Australian Metalcore band Northlane has secured their place as one of the genre’s breathrough bands. While lineup changes may have challenged Northlane’s future, their latest album “Node” marks a comeback, making it the first album to feature new lead singer Marcus Bridge. The album reached Australia’s number 1 on the Australian Album Charts, assuring their fans that they’re here to stay. We had the chance to speak with Northlane’s bassist Alex Milovic on the bands latest album Node, their stuggles as well as the bands future.
TSL: I know you guys are currently on tour, how has it been so far?
Alex: We infact have just wrapped up the tour, but all in all it was an amazing tour. It was the first time we had a chance to not only headline in the U.S and Canada, but the first time we got to play a lot more songs off Node which was great.
TSL: The tour is in support of the bands latest album titled Node. What was the production of the album like and what was the bands vision for the album?
Alex: I guess this is something that has been spoken about a lot with our fan base but its very simple; we wanted the CD to sound like a real band. In todays day and age there a lot of over produced and very fake sounding records out there, that when you watch the band live and it sounds nothing like the recording. That was just not something we wanted to be apart of. With Node, we took a step back and thought about what our favourite records are and why we love them so much, which included bands like Incubus, Tool, Deftones, Karnivool and Underoath just to name a few. This gave us a starting point and a vision for what we wanted Node to sound like
TSL: What do you hope fans take away from the album?
Alex: A positive experience, the theme of the album is about self empowerment and if we can have our listeners walk away from listening to our cd saying ‘I can make a difference’ opposed to “I’m one person, nothing I do will make a difference’ then job well done in our eyes.
TSL: You guys have gone through a huge change with the arrival of Marcus Bridge as the new lead singer, how has going through that experience affected the band?
Alex: With being left in such a negative situation when Adrian left, the searching process and arrival of Marcus was overall an extremely positive experience. No one ever wants to replace a member of their group or band let alone a singer, but with the direction we wanted to take Northlane, the world was our oyster to find someone who fit in as a person and musician in Northlane. It overall has definitely made us closer as a band and we found a person who not only has become a great friend but an amazing addition to Northlane.
TSL: What’s the story with the bands name Northlane?
Alex: It’s quite simple when myself and Jon (guitarist) decided to start a band together we couldn’t find a name that we were happy with calling our group. So we named our band Northlane which was our favourite song by one of our favourite bands – Architects. Who knew that 5 years later we would have toured Europe with them and become great friends! haha
TSL: You guys are from Australia, how did you guys discover the metalcore scene there?
Alex: We all got introduced to the Australian metal core scene in different ways. For me it was by a local band called As Silence Breaks. The singer was a friend of my older sister and he told her that I should go check out the band at one of the gigs at a local youth centre called Hyland Road Youth Centre. This chain of events changed my life, I met some of my closest friends through the Australian metalcore scene and as a result started Northlane.
TSL: As a metalcore band coming from another country, along with a different perspective, what do you guys feel like you add to the metalcore scene in the US?
Alex: Without this sounding rude but we have found that a lot of bands in America have a distinctive sound. Of course there are bands that are doing something different and making a name for themselves doing so, but we have found there are a lot of bands that sound similar to one another. Coming from another country we were never exposed to that type of metalcore that a lot of bands haven taken a huge influence from. What I’m trying to say is I feel that our sound is a lot different and hopefully that’s something that we can add to the metalcore scene in the US
TSL: What comes after this tour?
Alex:We have a few weeks off at home with a one off show in Darwin (Northern Australia) which is somewhere we have never played before which is exciting, and then it’s off to Europe with Volumes, The Acacia Strain and Hellions.
We thank Alex Milovic for taking his time to speak to us and we hope you check out their latest album Node here.
