New Zealand’s Ulcerate On Tour In Support Of New Album…

‘It feels like we’re just firing on all the cylinders at the moment, which is great. We’re going to try and keep riding it as much as we can.’

This is quite the unique interview. New Zealand’s Ulcerate, and in particular founder and drummer Jamie Merat, rarely give personal audiences however on the back of a successful touring cycle for seventh album Cutting The Throat Of God, Jamie takes time out as the final stretch in New Zealand and Australia beckons. This tour brings another equally intriguing act in The Amenta. So, the question begs for those who have not seen the band, what are they about live?

‘It should be very immersive, let’s put it that way. I mean, shit, if you’re not familiar with our music, I’m not really sure how to give an entry point to it. What I can say is we work extremely hard on performing at an album level. We’ve been told that comes across as well. What you hear on the albums is essentially what you’re going to get live. We’re only a three piece, so we find ways around that to make the sonic picture as massive as possible. It should be one hell of a show!’

In the band’s twenty five year career, Ulcerate have always positioned themselves as being a little off-centre, a true purveyor of doing as they please, not just musically, visually too.

‘We’ll be paying more attention to that, the visual representation of it. The last four years of touring, we’ve been travelling with a lighting technician as well. We’re trying to give as much as we possibly can because we know what it’s like for some of the live performances we’ve seen where you just get knocked on your ass! There’s nothing actually better than that! Lots of attention to detail, lots of where we’re constantly refining. We talk about live tones all the time in terms of down to the most minute detail. We’re as passionate about the live performance as we’re about the album work!’

As the band develops this unique world around them, one wonders if that slides into concept art and music.

‘I don’t know. It depends on what you mean by that. I’m very adverse to gimmicky bullshit and metal. There’s a lot of it, and we are not. We try to be as far away from that as possible. So, you’ve got to be tricky. You have got to be careful with this live show, theatrics and stuff that goes on, because the bigger that bands get, the more disconnect can happen. I don’t think we’re ever in fear of getting ginormous just by the sonic approach that we take. For us, we are expressing something with the albums, and then because we write the albums through jamming, we still do it old school, it’s still three people in a room at 100 DB, so why not just bring that to the stage?’

‘Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything more to it than that. The power that you can generate with just a very small amount of people on stage, all firing at level one hundred, it can be … I don’t know. It’s also the best live performances that have really fucking affected me. There’s the odd show here and there where you’re just like, fuck, it’s transcendental on some level.’

The aforementioned North and Latin America tour late last year did take the band into new territories for them, yet the road warriors themselves rode through virtually unscathed.

‘I would say almost a hundred percent success. There were no failures. There was nothing. There were no logistic hiccups. Even stuff like the amount of flights that we did, there was no lost luggage, which almost always happens. Most of the shows in Latin America were new territories. We’ve done Mexico before, but certainly not Columbia and Argentina. You never know what you’re in for playing brand new countries from our perspective. Those shows were equally as good as anywhere else in the world, and some of them are the most memorable as well.’

A twenty-five year career and still having memorable shows while arguably in the finest fettle the band has ever been, is quite the achievement.

‘That’s a crazy big number. The thing is, the three of us are extremely driven, still extremely passionate. We wouldn’t be doing this if this wasn’t fun. We’ve just always found a way of working that avoids serious tension. We’re at a point now where it’s like we just know that all the moves we get to make are for the betterment of the unit, not the individual. Yeah, so it’s great, man. We’re in a great spot!’

That great spot has the band descent on Australia for four shows after a few in their home country shortly, as a full circle completes for the album cycle.

‘All I can say is we’re preparing heavily. We’re in the complete rehearsal mode and we’re pumped. Australia and New Zealand’s our home turf. We are bookending this album cycle of touring. We started in Australia and New Zealand and we’re going to finish that way. So yeah, what can I say? Looking forward to it!’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch Ulcerate on the following dates, tickets HERE…