Mikey Arthur - The Gloom In The Corner 'Not Forcing The Process'

An act which stands at the forefront of Melbourne's up and coming metalcore community is none other than The Gloom In The Corner. If you aren't familiar, these guys are a concept band who manage to fuse the abilities of storytelling and musicianship with ease. We grabbed frontman Mikey Arthur to pick his brain about the groups latest single, becoming a signed group and chipping teeth during their performances.

Hello Mikey, thank you for taking the time to chat today! Firstly, I want to congratulate you on your signing with Collision Course Records. It seems like a bit of a bizarre time to join a record label with the current state of the music industry and the world, how did this come to fruition?

Thank you! It all happened just before the lockdown procedures came into effect. It all came about because we went to Tim Price (Collision Course Records, Collision Course PR) for marketing for the upcoming three tracks, he then told us "hey, I'm starting a new record label, would you guys like to be on it?" Tim and our manager Josh then discussed some finer points before we eventually worked out a deal. It all happened just as COVID-19 started becoming a serious issue here in Australia; nobody could have predicted it.

Now that you are a signed band, does that mean you lose some creative control or even the control of your social media?

Not at all, Tim is incredible to work with; he knows what we are doing is down to a pinpointed structure. So he understands that if we want to do something a certain way, then he is happy to roll with that. He more so takes the reigns when it comes to marketing and distribution, as well as all the other behind the scenes things that goes on, and we aren't super familiar with that side of the industry. He works on making us a lot bigger and pitching us to different people etc. He doesn't take any creative control over what we want to do or anything like that; he is super flexible, and it is incredible to work with someone like that because I don't think many people like Tim come around all that often, so we are very fortunate.

You have released 'Violence' which is the first of three singles. Personally, I think it is a great song! What can listeners expect from the next two singles? Will they be a similar direction that you have taken in 'Violence'?

I think it is a mixed bag. 'Violence' was aimed to be more of an introduction to who we are as a band and our storyline for those who haven't listened to us before. We kind of see it more of like a TV theme song to put it in one perspective. The next two singles to be released are different from 'Violence', but they are still heavy, just different kinds of heavy if that makes sense. I don't think people can accurately expect what we are going to be doing, or at least I'd like to think that. They will be different from 'Violence', which was kind of an outstanding track when it comes down to it.

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

When it comes to writing music and lyrics, are you faced with any limitations of following a specific storyline?

Yes and no, I am very much influenced by a whole heap of different things such as, pop culture, what's going on in the world and my own personal experiences. Generally, it comes and goes. When I have to force the process is when things get complicated, but generally, it is pretty easy going. I primarily write 90% of the song, which I call the skeleton of the song and then the rest of the band will bring it to life by adding their own personal touches. Nic rewrites some of the drums, Matt will rewrite his guitar part, and Paul will do bass rewrites as well, which gives the band influence over the song structure as a whole. We are all really hands-on, but I generally come forward with at least the cadaver of the song first then it is their job to bring it to life to a certain degree.

What direction will the lyrics take when the story of the 'fear me' arc comes to an end?

The arc is definitely coming to an end. I'm not sure how much I am allowed to say without giving anything away, to be honest, because we are trying to keep it as close-knit as possible. At least with the next single, we focus more on a directionally pointed view, as for the last track I am not allowed to speak about it as I would most likely get in trouble.

Completely fair enough! It has nearly been one year since the release of your EP Flesh and Bones (our review here), are you happy with how the touring cycle for that EP went? Also, do you hope to tour the next three singles once they have all been released despite COVID-19?

We are super happy with how Flesh and Bones came out and how it was received. I wasn't expecting that kind of response from people; I found that a lot of fans delved quite deep into the story and wanted to find out more which is what we were struggling with for a hot minute. It has been awesome to see fans take everything on board and show passion for what we are doing. As for touring with the three singles coming out, we were initially meant to be doing a tour for 'Violence' which was set to take place in May, but we have pushed that back. It is looking like we will be doing a tour for one of the other two singles coming out, we are just unsure which one we will be doing it for, it might even be a tour for all three singles. It is just super hard to tell what we can and can't do and what we can and can't book at this point. Some people are saying that it is going to let up in September/October, others are saying it will not let up until 2021 so we are being forced to wait it out and see what happens. Hopefully, we get to do something cool with the three singles.

In a past interview (here) you have mentioned that once you have finished the touring cycle of Flesh and Bones, your goal is to focus on a full-length album with a few singles in between. Now that you are drip-feeding us singles, does this mean that we can expect a full-length album?

We have started working on an album, I've written a few songs and have started that whole cadaver process. It is definitely on the cards, but at this point, we want to focus on getting out those last two singles and doing it in a way that people can access it, especially in this current climate. It will be cool to move on to the next record and to move on to the next arc of the story that we can push forward.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rzfwUSRGyc&w=640&h=360]

Martin (guitarist) decided to leave the band to pursue his music career with Dealer. How has this affected the dynamic of the group?

I mean this most polite and nice way possible but it hasn't had that much of an effect. Martin had a lot of input on the creative side of things when it came to marketing and branding. To be fair with Martin, he did his absolute best to balance both bands, and we commend him for that, he put in as much input as he possibly could. It was sometime through last year when he found out that he would be touring the USA with Dealer and that's when it really clicked for him that he wouldn't be able to manage both bands, his videography and his photography work as well as he had hoped. He definitely had an input creatively when it came to imaging but when it came down to songwriting, him leaving the band wasn't a huge deal. It sounds mean saying it like that, but I am not sure how else to put it.

I noticed that in the past twelve months, you had some massive support slots. For example, you supported Chelsea Grin and Born Of Osiris, as well as Ice Nine Kills at their Good Things sideshow in Melbourne (revisit here). All this seemed to eventuate from the Flesh and Bones EP, do you have any goals of what you are trying to achieve in this sense once you release all three of these new singles?

Well if Ice Nine Kills come back to Australia to do a national tour, they are more than welcome to hit us up! (laughs) That would be sick! I try not to keep those kinds of goals in mind. If a band comes along and they are touring, of course, we would love to jump on it. Chelsea Grin was a big one, especially for Matt and myself, we grew up listening to that band, same thing with Paul. Ice Nine Kills was a big one for me because we got the opportunity to play alongside and watch a group of musicians of that calibre do a similar kind of thing that we are doing. To be honest, until The Silver Scream came out I never really took much notice of them, once it all clicked and I realised what they are doing, I went back through their music and have become a big fan. The only one I can think of at the moment is that it would be unreal to do a full Ice Nine Kills tour, it all just depends on what bands are touring at the end of the year and what offers we receive. We could be having no international acts coming over, so we just have to see what happens.

If that ever happens, I'll be there with bells on! 'Misanthropic' managed to find its way into the better half of The Faction's Hardest 100 Countdown by landing at Number 45. What was your response to this happening?

I think we got told that 'Bleed You Out' was going to be in there somewhere, then we were later told that it was actually 'Misanthropic', but I had no idea that it was going to place at the spot it did, and we are super humbled that it got that spot. The only critique that I made was that I wish it landed at number 47 just to coincide with the lyrics, that would have been funny. It was great to see people jumping on board with it, and we hope that support will continue, at least through this challenging time. We had no expectations going into it, but we were super stoked with the result.

I have been lucky enough to watch The Gloom In The Corner perform several times now, one thing I have noticed is that the group's stage presence collectively is super energetic and it is very refreshing to watch. Paul's (Bass) enthusiasm in particular is unreal to witness. I heard a rumour that he once chipped his tooth on his bass due to excessive headbanging. Is this true?

(Laughs) That is 100% true. That was at the Chelsea Grin and Born Of Osiris show. We walked off stage, and he turned to me and told me what had happened. It actually happened during the intro of 'Misanthropic', and he continued to power through it like it was nothing. Apparently, it wasn't a bad chip or anything; he just took off the tiniest little bit. I don't think he went and got it fixed either so I think he still has a slightly chipped tooth. We had another incident where Matt spat out saliva during the set, thinking it would be fine but he accidentally spat blood all over Paul. It always seems to be Paul that cops it.

Interview by Adam Rice @adamrice1994

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDQeRz3374g&w=853&h=480]