FLAMING WREKAGE’s DAVE LUPTON Talks New Album ‘Terra Inferna’

#ThrashMetal#DeathMetal#MelodicDeathMetal

21 Mar

Marco spoke with Dave Lupton ahead of FLAMING WREKAGE’s upcoming fourth album ‘Terra Inferna’ out April 26 via Grindhead Records, Primitive Moth Records and Blood Blast Distribution.

Hey Dave, how are you doing this evening?

Good, man. How are you? Thanks for having us.

Yeah, good, thank you. Very happy to have you guys. ‘Terra Inferna’, your fourth album comes out on April 26 by Grindhead Records, Primitive Moth Records and Blood Blast Distribution. How are you feeling in the lead up to the record release?

Yeah, man, I'm feeling good about it. It's been a really busy time. Just doing lots of interviews and getting the good word out there to the people, which is a lot of work, but it's good. It's good to hear the response building from the first couple of singles we put out. It's nice to reconnect with some familiar faces from the last time we did the last album from the media and some new faces as well. So yeah, I really like this part of it. Yeah, you just get to talk about the best parts of the album and just have some cool chats with people around the country about it. So yeah, it's good, man. We were feeling good about it. Can't wait to get it out there.

Definitely. I've been able to have the privilege to check out the record and it's fucking sick. So I can't wait for that to come out.

Yeah, sick man. That's cool.

I believe this was your third album working with Chris Themelco at Monolith Studios.

Yeah.

What was the recording experience like on this record?

Yeah man, he's becoming almost another member of our band. It feels like whenever we work together. We have a really good mutual understanding of what we're into and what sounds good and we've worked together enough times now that with every time, we get to have a little bit more time to experiment with things and throw some different ideas into the mix and just experiment more like sonically. Because we like to do a lot of preproduction so that we're ready to go in the studio. So that gives us the opportunity to do just more experimental stuff like that. But I will say on this one, it was absolutely balls to the wall, the schedule was so packed. We didn't spare a single second. We did it at our bass player’s. Well, we did some of it at my place in Sydney and then we did some of it at our bass player’s place. He's got a little studio just out of Sydney. And I just remember on the very last day, it was like, we were doing the bass and it was like, he teaches, so he teaches kids out of that studio. And it was like, we had to be finished by five o'clock. And it was like a little kid waiting outside the door to come in for his lesson. And Chris is like, “right, dude, this is literally the last riff on the album. You just nail this take and we're good.” And it's like, it's 4.59 PM. And it's just like, “right, one more take, you got it, man.” Does it, and it's like, “alright, sweet album done.” And then it's like, “alright, now I gotta go.” Like, yeah, it was just, that was kind of the vibe of it. But we didn't feel like we rushed anything. I think we just stretched every second we possibly could to put more of those sort of sonic experimentations in there. And I'm so glad we did that because we did some stuff that we haven't done before. And it was really exciting to do that.

Yeah, sick. So far you've got shows in New South Wales and Victoria announced. Can the rest of Australia expect to see Flaming Wrekage this year?

Yeah, man, absolutely. We're working on something later in the year at the moment. We're just kind of biding our time a little bit just because there's been so many international tours at the first half of this year. So we're just trying to pick the right time to go and visit the rest of the country. It's yeah, I just feel like the live scene is still not the same. Maybe it will never be the same since COVID, but it just seems to be so jam packed in the Summer at the moment. So which kind of makes it tough for Australian bands to go into at that time, I think. So you kind of have to rethink your strategies about how you're gonna do that. So that's kind of what we're doing at the moment. We're just trying to pick a more sensible time that works for us. But we will absolutely be hitting all those other towns before the end of the year.

Yeah, nice. Yeah, it has been a jam packed year. So many international tours getting announced.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Yeah, gotta find that free time somewhere in the year.

Yeah.

The Ghosts music video was such a sick idea and it was executed so well. Who was the brains behind that video concept and how did it all come together, especially with the cameos, etc.?

Yeah, I mean, it was so fun doing that. Like that was kind of like me and Rhys, our videographer, High Voltage Photography. He's worked with a bunch of our mates’ bands and he's never really done it like, to my knowledge, never really done a metal music video. But he's done a few live highlight reels for us and stuff. And his editing is really sharp and just super appealing. And we probably had five or six meetings before we finally nailed down that idea. We had a bunch of other really dumb ones that we were just never gonna work. But you need to start somewhere. And yeah, we kind of just landed on, the whole concept of that was just based on a lot of regional touring that we've done. And we just thought, we just wanted to do something that people can relate to. And it was actually a really freeing experience doing that rather than a metal band standing on the side of a cliff or something. *laughs* All that shit has been done a million times. So we just wanted to do something a bit more relatable. And if you ever played in a band, you would have played at least one gig to basically no one. And that one person is just a total punisher who just chews your ear off the whole time. So we kind of thought we'd just do a play on that. And so we got Chapo from Mountain Wizard Death Cult to sort of play that character. And all the quotes that he says throughout the clip are like actual things that we've heard from people. He's like wearing the Chisel shirt and all that stuff. It's all based on true stuff that we've heard or seen from playing in regional towns. Which is like some of the funnest memories I have of touring Australia. Because you go to those places and that's the real Australia. And then we thought we should have a surly bartender/benny manager and Timmy from Astrodeath sort of did that and just nailed it. And then we got Nano from Black Rheno who just stepped in for two seconds and didn't vibe it, so he just leaves immediately. So yeah, and the stars just aligned, like everyone was available that day and yeah, we just had a great time and it was super sick doing it.

Yeah, nice. That's so good. Have you guys been playing any of the new tracks live yet? And how have they gone down if so?

Yeah, we've played a couple. We do like to give them a bit of a road test before they come out usually. But yeah, we've played like Witch Hunt and Ghosts a couple of times. And there's another song called No Gods that hasn't been released yet that we've been playing a little bit too. Yeah, I think it's important just to get your head around them in a live context. And it's also, yeah, it's good to see how the crowd reacts to that sort of stuff. Like we had the privilege of playing with Katatonia…

Congratulations on that, that’s sick!

Yeah, that was amazing, man. But like that kind of crowd is, I would say, like typically not the sort of crowd that our music would appeal to directly, but they're all metalheads. And that's why doing shows like that is awesome because you get to appeal to the broader spectrum of metal. And we thought about like what should we play? Should we play some of the songs that have like some more clean parts and stuff? But we just went, we've only got half an hour, let's just rip it. And it was interesting seeing the reaction of the crowd at that gig. Because like, and you guys would know like from doing bigger supports and stuff, sometimes there's people in the front row that are just completely inconvenienced by your presence and they just are not enjoying the first band at all. But if you win that person over, it's like the greatest feeling ever. Like he was determined to hate us, but by the end of it, he was like kind of starting to bang his head a bit and then by the end of it, he was like filming and, *laughs* yeah, got him!

That's so good. The funny thing as well is like, I love Katatonia as a metalhead, but I also love my death metal, my thrash metal, so it's hard like in that situation where you've got like those people that are just so close minded on one style of metal rather than loving the whole genre as a whole.

Yeah, that's it man. And like, it can be frustrating when you do those big supports cos like, you just like, I'd guarantee you that everyone in this room would like our band. But it's like reaching them is a different story. But it's an awesome opportunity to be able to play to them at all. And like, you do get some crossover there. And like I said, I really relish in the challenge of trying to convert those steely like, you know down the front, kind of refuse to enjoy it, but then you get them in the end.

Yeah, definitely. Do you have a personal favourite song off ‘Terra Inferna’?

Yeah, it's called Hell on Earth and that's the one that's coming out this week. It's coming out on Friday. So we've got a lyric video for that one and I'm stoked that we chose that song to do a lyric video for cos it's like, I'm definitely the most proud of those lyrics out of anything I've ever written. I think it's like, it's pretty challenging read, I guess. Like it's super dark. It deals with some heavy personal stuff. But you know, it's, I hope that people can take something out of it. Cos ultimately it does have a positive message to it amongst all the darkness of it. But I just, yeah, I remember working very hard on that one and rewriting it a lot of times and just finding the right cadence and the right words to convey what I wanted to say. So I think, like musically, it's a real journey so coupled with the lyrics, it's just like the most complete song that we've done, I think, and yeah, I'm really stoked to put that out into the world.

I was gonna say that's actually my favourite song off the album too, like after having- I've only listened to it three or four times now, but yeah, that's been the stand out for me. I mean, the whole album stands out, but that song in particular. What would be your dream Australian tour lineup?

Man, you know what? The best thing about Australia at the moment is like just the variation of heavy music. Like, we love touring and we've been able to do it with bands that we like who are also good mates of ours. Like the last run we did was with the Perth boys Remission and Freedom of Fear from Adelaide. Like, that was such a great tour. Like, I mean, three bands that like, you know, are so like accomplished musically, but like just everyone is such a legend. Like the last show, I was like, we were just like sitting at Last Chance Rock & Roll Bar in Melbourne with Remission and we were just like, fuck, we better go to the airport soon. Like, we just got carried away just drinking beers and talking shit and having a good time. And that's the best part about it. So, but you know, like, but we have a tendency to tour with bands that like are not really aligned with our style of metal, but I kind of like that. I like that a lot. We seem to play with Mountain Wizard Death Cult and Astrodeath quite a lot. And like if I was to ever put on like a dream festival, those guys would be on there. You guys (Crypt Crawler) would be on there, Remission would be on there, Dr Colossus. I mean, man, it's like the list is too long. Like, it's just so much quality in Australia at the moment. And yeah, I wish I had the budget to just put on the ultimate festival. But I'm yeah, I'm just so stoked that we are able to play with like the full spectrum of like, from stoner metal to, you know, brutal death and it still works and the crowd gets into it. It’s great.

Yeah, definitely. All those bands are amazing Australian bands as well, so it's hard, like you said, but yeah, definitely a top notch lineup with that. Alright, any final words you'd like to say to everyone before the album is released?

Yeah man. So we’re down to the wire, not quite, but we've got about two weeks left of pre-orders. And that will be kind of the one chance people will have to get like the most value out of all that merch. Like we're doing some some pretty cool like merch bundles and stuff. There's lots of cool stuff you can get on there. There's some, you know, some shirts and some bar mats and all sorts of stuff. We're also running a competition for anyone in Melbourne and Sydney. If you pre-order the album, you get to go into the draw to win what we're calling the ‘Hell's Pass’, which is two tickets to the show in Melbourne or Sydney. You get a hundred dollar bar tab. You get to have a look at the merch table before doors open and you get to come in and have a beer with the band. So there's lots of cool stuff going on over on the website, flamingwrekage.com. And if you want to get your hands on the album before anyone else, that's the absolute best way to do it. Buy direct from us. And yeah, we hope to see you on the road this year. It's going to be a big one.

Wicked man. Thanks so much for taking the time to sit with me and talk about the new album.