Thanks to everyone in The World At A Glance for taking the time to discuss some of their influences and inspirations. This is the first STS where the whole band has made the effort to reply, so I'm supremely grateful for them being generous with their time.
1. Hiya, what's your preferred name and pronouns, and whose country do you live on?
Scott, They/Them
Jack, He/Him
Tarryn, He/Him
Claire, She/Her
We all live on Wurundjeri Country
2. What was the first album that you bought with your own money?
Scott: Mine was Gorillaz’s G Sides, the b-sides album to the self titled.
Jack: Fly or Die by N.E.R.D, which still goes pretty hard.
Tarryn: Siamese Dream by the Smashing Pumpkins, my brother wouldn't let me keep borrowing his one
Claire: I bought the self-titled Bardot album the day it came out. Unfortunately it does not hold up.
3. What was the first album or artist that got you in to heavier/more abrasive music?
Scott: I was very lucky to have older siblings and a very radical piano teacher named Shane, who all introduced me to heavier music but in particular if we’re talking heavy/abrasive, was The Dillinger Escape Plan’s Calculating Infinity. Shane was an incredibly huge influence for me in finding heavy music outside of my brother's influence of The Mars Volta and At The Drive-in. The Mars Volta and At The Drive-in introduced me to that energy and explosive power of post-hardcore and experimenting within the groundwork of metal and punk as a crossover.
Jack: I think Nirvana was the first band I got into that played heavy, distorted music. It was a beautiful cliche, I was watching Rage on ABC late at night and they played the Smells Like Teen Spirit clip. My mum had a copy of Nevermind and In Utero and I got real into how the guitars sounded. A few years later when I was about 14/15 I became obsessed with System of a Down. The wild genre influences, the dynamic ways they structured their songs and their overt political messaging was all mind-blowing to me at the time.Their drummer John Dolmayan had a cool approach to writing creative drum parts which was a big musical influence on me.
Tarryn: my older brothers put me on to a lot of 90s grunge and alt rock, and I watched a ton of Rage late night as a teenager as well. As I got older I got more into punk and hardcore, then Dave (vocalist from Pala) showed me a live video of Raein playing a house show when we were like 19 and it's been skramz ever since
Claire: I grew up listening to bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and other classic rock bands of that ilk with my Dad and uncle. It was the vocals that really captured me. Singing along with those bands made me feel powerful. And the dynamics across those albums made me realise that music doesn’t have to be this one thing all the time. The ebb and flows are what make it interesting.
4. What artist or album do you think has really helped to shape your approach to song writing?
Collectively there is quite a few, we are a band that has a lot of influences drawing from a bit of everything but if we had to boil it down, it definitely would be I Would Set Myself On Fire For You’s Believes In Patterns, obviously the influence of The Mars Volta’s Frances The Mute in terms of its gothic and progressive lyricism and conceptual ideas to weave a story through its music. Forward from that is Sub Rosa, especially when it comes to a more classical approach to prog/heavy metal elements we have.
5. What artist or album would you say has most influenced your personal philosophies? Or who has helped to shape your approach to the world?
Scott: Obviously At The Drive-In and The Mars Volta totally drove everything I did in terms of my personal philosophies in punk. As I got older that changed sonically when I descended into more gothic and metal influences. I create a lot of visual art and people like Aaron Turner of Isis really shapes how I approach a lot of things as a creative, that you don’t have to sit in one field and can explore every facet of yourself by any means possible. The problem is once you start me on this type of question I will actually never be able to shut up, so best to ask me in person about my metamodern perspective bullshit (fun fact: I have A LOT of opinions that are far too long to write out due to how much our world is shaped by it/its all about remix culture). I also take a lot from Mikael Akerfeldt of Opeth, especially in the albums Morningrise and My Arms Your Hearse, that grief in his lyrics I find incredibly cathartic especially when it comes to this recent body of work we’ve made as a band.
Jack: I see music as an extremely important medium of art which can make our lives more exciting and fulfilling but I also see it as a form of community-building. Although there are countless musicians and artists who share these feelings and philosophies, I don’t know of any one artist who has had a direct influence on these feelings for me. I found that I learnt these things as I found joy in writing music, as I played in bands and as I became a part of the music scene. I also see writing music as a therapeutic practice through which one can try to better understand themselves and their fellow people. Fiona Apple talked about music as a way of processing life which I always find funny and fascinating: "Not to be gross, but music is sort of a creative mental form of shitting. You keep taking things in and putting them out to make more room to take more nutrients in. Life nutrients: conversations with people, experiences, seasons. Hopefully, though, what you put out isn’t shit."
Tarryn: I've always been inspired by any kind of music that has a real emotional weight to it, and that emotion can be anything from deep despair to the most frantic joy depending on the song or the artist. Anything that tells a story or weaves imagery through lyrics or music that people can take on and resonate with - I don't like music or lyrics that are too literal, take us through the vision and the sonic structures and let us find our own interpretation and what resonates with us as individuals rather than spelling everything out. No irony - give me real meaning and passion and desperation! That's what I hope to do with our songs, music and lyrics. For an album, it's down to Siamese Dream by the Pumpkins, A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, Ogni Nuovo Ignizio by Raein.
Claire: No artist or album in particular, but I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by incredible musicians, who have strong beliefs in community, and supporting each other and their work and passions.
6. What artist or album have you been listening to the most recently?
Scott: So much Integrity and just Gabber music in general at the moment
Jack: Geese, Hiatus Kaiyote and Toe.
Tarryn: Been slamming heaps of australian skramz lately (the scene is going off and we gotta keep on top of the motion) but also having fun with lots of J-jazz and fusion. Lots of Life and Trhä as well
Claire: flesh EP by Slowcut. Mixed in with a bunch of K-Pop.
7. Anything else coming up for the band that you'd like to plug?
We have some very exciting shows on the books for this year, including Our Sound in February up in Meanjin. In March we’ll be playing Starfest here in Naarm, alongside a bunch of amazing established and up-and-coming skramz bands. It’s incredibly inspiring and exciting to see the genre shed it’s forms, but turn to familiar pieces.
As well as our upcoming shows, we are very excited to be putting out our new album later this year. We feel it is our strongest and most creatively ambitious yet.
Band image : Ben Westover / Instagram
Thanks again to The World At A Glance for taking the time to share some of the music and influences that's helped them to develop as artists and as people.
The World At A Glance: Bandcamp / Instragram