Galaxy

Questions answered by guitar player and songwriter Stu Callinan.

Galaxy is coming from Victoria/Melbourne Australia and is playing classic Metal in the highest order!

-Hi Guys, the first fact I want to know more about is, how and when the band was formed?

‘Classic metal in the highest order’, thanks for your kind words! Well I started writing the music for Galaxy in October 2016. The songs kind of wrote themselves in a relatively quick process. There was no real end goal initially with these songs, but I’m glad to be where I am now with the EP and the musicians on board and feedback in general. I contacted a good friend and drummer Joel Taylor to bring my demos to life with real drums and he nailed the brief. The songs came out more melodic than I had first thought, so via a mutual friend I got the very talented singer and musician, Phillip T. King for vocals and lyrics, and he turned the music into songs. For live shows, we got in two dear mates Cam Roberts and Tim Anderson to bring it from the record to the stage, in the few shows we’ve played we’ve had a blast!

-Which do you have to name as your main influences?

The idea to write riffs in the Galaxy vein came after an afternoon walking the city streets of Melbourne with my headphones in listening to Arctic Thunder by Darkthrone. Throw in some Kill ‘em All Metallica and the vast array of other personal influences from Voivod, Megadeth, Deep Purple and some more extreme music I landed with the material for the Lost From the Start EP.

-How’s the current old school Metal scene in Australia? Any other bands you can recommend us?

There’s always some cool old-school metal bands kicking in Australia… a few current favourites are Reaper, Road Warrior, Bastardizer… Convent Guilt are a band that recently split up but they gave us one more cool record last year before they did so. A group called Butterfly just released their first record (our singer Phil performs some guitar and vocals on that record too). And a special mention for some New Zealand mates Stalker who have new music this year also.

-How old are you guys and what was your 1^st touch with Metal?

We are all in our early to mid 30’s, my first memory of discovering heavy metal was via my folks’ record player. I was quite young and changing records on my own and Deep Purple - Machine Head was in amongst the collection. The first notes of Highway Star set me on my path to metal. Goosebump material. I then hired two cd’s from the local library from the album art alone and walked out with Paranoid and Ride the Lightning… fair to say I was set.

-Is Galaxy your only band or are you involved in anymore Metallic activities?

Yeah Galaxy is my only really active ‘band’ however I’ve personally always got other projects in the works. I ‘m looking to follow up a solo (with guest drummer) black metal album titled Offering with the project being named Sylvan Awe, written previously to the Galaxy EP. Another black metal project, which will hopefully be out by years end called Càirdeas Fala with a dear friend, Robert Allen. Phil has completed writing and demoing a full length album for a new project / band (which I’ve heard and it rules) so I’m sure there’ll be news about that when it’s ready to go! As I said before Phil also played on that Butterfly record “Doorways of Time.” Cam and Tim play in Blackhelm, a melodic black metal band from Melbourne that I believe are elite in their craft.

-Happy about the feedback of your debut release on German Dying Victims Productions?

Overwhelmed with the reach the album has had, and all the positive feedback. From reviews on webzines and the like all around the world and even down to private messages on social platforms and the overall support from Australian heavy metal scene and beyond. Killer!

-Top 5 Australian Hard & Heavy recordings!

Ohh man it changes often I’d say but straight off the bat, with nostalgia points in mind - Damaged – Token Remedies Research, Pyscroptic – The Scepter of the Ancients, Abramelin – Abramelin, Sacriphyx – The Western Front, The Wolves – Demo 2000, Buffalo – Volcanic Rock. I can already think of 5 more but I’ll stop there.

-Any future plans?

Yeah mate plenty on the cards, we are currently mid-way through recording our debut full length. We’re really excited about the direction its heading and very proud of what we’ve created so far, looking forward to getting it out and sharing it with you all. We’ll also be sharing some very exciting news when we get the green light to, so stay tuned on that front! Thanks for your questions and time Marco.