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Karnivool.
 "I've been jumping on Google to try and get some dirt on the band," Karnivool's guitarist Andrew Goddard confesses. "I've just been typing in 'Karnivool sucks ass' to see if anything comes up!" As if it would. Considering the rave reviews and overwhelming support the band's debut 'Themata' has been receiving of late, Goddard is a very modest chap.
"Releasing the album has been the highlight so far for me, especially because it's been in the works for so long - nearly four years! I think the one thing that sticks out in my head is the day we finished the record; we just went and got terribly drunk at a bar and played the album really loud!" he laughs. "The response we've got for it has been very positive. It's quite surprising. But there's still a long way to go."
Not that Karnivool hasn't already come a long way, especially since the early days when the only way Goddard could describe the band was as "A cross between Powderfinger and Carcass," due to the large mix of influences each of the members brought with them.
Goddard chuckles as he looks back, "Yeah, it sounds interesting, but it sucked, believe me. It was terrible because we were all into metal but Ian [Kenny, vocals] had this really big voice so he sort of just sang over the top of everything!"
Obviously, these days things in the Karnivool camp are a lot different. They have found their own sound, which Goddard describes as "In between A Perfect Circle, Tool, a bit of a Devin Townsend kind of thing, and Meshugga all thrown in the mix. We get the 'new metal' thing but I can't even tell you what it is. To me, that's Korn, they're a band that was the last to start a really new genre, which is probably why it's all started progressing back into retro-rock because everyone kind of went 'ewwh yuck! Let's go back to the 60s and 70s!' and now it's all about the Bravery and the Killers. I'm not saying we're the most original band in the world, but at least we're trying to do something new. If people wanna call us 'new metal' then feel free... but I have no fucking idea what that is!"
Having recently completed a massively successful national tour with Cog, and about to embark on their own national tour in support of 'Themata', the only way is up for Goddard and the guys.
"The Cog tour was just awesome! Definitely the one to tell the grandkids about," he laughs, then pauses, "...uh, or not! It was just such a privilege watching them every night, it was also one of biggest highlights of Karnivool's career. But this is our first headlining tour coming up.
"For a long time we weren't able to play outside of Perth, which had pros and cons. The cons were obviously that it cost too much to get out because it's so far away, and the pros were that we got to work on our craft for eight years and build a strong fan base before we took over the east. In Perth we're old news, every time we play there's at least 500 people, which has definitely given a big kick start in the national circuit because we're not starting from scratch. I'm looking forward to touring very much".
So much so that even a punctured lung hasn't been able to keep him down recently!
"I smoke and I'm an asthmatic: it's called a spontaneous de-thorax. It just kind of happened. I'm pretty lucky because I'm just now able to fly out for the tour starting next week. Actually, the day it happened, I had to play a show in Perth! I felt relatively alright, apart from a bubbling sound coming from my lungs! It's fine now though, but I guess it could have been a lot worse. I could have not gone to the doctor and flown that weekend and I probably would have died!"
Health-scares aside, though, Goddard and Karnivool are even more so looking forward recording their second album, which should hopefully be out by late 2006.
"We've already booked the studio so we can't get out of it! We're pretty much just going to come back to Perth and get heavily into the writing soon, but before that we've got a festival over here called Rockit where we're playing on the main stage and it'll be our biggest gig yet. So there'll be some writing, some shows - but mainly good fun!"
Nina Bertok
 | 'Themata' is out now through MGM Distribution and Karnivool play at the Enigma Bar on Wed 19 Oct. |
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