Karnivool is an Australian rock band formed in Perth in 1997. The group currently consists of Ian Kenny on vocals, Drew Goddard and Mark Hosking on guitar, Jon Stockman on bass, and Steve Judd on drums. Karnivool emerged from a band Kenny and Goddard formed during high school. They have released three studio albums to date.
History
1997–2003: Early years
Karnivool developed from a high school band formed in 1997 in Perth, Western Australia, which played parties using a set of cover versions of Nirvana and Carcass songs, with some original compositions also included. By 1998 lead singer Ian Kenny changed their set to entirely original songs, removed all of the early band members and officially named the band Karnivool, derived from a local anecdotal description that the original members were "a bunch of clowns".
Between 1997 and 2004, the band underwent a number of line-up changes. The 1998 incarnation of Karnivool consisted of Kenny on lead vocals, Andrew 'Drew' Goddard on lead guitar, Andrew Brown on bass and Brett McKenzie on drums. In 2000, Brown was replaced by Jon Stockman and, shortly after, McKenzie also left and Ray Hawking joined on drums. Mark Hosking joined as rhythm guitarist in 2003 and in late 2004 Steve Judd replaced Hawking. As of 2004, the band's line-up consists of Kenny, Goddard, Hosking, Stockman, and Judd.
In 1999 the band released its debut self-titled EP Karnivool. This consisted of four tracks: "Fool Me", "Konkrete Seed", "Box" and "Some More of the Same". This EP did not receive a significant amount of recognition, with many stores and archives listing their second EP Persona, released in March 2001, as their first record. Persona consists of four new tracks and a re-release of the song "Some More of the Same" from the first EP.
After releasing Persona, the band won the Western Australian State Final of the National Campus Band Competition and competed in the National Finals held in Hobart, Tasmania. In October 2001, the band were chosen to support the Rollins Band but, due to the Ansett collapse, Henry Rollins and his band were forced to cancel their Perth show. At the end of 2001, the band played a support set for Fear Factory.
2004–2007: Themata
Goddard wrote the tracks for Karnivool's first album Themata and he stated that they played songs from Themata together as a band only after it was recorded. Produced by Forrester Savell, Goddard not only wrote all of the album's songs and played guitar, but also played drums on every track except "L1fel1ke", as Judd had not yet joined the band. Themata was released independently on 7 February 2005, and was distributed via MGM Distribution. On 23 August 2006, Karnivool signed a licensing deal with Bieler Bros. Records, a US indie label. The album was issued in the US on 10 April 2007 and in the UK on 7 May. The band also re-released the Persona EP on 12 December 2007, following the success of Themata.
Karnivool completed the 'Homeland Security Tour' shortly after the release of Themata. In late 2007, they played with the 'Great American Rampage Tour' in North America. During this time frame, Karnivool also contributed a cover of Gotye's song "The Only Way" to the album Mixed Blood, which contains covers and remixes of songs from Gotye's Boardface and Like Drawing Blood albums. It does not feature on any Karnivool albums. Goddard and Stockman also played guitar and bass respectively on the title track of the 2005 album Hold Your Colour, by Perth/London group Pendulum.
2008–2010: Sound Awake
After touring in the US, Karnivool returned to Australia in 2008 and subsequently entered the studio to write their follow-up to Themata. Goddard stated that the new album Sound Awake would be a huge progression from Themata, while Stockman stated that the writing process of the new record was a collaborative effort by the band, in contrast to their previous work. Karnivool disclosed their new recording strategy for the second album: try to focus less on minute details and record a more natural-sounding album. The album was again produced and mixed by Savell.
The band continued to tour Australia, including the Big Day Out tour, Pyramid Rock Festival, Southbound and Homebake. During their live performances for the Aeons Tour, they played some of the new songs from the album, such as "Goliath", "Deadman", "Pearogram" (All I Know) and "New Day". At Homebake in 2008 they debuted a fifth new song entitled "Set Fire to the Hive", which was confirmed as the first single from the album. The new songs were considered more mature, while still bearing resemblance to the band's previous work.