After releasing their brand new album The Lotus Chapters, Above, Below have swung by to help us get to know them just a little bit better.
Blossoming before the release of The Lotus Chapters were singles ‘Beyond The Mosaic Garden’, ‘Labyrinth’ and ‘Blood Wine’, which all teased listeners with a taste of brutal heavy segments against intricate, soaring highs that rounded out each musical masterpiece, providing something for everyone.
Now that the album is here, it seems the seeds planted by the band have grown fierce and strong, with an album that never relents in its ability to tackle ideas of happiness and harmony with grit and edge.
A seamlessly composed concept album recorded, mixed and mastered by Nicholas Page at STL Studios (Tapestry, The Beautiful Monument, In Hearts Wake) , the body of work weaves through the various stages of life guided by the extended metaphor of a lotus flower beginning as a seed, flourishing and eventually blooming.
You can watch the video for ‘Blood Wine’ below
Throughout the 12 tracks the ideas of growth, learning, maturity, darkness, light, harmony and acceptance are navigated and contemplated to form an overarching image of what it means to be human and what it is to exist.
The band will play Sydney’s The Burdekin Hotel on Friday October 25 to flaunt their latest creation, but before you catch them live, why don’t you get to know them a bit better?
Get To Know: Above, Below
How did your artist name come about?
When we first started jamming we were sending each other demos under the title of AB123 for some unknown reason and eventually Jacob came up with the idea of using AB as Above, Below.
We had a couple other names we were tossing around but that one sorta just stuck and it became rather representative of our sound unintentionally. We blend the heavy with clean and mix the two around, the Above and the Below.
How would you describe your music to your grandma?
“screamo but like we also sing and get pretty sometimes”
Tell us about a few of your tracks; their titles and what they’re about?
Hmmm a few tracks to talk about. Alright, let’s start with Equilibrium.
– In a lyrical sense, ‘Equilibrium’ is about balance, harmony and reflection. It tackles the idea of balance being the true path to happiness, however from the perception of someone who doesn’t necessarily know how to get there just yet. As the song goes on, they begin to discover how and what it means to find harmony, and that we can perhaps achieve it through the process of reflection and introspection. The song bounces between heavy and soft quite a lot to try and juxtapose that light and that dark, that yin and yang. It also has a phenomenal solo by Ryan Siew of Polaris on it and he absolutely slayed it. Definitely a track we all very much like.
– Secondly, let’s look at our second single ‘Labyrinth’. ‘Labyrinth’ is a fun one because at its heart it is a relatively simple concept. We wanted to write a track about a particular and single experience that evoked joy in us as a child and elaborate on it in an overly metaphorical and flamboyant way. As I (Zac) was thinking about this I remembered how much I LOVED climbing trees as a kid, and that super freeing feeling one has when scaling up a tree as high as you can. It also became apparent that this was an almost perfect metaphor for what it’s like to navigate through life; making the right strides up the base of the tree, picking the right branches, sometimes falling, but eventually making it to the top and looking out upon the world from your higher vantage point. It was a super cool concept that came together rather effortlessly. The song is bouncy, has some cool acoustic elements, vocoder and some grooviness. It’s a nice all rounder of our sound.
– Thirdly let’s look at ‘Eternal Sunshine’. This is the second track on our latest record The Lotus Chapters and is definitely one of THE most fun songs to play live. It’s a bouncy one, it’s got some mad riffs, a super catchy chorus and a really dope little groovy clean synth section. Lyrically it deals with the idea of being a child and being blissfully ignorant. The way children look at the world is rather myopic but its so curious, wonderful, creative and glowing. That entire essence of just being awestruck with the world around you and not even considering or knowing about the shit and the dark that’s out there is honestly something beautiful, and it was such a cathartic experience writing about it and returning to that vibe.
What do you love about your hometown?
Our hometown is Sydney, Australia. Most of us are from the shire bar one (looking at you inner west grandpa Dylan) and honestly it’s gorgeous. There’s a lot to hate about Sydney, mainly in a governmental and housing situation, but we live out near the south beaches. We get the sun, we get the best beaches in the world, we get crazy cool bush and nature tracks and at the end of the day we really do live in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We also have sick coffee and the Vinyl Room, so that’s something to endlessly appreciate. Shoutouts to vinyl we love you.
Career highlight so far?
Zac – Releasing a fucking full-length concept album.
Isaac – Playing with Chelsea Grin and Born of Osiris
Jacob – Playing with Chelsea grin and Born of Osiris
Nick – Surviving off the capitalist grid on tour by eating muesli in a plastic bag filled with water
Dylan – Being part of a release cycle where you really see people around the world go to the effort of writing big expressions of passion about it, be it on Reddit or wherever
Fave non-music hobby?
Zac – Writing and being a giant film nerd
Isaac – Video Games
Nick – Cooking
Jacob – My entire life is music but I like playing games
Dylan – Film photography. Keeps me away from an obsession about technology and forces me to think about what I’m doing.
What’s on your dream rider?
Zac – Jameson but only ever served to me in a golden chalice
Isaac – McNuggets but only boot shaped ones
Nick – Pho
Jacob – Lime Scooters
Dylan – Good cider and someone to drive me home when drink too much of it
Dream music collaboration?
Zac – The Contortionist
Isaac – Slipknot/BMTH
Nick – Virtual Riot
Jacob – Buster Odeholm
Dylan – My friend and musical idol, Chris Colohan (Cursed, Sect XVX, Burning Love)
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
Zac – Would love to have written a book, toured the world and still be doing music with my family that is Above, Below <3
Isaac – Probably still playing video games and playing music
Nick – In the cloud
Jacob – Making music
Dylan – Hopefully somehow still doing this
What’s your go-to karaoke song?
Zac – ‘Hot For Teacher’ by Van Halen
Isaac – ‘Wasabi’ by Lee Harding
Nick – The real Australian anthem, ‘Waltzing Matilda’
Jacob – ‘Scar’ by Missy Higgins
Dylan – Anything by Tigers Jaw
Listen to ‘Eternal Sunshine’ below
