The Conflux Collective is a group of musicians collaborating on genre bending progressive technical death metal releasing their new album "In The Wake of Saturn."
After years of dormancy, reinvention, and sheer force of will, The Conflux Collective erupts back into the extreme‑metal landscape with the announcement of their long‑awaited debut LP, "In the Wake of Saturn," arriving June 19th, 2026. Alongside the album announcement, the band has released the first single and lyric video, “Reincarnation,” a ferocious statement of rebirth that sets the tone for the album’s uncompromising vision.
Born from a chance reunion between guitarist Chase Fraser (Continuum, ex‑Decrepit Birth, ex‑Animosity) and drummer Tommy McKinnon (Derelict, Akurion, ex‑Neuraxis, ex‑Augury), The Conflux Collective began as a spontaneous spark, one that quickly ignited into a creative explosion. Within their first hour of jamming, a full song had formed; within six weeks, their debut EP, "The Inception," was complete. But the band’s evolution was far from linear.
After life circumstances forced the project into years of silence, McKinnon resurrected The Conflux Collective with a renewed sense of purpose. Armed with unreleased material from Fraser and a determination to finish what they started, he rebuilt the album from the ground up, writing new songs, reconstructing arrangements, recording all bass tracks by ear, and crafting lyrics drawn from deeply personal turmoil, transformation, and catharsis.
To bring the record fully to life, McKinnon assembled a powerhouse roster of extreme‑metal vocalists whose performances became the album’s emotional core: Jesse Brint (Gross Misconduct), Mallika Sundaramurthy (Emasculator, ex‑Abnormality), Jeffrey Mott (The Monster Factory, Growlers Choir, Hollow), Eric Burnet (Derelict, Samskaras), and Max Lusier (Derelict), who also contributes a blistering guitar solo.
The result is "In the Wake of Saturn," a progressive, brutal, melodic, and deeply human exploration of loss, survival, and rebirth. Across eight tracks, the album bridges the raw ferocity of ’90s death metal with the precision and ambition of modern tech‑death, unfolding like a narrative guided by shifting voices and emotional intensity.
“In the Wake of Saturn is a journey through pain, fear, defeat, survival, and finally rebirth. It’s a transformative experience that was created out of the necessity for change… a true underground monster made for those who seek the unusual,” says Tommy McKinnon.
The album’s first single, “Reincarnation,” was originally written by Fraser during the project’s early years. The track embodies the album’s themes of resilience and renewal.
“The Conflux Collective lives again, and this song tells the story of rebirth and resilience… It gives an impression of how the album sounds as a whole, with all the elements explored in depth in the other songs,” adds McKinnon Featuring a commanding vocal performance by Jeffrey Mott, “Reincarnation” delivers intricate drum work, uncompromising guitar lines, and the unmistakable intensity that defines The Conflux Collective's sound.
Watch and listen to the lyric video for “Reincarnation,” via its premiere on Decibel Magazine HERE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nce0-kz3nTk
Though the project has no plans for live performances, The Conflux Collective stands as a testament to collaboration without boundaries, a convergence of some of extreme music’s most creative voices.
Recommended for fans of Cryptopsy, Necrophagist, Decrepit Birth, Augury, and Beyond Creation, "In the Wake of Saturn" will be available on all digital platforms as of June 19th, 2026.
Album pre-save - confluxcollective.bandcamp.com/
credits released June 19, 2026
Guitar: Chase Fraser (Continuum);
Vocals: Eric Burnet (Derelict), Max Lussier (Derelict), Jesse Brint (Gross Misconduct), Mallika Sundaramurthy (Emasculator), Jeff Mott (Hollow, Monster Factory);
Additional guitar, bass, and drums: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 1,2, 3, 6. Music: Chase Fraser. Lyrics: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 4. Music: Chase Fraser. Lyrics: Jesse Brint;
Track 5, 7. Music & Lyrics: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 8. Music: Tommy McKinnon. Lyrics: Eric Burnet.
Click Here to Subscribe to Pipeman in the Pit for PERKS, BONUS Content & FREE GIVEWAYS!
Pipeman in the Pit is a music, festival, and interview segment of The Adventures of Pipeman Radio Show (#pipemanradio) and from The King of All Festivals while on The Pipeman Radio Tour.
After years of dormancy, reinvention, and sheer force of will, The Conflux Collective erupts back into the extreme‑metal landscape with the announcement of their long‑awaited debut LP, "In the Wake of Saturn," arriving June 19th, 2026. Alongside the album announcement, the band has released the first single and lyric video, “Reincarnation,” a ferocious statement of rebirth that sets the tone for the album’s uncompromising vision.
Born from a chance reunion between guitarist Chase Fraser (Continuum, ex‑Decrepit Birth, ex‑Animosity) and drummer Tommy McKinnon (Derelict, Akurion, ex‑Neuraxis, ex‑Augury), The Conflux Collective began as a spontaneous spark, one that quickly ignited into a creative explosion. Within their first hour of jamming, a full song had formed; within six weeks, their debut EP, "The Inception," was complete. But the band’s evolution was far from linear.
After life circumstances forced the project into years of silence, McKinnon resurrected The Conflux Collective with a renewed sense of purpose. Armed with unreleased material from Fraser and a determination to finish what they started, he rebuilt the album from the ground up, writing new songs, reconstructing arrangements, recording all bass tracks by ear, and crafting lyrics drawn from deeply personal turmoil, transformation, and catharsis.
To bring the record fully to life, McKinnon assembled a powerhouse roster of extreme‑metal vocalists whose performances became the album’s emotional core: Jesse Brint (Gross Misconduct), Mallika Sundaramurthy (Emasculator, ex‑Abnormality), Jeffrey Mott (The Monster Factory, Growlers Choir, Hollow), Eric Burnet (Derelict, Samskaras), and Max Lusier (Derelict), who also contributes a blistering guitar solo.
The result is "In the Wake of Saturn," a progressive, brutal, melodic, and deeply human exploration of loss, survival, and rebirth. Across eight tracks, the album bridges the raw ferocity of ’90s death metal with the precision and ambition of modern tech‑death, unfolding like a narrative guided by shifting voices and emotional intensity.
“In the Wake of Saturn is a journey through pain, fear, defeat, survival, and finally rebirth. It’s a transformative experience that was created out of the necessity for change… a true underground monster made for those who seek the unusual,” says Tommy McKinnon.
The album’s first single, “Reincarnation,” was originally written by Fraser during the project’s early years. The track embodies the album’s themes of resilience and renewal.
“The Conflux Collective lives again, and this song tells the story of rebirth and resilience… It gives an impression of how the album sounds as a whole, with all the elements explored in depth in the other songs,” adds McKinnon Featuring a commanding vocal performance by Jeffrey Mott, “Reincarnation” delivers intricate drum work, uncompromising guitar lines, and the unmistakable intensity that defines The Conflux Collective's sound.
Watch and listen to the lyric video for “Reincarnation,” via its premiere on Decibel Magazine HERE. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nce0-kz3nTk
Though the project has no plans for live performances, The Conflux Collective stands as a testament to collaboration without boundaries, a convergence of some of extreme music’s most creative voices.
Recommended for fans of Cryptopsy, Necrophagist, Decrepit Birth, Augury, and Beyond Creation, "In the Wake of Saturn" will be available on all digital platforms as of June 19th, 2026.
Album pre-save - confluxcollective.bandcamp.com/
credits released June 19, 2026
Guitar: Chase Fraser (Continuum);
Vocals: Eric Burnet (Derelict), Max Lussier (Derelict), Jesse Brint (Gross Misconduct), Mallika Sundaramurthy (Emasculator), Jeff Mott (Hollow, Monster Factory);
Additional guitar, bass, and drums: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 1,2, 3, 6. Music: Chase Fraser. Lyrics: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 4. Music: Chase Fraser. Lyrics: Jesse Brint;
Track 5, 7. Music & Lyrics: Tommy McKinnon;
Track 8. Music: Tommy McKinnon. Lyrics: Eric Burnet.
Click Here to Subscribe to Pipeman in the Pit for PERKS, BONUS Content & FREE GIVEWAYS!
Pipeman in the Pit is a music, festival, and interview segment of The Adventures of Pipeman Radio Show (#pipemanradio) and from The King of All Festivals while on The Pipeman Radio Tour.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Hi, you live done to the censure? Wow, pray you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe
Man W four c Y Radio, and I have a
very cool guest coming on because their music is pretty badass.
So let's welcome to the show, Tommy from the Complex Collective.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, pipe Man, everybody, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
As I was saying it, I was thinking myself, tell
somebody to say that ten times fast.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's not that.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
No, it isn't like. As I say that, I'm like,
don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up in my head.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So tell us a little bit about how this resurrection
happened to create this in the wake of Saturn. I
love the name of that.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I just love that title.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Nice, thank you. Yeah, I did quite a bit of
research to come up with that. So well, I'll start
from the beginning the resurrection. It was a very simple process,
but you know, as things are sometimes simples, they're not
easy necessarily. Yeah, basically I had tracks already pre recorded
(01:31):
on the hard drive that was sitting there. I moved
across the country and all kinds of things happened in
the last ten years, and I was it was getting
on my nerves. I was like, dude, those tracks are
a killer and nobody's ever going to hear them unless
I do something about it. So I contacted. I got
I managed to get in touch with Chase, our guitar
(01:54):
player who's been ghosting me for a number of years,
and I took over the socials and the band cap
and all that, and I was like, all right, let's
let's get this done, because now I have a home
studio and all that. I know what I'm doing. I
can play guitar, so whatever our challenge was, we can
(02:15):
find a bass player of the level we needed to
commit to actually track. So I thought, you know what,
I have a pretty good bass. I'll set it up
and drug by and I'll just record it. So that
that's how I all started. I did the bass, I
did the drums, I wrote the lyrics, I made the patterns,
(02:37):
and then once I had everything ready, I sent that
out to the vocalists and I had a couple of rejections,
mostly because dudes were just way busy, like I was
hitting guys that were a tour like and half families
and or half families and all that. But I'm happy
with the lineup that we finally were to gather. They're
(03:01):
all they're amazing, Like they all blew me out of
the water in terms of commitment and turn around time
and performance nice.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, and you're right, man, it is so hard.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think after COVID, like everybody's working so hard, Like
even me, I go on tour and I do media
coverage at music festivals, and this year I was like, man,
I need to do a few lessons here because like
last year was one weekend after another from like February
till November, which is longer than usually the festival season is,
(03:38):
and it's just everybody's been trying to make up for
that lost two years that we had.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, broke a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They broke everybody right, exactly, And so I think artists
have to work harder than ever now to try to
play catch up.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You know, you have to be definitely smarter than ever
and more and you know that the scene has changed
so much and also the business has changed, but it's
almost unrecognizable, you know, in terms of I mean there's
(04:14):
there's a lot of opening opportunities and also there's a
lot of things that are way more complicated than they
used to be. So yeah, you have to navigate that,
and it's if you don't have management, especially you got
to be pretty clever.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Like it's funny while you were saying that, I was
thinking back to, you know, the days of the beginning
of death metal, like when I used to see Possessed
back in the day in the eighties, and you know,
what they had to do compared to what a band
like you has to do today is so drastically different.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Like you, you have so many jobs, not just a musician.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, I was tired once I finished all that, and
I'm still doing it. I'm still editing some videos right now,
and you know, creating reels and and just and interviews,
you know, which I'm grateful for. But all of that
I saw him doing it all. So it's it's pretty tough.
But like I mean, like the the hard part is
(05:13):
done now the album's out. I've got John Asher helping
me out with pr He's doing a great job plugging
the A in and and helping me follow up, helping
me navigate all that. But yeah, especially for a ben
it doesn't tour and we like we had a little
bit of history, but it was it was dormant for
(05:35):
so long, it's it's a bit of a challenge to
to bring everything up to speed for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well, I think it's also a good time for you
to do it too, because I think the world needs
your music more than ever now, and not just because
of the music, because of the message.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, I appreciate that. Man, That's that's pretty cool if
you think that. I it's definitely a deep album in
the wake of Saturn. I mean, I put I put
my heart and soul into that thing, and so I
really wanted to do something that's in the progressive matter
of being reflective and being forcing people to think and
(06:14):
maybe to meditate a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You know, no doubt, and you know, to me, music
is the great uniter and the great greatest therapy there is.
And I think this is what this album brings to
our community.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I appreciate that. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So how do you feel it's different for you creating
this music or even updating it, because some of it
was stuff you did a while ago, but you updated
it to today. How do you feel it's different now
compared to back when.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, I mean, I'm I'm definitely a better musician even
than back Dan in terms of like I could compose,
I can harmonize, I can please strings, you know, record
and edit all stuff that When we recorded the EP,
we had a sound guy, you know, and then we
got a mix engineer, and so I did some stuff obviously,
(07:14):
but my jump is mostly get the drums together and
you know, get the car to drive the gear where
it's supposed to be going. And now, like this thing,
I took over the whole entire production. Jean Artist like
she helped me out with the mix because my my
original I did two mixes before sending her something, and yeah,
(07:38):
when I really listened to it, it's like it's it's
a pancake, you know. So she's like she took PD
of me and she's like, why don't you just let
me handle this? But in terms of production and also
like kind of project manager getting at the whole thing together,
I did all of it. So for me that that's
a new level and it's part of the reason why
(07:59):
I really wanted to get this thing done as part
of a bit of a schooling if you will, you know,
or learning process. Think for me, it's easier to learn
if I have something to aim towards. So I thought,
you know what, I have all these tracks. So Chas's
guitars were final. We didn't I didn't have d I's uh,
(08:22):
so we had to go with the tone from his
camper profile that he had down. Luckily, I hadd and
B and I had all of the or I mean
left right, and I have all the guitar solos. Everything
was there. Uh, but I only had five tracks. So
that's why I decided to write three more. And so
(08:44):
that was my first time writing whole songs that made
it onto records. Before, with the access and stuff, I
only wrote riffs, you know that I would be writing stuff,
and then when Rob started running out of riffs, he'd
come to me and be like, hey, do you have
any thing I can Yeah? So that that was that.
That was that. So like it's basically a big step
(09:05):
up in all matter of it's kind of also kind
of my first experience as alleged band leader, you know,
not just sort of like the second.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I think one of the other cooler things, like
if we're going to talk about the cooler things about
being a musician today is as an artist, you have
way more control nowadays.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Oh yeah, crazy. Yeah. Yeah, as long as you master
the tools, you basically the sky's the limit, right, Like
the limit is getting it to the audience. That's that's
where the big the big challenges is navigating the social
media because everybody is in for themselves, right, so they'll
(09:50):
they'll try to cap you. They'll try to sell your advertisement,
yeah you know they advertisement doesn't always translate into sales either,
So it's you have to just sort of play the
game and play it slick.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
You know, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You have to be a lot smarter, I think too,
because you don't do live shows.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So that's a tough one.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah right, you got you gotta be creative and what
you do to get the get it out there for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah yeah, the conflicts, I mean, I would love to
get a like we'd have to get a live lineup,
you know, but it'd be kind of hard because Chase
doesn't really play guitar anymore, he told me, and so
I'd have to get somebody to learn all this stuff,
and it's not easy. It took me eight months to
track the bass because I didn't have tabs right, so
(10:40):
I had to lift everything basically note for note by
looping the looping the doll, you know, right, and it
was pretty crazy, man Like, it was a lot of work.
So yeah, so and and and this kind of band too.
It's it's kind of hard to say, oh yeah, we're
gonna play like five thousand people a night, I don't
(11:01):
think so, right, We're going to start playing like bars
and coffee shops and clubs, like tiny clubs. So yeah,
it's kind of a big undertaking for for for that,
you know, I'm I'm sort of aiming towards a different
kind of project next. And then if I go back
(11:22):
on the road, I wanted to do something a little
bit more, a little bit less blast beauty and a
little bit more easy on the body. Not because I'm
lazy or anything. It's just I'm getting old and I
have something I can sustain and maybe build a brand
this time instead of just doing one off albums, you know,
maybe build a brand that I you know, I could
(11:45):
get some momentum, get signed and all that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Great point too, because I think about that often. I
look at drummers that have been doing it for a
long time, and an extreme metal like, I'm like kind
of still able to do it. You know, you look
at most people at certain stages of life. They can
barely walk much less you know, play brutal right exactly,
(12:14):
but like it is tougher. I think, you know, it's
easy when you're a teenager to like have you know,
everything it takes to make them play brutal drums. And
I say drums specifically because I look at drummers like
I played drums for nine years when I.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Was a kid.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I sucked, but you know, but uh, you know, I
think that's why I think about it that way, because
I'm like, holy shit, when I be doing that at
this age, you know, and it's like, you really it
takes being fit to be a drummer.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Especially death metal memo and and and stuff that that
like conflex is lots of intricate season and they're not
easy to to play, right. So one thing is, you know,
for me, I'm just going into the studio, I always
have to be peak shape, right, So I and then
I got injured recently because I got a training injury,
(13:13):
so I haven't been really able to practice as much
or anything. So I'm sort of getting back into it now.
So my next thing is I want to focus more
on independence, you know, like four way independence and grooving
like that. That's where I feel like at forty three, now,
(13:37):
that's where I feel like I can get another thirty
years out of that, you know, like just pushing the
boundaries that way instead of pushing the boundaries at the
speed and intensity oh that kind of intensity anyways, you
know what. Yeah, So I just it kind of pushed me.
That injury thing kind of pushed me to re evaluate
(13:58):
my style and all that stuff. And then Conflux. I
really wanted to get it done because it was already
kind of half done and it's just sitting there and
I was like, oh man, this is sad. So I
wanted to finish it up and really like you know,
put it to rest in in a brilliant way.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, I mean, you did an amazing jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It is brutal, but it's also like so technically good,
and I think that is the difference a lot of times,
Like you know, once you really learn your craft, then
you can create like death metal that is musicianship opposed
to just you know, brutal, but it's brutal with musicianship.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, I mean that the uh, the groundwork was already
there because Jason's guitar playing at the time, like was
so brilliant and advanced, so that the five tunes he wrote,
I mean they're they're unbelievab like the amount of string
skipping and all that, and it's not just that too,
that gets sketchy, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, and then I just.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Finished the arrangement, which result always for me sort of
my secondary duty in any band, right, like, besides drumming,
and back in the days when we didn't use the
program anything, you know, we just dabbed so like developing
arrangements and so so I really focused too, Like I
I got inspired a lot by catchy bands, you know,
(15:31):
like Depth and Gogira let's say, you know, or old
school debt metal bands kind of you know, Morbid Angel Death,
let's say. Okay, I want these to sound like songs,
you know, not studies. I want them to sound like songs.
So I really really worked hard on the lyrics to
find the right words in the right spot. The singer
(15:54):
totally caught win of that, and they totally ran with
it and made it like life, you know, like really nice.
I think that I'm really happy with the results, to
be honest, I could be happy.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, definitely, everybody has to check it out.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, I don't you tell everybody how they can connect
to you on socials, how they can check the new
album out and everything else.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Woll very easy, uh for for those who use big
streaming services like Spotify, Apple, Title all that stuff, Uh,
it's super easy to find. Uh. And I'd say just
just google the title. In the wake of Saturn, it's unique. Uh,
there's a couple of complexes out there, but if you
(16:40):
search by category or if you search by title, you're
going to find it right away. Uh, conflex collective in
the wake of Saturn. But on Spotify it's just complex
because the CDBB my uh digital distributor, didn't allow me
to use collective because the logo said complex. Anyways, it's
in the I thing, I guess. Uh, so yeah, complex
in the way of Saturn. It's on all major platforms
(17:04):
through CD baby and then for higher end if you
want to listen in waves, go on band camp. Is
that that's the four point one sixteen bit format that's
on there, so it sounds better than m P three's
and YouTube music and all that. So bandcam and you
(17:25):
can purchase the digital for this time around, I wanted
to have vinyls. I did remaster the recording for vinyl
and I also produced a CD which is also has
the bonus tracks, the first EPs bonus track on the
CD and the artworks inside. So you can check that
(17:46):
out at elasticstage dot Com, Complex Collective Official Music. It's
they'll do. They'll print vinyls, high quality vinyls and CDs
on demand when you purchase them. So that's what I
went for this time around. And then we've got merch
(18:06):
on fort Wall. We got our merg store on fort Wall.
So if you guys check out either Comflexes YouTube or
Facebook page or Instagram page, conflux Co is the Instagram
handle you can find all the links to all of that,
(18:27):
so yeah, that's it. Our band cap, the band cap
has all the links as well. That is my favorite.
By the way, they are really helping the artists out
by offering that direct salet portal and everything. That's that's
really really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
See I love hearing that because there's so many of
these services that are screwing over artists. I'm always happy
to hear when one is treating them right.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, Well, you know it's that the business model of
the big streamers like is is really built on volume,
and it's built towards advertisers, volume and shareholders. Right, so
the artist really is sort of the left in the lurch,
if you will, you know, they're left. Yeah, Like so
(19:17):
what they paid people really is flaffable. Like I saw
post the other day somebody had a million some stream
I think they made like two hundred bucks out of that.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I know, it's ridiculous, right, it's absurd.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I mean it's absurd. It's it's horrible. So like the
streaming really, the streaming revenues, I mean it's it's non existent, right,
so uh what what what I find it's a great
alternative to that. If when people really want to encourage
a van and they love the band, uh necessarily, maybe
they have a small apartment, maybe they don't have a turntable,
(19:52):
whatever they wanted in their phone, go and buy by
the digital album. You get the artwork, you get the lyrics,
you get if you don't have to listen to advertisement,
you know, and it's not very expensive. You can carry
it with you, you can copy it, and it sounds
great because it's the actual format in which it's meant
(20:14):
to be listened to, with all the depth and all
the details that's there, So bancap is great for that.
You can buy the wave files and stream them on
the app as well, and it's it's very good for that, so.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I encourage definitely. Yeah, so that's cool. Everybody check it out.
And do you have a final words for our listeners.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, and everybody that's taking the time to check out
the Complex Collective in the week of Saturn album, thank
you so much. Like I said, I pulled, I poured
my heart and soul into that and it was a
pretty challenging album to make. So check it out, have
a listen, share it, and I hope you you head
(21:02):
bang and it it suits your mood. There's there's a
little bit of everything on there. And then it's good
to see you again. Pipe man. We talked last time
about Derelict. Derelict's coming up with a new album. Uh,
that's gonna probably be out next year or something. We're
going at the mixing towards the end of this year,
(21:24):
so I'm working on the apps right now. Yeah, I
fromout that sounds good. Well you'll hear from us again
and yeah, that's it, man, stay heavy and thanks for
the thanks for the invitation.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, and thank you for being on the adventures of
pipe Man, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I'm w for c u I Radio
Hi, you live done to the censure? Wow, pray you.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe
Man W four c Y Radio, and I have a
very cool guest coming on because their music is pretty badass.
So let's welcome to the show, Tommy from the Complex Collective.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Hey, pipe Man, everybody, how are you?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
I gotta tell you.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
As I was saying it, I was thinking myself, tell
somebody to say that ten times fast.
Speaker 1 (00:47):
It's not that.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
No, it isn't like. As I say that, I'm like,
don't fuck it up. Don't fuck it up in my head.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
So tell us a little bit about how this resurrection
happened to create this in the wake of Saturn. I
love the name of that.
Speaker 3 (01:07):
I just love that title.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Nice, thank you. Yeah, I did quite a bit of
research to come up with that. So well, I'll start
from the beginning the resurrection. It was a very simple process,
but you know, as things are sometimes simples, they're not
easy necessarily. Yeah, basically I had tracks already pre recorded
(01:31):
on the hard drive that was sitting there. I moved
across the country and all kinds of things happened in
the last ten years, and I was it was getting
on my nerves. I was like, dude, those tracks are
a killer and nobody's ever going to hear them unless
I do something about it. So I contacted. I got
I managed to get in touch with Chase, our guitar
(01:54):
player who's been ghosting me for a number of years,
and I took over the socials and the band cap
and all that, and I was like, all right, let's
let's get this done, because now I have a home
studio and all that. I know what I'm doing. I
can play guitar, so whatever our challenge was, we can
(02:15):
find a bass player of the level we needed to
commit to actually track. So I thought, you know what,
I have a pretty good bass. I'll set it up
and drug by and I'll just record it. So that
that's how I all started. I did the bass, I
did the drums, I wrote the lyrics, I made the patterns,
(02:37):
and then once I had everything ready, I sent that
out to the vocalists and I had a couple of rejections,
mostly because dudes were just way busy, like I was
hitting guys that were a tour like and half families
and or half families and all that. But I'm happy
with the lineup that we finally were to gather. They're
(03:01):
all they're amazing, Like they all blew me out of
the water in terms of commitment and turn around time
and performance nice.
Speaker 3 (03:11):
Yeah, and you're right, man, it is so hard.
Speaker 2 (03:14):
I think after COVID, like everybody's working so hard, Like
even me, I go on tour and I do media
coverage at music festivals, and this year I was like, man,
I need to do a few lessons here because like
last year was one weekend after another from like February
till November, which is longer than usually the festival season is,
(03:38):
and it's just everybody's been trying to make up for
that lost two years that we had.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, broke a lot of stuff.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
They broke everybody right, exactly, And so I think artists
have to work harder than ever now to try to
play catch up.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
You know, you have to be definitely smarter than ever
and more and you know that the scene has changed
so much and also the business has changed, but it's
almost unrecognizable, you know, in terms of I mean there's
(04:14):
there's a lot of opening opportunities and also there's a
lot of things that are way more complicated than they
used to be. So yeah, you have to navigate that,
and it's if you don't have management, especially you got
to be pretty clever.
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Like it's funny while you were saying that, I was
thinking back to, you know, the days of the beginning
of death metal, like when I used to see Possessed
back in the day in the eighties, and you know,
what they had to do compared to what a band
like you has to do today is so drastically different.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
Like you, you have so many jobs, not just a musician.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Yeah, I was tired once I finished all that, and
I'm still doing it. I'm still editing some videos right now,
and you know, creating reels and and just and interviews,
you know, which I'm grateful for. But all of that
I saw him doing it all. So it's it's pretty tough.
But like I mean, like the the hard part is
(05:13):
done now the album's out. I've got John Asher helping
me out with pr He's doing a great job plugging
the A in and and helping me follow up, helping
me navigate all that. But yeah, especially for a ben
it doesn't tour and we like we had a little
bit of history, but it was it was dormant for
(05:35):
so long, it's it's a bit of a challenge to
to bring everything up to speed for sure.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Well, I think it's also a good time for you
to do it too, because I think the world needs
your music more than ever now, and not just because
of the music, because of the message.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Well, I appreciate that. Man, That's that's pretty cool if
you think that. I it's definitely a deep album in
the wake of Saturn. I mean, I put I put
my heart and soul into that thing, and so I
really wanted to do something that's in the progressive matter
of being reflective and being forcing people to think and
(06:14):
maybe to meditate a bit.
Speaker 2 (06:16):
You know, no doubt, and you know, to me, music
is the great uniter and the great greatest therapy there is.
And I think this is what this album brings to
our community.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
For sure.
Speaker 1 (06:31):
I appreciate that. It's awesome.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
So how do you feel it's different for you creating
this music or even updating it, because some of it
was stuff you did a while ago, but you updated
it to today. How do you feel it's different now
compared to back when.
Speaker 1 (06:49):
Well, I mean, I'm I'm definitely a better musician even
than back Dan in terms of like I could compose,
I can harmonize, I can please strings, you know, record
and edit all stuff that When we recorded the EP,
we had a sound guy, you know, and then we
got a mix engineer, and so I did some stuff obviously,
(07:14):
but my jump is mostly get the drums together and
you know, get the car to drive the gear where
it's supposed to be going. And now, like this thing,
I took over the whole entire production. Jean Artist like
she helped me out with the mix because my my
original I did two mixes before sending her something, and yeah,
(07:38):
when I really listened to it, it's like it's it's
a pancake, you know. So she's like she took PD
of me and she's like, why don't you just let
me handle this? But in terms of production and also
like kind of project manager getting at the whole thing together,
I did all of it. So for me that that's
a new level and it's part of the reason why
(07:59):
I really wanted to get this thing done as part
of a bit of a schooling if you will, you know,
or learning process. Think for me, it's easier to learn
if I have something to aim towards. So I thought,
you know what, I have all these tracks. So Chas's
guitars were final. We didn't I didn't have d I's uh,
(08:22):
so we had to go with the tone from his
camper profile that he had down. Luckily, I hadd and
B and I had all of the or I mean
left right, and I have all the guitar solos. Everything
was there. Uh, but I only had five tracks. So
that's why I decided to write three more. And so
(08:44):
that was my first time writing whole songs that made
it onto records. Before, with the access and stuff, I
only wrote riffs, you know that I would be writing stuff,
and then when Rob started running out of riffs, he'd
come to me and be like, hey, do you have
any thing I can Yeah? So that that was that.
That was that. So like it's basically a big step
(09:05):
up in all matter of it's kind of also kind
of my first experience as alleged band leader, you know,
not just sort of like the second.
Speaker 3 (09:17):
Yeah, that's cool.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
And I think one of the other cooler things, like
if we're going to talk about the cooler things about
being a musician today is as an artist, you have
way more control nowadays.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
Oh yeah, crazy. Yeah. Yeah, as long as you master
the tools, you basically the sky's the limit, right, Like
the limit is getting it to the audience. That's that's
where the big the big challenges is navigating the social
media because everybody is in for themselves, right, so they'll
(09:50):
they'll try to cap you. They'll try to sell your advertisement,
yeah you know they advertisement doesn't always translate into sales either,
So it's you have to just sort of play the
game and play it slick.
Speaker 3 (10:04):
You know, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You have to be a lot smarter, I think too,
because you don't do live shows.
Speaker 1 (10:11):
So that's a tough one.
Speaker 3 (10:12):
Yeah right, you got you gotta be creative and what
you do to get the get it out there for sure.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
Yeah yeah, the conflicts, I mean, I would love to
get a like we'd have to get a live lineup,
you know, but it'd be kind of hard because Chase
doesn't really play guitar anymore, he told me, and so
I'd have to get somebody to learn all this stuff,
and it's not easy. It took me eight months to
track the bass because I didn't have tabs right, so
(10:40):
I had to lift everything basically note for note by
looping the looping the doll, you know, right, and it
was pretty crazy, man Like, it was a lot of work.
So yeah, so and and and this kind of band too.
It's it's kind of hard to say, oh yeah, we're
gonna play like five thousand people a night, I don't
(11:01):
think so, right, We're going to start playing like bars
and coffee shops and clubs, like tiny clubs. So yeah,
it's kind of a big undertaking for for for that,
you know, I'm I'm sort of aiming towards a different
kind of project next. And then if I go back
(11:22):
on the road, I wanted to do something a little
bit more, a little bit less blast beauty and a
little bit more easy on the body. Not because I'm
lazy or anything. It's just I'm getting old and I
have something I can sustain and maybe build a brand
this time instead of just doing one off albums, you know,
maybe build a brand that I you know, I could
(11:45):
get some momentum, get signed and all that.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
Great point too, because I think about that often. I
look at drummers that have been doing it for a
long time, and an extreme metal like, I'm like kind
of still able to do it. You know, you look
at most people at certain stages of life. They can
barely walk much less you know, play brutal right exactly,
(12:14):
but like it is tougher. I think, you know, it's
easy when you're a teenager to like have you know,
everything it takes to make them play brutal drums. And
I say drums specifically because I look at drummers like
I played drums for nine years when I.
Speaker 3 (12:29):
Was a kid.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I sucked, but you know, but uh, you know, I
think that's why I think about it that way, because
I'm like, holy shit, when I be doing that at
this age, you know, and it's like, you really it
takes being fit to be a drummer.
Speaker 1 (12:50):
Especially death metal memo and and and stuff that that
like conflex is lots of intricate season and they're not
easy to to play, right. So one thing is, you know,
for me, I'm just going into the studio, I always
have to be peak shape, right, So I and then
I got injured recently because I got a training injury,
(13:13):
so I haven't been really able to practice as much
or anything. So I'm sort of getting back into it now.
So my next thing is I want to focus more
on independence, you know, like four way independence and grooving
like that. That's where I feel like at forty three, now,
(13:37):
that's where I feel like I can get another thirty
years out of that, you know, like just pushing the
boundaries that way instead of pushing the boundaries at the
speed and intensity oh that kind of intensity anyways, you
know what. Yeah, So I just it kind of pushed me.
That injury thing kind of pushed me to re evaluate
(13:58):
my style and all that stuff. And then Conflux. I
really wanted to get it done because it was already
kind of half done and it's just sitting there and
I was like, oh man, this is sad. So I
wanted to finish it up and really like you know,
put it to rest in in a brilliant way.
Speaker 3 (14:16):
Well, I mean, you did an amazing jobs.
Speaker 2 (14:21):
It is brutal, but it's also like so technically good,
and I think that is the difference a lot of times,
Like you know, once you really learn your craft, then
you can create like death metal that is musicianship opposed
to just you know, brutal, but it's brutal with musicianship.
Speaker 1 (14:45):
Yeah, I mean that the uh, the groundwork was already
there because Jason's guitar playing at the time, like was
so brilliant and advanced, so that the five tunes he wrote,
I mean they're they're unbelievab like the amount of string
skipping and all that, and it's not just that too,
that gets sketchy, you know.
Speaker 3 (15:05):
Yeah, and then I just.
Speaker 1 (15:07):
Finished the arrangement, which result always for me sort of
my secondary duty in any band, right, like, besides drumming,
and back in the days when we didn't use the
program anything, you know, we just dabbed so like developing
arrangements and so so I really focused too, Like I
I got inspired a lot by catchy bands, you know,
(15:31):
like Depth and Gogira let's say, you know, or old
school debt metal bands kind of you know, Morbid Angel Death,
let's say. Okay, I want these to sound like songs,
you know, not studies. I want them to sound like songs.
So I really really worked hard on the lyrics to
find the right words in the right spot. The singer
(15:54):
totally caught win of that, and they totally ran with
it and made it like life, you know, like really nice.
I think that I'm really happy with the results, to
be honest, I could be happy.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
Well, definitely, everybody has to check it out.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
Well, I don't you tell everybody how they can connect
to you on socials, how they can check the new
album out and everything else.
Speaker 1 (16:17):
Woll very easy, uh for for those who use big
streaming services like Spotify, Apple, Title all that stuff, Uh,
it's super easy to find. Uh. And I'd say just
just google the title. In the wake of Saturn, it's unique. Uh,
there's a couple of complexes out there, but if you
(16:40):
search by category or if you search by title, you're
going to find it right away. Uh, conflex collective in
the wake of Saturn. But on Spotify it's just complex
because the CDBB my uh digital distributor, didn't allow me
to use collective because the logo said complex. Anyways, it's
in the I thing, I guess. Uh, so yeah, complex
in the way of Saturn. It's on all major platforms
(17:04):
through CD baby and then for higher end if you
want to listen in waves, go on band camp. Is
that that's the four point one sixteen bit format that's
on there, so it sounds better than m P three's
and YouTube music and all that. So bandcam and you
(17:25):
can purchase the digital for this time around, I wanted
to have vinyls. I did remaster the recording for vinyl
and I also produced a CD which is also has
the bonus tracks, the first EPs bonus track on the
CD and the artworks inside. So you can check that
(17:46):
out at elasticstage dot Com, Complex Collective Official Music. It's
they'll do. They'll print vinyls, high quality vinyls and CDs
on demand when you purchase them. So that's what I
went for this time around. And then we've got merch
(18:06):
on fort Wall. We got our merg store on fort Wall.
So if you guys check out either Comflexes YouTube or
Facebook page or Instagram page, conflux Co is the Instagram
handle you can find all the links to all of that,
(18:27):
so yeah, that's it. Our band cap, the band cap
has all the links as well. That is my favorite.
By the way, they are really helping the artists out
by offering that direct salet portal and everything. That's that's
really really cool.
Speaker 2 (18:46):
See I love hearing that because there's so many of
these services that are screwing over artists. I'm always happy
to hear when one is treating them right.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah, Well, you know it's that the business model of
the big streamers like is is really built on volume,
and it's built towards advertisers, volume and shareholders. Right, so
the artist really is sort of the left in the lurch,
if you will, you know, they're left. Yeah, Like so
(19:17):
what they paid people really is flaffable. Like I saw
post the other day somebody had a million some stream
I think they made like two hundred bucks out of that.
Speaker 3 (19:28):
I know, it's ridiculous, right, it's absurd.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
I mean it's absurd. It's it's horrible. So like the
streaming really, the streaming revenues, I mean it's it's non existent, right,
so uh what what what I find it's a great
alternative to that. If when people really want to encourage
a van and they love the band, uh necessarily, maybe
they have a small apartment, maybe they don't have a turntable,
(19:52):
whatever they wanted in their phone, go and buy by
the digital album. You get the artwork, you get the lyrics,
you get if you don't have to listen to advertisement,
you know, and it's not very expensive. You can carry
it with you, you can copy it, and it sounds
great because it's the actual format in which it's meant
(20:14):
to be listened to, with all the depth and all
the details that's there, So bancap is great for that.
You can buy the wave files and stream them on
the app as well, and it's it's very good for that, so.
Speaker 2 (20:28):
I encourage definitely. Yeah, so that's cool. Everybody check it out.
And do you have a final words for our listeners.
Speaker 1 (20:38):
Well, and everybody that's taking the time to check out
the Complex Collective in the week of Saturn album, thank
you so much. Like I said, I pulled, I poured
my heart and soul into that and it was a
pretty challenging album to make. So check it out, have
a listen, share it, and I hope you you head
(21:02):
bang and it it suits your mood. There's there's a
little bit of everything on there. And then it's good
to see you again. Pipe man. We talked last time
about Derelict. Derelict's coming up with a new album. Uh,
that's gonna probably be out next year or something. We're
going at the mixing towards the end of this year,
(21:24):
so I'm working on the apps right now. Yeah, I
fromout that sounds good. Well you'll hear from us again
and yeah, that's it, man, stay heavy and thanks for
the thanks for the invitation.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yeah, and thank you for being on the adventures of
pipe Man, my pleasure.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
Thank you for listening to the Adventures of pipe Man.
Speaker 3 (21:48):
I'm w for c u I Radio
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