Interview: Joel Quartuccio from Being As An Ocean

Californian melodic hardcore outfit Being As An Ocean are coming down under for their first tour since 2013! We sat down with Being As An Ocean’s vocalist Joel Quartuccio on the eve of their first headline Australian tour since 2013,  to talk new singles, inspirations and koalas.

So Joel, you and the band are coming back down under for your first headline tour since 2013! Are you excited to come back?

Absolutely, very excited we love Australia man, it will be cool to see what the shows are like!

In the past when you’ve been in Australia what is your favourite thing to pass the time?

We love nature, and you guys have so much of that, so whenever we can get out and see something beautiful we love to do that. We are all big food buffs as well so whenever we can find a nice place to eat or somewhere interesting get out and  drink something interesting we like to do that.

The new track Dissolve was released a few months ago, it seems to have had a huge response online and blown up in the scene, were you expecting such a big reaction?

We always kind of just hope to make ourselves happy in the studio and then just kind of send it out on a prayer, so we’re really really excited and baffled about how it’s taken off. We’re just thankful and grateful that everyone appreciates a song we poured our heart and soul into!

Have you tried anything new with this single that’s different to you previous releases?

Sure, the vocals are a bit more spoken on this one, at least the way it is in the video version. We recorded two versions and had them both mastered, one with screaming and one spoken word which we sort of just naturally gravitated towards. We felt it conveyed just as much emotion as the screaming one and we like the fact that you can understand everything I was saying, so we all took a vote decided to do something different.

Are there any band disputes over screaming vs spoken vs singing? It seems you do a lot of different stuff with your vocals.

It’s always been super collaborative between us. We were all in the same rooms together trying things and engaging (people) the room. At the end of the day we all just want to end up still loving music we create, and I think that comes through that kind of collaboration where everyone is satisfied. I think an interesting thing about being musician and being in a group is having that skill to be able to let go of ego and say “I play music with person because I trust them and I know they know a thing or too as well, and I concede this one thing”.  Otherwise why not just be a solo artist?

Being As An Ocean is known for poetic and spoken word deliveries, are these purposeful? Or do your lyrics just naturally come out like that?

It’s a bit of both if I can be honest with myself, one of the first artists that was really influential upon me when I was young was spoken word artist called Bradley Hathaway. He played a couple shows at a venue I used to go to when I was like 13-16 years old. He was one of those extremely animated spoken word poets and he always performed on a floor in a middle of a circle.

I kind of just fell in love with spoken word and application in music after that. MeWithoutYou was a huge influence as well, not only on me but the whole band and their heavily incorporative of spoken word, so it’s always just been a part of my music consciousness and I’ve always had a passion and love for it.

Would Being As An Ocean rather fill a stadium show or sell a platinum record?

Sell out a stadium show definitely, I just saw Billy Joel so I’ve just seen that scenario and that would be the dream!

Seeing as though you’re coming to Australia do you prefer Kangaroos or Koalas?

Koalas definitely because you can hold them.

Is a Koala cuddle on the to do list for Being As An Ocean?

We’ve done it once before, but it’d be awesome to do it again, it’s so cool!

Vegemite. yay or nay?

It’s a no from me (laughs).

Being As An Ocean Australian Tour 2016

THU 26 May
The Brightside, Brisbane
FRI 27 May
The Lab, Brisbane (All Ages)
SAT 28 May
The Factory Theatre, Sydney
SUN 29 May
Cambridge Hotel, Newcastle
WED 1 JUNE
Fowler’s Live, Adelaide
THU 2 JUN
Max Watt’s, Melbourne
FRI 3 JUN
Arrow on Swanston, Melbourne (All Ages)
SAT 4 JUN
Amplifier Bar, Perth
SUN 5 JUN
YMCA HQ, Perth (All Ages)

 Get Tickets HERE