Mark Hosking from KARNIVOOL - Interview by Stephen Lane

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10 June 2009

SL - Thanks for joining me Mark, did Ian's involvement with Birds of Tokyo have anything to do with sound awake taking so long to record?

MH - I would probably say no, man. I think we're trying to work out where the four years went <laugh> the other day because we've had this question a few times. I think basically we look at it as we released Themata and then we spent about a year touring that pretty solidly  on possibly even a year and a half. And then sort of, we took about six months off to do our own things and then when we came back, that left about two years for, for songwriting, recording the whole kit and caboodle. So when we kind of analyze it like that, it doesn't feel like a long time.

SL - That seems quite reasonable now you put it like that... To the fans, they just have time between releases... 

MH - Yeah, it is. It really is. I mean, I guess other bands just are able to do it quicker, you know, I mean, for example, I know they're, they're sort of pushing to release another album next year and we're sort of going, wow, guys have done three albums since we released one. It's kind of like, oh wow, it's just a totally different world. I guess, it just depends on what kind of music you're writing and what you're doing. I mean, to us music isn't a business and we don't have this guy constantly saying, oh, come on, is your album ready? Is your album ready?

I mean, we are artists, but we don't like at our music like "You've gotta get another album out to live". We don't sort of look at music like that. We write and when it's ready we'll release it, which is why we've tried to stay, we still are in Australia, as a fully independent band and that way it gives us a whole bunch of freedoms as far as music goes.

So, you know, as far as writing and recording the album, it just took as long as it took. And for us, unfortunately, that's not quick because we're fairly anal and we like to push things to the absolute nth degree to make sure that we've got the product we want. 

Sure. And yeah, I think as far as the Kenny goes, a lot of the albums recorded without vocals and then he just comes in and does his thing. Some of it wasn't, but some of it was, I guess it's just good management man. We're lucky to have a good manager and just people around us that can make sure that we, where we need to be when we need to be there.

So, you know, he goes away and does something, comes back, we just kick back in. We've all got different projects, you know, I, I tour manager other bands, so I'll go away for a bit and then come back and we'll just kick back on from where we left off, you know what I mean?

SL - Yeah man! - So with bands like Eskimo Joe, End Of Fashion, Jebediah, what the hell is in the water over there?

MH - Yeah, I don't know. to be honest, I'm originally from Melbourne. I moved here about six years ago when we pretty much started properly writing or putting together Themata... and you know, even coming over here then six years ago, every pub had a good band play at night. You couldn't go out and not find good music. I don't know, I don't know what it is... obviously it has something to do with the isolation factor, you know, probably something to do with the economic situation. Some sort of professor or doctorate degree would probably tell you something along those lines. I don't know what it is now. All I know is that, there's a whole bunch of good musos here and with really good attitudes and it's a really self-supporting community, which I think helps a lot.

SL - With that, does it help having so many like big bands come outta that area? Does it make it harder to get noticed or, or easier or, does it make it harder to make a dime?

MH - I think, well, I mean, it just depends on what you want to do. You know, if you're trying to belt out a career playing in a pub every night locally, I'd say no matter where in the world you are, you're gonna have a hard time doing it, if you're a jazz muso anywhere around the world, you're gonna have a bloody hard time making a dollar too. But I think, you know, once you sort of hit a certain level of music and, and you're lucky enough to, to get enough attention from people, I guess it, it takes a different perspective. But yeah, it was hard. It was hard in the first instance, even when I came over and, and we started playing it, you know, just pushing off the back of the ep, we'd do small shows to small crowds and, you'd come pretty close to breaking even and you'd do it for the love and the passion of it and you just hope that it got better.I guess that's sort of what you do at that stage.

SL - Yeah totally... 

MH - I guess per Perth was good because there was a lot of venues at the time and there still is, you know, a few have died but a few are coming back that's catered for bands to be able to do that, you know?

SL - Do you guys, does Karnivool hang out with anyone in particular? Like any bands? 

MH - We do man, well, at the moment in our studio where our permanent studio is set up, we have Gyroscope downstairs, End of fashion across the road, we're all in the one complex. So, you know, we're always hanging out downstairs and chatting and, you know, probably not so much writing together, but talking about writing, talking about the idea of writing and, and the rest of it. You know, other bands come and go and we keep in constant touch with a whole bunch of muso's around Australia that we love. We did that small project with Wally De Backer (Gotye) from Melbourne. Yeah. All the Cat Empire guys, we sort of play with whenever we get a slight chance to do so. Yeah. I don't know man. I guess when you sort of travel in those circles and if you've got the passion for music. That like we do, man, it's hard not to be chatting with these people...

SL - Oh, absolutely. And do you guys catch up with other bands that Karnivool has been associated with in the alternative rock world in Australia, like, do you hang with bands just like your own, and mix with that scene? I'm thinking of two bands in particular, with maybe with the likes of COG and Butterfly Effect? Are you guys all friends? Do you guys hang out and stuff together? 

MH - We do man. Yeah, we we're really cool with those guys. They just came over here last week and did their show down at Freemantle and we all, actually, I wasn't here, I was in Byron Bay, but everyone else went and had a look...

SL - Was that with COG? 

MH - Yeah COG, they all hung out with Cog. Yeah.

SL - Side note, I have hung with Lucius  a few times.. One particular time, I was on tour with a Melbourne DJ Bexta, as I used to be a DJ and I was in the same hotel as you guys. And I somehow ended up in some funny position getting home from the gig to seeing Lucius and, and Licker (Luke) from Dead Letter Circus skinny dipping in the hotel pool. We all had breakfast together after that. I had hung out with Lucius previously at a festival in Cobram, the Peaches and Cream Festive. 

MH - He is a very cool cat. Very cool cat. Yeah man. So we hang out with him every time any chance we get, man. We did a support tour with them. And when Themata was just released, that was the first time I'd really probably met the guys and I you know, they are just like-minded heads I guess, man, you sort of just, just gel to one another.

The Dead Letter Boys. A whole bunch of fun too.

SL - When I was touring, you just find yourself getting mixed up with all the other tours you know...

MH - Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well that's just it man. You know, Aussie touring seniors, you know, we're not really, oh hell know. I suppose we are kind of, but you know, some bands just do it for the scene <laugh> and you don't blame 'em man. 'cause there's some really cool cats out there and it's, you know, we're just lucky in Australia, I think we've got no prick bands, you know, I'm sure there's some, but thankfully we're not in the same boat as them so we don't have to worry about 'em. But yeah, it's great man. It's a great, great place to tour.

SL - On your new tour you guys are about to head off on, you have decided not to hit the regional towns and cities, choosing only to do main cities. Was it too risky to hit the regional areas on this one? What was the reason for the big city tour? 

MH - No, it wasn't risky man. It was just, well we had to make this one a quick one for some other obligations that we've got happening overseas and, and the rest of it, we need to make it a concise tour.  We really want to get out and tour massively and we've got a plan for that for near the end of the year (2009). Yeah. We're doing a much longer tour, taking in lots of different towns, you know. Yeah.

SL - That was a bit of a personal question from me, You guys have Sugar Army coming out on tour with you to those major centres and I love that band. I was really bummed to have missed out on them as well as you guys!

MH - They are a great band, well, you know, fingers crossed will be able to drag them out again later in the year as well. <laugh>  And you know, again, same as that thing before man, just top Cats, you know, it makes such a difference to be able tour with really nice people. It's just fucking great.

SL - Absolutely. 

In relation to the new album, and Sing Sing Studios, I am keen to know why you guys choose Sing Sing? 

It's one of the first things that I noticed when I listened to the album, I threw it on and after about 20 seconds. I went flying for the cover, looking for where it was recorded...  the drum and bass sound has Sing Sing written all over it.

MH - <laugh> Yeah, I guess. I don't know. Well sing sing, we've known the cats there for a long time..   Forrester Savell, has worked there before. Adam Rhodes, Tim, Tom, the whole, you know, the whole kit and caboodle of everyone that's been there. We've done bits and pieces through there over time and I've also worked there with a whole bunch of other bands as well. t's just a comfortable space. It's Melbourne, we fucking love that place, you know, it's a great working city. We know a lot of good people there. I'm originally from there, which helps. It just, I don't know, it felt right mate, to be honest. Last time we there we used the Metropolis in South Melbourne, but that's since closed down.

SL - What was the reason you guys didn't record there as well? Like, I noticed that you only mixed it at Sing Sing and you recorded in Perth. Is that 'cause of your day jobs?

MH - <Laughs> well no, if we had recorded it, sing sing the album probably would've cost us about six times. <laugh> we recorded in various studios around Perth and other places that sort of took advantage of friends and the ability to set up for a long period of time... I mean not, not totally. Some were quite expensive, like that last one we did is a place a here called Kingdom, which is a beautiful old Masonic hall that we used. Some awesome old Neve desks and you know, just bits and pieces left, right and center of it. 

I think.. for a whole band to be situated out of Melbourne for a period of six months would've sent us bankrupt, I think Man.

SL - Yeah, <laugh>. Yeah. Fair enough.

MH - Yeah. it's not cheap at the best of times. So, you know, we had to do it... economically and how best to make it work for all of us, especially with all our other commitments and everything. And basically out of Perth for the recording process was just to, to obviously expensive for us.

SL - How did you go about recording the album, did you all sleep in the studios, or was it a gradual thing?

MH - Yeah man it was more of a gradual thing, we did the drums first in the studio, a good friend of ours Dave Parkin at Blackbird Studios in Perth, we did all the drum tracks and Forrester came over for all them. We normally do bass next but we thought we would do it a bit differently for this one, and we set up guitars next. A lot of the parts were just floating, we didn't want to do anything else until we had solidified them, so we did the guitars next, and then we did Bass, you know, we set up huge rooms full of equipment, so we have instruments and different sounds to pick from for each song.. to make sure we got the right sound for the right song, you know, secondary guitars, synths, layers, midi, you know, everything after that... and once all that was done, we went back and re-did everything in a jam room... from scratch, so everyone was in the same room playing along and then, you know, we melded the two.. got the feel of the jam room with the quality of the recorded room. The best bits of both sections and over dubbed the vocals onto that. 

SL - Well it certainly sounds full and amazing. Whatever you guys did has worked! 

Back to your tour coming up soon, what made you guys pick Sugar Army for the support for this one? 

MH - We really love their new stuff, and their manager is our assistant manager, so we get their demos played to us which is super cool. We hear their new stuff pretty early, I just fuckin love it man, I think their direction is amazing, and they are a pretty talented bunch of cats...

SL - The new stuff, is that from the Where do you hide your toys EP? 

MH - Yeah man, absolutely, and that new single, I forgot the name of it but it's super catchy, pretty cool. 

SL - Before I let you go mate, I'd love a comment on what you think of Aussie Alt Rock now.. and what the direction of it is like and where it is going.

MH - I think it is really fresh man, obviously in the early days it did sound a bit generic, like we are the little brother of some American bands, but now I tend to feel that we have got our own sound... It's a little Australian, probably thanks to COG I'd say, being able to express an element of individuality amongst a fuckin plethora of generic sounds you know?! - I think a lot of us sort of listened to that and thought, "wow, this is amazing", "how do we do that!?". Yeah it feels good, and feels right, and feels like it will head in the right direction which is the main thing. 

SL - Mark Hoskings, thank you for your time today, I know you are on your lunch break at work, so thanks heaps for the chat, and I hope to see you down in Brissy at your next gig! 

MH - Thanks man, all good! See ya!