The writing and recording of an album can often be quite a cathartic relief for a band, with many acts renting a house for a period of time to ensure minimal outside distraction in their creative experience. Now imagine travelling all the way across the world from Australia to the beautiful Lake Hopatcong, New Jersey, for two weeks recording with esteemed producer David Bendeth, only to discover that the house you are staying in, may in fact be haunted.
“It had to be,” says Northlane vocalist Marcus Bridges, reflecting on the time spent at Lake Hopatcong. “There was this window downstairs that you would hear this constant tapping on, a solid three consecutive taps. The first few times I thought it was one of the other guys outside trying to scare Nick and I while we were watching TV, and then it kept happening all the time. Then there was one night when we heard this scampering upstairs when there was no one else home; it had to be a demon or something.”
But it wasn’t just literal demons that got tackled head on during the recording of Northlane’s fourth LP Mesmer, with the guys also tackling the emotional demons burdening them for quite some time. Holding nothing back in the studio, Mesmer proves to be Northlane’s most emotionally vulnerable release yet.
“It was quite intense, but it needed to happen,” Bridges says, “This time around, there was a lot more emotional and personal stuff going on within the band. There was stuff that I had been dealing with, as well as stuff that Josh [guitarist] had been dealing with and I guess a lot of that can at times be a bit overwhelming and take away from the music you are trying to make in the studio. I guess David could see that immediately and some what gave me a kick up the butt, like ‘You’re here now, this is what we need to focus on, we have to use that energy to create something great’. He was able to make me feel really comfortable and to be able to deal with my personal issues and use that; whether that was aggression or sadness or whatever feelings I may have felt. It really helped make the record as good as it can be.
“There was a lot of hard songs on this record, one song focusing on the passing of my father and the other being a fresh relationship coming to an end which was something else that I was dealing with while I was in the studio, and David really brought the emotion out of me for those songs. He really put me in them and made me feel it,” Bridges explains.
“At the point of us going into the studio, those two songs weren’t even written yet. It wasn’t really something I was sure I would do when we did go into the studio but it was more so after feeling comfortable with him that I brought up these different ideas.
“At first I wasn’t even sure if these songs would be the right fit for Northlane or if the themes where a bit too dark, but as the process of recording the album went on, more of these themes showed their heads; whether that be in ‘Paragon’ about the passing of Tom from Architects, or ‘Veridian’ which is about Josh’s Grandmother. It was a theme that just kind of came up and none of us were really expecting it, but it was welcomed as a means of venting. It was a crazy ride.”
With the only indication of new material being the blistering premiere of ‘Intuition’ at this years UNIFY, Mesmer was kept a complete secret until its release day, when it was unexpectedly dropped sending both fans and the internet into a frenzy.
“We’ve always done different things when it comes to releasing our music. This time around I guess we considered the last three years, which have been pretty up and down for us and in a lot of ways even emotional for our fans. We wanted to release the album out of nowhere and give it to the fans almost as a gift for being so patient and sticking around during all the crazy stuff that’s happened over the last few years. We just thought it would be very special to do it that way and it’s been pretty overwhelming considering the response we have got so far.”
Written by Alex Callan
When & Where: Karova Lounge, Ballarat – May 11, The Wool Exchange, Geelong – May 12, Chelsea Heights Hotel, Chelsea Heights – May 13
For tickets and more info visit the website.
