Q&A with Jason Brown – Key influences behind Between Birth & Death – the bands who impacted Sunk Loto at the time when they were making the album
Tool – Lateralus
There were a couple of records that we were definitely playing at the time we were making Between Birth & Death. Lateralus by Tool was a huge one for us that was really driving a vibe on the album.
Refused – The Shape of Punk to Come
And I feel like on a song like Soul Worn Thin, one thing that was very relevant there is The Shape of Punk to Come by Refused. A friend of ours showed it to us and we’re like: “what is this?! This is so slamming!”. And that was really inspiring us to push and make things as sporadic as possible.
Meshuggah – Destroy Erase Improve
We’d also just discovered Meshuggah around that time. It was just a perfect storm, all of these bands that we were finding out about and listening to as 17 or 18 year olds was making us go: fuck, we need to be better. And Meshuggah had definitely blown our world apart, especially Destroy Erase Improve. At the time I think maybe Nothing had already come out, but Destroy Erase Improve was the one that we were really frothing on. Again, that was sort of putting us in the mindset of: don’t repeat things too much in your music. Don’t just be lazy and write a verse then a chorus then the midsection and then finish – try and make the thing so it just constantly evolves on itself, and it’s constantly moving and changing. And Meshuggah still kick ass.
Deftones – White Pony
Obviously too: White Pony by Deftones. And just Deftones in general because we just grew up loving them. We already loved Deftones when we were like 15 or 16 skating around the Gold Coast and surfing and trying to be like them. And then we got to do the Vans Warped Tour around the time when we were 16. We hadn’t released anything at the time, but somehow someone went: yeah, put these young dudes on the Vans Warped Tour. Deftones were on it too, and someone found out that we loved them and told them. So, we’re playing Coffs Harbor on this little side stage and Chino [Moreno] and Chi [Cheng], I think they were all there literally watching us and we’re like: “what is going on?! What the fuck?! These dudes are standing side of stage watching us play!”. They just sort of were like: these young dudes are awesome, we’re going to hang with them on this whole tour. So, we just hung with Deftones when we were kids and that made us love ’em even better. It also made us go: hey, in the future that’s how you should treat your fans and young bands coming through and just anyone who’s trying to do what you are doing. You want to be cool like that.
Honorary Mentions
Honorary mentions around the time would also have to go to Kid A by Radiohead, that was making us be more experimental in some areas. Another one is Siur Ros, I can’t even pronounce the album, but I’ve got the tattoo on my arm.The Dillinger Escape Plan were sort of driving us as well. Glassjaw were also a huge influence at the time, and Pantera – how can they not be an influence!
