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Niche early 2000s Russian pop, killer synth lines and the full circle return of a stalwart producer: join Void Of Vision frontman Jack Bergin as he unpacks some of the core creative influences behind the band's astonishing new album What I'll Leave Behind, set to release on September 20.
Later this month, a brand new era will dawn for Melbourne's Void Of Vision, with the imminent release of their brand new album What I'll Leave Behind set to drop on September 20 via UNFD.
A stupefying collection of explosive riffs, viscous textures and serrated metalcore, What I'll Leave Behind finds Void Of Vision barrelling their trademark sounds into new and scintillating territory, redefining modern heavy music through a sharp and compelling lens.
But beyond the gripping sonic terrain, What I'll Leave Behind also details a significant journey for vocalist Jack Bergin, with agonising seizures leading to a diagnosis that Bergin had a "glitch" in his head: an arteriovenous malformation (AVM), to be precise, a tangle of blood vessels in his brain, revealed by MRI and CT scans.
Soldiering on with touring commitments and writing new material in the midst of his ongoing and increasing health crisis, Bergin and his bandmates ultimately have emerged with genuinely their best collection of music to date. An authentic, cathartic and dexterous record, What I'll Leave Behind almost presents as a phoenix moment in the Void Of Vision legacy; emerging from the embers of pain and struggle and emerging in dazzling full flight. And an equal highlight throughout the album alongside Bergin's searing vulnerability is the band's fresh take on their overarching genre; a fact that stems from some gleeful nostalgia and the return of longtime VOV friend and collaborator Sam Bassal to the producer's chair after his work on 2016's Children of Chrome.
Ahead of the album's release next week, come and join Jack Bergin himself divulging some of the niche early 2000s influences and beyond: come and discover the key creative inspirations behind What I'll Leave Behind.
Chester Bennington
I feel like it's been this way for a long time, but more recently it’s been more prevalent than ever that a huge inspiration for me is Chester Bennington. When I was beginning this new style of vocal work, all of this new singing that I'm involving is a lot more aggressive; and it’s a very big nod to what he would've been doing back in the day on Meteora and Hybrid Theory, those sorts of albums. I think it’s very interesting seeing people approach that, you’re saying simple lines and the most basic words, but it feels so much more abrasive and everything just hits a lot harder because of the style of how you’re singing it, the aggression and the force behind it. Looking back at those first two Linkin Park albums, all of those choruses were very basic and down the line. It didn’t have to be anything special, no fucking special vocabulary. It’s just honest and raw feeling. But I think because of how he sang it, it just clicked for so many people, and so many people could belt it out. The idea of people being able to belt out a Void Of Vision chorus and sing it as loud as they can at the top of their voice is a really exciting concept! I think I took on a lot of what I grew up listening to with Linkin Park when I was approaching this album. I’ve always known Chester is the absolute G.O.A.T, but it’s even more prominent now, and I’ve been a lot more influenced by him than I really ever thought I would be. He’s definitely one of the bigger influences on this record for me personally.
t.A.T.u.
This next one is really out of the box, but another inspiration was the group t.A.T.u., I really became obsessed with their record 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane from the early 2000s. You can’t necessarily hear it as much in the final product with What I’ll Leave Behind, but where we all started with the raw synths and the backing tracks, and just all the production soundscape behind everything - it all began sounding like that t.A.T.u. album. It was really, really strange! It was all really raw and all of the synths just sounded like they were taken straight off that album. It was all just this bank of sounds that James [McKendrick] had compiled, and it led to me wanting to push that imagery. I love the idea of all of that colourway, all of the gross greens and blues and sepia tones, those early 2000s vibes. That leads into another influence I’ll touch on later, but it looks like a shitty thriller movie almost, really low budget. It’s so nostalgic! And all of the fonts we were using too, that all fed into it. The whole time I was just like: t.A.T.U., t.A.T.U., t.A.T.U.! I was really enjoying it. I ran through 200 km/h in the Wrong Lane and finding out more about them along the way as well. They’ve got a fucking movie, it’s crazy! I did a big deep dive on them, and it’s a weird but big influence on our album for sure. And I had no idea that the songs were written in Russian first as well, All The Things She Said has a Russian version on that album too. And that music video is unforgettable. There’s just something about it because I always get it stuck in my head, and I’m glad that I retained it for the right moment. It’s fucking incredible.
The Neptunes
Another huge influence I have to throw in here is The Neptunes. I know it’s a different genre to VOV, but Pharrell [Williams] and all of the hooks that he's involved with are just so heavy and driving. If they're on a JT album, there's still some really fucking hard stuff. There's that Hella Good song by No Doubt, and there are just playlists of stuff that you just don't expect that they're involved with - but they're everywhere! They were truly everywhere, even all those heavy synths in Milkshake by Kelis. It's so, so sick. And I think the simplicity of a good heavy driving synth hook was such a big influence for us. We started a lot of these hooks off with synth lines, I think Neurotic started like that, and Gamma Knife started with that synthy bit that sounds like a guitar, but it's just really raw, just buttons being clicked.
And still on the topic of The Neptunes, that first N.E.R.D. album too! Once again, a completely different genre but that’s just absolute top tier songwriting. It’s so good! As a white male, I can never aspire to write anything as good as that. But you can really feel the soul in everything they do, it’s pure magic.
Cult Nostalgic Cinema
A lot of the elements on this album are steeped in nostalgia, and since the get go - whatever this album was going to be about, I was also obsessed with really early 2000s shitty movies and wanted to channel some of that. There’s one with Paul Walker called Joy Ride from 2001, there’s some really sick fonts in there. J. J. Abrams wrote it, and it’s fucking crazy, I seriously can’t believe it. Everything from that era, not necessarily shitty thriller actions, but along that kind of vibe with some of those B grade movies or cult classics and psychological thrillers around that time….I took a lot of that imagery, all of those oversaturated tones and the creative side of it all, that really influenced a lot of this record. There’s that Joy Ride movie and Se7en as well, I just wanted everything to look gritty and gross. It was all full circle at times too, the intro to Se7en is a fucking Nine Inch Nails Closer mix up, and I never picked up on that until I went back and revisited it. It’s fucking insane, that was right there in front of us the whole time! The early 2000s was an interesting time, Mindhunters is another movie that I got inspiration from as well. It has LL Cool J in it and Val Kilmer…it’s just super weird and has that yuck blue, all of that perfect imagery I wanted for this album. I really think nostalgia is important, and I wanted to bring it all the way back.
Sam Bassal
And lastly, I'm just going to be blowing smoke up his ass, but Sam Bassal as a general person was a huge inspiration. I've always thought since I first met him when he was 17 or 16 - he is the most talented musician in this country. He's honestly a mastermind and it's criminally underrated how clever he is in the production world. He's just such a talented individual and I love picking his brain. It’s not just me being biased as a friend, he just genuinely writes a lot of my favorite music. He has this really enjoyable taste and I really think without him, this record would be nowhere near what it is right now. I honestly would hate to picture what it would look like without him every day, driving to his or staying the night at his. Because of him, I knew this was going to be great. He speaks great words of encouragement and it's awesome seeing a producer flourish at such a young age and knowing that there's a huge future for them. He’s got “it”. He's one hundred per cent got it. And I can't wait for everyone else to realise that he's got it because it's going to birth a lot of great music.
VOID OF VISION
New album What I'll Leave Behind due out Friday 20 September via UNFD.
More info here.
BY TIANA SPETER