If a number of years in the past you’ll have requested Make Them Undergo in the event that they thought they’d have been closing out 2024 with their profession’s most defining assertion, they certainly wouldn’t have believed such a factor was potential. But from making their method by tumultuous waters and with a newfound sense of self, Perth’s favorite purveyors of devastation really feel extra phoned it and primed to deal out punishment than ever earlier than.
That ethos is offered by way of their new album ‘Make Them Undergo’, a pitch-perfect show of the drama, destruction and decadence that has represented their sound during the last decade. Luscious, crushing and brimming with confidence and character, it’s a report that fits the stature of the milestones the band are hitting proper now, and opens the door for even greater and brighter issues.
To sum up this era of life within the band and what it has taught them, Rock Sound sat down with guitarist Nick McLernon…
ROCK SOUND: How does it really feel to be at a spot with Make Them Undergo the place you’re clearly probably the most snug and assured in what this band is you’ve ever been?
Nick: “The sincere reality is that earlier than this album cycle, we have been at a stage the place we have been this near breaking apart. Having a second the place you ask your self, ‘Are we going to die now?’. Is ten years of labor about to go down the drain? However now, we haven’t actually had an opportunity to replicate on these previous two years when the writing and recording of this report passed off, however that’s as a result of, within the time when we’ve got been rejuvenated, we simply haven’t stopped. We’ve got been busy consistently. And there’s a serendipity to ending up in that state of affairs as a result of it feels prefer it has all occurred for a objective. To go from some extent the place I assumed the band was going to interrupt up and our lives work is gone, a really risky time period, to the place we now actually does swimsuit the phrase serendipitous.”
RS: For you, what’s that shifted to let you get to this place?
Nick: “I believe that everyone can agree that it is a level the place we’re lastly locked in. For ten years, we have been nonetheless attempting to study the ropes. We have been determining and discovering out our identification. That’s inside the band identify, the truth that we’ve got a feminine presence and the significance of that asset. And when Alex joined, it was very unintentionally a really pivotal second for us. We have been simply so targeted on staying a band and attempting to not go our separate methods. Alex occurred to be a good friend that I had remodeled the COVID interval. She had common touring expertise and was already in a metallic band, and it simply made a lot sense. She introduced far more to the desk than we had initially imagined. We knew she was a very good singer and will scream, however extra importantly, she introduced this chemistry into the band. She purchased this sense of perception. She has modified our chemistry; we’re all trying on the identical aim and imaginative and prescient. I don’t suppose that might have occurred with out her.”
RS: To search out somebody who matches what you might be doing and reminds you why you might be doing this within the first place, it’s unimaginable for it to not have an enormous impact on all the things you’re transferring in the direction of…
Nick: “And that actually got here by in our writing. Not solely as a result of we knew we had this expertise it’s due to her power. If you deliver one other individual right into a studio, there’s a unconscious impact on how your music is written. I don’t know the science behind it; it simply occurs. And Alex is a basic instance of that happening. I prefer to suppose that she gave us extra confidence to put in writing how we wished to put in writing. That is an sincere report, and that’s as a result of we have been now capable of write our identification. It is a completely self-produced album as properly. Each report we’ve got made, other than [2017’s] ‘World’s Aside’, has had some type of outdoors affect serving to us make it. In ‘Worlds Aside’, we didn’t know what we have been doing, however it exists in the identical place as a result of we have been at the least sincere with ourselves. The distinction between then and now’s that now we’re extra locked in and assured when it comes to producing it and producing that honesty.”
RS: There’s a way of management as properly. Now, every bit seems like it’s in the fitting place, somewhat than simply pondering it and operating with it. There’s a major distinction between the 2 and the results of what creating inside that’s. Additionally, positivity can come from that management and confidence, and it’s about not being afraid to thrive in that regardless of having so many roots in heaviness and darkness…
Nick: “Our band has all the time been constructed on juxtaposition. The heavy to the sunshine, the yin to the yang. So we might go into writing a tune and really feel such positivity, and that’s how you find yourself with a tune like ‘Mana God’, which is definitely the heaviest tune on the report. However once you dive in, there may be numerous mild and positivity between the riffs. Then once we write a tragic tune or a ballad, it comes out like ‘No Exhausting Emotions’, which is within the main key. What we’ve got realized by that honesty, we’ve got unintentionally created that juxtaposition that we’ve got all the time been looking for. We’ve got lastly nailed it.”
RS: When you end up there, that should be a giant push in the direction of why you need to umbrella these songs with the title ‘Make Them Undergo’. It’s the excellent embodiment of what you have got spent all these years looking for, and also you need folks to know that…
Nick: “Once more, it goes again to why serendipitous is the time period to outline this era. We’ve needed to undergo this journey to search out that lacking piece. It could all the time take so long as it has, however it could all the time occur for us. It’s tough to clarify that feeling, however the journey has been very purposeful. We’ve needed to study numerous classes to search out that interior steadiness we’ve got all the time been looking for.”
RS: The alternatives you have got been allowed by that journey could have all the time been there, however due to the mindset you’re in now, they really feel extra useful. In comparison with the mindset you have been beforehand in, you’re truly capable of grasp onto and be glad about all the things much more so…
Nick: “It signifies that we’re capable of specific our artwork and our music while truly having fun with it. That comes from making an sincere report. In case you don’t make an sincere report, you is perhaps enjoying to 10,000 folks at Wembley Enviornment, however one thing will all the time be lacking. When ‘Doomswitch’ and ‘Ghost Of Me’ first got here out, you may really feel immediately that the lacking piece was occupied. Folks can inform once you’re making music that isn’t true to your self or comes from that sincere place. I prefer to suppose that music is the bodily manifestation of the spirit. You’ll be able to actually really feel it when folks imply it. Knocked Unfastened are a basic instance of that. They’re being true to themselves; they do it properly, and everyone can really feel it. If there may be something we need to take from their e book, belief in your personal course of and sound as a result of folks will really feel it.”
RS: That sentiment could be felt probably the most in heavy music as a result of everyone cares about it. They’ve discovered themselves right here for a pure motive, and the seek for that purity in others will all the time filter out the fakes…
Nick: “Considering like that has given us extra confidence in our course of. We’re now following our personal as an alternative of another person’s. Any further, the motto is to only do what we predict is true—do what feeds the aim.”
RS: Inside all of this, there’s a sense of aid in the truth that you have got ended up right here and now stated farewell to this band when it felt like that was the one alternative. So how does it really feel having it nonetheless be such a significant a part of your life now as you look in the direction of no matter could also be subsequent?
Nick: “It’s arduous to reply as a result of it’s one thing I’ve by no means taken the time to consider. Just because we’ve got been so busy for thus lengthy. However once we first met Alex, she was going by the identical factor as what we have been along with her outdated band. She had the identical emotions of feeling like she was dropping years of labor. Music is who she is, which is similar as everybody else on this band. None of us actually know the rest. And for Alex, she felt like she was about to lose part of her identification. We might share these sentiments of understanding exactly what she was going by due to our state of affairs. However for us all, being in Make Them Undergo now and being such part of our identification seems like we’re all in the beginning of reaping the rewards of sticking to it. Staying true to ourselves, making sacrifices to construct and keep that identification for ten years, and solely now are we beginning to see the results of that. And that feels so good.”
