Architects On Tour…
Architects start their Australian tour next week in Adelaide and it promises to be an absolute beauty. This tour coincides with their new studio album the classic symptoms of a broken spirit on Epitaph Records. the classic symptoms of a broken spirit is the bands tenth studio album and is the follow-up to last year’s critically acclaimed ARIA No.1 album For Those That Wish To Exist. The band barely had time to celebrate success when they began the process of writing the songs that make up the new record.
Produced by Dan Searle and Josh Middleton, with additional production from Sam Carter at Deacon’s Middle Farm Studios and their own HQ, Electric Studios in Brighton. The band were buoyed by finally being back in the room together after their last album was made mostly remote due to COVID restrictions, the result was something altogether more “free, playful and spontaneous”. Layers of electronic and industrial elements infuse the album with a blast of energy that sets the cinematic moodscape for the eleven track ride. There is more than a passing nod to the band’s post-rock influences as well as now familiar fist pumping anthems such as when we were young, deep fake, tear gas and latest single new moral low ground. Drummer and chief songwriter Dan Searle talks to Hi Fi Way about the tour.
Not long now until the Australian tour starts, is the band starting to get excited now?
It’s still like a novelty to us to be honest since the pandemic. We didn’t burst out the gates, we were started working on another Covid album and pushing everything back, let the world have a little bit of a reset time. It’s not been easy watching everyone else rush out. We’ve been pretty envious to be honest, so it’s going to be so nice to touch ground in Australia again. That was the last place we were before Covid began.
Stepping up the size of venues is awesome and a good feeling knowing that your Australian fan base is growing significantly?
To be honest, I pinch myself all the time about the way it is all over the world. I guess because it’s been such a slow burn for us, we’re ten albums deep, which is pretty insane. To still be growing at that stage in your career, I think is quite unusual. We’re like super grateful, genuinely, but to be able to go to Australia on the other side of the planet thousand people is still a trip to us, it really is.
It must make that long haul flight even more worthwhile.
Almost!
Almost?
If we can sell enough tickets to Australia to get me a business class flight next time I would most appreciate it! That might get down to us writing better songs!
Awesome triple bill with Counterparts and Thornhill, did the band select those bands to join the tour?
Totally, we’re fans of both those bands. Obviously it is always good to tour with band like that. Counterparts we have known for years and years touring bars with them in Canada, like twelve years ago. It is cool to still have that connection. It can be difficult because bands will have their own plans, it has to fit in a budget and our schedule has to sync with other band schedules. We have the final say, we tend to pick bands sometimes we have suggestions given to us.
So how’s the tour been going so far? Have you been stoked with the response to the newer songs that audiences haven’t heard play live before?
Yeah, a hundred percent. That was kind of the pandemic and anxiety in a way because we shifted the way the set sounded off such a long time during that period. We didn’t get any of that physical real-life feedback. It was just short mentions that ‘Wish To Exist’ was number in Australia and the UK. That’s a pretty good sign that people are streaming the songs. When you play the show and you see people singing along it’s the real thing, it’s a totally different experience. I can tell you this is massively reassuring. We were just in Germany and we played some of the biggest shows we ever played. There were a lot of new fans and the crowd wanted to hear the new stuff, which, like I said before, this deep into your career when you’re ten albums deep and people want to hear the new stuff, it’s not very common. People want to hear the band’s oldies, but goodies, the classics, but fortunately we’ve been able to keep evolving in a way that has kept us fresh and kept people interested in what we’re doing now rather than what we’re doing in the past. So that’s been a blessing for us.
Does the reaction to some songs and not others at live shows from gig to gig or country to country surprise you?
Yeah, a hundred percent! The weirdest one to be honest in that respect, when you tour Europe, because every day you’re in country, so you can be in Poland, then Prague, then Italy and randomly certain songs will just explode in the set. Sometimes others which are a hit will be quieter. It’s part of the fun, right? After my brother died I began writing lyrics as well. The experience of stepping on stage, hearing and seeing crowds sing along to songs that I’ve written is a massive trip for me. It’s still such a buzz. I feel like a kid would feel when they’ve written the first song that people know. I think that that sort of greenness if you like, the nativity at this stage has been really great. It’s injected this massive sense of excitement to what we do again.
Having ten albums now how much of juggle is it getting the balance of the set list right?
It’s not really a problem for us, but we know it’s impossible to not disappoint some people. We’ve been out playing twenty three, twenty four songs. I don’t see any of our peers playing sets that length. I can’t think of a single band that we’re associated with that plays for over two hours and yet we still will receive some complaints. That’s part and parcel. That’s life, isn’t it? That’s the internet as well, you just can’t avoid that. It’s nice for us to have so many songs to pick from. I was going through our discography not too long ago and concluded that we concluded we could probably do two sixteen song sets where I don’t think there would be a dull moment.
Two albums in two years is a nice purple patch. Is this the most creative the band has ever felt?
That is amplified by the fact that we weren’t touring. I remember when we were releasing For Those That Wish To Exist, which was a record by the way that we wrote twenty two songs for, fifteen obviously made the record. I remember the time that album came out, we already had for maybe five songs for the Classic Symptoms. As soon as it became clear that we weren’t going to be going on tour anytime soon, it just felt like, the thing to do here is to keep writing music. The only time we really stopped doing that is when we’re on tour. I find it personally very hard to be creative from when I’m on tour.
I’ve got to give credit to our label to be honest for letting us release these two records. It’s not like a genius career move. It’s not a genius commercial move because For Those That Wish To Exist was a success. Animals as a single have been very successful all over the world. It has been our bestselling record all over the world but we’re saying we just want to move on straight away to the next thing because we have nothing better to do and nothing else to do. We have these songs that we love. So, I’ve got to give credit to them for backing us and letting us do it. Like I said before, it’s made the live set even harder, having two brand new records that they’ve never seen any of those songs we’ve released. That’s twenty six brand new songs since we were last that in the country.
Is that method of working something you are likely to continue?
No, no! We’ll take a breath. I think over the next couple of years there will be some songs here and there that we’ll release if we write something that we feel like we want to release. I think it’ll be two or three years before there was another Architects album out.
Does it feel like a bit of a dream come true to be supporting Metallica?
Absolutely. It’s one of those sort of ridiculous, you don’t even put it on the bucket list because it doesn’t seem attainable to be honest. The band is point now where I’m constantly ticking boxes that I never planned ticking. I never thought we play a stadium, let alone play a stadium with Metallica, it’s an honour and they reached out to us asking us if we would be interested in doing the shows. It was an obvious, yes. Just to be approached and asked by their team was an honour. We are very that we have the opportunity to play their shows.
Are there any Australian experiences that you want to tick off on your bucket list when you’re here?
There’s lots of things I would like to do Australia, but when you tour Australia, it’s just early flights, hotels, venues, and restaurants. There’s nothing else that seems to happen in between. We’ve had a few cool experiences there where we had managed to sneak day off, but there’s the obvious touristy stuff, Great Barrier Reef stuff that I’d like to do one day. I’m going to have to wait for that because I can’t stick around. When the tour all finishes, I have to go straight home and be with my kids and help my wife. So maybe one time in the future.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Architects with Counterparts and Thornhill on the following dates, tickets from Live Nation…
