The Official Pathogen Website

Interview with Aidan of Pathogen 2005-07-05
Taken from Deflection7.Com Online Zine

"After seven years of Pathogen we finally see a debut album!"

Raj: Hello there Aidan, hows things?

Aidan: Hi there Raj, I'm very well, cheers for asking.

Raj: First off, how is the perth metal scene going?

Aidan: Perth's okay, the heavy scene is pretty popular right now, which also means there's a lot of unnecessary ego within the scene which kinda ruins things for everyone, but that's nothing new to perth. There's a lot of good bands around Perth at the moment and a lot of people are going to shows so the local scene is pretty healthy right now.

Raj: Tell our readers a bit about your band. How did Pathogen start?

Aidan: Well this band was founded by ex-drummer Gavin Irving and ex-vocalist Tim Paterson. They approached me and asked if I wanted to cover Pantera's 'Walk' for a high school music competition. We never entered the competition but we did form Pathogen. That was ten years ago now and we were only 15 back then, we still had a lot learn about life and music. I still keep in contact with Gavin and Tim but a lot has changed since then. I do feel that we built a strong kinship that will always be there though.

Raj: You have finally released your debut! Tell us a bit about it? Are you happy with the final result of your seven year journey?

Aidan: One thing I learnt about self-producing your own album is that it is really difficult to self-produce your own album. Producing an album is all about having an objective point-of-view that is clear enough to be able to give the project the life it deserves given the stage it is in. If you are the person who had written, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered all the music over a seven year period, you may find you are too personally and emotionally attached to the project to be able to look at it with a clear vision. It helps to have someone else to bounce ideas off who's hearing music that's going onto an album, rather than hearing songs you had written when you were a teenager and released on your early demo-cassettes.

Raj: And we'll be looking forward to another full length soon right? *laughs* Or will your main concentration be on gigging for the time being?

Aidan: Ha, yes we've already started writing material for the next album which is why we're not gigging much at the moment. We plan to make it over to do shows on the east coast a couple of times later this year, most likely as support for an international act, but we're still working out details.

Raj: Pathogen have undergone many lineup changes, yourself being the only remaining original member of the band. Do you feel the lineup you have now is a strong one?

Aidan: Most definitely, it took this long to find four clear thinking guys who have a passion for music and who were in it for the right reasons. All the guys in Pathogen have to put up with quite a lot of shit from me, but they still stick around and put in a hundred percent. They are all also involved with various other bands as well so they are free explore whatever musical ventures they like. I don't believe a band should be like a marriage. We have a lot of fun whenever we all get together and we are all very close as friends. I wouldn't swap the current line-up for anything.

Raj: You've been openers for some very big international acts such as Opeth, Mayhem and Entombed. How was it working with these bands? It must have been an experience!

Aidan: Yeah it was great getting to hang out and play shows with bands that we've looked up to over the years. It was particularly cool talking to Opeth. I'd been a fan since the first album and it was heartening to meet them and find they're actually really cool, down to earth people. Same with the Entombed, Shadows Fall and Fear Factory guys. Mayhem were cool with you if you were prepared to let them fuck you're girlfriend.

Raj: What's your personal favourite Australian metal band currently? Any bands you really admire in Aus?

Aidan: Well my current favourite Aus metal band hails from Tassie. We played a gig with Psycroptic in Adelaide last year, I'd never seen them before but was impressed enough to pick up a copy of their 'Scepter of the Ancients' LP. I still can't believe their an Australian band, I feel they easily compete on an international level. The new Alarum album 'Eventuality' is also really fucking amazing. Another band that I can't believe is from Australia.

Raj: You've toured in the eastern states a couple of times in the past. Do you have any gigs planned to show off your debut to the rest of Australia? How about a gig in Tassie?

Aidan: We definitely plan to come over to the eastern states again now that we have an album. At this stage there are no plans for a Tassie show, but if anyone over there wants to see us then we'll definitely look at finding a way to get down there. I've heard a bit about the Tassie scene from the MSI/Psycroptic guys and it sounds great, even if there are only a couple of venues. So far we've only played shows in Perth, Melbourne and Adelaide and we've had a surprisingly awesome response from people in those cities, so we're definitely looking to branch out and play to as many metalheads as possible.

Raj: What are Pathogen's main musical influences? Inspirations?

Aidan: As fas as inspirations go, I feel most of them drawn from real life experiences. Things happen to people throughout their life that change them, some for better, some for worse. I like the idea of reflecting that through music and lyric. As far as musical influences go, I'd say Pathogen is most heavily influenced by bands like Opeth, In Flames, Carcass and Pantera, but the current members of Pathogen all have their own strong personal influences, varying from grindcore to prog-speed-death to doom metal.

Raj: Any advice to aspiring musicians? Any hints or tips? Bits of wisdom?

Aidan: I think this game is all about having the right attitude. I've seen too many people in bands get a small amount of praise and all of a sudden they get this attitude where they think people have to work for them. There are a lot of great bands around at the moment and the industry is very competitive, so there is no room for big ego from small-time bands. If you're just starting out at this, you are probably going to have to work really fucking hard to even get noticed.

Raj: Any last words for the fans and metal-heads?

Aidan: Don't forget to work fucking hard. Good things will undoubtedly happen to you if you do.

Raj: Thanks for the interview! Keep up the awesome work.

Aidan: Cheers Raj, you too.

Interviewed by: zefr!