Norwegian prog powerhouse Leprous make their way to Australia in 2018.
The band have most recently been on a UK and European tour in support of their fifth studio album 'Malina', which was released in August.
Vocalist and composer Einar Solberg says the new album is their most “emotionally versatile” yet.
“Music is more about emotions than about genres.”
“Especially with some songs like 'Bonneville' and 'The Last Milestone', they're songs that are about really hard stuff that either I or people around me have experienced,” Einar explains.
“It's the first time I've ever written something on such a personal level that at the same time I don't really want people to know what it's about either because it's my private life, so I'm writing just with metaphors most of the time.”
'Malina' is a very different album in comparison to previous releases such as 'The Congregation' [2015] or 'Coal' [2013], lacking any harsh, guttural vocals and taking more of an alternative-rock approach to the sound.
Although Einar avoids being dragged into extended conversation about the specifics of genre, he remarks that their writing is based in emotion rather than style.
“For me music is more about emotions than about genres,” he says, “and a lot of bands that have a lot of different genres can still be very relatable emotionally. For us it's mostly the emotions we present more than it is about the genre we belong in.”
When Leprous come to Australia for ProgFest (east coast festival tour) next year, Einar says he is looking forward to discovering more about the local prog scenes in Australia, which he says is lacking in his home country. “We are very much looking forward to ProgFest,” he says.
“It will be the first time we ever play a festival in Australia and that's going to be a very interesting experience.
"It's going to be very cool to see how the prog scene is over there; it does seem that you have a scene over there and that's more than I can say about Norway at the moment; we have a lot of prog bands but not really a scene, you know.”
For ProgFest, Leprous will be joined by Australian acts such as Alithia (who supported the band on their UK/ Europe shows) and long-time friends of Leprous, Voyager.
They will also be playing two sideshows in Perth and Adelaide, with no shows being alike. “All the shows will be different,” Einar says.
“We'll do different setlists every night and for all the different shows on the tour, so every show is going to be different from the other ones.
“It's something we started doing on this tour and it was a big success. It was a lot to prepare for it, but once we were there it kept everything much more exciting for us, for the crew and for the fans – maybe even more for them.
"It was a really great experience to work like that and do different shows every night.”
Leprous Tour Dates
Fri 19 Jan - Badlands Bar (Perth)Sat 20 Jan - ProgFest @ The Factory Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 21 Jan - ProgFest @ The Triffid (Brisbane)
Thu 25 Jan - Jive (Adelaide)
Sat 27 Jan - ProgFest @ The Corner Hotel (Melbourne)
