Interview with Our Last Enemy’s Oliver Fogwell

I’ve recently had the chance to send some questions over to the vocalist of a very good metal band that I’ve reviewed called Our Last Enemy as I’m sure you’ve guessed by now. Below you’ll find the questions that I sent over and the responses given by the band’s vocalist, Oliver Fogwell, who answered these questions very, very nicely and in my opinion this should be really fun for those of you who are already fans of Our Last Enemy. Was for me. But read on:

 

1. First off, Oliver, let me just say thanks for taking time to answer my s**t, haha. I know you must sometimes get tired of seeing the same questions over and over again so I’ll try to make this as painless and quick as possible. Now with the release of “Pariah” you and the rest of Our Last Enemy caused “a few” ripples among the metal community around the world as hundreds of thousands of people (including myself!) couldn’t stop listening to the album. How did you guys think that the album would do?

Hahaha I’ll never get tired of talking to people who are interested in what we do! We are really blown away by the response it has had in North America. We had success with our first album locally (“Fallen Empires”) which went to No.1 on the iTunes Metal Charts ere in Australia, and our follow up EP (“Wolves of Perigord”) went to No.2, so we knew people here dug it but we never knew it would be so well received in the states. (“Pariah” is basically the best songs from those 2 records put together for the North American market). Radio has been particularly kind to us and we hit #11 on the CMJ Rock Radio charts at it speak, and we still get spins almost daily which is pretty amazing in this day and age for a record to have such longevity, especially when we are not there to tour it!

2. I’ve met people from all sorts of bands from all over the world like Mat from your label-mates A Breach of Silence to more unknown people like some tiny little Finnish bands, and I know that the song writing and recording process is a long one and can get really grueling if you don’t have the right people there. How have the people over at Eclipse been helping you guys with making new music and possibly inspiring you? A lot of people out there don’t really understand the time and energy that goes into making an album so I’m sure some of them would like to know.

You are completely right; the song writing process can take a huge amount of time and energy, especially when you are a democratic band like us with the songwriting process. I know some bands will have a main songwriter who might write most of the record and the rest of the guys will learn it to record/tour on, but we are the old school type of band where we get together in the jam room and all put our 2 cents in. Now I’m not saying either way is the right way to go, hell it takes us forever this way hahahaha but it’s the way work. That being said with technology these days we do often have one member who will demo a song at home and we will share it on dropbox and go from there, but ultimately we will all work on in the room at some point and it will always go through several transmutations.  Chris at Eclipse has but nothing but a pleasure to work with and the whole team who are behind us in the states (Kenny, Skateboard Marketing, Street Cult, Adrenaline PR) have really helped us with the current record. We are hard at a work on the new material for the follow up and I’m regularly in touch with Chris at the label to keep him updated and seems pretty pumped to hear the stuff.

 

3. I’ll just be blunt and say that “Pariah” had a badass sound to it all throughout. Where did you guys come to end where you combined your intense vocal and lyrical style to the rest of the band’s which was very raw and had the pace as if they were possessed by demons?

Hahahha I take that as a massive compliment man thanks! Being a horror movie buff a possessed demon is something I can relate to hahaha Maybe that has rubbed off on me? What I like and a lot of reviewers have mentioned is the vocals are heavy enough to give you that brutality of death metal etc but the music is not a constant breakneck flurry of sounds you cant digest (nothing wrong with that though!); there is real songwriting and a genuine sense of atmosphere to the music which makes for a dark and heavy pairing and something we hope is slightly different to what’s out there.  Our music is a real melting pot of all our wide and varied music tastes and I think on this next record you will see that even more as we look to experiment with adding even more styles to our musical palette.

4. I know your from Australia which is an amazing place for music today with all the variety from metal bands like Our Last Enemy to more hip-hop groups that I enjoy too. Did you think that “Pariah” would do as well as it did outside of Australia and would you ever do a tour over here in the old U.S.? No doubt there’d be enough people that’d form mosh pits in your wake.

Like I said before, the response in North America has blown us away! The way radio has gotten behind it is amazing, and the reviews have ALL been great. Even from more traditional/elitist type publications who we thought might be taken aback by our mesh of genres have been given it great reviews. Like I said, I think we have something for many types of metal heads, we have enough brutality for your death head and enough atmosphere and cinematic grandeur for your more epic or progressive type. Its dark enough for your goth metal freaks and brings enough groove for your mosh pit addicts. Touring the US on the next record is our number one priority and we are looking at several options right now. Look forward to seeing you in the pit man!

5. One final question which has a little background to it. I recently introduced your song “Devour the Sun” to a good friend of mine who is also a metal head. He heard the song and simply said “f**king badass” to which I completely and utterly agree with. After listening to the rest of the album which he also loved, he asked me if you guys were planning to release another album any time soon. I said probably not since “Pariah” was only released in May but I could be wrong. And here is my chance to ask you that: do you guys have a new album planned out within the near future like, say, within 6 month’s time? I’m not expecting an exact date or anything like that, otherwise I’d be extremely impressed.

Hell yeah man!! The success of “Pariah” has spurned us on even more and we are locked in the studio doing demos right now! We can’t say a date, but we are looking at sometime in 2015 with a US tour to back it up.  We are currently in talks with the label to secure a release date and backing, so let’s hope they like the new stuff as much as we do! Oh and tell your friend he is a bad ass! \m/

Thank you Oliver again for taking time out of your day. I appreciate it, I’m sure the fans appreciate it, and those who aren’t fans and read this should be fans because “Pariah” is absolutely worth the listen since it was one of the best of 2014. I swear. But have a good rest of your life, keep doing what you do, give your brothers in the band my extreme approval for what you guys do, and good luck with your career! Definitely going to be interesting for the rest of us!

Thanks so much Kris, you are an absolute legend!! Can’t wait to catch up next year hopefully! \m/

Like I said, great band! Nice people! Awesome s**t! Good news for everyone, and I’d rather have it no other way!

Our Last Enemy’s latest album “Pariah” was released in May of this year via Eclipse Records. You can find this fantastic f**king band on Facebook and Twitter, and I highly suggest watching the official video for the 1st track from “Pariah”, “Devour the Sun” right below and then continuing to listen to the full album that is available for our enjoyment on YouTube. And then, head over to iTunes and buy the album here, and if your little heart desires go buy the physical CD here (getting one soon myself!).

Source: Head-Banger Reviews