Strap yourself in for the stunning sound of Australian band To Octavia, who fuse gripping and energetic alternative metal with emo hooks and catchy synths that they describe as “emotional, emotional, emotional.”
The Melbourne band started out with Molly Congreve (guitar) and Lucas Keurntjes (drums) playing in a pop-punk band during high school. Vocalist Merry Kirk-Holmes – who wrote and performed the vocals for I’m Here, the main theme for the SEGA game Sonic Frontiers – moved to the area from Worimi/Forster and guitarist Justin Keurntjes discovered them through a cover of La Dispute on social media. While the band name comes from an unpublished Edgar Allen Poe poem of the same name and, in the band’s words: “Loving oneself and things that one holds dear is incredibly important to all of us. So we adopted the name and formed To Octavia in 2018.”
Discussing the sound they’ve crafted since, they told us: “That’s a tough one because I don’t think we have even worked that out yet. It’s become a combination of many things; energetic and fun with a splash (sometimes a tsunami) of emo…? We always try to incorporate twists and turns and involve various genres into our music.”
Our latest taste of this is Do Ghosts Dream Like Us?, which was released in June. It opens up with stabs of guitar under engaging high-pitched vocals that drop into heavier guitars and a piercing synth. That flows into a verse that feeds into a big catchy chorus, but the second time around the verse ends with more intense vocals, then a pulsing synth, building guitar and big screamed vocals feed into the chorus. The pace drops ahead of another big chorus to bring the track to an energetic conclusion.
On the track, they said: “The reception has been amazing. It is quite a departure from our previous releases so we were really hoping people would respond positively to it. We have always been a band that likes to experiment and allow the writing process to be very flexible when it comes to trying new things. Expect to hear a side of us that you haven’t necessarily heard fleshed out before. We would love to share that side of us more in the future.” Check it out here:
That follows on from a series of singles and two EPs over the last four years. That includes two previous singles this year Dare, which opens up with big synths and lively guitars, engaging vocals through a mellow verse before bursting into intense screams and a typically catchy chorus, and the big and bouncy KISS KISS KISS, which you can check out in the video here:
Additionally, To Octavia’s 2021 EP Somewhere In A World, Not Of The Dream is absolutely fantastic. It includes the huge Sleep, which features booming riffs and deliciously engaging vocals, COCO MOJO, Unknown Worlds and excellent opening track Fall Into The Sun. But a personal favourite track is The Sound Of The Rain, which opens up with a little guitar riff that kicks into edgy life with a big scream and pulsing synth. The pace drops briefly but big screamed vocals take over and the pulsing synth and vicious low-tuned guitars jump in as it flows towards a singalong chorus “It’s easy to see with the feeling of touch removed, Maybe it’s better off this way, Maybe I’m better without you, Is this what I planned? How can I walk away when I can barely stand?”
A big synth takes over with bouncy guitars supporting a huge scream of “How am I supposed to walk away when I can barely stand?” The pace drops briefly again, before huge screamed vocals flow into another chorus, before intense vocals “Why can’t I fall asleep when I’m falling apart? Why do I see so much clearer now I’m in the dark? I’m falling apart” set up a final blast of the chorus. Check out this stunning song in the video below. And if you like the heavier side of the band, you’ll definitely like their superb debut EP Nocturnal.
The To Octavia sound is heavily influenced by Don Broco and Nothing But Thieves because, in the band’s words: “The way they experiment and seemingly float between so many genres without losing their identity is something we all aspire to take into our own writing.”
And on what inspires them to write music, the band explain: “We have all come from such different paths in life and have our own personal reasons for gravitating to music, but to focus on one: Escapism – within ourselves and our listeners. We each came from quite difficult places growing up, and music allowed us to escape from those environments. For us, being able to escape through music and write our own stories allowed us to suspend reality for a while. We hope through this, we are not only creating safe havens for ourselves, but are able to extend this to others which we hope all listeners can find escape in.”
There’s plenty more to come from To Octavia, who have a lot going on behind the scenes and promise us “2024 is going to be even busier than this year and 2023 still has a lot left to give!”
And the band add: “We’ve been experimenting a lot with this release cycle, and wanted to show a more personal and fun side of us through our music videos and behind-the-scenes footage. We had so much fun creating this all together and we wanted to show all of that to you.”
You can follow To Octavia on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, YouTube Music and YouTube.
Listen to To Octavia and more new bands on our Spotify playlists GigRadar Core and GigRadar Metal
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