FAULT Magazine Photoshoot and Interview With Drax Project
Ben: Jacket – Soulland | Top – Soulland | Trouser – Topman | Shoes – Novesta
Sam: Jacket – Dickies | Top – Topman | Trouser – Lee Jeans | Shoes – Vans
Matt: Hoodie – American Vintage| Top – Wood Wood| Trouser – Harmano| Shoes – Vans
You’ve toured all over Europe now, which city has been the best?
Matt – “For me, I’d say the best city was…and this is so tough, but probably Paris. I don’t even know why.”
Sam – “I’d have to be the odd one out and say Berlin. I just enjoyed it there, was a good time.”
What’s been your best experience on stage?
Matt – “Our best experience on stage would probably be opening for Ed Sheeran which was pretty special. It was the first time we’d seen that many people in one place, it was about 45,000 people. Just seeing people connect the dots, like ‘I’ve heard this song ‘Woke Up Late’ on the radio’ and now they’re connected with us and singing the lyrics back to us. It was a pretty special moment.”
Ben – “When we played in Berlin, opening for Camila, everyone got their phone lights out during our song ‘Preferred’ and were waving their phones around – that was incredible. We didn’t even ask them, the crowd
just started doing it. It was amazing.”
What’s been the worst experience on stage?Ben – “The worst experience personally that I’ve had on stage was when we were playing Amsterdam, opening for Camila. When we cover ‘Pony’ I play a guitar solo, and I have to turn off one of my guitar pedals. I stepped on it too hard, and it pulled the power cord out of the pedal which totally killed the whole signal. Shaan had just been like ‘give it up for Ben on guitar’ and I started playing and there was no sound coming out. But I wasn’t sure if it was just me who couldn’t hear it, or if there was a problem so I just kept playing. I learnt after I finished the solo that there was no sound.”
Matt – “And that’s the best he’s ever sounded.”
You collaborate with Liza Koshy in your video for ‘Woke Up Late’ – how did that come about?
Matt – “Liza was at the top of our wish list to be in the video for ‘Woke Up Late’, and she was as enthusiastic as we were. I think it was the first music video she’d ever done, because she was saying the whole time ‘I’m so glad I’m finally doing a music video, I love the song’. Her energy was just perfect for it, bubbling away, constantly dancing and so much energy. It was the perfect fit, the stars aligned, and we couldn’t be happier. She’s an angel.”
When you close your eyes, and envision your future in the music industry – what do you see?
Ben – “In an ideal world, we’ll still be doing what we’re doing – just with more people listening to our music, and more people coming to our shows.”
Sam – “It’s hard to predict because the music industry is changing so quickly. Right now, in comparison to 10 years ago, it’s completely different. Even 5 years ago. At the end of the day live shows are where we thrive, and what we love doing. We just want to keep playing shows.”
What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
Matt – “We have an album coming out this year, we’re very very close to finishing that. It’s our debut album, and it’s the best music we’ve ever written. We’re super excited to get that out. We will definitely be doing a whole bunch of shows, a few back home in New Zealand. The main focus is getting the album finished and coming back to the UK to play shows!”
Tell us more about your track ‘All This Time’?
Ben – “‘All This Time’ is a song we’ve been playing live for about 2 years now, and it’s always a crowd favourite when we play it. We’ve been trying…all this time…to get it to sound perfect in the studio, because it’s such a large song when we play it live, with so much energy and we had so much trouble trying to translate that energy into the studio. We finally done it, we met the right people in LA to get it to the point where it is now, and we couldn’t be more excited.”
Matt – “It feels like a huge relief because there was a time when we thought we’d never release it. We just couldn’t get that song to translate properly. But now we’ve done it with the help of some great producers, Rogét Chahayed (Travis Scott –“Sicko Mode,” Halsey– “Bad At Love”). We’re very relieved to have it out.”
What is your fault?
Sam – “We’re absolute perfectionists. As far as our music goes, sometimes it can be a slow process at points. But it can be a real benefit because it produces the best product from us.”
Ben – “It can take so long for us to come to an agreement because at the end of the day we all try to please everyone in the band. But because we all have different tastes, and we all just want to get it right it can take longer.”
Matt – “As we said, ‘All This Time’ has been 2 years in the making…”