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A Red Dawn.
 Forming about a year ago, and set to launch their debut four-track EP 'This Urban Conflict', local metal outfit A Red Dawn came about essentially as a merger between two earlier, now-defunct Adelaide groups, Embryonic Soul and Counterfit: drummer Adam and bass player Josh coming from the first band, and vocalist Wayno and guitarist Davin coming from the second. The line-up was completed with the recruitment of a second guitarist, Greg, who hadn't played with any previous bands himself, yet still had a lot of musical experience.
"That gives us a luxury that a lot of bands that have just started out don't have," says Wayno of the band members' accumulated experience. "A lot of those bands are also starting out writing songs whereas with us the songwriting experience is already there. We put that together, and collectively we're probably writing better songs now than a lot of emerging bands would be able to after a similarly short time."
The band incorporate many different styles into their material, creating music that can be ambient, atmospheric and melodic, yet also aggressive and in-your-face. They claim that it's not something they make a conscious effort to do. "It just happens that way," explains Wayno. "I mean Josh is very influenced by slap bass, funk and that sort of thing, so you would hear metal riffs with us, but if you listened to the bass riff underneath by itself; it's like..."
"It could be by someone in another band," Josh prompts.
"Exactly," Wayno concurs. "It could be someone playing Top 40 stuff."
The band have written a decent number of songs so far, the four that appear on the EP the ones they were happiest with when they started tracking for the CD. "Since then, though," says Wayno, "I'd say that we've gotten slightly more abrasive in our sound, and slightly more aggressive as well: just a bit more brutal. We're experimenting a little bit more with timing as well."
One of the songs on the new release is titled A Red Dawn, and it turns out that this is where the band's name comes from. "We reckon it started as the song title," Wayno tells me. "We went through a whole heap of names, and eventually, it just grew into being that. At the time, that was a song we were all really into, and we also felt that it had a good message behind it. When you name a band after a song, you're effectively saying 'This is our band's anthem' so you've got to believe in what you're saying in that song. It's got to be a message that portrays what the band's about."
Wayno writes the lyrics for the group's songs, and interestingly, doesn't use swear words. "A lot of bands use swear words, and I don't condemn them for doing that, but I feel that I've got more important things to say myself. I'm not going to fill a song with swear words when I could use it to say something meaningful instead."
"A lot of the time, swearing in lyrics goes in one ear and out the other anyway," adds Josh.
'This Urban Conflict' was recorded at Psycho Sound Studios with Darren Hincks - who has worked with such outfits as Borderland, The Jonestown Syndicate, and Echo Generation - and the band are heartfelt in their praise for his work. After mixing, they sent it to Sterling Sound Studios in New York to be mastered, which was expensive. "We totally blew our budget! I think we got to a point, though, where we thought, 'If we don't put more money in, the CD might end up being like a half-baked loaf of bread, still soggy in the middle.' Tastes nice at first, but by the time you've gotten through it, you go, 'This is shit!'" Josh concludes, to raucous laughter from his bandmates.
The group already has plans for a follow-up EP, giving next January as a tentative release date. "I think that's what it should be like with a band," says Davin. "I don't think you should ever stop writing new material and putting it down. Unless there's massive writer's block, you should always try and keep going, keep pressing forward."
James Brazel
 | A Red Dawn launch 'This Urban Conflict' at Earth on Fri 15 July with 8th Degree, Double Dragon, and Tidal. |
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