KARNIVOOL
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Friday, December 28
Waves, Towradgi
Tickets: www.moshtix.com.au
Change is always good according to Karnivool guitarist Mark Hosking.
The progressive rock band is rarely happy to travel down the same musical path twice, preferring to constantly experiment with sounds and lyrics. There was a vast difference between the vibe of their first full album, Themata, in 2005 and their second, Sound Awake, four years later, and Hosking expects their next one, due out mid next year, will be different again.
"We always said we'd be the band who'd never do the same album twice and we kind of stick to that ethos," he says.
"As people, four years is quite a long time in anyone's life. What inspires you changes, what you get out of other music changes, what you appreciate from music has entirely changed. In four years, you're almost a different type of person."
Luckily, Hosking has found most of their fans are happy to go along with the change.
"I think we're really lucky that way, people seem to accept this band is a band that will never be the same.
"Though it's not like we're putting out a jazz album or a reggae album, it's not that different."
Their next album has been the better part of four years in the works, with the band constantly writing new material, but stepping away from it for a while before giving the songs extra edits.
Even then, Hosking still believes the melodies and lyrics will change again when they hit the recording studio.
"It's just the way we've always done things, to take a song to the nth degree and try and make it a bit more than what it appears to be.
"Even though we've spent this ridiculously long time writing an album, a lot of it is set up in such a way that we back ourselves as musicians, so it's open until the day we record it."
Of course, this means the band has no definite idea of what the final product will sound like, but Hosking says the main thing is they have taken each part of their sound to a new level.
While the time the five musos of Karnivool have taken to write their next album is mostly because they like to delve deeply into their songs, it is also because they pursue other projects, including vocalist Ian Kenny also singing with indie favourites Birds of Tokyo.
Hosking says playing with other bands makes them better musicians and means a variety of influences and ideas find their way into Karnivool.
"To just do the one project, or the one style of music, is not necessarily the best thing for a musical group if you're trying to be a free-flowing entity."