Tonight is the first date on The "Ocean of Storms" Single Tour, does it feel good to be headlining again after the successful support slots you had this year?

ADAM: Yeah it does actually. We’ve been hanging out to do our own tour for ages, because we have been doing supports we played with Dead Letter Circus, we did their last tour. We did Between the Berried and Me. We haven’t headline since our DVD launch last year so we’ve been amped to do something, so yeah, finally. Bring it on.

Are you going to be playing much new material on this tour?

A: Lots. At least half the set’s new material.

I heard a rumour that the new album is due out early 2011. How far along are you in the recording process?

A: I’ll pass that question onto Dana.

DANA: It’s written. It might get recorded in 2011. That’s really up to (producer) Collin Richardson’s management. They’re trying to secure us some sort of backing, because there’s no way we can afford Collin on an indie budget.

A: Collin Richardson, I don’t know if you know him. He’s a massive producer…

D: He mixed the last Slipknot album and the DVD that has just come out. He’s done Rodrigo y Gabriella, Bullet for my Valentine, Trivium, Machinehead, Fear Factory. He’s done a massive amount of metal, but he’s done other things besides.

A: And he’s keen to work with us and now we’ve got to try to get a record company to back us. That’s where we’re at right now.

D: Not necessarily a record company, but someone. Someone who wants to take a chance on us. 

The new single- “Ocean of Storms” and the demos you have on your myspace seem to be going in a more melodic direction with less focus on the metal elements. Is this indicative of the direction taken on the upcoming album?

D: Those demos that are up there are just the first ones we did. They were the songs Collin’s management thought were the most hooky and catchy and poppy I guess you’d say. Not that they’re pop songs. Well I mean a couple of them are I reckon, but you know. We’ve always had that pop sensibility, but I think we’ve become better songwriters so there’s a bit more of it floating about. Some of the demos we’re working on right now are really heavy. It’s just those ones got done first. The whole album’s not going to be like that. There’s going to be a few more heavy and progressive numbers.

Since the release of your last album “Given To Destroyers” 2006, Sydonia has achieved a lot including supporting Lamb of God, Slipknot and a US tour with Stone Sour. Have those experiences impacted at all on the new material you are writing?

D: Yeah, I would say so. I think everything…

A: Yeah I think everything... We’re both going to say the same thing. Everything in your life impacts on the way you’re going to write your next song. Everything that happens to you influences how you’re feeling as a musician. How you’re feeling at the time is how that piece comes out. It definitely has influenced us, because seeing how these guys do it, how professional and how dedicated those guys are at what they do.  There’s no fucking partying on or getting smashed before the show or any of that shit. Touring with the biggest sort of boys, you sort of know what you’ve got to do. It’s like we’ve got to be like that to get to that sort of level.

Randy Blythe from Lamb of God is a fan of your music and you’ve toured with him and also hung out with him on several occasions. What’s he like as a guy?

A: He’s a legend. Him and Sam our guitarist went camping in the outback. He’s a full survivalist. Really cool guy. When we got the show Dana and I were living in Melbourne, working way out, listening to Sacrament hardcore everyday blasting away going this is fucking awesome. Then Randy emails Dana and goes “Hey, I’ve heard your band, I think you guys are awesome” we’re like “What the fuck!?”

D: He said, I want to see you guys play when I’m out there. He was really cool and we got along really well and then I sort of said hey you know if you want to see us play we can just play just like our heaviest songs and you can put us on the bill when you come out. He said, I’ll see what I can do and next thing you know they made us the support. You know it’s really up to the bands you tour with. It was like with Slipknot and Machinehead. I got a phone call from (Slipknot guitarist) Jim Root at 4am and it was an anonymous call and usually that means it’s my bank, because I’m always behind on my personal loan payments. So I just muted it and went back to sleep and I went, hang on its 4 in the morning so I picked it up and he’s like “Did I wake you?” and he’s backstage at the Mayhem festival in America “Just letting you know that you’ll be the support for Machinehead and Slipknot. Nothing too exiting”. They’re just salt of the earth people man. We’ve been very lucky that those acts who like our music are really nice guys.

It’s good to know that people in bands are actually cool guys…

A: We stayed at his (Jim Root’s) house in Iowa. They lent us all the Slipknot backline when we were on tour with StoneSour. So we were using Slipknot’s boxes and shit because Slipknot weren’t touring at the time, StoneSour were.

You will also be supporting Korn on their upcoming tour in December. How did that come about?

A: Fuck yeah!

D: Our touring agent said would you like to apply for the support, so we said yes…

A: We would love to apply please.  Dude they’re one of my favourite bands, one of my biggest influences, one of the band’s biggest influences...

D: Their first 3 albums were huge for us. It was really different when it came out. Just their sound with the big drop tuning. No one had done it.

  When I saw you support Slipknot in 2008 you brought out several extra drummers on stage and you’re known for incorporating additional percussion into your live show. Where did you get the idea to do this or it just something that happened naturally?

A: It was pretty natural. Started off with Sean and Sam. Sam was playing the percussion part for “Can’t Say No”. It was just a song where he would get off his guitar and we’d just play as a musical three piece with extra percussion and it just sort of went from there. Hey Sammy, how did it happen when all three of us went on percussion?

SAM: Jamming obviously.

A:  Because there were extra drums in the room...

S: It was just all the extra drums. There were songs I didn’t know. I didn’t know how to play “Can’t Say No”...

A: Well there you go. He couldn’t play one of the songs so he played percussion for it and went from there. And it was fucking cool having that extra percussion so then we tried doing three-way percussion with Dana solo at the front and that worked really well.

 “Ocean of Storms” was mixed by Colin Richardson, who has worked with Slipknot, Machine Head, Trivium etc. I guess you already answered this, but do you have any big names lined up for production on the album?

 

D: Hopefully that will be him. If all goes well that will be what happens. And if it does I will jack off a lot...

Any chance that someone from Slipknot or Lamb of God will do a guest appearance?

D: Well there’s one song we’ve written that we’re playing tonight called “Here” and that was co-written by Roy Mayorga who was the drummer in Soulfly and now’s the drummer in StoneSour. His wife is a Melbourne girl so Sean our drummer and him got together last Christmas I think. They had this jam and they sent me this piece and I started writing over it and it’s become this song that we’re really happy with. There’s a demo up on the myspace but when we record that will have Sean and Roy on either side of the stereo field. Two drummers playing it. That’s the idea anyway. That’s one guest appearance and we’re hoping to get Randy to do something spoken word. Something different for him you know. Not just showing up and screaming.

Sydonia has been a band for nearly thirteen years. What would you say is the secret to your longevity and what advice would you give to bans trying to make it in the alternative rock scene?

A: Fucking tell each other how you feel. Have it out. You’ve got to tell each other how you feel. We have almost come to punch-ons, but then as soon as you get to that point, then you go nah, you know what are we doing this for? Tell each other “you upset me because of this” and work it out. That’s it. Simple as that.