Photograph taken by Tanita Hingerty at TooFarFEST
We got to chat to Jack, Joey and Matt from Equinox after their stellar performance at TooFarFEST about metaphorical metal baking, George Michael, and forming master band plans in Tesco car parks.
I recently saw you perform at TooFarFEST! Can you talk a bit about this experience and what it was like for you?
Jack: Yeah…TooFarFEST… it was a brilliant gig. We loved playing. It was a great day. Everyone was so nice…they were so welcoming, and especially as it was for a good cause- we were doing it for Dogs Trust– we were more than happy to take the gig on and take the opening slot.
Joey: (nodding while agreeing)… It was Niall Horan‘s local pub as well, so that was cool. You know, I saw the cardboard cut of him by the bar and I thought, no, this is class…
Jack: Very different from, you know, our usual venues of all Slayer posters and Metallica posters. This time around, it was Niall Horan!
Definitely, I have to say, it gave me a fright though! I said sorry to ‘him’ twice because I almost banged into him with the camera and then I was like ‘ohhhh, it’s not a real person…’ It was very dark in that room, and it was quite unusual to have Niall Horan as a cardboard cut-out in there! How did you feel about opening up the whole festival and being the first band to play?
Jack: I can speak for myself and say, in a way, I was very nervous because we’re somewhat used to opening as well, but it was strange because we were the baby band that night, so we kind of had to put on an impression that night. No one knew us, and we were the first band on, too, so we had to kind of set the tone for the night in a way, you know?
Matt: Yeah. The pressure’s on to do a good job. You know that’s always the case for being an opener. You always have to get everyone going and get the crowd all moving and ready for the next few bands to come on. That’s the trouble sometimes…some people don’t want to move at the start. But if you’re good enough, the whole place will be jumping!
Jack: Exactly, exactly. Right on.
Yeah, you definitely got everyone going… it was sick! Now everyone knows you!
Jack: I know! It was a brilliant gig. We’re very happy we done it.
(All nodding and agreeing)
Jack: Yeah! The Two Far Fetched guys were nothing but welcoming to us and understanding. They were brilliant. I actually have here… the little gift that they gave to all the bands performing. I don’t know if you can see….
(Holds up a framed picture of the festival poster)
Oh, that’s gorgeous. I love it. What’s it say on the back?
Jack: It says to us anyway…”Equinox, Congratulations on performing in Mullingar’s first ever metal metal festival.”
Joey: Like we never, ever have been there before and yet they took the initiative to actually give us a gift. So that was nice.
Jack: Very welcoming…
Yeah, it was such a wholesome community event. There was so much support…every single band was pumping up every other band and like jumping on the stage with them and jumping off, it was such a good vibe.
Joey: Yeah, that was great. Mullingar people are just nice like, you know?
Jack: Yeah, very. I was just saying it was a very good show.
Where are you all from?
Jack: We are from Wexford. Yeah, from New Ross.
Joey: Yeah, from New Ross. You probably won’t know it but…well it’s where JFK well, it’s where his family is from. So if you go to New Ross there’s lots of big JFK references and all that sort of thing.
Jack: We have our bass player who is from Enniscorthy and our guitar player is living in Wexford town. So we’re kind of all over the SouthEast.
I actually went to New Ross with my choir when I was younger but at the time… I just wanted to be in a metal band. So it wasn’t, great… but Maverick Sabers from there allegedly, which we all thought was really cool!
Joey: I met him there when I was on my own on a night out. I went to the takeaway and he was just there a bit drunk, so I told him I was his biggest fan and he said it was nice to meet me!
Amazing! Class…good to know…and what is your local scene like? Is there like a big local scene and where do you usually play gigs?
Matt: Well, in New Ross, there’s nothing… but nearly across the way in Enniscorthy…it’s like insane. Like, there’s tons and tons of bands, ones that have been there for ages… hanging around that scene. Then there’s ones that are just starting up now and they’re doing brilliant too. The whole of Wexford town and Enniscorthy, they seem to kind of tie in together. Wexford town has more punk and then you have Enniscorthy with metal and then it’s like they’re all intertwined and everyone plays everywhere. But as for us, like, nothing…nothing at all. But yeah, that’s why we’re always travelling around trying to find the best gigs…
Jack: Exactly! It’s great to see. When we were younger, we were going to these gigs that 12 Gauge Outrage put on in Enniscorthy and the whole scene has kind of evolved over there. The bands we were seeing are kind of all getting older, and there’s new, younger bands coming in now with a younger crowd, and hopefully that’ll go on for plenty more years to come. It’s lovely to see.
Joey: Yeah, it’s like we went to a show in New Ross at St. Michael’s Theatre in August, and there were a lot of kind of new, local New Ross bands we hadn’t seen before, and just seeing that, I felt like I wasn’t in New Ross or any other Irish town. It brought a really cool energy to New Ross that I haven’t seen before, so that was really cool. So I think people might be… I wouldn’t say inspired by us…that sounds vain, but I think they maybe might feel a calling to kind of do what we’re doing, you know?
Definitely! Definitely inspired by you. You should also do like your own New Ross Metal Festival, maybe…
(All nodding in agreement.)
Jack: What’s the correct way to phrase it? We’d like to. We’d like to definitely put something on here in New Ross, since it’s half of the band’s hometown, so we feel as if we have to give a show here sometime.
(Yeah, definitely. All agree.)
I know you dedicated a song to MySpace Deathcore fans at the festival too….thank you… I felt very seen!
Jack: That was great too! To anyone I might have called old….It’s not old….
Appreciate that! I was wondering then, where your musical influences come from and who would your musical inspirations be?
Matt: Well, when I started drumming, it was mainly Slayer. I started at the deep end and then went forward into more progressive music and into groove metal and all that, the likes of Pantera and Lamb of God and what have you. Mainly groove metal influences and also a bit of trash…a lot of trash metal. I listened to tons of Metallica, Slayer and then moved on to Pantera and stuff like that since they’ve both intertwined, and then I’ve kind of put my own kind of ‘death metal’ twist on it all as well here and there. But, yeah, so far that’s my influences; they’ll probably change again in a few years, but yeah…
Joey: Well, I think the first one was Metallica. I think that’s a lot of people’s kind of entry metal band. So I remember when I was first learning the guitar, I almost exclusively learned Metallica riffs. So I was really dead set on Metallica, and then kind of went more metal core, like Trivium and My Bloody Valentine…more the kind of niche metal, I guess. Then, I got big into Pantera for a bit and then Gojira big time. So, yeah, not too many niche bands, but those are just really good big bands, if that makes sense?
Jack: Myself, I would definitely have to say, like I said on stage, the MySpace, deathcore stuff like As Blood Runs Black, Suicide Silence, of course, Chelsea Grin and even some goth music such as Bauhaus and Christian Death. Very big George Michael fan at the minute too. I love a bit of George Michael. So, yeah, not the most metal but…
Joey: Yeah, I think it evolved into a lot of like alternative metal. It’s a lot like atmospheric metal. Sounds like Load or Agalloch, or personally, I like a lot of ambient metal and stuff and all that. So, you know, I think that would be very kind of traditional metal, and Jack is kind of metalcore, and then I’d be very kind of the ambient guy, you know…
Jack: Metalcore?! I mentioned a lot of Death Core….
Joey: I don’t know what all the specific genres are, I can’t keep track of them!
You do have a very blended sound all together. Can you maybe talk a bit about like your creative process and how you created your unique sound?
Jack: Yeah, I mean, we always find that when we’re in the studio writing a song… it all has to come from the riff and we like to say, it’s like baking a cake… the riff is the foundation… vocals are your sprinkle- cherry on top. We always find we start with the riff, and the song will develop from there. Could be one day Matt could have an idea for a riff and he could say to Adrian, our guitar player, or to Joey, or I could have an idea. The two lads could have an idea, and we’ll just go from there…
Joey: Yeah…it’s always a mesh of everyone’s ideas…here and there, some people just take the lead on a song. They could maybe take their own time and write a song, and we just play it how they want to play it. So it’s kind of how you create your own tunes. But at the same time, we like to kind of pay tribute to each one of us individually with some songs. One of the songs we played recently, one of the OGs of our originals, is “A Thousand Flies”, which Archie wrote, more or less. So we kind of come in to jam, and if someone has a song to present, we all jam that. If we don’t have any songs at that moment, we just write…
Jack: That or it’s just playing covers of Pantera…
That’s awesome. Do you have any dream collaborations or is there anyone you’d love to do a co headline tour with or support?
Matt: Dead memories. Memories would definitely be up there. They always bring the house down every single time without fail. That’d be just an unreal show altogether, and they’re lovely lads as well. I know Kris very well and have great love for them. That’s my dream now anyway….definitely Dead Memories…
Joey: Yeah…for me…. Does it have to be a Metal band or anybody?
Anyone… George Michael, if you want… anyone.
Joey: Actually, a teacher of mine from school is in a band, and they’re fairly renowned in the Southeast. So I’d like to maybe open for him one day because I think it might be like a full-circle moment. Where I used to be a student, but now I’m kind of playing with them.
Jack: I’d like to support someone like maybe Party Cannon the next time they come to Ireland or even someone like Chelsea Grin or Suicide Silence. We’d love to support someone like that.
Joey: We can only dream! But yeah, no…definitely.
Stranger things have definitely happened. Tell us like some band lore and fun facts…how did you guys all meet? How did you know you wanted to start a band? Tell us everything...
Jack: That was Matt and me…Matt…would you like to say how the band was formed?
Matt: Yeah, well, it was after COVID, and we were bored out of our minds. It was at the tail end of COVID, and we were both just starting to get into metal at that time…like thrash metal and stuff, and we were like, okay, well, you know what? This, this is kind of cool, and there aren’t many other small local bands around… so we said, we’ll give it a shot, and we’ll see. So we put our heart and soul into it and, you know, gave it everything we had… Now we’re here after a few long years of trudging away and trying to write stuff, and we’ve gone pretty far, I must say.
Jack: I’d just like to add in there that the concept of Equinox was originally formed in New Ross’s Tesco car park over a six-pack of cheap Red Bull…
Joey: Oh, really? I wasn’t there!
Jack: Matthew and I were sitting down one night, and we were listening to “For Whom the Bell Tolls” (by Metallica) and we just said to each other… the two of us didn’t even have the full knowledge of how to play instruments at the time, but we said, “will we form a band?”…and yeah, we started going from there, and it’s been brilliant ever since.
What a story. I love that.
Jack: Then we found the guys from Enniscorthy and Wexford, and we finally were able to get a lineup going. We had very impressive musicians in our group, and we were able to keep going from there.
Joey: I was friends with Jack for years before I joined the band.
Jack: So Joey is the, the baby of the band…
Joey: Well, I’m not actually, I’m the oldest..
Jack: You’re the oldest, but you’re also the newest member?
Joey: Yeah so I was friends with Jack for years and then we started hanging out again when I was like seventeen or something and it was really nice. It was refreshing to actually have a mate who was into metal and guitar and all that because, I mean, I had that sort of friends but Jack and Matt had a drive to actually make use of those skills and start something and make something out of it. So I was really attracted to that…
Do you have a favorite song that you love playing live?
Jack: Oh, I’d say we all have different ones. I think there is one we all could unanimously agree on, and that would most definitely be a track from the upcoming EP called “The Butcher”.
Joey: Well, my personal favourite is that we cover “Slaughtered” by Pantera because I’m a rhythm guitar player, so I much prefer to just rock out and bang my head as opposed to doing a very intricate leap and that song is three notes, and all you’re doing is just playing three power chords, and there are some simple little in-between parts. It’s really fun. I’m more attracted to just enjoying myself on stage and having a good time than maybe having a big ego and showing off with a big solo or something. That suits me more…playing that song.
Matt: For me now… favorite song to play. It’s either “The Butcher” or probably “Roots”. I’d imagine “Roots” by Sepultura because they’re both like how I wrote the drums for “The Butcher” to be like a groove metal song, it was very influenced by Sepultura and yeah, they both definitely every time they come up when I’m on set, I’m just there looking down the set list on the floor, like, yes!…getting all excited because they’re probably the two favorite songs and easiest to play songs that we have, you know, So I can’t say I can’t speak the rest of that, but yeah, they do get you going…when I play them anyway, that’s for sure.
Jack: And “Roots” has always been a staple of the band. It’s been a song we’ve covered every single show we’ve played. Every time we get into the practice space and everyone’s setting up, getting our ears ready, we run through “Roots”. We do that song first, see how we’re feeling for the day. It’s always been a staple of the band.
Joey: It’s a song we all like equally so we can never argue over if we play it or not. It’s just something we can all just enjoy.
Fab. Love that! For anyone that hasn’t seen you live yet, how would you describe a show of yours?
Jack: Heavy. Obnoxious. Loud. Good time. Broken jaw.
Okay?!
(all laugh.)
Joey: Of course… in a nutshell.
Of course.
Jack: Broken jaw…as a joke! Of course.
Joey: Metaphorical broken jaw.
Metaphorical? That’s fine. Would you all agree?
Matt: I’d call it more of a roller coaster. There’s a few different parts of different songs and a few different songs are slower, then it goes back up again, then it goes down again, up again…then you finally leave out a high note. Yeah, you just keep the energy going. It’s a relentless onslaught of pure heaviness. It’s built to make you go mental. That’s just the way and that’s why you come to the show: to go out and enjoy yourself.
Jack: We always find that, it’s very important to make the crowd, or whoever is watching us, whether it’s fifty people, five hundred people, or five people, feel like part of the show. Even if it’s just clapping your hands, singing a chorus or being part of a song. Let them feel included because they are people who are helping give you a stage.
For sure. I love that. Your energy is very, very contagious. Is there a dream venue or a dream place you’d love to perform?
Joey: Honestly. Me, personally, I’d say the Three Arena. Just honestly…
Matt: Oh, Jesus, you’re boring, man. You’re meant to say Maddison Square Garden, you know, that’s ten times better. (sarcastically) “Yaaaaaay Three arena… up the road, would you c’mon?”
Jack: The Aviva?
Joey: I’m trying to be partially realistic here!
Croke Park?
Matt: Yeah, yeah, there we go. Do you know what we’ll do? We do Phoenix park as well while we’re at it. Throw down a blanket, you know, make a fake stage.
Perfect.
Jack: Nah, Phoenix park is way too small for us you know? I think it’s gonna have to…
Matt: The poor ducks. Oh my God. They’ll go demented…
And the wild deer….
Jack: Definitely. I would have to say somewhere like The Academy or The Grand Social.
Matt: Oh, come on…
Jack: Okay then…Madisson square garden..
What about you then Matt? Go on then. Where is your dream place to play?
Matt: It’s definitely a festival stage, you know, like a big one, like Bloodstock, you know, one of those. They’re just like a big ass stage in the middle of the field, and hundreds of thousands of people surround it, you knowin the heat and all that. That be like brilliant. Then there’s if you wanted more indoors kind of gig… then it’ll be Madison Square Garden. Just based on the size and the way it’s shaped as well. It looks so cool. The three arena is just a baby, you know, to compare it to that… it’s just tiny and then you have that all the seats around and curved down, the whole lot. It’s brilliant. You know, that’s why I prefer more festivals though… Okay, here’s hoping someday in the future.
Jack: Someday…
Definitely! Is there a musical experiment that’s had like a big payoff for you? Is there anything that you were like, oh, I’ll just try this and then you’ve actually been like, oh, that’s shaped our sound kind of thing,.
Jack: I suppose with everyone’s different influences, it’s like we can always combine stuff together, whether it’s writing or even putting our own twist onto a cover. Like when we perform “Roots, bloody roots” We always make sure to add in another breakdown or even just something small like that… it can really have a great effect.
Matt: We have a sort of thing going on where Adrian would have a riff and then the job with his rhythm would be making it sound a bit more kind of melodic. Then there’s obviously the riffs that are layered on top there and more groovy too. We just kind of try to take different pieces and what we all like and put them into whatever we’re writing at that time.
(All in agreement.)
Awesome! Your Debut single “Impaled” is also out now. Can you talk to us about the meaning and inspiration behind the song?
Jack: Yeah, of course, with “Impaled” we wrote that about two years ago, I think mainly it’s based on, the struggles of growing up within a Christian household and Religion being forced upon you. Rather than being able to kind of carve your own path, if that makes sense.
Joey: Free speech!
Matt: Exactly.
(all in agreement.)
For sure.
Matt: It’s kind of like the meaning of being helpless, hence being impaled. You know, you’re stuck; you can’t go anywhere, can’t do the things you want to do because of all these different things going on that are stopping you from, doing stuff. It’s about stepping out of the fear of if you want to do something, don’t let some religion stop you from doing it and if you’re passionate about what you want to do, don’t let it stop you from doing it. Life’s too short to be worried about that craic, you know?
Jack: Exactly. One hundred per cent. We recorded “Impaled” with Brendan Carfi in Enniscorthy at The Orchard Studio. It was very fun getting the chance to finally record something because we had been sitting on the song for a while. We had it fully wrote, we performed, and it was great just to get our debut single out because myself and Matthew, we had put out a few demos which were very poorly produced by me on my phone…
Matt: They were awful! They were God awful!
Jack: Yeah…They were not very good. So it was great to finally have a piece of music that was from the studio that we all had a chance to write.
Definitely. It makes a big difference. I feel like a lot of people, especially people in Ireland, will really relate to that song and the freedom that comes with it.
Joey: There’s also a lot of vulgarities in it as well. There was kind of like a punk element to that. It’s like, we didn’t want the song to sound too refined. So we kind of just threw in that sort of language, because it’s just pure… let it out, you know what I mean?
No it’s important to stick to your roots and express yourself authentically and you all do that very well.
Jack: Thank you very much.
Yeah, of course. If you had to say your music and your band stood for one thing, what do you think it would be?
Jack: I would definitely say being your own person, being an individual. We like to play for people that may have stuff going on in their life. They may not feel welcome in places. We want people to join together and love the music.
Joey: So, we act like idiots on stage to make people who aren’t like us feel more normal.
Jack: Acceptance would be another word. We want people to feel as if they belong because it’s always been a thing. Unfortunately, around the world, people with, you know, piercings, dyed hair, tattoos, a band T-shirt on, they’ll be judged and it sucks because they’re doing what some people won’t do. They’re expressing themselves. It’s seeing people from young to old going around in…it could be Iron Maiden T-shirts, could be Slipknot, could be eyeliner, mohawks, piercings…It’s awesome to see. It’s great to see.
Joey: Do what you want. No one cares at the end of the day. Just have fun.
Matt: Again… life is too short. You know just go out there, have the craic, and whoever says all that about you can be gone. You know, they don’t really matter anyway, so, yeah, there you go.
Yep! Be Gone!
Matt: Live your own life.
Joey: This is my life.
Exactly, for sure. What do you feel have been, like, the highlights and biggest achievements for you so far?
Jack: I think we all have different ones…
Matt: Yeah. Biggest is definitely probably getting to play…the further we get away from our hometown, the more I think of it as an achievement. So when we played in Dublin the first time in McDowell’s… Rest in Peace. That was probably one of the best shows we’ve ever played because that was the first time we’ve actually gone that far away from home at that stage. We were all kind of young anyway. That was like a big, big leap forward all at once, and to get up there and play a brilliant show that was probably one of the best days I’ve been playing with the band. We just gave it everything; the crowd was giving it everything, so we just kept going and going, and it was bloody amazing. The video’s up on YouTube there as well, and you can just see it in all of us that we just really, really enjoyed that show. Dublin is a brilliant place for metal gigs.
Jack: That gig was very monumental for us in our careers so far. It was called “Louder Then Genocide” and was in support of Palestine too, which we were more than happy to play. It was a brilliant show and the crowd was amazing, and it was for a brilliant cause. Definitely one of our favourite gigs so far.
Joey: Definitley.
I know you mentioned you’re working on a new E.P. at the moment. Let us know about that and what the future holds for Equinox and if you’ve any other upcoming shows.
Jack: We can say that there will be a show; it hasn’t been announced yet, but what I will say is that I have to keep it under wraps until it’s announced, but there will be something for the upcoming E.P. launch. We can’t wait to get the new E.P. out, we’ve been working on it very hard, day and night. We’ve put a lot into this E.P. and the songs are very emotional on it too and we’ve spent countless hours on it and we hope people enjoy it. The songs are pretty cool too.
(all laughing.)
Joey: Some nasty breakdowns on it too!
Jack: We can announce the E.P. release day…
Matt: Oh my God, it’s happening! The E.P. is released on the 23rd of October, and that’s that, and then we may have a nice thing happening afterwards for it…so keep an eye on the old socials, and you’ll see it popping up. We cannot wait and play the songs we’ve been practicing and writing for years; it’s definitely good to finally get it out there! It’s been a masterclass in writing for us all, too!
Jack: Very big thank you to Reggie of 12 Gauge Outrage for producing the E.P. also with Regicide Productions.
Joey: He was class!
It’s out so soon!
Jack: Yeah, we couldn’t let it sit any longer…
Do you have a name you can give us for it?
Jack: The E.P. is going to be called “The Sea Remembers Nothing.”
Matt: Loosely based around the famine. Definitely a few songs on there relating to the situation the famine caused people in Ireland back in the day.
Joey: Brining New Ross to the forefront!
Matt: We are too! It’s about time!
Jack: We’re very excited to get the E.P. out, and we’ve got some very big things in store for the future too… as much as I’d like to say, I’m biting my tongue, trying not to say.
Matt: Shouldn’t have signed that NDA!
Famous last words!
Photograph taken by Tanita Hingerty at TooFarFEST