{"id":2307,"date":"2011-10-15T15:51:04","date_gmt":"2011-10-15T04:51:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=2307"},"modified":"2011-10-15T15:56:27","modified_gmt":"2011-10-15T04:56:27","slug":"new-empire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2011\/10\/new-empire\/","title":{"rendered":"New Empire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>“Over the past kind of five years everything\u2019s been slowly moving up step by step and moving forward and the release of this new album has just taken everything to the next level.”<\/p>\n

From Bio:\u00a0 If it was hard to ignore New Empire before, it\u2019s impossible now. The runaway rock outfit have already clocked up a stellar 2011 with national supports for Good Charlotte, Simple Plan and Owl City, a worldwide publishing deal with Native Tongue and a string of singles all over radio and music TV.<\/p>\n

Now with their long-awaited second album Symmetry out September 16, they\u2019re ready to cement their status as one of the country\u2019s brightest new stars. Combining the arena alt rock of The Killers with the bombast of 30 Seconds To Mars and emotional power of OneRepublic, it\u2019s the sound of everything clicking into place for the band as both songwriters and independent artists.<\/p>\n

During production rehearsals for their headlining tour, guitarist Pete\u00a0Gillies took the time to talk to us about the new album, touring and what we can expect in the future from this amazing up and coming band.<\/p>\n

Your new album Symmetry has just been released and scored you a top 40 debut on the ARIA charts with it, congrats on that, what did you do when you heard the news?<\/strong>
\nTo tell you the truth, it was almost mind blowing, I mean a couple of weeks before release we were talking to our manager and was just saying how much of a blessing it\u2019d be to actually find ourselves on the ARIA charts.\u00a0 We like to set ourselves goals, but that was a pretty far reach as to what is a more obvious reality and we kind of loosely set ourselves that goal and kept striving for it and we had no idea it\u2019d actually work so we were blown out of the water.\u00a0 And for me just to say, even growing up the words Top 40 in music is like a beacon its something really good to aim for and I cant believe we even can utter the words Top 40 about our release so its great.<\/p>\n

How did you approach the writing of the new album compared to your first?<\/strong>
\nI think Jeremy our front man, he writes all the lyrics and he writes pretty much most of the songs, he\u2019s our songwriter in the band, but I know that the biggest difference between the albums is that they have a similar, I could call it a heart, they have a similar vibe in which they were written to help people listen and have a positive feeling, so they\u2019re written in a sense to be helpful and kind of question good elements and bad elements of life that actually need a bit of hope in them as well.\u00a0 But the song writing kind of changed, like our old album was written when we were 19 \u2013 20 and this album, natural progression that we\u2019re now in our mid 20\u2019s, it all changes as our look on life is completely different.<\/p>\n

Were these songs you\u2019ve had for a while or were they written specifically with the new album in mind?<\/strong>
\nThe song writing process has taken probably about two years, it\u2019d probably be anywhere upwards of 50 \u2013 70 songs that were on the chopping block so to speak for the album but when it came down to it, it wasn\u2019t really hard at all to narrow it down to the ones that we got to.\u00a0 Then studio time this year was the better part of six months for us, in pre production and studio time and make sure we really had enough time in the studio to do justice to these songs, so we didn\u2019t cut any corners.<\/p>\n

So, with Symmetry being your second album, did you consciously do anything different for this new album that you didn\u2019t do on the debut?<\/strong>
\nYeah, the first album was totally budget oriented, that feeling of a new album like \u2018oh my goodness, we\u2019re recording an album, let\u2019s do it\u2019 and the whole recording process was over in a week and a half.\u00a0 The process on this album as all about the music, not about the product.\u00a0 So for us this was like a sculpture that we were able to create, it was like a canvas, we actually waited until we finished it and we could stand back and say \u2018this is good, we\u2019ve created something of value here.\u2019<\/p>\n

You recorded some of the album at Chris Joannou from silverchair\u2019s studios, how did that come about?<\/strong>
\nWell we do a lot of stuff, we recorded a lot of the album at the Grove studios at the Central Coast and silverchair do a lot of stuff there as well, the recorded a lot of their albums currently at the Grove studios, so our manager and co producer Andy Mak, he works out of the Grove studios for a lot of his producing work and that brought him in contact with Chris and they became quite good friends and Chris mentioned to him that we\u2019d be able to use his private studio if we wanted to, so we took him up on the offer.<\/p>\n

Was he around during the recording?<\/strong>
\nYeah he was a around here and there, it\u2019s mostly a weekend get away property, however the studio\u2019s located kind of separately to his residence so he was around but he just kind of left us be to get into our creative space and do what we wanted to do.\u00a0 He popped in and said hi here and there but most of the time we just watched him mow the lawn from the window.<\/p>\n

The first single \u2018Ghosts\u2019 is amazing, can you give us some meaning behind the song?<\/strong>
\nYeah, the song, let me try and give it justice and get it right, given that I didn\u2019t write it. The song is\u2026
\nWell what\u2019s your take on it then?<\/strong>
\nMy take and what I believe is the right take, and this is the cool thing because a lot of the album I have an idea of what it\u2019s about and I even know why the song was written but I still find a way to make it my own which is awesome because I know a lot of the crowd will do the same.\u00a0 So Ghosts is about, everyone\u2019s got their stuff.\u00a0 There\u2019s a perceived desire for everyone to feel like they\u2019ve got it together in this world, coming into relationships with other people of the opposite sex or actual relationships or what have you , there\u2019s this perceived idea that everyone needs to be going alright, and Ghosts is about, even the chorus speaks about Ghosts in your bedroom and that refers to those things that we aren\u2019t so proud about in our metaphorical private space, in that part of our minds that we\u2019re not proud of.\u00a0 It just goes to say that these kinds of things it just puts them in the light, like let\u2019s not worry about those things, and make those things an issue and let them hinder our lives, lets move forward and realise that everyone\u2019s got their stuff and let\u2019s just continue on to work with people and love people.<\/p>\n

My personal favourite is the big rocker \u2018Worth The Wait\u2019 any plans to make that a single? Ha ha<\/strong>
\nDone deal ha ha, dude it gets to that song man and I can\u2019t wait to play that song\u00a0 every time we do it live.<\/p>\n

How do you feel when you get comparisons to bands like One Republic and 30 Seconds to Mars?<\/strong>
\nIt\u2019s quite an honour because we enjoy those bands, so, there\u2019s even another couple of bands that get referenced as well, Coldplay and Kings Of Leon and all of those bands together, if we can somewhat convince people that we\u2019re relatable to those bands then we see that as a job well done basically, cause they\u2019re bands we\u2019ve listened to for years and really admire and respect, so in that regard, it only makes sense that the songs reflect that sound anyway cause that\u2019s what we love so it\u2019s all good.<\/p>\n

If you were to sight some influences who would they be?<\/strong>
\nProbably bands in that regard, for me one of the stand out bands of all time would be Coldplay for the way they write, the way they\u2019re innovative in the current time of music, that\u2019s obvious with Viva La Vida, but even prior to that they were still pushing boundaries in the world of rock, in the world of epic as a genre before anyone thought about it.\u00a0 We\u2019re great fans of the rock sounds of 30 Seconds To Mars as well even though they\u2019re relatively new on the scene to some degree.\u00a0 It also goes back to bands like Toto, the legends, even Michael Jackson, half the time we\u2019re in the bus I listen to MJ.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve also recently signed a global publishing deal with Native Tongue, what does this mean for the band?<\/strong>
\nThat\u2019s pretty much getting synched for TV, for movies, promos, advertising campaigns, sports campaigns, all that sort of stuff, so anywhere you hear music that isn\u2019t on radio is pretty much to do with our publishing deal.\u00a0 They\u2019ve got offices all around the world, they\u2019re small offices but its because of that reason that we actually signed with them because they\u2019re really dedicated and they\u2019re really excited about what we\u2019re doing and that\u2019s kind of more important than going with people with 100 people on their staff and they\u2019ve been really good so far, it seems like over the past six months we\u2019ve partnered with some of the best people in the industry in Australia.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve toured with some huge bands here in Australia and recently just finished shows with Simple Plan, one of which I saw and the crowd loved you guys, how did you feel these shows went for you?<\/strong>
\nYeah well, taking it back a couple of months to Good Charlotte, that was one of the most incredible tours we\u2019ve ever done, especially because it was six dates around the whole country and we got to spend some good time with the boys and with the Short Stack guys as well because we kind of get a long and we\u2019d heard about them so much, but the tour with Good Charlotte was fantastic because all the crowd gets there on time and all the crowd is eager and they\u2019re music fans and they\u2019re ready to be entertained, they want to be singing along, they feel like they deserve to love every moment of music that they hear, and I\u2019d say the same goes for the Simple Plan tour we just did as well, that was super receptive to what we were doing and I don\u2019t know, I think we have just enough of a different variety of music compared to the other bands on the night which is good because they weren\u2019t sick of us when we were playing, in fact quite the opposite even the signing and the whole meet the fans thing after the show too us an hour and a half for the last one to finish up before we were out of the building, so such a nice thing to be involved in.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re now about to hit the road on your own headline tour, what can fans expect from your own shows?<\/strong>
\nNow this is the exciting part, over the past kind of five years everything\u2019s been slowly moving up step by step and moving forward and the release of this new album has just taken everything to the next level, so even as I speak I\u2019m sitting here watching our whole stage show get put together in a factory for us to rehearse and production rehearse for three days straight.\u00a0 So I guess fans can expect something that\u2019s reflective of that, it\u2019s the best thing that we\u2019ve ever done yet and I say that with all modesty, but we\u2019re continually trying to push boundaries and continually trying to just get ourselves ot the world stage really and I say that with humility as well.\u00a0 We always just want to do the best that we can with the resources that we have in our hands.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next for the band?<\/strong>
\nYou know what?\u00a0 I don\u2019t even know ha ha.\u00a0 Obviously we\u2019re taking this album to Australia as hard as we can and I think doing this tour will continue to open a few doors in that respect, but I think we\u2019d love to let a few more areas of the world kind of see what we do, we obviously need to keep doing this and keep playing and keep doing the media aspects of it all and we\u2019ll continue going as hard as we can in Australia but when things get a bit easier on, we\u2019ll just continue doing the same thing for people around the world, so I think our next stop might be the United States of America but that is very unplanned at this stage.<\/p>\n

Essential information<\/strong><\/h2>\n

From: <\/strong>Sydney, Australia<\/p>\n

Check them out if you like: <\/strong>One Republic, 30 Seconds To Mars, Coldplay etc<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong> Kale Kneale – Drums\/ Vocals, Jeremy Fowler – Lead Vocals \/ Guitars \/ Piano, Pete Gillies – Guitars, Kyle Lane – Bass \/ Vocals<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/newempiresound<\/a> and www.symmetryalbum.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:<\/strong> Symmetry (September 16th 2011)<\/p>\n

Check out our review of ‘Symmetry’ here…<\/a><\/p>\n

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