THE KARMA EFFECT

Who are you?

We are The Karma Effect, a 5-piece vintage rock band from London.

Roll Call?

Henry Gottelier - Lead Vocals & Guitar

Robbie Blake - Guitar

Seb Emmins - Keyboard & Vocals

Liam Quinn - Bass Guitar

Ash Powell - Drums

Hailing from?

Most of us live just outside of London, in a small town called Oxted. Whilst Robbie lives the other side of the river in Basildon, Essex!

Journey so far?

Henry, Ash and Liam have been playing music together for the best part of 15 years in numerous bands and projects at school and university - which is also where we first met Robbie. We then met Seb at local jam nights in Oxted in 2017. The idea for a vintage/blues rock project had been floating around for a little while, and initially the plan was for it to be Henry’s solo project, however as soon as we got together and began writing songs it just naturally formed into a band.

We wrote the entirety of our debut album over video calls during lockdown, which was definitely challenging but at the same time it also highlighted to us that if we could write a record under those circumstances - imagine what we could do if we were able to get together! Once studios opened up again in May 2021, we were able to get in and track the record at with our good friend Mikey at MRC Studios. He did an amazing job of bringing the record to life.

Due to the pandemic, we actually had the entire record written and recorded before we had even played our first show! So, there was no ‘trying out’ of songs before recording, which was quite daunting to begin with, however this was soon put to rest after our first show in June 2021.

We released our debut album in March 2022, and it was received unbelievably well, and we even managed to land No. 36 in the Official Independent Charts which was, and still is just mind-blowing! Since then, we’ve just been touring and playing as many shows and festivals up and down the country as we can, trying to spread the word! We’ve also spent the first couple of months of 2023 in the studio writing and recording our second record in-between playing some great shows.

Influences/sound?

We all have individual influences that helps form our sound, however there are some key influences that we like to bring into our music. For example, some of our biggest influences are bands such as Aerosmith, The Black Crowes, Free/Bad Company, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones. But as we mentioned, we all listen to different music individually which really helps form our sound. For example, Robbie listens to a lot of old Blues records, whilst Seb comes from a more Classical/Jazz background.

Biggest gig/proudest moment to date?

We’ve had a load of amazing shows over the past couple of years, and every show is always a blast! However, I think a stand-out show for all of us was the Rock For Ukraine show at Leo’s Red Lion in May 2022. We played our first show as a band at this venue less than a year before, and we then returned to headline the Rock for Ukraine show, and it was completely sold out. We also recently played at Planet Rock’s Winters End, which was an amazing line-up and experience to be a part of, the whole team at Planet Rock made us feel so welcome.

What does the future hold for The Karma Effect?

We’re in the midst of recording our second album at the moment, whilst also still being out of the road promoting the debut record, which is going really well, we’re hoping to have the recording process wrapped up by May this year! We also have an amazing line-up of shows and festivals for this year including the likes of Stonedead, Steelhouse and Call of the Wild! When we started as a band, we looked at those festivals and said that we’d love to be on a couple of them in the next five years, so to be ticking them all off in only our second year as a band is mind-blowing for us!

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As the old saying goes, sometimes you have to take a few steps back to be able to move forward. Perhaps you could say that this tale rings true for Dutch symphonic metal outfit Delain. Turn back the clocks to the pandemic era, and the group witnessed some dramatic changes within their line-up.

At the time of the band split, things were tense in the Delain camp. “We had just gone through such a busy period. We did a US tour the previous Fall, and at the time we were mixing Apocalypse and Chill. So, in the morning, I was in a grocery store with Wi-Fi, checking out mixes. That afternoon we were doing soundcheck and setting up. In the evening doing the show,” explains Martijn Westerholt. “There wasn’t a tour manager, so I had to manage myself. It was insane. Then we had a European tour and then the release of the album and we went to the UK. So, I was exhausted, and the vibe was just not good at all.” The result was that found-