Taken from Interview with Benny Doyle of Time Off! magazine, published January 16, 2013. Read it in hard copy from street vendors or digitally here:
Local lads The Fevered are back in the public psyche thanks to their latest EP Blackout. The uncompromising results, crafted from months of hard toil, are sonically hard-hitting and the lyrical themes equally as strong, Cook using the recording as a platform to release some inner demons while shining a light on society’s general fuckups.
“The title of the record, Blackout, is basically in reference to a point where I actually blacked out,” he reveals. “A few years ago I went through a big run of depression and dealing with a lot of different issues around that, and it was a big point of my life that I never really acknowledged inside, so I thought, ‘screw it, I’ll just put it in the music and maybe there’s some things in there that people can identify with’.
“There are certain things I’ve picked out, like Aurora is a metaphor for my contempt of the outside world – humans at large. More about the Chernobyl incident and the way things were covered up; it’s just saying that no matter how far people progress there’s always going to be some sort of failure, and that was also a reflection of my internal struggle. But there are a lot of other things that tie into that core theme.”
The six-track release marks the first recording since the microphone baton was passed to Cook following the departure of former vocalist Josh Robinson, and the new singer admits that the experience so far has been a musical turning point.
“I’ve never really been a vocalist as such – I did do vocals in another band but it was never anything that I took seriously, I’ve always been a drummer and doing studio work and stuff,” he informs. “So this is just a way for me to get a lot of stuff off my chest, wrapped in metaphor and that kind of stuff, to not make it so obvious or sad sounding. But there were a few things that I thought I needed to say and that’s what came out.”
Blackout slams together hardcore and ‘80s Swedish death, the end result a fast rush charged with metallic thrills, designed to bludgeon with no apologies. And people are taking some serious notice – their upcoming Converge support slot attesting to this – but Cook is still developing, signalling, scarily enough, that things will only get tighter.
“I think the first time I played I downed about a litre-and-a-half of Jack Daniels before the show, so that was interesting,” he chuckles. “But I’ve definitely come into a comfort zone of sorts, where I’ve found how to use my voice the best and get the songs out live. The other guys in the band have all been playing together for a long time and they obviously know how their show goes, so finding a way to add more to that has been a bit of a long road but lately we’ve been nailing it, which is good.”
And if The Fevered’s plans for 2013 are anything to go by, the wrecking ball will continue to swing. “The full-length is definitely going to happen, that’s not going to be questionable,” Cook states. “We’re actually working on a split at the moment with a European band called Komatose, so we’re going to nut out a couple of songs for that because that will be a good opportunity for us to get our name big again [over there]. Then we’re going to work on the [album] – we’ve got a rough idea on what we want from it so it’s just a matter of getting it done.”
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