Interviews : Karnivool (Mark Hosking) – 20/06/2010

On the eve of another nearly sold out national run of shows, MetalObsession.net chats to Guitarist and incredibly nice guy Mark Hosking of Perth’s Karnivool about playing live, breaking into America, album number 3, and vinyl!

Metal Obsession.net: Hey Mark, how are you? Cheers for taking the time out for a chat to MetalObsession.net! We haven’t spoken to Karnivool since Sound Awake was released 12 months ago. Looking back on it, are you happy with how the album was received amongst fans and media alike?

Karnivool: Yeah, very much so man, I was just talking about it to someone before, tomorrow is exactly 1 year from the sound awake release so its all been the release period of sound awake. I think about 6 months ago we got it into about 23 territories around the world so its exciting, yeah I guess its an exciting time. You have ideas and opinions in your mind on what you hope to achieve with these things and you never know if its going to get there, and I can say its definitely surpassed how we hoped it’d do in Australia and world wide. Its a nice place to be I guess.

MO: How was it in America playing to a relatively new audience?

K: Yeah, really well man. Its exciting when people say ‘I love your album, and its great, and I only got Themata the other day‘. Its interesting when people are hearing Sound Awake first. For us it just seems natural for people to know us from Themata, and then hear the difference to Sound Awake, I guess it would be nice for people to hear Sound Awake first and hear a different album, I’d love to have not heard Themata and then go back and hear it, its something different. Its been really really good I think. There’s lots of different territories, and they all love and appreciate different styles of music. I think from a ground level, last year we spent 2 months touring in the states at every city that would take us pretty much so people were driving and flying in from miles away to come and see us which is really humbling and that accompanied with the reaction from people that were presenting to us about the show and what they liked, and didn’t like and all these bits and pieces that accompany these shows. So a very cool experience and one we hope to repeat later in the year, and keep the engine going.

MO: Do you like the challenge of trying to break into a new market?

K:Yeah, love it. its weird in Australia, well, its not weird its fantastic, its nice to be able to play the big shows in Australia, but there is definitely something to be had walking into a room to people with folded arms who don’t really know you and they may have bought a ticket and they want their moneys worth, and they’re ready to scream at you if you’re not any good [laughs] and to try and win that audience over in the course of a night by presenting them with some music is an amazing thing to do. We all do I think, really love that aspect of going to new territories and trying to win these people over with the music and what we try and do. So yeah its very exciting.

MO: Yeah, keeps you on your feet, you really don’t wanna stuff up a show when you’re trying to win over a new crowd.

K:Yeah, and you know it does happen. Occasionally some shit goes wrong or gear breaks or whatever and it can be frustrating, especially when you’re plaything in a place you’re probably not going to get back to for 8 months or so and you spend a shitload of money to get there and play in front of these people [laughs]. But I guess it’s part and parcel of what we do, have a challenging live show for ourselves and our audience and it can be hit and miss just by the nature of the beast that we associate ourselves with. But I think it does just make it all that more exciting when it does go right, and hopefully people can appreciate it when it doesn’t.

MO: So you’re touring back in Australia soon, why the small venues?

K:Well we just made a conscious decision to scale it back a bit, and we didn’t really know how well it was going to sell, and we’re actually blown away by how many people still wanna come and see us, its very very cool [laughs].

MO: Yeah, well its gone from 11 to 18 shows the tour, that’s awesome.

K:Yeah, its rocketed up which is amazing. We did leave room just in case it would happen but you never really know and it is very humbling and very fantastic that is has happened. But we did consciously say we wanted to play some smaller rooms. I think bands can forget who they are and where they came from and what they do and how to play well. You know I think after we’ve done so many months on the smaller stage, the club scene its nice to bring that back to Australia what we’ve learnt from those rooms, what we’re obviously  doing quite well at the moment, playing some of the best shows we’ve ever had in these venues that we’re playing on this tour, and its nice to bring back that more intimate, well shit, some of them hold a thousand people so they’re not that intimate, but some slightly smaller, more intriguing shows but we’re very excited by that, I think its going to be a lot of fun.

MO: Yeah, its weird concept when an intimate show is still over a thousand people, I guess its a sign of just how popular the band is getting.

K:Its strange that way, I guess once you get over a thousand you lose that possibility of intimacy and you’ve got to rearrange the show to cater for it. But a room like the HiFI in Melbourne, and Brisbane and the Metro in Sydney, they are 900 or a thousand or whatever they hold, they are still a very intimate show because you can create an atmosphere, and you can see the back of the room, and see everyone’s faces and can create a different show as opposed to the extravaganza once you get past that.

MO: That’s almost become known with Karnivool, to have this amazing stage setup. Whats happening on this tour, is it sort of more stripped back than the massive lighting rigs and stuff?

K:Its still a big rig, we still wanted to present something that is Sound Awake, and I think by the very nature of the album I think it needs to be fairly epic in scale and proportion, its still a large rig but its a little smaller, and a little different than the last Sound Awake tour. We’re not taking LED’s on this tour, we’ve got a whole new different concept for the live show. so yeah its still a challenge to put on and its still takes a long time to setup and pull down [laughs] I just think its nice to be able to present something different on a third album cycle so its still going to be a big show, no questions about it.

MO: Yeah, it was interesting as I saw you guys at the palace, then a few days later at the Ferntree Gully Hotel and to see you guys try and get that same massive stage setup on that small stage..

K:Yeah, that was a hard gig [laughs]. But a lot of fun, the crowd there was going absolutely nuts! So its good and bad in a small environment but there was definitely a lot of energy in the room, But I know what you mean. Trying to get a big stage production on a small stage can be horrifying sometimes, but if you’re prepared for it, like hopefully we are this time [laughs] it could be done quite well.

MO: As you were saying with the FTG hotel, the crowd was so into it, and everyone was singing a long, and at the Palace people were into it, but clearly not as much.

K:Yeah man, this is what I mean, its what you get from an intimate room you know. Everyone feels like they’re a part of it as opposed to just watching and that just makes for a different show from the second you walk in through the front door and see the size of the room and get your mind into a place to listen to the music, till you leave, it just makes for such a different show, it definitely makes for a different mental perception as to whats going on.

MO: What are the plans for the setlist? is it hard to chose a setlist when you’re 2 albums and an ep into your career and haven’t released anything that fans can say is shit and don’t want to hear live?

K:[laughs] Well its actually quite easy. Well the only hard part is deciding what to get rid of. Its easy to create, but its hard to cut, and obviously we all have our personal favourites we want to play and want to challenge ourselves in different ways and everyone wants something different. What we do is write about 6 or 7 different setlists and we makes sure we have the capacity to make those songs happen and then on the night, before we go on we’ll decide on a setlist. Occasionally that’s changed on stage which does happen every now and then, it’s good to have a feel of the room and know what the people want to hear. But yeah, its a different set, a good compilation I think of old and new and its nice to be able to do that on a third album tour. Its exciting man, it’ll definitely be a fun run I think, we’re all looking forward to the fun aspect of it all.

MO: So for fans going to multiple shows in a city they can expect a change between nights?

K:Oh yeah, absolutely. No one show will be the same as another. They’ll all be different the sets and how we present it from night to night.

MO: Thats awesome. So last year Ian Kenny and Birds of Tokyo did the broken strings, and a couple of years ago I think you guys did an acoustic tour?

K:It was mainly just in WA, but yeah we did a little acoustic tour with strings and that. That was a while ago now, but yeah, it was quite good, its always interesting to do something different.

MO: Can you see that happening again?

K:To be honest we haven’t really thought about it, just by the nature of how busy we are overseas, we don’t really get the chance to do these different runs in Australia like i guess Birds do, but I mean I wouldn’t put it out of the question, we’re working on a DVD package we’re trying to get out next year, and some other bits and pieces, more or less trying to do something different, I guess that one hasn’t been put on the cards, we love strings, and we love the sound of our stuff acoustically. We’ve done a few of them on the radio overseas, and got some really good responses from it, so its definitely a possibility.

MO: I heard some tracks at some radio station in Europe, and they sounded great.

K:Yeah, its always fun. I think any good music will break down really well acoustically. Every song at its core should have a really cool easy principal to it you know. And a lot of our songs do thankfully, and its a lot of fun to them play live acoustically like that when you’ve got nothing to hide behind [laughs] as loud and energetic as the live show is we present over here you feel like you’re hiding behind this wall of sound and you cant go wrong, but when its like that every little nuance is noticed, and you’ve gotta be on your toes.

MO: And I guess that’s the only chance you’d get of playing sewn and silent ever?

K:Yeah, well we haven’t played that one in a long time. It used to be solidly in the set back in the Themata days so yeah man, definitely songs like that that have a more acoustic element. Its a good song to play live.

MO: So this is the New Day tour, you’ve already released two great videos off the album, any plans for an 8 minute epic bastard of a video for new day?

K:[laughs] Its possible. It’ll be that or a live clip or something. We’ll definitely release a video for new day. there’s some talks at the moment as to how we’re gonna do that, and the presentation format that will take on. But man the funny thing is we have ideas for every single song off Sound Awake, its just a matter of finding the budget to make them a reality. So ideally in our minds the DVD package would have a film clip for every single song [laughs] whether that actually happens or not is just a fiscal problem. So we’ll see what happens.

MO: As the bands popularity grows, you’ve got some awesome promo shots floating around. How did you end up working with Kane Hibbard?

K:Kanes an old friend of ours, and he’s a really good photographer. He’s a friend of ours we’ve known over the years through various sources and we’re all associated with the music industry in different ways. I tour manage, Kenny’s obviously in Birds, Drew ,John and Steve do other stuff, so we all know other people through various other sources, Kane’s just been a friend of ours through a few different places. Great guy, very cool guy, and a great photographer. So I guess when you find someone who’s a good mate, and has the skills, you don’t lose contact.

MO: There are some cool ones out there. The flaming tv shot, and the.. I dunno what it is. You’re diseased or something?

K:Ah, the one with goo all over us? [laughs] We just try and do something different ya know. We hate those morbid band shots where everyones just looking stone faced into the camera, they bore the shit out of us. We wanted to do something different, and we didn’t want it to be plain and dull and shit, so we brought Kane in and threw some ideas around and put some money towards it, and it was good. It was good to do something different, I definitely appreciate bands who go to some trouble for their band shots because there’s a lot of shit band shots out there [laughs] whether its good or bad its just nice to do something different.

MO: So you’re a year into the touring cycle of album number 2, can you see 3 on the horizon or will it be another 4 year break?

K:Yeah it’s definitely on the horizon man. We’re a band that doesn’t make apologies for how long it takes us to write music. Its just part of the beast and the music we create you know. We always laugh that B irds have almost written 3 albums in the time it took us to write one, it’s just faster quicker music, so its what they do, for us its a long drawn out painful process that we love, we wouldn’t be in this band if we didn’t want it to be that kind of music. That’s just a little speech I had prepared there [laughs] I dunno man, its coming out of us, and we have this fantastic studio in Perth, and we’re very excited about it, its got a percolator and a fridge, and all things to be comfortable, and we’re here a lot of the time, and its falling out of us quite quickly, and we’re excited about the direction it going, but for us that doesn’t mean its going to be ready in 6 months. We’ve set up a business system with out music in Australia which means we don’t have Joe Blow calling us every 5 minutes going ‘wheres the album, where’s the album?‘ We want our music done our way, and we’ve spent a long time setting that up so that we’re not forced to rush out an album. So it wont be 75% done or half as good as we want it to be, it’ll be 110% as good as we want it to be, which is the principal of the Karnivool writing cycle. But yeah its positive what we have so far, its coming out quite quickly, but how long it’ll take I couldn’t say just yet.

MO: You know you have a fanbase who’ll hang around and wait for the album, I mean if you can take that long for the release of Sound Awake and the fans still lap it up…

K:Its amazing how patient our fans can be, and what makes us respect them even more is we don’t write for them, we don’t cater for them, we’re not writing another Karnivool album. We’re writing an album that’s coming out of us as 5 musicians that are associated with the Karnivool banner, its going to be different, its going to be challenging, its going to make people reassess what they like and what they don’t like in music, but that’s kind of what we do as a band you know. Its not meant to be something to make you happy and fell good about yourself, its something to challenge you. But I think its really rewarding to do it that way as once its finished it makes the wait worth while and that’s what we love, that kind of music.

MO: This tours being talked up as the final tour on sound awake?

K:Yeah, that’s right. But all that really means is the last tour we’ll present as a Sound Awake tour, there may be a  tour next year, but it’ll just be a Karnivool tour, not based around an album.

MO: Cool, so whats after this? Is it time overseas to break into the Euro/American markets?

K:Yeah, well we spent 3 months, 1 in Europe, 2 in America presenting the album, which was our first chance to present Sound Awake to these people to raving reviews and some really good crowds so we’ll do this Aussie run, we’ve got about a week back at home to kiss the dog and whatever and we hop back overseas for another 3 months, so it’ll be phase 2 of the overseas attack if you will. Its really positive signs so far so it’ll be another exciting couple of months presenting the album to more people overseas.

MO: Is it hard to try and break into a new market, when I can imagine you’d need to be over there for a while to really get in their faces and push yourselves onto them, is it hard to do with Ian going between Birds and you guys?

K:Yeah it is, well its not hard for us, because we just say ‘we’re gonna do this’ and he’s there, but its hard for the management and the people around us, that have to make sure it works on both ends. We’re lucky to have 2 managers who talk and keep communication good and make sure that everything’s fine. We basically just say this is what we’re doing, and they do what they’re doing, and we just make it work. Obviously there is potential problems there if 2 things collide, but by the nature of good planning and good management that doesn’t happen, well at least hasn’t happened yet [laughs]

MO: The bands has a very vast array of influences, including bands like Meshuggah, are you familiar with any of the harder, more progressive metal bands from Australia?

K:A little bit man, but the heavy stuff isn’t really my forte, its more Drew’s and John’s, they’re big heavy metal fans. I love it and listen to it, but I cant say I’m too familiar with the Aussie stuff at the moment, but you know everyone just brings in various bits of music and we collectively throw our ipods at each other and you tend to find yourself listening to something you have no idea who the band is. But we’re all just big music lovers in general.

MO: Any plans to release Sound Awake on vinyl?

K:Yes.

MO: Really?!

K:There is. And Themata actually, and possibly Persona!

MO: That’d be awesome.

K:Yeah, we’re looking at different printers and there’s a couple of guys in Australia we almost used but then got told they aren’t the best quality vinyl, so we’re looking at a place in London, and a few in the States, but we just have to make sure its good quality vinyl cos there’s some pretty dodgy vinyl printers out there so as soon as we find the right person to do it, we’ll get some artwork remade and we’ll release that for sure.

MO: Well that wraps up the interview! Thanks a lot Mark!

K:No problems Scott, good to talk to you.

Questions: Scott Boelsen
Answers: Mark Hosking

Catch Karnivool on tour around the country!

Update: Cairo Knife have left the tour due to illness

Wednesday 23 June – The HiFi BRISBANE, QLD with Helm
Thursday 24 June – The HiFi BRISBANE, QLD with Helm **SECOND & FINAL SHOW**
Friday 25 June – Sawtell RSL COFFS HARBOUR NSW
Saturday 26 June – Newcastle Panthers NEWCASTLE NSW
Wednesday 30 June – Metro Theatre SYDNEY NSW **SOLD OUT**
Thursday 1 July – Metro Theatre SYDNEY NSW **ALL AGES**
Friday 2 July – Metro Theatre SYDNEY NSW **3RD & FINAL SHOW**
Saturday 3 July – ANU Bar CANBERRA ACT
Sunday 4 July – The Station JINDABYNE NSW
Tuesday 6 July – The HiFi MELBOURNE VIC with Sleep Parade *SOLD OUT
Wednesday 7 July – The HiFi MELBOURNE VIC with Sleep Parade *SOLD OUT
Thursday 8 July – The HiFi MELBOURNE VIC with Sleep Parade *SOLD OUT
Saturday 10 July – Uni Bar HOBART TAS
Sunday 11 July – The Saloon LAUNCESTON TAS
Wednesday 14 July – The Gov ADELAIDE SA *SOLD OUT
Thursday 15 July – The Gov ADELAIDE SA  **SECOND & FINAL SHOW**
Wednesday 21 July – Capitol PERTH WA with MM9 and The Siren Tower
Thursday 22 July – Capitol PERTH WA with MM9 and Tangled Thoughts Of Leaving **SECOND & FINAL SHOW**