Five Star Prison Cell

Five Star Prison Cell is a four-piece band from Melbourne, Australia, whose music is generally labelled as tech metal or math rock. They are known for their use of unusual time signatures, dissonant guitar riffs, and a vocal approach that explores many different avenues and styles.

Five Star Prison Cell was formed in 2004 from members of various other bands. Vocalist Adam Glynn came from Melbourne band Frankenbok, Marc Whitworth had played drums for Gold Coast band Tension and Cameron Macdonald and Mark Holain played bass and guitar in Extra Virgin. The group was initially conceived as a one-off studio project but after Extra Virgin disbanded is was decided to continue with Five Star Prison Cell.

In 2005 the band released its debut album The Complete First Season through Faultline Records. During the year the band toured throughout Australia and supported Arch Enemy and Spiderbait. Much of the following year was spent writing and recording another album.

On 14 November 2006, Five Star Prison Cell won the annuat Musicoz award for best metal/hardcore act of 2006. A new album, Slaves of Virgo, was due during the year but held off until March 2007.

Five Star Prison Cell have rigorously toured Australia and New Zealand throughout their career and have shared the stage with many international acts including: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Danzig, Cephalic Carnage, The Black Dahlia Murder, Arch Enemy and Clutch.

Five Star Prison Cell have just completed recording their third album, titled Matriarch with Australian producer Forrester Savell (Karnivool, The Butterfly Effect, Helmet). The album will be released in May 2010 followed by a Nation-wide tour through May/June.
Band members

* Adam Glynn - vocals
* Mark Holain - guitar
* Cameron Macdonald – bass
* Marc Whitworth - drums
Discography

* The Complete First Season - 2005
* Slaves of Virgo - 2007
* Matriarch - 2010
Five Star Prison Cell interview
Adam ‘Hutch’ Glynn has been a man missing in action.

Since handing in his resignation to Melbourne’s Frankenbok in November 2002 (After recording two releases with the group in 2000’s ‘Greeting And Salutations’ and 2001’s ‘The Loophole And Great Excuses’ E.P.), little had been heard from the vocalist.

But all that is set to change with unveiling of his new project Five Star Prison Cell.

Joining Glynn in this brutal outfit (Who can be described as having the technical precision of The Dillinger Escape Plan with a front man possessing the incredible range and sound of Mike Patton) are Extra Virgin guitarist Mark Holain and bassist Cameron Macdonald and Tension drummer Marc Whitworth.

Alongside releases from Walk The Earth (‘Rampant Calamities’) and Sebasrockets (‘Sebasrockets’), Faultline Records (The label owned and run by ex-Superheist guitarist/renown producer D.W. Norton) are proud to unleash Five Star Prison Cell’s debut album ‘The Complete First Season’.

Prior to the albums release, I caught up with vocalist ‘Adam Glynn to find out how Five Star Prison Cell shifted from being a mere studio project into a full blown touring act, comparisons to acts as the ones mentioned above, what the group consider a five star prison cell is and just where it all started from.

“When I left Frankenbok, the first thing I did was start my own website. I was just looking at branching out with different musicians and doing a lot of shitty, basic home recordings. I soon came to realise that what I like about the whole music entity was the creative and writing side of the process, rather than playing live. I prefer to work and squander all my money by pouring it into recording songs. So I installed a little studio at my house. An old friend of mine introduced me to bass player Cameron Macdonald, and we started talking over the Internet about getting a project happening. He soon suggested getting the guitar player from his band, and Mark Holain soon joined up. I didn’t know who to get for a drummer, but we eventually got Marc Whitworth from Tension because he was really good. I don’t know what happened exactly, but we didn’t get him first. We got this other guy called Gareth. He was a good drummer and a great guy, but he wasn’t very committed. He rocked up to a rehearsal late one night on his way to a gig. We jammed for two hours, and as he was leaving, he was talking about going over to New Zealand for a couple of months. We told him it wasn’t going to work, and within a week he quit. Somehow Macdonald got onto Whitworth soon after that. He came in, we had a jam and it was awesome, and we haven’t looked back since.”

The name Five Star Prison Cell can conjure up a number of mental images, but as Glynn explains, it has a far deeper meaning that the glorified jail cell theme.

“Holain actually came up with the name. When we first met, we all went out and had a meal to discuss various things, with one of the issues being a name. A few were thrown around at the time, but I immediately identified with Five Star Prison Cell. It simply jumped out at me. The whole philosophy behind it for me personally reflects a time when I was going through a materialistic phase. I had all this nice furniture, electrical equipment and all that sort of stuff, but I was working my ass off to pay for it all from my credit card. And that got me thinking. I have all this nice stuff, but I’m stuck here at home, and I can’t afford go anywhere. And there are a lot of people that fall into the same trap. They just get themselves in so much financial debt with all these nice things, and then can’t afford to do the simple things in life such as go out for a meal, or see a gig. And that’s because they’re stranded after paying all this money back that they owe. They’re literally stuck within their own five star prison cells. I thought that would be a cool theme to go with. A lot of people go with the jail theme, and our first website had a real prison based theme as well, so I guess it has two kinds of meaning. It’s simply open to personal interpretation.”

While Five Star Prison Cell is a fully-fledged band with their debut album ‘The Complete First Season’ just being released (Through Faultline Records/Gorilla Music), it wasn’t part of the original plan.

“We were originally going to do an E.P. (Containing five tracks), with a modest budget of nine thousand dollars, with the whole package being done by ourselves. Half way through the recording, D.W. Norton (Who produced the album) was really into it, and asked us what our plans were. Our initial idea was to release it independently, but he was really keen to put it out through Faultline Records (Through their parent company Gorilla Music). In the end, we decided to do a whole album, rather than an E.P. because record companies really don’t get good returns on E.P.’s. So we signed a licensing agreement with them. Basically all that money that would have gone into mastering and manufacturing the disc independently went into studio time. We worked out a deal where we basically paid for everything concerning making the album to get nine songs up to a finished standard, and they would took care of the rest by reducing the studio fees from that point on. But having said that, we had come up with three thousand dollars for a marketing budget ourselves so that they could promote it. It’s worked out pretty good, because we own the recordings, while they’ve paid for the manufacturing side of things. I think when most artists sign a deal, they get like thirty percent back on their release after they’ve recouped costs. We’re getting like fifty percent. We paid for most of the album, so it works out that we had a bit more control instead of getting ourselves into debt with a record company. That means we don’t have to sell a million albums to get our money back. It’s not going to take long for us to recoup it all the cost back. We’re not expecting to sell a great amount, because you have to be realistic with this kind of music here in Australia. But I think we’ll do well with ‘The First Complete Season’”.

The title ‘The First Complete Season’, unlike the band’s name, comes from a specific reference point, as all the members of Five Star Prison Cell are all D.V.D. fans.

“We’re all big D.V.D. fans. In our spare time, we tend to sit around and watch a lot of box sets and stuff like that. It also ties in with the fact that this is all the material we wrote in our first year together. We’re pretty lucky in that respect because we had enough songs for a full-length album. Playing live, we do a few covers here and there, but we do put our own spin on them. This whole album’s material represents us from the day we got together, rehearsed together for around eight months, started gigging and decided it was time to do a C.D.”.

Throughout Glynn’s career (From his time served in Frankenbok, through to his present project), the comparison to Mike Patton has been used more often than not. While such a blatant reference point would tend to box in or corner any vocalist, Glynn is unfazed by the tag.

“It doesn’t bother me. Any band that comes out with a release has the press pigeon hole them into something or other. I’m a big Mike Patton fan as a vocalist, but also I listen to a lot of vocalists as well. I draw a lot of inspiration from all kinds of vocalists. Sometimes it might not be all that apparent in the singing that I do. Sometimes I might get an idea from a cheesy band such as INXS, or Alanis Morissette, but I end up putting that influence into a heavy sort of context. The thing with Patton that’s really frustrating for me is he’s such an out there, creative kind of vocalist and artist that he’s kind of ruined it for any kind of vocalist, such as myself, to do anything a little different for themselves. Patton has influenced me for sure, but I do try and put my own spin on it as well. People will always pigeon hole me as a vocalist who just wants to be like Patton, but if you really look at it, all vocalists have their own influences. If listen to Patton’s stuff (Especially his weirder and more obscure solo stuff) it’s very John Zorn influenced. So it’s really just a matter of taking all those steps back and finding out the real source of inspiration. I think Mike Patton has simply commercialised what John Zorn was originally doing years before he was even doing it.”

The same industry pigeonholing Glynn’s vocals can be said for the other three members of the band as well with as their sound is very much like The Dillinger Escape Plan.

“‘The Dillinger Escape Plan is an influence, but there’s also stuff like Meshuggah and Blood Has Been Shed as well. Those guys are into lots of different bands. I think the guys (Along with myself) really do like to challenge themselves musically. They want to do something that’s a little over their own heads musically, progress as musicians and keep it interesting for themselves. For me personally, coming from Frankenbok to this band meant I had to put my head down and concentrate a lot harder. The stuff Frankenbok wrote was a lot more simplistic. You could pretty much yell anything over it, and in a sense that would do. I would just pull crap out of my ass, and they were really impressed by that. I would always think to myself that it wasn’t that good. Ask them that now, and they might say something completely different of course! (Laughs)”

Another interesting aspect about Five Star Prison Cell’s release is the artwork supplied by Australia’s (Melbourne) own Seldon Hunt.

“The packaging looks amazing. Seldon Hunt’s done a lot of overseas work for acts such as Isis (Their recent promotion posters for their tour of Japan and Australia) and Neurosis (The cover artwork to 2001’s ‘A Sun That Never Sets’). We got in touch with him through Tension. He actually came and saw us after we played with Tension, and he said that he really liked what we did, and he left leaving his card with the offer to do any artwork for us in the future. We checked out his website and liked what we saw, and gave him a call. His work is more used by café’s and a lot more commercial contracts rather than music. Apparently his work doesn’t get as well received within the music industry as they consider his work too busy. I couldn’t take my eyes off the finished product today. The entire album covers that have adorned my work in the past have had something that I haven’t been quite happy with, but this one has came out brilliantly. I’m really happy with it. The font on the Five Star Prison Cell was supposed to be indented with foil to give it a bit more of a vintage look (Not to mention the connection with the groups D.V.D. viewing habits), but we were running a bit behind time wise. We were also supposed to have a pre-release available at this year’s Metal For The Brain, but we missed out because there was a stuff-up with the artwork. The band (Minus myself) went to help out Walk The Earth as their stage crew, and there were a few people that had hoped to get a copy. It’s unfortunate there was nothing to give them, but we’ve been so busy. We’ve even neglected updating our website because it’s been chaos running around organising this album. But finally we have something to offer those people.”

While the demand Five Star Prison Cell’s debut has been there, Glynn really hasn’t any idea as to what to expect reaction wise.

“I don’t know exactly what people are going to think of it. I simply make the kind of music that I want to hear. I obviously want to make music that stimulates me, and something that is a bit challenging, but I also think some of the best music ever written requires two people. It requires the musicians themselves who actually write the stuff to be inspired, and it also requires a bit of effort on the listeners behalf. You can put something on in the background that is simple and appealing, but I don’t think those sorts of albums stand the test of time, especially when it comes to melodies and hooks. You can hear it and have it stuck in your head and find that it’s easy to listen to. But then when you find out what the lyrics are, and it’s really disappointing. I’d rather release something that’s not easy to get into straight away so that people can take it away, listen to it a few times with the lyrics and study it over. I think it’s better to involve the audience that way. If they don’t really want to do that, for me, it’s not really the kind of audience I want. I don’t want something simple with a whole lot of followers. I would rather have a substance-based audience. I hope that doesn’t sound arrogant, but that’s what I’m after. I’m happy to meet and talk to anyone that likes the music. I think that was also true of my time with Frankenbok. There were some great followers of the band, but there were some dickheads as well. They simply didn’t get it. I think that was partly due to some of fact that some of the music wasn’t exactly what I wanted it to be. You basically draw in the people you want, and because of that, there were a lot clashes. I think it’s worked out better for them now that they’ve hooked up with the right kind of vocalist (In Adam B. Metal), because I’ve hooked up with the right kind of musicians that I want to play with.”

Preconception of what ex-Frankenbok fans will think of Glynn’s new project is another mystery that only time will tell as well.

“The whole Frankenbok thing didn’t really resolve itself cleanly. Basically there are a lot of people shitty and angry with me, or think that I’m an asshole because they only have Frankenbok’s side of the story in that respect. So there’s some out there that don’t think too highly of me. I don’t care what those people think anyway. I was in Frankenbok, and I did keep my finger on the pulse a little. I would check out the reviews, and the Internet, and there was a lot of negative stuff out there, especially towards me personally because I didn’t do the standard metal thing. I tried to mix it up a little bit. Yes, Mike Patton did influence me. But I liked to take what he did, as well as various vocalists, and put my own spin on things. If you’re not doing what popular acts like Slipknot or Pantera are doing, you’re dismissed as being shit in this country. I just wanted to do something different. It’s hard to explain. I hear a song, and simply give it what it needs. That something is based solely on my influences. Another vocalist could come in and do something completely different, possibly better, but who’s to say? It’s up to the band to choose the right vocalist in the first place. I think Five Star Prison Cell work really well as a group, and we give the songs what we all think they need. We’re into the same kind of music, and we have a respect for each other. We dig what we’re doing, and it works really well.”

While Five Star Prison Cell’s approach is an aggressive one, Glynn says the lyrical approach to their debut album is actually has more of a positive approach.

“The lyrics are my department. I did take a few ideas from some of the guys, such the title for ‘The Imparting Of Wisdom Upon A Subject Turned To Stone’. Holain came up with the title to that one. I had some lyrics lying around, and I thought they might suit the title. I tried to make the lyrics very angry, because I like angry stuff. It’s just great to vent when you’re doing your music, but I also tried to really put a tone to it that sort of suggests as a person, or whoever is involved in the song itself, is actually healing and moving on and rising up to something bigger and better in life. Emotions involving hate, not being able to forgive people and shit like that tends to weigh you down. I really wanted to put a positive theme on the songs. In a sense there’s issues where things can end, but there’s always a new beginning as well. There’s a great saying that says, ‘We procrastinate on the doors that are closed, often missing the ones that have opened’. When I left Frankenbok, and things weren’t as positive, I sort of kept my eyes open for new opportunities so I could continue on doing what I wanted to do.”

And continuing to do is exactly what is planned as Five Star Prison Cell hit the road as part of the Faultline Records showcase with Walk The Earth and Sebasrockets in March.

“Initially Five Star Prison Cell was simply going to be a studio project. We had no intension of playing live. I had a little bit of money, and we decided to make an album. As a lot of people would know who make heavy music here in Australia, it’s hard to get anywhere. I personally think it’s better to put out albums, and let that do the walking and the talking. But having said that, I’m really excited by this tour. It’ll be our first trip interstate to both Adelaide and Sydney. We’re opening up, and for us at this stage, that’s fine. We’re more than happy to just get out there and start playing live again. My whole attitude is that this band is so different to Frankenbok, and it doesn’t bother me if we play first or play to an empty room. I simply enjoy this music because I’m so excited and happy to be in this band. I guess it really makes me think about Frankenbok, and how it wasn’t such a waste of time. It was a great learning experience. I didn’t really want to be there, because it wasn’t the music I wanted to do. I’ve made a policy in life now where I just want to be honest with myself, so that’s why I’m doing this band now and this music. It’s just so much better. If you’re really into what you’re doing, nothing else really matters. I’m in such a really good place at the moment in both life and music, it’s really hard for me to be discouraged about anything.”

By: Justin Donnelly