Sydney’s Northlane have slowly but surely been building a strong profile for themselves across the past few years. 2010’s debut ‘Discoveries’ and 2013’s sophomore album ‘Singularity’ showed off their crushingly heavy and forward-thinking brand of progressive metalcore and helped the band reach out to further fields and more curious ears. A passionate and hungry following was formed and tours around the world, notably supporting Architects and Emmure in the UK, only fuelled the fire more.
When vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes announced his departure from Northlane, the band were thrown into a sea of confusion and uncertainty. Fast forward two months and with a new vocalist in Marcus Bridge, new song in the form of ‘Rot’ and big plans for the future, the band are back to full strength. We caught up with Bassist Alex Milovic while while out on tour with Parkway Drive to learn about and see first hand the birth of Northlane 2.0.
Already Heard: What was your first reaction to Adrian’s decision to leave the band?
Alex: When it happened we had just finished our biggest headline tour in Australia. Adrian told Josh (Smith – guitarist) in a letter so I never really got to talk to him. I got a call from Josh saying “give us a call as soon as you can cause we have something serious to talk about. I thought it was going to be about a crazy tour so gave him a call and he’s like "just had a conversation with Adrian, he wants to leave the band and there’s no discussion about it. He did it at a time when we took four months off to start writing for a new CD, so it was a good time to do it. I would rather it happen then than midway through a tour. I kind of wish we had had more of a band discussion about it. I’ve seen him between recordings. We all have mutual friends. Where we are from in Sydney we all grew up together so it’s all very good terms. Everything that happened was a blessing and a curse for him and us.
AH: How did the process of auditions lead you to Marcus?
Alex: When Adrian said he was leaving, we had a discussion and weren’t ready to put it out to the public yet. We had a think of any bands we had toured with where we could replace Adrian without telling the fans. We spent a week doing that and there was no one who came to mind. We hadn’t started writing yet so we had to let our fans know what our situation is and bands in the past have done auditions and it’s been successful. This is the biggest move in our careers, why would we limit ourselves? Let’s put it together, go to the internet and see what replies we get.
After 2000 auditions and going through all of them, Marcus sent in ‘Quantum Flux’ and it was really impressive. We liked what he did, so we brought him out for a couple of jams. The really good thing was he was from Australia so we didn’t have to spend three days flying him out. Marcus had played in a few bands in Sydney before. We didn’t know him personally, but we knew of him and had seen his band play. As Sydney is not that big, you play a lot of shows with the same bands. I’ve seen him at Northlane shows before singing along. We got him in and thought "this guy’s from Australia, he’s fucking great, let’s see how he is with us”. About a week before we announced it we knew he was the guy so we pushed forward and practiced. He was kind of our saviour.
AH: What really set him apart from the other auditions?
Alex: What a lot of people don’t know is that Marcus plays drums and guitar. He sent us a lot of songs he wrote and recorded and all the vocals himself which he didn’t put on the net. The stuff he wrote was as his old band was slowing down. He would write a hardcore song then try different vocals over the top. That to us, showed that this guy isn’t doing anything, but he’s still working on his craft and his voice and that was really promising for us.
AH: How has Marcus affected the actual writing within the band?
Alex: Writing wise we already had a vision going forward. We spoke about it before Adrian left. We always had a direction we wanted to go and now having Marcus, it opens the door to experiment with different dynamics. He has this vast vocal range that blows my mind every time he opens his fucking mouth. The dynamic of Northlane will only expand.
AH: What was the process behind releasing ‘Rot’ as a “comeback” single? Does it reflect anymore of the new material?
Alex: We wanted a song that would not be completely different to what Northlane is but for fans who got into ‘Discoveries’ and ‘Singularity’, it’s not going to be a change. [Album wise] it’s still going to be Northlane, but nobody wants to hear ‘Singularity’ again. We don’t want to put out the same CD. We are all maturing as musicians and people. [We are] just experimenting with things we haven’t before. Touring nationally and internationally you really gauge what songs work live. That won’t stop us from throwing a spanner in the works and doing something different.
AH: Lyrically, what were you trying to do with ‘Rot’?
Alex: ‘Rot’ is about the connection we have with technology and the effects it has on the natural and technical world and how we evolve from that. To a degree, this is fucking up the world, but also information is so readily available. You can go on to Wikipedia and stuff but people are still oblivious. The subject was more open your eyes. You can talk about how bad religion is, but it’s such a misinformed subject. We always sing about what we want and what we believe rather than what ever is hot in the scene.
AH: How has the tour with Parkway Drive been to introduce the fans to Marcus?
Alex: The reaction has been awesome. Coming and hearing people chant for Marcus and talking to people after the set and them saying “I was really skeptical before about hearing him but he nailed it”, I couldn’t have asked for a better way to introduce him. Even when we start playing ‘Rot’ people are cheering. Once Adrian left we thought this is a make or break decision that could ruin our career or we could step up and push forward. Everyone has their opinion but doing it and seeing how stoked people are is more than what we could have asked for. We’ve toured with Carnifex and Parkway before and even they say “you guys have come out of this bigger better and stronger. He’s the perfect guy for you. You seem so together. We know each other inside and out. Marcus is in there with us, and it feels like nothing has happened. We all just gel so well.
AH: What do you want to achieve as a band in 2015?
Alex: Our life revolves around Northlane. If we can do this and put a record out that we love and keep touring off it that would be awesome. Even if someone says you guys sold out, or Marcus isn’t the right fit, we are happy and if we can keep sweating it and loving what we are, that’s more than I can ask for.
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Words by Jack Rogers (@JackMRog)
