Interviews : Separatist (Luke Ranson) – 27/05/2008

With their brand of Technical Death Metal, Hobart’s Separatist are beginning to launch themselves to the Australian metal masses with a run of live performances being booked around the country for the rest of the year. And with the release of their debut album titled ‘The Motionless Apocalypse‘, MetalObsession.net had the chance to catch up with the bands bass player Luke Ranson.

MO: Can you please introduce Metal Obsession.net readers to yourself and the band.
L: Thank you and G’day! My names Luke Ranson, I play bass in the Tasmanian band called Separatist which is based in Hobart. Other members include Sam Dishington (vocals), Matt Carter (drums), Dave Gilbert (guitar) and James Brady (guitar).

MO: Using 3 different band names, how would you describe Separatist?
L: That’s a hard question! We seem to have a somewhat progressive nature, in the vein of Opeth I guess you could say. An experimental element such as exhibited by Between the Buried and Me. Finally, a heavy sounding and vocally punishing (but very pleasant to listen to) aura of noise such as Skinless.

MO: The band has just released a debut full length, how has the reaction been to the album so far?
L: Well so far the reaction has been pretty positive. From the tracks we’ve released on the net, the response has been very encouraging. However the album has only just been released this month, so hopefully sales will pick up and more people will dig it. But from the feedback we have received, it has blown our perceptions of the band out of the water, so we’re all extremely happy at that fact.

MO: How is the metal scene in Hobart going? How often does the band get to play gigs around the state?
L: The metal scene changes regularly down here. For a long period of time, when Psycroptic were emerging, the scene was predominantly death metal. However, as time has gone by, Hobart (and Tasmania in general) has seen trends develop in the hardcore/metalcore scene, and more recently thrash has been making a strong comeback. However, the scene is healthy, and has been this way for a fair few years.

After a few line-up changes, and a delay on the album, we hadn’t gigged in many months. However prior to this, we were getting at least 2 gigs a month around the state, and sometimes even more opportunities existed, and now we are hoping to have a bag of shows in our home state, with 3 planned for July.

MO: The band has just been announced to be supporting Dismember in Hobart on their upcoming Aus tour. What was your reaction when you found out? Have they had any influence over Separatist’s music?
L: We were extremely stoked. We played with Skinless (U.S) in 2006 in Hobart, and the experience is one we’ll never forget. So to have the opportunity to support a massive international band such as Dismember is a great honour.

Dismember themselves have not had any direct influence over the music in which Separatist creates. Genres and sounds that we think sound cool are our main influences (haha!), however there are many bands, both local and international that inspire us to go in different directions. But as every band says, we try to stay true to music in which we are happy to be writing/playing.

MO: And you’re also set to headline CHAOS ACT Festival on June 7th in Canberra. It should be a good night, looking forward to playing to the Canberra metal heads? Anything special planned for the event?
L: Extremely excited to be playing to the metal heads of Canberra! Anything special? Well. People will just have to wait and see. However, I can say that we’ll be playing songs that have never been played live before, and we will endeavour to bring a lot of energy through our stage performance.

MO: What hopes and/or expectations do you hold for the future for the bands music?
L: Personally, with every song that is written, I am more and more content with the sound each and every time. I guess we won’t change dramatically, but experiment a bit more, and see what we can come up with. Hopefully more people will discover us and enjoy our music!

MO: There are some killer Australian metal bands that we at Metal Obsession.net are fans of, but we want to know, who in the scene do you think we should look out for in the future?
L: Mephistopheles (Hobart) have been around for a few years, and have recently been working on new material with their new acquired vocalist (Matthew Chalk ­ ex Psycroptic), so be excited for that. Sunday, Something Ruined are also another band (still in school!) who are representing the hardcore metal genre something fantastic. Apart from local bands, the band; Asphyxia from Adelaide are defiantly a band to look out for in the future.

MO: Finally, do you have any last words to the Metal Obsession readers?
L: Thanks for reading! Please check us out at separatistonline.com or myspace.com/separatist – and if you’re in the Canberra area, come check us out, and a bunch of other quality metal acts on the 7th June at the Chaos ACT festival!

MO: Thanks alot for your time!
L: Thank you for showing interest!

You can listen to music by Separatist at:
www.myspace.com/separatist
www.separatistonline.com

And catch the band live at one of the following dates currently scheduled:

7th June 2008
CHAOS ACT IV Festival @ The Basement, Canberra
w/ Separatist, Mytile Vey Lorth, Infinitum, Snyperium, Leicohtica, Antonamasia, Ironwood + more
Tickets available at the door 8pm.

11th July 2008
Separatist – Album Launch @ The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart
w/ MSI, Mephistopheles and Lacerta
Tickets available at the door 9pm, $8, 18+ only.

12th July 2008
Separatist – Album Launch @ The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart (ALL AGES)
w/ Mephistopheles, This Future Chaos, Sunday Something Ruined and A So Called Hero
Tickets available at the door 3pm, $8.

17th July 2008
Dismember @ The Brisbane Hotel, Hobart
w/ Earth, Terrorust and Separatist
Tickets from www.moshtix.com.au