Interview: Torche

Florida-formed sludge outfit Torche are set to tear up the Kings Arms stage on Friday night for their first ever New Zealand show, following a career that stretches back 10 years and has seen the group travel the globe. The last Torche album to hit shelves was Harmonicraft back in 2012, so we caught up with founding member and bassist Jonathan Nuñez to ask Seven Quick Questions  about what the group have up their sleeves for the future and to  find out a bit more about kickball and life in The Sunshine State...

Hi Torche! First off, I wanted to ask you about Miami, and Florida in general. Thanks to the news we always see crazy things happening in Florida. What's it like living there?

I'll start by saying that I agree some of the craziest news come out of Florida, and only seems to be getting more bizarre as time passes. Miami is a very unique part of FL. Depending on the area your in you can easily feel as if your not in the US, and being able to speak English is the last thing you'd need. I personally like the weather (most of the time), our natural surroundings, Hispanic/Latin food, and the energetic batshit crazy people we have down here.

You’ve travelled the world a lot, what’s your favourite spot to visit so far?

There's so many places I always look forward to visiting while on tour that all offer different things it's hard to choose one. I've had some of my best times in: Prague, Barcelona, Madrid, Milan, Bergamo, Berlin, Munich, Belfast, Dublin, New York... and many more. We're lucky to have great friends and fans in many places. We've had incredible shows and experiences all over, but for me these are some of the places where we've had great experiences over and over again.

Your upcoming tour will be your first time performing in New Zealand. What do you know about us down here?

I know New Zealand is a very unique and beautiful place. I've been told bits and pieces about certain areas, customs, dishes, and must see destinations. I'm personally looking forward to playing in a part of the world we've never been to, meeting locals, seeing our old friend who runs Robotic Empire Records (Andy Low), and experiencing as much as possible. The biggest perk of visiting a new place is meeting new people and being exposed to new things while doing what we love which is playing music. Really looking forward to it!!

One of the things that emerged from your last album Harmonicraft is the entertaining video for 'Kicking', where did the concept for that come from?

I'm pretty sure it's a kickball video with a comedic romantic situation... there's a fast times parody scene. There's some kicking involved.

I don't know this game, like playing baseball with a soccer ball? Is that an actual thing?

Damn, I thought it was either kickball or softball.... I haven't seen it in a long time. [Ed: He's right, it is the strange US-invented sport known as kickball]

Harmonicraft, came out in 2012. Have you got anything up your sleeves for the future?

Our new record Restarter will be out on Relapse Records the second week of February 2015. It's a change of pace from Harmonicraft, while still being a Torche record. It's definitely heavier and we're super excited with how it turned out sonically and artwork/packaging wise. Since we released Harmonicraft we've put out a couple 7"s as well Harmonslaughtand Leather Feather which have songs that are exclusive to those 7"s.

What inspires you to write as a group? What does the creative process look like?

The process probably sounds better than it looks. We have always worked well "in the moment". Not to say that none of us have ever not pre-written anything, but with a few exceptions that's usually not the case. Half of the band lives in different states so we use our time wisely while everyone is in town to write. I think at this point we look forward to the cycle that is writing, recording, and touring. To me the touring part of it is the reward for putting in the time writing and recording. The idea of playing the songs is the goal and definitely helps song writing. This is a useful perspective with many benefits which I think we apply regularly.

Torche are playing this Friday 10th October at Kings Arms Tavern in Auckland with support from Bloodbags, Bloodnut and Old Loaves. Head over here for full details and to buy tickets.