INTERVIEW WITH JASON PEPPIATT AND TODD STERN OF PSYCROPTIC

For nearly 20 years, Tasmania's own Psycroptic has taken the Death Metal scene by the proverbial throat, with some of the most eclectic riffing, innovative song structures, and profound musicianship technique.  I had a chance to talk with vocalist Jason Peppiatt and newest member, bassist Todd Stern about his start in the band, the detailed work of guitarist Joe Haley, how technology has impacted the band, and discussing their 2003 magnum opus and time period of, The Scepter of the Ancients.

(The audio version of this interview can be found at the bottom of the page) 

Metalchondria:  If I remember correctly, the last time Psycroptic was here in California, summer of 2013-2014?

Jason Peppiatt:  We played Bay Area Death Fest 2015?  

Todd Stern:  Just before my time.

In terms a full tour?  It's been roughly three to four years the band played in LA, I believe?

Todd Stern:  That was a full tour, that would have been the first date of that tour, yeah?

Jason Peppiatt:  Yep!

Todd Stern:  So Psycroptic did a headliner in the states in 2015, before I started filling in for them, probably around May or June.  First thing I did with them was the tour in November of 2015, was with Whitechapel and Psycroptic.

And recently, you just joined the band!  How did that come to be?

Todd Stern:  Two and a half years of filling in, I guess it finally made sense for all parties involved to just make it official.  Cam Grant, I finally get to meet the original OG bass player who had grown up with Peppiatt, so that was kind of like a cool, ceremonious type of thing for us to finally meet, and finally pass the torch physically to me, which was awesome.

Do you feel a little odd that you're the only American in the group?  Any funny stories, or changes for you and the band?

Todd Stern:  It works out for everyone that there's an American in the band.  Plus, it is funny.

Jason Peppiatt:  Culture difference.

Todd Stern:  Yeah, yeah yeah! So they have a good time here, and I have a good time there.  We trade little fucking sayings and nuances, about how our day to day lives are different here and there, or sayings, things like that.  Euphemisms, whatever the fuck, or "cloakleilisms" as we call them (laughs).  I didn't think at first it would make any sense, to have an American in the band, but it turns out that it does.  

Jason Peppiatt:  Hitting that grind!

This has been a great package, with you guys and Aborted.  How did this tour come to be, from the record labels put this together?

Todd Stern:  Continental booking agency.  So Steph, how do you say his last name? 

Jason Peppiatt:  I have no idea.

Todd Stern:  So Steph from Continental books Psycroptic in North America, and that's been going on for years now.  He also has a gentleman named Dan DeFonce, books for Continental, lives in Texas. And Dan's partner Bryce I guess the two of them, started to put this whole thing together, and since we're involved in Continental, we got pitched for the lineup.  Devastation on the Nation I think is their baby, Brice and Defonce's.  So I guess this is their third year in a row?  I guess they consider it their version of Summer Slaughter, it's been brutal since Day 1.  Last year they added Cryptopsy, Visceral Disgorge in the lineup, I forget who was on it the year before that.  But they always pick gnarly fucking bands, and Aborted is a perfect headliner for them, it's been going great!  We're about halfway through, and the shows have been really consistent, we've already started in Brooklyn and now we're northern Cali, and everything's been great.

I've noticed over the years, Psycroptic having six albums now, and for Jason, you took over on Symbols of Failure, quite a long time ago.  I've been hearing the band since The Isle of Disenchantment and The Scepter of the Ancients, and for the old school guys, we're aware of the change from (Former vocalist Matthew) Chalk to yourself.  For the new fans however, I don't know if they would notice as much because a lot of them came around The Inherited Repression or maybe Ob(Servant), as well--

Jason Peppiatt:   I think when we started on Nuclear Blast, when we did Ob(Servant), I think that's when a lot people think our first album is, like they think that's where Psycroptic started from.

Todd Stern:  That would have been 10 years after the band started.

Jason Peppiatt:  Yeah!  That was 10 years ago now, I think.  The band was going nearly 10 years before that (laughs).  I don't know, I guess the first three albums, weren't on major labels, wasn't a big distribution for them so a lot of people just didn't hear them, I suppose.  But I mean, we still do get people who calling out different songs from the old shit.  We still usually throw something from The Scepter of the Ancients on each tour, and we try something from Symbols of Failure.

Would that be tonight, too?

Todd Stern:  Not "Symbols", no.

 Jason Peppiatt:  We'll throw something off of "Scepters" (smiles).

That's worth the entire trip up here.

Todd Stern:  A lot of people feel that way, it's not an overwhelming amount I feel like, but as soon as you ask the crowd if they want to hear something old, someone will yell out a song title from the fucking first few records.  It's either "Skin Coffin", whatever the fuck they yell.

"The Valley of Winds Breath and Dragons Fire"?

Todd Stern and Jason Peppiatt:   (Laughs)

Jason Peppiatt:  I don't even fucking know those.

It was a long time ago, and speaking of that as well, Matthew Chalk's involvement in those two albums particularly, the lyrics were very mythical, kind of these fantasy stories.  And with "Symbols", and everything after that, the songs are fiction of course, but more like modern tale. Was that in terms of Joe and Dave (Haley) wanted to do originally? 

Jason Peppiatt:  What happened with Symbols of Failure and Ob(Servant), Dave wrote all the lyrics for those.  I started out session with the band, on a European tour and then when it was the whole changeover between me and Chalk, for full time, I suppose.  The Symbols of Failure album was almost written, Dave had just gone in and wrote all the lyrics for that, so it was just a matter of me putting them to the songs.  Ob(Servant) was the same deal, Dave wrote the lyrics, I did the vocal phrasings, and in The Inherited Repression, Dave was like, "It's your fucking turn."  I've been writing them all ever since.

All the lyrics from the previous two records, basically?

Jason Peppiatt:  Yeah, and the most recent album that's not released yet, or not quite finished yet.  I did all the writing for that lyrically, but I don't know.  The lyrical themes, it's not really a conscious thing, it's more...with me personally, the lyrics for all that shit, it's just my views on the world, basically.  There's no mythical themes, they're not probably the most direct.  Dave always seems to pick what they're about straight up the mark, but a lot of people don't seem to know.

Todd Stern:  I think they're a bit hippyish, to be honest, in a good way.  Environmentally conscious, shit like that.

Jason Peppiatt:   Being where I come from in Tasmania, it's very green, you know?  Fucking, everyone's environmentally conscious down there because it's such a pristine, untouched beautiful place.  Yeah, environmental issues and shit like that, I have strong views and I'm not unspoken about it, but I will take that in a roundabout way in my lyrics as well.  I suppose now, people are going to read back and go, "Oh maybe that's what he was talking about!"

Todd Stern:  But it's indirect enough for people to still have their own interpretation.

Jason Peppiatt:  Exactly!  I don't try to write a song that you can read and think that's exactly what he's saying, but I suppose my idea behind it, and what people's take on the lyrics are, can be totally different things.  And that's good, I suppose.  When it's like that, it means I'm doing my job.

Todd Stern:  Totally.

And it's funny that you mentioned that everything was already written, because from "Scepters" to Symbols of Failure- take the first two albums, the songs were a lot more "riffy", like this endless chain of riffs and flow.  With "Symbols", there were more slower passages, the songs a bit shorter, the music was more direct, and not as a web.  It's fascinating that the music was already done before your arrival, yet the music changed so drastically.

Jason Peppiatt:  Joe is not essentially someone that's all about Metal, you know?  He's just about guitar playing and stuff.  The way he writes, it's genuinely not influenced by anything, it's just what he's like, and playing what he's like, and the sound of the guitar.

Todd Stern:  If you know that dude's personal taste enough, you can hear it in the Psycroptic shit, but it would be surprising to somebody who doesn't really get it.  He's writing to like, I won't say Top 40, but big Rock bands from the 80s and shit like that.  You kind of hear that in the way he writes, but it's also the way Dave plays over Joe's shit is what makes it crushing, you know?

Jason Peppiatt:  I think the contrast between those two and the way they both play, is what gives it the unique sound.

Todd Stern:  But obviously the way Joe is writing now, is like stylistically different from the very early years of Psycroptic, anyone can hear that.  But it still sounds like him.

Jason Peppiatt:  To me personally, if you listen to the album, and listen to all the albums in succession of what's recorded and released, the changes isn't quite as drastic as if you listen to Scepter of the Ancients and the self-titled record, there's a vast difference.  But to me, it's just kind of a natural progression.

You mentioned the self-titled album, and you hear the earlier albums, very "riffy" and the song structures were always there, but I felt like the band would know what they did very well, but this album, there's acoustics, all of these passages with regular bar chords, etc.  I hear what the band is strong about, but trying other things that would different too.  Can you talk about the changes and more complete sound of Psycroptic, than I've heard  before?

Jason Peppiatt:  The whole songwriting process, the sort of verse-chorus-verse-bridge-chorus and the structures, I suppose we try to make things a bit more "catchy"?  A bit more stick in your head, then just a massive string of riffs, how it used to be in the past.  Joe's very conscious of that.  When he writes, he'll write a song and when it comes to me to do my lyrics to it, it's obvious to me where he's written for a big chorus, and stuff like that.  I usually consult with him on that.

Todd Stern:  He loves the big chorus, and it's just really coming through harder and harder with every release.  There's a record coming out later this year that's being mixed right at the moment, and I guess it's common for people to ask what they can expect:  Big fucking songs, big choruses.  Hell yeah, I love that, it's awesome.

In terms of the writing, does Joe write basically everything, and you write the lyrics now?  

Jason Peppiatt:  Joe basically starts with his ideas, he might not always have solid riffs but they'll be a structure there.  The drums were recorded before the riffs were even fully set in stone.  It was a lot of tooling and throwing with this album.  Basically everything was finished by the time it came to me, because I guess Joe had a fairly solid idea in his head on how he wanted it to come out.  At the end of the day, I'd say Joe is the absolute fucking mastermind behind the music, and there's no kind of doubt about that.  And everyone else, we're just complimenting what he does.

That's the thing, for The Scepter of the Ancients, is the best record the band has ever put out.  It speaks to the chaos, the vocal delivery, the riffs themselves and all the songs.  Tell me, you've been in the band a couple years after those albums were released, but were you around them during that time period?

Jason Peppiatt:  Me and Cameron the original bass player, we grew up since kids together.  He lives just down the road from me now, we hang out still regularly.  I've been good friends with Dave and Joe for a long fucking time as well.  So I was around when that album was out, I think there's photos on the original bonus disc of me hanging out in the studio with them, while they were recording it.  When I wasn't in the band, I was still very close to them, I used to go on tracks, in mainland Australia and hangout while they were doing shows.  So I always sort of been around, I guess.  But then when the vocalist changed, Cam was kind of really pushing to get me in there, so the rest is history.

Todd Stern:  That's awesome (smiles).

In terms of that time period, a two part question:  What was it like being around that album particularly and how it was made?  And also the year it was made, 2003, that time period of 2002-2006 was for me at least, the golden era of extreme music and those amazing tours started, a very different vibe then it is now.  Although it is coming back now, the shows the past couple of years have been in a boom stage, at least for North America.  What was it like during that era of Origin starting up, Hate Eternal releasing King of All Kings, and all that going on?

Jason Peppiatt:  I was there pretty much for all the touring for The Scepter of the Ancients, I did basically all of that.  Chalk the original singer, he did a few shows in Australia, but by the time the band came to the point of, "Well fuck, we got to go overseas", he didn't want to do it, hence me stepping in and doing it.  It was a fucking great time, and it was exciting with lots of young band!  We got to know Disavowed, Deeds of Flesh, Pyaemia, all those dudes who were really doing something different at the time.  It was fucking great, just a big brotherhood of all of these bands.  Everyone was trading merch, hitting the road together, it was a fucking awesome time!  And I think to me, the whole extreme thing, I think it's been building, and building, and building, sort of since that time period.  I mean, now especially in the US there's so many young bands that are doing the Tech thing, the brutal slam, all that stuff, and they're so fucking good at it.  They're all touring and all doing really great.  You know once upon a time bands doing that sort of thing, that would get to a certain peak in their career.  You just couldn't really push it any further, because it was still your Deicides, your Obituarys, all that old school stuff was still overpowering that stuff.  But now you see a lot of those bands, I suppose they're still doing well, but a lot of these younger, more brutal bands, are really starting to kick some ass and starting to get bigger now.  You got bands like Thy Art is Murder from Australia, fucking huge now!  The shit they're doing is heavy as fuck, bunch of young dudes from Australia.  It's fucking great.

In terms of the band being in Tasmania, where are you currently located?

Todd Stern:  New Jersey.

With technology now being so advanced, especially with bands able to send riffs and such, does it make it a lot easier to practice and rehearse?

Todd Stern:  (Laughs).  There's a lot of times where we don't rehearse.  Well Dave plays to click tracks, so he's playing to the same tempos that the records were recorded with, more or less.

Jason Peppiatt:  Everybody just does their homework, listening to the CDs.

Todd Stern:  Right!  At this point, you have your parts right, we fucking meet up somewhere far away, and we just let it rip.  So it's common for us to all meet in wherever, Norway or something like that, and get on stage with no rehearsal at all, with me not seeing the guys in months.

Jason Peppiatt:  First time Todd and I met, we never actually played together, but we were playing in Inferno fest in Norway, so that was kind of like-- we had a day to hang out, get to know each other and then bam!

Todd Stern:  It's funny because very recently in my head at least, it was like a prerequisite for people to be in your area in order to start a band, or some shit like that.  And that's all just gone now.  It's fucking crazy, and totally unnecessary.  In fact, it's beneficial to both parties to have me in the states.  Again, like we were saying before because now, Dave just bought a drum kit and he's going to leave it in North America, so he doesn't have to fuck around with renting one every time he does a tour over here.  It's better that we're far apart, now we're traveling the world and it's a little more convenient, because we trade resources as well.  

Jason Peppiatt:  We tour in other parts of the world as much as we tour at home these days.  With Todd being in the states, it doesn't make fuck of a difference, it just means Australia, we got to play to fly him out.  But when we tour in the states, we don't have to pay to fly him.

Todd Stern:  Yeah, it's one less work Visa you have to apply for, blah blah blah blah blah.  But it's funny that you mention like rehearsing and shit like that, that's the stage of the game that's the last thing on our list.  We have a million things on our checklist to get ready to start a tour, and rehearsing is the last fucking thing.  Everyone knows that you have to be ready to play the songs.

Jason Peppiatt:  I think playing to a click track does help.

Todd Stern:  It helps hugely!

Jason Peppiatt:  Because we can all just practice at home, by ourselves.

Todd Stern:  And you don't ever have to worry about being inconsistent on stage because, someone's more excited, or more tired, or more fucking full of food or whatever.  It's just the same tempos every night, and it's that much easier to put on the same show every night, which is the whole point.  If you're going to travel all around the world, and play Rock N' Roll shows, you want to kick as much ass as possible.  "I couldn't fucking hear you tonight!"  I don't even need to hear you anymore, you know?  I can get by without it.

Jason Peppiatt:   Yeah, your monitor fucked up last night!  You just disconnected it, take it off the stage, better off without it!

Todd Stern:  Just know your shit.

Jason Peppiatt:  We did Iceland before we came here, so in saying that we did get a rehearsal room off one of the bands in Iceland, and we did have a quick run.

Todd Stern:  I'd say it's nice to just make sure your shit is working properly, instead of finding out when you're on stage.  Your items get jarred loose while you're traveling, and you have to plug back everything into it, it's almost like a sound check more than a rehearsal.

Jason Peppiatt:  Test test!  Make sure nothing's fucked (laughs).

Todd Stern:  And make sure we're on the same page for the fucking setlist, you know?

You mentioned that you tour more outside of Australia, then Australia itself?

Jason Peppiatt:  It's about the same, really.  I suppose if you looked at how many shows we do abroad, it probably is more.

Todd Stern:  It makes sense, to me.

Jason Peppiatt:  A big Australian tour is probably like four to eight days, because there's not as many places that you can hit, as what you can in North America or Europe.

Todd Stern:  It's a totally different animal.  If you're from North America, you just think in different terms.  There's Heavy Metal markets everywhere here in the states.  You can go out for a month, six weeks, and there's a place to play every night.  In Australia, you have five or ten--I mean you can do five A markets, and the rest is all regional shit that's very small.  So to me it makes perfect sense.  You have a band from Hobart that is trying to branch out, you have to go all over the world.  Because that's such a remote location, if you want to make your mark, you have to travel.

In general, how is Metal in Australia, and also the New Zealand area?  Bands like Ne Obliviscaris, Ulcerate, and other bands, Thy Art is Murder and say The Berzerker from way back in the day.

Todd Stern:  That's the thing!  If you're from the states you're like, "Fuck!  I want to play shows in New Zealand."  But if you're a band from New Zealand, I guarantee you're thinking to yourself, "We got to get the fuck out of New Zealand!" (laughs), because what else is there to do?  It's tiny, and there's three cities to play in New Zealand.

Jason Peppiatt:  It's sick, though.

Todd Stern:  No no, it's great!  But if you're from there, you want your band to branch out.

Jason Peppiatt:  At the moment in Australia, there's a lot of bands doing fucking great things.  Like you said, Aversion's Crown, Thy Art is Murder, Ne Obliviscaris, the list goes on, Parkway Drive, biggest fucking band in the game, at the moment.

Todd Stern:  There's no shortage of good Australian Metal bands, but all the ones that are really making a career for themselves, are traveling outside of Australia, all the time.  You can't just play shows at home.

There's been a number of years between each album, and to this point of the newest record coming out later this year.  Does the band prefer to wait two to three years for an album cycle all around?

Todd Stern:  It really depends on touring opportunities.  Sometimes the touring cycle will last three years, just because opportunities keep coming up that are too good to pass up on, and then you're like, "Fuck, we got to write a record."  

Jason Peppiatt:  Pretty much all of them are always written and recorded over a length of time because we're still touring in between stuff   We started this one, fuck, probably around September last year, maybe even earlier?  But we only got to a certain point, and then it was a European tour, India tour, a bunch of shit in Australia, so we're trying to do in between things.

Todd Stern:  It just takes way longer.

Jason Peppiatt:  And plus, we all work when we're at home, so it's now living, and it's really fucking awesome that we have the privilege to do this!

Todd Stern:  When you take four adult men, and you try to manage their personal and work lives, and their band lives, touring gets in the way too, you really put out a record as consistently, and as proficiently as you can.   But sometimes it's two years between records, sometimes it's way more, you know?

In regards to that, what would the band like to do?  Because as I mentioned before, Psycroptic has been around since 2001-2002, and the hardcore fans, and casual fans know who the band is too, for goals in 2018, and considering all the young and upcoming bands making waves, we're in a new age of Metal currently.  What would the band like to do, in terms of making bigger tours, special tours, certain parts of the world you've never been to?

Jason Peppiatt:  South America is something we've always spoken about doing.  We had a few opportunities come our way, but we haven't been able to make it work.  We've done some pretty fucking crazy ones.

Todd Stern:  We've been really lucky so far, again, I just got here.  But even my last two and a half to three years in the band has been like, amazing shit has popped up.  Download Fest in Australia, we did the 70,000 Tons of Metal cruise, so opportunities keep coming our way, and they're all amazing.

Jason Peppiatt:  Yeah, we've been to fucking, China, Mongolia, Indonesia.

Todd Stern:  The Asian markets that we want to get to.

Jason Peppiatt:  Fuck yeah, we just want to travel as much as possible, and have a fucking great time basically!

Todd Stern:  We just want to kick ass!  As long as the shows are good, you can put us anywhere and we'll have the best time of our lives, you know?  The band's been really lucky with that as well recently.  We did five weeks in Europe, direct support for Dying Fetus last year, what more can you ask for then that?  As far as a Death Metal tour goes, it's a fucking dream come true.  So if we could just be able to put out this record this year, and consistently get proper touring opportunities to be out with really good bands that are influential and inspiring, and just fun, it'll be a crushing good time.  Make friends everywhere we go.

Would this be the only North American tour you'll be doing this year?

Todd Stern:  Absolutely not!  We don't have anything booked yet, but every time Psycroptic has to pull US work visas, they're good for 12 months at a time.  So in order to maximize that, we'll be back, for sure. 

Jason Peppiatt:  Nothing's booked at the moment.

Todd Stern:  At least one more, probably two more US tours within that 12 month cycle, starting at the beginning of this run.  And the record should be out by third quarter this year.  We don't have a release date yet, so we figure that you'll see us soon, just a matter of how soon.

Would it be a main support, or would one of those be a headliner? 

Todd Stern:  It's too early to tell.  I think with any luck, there'd be one of each.  It'd be a headliner, and another good support tour, on the same album cycle, you know?  If we get sorted out properly and time it right, I think it would be appropriate to do one of each.  Because Psycroptic is due for a headliner in North America, but I can't say for sure if the next one is a headliner, depends on what's in the works.  A lot of time agents and managers, well Dave's our management, but a lot of times booking agents have as much say in what's on the table, as we do ourselves, you know what I mean?

Jason Peppiatt:  Depends on what comes our way.  Picking and choosing what opportunities to take and what to pass on, I suppose.

Any last words for the fans tonight, and the rest of this tour and beyond?

Jason Peppiatt:  Plenty of shows left!

Todd Stern:  I mean, if you're already here, then you're doing a great job.  Fucking have some hometown pride, come out to shows, support bands, buy a T-shirt, and have a good time.

Jason Peppiatt:  Keep an eye on the new album (smiles).  We'll be releasing details on when it's coming out.

Todd Stern:  Don't forget about us, in a few months we'll have a new record out!