Photo by Eddie Nicholson
We caught up with MASOCHIST for a chat about their new album "Bloom" set to be released by reason and Rage Records soon.
Your new album “Bloom” is set to feature 12 new tracks. I gather COVID lockdowns proved quite productive for the band?
We did get lucky where we live in that we didn’t get locked down as much as capital cities did, and we were able to record this album in around June 2020. Most of the material had been written by the beginning months of 2020 but having to push back recording due to lockdown did mean we got to work on some extra tracks, we wanted to do 13 tracks but couldn’t quite get the last one out!
How does the song writing process in Masochist work exactly?
Usually one of us will come to the others with a riff or a few and we structure and add extras as a group. Often I’m (James) guilty of changing songs and adding riffs between jams which I’m sure can be frustrating but hopefully its usually for the better!
Photo by Nicole Goodwin
“Bloom” is set to be released through Reason and Rage Records run by Yells and Brett from Outright. How did the relationship with the label develop?
Outright have been one of my (Rose) favourite bands for a long time. I got to know Yells initially by reaching out to ask her to be involved in a feminist zine I was making about women in hardcore, and then later playing with them both at Lair Fest in 2017. It’s been really cool to have someone I look up to so much be part of my life, and someone who has supported my creative endeavours.
Once we were starting to look at sending the album to labels to see who might want to help us put it out, we sent it all through to Reason and Rage, and were so stoked that they wanted to work with us to get the album out. They’ve truly been so amazing to work with, and not only is it incredible to be part of their label because of the legacy of both Yells and Brett, but also it’s super important to us to be part of a diverse and inclusive roster of bands.
Given this was your first full length recording experience, how did you approach recording in comparison to previous releases?
On this album we worked with Al Pegg from Old Dog Studios, he recorded our previous two EPs but this time we did things way different to the other two recording sessions. Previously we had only spent 1 day on each release, but this time we made sure to take our time, and I think we ended up spending a months worth of weekends out there recording. Definitely made the process a lot easier and meant we could even workshop new parts and tones and stuff in the studio, but I think by the last few days we were just excited for our parts to be done.
Photo by Lisa G
What was a key point or take away you learned or realised from this recording session?
Clear communication is really important. There were times where we thought we were all on the same page about something, but it turns out we weren’t, and that was just due to lack of communication on all our parts. Being able to provide constructive feedback is really important and makes all the difference.
Title track “Bloom” is accompanied with an awesome lyric video. Fill us in on what the song is about?
There’s a few more personal songs on this album, but are about feelings and experiences that are universally felt. Bloom is about frustration and longing. It came from a place of realising that you want to be better/get better/work on yourself, but sometimes not knowing where to start or how to do it. Healing is not a linear process, and that can be really frustrating when you’re trying to work really hard on getting better. Hopefully someone else struggling with this feeling might feel like they’re not so alone, and that the feeling won’t last.
"Bloom" features some pretty awesome artwork, who is the artist behind it and how did it all come together?
Jade Young did the cover art for the album. We’ve followed her art on instagram for a while (follow her @jade.o.lantern) and when we were talking about artist options, she was one name we were all keen for. She was incredible to work with- clear and open communication. We didn’t have much of a concept for the actual visual for the cover, so we sent her the lyrics to the some of the songs (including the title track) and told her we were happy for her interpretation and we loved the idea of leaning into floral imagery. There was no feedback needed from us, she hit the mark straight up and I’d highly recommend her, to both work with and support her work online.
Got a favourite track off the album and why that one in particular?
Rose- my favourite track off the album has changed consistently, but right now it’s probably Banksia because it’s an incredibly personal and important song to me.
James- I think the songs I like the most is either Vexed or Strain. Both those songs were a lot of fun to write and felt like a step in a Completely different direction. They’re both always a challenge to play live but very satisfying when we get it right.
Ned- Bloom
Tom- Condemned because it’s nice and fast.
Members of Masochist are also in another new band out of the region called BUST right? Fill us in on the relationship between the two bands?
Rose and I (James) are also in Bust which formed out of our friendship with Ed (Controlled) when he moved to Lismore a couple years ago. We’d been talking a fair bit about jamming together every time we saw each other, and finally got it happening once we got our friend Austin involved for vocals. We really recently played our first show alongside Masochist which was pretty cool.
What’s instore for Masochist following the release of “Bloom”?
Things are looking maybe a bit more stable for live music in 2022, so we’re really hoping to be able to book and play a tour following the release. We’re really excited to get back to some of our favourite places, and to play some more regional areas as well- we know what it’s like to see bands always playing cities and feeling isolated from it all. So we want to make more of an effort to get to places that are often missed by tours, and to continue to play and advocate for inclusive and diverse line ups, and accessible shows.
Preorder a copy of "Bloom" below: