It’s been six years since the guys from Antiskeptic hit the road for a national tour. It’s no secret that we’re big fans of the band and we were stoked when Nick Coppin agreed to chat to us about the new album and their show at the Small Ballroom on Fri September 26.
A new album for Antiskeptic. Why now?
We’d originally finished up the band in 2008 after going really hard for 10 years. When it all ended there was still that gut feeling that we didn’t achieve all that we set out to do. Andrew had felt the same, but it wasn’t until we reformed for a special show to farewell the iconic pub in Melbourne ‘The Arthouse’, that we started discussing how we were feeling and the possibilities of kicking things off again.
We knew we had a killer album in us, but wanted it to be a step up from anything we’d done in the past, so we really took the time needed to work hard on the songs and production of the album. It’s been a massive effort starting from scratch and building things from the ground up again, but we really feel like we’ve created something that’s fresh, relevant and exciting. We’re really proud of the album and how far we’ve come and are just so pumped to get the opportunity to do this again!
Where did the title STARE DOWN THE OCEAN come from?
When I thought about the whole career of the band and kicking things off again, we’ve had a stack of highs and lows and a lot of hurdles to face to get to this point. We’ve always been an independent band and done things ourselves. We haven’t had an easy ride…we’ve worked really hard and have a real underdog, fighting spirit about us that believes wholeheartedly in what we do. A lot of the songs on the album have this ‘overcoming adversity’ theme running through them and when Andrew called one of the tracks ‘Stare Down The Ocean’, it just seemed the perfect title to sum everything up until this point.
What does something like being ‘Album Of The Week’ on Triple M’s ‘Home Grown show’ mean for the album’s success?
We are incredibly stoked that such a large mainstream radio station is backing what we do and supporting original Australian music! Any support that you can get from any form of media is a massive bonus, so we’re extremely grateful to anyone that digs what we do. We’ve just been so amped to get the album out to hear what people think…so to have this happen, as well as see some amazing reviews coming through is really exciting!
What was the inspiration for the “back to the future” inspired video clip?
When it comes to thinking about video clip ideas, I normally have all these grand visions that would normally be laughed off by video directors, as impossible to pull off on our kind of budget. Luckily I have a great friend Ryan Chamley from Robot Army Productions, who shares my kind of enthusiasm and is an expert at pulling grand video concepts off and making them work!
I wanted to create a clip that was fun to watch and wasn’t your typical music video. I love classic 80’s movies and ‘Back To The Future’ has to be one of my all time favourite movies. I’d imagined the band going back to the future and playing at the ‘Enchantment Under The Sea Dance’. Ryan loved the idea and was able to flesh the storyline out further. It was amazing how things then came together…everyone just pooled resources and through friends, and friends of friends, we ended up with a DeLorean, Hoverboard, Flux Capacitor, Costuming & Stage Props and about 50 extras all dolled up for the dance scene. We got to completely geek out and pretend we were in one of our favourite movies for two days…it was such a blast!
For those of us who’ve never seen you guys play; What’s an Antiskeptic show like?
It’s high energy. We love playing live and feel most at home up on stage. We’re an anthemic rock band, so there’s plenty of big sing-a-long choruses, massive riffs and thumping drums. If you dig bands like Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro, Bodyjar or Green Day, you might just enjoy what we do!
Does Jarrod approach the shows differently given he’s the newest member of the band?
Jarrod’s a gun. He’s the real secret weapon of the band. He’s a talented musician in his own right and can play virtually anything. He used to be the main singer/songwriter in an amazing Melbourne band called City Escape, so we feel really lucky to have him playing with us. He has been really creative from the get-go and has brought so many great ideas to our new songs and helped us achieve that ‘next level’ we were aiming for with our songwriting. As far as the shows go, this upcoming tour will be Jarrod’s first proper run and a real good opportunity for him to feed off a ‘skeppers’ crowd.
Are you brining any new gear on this tour?
Nothing really new. Andrew and I have long term endorsement deals and swear by the gear we use.
Andrew plays Maton Guitars and I use DW Drums and Sabian Cymbals.
I’ve got a brand new DW kit, but unfortunately couldn’t afford to fly it around the country on this tour, which is a bummer, but I’m in a really lucky position where DW look after me with a kit in each state anyway, so I’ll be good to go!
How do you guys feel about people sharing your music online with their friends, remixing it and adding it as background music to videos that they upload?
We get requests all the time for fans to use our music. The majority of time we are fine with it and are just stoked that people dig what we do and choose to use us as a soundtrack to their lives!
Besides getting your album funded, tell us what crowd funding means to the band and why you chose to go down that path?
Crowd-funding was a key part in helping us get things to this point. As I’ve mentioned, we were completely starting from scratch and had all these massive plans to make an album, but with no money. We didn’t really know what to expect when we announced plans to crowd-fund the album as it was a fairly new concept at the time, but it was a real confirmation to us that people wanted to hear more from Antiskeptic, when they started backing it with their hard-earned. We ended up raising over $23,000 in total and will forever be in debt to our fans for giving us the chance to make this album…it was a really overwhelming experience and has set the foundations for us to continue to do what we love to do.
