Wage War Are Pumped For Their First Headline Australian Tour

‘It’s exciting. It’s been a long time coming, too! We’ve talked about it and talked about it, and, like, it’s finally happening, so I’m excited!’

Briton Bond, vocalist of America metalcore band Wage War is pumped for the band’s first Aussie headliner, and as the metalcore Joe Perry to Briton’s Steven Tyler, Cody Quistad is equally enthused.

‘It’s definitely time. I think we’ve supported over there three times. So, it’s definitely time for us to go over there. We’ve done a couple side shows in between, but we’ve never done our first full headlining thing, so we’re stoked.’

Since the bands last trip down under at Knotfest 2024, where they dropped the single Magnetic while literally performing the same song at the same time in Melbourne, the band have released one album, Stigma and most recently the Florida inspired It Calls Me By Name.

Briton: ‘We’re definitely gonna get into it. I think on our last headliner, here in the States, we played, what, twenty songs, or nineteen?’

Cody: ‘We’re not playing any less than that, that’s for sure. If anything, we’ll add a few just because, you know, Australia doesn’t (see us). We haven’t been there in so long, so some of the songs that we had in our US headlining set list, we’d cycle some in and out because we play there so much. But since we don’t go to Australia a lot, this will be the first time we get to play a lot of those songs there ever.’

The bands prolific output of five albums, and the most recent EP, since 2015, is extraordinary for a band that also tours eight months a year. Cody meanwhile also doubles as a producer for many of your favourite artists, which must make the separating the lines difficult.

Cody: ‘I try to dodge that scenario as much as I can. When it’s Wage War time, I try to be as all-in on Wage War as possible. I try to do it in different seasons, once we finish, if it takes us, six months, eight months, a year, whatever to get the record done, I’ll definitely be a lot more selective on what I’m working on at that point. Then in the off season when we’re touring or supporting the record, then I’ll be more open to doing that.’

What comes clear over the interview is the chemistry between the pair isn’t confined to the stage. Friends long before Wage War was named, they have cemented a double act that flows nicely.

Briton: ‘Ever since I met Cody when we were doing music projects back in 2010, it’s always been that way where it’s I’ll handle the heavy parts and he’ll handle the melodic stuff and it’s been that spicy-sweet combo that we’ve had forever, and it’s just worked.’
Cody: ‘That we’re the ones that have the voices on the record, we naturally become faces or whatever that might be. I guess it just has fallen that way, but we make a good team. We both have strengths that the other doesn’t, and I think that’s how we’re able to achieve wide versatility when it comes to making songs and records.’

Recent release, It Calls Me By Name, is an ode to the bands home region in Florida, tapping into the magic the places creates to further enhance the band’s sound.

Cody: ‘We’ve toyed around with it in the past. On ‘Manic’ we had a song called ‘Death Roll’, that was our first little toe in the water with gators. Then last record we had a song called ‘In My Blood’, which is an ode to Florida. With that release we’re starting to look around and we’ve been on a mission more than ever to separate ourselves from the pack, sonically, visually, whatever way you wanna look at it. We really wanted to stake our claim and do our own thing and we didn’t wanna have to try hard to do it either. You can tell when something is inauthentic for a band and in a world full of masks and costumes and all of those things, which are wonderful and work great for other bands, I know that that isn’t our band.’

‘So, we just decided that, “Hey, let’s just be who we are,” and start it up a little bit. Naturally we’re from Florida, and specifically Central Florida, which is not beach or Disney Florida. It is swamps and flies and gators and all that stuff. So, we just decided to look around and nature’s pretty metal inherently. Then you take it to the swamp section, and it gets even, you know…’
‘I mean, a gator is basically a dinosaur. So, it wasn’t hard to pull the heavy out out of where we’re from. It was a conscious decision, but I don’t think it was out of left field for us.’

It goes without saying that the guys are working ‘something’ in between ventures down under, then onto North American and Europe within the next six months or so, so let’s focus on what Australia and the upcoming tour with Orthodox and Heavensgate.

Cody: ‘Seeing a kangaroo for the first time was sick and holding a koala. It’s a special place. It sucks to get to, but once we’re there, we really do love it. I’m excited to see how this time goes, and obviously most of the shows, we’ve already had a couple sell out I think or close. We’ve been building for years to have over there I think we’ll have our best memories yet are to come on this run.’

Briton: ‘(Orthodox) were on our headlining run, so we’ve been on tour with them for a while and they’re the nicest dudes and the heaviest band I’ve seen in a long time, so I’m excited to hang out with them again!’

Interview By Iain McCallum

Catch Wage War on tour with Orthodox and Heavensgate on the following dates, tickets from Destroy All Lines…