TWENTY BIG ONES with JASON PEPPIATT, PSYCROPTIC

Shane | 25 September 2024 | Reply

TWENTY BIG ONES with JASON PEPPIATT, PSYCROPTIC

Tasmanian heavy legends PSYCROPTIC return to Perth Saturday, October 5th for the first time in almost six years to headline the second ELECTRIC EYE HEAVY FEST – nine hours of heavy music mayhem at Freo Social, alongside PATHOGEN, CRYPT CRAWLER, SULDUSK, DYSSIDIA, SUNEATER, DYSCORD, PRIMROSE PATH, THE WEDGES and BANISHED REALM.

Frontman JASON PEPPIATT sat down to tackle TWENTY BIG ONES for 100% ROCK MAGAZINE

1. You’re playing Electric Eye Heavy Fest in Perth! Is it a rare opportunity to get across to WA and play for fans you don’t normally get the chance to be in front of, and how do you best capitalise on a chance like that?

A: Yea it’s been a while since we’ve had the chance to play WA so we are absolutely fucken stoked to make the journey! We will attempt to put on the most crushing show WA has ever seen! We are all middle aged so it will be a lot of work but we will do our best to deliver!

2. Tell us a little about your latest release. Are there any hidden nuggets the band put in the material that only diehard fans might pick up on?

A: Our latest release is a few years old now so I think if there was any hidden nuggets they’d have been found by now, but Joe Haley is a master of the subtle harmonies so there might be some stuff that only the biggest guitar nerds will pick up on.

3. What got you into music, and can you tell us about the moment you realised you wanted to be a musician?

A: I wish I had some sick story to tell about the dark lord coming up from the deepest pits of hell and handing me Abominations of Desolation and that was how I discovered this music but the reality is that I had an older brother who had some mates that were into Sepultura and Cannibal Corpse and put me on the right path. Becoming a muso was just a natural progression due to my love of extreme music.

4. What is it about music that makes you feel passionate?

A: Everything! Music is the most powerful thing in the world. It has the power to pull at every single emotion in the human mind!

5. Who would be your main five musical influences?

A: That’s a really hard one, to be honest! I couldn’t really pinpoint actual influences on me as a musician. I more have people whose music inspires me to get off my arse and work hard to write better music haha

6. If you could call in any one collaborator to do a song with, who would it be?

A: Peter Tagtgren, I’ve always found his work in Hypocrisy to be really interesting and creative and I think it’d be fun to do after I got over the initial fanboyness of what I was doing.

7. How would you describe your music to someone who’d never listened to you before? What is the one comparison a reviewer or fan has made that made you cringe or you disagreed with?

A: I’d say we are a modern thrash band with technical elements at this point in our career. We always get put into the genre of tech death but I really don’t think it’s been right to put us under that banner for about the last 15 years really.

8. What is your favourite activity or hobby outside of music – what do you like to do to unwind?

A: I’m a fitness guy so I really like going on long runs whenever I get the chance. There’s also lots of really good beaches where I live so in the summertime (yes we do get summer in Tassie) I spend a lot of time at the beach. Playing and writing extreme music is most definitely my favourite pastime though.

9. Do you have a best and/or worst performance anecdote you’d like to share, and if things do go awry during a show, how do you try to turn things around?

A: I’m always the guy that when someone or something fucks up on stage I make a joke out of it. I don’t see the point in being too serious and rigid on stage, I take my job up there seriously but I absolutely want to have as much fun as possible doing it.

10. What’s the best piece of advice another musician ever gave you?

A: The guys from Dismember told me on my first European tour that when you’re on stage that you need to have as much fun as you can otherwise what’s the point of playing shows.

11. Do you follow a process or ritual before a performance to get rid of nerves or performance anxiety?

A: I usually do a warmup for about 10 minutes and that’s about it. I don’t really get anxiety before a show luckily, I’m usually really excited to get started if anything haha!

Divine Council by Psycroptic

12. When was the last time you were starstruck and who was it?

A: I met Ihsahn from Emperor about 5 years ago at Hellfest and that was pretty wild for me as I’ve been a massive Emperor fan since I was young. The other one I can think of was about 12-13 years ago we toured with Macabre in Europe and me and our original bassist Cam were massive Macabre fans from when we were about 12, and we punished the fuck out of those guys for about the first week of that tour with our fanboy shit!

13. What’s the best thing about being a musician? If you could no longer be a musician for whatever reason, what would be your dream job?

A: Touring the world doing what I love with my best mates and making friends with other like-minded people. I have no idea what my dream job would be, as soon as something becomes a job then it’s not really fun anymore and the dream is lost! Psycroptic has always been kept as a very serious hobby for us and not our day job and due to that we have never lost our love and passion for what we do.

14. When the band are all hanging out together, who cooks; who gets the drinks in; and who is first to crack out the acoustic guitars for a singalong?

A: I cook, Todd is the drinker, and acoustic guitars are for wimps haha!

15. Looking back over your career, is there a single moment or situation you feel was a misstep, or you would like to be able to “do over” even if it didn’t change your current situation??

A: I don’t think so at all, every decision we’ve made has been learnt from. There’s no handbook on how to do this shit so basically you have to make it up as you go. All the failings and ridiculous situations we’ve ended up in have ended up with some good stories to tell also.

16. If you were made ruler of the world, what would your first orders be?

A: Death to posers!!

17. What is your favourite rock n’ roll movie, and why?

A: Bohemian Rhapsody, because Queen rule and Freddy Mercury had the most godly voice.

18. Talking about songwriting, where do you think the magic comes from?

A: I have no fucken idea to tell the truth! It just happens, and sometimes you get great results with no effort and other times you can work really hard to produce dog shit.

19. If you could magically go back in time and be a part of the recording sessions for any one record in history, which would you choose – and what does that record mean to you?

A: Morbid Angel – Covenant. That album was a band at the absolute peak of their powers and creativity and I feel it shaped the whole Death metal genre.

20. What, for you, is the meaning of life??

A: Just kicking arse and working hard at the things you love and always working to be better and pushing the limits of what is possible for you to achieve. I was lucky and found the thing I wanted to do very early in life, which was music, so I’ve always had direction in life to some extent.

http://www.psycroptic.com
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