Divine Ascension

It’s a beautiful sunny day and guitarist Karl Szulik is sitting at the beach, waiting for the surf to pick up so he can take part in his other love, aside from music that is. “I’ve been surfing since I was a kid; my dad had always been in love with the ocean. He was into spear fishing, surfing and scuba diving so I was always the kid who grew up in the western suburbs and everyone would be playing football or going out partying in high school and I’d be down surfing at the beach or playing guitar at night. So I’m a bit of a black sheep in that respect,” he says.
It’s being the “black sheep” that led Karl to be a part of numerous bands before settling on the perfect fit in Divine Ascension. Even with full time jobs, the band members all seem to make it work, even landing a gig supporting Kamelot on their tour.
“I remember opening for them and playing ‘Dawn Brings No Mercy’ and in there there’s a big keyboard interlude in the middle of the song and I went side of stage to get a drink and Thomas Youngblood was just standing there side of stage watching our set,” Karl says.
“He was extremely nice and said that he loved the sound and was telling us after the show to get over to Japan and was just generally really helpful. It was extremely humbling of someone with that status to be watching our set and talk with a humble guy from the Western suburbs.”
At that stage the band had only released their demo, but they’ve since released Liberator, their sophomore release with a slight change in band members and sound.
“This album we had two new members so we had six guys, Dave who plays keys obviously made a very different influence on the album from last time. As we didn’t really have a keys player and there was Jason who is a magnificent guitar player as well, so there are different ideas that are coming through from the last album,” he says.
While the keyboardist has had a strong influence on their sound, much credit can be paid to lead singer Jennifer Borg who has helped shaped the band’s unique sound they produce.
In the metal scene, having a female lead can be a heavily criticised decision, though picking Jennifer was simply decided upon by her incredible vocals, which you can witness in any Divine Ascension track.
“Originally we decided to work with Jen because we were looking for a male singer and no one cut it. Then she came along and had no idea about metal but just loved the music that we were creating and had an amazing voice so jumped on. We would have had a male singer if someone had of come along with a great voice and a good attitude – but it didn’t work out that way,” he says.
Though it’s probably lucky Jennifer came along, as there seems to be a connection between the band members that enables them to create music to the best of their ability. With Karl taking the reign for instrumentals and Jennifer writing the lyrics, the two seem to be in the same wavelength.
“We found that a lot of the stories Jen came up with lyrics wise actually worked out really well. A few of the ideas that she came up with were exactly the ideas that we had in mind. Which was kind of a little bit scary,” Karl says.
“For example the acoustic track for ‘Memoria’s Longing’, I had that idea for about 10 years or so and I had the idea of what I wanted the song to be about but I refrained from telling Jen what I wanted it to be about. I really wanted to let her showcase her voice and I sent it to her as just a rough demo and when she sent it back to me, I remember getting goosebumps, because what she was singing about was the exact topic that I wanted the song to be about. It was as if she read my mind.”
While everything has worked out so far, the band are hardly in the mindset of getting lost in the moment. “Most of the time we’re so busy planning things, that we’re too busy to think if we’ve made it or done well. That probably sounds a bit strange but that’s just how we work,” he says.
Even while they mightn’t think they’ve made it, there are still fans out there creating fanzines, delivering praise and like one particular fan, creating YouTube clips based off a whole album.
“There was even a guy called Harry from Germany and he created an entire DVD from our first album. Each song would link to different videos and sections – he spent ages on it. So he created an entire DVD with our first album, and the first album is over an hour long. He then uploaded it to YouTube and sent us that clip to it” Karl says.
Even to those fans who haven’t made something physical the band can see, Karl gives his thanks for making what they do possible and helping to drive their passion. “We’re so passionate and we absolutely love it. There’s no real money in this kind of scene unless you’re at Kamelot’s level. So the main drive behind us is motivation and the love to do it,” Karl says.
When & Where: Musicman Megastore, Bendigo – May 15 & The Barwon Club, Geelong – May 30
Written by Amanda Sherring