Welcome to In Conversation, a special interview column on the site where we sit down with artists and dive deep into everything music. This week, Joe sat down with Inertia member Mark Williamson over Zoom to discuss the band’s upcoming EP, producing the EP, their influences, and working with Third Eye productions.
Joe: The EP is coming out pretty soon. How are you feeling?
Mark: It’s pretty surreal. The single we just released a couple weeks ago, we recorded in 2020. We shot a music video for it in December 2020, so we’ve been sitting on it for quite a while. To have that coming out and finally seeing the light of day is a little strange.
Joe: With your previous album/EP in 2017, do you think you’ve further developed/found your sound in the upcoming record?
Mark: Definitely. In some ways, it seems like a gradual change and in others, it seems like a fairly sudden change. I feel like our earlier stuff is geared towards heavier aspects of metalcore and stuff like that. We kind of expanded our musical influences as we went on. I feel we’ve landed on something that we feel really resonates with us and plays to our strengths as individuals and as a band. I’m pretty happy with how everything’s shaped up and our development.
Joe: Was the use of sampling and electronics, layering, etc., a key component in the album to building up its atmosphere?
Mark: It was a conscious decision to lean into the sampling and synths. Heavy vibes off this one. It’s almost a cinematic thing that we wanted to go for. We really like the direction that we went with it in terms of our influences from even video games and movies, stuff like that. Not just music we listen to. There were a few different influences that kind of took us in that direction. We kind of just wrote it as a packaged product that all of the songs flow into each other in that way. Almost like a movie, you have dynamic to it. It was very much a conscious decision coming into it. Like I was saying earlier, we wrote “Hivemind” in 2020, which released a couple weeks ago. From there, we decided to turn that vibe and expand on it into an EP, and that’s where we had that idea of making it more of a cinematic experience. There’s a bit of a story that goes along with the EP.
Joe: You mentioned your influences earlier. Was that just from metalcore, or did other genres have a play?
Mark: Apart from heavier music, which is fairly obvious throughout the EP, the other influences tend to be more pop artists. A big one that comes to mind is The Weeknd. Our singer Julian, he’s always been a pop/R&B dude. It’s what he grew up on. A lot of those influences were a conscious decision to lean into that a bit. Julian can really pull that style off, so we were quite happy to lean into that.
Joe: What about the influences from video games and movies?
Mark: Julian is the movie guy. That is one of his big things. It’s one of the things he brings to the table. Even if it’s just something like trying to evoke certain emotions or asking certain questions, it’s like “Yeah I watched this movie and it gave me a really good idea of a certain feeling, or a certain emotion, or a thematic subject to base around.” He’s really good with bringing those influences in. Video games, we called one of our songs “Arisaka” and that is a reference to Cyberpunk 2077. It’s one of those things that’s not obvious on first glance, but I think there’s a few of those little easter eggs throughout the EP. If you knew the influences, it’ll be like “Oh I recognize that from that”, that kind of thing. Kind of lent into a few ideas.
Joe: With more of the story/theatrical, was the goal of that to add an extra layer of emotion to the EP?
Mark: Yeah, it was a really good tool to explore some of those themes and ideas. It’s something that isn’t super obvious on the surface level because the first goal with the songs is to make them more relatable and down to earth, as a stand-alone piece of art. Then, if you wanted to look in deeper or if you were really interested, there is a bit of a narrative to it. I think we’re all fans of those kind of additional layers that bands and other artists can add to their music, where you’ll enjoy a song on the first listen and if you wanted to explore a bit more, there’s another layer to it.
Joe: Stylistically in “Hivemind”, there was a distinct change in previous music videos. What was it like applying the cinematic influences towards the video in comparison to the music?
Mark: With the “Hivemind” video, the director Third Eye Visuals, we sent them the song, We had a couple of loose ideas, but he came up with some other thematic, visual ideas to put through the video. We thought it was really cool, we went with it. A lot of the stuff visually, we let Ben from Third Eye Visuals do his thing and it worked out.
Joe: You mentioned you recorded “Hivemind” in 2020. Was that always going to be a part of the EP, or intended for a full length?
Mark: We did have the discussion. Early on, it was just going to be a single to keep us busy after our previous EP Connexion. But Covid became a thing and we decided we didn’t want to release music in the middle of the pandemic where we couldn’t play shows or tour off that kind of release. So we decided to make that a part of an EP. We did also do a cover just for fun during 2021 to keep ourselves busy again, before we were ready to release an EP. But now that things are clearing up a little bit in Australia, and hopefully across the world, we decided to finally get it out there and we’ve been able to book in a tour and a bunch of shows around Australia. Fingers crossed it will all work out and we can finally tour off a release.
Joe: With the previous EP out in 2020, how did it feel to not fully promote Connexion as it was in the midst of the pandemic?
Mark: It was disappointing having to cancel multiple tours and shows over that period when we just released the EP. It was a slight change of plans, but we still did get a really good reception off of it from the people that were paying attention. They seemed to genuinely like what we were doing. To answer the question, it was pretty devastating, but the silver lining to it is that we started working on other music straight away and we feel like we were able to give ourselves a bit of time to perfect what we wanted to do on the next release.
Joe: Was “Nemesis” an outlier in the EP to showcase that the band can still pull off the heavy style?
Mark: The heavy stuff is still really fun, that’s all there is to it. We all wanted to include some lyrical themes that really would suit an angry, up-tempo, hard-hitting song, so it made sense for us to do it. It also shows our range of interest as well. We’re very much a band that is leaning in towards melodic elements and softer songs, but we can still do the heavies.
Joe: With writing processes being different, was writing “Nemesis” more-so writing the heaviest riff you can, or is it more nuanced? What’s the contrast in writing these different styles of songs?
Mark: It all kind of goes through the same process of coming up with an initial idea, expanding on that and seeing what we want to do with it structurally. It still is thought out in that way. We did go through options and and versions of it, but we wanted to keep that one short and sweet. In general, we wanted the EP to be all killer, no filler, so it’s still something we put a lot of effort into and wanted to think it out. Sort of feel it out to where we thought it was right.
Joe: What was the process of coming up with the EP’s artwork?
Mark: We found this artist on Instagram. We were kind of scrolling through, thinking of how things should look and we found this artist. He goes by fivestimesno, and his style just jumped out towards us. We felt like his general aesthetic fit with what we were doing. It’s that ethereal, emotive thing that we’ve got going on in a lot of our new music. That piece he had done had felt like it really fit with Memoria, and we just went from there.
Joe: How are you feeling about being able to tour again and do shows?
Mark: Really excited. We have played a few one-off shows here or there, and there are those silver lining moments in the lockdowns where you feel like everything is opening back up and getting back to normal. But then there’s another one that comes back up and we all have to stay back inside. So it’s definitely really good to be able to have a bit more of a solid look at what our future looks like. It’s been a bit of a challenge to not be able to travel and play the shows that we want to play, but it’s looking good.
Joe: Are there any big plans touring beyond Australia? Anything for UK or America in the works?
Mark: UK would be great. We don’t have anything locked in. We’ve had previous offers that have been cancelled due to Covid, which we were super bummed about. For now, we’re keeping our ears open for offers to come through.
Joe: What new music and releases have you been listening to recently?
Mark: I almost shy away from listening to a whole lot of new music, since I work as a producer, because if I’m listening to music all day, sometimes you want to take a break. In terms of newer heavy music, Spiritbox is really good one for me. Sleep Token as well. Those are the two bands doing really well. Northlane as well.
Joe: Working on production, was there any involvement with the EP?
Mark: Yeah, I was lucky enough to produce this EP. Pretty similar to how it would work with other bands, we do the whole writing and demoing process. We picked the songs apart and see what needs to be changed. On this one, we had a little session over Zoom with Callen in Melbourne. We showed him the songs and were like “Hey, do you think it needs anything?” He’s really good with synths and layers, so he had a couple of additions throughout the EP, which we were really stoked on. We just went from there, got into the tracking and mixing process on my end, and then we sent it to Chris who works with Dance Gavin Dance and Issues, and a bunch of those bands. He mastered the EP to finish it up, and that was it. We’re pretty happy with the result.
Joe: Are there plans for what’s down the road after the EP? What’s next for the band?
Mark: We’ve been in talks about a full-length for sure. Ever since Resist Records came on board, we had that chat of what we do after this EP. We’ve begun writing and started to work on a bunch of stuff already. We’re going to be writing this whole year and making sure we’re super stoked on everything that we release.
Many thanks to Mark for sitting down for a chat with us. For a review of Inertia’s upcoming EP Memoria, keep it locked on Boolin Tunes.