Alien Weaponry's Turanga Morgan-Edmonds Names His Dream Tour Pairing

Alien Weaponry have played some great tours in their short career so far, but for bassist Turanga Morgan-Edmonds, there's still one tour pairing that has eluded him that he admits he'd likely fanboy over.

While speaking with Full Metal Jackie for her weekend radio show, the musician admitted that prior to joining the band, he was not hugely educated in metal so performing with Gojira or with Slayer's Kerry King found him more getting up to speed with their talent and legacy as it was happening. But there's one band that first got him into metal and so far he's never had the chance to cross paths with.

"My favorite metal band of all time is Trivium. They're still one of the only bands that we've done all these festivals and all these shows and they're the only one I've yet to ever see. They're my favorite one and the whole reason I got into heavy metal in the first place back when I was a teenager," says the bassist. "So I think if we were to ever share the road with somebody that would make me finally have that moment where I'm like becoming all fanboy, it would be with Trivium."

While manifesting the possible pairing, he says, "I think musically it's possible. I don't think we're too far off each other, particularly with songs like '1000 Friends,' which are very clear homages to that era of metalcore and heavy metal.So maybe one day. You never know."

Within the chat, Jackie speaks with Tu about Alien Weaponry's recently released third studio album, Te Ra. He shares how they've been able to reflect Maori culture and tradition through the band's music, comments on the response from the Maori community and discusses how their creative dynamic has evolved on this third album with the benefit of having producer Josh Wilbur involved as well.

Elsewhere, the bassist discusses how Lamb of God's Randy Blythe came to guest on their album and he discusses the impact of social media on his daily life.

Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie. Very excited to welcome to the show for the very first time none other than Turanga Morgan-Edmonds of the band Alien Weaponry.  The band is back with their latest banger, Te Ra. I understand it's another big step forward for you and the group as you have taken on being fully involved with the songwriting this time out. How has that dynamic been working with Lewis [de Jong] and finding that perfect Alien Weaponry fit?

it has been quite interesting actually because, obviously, in the band I'm the bass player. But in my day to day life I'm a guitar player. So when it came to writing all these riffs and things that I wrote on a guitar, it was kind of interesting trying to figure out how that would then translate to Lewis's playing. He plays a very different style and has different techniques to how I would play guitar.

So in the studio we kept it simple. If I wrote it, I recorded it in the studio and we'd figure it out later in rehearsals and we had to figure it out later because we definitely came to find like, "Oh man." Lewis was like, "What the heck? Why did you play it like this? I would never play it like this." So now he's trying to figure out how to play it plus sing it.

I'm not normally considering myself a singer so I don't write with singing in consideration. So that was an interesting sort of learning curve. Although I don't think Lewis is mad that now he gets an opportunity to learn some new skills as well. But it was kind of a cool process actually. And now that we've done it once, we have an idea now of like what that's going to work like going ahead. I think it should be actually even smoother.

We're already talking about album four, but coming.Into album three.

Alien Weaponry Featuring Randy Blythe, "Taniwha"

Turanga, that great tune "Taniwha" features Randy Blythe from Lamb of God. How did you and Randy first cross paths?

So Randy came about because he sent me a message on Instagram about a book that I had recommended on my social media about Maori culture. It was a book sort of to dive deeper while also being an introduction to Maori customs and traditions.

I woke up one morning and [there was a message], "Oh, Randy Blythe."

And he said, "Hey man, nice to meet you, I'm Randy. And I just want to let you know I like your guys' music. And also I got this book you recommended. I just want to let you know, it's a great book." I was like, "Wow, cool."

The importance of that moment was how the introduction happened. He broke the ice, which I think is why I felt confident to reach out to him later down the line when I was listening to demos and I said, "Oh, this song needs something. Maybe it's another vocal. Why not Randy?"

For anybody who doesn't know, Lamb of God is a huge reason why you have the Alien Weaponry that you know and love today. They were a huge influence on particularly Lewis, our frontman. It's his favorite band of all time.

And Randy's lyricism was a big influence on the way that Lewis writes, and the guitar playing was a big influence on the way that Lewis writes. So it was one of those moments where I was like, "I'm gonna reach out to Randy, but I'm not gonna tell them because if he says no, they'll be very disappointed."

So I reached out in secret. Obviously, Randy said yes. Lewis was beside himself. And then probably a year later, we found out we were working with Josh Wilbur, who has produced a considerable amount of Lamb of God's albums. So they have a long standing friendship and it made the whole process even easier once we'd hit the studio. We were like, "Oh by the way, Josh, you know, Randy's going to be on one of the songs."

He was like, "Ah, sweet. Easy," So he just flew out to his house because at the time when we were in the studio, Randy was on tour and got the recording done. So it was a really awesome sort of pinch yourself milestone in the band's career so far.

Paying respect to Maori culture is a big thing for this band, which is why I want to hit on "Mau Moko." Great song. And I get that it was born out of trying to honor and revive cultural traditions. Growing up, we all go through that period of finding ourselves and where we come from. What are some of the traditions here you'd like to see more prominent and passed down within Maori culture? 

"Mau Moko" specifically was about moko, our traditional tattoos, which, if this is on radio, you won't be able to see me, but I obviously have my own face done. And the facial tattooing that Maori have done for a thousand years was something that specifically has really or was nearly faded out to extinction. There's been a strong revival over the past 50, 60 years and even stronger.

It can be quite an intense thing to go through in a modern society where tattoos and specifically face tattoos can be frowned on. I know tattoos and all that sort of thing are becoming more and more common, but particularly things like a full face tattoo still carry a lot of stigma, regardless of whether there's a cultural connotation or you just like to get face tattoos or whatever.

So the whole ethos of "Mau Moko" was to try spark some pride into this specific tradition. But I think the song can be good and oo beyond the bounds of just Moko, and be a song to remind people about traditions and how they can be a beautiful thing and to remind the haters that we're still here. These things aren't going to go anywhere anytime soon.

So I would love to see more moko, particularly amongst young men, because women have been doing it for a long time. They kind of kept it alive, actually. So for women, it's not as much. There is less of a barrier for them to go get it. So the young men need to kind of play catch up.

That was a big reason I got it done, was to remind young men that we can go get it done. And it's been great seeing this. Very slow, but it's happening. There's an increase in the amount of moku you see walking around New Zealand these days.

Alien Weaponry, "Mau Moko"

Tu from Alien Weaponry on the show with us. Obviously Alien Weaponry are bringing something different to the table with a mix of English and Maori lyrics. It's garnered plenty, plenty of attention from heavy music fans. Given that the subject matter at times leans into your culture, what has been the response from the Maori community about how you're spreading the word on a global scale?

It's one of the interesting relationships we've had with our own people because heavy metal is not a popular genre of music amongst the Maori community or many Polynesians, if we're going to generalize. Maori liked to listen to reggae and hip hop and R&B, those sorts of genres of music.

So for a band to do heavy metal and promote our language and our culture was quite a fresh thing for Maori people to see back when Henry [De Jong] and Lewis started this whole thing. But every year and every time we play here in New Zealand, we've seen an increase in the demographic of our audience that are Maori and they actually like it because of what we do.

They still don't necessarily like the music, as it were, or listening to other metal bands. But maybe what we do are sort of a gateway introduction to metal which is cool as well. But a lot of the time we meet a lot of our Maori fans and they go, "Oh, dude, I don't listen to heavy metal. I've never been to a heavy metal concert. But I like what you guys do, what you stand for, how you spread awareness and education about our people and our culture all over the world." So it's been cool to see our people feel comfortable coming to our shows.

A great example is there's a mixed genre festival here in New Zealand called Homegrown and we played it for the very first time last year. There's a a reggae stage, there's a hip hop stage, electronic stage, a rock stage. It really is a truly mixed genre festival. That year people were complaining about the scheduling between the reggae stage and the rock stage because of when we were going onstage, which I highly doubt happens very often.

So it's awesome because it meant that a lot of people who would normally just hang out on that reggae stage wanted to come peak their eyes through the rock stage.and see what it was all about. So it's been really awesome seeing the growing support from our own people.

Tu, one of the standouts on this album is "1000 Friends." I've been seeing more and more acts speak to the effects of social media on society, but you guys took it a step further, reaching out on social media with a phone number for people to share their stories about how social media affected them. I was curious what you found from the fan input and also wanted to get your take on how you find a balance between being online and still living your everyday life.

The hotline thing that we did with the fan interaction has been really interesting to see. It's  not all negative. A lot of those calls are about how people have met their significant others or their best friends and they're able to keep in touch with friends who have moved away, So it's been cool seeing both sides of the spectrum, even though the song specifically doesn't necessarily have a positive outlook on social media.

For me personally, my relationship with social media is a little strange because my job outside of the band is social media. I have a large following across platforms, kind of separate to the band, and where I educate people about Maori culture. So it goes hand in hand. But the audiences are not necessarily mutual. So the way I approach social media as a form of employment is a little different.

It's changed quite a lot to how it was when I was just a consumer. So for me now it's really important to make sure I maintain a healthy balance and relationship with this thing because you can get really swept into it, I suppose, and swallowed by it when you are using it not only to entertain yourself, but also to pay bills.

These days I have a separate phone for social media so that when I put it down, it's down and it's away from me and I'm not on it 24-7. And I do find myself consuming less in my free time because I already spend enough time on it as a creator.

My relationship over the years has changed quite significantly. I don't know if it's for the better either. It pays the bills for sure, and it supplements the band stuff quite well, but it's different. That's the only way I can describe it.

Alien Weaponry, "1000 Friends"

I've got to give you credit on this one. I know you decided on Josh Wilbur, as you mentioned, to produce after watching Lamb of God's doc on their making of Omens. What was it that you saw there that made you feel he was right for your music? And how was that experience of working with Josh?

Well, actually, it was a little bit flipped around from what you just said there. It was that we had been told very last minute we were working with Josh because we were already shopping around for other producers within our budget at the time, and somebody like Josh was a dream producer, but we didn't necessarily have the budget. And then our manager figured it out, whatever made managers do magically behind the scenes, he figured it out.

So he very last minute was like, "Change of plans. You're gonna work with Josh Wilbur." And it's one of those moments where you don't really say yes or no. You just say yes.

But what that meant though is we didn't really know Josh. We  barely talked to him on the phone, unlike we had with the other producers we were looking at at the time. And so to get ourselves prepared for working with Josh, we watched the documentary to kind of see if we could get an insight into what he was like to work with. So it kind of happened on the inverse.

But I think he really did take this album up another notch. I always say he took good songs and made them great songs. And there was just a level of refinement that he brought that I think was a really important lesson for us in our songwriting. We know now what to think about going into the next album thanks to his expertise and a fresh set of ears.

In the past, we had used the boy's dad. He'd done the last two albums. And when you have a relationship where your producer is also your father, it can be interesting. Not good or bad, some things maybe and some things go the other way, but it's just different. So you can kind of be pulled out of a professional environment when you have such a close relationship with somebody like that. So to work with someone like Josh, where it's purely now working with someone who's there just to do the job, it puts you in a different plane of focus.

And I think it really was able to pull the best out of us because if he was critiquing us or telling us to do something again, we're being critiqued by somebody whose job it is to say that. Whereas when it comes from your dad, you get a little defensive, you know what I mean? So I think those sorts of changes were all for the better.

Thankfully, too, we also got along very well. We would consider each other friends now and we would love to work with him again going forward. I can see why Lamb of God have worked with him for so many years, because he's a great guy to work with.

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Tu, you recently had a chance to play shows with Kerry King. At this point, you're still a young band with a lot of exciting experience being racked up over the evolution of this band. Do you have that check mark moment you can't believe happened for you? And if I'm allowing you to call your shot, who's the band you still love to tour with one day? And why?

That's been interesting, at least for me personally, joining the band a little later. And if I'm going to expose myself here, I was not hugely educated in the realm of heavy metal. So when we toured with Gojira, for example, I'd never heard of them. I was discovering them as we were on the road with them. And same when we did King. I knew Slayer, but like, I don't really know Slayer. So they, for me, were all just people. Same thing with working with Randy with Lamb of God.

I discovered Lamb of God because I knew that it was Lewis's favorite. So I started listening to them to learn or get an insight into how Lewis absorbed music and what his inspirations were. So every time we've been able to share the road or meet these people, I've kind of been approaching it like they're just another guy.

For me, my favorite metal band of all time is Trivium. They're still one of the only bands that we've done all these festivals and all these shows and they're the only one I've yet to ever see. They're my favorite one and the whole reason I got into heavy metal in the first place back when I was a teenager.

So I think if we were to ever share the road with somebody that would make me finally have that moment where I'm like becoming all fanboy, it would be with Trivium. I think musically it's possible. I don't think we're too far off each other, particularly with songs like "1000 Friends," which are very clear homages to that era of metalcore and heavy metal.

So maybe one day. You never know.

We're manifesting this right now by talking about that.

Exactly.

Thanks to Alien Weaponry's Turanga Morgan-Edmonds for the interview. The Te Ra album is currently available. Stay up to date with the group through their website, Facebook, X, Instagram, TikTok and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.