Line-up
Tom Kiely // Vocals
Rory Venville // Guitar & Vocals
Declan Le Tessier // Guitar
Giuliano Macri // Drums
Online:
It’s been an absolute mammoth couple of years for Perth band Patient Sixty-Seven who have boasted great success off their Home Truths EP, signed to InVogue Records, and released a Reimagined single featuring Sleeping With Sirens’ Kellin Quinn.
Well, it’ll be just about a year to the date when the band pay homage to their successful EP, by releasing the Deluxe version, packed with a punch - but more on that later.
After getting their 2018 cover of ‘IDGAF’ in my head, I jumped on Zoom with vocalist Tom Kiely for a chat about the Deluxe release, in the midst of Perth’s five-day lockdown (said in Melbourne, with only an ounce of sarcasm).
The interesting thing to note is contextualising the discussion between myself and Tom. Whilst I have got to see Patient Sixty-Seven grow and flourish over the years, I learned that Tom is doing the same. He claims to always remember me from that time when I reviewed one of Patient Sixty-Seven’s earliest shows (several years ago) in Perth, supporting Buried in Verona in 2016.
Subsequently, Tom’s seen Wall of Sound grow into a publication that we’re obviously super proud of, but the point worth making here, is that I found myself in the privileged position to be talking to one of the most humble and highly emotionally intelligent musicians out there, an individual who’s part of a band that truly thinks out of the box.
The pipes behind Patient Sixty-Seven put it like this. “It’s good that we have good journos and people around still covering this stuff, especially in Australia, there's never a shortage of content.” Ain’t that the truth, in terms of content I mean...
But how do the Perth boys get noticed in a highly-competitive local metalcore environment, when everyone’s trying to make it? Well Tom’s got some ideas, and when he talks about the approach to their upcoming Deluxe EP, you’ll get a feel for it.
“We have the new single called ‘Antithesis’ which was an opportunity to showcase something new, and our progression as a band,” and when you couple an evolving sound with a release that’s less than a year old, fans can experience the growth immediately.
The band released their EP Home Truths on Valentines Day, and were ready to tour their socks off, however a little virus got in the way. But what I freakin’ love about these guys is that they truly turned lemons into lemonade.
“What we did with that time instead [of touring] was think about how we really pride ourselves about being a band that wants to stay quite busy, so we started recording and released songs throughout 2020,” and now they’re ready to throw those bad-boys onto the Deluxe.
“It kind of tells you how much music we actually put out, that we couldn't even fit it all on there.” If you jump down to the track-listing, you’ll see this release is as chunky as an LP, which is a phenomenal effort, really.
Signing with InVogue was an incredible achievement for the band, and it wasn’t just for the sake of accolades, they absolutely utilised the potential to get their music heard. “It was a chance for us to use their platform and branding to push us out to more people, and when they do, we can go ‘hey, here’s our Deluxe EP, there’s like an hour of stuff on it, see if you can find something you like.”
To call a spade a spade, there’s a highly worshipped recipe to heavy music success, well at least that’s what most bands follow - however, it takes a diamond in the rough to think innovatively and Tom puts it best.
“For us, by being in Perth, we've always had that sort of mindset where we act locally but think globally.”
Go back and read that sentence again.
“Touring for bands is so hard in Perth, period. So we were well positioned to tackle the quarantine with a full head of steam and I think the reason for that is because we've never had expectations.” Patient Sixty-Seven are conscious of the financial constraints of touring, landing big shows and all of the challenges that come with trying to progress in a saturated environment.
“It became quickly obvious to us that while we might not be able to utilise our live shows to generate interest, everyone's on the internet listening to music,” so they wanted to be that band that everyone was looking for, and needed in their lives. “We wanted to become a real consistent presence in a time where people aren't really sure of much, so it's just about reframing the narrative a little bit.”
I could write about this band’s resilience and fresh outlook endlessly, however I think the message is clear. These Perth locals are not only sonically enormous, but they’ve also appealed to their global demographic, and that’s what’s helped them get to the incredible spot they’ve gotten to. Hell, listen to their Pop Goes Punk cover that not a lot of Aussie bands are trying out.
Alright, so let’s down to biz-nase and find out what we can find on this Deluxe EP. “It’s 16 songs, it’s a bit silly,” the charming vocalist chuckles - “but we really like instrumentals and we’ve always wanted to give something back to the fans who have already heard our stuff. There’s five instrumentals and I think it's also a way of bringing people back who’ve heard it, and giving them a reminder for another listen.”
Those five instrumentals are coupled with the original tracks, a few Reimagined releases, ‘Antithesis’, featuring Rory Rodriguez of Dayseeker, and a couple of brand new ones.
Patient Sixty-Seven are really proud of the upcoming release, and they should be. It fuses their emerging talents with their adaptable products throughout some of the toughest times in their lives, but also including a collaboration with Kellin Quinn.
“That's a song that is a special one that we dropped after announcing joining the label and the original song’s really important to me, and obviously to finally work with Kellin finally after writing with him is really fitting. I’m really happy that it gets a place on something as opposed to just being a (standalone) single.”
As far as this Deluxe goes, the band reckon there’s much more where that came from. “We're already writing new music, we don’t want to rush it because the next set of original songs we put out is really going to define ourselves in a lot of ways, so we definitely want to get the sound the way we want it to be.”
However, the front-man has mental health front of mind and is not going to allow him or the band to forget to take a breather. “it can really burn you out so you've got to stay mentally fresh.”
Well, since Patient Sixty-Seven are making proverbial stonks on the rock-market, it was worth finding out who the dream collabs would be, and we took a moment to dream big for our boy Tom. “Maybe someone like Winston from Parkway Drive because he's such an icon of Australian heavy music, with what he's done for metalcore.”
“More selfishly, I'd also love to get in a room with someone like Oli Sykes or Jordan Fish and see those guys write, cause they’re next level, always pushing the boundaries and ahead of the curve for every single release.”
Check out the Deluxe EP from Patient Sixty-Seven and you’ll really hear who’s pushing the boundaries around ‘ere.
Interview by Ricky Aarons @rickysaul90
Patient Sixty-Seven’s Home Truths (Deluxe) is out on 12 February.
Pre-order the EP here.
Patient Sixty-Seven - Home Truths (Deluxe) tracklisting
1. Help Inflicted
2. Where To From Here
3. Blackout
4. What’s Left Of Us
5. Retrograde
6. What’s Left Of Us (Reimagined)
7. Antithesis feat. Rory Rodriguez of Dayseeker
8. Stay Paranoid
9. Retrograde (Stripped)
10. Where To From Here (Reimagined) feat. Kellin Quinn of Sleeping With Sirens
11. Help Inflicted (Instrumental)
12. Where To From Here (Instrumental)
13. Blackout - (Instrumental)
14. What’s Left Of Us (Instrumental)
15. Retrograde (Instrumental)
16. Anti Social feat. Outline in Colour
