American mod-prog rockers The Contortionist on keeping things fresh 11 years in
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American mod-prog rockers The Contortionist on keeping things fresh 11 years in

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There’s nothing quite like a compliment or two from a visiting band to induce great Aussie pride. Starting this week, US progressive metal innovators The Contortionist will take to Australia in a tour that guitarist Cameron Maynard says will remind him a lot of being at home. “I think I can speak for all the guys – we love Australia,” he says. “It reminds us a lot of The States.”

This far into their career – with 11 years on the scene – touring is old hat for The Contortionist. Though the band have played on stages with many greats in the genre, they’ve paved their own little niche, layering sound upon sound, making for a dynamic show of simplistic beauty.

The Contortionist’s latest album, Clairvoyant, saw the band set the bar even higher for themselves. They’ve always been affiliated with bands of a similar ilk, but now The Contortionist can prove they’re an entity unto their own, especially in performance.

“The progression of our sound is natural. Every step of the way, it was never a decision to try and strive, it was natural circumstance,” Maynard says. “When we put out Language [2014], it was a new thing for that album. We learned each other’s script. I knew how Jordan [Eberhardt] would play a bass part I composed, things like that. We learned each other’s strong points.

“It’s a confidence boost because we know whenever we sit down to write, as long as our fingerprints are on it, we can cover as much ground as we please. We’re in a unique position where our fans expect that now, for the ball to be thrown left field, and I think that’s pretty special.”

The dialect in Language and Clairvoyant is equal parts beautiful and dark. “It’s definitely a niche and it’s the kind of thing where people who want to go down the rabbit hole, they do. At the same time you can still wait on the surface. That’s really what our objective is.

“What we realise is we can be selfish and do a bunch of stuff and cover every ground and that’ll happen with every record, we’ll always try something new and that’s always been our MO. At this point, it’s always going to be something fresh and we’d be failing ourselves and our fans if we tried to do something we’ve already done.”

The sound and longevity of The Contortionist all points to the band being sure of themselves, and yet there are still walls to be painted, things they want to execute in future. “Every time we get done with a record we have a detailed list of things we didn’t get to do or didn’t quite cook right,” Maynard says. “We’re always composing music. We’ve been writing new stuff even though we’re touring, it’s a constant evolution. It’s not as separated out as it may seem.”

Maynard explains that the best way to witness this evolution is in the band’s live shows, a craft in itself honed over the years. “Just from composing something and seeing it go from paper to performance, it only comes from composition – we know what things are more practical than others, we know what will translate live, and things that won’t.

“You can have the best players get on stage for the first time and immediately something’s missing. That’s something that can only be learned by doing, experiencing technical difficulties and knowing how to play ball.”

When Maynard gets off the stage, the overriding feeling is always that performing feels good.

“It takes a certain kind of crazy to do this for a living but I think we thrive on it,” he says. “We’re signed up and we’re not going to leave the team. It’s been 11 years and I always end up saying to my friends ‘11 years is a long time. Right now, if we had to create this destiny we’ve created, if we had to start right now, I don’t think it would be possible.’ Where we are in life, it feels good that the investment we’ve made is apparent. It feels good.”