Heavy Metal Nation is a place for fans of heavy, interesting music to come and read, write, and comment on articles about heavy music. State Of Integrity were created in one of the hotbeds of Australian music; the Brisbane music scene has produced a phenomenal number of commercially succesful bands of varying genres, and while the metal scene is strong there, the number of them receiving their share of similar commerical success, or even interest from labels, is frustratingly low. I spoke to State Of Integrity about being an independant metal band working their up in this environment.

Pharmer4: To begin, the obvious questions. Who would you include as your predecessors; which bands inspired you to make the music you do?

State Of Integrity: We are influenced by Metallica, In Flames, Ozzy, Sepultura, Pantera and Obituary…to name a few.

P4: Who would you class as your contemporaries; bands that you see as your equals in the current scene?

SOI: I don’t like to try and class ourselves with other bands in the local scene as many of the bands we play shows with are at a level near equal to ours or higher. So I cant just throw out a heap of band names as the scene hear is very strong.

P4: Who would you like to tour with?

SOI: We’d love to tour with any band that is of similar style to ours. If your meaning to ask as in big supports, bands like Chimaira, In Flames, The Haunted, Exodus, Devil Driver etc.

P4: Which bands would you just as soon see disappear altogether?

SOI: All the indie pop rock garage bands out there saturating the Australian music scene at the moment. There are so many Metal bands here in Oz that deserve as much recognition as these other genres that just get ignored!

P4: Do you think it is because the media ignore metal bands, or is there just not enough of a fanbase to support metal in Australia?

SOI: Yeah mainly the broader section of media being closed minded about the metal genre in general here. The fanbase may be smaller in the metal scene here in Australia but they are far more loyal and compassionate about their scene then those who support the mainstream genres.

P4: Do you think if Australia had some more labels willing to work with metal or even focus on metal specifically, that the Aussie scene would be stronger?

SOI: Probably, there are some already doing that here but they can’t sign every metal band going around. The Australian scene needs the support of the fans first to go to local shows and see the bands going around putting out albums independently. That would help strengthen the scene and more labels may start paying more attention.

P4: Which sub-genre of metal would you class yourself as?

SOI: Thrash/groove metal.

P4: How did State Of Integrity come together?

SOI: My brother (Brendan - guitar) and I started jamming Metallica songs at home together nearly 10 years ago. Brendan went to school with Ben (bass) who had played in some high school bands. We realized we wanted to get more serious and asked him round for a jam and he was in the band from then on. The three of us started to really get serious about being a band and started writing some original songs along with jamming out our favorite covers and started our search for a vocalist. Over the next three years or so we went through numerous singers who just didn’t have the same direction or goals as us.

During this time we played a handful of backyard parties, until in May of 2003 Aaron (vocals) answered our ad in the local street press here. I had known Aaron through some friends of mine a few years earlier and when he came round to audition he just fitted in right away.

Over the next few months we knuckled down writing new material focused on playing some gigs as soon as we could. In September of 2003 we played our first gig as State of Integrity and as they say…the rest is history.

P4: Tell me about the members of State Of Integrity.

SOI: We are no different then anyone else really, we all enjoy sports, hanging with our mates and family, BEER,BBQ,BEER etc… other then that it's about music!!

P4: How did you come up with the name State Of Integrity?

SOI: We wanted a band name which really just stood for what we are about and what our lyrics stood for. We write about topics that are honest and meaningful to us and the word integrity just sums up what we are about and who we are. So as we saw it we are in a state of integrity.

P4: Tell me about where you are from.

SOI: We are from the bayside area of Brisbane, Australia. We have all grown up in this area. The weather is what you would expect here in Oz; very hot in summer and our winters a very mild. The area is about a half hour drive east of the CBD so we are close enough to where all the gigs happen in town but also far enough away from all the noise and busyness of the city.

P4: What is your local scene like - are you one amongst many, or a lone torch bearer for Metal?

SOI: Brisbane would have one of the strongest growing metal scenes in Australia. There is plenty of good metal bands emerging here at the moment which is very good.

P4: What is it about Brisbane that creates such strong music scenes, not just a metal scene?

SOI: Not really that sure. It’s fucking hot here so people probably like to go out have some cold ones and check out some bands!

P4: Does being from Brisbane increase your visibility with A&R guys?

SOI: I don’t think it does. You would have as much chance in most of the major Australian cities.

P4: What do you want to achieve with State Of Integrity; a way to avoid mundane employment; noteriety amongst metal fans, or world domination?

SOI: We want to continue writing and recording our music and playing shows as much as we can. We are a very determined and hard working band and we will continue to be until we have achieved everything we possibly can. We plan to keep playing shows through out Australia and New Zealand and look at eventually heading over to Europe and beyond all the while continuing to increase the intensity of our music and live shows.

P4: Do you still have day jobs?

SOI: Yes, we all work fulltime.Being a self funded band we all have to so we can afford to record and tour and pay the bills at home.

P4: Anything interesting, or all mundane?

SOI: Our jobs are pretty mundane, if the band was fulltime, that would be more interesting.

P4: What have been State Of Integrity's highlights so far?

SOI: So far recording our debut album THE FOURTH SEASON OF REVELATION and securing distribution with MGM in Australia. We have also toured New Zealand nationally twice. The first being in September 2005 supporting 8 FOOT SATIVA and secondly in November 2006 with SINATE. Securing distribution in New Zealand and the U.S. has also been a highlight

P4: Any lowlights?

SOI: NO!

P4: What are you current tour plans?

SOI: At the end of a tour of New Zealand.

P4: And how about studio plans?

SOI: We’re looking at May/June to record our second album. Most of the pre production is complete and we have just a few more songs to finish writing before we sit down and decide which ones make the album. So far we are very pleased with the sound of the new material and direction the new songs are heading and we ‘re looking forward to releasing it as soon as we can.

P4: How do you decide what to keep and what to shelve?

SOI: Well we haven’t come across that yet. Once we hit the studio we will have to decide which 10-12 tracks out of the 15 or more we have been writing will make the cut. We feel that all the songs are very strong it’s just a matter of deciding which ones will all sound the best together and give the album the flow and feel we want to achieve.

P4: How do you approach writing – is it a jam/group session that leads to new ideas, or do you all (or one of you) work on riffs and lyrics alone?

SOI: It’s a combination of both. Most of the time Brendan (guitarist) will hand Ben (Bass) and myself a disc of new songs with loose arrangement done and we will listen to it come up with our parts etc, then when we hit the jam room we know the rough arrangement or parts of the track we may change it slightly or whatever and just work on getting it down tight.

Once its coming together tight we will usually then record it (roughly) then we can give that to Aaron (vocals) and he can work on his vocal parts. Aaron writes all our lyrics he may have some already that will fit a new song we come up with or he will write lyrics to fit a song. This process is the easiest and quickest way for us to get a song together, as we usually only get together once a week.

Occasionally though while we are at jam Brendan will just start jamming on some riff and we will start playing over it and create a new song on the spot and watch it evolve from there into something if it’s a keeper.

P4: When do you expect we'll be seeing the next album?

SOI: We hope to have it released in September/October this year.

P4: Do you have any ideas for the name of the album, or artwork, etc?

SOI: Yeah we got a couple of names out there at the moment, we won’t decide till the songs are short listed though. We have some concept for the artwork but nothing that I’m going to give away to you yet!

P4: Do you think you will work on a promotional video for a single?

SOI: We really want to do one for sure, we wanted to for the first album but money as it usually is was tight and now that we are focusing on album number two we figured we would just hold off till it's released.

P4: Best of luck with the new album then, and thanks for your time.

Posted 25th April 2008 by Pharmer4
Updated Monday, 21 June, 2010 0:56 AM