MARCUS BRIDGE of NORTHLANE: Saving The World With Animal Magnetism
An interview by Sarah Kidd.
Sydney based metalcore band Northlane (formed in 2009) has released four studio albums to date, including this year’s offering Mesmer which has been taking the world by storm. Following the shock departure of founding member and vocalist Adrian Fitipaldes, Marcus Bridge had some big shoes to fill, but judging by the reception of their latest album Bridge has not only filled said shoes he is stamping out his mark in them.
Joining the band in 2014 Bridge immediately set about working on Northlane’s third album Node, which reached the No 1 spot on the Australian Charts upon its release in 2015; a fact that to this day still blows Bridge away.
(laughs) “It was pretty crazy. I mean I’ve played music for quite a long time but I’ve never released a full length album prior to Northlane. For that to happen was absolutely insane, it was something that I did not expect at all. It’s not like we went ‘we want this album to be No 1’, we just made something that felt right to make. It was something that we were passionate about and for it to turn out like it did was quite the surprise but we’re so very proud of that.”
Before the departure of Fitipaldes in September of 2014, Northlane hit the road with Thy Art Is Murder as part of the Free Your Mind Tour, selling out all dates across Australia in advance. Upon their return the band began to heavily support many charities including The Smith Family, with fans embracing the activist stance that the band was taking. It’s a stance that Bridge also wholeheartedly embraces.
“I think it’s something that a lot of bands have just inadvertently started doing just because of all the issues that we have in the world. There’s so much corruption going on its kind of hard not to get involved. It makes us angry really, there’s so much going on it’s even hard to just pinpoint a singular issue.”
Like most musicians Northlane express their opinions on these topics through their music as Bridge explains:
“‘Citizen’ is that idea of being spied on and all this information being taken and put in a database without our knowledge, but then when that stuff gets pointed out the person that points it out ends up being the one persecuted.”
Enquiring as to whether the meaning behind ‘Solar’ is also the reason why it had been chosen as the next single off the album, Bridge elaborated further:
“It’s a song that from the get go when we started writing Mesmer came together so quickly and we all had a unique connection with it. It’s a reference to the time we are living in; the world is consuming as much as they can without the thought of what it’s doing. It’s very easy for people to turn a blind eye to all of these issues – it’s like ‘oh its ok, nothing bad is going to happen while I’m around’, but I think it’s pretty important to be taking care of the world we have.”
With such thought provoking songs on the album it was rather surprising that Northlane decided to drop the record without any prior marketing or promotion, yet the band as Bridge explains had their reasons for doing so.
“For us we wanted to do something special for our fans who stuck around us through all of the crazy stuff that’s happened in the last few years. It’s so amazing that we’ve had such strong support considering all of the changes we’ve had in Northlane. On top of that I guess it was kinda neat to release the whole album for people to listen to; when you release a couple of songs before an album comes out people start jumping to conclusions and expecting it to sound like this or whatever it may be and I think the best way to do it is just put it out and have it as the piece of music that it was meant to be as a whole. For us it wasn’t so important that we had crazy first week sales, we just wanted people to hear it, the way it was meant to be heard.”
Even the title of the album [Mesmer] revolves around an important message that Northlane wants to convey:
“That comes from a scientist who came up with the idea of animal magnetism – which has been debunked – but I guess it’s the idea that all animated and inanimate objects are connected to energies. The idea of connection has always been something that is very important to us as a message to the people; to get together through a common cause to make the world better.”
But that’s not to say that Mesmer is just full of messages with no musical substance either. Bridge’s clean vocals are supported with bass that lets its presence be known, the overall instrumentation commanding from the outset. Attention should also be paid to the subtle ambient sounds that can be heard throughout the album. The music compliments the content of each track, a point that can be illustrated perfectly with the track ‘Savage’, the intro effortlessly capturing the title of the song. It’s a point that Bridge agrees with.
“Absolutely, I can tell that Jon [Deiley] definitely wanted to branch out and try and capture a bit more of an electronic vibe with this new stuff. We all have different tastes in music and we’re all very into electronic and I think it’s got that 80’s kind of vibe; it gives it that kind of nostalgic and creepy sound as well.”
On the subject of influences I enquired with Bridge as to who his biggest one was currently, as it was well documented that growing up he was inspired by Fall Out Boy.
“Panic At The Disco is my favourite band and Brendan Uri is – I don’t know, he just does what he wants on stage. It’s crazy, he’s just so free and I love that. I love just not caring about what you’re supposed to look like or how you’re supposed to perform it’s just be yourself and he’s definitely doing that.”
The theme of being free and defying the expectations of others appears to have had an effect on Northlane in more ways than one with their onstage image dramatically changing last year to incorporate a whole new look.
“For us over the last few years we’ve really wanted to push the show as opposed to just playing music; to give them [audiences] something interesting to look at, to question, I think is pretty cool. But also wearing that kind of stuff you get into a different character and it makes you very comfortable doing something that isn’t necessarily you or it’s a deeper version of you.
For me when I’m onstage, wearing anything in particular like that is where I kinda like lose all the thoughts in my head and knock down that wall.”
One thing is for sure, Bridge has been instrumental in ushering in a new chapter of Northlane, one that will permanently cement their place within the metalcore realms.
Northlane is scheduled to embark on a New Zealand headlining tour, kicking off at Wellington’s San Fran on the 25th August, followed by a show at Auckland’s Kings Arms Tavern on the 26th August. Tickets are still available for all shows via LiveNation (But get in quick as tickets are super cheap this time around and subsequently are almost all sold out!).