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Alt rock, Entertainment, Music, Northern UK music scene, Rock music

Inherit The Stars release new video for ‘Still Alive’

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Inherit The Stars Online Promo Shot

Sheffield rockers, Inherit The Stars, have announced the release of their new video for ‘Still Alive’, a belting track from their new EP ‘Beyond The Beacons’. 

Drawing from diverse influences such as While She Sleeps, Enter Shikari and Fightstar, the northern four-price have a style that is unmistakably their own, blending memorable guitar riffs, strings, killer drums and synths to create a recipe for success on the UK rock scene.

Unlike many of their counterparts, Inherit The Stars refuse to be tied down to one genre of music. On both their debut album and their new EP, ‘Beyond The Beacons’, edgy metal cuts stand side by side with classic pop; all facets of the band’s impressive sound are written and recorded with
dedicated craftsmanship.

‘Still Alive’ is a massive track – a fillet of rock that will slap you round the face to announce that Inherit The Stars have arrived and this time, they’re shooting for the moon.

Catch the awesome video for ‘Still Alive’ here – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xri4SVeOnno – you can find out more via the links below.  ‘Beyond The Beacons’ is released on 8th December 2014 and last years debut album, ‘We Were Made To Walk The Skies’ is available via iTunes.

https://www.facebook.com/inheritthestarsofficial
http://www.inheritthestars.com
https://twitter.com/Inheritofficial

Music, Rock music, Southern rock

Interview with Scott Sharp of Blackwolf

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It’s been a bit of a year for Bristol rockers Blackwolf; what with touring, being nominated for the Classic Rock ‘Best New Band’ award, releasing their debut album … you would think that singer Scott Sharp would be above talking to a lowly blogger like me, right?  Wrong.  I don’t think I’ve ever met a more humble rock star and it was a real pleasure to chat with him for half an hour following a belter of a show at the Dome in London this month.  Enjoy …

Blackwolf band pic

Blackwolf was recently nominated for Classic Rock Magazine’s ‘Best New Band’ award.  How did it feel to see all of the support that you were getting?

We got a lot more support than we perhaps would have thought, really but Cadillac Three are a great band; I’m a big fan and I would love to get out on the road with them – it was well deserved.  To be honest, when Classic Rock nominated us, it hit us for six.  We had no idea and we were very, very chuffed, just blown away, to be honest.  We’ve been together for just over two years and the support that we’ve had has been insane.  We wrote the EP literally in my audition for the band and we recorded it a week later.  From that we got the Union tour, then The Answer and Winger tours.  One thing has kind of led into the other really, which is great.  We pledged for the debut album, ‘The Hunt’ and we did that just after our first tour.  It was a case of, we want to record an album, let’s just see what happens and sincerely did not expect to meet the target, but I think it took nine days and it just kept coming.

You’ve had some great, positive articles and reviews from the big magazines, Powerplay, Classic Rock etc., – do you enjoy doing press and publicity?

It’s a massively important thing because success for us is sharing what we’re doing with as many people as possible and magazines, radio stations and all the rest of it, they’re one of the prime ways (apart from live shows) to do that, so we relish it and we love talking to people.  It’s all fun!

I don’t like pigeon-holing bands, but if I had to put you into a genre, I would say you fit into the Southern rock genre.  Do you think it’s a genre that’s getting over-saturated?

It’s weird because everyone seems to call what we do something different, so some would say southern rock, some would say classic rock or modern hard rock.  To us, it’s rock and roll and that’s what we play, how we think it should sound today and we don’t forget what’s gone before us because rock and roll has such a rich bloodline which you can’t escape and we’re by no means interested in imitating or pretending that we’re in an era that we’re not.  That’s nothing against bands that do that, some bands do it amazingly, but every time we write or every time we do a show, we try and just take a step forward.

A lot of people say they hear grunge influences and that kind of stuff, which could be a little bit of me as I’m a huge Soundgarden, Pearl Jam and Alice in Chains fan, all that kind of stuff.   I’m also a fan of people like Aretha Franklin, Big Mama Thornton, and all those kinds of blues and soul singers as well.   The influences do literally go from the beginning of rock and roll; Jason is very into Chuck Berry and our influences go right back to Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, all the way up to Alter Bridge, Black Stone Cherry and what’s happening now.  There are all kinds of stuff in there.  I tend not to listen to our stuff much because I’m a huge perfectionist and I tend to pull everything apart; it’s good when you’re writing new stuff and I do hear the odd kind of metal slant it has and that soul edge.  I suppose it all kind of hovers around that blues rock and roll sound.

You’ve already mentioned your debut album, ‘The Hunt’.  Was it well received?

It was, shockingly so.  We got in the studio; our supporters paid for it all and got us in there and it was fantastic, in all honesty it was a real kind of intimate thing with us and the people that are following us and funding it all.  We did loads of blogs and video diaries, Q&A’s, stuff like that.  It was a very close relationship with the fans on that album and all we were really thinking about was making sure they were happy with it.  We weren’t thinking about magazines, or about how we were going to go down live.  When we released it, the magazines starting picking it up and for us it went insane because we expected it to get lost in the void as there’s so much good music out there.  We’ve been very fortunate with all the support that’s come out for us.

4-Panel-CD-DigiPak-with-Tunnel-Pocket-Template

How does your writing process work? 

It’s really important for us all to be there together.  Because our influences are so vast, it’s important to us that we all feed off of each other, but it will always initially start with a riff, or, like with ‘Moving Mountains’, I had a melody in my head  and I whipped out my phone and recorded it.  I took it to Ben, who’s like our riff-master and he just whacked something out straightaway and it fit perfectly.  That was on the way to rehearsals and we just jammed it out and it came to life – that’s pretty much how it always happens.  It normally ends when we’ve played it live a little bit – although we’ve recorded the album, we’re still writing the songs, they change constantly and continue to breathe.

Do you find it easy to engage with your fans?  You have over 5,000 likers on Facebook and you seem to be on twitter quite a bit … are fans that have been with you since the beginning?

Yeah, there are lots, we hang out with some of them.  In all honesty, I find it easy to talk to them because – and I mean this from the bottom of my heart – if it wasn’t for them, we would be five guys playing to an empty room and making stuff that nobody’s listening to, which is a bit pointless and just a bit of an ego massage.

With regard to Facebook, probably about two thousand of those people are also on my own FB account and we’ve got street teams, as well as a twitter group who spread the word for us.  In Birmingham we had a lock in with fans who came and saw us and a whole heap of them followed us to Hard Rock Hell and some stayed in our caravan with us!  It’s a lot of fun and they’re like family to us because that’s how much they mean to us – it might sound cheesy, but it’s crucial for us and anything we can do to encourage them to fall more in love with what we’re doing, we’ll do it.  There is so much great music out there and so many great bands, that I think it’s important to make that personal connection if you can.  Every show, we hang out at the merch table, whether it’s headline or support – we just want to meet as many people as possible.

But you won’t be able to do that for much longer, surely …

I don’t care, if the Gods look down on us and eventually took us to an arena or something like that, we’d still be doing it.  When we stop doing that, we’ll stop playing because there’s no point.  If you’re not playing your music for the people that want to listen to it, why are you doing it?

If you’re hanging out with fans all the time, do you get people coming on to you?

Sometimes, I suppose – it always freaks me out a little bit.  I’m quite shy when it comes to things like that, and I’m so over-the-top focussed on the music and what I’m singing!

Blackwolf B&W pic

You mentioned earlier that you’ll be starting work on a new album soon, are there any particular producers that you have lined up or anyone that you would really like to work with?

We’ve got a small list of producers that we’re meeting in December and there are a couple of people who we would love to work with, including Toby Jepson (Little Angels) and Jeff Rose (formerly of Skindred).

Who’s the biggest pain in the arse on tour?

It’s not really someone, it’s something, i.e., tiredness.  I don’t know if the other guys struggle with it, but vocally, I get tired and it’s constantly just keeping up my voice and what we’re doing. That’s probably the hardest part of touring.  I’m such a perfectionist that I hate it if I can’t reach 110% on every show.

I notice that there’s no alcohol in here either …

No, the guys do drink a little bit but I don’t touch the stuff until the last date, so I’ll probably have a drink tonight but whilst we’ve got shows I won’t touch it.  It messes with my vocal cords and people are coming out to pay to see us and we want to make new friends – I don’t want to let them down.

What are the best and worst things about doing this?

The best thing is looking out and seeing people, well for me anyway, and shaking their heads or grinning like a Cheshire cat.  The worst thing is looking out and seeing a straight face.  For me, if I see a straight face, I just want to get them smiling.  I don’t want to create anything weird between me and that person, but I do kind of keep coming back to them and obsess a little bit.

I’m very much a homebody, quite a rooted person and if we go on a long tour, sometimes I get a bit homesick, but that’s nothing, really.  It is something that I think about for later on, when we’re out on the road for eight, nine months at a time; we were talking to the Blues Pills and they’ve had four weeks off in the last twelve months or something insane and although we can’t wait to get to that point, and there is half of me that loves doing that, I’m a big family guy and I love being at home with my family.  It’s a double edged sword because we’ll come out and meet loads of new people and I love all of them too, that’s kind of what ‘Sleepwalking’ was about.

If the world was to end here in one hour, what would you do?

That’s deep … I would go and see as many of my friends and family as possible and try and get in a show with the people that want to come and see us.  If anyone out there wanted to come and spend their last few hours with us then that would be awesome!

What’s been the biggest highlight so far for the band?

It’s hard to say because every time we do something, something else happens that tops it!

A semi-serious question for you that I ask every band that I interview … given that rock is allegedly ‘dead’, where do you see the music industry as we know it heading?

I kind of get irritated when people say rock is dead, it’s absolute bullshit to be honest.  I think what people are on about when they say rock is dead is that the money in rock and roll is dead.  As long as people look at this type of music like that, it won’t make any money because it’s not about how much cash you’re making.  When it went down that route, it was the death of that element of it, because it became about something it was never meant to be.  If you go back to the original roots of rock and roll, it was deep, they played and sang about stuff that meant a lot to them.  As long as bands are still doing that then rock will still be alive.  People like Royal Blood, I think what they’ve done is fucking fantastic because they’ve gone out and they’ve shown that with the right support and backing and marketing plan, just two lads, they can do a lot of shit.  We just need to hijack their marketing plan!

Where do you hope to be in 5 years time?

We just want to share what we do with as many people as possible.  Playing arenas would be fantastic, if we can do that in 5 years I would die a very happy man.  Next year it would be good to get some more backing, like an agency and maybe a label.  It’s very intimate the way we work; we’ve literally got a manager and an agent and then us.  We have people coming out and crewing for us but it’s very small so more support in that kind of business element would be great.  As we grow as a band, hopefully we’ll get bigger and the quantity of people following us will grow.

Vix and Scott of Blackwolf

I would like to thank Scott for his time – it was awesome to chat to him and the guys in Blackwolf and it’s not very often that someone’s so happy to answer questions!  If you haven’t yet bought ‘The Hunt’, you can find it on iTunes.  check out the video for ‘Moving Mountains’ here – http://youtu.be/XayXsQIgImU and new single ‘Kiss The Fire’ here – http://youtu.be/M9TMwrxtkqg

www.ukblackwolf.com

www.facebook.com/ukblackwolf

Music

Interview with James Cassells of Asking Alexandria, 5/11/14, Southampton

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Asking Alexandria are one of the biggest bands to come out of the UK rock scene over the last few years and, whilst they’ve had their well documented issues, they’ve made it out the other side and lived to tell the tale.  Now based in America, they’ve been touring around the world for what seems like forever, but they finally hit Southampton at the start of this month.  I was very privileged to grab twenty minutes of drummer James Cassell’s pre-gig time.  It’s a good one (and I’m particularly proud of it!), so kick back, grab a cold one and have a read.  Enjoy!

asking alex pic

So, James. You’ve nearly finished one tour and then you’re off to America for another?

Yeah, we’ve done about 5 weeks of this tour, we’ve got a couple of weeks left. We’ve got five days off and then we start a month-long tour of mainly North America and Canada.  We’ve never done a full Canadian tour, so it’s hitting a lot of cities that we haven’t hit before – we’re looking forward to it.

Awesome. You have The Family Ruin supporting?

Yeah, great band and cool dudes as well!

Let’s talk about ‘From Death To Destiny’, Asking Alexandria’s most recent album. It’s been very well received but how do you feel about it?  Do you think you’ve matured as a band with this record?

Definitely, I’ve always said it’s a much more mature album, especially considering the previous albums. The first one was very … not immature, but you can tell it was by teenagers.  The next album was very angry and with this one, we’re finding out our place in life, almost, so it’s a much more mature outlook on music and ourselves.  When we started the band, we were all teenagers; now we’re in our twenties, we have wives and houses, we are adults now – back then we were just kids on tour and were a mess, pretty much.

From_Death_to_Destiny pic

How does your writing and recording process work, do you all get together from the start?

Usually Ben will come to me with a guitar riff, or a chorus idea and we’ll work it, develop it and make a song and then we’ll approach Danny and the other guys. A lot of the songs on the previous albums have been mainly written by me and Ben.  This one was going about it a little bit differently and we wanted everyone to be a little more on board with the writing process, so it was a little bit more organic and not quite so disjointed.  It’s weird – a lot of bands sit in a practice room and just work it out and get songs, we don’t really do that.  We write ideas for songs and the first time we actually play it properly, is when it’s going to be recorded.  Even when we’re recording, we’ve never actually played it together.  With the next album we’re going to do that, we’re going to go about it in more of an original way.

Ah, I was going to ask about plans for the next album. Any timescales?

We’ll take the first half of next year off and in that time we’ll have a little bit of a break because we’ve been touring so much, we’ve hit pretty much every continent in the world this year, but we are also going to be in the studio recording album number four and we’re hoping to set a release date for summer.

Presumably that will coincide with a festival appearance?

Yes, we might be doing some festivals … if anyone looks back at our past touring schedules, you’ll notice that we do Europe in the summer and this summer, we did America. Last year we played Download, this year we did the Mayhem Festival in America.

You’ve launched the ‘AA Family’ website, like a fan forum type of thing. Tell me a bit more about that.

A lot of artists and bands, they have fan websites, but they charge their fans. We aren’t charging anyone anything. It’s a new concept.   We have 5 million followers on Facebook; if we post something on Facebook, it goes to a tiny percent of people and we were like, what’s the point?  So we said we were going to do our own thing, so we can actually reach our fans, when we want to reach them.

It’s also a place where they can access to new merch designs, pre-orders, chances to win tickets and we’re all on it. It’s still in its infancy at the moment, but we’re going to really step it up and we’re going to be doing loads of stuff that fans just want to see.  Hopefully it will become something really great.  I really hope it catches on because it’s a much better way for us to reach our fans and for them to interact with us and each other.

You’ve got many fans across Europe and the USA. Do you find there are any specific differences in the way that they react to you in the different countries?

A lot of people ask us that and honestly, the only thing that’s different is, for me, the accents or the language. The fans are usually very similar and its only when you go to somewhere like Japan, where in between songs they’re dead silent because the respectful thing for them to do, it’s their culture, everywhere else is very much the same, I find.  People love to sing along, some people like to rock out, some people like to just enjoy the music.  Maybe some places are louder or more extreme, but everywhere is the same.

Are they different when they meet the band?

We did a signing in the Philippines which was completely insane because they never see us – we’ve played there once, it was just crazy. People were trying to grab us … yet we’ll do the same thing in the UK or in America and it’s a lot different, people are a lot more respectful.

Well, we British are very good at queueing! Tell me what you’re listening to at the moment as you’re travelling round?  Any new bands to recommend?

I’ve been listening to The Family Ruin’s album (Dearly Departed) a lot, as I said they’re good friends of ours so I’ve been checking that out. I listen to a lot of electronic shit, especially if I’m in my bunk and just trying to chill out and sleep … it’s not verse, chorus, hooks and catchiness, it’s constant, background noise.  We listen to so much old school rock and classics, especially if we’re just drinking on the bus.

TFR USA tour pic

Who is the worst behaved person on tour?

What do you mean by “worst behaved”?

Like, who throws their toys out of the pram the most?

Ben can be a bit of a nightmare when he’s spat his dummy out, but it doesn’t happen often.   We’re all pretty bad, but to be honest, we’re not half as bad as we used to be.  When we were touring on the ‘Reckless and Relentless’ album, we were a complete train wreck, I’m surprised one of us didn’t die.  Now we’re a lot calmer, not as insane.  We’re all equally a bit older and a bit lamer, like I’m drinking Cup-A-Soup right now …

Not very rock and roll, James! Who is the best behaved and most chilled out?

Probably me.

Well, you would say that! In terms of Asking Alexandria as a band, where do you hope to be in five years’ time?

A lot of artists will have a market or a country where they are massive and everywhere else is lukewarm. We have a pretty solid fan base everywhere we go in the world and every time we go, we’re slowly creeping up.  We had a massive burst in North America to begin with and since then every notch, every album has gone a little bit further.

In five years, I just want to still be doing a vigorous touring schedule, but on a bigger scale. Bigger shows, more people, more albums sold.  For instance this tour we’re doing, this place is like, 1,700 or something, London will be about 5,000.  I’m hoping we can move to doing arenas and outdoor ampitheatres and whatnot. On this tour, we’ve so many dates very close together, so I’m really surprised we’re doing as many tickets as we are, it’s a great tour and the majority of it has been sold out.  In total I think we’re playing to about 28,000 people which is the biggest tour we’ve ever done and we’re reaching more people.  The last headline tour we did was only Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham and London and all of those were sold out.

What’s been the biggest highlight so far?

Download Festival and selling out Brixton early last year – that was amazing. That’s a venue that all of us wanted to play and then we found out we had sold out on pre-sale, that was really cool.  We actually recorded a DVD there that’s finally coming out, in time for Christmas, I think.

You’ve been together as a band for some time, what’s the secret to your longevity? What tips would you give to up and coming bands?

We’ve never had a line-up change, which is pretty strange for a band of our age that’s been around for this long. Some might say that what we did was reckless or stupid, but we just put all of our chips on black.  We moved to America with nothing and just managed to scramble our way to something.  You’ve got to be, like, if you want to do this, it’s what you do and you have to devote a few years of your life to nothing else.  You have to be very prepared that you’re going to wade through shit for a long time before you get anything.  You’re not going to make any money and everyone will tell you that you should have stayed in school, should have got a job … just persistence and hard work.

Wow. Thanks for your time, James.  Great answers, great tats and it was also a great show!  Check out the Asking Alexandria sites below, don’t forget they’re about to head out on ‘The Moving On Tour’ with The Family Ruin, Blessthefall, Chelsea Grin and Upon A Burning Body across North America and Canada.

Vik and James Cassells

www.askingalexandria.com

www.facebook.com/askingalexandria

You can place pre-orders for the two-disc ‘Live From Brixton and Beyond’ here – http://http://www.sumerianmerch.com/ and catch the trailer here – http://http://youtu.be/BdJDdPNMpAk

Music

Review of The Family Ruin – ‘Dearly Departed’

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Fans of York-bred rockers, The Family Ruin (formerly known as The Fallen) have been waiting a long time for this album. Recently signed to KBB Records and currently about to head off on a tour of the USA with Asking Alexandria, it seems as though the band are hungry to get out on the road and destroy their American shows with as much energy and enthusiasm as possible.  I saw them back in the summer and they kicked some metal ass, so I was quite keen to grab a listen to their debut.

TFR Dearly Departed art

Dearly Departed is a full-on alt-metal fest, 14 tracks of bruising rock that sounds very current for 2014. Perfectly chosen opening track, ‘Bring Out Your Dead’ is a stomping tune, full of big riffs and vocals, although I did have to check whether I had actually put the right record on – there is, in my humble opinion, more than a striking similarity to pretty bad-boy rockers, Glamour Of The Kill on this track.

I had high hopes for third track, ‘Cirque De Sin’ – who wouldn’t with a name like that?! It didn’t disappoint, from the minute the speed riffs kick in, along with Johnny’s huge vocals, it just makes you want to get up and destroy stuff, although it seemed a little short, but maybe that’s just because I was jumping around whilst it was on ….

‘Let’s Go’ (which hit number one on the Sirius XM Octane chart within three weeks of release) is easily one of the stand-out tracks of the album for me. It has everything, great vocals, awesome guitars and a chorus that will stick in your brain long after you’ve finished listening to it.  I like the lyrics, I just like everything about it and you won’t be able to keep still whilst you’re listening to it.

Other stand out tracks include ‘Battle For The Sun’ – another epic track with lots of screaming vocals and huge guitar riffs, the absolutely beautiful ‘Haunting’, which is pared right back, heavy on the piano and really showcasing the vocals and also the awesome ‘Filth’. Not sure what I can say about that one, other than I can see it being a massive hit in the clubs.  A memorable hook, massive vocals, dirty lyrics … it’s just a huge track and probably my favourite.  ‘Let It Burn’ is also immense and will probably become an anthem for TFR.

Also, after listening to ‘Wake Up’ several times in a row, wracking my brain to think who it reminded me of, I realised that the riffs are a little bit Black Veil Brides. Obviously it’s a unique song, but yep, there’s definitely a bit of Brides’ influence in there!  Have a listen and see what you think!

Last track ‘Sonder’ has overtones of Bring Me The Horizon at the opening and it’s a great song; melodic, thoughtful and absolutely the perfect end to a an absolute belter of a debut album, which you can purchase from iTunes.  Do it – this is one that you definitely need in your collection!

www.facebook.com/TheFamilyRuin

I interviewed the guys back in June this year – check out the link if you fancy a read –

https://queenofrock75.wordpress.com/2014/09/23/interview-with-the-family-ruin-following-voodoo-rocks-festival-june-2014-london/

The family ruin band pic

BAND:

Johnny Mennell – Vocals

Craig Robinson – Guitar and Vocals

James Langley – Guitar

Dom White – Drums

Josh Adamson – Bass

TFR USA tour pic 

TRACK LISTING:

Bring Out Your Dead

Leech

Cirque De Sin

Let’s Go

Us Against The World

Battle For The sun

Haunting

Wake Up

Filth

Broken Hands

Let It Burn

My Addiction

Where We Fall

Sonder

Music

Interview with the Dirty Thrills, November 2014

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I recently had the good fortune to see an amazing performance from a band that I have only just discovered (not quite sure how this has occurred, but I’m so glad I’ve found them now).  London-based, self-confessed dirty blues rockers, Dirty Thrills rocked the Stillery early on the bill of Camden’s Nightmare Festival.  To be honest, I fell in love with their sound straight away and had to find out more about them; thankfully, they were happy to talk about the great state of the rock and roll industry, their burning desire to tour the States and, erm, pole dancing videos …

Dirty Thrills band pic

How was Nightmare Fest?

Ah it was amazing, we had a killer time (no Halloween pun intended). We were really impressed with our set at The Stillery.  Well, from what we remember, it was just an energetic blur, with us drenched in sweat and torturing our instruments.  We wouldn’t have it any other way though.

You’ve got a few dates coming up – for anyone that has just discovered you, can you give any hint as to when you might be touring again?

Yes, we will playing a few more dates from now until the end of the year so check out our Facebook for updates on those. In terms of a full-on tour, we are in the process right now of getting that together at the moment.  We plan on kicking off the new year with a tour – no messing about!

You’ve been going for two years, building on a solid fan base, are you finding it easy to pick up new fans?

In the most humble way possible, it is becoming a lot easier. I think as your band’s name and reputation gets out there and begins to snowball, more and more people starting joining your fan base.  We live on Facebook and twitter, spreading the word of our band, so it looks as if it is paying off.

Who are your biggest musical influences?

We’ve all got different favourites, but with a common passion for rock ‘n’ roll – to name a few; Queens of the Stone Age, Jack White, Rival Sons, Led Zeppelin.

If you could only tour with one band in the next year, who would you pick and why?

We were talking about this the other day as a band, and we came to the conclusion that Royal Blood would be a great band to tour with. We’re great fans of their music and their epic ‘duo’ sound.  Our styles would go together perfectly on a rock bill.

That’s one I wouldn’t miss! What’s the weirdest thing a fan has ever given you?

We once had a couple of girls send us a video of them pole dancing to our song ‘Drunk Words’. We weren’t complaining …

How would you describe your musical style?

Dirty blues rock ‘n’ roll with melodic vocals. Our debut album has a bit of everything – riff-based tunes, heavier tunes, classic-rock and a rock ballad. Our style is for anyone who loves a good noise groover, but with something to sing along to.

How does the writing/recording process work for you? Do you all do it together, or add bits separately?

We have a very healthy recording process. The work process normally differs from song to song, but generally, one person has the bulk idea for a new song, and the rest of us build it up together.  It usually starts with a guitar riff, and then we go from there.  If we’re not feeling inspired we don’t force a song out, we just go for a beer!

What’s been the highlight for the band so far?

Probably writing and recording our debut album, the whole process was awesome. We’re already itching to get into the studio again.

dirty thrills album pic

What’s the best/worst thing about what you do?

There is no ‘non-cheesy’ way of putting this, but the best thing about we do, is the ‘buzz’! That moment on stage and in time where everything is perfect, and you’re having the time of your life.  The worst thing is the waiting around before a gig when you’re not allowed to be drunk, ha ha.

Are there any countries that it would be a dream to play for you?

We would love, as many others would, to play in the USA. Venues like Red Rocks and Madison Square Garden are up there with all-time dream venues to play.

Any 2015 festival news that you can share?

None that we are allowed to share at the moment, we’ve just started working with some new contacts just recently, and we will definitely have some exciting festival announcements soon. Stay tuned guys.

What do you think about the current state of the music industry and do you think that ‘rock is dead’?

No we don’t think rock is dead at all. People have been saying this for years, some even said it before the 80‘s and 90’s.  It’s not dead in the slightest, it’s just having a recharge.  It takes this ‘hiatus’ state for a genre to re-emerge as something bigger, better and different.  There are new rock artists appearing every day who are slowly turning the tide to a new movement, people just don’t know it yet.

Where do you hope to be as a band in 5 years?

We hope to have gotten bigger and better as a band, and to be playing all over the world for everyone to see. It feels like just the beginning for us, and we’re all excited as to what’s in store in the future.

It was both a pleasure and a dirty thrill (see what I did there?!) to chat to these guys – make sure you check out their album, which you can buy here –

http://dirtythrillsclothing.bigcartel.com/product/dirty-thrills-dirty-thrills-album-cd

Check out their website and Facebook pages here and make sure you don’t miss them next time they’re touring – these guys are going to be HUGE!  They also have an album launch show next Monday, 17th November at the Barfly in Camden, go to their FB page for more details.  Miss it, miss out!

http://www.dirty-thrills.com/

www.facebook.com/DirtyThrills

Also, take a look at the video (part 1, there are MANY more!) of the making of their album –

http://youtu.be/bUmB5ilwBHI

Live music, Music, Rock music

Review – Soil plus supports, Weymouth Pavilion, 28.10.14

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Soil band pic

It’s not every day that you get to see four bands of the calibre of the line up on the current Soil tour, especially in a sleepy seaside location such as Weymouth, so it’s no surprise that the good metal fans of the town turned out in force for this extravaganza. I’m not sure if it was sold out, but it was certainly a respectable number for a Tuesday night.

First on the bill were Canadian metallers, Wolfborne, who did an admirable job of warming up a growing crowd. I hadn’t really heard much of their material beforehand, so it’s always great to discover a new band and I hope I’ll get to see more of them.

Next up came rock/punk/rap outfit (Hed)P.E, who from the first note inspired a mosh pit down at the front, with the eager crowd singing the lyrics back to vocalist Jahred.   They belted out classic tracks such as ‘No Turning Back’, ‘Bartender’ and ‘Renegade’, as the temperature rose along with the energy. Jahred was out into the crowd at the front and general chaos ensued; his engagement with the fans was pretty awesome – a real lesson in how to be an excellent front man that many bands could learn from. They ended a manic set with a one-off cover of The Specials’ ‘Ghost Town’ which went down a storm.

I was a little disappointed with third band American Head Charge’s set, but then (Hed)P.E were a hard act to follow. Indeed, I think many of the crowd felt the same as the number of bodies at the front thinned out as their set went on. I found it to be a bit plodding, although more people came back when they speeded things up a bit. It seems that louder isn’t always necessarily better.

Soil tour poster

Last but certainly not least, came the mighty American band Soil, who have been one of my favourites for many years and it was a real pleasure to be able to have a quick chat with singer Ryan McCombs before the gig. The lights were down as Queen’s ‘We Will Rock You’ rang out across the room as an intro and suddenly, bathed in blue light, there they were in all their glory. Kicking off with ‘Loaded Gun’, Soil stormed through a killer set, with the crowd loving it and getting involved from the off. We were treated to such favourites as ‘The Hate Song’, ‘Deny Me’, ‘Way Gone’ and of course the epic ‘Breaking Me Down’. The penultimate song was the massive track ‘Halo’, before a finale of ‘Shine On’ brought the house down.

I’m so glad to have finally seen Soil, they gave an awesome performance and it was also a treat to be able to cross (Hed)P.E off of my must-see list. A fantastic night of metal in a good little venue, so a big well done to the organisers Advanced Promotions for another amazing gig!

Soil set list: –

  1. Loaded Gun
  2. Two Skins
  3. The Hate Song
  4. Deny Me
  5. Need to Feel
  6. The One
  7. Way Gone
  8. Redefine
  9. Unreal
  10. Breaking Me Down
  11. Halo
  12. Shine On

www.soiltheband.com

www.headcharge.com

www.hedperocks.com

www.wolfborne.com

 

Interviews, Live music, Music, Rock music

Interview with I Divide, Southampton, 11.10.14

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It was with great pleasure that I got the opportunity to have a chat with three fifths of Exeter rockers, I Divide, before their show with The Dirty Youth back in October.  Standing in a freezing car park next to a dodgy looking church, Josh (guitar), Henry (guitar) and Kristen (bass) waxed lyrical about festivals, social media and what their plans are for world domination.  Or something like that … enjoy!

I Divide band pic

How did you enjoy your appearance at the recent alcohol and drug-free Butserfest?

Josh:  Yeah, it was awesome.  We’d never been there before so we didn’t really know what to expect – I’d seen some stuff online but yes, we really enjoyed the set and it was a good crowd.  We hadn’t played for a few weeks, so it was just nice to get back on stage and play a show.

You also did an acoustic set, which was awesome and one of the best sets of the day. How was it for you?

Josh:  It was cool.  Although we’ve done some acoustic sets before, we never really done one in front of a live audience as it’s normally for radio or for a video interview. To do it in front of a little audience was really nice!

Henry:  I didn’t expect there to be that many people there, really.  Walking outside and seeing the queue and realising they were for us …

Awesome. So, you’ve been supporting the Dirty Youth on their UK tour, has it been enjoyable?

Henry: We get on with them really well, we’ve had a few messy nights out with them but it’s been a really fun tour over quite a lot of dates. You get a mix of tours where some you only do a handful of dates across bigger cities, but it’s nice to actually go to a few more places on this one.  We’re covering the span of the UK, we went up to Aberdeen …

I’ve heard that the Scots like to party …

Henry:  We love the Scots!

Josh: They’re amazing!

You’ve had a pretty good year, really – you’ve toured with some big names and you’ve done Takedown and Butserfest … what’s been the highlight so far for you?

Henry:  Belgium was pretty cool, we played a festival over there with some awesome bands like Heart in Hand, Anavae, Carcer City …

Josh:  Loads of British bands!  We got to play with some big American bands over there as well though.

Henry:  We haven’t done a lot of European touring, so it was nice to go over there and play to a big crowd.

Your debut album, ‘Last One Standing’ is excellent. Have you had positive feedback?

Henry:  Thank you!  Yes, we’ve had loads of good feedback so far.

I Divide album artwork

You released an EP before that, there was a bit of a gap in between the two?

Josh:  Yes, not quite two years in between them. We released ‘What’s Worth More’ in 2012, it was nine tracks, seven ‘proper’ songs and two instrumentals.  A few of us played in a band before and some songs on that CD were written before we really, properly formed I Divide.  What we began with was to get some music out there and some songs to play live, whereas ‘Last One Standing’ was us sitting down and writing an album, recording it together and that was the one we wanted as our debut album.  To answer your question, the reaction has been wicked and we’ve had some really good reviews for it.  It did really well in the iTunes chart.

Henry:  We didn’t expect that, really.  We weren’t sure what to expect!

What’s your favourite track to play off of the album?

Kristen:  I like ‘Tell Me Something’.

Henry:  I really like ‘Tell Me Something’ as well.

Josh:  I really like quite a few to play live – ‘Runaway’, we’ve been playing that for quite some time, as we wrote it quite early on. It’s a really bouncy song, really energetic, it’s the one that makes me sweat the most!  I really like playing all the songs off the album.  ‘Monster In Me’ is a bouncy one and ‘I’m Not Leaving’ is a good one to jump to.

Kristen:  It’s been good this tour – we’ve got a whole new set and everyone’s singing along, they know the words.

(At this point Kristen is stretching like a pro-athlete in the car park and it’s clear that they take this VERY seriously …)

Josh:  When you play a load of live shows in a row, we always warm up anyway but …

Henry: The last few nights I haven’t warmed up and I regret it quite a bit now.

Kristen: We’re getting older now, as well.

Oh, come on – you’re only 23! Anyway, moving swiftly on to a boring question, who are your biggest musical influences when you write and who does most of the writing?

Henry:  I would say Josh, mainly.  He writes a lot of the lyrics and the music.  I just kind of come along and get my guitar and start writing lead stuff.

Josh:  I’m not the best guitarist in the world, but I love song-writing.  I’ll sit down and write the rhythm, the lyrics and the melody – obviously I’ll get Tom involved for the melodies and the lyrics, then we’ll grab these guys and get the instrumental stuff put in.

You put a lot of pictures up on Facebook and you use twitter too, do you tend to interact with your fans a lot, or do you not really bother? You seem to be quite sociable and open to people.

Josh:  We try and put a lot of effort in to talk to our fans.  We do a lot of stuff on social media and spend a lot of time trying to write back whenever people tweet us and message us, to make sure people’s questions are answered and they feel like they have that interaction with the band.  I’ve been speaking to a lot of people tonight who can’t believe that we message them back!  Obviously it’s getting harder and harder as we progress as a band and we get more and more messages.  We were just chatting to some guys at the bar, one’s been a fan of the band for ages and wanted to buy us a drink and every night that we play a show we always go down and just talk to everyone, take photos with everyone and get involved and make sure that everyone who wants to meet us at a show can definitely meet us; we don’t ever want anyone to go away and say that they didn’t get the chance.

Well, that’s going to get harder as your popularity increases! Let me throw in a question to mix things up a bit.  Who’s the biggest pain in the arse on tour?!

Josh:  Henry’s the biggest drinker.  We went out in Sheffield the other night and Henry got himself into a bit of a state where he couldn’t really stand up and we had to carry him halfway across Sheffield to get him back!  He then decided to sleep on the floor of the van.

Henry:  It was £2.50 for triple vodka and cokes with free shots and the Jagerbombs were £1.00.

Kristen:  To be fair, we were all sick that night …

That brings me neatly to the next question. What are the best and worst aspects of what you do?

Henry:  It’s great to get out and meet people, to have connections with the music and stuff.  It’s an honour.  We had fans who came from Cornwall going up to Aberdeen to see us and they spent two days travelling. Sometimes people don’t understand how much it means to us to see people from home when you’re this far away.

Josh:  One girl has travelled from Paris today to see us, she flew in to London and got a train down here.  We were like, we had better play well!  There aren’t many bad aspects to it though, apart from missing home, that’s the only difficult thing.  When we were away in Belgium I had some family stuff going on and I found that quite difficult.  Being away from my girlfriend is always hard.

You’re playing the Zombie Ball at Halloween – what does it mean to you to be playing alongside bands such as Skindred and Glamour Of The Kill?

Josh:  Skindred are getting so big now, it’s ridiculous. It’s going to be sick, we’re really looking forward to that show.   We’ve always loved playing shows on Halloween because it gives us an excuse to dress up as absolute idiots and Skindred are one of my favourite bands to watch live. I got given a ticket to see them down in Exeter and now I’ve seen them about ten times.

So what’s next and what’s your long-term plan for the band?

Kristen:  Just getting our name out there, and to start writing for the next album.

Any festivals lined up for next year?

Josh:  That’s kind of where we are – at this point in time, over the next few months we’ll be looking to get festivals.  I was saying to Kristen earlier that next year is just going to be the year where we do try and get on to every festival going.  We’re obviously going to be thinking about album number two and doing bits and pieces for that, but we’ll be touring as much as we possibly can and just keeping busy.

Do you have any longer-term goals or ambitions that you want to cross off of your lists, or do you take things as they come and enjoy it?

Josh:  We all want to travel the world with the band – if we can get to the stage where we get enough international followers to make it worthwhile enough for us to fly around and see the world doing this, we would be happy.

Henry:  If we make it as far as Australia that would be awesome.

Indeed, it would. Finally, a question I should have asked at the start – how did you arrive at the name I Divide?

Henry:  We get asked that loads, but there is no answer – we need to make one up.

Kristen:  We need some kind of epic story …

Josh:  It’s lyrics from a Brand New song, actually.  We came to the decision because we all came up with about thirty or forty names each that we thought were good, put them into a massive list and took it in turns to cross names off.  We wanted something short and snappy that didn’t really mean much else that people would quickly associate the words with us.  We really need to make up a better answer for this question!

Well, I had a blast chatting to these guys and although they’re not currently touring as such, they have just announced a show on 28th November at the Zombie Hut in Corby – check their Facebook page for more details and tickets.  You can also buy a physical copy of their album from the usual outlets, or online at iTunes.

www.idivideband.com

www.facebook.com/idivideband

Check out the videos for ‘I’m Not Leaving’ and ‘Follow Me’ here –

http://youtu.be/YEcA_EsnBek?list=PLsqIiBny50NvR1K_bTTpJT-AwJKO75yb1

http://youtu.be/rNobv67EEnQ

Music

Headbangers Balls – saying ‘Balls to Cancer’!

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If you thought charity had little to do with metal, you seriously need to think again.  Those awesome folks over at Headbangers Balls have arranged a series of gigs in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust and they’re also raising awareness of testicular cancer. 
Generic Poster
Over eight venues around the country, the line up includes such heavyweights as Savage Messiah, Evil Deth, Onslaught, Collibus and a whole host of other kick-ass metal mayhem merchants*, all for less than a tenner a night!
(*see individual events for exact line-up details, as bands vary)
HB_LOGO
07.11 CHESTER – THE COMPASS
Reign of Fury’s only HBB headline show
Chester
 
08.11 MANCHESTER – REBELLION BAR
Headline: Savage Messiah
Manchester
 
14.11 CAMDEN TOWN (FREE SHOW)
Headline: Anihilated
 
Camden
15.11 LONDON – BOSTON MUSIC ROOM
Headline: Fleshrot
London
 
05.12 NUNEATON – QUEENS HALL
Headline: Beholder
Nuneaton
 
06.12 BIRMINGHAM – THE FLAPPER
Headline: Lawnmower Deth ft. Dr Hell from Evil Scarecrow
Birmingham 1
 
13.12 GLOUCESTER – NEW OLYMPUS THEATRE
Headline: Bull Riff Stampede
Gloucester
 
17.01 BIRMINGHAM – NEW YEAR SHOW – THE FLAPPER
Headline: Onslaught
Birmingham 2
 
Head on over to Facebook and give the Balls’ page a like, also check out the individual events for further details.  This is a great opportunity to catch some fantastic metal bands, raise awareness of a killer disease and rack up some dosh for kids with cancer.  What more could you ask for?!
 
Music

Interview with Funeral For A Friend at Voodoo Rocks Summer Ball, June 2014

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Those Bridgend boys Funeral For A Friend are back with a vengeance, having just announced a headline tour next January, to coincide with the release of their new album, ‘Chapter and Verse‘.  Back in June, they had top spot at the prestigious Voodoo Rocks Summer Ball at Electrowerkz in London and I was lucky enough to interview them after they smashed their set.  So, in case you missed it the first time around, sit back, relax and have a read!

FFAF pic

Did you manage to catch any other bands playing tonight?

Pat:  Yeah, I managed to catch two songs from The Dirty Youth – they’re from Wales so, big up The Dirty Youth.  It’s not massively my type of music but you have to support good, positive people who just do it for the love of the music.  They’re out all the time working hard and that’s what touring is about – people paying their dues and cracking on and they’ve been on it from the get-go.

Your sixth studio album ‘Conduit’ came out last year, was it well received?

Pat: It got to number two in the rock charts in the UK and we broke the top 40.  It was a big success and surpassed expectation.

You’ve got a huge number of fans on Facebook so you must have had some really good feedback on social media?

Pat:  Yeah, I think YouTube views and comments were good.  There are a lot of avid, serious Funeral fans that give our videos and singles time, so yes, it’s always good.

You did the ‘Hours’ headline tour back in April, was it sold out?

Pat:  Yes, every date was sold out.

Do you prefer playing live or being in the studio?

Pat:  I think it’s a mixture.  When you’ve done your fill of live shows, you’re stoked on new material that you’ve been writing in dressing rooms and meeting up at people’s homes and when you go into the writing process, you fully launch yourself into it.  For us, on the new record (the seventh album) we just set aside two weeks and smashed right through it.  It’s in the bag and it’s coming out, probably early next year.

FFAF new album pic

We’ll look forward to it! What do you listen to when you’re travelling?

Pat:  We’re going to go from extremely cold to extremely hot here, but ‘m going to say Predator, Rude Kids and a lot of drum related things that I like to listen to, as well as hard-core and metal.  It’s a massive varied spectrum of all different musical tastes.

Let’s talk about the Wrexham Comic Con (FFAF are performing at the after party) …

Matt: We were asked to do it in April, but we were already on tour with our shows.  Jamie, the guy that runs it was talking about next year, but then he put on a second event; we could do the date, so yes, we’re going to be playing to a shitload of geeks.  We’re looking forward to it – we get to hang out at Comic Con all day!

Voodoo Rocks FFAF

Funeral For A Friend with myself and Natalie Conway from Red Dragon Records, Voodoo Rocks Summer Ball, June 2014 (Photo courtesy of Emma Radwanski, Emma Radwanski Photography)

You’re going to be doing some smaller festivals, like NASS, Godiva and those sorts of events this year; what are you aiming to achieve in the next couple of years?

Matt: There’s no real goal or plan, we just want to play.  There’s no world domination theory.  We love playing, especially to people who give a fuck about what we do.  We never really set out with any kind of goal to be big or successful; the success we’ve had has come through people wanting to come and see our band, which is awesome.  We’ve been a band for 13 years now and like everything, there have been peaks and troughs.  We feel privileged that people still care enough about what we do to come and support us.  We can’t ask for more than that, really.

You’ve been at it for so long, what sort of advice would you give to any up and coming bands that may be struggling?

Matt: Don’t set out with a goal to make a lot of money, be successful and sell a lot of records.

Pat: Further than that, don’t set out to be in a band, set out to be good with your instrument; be passionate about singing, or be passionate about playing the drums.  Don’t buy an instrument or kit to go and join a band, it’s stupid.  Have fun playing, fall in love with your instrument, your voice, yourself and then be in a band.

Matt: Do it for the fun of doing it, for the love of music.  As soon as you write for anybody else, rather than yourself, then you may as well just stop.

Pat: Trust me, you’ll stop loving it when you get to 22 and realise you can’t play your instrument.  Get good and then be in a band, otherwise you’re saturating an already over-saturated market, if you’re shit and you can’t play music.

Well, you guys should know, you’ve survived the digital revolution …

Matt: So many people are doing bands now that have never toured, that have never put the work in but are becoming successful.  In my eyes, if you want to be in a band, playing live shows and getting out there is the first thing you should be looking at; it’s the key thing.  If you’re not good at what you do and you can’t play live, there’s no point in you going any further.

Pat: The more you need to rely on digital aids, the more you mug yourself off.

Matt: God, anybody can make a record now.  All the shit bands will fall at the wayside and eventually we’ll be left with the good ones …

What do you think about the changes to YouTube? Do you think it will have a big impact on you?

Matt: To be honest with you, little by little everything is being taken away from the independent sector anyway.  Anyone that is trying to rape an artist’s ability to progress and get their stuff out to more people … it’s terrible.  It’s a misguided way to try to claw money back from an industry that’s trying to figure out how to operate now, with the way technology is moving forward and the way people consume music.  For me, one of the things I like currently is the resurgence of people getting into vinyl again.  It actually makes you a part of something, you have to invest time into a record and you end up caring about it.  You can download a track and just forget about it the day after.

Well, although rock has been outselling pop in the UK, a lot of people are saying that 2014 will see the death of the album. Do you agree?

Matt: I think that within this kind of music, albums will always be something that people will be into, even if it’s just collecting them.  I collect vinyl, as do a lot of my friends and even the kids coming to our shows.  If you’re, say, Coldplay, or a proper mainstream act, it might change drastically in terms of physical sales of records, but for metal and hard-core and punk it will always be there.

Pat: Thank God you can’t download merch.

Do you sell a lot of merch?

Pat: It’s what keeps bands like us going on the road.  When records cost £250,000 to make, bands aren’t going to see anything off of that. When you sell out shows and you’re selling merch by the bucket, that’s where you make a little bit of money, but even then it’s percentages.  As long as a band can stay on the road doing what they love, it’s all good, money is not the biggest thing.

It’s sad, though, because back in the day, record sales were everything.

Matt: We’d like to go back in time and be immersed in that situation again.  I got into records in the nineties so for me it was the last decade where music actually meant something.  With my generation I think there’s still a need to be part of something physical in terms of music, whereas kids who are brought up in this generation, they’re the iTunes and Spotify generation; it’s all done on the click of a button.  There’s no hard work involved and no emotional investment in bands any more.

Do you have anything that you would like to say to fans that have supported you all the way through your journey so far?

Matt:  Just, cheers.  We really do fucking appreciate it.

The new Funeral For A Friend album is released on 19th January 2015 via all the usual channels – interestingly enough, as well as vinyl and CD, they’ll also be releasing a cassette version!  You can catch them live – check out their website for the most up to date gig listings.

FFAF tour poster

www.funeralforafriend.com

www.facebook.com/funeralforafriend

Live music, Music, Rock music

Interview with Kodiak Jack

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Fresh from a recent performance at the highly acclaimed drug and alcohol-free Butserfest, Portsmouth-based Kodiak Jack are certainly on the up.  They’ve been creating a buzz locally, following the release of their rocking second album, ‘Alhambra’ and with a special charity gig coming up and gig bookings coming in thick and fast, I wouldn’t mind betting they’re a band that you’re going to hear a lot more of in the coming months. I was lucky enough to grab ten minutes with them to shoot the post-gig breeze – enjoy!

K Jack pic

– You played the alcohol and drug-free Butserfest recently. How was that for you?

The Butserfest show was our last gig of a tour around England so it was a great way to wrap it all up. Five minutes before we were due on stage, we realised that my bass guitar and our lead guitarist’s amp were broken, so it was a mad rush to fix the amp and get hold of a replacement bass! Even so, the show went ahead on time, we played a good set and those that were there seemed to enjoy it, which is the main thing.

– Taking it right back, you’ve been going for some years, how did the band get together?

Yeah, it’s about seven years now. The band formed as a bunch of guys in different bands that really just wanted to try something new altogether. There have been some line-up changes in that time but the line-up we’ve had for the last 18 months is our definitive one and I don’t think any of us would change it again for the world.

– How did the name come about?

Kodiak Jack is a rather shady character that popped up briefly in an episode of The Mighty Boosh. A few of the guys love the show and so the name was taken from that.

– If you had to recommend just one of your songs to a new fan, which would it be and why?

I think all 5 of us would pick a different song – but I reckon that’s a good thing! Personally, for me I would say ‘Brother’ which was the first single from our second album. For me, it captures all of our strong points – a big riff, catchy chorus, harmonies, it just rocks really!

– You seem to engage well with your fans; indeed you have your own street team! Have you got supporters who have been with you since day one?

We have friends who have followed us from the start, but over the last few years we’ve developed a loyal fan base and we have people that follow us around to a lot of our gigs which is great. It means a lot to us and shows that we must be doing something right if these people are parting with their cash regularly to travel around and see us play.

– On to the new album, ‘Alhambra’. I believe you recorded it in California – how did that come about and did you enjoy the experience? 

A well known music journalist was talking to our manager and he said he would play our material to a friend. The friend turned out to be Brian Wheat who is the bassist in Tesla. He has an incredible studio and liked what he heard, so he invited us out to record our second album at his J Street Recording Studio in Sacramento.

KJ Alhambra

We were there for 4 weeks although some of the guys had to leave early due to other commitments. It was very hard work and 4 weeks isn’t really a long time to make an album so there were a lot of long days in the studio. That said, it was a huge amount of fun! We met some great people and Sacramento is a fantastic place to be. There were some days that were tougher than others, but we knew we were going there to work and not to party for a month. When we did get some down time we made the most of it and relaxed and enjoyed ourselves before we got back to business.

– Did you find it a richer experience than recording the first album? How did it differ?

The first album was done at a much smaller studio over a weekend. It was still fun, and the guy who recorded it knew what he was doing. The main difference was just the scale of everything. J Street is a much bigger, more advanced studio and it was brand new – we were the first band to record there. Plus Brian has 30 years experience in the music industry and has pretty much done all there is to do in the world of rock music, so working with him and fitting in with his methods was also a huge change from when we did the first album.

– What inspirations and influences do you draw upon when you’re writing?

We all listen to different bands, so it really depends on who it is that’s bringing a new idea to the table. Once we start on a new song we all tend to have an input on it and so all kinds of influences start to come through. Our guitarist Jon brings a lot of new ideas to practice, but they often tend to sound a little bit too much like the Smashing Pumpkins for us to be able to use them, which is strange because he has never even listened to the Pumpkins!

– How was it supporting Tesla? They’re obviously somewhat of an iconic band to rock fans of a certain age …

It was an incredible day really. From hanging out back stage at the O2 Academy in Islington right up to playing the last note on stage. Tesla and their crew are all a friendly bunch and we have got to know them quite well now, so it was actually pretty relaxed in the build up. Watching Tesla sound check was an eye opener – we knew right then that we were going to have to be playing as good as we possibly could. There was a big crowd there and they really got in to our set so I think we delivered!

– Speaking of gigs, you’re playing in a charity gig in the next couple of weeks. Do you do a lot of charity work and do you feel it’s important?

We’ve done a few and we have a couple more lined up as well. I think it is important – especially if it’s for a cause that is close to someone in the band. There’s no harm in doing something like that if people will benefit from it and as with all our gigs it’s another chance to hit the stage and do what we love doing. Some of the lads will also be running in the Great South Run for a Portsmouth-based Down’s Syndrome Association charity called Footprints.

– Do you have any festival appearances in the pipeline for next summer?

We sat down with our manager recently and festivals are definitely high up on the priority list for next year. We are already booked in to a two day festival at The Maze in Nottingham in May 2015 and hopefully we’ll get on to lots of other festivals.

– What’s your opinion of the local music scene and of the whole industry in general right now?

Portsmouth has always had a lot of great bands and we’re lucky to have some decent venues in town as well. It’s a bit strange for us because most of the bands are either Indie or Metal and we’re neither! Despite that, there are a few Portsmouth bands that we love gigging with and it’s always good to have a nice relationship with other bands in the area. As for the global music industry it gives me a bit of a headache! I look at the charts and think ‘Who are they?’ Luckily there are some decent bands stealing the pop world’s thunder a little, like Royal Blood for example. The sad thing for me is that bands seem to tour less and less and rely on a handful of big arena shows or festivals instead of hitting the road. It’s so easy for people to get their hands on music these days that a lot of bands probably think its pointless doing a load of travelling to promote something that everyone has already heard and downloaded.

– What’s been the biggest highlight so far for Kodiak Jack?

The Tesla show back in June is easily right up there for me. There was a sell out crowd at a fantastic venue, and we were opening up for a great rock band. I’d happily do that every day! The crowd were there for Tesla and the vast majority had never heard of us, but by the end of our show they were loving it and we were getting stopped by people all night asking for photos and autographs. That was a great feeling and made all the hard work preparing for the gig well worth it.

– What’s next for Kodiak Jack?

Well we have plenty of gigs booked and no doubt a few more will be added, but as well as that we are working hard on new material for a third album. A few new tracks have been tried out live now and have been well received so we just need to keep writing, practicing and performing as much as possible. Nothing gets handed to you on a plate in music so we need to be seen to be busy and consistently coming up with some more great tunes for people to enjoy!

Watch out for Kodiak Jack – they’re going to be massive!  Check out the video for ‘Brother’ here http://youtu.be/8rbrjozCYf8

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www.kodiakjackofficial.com