November 4th will mark the end of an era as forty bands
take on three stages for what will be the final Metal For The Brain
(hereafter known as M.F.T.B.).
From its humble beginnings back in 1991 (where the bill
consisted of a mere six acts), M.F.T.B. has grown with each passing
year and has since become Australia's biggest and most recognised (nationally,
as well as internationally) metal festivals celebrating and showcasing
what the diverse metal scene has to offer, and all in the name of charity
(proceeds go toward brain injury victim Alec Hurley and the National
Brain Injury Foundation).
With show day only a little over two weeks away, I caught
up with the very busy Adam Agius (guitarist, vocalist and keyboardist
for Australia's biggest metal act Alchemist, and one of the key organisers
behind M.F.T.B.) to find out why after fifteen successful years, M.F.T.B.
is officially being laid to rest, the latest news on Alchemist's work
in progress, and battle to keep the two alive.
"The idea of making this the last M.F.T.B. was actually
brought up in a band conversation about five months ago. I reacted really
quite harshly to the suggestion initially and I just remember cracking
the shits big time. But sometimes you need someone close to you to remind
you of what the important things are, and it took me a while to understand
that. Once I saw that, it soon became quite apparent that the band (Alchemist,
who also comprise of guitarist/graphic artist Roy Torkington, bassist
John Bray, keyboardist Nick Wall and drummer/percussionist Rodney Holder)
really had a strong point to wrap it all up and do the right thing,
rather than let it dwindle and suffer because we don't have enough time
to put into it anymore. We're at the stage where even if we did dedicate
the time needed to ensure M.F.T.B. continues, we know that Alchemist
will suffer because we just wouldn't have enough time to put into that.
I guess we're just sick of the band suffering."
While timing is an obvious issue, the real heart of the
problem lies with the financial risk of putting on M.F.T.B. every year.
"The other reason for us finishing up M.F.T.B. this
year is for financial reasons. We're tired of f**king being scared every
year that we're going to lose everything. Every year, it costs twenty
thousand dollars for the production, a further twenty thousand dollars
to secure the venue and another twenty thousand dollars for the bands.
And on top of that, there's another twenty thousand dollars for the
miscellaneous things that most people forget about, like the hiring
out of the backline equipment, printing posters, merchandise and all
that shit. One hundred thousand dollars goes so quickly. The thing is
that we still have to put together fifteen percent of the one hundred
thousand dollars upfront and we just don't have that sort of money.
There was a time when we could put up around seventy percent of that
with Alchemist's own money and the remaining thirty percent with M.F.T.B.
money, but after 2002's fiasco with the insurance companies (the only
year M.F.T.B. was called off due to insurance companies refusal to insure
the event for public liability), it meant that the money we saved up
soon went out with nothing coming back in. That's something that we'll
never recover from. We didn't even attempt to make the money back that
year because we would have done the show for charity, with nothing in
return for the charities we were supposed to be supporting in the first
place. It was very much a moral issue and we decided to take that loss.
I don't think a lot of people realise just what goes into putting M.F.T.B.
together every year. It takes us about six to eight months of the year
to put it all together. Of course, if we had the money, we could organise
the festival a month out. But that isn't a reality for us. The reality
is that I have to remortgage my house every year to pay for those upfront
costs. M.F.T.B. is a mugs game in a business sense because we only end
up making about five thousand for charity. You really have to be crazy
to do this. If you were making money for yourself, you wouldn't hear
me whinging. But in the end, I'm glad that I had the forethought to
do M.F.T.B. and it's something that I'm very proud of. I think it's
a legacy that will last for some time, and depending on how things go,
there may just be some sort of resurrection show next year. Who knows
how things will change in the future?"
While the organisational side of this year's M.F.T.B.
is complete, Agius admits that the stress induced by the festival will
be felt for some time.
"There's a whirlwind of emotions inside me at the
moment. I mean, there's a sense of sadness because it will be the last
M.F.T.B. But having said that, I'm nowhere near as sad as I was six
months ago when we were deciding whether to go ahead or not with M.F.T.B.
in the first place. Even when we booked the venue, a couple of months
later we were wondering if it was all becoming a little too intense.
But we've managed to survive up to this point. But in regards to total
stress relief, I won't know about that for another couple of week's
time! (Laughs) If it all goes well, and things are certainly looking
like it's going to be a good show, then we'll certainly be able to give
Hurley, his family and the N.B.I.F. something worthwhile, which would
be great."
While it's obvious that M.F.T.B. has become too much for
Agius to organise without sacrificing Alchemist, I questioned as to
whether there was ever a moment when he considered handing the reigns
over to somebody else.
"No. Not from evidence I've seen. Without big noting
myself, I can't see anyone doing as good a job. I really can't. We've
always been full on serious about M.F.T.B. and we've done everything
we could possibly do to get this together year after year. Sure, we've
made some mistakes but apart from the Overcranked festival, there's
nothing that even matches what we achieve with M.F.T.B. in organisation
terms, especially given that this is all for charity rather than organising
it purely for charity. All our proceeds go back into the following year's
M.F.T.B., or to Hurley. I haven't seen proof that anyone could do it
without seeing the dollar signs flashing before their eyes and cutting
corners to fill their own pockets. I'm not interested in that sort of
shit. You take the risk to put it on and do the best that you can. If
you lose, that's tough. That's just the way it goes. That's the attitude
we take with it. You can't expect sympathy from anyone about losing
money. That's simply not going to happen. So with that in mind, I think
it's something that I'm going to hold close to my heart for some time!
(Laughs) We'll see how things pan out, but at this stage, I can't see
myself handing over the reins."
Another interesting point Agius brings up about the Australian
metal scene is the shift away from thinking solely in a national sense,
but more on an international level.
"There's a very good chance that people aren't going
to see anything like M.F.T.B. ever again. We were in a unique position
to be able to actually promote this year's show as the last one before
we started getting things together. After doing it for so many years,
we had a unique opportunity to bow out gracefully and have people remembering
M.F.T.B. as something unique and awesome, and not the dwindling numbers
scenario and all that sort of shit. That happens to every festival.
Things like this can't last forever. The Big Day Out, along with Homebake
and The Meredith Music Festival are all very unique festivals that manage
to cover a lot of genres, and constantly reinvent themselves with each
passing year to remain interesting. But there are very few like them
and the metal scene is something different again. The metal scene here
now is so international. I like to think that Alchemist had a small
and important part in helping the Australian scene become more international
based. But with the scene now more international, it's a big risk to
expect people just to come because the line-up contains all Australian
bands. That's both sad and encouraging at the same time. You want your
scene to be involved with the world but you also want them to be able
to compete on an international level. If a local band gets slagged on
the international scene, then so be it. You have to put your head on
the chopping block so to speak. You would hope that anyone who calls
themselves an Australian metal head would want to come and see M.F.T.B.
because you would hope that everyone is into supporting the local scene.
But unfortunately, it's never been like that, and it never will be like
that. And it's the same all around the world."
After fifteen years of running the event, it's surprising
to find that Agius hadn't achieved everything he had hoped for with
M.F.T.B.
"We actually wanted to make it bigger than it was,
but the scene dictates around two thousand people through the door,
and that's what is really considered a genuine success. Sometimes that
number can range from one thousand one hundred people to two thousand.
It's so bloody hard to predict and so hard to judge how much you should
invest in M.F.T.B. to possibly make it bigger than it already is. Some
years we've actually sold out. So with the following year, we've invested
more in merchandise and production, only to find the following year
a near disaster. So we go back to a smaller production, and found ourselves
short on the following year. It's a full on thing to do. It's impossible
to judge, so having M.F.T.B. grow was more a dream than something we
could really achieve."
Shifting to concerns beyond M.F.T.B., I asked Agius about
the future plans of Alchemist, and the status of their upcoming album
and DVD.
"We'll be concentrate on the band next year with
the release of a new album, and then we'll be focussing on the overseas
market. Basically we'll reassess things when we finish up M.F.T.B. We
have big plans for Alchemist next year and M.F.T.B. would merely hamper
those plans if we chose to extend it for another year. With Alchemist
getting more and more offers, we need to plan and make those offers
happen rather than put everything on hold to concentrate on M.F.T.B."
The first thing Alchemist plan to do is finish up the
writing sessions for their new album.
"The new album is about ninety percent done and we
plan to start recording early next year. We know that this is the longest
gap between albums (Alchemist's last release was 'Austral Alien' in
2003) that we've ever had, but that's because it's been a hard one to
write because Holder now lives in Brisbane and has done before we even
went on our European tour in 2004. We had to change the way we wrote
songs. We have a Pro-Tools setup down here along with a Drumkit From
Hell program and we try to write riffs and a drum beat to go along with
it and form it into a song. We then send it to Holder who has a full
V-Drum kit and he plays and improves on what we've done. It took us
a long time to get used to that, as opposed to four blokes in a room.
It's hard to communicate over a distance like that but we finally hit
a niche, and before we knew it, we had enough material for a new album.
It was a process of writing and writing and writing, before taking a
break and really listening to what we had. We were blown away! (Laughs)
We had an album's worth there and it's a good album. This album is truly
head banging. It's probably the heaviest thing we've ever done, although
not quite as extreme. It's a bit hard to say what it is but it's a typical
Alchemist album in that it's different from every other album we've
done in the past. It's taken us a while to find our mojo on this album
but I'm pretty excited about it. The process has been long and we still
have a little bit of a journey to go before we get to the end but it
will be worth the wait. It's going to be one of those albums where we'll
be able to play heaps of shit from it live.
The music is complete and there's a lot of ideas on the
board downstairs in regards to the album title and we haven't committed
song titles to the songs yet. The vocals and the electronics are being
put together as we speak. We're in no rush and we'll keep things under
wraps until we're ready to unveil the whole album. And it's at that
point that you won't be able to shut me up! (Laughs)"
And playing live is what Alchemist plan to do with offers
coming in with their seemingly broadening exposure on the international
scene.
"We can't wait to get the new album out there and
get touring overseas. We have had some really good offers for next year,
including a headlining offer for 'ProgPower Europe 2004' (which is due
to take place in Holland in October). We played there in 2004 and now
we've been offered a headlining slot. That's a great offer. I think
we'd be the first extreme Australian act to have a festival headlining
spot in Europe. I don't know if that's exactly true but it may well
be. I'll have to double-check that. But even if it's not true, it's
still an amazing offer. Then we hope to get to the US. We're really
picking up in sales over there as well as Japan. And on top of that,
we have Australia to play too. So it's all starting to really happen
for us. Everything we've gone through since 'Austral Alien', from the
absolute highs of our career touring Europe, the dramas of keeping this
M.F.T.B. thing going, to the constant reminder about being an ever-aging
band that've yet to hit their mark - yet all seem insignificant next
to this new album. It's been a tough time for us but when I think about
these songs, I'm really excited. It makes me forget about all that other
shit. We're an underground act but you can't start a revolution from
the underground. So while it's all been a bit of a slow build in the
last couple of years, I promise you that once we're back, it's going
to be a big smashing lump of hammering time. We're going to be hitting
it tight, and hitting it hard, and enjoying it in the process. We're
hoping to recreate the overwhelming success of 'Austral Alien' ten times
over."
Aside from the new album, Alchemist has also been working
on another project, which happens to be the bands rarely discussed debut
DVD.
"We're still making it. We actually have a whole
DVD's worth of stuff all edited and ready to go but we're actually thinking
of holding it back and instead, releasing a double DVD. It's just so
full on, especially given all the footage that we have. I think I'm
a little more confident about the project than I was the last time we
spoke because we just didn't want to put out anything second rate. But
having seen what we have so far, I think it's looking really good. But
in all seriousness, I think it needs a little more comedy. It's all
so very serious. That's the way the DVD comes across at the moment so
it's a little bit too one sided for us and it's something we're trying
to balance out. Some of the tour footage we have from the European tour
really shows who we are. I mean we're deadly serious about our music,
but as people, we're just a bunch of wankers. People are going to think
we're some really serious progressive band. In truth, we just want to
make some really good music, play some great shows and get wasted. We're
really boring in reality. Once we get that balance, I would think that
it will be released sometime soon after the next album."
As the conversation comes to a close, I leave the final
word on this year's M.F.T.B. up to Agius.
"I want M.F.T.B. to have the same sort of respect
Sunbury had (the legendary Australian festival that ran from 1972 to
1975). It was a movement, and something real and something that people
remember. I would like people to look back on M.F.T.B. as a representation
of the real Australian extreme metal scene in the '90's and into the
new decade. M.F.T.B. was the whole Australian metal scene coming together
for a good cause and a festival that left on a high before it dwindled
away and was run by people who were more interested in filling their
own pockets. If you've never been to M.F.T.B. before, then you need
to witness what it's all about, and what this whole movement is about.
If you have been before, you need to witness that again because it will
be your last time. If you call yourself a metal head and Australian,
then you have to be at this show. Australian bands have always done
it hard touring around the country putting on live shows and long before
the international scene started taking notice. Come and see what this
country made out of nothing and at the end of the day, for good that
you've helped make a worthwhile charity cause a success."
I would personally like to thank Adam Agius for his
generous time and Kelli Wright for making the interview possible.
For more information on Metal For The Brain, check out
- http://www.metalforthebrain.com
© Justin Donnelly - justindonnelly@ozemail.com.au
