Interviews : Internal Nightmare (Nathan Roberts) – 16/06/2009

Conbining influences from the New Wave of American Metal and early Thrash, Melbourne’s Internal Nightmare are bringing their groove laden thrashings to the Australian public through many gigs around the country and even an upcoming national TV appearance. MetalObsession.net had a quick chat to Nathan Roberts of the band to see whats happening…

—————————————————–

MetalObsession.net (Brendan Amos): Hey man, welcome to the MetalObsession.net website! Nice and easy to start off with – for the uninitiated, can you please give a quick introduction to the band and its members.
Internal Nightmare (Nathan Roberts): Thanks a lot matey. We’re a 5-piece metal band with an intense fixation on groove. We consist of Dirtbag Doherty and Aaron Lowe on guitar, Dani ‘Zuki’ Jeffers on bass, Simon Headley on drums and myself, Nathan Roberts on vocals.

MO: Now you have just released a three track demo. What can we expect to hear, and indeed, how can we get our hands on it!
I.N: Sure have, we busted balls at Legion Studios with Julian Renzo a few months back and we believe we’ve produced a crushing disc, unrelenting but extremely varied. Each song is completely opposite to the others in terms of dynamics (within the Internal sound, of course). So we’ve got fast, slow, heaving, galloping, whispering and screaming all wrapped up in 3 stunning little numbers guaranteed to get your ass moving. And you can get your hands on it for free by coming along to any one of our shows, downloading the tracks from Rockbox or any major torrent site or you can contact us in any way shape or form and we’ll get one to you.

MO: What is the writing process for Internal Nightmare – both for individual songs and the overall direction for the band?
I.N: Well, we’ve had a few line-up changes in the past and the only consistent member has been Dirtbag, so it’s very much been his baby for a while now. But having said that, we’ve recently solidified the line-up with the addition of Zuki on bass, and his presence has been crucial in making us push ourselves as hard as we can to get the result we want, all the while staying true to ourselves and the music that we want to play. We’ve been writing quite heavily these last few months and are starting to perform our first batch of new songs, written as a whole band, live. And to be honest, it all sounds like a natural progression!

MO: And I hear you have recently filmed a segment for ABC music quiz show ‘Spicks and Specks’. Quite exciting I would imagine, how did it all turn out?
I.N: Spicks and Specks was awesome, they’re an absolute champion of a tv show! One of the writers is a fan of what we’re doing and he basically contacted us and asked if we’d be interested in performing on the show, so we went in and laid down some tracks and they loved it. Couldn’t have asked for anything more.

MO: Can you let us in on what to expect? At a guess I’d say it was for their ‘cover versions’ segment?
I.N: You’d be right there. We performed a few ‘classic’ songs that each of us in the band love, in our own style, for the ‘Look What They Did To My Song…..’ segment. We also performed a legendary Aussie bands song during the end credits, in front of the drummer of said legendary Aussie band. So it was nerve-wracking as hell, but just to have been invited on the show was an honour and we’ve been extremely lucky to have been given this opportunity.

MO: Now obviously you have played to the Melbourne metal audience, and also the Adelaide metal heads on a recent visit. Any plans to expand on this and conquer the rest of the country?
I.N: Hell yeah man! SA was killer and we played up in Canberra earlier this year too. Playing anywhere is awesome, and obviously we want to destroy our hometown on a regular basis(ha!), but in the grand scheme of things, the same towns, the same venues, the same shows over and over don’t really appeal to us all too much. We want to be out there, playing where we’ve never played before, with bands we’ve never played with and most importantly, to people who haven’t seen us play before. We’re super keen to play in Tasmania, some of the bands coming out of there are just inhuman. Same goes with NSW and QLD, definitely. We’ll be hitting at least 2 of those states later this year, for sure.

MO: We are always keen to find out what a band like yourself listen to and are inspired by to create. Therefore, what bands would you consider the ‘forefathers’ of Internal Nightmare’s music?
I.N: Well, I guess the main influences would be Machine Head, Lamb Of God, Death, Pantera, Unearth and Cataract, but that’s far from it. Lately, the new Chimaira disc is getting a fair few rotations, same as the new LOG, Napalm Death and Cattle Decapitation albums. We’re all massive music fans and between us we’d listen to damn near every genre of music, albeit mainly metal and rock, but we try and incorporate that into our sound (well, the good bits anyway). At the same time, we feel that Internal Nightmare is beginning to carve its own sound and identity and we’re just gonna have to wait and see how it all turns out.

MO: A quick question we ask to all interviewees, what Aussie bands are you big into, and deem that we should check out!?
I.N: Where to start….. Separatist are really tickling my balls at the moment, they are an insane band and awesome dudes! There’s 1shotkill from NSW who are brilliant, Lynchmada are fucken killing it at the moment and Jack the Stripper are about to drop a ridiculous beast on us all, I heard it the other day and it blew my mind.…..

MO: To finish up, any last words to the Metal Obsession readers?
I.N: Yeah, thanks to anyone that’s been to a local show, bought a local cd, checked out a local band on the net or even just for reading this interview. Support is crucial to this scene surviving.
So get down to one of our shows, check us out on myspace @ www.myspace.com/internalnightmare, pick up a copy of our cd, watch us on Spicks and Specks on October 14 on the ABC and keep an eye out for the upcoming Stop Time Media/Metal As Fuck ‘Melbourne Metal Unleashed’ showcase dvd, featuring The Bezerker, Five Star Prison Cell, Lynchmada, Humonic, ourselves, the mighty Psycroptic and loads more!

MO: Cheers for your time!
I.N: And cheers for yours. Duke on!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Band: Internal Nightmare
Date: 16/06/2009
Origin: Melbourne, Australia
www.myspace.com/internalnightmare

Questions: Brendan Amos (Metal Obsession)
Answers: Nathan Roberts (Vocals)