Amos Williams – TesseracT

British progressive metallers, TesseracT have gained so much popularity over the past couple of years by the sheer strength of their unique blend of djent and progressive music. September 2015 sees the release of their third studio album ‘Polaris’ and also the return of Daniel Tompkins to the band as the vocalist after the departure of Ashe O’Hara. I had the opportunity to catch up with bassist Amos Williams who is an absolute charmer and had lots to say about the new album, TesseracT’s mantra to success, their new label signing and much more.

TesseracT’s new album Polaris is scheduled to release in exactly four days and Amos couldn’t hide his excitement; “It’s wonderful, there’s so much energy being put in by everybody” he says, “It’s incredible  to see so many new things promoting the album, the band and us as individual musicians as well. It’s something none of us have really experienced before – such a positive and uplifting feeling”. Previously signed to Century Media, this will also be the band’s first album with new label Kscope. “Kscope are a very different label to Century Media – they deal with a different style of presentation and a different attitude as well. So we find it quite exciting to be with them because we have an awful lot of freedom in the product that’s being released which is something we didn’t really have before. We had to break the bank a little with this one but the investment is worth and we work with a very creative and optimistic team.”So far the response to the new album has been great according to Amos and the band are very excited for it’s release, ” The press round has been very positive for us and the album very high scoring. It’s all being received rather well which is much better than what we hoped for. Hopefully this continues once the album is released to the general public as well.”

Despite the fact that each of the band members live in different cities and even countries, they still worked towards putting out a great record, “Nothing technology couldn’t fix” said Amos, ” it was difficult for me to pop in and out of the studio because I’m based in the Far East while the others live in the UK.  So we essentially worked the same way as we have before, making music separately and then putting everything together piece by piece. It’s wonderful how the internet has enabled us to keep everything functional.” Polaris also sees the return of vocalist Daniel Tompkins, who was with the band from 2009 to 2011 and who is also a long-time friend of the band. “We spent a lot of time touring together before he decided to leave when One was released and that was simply because he was unable to commit due to various things, mainly his family. So the split wasn’t one of any acrimony. We were very much keeping in touch and when we decided that things weren’t working with Ashe as well as we had hoped for it to, it was easy for Dan to step back in, and we basically just picked up where we left off. This transition was very smooth and an example of that would be our first show together at Sonisphere UK in front of 40,000 people!”

Amos’ take on the underlying concept behind the album was very interesting, so much so that I forgot I was doing an interview midway. ” There’s a strong theme of a transient nature, hence the name Polaris which is the brightest star in the North sky” Amos explains,”and for years and years, it has been used  as a reference point for people but the reality is that it’s not fixed, just like everything else in the cosmos it moves. We’re moving at a ridiculous speed – such is the scale of everything around us that it’s not immediately apparent but give it 2000 years time and Polaris itself would’ve moved. I thought this was an interesting analogy to the way things are, the fact that there is no universal truth; that what we proved to be true yesterday is in fact wrong today and equally tomorrow what we think of as true will be totally different from what the reality is today.” A simple, thought-provoking explanation such as this made me push further and ask Amos for the inspiration behind such a thought process to which he replied, ” Simple, everyday life. When you’re musician, you live on the outskirts of society and as such that gives you a slightly different perspective . Many things that are important to people sometimes seem a little bit trivial and that’s really how you end up seeing these things a lot. You just wish that your peers would understand that it isn’t so bad and things might change eventually. It’s this that led to the little spark of inspiration that led to Polaris.”

Musically, Polaris does exhibit a step forward for TesseracT in their sound dynamic, “Absolutely. Especially from a vocal and lyrical point of view, it is quite a bit further developed and more focused on story-telling; we’re hoping there’s clarity on that. However, from an instrumentation point of view,, Polaris is a much closer relative to Altered State –  goes along a similar vein of melodic exploration to that album.” But what is TesseracT’s mantra to keeping at their music with so much dedication and perseverance despite several line-up changes, ” Well, we enjoy what we play. We have the occasional bad gig and bouts of being stressed but fundamentally we very much enjoy the music that we play and really, that is key. You’re not always going to have a great day but as long as we enjoy the music we create, it’s what keeps us together.”

TesseracT were last on our shores for Soundwave 2014, ” Yes, it’s been about 19 – 20 months, we’re really excited!”.We’re looking forward to returning to the scene which is very strong,” he continued, especially with all the progressive bands from the country. The fans, the people are very accepting and passionate about our style of music. This is just the first stage however, we’ve got about 6 months of touring to do after that so it’s going to be busy but I’m really happy about it all.” Amos had one last message to the fans ahead of the release of TesseracT’s brand new album Polaris. ” Hopefully it’s an album you’re going to want to go back to and you’ll discover something from a different point of view each time you listen to it because there’s a lot of effort that’s gone into the depth and the sound of Polaris. it’s denser than before, the dynamics are richer and there’s a stronger environmental concept that I think people will enjoy.”

TesseracT’s Australian tour with Caligula’s Horse kicks of on October 14th, make sure you grab your tickets soon – this is not one you want to miss!

TOUR DATES:

Wednesday, October 14: The Zoo, Brisbane – 18+
Thursday, October 15: The Factory Theatre, Sydney – Lic AA
Friday, October 16: Max Watts, Melbourne – 18+
Saturday, October 17: Fowlers, Adelaide – Lic AA
Sunday, October 18: Amplifier Bar, Perth – 18+

UPDATE:

ARMI (Australian Rock and Metal Institute) are pleased to announce an exclusive vocal masterclass with Tesseract frontman, Daniel Tompkins on Saturday, 17th October at ARMI HQ (Level 1/98 Gawler Place, Adelaide, South Australia 5000). Click here to secure your seats. RSVP. 

Check out the ‘Polaris’ worldwide album steam below. Secure your preferred format from Nerve Gas today!

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