Q&A: Oceanlord

By BRIAN GIFFIN

MELBOURNE doom band Oceanlord had a difficult time getting things together for their just-released debut album. 

Formed by guitarist and vocalist Peter Willmott, drummer Jon May and bassist Jason Ker in 2019, their plans were almost immediately scuttled by the COVID pandemic. Taking advantage of a loophole in their state’s lockdown restrictions, however, the trio was able to put write and record enough songs for a full length release, Kingdom Cold, that was released on May 26. We got all three of the lads together over Zoom to discuss how it all came together, their now-weirdly timely first single, and Ker’s teenage obsession with this publication.

Hot Metal: Oceanlord is something of a new band, correct?

Peter Willmott: “Years old and new, all at the same time. Jase and I first started jamming in, maybe, 2015? Oceanlord started writing songs in 2019… throw in a couple of wasted years, and here we are with an album.”

HM: It seems like you’ve gone straight from writing to releasing an album with almost nothing in between.

Jon May: “It doesn’t really feel that way to us. We had our first two or three gigs before the COVID lockdown started, so this album probably should have been released at least a year ago. It hasn’t been one of those things where we’ve been playing gigs for years, building a huge audience and them dropping an album. We’re still playing catch-up. We’ve had this music that we had to get off our chest, we had to get out, but we haven’t had that two or three year lead up to it.”

HM: You mentioned that there were a couple of wasted years, but given that the band had really only just started, what sort of impact did that have?

PW: “It was nasty, but it was also a big push to go and do something. You write songs and then you start looking around for a gig, but if you’ve never played a gig, you’re emailing people and just looking for anything. So we finally started to get a hold on it, and it was lockdown. The first thought I had was, it’s over! The second thought I had was, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been in a band for 10 years, or just played your fourth gig last week, everyone’s in the same position. All we’ve got is meeting people online, connecting and building things that way. So it felt like an opportunity and it levelled the playing field a little.”

HM: Did that also give you the opportunity to refine your material more, given that you were about to concentrate on writing more because you weren’t playing live?

Jason Ker: “We had situations during the lockdowns where they would say that you couldn’t go anywhere, and there were parts where they said you could go if you were working. So… we’re a band, we’re a registered business. Where Pete is right now is the rehearsal studio in his backyard that he built – rehearsal space/recording studio, and that is our listed place of business. So there were times when we were able to go and rehearse and work together on stuff within the rules. There was even one time where it opened up a bit and we filmed a clip. So we squeezed everything we could out of it.”

HM: “2340” is probably the track that introduced Oceanlord to most people. It seems to be a pretty obvious one too considering your oceanic themes. It’s about the Titanic, which is always a popular subject but there is more to the song than that. [NB: This interview was conducted weeks before the entirely predictable Titan accident.]

PW: “Funny thing with that Titanic thing. You write a song and front up for the very first time live, and I made the awful mistake of mentioning it was about the Titanic and immediately about eight people in the audience started singing ‘My Heart Will Go On’!”

HM: Of course!

[Laughter]

JM: “He hasn’t said it since!”

PW: “That song in particular was written during a time when there was a lot of angst in Australian and American politics around leaders who just didn’t seem to give a shit. They were there for themselves, for the grand stage, and when the times are tough, they’re out of there. The song’s not just about the Titanic sinking, it’s about a captain that’s happy to let it sink.”

HM: How many songs did you have to sift through before you decided on what should go on the album?

PW: “Those are the songs! We had more riffs and pieces that never really turned into a song.”

JK: “Not yet! They’re still there. But the cool thing was, as we were playing these songs, and we were playing them as a set, we found an order that just seemed to feel good to play as a set and it just felt like a good ebb and flow, and a good mood through each track. It just felt like an album. If we’d had two more songs, we probably would have ended up with this anyway.”

JM: “Those six songs, I think we may have pushed them around a little, but we settled on that order which basically turned into something we could cut into two 20-minute halves, which is great for an LP. As that progressed, we’ve now got samples of sounds that begin our tunes. There’s bits and pieces from the movie The Lighthouse, and that’s something that’s evolved along the way. There’s one newer song that we’ve put in the set. We’ve got other things coming because this album was recorded 18 months ago, so we’ve moved on a little bit since then. In terms of the show, there’s more involving aspects such as samples and a light show that Peter developed that sits really well with the music we produce and it actually creates a mood. It’s not just someone behind a lighting desk just randomly throwing red and green lights.”

HM: So if you had the chance to go in and record another album right now, could you do it?

JM: “Not yet! If someone gave us a date, like four or five months into the future, I think we could do that.”

PW: “That comes down to something you said before about sometimes you’re too busy playing to write new music. We’ve been busy playing and we’ve probably got 10 songs and bits of songs and we’re working through that now, finding what’s capturing our interest and forming into what will be the next lot of whatever it’s going to be.”

HM: Does it feel like a relief that all this hard work you’ve been doing seems to be coming off now?

JK: “To get the album out is just fantastic, and these two guys have been in bands before that have put albums out. I haven’t, but I have to tell you this story, and this is 100% true. [Before the interview] You mentioned your son’s 15. When I was 15, it was 1989, and I used to buy Hot Metal and I used to save them up through the year, and when the year was over I’d cut out pictures and stick them on my school books and that’s what I did for, like, three years. So when we got the call to say we were doing an interview with you, I just fan-boyed totally out! If you’d said to 15-year old me, You’re going to be interviewed by the guys at Hot Metal, I would have said, ‘Nah, bullshit!’ So the level of reality is really hitting me at the moment. It’s kinda crazy. We’ve got the CDs, we’ve got the albums. It’s happened! It’s happening. We’re getting really fantastic reviews and feedback. It’s all unbelievably real right now!”

HM: And now that you’ve done the album, you just want to go and do more, right?

PW: “Yeah. That’s especially my mania… instead of being terrified by the prospect of things changing or growing or whatever, I’m like, OK, so how hard can it be? Three months from now, I’ll find out and I’ll be saying, Why did I sign up for this? But right now – I love it.”

HM: Well really now the album’s out is when the hard work really begins.

PW: “Yeah, and as you’re building something you spend a lot of time shouting and telling the world about it even though you don’t have a lot to show. If you don’t have an album out or anything it’s hard to show anyone what you’re doing. All of a sudden the lights come on and you’re like a deer in the headlights going What the crap! I’d better be doing something worth looking at right now.”

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