Canberrans, I EXIST are set to release their third full length album "From Darkness" today through Resist Records. We caught up with guitarist, Aaron Osbourne for the lowdown on the new album and a chat about their recent European tour.

So currently who is now in I Exist, how many guitarists are we talking?

Currently we have myself (Aaron), Sam and Josh playing guitar, and Murph, Alex and Jake doing the other things that aren’t as cool, though Murph did play some guitar on the album haha. So six people, three playing guitar…for the moment.

Having three guitarists must make the song writing process a lot easier, presuming everyone contributes riffs? Was this the case with new album “From Darkness”?

Everyone in I Exist plays guitar, and some people who don’t play guitar in the band, play better than the ones who do haha, but yeah it is pretty easy, I mean if people don’t like a riff or a part or something and have a better idea of how to do it they can show it, and bring different things to the table.

Given this was the band’s third time around recording at Goat’s Sound Studio with Jason Fuller of Blooduster fame, how was the experience in comparison to the last two?

This time was definitely the easiest of the albums we have recorded, we’re all really comfortable with Fuller and we are comfortable in his studio, so we just went in a smashed it out. We tried to limit the amount of time spent there as well so we didn’t muck around too much, just went in, played and left. So it was a lot quicker to get it all down and pretty easy really.

Got a favourite track on the new album?

Um yeah I have a couple, but I think the top one for me is probably ‘From Darkness’ the last song. It was the last song I wrote for the album and I like longer songs. There are just tons of cool groovy bits and Jake’s singing on it sounds awesome to me.

Who came up with the artwork for “From Darkness”?

Sam and Jake kinda came up with the concept for the artwork and Richey Beckett drew the image for the front, which he nailed, we’re all really stoked with it. And Patrick Galvin, our merch/designated driver/housemate guy did all the layout and design stuff for it, which really complimented the illustration well. Again, very happy with that!

Lyrically is the new album on par with the mythical and mystical themes one has come to associate with the band?

Haha to some degree I suppose, Jake changed it up a bit this time and kinda had an overarching theme for the record lyrically, which is reflected in the artwork. But yeah there is definitely some mystical shit happening as well as your standard angry/bong tunes.

If you were actually a wizard of sorts what would you be called or be referred to as?

I would like to think I would be some sort of seriously grey tall alcohol fuelled riff wizard, much like a magical Tony Iommi or something. Maybe Sabbra Cadabra, purely cause it’s a sick Sabbath song.

And what about your sidekick unicorn?

He would be called Geezer, and would be pretty haggard, but really good at carrying all my crap and carry me home after a night of shredding and drinking.

I Exist recently returned from an extensive European tour with Harms Way and Twitching Tongues. Over 30 shows in the space of a month is a pretty grueling schedule. How was the trip?

Yeah it was pretty mental, we’ve never played that many shows in one hit before haha. The tour was great though, we got along really well with the other bands and they were great to play with too, it was really cool just being able to play in different places and to different people and meet the people who put us up and stuff. Was amazing, cant wait to hopefully do it again sometime soon.

Did you guys get to do much sight seeing while you were there?

Um yeah a little bit, most of the time was spent driving obviously, and summer seems to be when Europe decides to do all their roadworks so we spent a lot of time sweating our asses off in traffic jams on massive highways. But when we got the chance to look around we definitely did, had a day off or two as well and on those days tried to get out and walk around as much as we could. Some of the dudes hadn’t been to Europe before so for them we tried to make it as frequent as we could.

Prosthetic Records release I Exist records in Europe. How was the reaction to the band there? Did you find many people knew your music?

Yeah it was cool, we had a few people come up to us who had the album and some dudes who had bought merch off our webstore here and stuff which was nice. We met a guy in Nantes, France who had an I Exist tattoo too which was pretty crazy haha. But yeah the reactions live were good, it’s a bit hard touring for the first time with bands who have a pretty strong following, but I think we did pretty well.

European venues are known for their hospitality and looking after bands. Did you have your own beer taps in any band rooms?

Yeah its great over there, tons of food and good dinners and stuff. Lots of awesome people catering to pretty much every dietary requirement, and for 20 people on the tour at that, it was amazing. Haha we did, 3 times actually, those were outstandingly silly shows, most of the dudes in the other bands were straight edge too…so we drank probably far too much haha.

Got a favourite show or highlight from Europe?

For me it was playing with Eyehategod in Hungary, not only are they my favourite band and great dudes, but the show was sold out and Budapest is a beautiful city, which we got the day to walk around and go to a wild natural spring bath house. It was a great relaxing day, and a raging show, it was very sloppy after we played haha but it was so much fun.

Any stories or tales you’d care to share from the tour?

There’s lots haha but to me the stand out would probably be having our van break down in northern Germany, spending a whole day trying to get it fixed, missing a show, and eventually booking a motel in a little town outside of Berlin for 5 people, with the intention of sneaking 3 people in, arriving there, the motel being totally empty aside from a strange European wedding and having the bar tender/host allow all of us to stay for no price change and pour us ridiculously cheap beers all night haha. It was the best result after and awful/stressful day.

What’s the future hold for I Exist?

Hopefully a couple more trips overseas, we’ll definitely get cracking on writing new songs again soon as we never really rest on stuff for too long, but for the time being, just getting out there in Australia and playing the shit out of the songs off the new album and hopefully swinging some more people into our weird brand of hardcore and stoner stuff to come drink and have fun with us.

From Darkness is OUT NOW through Resist Records.

Listen to the tracks "Sorrow On Hill 105" and "Lightening Curse" below.

I Exist "From Darkness" Tour

Saturday November 30 - City Magpies Club, Canberra
w/ The Fighting League, Sumeru, Hygiene

Friday December 6 - Sun Distortion, Brisbane AA
w/ The Fevered, Hope Drone, Ritual Harm

Saturday December 7 - Hermanns Bar, Sydney
w/ Fattura Delle Morte, Mood Swing, Sumeru

Friday December 13 - Bendigo Hotel, Melbourne
w/ Urns, The Ruiner, Higher Power

Saturday December 14 - The Metro, Adelaide
w/ Crisis Alert, I.I, Level

Tickets $10 at the door.