Rare Words delivers the ANTIDOTE
Brisbane alternative rock group Rare Words has unveiled their brand new song ‘Antidote’. A song written, recorded by the quartet and produced by the band and Ocean Grove’s Sam Bassal on mixing duties. We caught up with the group’s lead singer Joel to chat about ‘Antidote’, making music videos and their very first live show at the ‘The Lab’.
For those that haven’t heard your music before, how do you describe the Rare Words sound?
Hey team, thanks for having me! I think the best way to describe Rare Words would be a heavy band without any sort of boundaries. We’re not shy of writing something super heavy without any clean singing, or something like Antidote that is emotional and very rocky.
“ I wanted to write something about my experience when I was diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20’s, and how much my life has changed in a positive way throughout that process”
You have just released your new single 'Antidote'. What inspired you to write this track?
Musically there are parts of Antidote that have been around for a few years now, the chorus guitar riff is something I came up with when we were at band practice one day. We hadn’t written a big ballad or emotional song in a while, so I was revisiting the chorus riff on a lunch break from work one day and out of nowhere, the main bones of the song all came together in the better part of an hour. With the themes and lyrics of the song, I wanted to write something about my experience where I was diagnosed with ADHD in my late 20’s, and how much my life has changed in a positive way throughout that process.
Is there a particular line or part of the song that stands out for you?
For me, the intro line that also repeats before the last chorus is the one that stands out the most. It’s the lyric that started the whole idea for the song lyrically, and it was the melody that had been stuck in my head for a while as we were writing it. That line is “I’ve been dying to know how it feels in my head if there’s an antidote”.
How has making 'Antidote' helped you on a personal level?
Making Antidote was such an empowering experience for me personally. Every part from the music, to the lyrics to the video, were opportunities for me to reflect and look back on how far I’ve come as a person in the last few years. I also flexed pretty much every creative muscle in my body which was great, I’ve never been as hands-on with the video side of things and it has been unreal to do that.
Typically I’ve written lyrics to our songs as I’m feeling them and not in a retrospective way like I did with Antidote, it was really cool to try this approach because I could write lyrics that connect with other people, as well as myself again. When you’re writing about topics as you’re in the middle of whatever it is you’re going through, I find that you just get consumed and might not communicate your message as clearly as you’d like.
“I’ve definitely noticed people sharing this song and engaging with us a lot more ”
What has been the reaction from fans to the song?
It has been really positive! We don’t have much of a following as a band, but I’ve definitely noticed people sharing this song and engaging with us a lot more than we’ve ever had. We may not have gone viral and blown up overnight with this one, but we’ve seen some really positive feedback from the people who have checked it out which we couldn’t be happier with.
Who came up with the concept for the video? Were there any memorable moments during the making of it?
The video was something I worked really closely with Aaron from Digital Bath Productions on. I had an idea of the aesthetic and styling I wanted to go for, and Aaron came up with the narrative and storyline of the video. I really wanted to pull inspiration from the ‘old money’ style, and was looking at Baz Luhrmann's films for the colour grading and grand feeling of the video that he portrays in his films.
I really wanted to move away from the metalcore/heavy music video style that’s just everywhere at the moment and focus on a more classic film approach. We hired a really cool haunted mansion for the location so we also wanted to make sure that the rooms we shot in and the location itself were a huge part of the look and feel of the video, as opposed to relying on a crazy amount of post-production and CGI.
Making the video was so much fun as well! Video shoots can be pretty brutal and unenjoyable, but everything went really smoothly throughout this process. We had great weather, we were out in the country and there was also a cafe on site for a few iced lattes!
“There is definitely a full release of some sort in the works”
Is 'Antidote' a stand-alone single or can we look forward to an album release soon?
There is definitely a full release of some sort in the works. I’m not sure how it is going to look or when we can expect to have it ready for people to hear, but I would be happy to say that Antidote is the first part of that for sure.
How did the four of you come together to form Rare Words?
Brent and I met through a ‘musicians looking for a band’ Facebook group with some of our friends who were originally a part of Rare Words. Luke came into the picture when we were recording some songs with him and Matt came about recently after seeing his drum covers on Instagram through our previous drummer.
“we feel like we do a pretty decent job with our DIY approach!”
You as a band very proudly do all your own writing, Recording and producing, was this a decision you all made collectively from the very beginning? If so why?
Our first EP was done in a very classic studio environment where we hired out a drum room, all pretty much lived in this studio for a week or two and smashed out the songs, so it hasn’t been a thing from the get-go.
Luke has always been a bit of a wizard with recording/engineering and he became a part of the band while we were tracking some singles with him, so I guess it naturally just turned into us self-producing when he became a permanent part of Rare Words.
There’s also no denying that studio time is wildly expensive, especially for a band of our size that doesn’t make any solid income to put towards a studio, and we feel like we do a pretty decent job with our DIY approach!
“When you have all the time in the world to record and perfect the song you’re working on, it is pretty easy to get stuck in a rabbit hole of over-producing the songs”
Does it add an extra layer of pressure or do you find the complete control make things easier?
There are benefits for sure when we have complete control over the process, but those benefits can very quickly turn into us making problems for ourselves. When you have all the time in the world to record and perfect the song you’re working on, it is pretty easy to get stuck in a rabbit hole of over-producing the songs you’re working on and being so picky about every little thing which means it takes forever to get songs finished. That being said, we did have a pretty open conversation about how much we were over-thinking our songs and I think we have found a really good middle ground where we are strict with the quality of what we’re doing, but also letting things feel a little more natural in the way of structures and flows to the songs.
Antidote was also the first time I completely engineered and edited my own vocals since I moved down to Melbourne and that was a lot of fun. I enjoyed being able to just shut the entire world out and focus on getting the take I wanted without having any distractions.
Where was your first live show as Rare Words? Was it a success or a flop?
Our first live show was actually unreal! We played a Pay What You Wish show at The Lab in Brisbane (RIP) and the bill was stacked for a local all-ages show. Storm The Sky headlined the show, and all of Brisbane’s finest were on as well, I had no idea what I was doing as a vocalist because I’d never sung in a band before, so I’m sure there were some pretty strange looks from the crowd after our set.
“There are some amazing heavy festivals like Good Things and Knotfest in Australia, as well as a bunch of other alternative festivals that I would love to be a part of...playing out in the sun with a huge amount of other bands seems like the best few days ever. ”
Australia has quite a large festival circuit, can we look forward to Rare Words joining festival lineups in the future or will the band stick to just doing shows?
If someone wants to put us on a festival run, we’ll be the first to jump on board and get on that circuit! There are some amazing heavy festivals like Good Things and Knotfest in Australia, as well as a bunch of other alternative festivals that I would love to be a part of.
A festival run looks like such an amazing experience to showcase yourself to a bunch of people who have never heard of you, and just playing out in the sun with a huge amount of other bands seems like the best few days ever.
Who in your crew or team deserves a shout out but never gets one? And what is it they do that keeps your world turning?
As we spoke about before, we do absolutely everything ourselves at the moment, so I think the other three boys all deserve an equal shoutout for all the bits they do separately. Whether it’s Matty’s dad jokes and keeping the mood high, Luke keeping my musical ideas in check and not letting me go too mad or Brent smashing out heaps of photos and content for the band.
What's next for the band? What does the band have planned for the second half of 2024?
We’re going to keep on writing and hopefully finish up the rest of the songs we have in the works and jump onto as many shows as possible for the rest of the year. We just want to get Antidote into as many people’s ears as possible, and hopefully, we can see a lot of faces at shows this year.
Thanks so much for having me!
Joel
Stream Antidoe : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzheJf0YqyA
