Void Of Vision | FReeZA Artist of the Month | Youth Central

Things have been pretty hectic for five-piece metalcore outfit Void Of Vision since they broke into Melbourne's heavy music scene early in 2013. They've managed to chalk up no less than three national tours, have shared the stage with heavyweight Australian and International acts (Hand Of Mercy, Hellions, Elegist, Villes (SNG) and The Sweet Apes), and their debut EP Broken//Bones was labelled 'Best EP of 2014' by Blunt Magazine. As they stare down the barrel of 2015 with the relentless determination that has got them this far, Jack and Matt take a moment to talk with us about the year that was and the one ahead.

Hi Void Of Vision, not too long ago you wrapped up supporting Hand Of Mercy on their national Resolve Tour, sharing the stage with Hellions as well. How did the tour go, did you guys get up to any antics?

Jack – The tour exceeded our expectations in every single way possible. Playing 17 shows around Australia alongside the most amazing people we ever have met in our lives is something we will remember for a very long time. The shows had fantastic turn outs and we had a great response every where we played which was totally un expected.

Matt – We didn't get up to a whole lot of antics. The guys in Hand Of Mercy and Hellions are way too kind to pull pranks on haha! We did manage to get up to a lot of exploring whenever we had free time, whether it was going to the beach in Byron Bay, going out to party in the City in Sydney or checking out water holes in Wodonga.

Did you have any pre-show rituals?

Jack - Our pre-show rituals are usually just warming up for the show! We definitely feel the consequences after the set if we skip warming up, I think a lot of bands overlook how vital it actually is to not only stretch and physically prepare yourself beforehand, but also mentally. I personally need to be completely in the zone before I get on stage with little distractions around.

Matt- As Jack said getting into the right state of mind before a set is always key. I'll always set up my bass rig and have everything ready to go straight onto stage. To make change over as smooth as possible so no one is stressing and we are fully ready to perform at our peak. Having a room to warm up in and get gear ready in is always super helpful as well.

There are no less than three national tours under your belts now. What's the best and worst thing about touring? Is there somewhere you'd like to tour that you haven't already been?

Jack - Best thing about touring for me is easily the friends we meet and make along the way. That just on top of all the beautiful places we visit, we're pretty lucky we get to do all that stuff on top of shows, so stoked we have the opportunity too.

Matt – The best thing about touring is definitely going on stage finally after a massive long day of driving and waiting. The feeling of going on stage and having kids scream the words back to us and support us so heavily makes everything worth it. The worst part about tour is the lack of sleep, overnight drives and usually eating pretty average food.

I'd certainly love to do a lot more rural shows where most tours don't usually go. Rural shows always have a great vibe to them. Even though there is usually not that many payers, the shows usually rule because of how much the kids get into it, and they are stoked to even have a show happen in their town!

The single Life//Blood made its debut on triple j's Short Fast Loud this April. What kind of reaction did you get from it?

Jack - The reaction we received from that was unreal, blew every expectation we had out of the water. I thought just the friends we had our little campaign going with would get behind it, but a whole bunch more did and I think that's sick.

Nightmare is the next single you're releasing. What was the inspiration behind writing it? What will we see in the video, and what was the process of making it like?

Jack - The inspiration behind Nightmare was to keep our old sound - we have prevalent on tracks like Revolt in it - but add a new spark to keep it interesting. James literally got the idea of the lead at the end of the song from a nightmare he had so I guess you can see where the title came from haha.

Matt – The video definitely has a much darker vibe to it than our first video. We went for a really dark/aggressive look to compliment the lyrics that Jack wrote. Since the song is named Nightmare its only fitting to make the music video feel like a nightmare itself. The process of making it was pretty straight forward after learning how videos work when we shot Life // Blood. Just had to prepare the props and lighting and get the dark visual look we were going for. Shooting videos are a whole heap of fun though, spending a whole afternoon/night with your friends creating something unique.

You guys are relatively young in the heavy music scene, starting out in early 2013. How has the band been finding its feet and navigating the industry?

Jack - We've been fortunate enough to receive a lot of backing from people in the scene from day one, Sean Daly from Freeza put us on our first show with House Vs. Hurricane so we are eternally grateful to that dude for giving us such a big opportunity to start off with. Since then I feel we have been developing at a rapid pace and whilst it's a scary thought to have everything moving so fast (leaving us to potentially miss certain learning curves etc), I have faith in our chemistry as a band to keep switched on at all times in order to continue moving on at our current rate.

Matt – We have been fortunate to have so many incredible people work with us to get us to where we are at the moment. Our time working with Jayden Roy was fantastic, helping to build us from a small local Melbourne act to a nationally touring band! Also Ash Hull has been a massive help in more ways than one, supporting us right from the beginning as well. We are very lucky to work with some amazing people.

Were you guys playing music before forming Void Of Vision?

Matt - We were all involved in bands previous to Void Of Vision (names of said bands will remain unnamed haha) but it's thanks to us all meeting through those bands that we formed, so in a way, we're pretty glad we were involved in said previous projects. We had all played shows within Freeza events which worked out to be an excellent platform for Void Of Vision to get started from.

What kind of impact do you hope your music makes on your fans?

Jack - I don't necessarily write ALL lyrics to send out a message, but when I do, I definitely want people to know that it's okay to not be okay. It's not easy finding your feet in life and I see a lot of bands sugarcoating the process of getting your life on track through their lyrics. It's definitely not easy, life does get hard, but we all have family, friends and peers there for us to help us get there, and we need to remember that at all times.

You guys must be doing something right, because 'Best EP of 2014' went to Broken//Bones. Who said it, and what's it like to receive that sort of accolade?

Matt – We were completely blown away when we found that out. We didn't even realize the whole Blunt competition was happening. Then to have people message us photos of the Blunt Magazine award winners was crazy. We never pushed for people to vote for us in the competition or anything either, so it was extremely humbling.

Jack - We can't express how thankful we are to everyone who actually voted, it was surreal to see our EP up in the ranks next to names like Hands Like Houses, D At Sea and Sierra.

Looking back over the last couple of years, what's been the biggest highlight for you?

Jack - The highlight for myself was our recent tour with Hand Of Mercy and Hellions. I had the best month of my life and meeting those dudes was a pleasure, I don't think we can speak highly enough of them as not only musicians but also great people. Missin' the boiz already.

Matt – The biggest highlight for me was definitely playing on the Hand Of Mercy tour as well. Playing to crowds in other states that made us feel at home was completely overwhelming. We never imagined that playing in other states would have such a good reaction for us. Especially since we are such a young band as well, so to have that sort of following interstate blows me away. Hopefully its only up from here!

Final question, what does Void Of Vision have planned for 2015?

Matt – For 2015 we want to be able to tour the country over and over again, traveling to more places we haven't been to before and meeting even more amazing people. We will also release new music at some stage and keep our momentum as a band going. We are already planning out the first half of the year and its already looking to be full on, but we are stoked to show everyone what we have in the works!

Check out the latest news from Void Of Vision at www.facebook.com/voidofvision