Interview by Kris Peters
Fresh from a run of Australian shows with Ne Obliviscaris and Rivers Of Nihil last September, German based post metal outfit The Ocean are set to return this June for their first headlining dates in this country in almost a decade.
The band left an indellible impression on concert-goers when they were here late last year and have promised to up the ante even more for this tour which starts in Brisbane on June 5.
Bringing their biggest production yet, as well as legendary US hardcore pioneers Cave In for their first Aussie shows EVER and insanely heavy Danish label mates LLNN, The Ocean will be showcasing last years ninth album Holocene, said to be the bands most exploratory and varied release yet.
Guitarist Robin Staps sat down with HEAVY to reveal more.
"We're looking forward to being back," he began. "We were only over there last September but we're stoked to come back with a full headline set this time and to present you guys our new record Holecene, which we haven't been touring with so far. We just played one track on the last tour so there's goign to be a lot of songs we haven't really played live on your precious continent before and we're stoked to do that."
"I'm in the middle of tour preparations right now," he continued. "Inevitably you start dealing with a tour more than a couple of weeks in advance. There's a lot of logistics involved. We're also doing South East Asian dates before we get to Australia and just the whole luggage and merch shipping and transport situation is extremely complicated. So unfortunately right now it's quite mundane logistics stuff, but i'm very much looking forward to finally being over there and touring and playing shows. We love Australia, ity's always been great. This time I have a feeling we're actually going to be able to enjoy it (laughs). The last couple of times it was always super early morning flights so we just didn't sleep. I was like a zombie."
In the full interview, Robin talks more about what to expect from The Ocean on the tour, how the shows will be different as headlining events, the extra production and what that means for the performance, what has changed with The Ocean siunce their last headline Aussie tour almost a decade ago, bringing Cave In over for the first time and how that band helped shaped The Ocean's sound, how Holocene was received by fans, the slightly different sound of that album and why they went in that direction, fitting songs with different structures into a set list and more.