PREMIERE: Melbourne’s IRONSTONE Are ‘Bound’ To Grab Your Attention With Their Next Era

Posted on November 18, 2019 by Paul 'Browny' Brown

When bands swap/change up members (more importantly singer) it can be a make or break situation for everyone involved, but it’s how they come out the other side on top that really proves they’ve got the longevity to last. Melbourne metalcore outfit IRONSTONE have overcome losing a vocalist, but that didn’t stop them powering through with a newcomer who fit in like they’d been there since day one and on top of that, they’ve got a brand new song which we’re stoked to bring to you today…

We caught up with lead guitarist Edward Warren for a chat all about the next phase, the new song and their forthcoming show with Flynn Effect…

Hey Eddie, congrats on the new track ‘Bound’. For those just checking you out for the first time, give us a rundown of what this one is all about?

Thanks so much. It feels really good to release something new. ‘Bound’ was written about a personal experience and seemed like a topic that other people might relate to. It’s about being restricted by someone who has their own agenda, like a relationship that seems to always favour the other person. Sometimes you have to break free and find your own path even if making that break is really difficult. The idea of the video was to keep it clean and simple and use heavy shadows to show the darker side of relationships. We had a bit of a theme, using rope to represent being restrained and a dancer who shows how good it feels to break free.

I think we can all relate to something like that! And tell us about the band, who makes up IRONSTONE?

IRONSTONE has been going for quite a few years now. We’re all from Bendigo, but of course most of our gigs are in Melbourne. Our line up consists of lead singer and newest member, Dan Charlton, Jackson Whyte on drums, Aidan Kalms on keys and rhythm guitar, my brother Perry Warren on bass and myself…. Edward Warren, on lead guitar. Several of us sing backing vocals as well, which is why we’ve made layered vocal harmonies a key part of our sound.

The thing that caught my attention straight away about this new song is it combines elements from two of my favourite bands – Architects and The Butterfly Effect. Would I be right in saying at least one of those bands have influenced you guys at all or am I completely off the mark?

You are spot on with one of them! We’re all big fans of Architects. I find it so encouraging that you can draw any parallels between such an awesome band and our music! That band in particular played a big part in transforming our taste towards heavier music, more hard-core vocals and down tuning.

Other influences include Twelve Foot Ninja, Wage War and absolute faves, Periphery. We definitely want to shape our own sound, but it’s a natural thing to be influenced by the music we love listening to. The Butterfly Effect is a band we’ve all heard of so now that you’ve said we remind you of them, I’m really intrigued to give their stuff a more in depth listen.

And you’ve got the master producer Chris Lalic (Windwaker) working his magic on this track. How was he to work with and what advice did he pass on in the recording process that you’ve held onto ever since?

Chris is so talented and really has his finger on the pulse of the modern metal sound. We’re big fans of Windwaker, so we were thrilled to get to work with him. We actually did all the recording ourselves and then passed everything over to Chris to mix and master. We definitely learned from him during that process. He gave us great advice about not being afraid to layer lots of extra tracks to create a more atmospheric and interesting sound.

You’ve had a few struggles of your own coming up the ranks, you had a singer leave shortly after the release of the first song, you recorded the next one without a full time vocalist but then luckily found the perfect candidate at the last minute. Are you a band that loves working on the edge of your seats or was that just a one-off situation?

Actually we had already finished recording and filming our previous single, ‘Polarity’ before we found Dan. We felt like finding the right lead singer could take ages, so instead of going quiet and disappearing we decided to release a single as a 4 piece with me on lead vocals.

Basically, Polarity was a transitional release to keep our momentum going. As luck would have it we found Dan just before the song came out. We went ahead with the Polarity release and announced Dan as our new singer a month later. We haven’t looked back. Dan is absolutely brilliant and suits the band so well! We feel like we’re finally heading in the right direction now and we’re so excited about this first release with Dan out front!

And you’ve got a show coming up with Flynn Effect to celebrate the new song… Any surprises in store?

We’re REALLY looking forward to this show. Of course we’ll be playing our new single, ‘Bound.’ No surprises there. But we’ve also been very busy writing new music. We have an awesome new song called ‘Origin’ and we also hope to debut a very new song that’s almost finished. It’s pretty heavy… actually it’s bloody FILTHY! If you want to hear it first, you’ll have to come to the gig!!

Now upon Googling your name, I came across stories about gold being found in ironstone rocks and a fantastic paint colour for your house. If you had to choose between living out the rest of your life as one of those objects (paint or rock) what would you go with and why?

The name IRONSTONE actually came from a local road. There’s good reason for that… Bendigo originated from a gold rush. I could walk out my front door and pick up a chunk of ironstone in my driveway! (I WISH there was gold in it!)

As for the paint colour, I also know that very well. My bedroom is painted ‘colourbond ironstone’ Hmm… I’ve never really thought about that before! Anyway if I had to choose between being paint or a rock? I’d be a rock… pimped out with iron and gold!

So Ironstone has been part of your life for years. Nice! Any last words?

Yeah… thanks so much for shining a light on our new single and video. We’re very proud of this release and really appreciate your support. We hope to see lots of awesome faces and banging heads at The Workers Club on the 13th of December. Flynn Effect are a fantastic band and really awesome people. We’re so keen to help them launch their EP!

Interview by Browny @brownypaul