COOPERS ALIVE 2009: BronzeChariot

Thu 8th Oct, 2009 in Features

They’ve only been playing live shows for a year, but chances are if you’ve been around the local Adelaide traps you’ve heard of, or experienced an aftermath of post-show tinnitus, from prog-rock outfit Bronze Chariot.

With a Coopers Alive showcase around the corner at the Ed Castle on October 16, FL sits down for beer and conversation with vocalist and guitarist Ben and Garrett Cooper. The heads of our Pale Ale’s foamy, we discuss their new rollcall of band members, a change in musical direction and … burial grounds.

“It’s ancient burial ground in Egypt,” says Ben, Bronze Chariot’s frontman, as I inquire about the unusual moniker of their first EP, Saqqara. “It came from the third dynasty when all the kings were buried”. Not just well-versed in music, but antiquity too.

Bronze Chariot are a band previously distinguishable through their heavy prog-rock output: guitars fizzling with distortion, bloody throats, doom growling and psychedelic improvisation. Not to mention numerous stage injuries: “I cracked two bones in my right hand once just playing,” Garrett smiles.

However, the past few months have caused great shifts within the dynamics of the band. Namely the loss of their guitarist, Michael Elijah, a few months ago.

“Mikey told us he wanted to leave in June,” says Ben. “And we’ve always been a band that have understood each other’s personal lives. He had the itch to go and try something new. He made a choice to move to a different state, and we totally supported it because the people come first.”

As seasoned musicians in the Adelaide circuit, it wasn’t long before a replacement was found.

“We were unsure if we would be able to train up someone new when Mikey left,” Ben muses. “But then we got Matt (Barlow) and rang our friend Mark (Draper), and it was a mutual kind of feeling that we both needed each other in a band again (having both been in Eyes Like Black Stars). Getting back into the jamspace with Mark’s been really good, sort of like putting an old glove on.”

Like a sweaty kind of old glove? “Like a washed glove,” he laughs.

With four new sets of fingers strumming their guitars, not only has the band undergone a fresh aesthetic, but the music too. What we can expect from their Coopers Alive set is an innovative new sound from Bronze Chariot.

“The songs up on our Myspace at the moment were recorded in January as a four-piece, and now we’re a five-piece with two different members, so that’s somewhat reflective of where we’re going as a band as a moment. We’re better songwriters now,” says Ben.

“Song writing now is not so much a jam environment – where we’d all play for five hours and get something out of it – it’s more deliberate” follows Garrett. “Our new stuff’s got a lot of Nashville delta blues influence and slide blues. We’ve also been listening to folk, Australian and soundscape soundtracks, delving into the back catalogues of the Bad Seeds. Finding out what it means to be Australian and what it is to be an Australian band.”

With an obvious positive mentality towards Australian bands, it’s no wonder Bronze Chariot have a history of local supports in their performance arsenal. They’ll be supported at Coopers Alive by fellow local rockers Like Leaves and Thunderclaw.

“Yeah, we’re all best friends,” Ben replies when I question the music similarities between themselves and Thunderclaw. “It’s hard for our music not to rub off on each other.”

I am then made privy to some enlightening information about Ben’s tonsils. This is because he has not one uvula (the dangly thing in the middle), but two, which he gladly shows me. “Sometimes they separate, like a split tongue.”

Does this affect a growl vocalist?

“Nah, but I usually have a pack of cigarettes before I go on. To get that throat really raw on the point of breaking and bleeding,” he grins as my face distorts into an expression of horror. “That’s when you get your best vocals out.”

With an EP already under hooked under their belts, Saqqara, when can we expect an album release from Bronze Chariot?

“I was planning personally for December to January,” Ben pauses. “But April is when we we’ll probably go into the Capital Sound studio, and we’re probably looking at May or June for a release.

You can catch Bronze Chariot at the Ed Castle along with Like Leaves and Thunderclaw on October 16 for their Coopers Alive Showcase. Tickets are $10 from the door. Get your rawk on!