As the saying goes travel broadens the mind, a statement that would never be more apt for the life of a band on the road. Having just released their brand new album Destination Somewhere, Massive are beginning their next chapter in their career. Having penned the album all over the world, a deceptive meandering title for the bands unrelenting hunger to tour the world as much as possible. Which conseuqently had an affect of unintentionally creating a more rounded sound since their first listen. We were able to call up Massive singer Brad Marr to speak to the man about life on the road, the scene down under and of course Destination Somewhere.
Listen to the full unedited interview or read the full transcript below!
Today I have with me Brad Marr from the band Massive, hello Brad how are you?
Very well mate yourself?
Not too bad! Its probably not as sunny as it down in Aus in London!
I tell you mate, I live in Melbourne which is the bottom of Australia and its currently about thirteen degrees and pouring down with rain so enjoy London!
You’ve got the short end of the stick!
We’ve got a good Rock ‘n’ Roll scene here but we can’t get the weather right!
Your brand new album Destination Somewhere is going to be released tomorrow, are you excited?
Yeah! Its been a hectic couple of weeks man, especially this week. Being the week of the launch and the CD coming out its the week where you’re messaging everybody going, have you got the album yet, have you preordered it? Are you coming to the launch show? You forget about time because you spend twenty hours a day making sure everything is in place and you know it will go very quickly, then tomorrow will be gone before we realise it but I think we put a lot of effort into this one so we’re kind of excited, definitely!
Excellent, could you tell us about the writing process for the new record?
It was written across a fairly long time, Full Throttle, our first album, we wrote that about three years ago really! Once it was finished we kept writing, some of these songs are two years old, some of them were written over in Europe, some are written touring Australia and slogging it out in the tour van. Thats kind of the theme, thats why its called Destination Somewhere its all over the shop. These are ten songs and each one of them has a story to tell! There was no pre production time where we stopped and decided lets do an album it was just more of a sense of we’ve got all of these cool songs lets put them together and make a one thing. We’ve done the hard work, we went into the studio and ripped it out in fifteen days and there it is! On the table!
Fifteen days! Thats pretty quick!
Well it costs a lot of money to be in the studio man haha! We went back to Light Hill which was where we were before and Ricky Ray produced it. He’s done a lot of stuff in Australia, he’s an absolute legend, he gets us straight away. We didn’t have to mess around in the studio. We just went to business and just got the songs down so there wasn’t very much experimentation in the studio. Get the songs out and get them out how they are!
When I listened to the record I could hear quite a lot of classic old school Rock ‘n’ Roll influence. Who would you say are some of your biggest influences?
I think we like the Gunners, AC/DC, Zeppelin and a whole bunch of stuff. I think that was makes us different from every other AC/DC rip off band from Australia from over the last fifteen years I think we have all got very different influences. I do that kind of classic eighties Rock ‘n’ Roll, Jared the drummer he likes Soul and he likes Country and all that stuff as well. Brendan the guitarist, he’s very much a Blues guy his favourite bands are Howlin’ Wolf, Chuck Berry things like that then I would say Aidan is the Stoner / Metal guy who his favourite bands are bands we have never heard of haha! When you put all of those infuences together I think you get a very varied sound and thats the Massive Sound I guess! Rock ‘n’ Roll!
One of of the songs I noticed it on was “Beaten Dog”, I thought that was really really quite Bluesy.
Yeah thats very different, we have never brought an acoustic guitar into the studio at all but that was actually a song that Brendan the guitarist wrote in its entirety. He brought it in and said what about this and you said it, completely different but we liked it and we’re not set to one genre. We just like playing good music! If its good and we can play, then we’re going to play it!
What about lyrical themes, as the singer what kind of lyrics are they based upon?
We have been on the road a lot over the last couple of years. We have spent a lot time together a lot of it is influenced by us being out and being on the road with what we do. I don’t think there is any one theme to the album, I think each song has its own little story but if you spend enough time together you have stories to tell. When you have got a platform like an album coming out and you want to tell a story its just us on the road and the experiences we have had I guess.
Has it always been like that, is that one of your main themes?
Well I mean the touring and travelling is a theme to the album, its called Destination Somewhere because its written all over the shop. Some of the songs were written in Germany, Sweden and Norway when we were over there. The other songs are written in the outback in Australia when we were touring last year and I think that that whole randomness of a collection of songs written all around the world brought to one album I think the travel and the touring sense is going to come through on there so definitely a theme but not planned at all.
I meant with your previous albums has that been something that you have not focused on but has always indirectly been there?
I mean the first album was the first one we wrote! I don’t know what we were doing on that first album it was just what we did. We were young and dumb and just wanted to make a Rock ‘n’ Roll album! I don’t think that we had any preconceptive ideas of what we are going to do it was just, lets write and make music. I rate this album as the first album that we have all contributed on. Its an album that we will be able to listen back to in a couple of years and still be proud of.
Is it quite a democratic song writing process? You mentioned everyone has so many different influences.
Yeah, I mean I wrote most of the lyrics, Brendan the guitarist added a lot of lyrics to this album. There’s definitely I can hear all of our influences on there its not just me or Jared. Me and Jared wrote the first album, by ourselves. This album is very much a four guys in a room and lets put our influences together. I rate this as the album that Massive have written not just myself and Jared.
Whats the Australian Rock ‘n’ Roll, Metal scene like down in Melbourne?
Melbourne is very good! I’m currently at a Rival Sons gig believe it or not! Standing out the side door haha! Melbourne is a great town for music, there’s so many bands that we love that we will go and see on a Wednesday night at a local pub that we think are world class. The local scene is thriving, its just cool, they’re all our mates and we love going out and watching a gig just as much as everyone else. I live two streets from the Airbourne boys up the road! Its a big city but its a small town really when it comes to music. Theres a lot less opportunities in Australia, you can travel nine hours any direction from Melbourne and you don’t reach another city. You’ve gotta really slug it out and drive a lot of killometres before you can really say you’ve toured Australia. Apart from that, the bands, the quality of music is top class I reckon.
Does that make European touring a bit easier?
Absolutely man! We toured in 2014 and people thought that we were mad and we thought that we were doing what everybody else does! We don’t know any different, we’ve done the hard yards here and we’ve gone to the UK and didn’t realise that the next town is only fifteen minutes away its great!
Not two days…
No exactly haha!
After the album’s release what are your plans after then?
We’ve got a tour here in Australia, through May, our whole of May is just gone. We’re gone for the whole month but then we are off to Europe in September so we’re going to spend most of the second half of the year in Europe and the UK so we’ve got a few things booked in, theres still a lot to fill up the gaps but we’re going to be there for a good three or four months. Look out for us!
Any London dates?
Well there’s a few things booked, we started at Hard Rock Hell and we booked Hard Rock Hell a couple of months ago, then some shows in Sweden and Germany. We’ve got a couple of offers for some supports, can’t really say anything until we have signed off on the dotted line but we’ve blocked out September through to December to Europe. We’ll definitely be there, I can’t tell you exactly where you but we’re there haha!
People often stereotype the Australian lifestyle is that something that is indirectly on the record?
We’re a very laid back bunch of people down here in Australia and I think you kind of have to be that here. Its just the way it is, I don’t know if its a lifestyle or if we play off it, we just go about our business! When we go overseas people point it out but we’re just guys that like to hang out, have a chat and then play some music, if thats a lifestyle then I guess it is but that’s just who we are.
Whats your opinion on reformation of Guns ‘n’ Roses?
Ever since we have been in a band people have been asking in interviews and that who is your favourite band to tour with and I have always said original formation of Guns ‘n’ Roses. I reckon its the closest its ever going to be dude! I’m excited, Axl and Slash on stage together.
Also Brian Johnson being replaced recently…
Yeah I have been asked that one or two times mate haha! You know this is the thing, before it happened I was very critical. I don’t want to know, the legacy is ruined and whatever but as soon as they announced it and I saw the Coachella videos. They’re two of my favourite bands in the world! Whether it destroys the legacy, whether it diminishes what AC/DC is about its going to be fucking awesome to watch isn’t it! Who in their right mind would have been saying AC/DC fronted by Axl Rose thats just out of this world. I’m at least interested to sit by YouTube and watch every video that comes across haha!
What recently has been a record that has been released over the last six months to a year that you’ve been really enjoying?
Good question man! There’s a few, there’s a couple of Australian bands who you might know about, Electric Mary, they have toured the UK a fair bit their last one they released is top notch. To Kill A Mockingbird who are a girl band but they are the girl version of Massive we say, their record is top notch. Overseas, I really like The Answer’s last album, it came out about a year ago that was a really rockin’ album. For the European scene I really like Crash Diet which is probably about eighteen months ago their last album came out. I’m more of the guy that likes to find the artists that no one else knows. As I said I’m at a Rival Sons gig right now, Great Western Valkyrie is a ripper album eh!
That’s very Rock ‘n’ Roll of you!
Hahahah! Yeah man we’re on the same label as Rival Sons, we’ve been exchanging texts with them all day so we’re going to try and catch up with them after the show and talk about Rock ‘n’ Roll. The only we really know about!
Could you tell us about your personal influences for you as a lyricist?
I don’t know if I have many song writers that I look up to or anything like that, I’ve been writing songs since I was in high school when I was fourteen or fifteen. Me and Jared the drummer, we went to high school together and we have been that whole kind of original songwriting kind of thing since then so I guess I have crafted my own way of doing it. I haven’t really copied anyone, influences is everything some of the songs are written about things that never happened, some of the songs on the new album.
“The Way Its Always Been” is written about Aidan our bass player who when we were in Europe drank every night, partied and went home with girls and lived the Rock ‘n’ Roll lifestyle but we were kind of scared for the guy. He didn’t slow down at all and we were telling him to slow down but he knew what he was doing and he made it the whole way. Something as simple as that and I have gone and written a song about. Its whatever comes to mind I guess!
Its kind of personal experience and things like that?
Yeah absolutely! You can’t write about things you don’t know I think the more that you get out and do things the more you’ve got to write about. Thats all you can really do I guess!
From the sounds of it the Australian Rock and Metal community, has it always been this close knit?
As I said its big city but its a small town when it comes to music, everyone kind of knows each other. There’s only really one real Rock station on Radio and any band that gets up above the pack, everyone kind of knows sort of thing. In that sense its close knit, I’m sure there’s rivalries and I am sure there is competition in every city. There’s the haters and the people that want to get there before you but thats competition. Everybody knows someone who knows everyone in this town, its cool because when you go out to a pub you don’t have to go out with your mates, you can just go out and you’ll know people there! I’m happy to call myself Melbournian even though I was born in Sydney.
Thats alright we won’t tell anyone!
Massive’s brand new album Destination Somewhere is out now.
