Headwreck: “No one’s really impressed by the cool, tough guy act anymore.”

There’s a rooftop somewhere in the UK where four Australians are opening presents. HEADWRECK, consisting of Connor Hickman, Jamo Benadie, Dayne Paix, and Colby Horton, have apparently become the kind of band that interviewers bring gifts to. When the question of arriving empty-handed comes up, Colby barely misses a beat. “Yeah, actually, for the privilege of interviewing HEADWRECK, you must present us with one offering each.” It sets the tone for everything that follows.

It’s a big moment to catch them in. Fresh off a sold-out debut Australian headline tour and an ARIA chart debut with last year’s Attitude Adjustment, the band have just signed to EMPIRE, becoming the first nu-metal act on a predominantly hip-hop roster. They’re midway through their first-ever UK and European run, having come off the back of supporting PALEDUSK before a string of dates leading into Download Festival. The world is, rather rapidly, catching on.

They seem completely unbothered by all of it. Ask Headwreck about the nu-metal revival tag, and you won’t get a band scrambling to distance themselves from it. Colby is relaxed about the whole label, “HEADWRECK definitely fits into the nu-metal revival thing,” he says, “But I feel like there’s so much more going on. There are multiple different avenues of the HEADWRECK sound – there is a nu-metal one, but there’s also at least three other flavours of whatever the hell is going on.”

The conversation turns to why nu-metal specifically has struck such a chord with a younger generation right now. Dayne’s theory is that it’s a reaction, a pushback against the hyper-polished sound that modern metalcore has drifted toward. “Everyone was just like, ‘Oh no, I missed when it was sick, like in the 2000s before they did it properly,’” he laughs. 

Their new single, Raindrops feels like the clearest statement of that yet. The writing process, Jamo explains, was familiar in some ways. Starting from an instrumental demo, building out from a main riff, everyone cooking on the vocals together, but there was something different about the sessions that produced it. “Everything was a lot more intentional,” he says, “We had fire in the pan. Everything that happened in that week was feeling really good.” The band have been back writing since, and the energy from those sessions hasn’t left them. “We’re just excited to re-harness the Raindrops writing energy as soon as possible.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkGmzHiUG9M

The EMPIRE question is apparently a welcome one. “No one’s asked us that yet. People just ask us, how did we meet?” Colby laughs. Connor joins in, mumbling and trailing off in a very deliberate impression of being asked, for the hundredth time, how the band started. 

“It was basically just an Instagram DM,” Connor says, “Like any good rap artist probably gets... which is most of their catalogue.” From there, it moved to a call, and somewhere along the way, it became obvious that HEADWRECK had found something genuinely different. They were talking to a few labels at the time, but EMPIRE stood out. “It was more of a ‘Let’s see what we can do together’ instead of ‘Here’s the ecosystem you’re joining and we’re going to get you doing this,’” he says, “That was the biggest green flag you could have when it comes to joining a label.”

For Colby, the appeal went beyond just the attitude. Being the first heavy band on a label known primarily for rap and country felt like an opportunity rather than a risk. “Being a smaller band, you don’t really get given many opportunities to try and do something different,” he says, “This felt just right in terms of collaborating with different people, trying new methods of getting music out there.” The room for features especially has them excited, which raises the obvious follow-up question.

Who would they want to collaborate with, ideally? Connor doesn’t hesitate. “SHABOOZEY.” Colby immediately echoes it back – “SHABOOZEY! Yeah! TYGA! HAARPER!”, before landing on the real vision. They want to cross the hip-hop world with the heavy world properly, not just get a rapper to float over a hip-hop beat. Colby has a backup plan, though. “Or we could just spend all of our money on one word from SNOOP DOG. Like, him saying ‘Yeah!’. That’s our dream feature.”

After chatting about their outside musical influences, Colby frames the philosophy plainly: “If you only ever listen to heavy music, everything you write is going to sound exactly like that.” Step outside it and suddenly you’re hearing flows, syncopation, patterns and groupings that can translate back into a heavier context in ways you would never arrive at otherwise. “You can only reinvent the wheel so much by listening to the same thing. You really need to start applying from elsewhere, it gives you a whole new way of seeing music.”

At this point, the interview is interrupted by a construction crane. Dayne, without missing a beat, chimes in – “Excuse me, I’m just moving my crane.” The four of them fill the gap by yelling and swearing at the crane in the most committed (and most terrible) British accents you’ve ever heard from four Australians.

Which is exactly when the next question lands: Has heavy music gotten too serious?

“The thing you’ll see at the moment is just everyone chasing a bit more authenticity,” Colby says, once we’ve all recovered, “No one’s really impressed by the cool, tough guy act anymore.” Bands are dropping their guard, showing themselves a bit more, and that’s what people want. “When you have bands that are a bit more accessible, people are enjoying a bit less of that serious metal,” he says, “At the end of the day, people just like music for music, right?” 

For HEADWRECK, that accessibility isn’t accidental, it’s the whole point. Visually, sonically, in every direction, it’s just more fun. And it pays off in the way people actually engage with them. “When people meet us, they don’t talk to us about HEADWRECK music; they talk to us about what we like. I think that’s really cool, it’s really special.”

“I think you’re a special boy,” Connor interjects, “You’re my special boy.”

It’s at this point that the interview goes off the rails.

When asked about the UK and the impending Download Festival slot, Connor squints at the skyline. “Why does the UK have negative saturation? Why is it like negative twenty saturation? Look at the crane! It’s not even a bright red; it’s just a dull red. The building’s a dull yellow.” 

What follows is a rapid-fire appreciation of British cuisine, shout-outs to One Pound Burger, the full English breakfast, and Nando’s, before things spiral further into a celebration of nicotine vapes, a heartfelt tribute to Queen Elizabeth, and another round of the truly awful British accents.

Jamo eventually surfaces above the chaos, “...Anyway, yes, we’re excited for Download.”

“Shout out negative saturation,” interjects Connor.

Download Festival never gets discussed. The band pivots instead to interrogating their interviewer about British cartoon characters, particularly Brum, with the enthusiasm of four people who have completely forgotten they’re supposed to be talking about their music career. Eventually, Jamo resurfaces, “I’m so sorry, did you have any more questions? What was the last question again?”

“Did you wanna talk about music?” Colby adds, dryly.

One last question, then. The one thing about HEADWRECK right now that the band hopes never changes – “Having fun, please,” Colby says, without hesitation. “If I’m not having fun, I don’t want to do it.”

Connor nods. “Yeah. And less cranes in 2027.”

Download, presumably, will have to wait. The only way to find out what actually happens there is to catch the set yourself, if you can get a word in edgeways about it first.

Words: Adrian Chapman

Press Photo: Headwreck

Live Photos: Izzy Sheldon for Out Of Rage