Making Music: Lure

By Alasdair McClintock @aldothewriter on August 10, 2021 in Arts

Left to right: talented trio Kurt, Zac and Alex

Remember when prog-rock dominated the airwaves? Before SoundCloud rappers and indie-girl-pop took over the radio, black t-shirts were in and bands like Cog and Dead Letter Circus belted out heavy, double-kick anthems that you felt deep within your chest. Well, it’s coming back, and Sydney band Lure is joining the party.
Lure is Kurt De Battista (Guitar/Vocals), Zac Carmont (Drums/Electronics) and Alex Clipper (Bass). In late 2018, Kurt and Zac met on what’s known as ‘Tinder for bands’, BandMix, when his band was looking for a drummer. They clicked musically after the first jam and, following a series of gigs, the band morphed into Lure at the start of 2020.
“Our style is hard hitting, progressive rock with melodic vocals,” Zac told The Beast.
“It is designed to take listeners on a musical voyage through ebbs and flows of nuance, with thick sections of riffage, heavy tribal drums and grounding bass topped with electronic elements. We’re guided by the emerging sounds of ‘70-‘90s rock, with a grunge and scorched attack. The vocals target underlying issues in today’s society,” Zac explained.
Today’s society is a mess of a thing – I think we can all agree – and when Lure aren’t jamming or gigging (COVID-19 allowing), they are doing “general human things – sleeping, eating, etc.”
“We do the work with the nine to fivers, but when we’re not rehearsing or working on new material we’re generally trying to switch off. We’re pretty hell bent on a good feed and are mad coffee nuts. On the warmer days, we enjoy an early morning dip or a quick wave. We all try to keep relatively fit and healthy away from massive benders with the likes of Leigh Perrie.”
It’s a very Sydney lifestyle and the band think there is plenty of hope for the city to emerge from what has been a tough period for everybody, especially musicians.
“To be frank, there’s some phenomenal bands kicking about Sydney and the Eastern Suburbs at the moment. It’d be great to see more support from councils and the like to assist artists.”
The list of bands they’re referring to reads like a who’s who of guitar-heavy local acts: Northlane, Polaris, Gully Days, Frankie’s World Famous House Band and many more.
As for the band’s influences, “We all have quite eclectic tastes, so it might be a shorter list stating what we are not influenced by, but for the best part we’re mostly influenced by ‘70-‘90s rock, yet pull influence from more modern heavier and edgy styles of rock like Live, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Cog, Free, Plini, Rage Against the Machine, Nirvana, Deftones, Tool and of course the almighty Bee Gees.”
You can listen to Lure’s new single, Jeffery’s House, and B-side, Compression, on Spotify and, lockdowns aside, keep up to date with shows via their Instagram @luretheband. Give them a follow!