paying an extra 50cents to know the product they are buying is made of mostly (if not all) sustainable materials. We are looking to perhaps utilise recycled paper for our booklets and cases, carbon offsetting the CD production, delivery so that you know you are buying an eco-friendly product from a band whom is passionate about living in a world where your children are able to have access to water and resources. Beyond this we will be talking with CD manufacturers about using eco-friendly and biodegradable plastics in disc production, we are hoping that it is successful.

In fact we are beginning our pledge by making our March/April 2008 Australian tour carbon neutral. We hope other Australian bands have a similar social conscience and follow suit.”

MO: What would be the highest point in Leicohtica’s existence so far?

CO: “Leicohtica has always ridden the wave of good luck, and we have never looked down from it, we see all of our experiences as great and we learn from them.

If we wanted to talk specifics I think ‘Festival of the Dead’ playing alongside The Berzerker, Akercocke, Fleshgore and The Amenta would be a definite highlight and we all have great memories from the event. Obviously not only because it is a great privilege to share the stage with these bands, but also as recognition for our hard work and effort in getting the show to our home town of Wagga Wagga. Logistically it was an effort for all of us, especially me who was responsible for it, what it showed us is that we can do anything we put our mind too.

Beyond that filming our debut film clip for ‘A Prototype Soul’ was also a great highlight. All through the process we felt like complete rock stars; it was if we had adopted a ‘metalocalypse’ mentality throughout the entire procedure. Firstly that our radio edit to the song was actually heavier than the original, but second of course that we got to play our music riding a top a moving train! If somebody had told me as a kid that one day I would be on top of a moving train, head banging and screaming my lungs out as we drove through a cloud of smoke bashing down huge metal doors, I would have said, yeah right that will never happen. I can tick that off my to-do-list now however… It was just one of those moments where you are so overjoyed you just think to yourself, I cannot believe that I am actually getting to do this!”

MO: And any lowlights?

CO: “There have been a few moments but most of it is very personal and we prefer to keep them to ourselves.

Most of the time if we have a shit gig, poor turnout, or just get a bad promoter, we just turn around the next day and throw a meat pie at something. We have yet to perform a good show in Bathurst, and we really want to, but Bathurst continues to get ‘pied’, its our way of making fun out of a bad situation, we are all that kind of people. We can make a joke at our own expense.”

MO: Have you got any interesting/funny stories you would like to share? I vaguely remember hearing about a time when one of your guitarists had to play a gig in the venue’s kitchen!

CO: “At the time our lead guitarist Rhys Mottley was underage so he was not allowed in the bar area, in hindsight we should have thought about it really and discussed it with the promoter but we were young, naïve and just took every show we were offered. It seemed great, go to Gosford, play for an hour then just chill out at the coast, but it turned out to be somewhat farcical.

Our crowd was effectively split in two; we had one moshpit at the front of the stage for the band, and a second at the doorway to the kitchen! Rhys had to use the front of house speakers to keep time which was very difficult especially with the room reverberation, but we managed it and came through with the goods in the end I think. Still Rhys had to play wireless from the kitchen, it makes for a great story, as you can imagine the crowd around a doorway to a kitchen whilst wait staff are trying to get on with their jobs around them, pretty great.

We have plenty of weird and wonderful stories from our adventures around oz, we have at times thought about writing a book, or keeping a diary of some of the more bizarre and amazing situations we have been put in. Scott seems especially vulnerable to trouble, and I seem to be a weirdo magnet.

MO: The rise of the name Leicohtica’s in the local scene of course due to your music, but is there anyone or anything else in particular that you feel has helped the band into this position?

CO: “There are two full pages of thankyous in ‘The Balance of Fire’ album booklet, and I think this time around there are more people worthy of acknowledgement. But to be honest, promoters, music lovers and friends globally all deserve our thanks, as we are eternally grateful to everyone for helping us pursue our passion, and thanks to you for that also by conducting this interview!”

MO: What is the best advice you have received in regards to your music?

CO: “I can’t speak on behalf of everyone in the group, as we have all been influenced by many varied people. To me it was a high school music teacher Norm Lawrence who gave me some very simple advice. If you no longer enjoy making music, people will no longer enjoy hearing it. I think that is the key to our whole mentality, if we aren’t having fun, then nobody else is, we need our friends and fans, and they need us, it needs to be a symbiotic relationship, not a parasitic relationship like many bands see it. Without your friends and without your fans we are but dust, keep making music without the ego and you will always be able to relate to your audience.”

MO: And what is the best advice you yourself could offer to any aspiring bands and musicians and vocalists in Australia?

CO: “Persistence and Humility are two of the greatest traits a human can aspire to, if you can maintain these then you will be a success in anything you want to do. This is the same advice I give to aspiring artists and students, it takes hard work and a humble attitude but with time you will get results, I think that’s true about everything in life.”

MO: You have just announced an East Coast tour with Central NSW band Nevetherym, how did this tour come about and what are you expecting from the tour?

CO: “Leicohtica and Nevetherym have a great working relationship and a massive amount of respect for each others craft. I think when looking for a partnership in business terms you need that, you need to be able to see each other as a separate entity but to share the same mindset so as to be able to work effectively and co-operatively. Since the first few times we played together we knew that our bands shared the same enthusiasm and humble nature and that it would be advantageous to use each others strengths to bolster up our own weakness.

I think what this means is that we are able to effectively play to a wider ranging audience and hopefully get a few new fans who wouldn’t usually come and see our style of music. We each have home towns where we are well received and this will help to develop each others relationships in new towns and cities. People will definitely get their monies worth on this tour, it will be fantastic.

Check out the tour dates here!

MO: Which city are you most looking forward to hitting up on the live front?

CO: I’m looking forward to playing in new locations and establishing some connections there, but also getting back to our staple cities, especially Melbourne after the great response we received at Sonic Forge Festival in 2007. I think every show will be a great and unique experience and we will give every show our all.”

MO: How do you feel your voice will hold up through the tour? With 8 shows in a 10 day period, have you had many experiences like this before?

CO: “I have been very worried about this, but I think preparations are coming along really well for this. There have been a few unwelcome hiccups but all in all I think my voice will hold up nicely. Anyone who has been following the Leicohtica forum will know that I have decided to try and get fit, get in shape and lose some weight, I want to give 100% at every show and I knew at the weight I was I couldn’t do that. In the past 6 weeks of training and eating healthier I have lost 28.5kg. With 3 weeks now until the tour I hope to lose a further 9kg and drop below one hundred kilos for the first time in almost 10 years, I am feeling a lot better, happier and I am loving life a lot more. I go for 30mins of running, and an hour and a half of walking a day now, so I am trying to maintain my fitness for these shows.

That said physiologically my body has changed a lot and it has been difficult for me to adapt my voice to my ‘new’ body. I used to hold muscles in certain ways and compress fat to make certain sounds rather than shred with my throat, I can’t do that anymore, so it has been a very steep learning curve trying to gain muscle control in different areas to compensate and try to re-define my voice for the new me. I think people will be very surprised by the changes!”

MO: Any prospects of a larger scale tour in the remainder of 2008, i.e. playing to the metal scenes in Perth, Adelaide, Brisbane, New Zealand and beyond?

CO: “Interesting you should ask, the short answer is yes, we will be doing all of that and more, but unfortunately I can’t give you any details at this point as it is very secretive. We will be visiting more places, and Europe is well on the cards, particularly the UK, but we will keep very tight lipped about any details at this point. But expect a huge end of 2008 from us.”

MO: What hopes and/or expectations do you hold for the future for your music?

CO: “Things look good for us; we are all very excited about the future of the group. We have finished recording the second film clip, this one for the track ‘never’ which we should have in our hands in about a month. We hit the studio in May/June to record our follow up album labelled ‘The Dead soul Orchestra’, and we are sure that this will be a definitive release, something that people will really grab on to. We will coincide the CD launch with a film clip for a new track which we will shoot in the mungo desert. We will officially announce our ‘green-music’ policy and we will hit the road in a major way. The future looks very good.”

MO: A quick note on the local scene, what up and coming Australian bands do you think our readers should check out?

“The Australian scene is full of exciting up and coming bands. To me some of the bands to keep an eye on are definitely; Empyrean, Ne Obliviscaris, Be’lakor, Nevetherym and Rainshadow. There’s definitely something in the water in Melbourne at the moment, that’s for sure. That said there is plenty of bands who have been around the circuit a few times here in Australia continually doing exciting things too, lets not discount them! You can probably tell from my picks it is bands who are showing professionalism, trying new things and experimenting, i like that in a group.”

MO: And to finish up, where can our readers get a hold of your music and merchandise?

CO: “Hit us up through our website at http://www.leicohtica.net or our Myspace at http://www.myspace.com/leicohtica or come and see us at one of our live shows across Australia in 2008.

Alternatively you will be able to get some merchandise very soon from a brand new web store through ‘Anti-human Records’ Australia.”

MO: Thanks a lot mate, and I look forward to catching up at one of your gigs this tour and many more in the future!

CO: Thank you!

Name – Chris Orchard
Band – Leicohtica (Vocalist)
Website – http://www.leicohtica.net
Interview by: Brendan Amos
Date – 9th March 2008

Copyright – Brendan Amos, March 2008