{"id":47363,"date":"2014-12-10T11:24:08","date_gmt":"2014-12-10T16:24:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/?p=47363"},"modified":"2014-12-10T11:37:38","modified_gmt":"2014-12-10T16:37:38","slug":"interview-with-andy-young-of-sonic-divide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/2014\/interview-with-andy-young-of-sonic-divide\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Young of Sonic Divide"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska<\/span>
\n– Senior Columnist —<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In the world ruled by the huge record companies and uneasy compromises, there\u2019s nothing more authentic than an independently released album that is not only a pleasurable to listen to, but also, a genuine insight into the band. One of such is Sonic Divide\u2019s indie self-titled debut \u2013 hailing from Adelaide, Australia, the six-piece band has come a long way since jamming together on some well-known tunes. Now a proper band with their original material released and enthusiastically reviewed all over the world, the group looks forward to their bright future ahead. Hence their keyboard player Andy Young talks with Hardrock Haven about the album and the band\u2019s foundation, but also, what the next months and years hold in store for them.<\/p>\n

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Hardrock Haven: For a start, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a brief story of how the band was founded?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: For sure – I\u2019m Andy Young, keyboardist for Sonic Divide. The band kicked off in around 2007 when Wayne (vocalist) saw Glenn (lead guitar) playing live in a venue and asked him what he was doing with himself musically at that time, and what he saw his musical future as looking like. Glenn and Wayne had known each other through the respective bands that they individually played with back in the early 90\u2019s. Glenn told Wayne that he had a few song ideas buzzing around in his head and Wayne suggested gathering together a bunch of local musos to simply jam together and see if they still had the passion to do music again after a number of years of other pursuits such as raising families etc. Glenn was keen and Wayne subsequently made contact with me at the time – we had played in a band together for a few years in the mid to late 90s. I signed up to play rhythm guitar initially, and part time keys as required. Contact was also made with Ian (bassist) to gauge his interest – he was keen and so the four of us formed the nucleus of the first incarnation of Sonic Divide \u2013 with a temporary drummer to help us out until we could find a permanent one! After going through a couple of other drummers, Steve (rhythm guitar) returned from living and working in the UK and was on the lookout for a new music project to sink his teeth into \u2013 he then joined us as our \u2018permanent\u2019 drummer. The project, which was originally designed to be simply a bunch of mates jamming on covers soon morphed into a writing project when Glenn brought an original tune to the table, and we soon discovered the passion to create original music as a collaborative effort between all the guys, with Glenn Wayne and Ian being the primary writers. We then decided to cut a demo and realised as I was laying down keyboard parts that perhaps all of our music could do with keyboards to fill out our sound a little more. So I switched from rhythm guitar to full time keyboards and Steve subsequently mentioned that he would be keen to step away from the kit and take up the now vacant rhythm guitar gig, which he did. That left us needing yet ANOTHER drummer, which was when Ev stepped up to the plate and blew us away! It has been the same line-up ever since.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What do you think was a breakthrough moment for the band?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: I really believe it was getting into the studio with Darren Mullan our producer\/engineer, with him having heard our demo and believing that we just might have what it takes. We cut our debut album under Darren\u2019s expert guidance in 2013 and the finished product was far superior to anything we had ever dreamed of. The completed album started to fall into the hands of a few reviewers\/promoters who gave us awesome feedback which really made us start to think that maybe this project did have some extra legs!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Where does the band name come from and why it\u2019s given the title to your first album?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: I wish I could say it has some deep significant meaning but that wouldn\u2019t be entirely truthful! We had a get together with all the guys over a couple of bottles of red one evening early in the tracking phase of the album and the name pretty much came out of that get together. We thought it sounded punchy and aligned with the kind of music we were writing. (I actually had a bit of a concept of the name in my head \u2013 \u2018sonic\u2019 (well, pretty obvious really!) and \u2018divide\u2019 as in a mountain range \u2013 meaning awesome music to scale the mountains of life with…) As we were planning on shortly releasing our first full length we thought having a self titled album was the best way to get our name out there. <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: It\u2019s been a year since your debut album Sonic Divide has seen the light of day. Were these twelve months between the album\u2019s release and now pretty intense for the band? What you were up to during that time?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Trying to get our name and our music out there to be honest! Just prior to the album launch we had been selected as a finalist for a music comp here in Australia which was designed to showcase bands that had done the hard yards and not been substantially recognised. We played to a packed out venue with a bunch of other bands but were only able to perform one song. We chose \u2018I Wonder\u2019 because we thought it had the most broad commercial appeal of our songs at the time and also with consideration to the demographic of the national radio station sponsoring the comp. We did real well in the popular vote on the night but the two judges with the responsibility of choosing the winner overlooked us for another act.
\nFollowing this show (and the launch a couple of months later), I started contacting a number of industry people I knew to let them know we existed \u2013 I had hosted a number of radio shows here in Adelaide over a period of 17 years and had developed a bit of a network of like-minded people around the globe so it made sense to flick copies of our album to a number of them. This resulted in some awesome reviews and feedback which also spurred us on to think of what else we could do to get people to hear our music. Dawn Fraser-Nicholls from Firebrand Rock Radio in the UK stumbled upon our music early this year, labelling our album the \u201cbest debut album of 2013\u201d. This resulted in a substantial amount of airplay in the UK for which we will always be extremely indebted to Dawn and the Firebrand crew for. So it was mostly a time of trying to promote the band wherever we could in order to hopefully get into the ears of influential industry people who might like what we have to offer! <\/p>\n

To continuing to read the interview click the link below:
\n<\/p>\n

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Hardrock Haven: What do you think are the strongest points of Sonic Divide?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: All of the guys in the band have reasonably decent musical pedigrees, with pretty much all of us having done the hard yards in other bands in our earlier days. Importantly, we are not just \u2018six blokes in a band\u2019 \u2013 we are all great mates as well and although there can be the odd disagreement from time to time re various aspects of songwriting, none of these thoughts have ever led to splintered relationships within the band. We\u2019re also not in our mid 20\u2019s these days so I guess you could say that we have learned a lot over our individual lives and in doing so we\u2019ve learned what it takes to work successfully together as a band towards a common goal. Finally, all six of us share a deep spiritual connection as well and this is also a solidifying factor in the musical road that we are travelling together… <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What kind of influence do you think Darren Mullan, the album\u2019s producer, exerted over the album? What was the experience of working with him?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Darren was (and is) an awesome guy! We were more than happy to receive his input into helping shape and mold our music into what you hear when you listen to our album. He has worked with some of the biggest names in Aussie music and he believed in us and our music from day one – we felt honored to have him produce and engineer our album. If it wasn\u2019t for his input, I don\u2019t know whether or not this interview now would have ever taken place!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you plan on continuing to work with him on a second album too?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Absolutely, we would consider working with him again! We have a number of new tunes that we have road tested live and the feedback has been fantastic so yeah, when it comes time to hit the studio again we will more than likely sound Darren out again to see where he is at…<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: You claim the likes of Muse, U2, Simple Minds and Dream Theater to be your biggest inspirations, whereas there\u2019s hardly the trace of such influences in your music. Why?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: With 6 different guys from six various backgrounds you are always going to get a wide selection of musical influences. My own musical tastes range from classical music to death metal and I could cite influences from all musical camps in between! But sometimes a particular band may inspire us lyrically or maybe it\u2019s in the way they compose their music or even how they perform live. I guess that\u2019s the beauty of Sonic Divide \u2013 we are collectively of one mind as to what we want the Sonic Divide sound to be so our individual influences tend to come together to help us shape the overall product \u2013 whether the listener can pick a specific musical connection or not! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: If it comes to your music, perhaps the most frequent comparison is to the sound of Bon Jovi. How fair do you think these comparisons are?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Very fair indeed – we were actually talking about the similarity of our sound to Bon Jovi earlier this year. We\u2019re pretty happy to hear people make that connection with our music! Now if only we can get on the same bill as them…<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: With the majority of reviewers dubbing your album melodic rock or pop rock, how would you define the music you play genre-wise?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Yeah, I would say melodic rock is a fair description. You know, for ages we found it difficult trying to define our style to people when they would ask us what we sounded like (if they hadn\u2019t heard us). I think we cover a lot of sub-genres in our music but melodic rock would probably be the most consistent description I would think. The new tunes that we are working on for the most part would probably be described as more heavy melodic rock \u2013 watch this space! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What\u2019s inspired the album lyric-wise? Any stories behind the songs you\u2019d like to share in particular?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: A simple answer \u2013 life! Like I said earlier, we are not a bunch of musos in our mid 20s these days so the lyrical content of our music has been born out of our collective life experiences over the years \u2013 from both the good and the challenging times. And also as mentioned earlier, our personal and collective spiritual walk has also played a major role in shaping us as individuals and as a band, and as most bands write from their own experiences it is only natural that whatever helps shape and define you will most likely find a way into any creative output that you may produce…<\/p>\n

To continuing to read the interview click the link below:
\n<\/p>\n

\"SonicDivide2\"<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: \u201cI Wonder\u201d was illustrated with the video. What\u2019s prompted this particular choice and what can you say about the video itself?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: We recognized early on that creating a great video can help take your music and name to the next level \u2013 we decided to shoot a clip and asked for feedback from some significant industry experts (including a six-time Grammy winning producer!) as to which of our songs we should use for the clip. The overwhelming response was \u2018I Wonder\u2019 so we set out to see how we could best capture the sound, feel and lyrical content of the song. The song speaks of walking through life and getting so caught up in the mundane day to day existence that we forget to notice the beauty around us, and before we know it we arrive at the end of life and realize that our lives has been unfulfilled because we forgot to pay attention along the way. We thought it would be cool to shoot around a lonely country road somewhere and find the ruins of an old house to represent the \u2018end of the road\u2019 so to speak. The town of Burra in the mid north of South Australia had everything we needed to help our concept come to life, particularly the old ruined homestead featured in the clip which if you think looks familiar you would be right \u2013 it is the exact same old homestead featured on the front cover of Midnight Oil\u2019s \u2018Diesel and Dust\u2019 album from 1987! The location is so iconic \u2013 Midnight Oil fans (and rock music fans in general) come to visit and photograph the old house all the time because of the Oils\u2019 connection so to get permission to shoot at the site was incredible! The farmer who owned the land that the homestead is located on (and his family) were so accommodating to us \u2013 in fact the entire clip (with the exception of one scene shot at the old Burra railway station) was all filmed in the same property owned by this farmer. And our video producer Jason Mildwaters of JLM Studios Productions has such a great eye for detail \u2013 he took the beauty of the landscape and turned it into the amazing video that you see today. And we really feel that the video captures some of the best landscapes that South Australia has to offer so hopefully the clip inspires more tourists to visit Down Under and South Australia in particular!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Coming from the land of Oz, what do you think is the current state of the Australian music industry? Is it fairly independent, or maybe influenced by the foreign music market, e.g. the US?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: I think it is dependent upon the style of music that you are creating. For melodic rockers like us, there\u2019s not a huge market here I must say. We are hoping that we might be able to play in role in changing that but I don\u2019t think it is likely in the foreseeable future. Australia tends to imitate the US in many ways culturally (including music) and in that sense we feel that the music of Sonic Divide would probably be better appreciated by a US audience, as it appears to already be doing to a small degree. But trying to do that here is an uphill battle \u2013 there was a local progressive rock band form Adelaide (now disbanded) who toured Europe and played to packed out venues \u2013 some very large \u2013 yet I attended a show they performed in Adelaide and you could count the number of people there on two hands. I wish Aussies would get out and support local music to a greater degree \u2013 particularly us melodic rockers \u2013 but it doesn\u2019t look likely in the foreseeable future unfortunately… <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What do you think are the chances for promotion on a local and global scale for an Australian band? Is it mostly the self-promotion via the social media that does the trick these days?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: I think you need the right people in the right places with the right connections to make it work. Our social media impact has had mixed success \u2013we hit number one in the Aussie rock charts on Reverb Nation (and number 50 globally) back in August this year but unfortunately we did not notice a huge increase in album sales. And the I Wonder video was added to a number of US internet\/TV show playlists but again, not much return in the way of album sales. Social media, in and of itself is simply one tool that if utilized well can certainly have a positive impact for a band trying to make a name for themselves but I truly believe that it is most likely a case of \u2018who you know\u2019 that will get you to where you want to go.<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Is there any act of the Aussie music scene you find particularly interesting or promising? Is there anything worth being recommended to our readers, perhaps?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Dead Letter Circus from Brisbane is one Aussie band that all of us in Sonic Divide are into- awesome songwriters, fantastic live presence. Fellow Adelaidians Squeaker are another awesome rock\/alternative band to keep an eye out on \u2013 they are a great bunch of guys who also write brilliant music \u2013 check \u2018em out! <\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Do you plan to venture out of Australia and thus expand your concert territory?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: Well, the opportunity to do that would certainly be welcomed for sure \u2013 but one thing we would need to factor in, though, is that all of us are husbands and dads with day jobs and as such it probably won\u2019t be that easy to just say \u201clet\u2019s head overseas for an extended period of time\u201d. We\u2019re all keen to consider doing a week here and a week there if the opportunities present themselves and it won\u2019t impact on our families too much. But we are all family blokes first and foremost though so our families will definitely come first!<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: What the future holds in store for Sonic Divide?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: We\u2019re keen to ride this wave as far as it will take us! We are currently exploring a potentially exciting opportunity for 2015 and beyond which may have a good chance to get our name out there on a much wider scale so watch this space! It\u2019s been an awesome ride thus far and while it would be cool to perform a few short international tours we would be still be content if the journey were to end today. But we feel there may still be some exciting times ahead for Sonic Divide as a band…<\/p>\n

Hardrock Haven: Any last words?<\/p>\n

Andy Young: We wanna say a massive thanks to the Hardrock Haven crew for checking us out and for considering us worthy of an interview and album review \u2013 it is much appreciated! To those who have never heard Sonic Divide \u2013 check us out and let us know what you think! And feel free to spread the word!<\/p>\n

Visit the band online: http:\/\/www.sonicdivide.net\/index\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alexandra Mrozowska – Senior Columnist — In the world ruled by the huge record companies and uneasy compromises, there\u2019s nothing more authentic than an independently released album that is not only a pleasurable to […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":47368,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10850],"tags":[10397,203,10369],"class_list":{"0":"post-47363","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arcint2014","8":"tag-andy-young","9":"tag-interview","10":"tag-sonic-divide"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hardrockhaven.net\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}