|
|
 |
|
Impartial
 "We were in a funny position," reflects John Zappia, lead vocalist of local metal outfit Impartial, when telling me how the group's new album, 'The Negative Developed' (the follow-up to 2004's 'Impatient For Change') came together.
"We had a whole backlog of tracks we'd been 'releasing' live as we'd written them and we realised we could either record them and release them, or just let them go to waste instead. Naturally, the latter option wasn't very attractive, so we dumped them down at little cost and got them out there. We wrote a few new ones as well, which went onto the album very fresh; we'd never actually played them live. The finished product is like a mini full-length album; it's very economically produced in our normal tradition and has a pretty organic sound; we didn't want to overproduce it and make it sound sterile as a consequence. I think the songs come across pretty well on it.
"Compared with the last recording, this one has a slightly more rocky tone, I think," Zappia elaborates.
"I don't think it's intentional; I think it's just a result of the minimalistic production we went with when we recorded it. We've also gone for a more melancholic sound with this one; there're a lot more really mellow sections that, in turn, carry on a bit longer than the ones on the last album did.
"It's less schizophrenic-sounding; it just flows better, basically," offers guitarist, backup vocalist and older brother Dan Zappia. "It's a better listen from start to finish."
While one big lament they had when I first spoke with them a few years ago (when they were still going under their old name of Nun Nicer) was that their performances didn't seem to attract the numbers that those of many other local metal bands did, things have thankfully changed for the better in that area at last, the launch for their new album, for example, attracting a very healthy crowd.
"I think we've created our own little scene now," John theorises. "That's the case both here and on the road; we've got a fantastic following in Port Lincoln now, for example. Going there is almost like going to our second home, in fact; it's really fantastic. We always get put up in a nice place and play a really good crowd there; they chant our name, know our songs and wear our T-shirts; they're just a great bunch of people who're there for a good time.
"It's kind of like Impartial utopia for me; it's probably the best place for us to go", Dan agrees. "Even if we're just walking down the main street, we'll have people saying, 'Oh, there's the guys from Impartial.' We love it; it's rock star heaven! The only problem is having to endure the seven-hour drive you have to make to get there; the scenery can get pretty desolate."
"We've played in Whyalla a few times too," he continues. "That's not a bad place to play either, though we don't get the same sort of feeling there that we do when we go to Port Lincoln. I think the problem with Whyalla, for us, is that when we play there, we're usually on a hardcore type of bill; the last time we played there, for example, we were with The Jonestown Syndicate and bands like that. So, yeah, all the kids were basically there to hear that sort of thing; they probably just sat back and had their glasses of Coke while we played! You can't really do windmills or cartwheels to a lot of our songs!
Overall, the guys believe they appeal to a slightly more mature audience, however, though they don't claim to play to any particular age group, "It's not as if we say, 'This song's going to be for the 30-year-olds; they're going to love this.' We just play what we like playing. I write riffs in my spare room at home. I enjoy playing them and take them to band practice, where we might write a song out of it; at other times, John will come to band practice with a whole song. We don't try and fit into any particular genre; every song we write just has our trademark sound."
Impartial play at Jive on Fri 23 March with Snap To Zero, Fear In Dakota and at the Omega Underground
'The Negative Developed' is out now independently
|
|
The latest issue
available now!
|
