Twelve Foot Ninja are an Australian heavy metal band from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, Victoria. They released their debut album ''Silent Machine'' in 2012. The band consists of Kin (vocals), Russ (drums), Stevic (lead guitar), and Rohan (rhythm guitar). They won Best New Talent at the 2014 Revolver Golden Gods Awards (America's only hard rock music awards) as well as two listener-voted awards from SiriusXM's Liquid Metal the year before. The band broke a world record for the most amount crowdfunded for a music video. Their first headline tour of Europe in April 2017 sold out five of the seven UK shows. In mid 2022, the band announced an "indefinite hiatus". Although, they (with Nik Barker, departing vocalist) are working on an acoustic album of Twelve Foot Ninja material. The release date is yet to be announced.

History

2008–2011: Early years and early EPs

The band formed in 2008 and released their debut EP ''New Dawn'' in 2008, resulted in the band earning a

Triple J Unearthed Triple J (stylised in all lowercase) is a government-funded, national Australian Radio in Australia, radio station intended to appeal to listeners of alternative music, which began broadcasting in January 1975. The station also places a greate ...

number 1 with the track "Dark Passenger", various support slots, and an appearance at Sydney's Come Together Festival. Their second EP, ''Smoke Bomb'', was released in November 2010. Produced by the band’s guitarist Steve "Stevic" Mackay in his Melbourne home studio, the EP was mixed by local producer/engineer Hadyn Buxton (

Trial Kennedy Trial Kennedy were an Australian rock band formed in 2002, in Melbourne, Victoria. The band released two albums, both peaked in the Australian top 50. In 2012, the band announced their break-up. History 2002–2006: Early EPs Trial Kennedy for ...

, Jonesez,

Blueline Medic Blueline Medic were a four-piece rock band from Melbourne, Australia. History The group formed in mid-1999 after the downfall of bands Caustic Soda and Mid Youth Crisis from which guitarists Donnie Dureau and Adrian Lombardi were members. In ...

Dukes of Windsor Dukes of Windsor were an Australian electronic rock group. Although formed in Melbourne, Australia, they were based in Berlin, Germany. They are notable for their single "It's a War", released in Australia in 2008 and in Europe in early 2010, ...

Felix Riebl Felix Riebl (born 1 May 1981) is a singer, songwriter, and composer based in Melbourne. He is the co-founder, band leader and principal songwriter of the internationally acclaimed band The Cat Empire, who have made multi-platinum albums, and are ...

) and mastered by

Howie Weinberg Howie Weinberg is an American audio mastering engineer with over 2,257 mastering credits, three TEC Awards, 21 Grammy Awards, two Juno Awards, and one Mercury Prize. Career Weinberg mastered Herbie Hancock's 1983 album ''Future Shock''. Other m ...

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Deftones Deftones is an American alternative metal band formed in Sacramento, California in 1988. They were formed by Chino Moreno (vocals, guitar), Stephen Carpenter (guitar), Abe Cunningham (drums), and Dominic Garcia (bass). During their first five ...

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

Jeff Buckley Jeffrey Scott Buckley (November 17, 1966 – May 29, 1997), raised as Scott Moorhead, was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist. After a decade as a session guitarist in Los Angeles, Buckley amassed a following in the early 1990s by ...

) at

Masterdisk Masterdisk is an American multimedia company in New York, located at 8 John Walsh Boulevard in Peekskill. They provide production services such as audio mastering, vinyl cutting and enhanced CD and DVD production. Their clients include such no ...

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. Guest musicians on the release include Bär McKinnon (

Mr. Bungle Mr. Bungle is an American experimental rock band formed in Eureka, California in 1985. Having gone through many incarnations throughout their career, the band is best known for music created during their most experimental era. During this time, ...

) on saxophone and

Ollie McGill Ollie is a given name and a nickname, often as a shortened form of Oliver, Olive, Olympia, Olga or Olivia. Variants include Olie, Oli, Oly and Olly. People Given name * Ollie Marie Adams (1925–1998), American gospel and R&B singer * Ollie ...

( Cat Empire) on keyboards.

2012–2015: ''Silent Machine''

Their debut studio album, ''

Silent Machine ''Silent Machine'' is the debut studio album by the Australia, Australian alternative metal band Twelve Foot Ninja. It was released through Volkanik Music on November 13, 2012. Track listing Personnel * Kin Etik – lead vocals * Steve "Stev ...

'', was released in November 2012. The album's first official single "Mother Sky" was released on 24 August and the video was premiered on Triple J's Home & Hosed blog. The second single "Coming for You" was released on 2 November 2012. Each song from the debut album came with a comic, created by Keith Draws (UK), inspired by the lyrics and based on the original fable of ''Twelve Foot Ninja'' (co-written by Steve "Stevic" Mackay). The story follows a sole ninja's mission to restore balance in a world headed toward a self-inflicted apocalypse All the individual comics were later combined into a 72-page bound comic book. In early 2013, Twelve Foot Ninja embarked on their first headline tour of Australia and sold out every capital city. The band successfully completed a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on Australian site

Pozible Pozible is an Australia-based crowdfunding platform and community-building tool for creative projects and ideas. It was developed to help people raise funds. Model Pozible is a crowdfunding platform and creative community. Projects are launc ...

in May 2013 for a music video "Ain't That a Bitch" about a fantastic revenge story on an internet troll. In October–November 2013, Twelve Foot Ninja toured Europe and North America for the first time. Their first show in London at the Camden Barfly sold out 3 weeks in advance and they also played Euroblast in Cologne, selling the most merchandise after the headliners Meshuggah. Their US/Canada tour in 2013 was opening for progressive metal band Periphery. In May 2014 Twelve Foot Ninja returned to North America for their first headline tour. They also played AEG festivals

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Carolina Rebellion Carolina Rebellion was a rock festival that took place annually in North Carolina. It was produced by AEG Live and Danny Wimmer Presents. The inaugural festival took place at the Metrolina Expo in Charlotte, North Carolina. The second year of ...

, Welcome To Rockville, Rocklahoma. They were also invited to showcase at

Michele Clark Michele E. Clark (June 2, 1943 — December 8, 1972) was an American journalist. She was the first African-American woman to be a television correspondent for CBS News. As a correspondent at WBBM-TV she covered the 1972 Democratic Party president ...

's revered radio conference in San Diego

Sunset Sessions Sunset Sessions is a conference for music industry professionals, established by indie radio promoter Michele Clark in 1998. It features performances from new musical talent and established acts with the intention of exposing executives to new mu ...

Rock. In July 2014, the single "Coming for You" was serviced to US Active Rock radio and reached number 45 on the Active Rock chart. The video of "Coming for You" has reached over 4.1 million views on YouTube and their total channel views reached over 10 million. The band toured the US again from October to December 2014 in support of

In This Moment In This Moment is an American rock band from Los Angeles, California, formed by singer Maria Brink and guitarist Chris Howorth in 2005. They found drummer Jeff Fabb and started the band as Dying Star. Unhappy with their musical direction, they ...

2016–2019: ''Outlier''

In November 2015, Twelve Foot Ninja announced they were working on their second album for release late 2016. At that time they leaked an early track from the studio called "One Hand Killing". A few weeks later they released a video clip for the same track. The band also started a PledgeMusic campaign to help raise funds for the making of the new album and to start advance pre-orders. When talking to

Loudwire ''Loudwire'' is an American online media magazine that covers news of hard rock and heavy metal artists. It is owned by media and entertainment business Townsquare Media. Since its launch in August of 2011, ''Loudwire'' has secured exclusive ...

vocalist Kin said "It has its roots in the ‘Silent Machine’ album but we’re kind of experimenting with a few different things. There’s more emphasis on songs and the actual songwriting as opposed to just riffs". On 19 July 2016, Twelve Foot Ninja announced the title and release date of their second album, ''

Outlier In statistics, an outlier is a data point that differs significantly from other observations. An outlier may be due to a variability in the measurement, an indication of novel data, or it may be the result of experimental error; the latter are ...

'', released on 26 August 2016. ''Outlier'' debuted at #1 on the Australian 100% Independent Album chart, #2 on the ARIA Australian Artist Chart, and #6 on the overall ARIA chart. In the US, Outlier debuted at #15 on Billboard's Alternative Rock chart and #3 on Billboard's Heatseeker chart. The band were personally selected by

Disturbed Disturbed may refer to: Books * ''Disturbed'', a 2011 novel by Kevin O'Brien (author) Film and TV * ''Disturbed'' (film), a 1990 film starring Malcolm McDowell * "Disturbed" (''Numb3rs''), a 2009 episode of ''Numb3rs'' * "The Disturbed", a 2 ...

to be their support act on the 2016 Australian tour. In April–May 2017, Twelve Foot Ninja toured Europe for the first time as a headliner. They sold out 5 of their 7 shows in the UK with strong numbers and some sold out shows in Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Spain, and Italy. In July 2017, Twelve Foot Ninja announced their Monsoon Tour of Europe, India, and Nepal, book-ending the tour with headlining shows at Euroblast Festival in Cologne and Silence Festival in Kathmandu. In 2019, long-serving bassist Damon McKinnon departed from the band.

2020–present: ''Vengeance'', departure of Nik "Kin" Barker and indefinite hiatus

On 27 May 2021, the band released a music video for the song "Long Way Home". It was announced that the song would feature on an upcoming album slated to be released in 2021. The second single, "Start the Fire", was released on 9 July 2021. The third single "Over and Out" was released on 9 September 2021. In October 2021, the album ''Vengeance'' was released and debuted at number 20 on the ARIA charts. On 17 December 2021, Nik Barker announced that he would depart the band in late 2022 after a final planned Australian tour and after a new vocalist is in place. The band have also announced an upcoming European tour for 2023 while in search for a new vocalist. On 12 July 2022, the band announced they were going on indefinite hiatus and cancelling all their upcoming tours in 2023.

Members

Final lineup at time of hiatus

*Nik "Kin Etik" Barker –

lead vocals The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of t ...

(2008–2022) *Steve "Stevic" MacKay –

lead guitar Lead guitar (also known as solo guitar) is a musical part for a guitar in which the guitarist plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs and chords within a song structure. The lead is the featur ...

(2008–2022) *Shane "Russ" Russell –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

(2008–2022) *Rohan "Ro" Hayes –

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

backing vocals A backing vocalist is a singer who provides vocal harmony with the lead vocalist or other backing vocalists. A backing vocalist may also sing alone as a lead-in to the main vocalist's entry or to sing a counter-melody. Backing vocalists are use ...

(2012–2022) *David de Vent – bass (2021–2022)

Former members

*Damon McKinnon – bass (2008–2019) *Fred Narkel –

(2008–2012)

Discography

Studio albums

Extended plays

Awards and nominations

Golden Gods Awards

Best New Talent 2014 https://themusic.com.au/news/twelve-foot-ninja-named-best-new-talent-at-golden-gods-awards/BOsXFhkYGxo/28-04-14

AIR Awards

The Australian Independent Record Awards (commonly known informally as

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AIR Awards of 2017 The AIR Awards of 2017 is the eleventh annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards (generally known as the AIR Awards) and was an award ceremony at Queen's Theatre Adelaide, Australia on 27 July 2017. This is the first ...

, ''Outlier'' , Best Independent Hard Rock, Heavey or Punk Album , , - ,

AIR Awards of 2022 The 2022 AIR Awards is the sixteenth annual Australian Independent Record Labels Association Music Awards ceremony (generally known as the AIR Awards). It took place on 4 August 2022 in Adelaide. The nominations were revealed on 18 May 2022 wi ...

, ''Vengeance'' , Best Independent Heavy Album or EP ,

ARIA Music Awards

The

ARIA Music Awards The Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (commonly known informally as ARIA Music Awards, ARIA Awards, or simply the ARIAs) is an annual series of awards nights celebrating the Australian music industry, put on by the Austr ...

is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of

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ARIA Music Awards of 2016 The 30th Annual Australian Recording Industry Association Music Awards (generally known as ARIA Music Awards or simply The ARIAs) are a series of award ceremonies which include the 2016 ARIA Artisan Awards, ARIA Hall of Fame Awards, ARIA Fine ...

, ''Outlier'' ,

ARIA Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album The ARIA Music Award for Best Hard Rock or Heavy Metal Album, is an award presented at the annual ARIA Music Awards, which recognises "the many achievements of Aussie artists across all music genres", since 1987. It is handed out by the Austral ...

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References

External links

* {{Authority control Musical groups established in 2008 Victoria (Australia) musical groups Australian progressive metal musical groups