A couple of weeks out from their debut tour of Australia, I got the opportunity to catch up with Jake Peltz from California rockers Defiler, who are a part of the massive 2014 Soundwave line-up. To say that he is a little bit excited is quite the understatement, and I could tell down the phone line that he was nearly foaming at the mouth in sharing the stage with some of his musical heroes including Korn and Green Day.
“This is our first tour of Australia and it’s a place that we have always wanted to come to ever since we started the band. The fact that it is really happening is quite a pinch yourself moment, and we can’t wait to get out and meet all of our fans. I’m so excited to finally be able to bring these tunes to you all after all this time,” Peltz said excitedly about the upcoming tour.
Since forming in 2010 Defiler has released two albums, Pangaea and Nematocera, and 2014 sees the release of a new disc as well as some exclusive Australian release tracks before their Soundwave shows in late February. “We’re planning on releasing a new disc sometime this year, and before we come to Soundwave we’re going to be putting out a couple of new tracks. We’ve been working quite hard on these new tracks for quite a while – they are definitely something that we are really excited about. It’s also the first time we’ll be playing them live; so Australia, feel honoured you get to hear them live first!” Peltz laughs.
Playing in bands throughout his teenage years, Jake saw Defiler as a more productive outlet for his songs due to a better work ethic from his band mates. Growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area, being a multi-instrumentalist allowed Jake to play in several bands before starting Defiler. “Because I play bass, drums, guitar as well as sing, I was always playing music with some band, although no one seemed to be that committed to what we were doing.
“I had a bunch of songs written and found a guitarist to record with, and that’s how Pangaea came about. The funny thing is that we released the video for ‘Cryomancer’ before we had even played a show, so to gain a big following and reputation worldwide before anything had actually really happened was pretty cool.”
Despite still being a relatively new band on the gig circuit, Defiler holds the world record for the number of shows on a single tour of Russia. Having watched some footage on YouTube, it sounded like a pretty hectic tour. “Holy smokes,” Jake starts to reminisce, “that tour was pretty insane and definitely my favourite thus far. We have an insane amount of following in that country, to which most people would think is a little weird. We scheduled 24 shows and every single show was amazing. Some pretty crazy stuff went down on that tour, but you know the saying what happens on the road…”
For those readers of Forte who haven’t heard of Defiler, if you like your music a little heavier and love an energetic live show, be sure to catch these guys at Soundwave.
“I don’t know what the security is like, but it’d be awesome to meet some of our fans. We’ve travelled all this way; we’re gonna put on a pretty fucking epic show.”
When&Where: Soundwave, Melbourne – February 28
Written by Tex Miller