Rhetoric Over Reality are a 3 piece all instrumental prog metal act from Townsville. Their sound is a sonic assault of weird time signatures, tempo changes, and chord voicings from the dark side. Listening to the bands latest E.P, the dizzying displaying of musicianship on offer is simply astonishing. I caught up with 6 string bass player Joe Moxon for a quick chat ahead of their show at Rumble in the Jungle at Kuranda this Saturday night the 16th of July.
How did Rhetoric over Reality meet?
I moved to Australia from England in 2008 and decided that I wanted to get involved in the local music scene. I saw a ‘bassist wanted’ ad in the local music shop posted by some dude called Ray who wanted to start a Prog Metal band. I gave him a call and 8 years later am still stuck with him kind of like a persistent tapeworm. Aaron came along a bit later after we’d tried a few drummers – I think he knew Ray from somewhere previously. He came for a jam and instantly fit in terms of playing style, technical ability and personality. We’ve tried other members over the years but it just didn’t work/stick so we decided to move forwards as a 3 piece.
Why did you decided to be an all instrumental band?
Frankly, because none of us can sing! We’ve tried singers in the past but it didn’t really work for a number of reasons. The turning point came when we had one guy quit on us a few weeks before a gig which we decided to play anyway. We had a huge response that night, and people later told us that removing the vocals gave the music more room to come through – it actually started making more sense to the audience. From then we decided to break with tradition and go instrumental, focusing on improving our writing/musicianship to keep things interesting.
You say in your BIO that you definitely don’t want a singer, but hey, what if someone like Mike Patton or Maynard James Keenan put up their hand?
We’d say ‘come along, bring beer, but we can’t promise anything!’. Seriously, if the right person came along, then we’d be happy to try different things – so far, that person hasn’t appeared.
Where did the band name come from?
I was half asleep one morning listening to a news broadcast (metal or what?), and heard someone describe the recent Federal budget as ‘a triumph of rhetoric over reality’. I thought it sounded cool, and is basically politician speak for calling out bullshit. Looking online I noted that there were no other bands with that name so we thought we’d go for it.
What can Punters expect from your Rumble in the Jungle show?
A bunch of giggling idiots who can’t believe that they’re lucky enough to still be playing music they enjoy, despite being adults – well chronologically at least. We’ve been looking forward to this gig so have been practicing hard and we’re working on debuting a couple of newish tracks which have undergone major overhaul as we weren’t happy with them in their original format. We also tend to dick around on stage to try and make it interesting for all involved – I’ll probably fall over at some point, Ray will say something stupid and Aaron will mentally distance himself from us.
What’s next for Rhetoric after the Rumble show, and new recordings planned?
Immediately after the show, we’re looking forward to grabbing a few beers and watching the other bands! We’ve been working on some new stuff which we’re keen to get recorded. We’d be keen to hear what the Rumble audience think of the new material as constructive feedback is always welcomed before we commit to recording. There are talks of more shows coming up, but as yet nothing concrete – we’re just taking it as it comes for now. Would love to play more gigs outside Townsville though – we’ve always had a great time inflicting noise on new audiences…
Todd Macalpine
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