I guess you have some good reasons for your name, so tell me: what heritage are we talking about here?

It is hard to actually target a specific heritage as such, as a lot of our influences seem to range from modern-day noise,
to early periods of classical music, through to every day sounds associated with movement and general sub-conscious
audio, and I don't know how aware we all are as to where these influences stem from. 

I think that it all comes from living in whatever surrounds you are in, and your conscious or sub-conscious mind and what
it decides to take in.  Obviously people will be able to pull a lot of modern day references from what we do, but I think there
are certain nuances that I hear which differentiates us from these references, and to the average listener might not be so
apparent.  Very much like your parents trying to differentiate the difference between Megadeth and Metallica, for lack of a
better example.

Heirs started out as a solo project of you Damian, what made you get some more musicians involved
in that project?


I was definitely very comfortable with keeping this as a project, but with the label interest and the general thought of mine
that I missed that part of my life (playing live/touring), it seemed like the right thing to do for my own self.  It was also made
extremely easy with the people I had in mind, and how close we all were as friends before the idea of playing these songs
as a band formulated.

3.  I read that "Alchera" in Autralian mythology is it something like
a dream that was there before the world was. Is that even correct? 
Why did you choose that name and what does it mean concerning
the songs and your music in general?

Our intention when shaping the songs on the album was to induce a
trance-like state in the listener – to blur the lines between ‘awake’ and
‘asleep’ so the album would feel like an hallucination and the music
could tell it's own story, without the use of lyrics or vocals.

4. Over here in Europe and obviously in the USA there are a lot of bands and a growing scene of bands that play intense and somewhat slower and very dark stuff like Khanate, Pelican, Godflesh, you know the names. How's that in Australia, are there some bands we need to know about?

It is definitely a genre that is growing in popularity and I believe it hasn't
really gotten to the level of something like hardcore, but you can definitely see people moving into this type of music from scenes like hardcore/punk etc, almost like it is somewhat of a natural movement, which is quite strange to witness.  We have a massive "trickle-down" effect in this country, where things take around 8-12 months to popularize to the point where you could say it’s become its own entity.  There are plenty of bands doing this kind of sound, but realistically, I find them to be watered down versions of bands that already exist, and I don't have much interest in aligning myself with them. I would rather look at bands based on their musical merits as an outfit, and see if there is anything within the sound that is new and inventive.  Within Australia, we feel artists like Nekrasov, Oren Ambarchi, Die On Planes, HTRK, A Dead Forest Index and Houdini are making the most vital music... all projects that differ greatly from each other but all containing something that holds my interest.

Besides other bands, what keeps you inspired for creating more heirs stuff?

To be honest, other bands have little bearing on what we are trying to achieve with Heirs. Our main objective is to explore
the atmosphere created by the music. Our riffs are very simplistic and the structure is basic, but by treating the band as a kind
of ritual experiment we are able to guide the songs in a certain direction while leaving ourselves open to exploring different
textures and styles.

What's that scene like in Australia in general?

Australia is such a large country that there really isn't enough population within each area to warrant a collective scene
as such.  Each state has its own thing, and since the space is so large between them all, you find each area develops a
lot differently according on certain things, like what bands at that time are doing.  For example, a city like Melbourne has
a very well-rounded music scene, so we have everything at our disposal here, but this also breeds a certain contempt,
resulting in low attendance across the board.  In smaller towns, they don't have much of a variance to choose from, so
while they might not have a bunch of venues and/or bands to speak of, the shows are usually well attended due to the
rarity of events occuring in those areas... which I really think is the same across the world.

We all listen to a lot of different music, but it seems like a lot of bands and their members remain in a certain
"branch". Parts of Heirs have played in the wonderful LOVE LIKE...ELECROCUTION, which has absolutely nothing
to do with Heirs. What made you go into a completely different direction?


With LL... E, we peaked to a certain level, and while it was what we were all going for, the whole thing began to feel like a
parody of a genre that none of us felt comfortable being a part of anymore.  The disjointed rhythms and general speed of the
music, coupled with screamed vocals became very non-threatening and in turn, spawned a lot of bands wanting to do the same
thing, which seemed to go against the whole idea of what the band was about.  It wasn't so much of a case of moving into a
different field of music, as we all loved stuff like Black Sabbath/Stoner/Doom even before LL... E existed, but more that the
genre stayed where it was and didn't progress... so if anything, I feel as though we left it behind.  A type of musical exorcism,
if you will.



Alchera has a beautiful but also disturbing and very dark artwork, what is that all about?

We wanted to create an album with a central theme that symbolized the “haunting” nature of addiction. The ghost is a literal
depiction of this. The photographs were taken in Japan during a time when we were all having a “dry” period, and the unified
realization that even when you are able to escape your… let’s say, “vices”… you are still haunted by the weakness they have
created which will always be a part of you.

You are coming to Europe in August, which is great by the way. Have you ever been over here?
What do you expect?

We are definitely looking forward to this tour, it has been something we have all wanted to do for a very long time and I am
amazed it has actually eventuated.  Myself and Laura (bass player) lived in The Netherlands (Leiden to be exact) for a year
in 2007/08, and we both miss it very much.  There is so much more culture and tradition to take in, a good example is the
street we lived on in Leiden was older than the white colonization of Australia, which is amazing to me.  We really don't know
what to expect from a lot of the areas we are booked, as there are shows in places that none of us have ever visited... so it will
definitely be an eye opening experience for all of us.

What can we expect when we go and see a Heirs show?

Hopefully we can provide something a little different from the everyday formulas that are associated with this genre... we
always try and incorporate a couple of different sensory mediums into our shows, whether it be with projections, or things
like burning oils or incense... I like to think that our music is a soundtrack for the other mediums that are present. 

To incorporate a scent or a vision to run parallel with the music is a very important thing for me, and it is something that we
try to adhere to whenever we play, equipment permitting.  I personally enjoy shows to be just that... an actual show instead
of a live rendition of music which has already been established as the reason of attendance.

Your music is solely instrumental. Did that just come naturally or was that a clear decision? If so, why?

We did try out some vocalists, but it just didn’t seem to fit at that time.  Perhaps there are people out there who could do
an amazing job, and we would like to look into it for the future, but I think we will always stay somewhat instrumental.
I think once words have been laid down over music, then that becomes the focal point of what people take in, and becomes something to cling onto. I would like to think that we can survive without this medium, which has never meant that much to me anyway.

What can we expect in the future from Heirs?

The new music we have been working on lately has a lot more of an industrial bent to it, and will hopefully be a lot colder in general.  Melody is something we definitely toyed with for Alchera, but I do feel that as a band, we excel leaning towards monotonal rhythms and melodies.  The main idea for our new songs is to create a trance-like state of music which leads the listener into hearing their own interpretations of what the sound is made up of, and hopefully allowing the songs more freedom in terms of how they are perceived.

When reading stuff in the internet, I always stumble upon drug-use, alcohol- and medication use and addiction. Why is that such a big issue with your band, because a lot of bands use/abuse these things, but it never gets out there.

The central theme of Heirs from the minute I started this project was to make sure that this whole thing stayed as honest and as true as I could possibly make it, from where my influences stemmed from, to the everyday occurrences that make me who I am, as a person.  One of these things is my dependency, which I have struggled with for a very long time.  Dependent on relationships, drugs, food... whatever it is, it can be productive and destructive at different times, sometimes both at once.  The demo I created in 2006 was spawned from the lack of weed around me at the time, and my absolute dependence on it. 

I did not sleep for 6 whole days whilst creating this, and without being able to lean on the recording, I would've most probably looked for something to fill that void, which very well could have been something a lot more destructive to myself, which has occurred a lot throughout my existence.

So, looking at it like that, you could say that without my dependency, perhaps those songs would never have been? 
It seems bizarre to think that this was created through a lack of drugs, but that is the ultimate truth as far as this project
is concerned.  Alchera as an entity has definitely been a purging of sorts, and something which has shaped the album
and the band into what they are at this point in time.

Ideally I would like to think that our honesty comes across as a sincere attempt to connect with other humans rather than
a selling point which creates a kind of unrealistic mystique which appeals to the darker side of humans, and I guess time
will tell if we succeed in this line of thought.  Regardless of the outcome, I am extremely proud of what we have achieved
and hope that we will continue to move forward, with or without our personal vices.

Thanks to heirs for their time.