Jericco are a five piece, Middle Eastern influenced alternative rock band from Melbourne, whose star is most definitely on the rise at this moment. After releasing two extremely well received EPs, the band recently released a rarity these days, a live album that’s actually worth listening to, and then toured the country in support of it. But rested on their laurels they have not. They have just got off the road from an extensive tour with progressive/alternative titans Dead Letter Circus, and are now set to release the first single (entitled ‘Monsters’) from their debut album, due for release early to mid 2012. So much is happening in the Jericco camp right now, it makes the proverbial head spin, and enigmatic lead vocalist Brent McCormick, speaking from the road, couldn’t be happier with the way things are going for his band at the moment.
“It’s one of the best things that’s ever happened to us,” he enthuses, regarding the Dead Letter Circus tour, “given that we’ve got a new drummer, Matt Bray (formerly of 28 Days and K-Oscillate), it’s giving him a chance to play a show every night, be comfortable with the songs, we’re getting a real groove going, and building our fanbase. It’s just something we need to do. What we’re trying to do is get out to everyone in Australia, and this is giving us the opportunity. I mean, we hit Tassie for the first time, and the response from Tassie has been amazing. Such a good response from Launceston and Hobart…punters are just getting what we’re trying to do, and what we’re putting across. It’s really positive.
“What do you say, man!” he continues, on the overall progress of the band, “because last Monday I had to go back to work! We did Jindabyne, and drove home, and I walked into walk at 7am. And it was like, this has been my reality for the past 12 years of my life. We’d just been on the road for the last week and a half, and I want that to be my reality! And everything that we’re putting into place at the moment, we’re going to make all that stuff happen. And it’s only going up, and it’s all so positive. There’s a really good energy happening at the moment. We’re getting a lot of good feedback from the DLC guys and a lot of their crew. So that’s always really positive.”
The ‘Monsters’ single is set to be unleashed very shortly. It’s a blistering piece of live wire alternative rock, with a massive, propulsive groove and a ‘monster’ chorus, but lyrically it’s also a very dear to Brent’s heart and mind: “Monsters is actually a very personal story for me,” he states, “because it delves into a lot of mental illness, which I have lived with throughout my whole life. When I got the track off (bassist) Roy, I put some vocals down for it. And the demos to what they are now are very much how they were done in the demo stage. Bang, it just came out of me. And I was like ‘this is really heavy for me to sing about. This is a really personal subject.’ And the guys were like ‘dude, it’s gold!’ It’s a really powerful song. And it just connects with me so well, and it’s really connecting with the crowd as well, it’s got a really good groove and a really good vibe to it.”
The single is unleashed upon the world on September 23rd, and gets its Melbourne launch on the 24th, at new venue The Prague in Thornbury, which is one of the few hometown venues that Jericco have never played, and the band are champing at the bit to get their teeth into the new place.
“It’s a new venue, we haven’t played up there,” he says, “it’s gonna be pretty good! We’re really looking forward to it. We should have the single done. And we’re going through all the new artwork, for the new t-shirt designs, so we’re really happy with where everything’s sitting at the moment.”
The band then heads off on yet another tour, this time a headlining one of their own, to promote the single. Brent described for the uninitiated punters what to expect from a Jericco live show, for anyone thinking of coming down to check out the Melbourne launch, or any of their upcoming national dates.
“Total commitment to our cause,” he describes, “which is spreading our passion and love for music and life, and just being here and existing. Because there’s pretty special times going on in the world, and we want to be part of it, and make a bit of a difference. We want to smash it, actually!”
Beyond the single and its accompanying tour, the band are continuing to work feverishly on their debut album, with production genius Forester Savell, the man responsible for the sound on such monumental Aussie alternative releases as Karnivool’s ‘Themata’ and ‘Sound Awake’ and the aforementioned Dead Letter Circus’ ‘This is the Warning’. The band are looking at a release in the next six to eight months, so there appears to be no rest on the horizon for this very busy band.
“This time next year, we’re looking at touring the full album,” he forecasts, “we’re going to record another four tracks, possibly October/November. They’re the plans, I mean we want to get the album out there, we’ll probably drop another single in February, and maybe another one after that or maybe just drop the album. But it’ll just be constantly recording, touring…there’s just a lot of good things happening.”
And this very hard working and creative of bands deserves everything they get.