Interview with Luke Manson of Xile and Antagonist A.D

Please introduce yourself, and tell us what bands you have been a part of?

Hi, I'm Luke. I've been playing Bass for Antagonist AD since late 2012 and am the singer and songwriter for Xile. I've played in The Burial, Too Late, Force Fed Trauma, Brutes, Widow Maker and I filled in on a few tours for Australian band Confession. My first band was a Slayer cover band called Kill Again playing Bass. I've always been a Bass player or rhythm Guitarist. My first band on vocals is Xile.

Tell us a bit about your introduction to nzhc, and what bands were around at the time?

When I first moved from Ohope/Whakatane to Auckland, I had never heard of hardcore. I was into heavy music (Slayer/Metallica/CKY) from BMX videos and already heavily binged Linkin Park, Korn and Limp Bizkit as a teen. Some older Bmxer's gave me a few CDs that introduced me to Hardcore and Deathmetal when I moved up. The first 3 CDs were At the Gates - slaughter of the soul, terror - lowest of the low and an evil priest album. From there, they gave me stuff I had to hide from my parents like Deicide - Once upon the cross and Carcass - Heartwork, which I walked to school listening to. Evil Priest was an active NZ band at the time, but I had no idea they were even from NZ until later on.

My introduction to NZHC … this is hazy at best. I went to many shows drunk with my BMX mates and looking back we were those classic drunk normies. A lot of Rabble, Missing Teeth AA shows, Suicide Dogs punk shows at the K road ballroom cause I could sneak in under 18. Metal shows at Hysteria.

I think my first NZHC show introduction was Parkway Drive tour 2006? and from then I became a big Antagonist Fan and my transition to being a hardcore kid started there. My favourites were Brick Vs Face, The Warpath, Damaged, there was also a lot of local bands and kids my age, lots of house shows to go to, and I made a lot of friends from there.

Anyone around the time there was a heavy Christian hardcore scene and preachy vibe, so when we did Force Fed Trauma we were very Anti-Christian lol. I was there for the music and the pit, I was never one for anyone’s politics or the hardcore ethic SXE beliefs bands. I'd go to shows to drink and mosh.

Describe kiwi hardstyle/New Zealand hardstyle, what is it and did you invent a new genre of heavy NZ music?

It seems normal now, but back when Lee and I started Xile (2015) mosh was very off-trend in NZ, you had a lot of Trapped under ice etc rocky hardcore bands everywhere, a whole lot of hardcore shows and nothing to mosh to. I had just discovered European beatdown, Nasty, Desolated, Malevolence and saw the insane pits they had over there in Europe, I had to do something like this. I was going to start Xile around 2011 when The Burial finished but I joined Antag and got distracted for a few years. In 2015 I had a few demos id written after The Burial, so I changed the breakdowns to beatdown slams and more or less, Xile was born. A Kiwi style mix of the Euro beatdown scene, we like to talk a bit of shit so Kiwi style turned into Hardstyle. It is what it is!

Is it hard being in a touring band with the world's covid crisis, and has covid ruined any possible touring opportunities?

Yeah, it’s impossible. After a few years of touring Australia, South East Asia and China with Xile we finally cracked that Big Europe tour with Nasty and Counterparts after releasing our latest album I Am Your God in 2020. In fact, we released that album the same month covid hit, it seems like a dream, but yeah nothings happened since and that tour won't happen now because of covid. I’m hopeful we'll kick off where we left off, we'll have to release some new music which is crazy considering we haven't played the latest music. That's the world now, adapt or die, we're certainly ready to go when it’s all on again.

Antagonist is a bit more established and is doing well, we've played a few shows in the covid gaps.

What current up and coming youth bands do you have your eye on, and do you have any advice for them?

There is some great NZ bands with really talented musicians. Pale Flag is current favourite. Our scene has been small for a while, with a lot of the bands supporting each other and great venues. My advice would be to leave haha… bluntly, something I regret not doing. Our lifestyle here in NZ caters for a great life and an awesome start but for music it’s a death sentence, being land locked means your basically at the mercy of finances at every turn. To get to the next closest city - Melbourne - to open a show for no guarantee may cost the band collectively 2500 to 3000 in flights alone never mind accommodation, van hire, gas and food etc. I joined Antagonist after they did all the hard work but I soon realised when we built Xile from the ground up it's very expensive to be a band from New Zealand. For the most part relationships and my own fear of moving from my friends and family has kept me here, but moving to Europe or Germany for example for a Hardcore band would be a great base, the sky would be your limit.

It's still a penciled in plan for us if we land a few Europe tours and establish ourselves. We'd need to move or we simply couldn't afford to do it at a realistic frequency to keep up relevancy, networks and relationships.

Can you tell us about BDHW records and for younger musicians in New Zealand what are the steps to becoming part of a music label?

We discovered BDHW when I started listening to all the heavy Euro bands, they had the sickest bands doing just what we wanted to do. When we did the Xile Grafton EP we said fuck it, shoot for the stars and see if we can land on the moon. We sent it to BDHW and they loved it, since then we've formed an excellent relationship even tho we still haven't met. Advice for landing labels would be to aim for relatable bands and the right genre specifics, also you need to prove you’re worth it, these DIY labels are usually one person grinding. You need to give them a reason to listen to you! Don't hand someone a half-cocked idea and expect them to do the rest, you gotta put forward the finished package, sell the image, sell the vision, show them you're invested in this - make it easy for them to pick you up. If it's an overseas label, more than likely you'd need to express your interest in being a serious touring band for them to take notice. If you're a NZ HC band there's a great label called Elimination Records in Wellington, Rob there goes hard and is passionate about the music.

Any memories or stories from overseas tours you can share with us, how did the Confession tour come about?

Every tour, NZ or abroad, has had some hilarious times. Some of my favs were the first Antagonist tours in Aus that opened my eyes, touring Europe with Parkway right before they were super super stars. China with Xile was awesome, up on the great wall for the second time thanks to music. Filling in for Confession came about from just being a good cunt I guess lol, we became good friends on an Amity Affliction Aus tour and touring bands are always short of members so I got the bass gig on a few tours Aus, China and South East Asia with them. Me living in NZ made it hard to stay in the mix, unfortunately, doubling back on what I said about how NZ isn't the centre of the world. The last tour to Thailand and Malaysia was one of the best yet, Reiner owes me 4 bucks.

Touring is like a drug, you always want more, there's nothing like hitting the road with the boys, making new friends, testing a few current friendships and bringing that energy you've created on the album to the live stage, it's a rewarding challenge.

Who was involved in producing the last Xile album and do you have any plans for new Xile music?

Lee, Boozey and I flew over to Brisbane to Sledgehammer studios to produce the album with Sean Delander from Thy Art is Murder. Sean is a good friend & extremely talented with a finger on the pulse of the heavy shit, he just opened his own studio and we were one of the first bands in there. The boys spent a week there and I spent another 2 by myself tracking instruments with Sean, then I went back a few months later to track vocals. I came in with 13 or so songs that got chopped down to 9 songs and we wrote Diamond Eyes in the studio to complete 10 tracks for IAYG. It was mixed and mastered by Lance Prenc. I couldn't recommend Sean & Sledgehammer studios enough, it's great to leave your home and stay at a studio, immerse yourself in the music and stay in the zone. As for new music, theres singles for sure maybe an EP in the mix, a deluxe IYAG with an extra track… We’d like to play a IAYG album release show first tho haha.

Antagonist ad released the All Things ep this year produced by the legend Kurt Ballou of Converge,can you tell us about that?

We flew to Salem Boston in the states for a 2 week stay at the God City studio owned by Kurt. It was a dope time, a great city, we got the work done and it was an experience. Again being able to stay at the studio and immerse yourself in the music and the record is a really special thing with a bonus of being in the states. Strange looking back because we left right before covid started late 2019. The release was affected by the worldwide pandemic just like the Xile album. It's a 3 part EP that becomes a full album on the last release, currently, we've released 2 of 3 EPs.

What keeps the flame burning and for the young up and coming bands can you describe the hard work, hustling, grinding and dedication that goes on behind the scenes?

That's a hard one to answer, sometimes it's just blind charging ahead. This is my thing, my passion, so I push on. The dream is there, it's in reach, I just need to work a little harder here and a little harder there. Along with passion and talent of course comes money, a lot of money needs to be invested in merch, media, recording and having good touring gear etc so a lot of sacrifices are made to complete the whole picture. In my opinion, you've got to have all bases covered, being great at something and shit at something else will let you down. You've got to be the jack of all trades, even if it means being the master of none. As for advice, you gotta be true to you, you cant peddle music uphill you don’t believe in, it just won't last. There's a lot of people ready and willing to pull you down, a lot of opinions and the minefield that is the current social climate. Never compromise and don't take shit from anyone, you gotta have a thick skin.

I'd rather have haters and super fans than everyone say my band is just OK. Keep grinding your struggles will make the success sweeter. Move to Europe/UK/USA like I said lol not Australia that's a diagonal move.

Top 5 bands or albums that influenced you the most over the years?

My all-time fav musically and lyrically is Slayer fav album God Hates Us All, Xile is named from a track on there. There's so many, so many different parts of different genres that contribute to my taste. Looking through my artists most thrashed would be Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, Acacia Strain, Nasty, Cannibal Corpse, Alpha Wolf, Fear Factory, Thy Art, No Zodiac, Chimaira, Dying Fetus, love me a bit of Amity Affliction and would've played XtyrantX a million times lol. Growing up in the scene Antagonist and the local NZ bands at the time probably had the most influence on me.

Locals supporting locals, is it true you tend to use local artists for your Xile merch and why?

Yeah man, we love to use local artists, supporting friends wherever we can. There's just a bit more weight in it for us, none of them are favours, they're all paid work. Usually, these guys or gals are in the scene and might not be in bands but have dope talents, it's also an easy way of building a lasting

relationship of repeat work, building merch and design lines based off their style, it keeps the look consistent. Support the people who support you!

Any words or advice for the current New Zealand music scene and is there anything we can improve on?

I wish we had more venues and I wish flights and excess baggage were free haha.

Shout out to Lee, my bandmates, Raissa, BDHW, Sean @ Sledgehammer Studios and Tommy Unstoppable.

Shout out to you if you made it this far .. we have free sticker packs with every merch order at www.xile.nz Antagonist gear at www.antagonist.net

Thanks, NZPP. You guys go hard and keep it real. Love the NZHC content and support.