RAMzine 31 | Of Mice & Men

rock & metal

WWW.RAMZINE.CO.UK ISSUE #31

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An interview with Aaron Pauley from Of Mice & Men The band have recently released album Echo via SharpTone Records.

Thomas Fordham Social Media Exec & Writer social@ramzine.co.uk

2021 has been a phenomenal year!

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2021 has been a phenomenal year for rock, metal and alternative music.

Releases came at us thick and fast, with the standards being raised and boundaries being broken, redefined and reset seemingly every week. However, we made it through and we are safe in the knowledge that the future looks

bright for rock and metal especially in the UK. My personal highlights are too numerous to narrow down but definitely keep your eyes on bands like Heriot, Mastiff, Vexed, Pupil Splicer and Venom Prison, all are set to dominate in 2022. As we use the festive period to recoup and regather our strength, I am excited and optimistic for what

2022 has to bring! The world may be diving head first into chaos yet again (*collective sighs*) but already next year is shaping up to be another ridiculously crazy year for music. I say, bring it on!

rock & metal WWW.RAMZINE.CO.UK THE IMPORTANCE OF MUSIC & CONNECTION

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The first ever RAMzine Quiz

I LOVE nothing more than discussing the true value of music Victoria Purcell - and getting right to Editor the core of song lyrics vicky@ramzine.co.uk and the emotions and feelings behind them. That right there, is why I have always loved music and ended up running a zine! So when I spoke to Aaron Pauley of Of Mice & Men this month, speaking about the band’s creative process on their latest release Echo and the importance of music, I felt inspired as I realised that some musicians create music from their thoughts and feelings and we as fans are able to draw inspiration from that music - we feel connected to the music and to our community. I’m thankful and proud to be part of this community. I know that 2021 has not been the best for everyone. It’s important to find connection or at the least just music that you like.

Be understanding, patient and kind.

Enter to win a T-shirt if you email us the corret answers, before we publish them online on 15/01/2022.

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RAMzine Classic

We take a look back at Paul Kossoff’s Back Street Crawler

Jay Brown Assistant Editor assitant.editor@ramzine.co.uk

On the cover is Of Mice & Men.

Here’s to an even better year with more great music!

We find ourselves at the end of another year and while it’s been an improvement on the last, things are still a little strange. At least the soundtrack has been good, we’ve been treated to plenty of great releases this year, making for a difficult Album of the Year vote, see ramzine. co.uk to see Team RAM’s lineup of the year’s best and get in touch with your own picks.

Here’s to an even better year with more great music!

Neale McGeever Senior Contributor

Ashley Crowson Senior Contributor

neale@ramzine.co.uk

ash@ramzine.co.uk

Neale is a freelance journalist - check out his vintage clothing at Rock N Roll Retro.

Guitarist, photographer, geek, gamer, full on metalhead and allround barfly.

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On December 17th legendary blackened death metal Behemoth released their new live album In Absentia Dei (which translates to “In the absence of God”). The show was filmed on a fateful night in 2020, in an abandoned church in rural Poland during a worldwide livestream, whilst in the depths of the COVID pandemic. This event is now available in multiple formats for your unholy consumption. In a performance fraught with danger, Behemoth unleashed their malevolent demons into the night, filling the empty pews with Baphomet, Azazel, and Apollyon himself in a place once considered holy and sacred. The band certainly made a statement with this event in a triumphant moment for extreme metal, considering that Poland still maintains strict blasphemy laws, the tension is palpable.

WORDS: THOMAS FORDHAM

Karnivool have released new track ‘All It Takes’ which by the lyrics and graphics seems to give a dystopian feeling of working out something rather puzzling. ‘’We’re all listening now” sings lead vocalist Ian Kenny.

This new track sees the band reunite with the same producer the band worked with on their popular Sound Awake album, Forrester Savell. It’s great to see Karnivool back to creating new music which so far sounds similar to one of their best eras... so far!

The band also released a Blu-ray release of their ‘Decade Of Sound Awake’ livestream performance, released through the band’s label Cymatic, distributed

by Sony in December 2021. Read our review in the Review section of this zine.

Photo Credit: Kane Hibberd

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Bristol-based singer, songwriter and bandleader Elles Bailey has released her new track ‘Stones’ taken from her forthcoming album Shining in the Half Light.

The lyrics on ‘Stones’ are drawn from the saying “People in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”.

In other words, don’t play games trying to bring people down. It’s on this track that Elles brang in Izo Fitzroy who arranged the stunning gospel-style vocals background vocals which mix extremely well with Elles style of blues-rock.

For Elles, ‘Shining in the Half Light’ is “... a record inspired by those who spread love in a time of heartbreak, happiness in a time of fear & connection in a time of loneliness”.

Photo Credit: Rob Blackam

Pink Floyd’s ‘P.U.L.S.E. Restored & Re-Edited’, will be released for the first time on Blu-ray on 18 February 2022. The P.U.L.S.E. concert film (helmed by esteemed director David Mallet) will be available as 2x Blu-ray and 2x DVD deluxe box sets, with the video footage having been expertly re-edited by Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis from the original tape masters especially for The Later Years release in 2019. The cover design, originally created by Storm Thorgerson and Peter Curzon for the 2006 DVD release, has also been updated with photography

by Aubrey Powell/Hipgnosis and Rupert Truman/ StormStudios. The packaging artwork is designed

by Peter Curzon from StormStudios, under the direction of Aubrey Powell/Hignosis.

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Here is a list of music-related questions that cover all of the sub-genres that RAMzine loves: so expect a testing time on all areas of rock, metal, death doom and blues!

The good news is twofold: you can find all of the answers somewhere on the ramzine.co.uk website and, should you undertake this mission and be the first email info@ramzine.co.uk with the correct answers to our illustrious editor, you will win a RAMzine T-shirt and Zine. A minimum of one winner will be selected and notified by 31/01/2022. The deadline to enter the competition via email is 15/01/2022.

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CLASSIC

PAUL KOSSOFF - BACK STREET CRAWLER -

CLASSIC

WORDS: TOM DIXON

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really liking to play rhythm guitar and I remember buying the LP in 1973 and always let the bass do that job. It still first seeing the front cover with Koss has the power to send shivers down and a Stratocaster nearly as big as my back, beautiful. Side two starts him, ‘plugged in’ to a dustbin in a back with ‘I’m Ready’ it’s a soulful kind of street, and him flashing the ‘Vs’ on the blues written and sung by Jess Roden back. Then, reading the info, finding with glistening guitar. ‘Time Away’ is a track listing with only one track B-A C BK A CSKT RS-E TE R B TE AE CCTKR A C SW R TR AL W E- E RLBTEA -RC R K - ASWTLREERE T- C BR AC AW K LSETRR E- E T C R A W L E R gentle, bluesy instrumental with Koss occupying side one and four on side Paul died on March 19, 1976, at the using bend, sustain and volume to two but then that wasn’t that unusual age of only twenty-five after years of great effect. It’s a co-write with John I suppose back in ’73. I’d been a big struggling with drug abuse, when he Martyn and has his melancholy but fan of Free since the superb Tons of suffered a heart attack during a flight still sparkles.

Sobs and that stood me in good stead to New York. His time with Free was when I first went into my girlfriend’s in the past and his band Back Street The next track should have helped bedroom to see one wall adorned with Crawler were beginning to make the album sell more, ‘Molten Gold’, is a hand-painted, life-size picture of the waves so the tragedy of a young life a simply superb song that Free must cover of Heartbreaker – the bedroom lost is magnified. (Strange wish they’d done; Although Simon visit was purely innocent, honest, coincidences often abound, but the Kirk, Andy Fraser and Paul Rodgers and that girlfriend is now my wife of date of his death is the same as anappear on it, so I guess they did. It has forty-three years! other guitar legend, Randy Rhodes in everything a solid rock song should 1982, he too was twenty-five.) have – great vocals from the man who Anyway, after carefully placing Back could sing the phone book (if they still Street Crawler onto my record player I could have cited his early band existed) and make it sound good, in and, after the ‘thunk’ of the needle Black Cat Bones whose demo tapes fact, was good a vocal as Rodgers has hitting the vinyl, my first realisation of were released posthumously or any ever done with another lovely solo what blues really mean wafted from of his performances with Free, but it from Koss. The final, and title track, the speakers as Koss began the meis his solo album, that also gave his ‘Back Street Crawler (Don’t Need You andering, brilliant seventeen-minute band their name, Back Street Crawler, No More’), to give its full title, is an ininstrumental, ‘Tuesday Morning’. It still which I feel shows the immense talent strumental that is a toe-tapping bluesy has a rawness, a feeling of freedom best. Even the guest appearances are delight as Koss again makes every as he simply plays his heart out over noteworthy, with Jim Capaldi (listen to note drip with meaning. a piano, organ, bass and drums while ‘Tricky Dicky Rides Again’ for an intro giving every note space and meaning. that is almost identical to ‘Woman Put simply, if you like Free, blues, rock, There’s no overdubs, just a truly live From Tokyo’ as well as Kossoff’s neat blues-rock or just listening to a genius feeling and Koss was known for not playing) and the much-missed Uncle on guitar then this album is an absoDog. lute must. part from the huge legacy Paul Kossoff left to the world with Free, I still feel that his abilities, his nuanced playing and his compositional nous is either forgotten or ignored – I want to put that right.

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P A U L K O PS AS U O LF FK O S S O F F

THE

e v i t a Cre Corner

“Krampus, in central European popular legend, is a half-goat, half-demon monster that punishes misbehaving children at Christmastime and he is the devilish companion of St. Nicholas” Illustration by Pascal’s Enchanted Realms.

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“FOR US, MUSIC AND SONGWRITING IS A GENUINE AND HONEST EXERCISE IN EXPRESSING WHATEVER WE ARE THINKING & FEELING AT THE MOMENT”

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ometimes you listen to bands who take you on a musical journey with them, and it’s a fun escape. Though what Of Mice And Men do differently is they allow you to connect with their music in a more personal way, it’s not necessarily a set journey, it’s the journey that you need it to be. Music that does this is always created by true and honest emotions and feelings and if a band gets it right, it always makes for a more magical listening experience.

Victoria Purcell of RAMzine joined Aaron Pauley, lead vocalist and bassist from Of Mice And Men, to discuss the bands latest release Echo which is out now via SharpTone Records.

Victoria Purcell [VP]: How are things with Covid over in California?

Aaron Pauley [AP]: I think for the most part everything has sort of re-opened.

I’ve been to Disneyland a handful of times, it feels like a return to normalcy.

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There’re still certain guidelines about certain businesses that want you to wear masks indoors and whatnot. But it feels like a slow return to normalcy.

We’ll see how long it lasts.

VP: We (UK) are just starting to go back into restrictions, so it’s work from home again now for those who can, it’s masks inside venues and you need to show your Covid passport in certain venues.

AP: Ah I’m sorry to hear that, it’s hard mentally to isolate or be isolated.

VP: Yeah, we’ve only just started easing back into gigs! Though I think they’re still going ahead at the moment, just with restrictions.

Fingers crossed for festivals, Download etc next summer! It’s hard to predict it all, isn’t it?

AP: Yeah and that’s our first planned tour next summer. It’s really hard, I’ve said it a bunch of times, it’s almost a

...It’s true that if you spend enough hours doing something you just become better at it”

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“Metal music is very cathartic in nature and that’s the whole goal of it” cliche at this point but it’s like you can plan for the next 10 years, but you can’t plan for the next 10 minutes.

Hopefully everything can be resolved, and everyone can enjoy it safely. It’s not lost on me that music and live music is an outlet for people to blow off steam and destress. It doesn’t necessarily fully serve its purpose if going to an outdoor event can cause more stress because of the worry of something that you can’t see. Just saying “We’ll just open up” it’s not really the thing because it’s not really a stressfree environment. I’m really sorry to hear that, I hope that everybody can stay safe and find a way through it.

VP: Fingers crossed! Have you managed to play many shows this year?

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AP: Zero since February 2020. Unless you count Twitch, but even then it’s not more than one of us performing at a time. We haven’t played any shows, but we were able to make an entire record literally over zoom and dropbox. Up until about a month ago when we actually all got together in LA and had lunch with each other, we hadn’t seen each other. We went a year and nine months without seeing each other in person.

VP: That’s a long time, almost two years!

AP: But I’m thankful for things like Zoom, even with all of its technical problems. There is still the ability to socialise and there is the ability to be creative so I’m very grateful for that.

VP: Yes, I’m very glad that we have the internet in these times.

Do you think that this album would have been different if you were in a room making it together? Do you think that it changed the way it turned out by communicating digitally?

AP: I think inevitably it would be different had any part of the circumstances been different because, for us, music and songwriting is a genuine and honest exercise in expressing whatever you are thinking and feeling at the moment.

I think if you were to change any of those things [meeting over Zoom and communicating digitally] it probably would have affected it. But it’s really hard for me to say how. Almost like a butterfly effect kind of thing, if you were to change any part of it and any of the thoughts, feelings, emotions

but that is also its own comradery and social aspect that was definitely missed when we made this [album].

I think it would have been different but it’s really hard to say how it would have been different because we would have just been in different circumstances that create different feelings that we then share.

VP: I get that and I think that the whole Covid thing made online working in such a way (via Teams/ Zoom) much more acceptable.

I believe that Covid highlighted the importance of music in certain ways. What do you think is the most powerful thing about music, especially within the rock and metal communities?

or anything that we were trying to convey were different, then the music would probably be different.

Overall the way that we created it wasn’t terribly different because the way that we tend to work together when we are doing pre-production or songwriting is that we are usually huddled around somebody’s computer. Everybodys got their computer set-up with different ideas and stuff and we are usually huddled around one computer at a time, all sitting together, formulating these ideas, getting the outlines together. Everybody has their permanent marker colour and we start colouring things in. So I don’t think necessarily the method would have been terribly different, I might argue that it’s probably easier to stay focused when you are on Zoom versus when you are in a room with all your best friends. As things can get funny or you can get really easily distracted,

AP: I think it’s the idea that you can express yourself in a very sort of primitive and non-cognitive way, where you’re really just expressing how you feel without letting your brain get in the way. A lot of what metal music is, is very cathartic in nature and that’s the whole goal of it. It’s not to be completely deductive and dismissive of metal music but it’s quite literally screaming about how you feel. Which is literally what babies do before they learn language; It’s screaming because it’s ‘I need to connect and I don’t really know how’ and ‘ahhh’. I think it’s partly that, but it’s also the idea that things can work in harmony and also work in dissonance on the musical side and the technical side and how that relates to people’s ability to connect but also people’s ability to really be disconnected and be like oil and water where it doesn’t mix – but how rock and metal sort of celebrates all of those things, without necessarily letting too much of the thinking brain get in the way of it.

You know it’s the old cliche but music is the universal language. You can play anybody anywhere in the world thirty seconds of a sad song on a violin and people who might live in a region of the world or a culture where the violin is not a staple instrument in that music, and people can almost intuitively pick up on the emotion of it.

You play someone a sad song anywhere in the world and you’ll know it’s a sad song, they’ll know deep within themselves that it’s a sad song. And music is often, at least for me and for my bandmates, because we are very much the same in this regard, music is our most thorough way of not only trying to communicate how we feel, our thoughts or ideas that are often too multifaceted to sort of wrap your head around. It’s just a very honest way of not just connecting but also getting it out of you so that you can observe it in the actual proverbial 3D space of pulling feelings out of you and putting them in a little bowl and looking at them and making better sense of them. There’s a lot of times where I will find myself feeling what feels like a complex series of emotions that I can’t necessarily make sense of and it’s only when I can try and get it out in music that it makes me feel, when I hear it, like how I feel. And then you are able to objectively look at it.

Going back to the question, for rock and metal music, it’s largely an expression of feelings rather than an expression of thoughts or something that exists purely as entertainment, or anything like that, so I think rock and metal music comes from a place of deep feeling rather than deep thought.

VP: In the rock and metal community I believe the magic is, that there are bands such as yourselves who are creating this music that comes from such an emotional place and you have fans listening from all around the world listing to this music and taking what they hear from what your saying; It could be from the lyrics or like you say from the tone of the music, if it’s a sad song or a happy song or however it makes them feel and they’re able to put their emotion into their experience of that song.

AP: 100%! How many times have you ever been listening to a song and you go, ‘holy shit they’re singing about me, they’re singing about my experiences, about things that I’m living right 13

now’ and you not only feel connected with the artist or the song but you feel more connected with the idea that the human experience is largely shared and the things that we go through, that can sometimes make us feel really isolated and alone are actually more universal than we are… I don’t know if it’s taught to believe or that those feelings sometimes can be isolating. Yeah, there’s something in recognising your experience in somebody else’s shared experience that lets you connect deeper with your own humanity, and it lets you connect deeper with other people around you.

VP: And that’s why when you go to Download Festival or a big festival, and you’re surrounded by thousands of fans and they’re all singing the same thing as you are, along with the band, and you look around and just know that everyone is feeling the same thing, that is really the true magic of music or rock and metal. And that is why live music has been so missed this year.

AP: Oh 100%! 100%! Granted that I’m a musician and you work for a music publication, to me, I think it’s art just on a large scale. It’s going to a movie theatre with other people, it’s reading the same books as other people, it’s just the beauty of art as human beings, we can create something that didn’t exist 30 minutes ago and somebody else can find some sort connection in it, that for me is the closest thing to magic that exists really in any sort of tangible form. It’s probably in my opinion one of the coolest facets of existing and what it means to exist.

VP: Yeah! I think a lot of people would agree with that as well.

Looking at some of the tracks on the new album, ‘Obsolete’ has been out for a while now and you released a YouTube video for it earlier this year, I noticed that there was a comment on the video from OMAM saying “Welcome to a new era of music for Of Mice & Men”. Did that track stand out as creating a new era for yourselves?

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AP: No, well at least not for me personally. That was the first song that we released and we had told everyone that you can expect three EPs and you can expect a new song every few weeks. That was basically just the beginning of the journey. We released the entire album, basically, with a new song coming out anywhere between 3-6 weeks and the thought behind that was, that the best-case scenario is that we can give our fans something to look forward to in a time where there isn’t necessarily a lot to look forward to, other than more bad news, more restrictions and more of just worse.

The other side of that is that it gave us something to look forward to, where we knew every few weeks we would get to share our lived experiences in hopes that we can connect with other people. As we’re just human beings who seek connections with people too. So it’s hard to say, I don’t know if that was the label… I don’t know where that comes from, but it was definitely a new era in terms of the world being radically different. And also maybe in terms of how we release music and how we sort of were able to better recognise the importance of the connection that music brings. As when you’re in a band that is also a business, that is also a live touring business and not just people that write songs. It’s not necessarily that it becomes a back burner, that you lose connection with that - But it’s definitely not always at the forefront of the importance of why you do what you do. And I think during a time like a pandemic where you are forced to slow down and really re-evaluate and ask yourself ‘well why’ there’s plenty of songs in the world, ‘why write another one?’. You can break it down by asking yourself ‘Why, why, why’ almost like a little kid, and you get back to a place where we were just writing songs with

almost childlike wonder at just how cool things could be. And just how when you sit a room, whether it’s an actual room or a zoom room with your friends, and you are all creating music, and you are all expressing yourself through your instruments how sometimes two people can be expressing two different things and then those two pieces work so harmoniously well together that the total becomes greater than the sum of its parts and that’s just magic. That’s quite literally what harmony is, it’s two different notes that aren’t the same frequency but mathematically work together and it’s pleasing.

For every three hours that we would spend in a zoom room working on music, two of them were just talking to each other about how we feel, what we are going through. Everybody was on the same page of what we were really trying to express before we really even started making noise. It was such a unique experience, in that it felt very much like being back in the garage in your first band with your best friends, writing songs. Just for the importance of maybe, somebody can connect with this and maybe we can connect with other people and that in turn makes us feel less alone, through what can be argued as one of the most difficult experiences that human beings have experienced on a large scale in our lifetime.

VP: Yeah definitely, I really like that track, for some reason it gives me real nostalgic vibes, it really takes me back to going to shows as a teenager at particular venues. But I think that is also the cool thing about music, it can take you back to particular points in your life.

AP: Oh definitely! It’s funny because I’ve heard that comment a lot, and I think honestly where that comes from is we were expressing ourselves from a place of not putting any expectation on the music or on the fans or on anything. It was honestly just a very very genuine expression of how we were feeling, there wasn’t a tonne of thought that went into any of it, which I know doesn’t necessarily sound great

in interviews to say ‘We didn’t think much about what we were doing’. But honestly, people connect, I feel like a lot of times with bands earlier work, because you only really start thinking and your brain only really starts getting in the way with ‘Well what does this song need to do?’, and ‘What does it have to be’ and ‘What do fans have to think about it?’ and you sort of create this box, whereas a lot of bands earlier works just start from the middle of ‘What do we want to say?’ and works its way out.

the business side of it, but it can get self-limiting in a way. Whereas because we decided that we were going to release EPs and basically release the entire album before it drops. The goal being that by the time the record is out, you would have heard the whole thing. And then you can decide if you want to buy it or not. It really put us in a place where we were creating music that felt nostalgic to us, and nostalgic in way of how it felt to create music back then before you knew too much.

This record was an exercise in always trying to start from the centre and working our way out and a lot of people say that they connect with it like they connect with our earlier records, or they connect with some of their favourite band’s early records because when you are making your early records you don’t even have the knowledge to ask those questions of ‘How well does this need to chart’ or ‘How does the label need to perceived this, do they think they can turn this into something that sells the record?’.

All those things are important to

VP: It’s interesting when you think about bands creating music, and you sometimes get these bands who have huge concepts and ideas, but at the root of it, if you’ve just got a certain feeling or a certain emotion how that really does follow through.

It’s funny that how if you were thinking nostalgically and then someone listens to it and they feel that too.

Another track that I really liked was ‘Fighting Gravity’, what was that track about lyrically to you?

AP: It’s sort of this whole idea that we as human beings feel like we are in control of so much, whereas when you actually zoom out, we are in control of so little in terms of what we are actually able to control. A perfect example is that if you get in your car and you drive to the grocery store, and you get some groceries and you drive home, it feels like ‘Well I was in control of my vehicle’, and ‘I was in control of the food that I purchased and I was in control of how much I spent and I navigated there’. Now think about how many parts are in your vehicle and think about how if any one of those fails, you can’t do any of the stuff that you did in your day and think about how everything in your car’s engine had to work perfectly for the amount of time it takes to get there and then think about how all the other vehicles in the world that got the food to the grocery store had to work perfectly, not a thing goes wrong. It really puts into focus how what we are in control of is how we react and how we allow stimuli in our lives to sort of move us in one direction or another. But when you look at something benign like 15

driving to the grocery store and getting groceries, so much of that experience happening or being able to have happened was completely out of your control.

When you can sit and look at your life and look at life experiences, even things like lockdown and a pandemic it takes aways from the stress and anxiety that comes with feeling out of control. Because when you recognise that you are really not in control of that much, not being in control of that much suddenly becomes way much less of an existential crisis that you have to deal with. I think that the song is largely just trying to make sense of that for myself and thinking about how the past, present and future are such a fragile thing and how… like I said before, you can plan for the next 10 years, but you can’t plan for the next 10 minute. A lot has to go right for us to even have the smallest hint of control. And when you can relinquish that it makes existence just a little bit less terrifying I think.

VP: People deal with those things in different ways. When I watched the YouTube video what I got from that was the chaos that can be going on inside for some people. I liked when the bird flys away and flys next to the guy at the end of the video.

AP: If you watch the ‘Obsolete’ music video and you watch the ‘Bloom’ video and then the ‘Fighting Gravity’ video, it tells very much the story of that and of the artwork. It’s funny how that lyric of ‘If everything is to fall into place, why am I always fighting gravity’, and it’s sort of maybe a little tongue and cheek I guess. But it’s kind of true, we fight so much to be in control or to feel like we are in control, when in reality we are really only in control of very little which is how we think and how we respond. So much as, the only thing that we are really in control of is how we respond, not really what happens.

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VP: Yes I agree with that. I think that probably for some people listening to those sorts of lyrics they can relate in different ways. Everyone is different in terms of how they interpret things.

AP: That’s the beauty of it, that’s why I try and shy away from answering questions that ask what is this entirely about, because of the whole idea of music … my goal anytime that I write a song, my hope is that somebody out there will feel heard or feel seen or feel understood and that in turn makes me feel seen, and heard and understood. And sometimes, not just laying it out there to say ‘Well this is the only way to interpret this and I can say this because I wrote it’.

I never really feel like I write things, I don’t necessarily even feel like I write songs, I close my eyes and I hear lyrics and I hear melodies in the music, and if it’s before that, I close my eyes and I hear the music, and a lot of times it feels more like I’m an antenna then I am a sculpture or painter. I feel like these ideas come from somewhere else and maybe they do or maybe they don’t come from my brain but it’s like it’s all for the sake of just wanting to connect with people and allowing people a space within your space or within your music, to feel more connected with themselves. Because I’m not directing a movie, where I need you to follow me through this whole journey and this is what happens and this is the dialogue, most of it is open to interpretation and sometimes, and it’s actually not even infrequent, it happens very

often that somebody will tell me ‘this is what I got out of the song’, and I’ll sit back and I’ll think about where I was when I wrote it and I’ll think about their experience and It’ll actually reveal to me that what that they said about the song was kind of correct.

Even though I might have this notion of what it means or where it comes from. Anybody who allows art to move them, they’re the ones that dictate the meaning, not the people that create it.

VP: The lyric that you mentioned, ‘‘If everything’s meant to fall into place”, I believe that relates to a lot of people because I think anyone who is going through something hard, usually the first reaction is to try and control everything around them and make sure everything is in place – because there is this other big thing that there is no control over whatsoever. So I think a lot of people will relate in their own way to that particular lyric.

What made you decide to end the album on a cover of ‘Helplessly Hoping’ by Crosby, Stills, and Nash?

AP: It was a song that was very important to me, as a child I grew up listening to a lot of singer-songwriter music and it sort of found me again when I was dealing with the loss of my mother-in-law, and dealing with her house and her possessions and what to do with that after people pass. Grief is such a complicated emotion that gets downplayed to just being sadness or to just being anger, it gets reduced to this twelve-stage graph where it says ‘Well this is how it works, in this order’ and it’s so much more multifaceted than that. To me that whole idea of the twelve stages is kinda bullshit because I think a lot of that happens all at the same time or at different times you feel sad and angry and other times you feel you are bargaining and angry or you are bargaining and sad.

And so that song sort of came back into my life in a prevalent way and I say that in terms of I went a long time without really hearing it all that much and then all of a sudden it sort of

started popping back up, whether it was at the store or it was on the radio, and it was just an important thing to me and really resonated with me and my experience at the time – that I really just wanted to share that with other people, and not just in way of making a post about ‘Hey look at this song’, but share it with our audience and put some of myself and my grief into it. To then say as a tribute, not in a self-aggrandising way of ‘See look I can do this song too’. That to me felt like my way of honouring her and honouring how much she loved music, and how much I love music, and how music is what brings so many people together. It wasn’t really any more complicated than me saying to my bandmates ‘Hey I think I’m gonna do this, I think I’m gonna make a cover of this song’. I spent an afternoon doing it and I remember when it was done listening back and thinking like ‘Ok I did it, I got it out’. Getting that stuff out of you allows more space in you to then work though stuff like that. It’s just a tribute to a song that means a lot.

can do something creatively – that it just becomes greater than the sum of everybody’s individual parts and that’s a process that we really highly value in not just creative output and having more music to push but just in the act of… creating is one of the coolest things that human beings do that’s unique.

In terms of that, there aren’t as far as I know, any other animals that create art as a way of expressing the way that they feel. There are animals that do creative things to get water or to get food, but human beings are unique in that we like creating art as a way of communication and so I think for us, you’re always just wanting to keep that dialogue going between ourselves, between our fans and then music can just be a conduit between for people to talk about and it brings people together.

VP: That is beautifully put. Hopefully, we can expect some new music in the new year and fingers crossed

for Download and that series of UK dates you have announced!

AP: Oh I can’t wait and I want it to happen so bad! And I know that the worst-case scenario is that if it can’t yet, then we can get back in the studio and keep writing music until it does.

VP: Fingers crossed, thank you very much for speaking to me today, much appreciated.

AP: Thank you so much! Thank you for the thoughtful questions and thank you for devoting so much of yourself to and your time to sharing music with people, because people connect with that, you know, it’s more important than just talking about something and I think people who devote a lot of their time and selves to music, kinda get that, so thank you for what you do and thank you for the work that you put in, because I know it’s not easy. I know it seems easy for people who don’t either do podcasts or journalism but it’s not an easy thing and I recognize that and I just want to thank you for taking the time.

VP: Thank you so much!

VP: Sorry for your loss. Tributes are definitely a good way of moving forward sometimes, and I can’t think of any better way to tribute someone than with a song. I’m conscious that time is over-running, so I’ll try and wrap this up… Do you guys have any plans for new music at this stage?

AP: We are always working on new music, basically as soon as we finish something and turn it in, we immediately start working on something else because we love writing, the sort of high that you get when you uncover new things musically. And every time we create a song there’s always something in there that we want to do more of or want to hear more of and it’s kind of like this never-ending addiction to just chasing those magic moments that happen when two or more people 17

W

elcome to the first rambling ruminations from the desk of The Artful Codger - a bit like the Dodger but a helluva lot older!

The purpose isn’t to argue a particular case or impose my opinions; it is the intention to highlight various musical subjects and to make you think. Plus, I’ll add suggestions from my obscure playlist and share some of my less well known but lovable rock music from across the years.

As this is the first attempt, I thought I’d head straight for the controversial route and discuss the hot topic (for musicians) of streaming. If you are a ‘big’ band, streaming is a relatively healthy source of income. If, however you are a band that is trying to expand into the wider world, you need income to fund your work to achieve success.

It’s not cheap to put on a tour (ticket sales are a huge help, but equipment and staff are costly) or to record your next release when studio hire can eat into any income from the resulting sessions.

You may have read that some large, established acts are saying pretty much the same thing and the Musicians Union has partnered with the Ivors Academy to raise a petition demanding an update to the UK Government’s current reality legislation.

(See what they say at http://musiciansunion.org.uk) Their site also has the results of a UK musicians poll:

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� 82% of respondents earned less than £200 from streaming, from all of their music across all platforms in 2019. This included members with thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of streams. Î 92% said less than 5% of their earnings came from streaming last year. Î 50% said their income from recorded music has declined over the past 10 years. Î 43% said that insufficient income from streaming caused them to get a job outside of music.

tempt to buy as close to the source as possible: this is usually direct from the artist’s website or, for larger acts, from their dedicated supplier. This, for me at least, has a few substantial benefits:

The various news channels report that a number of major artists have banned or withdrawn their catalogue for some streaming providers.

I also, as an ageing fanatic, get to choose from some very tasty extras: signed copies with exclusive extras, for example from Jo Harman I got the signed CD, signed picture and a very (and genuine) limited run of a nifty USB card with a host of ‘available nowhere else’ music.

With all of this in mind, I did some lengthy online research which suggests the following average fees per stream: Î Î Î Î Î

Amazon - $0.0042 Apple - $0.00783 Napster - $0.019 You Tube - $0.0008 Spotify - $0.00318

To put that in perspective, an artist would have to achieve around 3,400 streams to earn the equivalent of 1 hour’s worth of the UK minimum wage. When you’re an up and coming new band without a major label and PR backing, that equates to very little.

I personally do not stream or download. Instead, I make every at-

The artist is more likely to earn the greatest amount of money to re-invest in touring and new music.

I get to own, not short-term rent, the music and, should the unimaginable happen and I lose my computer/ phone/tablet I have my own sizeable and permanent backup library of CDs and vinyl.

I also have a physical product with accompanying liner notes/booklet I can pore over: read the lyrics, read the ‘thank yous’ and absorb all of the fine detail many artists supply… I can’t easily explain this passion, but caressing vinyl is not that kind of fetish and is acceptable in any company!

Having said all of that, I respect freedom of choice. I understand all of the benefits of streaming, and I am not suggesting you change your way of listening, but, if you can afford it, why not have both and help your favoured artists make even more of the music we love to listen to?

This time I found myself in need of some CPR; Coven, Pitrelli, Reilly and their 1992 collaboration called, simply CPR. A mainly instrumental album of rock of many kinds from virtuosos Randy Coven on Bass and Piccolo(!), Al Pitrelli of course on Guitar and John O. Reilly on Drums.

They brought in a few more stars (Vito Bratta, Zakk Wylde and Steve Morse all guested.)

It also included a couple of interesting covers: ‘Back In Black’ is treated rather well with Randy Jackson making a good Brian, and Stevie Wonder’s ‘I Wish’ becoming a proggy rock piece with Randy vocals. All in all a pleasurable lump of listening fodder.

Until next time, The Artful Codger wishes you well.

OF MICE & MEN ECHO An outstanding release that doesn’t let up once across its ten tracks.

The calmer moments are less a pause for breath, more a chance to reload before continuing the relentless barrage of intense power, both musically and lyrically. Echo is testament to how, when pride and dedication are taken in the little things, it can truly elevate a piece of work up several levels. Track four ‘Levee’ exemplifies this perfectly, sticking long in the memory after a single listen.

Review by Stephen Stanford

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ONE LAST DAY CHAPTER 1

FOXHAUNT MINDSET

Here’s a new hard rock act from South East England who successfully mix many rock styles with a unique approach. Chapter 1: The Beginning is The End is their debut with prog, heavy rock and and that’s just ‘I’m Here to Stay’. ‘Not Ready To Die’ sums them up best: power, weight, melody and great instrumentation. ‘If You Could See Me Now’ defines power ballad with killer bass and guitar solos. This release has variation, originality. Please ignore comparisons to certain bands… they’re better than that.

Review by Tom Dixon

Alternative hard rock with sparkling guitars and plenty of youthful energy to it are what constitutes this punchy, bright-sounding output that is both classy and intimate. Foxhaunt deliver an honest, polished performance throughout and these compositions contain just the right amount of light and shade. It is not the most groundbreaking thing that yours truly has come across lately, but it is rich in atmosphere and there is something enticing about the emotive vocals that work well. A solid release.

Review by Jens Nepper

THE CRUZADOS

SHE’S AUTOMATIC In the 80s, The Cruzados were on the brink of stardom, now they’re back with She’s Automatic and they still have the knack of supplying quality rock with a hint of southern and refined punk. Eleven songs shot through with quality rock. Highlights have to be the rock’n’roll Not Fade Away stylings of the superb title track, the pure rock of ‘Long Black Car’ and the frantic Faces/Quo treat that is ‘Let Me Down’. A great comeback album - but stronger and more varied. To be released 28th January 2022.

Review by Tom Dixon

STONE HOUSE ON FIRE TIME IS A RAZOR Stone House on Fire are a Brazilian rock band with 60s/70s proclivities with their own unique twists. Their new album, Time Is A Razor (available now), with lead-off track ‘Bitter Times’ certainly evoking that era… heavily. ‘Waterfall’ has a ‘Bird Has Flown’ intro but is original and epic 60s rock. ‘White Canvas’ is like Stormbringer with punk attitudes. ‘Despite’ is slower, bluesier with great guitar and bass throughout, and is my pick. An interesting take on an era I love and thoroughly enjoyable.

Review by Tom Dixon 20

JOHN LODGE THE ROYAL AFFAIR AND AFTER As the Moodies are now kaput as a ‘live’ entity, bassist John Lodge is now the keeper of the bands legacy. In this show with his 10,000 Light Years band he performs several of their better known classics, like ‘Ride My See-Saw’, ‘Isn’t Life Strange’, ‘Gemini Dream’, ‘Singer In A Rock ‘N Roll Band’ and ‘Nights In White Satin’; and is joined

by Moodies drummer Graeme Edge (sadly now deceased), narrating ‘Late Lament,’ plus rock royalty in the form of Carl Palmer.

Review by Laurence Todd

AGE OF WOLVES AGE OF WOLVES If pre-Dickinson Maiden and AC/DC had a child, then Wolf Of Ages could ask for paternity tests! On their self-titled debut, they rock up a NWOBHM storm even if they’re from Canada. They fit in a nod to Phil Lynott on ‘Temple Bar’ in an un-Lizzy way, but still good. Elsewhere, ‘Avernus’ adds weight; ‘We Rise’ is Ash/ Lizzy with melodic doomy vocals and it works. An enjoyable album showing their depth and experience - the next one will be even better. Ontario, Canada-based hard rockers self-titled debut album is out now.

Review by Tom Dixon

KING BUFFALO ACHERON King Buffalo’s second album of 2021, called, Acheron, stays with heavy psyche, heavy rock, heavy prog and heavy grunge… heavy! Four tracks, forty minutes of psyche loveliness.

‘Acheron’ sets the stall and pace with its cleverly woven soundscapes.

‘Shadows’ is a ponderous monolith of intelligent rock. ‘Zephyr’ is Floydian Underground. ‘Cerberus’ is a dogged(!) multi-layered prog/psyche delight. It may be a bit one-paced but it’s hugely rewarding if you like your psyche. Acheron is out now.

Review by Tom Dixon

SPACE COKE LUNACY South Carolina’s Space Coke are likely to drill a hole in your skull with their new album. There’re only five tracks but they’re a mix of trippy psychedelic doom and stoner metal. Lunacy is cited as an escape from the madness of being human, drenched in fuzz and dark feelings, and it’s as packed and gritty as a rutted road after hard frost has melted. The lengthy ‘Alice Lilithu’ is probably the pick of what is a pretty intense album. Luncay is released January 2022 via Forbidden Place Records.

Review by Laurence Todd 21

SHIELD OF WINGS UNFINISHED

DELAIRE THE LIAR EAT YOUR OWN

SYMBOLICAL IGNE

There aren’t too many symphonic rock bands coming out of the US but Chicago’s Shield Of Wings are one.

Unfinished is their debut album and it’s an eclectic mix of varying styles, not fully operatic but not full-on rock either.

Their music is infused with touches of Folk, heaps of Symphonic operatic rock and even a hint of death metal in places.

On this album they play fast and hard and, in Lara Lairen, they’ve a singer worth listening to. The band say “We hope this music helps to carry your flame for a little while”.

Review by Laurence Todd

After three singles in 2020, this London four-piece have a new EP called Eat Your Own, which includes those and three others - showing an indefinable delicacy of touch and lyrical thoughtfulness. Of the unreleased, ‘No Entry’ with piano and heartfelt vocals has power aplenty. ‘No Accident’ has brilliant lyrics woven around sparking guitar that bursts with fire at the halfway point. ‘Dog’ is archetypal Delaire: power, punk, meaning, feeling and a stonking but short guitar solo. A very strong statement and a future assured.

Review by Tom Dixon

With an air of mysticism, an underlying sense of something occult and foreboding coursing through them, the three lengthy compositions that constitute this majestic-sounding death metal EP are rather impressive affairs. The thick, claustrophobic aura that permeates the elegantly arranged curse is both enticing and intriguing, and although not groundbreaking as such, the songs offer interesting surprises and wicked twists. A varied piece of work rich in atmosphere boasting plenty of punishing riffs with sinister vocals.

Review by Jay Brown

VERIKALPA TUNTURIHAUTA Finnish troll/beer metal band Verikalpa (literally, Blood Sword) release Tunturihauta (Tomb of the Fells) on Jan 14th. ‘Verikauhu’ (Horror of Blood) contains vast curtains of synthy guitar. Ambitious ‘Raivokansa’ is magnificently sweeping, with ingenious drums. ‘Taisto’ is a head-banging euro/K-pop seltzer of jaunty beats and make-believe growls. It’s an instant moshpit classic and, though sardonic, still incorporates enough slam and hammering-smithery to scare the shizz out of old folks. A disappointment if you seek another Sonata Arctica. So, think more: Finntroll playing Alestorm.

Review by Neil Mach 22

CONFESS REVENGE AT ALL COSTS Iran isn’t known for producing heavy metal bands and the one they did produce faced extreme punishment and jail sentences just for playing metal music. Confess haven’t had it easy but that hasn’t stopped them from making heavy, adrenaline-pumping groove and thrash layered metal. This new release aptly titled Revenge At All Costs is no exception, riff-driven, heavy and very loud, Confess have a strong message and aren’t backing down, just the way metal should be.

Review by Jay Brown

COLLECTED SAY WHEN

ARCHIVES DECAY

SUPERLYNX SOLSTICE

It’s difficult to stand out in the genrefusing modern metal landscape right now, Collected are a band who are doing just that with their debut, Say When which delivers crushing guitar riffs complimented by drum patterns which make it impossible to not bang your head. From the massive chorus of ‘Blindsided’ to the stunning soundscape of ‘Mountains’ showcasing the incredible vocal range and the complex basslines and deep synths makes this a strong debut from the lads. Say When is out 18th February 2022.

Review by Dan Nicholls

Formed in early 2020 and hitting the studio in 2021 after lockdown, Ireland’s newest metalcore entrants Archives delivered their debut album Decay on December 10th.

Ten tracks of djent tinged metalcore for fans of Architects and early Parkway Drive. Well produced, energetic and heavy from start to finish, a UK tour is in the works and these guys have a sound that will translate very well to the stage so be sure to keep an eye out in your area if this is your jam!

Review by Jay Brown

Containing leftover tracks from their previous album plus some rather surprising cover versions, the Norwegian doom metal/stoner rock outfit’s new EP is a psychedelic delight and a deliciously hazy excursion into a world most dark, melancholy, and alluring. The rendition of Nirvana’s ‘Something in the Way’ is as hypnotic as it is soul-stirring and the same applies to the raw and appropriately titled ‘Cosmic Wave’. Solstice is an original and inventive output by one of Norway’s finest purveyors of bleak, otherworldly soundscapes.

Review by Jens Nepper 23

SKILLET DOMINION Christian rock or metal bands very rarely have a crossover appeal, nevertheless, Skillet’s sound has resonated with a lot of fans - regardless of their beliefs. Frontman John Cooper promised us a harder-hitting album this time around. I can see that in tracks like ‘Surviving The Game’ and ‘Standing In The Storm’ which borrows a lot from BMTH circa 2013. Tracks like ‘Refuge’ could easily be mistaken for a modern Disney soundtrack. Fans will love this, everyone else can easily pass Dominion by.

Review byNeale McGeever

SMALL JACKETS JUST LIKE THIS! For their fifth record, Italian based rockers Small Jackets, have added extra funk, punk and blues into their hard rock and released Just Like This! The result, if you don’t mind a few recognisable source riffs (‘Walk This Way’, ‘Gettin’ Tighter’), is nine tracks of high energy, hard-rocking fun with standouts the dirty ‘Funky Crunchy Woman’ and acoustically warm, Budgie-ish ‘Celebrate’. Not a duff one insight and a welcome addition to any rock collection. Just Like This! is out on December 17th 2021.

Review by Tom Dixon

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KROOKED TONGUE NO VACANCY HOTEL Societal disillusionment requires harmonized coactivity and that’s where Bristol altrock trio Krooked Tongue comes in. Their new EP No Vacancy Hotel is a grunge-injected proposition that inspires dissent through peoplehood. They push loping vocals against compressed rhythms and add stampeding guitars of exasperation. There is hypertension in the fraught melodic lines too, and ingenuity in the lyrics. But don’t let the dark trauma, emotional distortion, and sludgy angst put you off — it’s tunefully satisfying! Try to imagine latterday Franz Ferdinand meets Soundgarden.

Review by Neil Mach

GRAHAM BONNET THE HISTORIC COLLECTION This double CD features legendary rock vocalist Graham Bonnet both in the studio and ‘live.’ CD1 is his 1991 album Here Comes The Night showing Bonnet singing pop more than rock, while CD2 is ‘Live Around The World,’ showcasing Bonnet fronting several of the bands he’s graced down the years, including Rainbow, Michael Schenker Group and Alcatrazz, and includes versions of ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’, ‘All Night Long’ and ‘Lost In Hollywood’. A sparkling release for Bonnet’s fanbase.

Review by Laurence Todd

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KARNIVOOL DECADE OF SOUND AWAKE This is taken from a streamed concert Karnivool performed in their hometown of Perth, Australia on May 12t 2021 to commemorate a decade since the initial release of their second album, Sound Awake. Having had a tour of the east coast cancelled, the band relocated to Perth’s Heath Ledger Theatre and performed a Livestream of a complete run-through of 2009’s Sound Awake, alongside a couple of tracks from other albums, to their worldwide fanbase to enable them to keep their skills finely honed.

This was a show never intended for release but, such was the response after the event, with the online demand hard to ignore, they’ve done just that with this Blu-ray release.

The music in the show is performed in the same sequence as the album so, if you’re already familiar with Sound Awake, you’ll know what comes next.

Considering the band are playing to an audience of however many it was watching the livestream, while facing rows of empty seats, they make a pretty decent fist of it and inject real feeling into the music.

Proceedings open with ‘Simple Boy’ and, as the music unfolds, the many influences of Karnivool appear to take Photo Credit: Annie Harvey

shape, with the occasional hint of Tool on tracks like ‘Goliath’, or the Nirvana-ish ‘Umbra’, but these don’t define the band. They veer towards the more metallic edge of Prog with quietly powerful numbers like ‘New Day’ and ‘Illumine’, and ‘Set Fire To The Hive’ is fast-paced and ferocious

with some aggressive riffing.

What’s a good set becomes an even better one when they approach the two-thirds mark and, for the next twenty minutes, they perform the two best tracks on the album, ‘Deadman’ and ‘Changes, pt2’. ‘Deadman’ is intense, seeped in prog undertones, and ‘Changes, pt2’, with its insistent guitars and use of the Didgeridoo, is simply epic. The set concludes with the rocking ‘Fade’ and also ‘Aeons’ and ‘All It Takes’.

Decade Of Sound Awake is an album of powerful, well-performed, occasionally melodic and inventive prog influenced music and it’s clear to see why many regard this album as their finest work. Decade of Sound Awake Blu-ray is available now via Century Media Records.

Review by Laurence Todd

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GIRLSCHOOL ‘LIVE’ IN CAMDEN Long before the Spice Girls dumbed the term down, real ‘Girl Power’ was being demonstrated by all-female rock band Girlschool, rock’s original ‘riot girls,’ whose hard-rocking style and ability to stand up for themselves endeared them to a generation of rock fans far more used to strutting machismo than females with guitars.

They had a hard rock edge, more attitude than an armadillo and more leather than Judas Priest... but they could play, and they’re still the only all-female rock band to have had a top 40 album placing in the UK and across Europe.

That they weren’t just treated as mere eye-candy can be seen from their being championed by one Mr Lemmy Kilmister, who knew a thing or two about what makes a good rock band, and who invited Girlschool to support Motorhead’s ‘Bomber’ tour, as well as recorded the single ‘Please Don’t Touch’ with them.

The London show, disc 1, was recorded at the Camden Palace on their ‘Screaming Blue Murder’ tour and features several tracks from said album as well as from their earlier releases, Photo Credit: Lisa Billingham

such as stage favourites like ‘C’mon Let’s Go and Running Wild’, and is a gig full of high octane, high energy rock though, by the time of this show, original guitarist Kelly Johnson had left, replaced by Aussie Cris Bonucci.

‘Live From Nashville,’ recorded for the radio show ‘King Biscuit Flower Hour,’ captures the band when they were slightly softening their music away from full-on rock towards a more commercialised pop-metal sound. Opener ‘Screaming Blue Murder’ sets the scene, with their better-known songs ‘Play Dirty’, ‘Hit And Run’ and ‘You Got Me’, added to with covers of ZZ Top’s ‘Tush’, ‘The Gun’s Race With The Devil’ and a return to their teenage years with Bolan’s ‘20th Century Boy’, all of which are performed credibly.

Review by Laurence Todd

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