Love Letter To A Record: Verticoli On Karnivool’s ‘Sound Awake’
Music Feeds’ Love Letter to a Record series asks artists to reflect on their relationship with the music they love and share stories about how it has influenced their lives. Here, Will Colvin from Nipaluna/Hobart-based alternative-rock trio Verticoli expresses his love for Karnivool’s ‘2009 LP ‘Sound Awake’, following the release of their own new album ‘The Echo’.
Produced by Jon Grace (Dear Seattle, Dune Rats), engineered by Cameron Hull and mixed by Forrester Savell (Karnivool, The Butterfly Effect), the LP is an eclectic collection of alternative rock tracks inspired by what the band describes as their own obsession with music. “Themes include escapism, depression, paranoia, getting punched in the face, and love sickness,” the band explain. “It also touches on confronting a future potentially raising children, reflecting on my own upbringings and relationships within my family.” Listen below.
Verticoli’s Will Colvin’s Love Letter To Karnivool’s Sound Awake
I was a kid playing in my school jazz and symphonic bands when Karnivool’s first album Themata was introduced to me. A truly formative record for a teenager who didn’t know about this kind of music. Edgy, angsty, and melodic. Everything I didn’t feel I was!
Four long years later and Sound Awake came. Sophomore records can be so difficult (fingers crossed for ours), but it blew me away. It had all the edginess of Themata but with such polish and gravity. The instrumentation was nothing I’d ever heard. There is no album I have played more, primarily due to me repeatedly playing it in my parents’ garage, trying to learn Steve Judd’s incredible drum parts.
Every song is a highlight for me. ‘Set Fire to the Hive’ explodes with anger, ‘New Day’ soars into a crescendo of joy, and the epic ‘Change’ reinvents how to close an album, just to name a few.
Sound Awake really instilled in me the idea of a band of great musicians writing the music they wanted to play. Not to be popular, not to fit in a scene or genre, and definitely not to write a 3-minute song for radio play. Writing and playing what they wanted to play, and people loving them for that. It is something I have and will continue to strive for.
What a treat for me to then be able to have the producer, engineer, and mixer on ‘Sound Awake’, Forrester Savell, mix and master our new album, The Echo. A small connection to a formative album that I will never get sick of.
Further Reading:
Love Letter to a Record: The Grogans on The Brian Jonestown Massacre’s ‘Revelation’
Love Letter To A Record: The Delta Riggs On The Sleepy Jackson’s ‘Lovers’
Love Letter to a Record: Jess Day on Paramore’s ‘Brand New Eyes’
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