MASSIC - Heart & Soul
Written by: Tom Wilson @thetomwilsonexperiment - Sense Music Media | Wednesday 22nd June 2022
Metal Frontman’s New Lease on Life
You’re going to have a good time at a KING PARROT show, but I guarantee you won’t be having as good a time as MASSIC frontman Simon, who will be taking the stage as support for the Brisbane leg of the Regional Rampage tour. Why am I so sure? Because it was almost all taken away from him. He spoke to Sense about his brush with death, and new album Cognisant.
I’ve been cranking Cognisant. It’s the dreaded sophomore album – some are good, some are terrible. How do you feel it stacks up to Redshift? And how was its creation different?
The best way to compare the two … Seeing that the band is about seven years old now, back when Redshift started … it was all our first stuff, and we just got it all on tape, whereas Cognisant was solely written as a follow-up, but just took another 18 months longer to release due to a few factors. To compare the two, the best way I’ve been able to describe it is that it’s just a bigger album, in every aspect. It’s very us, but there’s just more avenues. There’s more streets. The city has grown, or the town has grown, if you will. That’s kind of how I see it. The writing is MASSIC. It’s always been that way from the start, a certain style, but we’ve just made it broader, with the singing, layering etc. Redshift was the RAGE AGAINST THE MACHINE mentality of “If we can’t play it live, don’t put it on.” Whereas with Cognisant, we were like, “Ah, let’s just keep going and going and going.” [Given] the delays of the world, and I had a health issue, there was time to put layers, to put extras on, to have a second grab at things. So yeah, a broader album than Redshift is the best way I can put it.
Absolutely none of my business, and feel free to tell me to fuck off, but the health issue – has that affected your musicianship? Is it open to discussion? Or is it something you’d rather keep private?
No, it’s absolutely fine. I’m all about watching blood pressure now, because I’ve had a heart issue. But I’m working through it. I’m trying to stay as fit as possible, and I’ve had to change it up a bit, but it’s all good. Playing a live show is like doing a fitness session. [Laughs] It was fairly tumultuous. My aorta went on me as I was running, and it was not expected at thirty-seven years old! [Laughs] I was the fittest I’d ever been in my life, but stress causes a lot of issues, and that was the main cause. But it’s stress – not physical stress, but actual mental stress. It’s been more of a blessing than anything. Getting back to the band, this is 20,000 times more fun when it’s almost been taken away from you, you know? And getting to doctors, and being able to still do it, you know? And them saying, “Just go for it, man!” [Laughs] “Okay!”
Is this something you have to be cognisant of when you’re performing? Like, go for it, but not push yourself too hard?
Look, you get to know your body better. I’m no doctor. I know how I feel a lot more these days … As far as the band goes, there’s so much joy, so much dopamine, if something was to go, as long as I go quick. [Laughs] You get to a stage in life where there’s only so much you can control, and we are mere mortals. Like, an example is playing a show with KING PARROT. That’s pretty rad. [Laughs] Health conscious-wise, I’ll do all the normal prep, and just go for it and have fun. It’s all good. [Laughs]
Did your experiences with health and mortality and whatnot bleed into the music you made?
Oh, absolutely. One of the songs we actually had a second grab at, it was a song that we weren’t very happy with on the record – the song Surrender. And the clip sort of bases around me getting back to the boys, and sort of making my way back. We were going to make it so I was going through a lot of treacherous things to get back to the boys, but the fact that I was even able to walk back is truly a miracle … a medical miracle, first and foremost, so we just went for it. To answer your question, absolutely, but the weird thing is that some of the lyrics … this is common in metal and common in singers, some of the lyrical content, you go, “Jesus” … “My heart wanted more” … “Plummet back to earth” … You start to get a little freaked out. You’re like, “I wrote that in 2019 – what’s going on?” But at the same time, they’re general things that you think about, so they relate to you in a different way … It’s definitely a lot of meaning, and it’s definitely crept in, absolutely … It’s completely changed the person I am … I just enjoy the experience, and just being able to do it is what I love most. Yeah, it’s as simple as that. [Laughs]
There’s nothing like having something almost taken away from you to make you appreciate it. It changes your entire outlook, doesn’t it?
Yeah. I was only saying to a friend the other day, I’d like to think I have a fairly firm plant on the ground. As you get older, nearly forty, most people have been through a tumultuous experience, that you talk to. There’s not a lot of people around who haven’t experienced something when you get to middle age – a death in the family or something like that – so we all get to that point, don’t we? Where we’re like, “Well, shit, it could be worse.” As my brother always reminds me, it wasn’t ideal what happened to me, but it’s also given me a lot of joy as well – to be able to see things in a very confirming way. [Laughs]
It's been a big few years for everyone, but there’s been some really exceptional music released. What are some recent releases that have blown your mind, and why?
I was a huge DILLINGER ESCAPE PLAN fan, and I loved what Greg Puciato has done with THE BLACK QUEEN. I got to see DILLINGER’s last ever Australian show, and THE BLACK QUEEN’s first ever Australian show. And then he went on to do his solo stuff, and that solo album of his, oh man ... That really spins my wheels, that stuff. There’s been some crackers, man, as you said, and everyone’s gone back. Having done interviews myself with some fairly heavy hitters, and heavy hitters of the industry, everyone’s just going, “We’ve got time!” We don’t have this release date looming. We don’t have a record company saying, “We’ve got to get this done.” With that, one of the releases that really got me, and I’ve always liked TRIVIUM as a band, but their latest release, man, that is a ridiculously good one … I like a lot of material in their back catalogue, but I think, as an overall album, that album is fantastic. What else? Man, I’m a massive IDLES fan, and you might like this one, but ALT+J’s new record is ridiculous. I love that album so much … The band CODE ORANGE … They dropped an album in March 2020, and it all went to shit … I think they were one of the first bands to do a live show with no people and record it … I know KILLSWITCH ENGAGE have just released an album doing it, and MR. BUNGLE. So yeah, I’m going on a tangent now, but those releases have been really, really cool too. I’m hoping that those sorts of releases become unique in history, because who wants to live through that shit again? [Laughs]
MASSIC play with KING PARROT, ODIUS, CHOOF and HIGH AS HELL at The Zoo, Brisbane this Friday the 24th of June. Get tickets here.
Pictured: Shayne Patch, Simon Russell-White, Rashid AlKamraikhi, Chris Butler + Alan MaHood - MASSIC