Ahead of their debut headline juggernaut on Australian soil, Beartooth guitarist Kamron Bradbury took a few minutes to discuss how the band is tracking creatively, and why you never need to worry about the band changing up their sound.
Born from ’00s metalcore hero’s Attack! Attack! Beartooth began as a basement project for frontman and songwriter Caleb Shomo, that has morphed into one of contemporary metal’s most explosive and exciting acts. Last year’s LP Disease was a therapeutic exploration of the darkest parts of mental health, with Shomo well and truly wearing his heart on his sleeve across the twisted, furious cuts that make up the album.
Recently released B-Sides Takeover & Messed Up showed a slight experimental twinge on the band’s chaotic brand of post-hardcore, but as Bradbury reveals, Shomo likes thing’s fast and heavy, and there’s no reason that should change any time soon.
Tone Deaf: Takeover & Messed Up took a different turn. Caleb chose to leave these songs off- is that his call, or does he bring you guys into that process?
Caleb is the creative when it comes to the music, but me and the other guys do the designs, we help with the sequencing, what songs are where on the record…that stuff.
Caleb had a tough time with Disease because he was writing for a long time, and he called me and Oshie (Bichar, bassist) over one night and said: “this sounds like noise to me”. So we tried to help give him a little direction. Other than that though, it’s him in his basement, or co-writing with other songwriters and stuff.
Tone Deaf: Caleb has said in the past that he didn’t intend on changing the direction of the band- given these songs are more experimental, there might be some new sounds moving forward?
I don’t think so to be honest. They’re always gonna be Beartooth records. We’re never gonna pull a 360 on our sound-Caleb loves the music.
There’ll be minor stuff, obviously, so some stuff might be some more sing-along. But it’ll always be Beartooth- there’s not gonna be any EDM any time soon. I don’t see it changing. It’s going well and I think that we’ve found a sound of our own, so we’re not going to move from there.
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Stream ‘Takeover’ below:
Tone Deaf: For you as an artist, I know that you joined Beartooth about a year into the project. Over that time have you become more inclined to that chaotic hardcore style of music in your own writing?
I guess so…when Caleb writes the song I usually learn it by ear. I had a really tough time when I first joined because the guitar parts are very weird and some of them don’t make sense musically.
As I progressed I can now maybe see where Caleb is going with each riff or progression, but at home, I’m still creative… I hope! I play a little bit of everything. I love John Mayer, I love blues – I try not to pigeonhole myself into that metal and hardcore style.
Tone Deaf: When you play festivals with more diverse acts, do you try and seek out the acts that are different from your own band, for that extra inspiration?
Yeah, I do- however, bands like, for example, Lamb Of God, I just saw them for the first time at the UK Download Festival, so that was a throwback to my 14-year-old self.
One of the best shows I’ve seen, we were at Frequency Festival in Austria, and the Gorillaz headlined. I watched that set for two hours, and it was one of the most incredible shows I’ve ever seen.
So yeah, I listen to just about everything- even country and Americana. There’s this other act I’ve been really into called Joan- a dream pop American band that I listen to all the time.
One of my friends from Hands Like Houses also introduced me to Ocean Alley. I’ve been obsessed-I’d love to play with them at a festival and watch it live.
Tone Deaf: Speaking of the live show- you put out a live EP a few years ago. A lot of bands in the metalcore world don’t do that as much anymore… Do you listen back to that set much, and did that experience make Beartooth approach the performing from a different angle?
It totally had an effect. As much as I beat myself up about live performances, I go back and watch Insta videos from the show that just happened, and I watch YouTube videos to see how we sound.
The past couple of tours we’ve been recording every set from the FOH Desk and we go back and listen to that to make it better. We really care, and we want to be a great live band, so we’re always working towards that.
Check out the band bring their all in this full live set below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XWAQcT_IwAQ
Tone Deaf: Tours down under are so different because typically your not doing the three-five week trek in a bus that you might do in Europe. Do tours in this area of the world feel like tours? Or are they more holidays?
We never approach a live show differently- but travelling is totally different. We’re not driving for 8-hours every night, we just land, go to the hotel, wake up, go to the venue, go to the hotel, go to venue the next day- it’s never really a time where you have your own space like on a bus.
It’s good that it’s just a four-day trip I guess. The Amity Affliction tour that we did last time felt like a holiday because we had so many days off- like two or three days off in Melbourne which was sick because we were right in the CBD just hanging out. That definitely felt like a holiday.
Beartooth ‘The Disease’ Australian Tour 2019, W/ Thornhill & Windwaker
Tickets on sale now
Thursday, July 11th
The Gov, Adelaide
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Friday, July 12th
Corner Hotel, Melbourne
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Saturday, July 13th
Metro Theatre, Sydney
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Sunday, July 14th
The Triffid, Brisbane
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