Recommended Aussie Tunes:Psycroptic | The new single "A Fragile Existence" | Listen

Interviews : “We’re very excited to see the people again” – An interview with Sven De Caluwe (Aborted)

By on August 30, 2018

Sven De Caluwe – Aborted

Sven De Caluwe is the fella at the centre of long running Belgian gore/ grind/ death outfit Aborted. Setting his sights on a landmark Australian tour taking in most capital cities with The Black Dahlia Murder in September, he is in good spirits during the lengthy phone interviews he’s in the process of fielding from Australian indie-journo types.

Note the band’s name… sure to raise the eyebrow of the prudish, and causing the conservatively religious to admonish, how much of that ‘feedback’ has made it onto De Caluwe’s radar?

“It depends where, there are some countries that we cannot go to, for example, we were not allowed to perform in China because of the band name, which is absolutely hilarious to me, ’cause I don’t think there’s a country with more abortions than China, so it’s extremely hypocritical. But yeah, we’re not allowed to go there because our name violates human rights, even if the word ‘aborted’ itself doesn’t have anything to do with abortion. And, I think Dubai, we had issues as well.”

The Australian audience inspires De Caluwe’s sense of humour, with a warning to fans that they can expect some strong stage banter centred on keeping proceedings light and entertaining.

“Well, first of all, we’re super excited, since it’s been four years since we’ve been through Australia, and even like for example, Perth, we haven’t been to in ten years. So, we’re very excited to see the people again. I think our album actually drops on the first day of the tour. We’re gonna do our best to play some new songs, if possible. I think we should be able to, we’ll see. But yeah they can expect quite the intense and brutal show of Aborted with a lot of really bad, terrible shitty jokes thrown in.”

The Aborted camp do go the extra mile to offer fans genuine value for money, as well as the opportunity to indulge in all manner of unique merchandise. It won’t surprise readers that it’s not exactly a purely commercial strategy of the band’s management to generate diverse avenues of revenue, the ideas behind the diverse array of merch are more about the band doing what they think will be cool for fans.

“We were thinking like in the last bunch of albums we’ve been all about the whole ’80’s horror, imagery and world, you know, let’s put it that way. We were like ‘what can we do that’s not been done?’ and that would be cool? Well here’s an idea, why don’t we have an Aborted slumber party massacre survivor kit. So, we had the box of popcorn, the flashlight, the blanket, the shirt and all that shit, so we are … initially, it was way crazier but it got too expensive, so we decided to just keep it to the blanket, but we were gonna do a pillow and pyjama pants too.”

Listen to the full conversation here.

Catch Aborted their Australian tour with The Black Dahlia Murder across Australia this September.

The new studio album from Aborted, TerrorVision, is out September 21, 2018, via Century Media.

 

For complete tour and ticket information, visit Soundworks Touring.

Sept 21st – Perth, The Hell Hole w/ Xenobiotic
Sept 22nd – Adelaide, Fowler’s (The New Dead Metalfest)
Sept 23rd – Melbourne, Max Watt’s w/ Blackhelm
Sept 24th – Hobart, Brisbane Hotel w/ Scoparia
Sept 25th – Newcastle, The Cambridge w/ Blade of Horus
Sept 26th – Canberra, The Basement w/ Wretch
Sept 27th – Sydney, The Factory w/ Anno Domini
Sept 28th – Brisbane, Crowbar w/ DISENTOMB

About

Andrew is a musician who has spent many years performing on the stages of the pubs and clubs of Queensland. A devotee of the broad church that is rock, punk, funk, jazz and of course all genres of metal... he now shares his enthusiasm via a burgeoning pursuit of music journalism. Follow him on twitter @andymckaysmith