Interview with Oceans Ate Alaska drummer Chris Turner and vocalist Jake Noakes | By Nicholas Senior
U.K.-based progressive metalcore band Oceans Ate Alaska have always had a sound vaguely reminiscent of rushing water. Their impressive 2015 debut, Lost Isles, was chock-full of choppy riffs and rapid tempo shifts resembling the raging Atlantic Ocean: all aggressive waves and imposing undercurrent. Now, with their wonderful sophomore record, the group—including new vocalist Jake Noakes—harness the full expanse of the Pacific. Sure, Hikari—out now via Fearless Records—is every bit as heavy as its predecessor, but it also finds the band embracing Eastern and Western ideas and instruments to create something far more unique and striking.
Hikari flows together beautifully, and drummer Chris Turner states that this was the result of accident and purpose colliding. “Honestly, we never set out to be different,” he says. “We never thought, ‘Let’s deliberately do something and try to surprise everyone.’ It wasn’t forced in the slightest. It kinda happened in the most natural way possible. I love Bonobo; he’s a U.K. producer who does electronic hip hop stuff. I’d just been jamming his new record a lot, and I wanted to try something new.”
“So, I got hold of a Japanese instrument called a koto and made a sample bank,” he continues. “I made a little piece, which ended up being ‘Veridical,’ and we tried to put an Oceans Ate Alaska riff over it. We didn’t expect it to work, because it’s like there are three polar opposites going on—if there are three polar opposites [laughs]—traditional Japanese instruments with hip hop and with metal. Once we heard the final product, it was in that moment where we all said, ‘We have to do this. No one’s ever done this before, so let’s make it our thing.’ There wasn’t exactly a fascination with Japan or anything that started it off. It was just that we fell in love with the sound, and we just rolled with it.”
That layering adds depth to the band’s sonic ocean. Another piece of the puzzle is how expertly the vocals serve as an instrument, rather than a separate element above the music. Noakes says this was something he and Turner worked hard to get right. “Yeah, that was always the plan,” he shares. “I worked mostly with Chris on patterning and vocal methods to make it fit in with the music instead of feeling like vocals on top of the music. When I joined, most of the record was written, musically. It was a kind of a nice situation to be in, because I had a lot of free rein to move in with the songs. It was good fun.”
“I so agree with Jake,” Turner adds. “This [record] was the whole piece together—it was definitely meant to be a piece of art from start to finish. Jake and I have been very good friends for a long time now—maybe seven or eight years, I think—and we work really well together. On this record, we worked really closely together on everything, even the sounds of the syllables in each word. Like, if it didn’t sound good because there were too many syllables, we ended up tweaking some of the lyrics. We really wanted it to sound perfect together.”
Noakes’ vocals do have a soulful quality, especially in how rhythmic they are. Hikari feels like a wave washing over the listener. This comes down to how carefully the band worked to make a natural-sounding record. “The production on Lost Isles was very metal,” Turner mentions. “It was all triggered drums, very electronic. For this, when we came up with the theme of the Japanese instruments and whatnot, I said, ‘We already do everything naturally, we don’t use triggers or anything like that.’ I’m all about sounding natural and organic, so we just thought, ‘It’s our thing. Let’s run with it.’ On the new album, not only are all the Japanese instruments real audio, but the drums are 100 percent real. There’s no sample replacement; there’s not even sample backing. They are all live drums. There’s no MIDI at all on the album, so it’s all real. To achieve punchy metal tones that still have clarity and still sound heavy while still being real was what we were going for.”
This emphasis on embracing what you want to be plays into the themes of the record, as well as the album’s cover art. “The art and the album title are very closely linked,” Turner reveals. “Hikari translates to ‘light,’ which is incredibly representative of the band’s current state of mind. This album is a milestone for us; this is the happiest the band has ever been, and light is the only summary for it, really. The album art is very closely linked to that. A little bit about lotus flowers: the flowers themselves are very beautiful, very pure, but they can only grow from disgusting mud; filthy dirt is the only way it can grow. Especially with the album and the flower being Japanese, it was very easy to put the two together for us.”
“The main moral behind this,” he elaborates, “is whatever cards you’re dealt, you can always come through. You can make your own future; you can make yourself happy. If you look beneath the lotus flower [on the cover], there is origami paper unfolded in the dirt. That represents the sheep who just get by and don’t want to do anything for themselves. We’re saying we were one of these people, and maybe we even got dealt some bad cards in the dirt, but we knew what we wanted to do and pushed through, molding ourselves into this beautiful lotus flower—or so we hope people think,” he laughs.
Noakes agrees, “What we really wanted to focus on was positivity, because it’s really easy to write about negative things, but writing songs about positivity—especially in metal—is quite difficult, we found. With the album being called Hikari, meaning ‘light,’ it’s something we wanted to come across.”
Heavy Metal Speed Dating: Getting to Know New Vocalist Jake Noakes!
When we first meet someone new, that initial wave of discovery is exhilarating. Despite his outstanding international coming-out party in the form of the excellent new album, Hikari, very few people in the States really know who Ocean Ate Alaska’s newest vocalist is. What makes him tick (tea, naturally)? Is he a role model for kids (perhaps)? Has he lost friends due to disagreements over Will Ferrell movies (allegedly)? We’ll never know (unless you scroll down).
We fired up the international calling machine (New Noise is not sponsored by any calling apps—yet), thought about making tea (but threw it in Boston Harbor instead—too soon?), and decided to learn more about Mr. Jake Noakes.
What is your favorite morning and evening beverage?
In the morning, a cup of nice breakfast tea. In the evening—do you have Crabbie’s [alcoholic ginger beer] over there? I love a Crabbie’s. It’s great when we have nice weather—which is never in the U.K. [Laughs]
What was the last album you listened to all the way through?
Ooo, I have to think about that. Aside from our album [laughs], I’ve got Periphery’s Juggernaut: Alpha + Omega, and I’ve been jamming that a lot lately.
When you’re on tour, what can you not live without?
Baby wipes, because sometimes, you just can’t get to a shower.
What did you do before joining Oceans Ate Alaska?
Yeah, I was in a band called Faultlines. I was just kind of finding myself [as an artist]. I was just doing screaming in that band, and I really enjoyed working with those guys and girl—Christina Rotondo is so talented—but I got this opportunity with Oceans. Since then, it’s made me push myself. It’s like Gillette: the best a man can get.
Are you sponsored by that shaving company?
No, but I do wish we were, because my facial hair at the moment is very poor. Literally, I can’t shave, because if I do, I look like I’m about 16. If I don’t shave, I look like I’m 16, but with awful facial hair. [Laughs]
Do you prefer to sing or scream?
That’s a tough one. I enjoy doing both. I love the energy when you can really scream live. It allows you to move about more, but I love the emotion of singing.
So, you don’t want to abandon your vocal balance? You don’t want to go the route of a lot of prog bands who smoke a lot of weed and leave metal behind?
Oh no, we’re going to stay rooted to what the band started as. At the end of the day, we’re a heavy band. Those softer songs [on Hikari] were for contrast. The only pot we smoke is the tea pot. We don’t smoke it; we just put tea in it and then drink it.
Don’t do drugs, kids. Drink tea.
It’s what we live by, honestly. [Laughs]
What kind of tea do you prefer?
Yorkshire Gold. I mean, if they could sponsor us, that would be like Christmas every day. For me, on tour, I love lemon and ginger and, if I can, some fresh lemon and honey. I think all of us would agree that Yorkshire Gold is greater than life.
I don’t know that we have that in the States.
You can order it off Amazon. When we were out in Detroit recording the album, we introduced it to one of the guys working it, and he spent an obscene amount on ordering Yorkshire Gold from the U.K. It’s crazy, but the sheer quality speaks for itself.
How do you prefer to unwind: books, movies, or TV shows?
Definitely movies. Especially when you come off tour, you can’t beat just coming home, chilling out, and putting on Netflix.
What are some of your favorite movies?
Apparently, it’s controversial, but we all love “Step Brothers” and Will Ferrell movies in general; we absolutely adore him. I mean, I’m surprised by the amount of people I’ve said that to, and they’ve gone, “We can’t stand ‘Step Brothers,’” and I’ve quickly de-friended them. [Laughs]
In light of Hikari’s optimistic tone, would you say you’re an optimistic person—or not so much?
I’m super, super optimistic about everything—probably too much so. The way I grew up, and especially going through my teenage years, you learn to not dwell on the negatives and to look for that silver lining. Everything always gets better.
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