Alien Weaponry Set for a Long‑Awaited Australian Return With Anthrax
The Australian leg of the world tour for Anthrax arrives at a perfect moment for a Alien Weaponry who has been sharpening its live show across continents, rebuilding momentum after unexpected stops and starts, and reconnecting with fans who’ve been waiting years to see them again. With a new album that’s already been road‑tested across Europe, Tū and Lewis step into this run with a mix of renewed energy, hard‑earned perspective, and the sense that this return to Australia is more than just another tour date, it’s a long‑overdue homecoming for a band hitting its stride in a new chapter.
How’s the tour going so far with Avatar at the moment?
Lewis: It’s been a lot of fun, man. Crowds have been good. Everyone on the tour, in Avatar and in both support bands, crews have been awesome to work with, and couldn’t really ask for a better mix, I’d say.
Looking at your tour schedule of late, it looks like you’ve been touring pretty hard and relentlessly. Does it almost start to become part of a lifestyle in some ways?
Tū: Well, it’s funny, actually, on this tour, because two, three days ago, we’d actually sort of restarted the tour, because Johannes, the singer of Avatar, got sick, and we cancelled three shows. But that ended up meaning that it was about six days across that stretch where we actually didn’t play any shows. So, we were pitched up in one location and living a normal, non‑very‑touring life, which was very weird, because we’d already been on tour for two weeks at that point. It’s like a real hard brick wall when you start to get into that momentum. All of a sudden it’s been pulled out from under you, and you settle back into not playing shows, and then all of a sudden, alright, now we’re back on the road again, but you haven’t gone home? It was a very weird thing, and so I think we’re all still kind of warming back up again. Because normally, by this point, we’d be fully in the flow state, but all bands now have had to reset again, like we just started tour. It’s been very peculiar.
It’s been a minute between Australian tours as well. You must be looking forward to getting back with Anthrax?
Lewis: Oh, yeah. I guess the last show we played in Australia would have been Frost and Fury Festival, and then the last time we actually toured or did headline shows was years and years ago, before Tūranga even joined the band.
Tū: Yeah, because this is my first Australian tour, so I’m really looking forward to that.
Do you miss anything about not touring certain places for a while, like Australia or anywhere else?
Lewis: I don’t really think so. I think I miss touring in places that I haven’t toured in in a long time. Australia’s always kind of been one of those spots where I’m like, oh fuck, I wonder when we’re going back to Australia again, you know? It’s almost like an itch to get back there, and I feel like when you finally get back there, you always have a good time.
Touring with a band like Anthrax, does that feel like one of those pinch‑me moments, touring with such a legendary and iconic band?
Lewis: Oh, yeah. Anthrax is one of those early thrash bands that we grew up listening to. They’re just legendary. Funnily enough, though, we did tour with them in Europe in 2019, so we already have a little bit of that experience or memory. So it’ll be really good to do that again, but in Australia as well. New Zealand and Aussies can kind of translate banter a little bit, if that makes sense, so it’s almost like playing home.
Do you have a particular favourite album of theirs, or a time period, or is it just another tour?
Lewis: Well, I guess… if you had to put a gun—yeah, I hate picking favourites, is my problem. But it’s just a super awesome tour to be on.
Being on a tour with a newish album as well, that’s got to be pretty exciting. From what we’ve heard with the new single, it’s all shaping up really well?
Lewis: Yeah.
Tū: We’ve been touring that now for… well, by the time we get on tour with Anthrax, I think it’ll be a year since the album came out by that point, so it’s going be cool. We’ve been playing some of the new stuff, granted, we only have half an hour, so it’s not super long to play a whole bunch of stuff, but we’ve been able to really polish up these songs, because it’s the same setlist we’ve been playing for the past few tours now. It’s been cool seeing that we have the singles in the setlist, so if people know who we are, they probably know the singles. But then we have one song in there that I think will work particularly well in the Anthrax crowd, because it’s quite fast, but it was not a single, it was a towards‑the‑end‑of‑the‑album song. And on these European tours, we’ve been seeing people singing that song. It’s going to be curious to see how that particular song goes down with the Anthrax crowd too, because I think it’s one of the thrashier tracks.
The song with Randy from Lamb of God, how did that come about? Is that a relationship that was there for quite a while, and it was just right timing to make that one happen?
Tū: Yeah, it was weird. He had messaged me on my Instagram about a very completely unrelated to music thing. I’d posted a video about a book, and he was like, I bought that book that you recommended. I was like, oh, cool! I’d never talked to him in my life before that point. And then time went by, and the band had a documentary being made about them and when we saw the final cut, we were like, oh, they got Randy in here to talk about it. They were keeping that a bit of a surprise for us, I think, the directors. We were like, oh, wow, so Randy then knows, although the boys have had experiences with Lamb of God previously at festivals, kind of passing moments. So when we saw this, him speaking on this documentary, we’re like, oh, he knows us enough to speak about us in detail on camera.
When it came to the album writing process, we had the song, we thought, oh man, we could do it with another voice, who could it be? I went, oh, why the hell not Randy? He’d already messaged me, so he kind of broke the ice, so to speak. We knew he knew the band because of the documentary and stuff, so I just flew him a message on Instagram and said, hey man, we’ve got the song, what do you reckon? And then he said, yes, that’d be cool, when you have the drafts and that, send them through. A year passes, schedules and whatnot, and when we actually got to doing the album, we had then decided we were using Josh Wilbur as our producer, who has been a long‑time producer for Lamb of God. Then it was like this very final solidifying that happening, because when we told Josh, like, oh, Randy’s going to be on the track, he’s like, oh, sweet, man! I’ll just fly over to his house and record it in his lounge, which is what he did, because he was on tour at the time that we were in the studio in Los Angeles. So we did all our stuff, flew home, and then Josh flew over to Randy’s house and recorded him in his bedroom. Literally everything lined up really well in the end.
How significant was Josh in the whole process of producing the album? Did he really help push your sound even further than perhaps the last couple of albums as well?
Lewis: Well, he’s a wizard, man, you know, he’s a veteran at what he does, and I’d say it was a really cool experience, because it was just us in that room with him, and we all gelled really well as personalities too. It was a pretty intense recording schedule, six days on, one day off. But it didn’t even feel like work, it just felt like a bunch of like‑minded people creating something together. He’s an absolute wizard, and I guess he got his bearings as a studio engineer before that, so he’s super quick with the Pro Tools and computer, and it was really eye‑opening to see that, he’s got a very wide skill set as a producer.
How does it go working with someone like him? Do you have to have a lot of your ideas already pretty much together before getting to the studio, or is there a bit of taking shape with him in the studio?
Tū: Well, we provided fifteen, twenty drafts, our favourite twenty options, so to speak. Sent them to him, we tell him our favourite ten, he shows his favourite ten and then we go through the list and go, okay, yeah, those are the same, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet, sweet. Some of the songs on the album basically didn’t change, very minimal changes from the very early draft that we sent him. Some songs, like the opening song Crown, is actually nearly a complete new song, because he made it by chopping up two or three songs from that draft list that didn’t make the final cut, but he liked individual bits. He’s just such a clever, creative dude, and like Lewis said, from a personality and creative perspective, we really did just blend. So when he would be like, how about we just get rid of this whole riff and do something else? Write a new riff, you know, and so then Lewis would sit there and write a riff, and then you go, yeah man, that’s way better, that’s cool, man, let’s do that. He’s like, how about changing this with the vocals, and da‑da‑da‑da‑da.
It was our first time working with him, our first time actually working with an international producer, especially someone of that calibre, we had said to ourselves, when we take a step into that studio, we should try everything that he suggests. Whether we use it in the end, we’d be silly to not try make the most of working with somebody like that, because he isn’t one of those producers that is just there to hit the button and call it a day. He is inputting creative thoughts and criticisms and changes, so he’s a really awesome dude to work with. For him, it was quite unique, because he’s trying to navigate this cultural element to our music. So for the first few weeks, he was trying to figure it out, and by the end, he got it. I think if we had the pleasure of working with him again, like on the next album or something, then I think it could be even better, because now he gets it. He’s had enough time with us now where it’s like, you’ve gone through the motions, and I think you’ll be just off to the crackers from the beginning.
Is it in the plan to work with him on what might be the next album, or does it get you thinking about the types of people you want involved in producing an album, or even collaborations?
Tū: Yeah, we expressed interest in working with him again, and he wanted to come to New Zealand too, so he’s like, oh, I’ll take the trip. But of course, it’s scheduling, it’s timing, it’s budgets, and all those other elements other than just being like, I want to work with that guy. That’s only the small part of the equation.
What I love about the album too is that cultural element and honouring your heritage. That must be a really important part of the Alien Weaponry sound?
Lewis: Yeah, it’s an integral part of the band at this point, especially writing songs in Māori, it’s a very interesting and collaborative process, because I guess we’re all looking out for each other’s… I wouldn’t even say mistakes, but, one person uses one word, one person would say things another way, and then we get everything proofed by someone who really, really knows this stuff as well. Just because if you’re going to put a message out there, it’s very important that it’s correct and makes sense, if that makes any sense.
Beyond the Australian tour, what’s next on the horizon for you guys? Do you actually get to do your own headline tour at some stage, and would that maybe include Australia again, given that you’re getting reacquainted on this tour?
Lewis: There’s nothing booked at the moment, but after the Anthrax run, we’re going to head back and get stuck into writing some more music. All of us are really keen to do a headline run at heaps of places. But I guess it’s at that early stage of we don’t quite know what’s going to happen yet.
Is that hard to just stop touring and deal with the comedown after being on the road for so long? Is that hard to adjust back to normal day‑to‑day life?
Lewis: It’s definitely weird, like waking up and you’re like, oh, I’m still at home, like, I thought I was going to be in a different city or a different town. There is definitely an adjustment coming off tour, but I feel like it’s good to have that time at home as well, to kind of recalibrate and reground yourself.
Interview By Rob Lyon
Catch Alien Weaponry on tour with Anthrax, tickets from Live Nation…
