Interview with SAM VALLEN, guitarist with Brisbane Prog Metal quintet, CALIGULA’S HORSE

In the rich scene of Australian progressive metal, one of the biggest success stories in recent years has been Brisbane five-piece Caligula’s Horse.

Each release has enhanced and expanded their virtuosic approach to song craft, ably juggling technical prowess and soaring emotion.

And while the band are always forward thinking in their creativity, they are about to embark on a short tour with an unusually nostalgic bent.

Entitled the Let It Grow Tour (the name taken from a lyric from Bloom), audiences will experience an epic set where the band perform not one, but two, of their classic albums.

The records in question are their 2013 opus The Tide, The Thief & River’s End as well as its 2015 follow-up Bloom.

Maximum Volume senior writer Matt Thrower, managed to catch up with one of the band’s key members, guitarist Sam Vallen and discussed the tour, songwriting and how the band has evolved over the years.

“When we were doing our Love Conquers All tour last year, we performed the entirety of our last album In Contact,” Sam explains. “As a result of that, we kept getting requests from fans to play our older records in full. As they were the type of albums that are made to be listened to in one sitting, it didn’t take much prodding for us to do it.”

Sam affirms that it has been a fascinating experience reliving these records in full.

“It’s really interesting going back to these albums, because this was a more embryonic version of Caligula’s Horse,” he says. “We were more raw, innocent and exploratory. At the same time, we didn’t want to mess too much with the songs when we were rehearsing them for this tour. We adapted a couple of things, but apart from that, this is more about reminiscing on those days.”

This reminiscing has also given Sam a keen sense of how the band have grown since the release of these two albums.

“River’s End was the first real band-based album from us, and everything really went from there,” he says. “As our songwriting developed, Jim and I had a very clear idea not to repeat ourselves – we always want any new material to have an evolution in sound.”

As a bonus portion of the tour, Sam and fellow Caligula’s Horse guitarist Adrian Goleby will be holding 60-minute guitar masterclasses, in which they discuss guitar techniques, gear, touring – all the good stuff budding musicians need to know.

“I also teach guitar at the conservatorium so it’s something that comes quite naturally to me,” Sam says in relation to the classes. “It’s a good way to interact with fans, and they really seem to enjoy it. They tend to be very productive environments, because if you’re in a room with likeminded people asking specific questions and sharing information, you’ll walk home a better guitarist.”

Conversation then drifts towards the prospect of a new Caligula’s Horse album.

“I’ll have to be a little coy about that at this stage, but yeah, it’s all coming together and we’ve got some really good material,” Sam says.

Can we expect yourself to be responsible for production and engineering, as with the band’s previous records?

“Yeah, definitely. Production is one of my passions. I actually lecture on the subject at the University of Queensland so I will be producing and probably engineering as well. We may outsource the mixing, but haven’t decided on that yet.”

Songwriting, for the most part, is shared between Sam and lead vocalist Jim Grey. As Sam explains, there is a very collaborative approach to how the pair put songs together. For example, they largely eschew the traditional “I’ll write the music, you write the lyrics” approach.

“There are many variables in how the songs come together”, Sam explains. “But for the most part, there’ll be some musical ideas or a sketch of a song and Jim and I will immediately work on vocals and lyrics, and then we move on to the next part. We ensure that there is a direct correlation between the lyrics and how it is expressed musically. It’s a very porous approach.”

As well as Jim’s soulful, emotive vocals (and enjoyably humorous stage banter during performances), there is a density and intricacy to the music of Caligula’s Horse. Which makes it slightly surprising to hear Sam wax lyrical about stripping music back (or at least having the ability to do so).

“The other thing about the music which is important to me, and this may sound strange, but I’m a big believer in minimalism,” he says. “I know that there is a very technical element to our music, lots of riffs and power, but if you take away all those embellishments, it’s very important to me that the songs would still sound good stripped down to vocals and piano. Even with all of the intricacies often associated with prog metal, it’s very important to us that the songs still make sense structurally.”

Mission accomplished on that count, as the band’s international appeal can attest to. This special event tour will be a perfect opportunity to hear a world-class progressive metal band unleashing their two-album suite into two hours of unmissable live music.

Caligula’s Horse kick off their Let It Grow tour this Saturday, August 10 at The Zoo in Brisbane. Further dates will be at The Factory Theatre in Sydney on Friday, August 16 and Max Watt’s in Melbourne on Saturday, August 17.

Interviewer/ Writer: Matt Thrower