Interviews : Psycroptic (Dave Haley) – 20/01/2009

Tasmanian Tech/Death metal band Psycroptic have stepped things up a gear of late, from spreading their wings on their first US tour, signing to one of the biggest metal record labels in the world, Nuclear Blast, and releasing their new album Ob(servant) to positive remarks from fans and media alike. The Dwarf recently had a chance to catch up with the human drum machine, Dave Haley, while getting ready for the bands upcoming European tour!

The bands latest offering Ob(servant) was released in October through Nuclear Blast/Stomp in Australia, an album which is turning out to be a very poplar album amongst critics. “Its definitely our most accomplished work” says Dave Haley, “we spent a lot longer in the pre-production for it, and the final result is by far our best material. And in terms of production and sound quality, its a big step up from our previous albums, but there is always room to move and improve, but we are very satisfied with how it turned out”. Amongst fans the album has been just as popular, finishing fourth in the Full Metal Racket 2008 album poll, and first in the MetalObsession.net readers poll of 2008 for Australian albums, almost doubling the votes of second place! “We don’t really do it for the accolades, but when they come in its always kind of a bonus… Its just the icing on the cake and it makes all the hard work that little bit more worthwhile.”

In 2005 the bands previous vocalist Mathew Chalk was asked to leave the band after being unabled to go on a European tour. Step in Jason Peppiatt, long time friend of the band to fill the role for that tour, and what turned out to be a full time role. Chalky had always been liked amongst fans due to his variety when delivering his vocals, something that Jason Peppiatt has also been praised for on this album. “We always try and progress, and we gave gave Jason of course 100% free reign on what he wanted to do [on this album], he said he wanted to bring something different to the table, and utilise I suppose some different ranges that he hasn’t used previously.”

“It was a lot more relaxed cos Joe [Haley, guitarist and producer of Psycroptic] does most of the actual tracking, so we tracked the drums in Red Planet Studios down in Hobart. Joe kind of works there part time, we’re very familiar with that studio, [as] we’ve done all our recordings there”, Dave says of the recording process of Ob(Servant). “Working with Joe makes things a lot easier, as he wrote the material and knows it better than anyone else. And then once we’d finished the drum tracks he’d take them to his home studio, and the rest of the guys did their parts there. So it was very relaxed for an intense brutal death [metal] album.”

On previous albums Joe and Dave had tackled the writing of the music, but for Ob(Servant) they wanted a different approach. “Well this one Joe pretty much wrote the whole thing and gave us completed songs, which we hadn’t done previously… we did that to get a different sound. We don’t wanna write the same stuff over and over again. He gave us the finished songs, we learnt them all, and jammed through any structural changes needed. I suppose it did give the album a more cohesive feel to it.” Logan Mader [Soulfy, Machine Head] mixed and mastered the album, while the band was on tour in America. I had spoken to Roland Johansson from Sonic Syndicate about the same issue, and while he took the approach I though all artists would, that of being nervous as you’re not in the same room during such an important process, Dave was a lot more confident about it. “We’d heard a lot of his previous work, and were very confident in his abilities. He’s not gonna let us release something that’s going to tarnish his name,” As for actually being out on the road while your album is getting mixed and mastered, it makes for some interesting times. “We didn’t have a stereo of our own on the road, so we were listening to the album on the Black Dahlia Murder bus, [or] with the White Chapel guys in the van, so that we could check it all out. And then on our little laptop as well, so it made it a little more challenging, so when we got home after the tour we were just hoping that it actually sounded good on our speakers. We were pleasantly surprised when we got home.” Laughs Dave.

Nuclear Blast are one of the biggest metal labels in the world. Almost all bands want to be on a (respected) major label, but what does it actually mean once you get there? “You can say all the cliches under the sun, ‘its a dream come true’ and all that sort of stuff, which it is, but more from a business perspective. They’re an exceptionally professional label, just working with them thus far has been very easy. We’ve dealt with smaller labels in the past, and they’ve been all talk, no action, but when Nuclear Blast say they’re gonna do something, they do it.”

The illegal downloading of albums has increased a lot in even just in the life of Psycroptic. Last year alone 1 billion songs were legally downloaded online. And if we are to take IFPI Communications at their word, as everyone else is, they estimate over 40 billion songs were illegally downloaded last year. How does this effect a band that is still trying to get their name out there to more fans? Sure labels will miss out on some more money, but for the artist, is it really so bad?

“There is definitely two sides to this story, its a can of worms really. If you say you’ve never downloaded an album, I’d probably call you a liar. So I’m not gonna be all high and mighty and say “stop it! Its f–ked” … As a result not as many bands are going to be getting to I suppose, the more professional level. But it does help spread your music when you’re an unknown band. Similar you know to the late 80s/early 90s tape trading, but now of course its all digital. If someone downloads our albums, I’d say ‘come to a show and buy a t-shirt or something’. Because at least then we are getting a little bit of income. Its not cheap doing what we do.” Dave continues with a little piece of advice: “We don’t make anything from CD sales, that’s a fact, all the money from CD sales goes to paying off studios, mixing, mastering, all that sort of stuff, usually we’re probably a little bit behind. We make our money from the merchandise and the live shows, so if you download, come along to a show and buy a t-shirt, that’ll make sure we are able to come back and play in your town.” You heard the man!

Last November and December, Psycroptic began one of the most extensive Australian tours seen from an extreme metal band, 22 shows through Australia and New Zealand, playing everything from capital cities, to places most people haven’t heard of! “We went to a lot of regional places, some were good, some were not so good. It was kind of just a trial to see what can work for us in australia. Overall, the capital cities were awesome. We pulled the biggest crowds we have in the capital cities, so that was cool.” Which is to be expected with a lot of the regional venues never having seen a band like Psycroptic before. The tour finished with a near capacity crowd at the Hi-Fi Bar in Melbourne, to be recorded for a future DVD release. “We weren’t expecting that big, we were hoping it’d be that big, but we weren’t expecting it. But it was a really good turn out.” As for the footage, Dave surprisingly hasn’t had a chance to see it yet. “We just finished a mini tour last week with whitechapel. So we’ve been busy… I will actually get a chance tonight… I’m quite interested to see how it all came up.”

Speaking of touring, Psycroptic leave Wednesday [Jan 21] for an intensive tour through Europe after being invited along by touring buddies Black Dahlia Murder. 30 shows in 31 days, that’s pretty bloody hectic! “We actually prefer tours without days off”, says Dave, “once you’re in the rhythm, you just go for it. For us, that’s how we like tours.”

2009 sure is looking like a busy year for Psycroptic. A full on european tour, followed by a tour of the US, and in the European summer the band’s first time hitting up some festivals over there. “We’ve never played any of the big summer festivals, it should be quite an experience. I think there’ll be around 4 or 5 that we’ll do.” For Dave inparticular the European summer will be a busy time, as he will also be hitting the pig skins with Blood Duster, another band keen to take in a bit of European sun during our winter.

Hailing from Tasmania, what’s it like for a band to start up there? “I don’t really know any different. For us it was cool, I like to play there. I suppose at the end of the day, logistically, a tour is a bit more challenging. But we don’t know any different.” and Dave says the band never really considered crossing the water to the mainland permanently “when we tour, we do it in bulk if you will, you don’t really do one-off shows, we’d have to be travelling anyway, so it doesn’t make that much of a difference.”

For those who need a bit of convincing to spend the $15 to check out Psycroptic on their next tour? “When we’re putting shows together we always try to keep it as varied as possible, and just give the punters their value for money. The tickets are cheap as it is, but we try and put on many cool bands to try and make it it a good event, not just another gig. That’s our angle on it, we’ll play with good bands of any style.”

Having just missed your chance to see Psycroptic hit up every corner of Australia, it seems like you’ve missed your chance to see the band for a while, before they hit our shores again. “I think we’re gonna have a bit of a break from Australia… We love playing, but ya know, we don’t wanna be playing every weekend. We probably won’t play in Australia for at least 6 months.”

For now, just grab a copy of Ob(servant) and kick yourself that you missed the last tour.

Psycroptic’s Ob(servant) tour edition is set for release 28th February through Stomp Entertainment

Band: Pyscroptic
Date: 20/01/2009
Origin: Tasmania
www.myspace.com/inflames

Questions: Scott Boelsen (Metal Obsession)
Answers: Dave Haley (Drums)