Tempest Rising
Interview conducted on May 10, 2021
By Dan Locke
Perth’s Metal Powerhouse Tempest Rising release their relentless new single ‘Awakening’. The song introduces itself with a merciless punch and sets the scene for the visceral soundscape to follow. Featuring heavy dropped tuned and rhythmically sophisticated guitarwork, complemented by methodically curated lead lines, this audible manifesto is underpinned by superbly tight drum and bass grooves. The verses continue with the onslaught incorporating a healthy smattering of vocalist Vin Trikeriotis’s signature extreme vocals. Chorus herald an impeccable contrast to the rest of the track showcasing more of Trikeriotis’s range with hook-laden clean vocals that cut through the heaviness of the instrumentation and delivers a soul-crushing melody.
What is your upbringing
James Ward-Armstrong: Nothing special just the standard suburban family, Dad worked mum looked after me and my 2 younger brothers, Thankful for the upbringing I have had, Defiantly less fortunate out there,
How did you discover music?
Mum and dad saved a whole lot of money for a deposit on a house, it fell through so they spent it all on a home entertainment system (state of the art in the early ’90s) It had a 100 stacker CD player, so when I was little I used to play with that, ACDC ballbreaker album got chosen a lot, LimeWire came out that opened a lot of doors to other bands (as much as downloading was bad) but I bought my fair share of CD’s as well later on,
How did you start to write music?
Would have been 16/17 when i started writing music, Was the time i started playing electric guitar. Typical Youngster playing guitar in the garage with friends,
How did the band get together?
Originally started from a random Facebook ad, turned out he lived around the corner from, we met up and jammed and then pieced the band together from that, been through our fair share of line ups and we were openly looking for people for at least a year and a half, First Official 5pce was August 2012. Currently, Myself Vocalist Vin and Bass player Jarrad are the Original Members from that lineup,
How did you get your bands name?
Originally the band was called “Coming Storm” Just a word play on that, Sounds less Garage more professional
Describe your music.
Slowly matured over the years, we get called metalcore but we don’t intentionally write metalcore riffs, haha I think the tuning we play plus some of the style of our music come up like that, with the latest released are far from that, we tend to refer as a groove metal or alternative metal.
What was your first performance as a band like?
Battle of the bands haha got through the first round and finished 2nd place in the final (Beaten by an acoustic act can you believe it!!,) I think you can find footage of the first time we played on Youtube somewhere!
Royalties never appear like magic. Royalties are only sent to you through work undertaken by a PRO to ensure that their members are getting paid. If you’re not yet signed up to a Performing Right Organization like ASCAP, BMI or SESAC, you may not be receiving all the royalties you deserve.
Do you belong to any songwriters’ organizations like the International singer-songwriter association, SESAC, BMI, or ASCAP?
Yes, we belong to APRA (Australian Performing Rights Association) which sorts out all our royalties, etc
What makes a good songwriter?
Thinking outside the box is always good, testing different elements and making something basic sound complicated,
What was the title of your first original song? Did you record it?
The First Original song was called “One chance” and it never got recorded haha for good reason 🙂 might have some footage of around somewhere
What is the process of writing your music?
It varies from time to time but someone brings in a riff/drum idea and we jam and see what happens, then record it and play around with it until we are happy and then jam it out,
Tell me about Awakening?
Awakening, out 4 singles we wrote and releasing, its probably the closest one to a “Tempest Rising” Song Fast pace groovy and killer vocal hooks, what is there not to like about it 🙂)
Tell me about the making of the video “Downfall”?
We filmed it all in the Perth City, Band shots were all done on a rooftop carpark in the city, and then all the walking was done through northbridge (Which is like the nightclub area of Perth)
We strapped go pros to our chests for some of it, if you watch carefully, you can pick out us all in the clips!
What is your favorite track on your album?
Out of the 4 singles we are releasing, Awakening is my favourite, if we are talking about our last full-length album then it’s a tie between “Breathe” and “Singularity”
Why did you pick DarkSpirit Photography to make your video?
He has been a long-time friend of ours, He had done one of our singles ” A Part of Me” which we enjoyed, we went through some other people between that song and the latest. As we were close with them.
We had watched joe’s progression over the years with other releases so we jumped at the Opportunity, he was stoked to do 4 clips for us! We also used Dean Gratwick from Beat match lighting for the lighting in Awakening and the 2 other singles not released yet
What are you’re feeling about streaming music?
it’s good and bad. I think with this day and age it’s good for exposure but means bands have to think of other ways to make money unless you pulling hundreds of thousands of streams,
The symbol # is known as the number sign, hash, pound sign and a sharp sign in music. The symbol has historically been used for a wide range of purposes Since 2007, widespread usage of the symbol to introduce metadata tags on social media platforms has led to such tags being known as “hashtags”, and from that, the symbol itself is sometimes called a hashtag.
Are people forgetting that the # is a part of music?
People that aren’t musicians wouldn’t know # meant a sharp note haha in fact most people read tabs so if they can’t read music, they wouldn’t know what i meant.
Digital vs. vinyl?
Vinyl making a comeback i think due to nostalgia maybe, Tapes were for a little bit but not to the extent of vinyl, who knows maybe in 20 years CD will make a comeback
I think digital is here to stay because it easy and convenient
What song from the past is in your mind right now? Moreover, what is the meaning that song means to you?
Right now, Angel of Death by slayer, Favourite song of all time, Just the aggression and speed, I’m a speed freak 😋
You just played the Slayfest 2021, in March. How was it.
Slayfest was awesome, we had played the Perth based one last year and it’s always a highlight of the calendar, they usually have one international act and one or 2 nationals acts Aswell but cos of the Ashwell current situation of the world right now it was all local, it was a great night, Bittersweet as it was the last gig our Lead Guitarist Deejay played but we according to the reviews we had the biggest crowd of the night 🙂
Since you have played a few shows since the lockdown kind of ended in Australia. How has playing live in front of a crowd changed over the last few months?
Fortunately for us being in WA we didn’t have many strict rules as we basically locked the rest of Australia away, there have been some seated gigs but we hadn’t played any, the first couple of shows were pumping for local gigs due to everyone been so cooped up! Hopefully, it stays this way and people take going out for granted more often,
If “Video Killed the Radio Star” do you think that the Covid-19 virus has killed live music? Do you feel the Covid-19 virus going to affect the music business in the future?
It nearly killed it, haha it has had a huge effect on it that’s for sure. Heard on the news recently the Australians won’t be able to travel out of the country until at least 2022/23 so who knows what will happen in the future
What have you been doing with your self-quarantine?
I’m an essential employee so i have had to work through this pandemic haha no rest for the wicked
How do you stay healthy during the lockdown?
Eating healthy and keeping fit, made a home gym when the gyms were closed, but try to get there every morning when i can,
Have you discovered or rediscovered any new hobbies?
Nothing new but would like to get back into Warhammer again (Tabletop gaming) now that i can afford to do it and not have to wait until birthdays or Christmas for money to get them ha-ha
Many artists are doing nightly concerts over either YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. In October that is going to change at least on Facebook. Facebook is cracking down on livestreamed shows that include recorded music with new terms of service, preventing artists from using the platform for “commercial or non-personal” purposes, unless they have obtained the relevant licenses.
The updated music guidelines state that users “may not use videos on our products [which include Instagram] to create a music listening experience […] This will includes [Facebook] Live,” and stipulates that such content should be posted for the enjoyment of friends and family only.
How do you think this will change the landscape of Facebook?
I didn’t even know about that, could change a few things, but they may cave in and change it back after, once they realize it’s a mistake
How can bands keep their fans if they cannot play live in front of the fans and sell merchandise to them at the show?
Keep your content up to ensure you don’t fall off the wagon< need to keep people interested in you!
Is pay to play still a thing? Now pay to play also means thinks like playlist on the internet and opening slots for a major band on tour.
Yeah it’s still a thing, Look some people are against it but can work in your favor as well, its exposure, We have don’t it twice for Japan tours, the first time we were young and naive and went through a third party instead of a direct through the third party so we didn’t burn some money there, we did it again the 2nd time and were smarter about it, Spoke to the band another band that did it and they paid a lot more than we did, a lot of it is just convivence, which is appealing if you have traveled internationally (Accommodation/Travel) We had just got back from Europe (Not pay to play) so we knew what we needed, So the money to pay to play was less because we sourced all our on travel and accommodation
What about Holographic concerts in our living room?
If you got the technology why not!!!
Did you know that the Grammys MusicCares can help artist? The MusiCares COVID-19 Relief has helped thousands of music industry artists and professionals during these difficult days. This is the most recipients helped, for any single event, in MusiCares’ history. The need remains great, and these unique times remain critical for music people. It has taken a community uplifting one another to get through this pandemic, and MusiCares has pulled together a list of additional organizations and resources to further support you. https://www.grammy.com/musicares/get-help/relief-resources. Have you applied for it yet?
Might have to apply for it never heard of it before! Haha
In the past if a musician stop doing music, they find a new career. For example, David Lee Roth from Van Halen became a licensed EMT in NY for 6 years, San Spitz (guitarist for Anthrax) became a master watchmaker, Dee Snider (Twister Sister) voice over work for SpongeBob SquarePants. If you can’t do music, what would you like to be doing?
I’m doing what I love (After playing in a band) So I am fortunate. However, if we started back to maybe high school, I may have taken a different path, I’m into astronomy so something like that would have been cool
What is your happy place?
Playing guitar with no interruptions hah!
Spotify’s ‘Stream On’ event on Monday (February 22), the company confirmed that more than 60,000 new tracks are now being ingested by its platform every single day. This means people are added new tracks uploaded to its platform every 1.4 seconds.
The figure, announced by Spotify’s co-Head of Music, Jeremy Erlich, means that across the course of this year, approximately 22 million tracks will be added to Spotify’s catalog. Spotify confirmed in November last year that its platform now played host to around 70 million tracks.
Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.
But still back at the beginning of the year Spotify deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
i suppose it depends on where we are at as band. Name your price 🙂
Spotify’s ‘Stream On’ event on Monday (February 22), the company confirmed that more than 60,000 new tracks are now being ingested by its platform every single day. This means people are added new tracks uploaded to its platform every 1.4 seconds.
The figure, announced by Spotify’s co-Head of Music, Jeremy Erlich, means that across the course of this year, approximately 22 million tracks will be added to Spotify’s catalog. Spotify confirmed in November last year that its platform now played host to around 70 million tracks.
Therefore, it’s reasonable to assume that, by the end of 2021, SPOT will be home to over 90 million tracks. And that in the early part of next year, it will surpass a catalog of 100 million for the first time.
But still back at the beginning of the year Spotify deleted 750,00 songs, mostly from independent artists. What do you think what that could mean to independent artist?
Think it means you better have a high stream count, I suppose you would have to dig deeper, did they may be deleted unactive accounts?
Sony Music in November and Warner Music Group in December, The ByteDance-owned video app revealed on (February 8) that it has struck an “expanded” global licensing agreement with Universal Music Group. Now that TikTok is now fully licensed by all three major record companies, will you start using TikTok more?
i don’t use Tic Tok and i think until it gets mainstream use in music then maybe otherwise just another platform to get sucked into
Danny Wimmer Presents just announced their 2021 Festival Calendar: Which includes the following live shows:
DWP Partners With Inkcarceration Music & Tattoo Festival For July 23-25 Event In Mansfield, OH
Louder Than Life Set For September 23-26 With Newly Added Thursday Night Celebration In Louisville, KY
Welcome To Rockville Expands To 4 Days And Shifts From Spring To November 11-14 In Daytona Beach, FL
Aftershock Set For October 7-10 In Sacramento, CA, Almost Sold Out
Would you be willing to play these shows and what precautions would you like to have in place?
You got any contacts for these shows? haha I doubt we would be allowed out of the country and if we did don’t know if we would be allowed back in, Be safe and hygienic.
How has your videos change since “Devil n Me”?
Better ideas, I wouldn’t say bigger budgets haha but yeah better ideas to complement the more matured sound
Anything you would like to say in closing.
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