1. First of all guys congratulations on your tenth anniversary. Could you start by telling how Claim The Throne first formed and whether or not you ever thought you guys would still be going 10 years later at the time?
Thank you very much. The band started really from a bunch of school mates who shared similar tastes in music and just wanted to have fun with it. I wasn’t there from the start, but I’m assuming that at the time, reaching 10 years probably wasn’t on anyone’s mind but the fact the band has made it this far and released quite a few cds, a DVD and a book is a great effort.
2. You recently did a gig to start of the 10 year anniversary by performing a lot of your tracks from over the years and with an acoustic set in the middle. Tell us what was like re-inventing some of your tracks as acoustic tracks? Also tell us what was like being able to perform some of the tracks that you first put together 10 years ago.
Well with the couple of tracks from the first CD we did have to relearn them & jam them a bit to get them up to scratch, but it didn’t take too long really. Was a lot of fun playing those as we haven’t done so for years! As for the acoustic tracks, Cabba, did all those and decided to mess around with them. In the past we have done a couple of acoustic sets just for something different. But since Forged In Flame came out a couple of years ago, we dropped the acoustic songs from our set to make way for the new songs. Was good to get them back in though for the first show of the tour.
3. You’re about to head to Japan for three shows. How did the Japanese tour come about and how much do you know about the Japanese metal scene?
Actually as I am writing this, we have just finished the shows. All three were amazing & is our second time here. We were invited to play from a promoter here as part of a package including Dark Lunacy, Mercenary & Ethereal Sin. Was a fairly mixed line-up, but it worked very well!
4. Do you know if Claim The Throne has a big Japanese fanbase or are you guys going into this completely blind?
We did tour here last year in October & were well received then. Hence the offer to come back again. We have certainly developed a fanbase here as we noticed this time around a number of people wearing our shirts & a lot of people singing along to our songs as we were performing them. Our merch sales were strong also, so things are looking good for us here! Would definitely love to come back again!!
5. What are you looking forward to doing in Japan? Do you have much time off or are you just travelling from gig to gig the whole time?
Well mostly the shows of course & trying to increase our fanbase. Which we appear to have done. Apart from that, eat some great food also & make new friends. We do have a couple of days off to check out Tokyo, which is great. Japan is a fantastic crazy (in a good way) place, so it is good to get to spend a bit of time & check things out. The first day we arrived in Osaka we had enough time to eat a Slayer themed curry restaurant!
6. You’ve also got the Hell On The Bay Cruise Festival coming up have you guys ever performed on a boat before? If so what was like, if not tell us if you’re excited or worried about performing on a boat? With such an unique venue as a boat what problems or challenges does that cause for you guys to try and overcome.
Haha, yes we seem to have thing for boats. We have organised a couple of boat gigs in Perth before & then earlier this year we managed to perform on the 70000 tonnes of metalfest which was truly incredible. But now we are looking forward to boating it up in Melbourne. Maybe on our next Australian tour we will perform all our shows on boats, haha. The only thing I’d be worried about is having one too many ales & slipping over the edge. Hopefully it won’t be too rough & all will be smooth sailing as I don’t want any motion sickness. Could be difficult trying to play & keep your balance at the same time, although in saying that, we’ve had to do that many times with our alcohol consumption, so with all that practice we should be fine.
7. Does Claim The Throne have any other surprises planned for your fans during the 10 year anniversary period?
Sadly I don’t think we do. Although we do tend to spontaneously do & say a lot of silly things during our show, so who knows, haha. Maybe Jim will chop his beard off and we’ll give a free piece with every merch purchase.
8. Bringing it back to the celebrations what have been the things that the band have been most proud of over the years? Is these days and times bands come and go, what do you believe has been the secret to your longevity?
And yes I’m going to ask the clichéd what have been the highlights and the lowlights of those ten years. Do you think the band has another ten years ahead of it? If so what have you got planned for the next 10 years?
Looking back we have been fortunate to have done so many cool things. Supporting Alestorm & Finntroll in Australia, supporting Alestorm in UK, playing Hammersonic Festival in Jarkata, touring Asia last year, touring USA this year which included 70000 tonnes of metalfest, plus all our other Australian tour & Australian fests we have played on. We have done a lot & I certainly hope we do a lot more for another 10 years. I think part of our longevity so far is that we are all such great friends & all get along so well & enjoy a good party! We all have the same vision & goal & its just seems to all work. I wouldn’t say we have had any lowlights.
Id like to think in the next 10 years we can have many more releases, more tours & hit up some different areas like Europe & of course keep going back to the places we’ve already done.
It’s just too much fun not too.
9. Of all the places you have played around the world, what has been your favourite gig and why?
That is a pretty hard one to say as we have been fortunate enough to have played many great shows in many countries now, but if I had to say one, I would say the 70000 tonnes of metal fest. To be on a bill with so many great bands, to be the first Australian band to play on it & be on a 4 day cruise with 3000+ metalheads is a crazy experience. And one I hope we get to do again.
10. The Claim The Throne sound is always a very fresh sound. How do you manage to keep sounding so fresh?
I glad you think that. We do try to keep things interesting. Although we do have a liking for a lot of the same bands, we also like a lot different metal bands, so between us all our tastes vary a lot. Which I think creates a lot more influences for us. And we don’t want to sound too much like anyone else, especially here in Australia. We hope to maintain our own type of sound & keeps things fresh, not just for ourselves, but also our fans.
11. I’ve noticed that you guys are always trying new things. How have things like the Podcast come about over the years? Why do you think it is important to do new things like that?
Just trying to do things differently & creating more promo for ourselves. There is more to promo than just Facebook! I think it’s great what Cabba & Ash do with the podcast. Not only good promo for our own band, but we are happy to share our experiences with other people & hopefully newer, younger bands can learn from what we have done. I’ve always been a big fan of Australian music & love seeing Australian metal bands succeed! And right now, it has to be the best it has ever been for Aussie metal acts.
12. What have you noticed being the biggest changes to the music industry over the last ten years? What things do you think have changed for the best and what has changed for the worst?
Well obviously social media plays a huge part now. And youtube of course. Bands nowadays have so many tools they can utilise to get their music out there. These are definitely the pluses. You can potentially reach anyone in the world. On the downside, it’s made for a lot of competition out there, which can make it more difficult to get your music heard and the continual battle for people to actually buy your music. But for me personally if more people have access to our music & can hear it (& hopefully enjoy it) then i’m all ok with it.
13. A lot of your fans have been asking. When can we expect a new album from Claim The Throne? Are you guys already working on a new album?
Yes we certainly are. At the moment we have 4 new songs in the can & plenty of other ideas floating around. It’s another step up for us & if you thought Forged In Flame kicked you in the dick, this one is going to stomp on it. It will still maintain plenty of melody & textures that we have incorporated in the past, but I think the songwriting has gotten stronger & the playing better, so we are more than excited to get this one out. Recording is due for December & looking to release it by about April to June next year, followed by plenty of touring & more celebrating!
