Make Them Suffer On Their Fifth Album Out Next Month

‘We weren’t thinking about writing a record at that point. When Doom Switch was written, the only thing the band was thinking about was survival, right? Because at that point we were about to break up. We had no idea what the future held for us. And it wasn’t until we properly found our beat – when Alex joined the band, we were like, okay, we’re actually ready to write a record.’

Nick McLernon, axeman of Make Them Suffer, arguably Australia’s hardest working band, explains on the eve of the release of their fifth opus, the self-titled, and self-produced, corker of an album.
It’s been a journey since How To Survive a Funeral dropped mere weeks into a global lock down. Band members departed to the razzle of reality TV, others were spilt by distance enforced by governments and what is a top draw album – this reviewer claimed it was better than Northlane’s album of the same time – got cut off at the knees by lack of touring. Is it any wonder that once they got going again, they literally have not stopped, not even for making an album.

‘We just didn’t have the time to write a record in one fell swoop for the most part. We had to try and get as many songs written amongst all the touring that we were doing that I don’t think writing a record was at the front of our minds. Most of the record was produced and recorded in between tours within about two weeks. Most of the writing was done across the maybe year, year and a half after Alex Reade had joined the band. We were just writing as much music as we could in the amount of touring that we were doing.’

Touring. 2024 alone featured a tour with Bring Me The Horizon, then Europe with a spot at Download a highlight, followed by their own headline your with Bury Tomorrow, a quick jaunt to China and a forthcoming European tour with Bury Tomorrow returning favour to end the year off. Throw in two weeks here and there to record music and you’re getting a band in match fitness laying down the tracks.

‘The philosophy behind the writing in this record has actually a lot to do with how we perform it live. There’s a lot of conscious thought being put into that because – I’m not sure if I’d speak on behalf of the other members in the band when I say this – I feel as though we’ve had this revelation ever, especially ever since ‘Doomswitch’ was written, we like to view our songs as something where you’re supposed to consume it by watching it live. So, here’s the analogy I use, right? When you’re listening to a track through headphones, car speakers, you are listening to it from a third dimensional perspective. You are hearing things in 3D, but as soon as you take that recorded music and watch the band perform it live, it brings a sort of different energy. You’re watching them perform it. There’s a different type of emotion that you feel when you watch a band perform that music live. It turns it into something that’s 4D, it goes from 3D to 4D, and you can feel the band expressing that music through their live performance.

Some songs translate better live versus how they’re written and arranged and I think all the touring that we were doing in amongst writing this record is because we’re a band that puts so much into our live performance. As soon as you take us off the plane into the studio and get us to write, I think you’re right, a lot of that we’re still in the touring head space. We’re still in the performing head space. So when things are being written, I’m not even sitting on a chair while I’m writing. I’m standing up and I believe I’m on stage sometimes. I think this is what makes the record different from everything else we’ve done.’

This album is self-produced by the band which gives it the expansive sound it creates. Songs released already like Epitaph and Mana God displaying the sheers size of bands sound and energy. Just wait until you hear Weaponized or Tether and you’ll need to buy new speakers. This band sounds authentic by not compromising.

‘I think self-producing exposes the band’s raw feeling, for lack of a better term. I think when bands self produce their records, they end up coming out sounding much more honest. This record’s a great example of that. So far the tracks we’ve released of our self-produced album, especially, I want to use ‘Doomswitch’ as an example, we had very unanimous positive feedback from that track. I think because the fans are able to feel our energy more, they’re able to connect with the band much more, even though it might not be the same and properly arranged track as an actual studio, an actual proper name studio producer might come out with.’

Some of the sounds coming off the album are akin to arcade machine noises, or have a stomping industrial dance vibe too, all while still being Make Them Suffer.

‘Someone made a comment the other day that ‘Mana God’, they thought it was a Prodigy track. You’re seeing this sort of resurgence of the nineties sound come back very subtly, there are all these bands coming through and they’re in their late twenties or early thirties and you’re hearing a lot of that nineties sound come back. And I don’t think it’s just us, but yes. Yeah, in short, yeah, we are definitely diving into our childhood.’

Well, why we are being children, I couldn’t help but ask why Nick shirts keep falling off on stage.

‘This is definitely a running joke within the band. I only started doing that this year and the story is pretty unbelievable. It all started because I actually left my shirt backstage. One of the crew from Bring Me the Horizon said to me about me playing without my shirt. I said I forgot it and the tone that I had expressed it in made it sound like it was ironic. There was some sort of sarcasm to it because of the way the arena was set up. I was in the green room warming up – I like warming up backstage without my shirt on – and something was happening on stage and I had to run to the stage to fix a tech issue. But then the stage manager was making us play five minutes early every night and by the time we’d fixed the tech issue, I needed to get back to the green room to get my shirt and I just didn’t have time to take five minutes to run backstage, show all my credentials. So it sounds like I’m lying, but I’m not. I actually forgot my shirt. It sounds so silly. It sounds so silly when I try to explain it to people, but that is actually what happened.’

Totally believable, Nick. Totally believable. Sure. Okay. Because it seems to have happened at every show ever since….

‘Yeah, I don’t know what to say. I keep forgetting my shirt. Damn!’

Interview By Iain McCallum

SELF-TITLED ALBUM – OUT NOVEMBER 8
https://grysclrec.lnk.to/makethemsuffer