RELIQA - Bad News Travels at FULL TILT
There’s no news like Bad News
Written by: Tom Wilson – Sense Music Media
Hyperactive, abstract prog rock that’s high on creativity and even higher on riffs, RELIQA are set to take the stage as part of FULL TILT. Singer Monique Pym sat down with Sense to talk origins, inspirations, and being The Bearer of Bad News …
You guys are playing at the Full Tilt Festival in January.
We’re really looking forward to being in your territory, up in Brisbane. The last time we were there would’ve been for BIGSOUND in 2019, so it’ll be a nice change of pace. And then we’ll be back for Monolith Festival as well … OCEAN GROVE are one of the bands that I’m most excited for on that festival, actually. I’ve been playing their most recent album probably once a week since it came out. [Laughs] I love it so much!
I first heard Flip Phone Fantasy and thought, “Where the hell did these guys come from?” They make it feel like 2001 all over again!
I just love that they’re putting something new on the table – taking that old-school nu metal influence and really polishing it, making it this fresher, bouncier, more modern sound. I’m really into it.
What can you tell me about The Bearer of Bad News? How was it created?
Well, that song was actually going to come out a little earlier … it came out only two weeks ago. We originally had it planned for October last year, so we’ve been sitting on it for a little bit of time now, but thankfully our previous single, Mr. Magic, sort of expanded our team on the inside a little bit more. So once we started getting in talks with our now-managers, Chris and Josh at Open Door, and they encouraged us to head up the release plan a little bit differently, so we were like, “Hell yeah, let’s do that.” Timing-wise, I think it’s come at the right time, and I think it really taught us a bit of patience, which is always a good thing. It’s never a good thing while you’re waiting, but when you get to the other side, it’s always worthwhile. In terms of the actual song itself, it is a little bit of a creative departure, but also a bit of a natural progression of where we want to be headed. I think the rationale for this song was that there are so many awesome, diverse sounds and soundscapes out there … I guess our mission statement as a band is to try our best to explore them all, or at least those that intrigue us a lot, so we sort of headed down a more cultural route for this one, a little bit more ethnic, in terms of the actual instrumentation used in soundscapes. We also looked to our bassist Miles a lot for inspiration, because he has Thai heritage, so there are Thai lyrics in there. It’s really, really cool. I guess from my perspective as the lyricist and from the vocal side of things, the best two cents that I can put towards it is that it’s one of the last songs that I’ve written that is from an external perspective. It’s more of a storytelling experience rather than digging deep into the personal stuff. So I sort of treated Bearer… as like, “Alright, do what’s comfortable for this one.” Not “comfortable” as in “not pushing the boundaries”, because that song really does push the boundaries, but I kept to what I know, and I did something that I’ve done in the past when it comes to lyric-writing, and I’ve dug from an external place, and built a story in my head. That is because, for our next couple of releases, I’ve made an intentional effort to start writing a bit more introspectively, and a little bit more personally, which has been really difficult, but it’s been a really fun challenge. I’m really glad that with Bearer… we were able to explore these big crazy different worlds before diving into the more personal stuff that’s coming.
How creative were you in high school? Were you a really creative person?
I definitely do gravitate towards more creative industries, as opposed to the more analytical side of things. I mean, I guess for a little bit of context, I’m studying a Bachelors of Secondary Education at uni, and my major is English, so I really do enjoy English. I do pretty well at it, I guess you could say. The whole band has been very English-minded. We did all the creative subjects through high school together – music, drama, all of that fun stuff. So I think the short answer is yes, very creatively-inclined, and not so analytical. But I guess that’s good, because it allows us to explore things. We’re big explorers – that’s what we’re really into! [Laughs]
Can you help me out here? How do you pronounce the band’s name?
It’s “relic-a” … It’s essentially just built off the word “relic”, but we added a “q” because we’re edgy. [Laughs] It’s funny that we’re talking about English and high school and stuff, because the name actually came from when we were all studying the metaphysical poet John Donne in year 11 or so … One of his poems is called The Relique, and he uses that spelling throughout most of his poem … We were, at the time, trying to figure out a name for the band that was still growing and budding into something, we didn’t really know what it was at the time. Yeah, that one just stuck, and we played around with it a little bit, and we were like, “That’s really mad!” There you go, that’s a bit of history for you. It’s pronounced “relica-a.”
You show a lot of vocal range in RELIQA’s music. Who are some of your vocal inspirations?
Oh, that’s a good question.
That’s why I asked it.
[Laughs] One of my top vocal inspirations is actually Myles Kennedy [ALTER BRIDGE] … He’s got this really crisp, clean, anthemic sound that I’ve been striving towards. I really embody that when I practice. I sing a lot of their songs for practice, just jamming in the car and stuff. Myles Kennedy has a fantastic voice. I suppose one of the obvious ones would be Amy Lee from EVANESCENCE, but not as much as people might think. I think that when people hear “female-fronted prog metal”, they sound like EVANESCENCE, but I don’t know. I don’t think we really embody that so much anymore, but I mean, when it comes to growing up and who inspired me as I was first coming into my own as a vocalist, she was definitely up there. Lizzy Hale as well … My vocal inspiration comes from a lot of different places, to the point where I don’t know how many of them are actually women. Courtney LaPlante of SPIRITBOX is doing amazing work right now. She is fantastic. I wouldn’t necessarily call her a vocal inspiration in terms of what I’m trying to embody, because a lot of her work is screams, and I don’t plan to be a screamer in my career. I mean, one day, never say never, but I’m not that interested in getting into it.
Who are you most looking forward to seeing at Full Tilt?
Oh, that’s a good question. I haven’t seen a lot of live music in a long time, so the short answer is “all of them.” Let me think a little bit more though. I’m really excited to see MAKE THEM SUFFER. I saw them at Unify in 2018 – they were excellent. I’m really excited to see them. NORTHLANE, of course. I haven’t seen them live in a long time, and Josh is our manager, so it’ll be really fun to see him do what he does best … HELLIONS were added fairly recently, actually. I’m really excited to see them – again, another artist that I saw at Unify in 2018, also awesome. Fun fact: they were my first crowd-surfing experience, so maybe I’ll do round two for that. We’ll see!
I was checking out NORTHLANE recently. They’re fucking awesome.
Excellent music! Their latest album, Alien … Alien is impeccably good. It is *chef’s kiss*. They are really onto something good, and I hope that they continue that with Obsidian, their upcoming album … There is some awesome stuff on there.
Reliqa play the Full Tilt Festival in January