The New Normal

"We're all very proud of our previous work as a group, but it – and we – have got everything to prove to ourselves and we've also got everything to prove to our audience because they don't owe us shit – we owe them.”

Ezekiel Ox has never been short on drive and focus, and right now the provoking and fiery vocalist, poet, actor and activist is stressing the importance of a fresh slate. The Nerve – made up of the former Mammal mouth, ex-Cog drummer Lucius Borich, bassist Davarj Thomas (formerly of Pre.shrunk) and guitar maverick Glenn Proudfoot – have smashed into the Australian hard rock landscape with such a force you'd have thought this band and sound was years in the making. However, as Ox levels, this simply wasn't the case. Calling it “a very 2013 process”, the singer explains that the band and songs were all put together over the past summer via Skype, Dropbox and the web, between Melbourne (Ox and Thomas), Sydney (Borich) and Prague (Proudfoot).

“It came very fast and it came on the back of a lot of work from Glenn, who had been championing the idea of a band with myself for many years,” Ox informs. “And in the end Glenn just literally... I was on Skype with [him] and he just said, 'I'm coming to Melbourne, I've got a studio booked and we're making this fucking record'. Basically. He was sick of my vacillating, I guess. I don't think anyone could accuse me of procrastinating – I was very busy at the time – but he just wanted to get it done.”

Proudfoot then arrived in Melbourne with 24 rough songs and the band begun working them up. “We all knew when we heard it that it was something that gave us a real energy bolt and it gave us a sense... it's kinda indefinable, it's just about, 'Something is going on here, this is worth pursuing'... [Now], to say [something] worth pursuing would be understating it; it's truly something that has the potential to be remarkable, and that's exciting.”

Highlighting the power of the digital age, it wasn't until four days before their first gig at the Espy in February that the foursome all stood in a room together: “a unique moment as far as music goes”, Ox understates. “But when Lucius counted us off and it sounded really good, it was awesome – as thrilling as we all hoped. And then we just went to work. We had three rehearsals before [the] gig, and that [night] really was something to write home about.”

The Nerve's first track to surface, The Witness, is a solid slab of riff and roar that hits hard, but does so with flair. However, when pushed for a comment whether this song is indicative of their debut (working title: Audiodacity) Ox is unwilling to make a definitive comment. Right now, all we know is that there are ten songs, approximately 30 minutes of music and plenty of ideas bubbling to the surface.

“If we can use the fitness analogy,” Ox gests, “it's going to be a super fit, toned up personal trainer drill sergeant, barking, barking orders at you to sort yourself out and lift those knees, soldier. [But] you can't try to imagine what people are going to think of it, you just have to make sure it makes you bob your head when you listen to it and you're still getting those goose bump moments when you work on it, and we are.”