Introducing:
To Octavia
For Fans Of: A Skylit Drive / Bring Me The Horizon / Don Broco
With Somewhere in a World, Not of the Dream out tomorrow (Friday) To Octavia build a dreamscape with cyberpunk synths and plenty of groove. Colliding with demanding riffs, driving vocals and plenty of atmosphere to create complex and catchy tracks. Bet you can see why we’re excited about their second EP. To celebrate the release, we caught up with Aussie four-piece to set up dating profiles, chat ‘COCO MOJO’ and recording.
Words: Renette van der Merwe
Interview
Let’s pretend you’re setting up a dating profile here – tell us about the band.
Combined height of approximately 690 cm, will eat just about anything, enjoys long awkward half runs in the rain holding music gear, hug lover, probably a bit loose on the bevs. Make a good movie/meme reference and we will fall in love with you.
Do you remember your first music-related goosebumps moment? Can you share it with us?
Officially playing ‘After All’ for the first time live at ‘BANG!’ was such a surreal moment for us. Not only playing it live, but hearing the crowd sing the choruses was overwhelming. None of us had felt anything like that before; it was such an eye-opening moment for us all into how connected you feel to your audience in moments like that. We still to this day get goosebumps in these moments.
“Delivering a palate of soaring melodies and catchy hooks, To Octavia aren’t holding back and ready to lead the pack as one of Australia’s most exciting alternative/rock acts.”
Wall of Sound
If you could pick one artist as an honorary band member, who would it be?
Bob Ross. We need that kind of energy in the band. “We don’t make mistakes; we have happy accidents”.
We worked with Chris Lalic for ‘COCO MOJO’ and the EP itself, and it was such an effortless experience. Right from the start he was very in tune with the kind of sound we wanted to create, and we had an abundance of mutual trust in the studio that allowed the whole process to burst with creativity. This EP is a manifestation of everything deep within us and Chris knows exactly how to pull that out of us. There were also some tough times in the process of progressing with our EP due to the massive Melbourne COVID-19 lockdown. At some stages only one of us was allowed in the studio at a time, and the rest were pitching in from home via Zoom. The final project has been an amazing journey for us as a band and we are grateful we got to be creative in such a tough time with someone who loves to push creativity just as much as us.
The EP is out tomorrow… congratulations! What would you want fans to take away from it?
Thank you so much! Something we really want people to take away from this is inspiration to break their boundaries of what they are used to. We all pushed ourselves and each other to be more open and creative in the writing process of this EP, and that is something we will forever be proud of. This EP is an indication of who we are as a band in this moment of our journey. We are still young and learning how to express ourselves in the way that we feel best fits us as artists, with so much of ourselves left to express to the world. We would love for people to come away from listening to this EP feeling inspired, connected and comforted in who they are and not being afraid to show the world their true colours.
What’s the coolest thing a fan’s ever done for you?
The wildest thing to happen to us is having people get tattoos of lines from the songs or song titles! It is just incredible to think how much of an impact our music has had on some people’s lives. People have also asked us to send them through the tabs of our songs to learn. We feel so in touch with our fans, and it is so incredible to know people connect to our songs just as much as we do.
Settle an argument for us (and the rest of the world)… is a hotdog a sandwich?
If a hotdog was a sandwich, that would make a Bunnings snag a sandwich. A Bunnings snag is a national treasure. A sandwich is not.
Music
Inspiration
Rising to the challenge, To Octavia have put together an electrifying collection of songs that best encapsulates the artists and music that inspire them as a band.
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