INTERVIEW: Alien Weaponry
Since exploding on the scene last year with their debut album Tū , New Zealand’s ALIEN WEAPONRY have been taking the metal world by storm. Their groove-laden brand of thrash metal feels akin to the great SEPULTURA, and the incorporation of their native Maori language gives both an insight to their heritage as well as sounding absolutely powerful next to the metallic works of the guitars and drums. It’s a fusion that has worked a treat and the young trio are going from strength to strength. Ahead of the debut show of their live UK tour (read our review of the show in Cardiff here), which culminated in a storming set at this year’s Download Festival, Distorted Sound‘s Nick Dunn caught up with the trio, Lewis de Jong [guitar/vocals], Henry de Jong [drums], and Ethan Trembath [bass] to talk touring, their collective influences, Download, and the band’s native Maori heritage.
Welcome back to the UK, how are you enjoying the British summer so far [it’s raining heavily today]?
Lewis: Last time it was the exact same. Lovely day for a walk! We feel like we’re getting the true Cardiff experience – we love the castle, it’s the most British thing, having a big, grand castle in the middle of the city!
You’re on your way to Download Festival. Are you looking forward to it?
Lewis: Hell yeah, looking forward to Drownload!
Have you got your waterproofs?
Henry: We’re from New Zealand, we’re waterproof by default! We’re all swimmers by birth.
Do you think there’ll come a day when ALIEN WEAPONRY are headlining the main stages at a festival like that?
Ethan: That’s the goal, fingers crossed. When we started the band out, we sat down, made out the goal to play Wacken by the time Henry was 20. It was ridiculous, and it happened by the time he was 18, so we’re going to set out some more ridiculous goals and hope to achieve them.
What’s the most ridiculous goal?
Lewis: Headlining Wacken. But I think we’ll set a goal to sell out a whole stadium or a gigantic arena.
Would you bring a full haka group with you?
Lewis: We have done a performance with a kapa haka group but that was at the music awards, and was a real New Zealand thing. Bringing people on the road is expensive! But the haka groups could be roadies.
The All Blacks could probably heft some equipment around! In an ideal world, which bands would you most like to open for/vice-versa?
Lewis: There are a few big ones that we’re looking forward to, LAMB OF GOD, GOJIRA, along with the ones that are confirmed like ANTHRAX and SLAYER. We’ve done one show with ANTHRAX already in Frankfurt, and we’ve got six other shows with them. Then we’ve got SLAYER at their last show in Germany – in Europe, actually. We’re very lucky to be on that one!”
You’re very upfront and political in your songs, particularly in those focusing on colonial atrocities. What made you want to write songs about that?
Lewis: Mine and Henry’s father always told us stories about battles that happened in New Zealand. If we drove past a significant place, he’d tell us the story behind the place. I feel like a lot of people in New Zealand don’t know the history of the country. It happened almost by accident. We decided we’d start writing in Maori when a couple of our mates entered a competition where you have to incorporate your native culture into your music, so we decided let’s do that and sing in Maori and get metal. There are not a lot of bands – currently no other New Zealand bands that sing in Maori and play metal. So we thought it would be a cool concept and we went with it, and wanted to see how people liked it. People loved it, so we just keep doing it!
Ethan: We chose specific topics based on what we’re passionate about. It wasn’t really purposeful that it ended up being a political statement. We wrote about it because we thought it was important for people to know about it. We didn’t mean to piss people off or anything like that.
Do you feel like New Zealand is improving in its treatment of the Maori people, or is there more that could be done?
Henry: Very slowly. There were a couple of artists that back in the day tried doing what we were doing – hard rock in Maori. But back then people didn’t like it, weren’t open to it. But times are changing now, people are more accepting of Maori culture and people are coming to that realisation that it’s part of culture that’s dying and we need to embrace it and make sure it doesn’t disappear. For us, that’s a big part of what we’re trying to do is make people interested in New Zealand history.
Thinking about your songs that focus on mental health, have you seen the news about the Wellbeing Budget that [New Zealand Prime Minister] Jacinda Ardern is introducing and, if so, do you have any thoughts on the matter?
Henry: I got shut out of social media so I haven’t seen anything!
Ethan: I did see a post, I can’t remember exactly how much the amount was, but it was in the multi-millions of dollars.
Lewis: Especially in the music industry mental health is a big issue and we’ve got some good support groups in New Zealand for musicians suffering with mental health issues. In fact, our producer is involved in that stuff. He’s running a lot of it, supporting a lot of it. It’s definitely something people should be getting behind, not just musicians but people in general. There’s a lot of stigma about it. I think it’ll make it a much better place to live in if people weren’t so shitty about it.
What made you feel like metal was the best genre vehicle to communicate your particular message rather than a more overtly political genre like punk?
Lewis: Metal’s a pretty no-bullshit genre.
Ethan: It’s mainly a taste thing. These guys have been into metal since they were born and when I met these guys they introduced me to metal, and I loved it pretty much straightaway. I think especially thrash and groove metal fits with the haka dynamic. If you think about haka, it’s an aggressive scary form of art, same as metal. So it fits hand in hand.
Are you going to keep the political and mental health focus on to the next album, or might it have a wider scope looking at things like Maori folklore/legends?
Lewis: We don’t have a plan or any set topics. If we’ve got something on our mind, something we want to write a song about, it could vary. More New Zealand history, a fight with a friend. Whatever I’m feeling passionate about in the moment, basically.
Henry: No sappy love songs though!
In all honesty, I can’t see ALIEN WEAPONRY with glam hairstyles doing a love ballad! Metal has always considered itself a genre of ‘outsider art’. Have you ever felt like outsiders, either in the world of metal or in New Zealand?
Ethan: All the time. I think what’s cool with the kids these days is getting a lot heavier than in the last ten or fifteen years. Metal is becoming more popular with people in general.
Lewis: I think we’re in an era where a lot of new bands are rising up.
Henry: There’s so much available that people can actually access. Back in the day you had to commit to buying a CD and you wanted to know it was going to be good, so you stuck with your genre and you stuck with what you knew. I think people are opening up to that a lot more now with Spotify and stuff.
Ethan: Even with heavy rap and stuff, even if it is mumble rap, it’s still heavy music. People our age can appreciate it.
Lewis: An example I’ve seen of rap merging into metal is SUICIDEBOYS’ latest EP has full-on death metal sections inside the music with screaming vocals and stuff. A lot of the metalhead friends I know are big fans of artists like that as well. They have something to say, they talk about real shit. Genres are merging for the better and people aren’t as close-minded as they used to be. Some are purists about what they listen to though.
Henry: You still get guys that are purists about metal though.
If you weren’t playing metal, what would you be doing right now?
Lewis: Like what kind of genre would we be playing?
Anything – whether you’re playing music or not.
Henry: I’d be in a reggae band.
Ethan: These guys love reggae the most! But if I wasn’t playing metal I’d be a carpenter, or a chef.
Do you cook in your trailer?
Ethan: We have a little stove, yeah, but can’t cook for too long otherwise we run out of gas.
If we could see into your soul, into the beating heart of who you are as a person, what five bands, albums, or songs would we see there?
Henry: LAMB OF GOD have had a ridiculously huge influence on me.
Lewis: For me and Henry they were the first band that we discovered by ourselves rather than hearing dad play it. That’s what we started our own metal journey on.
Ethan: A big one for me was TWELVE FOOT NINJA from Australia. That was the first time that I had ever seen a metal band incorporate other genres and knowing that could happen was sick.
Lewis: They’re like a djent-lounge jazz-prog-reggae mix.
I’m trying to process djent-lounge jazz!
Ethan: They’re actually playing Download on the Friday!
Lewis: One of the ones I think goes for all of us is SYSTEM OF A DOWN. They got me through my early high school years.
Henry: When we were young, for me and Lewis it was METALLICA. Much as people like to shit on them, “METALLICA aren’t really a metal band”, they were what got us into metal.”
Lewis: And there’s no such thing as real metal!”
Ethan: RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS for me as well.
Henry: And RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE. KILLSWITCH ENGAGE, TRIVIUM as well.
Thank you very much – we look forward to seeing you on stage tonight!
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