LOCAL HEROES ON THE WORLD STAGE
BRISBANE AND THE SYDNEY SUBURB OF BLACKTOWN HAVE BOTH GIVEN AUSTRALIA SOME OF OUR MOST INNOVATIVE, EXCITING NEW GUITAR-BASED BANDS IN RECENT MEMORY. BLACKTOWN’S NORTHLANE AND THY ART IS MURDER EXPLORE THE CRUSHING BRUTALITY OF DOWNTUNED RIFFAGE, WHILE BRI
Blacktown metalcore merchants Northlane have only been at it since 2009, but they’ve already racked up the kind of accolades most bands dream about. Successful US tours with the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, curating their own festival (Free Your Mind), and debuting at # 3 on the ARIA Albums Chart are just some of the achievements they’ve logged. Guitarist Jon Deiley is an intuitive, aggressive player with an instinctive knack for killer riffs, and though he claims co-guitarist Josh Smith is the more technically-minded, Deiley comes across as a well-studied student of heavy guitar in all its brutal glory.
Why do you play guitar?
It was a bit of a weird thing that happened. I wasn’t really playing any instruments, and my parents never played any instruments. But this kid had a guitar in year six and I thought, “That looks really cool. I wanna do that.” So that Christmas my parents bought me this $30 acoustic guitar from Vinnie’s and I started mucking around on it. At first I was learning by ear then I figured out what tabs were and went down that way.
Were there any big bands for you at the time or was it more of a peer thing at school?
It was a bit of both. I sor t of got into music more when I got the guitar. Those two things went hand-in-hand. At the time I was listening to AC/DC and The Red Hot Chili Peppers. That’s all I listened to for the first couple of years.
What sent you off in a heavier direction?
My friends were listening to the post-hardcore bands when they started to get a little bit bigger in Australia. Underoath was what got me used to the idea of people screaming at me while someone was playing guitar. Up until that point the heaviest thing that I’d listened to was probably Incubus or Rage Against The Machine or something.
So what was your first electric guitar?
I don’t even know if it was a real brand but it was called a Jordan. It was like a Superstrattype guitar except it was purple, with single coils, not humbuckers. Then I saved up – I don’t know how the hell I did it because I was 12 or 13 or something – but I found the money to pick up a Fender Telecaster, which is quite interesting because I’ve gone through all these different types – Ibanez, LTD, ESP – and I’m back on the Tele bandwagon. I just can’t get enough of them.
And now you have your own signature ESP E-II model!
It’s based off the black one I have but it’s got a Schaller Hannes bridge, different paint job, and it’s a seven-string 27” baritone that looks like an old Telecaster. It’s got this nitro finish on it so the paint wears down really quickly and gets this road-worn look to it. I can’t wait to get it. We play seven-strings and use extended scales, and the strings need to be quite thick. I just love the novelty of it. That’s what really sold it to me. Because from afar it looks kinda like a standard Tele but when you hear it, it’s far from a standard Tele! It’s exactly what I need – keyword need – because I’ve gone through a lot of guitars to find one that held the tuning that we play in and made it sound good. I’ve played so many s**t guitars that just couldn’t handle the tuning.
And you’re using the Bare Knuckle Black Hawk pickups.
Before that we were using Bare Knuckle Aftermaths. They’re all really good pickups; they’re passive and really crunchy. I don’t know what it is I like about it – there’s a tonal quality I can’t describe, but when you dig into them they really cut through, which is perfect for the low tuning that we play in. You need that. Without slamming other brands, I suppose Bare Knuckle must have started fairly small and it’s still a fairly niche thing, but for people with the nerve who want to sound how they want and they want to try hard enough to get it, well Bare Knuckle must have known that from the start. They’ve got another one I wouldn’t mind trying called the Juggernaut [Periphery guitarist Misha Mansoor’s signature model] and they sound great.