Karnivool’s home city of Perth, Australia, is closer to the capital of Indonesia than that of their own country. But in 2013, as they released third album Asymmetry, the band argued the isolation had its advantages, and explained why people who thought they were more metal than prog were wrong.
Where do you reckon the most isolated city on Earth is? Out in the icy, unforgiving terrain of Greenland or Alaska? A remote and ancient tribal land deep in the Brazilian rainforest? Maybe a settlement on the scrubby plains of Outer Mongolia?
Weirdly – or at least unexpectedly – the most isolated city in the world is Perth, Australia. Situated in the huge, largely unpopulated state of Western Australia, it’s closer to Jakarta in Indonesia than its own capital city of Canberra. The geographical disengagement has made the otherwise perfectly ordinary, modern, affluent metropolis a hotbed for creativity, formed from the gut with little influence from trends or big business.
So it’s perfectly placed to give birth to one of the most exciting and singular progressive bands around right now: Karnivool, whose new album, Asymmetry, marks them out as highly skilled, emotionally intuitive individuals who have taken the prog rock blueprint and painted it with a brand new, sun-baked, southern- hemisphere palette.
“Perth’s really healthy at the moment,” says guitarist Drew Goddard. “There’s no scenes. That’s what you get when you’re so isolated. It’s just one big music community.”
“What’s fucking great about Perth is it’s removed from the music industry,” adds lead vocalist Ian Kenny, who was born in Ireland before his family relocated in 1985. “There’s no offices of any labels there. It’s a scene removed from any of that stuff, so it plays by its own rules a bit. Perth just kind of gets on with it; it doesn’t really fuck about.”
Formed in 1997 from the ashes of a band Goddard and Kenny started in school, Karnivool – completed by Jon Stockman on bass, Mark Hosking on guitar and Steve Judd on drums – have taken the slow but sure approach to prog stardom, preferring to spend years honing their music over rushing out new material for fear of being forgotten. It’s a tactic that’s paid off. Asymmetry is only their third full-length release in all that time, but it’s taking them into unchartered territory, according to Goddard.
There’s a lot to love, with a touch of Radiohead-style mournfulness, glimmers of gorgeous Mogwai-like atmospherics and an occasional explosion of post-hardcore bloodletting, grungy fury or Tool-esque art metal. And yet, while there are plenty of comparisons to be made, the final, full picture is one entirely their own – a magical, dense work of art with endless nooks and crannies to explore in repeated listens. The band are clearly proud of the end result.
“We wanted to try and occupy a different space with the songs,” Kenny says. “This time around the record sounds like there’s more band in it. You can hear the room, you can hear the playing, you can hear the performances. It’s not strictly a heavy record – it’s more of an expressive exploration. Karnivool fall under the guise of being in a heavy metal pool, but we’re not. We challenge heavy music because there are heavier elements, but then there’s so much else going on.”
The lyrics came from some shit Jon went through with someone close to him. When you live in each other’s pockets, maybe that stuff just spills out
Ian Kenny
And then there are the lyrics to take into consideration, at which point things just get straight-up weird. Which is, of course, only to be encouraged. “There’s a song called Sky Machine where Jon Stockman brings this philosophy of sky children,” Kenny explains. “It’s about these young kids he’s read about who are higher evolved and super-intelligent; they believe they have sky parents. It’s fucking odd!”
Goddard adds: “He claims the kids say they’ve already been here, and they talk about their sky parent. There are some fantastical ideas in there. That’s more than a sprinkling of prog. That’s a fucking healthy dose – three and a half cups of prog!”
Another track, The Refusal, finds them at their most raw. It’s a song that has divided fans, featuring bassist Stockman screaming from the depths of his soul. “I just thought it’s a fairly acidic piece of music, and tried to deliver something with a little bit of fucking venom,” says Kenny. “Jon gets to purge his throat. The lyrics came from some shit he went through last year with someone close to him. When you live in each other’s pockets, maybe that stuff just spills out.”
Wherever all that angst came from, it certainly wasn’t the place they made Asymmetry. It was recorded in Byron Bay, a hippie community and surfer paradise on the eastern tip of Australia, where beautiful sun-drenched beaches were just steps away. Yeah, actually, we are jealous.
You hear a lot of flash-in-the-pan bands that are catchy this or catchy that… Karnivool actually have something going on that’s very unique and multifaceted
Slash
“A friend of ours there was talking about this black rock that’s supposed to be beneath the shore,” Kenny says. “The hippies believe it’s a black crystal that’s only found in that part of New South Wales, and it’s got grounding properties. If it’s there, it probably had some effect on what we were doing.”
“I need some grounding when I’m recording, so maybe it did work!” Goddard laughs. “My head’s in the clouds most of the time.”
Having already broken through at home, the rest of the world is starting to catch on, with celebrity fans including recent European tour-mates Stone Sour, plus Slash, who told The Western Australian: “They’re probably one of the best hard rock, heavy metal outfits I’ve heard in a while. It’s very different; it’s almost progressive. You hear a lot of flash-in-the-pan bands that are catchy this or catchy that and there’s something cool about it, but it doesn’t have an enormous depth to it – whereas Karnivool actually have something going on that’s very unique and multifaceted.”
“We don’t like to namecheck!” says Goddard, adding: “I won’t lie; it gives you a warm, fuzzy feeling to have your peers dig what you do. It’s awesome.”
They’re likeable people to spend time with – typically self-deprecating Aussies who use swearing as punctuation and take encroaching fame with a pinch of salt. But people are listening, and not just in the obvious places. In 2011, they travelled to india for the first time. On arriving for their festival set in Mumbai, they found 9,000 people going mental for them.
File sharing is a double-edged sword – but you can’t argue it’s a bad thing if it got us over to India
Drew Goddard
“It was crazy,” says Goddard. “They knew the words; they were singing along. There were people in bare feet climbing the rigging, firing confetti cannons and all these pyrotechnics. It was a bit of an arm-pincher really. We had a couple of drinks in the hotel afterwards and we were just going, ‘How did this happen?’”
How did it happen? “It’s just word of mouth,” he suggests. “And file sharing, which is a double-edged sword – but you can’t argue it’s a bad thing if it got us over to play that show.”
“There’s a full hard-rock/metal scene over there and they’re really up to date with it all,” adds Kenny. “They showed us a bunch of Indian heavy music. There’s a band called Skyharbor. The first time we heard them was after chatting to some guys out there, and we were like, ‘Fuck, this is good.’”
Having got a taste for life on the road, they’ve got a long list of places they’re keen to play: South America, Japan, a lot of Asia, Spain, Ireland. They’re a long way from home – but then, everywhere is a long way from their home. “Because we’re in the arse end of the arse end of the world, I guess we had a long time to work on our craft before we took it over east,” reasons Goddard. “It took a long time before people started listening. And the same thing again when we took it from Australia to the rest of the world.
“I’ve been in this band with Ian for 15 years now; half my fucking life! But it’s still like we’re new kids on the block that people are discovering. I’ve been in this band. The fact that people are coming round to it and we’re fresh to a lot of people is exciting.”
Their recent set at the UK’s Download festival certainly seems to have been a high point. “Download was awesome!” Kenny says. “When we kicked in, we could see people coming over the hill, and they just kept coming and coming. I think we played to about 10,000 people.”
I just want to keep doing it. I don’t want to ask questions about where we’re going
Drew Goddard
“When you first start out you just want to play to anyone,” says Goddard. “Once you start connecting with people and you have a fanbase, then it becomes a bit more serious. You realise you can make a living out of it. The penny drops and you go, ‘Jesus Christ, I have an opportunity to live the way I want to live and do what I want to do with the one thing I fucking love the most – music.’
“There’s still so much to do,” he continues. “I just want to keep doing it. I don’t want to ask questions about where we’re going; I just want to keep writing good music and challenging ourselves. I don’t think there’s any such thing as a destination – it’s the journey.”
