Karnivool
Karnivool | Hotel Great Northern | Wednesday 29 May 8pm | $56.65
The sleeping giant has stirred: after a quiet 2018 Karnivool has awoken. The beast is back! They spoke with The Echo ahead of their gig at the Hotel Great Northern.
The sleeping giant has stirred: after a quiet 2018 Karnivool has awoken. The beast is back! They spoke with The Echo ahead of their gig at the Hotel Great Northern.
Karnivool evolved out of a band you formed in high school so your musical career started relatively early. Where did the musical influence come from? Did you grow up in a musical family or did the inspiration come from elsewhere?
My mum was a singer back in her day and I have a lot of uncles and cousins who play well and sing well so, I guess, it’s in the blood and bones.
I notice you are also part of another well-known Australian band, Birds of Tokyo. One successful band is often more than enough for a lot of musicians. How do you manage to balance your involvement in both these groups?
Sometimes it’s like juggling infant leopards but, for the most part, it’s handled quite well. Both bands are very different stylistically so they occupy their own space, which keeps them separate enough for it all to work.
In 2010 you had a great experience when you played a show in India drawing 10,000, your biggest crowd up to that time. You said in an interview after the show, ‘We didn’t even have a release or anything. We didn’t even realise we had a following there (in India).’ Must have been a real trip realising that you had this huge fanbase in this far-off country who love your music that you didn’t even know about. Has that happened since in other countries?
Yeah it has, which is amazing, and I think it’s all down to file sharing and internet access. We’ve played in parts of Europe like Romania to sold-out crowds, which is pretty insane.
You have been playing gigs for quite a few years now. What’s it like touring today compared to your early days as a less-well-known band of young blokes living the rock’n’roll dream?
These days I don’t wake up from the night before feeling like a broken bag strap a hobo used as a headband for the last ten years… I’m very focused these days on nailing the show and not the booze.
As part of your Praxis national tour you guys are playing a string of dates on the east coast and are returning to Byron Bay to play at the Northern Hotel, 29 May. What can your fans up here in northern New South Wales expect from your show in a couple of weeks?
We love playing The Northern so the band will be looking forward to it. We’ll be playing some new music so the fans can expect to hear new ’Vool.
What else is on the horizon for Karnivool this year? Do you have any other news you’d like to share with your fans?
After the tour it’s back to writing more new ’Vool. We have a number of songs to finish for the next record so I’ll be very keen to hit some studio hours. I may have to get into an empty bath and think myself clean at some point but then it’s back to the studio.
Karnivool play the Hotel Great Northern on Wednesday 29 May. Tix are $56.65 at northern.oztiz.com.au
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