Getting to Know… Bastion Rose | Interview 🎤

In the 371^st Q&A in our Getting to Know… series, we get the inside scoop from emerging, Bloomington, Indiana rock band, Bastion Rose.

“Everything starts with the riff.” Word, 🎙 Bastion Rose, Word! Prior to touting riffs, the band asserts,  “…songwriting is the backbone of what makes Bastion Rose unique, and the musicians that make up the band really deliver on the execution live and in the studio. The band is tight. Really tight!.” Woo! Like our many other Getting to Know Q&As, we get the inside scoop on the Bloomington, Indiana rock band’s genesis, goals, musical influences, and of course, current, and future musical endeavors. Vocalist 🎙 Austin Frink answers our burning questions. So, without further ado, let’s jump right into 🎤 Getting to Know… Bastion Rose: Interview No. 371!

For those who may not be familiar with you, what would you say makes Bastion Rose distinct or unique? How do you rock the audience’s socks off?

I think the songwriting is the backbone of what makes Bastion Rose unique, and the musicians that make up the band really deliver on the execution live and in the studio. The band is tight. Really tight! Nothing is phoned in, and everything is carefully thought out. I’m always imagining what a song will be like live. What will really show off what we can do and make people feel like something magical is happening? How can we use dynamic changes to keep the moment feeling fresh? Where should the vocals take center stage? When should the band explode into some progressive instrumental breakdown? Guitar solos, powerful vocals, solid songs, and maybe most of all….riffs riffs riffs! Everything starts with the riff.

Okay, let’s explore some juicy backstories. How did Bastion Rose form and what were some of the goals or visions you had early on?

Bastion Rose formed organically in the spring of 2022. I had spent 2020 in a dark place, mourning the losses of my dad and mom in December 2019 and March 2020 respectively, then being handed a diagnosis of thyroid cancer in October 2020. It was a big, bad year. The beginning of 2021 saw me recovering from surgery, and with a paralyzed vocal cord from complications during said surgery. And with a weakened shoulder as well from nerve involvement in my neck. I couldn’t sing at all until the spring of 2021 when my voice started to come back. I had physical therapy and my shoulder strength returned. I was cancer free.

All this helped to see life through new eyes, and when I started to play my guitar again it was for the sake of it. I wrote songs from a new place. I rediscovered the joy of playing and writing. Life is short and all things pass for better or worse. I delved back into the study of the guitar and developed my skills in ways that I hadn’t in a long time. Music was my therapy.

I was pulling a lot of inspiration from the bands I listened to with my dad growing up: Black Sabbath, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pink Floyd. The vocal lines are decidedly more classic rockish than much of the material I had written in the past, and it just felt right. The guitar work felt more inspired, and the riffs were flowing like crazy.

I wrote songs that became the debut Bastion Rose EP, Fade to Blue, and started playing with 🎙 John Donlon (drums), 🎙 Steve Pierce (bass), 🎙 Barrett Abraham (keys), in the spring of 2022. 🎙 Austin Mudd (guitar) joined a bit later.  All amazing musicians and great guys to spend time with. We worked out the songs live and started playing shows. It was amazing. I knew I was writing some of the best material of my career and that we had barely scratched the surface.

I sent a demo of one of our songs, 🎵 “Coming For You”, to producer David Bottrill in hopes that he might be interested in producing our EP.  David is the 3-time 🏆 Grammy winning producer responsible for producing records like Tool’s 💿 Lateralus and 💿 Aenima, as well as Godsmack’s 💿 Faceless and Coheed and Cambria’s 💿 Good Apollo I’m Burning Star Volume One: From Fear Through The Eyes of Madness. He’s worked with Rush, Muse, Mastodon, Crown Lands, Peter Gabriel. The list goes on. I love the sound of his records and he happened to work on some of my very favorite ones.

Several weeks passed and I thought I probably would never hear from him. Then, his manager reached out and said David had listened to the track and would be happy to do a record together.  I was blown away. We went into the studio in November 2022 and made the Fade to Blue EP which is still as yet unreleased. Two tracks, 🎵 “Coming For You” and 🎵 “Halo Devil” are available for streaming wherever you get your music!

Let’s talk more about goals.  Have your goals or your perspectives changed since first starting out? What do your aspirations or goals look like now?

Great question. 100% yes, the goals look differently now. I think for a long time, the goal was to “make it,” as it is with most musicians. To be famous. To be a household name. To make lots of money from playing music. That’s just simply not how I think about it anymore at all. The goal is to make music for as long as possible.

Music is a world. My goal is just to try to live in that world and experience as much as possible and learn as much as possible while I’m alive. To use music to grow as a human being, and to hone my craft honestly, always growing as a musician. If “success” comes our way, it will be a byproduct of that underlying relationship with music and an honest approach to songwriting.

Everybody is influenced by somebody else. Whom would you consider some of your biggest musical influences and how are they influential?

Black Sabbath is my number 1 musical influence. Tony Iommi is the undisputed king of the guitar riff, Ozzy is an excellent melody writer. Geezer’s bass is so prominent and lyrical, and Bill Ward’s drumming on those first 5 records is just so great. I also take a lot of inspiration from Lynyrd Skynyrd. The casual listener of Skynyrd would know songs like Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama, but beyond those hits, they have a huge catalog of blistering rock songs and a lot of musical depth, with 3 amazing guitarists.

I definitely have to call out Tool as a major influence as well. They are the most rhythmically competent band ever and my obsession with their catalog has really helped to develop my ear for timing and made me a bit heavier and progressive in my approach to songwriting in general.

Ah, the fun stuff.  What’s your craziest tour story or the wackiest thing that’s happened during a performance?  Feel free to be creative.

Thankfully, things have been pretty smooth sailing with Bastion Rose and our performances have been a blast. But several years ago, when I used to play with my previous band, Blue Rising, we were doing our first headlining show. It was highly anticipated, and we were able to draw a big crowd. A popular DJ in our area came out and introduced us and hyped the crowd up. She finished with, “Give it up for…. BLUE…..RISING!!!!!” and we had this high energy intro track that played as the lights went dark. Smoke machines, strobes, the whole, thing. Very arena rock show. We walked out on stage and the crowd’s applause was deafening. We had just released an album and had been promoting the show hard. The drummer counts us in….there’s no sound coming from the amps. We played the first handful of bars of the song with no audible guitar. My stomach dropped. Something had happened in the changeover from the opening band to our set that caused the glitch. We fiddled for a minute after coming to a full-stop, figured out the problem, and started the song again. Talk about a melodramatic build-up to an anti-climax. It took me a long time to get over that one!

Up until this point in your career, what would you describe as your favorite song you’ve recorded or performed live? What makes that song special?

In terms of original music, my favorite sort of changes depending on my mood, but right now I would say that 🎵 “Fade To Blue” or 🎵 “Fever” are my two favorite songs to play, both of which are unreleased songs from the 💿 Fade To Blue (EP). I also really love to play “War Pigs” by Black Sabbath. We just crush that one live and it always feels like a thank you and a call back to Sabbath for being what they have always been to me. It’s nostalgic and affirming. And it makes me think of my dad.

Is there anything else awesome, cool, or left of center the world should know about you? Secret talents or surprising tidbits?

Maybe a secret talent of mine is using a loop pedal. You can see some of that work on the Bastion Rose YouTube channel which is still primarily video of my solo acoustic work performed live with a loop pedal in my home studio. I did a pretty cool version of “Gimme Shelter” that got a lot of views! More official Bastion Rose content to be added to that channel soon!

Closing out, what is Bastion Rose currently working on, promoting that you can share with us or want us to know about? We love secrets, but there’s no pressure. 

We are currently promoting the release of our first 2 singles: 🎵 “Coming For You” and 🎵 “Halo Devil”. We are also working toward the full release of the 💿 Fade To Blue (EP) and with the help of our new management company, Deadfall Artist Management, we have gotten some interest from some record labels who might partner with us on the release. More on that to come! We also have a ton of new music we are really eager to record. Full steam ahead!

Thank you so much for sharing and taking the time to answer these questions, and best of luck moving forward. 

Thanks to you so much for the interview and to your readers. Just Google Bastion Rose to find our Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify and like, follow, subscribe! It really helps us to stay connected with the people that want to keep tabs on what we are up to and share new music with the people that are ready for it! 

Getting to Know… Bastion Rose: Interview No. 371 [📷: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Bastion Rose; Tumisu via Pixabay]