American progressive metallers Between The Buried And Me will play their acclaimed 2012 record, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, in full this Friday, November 22, at Amplifier Bar. JESSICA WILLOUGHBY catches up with bassist, Dan Briggs.
Dan Briggs, bassist for Between The Buried And Me, could be mistaken for being the quiet one in the dynamic outfit. But he is actually a wunderkind.
Joining the band just in time for Alaska in 2005, the stringsman was 20-years-old. So it was hard to believe he had earned his way into this progressive band – until you hear his back-story.
So what was it like to be so young and play a major part in Between The Buried And Me’s launch to success? “It was cool,” he says.
“I’ve been in bands since I was 12. They were all local bands and I had done a small number of out-of-town shows. I was in college at the time studying upright bass, like classical curriculum. I was just a huge Dream Theater fan and I was writing stuff that was more progressive rock.
“I was a fan of Between The Buried And Me big-time and Tommy (Giles Rogers; vocals) and Paul’s (Waggoner; guitarist) old band Prayer For Cleansing. We had been friends for years and I remember always having loved the band and always feeling like there was a small progressive rock element in their music, sometimes, every now and then.
“But I always thought there should be more. My contributions to Alaska I felt were pretty blatant and then carried over to Colors. I think it kind of helped inspire Paul to step outside the box a little bit more. He always likes to hear something crazy or weird, but he also writes the more straight-forward things. I think he even surprises himself sometimes.”
Visiting Australian shores this month off the back of their latest effort, The Parallax II: Future Sequence, the band decided to do something a little different by giving fans the chance to hear the album in full. Widely considered as one of their most interesting and popular releases to date, their sixth full-length was also their first foray into the conceptual realm.
Building on an idea that came from the 2011 EP, The Parallax: Hypersleep Dialogues, Briggs points to the band wanting to recapture some of their energy felt on their Colours (2007) release. “When we did the EP, it was like fighting each other, people leaving the room and needing space,” he says. “We were just trying to force things to work because we had just been on tour for nine months straight and coming into that session was tough. It was probably the toughest writing we had done since Alaska, whereas with Colors, The Great Misdirect (2009) and The Parallax II, we just came in with so much creative energy.
“I don’t get a good conceptual sense out of the EP. I really think it was just trying to do something out of very little. We didn’t have time that whole year to be home and write and work on stuff or advance as musicians. With The Parallax II, it was really a focus on doing what was best for the song, and ultimately the record. There wasn’t really a feeling like there might have been in the past like, ‘I don’t think that’s best for the song’.
“We didn’t hit those moments very often — maybe like two times in the whole record. The good vibe is just there on this record.”
Between The Buried And Me play Amplifier Bar this Friday, November 22.
Get your tickets here.
