In the world of New Zealand hardcore, Antagonist A.D. are one of the more passionate and persistent bands in the scene today.
Following on from their last album 'Nothing From No One', the Auckland five-piece are set to release their new album, 'Haunt Me As I Roam'. For vocalist Sam Crocker, the record was a challenging experience. “It was hard. It was torture,” he says. “Never have I written lyrics that are so revealing and confronting to myself. Every hour recording was an hour facing my demons and re-living loss in every emotional sense of the word.
“Topics I deemed too personal have been covered on 'Haunt Me As I Roam'. This band is and forever shall be a cathartic release for me,” explains Sam. “It's where I can be empowered by the music to get through anything. I'd like to think this new record will help a lot of people connect with issues they perhaps were just struggling with on their own.”
When asked if he considers this to be Antagonist A.D's breakthrough album, Sam says, “I think that we've added a lot more dynamics and contrast. We've really evolved as song writers and we've been writing songs for a long time now and it's finally coming together now. We've learned what we should be learning and we've stepped off from our previous album, 'Nothing From No One', and added a little bit more melody and contrast. I listen to our old stuff a lot, but we've been sitting on this new album for almost a year and we're still listening to the songs and not getting sick of them.”
For 'Haunt Me As I Roam', Antagonist A.D solicited the services of producer and engineer Will Putney whose credits include Northlane, The Acacia Strain and the Amity Affliction. “We've wanted to work with Will since forever. So the fact that he had time for us, and he was really excited about it was great and everything he offered for the album was very good. All the ideas he had for the album, we were like, 'yes, of course, why didn’t we think of that?!'”
When it comes to the origins of the name of Antagonist A.D, Sam explains that it was a tribute to one of their own favourite bands. “There's a band called Maroon and they had an album called 'Antagonist' and they were kind of heroes of ours. They were quite relevant and everything they talked about was kind of political or social,” explains Sam. “There's also a band from the United States of the same name so we added the A.D prior to touring there so we wouldn't get confused with them. A.D is also a reference to mid-'90s hardcore bands and the metalcore bands that we all listened to.”
The band has been touring extensively since last year, including a slot at Unify, a two-day heavy music festival held in Gippsland, Victoria, in January of this year. “I think the biggest highlight was playing at Unify, just seeing all of that hard work from everyone involved coming together and seeing all of our friends bands play and all being well received. It was immaculate.”
Having not had much of an opportunity to play the new songs from 'Haunt Me As I Roam', the band is keen to get back out on the road to give them the proper showing that they deserve. “We had basically been sitting on this new album so we only played one song off it. We wish we'd have had the album out by now and played new songs, playing a few songs off the new album would've lent themselves to that tour and maybe reinforce our opinions of our own song writing,” explains Sam. “We were thinking of doing some things in spring this year. So we will be going to New Zealand later in the year and from there we will be going to Europe, so hopefully when our album comes out we'll be keeping busy.”
When it comes to Antagonist A.D's tour rider, there's no bizarre or extravagant requests for Bob Hope impersonators (as featured in Iggy Pop's rider) or 20 white kittens and 100 doves (as requested by Mariah Carey). Instead, the band likes to keep things fairly simple. “We don't have anything too weird. Although there's the ginger, like a ginger root. Some of the delinquents will have a bunch of alcohol but then there's my pineapple juice for my throat. So there will be some whiskey and cider and a little bottle of pineapple juice. There's no potato or avocado on our rider at all so I've definitely dropped the ball there,” laughs Sam.
'Haunt Me As I Roam' is out 27 March. Antagonist A.D tour with Deez Nuts in June.
Antagonist A.D Tour Dates
Thurs 4 June – The Brightside (Brisbane)Fri 5 June – The Bald Faced Stag (Sydney)
Sat 6 June – Red Rattler (Sydney)
Sun 7 June – Magpies (Canberra)
Tues 9 June – HQ (Perth)
Wed 10 June – Amplifier Bar (Perth)
Thurs 11 June – Fowlers Live (Adelaide)
Fri 12 June – Arrows (Melbourne)
Sat 13 June – Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
