“We bumped knobs, turned tuning pegs and out popped a quality track,” Proclivity said of their new single Mania in a new interview with Happy Mag.
There’s a lot to love about progressive metal band Proclivity. For starters, their latest single Mania pairs the noisiest and most enjoyable elements of the genre with incisive social commentary, but even the most introspective of songwriters will tell you that a message is only as good as its replayability.
Thankfully, Mania has that in spades, as Proclivity bandmates Hayden Wright, David May, Ben Tippins, Sol Spilsbury Slee and David Ellis combine their talents for one hell of an earworm.
The feat is doubly impressive given that Mania is merely the Perth band’s debut single, a fact that promises much more stellar material to come. The success of the debut was not without preparation.
Sitting down with Happy Mag for a recent interview, the band revealed that much of Mania’s songwriting required a “more conscious, cerebral process,” and so stands as a worthy culmination of Proclivity’s growth since being a “baby [that’d] been trying to get off the ground for three years.”
With two more singles in the wings — Raindance and Paper Dollhouse — we caught up with Proclivity for a chat about Mania, the Perth music scene, and their forthcoming debut album The Year Without a Summer. Catch out full interview with the band below, and head here to listen to their new single Mania.
HAPPY: What are you up to today?
DAVE ELLIS: Well today is Eurovision Day! So I’m spending the day cooking up a storm for our Eurovision watch party tonight. Avoiding all the socials and hoping someone doesn’t spoil it for me in the meantime – Go Voyager!
SOL S S: Today I am studying for my Bachelors of IT and celebrating my girlfriends 27th birthday in the evening!
BEN TIPPINS: Same as Dave. We had a band Eurovision watch party. I spent the day recovering from partying after our single launch and a friend’s birthday the day after.
HAYDEN WRIGHT: Reorganising my space after a recent whirlwind of creative hyperfixation left it in shambles.
DAVID MAY: Catching up on 2 weeks worth of work admin after our Eurovision watch party!
HAPPY: Where’s home, and what’s the music scene like in your neck of the woods?
DAVE ELLIS: Well, home is now Perth. But I grew up in Sydney, where the music scene is dead (thank you, lockout laws and dodgy developer deals). This project, Proclivity, was my baby that I’d been trying to get off the ground for three years before I moved to Perth – no one wanted to be in a progressive metal band. So when I moved to Perth I put a ‘help wanted’ sign out on facebook, met the guys and the rest is history.
SOL S S: My home is from a farm outside of Busselton, where there basically is no music scene. A lot of performing arts infrastructure has been constructed since I left that small-city-sized retirement village, but I know not whether the music scene has really any foothold there
BEN TIPPINS: I’m from a rural “blink and you’ll miss it” town called Bullsbrook. It’s about an hour out of Perth. I live on a property of native bushland. The music scene for me is in the city and I haven’t experienced a music scene outside that one, so I have nothing to compare it to.
But there is a range of different local original acts across a variety of genres. And it’s always a blessing when a big name tours here. Specifically, the niche metal circle we are in have acts from loud and energetic, to precise and technical.
HAYDEN WRIGHT: Home used to be Geraldton: a small Mid West coastal city with a plethora of beautiful beaches and enough wind to ruin all of them. As for its music scene, well, it has some good cover bands.
The Gero muso I follow the closest is actually my sister – Ashton Orion – who puts so much work into her projects, writing and recording in her home studio, getting mixing and mastering done remotely, directing and editing her videos herself. The kind of person who I think would make waves in Perth.
I myself moved to Perth 8 years ago, and I’ve finally put enough roots down here to make it feel like home. I have mixed feelings about its scene. We have bands of astounding quality, but too many of them are ‘hidden gems’ lost in a sea of interchangeable indie groups and tortured artists.
When I find acts that are different, like Steve Hensby Band or The Brown Study Band, I tend to gravitate towards them. And I sing the praises of acts whose sound I find more memorable; the likes of Palo Alto, Daniel Wiggins Group, and Yalla Yalla come to mind. There are some really good bands in the heavy music space as well, like the wickedly technical Consentium and the batshit crazy Ratking.
And then there’s Kohesia Ensemble, who exemplify the compositional and improvisational talents to be found in Perth’s jazz and world scene.
So there’s some brilliant stuff coming out of this city, and Voyager – who people are finally taking notice of – give you an indication how good it gets. But there’s a debate to be had over whether these bands emerge because of their surrounding culture or in spite of it. Being a musician here is hard. It’s not generally a path to opulence, and the bands who finally achieve success work incredibly hard.
DAVID MAY: Originally I’m from Adelaide, but moved to Perth in 2018, where I live in the beautiful Swan Valley region.
HAPPY: Tell us about your average day.
DAVE ELLIS: I’m a digital marketing manager by day, and a trivia host by night. So lots of spreadsheets, looking at squiggly lines, and then of an evening reading out trivia questions to inebriated people.
SOL S S: My typical day revolves around balancing studying, rehearsing, work, and a social life, I’ve had to give up a lot of my old hobbies (gaming, reading, kickboxing, golf, etc) to better focus on my Bachelors of IT.
BEN TIPPINS: I’m about to finish studying a Bachelor of Electrical Engineering in Electrical Power and Renewable Energy. In the summer I work as a pool lifeguard, and in the winter, a labourer. When I’m not working, or doing music related things, I’m usually trying avoid studying by partying with friends or doing something active like surfing, skateboarding, volleyball, netball, basketball, rock climbing, etc.
HAYDEN WRIGHT: Like a box of chocolates.
DAVID MAY: I own a business doing irrigation and telemetry upgrades to commercial businesses and farms. We come in and replace the aging equipment for state of the art stuff. I also work kitchens on the weekend for Funk Cider.
HAPPY: Tell us about your creative community. Who are some artists or bands that have inspired you?
DAVID ELLIS: Well that’s a long story. I grew up listening to the likes of Steely Dan, Creedence, The Eagles, The Beatles. And then, as most young angsty teens do, discovered heavy music (for me it was Linkin Park).
Afterwards, a good friend of mine Stephen Taranto gave me a copy of Dream Theater’s Train of Thought. That was the moment that I knew prog was for me, and have since grabbed influence from TOOL, Dream Theater, Porcupine Tree, Caligula’s Horse, Voyager, Tesseract – as well as the classics I grew up on.
SOL S S: in early life I was heavily invested with artists like: Alice Cooper, KISS, GNR and AC/DC. I eventually got into Polaris and Slipknot which gave me a love for musical brutality, low tunings and heavy distortion.
Over time I eventually picked up my first six string bass which was my Warwick Corvette, I then got a Darkglass Alpha Omega Ultra. I was mostly screwing around until I came across Jon Stockmans playthrough of Goliath by Karnivool. After listening to that monstrous track, there was no going back, Pandora’s box of prog had been opened.
Ever since, Karnivool has been my biggest inspiration for my playing in Proclivity, but I also have new ones, like: Tesseract, Periphery, Bad Omens, Loathe, Sleep Token, Spiritbox, Wheel, Northlane, VOLA, Dayseeker, Time The Valuator, and ten56.
BEN TIPPINS: I had a pretty limited exposure to music growing up. Not really actively having my own taste in music. During my mid teens was when I first started getting an interest in music and developing my own taste.
Then in my late teens and early twenties I got into the Foo Fighters and later Iron Maiden, Boston, Powderfinger, and Radiohead which are my favourite bands. But joining Proclivity has been an education. I’ve discovered and gotten into TOOL, Dream Theater, Karnivool, COG, Porcupine Tree and many others.
DAVID MAY: I have a very eclectic taste in music, I grew up playing in jazz and funk bands at school eventually moving into the heavier stuff. Prog really hit the spot for me, with COG and Tool being my two all time favourites, My usual playlist is scattered with all sorts of genres
HAPPY: Frontman Hayden Wright mentioned that Proclivity aims to give people an earworm with their music. How did you approach creating that memorable and infectious quality in your new single, “Mania”?
DAVID ELLIS: We figure that a song is best when there’s no more to take away. We constantly ask ourselves two questions – what are the audience going to remember, and what do we want in the song? So for us, the melodies and the melody lines in the song are paramount for our sound. We don’t shy away from pop sensibilities!
SOL S S: Idk we bumped knobs, turned tuning pegs and wacked some shit and out popped a quality track!
HAYDEN WRIGHT: When Dave sent me that instrumental, I basically listened to it ad nauseam until I conjured up some key melodies and phrases that I could remember without recording them or writing them down. These ended up forming the words and vocal melodies of the chorus. After that, writing the rest of the song was a much more conscious, cerebral process – especially the lyrically dense passages – but the chorus came together pretty effortlessly.
I think creativity generally requires a mix of both approaches to keep it flowing. If it’s always deliberate and focused, it can become bogged down and toilsome, but if you just rely on sporadic inspiration, it becomes unguided and nothing ever gets finished.
HAPPY: The announcement of your forthcoming singles, “Raindance” and “Paper Dollhouse,” has created anticipation for your upcoming album. Can you give us any hints or insights into what listeners can expect from these tracks?
DAVID ELLIS: Yes! Paper Dollhouse is a bit of a left-turn. We worked very closely with Templeman on this track, simply because we all had differing ideas on where it should do. I wanted orchestras, and strings – Hayden wanted downbeat guitars and piano a-la Space-dye Vest.
Ben wanted a stripped down piano and vocals version. And Templeman took it in a completely different direction. As for Raindance… this is going to be the big one. It’s about seven minutes long, it’s got all the hallmarks of a Proclivity track – but was one we took the chains off a bit in the studio.
BEN TIPPINS: Something different. Mania represents one side of our music. Paper Dollhouse is starkly different and represents the other side of our music instrumentally, while still being Proclivity in style and flavour. The third track, Raindance, is a blend of the two which results in something grand & epic, catchy & memorable, and quintessentially, Proclivity.
SOL S S: More of everything! Expect to hear some more quality prog ranging from the rocky ones like MANIA, to synthy numbers from VOLA and Northlane, to the melodies of Karnivool and the technicality of Tesseract. We have a lot to offer and we plan on dishing up one helluva meal!
HAPPY: Can you share any additional details or highlights about the upcoming album, “The Year Without a Summer,” that fans should be excited about?
DAVID ELLIS: This is one for the prog fans. The title track is going to be about 25 minutes long, split across two songs. So it’s going to be an absolute epic of ginormous proportions!
BEN TIPPINS: It may be a while before the full album releases. But we are saving a few ripper releases for that final full album release. Specifically, my favourite, a 15 minute epic to close out the album.
HAPPY: What makes you happy?
DAVID ELLIS: Honestly, and i know it’s cliche, but music. Being able to be fortunate enough to play my own music to people is something that i’ve looked forward to for a long time, so being on stage and seeing reactions to what we are doing, and the fans becoming more involved.
BEN TIPPINS: Practicing, creating, discovering, performing and recording music with my band mates.
SOL S S: Living my life, it’s all I want to do!
HAYDEN WRIGHT: Passionate people. Immersive fiction. Animals. Comedy. Doing meaningful work. Exploring music. Learning, creating, and then sharing that knowledge and those fruits of my labour with people who are interested.
DAVID MAY: Coming home to my beautiful partner, my 4 cats and Star Trek on Netflix. But I’m really happy anytime I’m behind the drums. That’s my real happy place.