Antiskeptic on purevolume™

Rock / Alternative / Punk

Biography

You’d be forgiven for wondering where Antiskeptic have disappeared to in recent years. It’s been a quiet time for the Melbourne three-piece — publicly, at least. In private, the band has undergone a rebirth that now sees them poised to return, bigger, better and more energised than ever before.

Let’s rewind for a moment — to 2003, and the release of the band’s second LP, Aurora. The album was an instant success, capitalising on Antiskeptic’s years of touring and boasting a heavier rock edge that set venues alight. Both singles found favour with radio programmers and dominated jjj’s Net 50, while successful tours featured hot young support bands like Gyroscope, Kisschasy and After The Fall.

Shortly before the recording of Aurora, bassist Sean Daly left the group to pursue other interests. Remaining members Andrew Kitchen and Nick Coppin soldiered on through the recording and promotion of Aurora, enlisting fill-in members to help them perform live, but by the end of 2003 they were feeling the strain. Sean’s departure limited what the band could achieve, and despite the success of Aurora, Andrew and Nick knew something was missing. The chemistry between all three members was what made the Antiskeptic sound so powerful, and without Sean, they knew they couldn’t reach the next level.

After some time spent soul-searching, Sean returned to the group, immediately reenergizing Antiskeptic’s sound. Happy to be a three-piece again, the group decided to record a new EP. The resulting tracks are the band’s most collaborative to date — emerging spontaneously from rehearsal sessions, rather than from individual members, as they had in the past.

The Monuments EP boasts some of the most focussed songs Antiskeptic have committed to tape. Lead track “Dancing On The Inside” explodes with a serrated, riff-heavy intro, before Kitchen’s vocals take off, leading to one of the most infectious choruses you will hear this year. The band has cemented the heavy edge they first explored on Aurora, emerging with a sound that would put many of this country’s hard rock acts to shame. Above it all, their trademark melodic style dips and soars, imbuing the songs with an optimism so often missing from alternative rock.

Also bundled with the EP is a DVD featuring ‘in-studio’ video clips of all four songs, commentary from the band, and a live performance from Melbourne’s Rod Laver arena in 2005.

With new material and a newfound cohesion, Antiskeptic are set to wow Australian punters once again. After seven years playing music together, and their fair share of ups and downs, the band has never felt more alive.

Free Live EP

Download six live tracks and artwork for FREE from antiskeptic.com.au/live.

More free Antiskeptic MP3s are available at mp3.com.au/antiskeptic.

June 18

Dancing on the internet

Yo yo.. here is your first taste of the DVD...

The lead track 'Dancing on the Inside' has been up here for a few weeks now and the response has been fantastic! Now here's the corresponding video to the song! You'll get a video like this for each track on the EP capturing exactly what was going on when we recorded em!

Enjoy the embedded version here.. or go to the source at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qF-SoHv7ySU and enjoy!

Launch dates are on their way...melbourne, sydney, newcastle, adelaide and our other home brisbane.

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May 22

the tour...that was

So..we're home now..after we hauled our way up the coast from brisbane to cairns in what will be remembered as one of the best experiences ive had in the band for some time!!

In preparation for the big event in Brisbane we spent the best parts of a wednesday, thursday and friday playing at schools all around the place! And if we are to be completely honest there was more time actually spent carrying and setting up gear than there actually was 'using' it! But they..thats rock n roll for ya. Of the schools we played...the response was always varied from very enthusiastic to possibly zombified. We had a performance schedule that involed being up and out the door at 7am each day to catch the morning assemblies, recess and then lunch breaks. I felt sorry for some of the kids who had clearly just gotten out of bed, dressed and rocked up to school only to have their ears blasted by us!! Oh well...rock n roll aint pretty at 9am!!! Special mention must be made of the rockfest that was browns plains high!!! Cheers guys!

Following on from the big event on the saturday (which was great) we also did a special low-key half rock/half acoustic set on the sunday. That was interesting cos we had a crack at hallelujah' with accousitcs and i was suprised at how good it worked! Anwyay...another night out and good food with good company! MCC peeps...hi!

Then we began the trek north. We hit up Bundy first but played out at some schools in Maryborough during the day. The rally that night (back in town) was cool and�by this stage i think i had drunk 2 bundaberg ginger beers, a sarspirella and a peech drink! Soo good man...ugh! Anyway i lost my voice after going a tad too hard on stage and paid for it dearly with a sore throat and restriced use of my voice! Idiot! Props to Clay, Robyn, dgermain and co for making the journey up too! After the set we packed up our stuff and drove on to Rockhampton. We got to the accom (say around 12 or something) and found it to be a bunch of gym mats on a the floor of a church hall.�That was it. We had to ask for some sheets...and pillows. We all got sheets...not pillows though. We would have had showers excpet there was no hot water...or shower head. We couldnt help but laugh.

We headed out to Mt Morgan and did schools out there! We had a great time with them and i should give a special mention to the girls who came to the rally at Rocky that night...you girls are awsome! Ang yong haseo' to the korean kids we met!! The show was good, but a bit of a blur because had to drive straight on to Mackay! Mackay struck us as a really nice town, one we could have easily hung out in..had we enough time! Did more schools. We were pretty knackered by this stage after all the packing and unpacking of the bloody PA we were carting around. Seriously..we were like rock n roll zombies but the rally was great fun once again!! The crowd was especially nuts! Despite our fatigue we still managed to jump the fence and go for a swim in the high school's swimming pool!! Heaps funny...and so relaxing and refreshing!

We headed up to Townsville that night. Sadly we hadnt seen any crocodiles yet and this was getting dissapointing so every time we crossed over water the van would erupt with 'oh there'd be croc's in there for sure! The Ville' was rockin. Had a blast up there, the schools were cool and the night rally was outta control. Plus we got to hang out and see some stuff too!

It rained all the way to Cairns. We stopped in Innisfail for lunch and saw all the devastaed crops and houses and stuff. It was pretty full on. Anyway Cairns was cruisy and seemed way cool. No chools for this last day and so we just chileld out and had a swim. The rally was big and quite the fitting ending to such a mega effort. The crowd was amped and we were too! We went out for a late night bite to eat and goodbye's as most people were flying out hella early back to brisbane. We hung out on the esplanade and it was beautiful. Definitely wanna come back to Cairns.

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April 18

The News

Ni Hao!

We are about to go to QLD, this time all the way up to the top! Weve never been there before, in fact for me i have only ever been as far as Noosa on the coast and Ayers Rock in the center. So we are very excited to be seeing new territory! Not that australia is boring but weve seen certain parts quite a few times!

Check here to see if we are coming to your place: skeppers in QLD?

Theres a new CD/DVD coming out in a few weeks...its called 'Monuments'. It kicks ass.

Now...sigh...
Very limited pre-release 'audio-only' copies will be available for $7 on the upcoming QLD trip...and...we expect to see them all go before we get home. If you want one and dont wanna wait for the full version with the DVD and proper artwork, then get along to a show, or email someone who lives in QLD!!! he he!

Other states will have to wait for the official release version. This will get a proper release in stores after the trip and there will be our own captial city launches for it, promo and all that jive of course. Eyes on the site for that! Those shows will be wicked.

The new single 'Dancing on the Inside' will be up on myspace/youtube shortly and hitting local airwaves soon. A new site is coming, a podcast and all sorts of new stuff. Youve heard all about that.

Heres what you'll be getting:

CD content:
1) Dancing on the Inside
2) Selling Your Time
3) Hello Halo
4) Hallelujah

DVD content:
'In-Studio' video clips of all four songs. Awsome.
*plus introductions by the band!
'The long and the short of it' documentry...
& Antiskeptic Live @ Rod Laver Arena, Sep 05.

Rock on.
Zaijian

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April 10

Mixing

Right...so principle recording wrapped last week.

We got all the guitars, bass, and vocals and extra stuff we wanted and over the last..err.2 weeks we put it all down. And then...at the last minute we decide we arnt happy with something so I went back in and worked on it with dave some more. Its taken a little while because we only have like..gaps..or blocks of time we can commit to recording because we all work, have wives, have lives and other things pushing for our attention so rocknroll nowadays has to sit somewhere in between it all! At other times the band stuff takes priority and those 'other' things take a lesser focuss but right now we are inbetween.

Anway we flew Matt Lovell down from Newcastle to mix for us at Sing Sing. We were in the 'K' room for like 3 days..which is good because its cold and yucky outside anyway. And they have a kitchen area with free biccies and lollies and snacks and tea and coffee so you can like.. just mung out in there and the outside world just passes by! The couches are hella comfy too and its easy just to sink in and tune out!!! So...who is Matt Lovell? Look him up. He just wrapped up recording the new Eskimo Joe record...which he had with him but i didnt get around to listening to it.

Matt was really good. The sounds are great, some different, some familiar, some entirely over the top, some really subtle and small. Definitely a recording worth listening to on headphones if you know what i mean by that.

We'll be approving artwork soon, we are all eager to see what our new stuff will look like...cos for the first time we have handed the job over to someone else to just put together and present back to us a package of stuff. This means CD art, posters and promo material. that kind of thing. As you can see the new promo/media pics are up here...just cos like we wanted to put em up.

New site goes up soon...yey... we'll announce all the good stuff like track listing, , first single and video...dvd material and of course release dates too!

Sorry for the delays with the podcast. Were just sourcing passable versions of the b-sides for you all!

Its cold here...rainy and cold. Bring on the QLD trip! Im watching House fo Flying Daggers cos its wicked and im learning Mandarin so i watch it in Chinese! he he...

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March 21

It's on...

Yesterday we began tracking for the EP.

We packed into Sing Sing studio's in Toorak at 10am to track 4 songs and we ended up demoing a new song whilst we were there which was a bonus to end a day at 9:30pm...man...im so tired.

Drums were set up in one of the isolation rooms whilst AK and I were in the main room and Dave in the desk room. We could all see each other yet we were seperate as to keep noise spill at a minimum and to maintain a controlled environment. This place was fantastic and made for a unique filming opportunity. We were surrounded by a film crew for most of the day but i wont spoil to much just yet as to what you'll be getting on the DVD.

The principle objective was to get the best drum sounds and takes as possible. We record the guitars and bass and vocals as well but mostly they end up being used only as guide's and additional work on those elements gets done this week at Rangemaster.

The day was long but very productive and as i mentioned we also demo'd a brand new song. A day old actually! We took two days out to practise and rehearse the songs we were to record and during this time we wrote a new one.

It currently has no name but we'll call it 'The kids arnt scared anymore' and it has a very dark, epic feel to it not alot unlike Muse. It does however have one of the heaviest breakdowns in a skepper song rivalling More than Kind or Road and Travel' for sheer massivenness!!!! We are absolutely amped about this track! 7/8 is what you will hear a bit more of on the next album in those heavier moments. Oh joy!

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