Windwaker’s evolution: A conversation with vocalist Liam Guinane

Shattering all restraint, Windwaker continue to tear at the seams of sonic boundaries, refining their craft into something uniquely their own. With each release, this charismatic quintet moves towards exciting new territory, concocting an unsuspecting blend of electro-charged violence, slick riffage, bouncing hip-hop rhythms, and sickly-sweet pop hooks. Their latest masterpiece, Hyperviolence (2024), marks a triumphant evolution, showcasing a potent mix of metalcore, EDM, hyper-pop, hardcore, and alternative rock that pushes the confines of modern heavy music. Ahead of their upcoming Hyperviolence tour and Perth date at Amplifier on Saturday, February 8, ANDY “ANDO” JONES sat down with frontman Liam Guinane to dive deeper into Windwaker’s sonic evolution, the creative process behind Hyperviolence, and the emotional themes that define their boldest work yet.

Liam, thank you so much for chatting with X-Press Magazine. It’s a pleasure and a privilege to share this moment with you, man. First up, congratulations on the release of Hyperviolence. It’s a massive leap forward for Windwaker and an absolute masterpiece, in my humble opinion. How would you describe the evolution of your musical identity from previous releases to this album?

Wow, thank you! I think this phase of Windwaker is now finally finding itself with the release of Hyperviolence and moving forward. I think we’ve always been trying to experiment and find what our voice is in the grander scheme of metal and alternative music. But this time it’s been a new dynamic, with me coming back into the band and the inclusion of Connor Robins (keyboards, synthesisers, samples).

There’s history there, but this was really us getting to know each other again, post-pandemic, and us entering our late twenties into our thirties. So, we’re getting more mature and more focused with what we want to do and what we want to say.

Yeah, it’s awesome, because you guys were putting out EPs, then Love Language (2022) came along, which was a full-length record, and now Hyperviolence, which has raised the bar. It’s bloody incredible!

Thank you very much. That’s so kind of you.

It feels like the band moved from a guitar-driven sound to a more balanced mix where all the elements of the band shine while finding their own space to breathe. Do you reckon you could share some info on how your songwriting process has evolved?

Yeah, absolutely. I usually like to talk about this from the Empire (2019) EP to now. Because I feel that Empire was a pivotal moment for us as well. I mean, each release has been pivotal in our development and honing in on what we are. When we were writing Empire in 2018 into 2019, we wanted to focus a little bit more on the metalcore sounds. That was what we were very interested in at the time, and we looked up to a lot of bands with that sound at that time.

It was primarily myself and Chris Lalic (drums, percussion, electronic elements), who were creating the skeletons of the tracks, and then we’d have our old vocalist, Will, bring in his influences. We had Jesse Crofts (rhythm and lead guitar) as well, who was able to insert his style, but that evolved even more once I had taken a step back from the band. That allowed Jesse to become a bit more of a primary songwriter. What’s cool about going from Empire into Love Language was that a lot of those electronic influences were still there in Empire through my contributions to the songwriting, the programming, and the arrangements of the songs.

But then, when I wasn’t there, it forced other members to learn and develop those skills as well. So, on Love Language, I know Chris took a big chunk of that weight by including those electronic elements. I think that reflected his listening habits as well. He loves pop music! He’s really passionate about making great pop music and catchy choruses, and I think that’s reflected in the production a little bit with what he listens to. You know, I know he loves K-pop, and I’m sure he loves me telling the world that he loves K-pop! But he also loves country music as well, and I think that’s also found its way into Hyperviolence.

I’ll chronologically retell this. Jesse became a bit more of a primary songwriter during Love Language. With that balance of the electronica and shreddy, more extreme forms of metal going hand in hand. Also, Will as well, between Empire and the writing of Love Language. He and I were bonding over hip-hop, and he was starting to get into those sorts of styles as well, which is where you start to hear those rap and R&B influences, and then we get to that shift into a new line-up.

Again, at the start of Hyperviolence, we felt this sense of uncertainty of what the band was, because a lot of it had changed. The face of the band had changed, and it was up to me to work out what that meant, both to myself as an individual and also to the band. I wanted to continue those hip-hop and electronica influences because that reflects my listening habits. I’ve been in that world, listening to that kind of music since I was 14 years old. I’ve been writing raps and all that sort of stuff for a long time, and it was a great opportunity to add to the canvas, so to speak.

But what was great about what the band had learnt from Love Language was they had started writing the vocals with the music. Which is something that I got to experience when we were writing Love Language. When we were doing Empire, it was a lot of getting the instruments down and then putting the vocals over the top, and it was as if the vocals were this icing layer rather than kind of having this homogeny in the songwriting.

Love Language and Hyperviolence both had this process where we were working in tandem with the vocals and the music. They weren’t two separate things. They became more together, and I think that reflects in a much more focused song. You know, it becomes a lot more enjoyable for the listener; it becomes a lot more intentional and deliberate.

For sure, you can hear that in your recent songwriting. Especially with the blending of the metalcore, hip-hop, EDM, and hyper-pop, the way you blend those together makes the songs feel so cohesive. It’s genre-bending, and that’s what I love about your music. I’m a big Fear Factory fan, and initially they were a massive genre-bending band. I see Windwaker as pioneers of that, too. You’ve created your own eclectic sound, and I absolutely love it. I dig it so much.

Were there moments during the songwriting and production process where you felt like you were outside of your comfort zone at all?

Thank you!

I think when I first came back into the fold, there was a lot of discomfort. There was a lot of pressure, and I felt like it was a lot of responsibility. I kind of describe it as like a frontman’s existential crisis in a little way. Because I’ve been singing for a long time, and I have another project called Reside that I was quite passionate about for a long time, and then being given a platform that was so much more widespread, it got me questioning: What do I want to achieve long term as a frontman and as a vocalist? What do I want to say? What’s the messaging?

That has been a journey, and that’s kind of what Hyperviolence is about. It’s about finding that sense of identity, feeling a loss of identity or confusion about what that is, and coming to some sort of conclusion or acceptance as to what you are, or at least trying to block out the external noise. Because coming into that sort of situation, you’re going to be subject to people’s criticism, people’s comments, and people’s opinions. That’s just the nature of the Internet and people being free to express themselves.

It’s a brutal industry and a brutal world out there.

Absolutely, and I’ve grown too. There have been times in which I’ve resented that, I’ve resented the world and the way it is. And then at points I’ve come to accept it as well, and that’s the journey that Hyperviolence took. I feel like I built more confidence as we got deeper and deeper into that album. I think Sirens (single 2023) was a turning point for us, and it was, thankfully, very early on, and it shaped the concept of the album and what I wanted it to be about as a package.

I love how the music and the lyrics on Hyperviolence reflect the emotional and psychological themes that you explore. Do you want to comment on that at all?

Yeah, the main concept that I had devised for Hyperviolence was this tale of two personalities, two conflicting sides that were internally within a host. So, I describe that as the person that you want to be and the person that people expect you to be, and that disconnect. I also explore the grinding nature that has on someone’s mental state.

I previously described the pressure I felt when I first rejoined, and I think that’s where it stemmed from. I was asking myself what I want to offer the world as an individual and how do I fast-track people getting to know me in such a short space of time. There are obviously some core fans out there that know my history with the band and know that I’ve been around for a long time and that I have appeared on every record in some shape or fashion. But I asked myself, how do I lure new people in? Or lure people that have just gotten on board from Love Language, where I wasn’t as present or wasn’t officially in the band.

Hyperviolence is about, kind of, what I thought those expectations were and trying to give people a slice of who I am, as well.

I think you’ve done a fantastic job of that!

I absolutely love your vocal style and tone. Your one-take videos are amazing to watch, and I’ve really enjoyed the production run-throughs as well, with Chris Lalic (drums and engineer) breaking down what everyone’s doing in the songs and the layering too, which is incredible. I love the way in which the guitars have that vocal synth put over them to beef them up. I’m just absolutely amazed with the production of Hyperviolence. It’s fantastic!

We love doing those sorts of things because I think there’s a lot to unpack that not everybody would hear on the first listen.

Easter eggs!

Yeah, exactly! We love to get to share a little bit more or go a bit deeper because, in this world where we live with TikTok and shorts and reels and stuff like that, it’s very hard to cram all that information into such a short space of time. So, getting to do those production run-throughs is great because we get to share another dimension to what we’re doing and get to explain it a little bit more, because some people might not get it at first listen. It is kind of crazy when you’re not familiar with what we do. So yeah, hopefully, we get to do a lot more of them. I’ve got to film a lot more of those explainers and production videos. So, there should be more to come.

Killer man, that sounds great! So, promo time! You’re bringing the Hyperviolence tour to Perth after your first show here last year. What stood out to you about your first show in WA?

Yeah, July, last year. It was for the Love in The Dark Tour with Caskets (UK) and alt. First, I’d never been to Perth other than Perth Airport to get a connecting flight to Broome. I’ve spent time in Broome, in the Kimberley Region, but Perth itself was one of the major cities in Australia that I hadn’t visited yet, so I was really looking forward to it.

Lynott’s Lounge is a cool venue with a cool vibe. The room was packed out, and what was great about it was it really helped me settle into the tour. It was a great first show to settle in, because when you’re touring certain songs for the first time, or you’re coming to a place for the first time, at least for me as an individual, there’s an anticipation and a whole lot of excitement.

Then you recalibrate after the first show, and you say to yourself, “Okay, I can do this better. All right. That didn’t work. I’ll do this next time.” The Perth show was a great primer for the rest of the tour, but it was a great show! I still have my GoPro footage from that night that I still look back on every now and then. It was a fun show, and I don’t mean this in a spiteful sense, but it was great proving myself to a live audience.

At that point, I still felt like I was hungry to prove myself after the frontman change. Obviously, we had a couple of tours when I first rejoined, but having our own headline tour, it was my first headline show, and I was coming into my own. I was hungry to put on a great show for everybody.

Perth was great. We got to walk around and explore the city a little bit the day of the show and the night before when we got in. And yeah, it was a great night. We loved it!

What’s different about this Hyperviolence tour compared to your shows from July 2023?

The album is out, and there’s a hell of a lot of new songs to play, including some of the cuts from our deluxe edition that’s coming out early next year.

That’s the Hyperviolence Expansion Pack, right? Apathy and 31.10 dropped as part of that release on December 13. They’re great songs!

Thank you very much! Yes, exactly, and we’ve got a couple more surprises with that Expansion Pack as well. We’ll get to play one of the new songs on that tour.

They’re bigger rooms this time. Every tour we do, we try to make it bigger than the last. We try to invest more into the production. We’re really stoked about the line-up that we’ve got. We are always really passionate about the bands that we put on. We’re very deliberate and considerate as to who we want to put on the bill. It’s not always just friends, and more a selection of bands that we really respect and love to have on tour with us, and we also think will make for a good time for audiences.

You’ve got Thousand Below from the US joining you on tour and local supports here in Perth.

Yes. But we’ve got Diamond Construct and Headwreck for the rest of the tour. We’ve toured with Diamond Construct since the beginning. I think this will be the third tour we’ve headlined with them. It feels like every few years we have a reunion tour, and this one is no exception.

As for Headwreck, we love those boys. Colby has been involved a little bit with some of the videos, like The Wall. Chris works as an engineer, so he’s really passionate about the new music that he’s been working on with Headwreck. We’re really excited about this tour package, as well as the rooms that we get to play, as they’re the biggest ones we’ve gotten to headline to date.

It’s a very, very long set too. I think we’re going to be playing for over an hour.

There will be some deeper cuts in there too, I hope!

Yes, we’ll be playing about 90% of Hyperviolence. I think there’s one or two tracks that we’re saving for a later run. We’ve got to keep some tricks up our sleeve, and we’re playing a few crowd favourites from Love Language. Our setlist focuses on this current phase of Windwaker, but we’re obviously open to revisiting older cuts for a more purposeful show. If it’s an anniversary show or a small club show, we tend to throw in some deeper cuts and niche tracks.

Fantastic! There’s a bit of Perth bias to this interview, given that we are a very isolated little city over here, and now I’m going to test your knowledge of the Perth scene. If you could collaborate with any Perth artists, who would they be, and why?

You don’t get enough love!

Number one for me is Karnivool. They’re one of my favourite bands of all time. Ian Kenny has been one of my vocal idols for the longest time. Another band that I have always loved is Gyroscope. I love that band. Then, as far as some of the newer bands, I don’t know if these would be like Windwaker collabs, or if this is just me listing a bunch of bands that I like from Perth, but I love a band called Vacant Home. They’ve been around for a long time, and they’re melodic post-hardcore. They’ve got some great musicians in that band. Pincer+ too, anything that Josh Ang touches. He’s got a sound that’s super cool, super crushing, and super visceral.

Awesome dude. Good on you! Thank you so much for that! After taking Hyperviolence to the world, what’s next for Windwaker creatively and as a band?

We’ve already started writing new material for whatever the next release is after the Hyperviolence Expansion Pack. We’re still in discussion as to what that is, and we’ve got to discuss that with the teams. Whether that’s the label or what our objective is. But I think this time, after Love Language and Hyperviolence, being these very in-house productions where we do all the songwriting, we produce, and we mix in-house, we’re excited to do a lot more collaborating and mixing up the process after this upcoming American tour with Make Them Suffer. I should have mentioned them in the Perth bands. I forgot they’re from WA. A shout out to Make Them Suffer! They’d be cool to collaborate with! Anyway, I digress.

We’re going to stay a week after the tour finishes and work with someone over there. We’ll take some of these demos that we’ve been working on and see what we can learn from somebody outside of the band. Because we’ve had this process within our dynamic, and we’re getting used to it a little bit. So, it’s time to shake it up. We like collaborating with other artists, having them either feature on our material or me popping on someone else’s track. We’re open to doing some more collaborative work.

As far as having Windwaker work with another band is concerned, it would be like when In Hearts Wake and Northlane did Equinox. I think having two bands collaborate would be really cool. I really enjoyed seeing Loathe put out a couple of tracks after the release of I Let It In and It Took Everything. Those songs were put out there as functionally collaborative tracks.

Whether it was another band taking on their song as a cover or them working with a different producer, that was more in that Beach House, Tame Impala, indie rock kind of space, but then bringing their sound into it. Or working with an electronic dance producer, anything is possible. That’s a space that we’re interested in exploring as well as making more music and exploring this new dynamic that we’ve found. I’ve been saying to others that Hyperviolence was the album on which we were getting accustomed to and getting to know each other. And now that we’ve reached the other end of that tunnel, I think there’s still a lot of excitement, and there’s a lot of depth to explore with the five of us.

Before we wrap this up, is there anything that you wanted to mention at all, Liam

Yeah, we’re currently in the running for triple j’s Hottest 100. We’d love to get in there! People can vote for our song, Break the Rules. I think that track has a really good chance of making it into the Hottest 100. So if you haven’t voted already, or if you can squeeze one song in, that would be very much appreciated!

Get on that triple j Hottest 100, folks! Vote for Windwaker! Thanks for chatting with me today, Liam. It’s been a pleasure, man.

It’s been a pleasure for me, too. Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much, Liam, and we can’t wait to see you live on February 8 at Amplifier. It’s a sick venue. You’re going to love it!

Hell, yeah. See you there!

Windwaker play Amplifier Bar on Saturday, February 8, 2025. Tickets are on sale now from tickets.oztix.com.au