Aaron Marshall is living his best life. Better known in music circles as Intervals, he’s just played the Heavy Montreal festival in Canada sharing a bill with Marilyn Manson and Rob Zombie.
Now he’s preparing for what he calls the Southeast Asia gauntlet, and after that he’ll be in Australia with fellow djent masterminds Polyphia in tow.
Djent mightn’t seem like the type of genre to sit well on a bill with hard rock and heavy metal, but there he was, performing with some of the genre’s biggest names. “I think festivals are supposed to be a variety-orientated bill,” Marshall says. “I know with a [specifically] metal or rock festival it can be more focused and there’s a lot of illegible black t-shirts with tree branch logos in the crowd who mightn’t be my particular fan, but at the same time, I love the assortment.
“I love people that approach the stage and go ‘Woah.’ We’re only a song in and nobody sang yet but they go, ‘This is really cool.’ I think that makes the mark for the movement of this type of music and all the other artists that do it too. The crowds tend to be very receptive; they have a really open mind for new things.”
With something like Heavy Montreal, where Marshall is opening for Emmure and Gojira is closing, it’s easy to feel a little out of place but the crowd makes for a refreshing experience. “The rapport is really strong,” he says. “It’s really great when there’s a little extra tension and I have to work for it. This is the first time I got to do a nice big outing with thousands of people in that particular place and it was super warm and receptive.
“Even when it’s not, I love a challenge and we always end up turning heads and making everyone feel really comfortable, making some new fans in the process. I’m cool with both dynamics.”
Given Marshall’s whirlwind movement, it’s evident djent has grown in popularity in recent years. Gracing his social media are a plethora of photos of Marshall’s guitars and equipment, shiny and impressive, they’re the tools that make for the djent magic Marshall performs and give you a taste of the scale of preparation that goes into a southern hemisphere tour of almost three months back-to-back.
Thinking about the preparation involved draws a weighted sigh from Marshall. “Yeah, well…this is going to be our first foray with that whole thing. We’ve done international tours before but this is the first time we’re having to go from the show to the airport, show to the airport.
“From a playing standpoint, we rehearse right before we go, our chops are together and all the gear is easy to compartmentalise so we can bring over a relatively similar show to what we play over here.
A frenzied run to be sure, but once Marshall hits up the intimate venues of Australia’s capital cities, he’ll have his good time loving friends Polyphia with him, who, appearing in Australia for the first time, might just help Marshall through the jet lag.
“They’re the ones who are going to be jet lagged,” Marshall says. “I remember my first time in Sydney, it took me a week or more to get my bearings – it was definitely a shock.
“I remember going out to a gig in Sydney with some of the Polaris guys to see the guys in Northlane do an undercover gig, and I remember Josh from Northlane put a gin and tonic in my hand and as we were watching the show, I completely passed out with a drink in my hand, fell asleep on my feet.
“That’s what that jet lag will do to you. As long as Polyphia get a couple of days to shake it, they’ll be alright. It is no joke, no joke.”
