Audio Reign

GOES INTERNATIONAL

Interview by Ken Morton Photo by Kory Williams ‘The man with the camera’

Audio Reign is a dynamic modern rock band from Australia ready to break it out all over this great big world! Signed to MR Records, their well received Self-Titled endeavor is receiving a worldwide release at long last! Featuring three exclusive Bonus Tracks, the International Deluxe Edition is now available and ready to enrapture music fans all across Planet Earth! And if you want a free

copy of their CD, find out how to win one at the end of this interview!

Highwire Daze recently caught up with Jake Fleming, the charasmatic front man from Audio Reign, to find out a whole lot more about this very amazing band on the rise!

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Audio Reign, and how long the band has been together.

Hi, I’m Jake Fleming. I am lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist for Audio Reign. Audio Reign was originally formed back in 2011.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there?

Audio Reign is based in the town of Adelaide, South Australia. We all live in surrounding suburbs of Adelaide, but nothing’s too far away here. We rehearse at Ash’s house (bass player for AR) and he lives about a half hour drive from my house. The music scene for the last couple of years here has been dead (as you’d understand due to the pandemic) but prior to that, it was pretty healthy. There were always plenty of gigs to go and check out and a wide variety of bands and music styles to experience no matter what your taste.

How did you wind up signing with MR Records?

MR Records had brought Kip Winger out to Australia in 2020 for a solo run of shows. They needed a support for the show and our manager Kris Peters rang me within a

few days of the gig and said “Can you guys possibly get an acoustic set together to support Kip Winger?”. I said “Sure we can, give me the details and we’ll be ready” thinking to myself we haven’t played barely any of our music together acoustically (haha). An emergency rehearsal was had the next night and it all seemed to come together very naturally and sounded even better than we had expected. We played the stripped back intimate acoustic support a couple of nights later and nailed it.

It was this performance that caught the eyes and ears of MR Records. Kris came to us after the show and said the label loved our performance and wanted to work with us. Fast forward to now and here we are releasing our International Deluxe Edition to the world. The MR team have been awesome and really believe in our sound, style and what we’re driving to achieve with band.

Your Self Titled debut is being re-released on MR Records. Tell me about how the International Deluxe Edition came about.

Our debut self-titled album was released in Australia and was quite well received here, but never made the breakthrough that we were hoping for. We had begun writing again and decided that we were going to drop some singles and release an EP from the singles. One of those singles was our pandemic inspired heavy anthem ‘Relentless’ which was our first release with MR in 2021.

Upon further deep discussions with MR, the label told us that they believed our debut album was a powerhouse and really deserved worldwide recognition. It was at this point that the forthcoming EP was put on the backburner and the whole redesigning and repackaging of our debut album (complete with new cover art from world renowned album designer Nello Dell’Omo) became the focus. This album was to become the ‘International Deluxe Edition” designed to introduce Audio Reign to the world featuring the original eleven tracks and three bonus tracks. The band and label have since decided to scrap the EP and bring out another full-length album hopefully dropping late 2022 or early 2023.

Interesting fact I was only just made aware of is that MR Records had actually produced a finished physical copy of the intended EP ‘Blinding Light’ before we scrapped the idea, so there are some rare unreleased EP’s lying around MR Headquarters (haha).

One of the new tracks on the album is entitled Angel. Tell me a little about the track and what inspired the lyrics.

I wrote Angel some years ago as an acoustic song and hadn’t done anything with it. When we got back together writing for the proposed EP (now intended new album), I remembered that I had the song tucked away and decided to bring it to the band. We worked on the arrangement and Audio Reign’ed it to turn it into the heavy power ballad it was born to become.

The song is about a love triangle. Short story: Girl is in the midst of a breakup from a long term relationship and starts seeing a new guy. Old flame is trying to get her back and pulling on her emotional heart strings. New guy can’t live like this and needs to know where he stands and where she wants to be, and so asking the question in the song ‘Angel’. Everyone has been there, right? (haha).

Tell me about the inspiration behind the other two bonus songs Relentless and Forgotten You.

‘Relentless’ was written during the pandemic. It was (and still is to some extent) a frustrating and devastating time for our band and the whole music industry. I have always said no matter what we have lined up for Audio Reign, we always need another ‘bullet in the chamber’ ready to go. This statement formed the basis of the song Relentless and the song became a statement of intent; That no matter what life throws at us, we would never give up. We will be back. We are Relentless!

‘Forgotten You’ is about an impossible relationship. One person has given their all to the other, but the other is so self obsessed, self centered and manipulating in the relationship which has forced the toxic situation to this climax. With absolutely destroyed love and trust, the good person delivers a strong message. (haha).

What was the experience like opening for Skillet and Pop Evil?

It’s always a huge buzz when you get to open for such high profile International bands. Skillet and Pop Evil were super friendly and both ‘Leigh Kakaty’(Pop Evil) and

‘John Cooper’ (Skillet) took time to chat to me before the shows which is nice because its not always that way.

One of the most memorable things that sticks in my mind is when we opened for Skillet. It was a packed house and we were to come on right before Skillet. As usual with these shows, it’s a bit nerve wrecking because you’re about to play to a crowd that most probably don’t know who you are and are basically there to rock out to the main band – being Skillet. We played our first song and that was it! That was all we needed to do. We went off! The whole audience was brilliant, cheering after each song and so supportive of us and our music. When we finished the show we headed to our merch stand to greet anyone that wanted to meet us and just about sold out of all our merchandise (haha).

Jake, your day job is that of a fireman. What has that experience been like especially during the pandemic, and do they know that you are in a band?

To be honest, it’s just been business as usual. I work at the busiest station in South Australia and so we get our fair share of structure fires (both legit and arson). Our station is in a working-class area with a fairly high rate of crime so there are a lot of stolen vehicle fires and random hard rubbish fires on the street. We also get a lot of MVA’s (motor vehicle accidents) and road crash rescues due to the high speeds of the roads in the area. And if that’s not enough, when someone has a problem and doesn’t know who to call, they don’t call The A Team anymore…. They call us (haha). All the shifts on the station know I’m in Audio Reign and a lot of them refer to me as ‘Rockstar’ (haha). They’re all great guys and are like family… After my real family… and my brothers in Audio Reign (lol).

What’s up next for Audio Reign?

Lots of bullets in the chamber!! New music coming, new music videos coming, new support announcements coming, more shows coming, and most of all, working to build our fanbase all over the world so that when we do get abroad, we’ve got a S%#*load of people to rock the F%*# out with!! Bring it on!

Any final words of wisdom?

Be excellent to each other, Be the best version of yourself, remember to laugh and smile, Don’t ever let RnR die, Never give up, Be Relentless, Check out AUDIO

REIGN! https://www.audioreign.com/

We have 8 copies of the Audio Reign International Deluxe Edition to giveaway courtesy of MR Records! Be one of the first 8 people to email hdaze2@yahoo.com and say “I want an Audio Reign CD!” and we will send your way!