Exclusive Interview: Banished Realm talk writing and recording “Impious Rumination”!

The second part of a creature double feature of interviews with Perth Western Australians Banished Realm can only mean one thing. A discussion about writing, recording and gear that goes on long into the night, best enjoyed around a fire pit with a bottle of Wild Turkey. A Death Doom act of seasoned musicians who muse on Dark Folklore, Miltonian and Impiety, their debut EP “Impious Rumination” is soon to be followed by a debut album that will burn the village down…

How did your previous experiences writing and recording help to smooth the path of the new record? “Writing wise was pretty normal in the sense that the guitarists would get together to write and brainstorm riffs to then bring to each rehearsal for dissection or composing together to form the songs with everyone involved. Recording was a new and different experience for some of us in the band having previously recording live takes, whereas in this instance the recording was tracked individually which gave us a little bit of freedom to add extra layers of atmosphere and depth to the songs”

How does the writing process of a new track start? Melody, riff or rhythm first? How does it evolve from there before you consider it the finished article? “It could be either one of those really. Half the battle of writing our material is not so much having to write song parts themselves but what to do with them all and how they can gel with each other without sounding too ‘cut and paste’. One of our aims with our songs is to take the listener on a journey sonically through ebbs and flows, that way melodic parts feel more epic, riff-y parts feel more vicious and heavy parts feel more crushing”

What was it like recording with Cameron Murphy at Vision Studios and Opaque Studio? What made you choose him for the purpose and how do you feel about the end result? “Working with Cam & Opaque is always a good time, we’ve worked with him on some of our other bands’ releases and he approaches the whole process with a more organic style which translates into the recordings sounding more authentic, less artificial/over-produced but not too raw to the point of being unlistenable or sounding like the recording was done in an aluminium outhouse (not slagging off these types of recording styles, each to their own and sometimes the music suits it, but its just not relevant to this band)”

If you had the opportunity to work with a guest in the studio next time around, who would you like to work with and why? “It would be awesome to include some of our friends who play in other bands and who have supported us on future release so if the opportunity arises and there’s a part of the song that could they could put their stamp on and add an extra layer to it then we’ll probably do it!”

For us gear nerds out there, can you tell us what you’re using gear wise (pedals, strings, drums etc) to get your sound?

“Shaun (Drums):

Tama Star Classic 2005 – Japanese Made Birch 7 Piece Kit: 8″, 10″, 12″ Mounted Toms, 14″ x 5″ Snare, 14″ and 16″ Floor Toms and 22″ x 18″ Kick.

Meinl cymbals: 16″ Byzance China, 14″ Byzance Fast Hats, 18″ Byzance Dark Crash, 10″ Sound Custom Splash, 18″ Sound Custom Trash Crash, 10″ Byzance Splash, 18″ Byzance Medium-Heavy Crash, 12″ Byzance MB20 Splash, 20″ Byzance MB20 Mega-Bell Ride, 20″ Byzance Dark Thin Crash, 18″ Byzance MB20 Rock China, 20″ Byzance MB20 Crash.

Big Foot 1V Pro Double Kick Pedals

Griffo (Guitar & Vocals):

Ibanez Iron Label Xiphos XPTB720 with Tremol-No

12-80 Strings

Boss MS-3, Jim Dunlop DVP5, TC Electronic Polytune 3, Old Blood Noise Endeavors Visitor, Source Audio Collider, Fortin Zuul+, MXR Carbon Copy Mini, TC Electronic Infinite Mini, Boss VE-20

Peavey 5150mkii

Jared (Bass):

Warwick Corvette 5

50-135 Strings 

Darkglass Alpha Omega Bass, Way Huge Pork & Pickle, EarthQuaker Devices Transmisser, Wampler Ego Mini, Boss TU-3

Mesa Boogie Big Block 750

Leigh (Guitar):

Schechter Blackjack SLS V-7 FR

10-56 Strings 

Ibanez Tube Screamer Mini, Korg Pitchblack, T-Rex Tonebug Chorus / Flanger, TC Electronic Sentry, Digitech RV-7, Morley Maverick

Blackstar Series One 100″

What difference would it make to you if you could land an endorsement from a gear manufacturer? “It probably would save us money from constantly buying new gear since half of us suffer severe cases of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome for those unfamiliar with the acronym) hahaha.”

“Impious Rumination” by Banished Realm was released on 28th July 2023 and is available over at bandcamp.