Ne Obliviscaris is a progressive metal band from Australia. I had the chance to interview Matt Klavins, the guitarist of the band, about their news, tours, and journey.
1. Let's start with a brief history of the band.
Haha, brief… Ne Obliviscaris was founded by Xenoyr, who quickly joined forces with Tim Charles after meeting on a forum. There were a few different guitarists back then, and then I finally joined in early 2004. Looking back now, I laugh because I nearly didn't go to the audition. It just shows that you should take whatever opportunities come your way! Shortly after, we recruited Corey King and Brendan Brown.
In 2005, our songs were starting to take shape, and we began to talk seriously about the band, what we could achieve, and what commitment was needed. On that note, our then-drummer Corey Baker stepped aside. We auditioned a few drummers, and then Brendan said he had a friend who had just started playing drums and was progressing quickly. We auditioned Dan Presland. He hadn't been playing drums for more than a year but showed real potential. We could see that if he kept up the hard work, he could be a phenomenal drummer. Dan went on to claim the title of ‘Australia’s fastest drummer in 2006’.
This was the same year we first hit the live scene after numerous setbacks, lineup changes, and other life-changing events. We got to play with some of our favorite local bands and played our first show alongside Be’lakor. In 2007, we felt we were ready to record and went into the studio with Endel Rivers to record ‘The Aurora Veil’. We were all shocked by the reviews and the fantastic exposure!
This threw us into the underground spotlight, and it paid off when we got to support Suffocation. Then we got an offer to support Nevermore, which was canceled, but we got to play the last Metal for the Brain festival instead, which was amazing. Just as we felt we were on a roll and ready to record our first album, Corey King quit the band due to personal differences, among other things. We nearly gave up but decided to stick it out for a bit. We felt there was too much potential in the band to just give up. We continued writing songs such as "Xenoflux" and "Plague" during our search for another guitarist. After countless auditions, we began to look overseas and in 2008, nine months after we started auditions, we found Benji Baret in France. He was amazing. Everything he played was brilliant. We arranged for him to come to Australia and taught him the songs, getting ready to hit the live scene again. We played a lot of shows all around Australia, and then in 2010/11, we recorded ‘Portal of I’ with Troy McCosker at Pony Music in Melbourne.
Just as we felt everything was going to plan, we were hit with another setback. While Benji was back in France visiting family, his Australian visa was canceled. He was stuck in France, and we had no lead guitarist again. We applied for another visa, which was denied. This started our petition to get him back into the country, which, after 15 months and with the support of our fans, other bands, and industry heavyweights, we won our appeal! Benji came back to Australia, we released our album, and toured Australia extensively. Dan had left the band briefly and did not play the initial album tour, so we had Nelson Barnes from The Schoenberg Automaton for those shows. It’s definitely been nice to get Dan back and start looking ahead to our next album, though.
2. How did you come up with the band name?
Xenoyr came up with the band name, and the band was named before I joined.
3. How do you describe your music, especially considering Ne Obliviscaris is one of the few bands with a violinist?
Progressive metal is the best description, I guess. We use so many different styles and subgenres in our music that it's genuinely hard to describe our sound to people. Our main elements are Prog and Death, but we also incorporate Classical and Black metal.
4. What are your songs mainly about?
Life. The meanings are up to your interpretation of the song. One thing about Xenoyr’s lyrics is that they aren't so in your face and straightforward. They can mean different things to different people depending on how you interpret each song. We prefer you to make up your own mind.
5. Is there any other kind of music that inspires you?
It depends on my mood. Recently, bands in my playlists have been Animals as Leaders and Devin Townsend. While bands that are different and ‘out there’ can inspire new ideas and ways of playing, sometimes just listening to straightforward music can be therapeutic or spark a new concept.
6. You're now recording a new album. Can you tell us a bit about it and its release?
We are really looking forward to this release. We feel that we have matured as musicians this time around and can’t wait to add the new songs to our live set. We will be recording the new album at Pony Studios again with Troy McCosker. Studio time has been booked for the end of the year, and the album will be released mid-2014 through our new label, Season of Mist.
7. What makes it different from the first?
We feel we are much stronger players than when we wrote the songs on 'Portal of I.' Benji really gets to shine on this album as well. The songs aren't finished yet, though. They won’t be 100% finished until they are tracked. We are constantly changing and improvising on the basic song structure until we feel we have the best we can get out of the song.
8. What is the writing process?
This really differs from song to song, as we don’t have a set songwriting process. 'Portal of I' was mainly composed of expanding ideas on one riff that someone came up with, and we just went on the journey to see where we ended up. This time around, Benji has a lot of ideas that have been pent up since recording the last album. I don’t think anyone could ever bring in a full song without it being completely ripped to pieces and put back together in a Frankenstein form of its original.
9. And finally, tell us more about your upcoming events and your hopes for the near future.
We are off to Asia in August for a string of headline shows in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Thailand. When we return, we will be knuckling down doing pre-production for the new album and starting to finalize leads and solos. We will take a couple of months off at the beginning of the year during the mixing process, and then once the album is out, we hope to tour Australia again along with Europe, the USA, and more!
