You may know Stephen Taranto from his band The Helix Nebula, but earlier this year the Australian instrumentalist released his solo debut EP Permanence. We caught up with Taranto to talk about the new record, his plans for the rest of the year and more.
Your debut EP Permanence has just been released but let’s get the important, hard hitting questions out of the way before we get to that. Are you a cat or dog person?
I’m leaning ever so slightly towards cat person!
Okay back to business. When did you decide you wanted to do a solo record?
I’ve always worked on random song ideas for years. But now with The Helix Nebula being on semi-hiatus, I thought it would be a good opportunity to put some of it out. I started tracking the bulk of Permanence by mid-late 2017 and i’m so glad I actually went through with it.
For those who haven’t yet heard your music, what can you tell us about your new EP and what are you most excited for people to hear?
If you’re familiar with my work in The Helix Nebula then you’ll probably feel right at home here. I definitely took things in a more progressive and less riff-focused direction for the EP and went a little crazy with instrumentation. I paced the EP to be a relatively cohesive journey from start to finish, but my personal favourite track would have to be Pixel Heart: Celestial due to it’s cinematic-like arrangement. I hope you have as much fun listening to it as I did making it!
How was it working with Simon Grove?
Working with Simon was unsurprisingly easy as we both worked quite rigorously on the first Helix EP. He knew exactly what kind of sound I was going for and absolutely nailed it. He’s also a monster bassist and did all the bass parts for Permanence and I couldn’t be happier with how it sounds! I’m hoping to work with him more in the future!
What’s coming up next? What are your plans for the rest of 2019?
The plan for now is to make some playthroughs and put out some tabs which are currently in the works. I’d love to maybe get some live shows in at some point this year because since it’s literally been years since I’ve hit a stage. I’m REALLY hoping we can get the new Helix Nebula album out this year as well!
Are there any new bands/artists you’d recommend to Bring The Noise UK and its readers?
I’m really digging the latest Moon Tooth, Poh Hock and Thrailkill albums which I think are really pushing things in the progressive metal genre!
Where can people find the you online and where’s the best place to pick up merch/your EP?
My debut EP Permanence is out on just about every digital platform you can think of. Spotify and Bandcamp are my two personal favourites so please follow/listen to me on there if you like what you hear!
Finally, if you had to spend the rest of your life on a desert island, but were allowed to take the entire works of five different bands/musicians with you to keep you from losing your mind, whose would you choose?
Always a tough question, but I’ll give it a good try. Meshuggah, Radiohead, Between the Buried and Me, Devin Townsend and all his projects and maybe some different to break it all up… maybe Nas?!
Stephen Taranto‘s debut EP Permanence is out now, available to purchase HERE.
