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CALIGULA'S HORSE (APRIL 2020)


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INTERVIEWS
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PROGRESSIVE METAL



The coronavirus doesn't stop Music Waves! Josh Griffin, the band's drummer, came to present the Australians' new album, "Rise Radiant".
DARIALYS - 15.05.2020 -
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Usually we conduct our interviews face to face or even by email. The current health situation making these physical interviews impossible until further notice, the Music Waves team has not stopped working for all that! Today, we present you a Skype interview in the company of Josh Griffin, drummer of Caligula's Horse. Nothing seems to stop the Australian progressive metal band who release with "Rise Radiant" their fifth album and who, at the same time, set the bar a bit higher than the previous release, "In Contact".


Hi Josh, nice to meet you!
Josh: Hi, yes me too!


We have our little ritual at the beginning of the interview: I would like to know what is the question that you've been asked too often and that you're tired of answering?

Josh: (Laughs) Wow, surprisingly, I think it's "what's the album about? ». That's probably the one! I'm just the drummer, guys! I just play the drums! Today we're asked what "Rise Radiant" (their new album, editor's note) is about, and we were asked the same question two years ago with "In Contact" too. For me it was a bit complicated because it was a big concept album. In general, I would answer : " Euh... I don't know, don't you want to ask Jim the question" (Grey, the singer and co-composer with Sam Vallen, the lead guitarist, editor's note). He's the architect of all this. This time too but it's easier to answer for once.


It's funny because the question I was about to ask you next was the following: can you explain us the meaning of the cover and the title of the album?

Josh: (Laughs) But I told you, it's easier this time! The idea of "Rise Radiant" is triumph in the face of adversity. It's the easiest way to sum up the idea. You can rise up in the face of that adversity, and that's the concept that the cover with this deer in the middle of these gigantic mountains. The idea is not to say, "You're going to go through hell on Earth". The idea is rather to say that you can do it, you can overcome the difficulties. That's what binds the songs together.


 

It's interesting because I read online, to quote the words of the label, that "Rise Radiant" was a "hymn to the regeneration of self-confidence". While a lot of metal albums deal with dark subjects like isolation, insanity, or whatever, you've instead chosen a positive subject! How did the idea come to your mind to get into this?

Josh : Well, we were just talking about it a few days ago. Yes, there are often some pretty dark themes, because a lot of people suffer from different ills and have to live with them, but I think it's a better way to talk about it in a more positive way. There's positive everywhere, and that's what we need to focus on, rather than negativity. By the way, when we recorded this album, Australia was ravaged by forest fires. It was a national disaster. For us it seemed more important, in this context, to convey a positive message.


Where are you at with these fires now? Because with the coronavirus, in France, we don't hear about it at all anymore.

Josh: Well there's no more fire, now we've moved on to something else with the coronavirus. Personally, I think there's a real sense of solidarity and community with this story, a stronger sense of community than there was during the fires, and it's affected the whole country. When you see fires of this magnitude, a lot of people seemed hopeless. At home, I could see them from my doorstep, so it was very threatening. There wasn't really time to send a positive message about the urgency of the situation. The coronavirus has spread all over the world and it's tragic and scary, but people are dealing with it, I think, especially in art. There's really a community that's formed.


Yes because we are all in the same situation so it's better to help each other and stick together in the face of this invisible enemy.

Josh : Yes that's right. Surprisingly, that episode seems more "manageable" in some ways than the fires.


 

Let's get back to Caligula's Horse if you don't mind! I read online that Sam, your guitarist, said that "Rise Radiant" was the album you wanted to release for ten years! Is it true? And if so, why did it take you so long to release it? Maybe it was due to a certain lack of confidence because some songs go off the beaten track?

Josh: I don't think there's any fear, no. We're a progressive metal band so we go off the beaten track and we go into, let's say, uncomfortable areas! So it's not a lack of confidence. I think our way of writing has just evolved. Sam and Jim are the main songwriters again. Everybody else, we don't have a contribution at that level. For us, it seems to be a continuation of what we've done so far. As a band, we can do almost anything we want musically, and this album has been a big challenge to write and record as well. Since I've been in the band, it's been like "here I found this crazy riff, can you play it? ", " Oh yes, I can! ". We're moving towards an artistic and technical progression. We try to go beyond our limits. It seems that with this line-up and after touring a lot, there's a cohesion. We've never felt so strong, and that's what pushes us forward.


Great! It's good for you, and it's good for us because it bodes well for many quality albums in the future! 'Resonate' is a short song with a pop side and even some electro touches. With the mid-tempo ballad 'Autumn', which also has a pop feel to it, it seems that you are gradually evolving towards a new sound. Is it a direction you want to go in?

Josh : We never try to write a pop song. I remember reading a lot of stuff when Steven Wilson released his album "To The Bone" and his song "Permanating". He intentionally said that he was trying to write a good pop song. Our criteria are more like: is this song immediate? Does it need to be given some breathing space? Are we going towards something with dark electro vibes? Do we make it a ballad? There are a lot of different variables, but writing a pop song is not one of them (laughs).


But at the same time, there are some very metal songs, even djent type songs, like 'The Tempest', 'Slow Violence' or 'Valkyrie'. Do you agree if I tell you that this album reconciles the strong and powerful side of your personality with the more subtle and poetic one?

Josh : Absolutely, I think it's a combination of all that, yes. All the ingredients are distilled into it. On 'In Contact', we had a 15-minute epic called 'Graves'. It was the longest piece we'd ever done. There's 'The Ascent' on this album (the longest track with 10 minutes on the counter, editor's note), but we tried to concentrate on the nuances. We've got a lot of intense passages that sound great, but we wanted to offer a synthesis of all that, something colourful, absolutely.


Dale Prinsse is your new bass player since last year. What was his contribution on this new album?

Josh: He contributed a little bit to the writing of 'The Tempest', but generally speaking, he's been there. On 'The Tempest', he's instantly noticeable. You can hear his presence, his playing, his attitude. I've never felt as comfortable with a bass player as I did with him on stage. He's an excellent bass player. I remember him when we auditioned for another bass player. He was under a lot of stress! We sat down, we started playing, and I remember looking at him and feeling good. He put his personality into this new album, he brought his own touch. I wasn't expecting him to bring all this, he was incredible.




With the album "Bloom", you signed with InsideOut Records and started touring abroad. "In Contact" was the first album to put you in the Australian top 50. This time, what do you expect from this album? What could be the next step?

Josh : Well... This one is not easy! To be in the Australian charts with "In Contact", in a way, it was written in our bucket-list. I would never have said at 17 (takes a pretentious voice, editor's note) : "my band and I are going to be in the top 50 ! ». It's a kind of utopia! And I'd love to see that happen again and in a way, that's what the business expects from us. But for my part, I hope the album will be well received by the critics and by our fans, I really hope so, because for us it's very good. In any case, we are always inspired to write. As we just finished with "Rise Radiant", I'm sure we all have ideas in our heads for the next album. If we can have that, and maybe a little bit more, it will be already very good! Everything else will be extra!


With the rapid rise in popularity in recent years, have you reconsidered your ambitions and raised your expectations to continue to grow further?

Josh: (Thinking). In a way, all that matters in the end is the music. We haven't changed our expectations, we're not going to capitulate on certain things based on market expectations. We're very lucky to be signed to InsideOut and that they respect the music we make. We've never had to write anything we didn't like.


Could you have imagined that it would come to this point one day when you started the band 10 years ago?

Josh: No, not at all. Afterwards, I haven't been in Caligula's Horse since the beginning, but generally speaking, we live each day one after the other. We write music and hope people will like it and want to buy it. Nowadays, if you tour internationally, you know people will come, and that always bluffs me. I never thought we'd live through that one day! But it's never a motivating factor. You really want these things to happen deep down inside you, but you don't write the songs in such a way as to make it happen.


Yes, you can't make destiny happen.

Josh: Absolutely, we've been thinking very organically from the beginning. When you release an album, you don't anticipate how things are going to happen. You see how it's going to turn out. It depends on the universe!

 

Since your first album in 2011, you've managed to maintain a rate of one album every two years. Yet each album seems to be better than the last. How do you manage to achieve this result?

Josh: I would say that this one comes from Sam, our lead guitarist. I often say he's the brains of the band. He really is! It's his project in the first place. He started collaborating with Jim at the beginning. The band was born from their collaboration. Sam's purpose is to write music that interests him. And as I said before, I think we follow a natural evolution. We learn from album to album. As for me, I've already got a little idea of the dimension I want to give to the next album. We always make a point after an album. We think about the direction we want to give to the next one. We're always immensely proud of our albums, but we're always trying to see what works and what we could improve.


"Rise Radiant" may be your best album, but with the coronavirus, you can't go on tour right now. Are there any plans for the end of this year or next year maybe?

Josh: Absolutely! Unfortunately, we had to postpone our US tour. It was supposed to start when the album came out. But at the moment, nothing's scheduled. We'll schedule it when we're sure there won't be any risk for anybody. We have that responsibility, to ourselves, to our families and to our fans. We don't want people to come to our shows if they don't feel safe. That would be incredibly irresponsible on our part. We don't want to put anybody in danger. Everything's on hold at the moment. We can't make any concrete plans. We're all hoping to get out quickly, though: the venues, the bands, everybody. There's also a financial stake, and we want to get out there and play! We have plans to play in the US, probably early next year, and also in the UK and Europe. It's coming soon!


I hope you'll come to France! Honestly, I didn't know you before listening to this album that I had to listen to 15 times already! (Laughs). 

Josh: Thank you, it's a pleasure! Our last European tour was in 2018. We played in Paris, Nantes and Toulouse at the Very Prog Festival (which became Ready For Prog? Festival the following year, editor's note).


In the last 10-15 years, we've seen the emergence of new Australian progressive metal bands, with Voyager, Karnivool, Ne Obliviscaris, Twelve Foot Ninja and many others, while the United States was rather the cradle of this musical style. According to you, what explains this recent revival in Australia, 30 years after the birth of the genre?

Josh : I don't know! There must be something in the tap water for sure! (Laughs). It's very interesting to note that in the early 90s, there was an alternative rock scene in Australia. Things have evolved. I don't think there's a lot of purely progressive rock or metal in Australia, and I think that's what people like. It's progressive, but it's not traditional prog, there's a unique side to these bands. Voyager has vibes that come almost from the 80's, Karnivool is a unique band in terms of sound too. It fits well in the progressive genre though. I think it's good that there's a bit of renewal in this genre.




Earlier I asked you what the question was that you had been asked too often. On the contrary, what would you like me to ask you?

Josh: Oh! (Laughs). Wow! (Thinking). You got me! As a drummer, I'd say, "what are my idols? ». I don't get asked that a lot, because usually I'm told about the band.


And what's your answer?

Josh: Mike Portnoy! I took everything from him! I know he really liked "In Contact". I guess when he listened to the album, he must have thought, "ah, that's from me ! That's also something of mine! ». It all comes from him!


Thank you very much for accepting this interview, it was a pleasure!

Josh : Thank you, see you soon!



More informations on https://www.facebook.com/caligulashorseband
 
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