Void Of Vision's Jack Bergin Talks The Aussie Heavy Music Scene 'Cracking The International Market'

Weeks out from speaking at Indie-Con in Adelaide, Void Of Vision’s Jack Bergin is preparing for the September 20 release of their fourth album, What I'll Leave Behind (through UNFD), an arena run with Parkway Drive and a return to America.

“It’s a bit daunting because the Parkway Drive shows are the biggest we’ve been involved with,” he reveals. “Normally, it takes three shows before we’re back in the zone.

“Jumping straight back into action would be a strange place to be dusting off cobwebs. We’ll need to do some warm up shows (of our own) I think.”

Bergin is the charismatic singer, main songwriter, and visual director of the Melbourne hard rock band. He’s responsible for the band's eye-catching imagery onstage, online, and in video. 

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It stems from his fascination with pop culture, literature and history. Germany has a strong influence, from the 1922 silent German Expressionist vampire movie Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror to the hard rock and theatre of Rammstein and its electronic music scene.

Last year, Bergin took a hiatus from music for radiosurgery for a ruptured brain AVM, threatening brain damage or a stroke. He woke to find himself in an ambulance after an overnight seizure. 

What I'll Leave Behind is a follow-up to 2023’s acclaimed Chronicles, comprised of three EPs: Chronicles 1: Lust, Chronicles II: Heaven and Chronicles III: Underworld.

Q: How intense have your live shows been?

JB: “It’s usually in the crowd when it’s out of our hands. In Adelaide last year, we had to cut the set because someone split their head open outside and knocked themselves unconscious.

“The same thing happened a few months ago when we were in New York. Someone seriously got harmed in the crowd. I had to jump offstage to clear a path for security to get through.”

Q: How close to death has the band got to when making a video?

JB:  “It was bushfire season, and we were shooting at the back of this warehouse next to bushland. There was a total fire ban that day which we had no idea of.

“We had these barrels set up. As we were shooting a scene, the winds picked up, and embers floated away into the trees. We extinguished all that, but it was definitely a close call.

“Anything to do with fire has been really interesting. A smoke alarm got set off in a nightclub, ten trucks were sent out, and we had to explain to them that nothing was wrong.”

Q: To what extent do the lyrics on What I'll Leave Behind reflect your radiotherapy treatment?

JB: “There are some very literal references. A lot of it was written prior to the first sessions. I was going through the fear, the questions, and the fascination behind it all. I really had no idea what to expect.

“I had no friends to fall back on who could say ‘It’ll be alright’. You only spoke to doctors who went, ‘It’s going to be this, this and this.’ No one really experiences it every day, and I think there were a lot of strange feelings for a lot of people who go into radiotherapy—my first seizure. My first brain bleed, and running off to the hospital. It’s hard to relate to. 

“The whole experience raised questions of existentialism and threads surrounding life. It encompasses being alive and making what you can with what you got.”

Q: Did starting out in Melbourne have a specific impact on the sound and attitudes of Void Of Vision?

JB: “100 per cent. All of us in the band discovered our capacity to create through the local music scene. At the time, it was doing really well with all-ages and under-18 matinee shows. The culture celebrated youth getting more involved in the music a lot more.

“In Melbourne especially, there were so many talented bands that were coming out in 2010 and prior when I was in high school. That was when I was starting to see there was a possibility of what you could do as an individual. 

“House vs. Hurricane, who literally lived down the road and were a local icon, Dream On Dreamer and City Escape, they went on to sign record deals, and their success showed us we could do this.”

Q: What’s the best part of being part of the Australian music scene?

JB: “The whole camaraderie, it’s fantastic. We’re seeing a lot of Australian heavy music bands going overseas at the same time. Growing up, I don’t recall seeing as many Australian bands tour as they do now.

“We were in America recently, at the same time as four of our friends’ bands, like Speed and Polaris. Being part of that is special, cracking the international market all at the same time.”

Jack Bergin appears at Indie-Con as part of this year’s Support Act’s Navigating Life Online session on Wednesday, July 31, with Bachelor Girl’s Tania Doko and singer-songwriter Tilly Tjala Thomas, moderated by Support Act’s Ash King. For more details, see here.