Chris Turner & Jake Noakes (Oceans Ate Alaska)

you are listening to the scars and guitars podcast series my name is Andrew McKai Smith the interview subjects I've got coming up for you are from a band from the UK called oceans Zade Alaska their names are Chris Turner and Jake noes the reason for the conversation is to promote their excellent 2017 album Hikari which is an album that made my best of 2017 list so let's have a listen to what the lads have to say here we go all right no problem dude I mean we are pretty far apart so it's a bit like that yeah yeah no I've just driven um down I don't know whether you guys have been to Australia before of course mate but um I've just driven down from the Sunshine Coast I work up there and the family live on the Gold Coast because I'm in Queensland um and I hope you guys if you guys having two it here you guys are go I spoke to the guy that I just filled up my um at the petrol station where I filled up the car he knew all about you guys and was thrilled that I was talking to you tonight so turns out you got a bit of the following here think we this is J yeah we I think that's one of the places we haven't been but really really want to go into AUST yeah Australia I mean we've done so much around America and Canada and Europe but we we still are yet to do any of Asia and Australia yeah but we're pretty hopeful that this record hiari is going to be one the the the turning point for that yeah look I I think it will be mate guys because um look I do a lot of interviews and I do a lot of album reviews and the like and look I did get the advanced promotional uh link to have a good listen to Hikari and I listened to Hikari and the album from volumes you probably know the band volumes and they record um different animals back to back to back and lots them yeah yeah well lots to like about both albums I can tell you and um look I have a general rule that I simply don't review albums that I don't really like because I don't slag on bands it's not what I'm all about about but um I'll definitely review yours and I'm going to give it five stars so congratulations before we even get into the interview proper it's a fantastic record and it's you can tell it's polished guys you can tell that there's a lot of experience there and um you know it's uh it's a record that I think will at least get you into the uh you know Australian market and the North American Market as well if you haven't already got a lot of purchase in these territories yeah that means a lot thank you for that yeah yeah we do uh we do do well in North America but um yeah we we hope for Australia and thank you so much as well for the the kind words we appreciate that a lot no worries hey I'm a bit ahead of myself let me ask you before I continue are you guys okay if I record this for the purposes of a podcast CU I do podcasting yeah man of course absolutely fine dude uh is it is the signal clear enough yeah it's fine actually yeah it's just it cuts out occasionally but nothing nothing that's a drama for people to sort of you know bear with us through or for me to uh I can edit most of it out if you know what I'm saying um you know um without you know fantastic yeah no all good on mate all right so um as I've already mentioned you know Hikari it's it's a medical Extravaganza and it Blends so many unique elements such as ethereal voices trip hop pop vocals gent inspired refuge and it has excellent percussion so congratulations on that I'm a bit of a percussive fan myself but how do you think fans are going to react to the album well I mean we've already released two singles and I mean there is obviously one big change and that is you know our vocalist change um and we' we've seen plenty of change localist and it hasn't necessarily always been the smoothest change over but our change over with Jake has been staggering people have been just welcomed in with open arms and been so positive and that people love Jake actually it's it's been probably the the best changeover I've ever witnessed a panda have especially for a vocalist swap uh but aside from that of course that is part of the response to the new music but aside from that yeah people are loving it it's um we're really stoked so there's there is a heck of a lot going on on the album as I've mentioned can you can you describe the recording process and how on Earth did you capture so many solic Sonic elements and make them work so well together so the recording process um it's interesting for us I I do a lot of the production in the band um and I actually engineered and and recorded a lot of it before we even flew out to Detroit it was a co-production between me and Nick Samson in Detroit cool um so yeah before before we' left uh we've been writing the album for the best part of two and a half years um and it took a good six months to record it as well yes the time um you know everything is we know exactly where we want every single intricacy it's all ready to go it's just a case of you know getting it tracked well then so I recorded all the guitars all the bass all the Acoustics all the all the samples all the Japanese stuff um and then we flew out where we did vocals and drums with Nick um so the recording part on my end was you know winded uh the writing process is pretty longwinded but you know what dude it's all part of the journey it's all how it shapes it up and it it's yeah it's Evolution if you just write a song in a day it's kind of whatever yeah about write a song music and then however long on top of that for vocals um but yeah the the recording process we actually incredibly proud of uh a couple of things on this which make us stand out quite a lot we we actually have done all natural audio on this record so yes it's quite an industry standard to have uh aune like sample repls um you know midi as well is quite common but we're really proud to say it's one thing that we stand for as well that this record has absolutely no midi uh the drums are no sample Replacements there's not even sample packing it's all natural audio uh so that is one part of the recording process that we're really really proud to say and definitely sets us apart from any other metal band out there right now I'll tell you something else that's as far as recording concerned yeah right no go ahead D sorry oh I was just going to say look um I mentioned that I'm a fan of percussion and one of the reasons is I'm actually a Bas player by trade um and I've wanted to ask this question of a band for ages so I thought I'd ask you guys for your feedback on this point and you know with so many death core and Medicore albums uh there there are all these low tunings and frequencies and particularly with hakari um I think if you didn't have the experience or maybe the maturity that you guys approached the album with you might not have been able to find a place for the bass guitar but mate since it's your good self that has played the bass guitar you can certainly play and you can move around the fretboard I can really hear that and it sounds as though a real effort was afforded to accommodating some actual bass guitar runs or is David Vincent from morbit Angel refers to it hot rotting um can you tell me a little bit bit about how you made the bass guitar work in the album yeah well first of all you're absolutely right we did definitely make a conscious effort to involve uh the bass and highlight the bass a little bit more um I personally you know I'm a drum and a producer and I I just love recording bass uh I love having input on it and I just love how it suddenly gels the whole product together and it's like one of the most exciting steps to me uh because the way we normally record is guitars and then Bas um and then drums so it's it's super exciting for me when we had the bass and it's all of a sudden filled out uh but this album actually has a stupid amount of base in it we have in in all the Jazz sections we recorded uh a live double base which I could hardly actually fit in my live room in my studio because they way bigger than I thought yeah but uh we've got a full live double base for the Jazz sections uh we've got acoustic base uh the S Hikari and then of course we have all the electric base run through a dark glass pedal again all natural ramps and just sounds sick we've even got a slap base section there's a whole lot of Base in this record and yeah we we're super stoked on it it's something that we've wanted to highlight for a while you know it is a key feature but as you say it's it can easily lose Clarity or just kind of lose attention and not be a focal point and we we did want to bring that back to attention and highlight it so for sure thank you for you know appreciating that and recognizing that because we did make a conscious effort well I tend to when I'm listening to an album I do listen to it from two perspectives so first and foremost I listen to it as a fan okay but often times I find myself switching over to it as a musician as if I was actually a part of the creative process like would I make the same decisions as what the creators have made and I found that I've only listened to it a couple of times so you know make this comment you know just keep that in mind but I don't think I would have made too many different decisions than what you guys have made in terms of where you put the base and the way the base sits next to the percussion thank you yeah um again as I said like I uh I do a lot of the production stuff and you know me engineering all of the bass and all the guitars I obviously work very closely with it and you know there's a lot of decision making to be had uh during that time so yeah first and foremost thank you again uh and secondly you and I very similar I can relate to how you listen to music uh when I get a record I can't help but be a bit of a critique and say huh would I have done that and I also can't help but just love music and jam it and rock out so uh yeah yeah very very similar outlooks on on how you received music there for me and you no we could okay no thanks for that too mate no I appreciate that um bit of a different question for you now um tell us about the album artw artwork what's going on there it looks like there's some origami on top of crushed coffee beans I've probably got it completely wrong but talk us through the concept no it's funny you say that there's been a few interviews where they they ask about if it's coffee beans it's it's not coffee beans um but yeah it does look a bit like ground up coffee so the album art um is very closely linked to the title of the record um and it's all it's all linked everything you know it's a very complete package it's not you know random by any means uh first of all let's talk about the title Hikari then yeah Hikari is obviously a Japanese word and it translates to light in English um and that is just a strong reflection of the current state of the band you know mentally everything about the band right now we we feel that we're at a real Turning Point a real milest with this record y um in our most TR form kind of the the reasoning behind light what or hiari um and the the way that we got here the way that we finally you know kind of found ourselves and I found and What Makes Us truly happy was quite a journey and the album artwork is actually that journey in an image um it's very metaphorical yes so first of all the Lotus power of of course is a Japanese a Japanese flower um you know the whole album is Japanese them so that's why the Japanese relevance is coming in but a lot of flower is uh very very symbolic it it's it's white and beautiful and pure and pristine however this flower can only grow from just disgusting mud it can only come out of like really gross yeah dirt and um it has become quite symbolic uh because it kind of resembles no matter what your routs are you know you can still shine through yes I do understand exactly yeah no F we we kind of took it a step further um and we did the origami um you'll also notice that there is lots of uh pieces of origami paper on the base that AR folded yes I saw that now all all of those pieces of arami paper unfolded is representing the average Joe that just is happy to just live to exist and to just get by and you know doesn't really Thrive or have passion yes um Y and then the coffee beans is actually dirt you know there's some stones in there it's mud it's all suggesting the foundation of coming from a sea of whatever maybe even having a few bad cards dealt to you but no matter what you can mold what you've been given you can fold the paper into the flower you can you can self create whatever you want to be and uh the the arigami lotus flower um we actually want toes yeah sorry guys I've got a guy next someone's really getting I'm I I live next to the cane Fields out here right so I can't do the interviews at home cuz I've got two young small two small children and they tend to scream as soon as I get on the on the phone and they see the microphone cuz they want to join you and I've I've I've pulled over on the side of the road here there there's this [ __ ] with a BMW 3 Series like a like a 1989 model or heavy they hot them up around here right and he is going past me at about 200 km an hour right now it is the most Serene thing it's like I'm trying to have a meaningful discussion with you guys and this guy is just tearing past me no [ __ ] he is snaking and going sideways past me and just staring at me I've got my Apple I I'll describe the scene guys I'm in semi-industrial area near the cane Fields I've got my Apple Mac here I've got my nigh Haw rou which gives me um access wirelessly I got my RO podcaster microphone and there's this [ __ ] going past me at 200 kmers an hour in a BMW so apologies for that everything about that is just fantastic well especially because what you were saying was so meaningful and you know you Dem it demonstrates you know it's a you know we're Liv in a fairly chaotic world at the moment and I think this is a pretty good micros of it so you know you're being very smart articulate and oh God this guy tearing past me so anyway I digress he's gone now or hopefully he's gone hopefully he doesn't come sorry what was that what always an [ __ ] oh mate it's you're right is is BMW forgive me here if your parents own BM W or your friends or what have you but a BMW's wanker cars in the UK as well yeah famously known for me me and Jake we we're into our Japanese cars and uh Jake drifts a lot and I'm I'm learning to drift as as Jake's drift Apprentice so we're all about the Japanese cards yeah whatever you like about we're fine with that they that sit on your uh sit on your tail when you're on the motorway yes being a legal citizen yeah they do it they do it here as well well this this has been probably the most unusual thing that's ever happened to me when I've done an interview so there we go I'm glad we've shared that moment and hopefully he's gone and we can move on you know um well yes to wrap up uh we we we yeah we like to think that we're we're um we are the L slower and you know we may have been had some some rough cards dealt and we may have had you know a bit of a crazy Journey but we know what we love and no matter what we came through shining that is the reason behind the title Hikari and the reason behind the outwork yeah fair enough hey guys have I got time for three very quick questions because they they questions that I like to ask all of my give you subject okay excellent all right okay so any any of you in there can answer the question um you know whoever goes first in other words you guys pick but the first question I've got for you is um if God this bloody car going back and forth has got my mind going somewhere else I've forgotten the first question I was going to ask what's the first question I normally ask um if you could describe yourself in three words what words would you choose there we go there it he's got it out all right do you want to go first J okay I um oh you know what this is kind of the question you always is like not expecting not saying that your question is generic but you know you it is kind of to be anticipated and it's always the one that jums me the most yes we should hear the next two questions I've got I think oh man I'm stok uh okay me personally I am definitely uh that's not word you go first I go first uh positive um okay I thought one word I thought I had it okay we'll do one word each was positive okay I'm gonna second positive that's my word that's my word um okay no I'm I'm uh kind of I don't want to say crazy uh but I definitely adventurous we'll go with adventurous okay yeah positive crazy and adventurous gotcha yeah that'll do we'll roll with that fair enough I positive humble and yeah just Jake Jake a wanker Jake's third word is a absolute massive wanker my third word Bogan I'm a ban we just had an Australian interview and learned about B I was gonna say that's that's a very Aussie word you picked up there so I wasn't sure if you guys use it in the UK but makes sense if you've had an interview from an Aussie before me and he shared what the word means and and what was the what was your your yeah yeah what did he say the word meant he said if you've ever seen an Aussie Man review he is a ban oh that's yeah your redneck equivalent as with be a m yeah spot on yeah that's that's pretty much it it's a redneck equivalent that's right that's right all right Lads just in the interest of time I'm going to ask this next question and guess what my friend is back and going sideways again down the road so try to get the question out before I get H um oh yeah here we go uh if you could go back to when you were 18 what advice do you think you'd give yourselves oh okay uh the serious answer is forget what all these people are telling you when I was 18 I had a lot of pressure from a lot of different people our education system is quite you know filled with a lot of pressure yes and um I I you know I made some decisions that I kind of reget uh I've studied at a college that I didn't want to go to and I I definitely feel that I've you know I got some years that I can't get back and I was kind of just following a path that wasn't what I wanted so the serious answer is Chris man [ __ ] all these people you know what makes you happy and do what you want to do that makes you happy you'll make it work and I could have been two years ahead of where I am right now if I'd followed that however regret nothing you know I met Jake at college so it wasn't allad I was going to say he's oh yeah reget going to college but if you didn't go to college you would have met no no everything happens for a reason but it would have been nice if I just had a bit of clarity on you know what Chris just do what makes you happy but the the the not so serious answer and I did actually discover this one I was 18 in Wales is never pee into the wind oh because just comes comes straight back at you man straight back at you does it's a bit like coffee to you never get that out go for it mate you're right yeah I think I think I my advice on myself would be save money don't don't spend it on lots of car par no you wouldn't tell you that say spend it all you don't need any money okay fair enough yeah I'll just chime in a little bit I've never chimed in before but I'm going to do it now the only thing I'd say to myself is don't buy all these bloody musical instruments you're never going to use or play I wasted so much money when I was between 18 and 19 just on just not crap but just I didn't need three bases for example I just needed the one or I didn't need three guitars I just needed the one but you think you're going to get be put in all of these situations where you're going to need them all so you plan ahead and consequently spend thousands of dollars on stuff which you never really use you know I think that's my that's my favorite thing about now being being a vocalist is uh OB I was kind of grown up being a guitarist on the same I think I've got handful of guitars and all this equipment and then now being a vocalist obiously when we playing shows I set I've got my microphone and I'm set I can watch them all set the drums and there doing all the all the rig and as me just like walking around with my microphone like plug it in all right fair enough okay so I'm on to my final question uh and this one usually stumps people so I'm really Keen to see how you guys go here you can invite five guests living or dead from any time in history to a dinner who do you invite Beyonce Ice Cube Jay-Z kyod and uh the Queen the queen I think that's the fastest I think that's is it is that like the queen or Queen the band I'm just joking it's all right you're talking about que oh yeah Queen I Lizzy listen right Lizzy is the [Laughter] one she she's a Gil Liz Lizzy definitely gets turned on the [Laughter] weekend I because somehow I have the's Royal Guards up in my house like you can't be saying that you can't be saying we definitely be back no fair enough all right Jake you go for it mate what who would I have oh God yeah I just I just I can't I can't maybe I know can I get can I write can I write to you can I do it they could just pick the band like with yeah you can phone it in afterwards or send it to me on email me or whatever you friends anyway the people the people that he has a meal with every day his life my mom my dad my brother and then them too as well okay Fantastic look they're both we invite you we invite you you're more than welcome so long Chuck a couple shrimps on the barbie we're all good yeah Chuck a shrimp on the barbie and inv I'll bring over I'll bring over the case of beer and the absinth cuz if I bring over the absin sure it's going to get crazy you guys drink Fosters right no they don't drink fosters no no we Fosters is one of those Fosters is is conspiracy what you do well I don't no I don't know about look Fosters beer isn't too bad but it's we don't drink it in Australia I don't know why we just don't we drink two e and forx it's I'm not the biggest of yeah it's look it's look when when I've travel to the States you know being an Aussie they go oh you want a fosterers don't you and and um and I'm like well not really I'll I'll have like Sierra Nevada or something else decent but um it's okay you know you play along with it yeah you know how it is yeah mate I'll have a Fosters well the truth is the only time I think I've ever really drunk Fosters outside of Australia I don't think I've ever tasted it here yeah that's the thing the like oh yeah Brew on Australia and then you drive up to Manchester like the [ __ ] end of Manchester and there's a big Fosters F I'm pretty sure that's not Australia maybe maybe the people working there think it is but it's not yes yeah oh well at least it's providing some employment and all the rest of it and the image is still good I mean it's I I look I don't think it's I don't think it's bad beer I just don't I don't know why we don't drink it here it's just one of those cultural anomalies where we're known for it but nobody no I don't think you could even speak to somebody who's tasted it to be honest with I don't even know whether they stock it in the local bottle shop here they probably do but I just haven't seen it really yeah you guys you guys into your into your side like um I think the British love like especially when it's hot or even slightly warm we love our like fru kind of cider like the yeah everyone's all about the copperberg and the fruit ciders and stuff like that yeah no it's the same here but we've got there are a lot of Brits in Australia so um if you go to we got a lot of Irish bars and as well um and if you go into an Irish bar or an English themed bar like we got one in Brisbane here called the pig and whistle they've got Cider on tap so the answer is yeah yeah we get right into it but um it's not really my thing to be honest with you I'm still more of a beer man I've got to tell you or U Jack Daniels I like my whiskey Oh yeah talk to me about Jack all day yeah yeah I had a few last night to be honest with you probably a bit too many but I had to still work today so that's why oh you got you got to do what you do you know so but uh Lads I better wrap things up because no doubt you've got another interview uh not long after me I really want to thank you both for participating it's been excellent it's been very unusual from one perspective not your fault God just having this this guy tear up and down next to me but uh um I want to end on a serious note and I do want to offer you and round back and not uh repeat that I want to offer you a heartfelt congratulations on the album it is a fantastic album it's certainly in my top 10 so far of the year um and I don't say that lightly and I don't hand those sort of compliments out easily um I really hope to catch up with you guys when you come down to Australia oh definitely it'd be good to hang and make sure you bring that whiskey yes yes no dude thank you so much I I know that we've all put a stupid amount of work in I I personally have put everything I've got into this album so yeah it means a lot man thank you you've been listening to the scars and guitars podcast series my name is Andrew McKai Smith you just heard from Chris Turner and Jake noes from the UK outfit oceans 8 Alaska thank you so much for listening