New Music

Dylan Gillies-Parsons - Gravemind 'Generating Discussion in a Reserved Australia'

Apr 11, 2018

7 min read

Deathcore. Some love it, some hate it. But somewhere in the middle stands a balance of understanding and appreciation of the talent that's in front of you and that can be said about Melbourne' Gravemind who are certainly drawing all eyes on them at the moment following the sell out of the 7" vinyl package for their new single 'Lifelike'... in just 20 seconds.

The drawcard (apart from their music) was the very limited edition laser-embossed wood box that included individually typed lyric sheets for the single that could also be planted, resulting in a plant growing. Now THAT'S fucking cool. So we grabbed vocalist Dylan Gillies-Parsons for a chat all about it, his band's new direction and how it's harder to crack it in your own backyard compared to international markets.

Hey Dylan thanks for chatting with us, for those who haven't discovered Gravemind yet, describe yourself in 4 words.

Four very poor boys

Your new song 'Lifelike' has a new sound behind it. To be honest, I'm not the biggest fan of deathcore but this I can get behind. Was it a conscious decision to change within the band?

Look, fair enough. We’re not the biggest fans of deathcore either haha, outside a handful of really talented bands. The only conscious decision we ever made regarding genre was when we did our first EP, when we wanted to make a deathcore EP of all the things we loved about the genre.

Since then, it’s been whatever feels right. Damon (Bredin - Guitarist/Writer) wrote the instrumental over a couple recording sessions, and I’d been writing lyrics since the release of our last EP, and just drew on the words I thought were fitting to the song, and the overall vibe of the band at that point.

Progression as musicians in it's earliest form. I dig it. You've put out new music every year for the past 3 years. What's the motivation behind producing and releasing new music more times a year than I change my underwear?

We like to push ourselves, and keep busy. We always say after each release that we’re going to give ourselves a much needed break, but it never happens.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL21ORcGFQk&w=640&h=360]

And the merch offerings you have for fans are next level, how'd the idea for the test pressing, plant growing idea come about?

Thanks mate, we try our best. Well, the idea for the box came to me before bed, as most ideas do. I was thinking it would be great to give the test presses a nice little housing (or Pizza box, as mum called it). The idea for the plantable lyric sheet came from work actually.

One day when we were having a team meeting about how they were going to change up the way we’re judged on sales, they handed us around these ‘motivational quote’ cards. I remember thinking, what a waste of paper, then I looked down to see that these cards had little seeds and could be planted in soil to grow flowers, touché.

I was so excited, I told all my co-workers how this could tie in really well with our songs theme of being born against your will, then being faced with the fact that we all have to die. And that we could give our fans the choice to create life of their own, and hopefully really consider it. Probably one of the weirdest things I could have done at work, to be honest.

Yeah your workmates were definitely talking about you behind your back after that haha In a few years time if a lucky owner of a test pressing/tree invites you guys over to sign/engrave it, will you do it no matter what?

Without hesitation. We’ve already had one of our fans say they’re going to plant the lyrics in the box, so we’re stoked to see how they turn out.

The US market has jumped on you boys something fierce, how do you juggle between maintaining those international relationships while still building an Aussie fanbase at the same time?

We’re really lucky when it comes to the states. Firstly, because deathcore is still a really big deal over there, and secondly, because when Americans find music they like, they tend to shout it from the treetops.

We find it harder to generate discussion in Australia, because I find we’re all more reserved with telling each other who we like, until someone else tells us it’s cool to do so first haha.

That’s what we find anyway. We have incredible fans in both countries, and we’ve found our tours have only been getting bigger and bigger turnouts here. We just need to kick some more ass, and make a US tour a reality (sooner, rather than later).

That statement about Australia is so true it hurt hearing it. Definitely need to change that mentality. So you can get more Aussies on board sooner, when are you hitting the road down under next?

We’re touring in May with our pals in Diamond Construct and mosh newcomers, 23/19 (yes, Monsters Inc. Yes, how good is that name?)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUFJ1yVhJ6g&w=640&h=360]

That is the fucking coolest name meaning I've heard in a very long time hahaha And when the forthcoming album drops, can we expect some shit hot merch again?

I’ve been thinking long and hard about merch for the album, and I’ve definitely got some pretty huge ideas in mind. We’ll just have to wait and see what we can get away with when the time comes!

Sounds good to us, thanks for the chat, check out the new single below, merch options here and jump on the Gravemind hype train now (it's ok they're cool to us)

Browny @brownypaul