Formerly known as After Change, the Adelaide-based rock outfit have reformed, rejuvenated and re-branded as alt. and are exploring a brand new sound to accompany.

Please list all of your band members and their roles in the band.

Daniel Richards - Vocals

Daniel Wells-Smith - Guitar

Simon Aistrope - Guitar

Declan Fry - Drums

For starters, what bands were you guys a part of prior to alt.? How long has the band been around?

We’ve all been involved in music and in bands around Adelaide for years now. The band originally started as 'After Change' and we had a decent resume of shows, an EP out, and touring experience. We wanted to revise our entire musical journey and explore new genres and ideas, so we started working on a fresh rejuvenated band called ‘alt.’ around early 2019.

What’s the origin of that name and have you changed the band’s name before?

Our old band was 'After Change'. The name 'alt.' came from 'After Change' meaning we were after something else, an alternative. So we shortened it to 'alt.' 

Who writes your songs? What are the main themes or topics for most of your songs and do you think these topics will change over time?

We have a few different ways we write, most commonly it will be Daniel (vocals), Daniel (guitar) and Simon (guitar) writing in a home studio. We’ll usually hash out an idea, then track draft vocals to it immediately to get a feel for the song. Declan will then put his drums into it if we've produced anything good and we go from there. We don’t tend to take ‘finished product’ demos into the final stage or recording to keep open to ideas. On the EP this time around, we did a lot of pre-production with Chris Lalic (Windwaker), which was a great experience. He really helped us explore more of the light/dark sound mix throughout the EP.

We had a little help from Zachary Britt (Young Lions/Dream On Dreamer) and Trenton Woodley (Hands Like Houses) on a track each. The EP was produced, mixed, and mastered by Callan Orr (Dream On Dreamer), who was instrumental in helping shape the sound too. We also wrote one or two songs through just jamming in a practice room, so we've used a good mix of writing technique throughout. The lyrical topics are 99% of the time about life experiences. This EP is about the last 2 years of Daniel’s (vocals) life and all of the ups and downs, while expressing the feelings and emotions that go along with those stories.

What bands are currently inspiring the music that you’re making?

We all have our own mixture of influences when it comes to writing. To generalise it, we could put it to bands such as Bring Me The Horizon, The Plot In You, PVRIS, etc. Daniel (vocals) is a lot into the more pop side of things (Troye Sivan, etc.), whereas the rest of the band resonates with a heavier rockier spectrum, with acts like Taking Back Sunday, The Used, etc., to heavier bands such as Architects and Polaris. We all have a history in different bands from pop punk to cover bands to rock and hardcore, so that variety of experience has a huge influence in the writing process.

Was there a particular band/artist or concert that inspired you to start a band?.

There could be a lot of different answers to this one! For a lot of us it was probably those bands and artists you listened to back in the day who were our heroes growing up, there’s a million. Bands like Blink 182 are a probable influence for some of us, but there is variety in there too. Daniel (vocals) felt a big connection with Michael Jackson, for example, with Linkin Park being the first real band to make him want to start playing and writing rock music.

What do you do to prepare for a show? Any flexing, exercises, ect …

Not a lot. We’ll do basic guitar warm ups maybe and possibly even talk about the attitude we need to have going out there, or mention some specifics we need to take notes on about the set (cuts, song changes, etc.), but otherwise it’s just to hype yourself up, make sure you’re good to go, then get out and play.

What has been the biggest highlight of the band’s career so far?

Definitely up there is playing a sold out headline show as our old band 'After Change'. Having everyone singing our words back to us was an amazing experience. We were also fortunate enough to have some highlight shows and tick some bucket list support slots off the list, with bands such as Moose Blood, Mayday Parade, We The Kings, Hundredth, Circa Survive, Hands Like Houses, and As It Is to name a few. We really can’t wait to be kicking those sort of goals with 'alt.'

If you could tour with any bands, past or present, who would they be and why?

Another big question. Bring me the Horizon would obviously be a dream come true for any band in this genre at the moment. They’re one of the biggest and most influential bands on the planet right now. Realistically, we would love to tour with friends or anyone we can make friends with easily. We did both a tour and a hometown swap with Windwaker under 'After Change' and we had such a great time playing shows and travelling with them! We would love to do something like that again or be able to hit up something like an International support slot around Australia. 

Is there anything else you would like to add?

Thank you so much for checking us out, be sure to keep an eye out for updates on our social media pages. The first half of 2020 is already looking pretty exciting. We have two singles you can check out on the Dreambound page on Youtube, ‘insubordinate.’ and ‘chasing safety’, and we have more releases coming out very soon!