New Music

Mikey Arthur - The Gloom In The Corner 'Definitely Not All Doom And Gloom'

Jun 9, 2019

4 min read

Australia's heavy music scene is in a good place right now with plenty of bands flying the heavy flag and making a name for themselves but the ones who stand out from the pack are the ones who are trying new, inventive things with their music and visual mediums and The Gloom In The Corner are a band who are doing this so well, especially with the release of their latest EP, Flesh & Bones, which chronicles the story of their protagonist Sherlock who, well, without giving anything away, maybe you should strap yourself in and see for yourself.

As their popularity continues to soar, we grabbed frontman Mikey Arthur for a look back at their EP's release and what they've got their minds set on doing moving forward...

Mikey, Congratulations on the release of the Flesh & Bones EP. Leading up to release, fans were going nuts for the singles you dropped, how did that feel knowing there was a huge demand for these songs to be released?

It was definitely overwhelming to see the response that we got, especially for ‘Misanthropic’; there was like 4 releases happening that day and to see us do so well in that regard was truly heartwarming. I didn’t realise that people actually cared that much until it happened, both about the music and the story.

On top of people digging the music, it was so sick to see (from a writer’s standpoint) people dissecting the lyrics and visual cues to find out what’s going on in the story, right down to the demonic and eerie opening lines of ‘Misanthropic’ (the line is in Spanish, by the way).

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

It shows you're doing something fresh and different which is great as it sets you aside from the rest. Plus, the videos have all been exceptionally directed, produced and edited, who came up with the ideas for them?

The videos ideas very much came from the narrative we’ve pushed since the drop of Fear Me. Since this was really the first time we were able to push current and previous events of the narrative, we wanted to make sure we did it right and give people an insight to our world, while also providing the perspective of this releases main character’s [Sherlock] perspective; to display who he is and what he’s done, and is capable of.

I came to Martin [Wood, guitarist/co-director] with a lot of ideas on how to do it, and he and Colin [Jeffs] pieced together what they could to make the videos visually stimulating while also finding a balance for those who are just there for the music.

The rise in popularity with Gloom has been mesmerising to watch from a distance. Does it feel surreal for you all with the amount of attention you're creating or (like Kanye West) you know what you're doing is worthy of the appreciation levels you've receiving haha

For me it’s definitely surreal; the core of Gloom’s narrative came from me writing stories as an outlet from when I was in high school, and back then I never really thought they’d amount to anything more than a Google Doc or old exercise books tucked away in a drawer somewhere. To see people react and accept the story for what it is and how much they love and connect with it is something I never expected and it really warms my heart.

I remember being deeply touched when I had a friend tell me they showed our track ‘War’ to one of his friends who’s a vet, and how the song perfectly connected with him on so many levels that people just don’t understand, and that he couldn’t be more thankful for the song and for telling a story that everyone who doesn’t understand what it’s like being a soldier returned home from tour needed to hear. It’s stuff like that which truly gets to me, and I couldn’t be more thankful.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TL7EnmAccLg&w=640&h=360]

Well, it means you're doing great work that deserved recognition, so well done. On top of that, you've scored some huge support slots in recent weeks (Born of Osiris/Chelsea Grin, Cursed Earth) and in the past, you've opened for Polaris, Void of Vision and Thornhill... What has been the biggest "holy shit" moment for you personally and the band?

I think definitely for me it was Chelsea Grin; I thrashed Desolation of Eden and the EP when I was in high school so to be given that opportunity is insane to me. On top of that, Tom Barber is one of my favourite deathcore vocalists of all time, so to see him with one of my favourite bands growing up is nuts to me.

And what do you want to do to top that?

We’d love to jump on more tours, maybe make our way over to the UK/EU. There’s a huge demographic over there that we’d love to play there, and we’re always being hit up by people to come play Germany, so doing something like that would be awesome.

What's the intention with the band now? To play this EP tour cycle as much as you can or have you got plans for new music or an album in the works?

For sure touring ‘Flesh & Bones’ as much as we can over the next year or so; it’s our proudest work to date so we want to push that as much as we can. I think next release will definitely be an album, maybe a single or two in between just to tie people over.

We’re always working on new material whenever we get the chance to, and personally for me I can’t wait to dive straight into The Rabbit Hole [our iteration of Hell] on the next release now that the ‘Fear Me’ Arc is more-or-less finished.

What about merch ideas, have you all considered our suggestion for the Goosebumps Book idea on a shirt?

Martin is always coming up with new merch ideas for us, and new creative merch to give people. We have so many ideas floating around that we want to do, but I personally would love to see Sherlock fronting the cover of a Goosebumps novel; it’d probably be the most violent Goosebumps book, but it would be sick to see nonetheless!

When your band name could also double as a Goosebumps book title: The Gloom In The Corner.
Who else thinks this would be a sick merch idea!

Posted by Wall Of Sound on Friday, April 19, 2019

If someone reading this right now hasn't heard the new EP but has read all of the Goosebumps books, which story is the closest to describing Flesh & Bones?

I think The Werewolf of Fever Swamp, just for that supernatural ‘Dr. Jekel vs Mr. Hyde’ factor that werewolves vs their human form generally seem to have. However, the past couple of releases (including Flesh & Bones) have been heavily influenced by entertainment sagas such as Skulduggery Pleasant, The Punisher (Netflix adaptation) and Watchmen, as well as horror movies such as Insidious and Stephen King’s IT.

Well, all of the above are some of my favourite things (Marvel/Horror) so you've hit the right target with me... Any famous last words?

If you want to know everything about the story up to ‘Flesh & Bones’, we have a document located on our Linktree (https://linktr.ee/thegloominthecornvr) that has an entire rundown of the story, and should fill out most of the gaps!

Thanks for the chat Mikey!

Interview by Browny @brownypaul

Flesh & Bones EP is Out Now. Grab a copy here