Interviews

Graves – ‘An Ultra-Aggressive and Very Heavy Comeback’

Adam 'Ricey' Rice

Apr 11, 2024

7 min read

As Wollongong-based metalcore act Graves blow the dust off their instruments in preparation of their comeback tour, alternative music fans all throughout Australia are jumping with joy at the idea of capturing this class act in the flesh as they cause carnage on stages throughout the country once again.

As the tour approaches, we’ve grabbed the band to discuss the tour, what led to the break-up, what their new music might sound like and more.

Thanks for taking the time to chat with us at Wall of Sound. It has been a number of years now since all of you stepped away from music to focus on other things. What has life looked like for each of you since then? I’m aware that some of you have put down the instruments and picked up the feeding bottles as you have become parents. What has that transition been like?

Shaun: Well, I don’t have kids, so my life is pretty good (chuckles). I have money saved which is cool. I’ve just been focusing on my work, while enjoying life over the last few years.

Rhys: I moved to the other side of the country after being offered a better paying job. My life looks like that of a somewhat normal adult with work and kids

Alex: I had two kids in two years. I’m also getting married this year. I think I have been to two live music shows in the past five years since Graves ended. I haven’t been involved with anything in the realm of music at all.

Lachlan: [Struggling with his Zoom connection]

Shaun: I could answer for him. He’s been working and he has one child, a daughter. He also got married. We’ve all just been living life as a bunch of normal adults. We’ve been extremely boring!

How did the idea of bringing the band back together come to fruition and how is this being planned around your already very busy lives?

Alex: [Rubbing his fingers together, gesturing money] Just a bit of this.

Shaun: That was a big part of it, absolutely. Tim from Obsolete Music has been hitting me up for ages trying to convince us to come back together. He basically kept harassing me. I kept telling him that we want to do something again, however, as a collective, we could never find the motivation for it. Eventually, he shared with me his plans to grow Obsolete with his friend Matt and he expressed how much he wanted Graves be the first band that Obsolete put on a full national tour for. He offered to pay us very handsomely, sort out the tour van, hotel rooms and everything else. It was an offer we almost couldn’t refuse.

That piqued our interest in making a return as our mindset shifted towards to ‘well, if we are going to do a tour, we might as well write a few new songs’. That made sense, it was nicer to think that we were expanding Graves, rather than just chasing money. So money, and the fun!

What was the process of stepping into the studio and writing some new tracks together like after having had such a big break from it all? Did things seemingly pick up from where they were left off, or was it a completely new experience? Has your sound changed dramatically after all that time off?

Alex: It’s all gone really smoothly. It is definitely different. Our sound has seemingly evolved and the way we have approached the entire process is somewhat different. It has still come very naturally for all of us though. Shaun has been busy writing new material while the rest of us has been doing what we can. Rhys has been recording vocals from where he lives, over in Perth. I’d definitely say it has been a pretty smooth experience.

Shaun: I agree. When I started writing the songs, it all came together pretty quickly. All of the guys contributed quite a bit which was done quite easily with the use of modern technology. That was the biggest spin-out that we have encountered upon our return – just how much technology has evolved, making the writing and recording process much easier. We have two new songs to release and their creation was just smooth and easy. I have been playing guitar the entire time while also still writing music, while Rhys had still been practicing his singing. In my opinion, these two tracks are a much better, more mature sound. I’m very excited to release these tracks.

As you prepare to drop these two new tracks, has your relationship with your label, Greyscale Records continued throughout this new chapter of the band, or is your relationship with Greyscale Records now different from how is was in the past?

Lachlan: It’s an interesting one. When we released Monster, it happened, and then it was over very quickly. So, I think our relationship with Greyscale Records was very short lived. Greyscale were in their infancy at the time. It has been eight years since then and in that time Greyscale has gone on to become somewhat of an industry leader.

When we reached out and informed them that we had decided to tour and release music again, they jumped on board straight away. Their response was basically, ‘what can we do? We’re here to back you guys.’ Shaun has been dealing with them more than the rest of us but from what I understand they have been very keen and incredibly helpful as we jump back into it.

Shaun: They were very open to release music with us again. We were there with Greyscale in the early days, Ash and Josh have always helped us out. Ash used to manage us before Greyscale came to be so we have a great, ongoing relationship with them which has lasted years, so whenever we do any kind of work within the world of music we will work with them.

During those earlier periods of the band, you used to play alongside artists like Justice For The Damned, Polaris, Thy Art Is Murder, Alpha Wolf, Void of Vision, etc. – all of which who have gone on to achieve huge success throughout the years that followed. Has the lingering feeling of ‘I wonder what could have been if we didn’t throw in the towel’ ever haunted you or have you been content to leave it all in the past?

Shaun: We were burning out very quickly by the time we decided to move on from music. Each of us had pressures coming from different areas of our lives, whether it be from relationships, finances, family or elsewhere, it was taking a toll on us. If we didn’t stop I think that the music we would have released would have been subpar. I definitely think that we needed a lengthy period of time to give attention to other areas of our lives. Currently, we are all in a better position in life, so we can get together, write music, tour here and there, or perform one off shows and it not completely take away from other things that are important to us.

I feel like it was a good thing for us to have called it a day when we did. As individuals, we never had a problem with each other, we are all good mates, and have been since the band ended. However, we were at the stage in our career as musicians where we were caught at a crossroad. We could call it a day, or we could go ahead and tour Europe, North America, Asia, etc. Despite all of this, that lingering feeling does come to haunt me from time to time, but that’s mostly because I don’t have the family commitments that the other guys do.

Alex: I always think that we could have gone on to achieve so much more. If we had of decided to go down that route, I most likely wouldn’t have kids or own a home and have the rich personal life that I now enjoy. I’d probably be a burnt out, washed up thirty something year old alcoholic.

Lachlan: You’re still all those things Alex, but now you just have a house and a job. [entire band laughs]

Shaun: A secure washed up thirty something year old alcoholic! (giggles)

Lachlan: Back to the question, I agree with what has already been said as I always think about it. Just before our Monster album was released, I experienced that buzz about the whole thing. At the time I thought that this is exactly what I will continue to be doing for the next ten to twenty years. I found it easy to envision that for myself. Naturally though, life just happens. As Shaun said, it was for the best for each of us. As I reflect on it now, I definitely wouldn’t change anything. Alex said it well, I wouldn’t have a wife, a daughter or a stable job. Touring is definitely fun but also having a home and things to come home to is a very big win for me.

Rhys: Mentally, I was in a very dark place by the end of it all. I often think about what could have been also but I was probably the most burnt out within the band as I struggled with my mental health so much more than the rest of the guys did. I was also the only one at the time who had a child. As it was said earlier, we were at the point where we could have gone on to spend months away at a time as we went on to tour the world but I’m happy with the decision that we made.

Shaun: You’d have less teeth by now if we never stopped!

Alex: Or maybe more teeth, who knows!

Rhys: (laughs) probably not.

Lachlan: Personally, if we continued, I don’t know how far we might have gone. You mentioned bands like Alpha Wolf and Polaris, they have such a distinctive sound that is uniquely theirs, however, it almost appeals to everyone. You could be a deathcore fan, or you could be a metalcore fan, or you could just be a hardcore fan but chances are, you’d still be drawn to these bands, they just have a good well-rounded sound that draws most people in. Even the way we have written these new songs, we haven’t had the thoughts of ‘this riff is too heavy’ or even ‘this riff is too soft’, but rather, we’ve approached it with a different mentality of ”I like this riff’, and that’s it, we’ve stuck with it. As Shaun said earlier, our sound has definitely matured, however, it still has that Graves sound at its core. I sit at work and I hear Polaris on the radio and I think ‘f*ck me dead, I know these guys’. You would never get that with Graves.

Alex: I don’t think that any bands in Australia are currently making the type of music that we used to make. Years ago, quite a few bands were emulating the sound that we were producing. Now, as we prepare to release these new tracks, I feel as if nobody else in Australia writes music like this anymore.

Shaun: It’s ultra-aggressive and very heavy!

As Lachlan mentioned, bands like Polaris and Alpha Wolf are being played on mainstream radio during daytime slots, which is a new concept for music from our world. As this suggests, the landscape of heavy music has changed in many ways, some dramatic and some quite subtle. As you make a return to the industry, what are some of the changes you have come across and how are you navigating some of these changes?

Shaun: Has any of the other guys been paying enough attention to the heavy music community to be able to answer that question? Because I haven’t (laughs). Personally for me, I have been quite heavily in the dark. I completely retracted from the music scene and deleted all of my socials, I really wanted to start a fresh chapter. It has only been since we have been seriously discussing this comeback, which began in October last year that I have started paying attention again. It is definitely different!

One of the biggest differences is the huge role that social media plays, this aspect makes it a different world than what we are used to, however, it seems like it is better in a lot of ways. It seems like metalcore, hardcore and other alternative music genres are popping off at the moment, quite possibly thanks to this aspect, which is great to see.

On the upcoming tour, you’re taking Starve and Sedative around the country with you as your main supports. If anything at all, what was it about these two bands that stood out to you?

Shaun: We didn’t personally ask for those bands. Not to say anything bad about them at all, Tim from Obsolete linked us to their music and we all agreed that they are two very sick bands. They just weren’t necessarily personal choices, they were recommendations that Tim came to us with. He strongly suggested them in fact. He assured us that these bands are blowing up within the scene at the moment and they are just really nice guys that we would get along with. Since then, I have become more familiar with their music and I think they are very talented. The guy who recorded our latest two singles, Clayton from The Brain Studios, also worked with Starve on their new album as well. In a way, Graves and Starve are from the same recording family I guess. Sedative are super heavy, they are very much like us too. More than anything, I think that they are both bands that Tim from Obsolete wanted to work with, so he is establishing that relationship with them through this tour. We’ve heard nothing but good things about all of those guys and we are extremely excited to tour with them.

Alex: We don’t know any current bands to ask to tour with us.

Shaun: Yeah, all of our friends’ bands have at least 100,000 followers on Instagram and sell out huge venues all around the world. If anything, we would love to support those guys if the opportunity ever arose.

That would be a very cool full circle moment!

Lachlan: With all of us being so out of the loop with everything going on in the world of heavy music, if someone had asked us ten plus years ago who we would like to support us at a show, the answer would have most likely been Alpha Wolf and Polaris, but look where those bands are now.

Starve and Sedative have such a strong sound and they are backed heavily by everyone we talk to, so we are definitely keen to hit the road with them. That’s how we got amongst it all, other bands just gave us a chance and took us on tour when they didn’t know anything about us. As we step back into the realm of music, we have the chance to do the same thing for other emerging acts, which is great.

What is in the pipeline for Graves once you complete the upcoming tour? We all hope that you aren’t going to be one of those bands that makes a big deal of a comeback, then do one tour and we never hear from you again.

Shaun: Spend our hard earnt money (chuckles). We’ll just go back to work and our families. We have planned to write another album. We won’t be as active as we were in terms of touring, however, our online presence will be there. We will keep the creative juices flowing by continually writing new music. I’ve come to learn recently exactly how much that online presence can help drive a band. Touring has always been the biggest part of helping your brand grow but the likes of TikTok and all this other sh*t that we still don’t understand gives bands quite a lot of momentum towards achieving success.

Other than focusing on the new album, if some crazy tours are offered, we would be up for them. We will definitely tour or play the odd show again, just not super often.

Any last thoughts for fans before we prepare to catch you on stage in May?

Lachlan: Go easy on us because we are so f*cking rusty.

Alex: Pretty much what Lachlan said, just give us a few shows to warm up and then we’ll be right.

Rhys: Give me a couple of shows and I’ll be bloody busting a lung!

Alex: We’ll need heaps of guesties for Rhys.

Rhys: Yeah, that’ll be great!

Shaun: I’ll be the business guy here and say thank you for the support we have received so far. The ticket sales have been awesome, some shows are near selling out, Wollongong especially. If you are reading this and you are a fan of Graves, get a ticket as you won’t want to miss the show! With these new songs, I think everyone will be impressed. I’m very excited about everything we have planned.

Interview by Adam Rice

Graves hit the road from May 23rd