SONIC SHOCKS Issue 26 - July 2014

Issue 26 - July 2014

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Our 2014 Guide

DOWNLOAD + CAMDEN ROCKS: All the interviews

Interview

John Garcia

Kyuss, Unida & Vista Chino mainman speaks to Sonic Shocks ahead of his solo release BOUGHTON ESTATE, KETTERING, NORTHAMPTONSHIRE, NN14 1BJ, UNITED KINGDOM

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July 2014

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P 3: JOHN GARCIA Interview John Morgan - Photos Cristina Massei P. 6: ROCK’N’ROLL MUSEUM Article & photos by Paul Roundhill P. 10: DYING FETUS Interview Matt Dawson - photo Nelly Loriaux P. 12: HOUNDS Interview & live photos C. Massei, main M.Fletcher P. 16: THE DASH Interview and photos by Cristina Massei Page 20: STEVE HACKETT Interview by Matt Dawson P. 24: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BURLESQUE

By Sophia Disgrace P. 26: CRAZY TOWN Interview & main photo N. Loriaux, live C. Massei P. 28: THE BLACK DAHLIA MURDER Interview Matt Dawson, Trevor photos C. Massei P. 31: SAINT AGNES Interview and photos by Mark Fletcher P. 34: GINGER WILDHEART Interview & live photos by Cristina Massei P. 37: CALLING ALL CARS Interview by Mark Fletcher P. 38: ARTHEMIS Interview by Matt Dawson, main shot N. Loriaux P. 39: CHASING CADENCE Interview by Matt Dawson, main shot N. Loriaux P. 40: SIKTH Interview by Matt Dawson, main shot N. Loriaux P. 42: BOY JUMP SHIP Interview & live photos by Mark Fletcher P. 44: FOZZY - CHRIS JERICHO Interview by Matt Dawson, Chris photos N. Loriaux

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P 47: HOOSIERS Interview & live photos by Mark Fletcher P. 50: HUNTRESS Interview Matt Dawson, Jill photos C. Massei P. 53: GOATWHORE Interview by Matt Dawson P. 54: MONUMENTS Interview by Matt Dawson, main shot N. Loriaux P. 56: COLT 45 Interview & photos by Mark Fletcher Page 58: THE HOWLING Interview, live and main photo by Nelly Loriaux P. 60: SKYHARBOR Interview by Matt Dawson, main shot N. Loriaux P. 63: PROTAFIELD Interview & live photos by Mark Fletcher P. 66: THE DIRTY YOUTH Interview by Matt Dawson, photos Nelly Loriaux P. 68: ZOAX Interview by Matt Dawson, photos Nelly Loriaux P. 70: SONISPHERE SPECIAL

by Matt Dawson P. 75: TEMPER Interview by Sophia Disgrace P. 78: FROM ALBION TO SHANGRI-LA Book review by Paul Roundhill APOLOGY: In the previous issue, we misspelled Mr Atle Bakken's name and failed to mention him as a contributor to the main article on Wall Of Sound. We'd like to apologize and thank Mr Bakken for his help.

CONTACT US EDITOR IN CHIEF & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Cristina Massei thewickedwitch@sonicshocks.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Matt Dawson - cygnus@sonicshocks.com Nelly Loriaux - nelly@sonicshocks.com US CORRESPONDENT: Denise Britt - denise@sonicshocks.com

Contributors on this issue WRITERS:

General enquiries, review requests and unsolicited material: info@sonicshocks.com

John Morgan, Paul Roundhill, Sophia Disgrace, Mark Fletcher, Matt Dawson, Nelly Loriaux

Advertising enquiries and info:

PHOTOGRAPHERS:

PLEASE NOTE: We listen to everything but - often in your own interest - we don’t always review it...

Cristina Massei, Nelly Loriaux, Paul Roundhill, Mark Fletcher

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Relaxed, softly spoken, content, feeling blessed for his life and most of all his family, which these days takes centre stage: the John Garcia we meet tonight has no venom, no regrets, just tons of contagious excitement and appreciation. In the tour bus behind the Garage, before playing with Unida, he shares his thoughts about the album he’s been awaiting his entire life to release, fishing worms, Kyuss, Terence Trent D’Arby and the importance of being cool.

I want to talk about the solo tour you’ve got coming up and I believe you’ve just announced the live band you’ll be working with.

Yeah, they’re all desert locals. I love that, I’m able to rehearse locally now and not have to fly to Antwerp to rehearse so it was important for me to have desert local people. Rehearsals have already started, we have a tour coming up in September in Australia and we have a heavy, extensive European tour come November and December of this year – UK’s involved in that tour so we’re going to be playing some different Kyuss songs that I haven’t played before – Thong Song, Gloria Lewis – even songs Kyuss never used to play as well as some Slowburn songs and obviously my new record.

It’s a pretty extensive mix of all the stuff you’ve done before.

I’m really excited about it, it’s pretty much me playing past and present, I’ve awaited my entire life for this solo record and I’m emotionally super attached to all these songs, it’s been a long time coming that I’ve been working on this and so I’m excited – big tour dates will be up on the site soon, being booked as we speak.

You’ve got a release date of the 25th July slated for the album – is that worldwide?

I think that the UK may be closer to the end of July/beginning of August, you can buy pre-orders and they’ll ship around that time.

Speaking of the album – you worked with Robbie Krieger from The Doors and I was wondering how it was working with him…

What can I say? Holy shit, to have him play on the record was phenomenal and an experience I will never forget for the rest of my life. I’m a huge Doors fan so when Harper Hug – one of my producers – suggested that ‘I hear Spanish guitar on this

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The Call of the Desert

track’, I said ‘That’s a good idea, who do you know that plays Spanish guitar?’ Harper: ‘I Know Robbie Krieger.’

I go ‘Get the fuck outta here!, do you think it could happen?’ Harper goes ‘I know Robbie, let’s see if he likes the track first!’

He sent him the track, he liked it, next thing you know we’re in a studio in Los Angeles and he was cutting guitar, again what a great experience and to have him involved on this record is just amazing. I’ve got a lot of people on this record - Nick Oliveri, Robbie Krieger, Danko Jones, Chris Hale from Slowburn, Damon Garrison from Slowburn, Dandy Brown and Dave Angstrom from Hermano, Tom from The Dwarves and Mark

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Diamond from The Dwarves. A lot of great guests and super talented musicians, I couldn’t have done it without them. I think where I should give credit where it’s REALLY due is with Harper Hug and Trevor Whatever – my producers – they’ve got an unbelievable studio in Palm Springs called Thunder Underground – what a great studio, they turned this project into something I always wanted it to be, this is how I envisioned my solo record.

This wasn’t just a group of songs that were B-sides or leftovers, these are songs that were special to me that I had a relationship with throughout my entire career that deserved to be heard and that’s why I released it –

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I felt bad for ‘em, this box of songs that were in a corner of my bedroom and it was sad – ‘just hold on guys, be patient with me, I’ll get to you – trust me.’

I wasn’t looking to change the face of fuckin’ rock and roll, it was great creating them back then, great breathing new life into them today and that was the fun part.

Did you find the songs took a new dimension when you have so many collaborations going on and you actually sit down in the studio with some of these guys?

They did but it was very natural, they kind of write themselves. I knew getting into the record that there was a specific, simplistic direction that I wanted to go into, the whole name of the game was being very simple and not overdoing it – keeping the beats and the guitars very simple – when you do hear a solo it’s simple not too noodly, it’s very melodic.

When I sat down with Dave Angstrom and we revisited these songs all these years later, that was the fun part – recreating songs like Confusion where you just have guitar, drums and a singer that was originally an acoustic love tragedy song – one acoustic song is enough , that’s the one Robbie Krieger plays on which was another interlude.

The fun part was working with the other guitar players and other writers, it was very intentional but natural at the same time.

Do you find that having these collaborations gives you more licence for creativity as a singer and a song writer?

100%. I feel like I’m in the driver’s seat, this wasn’t a band, it was me working with specific people that I wanted and even the producers wanted specific things from these guys but we were always in the driver’s seat – always me, Harper and Trevor in the front seat driving the thing. It was very specific and we knew exactly what we wanted from those people and what a great group of musicians to come in and have them shine. I’m very fortunate and very lucky.

Were you able to take your time on the recording process?

Yeah, all in all. I could have sat in there for another month and turn knobs but at some point in time you have to lift up and go ‘any more finger-fucking this thing and you’re going to wind up ruining it!’ but I’m

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very pleased with it.

You’re obviously still heavily involved with Vista Chino and a lot of dates coming up – do you find as a vocalist just to cake specific care of your voice – any secrets?

There’s nothing worse than smoking, that’s the worst thing you can do with your voice, I still smoke cigarettes – not at all today but I will after my show. You drink hot tea, try not to talk too much, at my age I’ve got to be very limited to what I do for recreational fun – mind altering things like alcohol or nicotine, I don’t smoke too much pot anymore really but it’s just alcohol, nicotine and caffeine.

How different is it being on tour now – do you get the same romance with being away from home for a long time as you did as a younger guy?

As a younger guy I got all that out of my system but as I grew up… I’m a family man. I love my son, my daughter, my wife and I try to keep my eye on the ball. My eye on the ball is me being able to be on the back of this old bus speaking to almost strangers if you will about something that I’ve created, I appreciate that and I never used to be that way, more a ‘let’s smoke some weed and get fucked up’ guy and it’s not about that ‘cause what matters is when you’re on the slab and close to visiting the big man upstairs the only thing that comes to mind is that – everything else is secondary so I try and keep my eye on the ball. It’s not the fancy cars or bed or any of that, it’s your family, friends and who you care about, who cares about you.

To them you’re just Dad… I’m more concerned about what type of fishing bait I’m gonna take fishing than really anything else ‘cause that’s my alone time with them and I get to hang out – ‘Daddy, do we want the big worms or the small ones?’ ‘Take the big ones because they last longer, they squirm more!’

Again when you’re on the slab you’re gonna realise all this stuff is an extra bonus and it’s fun, I’m still passionate about it and I appreciate that I can be here talking to you complete strangers about something that I just created. I’m blessed, I’ve got that, they’re waiting for me at home and we’re going to have a great summer.

I’ve got the entire summer off – I don’t leave for tour until November/ December – so it’s a good time right

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now, I’m excited, to be able to finally do this, be contractually obligated to put this solo record out and to revisit some Kyuss and Slowburn songs it’s great so I’ve got the support of my son, daughter and wife – it’s a good time.

You’ve also been busy on the writing front as well – you’ve got an autobiography coming out soon. I wondered why you felt now was the time to actually put that together..

Actually I really don’t know – I forget who’s doing that, that’s some project that somebody’s doing – I can’t recall the last time I talked to that guy or gal. So many people wanted to do a book about the desert scene and I’m like ‘Why?’ We didn’t start anything – we created some records and I get it was a thing – there was a band called Cactus, Leaf Hound, Buffalo…

Kyuss seemed to reignite the whole stoner rock element in the mid 90’s, you’re always going to be associated with that for those albums.

I appreciate that and man I can’t believe it myself, I probably won’t read it – it just doesn’t interest me. I want people to feel what I feel when I play these songs [on the new record], I can’t even tell you the last time I put on a Kyuss record and I don’t sit down and listen to myself going ‘Wow! Don’t I sound good!’ I CRINGE at those records because now I feel I can sing circles around that kid, now at the age of 43 I’m constantly growing.

While we’re on the subject of Kyuss – it was a difficult time from Kyuss Lives to Vista Chino, now that you’ve put that behind you and got a Vista Chino record out – do you feel that the band now has its own identity?

I do, we went through the wringer with that band, sometimes it’s just part of the business – I don’t want to go through that again as far as the legalities but it is what it is, we’ve created a record, we were on a mission, nobody was gonna stop us – the whole reason that record happened was because of Harper Hug and nobody knows that. Brant [Bjork] might have another aspect to that answer but for me as a singer the Vista Chino record never would have come out if it wasn’t for Harper Hug, both him and Trevor Whatever were very instrumental in sticking with us through thick and thin to do that record something fierce.

Do you find that when you write songs you have a specific idea of

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who it is for or is it from the heart rather than I’m going to write a Vista Chino or Garcia record?

No I don’t and anybody that knows about my track record knows that I don’t like to stay in one place for very long – Kyuss to Slowburn to Unida to Hermano to Vista Chino and my solo record, doing guest vocals with Danko Jones, The Crystal Method and everything in-between, being explorative to me is fun – some artists for instance – and I’m NOT comparing myself to this guy: Angus Young – only plays in 1 band, love that and I applaud that, he’s A1, top-notch one of the best guitar players of all time.

For me I don’t like to sit still, I want to do stuff with Crystal Method, Unida, Vista Chino and my solo act but like I said before I had a personal relationship with these songs but these are ones I’ve said this is mine that I put in a vault if you will but in reality was a cardboard box in my bedroom window!

It does seem like an actual record of songs whereas previous work was collections of music – you wouldn’t necessarily listen to a Kyuss song you’d listen to the whole album whereas these songs have their own individuality – is that something you wanted?

Yeah, I tried to make them flow as best as I could but they’re from different parts [and] eras of my life – ‘Her Bullets Energy’ with Robbie Krieger was written when I was 19, Danko Jones wrote 5000 Miles for me ten years ago, ‘My Mind’ was recently rewritten almost in the month I recorded that track so the range is rather big but we try to keep it consistent and by not having a band –every player the same was also challenging as well but we wanted to have it tray and stay as conducive as we possibly could and we did a pretty good job!

I wholeheartedly agree, also the artwork is stunning!

That fit perfectly, the guy by the name of Sam Young in Melbourne Australia specifically did the piece for me – Ram’s horns and desert flowers blooming with a very regal neckpiece around him and then you have a superimposed desert open road.

I’m very proud of the desert, that’s where I live and reside so when I saw that piece it made sense. That wasn’t the 1st cover, I went through several different versions and the record company – a lot of people don’t have a good relationship with their record company but I personally do

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– after listening to the record they were like the cover doesn’t fit and I agreed, let’s keep searching.

So he was the 5/6th artist we went to, I gave him visions of what I saw and this is what I was felling – Jared Connor and Sam Young knocked it out of the park – it’s classy and a touch of regalness to it. I’m proud of my desert.

With Vista Chino – I know Brant’s doing his solo stuff – do you foresee writing new material any time soon?

No, I think we’re going to park her in the garage for a little while, we’ll see what happens and whether we’ll take her out for another spin, we’ll see. I would like to one day but I’m really happy where I’m at right now – again this is something I’ve always wanted to do and again my track record says I can’t stand in one spot too long. What a great reintroduction to the music business because I left it for a while for veterinary medicine so it was a great re-introduction.

Unida just re-released Coping With The Urban Coyote so things are looking good.

Which vocalists have inspired you personally?

Ian Asbury’s my number 1, I don’t think there’s any doubt, Glenn Danzig, Terence Trent D’arby, Rufus Wainwright. If I could sing like Philip Bailey from Earth, Wind & Fire I’d cover one of their songs but I can’t!

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[Laughs] I’m a big fan of singers, I love Terence Trent D’Arby – the guy can sing his ass off! Chris Cornell has to be the best singer of my generation but I love Euphoria Morning.

H.R from Bad Brains, Johnny Taylor, Morrissey – from Bob Marley to Ian Asbury – there’s no guilty pleasures I don’t give a fuck – I just don’t care, I don’t wanna be cool, I like what I like.

That’s what’s important – keeping my eye on the ball, there’s always the nay-sayers saying you have to detach yourself from that stuff.

What are the plans for the future after the Australia/Europe/UK tours?

Summertime – Europe again and then I might do a US tour, South by Southwest, I’d love to do Australia – it’s so expensive but I love the people, the environment, the wildlife.

Lots of touring and writing – I’d love to do another record by this time next year, I still have material that I’m nurturing – I have 44 songs but now I have a band - Mike Pygmie on bass, Greg Saenz on drums and introducing Ehren Groban on guitar – I want to make it more of an unit and not have so many players coming in and make it more of a band piece.

Thank you for all the support over the years, it’s their music just as much as it is mine, I’ll always be known as the singer of Kyuss and I appreciate that and I embrace it.

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rock’n’roll museum

By Paul Roundhill “THE ROCK AND ROLL MUSEUM” IS A REGISTERED TRADE-NAME SINCE 1990. This is a module of a regular feature in Sonic Shocks magazine. All modules are available for syndication - all rights reserved.

THE ROCKABILLY YEARS In the mid to late 70s a new generation of music lovers was growing up of which I was one. I lived in a squat (although we actually paid rent - it was £9.00 per week for an entire house in Hove, Sussex) and didn’t have much interest in the products being churned out by an effete music industry. We would pick up vinyls in charity shops and car-boot fairs. I developed an interest in old juke-boxes and set about discovering original records to fill them up with. You could buy classic tunes for pennies.

The same generation was not interested in propping up the consumer culture by buying ready-made and packaged “Entertainment” It was a lot more fun and satisfying to start your own band or support local groups who had something relevant to say. Thus was born the “New-Wave” and “Punk” culture. Thanks partly to Malcolm McLaren’s genius adoption of the situationist philosophy, Punk became the prominent genre but in fact there was a whole swathe of styles and types explored and exploited. The entire backcatalogue of music was rifled and re-invented.

In April 1980 I started a shop “C.O.D.” (cash on delivery) at Kensington Market, Kensington High St, where there was a stronghold of fashion and music sub-cultures - some really great shops - Johnsons, Rock-a-Cha, Cuba. I would trawl Brick Lane Market on a Sunday before dawn looking for 50s and 60s clothes, records and paraphernalia on Saturday mornings I’d be at Swiss cottage Market or Kingsland Road Waste and at Portobello Road on a Friday.

There was a thriving club scene at that time spearheaded by Chris Sullivan and Ollie Maxwell, Steve Strange, Rusty Egan and a small tight coterie of “in the know” cool leaders of fashion - everybody knew everybody else at least by sight and the New Romantic crew, rockabillies and other types tussled with each other through design and retail, music and dance and across night-time London in a multitude of mushrooming night-clubs that appeared and disappeared with startling rapidity.

At that time vintage clothes and cars were being tossed out everywhere and the canny few who appreciated good quality design and style had a field day scooping up treasures.

All photography original by Paul Roundhill. Copyright protected, all right reserved.

For any enquiry about buying or exhibiting Mr Roundhilll’s work, please contact us or the man himself by email at ayeayerobot@yahoo.co.uk

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Brian Setzer’s “Stray Cats’” first British visit where I saw them at Gossips in Soho, Dingwalls and in Brighton. © Paul Roundhill

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The Meteors - the original Psychobillies from the UK - played at the Marquee Club, Wardour St, Soho. Š Paul Roundhill

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NY band Buzz and the Flyers played Dingwalls in Camden

© Paul Roundhill

© Paul Roundhill

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#Whynotdyingfetus – a Twitter hashtag that started as a joke against Facebook commenters complaining about the line up but managed to go viral leading to one of the most exciting additions and the only extreme metal band to play the coveted main stage in 2014.

Trey Williams gives us his thoughts on the craziness and which band he’d do his own version for.

Dying Fetus at Download came from a very unlikely source in a sense – what are your thoughts with the #WhyNotDyingFetus viral craze on Twitter?

Well Twitter’s become a very important thing in the world with the Arab Spring a couple of years back and now with the Dying Fetus hashtag things are happening with Twitter. We’re very flattered to be able to be here and it’s really awesome that our fans and fans of extreme metal helped make this happen through something like Twitter.

Opening the main stage is a good way to wake up people up from hangovers and such…

Absolutely, couldn’t agree more.

The rest of the day’s bill is Fallout Boy/Linkin Park etc – how is it to be the sole representation of extreme metal on that stage?

We’re very flattered – band’s been around a long time and I think it’s a good comeuppance in the world but we’re still an underground death metal band.

No ads for say Coca Cola or something if they pay so much… [laughs]

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If they pay! [laughs] but even if we did we’ll still be an underground death metal band, we’re not going to alienate our fans, we know how we got to where we are and we appreciate and love them for that.

Thoughts on how the extreme metal scene is represented in the UK? We have a great time whenever we get to the Underworld in London, a lot of people throw down hardcore, in the UK you’ve got bands like Carcass, Cradle Of Filth, Napalm Death – the UK has been a hotbed of music for a long time.

I take it you heard Carcass’ Surgical Steel then…

I heard a few tracks and it’s very solid.

Would you like to tour with Carcass?

If they’ll take us and it works out schedule wise – sure!

What are the plans for touring in the UK? In a few weeks we’ll be doing the Summer Slaughter tour [In the USA] – doing direct support for Morbid Angel on that and in the late autumn/early winter we’ll be doing a headlining tour in Europe and the UK.

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As you mentioned you’ll be doing the Summer Slaughter tour which this year is more extreme metal based than say the Tech-metal of last year – do you feel that does well in the US? It does alright – there’s no other tours that cater to our audience of that calibre so it works out for us and the American extreme metal scene.

If you could create your own Twitter hashtag to co viral what would it be? #WhyNotDyingFetus works pretty good, I really can’t think of anything else!

Which band would you do a similar hashtag for?

I’m going to rep a local band here – Visceral Disgorge.

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© Nelly Loriaux

" ...we’ll still be an underground death metal band, we’re not going to alienate our fans, we know how we got to where we are..."

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Hounds’ new EP ‘Begin Transmission Part 2’ features 3 original HOUNDS songs and a cover of Whiteout by Killing Joke.

‘Killing Joke have been a huge influence on the dance rock/electronica scene and were responsible for laying down the foundations in sound which have influenced us along our sonic journey’. Good enough a reason to check them out already.

Then they go on to explain the other tracks: ‘The Wicked Witch’ is ‘a death threat full of venom. Everyone has an ex partner they wish were dead

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and we are no different’; ‘In Your Eyes’ – ‘it’s all about staring into the eyes of madness’; ‘Watch and Learn’ is for ‘people who arrive on the scene and clog up the airwaves only to be gone and on to the next scene overnight. We can’t stand fakers’.

Hounds ‘no bullshit’ attitude translates in an impressive ‘no bullshit’ live show, where their bright white outfits break from the dark of the stage and the music, grabbing the attention of a packed Underworld (we saw them at Camden Rocks at 4pm, so quite a result there). We are eager to find out more from frontman Olly…

I’d like to start by finding out how you started…

We come from a very small village out in the middle of nowhere that’s very isolated, we’ve known each other and grown up together, we’ve experimented with lots of music over the years and finally settled on the sound of Hounds.

As Hounds we’ve been around for 3 years.

Where can people find stuff to listen to?

We’ve hooked up with the guys at Metal Hammer and Team Rock and released a couple

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of EP’s so far through them, one more is due this month and that should be followed by an album, both EP’s are on sale online as well.

We’ve also got a couple of remixes on Soundcloud – www. houndsmusic.com is the base for all our stuff, you can find social networking links.

Back to the live show – the sound is dramatic and dark I find but then there’s bright white outfits – like a contrast…

We feel like in a sea of black we’re swimming the opposite way in white, it’s not trying to make a statement or anything like that but we’re quite comfortable swimming in the opposite direction, that makes total sense for us, we couldn’t give a fuck what everyone else is wearing. It fits the music, it’s what we want to wear.

Is that the same in your music – the idea of going against the current?

Hounds is there for people that want something different. We grew up listening to metal, we got into punk then got into rave; when we’re making our music we’re not influenced by anything else so the style is pure in essence, it’s not tampered with [and] doesn’t follow any trend – naturally it turns out to be quite different to what everyone else is doing and that’s the way we like it – we like to fuck with sounds.

Who would you say your music appeals to then?

It’s for people that are looking for something else, there’s plenty of music out there that sounds the same – we don’t go out of our way to sound different but if that’s what you’re after I guess that’s what we’re doing.

What are you trying to express through your music?

I don’t think we’re trying to express anything, how it sounds is how it turns up at the end of the recording sessions, we have our own studio in the middle of the woods – a converted air raid shelter - we like to record at night, experiment with sounds so

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© Mark Fletcher

"We feel like in a sea of black we’re swimming the opposite way in white, it’s not trying to make a statement or anything like that but we’re quite comfortable swimming in the opposite direction"

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once we’re done with all that the way it comes out is quite different from the rest.

If you had to mention one huge influence on your music who would it be?

It’s hard to say, we grew up listening to Metallica, Pantera – metal with a groove; then we got into bands like The Clash then the Prodigy and the rave scene – an amalgamation of everything.

Is it difficult you think it for a young band that’s been exposed to so many to find their own?

It wasn’t difficult for us at all, we didn’t try to sound like anyone; for others maybe it’s harder I don’t know.

Describe to us a full Hounds show…

It’s interesting because the bigger shows we do we quite like it to be

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stripped down – if a venue’s got 400 different lights we’d still just want to use the strobe and white light because there’s too much going on; bands make the mistake of going crazy with lights and stuff – the most effective is usually the simplest.

You’re at Sonisphere next – where/ when can we see you?

Our friends The Prodigy are headlining the same day as us – we’re opening the Bohemia stage.

Aside from Sonisphere – where can we catch Hounds next?

With Rob Zombie and Soulfly in Europe; we then come back and go straight to Sonisphere. Coming from where we’re from everything is great – ending up in Europe with Rob Zombie or being on stage at Sonisphere or on a boat through the Thames (Hounds played on HMS Hammer en route to this year’s Golden Gods),

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we’ve had to fight for everything so it’s all good.

If however you had to get a normal job what would it be?

A scientist, a mad one trying to make weird shit! I’d invent Frankenstein!

So what else is coming up?

The album should be coming out soon – probably around August time and we’re already recording the second album, ahead of the game.

We’ve added elements like a test radar that’s at this WWII airfield near the back of our studio.

To close – tell us WHY we should make sure we catch you at Sonisphere?

It’ll be something different from the whole festival so if you’re into that sort of thing – come and check it out.

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their own merit as well, with larger festivals there’s an element of label pushing, buying in perhaps, but today it’s all about bands that can contribute to the festival in the best way – through playing their own music Gav: Everyone will go home tonight – whether they have a sore head tomorrow or not – with a new band that they didn’t know before that they were impressed with. If every single person does that that’s brilWe meet The r e a l l y liant.

Dash before pushed with who t o Marc: It’s accessible as well, everytheir Camden see at a certain time.

Rocks slot. The one’s walking around and seeing sun is out, spirits are high, and so is Gav: There’s so many other great each other’s gigs, there’s no gated their place in the bill. The lads are acts on. compound where all the bands are definitely pleased and in the mood Marc: So many of our mates are existing in, they come out, play their for a chat with Sonic Shocks. For a playing all over and it’s so nice that a set and fuck off, you’ll go and see a start, we got talking about Camden, platform like this exists where every- band play with 4 other bands watchtoday’s event, the state of live mu- one gets together. We’ve just been ing them and everyone can chat , get sic and festivals; then we went on to to see the Petals at the Jazz Café who into it and meet up with everyone. discover the band’s many influences, we’ve known for a couple of months Gareth: Rather than one of the big the meaning of The Dash and why – sweetest boys in the world – and festivals like Reading this is a more Dan will always be the band’s drum- then after this interview we’re going personal festival – you can get up mer – definitely not the singer… to see Deadcuts. I’ve known Mark close to the different bands and So Camden Rocks – excited? You’ve for years – it’s a really great environ- stuff in the smaller venues, it’s more ment for people to play. got a good slot – 8pm … personal than a humongous gig on So for a young band like yourselves a stage, you get lost in unity when Marc: Very excited! go out the back – you can get inGareth: I think it’s going to be very it’s an event like this that feels more you volved in the crowd. genuine rather than the big festibusy and energetic. vals.

Marc: It’s the best part of playing Marc: I think what’s really nice as small, intimate gigs but on a platform Gav: I think this is as genuine as it well is that the whole Dash thing gives it the scope to reach out started in Camden - up on Camden gets because a lot of the bands on which people that perhaps wouldn’t Road in a little basement flat - so to the roster have grown up in Camden to queue up and come to say the Hawand we’ve played with lots of them, be back and playing such a great slot on a Thursday – it’s the same kind at a great venue is a really nice feel- there’s no overnight, made behind ley the scenes things that have been of atmosphere but all on one day on ing for us. done before – it’s a genuine music this huge Saturday night.

Where are you playing tonight? festival and all credit to Chris [Mc- What did you hope to achieve when Marc: The Canal side bar which is Cormack] for putting it on. you started? What led to the deciupstairs from Dingwalls right on the Marc: Every band’s here through sion to go ‘I’m not getting a day job, Lock, proper Camden!

What’s your fondest memory of Camden?

Marc: To be honest with you my fondest ones I’ve probably forgotten! [all laugh] It’s been like the nucleus exactly of what we do and where we all came from, Gav still lives in Camden so we always kind of centred around here, I think it’s a really important gig to play.

As much as it changes Camden is still Camden at its core.

Gareth: Yeah and it’s good to see so many people out in force, there’s thousands walking the streets going to see bands in every little corner and it’s good to see. Live music is really important, people say it’s in a bad state so to see so many rock fans turn out on the streets and queuing up outside venues to get a peek at a band is a really cool thing.

Marc: What’s really nice as well is you look down the line up and you’re

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© Cristina Massei

"...the idea that you’re born and you die and on your gravestone in the middle there’s a dash - the only important thing is that dash"

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© Cristina Massei

I’m gonna starve and make music for a living instead’?

Gav: Well who wants to get a normal job? [laughs] Marc: Do a job, turn up every day relentlessly, pay for some things and then you get to the end of it and go ‘What have I done with this?’ For me you write a song and when you’re done with it you’ve created something new that wasn’t there before and you’re playing a song with a band that wasn’t there before.

What about your pension and mortgage?

Marc: Gav and I are going to sell our hair if it all goes to shit!

Gav: I’m going to sell Dan! Marc: He’s 3 gigs away from being pimped! [laughs] It’s the whole intoxicating fascination with of creating something new that wasn’t there before and through that being able to engage with people on a heartfelt personal level that cuts through to the human condition, music’s superseded language, and that’s been the only constant throughout the whole of civilisation. If you can actually take what you perceive to be a nice song and then people come back, you get a reaction from that and get involved with the whole idea that created it. That to me is the rea-

son why I don’t want a proper job, because otherwise I’m just going to put a spreadsheet together, email it off and someone’s not going to give a shit [because] it just looks the same.

Our songs and our band don’t look the same.

No urge to get up at 7am?

Marc: That’s another advantage – really long lie-ins!

Gav: You don’t ever work on a Monday – they don’t exist!

Marc: Bob Geldof was lying when he said ‘I don’t like Mondays’ – he blatantly didn’t work one! That song made me LOVE Mondays – it’s an extra weekend day!

So what was the inspiration for getting together?

Marc: The idea of The Dash has been around for a few years, I met Gav a couple of years and that cemented it. Before that it was like a band name and it took the people to make The Dash what it is. There was a time when all I had was a guitar , a CD – Richard Hell’s Blank Generation - and a bag of clothes; in that song there’s a line ‘I belong to that generation and you leave that blank.’ The blank is essentially The Dash – it’s what you make it and want it to be. Since we started working under The Dash there’s this poem online by Linda El-

lis, the idea that you’re born and you die and on your gravestone in the middle there’s a dash (You can watch it at this link: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=HVLqkExH5ww) the only important thing is that dash so it lends itself to the music as it’s very fast and frantic, it may feel like a sprint but the dash is what you want it to be.

Gareth: There’s a sort of irony in the blank thing because I was saying to Gav last night – I was reading this interview with Serge from Kasabian saying how there’s not enough rock’n’roll bands around anymore, everyone’s gone to the dark side or whatever and there’s not a lot of people in leather jackets playing guitars left; I think we never changed that from the start, no matter what we went through we never changed the ethos and went ‘someone, somewhere will like it because we like it.’

That’s why we kept hammering at it therefore the blank bit will always be blank, it’s blank for a reason.

Marc: Trends come and go but at the end of the day all our songs are talking about – what a dance or electro or even an One Direction track will shout about – it’s all about the same subjects essentially writing from the heart and that never changes.

Gav: It’s human experience, that’s

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what we’re writing about – like a love song, the reason can relate to it because we’ve all had a broken heart at one point in their life so everyone can relate to that music. It’s just how you bring that music across, and the way we bring it across is in a post-punk way but not so much a poppy way, it’s just a different way of expressing how we feel at that time.

Marc: Everyone comes from different backgrounds as well and I think even though there’s 2 guitars, 1 bass, 1 drummer and some vocals there’s a lot of stuff bubbling under the surface and it comes out as this very frantic 3 minute, very punky kind of thing. But at the heart I go home and listen to Northern Soul, Motown and I’m obsessed with the 3 minute pop song, I love writing a 3 minute pop song then making it dirty with guitars. When Gareth and I met I asked him ‘what’s your favourite song’ and he said ‘Beat It by Michael Jackson’ - everyone’s into slightly different things. Dan’s basslines have some McCartneyesque bits as well then you put it together and it’s not really straightforward 4 to the floor, there’s a real undercurrent to it.

What do the rest of you listen to?

Gav: I listen to a range of music – Blink 182 to soul, I go through loads of genres depending on what mood I’m in.

Gareth: It’s a really hard question because I’m obsessed with music in a way, I buy a lot of vinyl so I collect old music, the last record I bought was John Coltrane. I’ve been buying stuff really out of the box – blues, jazz anything like that, I’m not very good with modern music. My first vinyl was Appetite For Destruction by Guns N Roses, for CD’s I’d have to say The Shaman.

Dan: Power ballads, stick on Heart’s Alone I’m anyone’s!

Marc: I’ve spent a wonderful evening with Dan singing Alone by Heart.

[Dan then does a brief impression of Ann Wilson] That’s why I’m the bass player not the singer!

What would be your main influences?

Marc: I think The Stooges thing was amazing, they were different from the psychedelic Stooges when they started out – putting microphones inside washing machines and making weird fucked up music because they didn’t know how to play instruments, then they kind of did what they could. When you listen to Iggy talk about music all he talks about is Sinatra, Motown and Soul. In a way

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that’s where we’re coming from as well, we play the guitars because we know how to play them, I think if we knew how to play other instruments – Gav would be on saxophone, I’d be on a Hammond organ, Dan would still be on bass and I wouldn’t let Gareth play anything other than drums because he’s the best drummer I’ve ever met in my life.

That hit home last year when we did IggyFest with Terry Edwards who we all respect – a saxophonist who played with The Blockheads, Tom Waits and Nick Cave - he approached us and said about this 2 day Iggyfest and would we like to play with him on the Saturday night and we re-imagined a hour long set of Iggy stuff. We did No Fun but all the verses was no vocals just saxophone, Fortune Teller which was a Stones songs the Stooges covered merged into so many different bits, at that point we realised how Sister Midnight went into Red Money by Bowie which was his version so he’d get the royalties but that was during his soul kind of phase… You realise that while music gets lumped into one category it’s like a melting pot of everything else.

Now for those who don’t know you where can they hear your stuff?

Gareth: Go to wearethedash.com and all the gigs are on there.

Marc: Our last single 3 Times More is on vinyl as well, also we’re on Spotify – our last single and cover of Baby I Love You because we did an advert in Berlin which is now screening in South America and that’s in Europe at the end of the year. We’ve also got

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a new single slated for the 21st July called Love Will Always Be The End and that’s an exclusive! I was talking to Gav about how we haven’t done a full album YET – on the Spotify channel there’s 9 songs already – almost like a full album, but I quite like the idea of never doing an album and always doing singles and then you can collate your own album from there; also I’m a fan of holding it physically and having a story.

I think if you really put all of yourself in every song you write then you should do all singles and a collection at the end.

Marc: Exactly. Technically tomorrow we could do a playlist and make an album already but when we do an album there’ll be a few surprises in there that wouldn’t be singles to mould it together. When the album comes out, for 3 minute pop songs there’ll be a few bits in there that’ll take people a little bit sidestepping.

The next few months we’ll be doing that and a few festivals – Barefoot up in Leicester, a few e can’t say yet and maybe a few instances where we might be on planes going away to play some gigs so to be as vague as I can – very sunny places. We’re getting a tan! [laughs] Any final messages?

I’d like to thank you guys at Sonic Shocks – you incorporate so many styles, breaking new bands and educating people to the history of where things have come from and you go outside the box as well – so subscribe to Issuu.com and get involved!

July 2014

© Tina Korhonen With Genesis Revisited II Steve Hackett once again reminded fans of music of how great Genesis as a unit is, from Prog to pop and everything in-between; and nothing showcased it finer than the show at the Royal Albert Hall last year – now released as an excellent DVD. To celebrate, Matt Dawson once again talked to the seminal guitarist about playing the quintessential Hall, what the future holds and the definition of ‘solo album’.

Let’s start by talking about the DVD of the Royal Albert Hall show – I watched it a couple of days ago, now I have 3 live DVD’s in my collection including this one – the other two being Devin Townsend’s Retinal Circus and Iron Maiden’s En Vivo and it’s one of the strongest shows I’ve seen.

Glad you enjoyed it!

What I want to know is what it must have been like to play the Royal Albert Hall – you joked about it in the show to a point – ‘playing the Albert Pub’ but playing there had to be a big life moment for you…

It was a life changing moment, I had long wanted to play it – a dream ever since my teens to be involved with a stage show that would do the Albert Hall, it was something I wanted to do forever really, I love the venue – I can watch anything from a dog show to a trapeze act, Handel to rock acts – I’ve seen all sort of things there, it’s

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a brilliant venue. I was extremely nervous on stage because this was where I’d seen Holst’s The Planets so I’m aware of its classical history, you can’t avoid it can you if you’re British! Land of Hope and Glory central isn’t it so when we’re doing Dancing With The Moonlit Knight, citizens of Hope and glory it’s poignant and apt for that style of Genesis – that was always the place where it was meant to be done.

I was extremely relieved when we had come to the last note and it had all gone so well – we had a ball doing it and I was telling myself ‘do not fuck up!’ It had been a long, hard climb to get that far, it was quite dizzy to be honest, I don’t think anyone realises what goes on inside you but I’m not here to tell you how hard it is to be in show business – whenever there’s a bum note you’ve just got to forgive yourself and carry on – that was something I was told early on

by Ian McDonald when he’d just left King Crimson and that’s very important to me as a 19/20 year old.

I used to think it was only my band that made mistakes when I started with Genesis but then you forget that every band does because you don’t know their material that well and you don’t care but when you do it yourself and it’s complicated detailed music you can really focus in on that. I’ve known a lot of musicians – they go from a great gig to abject misery if they play 2 wrong notes or had a drop out in memory, that’s what goes on in musician’s brains but the important thing is you’ve got to pick up on what the audience is experiencing, it’s about the audience not really about the band, the atmosphere is created by the audience – the band just do what they do every night whether playing the Dog and Duck or the Albert Hall. People forget that it’s the symbiotic feedback, the relationship from those out front that want it so this show was a real crowd pleaser to those who loved 70’s Genesis.

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The guests in the show included Ray Wilson in his first appearance on stage with a Genesis member since his time with the band in the late 90’s – how was it getting him covering The Carpet Crawlers and I Know What I Like?

It was lovely! I met Ray many years ago, I was thrilled that he made such a good album with Genesis [Calling All Stations], I thought he made a great Genesis singer then and now, I think it’s hard against the history of Gabriel and Collins who’ve served music admirably for how many decades – 5? A bloody long time anyway! It felt good with him on stage – we’ve done 1 or 2 things in Germany or Poland – because he lives in Poland – and I found him to be very easy to work with, very professional, always turns in a extraordinarily proficient performance. When I was in Poland he joined us in a place that was 1 hour 20 away from Auschwitz – we ended up visiting it that day and it was an extraordinary experience.

I’ve been to Red Square, St Petersburg and it’s been the most extraordinary tour – I’ve been on tour for 3 months, we’ve played to sold out crowds and looking to the future I’m locking the Pandora’s box – or should I say Musical Box – of the past so I thought I’ll do a year of Genesis last year but then I’ve got a tremendous call to come back to the same venues such as Birmingham Symphony Hall, we’re doing another Hammersmith show this year and then I’m going to ditch it again.

How long will the break from Genesis specific tours be – let’s say people ask, a decade or so down the line would you bring it back?

It’s possible that there might be a South American tour, we talked about it for a long time and suddenly we’re doing much larger venues than I anticipated with that, again it’s still early stages but I’ll get to the point where I’ll do what I like in my wardrobe if you know what I mean. I’m

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Š Lesley Wood

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going back to my own stuff next year – I don’t even think of that as solo stuff because most of it I’ve written but the collaborations I’ve done with people are things that have strengthened it so I think there’s no such thing as a total solo album, it’s about the characters you’re working with and they’re important so there’s much more to it than just me. One thing it’s the wonderful world of Genesis then the stuff deemed as solo – I don’t really like the word solo, it’s my name that’s got to sell it BUT it’s music by so many frankly.

Now can you give us any insight who you’ve been working with for the new album at all?

I’ve been working with a guy I can probably guarantee you haven’t heard of called Malik Mansurov who’s from Azerbaijan and is a virtuoso player of the tar and it’s like working with Ravi Shankar – he’s a guy I discovered in Hungary working with one of the bands I do shows with from time to time – improvisation – a band called Djabe – it’s an extraordinary thing: the combination of the tar and gypsy violin sounded like a whole orchestra in itself. I was so taken with this I made a trip earlier in the year up to Budapest and recorded Malik with Ferenc Kovacs who plays trumpet and violin in Djabe, also Rob Townsend who plays flutes and whistles with us has become a dab hand on the Armenian Duduk so we’ve recorded all of that plus I’m talking with Uilleann pipe player Troy Donockley [Nightwish] about recording something as well – so all of those things and all of those people are expanding the band line up that I’ve got, at one point I was even offered a whole symphony orchestra out in Hungary.

I’m spoilt for choice at this point in time – I’ve got halfway through this album and I started recording again from yesterday [5th June] onwards and it’s a very exciting time indeed.

Recently I’ve also been working with Nick Magnus again who was in my band circa late 70’s-early80’s and his solo career is taking off in a big way now – he did a wonderful album called ‘n’monix’ and got me on a couple of tracks, signed to Cherry

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Red, the videos he’s put out on Youtube are superb, I’m really pleased for him.

Any news regarding vocalists such as possibly Nad Sylvan working on this new album?

I haven’t worked out who’s going to comprise the final line up in the vocal department, I’m doing some singing again myself – I do a minimum bit with the Genesis thing, joining in the odd chorus but that was a case of me doing what I knew was best for Genesis which was to play, with this the empathsis is on me as a lead singer but when it comes to putting together the final vocal picture I’ll have to suck it and see who it needs and take it from there for all sorts of reasons

– I;; try and do as much as I can myself but if I feel there’s someone else better for the job then I’ll see what I can do there.

You won an award last year at the Prog Awards for event of the year – that had to be interesting given your peers along with the new generation of Prog were also there…

Yeah I think many were interested in the second coming aspect of it such as PROG magazine and Classic Rock – they’ve been tremendously supportive in recent times, I’ve been very lucky in that the years where one felt one was working in a vacuum in order to come out the other side of it – those years have gone and it’s possibly a result of working with the new

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technologies making people aware of what you do. In the old days I used to despair the fact that record companies had monopolies and if you didn’t get that big marketing budget no one got to know if you were playing down the road or had an album out, now of course the antennas are up everywhere and so I subscribe and interact with the new technologies greatly whether that’s web, Facebook, twitter, meet and greets but some days 200 emails arrive!

You do have to keep climbing the mountain – it is a great time in my life because although there is a mountain to climb you can stop at various ridges and see the wonderful view, I’m busier than ever, sometimes people don’t understand why I don’t get back to them straight away or can’t play on their album tomorrow or why aren’t you coming to my town. I’ll try and get around to recharge but it’s mostly on the run – grab sleep and food, I can’t remember when I last didn’t have a rushed breakfast and this is on tour – half an hour before doing something else like packing a suitcase or doing the other side of work – self managing team making our own decisions, I don’t defer to any great svengali figure who knows what’s best for me anymore.

Would that mean you wouldn’t be adverse to something like fan funding?

I’ve never actually done that – I know Marillion do and I’m amazed that it works in the way that it does, I’ve always tried to self fund unless I was doing something with a budget specifically but the last time I remember having that was GTR with Steve Howe in the mid 80’s or indeed with the first Genesis Revisited which was largely funded by the Japanese which meant doing it in 6 weeks, I was juggling orchestras, personnel and what have you, I was getting very little sleep at the time but that’s the way it works.

Sometimes it’s best to get up in the morning, map your ideas out and if you plan it out you can tick off the huge shopping list of ideas one by one but you do need to be organised.

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By Sophia Disgrace

Burlesque!

Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond! My name is Sophia Disgrace and I’ve performed at numerous events in the U.K and abroad, from festivals to the most exclusive clubs.

I tend perform in a neo burlesque style and incorparate other elements, such as fire play, into my routines.

Burlesque - or ‘the art of tease’ as it’s also known, first rose to prominence in the 1950’s; in recent years it’s enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again.

Here are my pick of all things burlesque this month...

FLAMING TEASE @ The Fubar, Stirling Saturday 5th July, 7.00-11.00pm Billed as Stirling's premier (and only) burlesque event, the promoters are keeping this show largely under wraps, preferring to tantalise us with little hints at the dazzling delights to come instead! I do however have it on good authority that a host of burlesque stars, competitions and goodies for purchase will all be present and correct on the night, so dont delay, get your ticket today! (How awesome am I? Not only do I write but I rhyme too!!)

Tickets are £5 in advance or £7.50 on the door, booking info at www.skiddle.com.

The Hundred Watt Club & The Guildford Fringe Festival present AN EVENING OF BURLESQUE! @ G Live, Guildford Saturday 12th July, 7.30-11.00pm The infamous Hundred Watt Club have joined forces with The Guildford Fringe Festival to bring you a night like no other! 'Explosive', 'Racy' and 'Silly' are just some of the terms used to describe the night’s shenanigans, so it’s sure to be a good'un! The stellar line up includes neo burly artist Coco Deville, hula hooper Miss Spin plus various other talented performer types, all hosted by hot-to-trot songbird Miss Scarlett Belle. And you can win stuff too: turn up in your best vintage glad rags to be in with a chance to bag a very special prize!

Tickets are £12 (£10 concs), more info at www.glive.co.uk THE LOCK IN CABARET @The Bedford, London Thursday 24th July, 7.30pm ‘til late Comedy! Burlesque! Magic! Music! Annnnd general amazingness! This is the last night of a limited run of shows hosted by theatre group All The World’s a Stage. According to the group's Facebook page, their manifesto is to 'Take an unconventional space--one you might stumble upon accidentally--and to transform it, creating our own world and then plunging the audience into this new world'. So expect a wonderful night of dazzling burly shows with a huge dollop of theatrics thrown in for good measure!

Tickets from £9.00 please call The Bedford for details - 0208 682 8940

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This month’s velvet curtain reveals...

DISGRACE'D ISSUE 1 IS OUT!

Burlesque Spotlight!

The wait is over. It is finally here! The premier issue of Disgrace-D is out now! And it is fearless! Take a 70 page journey into the mad eclectic world of the hugely talented Sophia Disgrace. Sophia is a creative tour-deforce and this magazine covers all her bases from sex to art & everything & anything in between, featuring exclusive interviews, photoshoots & content you probably wouldn’t see in any other magazine.

BURLESQUE GREETING CARDS @

WWW.REDBUBBLE.COM

Screw Moonpig, check out Redbubble for a greeting card with pizzaz!

Redbubble is a website which allows artists from across the globe to sell their work online. There’s some truly beautiful things on offer, from quirky bedding to cool t.shirts. The part that caught velvet curtains’ eye however was their gorgeous selection of burly inspired cards....show someone you care, cabaret style!

So strap on.

Strap in. And grab yourself issue 1 of DISGRACED here: http://disgrace-dmagazine.blogspot. co.uk/

July 2014

Backstage at Download, our Nelly takes the train back to Memory Lane to meet up with Shifty. A few ‘butterflies’ are to be expected, and Nelly candidly confides to the Crazy Town frontman to feeling a little emotional, before finding out more about their well received comeback…

Nelly: I am a bit nervous Shifty: You make me nervous as well N: Is it my piercing blue eyes that make you nervous?

S: Yes, I am shaaaaakiiiing in my Converse N: No need for that! I have just seen you play, really wicked set…

S: Really wicked?

N: Oh yeah, it was packed, I couldn’t even get into the tent, everyone was crammed in there just to see you S: I know, we were very happy to see that. We’ve done 9 shows in a row and about 3 shows ago I blew up my voice. It’s still there but it is hurt to talk.

N: it’s still very raunchy anyway.

S: Very dirty, I have a very dirty deep voice now, it’s Shifty Capone, like Barry White.

N: You’ve been around in Europe with quite a few shows in Germany?

S: Yes, we’ve been around in Switzerland and Germany, also Amsterdam, Vienna, yeah we’ve been all over N: Was that in relation with your new signing with Membran Entertainment?

S: Yes, totally. Ultimately we partnered with Membran Music who we feel is very smart and they are going to give us the attention that we want. We’ve been gone for a long time. We were with major labels, we love what they’d done for us but as the same time we’d like to have more creative control and be the band that we’d always wanted to be.We ain’t trying to be the biggest band in the world but we’re trying to be a hard working band. We want longevity.

We’ve been gone for 10 years, we’re

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back together, we’re trying to build a machine that works well, that’s well oiled and take care of it. We want to come out here a few times a year and put out record every couple of years.

N: Talking about records, your single ‘Lemonface’ is out. Any significance associated to its name?

S: A ‘Lemonface’ is when you hear something you really like and it is really loud and you make that face like ‘ yeaaaahhh’. That’s what it means, looks like you ate something sour but still love it.

N: And a new album is coming out as well S: Yeah, ‘Lemonface’ is the first single or you can call it a teaser or ice breaker. The album is called ‘TheBrimstone Sluggers’ which to us is like US against the world, it’s the end of the world and we’re not scared and we have our baseball bats and we’re hitting balls of fire. It’s just like the sky is falling and we’re having a good time.

M: What led to the idea of going back together?

S: Well actually that was something we’d been wanted to do for a long time. If you want me to be honest, we had a band and we had 2 members die of drug overdoses. I personally had drug issues, Epic had drug issues so to get all of us back together after 2 members and be all on the same page where we can say ‘ we’re ready to go and be professional hard working band’ took a long time. And then finally Epic and myself are both clean. I’ve got 2 and a half years clean, Epic has 7 years clean and we felt like we can do this now, and we’re ready to grow up a little.

N: Well, we are all humans! Some of us, including myself, still have a ‘Peter Pan’ syndrome after all…

S: Exactly, I refuse to grow up all the way but I will grow up enough to be professional.

Matt: Any plan for a headline tour in UK any time soon?

S: You know what, we will do what-

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© Cristina Massei ever it takes to build us to a level where we can be a headlining band.

Right now we’re talking to different bands, our good friends, different people. We have no problem opening up for other bands. So we are going to come over here, whatever is the right package for us to get out here and do the best whilst we’re there.

M: I know you already have a headline show at the Garage this Tuesday S: Oh yeah, we are doing headlining shows but it’s actually just for our core fans. We are not doing big headlining shows, we’re doing little clubs, and it’s like if you really love Crazy Town, come and see us and we’ll be playing for an hour and a half!

N: Considering you packed the Pepsi Stage and rocked its roof out, it’s going to be pretty crammed everywhere you go.

S: Oh yeah but we’d love to come back with some other bands, we want to put together a group of us and come back out here. You know we’d love it if Linkin Park would take us on the road, those are good friends. We don’t need to be the main headliner.

N: Anything you’d like to add?

S: We love everyone’s support that helped us come back, we worked very hard for this.

You can follow us on our ‘Official Crazy town’ page on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/officialcrazytown) or crazytownband on Instagram as well as my personal Instagram which I run myself shiftyscrazytown. And we have a street team of soldiers that you can join up!

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"I refuse to grow up all the way but I will grow up enough to be professional" (Shifty)

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Š Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

M a t t Dawson met Trevor Strnad pre-Download to talk about The Black Dahlia Murder’s upcoming festival slot, touring with Carcass in the USA, death metal, amazing band names and the DVD just released. But first, a thought on Metallica playing Glastonbury…

So Metallica have been confirmed for Glastonbury which is not particularly a metal festival at all; there are jokes that people will get high giving them the excuse to possibly get a hologram of Lou Reed out and do Lulu…

[Laughs] If people don’t know any different they’ll be like ‘wow, this is them huh? Alright.’ They’ll get along just fine, we’re not talking about Metallica 1988 you know?

No, we’re talking about 2014 Metallica which is more like a brand now.

Definitely. They’ll just be another billion seller among other billion sellers on there. [laughs] Now you guys have a new DVD called Fool ‘Em All and the cover artwork is quite reminiscent to a Metallica DVD that came out back in the day…

Yep – Cliff ‘Em All. Now I presume you have a lot of fun on the road so is there general malarkey and madness or an insight into events in the band during recent times?

I’d say a bit of both. It’s not AS insane as the last DVD we did but it has a lot of joking around and funny parts but there’s a lot of explanation of what’s transpired over the last few years and you’ll get insight into how things work in the band so it’s a little more documentary than the last one but it’s still one of those DVD’s people put on

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with their friends and crack a couple of beers to which is awesome and kind of what we set out to do initially with the original one – just something that could hang with the Pantera DVD because to me the 3 Pantera tapes are quintessential – they’re having fun and you get to see how much they love what they do.

That’s what we wanted to get across here and what I feel people need to see about this band, also we have a few new faces since the last DVD so it was kind of a necessary evil to release it because the last one is kind of biting us in the ass now because we have different members and people are like ‘We want these guys back, the ones that were on the TV show!’ [laughs] That’s not really how the band works so we have to get people acquainted with them – we know they’re awesome guys but we’ve got to put it out there, people

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will see the band’s stronger than ever , all 5 of us hanging out laughing our asses off.

Warped Tour was a wildcard move for us so you’ll see us reacting to that, you’ll see us taking the piss out of it a few times!

Now the ones many will say has risen the bar for band based DVD’s is the Lamb Of God doc As The Palaces Burn – watching the journey Randy goes through with the court case and everything was very powerful.

It was smart of them to document that – most bands don’t have to face that kind of thing so you really see what they’re made of and overcome that kind of obstacle.

Any more touring plans for later this year around this and Everblack?

There is a tour in the US coming in the autumn that I can’t reveal too much about but it’ll be massive then back to Europe in Winter then we’ll slow down finally so while not a tour around the DVD per se we’ll still be visible for a while, it’s hard to sell DVD nowadays – the market has changed, people just buy less music, times are hard and movies get spread around the internet and hit that way – Youtube 2 days after it comes out and there’s not much we can do about that. Having the DVD be partially 3D was in hopes people would get the physical manifestation.

What are your thoughts on 3D then?

Well we have the old school blue and red shit, it’s goofy as it ever was but that’s us: as a band we write music seriously and the comedic aspect doesn’t touch what we do there but

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"as a band we write music seriously and the comedic aspect doesn’t touch what we do there but we’re as people 5 goofballs where a lot of positivity can be seen."

© Cristina Massei

July 2014

we’re as people 5 goofballs where a lot of positivity can be seen.

Given that as you say the market’s changed quite a bit was there thought of doing Video On Demand or a Blu-Ray? I would have loved to do Blu-Ray, maybe at some point it will get put on Blu-Ray, we had to twist arms at Metal Blade to get this anyway as they were like ‘Nobody’s going to buy a damn DVD!’ but we were like ‘You saw how people were pumped form the last DVD!’ People still come up to me and say stuff from it and that was 2008/9 when it came out, they just love that because of the DVD, they were so fanatical about the last one.

Speaking of Metal Blade – they recently signed Revocation…

Perfect marriage right there, one of the most talented bands out there – they’ve got music written for the next 4 years pretty much, they did well on Relapse and got the reputation but Metal Blade to me is just the right home for them, hell we’ve toured with Cannibal Corpse 7 times but I wish Revocation the best of luck.

How are plans coming along with the follow up to Everblack?

We don’t really write too much on the road – there’s a few riffs and spoken ideas floating around as far as thematically but by and large we haven’t started out. We tour our asses off while the record is out , the creative process is stressful – we’re on the schedule we set but for us I think just always being on tour has been instrumental in this whole thing for us so the focus is always being everywhere we can all the time and that’s how it’s been for 11 years.

With the last 2 records it’s gotten bigger and better – having Ryan Knight come into the fold and bloom as a songwriter, incorporating samples which we had never done before, they’ve been the bar for us and blown the door open for more creative things.

Now you just did a tour with Carcass in the US – a band which when we’ve talked about them before you showed immense appreciation for – so I have to ask on the personal side – that had to be one of the best damn moments of your life right?

I think that’s the climax, the cherry on top of this whole thing so maybe

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my life’s in decline now! [laughs] Now that Surgical Steel’s been out there for a while and we’ve both got to hear the full return – do you think them getting back was the right thing?

Yeah, I fully back it, if they hadn’t broken up and done this record I’d like it just the same. It’s killer and has the best of all their sounds – I even like Swansong and heard a bit of those riffs in there but having the dual vocals and the whore surgical theme making it a bit gory I really appreciate that, it ticked all the right boxes for me and I was the most sceptical son of a bitch about it! I love the record, it’s not focused on singles either – not a bunch of No Love Lost-

© Cristina Massei

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just a fucking killer album.

I’m reminded of seeing a whole crowd sing along to the intro of Buried Dreams at Damnation last year – one of the gigs that I won’t forget in a hurry.

That’s what I felt like for a month! [laughs] I went into the crowd and even moshed on some occasions – I couldn’t resist, it was just too good.

A dream come true – I got to sing with them doing This Mortal Coil in Seattle so I grab Bill [Steer]’s mic and step on EVERY ONE of his guitar pedals so I felt like a total idiot but it was a mind blowing experience – I never would have believed to have a chance to play with them or for them to know who I was.

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be part of in their own right, but we decided it would be good to do stuff that we wouldn’t necessarily do in our other bands.

John: So I got to play guitar solos and Kitty got to play guitar and piano solos which is something she wouldn’t have done in her other band. And here we are on the night of our debut single launch.

I got talking to this quirky two piece band from London, Kitty and John, in the sunshine prior to their gig at the Sebright…

journey.

Kitty: John and I are both musicians and we decided it would be good for us to work together, so we started the project and we’ve been togethTell me how long have you’ve been er almost a year to the day. We are together and a little about your part of other bands that are good to

Tell me about the single, where did come from?

John: Musically, it came from the very beginning of what we did and started out as a rejected riff from my other band. The bass player from my other band listened to and was like “nah, not liking that” and Kitty heard it and loved it. So we did that and went into this big keyboard break and solo and then questioned whether it was too much? Is this over the top or ridiculous? We were very hesitant because of the full on keyboard stuff and then some crazy guitar. It kind of goes against the making stuff for radio that’s three minutes long and sticking to a click track. But the reason we wanted this to be our first single was that this sets the precedence of what we want to do: Blues Rock with a histrionic kind of twist.

So we’ve ended up doing it through Energy Snake Records from the Vultures label which has been amazing.

They have been super supportive; they have so much insight into the industry which we don’t have. To be honest, it’s been hard work but fun.

And the whole point is for it to be fun, and when it stops being fun, we stop doing it. We like working hard for a project, we don’t want to just sit around and I’ve been the same with all bands I’ve been in. And the great thing about doing it as a two piece is that the decision making process is instant and the arguments are with one other person instead of four or five and I know that with Kitty, however much we disagree, the other one of us isn’t going to leave, whereas when you’re working with more people you have to take much more into consideration.

Kitty: We are really lucky too with the other guys we have playing with us, Matt and Ben. Initially we thought we would have someone in just play live with us and not be too integral, but they are now permanent members of the band. Matt Devine plays drums and Ben Turner’s the bass

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July 2014

player and both of them bring their own thing to it. Matt is super enthusiastic which makes you feel excited and good, and Ben comes with a really technical background and if anything breaks, he can fix it. He’s got cables for everything!

As you’re a boy/girl duo, do you argue about who’s playing what guitar?

John: Oh yeah, we argue about that.

I’m OK with Kitty playing any guitar part or solo but if I want to use her guitar or any of her things it’s just not going to happen. But the amazing thing is my pedal board’s got nine pedals on it at the moment and it used to have twelve! And hers suddenly has acquired a few more. But I’m not allowed to have them back.

One of them was made for me and its’ gone!

Kitty: But they’re integral to my sound.

John: I’ll eventually end up on the side of the stage playing a washboard and she’ll have all of the gear.

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they are because they were in there when I bought it second hand. I bought it for £170, it’s been knocked around, but I like that. If you want to talk about interesting guitars, Kitty has the interesting guitar.

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Troggs.

John: I grew up playing Metal oddly enough so all my guitar playing tends to be full on. I like things to be quite dramatic and bombastic from super quite to super loud. Basically you play what’s inside of you and see what comes out and you get told afSo what have you got, Semi- terwards what you sound like.

Acoustic?

Kitty: No, I have a Hofner Very To finish off, if you could be a Diva, Thin which is semi-hollow not who would you be and why? semi acoustic from 1961 and its Kitty: I kind of am, so Kitty Austin! just the best thing that’s ever John: I don’t even know what it happened to me. It has a lot of means, Trent Reznor because no quirks that needs sorting out but one can flounce off stage the way he that’s kind of the beauty of it. does at the age of fifty.

Are you playing that tonight?

Kitty: Yeah, it’s kind of quirky but I love the strange sounds I can get out of it. The guy that previously owned it was a special effects guy and was the creator of the animatronics pig from the Babe movie. He is a great guy. He’s retired now and he had a stroke and can’t play which is why he’s selling his guitars. He’s a Hofner collector and he lives in Brighton. We drove down and his wife made us tea, and he told us all about his career and he’s done some crazy stuff and I ended up with this amazing guitar. I quite like the way we are limited in what we have, it’s nice to have those happy accidents and make discoveries because you have gear limits and it stretches your creativity too. Because if you look at someone like the Edge, he’s got worse with the more gear he’s got.

John: If you look at when the edge back in the early days with his Gibson explorer and his AC30, he was fuckin’ amazing but then he got the Starship Enterprise and plugged into it and I just don’t think it works.

So musically, what’s influenced you to be what you are today?

So what are your favourite axes?

Kitty: That’s such a difficult John: My favourite guitar is the one question because you’re obI play even though it’s not that spe- viously influenced by everycial, it’s an Epiphone Dot. I’ve got to- thing you’ve grown up listentally used to it, I know where I’m go- ing to and from the very first ing with it, it’s got a P90 in the neck, things you learn and play. Not which is unusual, and a Humbucker quite Ba Ba Black Sheep but in the bridge and I don’t know what things like Wild Thing by the

And what are we going to see from Saint Agnes in the next twelve months?

More of the same really, massive stuff, more music, more gigs.

After the interview and two support bands, Saint Agnes took to the stage at the Sebright to what looked like a sell out crowd. Their performance was immense, and their style actually took me straight into the middle of my favourite film of all time, Pulp Fiction. If you get the chance, see them, you won’t be disappointed!

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That’s the way I feel - it’s like you pay in advance not knowing whether you’ll like it or not.

Yeah but I used to do it all the time, I used to pay for the new Cheap Trick album and wait 3-4 months before it came in, whatever it was I loved it because I loved the artist. What I’m doing is going back to that – my idea of being a fan and what I would like as an artist.

If Sparks or Cheap Trick gave me 36 songs for £30 – 3 a month plus We have 5 minutes to catch up with it; the service that we’re offering with a load of personal details and all the Ginger before he hits the Jazz Café GASS - which stands for Ginger Asso- rest of it as a hardcore fan I’d love it; stage for Camden Rocks: he tells us ciated Secret Society - is a 12 month as a casual fan I’m not sure how imabout GASS, the future and a Wild- service for £30 – I’m not sure what portant this is at all, maybe people hearts double anniversary coming else you could buy for 12 months won’t even care, there’s only 1 way up… until next time! with £30, probably get someone to of finding out and we’re testing the One of our first interviews I asked spit in your mouth, even then they’d ground by using ourselves as guinea you how do you find the energy to probably negotiate 6 months down pigs. I wouldn’t suggest this is a good do so many things; I realised in time the line! way of doing things for any band bethat you actually NEED to do all We’re offering a service that I think cause it’s a lot of hard work but what these things, so my question now is: is killer value for money – 36 brand I’ve seen from a lot that use Pledge what would happen with you if you new songs, 2 demos of unreleased is they don’t want to work hard, they or familiar songs, podcasts, video just want to use the fans as a bank couldn’t?

If I didn’t have inspiration to do mu- updates, diaries, horror movie rec- to make their new album. What the sic I’d work in management and help ommendations – there’s an absolute bands are doing is behaving like corbands to make music. I can’t see wealth of stuff on the site as well as porate entities – to me that’s not a day where I’d not have energy to brand new art. I want to test the wa- what I want to do and what I don’t make music because I think of music ters as to what people expect from a think fan funding should be about, all the time but if it ever dried up I’d band. The Pledge thing touched on it should be a service above and still be in the music world because it and it was a new business model beyond what people expect, someI’d want to help other bands with the that involved fan funding, but the thing much more personal and an benefit of my experience or produce whole idea sounds like a charity – extension of the relationship you’ve people think that they’re subsidising already got. I want to take that and bands, maybe a bit of both. it’s hard to get them to find out how much they give a shit You’re not looking for retirement at something, understand, it’s almost like an album – if we have a good relationship this any point. pre-order. is going to work. We’re 1 month in No, I will not be retiring ever. I don’t and it’s worked very well so far, way even understand the concept of why anyone would want to stop, I’m doing something that I love and the idea of stopping for whatever reason would be a prison sentence.

Don’t you ever want to just lie in one morning without worrying about albums and tours?

Well I don’t do albums anymore, what I’m doing now is this GASS (Ginger Associated Secret Society) thing which is a way of me testing out how much people want albums and physical product. The world is changing and the world of listening to music is changing – I personally love CDs, playing them in the car, I love vinyl but it’s not all about me, it’s about the changing world.

I wanted to find out exactly how many people wanted vinyl and CDs by giving them an option that only includes downloads and there’s an added option to buy a CD if you want

July 2014

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"I will not be retiring ever. I don’t even understand the concept of why anyone would want to stop"

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Š Cristina Massei

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old so there could be 2 anniversary tours.

About your solo stuff – you’ve been doing so many different ones, is there any that feel closer to you?

For me it’s just getting the music out of my head, I have a bunch of songs going round and the only way to get rid of them is to record them; if someone wants to buy them then great, but the reason why I do it is to get it out of my head so it doesn’t drive me fuckin’ nuts!

You have a lot of different music in your head!

I grew up at a time when it was Sweet and Slade then we had punk and thrash metal, industrial, dance then the Wildhearts came – I have a very interesting record collection and all I’m trying to do is be authentic to the music that I like.

Was there ever one direction your music taste went at any point?

No, I think punk influenced me more than anything because it was a turning point when I was a tiny little sponge taking everything in, it changed the media, the whole social fabric of our country. Do I like mainly punk songs? No, I’ll sit down with the guitar and whatever comes out comes out, and I’m just glad to have © Cristina Massei that ability and still pay the rent. beyond what I thought it was going fan, like I say we’re offering the op- I’ve done songs I’d personally would to do but that’s not the point - we’re tion to buy a CD and we’ll find out have left off an album – one of them not dealing in numbers, there’s no how much it costs based on the pre- was Miles Away Girl which brought a competition here to achieve 100% orders and charge them exactly how girl out of a coma, I would have left quicker than someone else which much it costs to manufacture that that song off the album therefore I’m is what Pledge turned into in the CD. If you’re a casual fan, The Wild- not going to dictate what I think is a end, this is purely a service based hearts are still doing gigs; in what I good or bad song. If it comes out I’ll on people wanting the service and do there’s something for everyone make it available to others to decide. it’s something that would excite me , no one needs to feel left out or I think my days of solo material are if I was a fan of an artist if they did needs to feel we’re trying to be elit- numbered to the point where mayist. With The Wildhearts you know be next year I’ll stop doing it and try something like this. what you’re going to get: a football something new - I’m getting used to What about the casual fan then? and a loud show. Next year the term Ginger Wildheart and that’s There’s a lot of things for the casual crowd we’ve got 2 albums that are 20 years scary.

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July 2014

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What support have you got behind you?

Obviously Cookham Vinyl, and Xray Touring.

Where’s your music come from?

We’ve been influenced by Nirvana, Queens of Stone Age, Clash, and anything high energy rock really, but what we play is us man.

What occupation would you choose if you couldn’t be in music?

I would be a furniture maker or wood turner, something creative and still in the arts.

What’s your ultimate goal?

Apart from headlining at Glastonbury, is to keep playing and making the next step but remembering where we came from and keep pushing.

We caught up quickly with Oz rockers on playing plenty of live shows be- What was your fan base in Aus? Calling All Cars - who recently relo- cause in the UK we’re a new band so If we toured in our home town, we could do capacities of 800, if we cated to the UK to a rather warm wel- we have to treat it that way. come – before their Camden Rocks What have you done in the UK up toured other parts of the country we could get up to 400 performance at the Enterprise… to now?

We did the great escape, Aussie Bar- That’s a big fan base to leave beWelcome to England! Tell us a bit beque, Supported Pure Love, we hind! more about yourselves… did the Barfly a few weeks ago and We’ll keep ducking back and keep The band has been together in its we’re doing Camden Rocks. There’s a them sweet. The problem is coming current form for five years. We’re few things coming up that we can’t from Australia, if there’s a new up from Australia, we have had a few talk about yet. (By the time we go to and coming band in the UK you get records out in Australia and from press, it has been announced that to hear about them there, but that about four weeks ago, we relocated Calling All Cars will be playing the doesn’t work the other way around. to the UK and we’re based in Bristol. Bohemia stage at Sonisphere) What triggered the move to the UK? It’s something we’ve always wanted to do and we happened to sign a deal with a UK record label so we would have been stupid not to do it.

What’s the music scene like here compared to Australia?

It’s a lot more dense here, there are a lot more bands to play with, a lot more people to play to. In Australia there is only one major radio station that’s dedicated to new music but here there are more avenues to explore. The roots of rock for us are here.

What have you got planned in terms of records?

We’ve got a single coming out on 14th July and our album 'Raise The People' is out now in Australia and July 28th rest of the world. But we’re planning

July 2014

Regulars at Hard Rock Hell and Hammerfest will already be familiar with the Italian thrash metal experience that is Arthemis, and with a live album to showcase plus an appearance at Donington it’s only fair that we found out for ourselves what they’re about…

So this is your second time at the festival I believe?

Yes and it is a real honour because

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this time we’re playing electric – growing up step by step!

You’ve recently released a live album recorded at Hard Rock Hell – for people that don’t know of that festival – how is that environment compared to here?

We’ve played 3 times there and at Hammerfest so we’re very comfortable, the crowd was on fire and very into it, we earned a good reputa-

© Nelly Loriaux

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tion through the years in the UK and that’s due to our dedication and commitment to the band. We’re still growing up.

So picking Hard Rock Hell for the live album was a thank you towards their dedication to you over the years.

Exactly!

The Italian Thrash metal scene is one probably not that well known in the UK so is there any bands people should check out?

People already know Lacuna Coil, Rhapsody, Rhapsody Of Fire and Fleshgod Apocalypse are the major ones – Trick Or Treat are a new band to check out as well. The difference is how further you want to get with your band – how much do you want to play live? That’s what helps you conquer new territories.

What makes the UK crowd so special?

I think we play very strong as a band, it’s like a wall of sound, we’re only 4 people on stage but we try to play like 10 so it’s always a good challenge for us to improve every time.

Why should people check Arthemis out?

We are true, we really mean what we sing and play which is not usual nowadays, some bands are created on a table. We grew up listening to Metallica/Maiden and Sabbath and we wanted to play because of our passion for this music.

What are the future plans for you guys?

We have Wacken in Germany, supporting Madball and Airbourne in July then we’re planning to come back to the UK in October/November.

July 2014

Winners of the Red Bull competition and looking quite awestruck at being on Donington’s hallowed ground for the first time, Jack Harris and Rob Barlow from Chasing Cadence caught up with us to explain why they’re one of the strongest upcoming UK bands around in 2014 and their love for Funeral For A Friend.

So playing Download for the first has to be an incredible experience right?

Jack: It’s just been… I’m quite speechless actually! It’s been an overwhelming experience – the response that we received on stage was just incredible, nothing like we expected.

Rob: I mean we clashed with Bowling For Soup and Marmozets who are both influences and amazing, incredible bands, the fact we had a full room singing our songs back to us – didn’t think that would happen.

How long has Chasing Cadence been going for at this point?

Rob: 2 years now.

So to get a full tent singing your songs back to you is very impressive!

Jack: The last few months have been mental, it’s been a build up to this of course but we’ve achieved quite a few things we’re very proud of – this being the best thing but supporting our heroes Taking Back Sunday, we played Takedown Festival as well.

The last 6 months have just been something we never thought would happen.

Now how did the whole plan come together to think about trying out for the Red Bull competition?

Rob: Well we came across the opportunity a few months ago, obviously the Bedroom Jam before. We were a bit hesitant at first but we thought ‘you know what, we think we’ve got the fan base to get behind us.’

Jack: It was the last year we could do it as well.

Rob: So obviously anyone in a rock band wants to play Download and that opportunity was just too good to miss and we’re just overwhelmed we made it here.

For those that didn’t catch you at Download – why should they check you out in the future?

Rob: Our stage performance especially to see how passionate we are – I know that sounds like a cliché answer – we put our bodies on the line,

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© Nelly Loriaux

we’re pretty fucked to be honest, t h e r e ’s a scar on his [Jack’s] forehead from head butting a microphone so if anything else see us to watch Jack head butt a microphone! [laughs] You mentioned supporting Taking Back Sunday and playing Takedown.

Which other idols would you love to support on tour?

Jack: At Takedown festival we were alongside bands such as Funeral For A Friend who’re a massive influence on Rob especially.

Rob: Doing a one-off show with them would be cool as a main support as opposed to a festival vibe where they’re in a different tent so it’s not really supporting them it’s just the name there. We’re actually playing Tramlines festival in July and Funeral are playing that as well so hopefully they’ll see our name pop up a few times and be like ‘Do you want to support us?’

Jack: I’d like to play with Young Guns – they’re the more modern kind of band that we’re really into, Mallory Knox – we’ve never got around to playing with them and we know them well.

Rob : It’s got to be the right time , HUGE at

they’re the moment.

A Day To Remember inviting them out as main support for example..

Jack: Yeah! We’ve supported Don Broco as well who are of a similar calibre.

Any talk of an album coming soon?

Rob: We’ve just released an EP – ‘Pages’ and the final single is being released beginning of July – ‘Heartstrong’, after that we’re going to start writing for an album but not necessarily with the intention of recording it, acoustic versions of tracks maybe as well. There’s a few plans in the pipeline, nothing that we’re firm on yet.

Aside from Tramlines – when can people catch you next?

Rob: We’re actually in the process of booking a tour for September but there could be a couple of shows outside of England, we’re playing at one of our local venues called Club 85 in Hitchin on the 18th July. We’ll get on the booking wagon again soon.

July 2014

Returning from hiatus it’s good to see one of THE pioneers of tech-metal return at Donington so obviously it only was right to interview a member of Sikth; in Dan Weller’s case we also talk about his other band in Colour and – given on the same night England played Italy – the World Cup. Let’s start by talking about how the reformation of Sikth came about because last we knew it was a case of there’s a possibility but it was finding the right time.

We never split up in an acrimonious fashion, we all stayed friends – we split up the band because we felt we didn’t have the time or the energy to collectively create another album. We didn’t just want to reform a year later because we were doing our own thing, we’ve had the bug to play it again so we’ve decided to just come back. Last year I was at Download and really enjoyed it – it just felt like maybe it was time to do it.

I spoke to the guys and our agent – Andy Copping offered us a headline slot, we said we’re in and that’s the end of that.

What can people expect?

We’re playing half of each album [The Trees Are Dead and Dried Out and Death Of A New Day], it’s going to be pretty intense, there’s a lot of people that seem to be waiting for it, a lot of fans have flown in from elsewhere and I hope it’s going to be a lot of fun.

As soon as I saw Sikth name on the bill – you know when your eyes go wide and your jaw drops? [Dan laughs] That was one of those moments for me because I was at the Stoke date of the tour with Architects and Dead Men In Reno…

Ah yeah – the Sugarmill one!

I then got to thinking that maybe Sikth will tour again at some point and lo and behold there’s confirmation that this will be happening later in the year.

Yeah, in October/November we’re touring the UK – 13 dates in the UK

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and doing some shows in Europe and Asia.

Euroblast as well I believe.

Yep as well as a few headliners here and there to keep it on the bubble [Note: after this interview it was confirmed that Sikth would also be headlining UK Tech-Fest this July.] and then we’ll see how it goes – see if we want to do more gigs or take a time out.

Now you’re touring with Heart Of A Coward and Idiom on the UK tour – what was the reasoning behind picking those two in particular?

As there’s 6 of us we all had different groups of bands that we’re friends with so there was quite a potential pot that we looked at – being honest I stayed out of it because I know loads of bands through the work I do so it wouldn’t be really fair, when the other guys announced those two I said great!

Since Sikth went away the Tech Metal scene has exploded with so many being inspired by your band – Adam from Zoax mentioned how great it was that you were back together – what’s your opinion on the fact so many have been influenced by you?

It’s flattering. When you form a band and you try to make music that’s either cutting edge or slightly more comprehensive than your average band the best thing you can hope for is that other bands dig it so when you find out that other bands are slightly influenced it means a great deal actually. It obviously helps us coming back now because our name gets spread around by other people so there’s probably more of an expectation now than there used to be.

Now outside of Sikth you’ve been working on In Colour – any more news on what’s happening with that?

The whole manifesto of In Co-

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lour is it’s all about creating music, we’re not in a position where we want to tour it hard or sort of put it as our main thing because we want it to be something that seeps into people’s minds – we want people to hear it and love it so it’s just a thing that keep floating along. We want it to be creative, it’s all about the music being right for us – we’re never going to compromise. There’s no album – we released some demos in Asia a year or so ago and some videos online – it’s just friends working on music they love basically.

If one day we do make it more of a full time thing then we’d love to but our focus is to make music we’re really proud of.

Finally you’ve taken part in recently doing a World Cup song – can you explain more to our readers?

I wanted to do something for charity and I wanted to do it using my own connections so I spoke to Steve who’s the singer in LostAlone about co-writing the song, I was also producing Enter Shikari’s new album – they were well up for it and it’s just snowballed really. The song’s called Football United The World and all the money is going towards Street Child World Cup which is in association with Save The Children.

Football United The World is out now and catch Sikth at UK Tech-Fest on the 13th July then on tour from October 29th

July 2014

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Š Nelly Loriaux

"when you find out that other bands are slightly influenced it means a great deal actually"

July 2014

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the crowd just disappeared so we wondered what would happen but when we got on stage we could see the amount of people that had pilled in, and they stuck around till the end which is great. It’s a great vibe and we love playing London so we’re happy.

What gigs, tours and festivals have you got planned?

We’ve toured already this year but we have a few lined up before the end of the year but they won’t be announced until nearer the time. Festival wise, we have a few North East ones lined up; Cheltenham, Nazfest, Split Festival, amongst others.

And what’s in the pipeline recordwise?

We’ve been writing for a while and have enough material and we hope to get one out before the end of the year but you only have one debut album so we want to make sure we get the right material on it. We’ve already identified tracks that will We caught Boy Jumps Ship just off the the backing of Rude Records and our and won’t make it. We hope it will be backed by a label because we like Underworld’s stage, after a success- Management. to work with people that are as pasful appearance at Camden Rocks. sionate as we are. Rude Records are What was the Camden Rocks expe- a good bunch and suite us well. They How was the show? rience like for you? are sound Italian guys.

Amazing, sweaty, hot but amaz- On the way down here we were ing and well worth the trip. We’ve wondering how many people would What would you like to say to peoplayed Camden a number of times be there for us and how many would ple who may not have heard you? and it’s always hectic but that was come to discover a new band bethe best yet. cause we find Camden is like that, a If you like a good straight up rock lot of people genuinely want to dis- song that you can get into and you cover new bands. When we got here, love good guitars and good drumTell us a bit about Boy Jumps Ship. we managed to catch the act before ming and good vocals and melodies, We’re four lads from the North East, us and the when they had finished you probably should check us out. just outside of Newcastle. We’re all working class lads and were all at college before we started the band so its like we evolved together.

We’ve grown up together like brothers. We’ve toured like brothers and we have been together coming up to four years now. We’ve been playing gigs since we were 14. This year we have gone from strength to strength so we’re excited about what the future holds.

We’ve been recording EP’s for a while and we release our latest next week on June 2nd called ‘Lovers and Fighters’. It feels like it’s no longer just four lads but four lads and a small army of people behind us like the booking agents, PR etc. We have

July 2014

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"we like to work with people that are as passionate as we are"

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Š Mark Fletcher

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July 2014

There’s not much you can say about Chris Jericho that’s not been said many times - a man that has achieved many goals in different careers now adding the ‘played at main stage’ at Download to t h e list.

In this interview he talks about the importance of playing the UK, the podcast Talk Is Jericho, what we can expect from their new album – including a guest spot from Michael Starr - and an exciting show coming up…

So how do you feel your set went down earlier today?

We had a great set, just an amazing response, any time you play Download is a good but this is the best that we’ve had of the 3.

I remember seeing Fozzy the first time I was at Download in 2005 after Flogging Molly – what are your thoughts on the evolution of Fozzy in a live setting towards a stage as grand as the main?

They put us on the main because they knew they could trust us and our fans would respond. Andy Copping’s been one of our biggest supporters from the start. We played in ‘05, we played in ’12 on the second stage and this time on the main, he didn’t have to put us on the main stage but he believes in us and put us there because he knew we’d get the reaction he wants from the crowd. It was amazing – to play that early in the day you don’t know who’s going to show up but the place was packed and it was a really cool, gratifying experience for us just to see the reaction from our fans and a lot of people that had never heard or seen Fozzy before go-

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was fun.

On a personal level – Fozzy at the same venue [ Stoke’s The Underground] as a headliner in 2005 was the first gig I went to .

We’ve played everywhere from the biggest of shows to the smallest of rooms – Rugby, Grimsby, Margate – but we don’t care, for us it doesn’t matter the size of the crowd – if people are there and they want to have a good time and they believe in the band we’ll play anywhere. As the band grows those smaller shows get fewer and far between but the ing fans will travel a little bit more to see you so we’ll always play as much ‘ Wo w, we can in the UK because the UK’s that band was killer!’ as considered our second home since You guys have a very good UK and we started coming over here back in European fan base as well – what 2005. do you feel has been the best tour Now there’s a new album due soon you’ve done of the UK and Europe? with two tasters in Lights Go Out There’s been so many that we’ve and One Crazed Anarchist.. done, I think we did one with Soil last The cool thing about Do You Wanna year that was a lot of fun. We’ve had start a War is we think there’s proba lot of great shows on our own – we ably 7 singles on it – kind of an Appedid the Astoria 2 times, the Mean tite For Destruction/Hysteria sort of Fiddler – those were great gigs, I felt thing where there’s just that many really sad when they tore the Asto- good songs on it. Anarchist is one ria down – besides the Download where we thought this could be a shows, the first Astoria show is one single, let’s put it out now because of my favourites just for the memory it’s another good indication of what of playing the Astoria. If we had to the record is like just like Lights Go choose one tour – the co-headlining Out. It’s still got that real heavy Fozzy tour with Soil just really seemed to groove but also a little bit different, gel, great crowds and it was a lot of there’s a little bit more of an industrifun for us – Stoke was great, London al side too but it’s still very Fozzy. We we played the Electric Ballroom, it

CH

O H C I R RIS JE

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"There’s no rules for this record – just great songs no matter what genre or style"

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© Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

love a little Iron Maiden, Metallica and bands like that be we also love Queen, Led Zeppelin, U2 and bands that changed their style almost every record but still remain true to who they were as a band. There’s no rules for this record – just great songs no matter what genre or style it is so we think it’s going to open a lot of new doors and ears for us.

Do you feel it’s a starting point for any new fans?

Absolutely because it’s real indicative of what we’re doing now, a lot of our records before – some were heavy, some had blastbeats, there was 13 minute songs. We’ve run the gamut but we’ve whittled it down to what Fozzy is and what we do best, it’s very groovy, heavy songs with melodic choruses and a lot of harmonies involved and once we’ve reached that conclusion amongst ourselves that’s when Sin And Bones really came to life, taking what we did from that even further made Do You Wanna Start A War and it’s going to surprise a lot of people – a lot of

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people are going to hear the songs and go ‘this is Fozzy? Wow.’ So far one guest has been mentioned in Michael Starr from Steel Panther – anymore?

No, we usually have a guest or two on a record but it all depends what’s best for the song, for this record we had all the jobs filled but we toured with Steel Panther last year and Michael said he wanted to be on the next record so I spoke to Rich [Ward] about it – there’s a song called ‘Tonite’ that he could do background vocals on and he did such a great job we gave him an extra 4 lines in the middle. He’s one of the best vocalists in modern rock right now.

Outside of Fozzy of course you’ve been doing the Talk Is Jericho podcast – what led to that project and so far who’s been your favourite guest?

Well my friend Steve Austin was doing one, tracked me down and said you should do one of these, you’d be great for it. I thought about for a

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while because I’d done some pretty big podcasts in the States – Adam Carolla and Chris Hardwick [The Nerdist] so I decided yeah I’ll give this a try and what I really wanted to do was not stick with any conventions – wrestlers, musicians, ghost hunters, athletes and actors. My favourites – I loved having William Shatner on the show, Eli Roth [Hostel], it’s not so much the history but the stories they tell on that day. Chavo Guerrero was a great guest with some pretty stuff.

I just had Bruce Kulick from Kiss, Rob Zombie was great. All of my guests I found interesting and if I didn’t I wouldn’t have them on the show.

Any guests coming up you can tell us about?

I have about 18 interviews in the can – I enjoy having conversations with people, I never have questions, wherever the conversation goes is where it goes, a really interesting I did recently was with Fozzy that’ll be released the week of the album – different perspectives of the guys that you live with on the road.

© Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

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Talking to Irwin Sparkes after their make the same album all over again. gig at the O2 Academy in Islington… I guess that’s a very difficult decision to make because many big bands reYou’re currently on tour promot- invent themselves every so many aling the new album ‘News from No- bums and yet bands similar to yourwhere’ and the style of music on selves like Razorlight and Scouting this album seems like old Hoosiers for Girls have followed a similar patif not pre-Hoosiers, was that the in- tern, so is this the Hoosiers trying to regain their position in the market? tention?

There’s probably something in the Actually I’d say it was the opposite, way that we write that gives us what there’s been no thought to our powe want and it was probably more sition in the industry or to regain intentional for us to strip things back the model, it’s all about making the to hone it to more like what we had best music and being lead creatively. on the first album which took us Let’s face it, when you have a multiabout ten years to get to that par- million pound monster behind you ticular style of writing so we are try- that’s helping propel things along, ing to strengthen that where as on it comes with all kinds of things that the second album we were trying to are attractive and seductive but I move away from it maybe wilfully don’t think its necessarily profitable because we felt we didn’t want to in terms of creativity or what you end

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up writing whereas what we are doing now is not really about the money or regaining our position, it’s really about trying to make something.

We’ve tried other avenues and other things but we always felt there was unfinished business, we had things we wanted to say and we were actually wanting to build on what we’d invested in for so long.

Who’s contributed to the creativity of the album?

I’d actually say it is all of us. There are actually four of us operating in as close a democracy as we can and with that, everyone brings something unique to it and there are a lot of creative elements. On this album though, I would say that Alan and Sam have the most songs and they have forged a very successful part-

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"it’s all about making the best music and being lead creatively"

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Š Mark Fletcher

July 2014

nership in terms of their output for us and other artists in the break of a year and a half away from each other.

Who have Sam and Alan been writing for?

They probably wouldn’t want me to say. They have been doing a few sessions and there is something I think on an album due out but Alan or Sam would be the best to ask that of.

OK, let’s get back to the album.

What influences can we hear?

Martin has really lead the way in terms of engineering and helping to forge the sound, but we had a very clear vision and that has been followed by us all and with people like Tom Petty it was a sound of the late seventies that we were after essentially. So the drums would be dry, using a lot less mics than we would ever use in previous sessions.

Interesting you say the seventies, that seams to be common for many bands at the moment. Does that dictate what’s on your iPod at the moment?

No. My favourite album at the moment is by ‘Sun Kil Moon’ and called ‘Benji’ because of its profound honesty and it’s had such an emotional effect on me, it’s beautiful. But also

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I’ve recently being listening to ‘Mr Marko’ his first album I really like, and the new album from ‘War on Drugs’ and ‘Lost in the Dream’ and I’ve gotten into ‘Daniel Johnston’ and the bands he’s influenced like ‘Flaming Lips’ and ‘Mercury Rev’ What is the next Mr A? Haha, I think we were very fortunate to have a track that was successful enough for us to be getting booked for things but we have definitely not tried to write a follow up to it because that’s a sure way to stifle what you’re going to make and it can overshadow it too, but it depends on what you’re chasing. If you’re chasing something really commercial, I think it can put you in a dangerous position especially when I listen to it now because it’s not where we’re heading or what we want to be about. We are very proud of it but it is full of a lot of studio tricks, it’s like popping candy, there’s always something happening throughout, there’s no respite. And I think to have an album like that would be too much.

What are you doing on the festival circuit this year?

We’ve got Chester Rocks with Razorlight and the Feeling, we have the Isle of Wight Festival, Ozzfest, and

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a few others that I can’t remember.

But we’re trying to get some gigs together for Ireland and Europe as well.

What do you drink at festivals?

If it’s sunny and you’re enjoying the band, you can’t beat a cold beer.

That said, getting a cold beer at a festival is a bit of a paradox. But what does it as well is a bit of Sailor Jerry’s and Ginger Ale you have to try some of that.

Are you building a strategy for the future?

In a way, with the new album we have a completely new way of releasing and marketing by going directly to the fans and cutting out the iTunes thing so it’s just us and them.

And it’s all down to the social media scene with Facebook, twitter and Instagram because we want to be about the fans so you can contribute to us or book us for a gig in your living room.

Final question for you Irwin. If you could be a Diva, who would you be and why?

Aretha Franklin is the queen but I would be little more contemporary and say Beyonce, because she’s got it all really!

July 2014

A welcome return for Huntress and Jill Janus at Download. We talk about playing with Kreator and Lamb Of God around the globe, the band’s upcoming 3rd album, the motivations of The Crone, and then Ann Wilson, King Diamond and Judas Priest…

So Huntress were here LAST year and following that your next appearance in the UK was with Lamb Of God and Decapitated – to start I have to ask how it was to be on a bill that was quite a diverse range from the extreme side of things…

With Lamb Of God it was such

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an honour for them to believe in Huntress and take us under their wing on the road. We toured with them extensively last year in North America and here in the UK, to be on a bill that’s such a powerhouse of metal like that we really felt welcomed and especially the fans – they didn’t know what to expect so we come in and win them over, that’s always fun.

Were most of the crowds positive – no negativity felt?

No, there’s no negativity and I’ve never felt a slice of negativity towards Huntress ever. I’m very cog-

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nisant of what’s going on but I don’t delve up to it. One of my rules is I really stay away from the trolls, I’m really not active online, I’m really close to my fans and that’s as far as it goes.

So what’s your personal view on social media then?

I’m quite a whiz at timing out scientifically – where to hit at what time and when I’m going to post, I do this because I know it’s a system that’s good for me and then it doesn’t really create any drama.

You’ve just announced a tour of North America with Kreator and Arch Enemy plus one other band…

The opener is Starkill – we’re looking forward to getting to know those kids.

Arch Enemy have gone through quite a big change recently with Angela leaving and Alissa joining – what do you think of their sound after the significant change?

Angela handed the torch to Alissa so I think that shows a tremendous amount of respect for the new vocalist and this is a new era – the media attention – my God, soon as we announced that tour it’s been on fire. I’m really excited to hear her step into the new era and just fucking destroy!

She’s the Queen Beast which has been coined by her boyfriend and it’s such an honour to be chosen to go on this bill.

My mind is blown!

You’ve also got Kreator on there..

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July 2014

© Cristina Massei

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"It’s fucking Priest – what can you say?"

July 2014

We can’t deny Kreator – we’ve been fans for years – the boys are like ‘wow, we’re going on tour with Kreator, it’s crazy!’

Will we see you back in the UK with a headline tour in the near future?

Huntress is recording one album a year for 3 years, we’re getting into the process of recording our album in July/August so for us this is our break away from the studio. We’ll be wrapping up the album then heading out with Kreator/Arch Enemy in the autumn.

What can we expect from the new album?

We crafted the first 3 albums on Napalm Records to follow my pagan beliefs which is the Maiden, Mother and the Crone – first was Maiden, second was Mother and now here’s comes the third one in the Crone.

The Crone we can expect to be darker then?

It will be a little bit darker, there’ll be some doom elements – vicious and brutal plus it’s the dying phase where she’s horny, old and damn she’s a cunt!

Last year you gave an award to Doro and when we talked last time you were telling me how splendid it was to give an award to a legend like her so I have to ask could there be a collaborative possibility in the future and will there be any collaborations on this album?

The universe drops that into our lap like Lemmy co-writing I Want To Fuck You to Death – that was a high five from the universe. My dream collaboration is King Diamond.

Ah yes – we talked about King last time!

I’m never influenced by female vocalists, I never have been aside from Ann Wilson of Heart. I really respect Doro and what I love about her especially after being in the in-

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dustry for 30 years she’s so humble and so delightful, very childlike and when we met at the Golden Gods [in the UK] last year she was just so inspiring – what a woman!

You mention Ann Wilson – what is it about her that clicks for you?

Why I really love Ann Wilson is she surpasses the gender, when you hear her voice I don’t think ‘this is a woman’ I think of it as a legendary voice – she strips away the sexuality vocally and she just delivers a pure, true voice and this is what I

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aspire to vocally speaking and for a woman to have a masculine sensibility about them. I’m very inspired

by Rob Halford, Freddie Mercury, King Diamond – they’re very flamboyant front men and that’s what I attach to.

Thoughts on the new Judas Priest track – Redeemer Of Souls?

It’s fucking Priest – what can you say?

They’re still doing it – Angel Of Retribution was badass and I’m sure this record is going to be killer as well.

© Cristina Massei

July 2014

As Goatwhore once again get ready to bring their brutal take on metal to the world this month, Zack Simmons talks to Matt Dawson about working with producer Erik Rutan, a fun story from the Metal Alliance tour and why ‘Metal isn’t cute’.

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too heavily on Pro Tools trickery. It’s kind of sad that it’s becoming a lost art. Performance should rule over perfection.

Constricting Rage Of The Merciless has been described as a serial killer’s soundtrack during a spree – tracks like the fast paced Thrash/punk Once again for this album you have crossover FBS come to mind – what decided to work with Erik Rutan – led to the darker tone throughout? what is it about Erik that makes him We just wanted to make a very agTHE producer not only for Goat- gressive, in your face metal album. whore but for death metal itself in Subconsciously, I think we all knew recent times? what we had to do to push the enFirst of all, the fact that he’s a musi- velope and make a bold statement. cian himself really helps, not to men- We worked hard to tion his background in extreme mu- let each song have sic. If it’s not broken, why fix it? We its own identity but work well together and keep improv- make the album coing upon things with each album. hesive as well. It’s a He’s got superhuman ears, great at- perfect representatention to detail, and a no-shortcut tion of where we’re approach that ensures everybody at as a band currentplays their asses off. He’s a heavy ly. Pissed off and out for blood. metal drill instructor!

What are your thoughts on record- You guys just reing on analogue rather than digital? cently came off the Erik himself mentioned he hadn’t Metal Alliance Tour used the format in a while – in fact with the likes of Betwo albums by Hate Eternal and Soi- hemoth, the recently signed Black Crown lent Green come to mind…

I think there is something about the Initiate and 1349 – whole process that adds a vibe and which crowd would character to the recording. It’s defi- you consider the nitely a bit more challenging and best and any good requires you to really have your shit tour stories to tell? together but the end result is very re- Every single show of warding. I don’t think it would work that tour was incredifor a lot of the metal bands that rely ble so it’s hard to pick

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just one. The second show of the tour was sold out at the Hollywood House of Blues and Ben, our singer had flown back to New Orleans the previous night for his sister’s wedding. We were all nervous as hell not knowing if he was going to make it to the venue in time but he ended up showing up ten minutes before we were supposed to go on. He was in the car from the airport putting his gauntlets on and suiting up! It was definitely nerve-wracking but everything worked out and the show was fucking amazing.

What are the plans when it comes to touring the UK and Europe?

We’re heading over in November/ December with some other killer bands. I’m sure details will be released soon. We’re hitting a lot of places we’ve never played before so I’m pretty excited about it. It’ll be great to play this new material for some new crowds.

When the line ‘We Are Going To Smash Your Idols!’ is uttered on Baring Teeth For Revolt are there any false idols you’d want to remove personally from the media?

I guess you can interpret that a few ways whether it be religious idols, media, or any other false heros people put their faith into. There are a few metal gossip websites that spout off a lot of bullshit that annoy the hell out of me. I won’t name any names but they thrive on speculation and starting trouble while trying to be cute. Metal isn’t cute.

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"No one understood Dillinger at the start when Miss Machine came out, then when Option Paralysis came out everyone started getting it."

Š Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

With the Tech Metal scene reaching an ever bigger scale of popularity over the past 12 months it’s only right that we speak to Monuments’ own John Browne and Olly Steele about the concept behind The Amanuensis, Sikth’s show from the Saturday night and whether Tech is reaching the boiling point…

John, you’ve been fairly busy over this weekend working as Sikth’s guitar tech I have to ask your feelings on how Sikth’s show went?

John: It was incredible, they’ve not played a show in 7 years but the reason they were so popular before was because they were the best at it, it was one of the best performances I’ve seen!

Monuments have been fairly busy in the past year getting the Amanuensis together and there’s a good story to go with the album…

The story is loosely based around the Samsara cycle, Chris [Barretto – vocalist] made his own story from it with a play on words so the whole ‘born, life, death, rebirth’ cycle and two people Sam and Sara who are the yin and yang of their universe.

How much of this album is new material and not songs that have been around in demo form for a few years?

All of the songs bar two are completely new – I, The Creator which debuted with Chris’ vocals at the Maida Vale session and Atlas we’ve been playing live for a year and a half.

Olly: Maybe even a little bit longer.

How did the song writing process go this time around?

John: It was very quick in regards to the last album [Gnosis], between us we spent 9-11 months from inception to completion.

Olly: There’s a huge chunk of the album that was made from a focused area of time, we had Atlas and I, The Creator then basically Browne sat down for 4 months.

John: The last album took over 2 and a half years, this one we squeezed into such a small amount of time because we didn’t want to let people wait around to hear what Chris sounded like.

Chris was announced last year at Tech-Fest, now you’ve done that and worked on the album with him I have to ask what led to the change

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in vocalists?

Olly: Things weren’t working out with the old guy – I’ll leave that there so we had an audition process where we uploaded what is now I, The Creator and asked people to send their vocal ideas, all the best auditions came from the US including Chris we’d just toured with him as he was filling in for The Haarp Machine and he was killing it every night. Ideally we’d have liked someone closer to us as we’re a London based band but we couldn’t find anyone that was anywhere as good as Chris.

John: We had toured with him as well. One of the hardest parts of being in a touring band – you spend months of time being on tour and if you don’t get along with the people that you tour with it becomes a living nightmare.

Olly: It’s working out with Chris and has been since the word go, he’s very into the musical side of things the same way we are as well, very aware of groove, harmony and shit like that, just a great fit and the live shows have been a lot better as a result.

The Tech scene has exploded to slightly ridiculous levels – near enough a new band on Got Djent every day – what do you two think – do you feel it’s getting near an oversaturation point?

John: Every genre in music has always had that – look at emo and nu-metal back in the early 2000’s,

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the only bands that made it through those and the first to make it were the ones that did it the best and I think that’s going to happen to the current progressive style – that’s why TesseracT and Periphery are on top, even though Sikth came out before their time everyone still loves them with the reformation, even bands like Candiria will come out with a really tech album – listen to the album they put out in 2001 –when you listen to it it’s chaos but people that listen to it now will understand it.

No one understood Dillinger [Escape Plan] at the start when Miss Machine came out then when Option Paralysis came out everyone started getting it. Meshuggah – Obzen and they’ve been going since 89.

Later this year you’ll be touring with After The Burial and Dead Letter Circus – what can we expect?

John: We’ve toured with both those bands and they’re some of our best friends, so easy to get along with them especially when you’re sharing a bus with 24 guys – that’s a lot of balls! We’ll be playing quite a lot of the new album which is difficult to play in places.

Olly: Having new material has refreshed our live set in that we’re not bored of the material any more, it’s like a new challenge and obviously Chris is singing songs he’s written as well.

July 2014

We had a chat with Colt 45 at Camden Rocks prior the gig at the Enterprise…

Second to headline at Camden Rocks at the Enterprise, how do you feel about that?

Well, pretty pleased, I mean we’re playing at 10 o’clock, last year we played at 3 o’clock so that’s progress.

We’ve worked hard since last year and we play gigs relentlessly and we use social networks a lot and we also get a lot of help from our management team.

Tell us about Colt 45.

I’m Gareth and I play bass, I’m Adam, and I play the Drums and mastermind the whole social media operation.

I’m Neil and I sing and play guitar and I don’t really do social media.

So Adam, why are you the social media expert?

I work in marketing and … (Neil interrupts)… He spends his whole day on Facebook and Twitter, that’s what he means, where me and Gareth go to work with our hands, we’re proper workers you know what I mean?

Who’s the creative element to the band?

All of us really. I think we bounce off each other. We all have our own ideas but when we take those ideas into a practice room you get to hear the spins on them that you haven’t necessarily thought of and most of the time it makes you “fuckin’ ‘ell

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that’s it! Lets do it”. And from that you end up with a third of each song coming from each of us and I can’t think of anything worse in band where there’s only one person dictating the creativity all the time. Our process is fairly organic.

If you’re all pooling your efforts to create what you ultimately all like, are your influences similar?

A lot of the influences cross over in that there’s a hell of a lot of bands where we all say “I fuckin’ love that band man” but we all have our own specific individual tastes as well. Like I am a massive Alkaline Trio fan maybe more so than these guys so you could say that Alkaline Trio have been an influence on the band but more so in what I write than the others. And it’s the same with other bands, where we all like someone but one of us will like them more so. But there are common bands we like, it’s really weird because we are all massive fans of Beautiful South.

Do you make a point then of listening to who influenced your influences?

Definitely, I remember being into the Manic Street Preachers. They were the first band I was into and I remember when I was eleven and the Manics were doing Design for Life on Top of the Pops and seeing that white Les Paul was like “fuck me, that’s where I want to be”. The first gig I went to see was the Manics, my dad took me to see them when I was twelve I read, listened and watched every-

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thing about the Manics and from that I got into the Clash, Huskadoo, and loads of bands I wouldn’t have otherwise. So when you read about the influences of the bands you love, you discover way more stuff.

It’s like just, we did an acoustic set and did a song called Diane by Therapy, but Therapy did it as a cover from Huskadoo, so we wouldn’t have discovered that song unless we had done our research.

Do you think you guys are unique?

Because we are in an era where most new bands now get comments such as “oh, they sound just like…”.

I don’t think there’s much new left but compared to the output of British Rock, we are different but I wouldn’t say we’re unique. That’s an interesting word. We channel things from the late eighties and nineties where a lot of the other bands are...

I dunno… we call them the Ronan Rockers, they’ve all got the same voice.

Where are you record wise, what are you up to?

We released an album last year “Coughing up Confessions” which was self released EPs combined into an album but we have made a new album being released July 28th called “The Tide is Turning” it is a reflection on what’s changed since our last album ‘cos were all getting a little older and we’re appreciating what life’s about ‘cos it used to be shit and now it’s not.

So in the guise of Keith Lemon, what’s the message?

If I don’t see ya through week, I’ll see ya through window.

I fuckin’ love Keith, but I’d rather have Fearne though!

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"I can’t think of anything worse in a band where there’s only one person dictating the creativity all the time"

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© Nelly Loriaux Nelly chatted to The Rev and Blacky in sunny Donington, here’s what they had to say…

Hi Guys, nice to see you back at Download. So what were you up to yesterday? Friday the 13th, full moon… Any ‘howling’ going on?

Well, we were at home preparing.

We couldn’t go out obviously, with it being a full moon so we had to lock the doors and sleep in the basement with our hairy backs Fair play, you don’t really want to scare people looking like that or get arrested for indecent behaviour.

Oh, we do that but we decided better to just lock ourselves in the basement for one night.

This is your second time here, what does it fell like? Same vibes?

Yeah, we were there last year, same tent (Redbull), far 4 on the Sunday.

The show last year was another level for us and we’ve worked hard throughout the year. Andy Copping has been great to us, he’s been a real support of the band. And now Saturday night, we are main support basically.

Talking of music, your single ‘Pos-

sessed’ is out. Quite appropriately named if we think about it: The Howling, Friday the 13th, Full moon, being ‘Possessed’. But I am digressing a bit here. What do the lyrics refer to in this single?

They are about real life and what happens basically. The journey through London, taking too many parties and finally breaking out of that circle to actually write about them.

I saw you two years ago at the Electric Ballroom; What have you been up to since that tour?

That was the Buckcherry tour. We went on as soon as Jack – our drummer – joined us. We brought him in to solidify the line up as it is now.

We did that tour then went straight to the studio to finish writing the album and recording. We spent sort of the early part of the winter recording that then Download festival last summer, and we’ve been building up to this stage now where we are out there and we’re ready to drop out an album. We wanted to wait until we were 100% ready So this all coincide with your signing with Transcend.

Yeah, we’re not sure as yet if the album is going to come out through

Transcend but it’s ready. Transcend is behind it, for now the single ‘Possessed’ is released through Transcend.

Looking forward to it. After performing your set here, I would guess you will be relaxing and catching a few bands. Where might I catch a glimpse of you?

Aerosmith, definitely, Aerosmith.

Our all time favourite band.

Mine too. I can’t wait to dream on.

I’ll be howling too!

Oh, yeah... Cool!

Anything else you’d like to tell your fans?

Check us out, we’re on www.facebook.com/thehowlingofficial. You’ll find details of the single being released, when the album is coming out and the new video is dropping in a couple of weeks.

Can we tweet you as well?

Sure, we’re @TheHowlingmusic Thanks for taking the time to talk with Sonicshocks and I’ll see you later at the Red Bull tent!

And thanks for the support. See you later on.

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Š Nelly Loriaux

"...the journey through London, taking too many parties and finally breaking out of that circle to actually write about them..."

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What led to the decision of going down the Pledge Music route with the second album?

We had a choice, we could either do it ourselves like we did the last one where I mixed and mastered the whole thing or do it this way. Because of being in different places, if we’re in this for the long haul we don’t want to claw our way up to the top bit by bit, we just want to give it everything at this release; so we figured, what if we could get our dream producers and video directors on board?

As one of India’s premier progressive/ ing of oh shit, there goes any chance We have nothing in the way of fundtech metal bands, the opportunity of seeing them live but to actually be ing as far as things like this go – mixto play Download is one experience there at the reunion gig it’s like ev- ing is 4 grand in pounds, videos 6 that Keshav Dhar from Skyharbor erything has fallen into place beauti- grand so none of this is nothing we can achieve by ourselves and it could will never forget; in this interview we fully. also find out how Pledge Music bene- You’ve done one headline tour of only happen 6/7 years down the line, fited them in regards to their upcom- the UK , this is your 2nd festival – a lot of bands are doing the crowd ing new album, being on the same first being Tech-Fest last year, what funding thing nowadays and we saw bill as Sikth and why Evolution’s only are the future plans with regards to Devin Townsend hit 500% with his so if he could hit that we could hit the tip of the Skyharbor iceberg… the UK? 100% with a realistic target, we were As of right now we’re finishing up really surprised because we thought As it’s your first appearance at our second album, we’re running a we’d hit the target around August Download it has to be asked – Pledge campaign which is very close but we’re very close. [Update: as of what’s it like to step foot onto Don- to being done, once we hit 100% we 23 June the goal has been completed ington for the first time? send it out for mixing and mastering, and is at 106%] It’s quite surreal to be honest – I get a really big budget video which Plans for a commercial release? don’t know how big of a deal it is for we’ve always planned to do with Jess British bands but for us a band pre- Cope who’s done work with Steven Once the album is done those plans dominately from India it’s a bucket Wilson and then get the whole thing should fall into place. list thing. Download is one of those together to put out, I think we’re Is Evolution a good indicator of what things that I’d thought I get to see as looking at an October release date to expect? a fan once in my lifetime but to be so there’ll be some touring activity There’s a more experimental side playing – it’s slightly terrifying and coinciding with that.

– Evolution is the single and with slightly overwhelming but overall we I’m not sure exactly what the plans that you have to hit the maximum just feel really blessed to be here – are yet, it’s possible we might just go amount of people and make an imvery good vibes. out on our own again because that’s mediate impact, the rest of the alYou’re on the same day as one of the way things are with this group – bum is very much a grower and this the pioneers of tech-metal in Sikth due to people living on 3 different was the song we thought was very on their first show back after so CONTINENTS touring has had to be much accessible and this is one of when it can happen it just has to hap- the heavier songs – the rest is more many years away..

Like I said – it’s quite overwhelming, pen, we sold out the Barfly last time prog/atmospheric. we’re so happy to be here – when in London – our first London show Sikth disbanded there was the feel- ever – so things are looking good.

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"I don’t know how big of a deal it is for British bands but for us, a band predominately from India, it’s a bucket list thing" © Nelly Loriaux

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Š Nelly Loriaux

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July 2014

It’s always daunting to play your first ever UK festival; judging from John Cooper’s smile everything went as planned for Skillet. – Being a Christian band, Metallica (and THAT Lou Reed album) plus Nickelback all get discussed.

Your first ever festival appearance in the UK – that has to be pretty exciting right?

It was such a great opportunity, when I found out we were getting Download I was very excited, not to mention our drummer is from Coventry so it was a big deal for lots of reasons and when I showed up and saw all the fans out there singing the songs I was floored, it was a very big day for us.

I was curious as well to see how Skillet’s UK fan base was because last time you were in the UK it was with Nickelback so from going to arenas to a festival such as this one – was it a bit of a culture shock?

It was a culture shock because when we came with Nickelback I expected people to not know who we were and since then that tour helped us a lot – we got a lot of tweets and Facebook action asking when we’re coming to England so I expected at least a small amount of hardcore fans but what I wasn’t expecting was a lot of people singing the songs – seemed like a lot of fans out there but it was a pleasant surprise.

Also given that Skillet is a Christian rock band…

That’s right. A lot of people ask about the labels – I don’t particularly get worked up about it, some bands don’t like to be labelled, I really don’t mind as I know some are really passionate about having a label so yes it’s the case we are a ‘Christian’ band but it is not

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the case that we write songs only for Christian people – that would be ludicrous. I write songs that I hope are relatable to atheists, Muslims, Christians, people that aren’t religious at all – it doesn’t matter to me because our songs are about life and going through things but in America yes we do a lot in what they call the Christian music world and Skillet is very open about our faith in God. I remember listening to you guys a few years ago around the time of Hero and Rebirthing – there was something that really clicked.

Thank you! I think what works for Skillet is the fact that we are a hodgepodge of many different kinds of music so you will at times hear a bit of Metallica at times – I’m a huge Metallica fan.

Thoughts on Lulu with Lou Reed?

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I don’t know that one…

It was very mixed! It’s worth a listen to pique curiosity…

I am aware of And Justice For All, you’ll also hear a little bit of Queen, Meatloaf, Fleetwood Mac but also hard rock and that’s what I think works for Skillet – metal fans and those that don’t like metal much like our music.

What are the plans in regards to returning to the UK? We are doing our own tour in November/December – a couple of club dates to see who comes and see us play.

Given today – that shouldn’t be a problem!

I hope so, I’m so glad that people know who we are, I love seeing the fans overseas that know the songs.

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It’s an interesting chat with Jayce us about that?

Lewis, after Protafield’s engaging Yes, we had Gary Numan. I have performance before a rather large struck up a good friendship with crowd at the Electric Ballroom…

Gary and we spoke about working together and we managed to do it.

I wrote a song called ‘Redesign’, sent Tell us a bit about Protafield. to him and he loved it. In fact when Protafield is a concept project that it I was it I could hear his voice. myself and Burton from the Fear We’vewriting also got Roger Taylor playing Factory came up with that has drums on ‘Wrath’ and agin, when I evolved from my solo project Jayce was writing it, I could hear his style Lewis that have been touring for on there and it reminded a lot of about four years. I have had a good ‘We Will Rock You’ and heme was up for bunch of musicians around me. We it so we were really lucky to have him decided to change the name and on there. And Lance Henrikson from make more of a package out of it the Alien films (Bishop). The part he and that was the birth of Protafield. has is a talking part we did at the bar.

And you were saying that was the He does this amazing deep voice like first gig you’ve done. a droid so I recorded it on my phone and put it on the album, told him Yes, the first gig in a year.

The crowd’s reaction didn’t reflect about it and he laughed.

What have you got planned for the that.

I know. We’ve collected a good fan rest of this year? base along the way. We’ve toured Well we’ve got a tour with Hellyeah with Gary Numan a couple of times in August and we’ve got a Fear Facand Killing Joke and a few others so tory tour that is being sorted out, we’ve got a bit of a family going on we’ve got AltFest, ‘Sonisphere’, and that’s about it. We’ve just done a and it’s great to see them. deal with TKO, Dan Devita and Ian When’s the album out?

Shaw and they’re really wanting to th Nemesis is out June 9 and you can work with us so we’re looking forpick it up at any record store that is ward to a busy future. left open and available to download, What's your drink of choice at FesiTunes, Amazon and all the usual’s. tivals?

You had some significant people help out on the album, can you tell Whisky. I always drink whisky. Jack Daniels, no ice, no nothing, just

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pure.

What about the rest of the band?

They drink mostly water and stuff.

Boring twats really. One of them likes to train so he just drinks eggs.

Who are the band?

There’s myself - Jayce Lewis - on vocals, guitar, drums, and everything on the album. Mark James on guitar.

Martin Thompson on bass. And Jack Slade on drums.

The set you just performed was pretty tight. Was there much rehearsal?

About a month. But we’ve been on the road for a long time so we rehearsed once a week for three weeks and twice last week.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Rain sounds with my friends! But musically, Mike Oldfield, Gary Numan, I particularly like his Splinter album.

And are they your influences?

They are part of what influences me yes but I also get influenced by Prodigy, Madonna, Abba, it never ends really. There is so much out there that influences me.

And in the vain of Keith Lemon, what’s the message?

Fuck! I’m trying to think… Ahhh Hoooo!!

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Š Mark Fletcher

"Whisky. I always drink whisky. Jack Daniels, no ice, no nothing, just pure.They drink mostly water and stuff. Boring twats really. One of them likes to train so he just drinks eggs"

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David Guetta! I look like him but better (Leon) Š Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

The noisemakers from Wales return to Download for the third time and discuss their love for David Guetta, why you can expect quite simply hits from Gold Dust and obsessed Elvis fans…

Third time’s the charm for The Dirty Youth at Download then?

Leon: Yep, we’ve been camping once before then the Jagermeister stage then climbed up to the second stage.

You were on quite early in the morning – what were your thoughts on the crowd’s reaction?

Danni: Amazing! I was really impressed seeing a large crowd at that time because it’s hard – drinking a lot on the Friday night and getting up at that time!

You’ve been preparing Gold Dust – when can we expect the release?

Danni: Later this year.

Matt: We’ve got a few more singles

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to drop from it yet.

Alive’s already been released which also had a remix that was quite popular as well.

Leon: It was a guy I came across online named Biometric, we really loved his stuff and he was a fan of the band and it was a really different take on our music.

What else can we expect from the rest of Gold Dust?

Danni: Hits! [laughs] Matt: Epic choruses with lots of energy.

Tell us a story behind a particular song.

Danni: We have a song called Bury Me Next To Elvis about a crazy fan obsessed with Elvis who wants to be buried next to him!

Any new influences while making this album at all?

Matt: We have such a wide range of influences it’d be impossible to

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pinpoint what happens when we all get together.

Do you have more remixers planned or is Biometric going to be the regular guy?

Matt: If we find someone really good then sure!

Danni: He [Biometric] was relatively unknown before he did the remix with us, it’s great to discover new talent like that.

Any you’d like to collaborate with given the chance?

Leon: David Guetta! I look like him but better [laughs]!

What are the plans for headline dates?

Matt: We’ll be doing a headline tour hopefully later in the year.

Danni: Unless we get an amazing support tour!

Anyone in mind?

Danni: Slash, Bon Jovi - the list is endless! © Nelly Loriaux

July 2014

Catching up with Zoax at Donington right from where we left it at Camden Rocks, we discuss with Adam Carroll the madness of Letlive and Baby Godzilla, if the goal to wake everyone up from hangovers was achieved and even a PJ Proby reference in 2014 for good measure!

You just played for technically the second time not so long ago – how do you feel the crowd responded?

You’re the first person to get that it’s our second time which is amazing – it was a dream come true, I know that sounds cliché but when we got onto the Pepsi Max stage it was really an emotional thing.

We’ve been here since Friday and caught Letlive and Baby Godzilla – 2 absolutely bananas in pyjamas bands – Jason [Aalon Butler] walks out on crutches then he throws them out into the crowd…

Then he starts climbing the scaffolding!

Such an iconic frontman, he really is.

Thoughts on how the crowd responded to your set – 12:25 quite early for a Saturday.

It is plus as it’s the Saturday people have been arriving on the Wednesday – how hung over is everyone now so it was a feeling of what’s the turnout going to be like? When we walked out it was an amazing reception – it just blew my mind.

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When we chatted to you guys at Camden Rocks the goal was to try and wake everyone up – do you feel that succeeded?

There was one or two that I felt had a little bit of a shock, it was fun!

We have Sikth playing as well…

It’s amazing that they’re playing, they’re such an influence to I think 95% of the bands that are playing here.

Camden Rocks – how did that go when all was said and done?

Really good right up to the point that my pants ripped, it couldn’t have happened at a © Nelly Loriaux

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worst place – halfway through our second song so I had to rip them off and play in my jocks! I wouldn’t prefer that didn’t happen because I didn’t have other pants with me!

If PJ Proby could do it back in the 60’s Zoax could bring it back for the 21st Century!

It was our 2nd time playing Camden Rocks as well, I just love the vibe in Camden.

Any other festivals you would like to do in the future?

As hard as people say it is – the Vans Warped Tour, Slam Dunk as well, honestly any festival – I play music for festivals because it’s just the best feeling.

Are there plans for a headline tour later this year?

Not right now because we’re in the middle of doing our album which is almost there in the writing then we’re going to record that, once that’s out next year we’ll probably do a headline tour, it’s a matter of building up the fan base.

Thoughts on working with Siege Of Amida?

Amazing – Jamie from Heart Of A Coward’s label – he’s such a sound guy, helped us a lot with everything and I couldn’t be happier.

Zoax have been announced to be support for Cytota this S e p te m ber.

© Nelly Loriaux

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Š Nelly Loriaux

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For its welcome return to Knebworth and the festival scene Sonisphere has picked three headliners that don’t really need any introduction: The Prodigy, Iron Maiden – this will be the final show of their current tour - and Metallica, so we won’t go into too much detail on them here.

We start the weekend with a few slices of music that’s not exactly metal but have some tiny elements in, as the Jagermeister/Satellite stages play host to Hounds – some say electro, some say industrial - one of our picks of 2014 in Centiment with their video game inspired music and Nathan Connolly’s Little Matador on the Friday.

Two veterans of the industrial scene also make an appearance: Gary Numan will be on the Apollo stage, so alongside the hits like Cars and Are Friends Electric get ready to hear new cuts including the spooky I Am Dust, while on the Bohemia stage the German masters of aural chaos in Atari Teenage Riot will assault you with over 2000 years of Culture and leaving you with the question of Is This Hyperreal to all you saw and heard in their set.

For the more metal minded among you we have a nice mixture of Malefice and Carnifex on Jager/Satellite and on Bohemia Anthrax perform one of the greatest thrash albums ever in Among The Living as the first of TWO sets that weekend (Second is Saturday on Apollo) before the mood gets taken down into the depths as Electric Wizard give a suitably late night performance.

Saturday heralds the opening of the Saturn stage which in turn gives one of the good features about Sonisphere itself: the two main stages do

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our guide to the 2014 edition NOT clash. But the first band to mention on Saturday for Apollo is one that’s divided many people, Japan’s very own Babymetal. 3 Japanese girls talking about wanting chocolate and other topics while mixing elements of death, thrash, rap, reggae and dubstep all in one set seems on paper like the most insane thing that could be booked for ANY festival - it will be interesting to see if the viral Youtube hits will translate as they play their first ever show in the UK. Meanwhile the Saturn Stage goes Snooker Loopy as Chas And Dave bring their Cockney classics – follow-

you can as we’re not sure yet when the next chance will be to do so.

The final day begins with a Climax: Beastmilk – a good mix of 80’s postpunk influence brought up to 2014 – take to Jager; the return of Raging Speedhorn (Jager) with BOTH original vocalists and Trash Talk (Satellite) will no doubt be leaving chaos in their wake – here’s a thought: Trash Talk/ Baby Godzilla tour needs to happen one day…

Bohemia gives us the return of Therapy?; following their Troublegum set a few years back, this time it’s the turn of Infernal Love. Prior to that we have one of the most unique sets of the weekend as after Cancer Bats covering Sabbath at the last edition, The Defiled will be covering Nirvana in their own style.

Punk and Prog are the order of the day on Saturn as Protest The Hero and Karnivool mix with Reel Big Fish and Dropkick Murphys before Dream Theater close out with 20+ years of modern prog goodness.

Apollo as mentioned has Metallica doing By Request but throw in Devin Townsend, Mastodon and GOJIRA and you’ve got a stage full of pure metal heavyweights to bring the weekend to a big bang of a conclusion.

Aside from the music, check out London’s own Progress Wrestling for some high-flying, technical action, and given the theme is ‘wrestlers’ for the event this year get your own spandex out of the closet.

Welcome back Sonisphere – here’s to many more!

ing a grand tradition of the likes of Bjorn Again and Richard Cheese it’s time for an act that’s more unconventional get embraced for a fun time with many sing-along moments, right before Carcass and Slayer cause madness with their death/thrash delights.

Bohemia gets a nice mixture of goth and glam as Reckless Love and headliners The Sisters Of Mercy bring two distinctive sides of the 80’s back into the 21st Century with an extra bonus of New Model Army and another chance to lovingly say Fuck You to the excellent Black Spiders.

When it comes to Jager/Satellite we For stage times please check have to mention the return of The YoYos to the live arena – catch them if http://sonisphere.co.uk/news/stage-times/

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We asked the following three questions to some of the acts performing at Sonisphere this year:

1. Who are you looking forward to at Sonisphere?

2. Where and when but most of all why should people come and check you out?

3. What are you promoting at the Festival?

And here are the answers...

ANTHRAX – Scott Ian 1 - The audience. We've done Sonisphere at Knebworth twice and the crowds have been amazing. I think this time will be the topper.

2 - We are playing TWO shows at Sonisphere this year. On Friday we are doing a special performance (NEVER BEEN DONE EVER) of our Among The Living record front to back on the Bohemia Stage at 8PM. Then we play our main stage set on Saturday. It's great to get to play Sonisphere once let alone twice the same weekend.

3 - We are promoting fun.

Come see Anthrax and have a fucking blast!

THE SAFETY FIRE - Dez 1. There are so many great bands playing, and it will be a pleasure seeing so many of our friends all in one place as well. Deftones, Gojira, Protest The Hero, Karnivool, Frank Turner, the list goes on and on.

2. We are on the Satellite Stage at 2:30pm bringing the ruckus and jokes. Pretty much sums up why you should see us.

3. We are currently in support of our second album Mouth Of Swords, which is now available worldwide.

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1 - We will only be at Sonisphere for the day we are performing so it's going to be our friends Devil You Know. Can't wait to see them tear it up!

2 - We are known for our live shows. We all bring it as hard as we can.

With this being our first Sonisphere performance we have a special set planned that no fan old or new will want to miss.

3 - Our new album DIE WITHOUT HOPE was released just a few months ago and we are touring hard to support that record. We will have it for sale at the show, be sure to get a copy!

THE YO-YO’S – Tom Spencer 1 After a year or so of just playing with The Men They Couldn't Hang I'm looking forward to guitars...Loud distorted nasty guitars. I'm only there for the Saturday, but would love to see the Bronx and Raging Speedhorn. I get to see Eureka machine and Chas and Dave though Hell yeah 2 Because we don't revive it often but can still smash it.

3 We’re promoting nothing but Danny's health.

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1. The Bronx without a doubt.

2. Because it's my first and ONLY festival-gig in the UK this summer! I play Sunday at 5 o'clock at some stage I don't know the name of (that’s the Jager, Dregen) 3. My album "Dregen".

THE ONE HUNDRED - Joe Balchin 1: There are so many bands we are looking forward to seeing, as it's an awesome line up for 2014. We can't wait to see Limp Bizkit and The Prodigy tear up the stage, along with many others. We are planning to watch and enjoy as many bands as we can throughout the weekend. We also have the number 1 Metallica fan in the band so there is major excitement to see them!

2: We are lucky enough to have been invited to play the Satellite Stage at 12:30 on Sunday. The lads are raring to go and ready to bring our energetic live show to the masses at Sonisphere. This will be our first major festival, so we cannot wait to get up on stage. We will be showcasing a brand new set especially for Sonisphere, along with a visual spectacle to remember, so spread the word and come check us out!

3: We will be promoting our debut EP which is in the final stage, before being released. Over the last 8 months The One Hundred have gone from their inception to where we are now. The hard work is certainly paying off! We will also be touring towards the end of the year, so keep your eyes peeled for local dates. Our first video has been released recently, for our latest track Kingsmen, which you can check out online, watch on all decent music TV channels and of course, see it live at Sonisphere!

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And finally, we bring you a chat with Adam Da Rat! So Sonisphere is Dripback’s only festival appearance in 2014…

At the moment it’s the ONLY show we’ve got booked in the UK and definitely our only festival.

How did it come about that Dripback’s only UK festival show is at Sonisphere?

Well we’ve never played Sonisphere before, I’ve been there every year but I’ve never got to play there – we’ve Download, Bloodstock, Hammerfest and a few other things but Knebworth is one we want to tick off the list. I begged them until they relented and said fine we’ll give you a slot, we’re on quite early on the Sunday.

For those foolish enough not to catch Dripback yet what can they expect?

Usually it’s very loud and aggressive music played by jumping lunatics, a lot of booze, shouting, screaming, invisible fighting – just general carnage! We all just go fucking bonkers for half an hour when we play!

Dripback recently did a tour with Crowbar but you weren’t there…

I sneaked off, I already had booked a ticket to Australia – I’ve always wanted to go and I was at Soundwave festival so I had a stand in – Pete from Voices who did a great job and then we did a gig at The Black Heart – he was there, it was like ‘shit, my understudy, he’ll know if I make a mistake!’

Could he be your understudy again in the future?

Maybe, we might have a revolving door of special guest bass players. I love it and I don’t like to miss shows but that one was a bit different. It was something I couldn’t get out of.

Which bands are you hoping to catch at Sonisphere?

Oh God, there’s so many good bands playing.

Babymetal?

I’m definitely going to watch Babymetal. Anyone who’s at that festival and doesn’t go and watch them has something wrong with them – I’m reserving judgment until I see it but I think the whole idea is genius.

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© Nelly Loriaux I want to see Krokodil, The Defiled opening the main stage because that’s a huge slot for them.

They recently covered Green Day as well.

I’ve listened to them and Falling In reverse off that tribute album. Falling In reverse have a good sense humour and I just think people miss it.

Chas And Dave are also playing and there’s The Lounge Kittens who do covers of rock/metal and pop in a jazz kind of way, obviously the headliners will put on awesome shows – I’m excited about seeing the dogfight – that’s nuts.

The Spitfire deal from last year’s Download taken to a new level.

Bruce will be flying it and they’ll be other planes in the air, I don’t know if they’re firing blanks but it sounds pretty spectacular.

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the big boys - I never became hip hop, hip hop found me. I was lucky enough to witness this movement first hand - you couldn’t even get a baseball cap in the country in those days - it was considered an American thing!

When did you become known as Temper? Any story behind the namesake?

It’s all about directed energy. They used to call me Mr Mad Temper at school, as a youth I was mischievious, curious and that’s my energy, I’ve still got it now. I made a choice to direct this energy into my art.

I caught up with graffiti artist Temper to talk about his childhood in Wolverhampton, his love for his kids and of course his art work. I’ve been lucky enough to interview some very nice, very talented people, but Temper (real name Aaron Bird) has to be one of my faves!

Intense, articulate and almost poetic in his self expression, it’s easy to see how he has managed to achieve near legendary status as an artist and cult figure, within the graffiti scene and far beyond.

I can also say I now hold the impressive moniker of rendering Temper (almost) speechless.....see Q.5!

What made you first start graffing as a kid? Was it something you gradually fell into, or was there a pivotal point where you knew it was something you had to pursue?

It was pretty straightforward for me - I remember seeing a news

feature on TV about subway trains in New York getting vandalised by graffiti. It also featured the infamous Rocksteady crew. It grabbed my attention straight away. A few months later Goldie was doing graffiti in Wolverhampton, I checked his work out and then started doing it.

As a kid, I wasn’t interested in traditional art... I grew up with reggae music blasting out, in a time were things were hard, there wasn’t much money, as soon as I saw this other life I knew it was gonna be with me forever.

The first painting I did was called ‘Street Level’ in an area known for its high level of crime. I knew I wouldn’t get caught, that’s why I decided to spray there!

Graffiti really took off in Wolverhampton, Bristol and then just spread, it was the birth of hip hop as a subculture in the U.K. I kept my graff identity a secret for while - until someone saw my tag inside my maths book!

I was a young kid hanging out with

My old nickname became my tag name, to remind me to direct my energy to canvas. If I hadn’t painted I probably would have ended up on a different kind of journey - possibly a more negative one - my painting has been my shield, it’s given me a life and a professional career.

Everything in my life has been paid for by my graffiti, I’ve raised two beautiful kids, met some amazing people – it’s overcome every hurdle there could possibly be in my life.

My name reminds me of this.

You’ve worked for some big names - Coca Cola commissioned you to design a series of limited edition Sprite cans - and celebrities such as Sharon Osbourne are fans of your work. Is graffiti becoming more mainstream? Do people ever accuse you of selling out?

I was the first graffiti artist to have an exhibition of my work in a mainstream gallery. I’ve kicked so many doors in for other artists - without sounding egotistical. However, I always say I didn’t sell out, I sold out.

I still have respect from some of the most militant artists out there

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because of who I am, what I stand for. And I can still pick up a spray can and create something better than most other artists out there, I haven’t forgotten my art, far from it.

I think there’s a misunderstanding in the mainstream of what graffiti actually is... there are various forms of it-street art, murals etc - they are from the same family but are very different.

I’m lucky as I’ve always had massive support from the culture - I am commercially minded, but I understand myself as an artist. I absorb the world and my work is relative to what’s out there and what I’ve grown up with - counter culture and consumerism for example - but graffiti’s safe with me, it means what it means with me.

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When I gave them the end work, the couple said ‘Thank you for bringing our son back.’ That really meant a lot.

Designing the Sprite can was very important for both myself and for the representation of graffiti in the UK. When this huge company, Coca-Cola, commissioned me to do this, it opened up the world to graffiti as an art form to be taken seriously. It meant other brands became more open to ‹taking a chance› on graffiti and graffiti artists.

I’m also very proud of my new collection ‹Cover Versions› as I taught

If I wasn’t real a lot of people who are real would have slated me by now, I’ve never had that, I’m very fortunate.

It’s the integral journey as an artist that matters, success and popularity shouldn’t mean you’ve done something wrong. I do want to be The Beatles, I do want to be in this for the long term, I don’t want people to tell me I’ve sold out for this.

Do you have a favourite piece of work you’ve done, could you tell us a bit about it please?

It’s hard to pick one particular piece.

I did a private commission, for a couple whose son was killed in a freak boat accident, he was 16.They felt if he was alive he would’ve liked my work so they got in touch with me.

I wasn’t sure I could do it at first, as it’s a big responsibility to take on, to honour...but I did, I built a shrine to him as I was working on his picture – I listened to music he liked, I immersed myself in his life experience.

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it had no boundaries, for anyone, even if you didn’t have a pot to piss in... no galleries or anyone could look down on you... I think if I had to describe it, I’d say I’m an artist with no boundaries – I’m versatile, anything creative, photo realism with a spray can, I work free hand....I’ve got to be honest that’s a really good question to answer, it’s the first time in 20 years I’ve got nothing to say!

That’s never happened to me before!

The only thing key feature in my work is integrity, whatever I create I put the same energy into it. When I put my signature on any painting that’s as far as I can go, I don’t just apply paint, it’s the whole experience of it - the skill, the sacrifice, the honesty, the whole experience. I can go missing for weeks - people won’t see me for weeks, I push myself to the extreme for my art. It’s like that cliché of the crazy artist – it’s all true!

That said, my two kids are my greatest creations - I could never paint or make anything better than them.

Please close the interview with....

myself to use oil paints and paint with an actual brush –it’s a very different process to using a spray can!

Your work is extremely varied and reminds me of Picasso, the Surrealist movement - as well as a number of more traditional artists.... if you had to describe your work to someone who had never seen it, how would you encapsulate it?

That’s a very good question.....when I got into art, I got into it ‘cause I felt

Ermmm, I think for me, if I had to get my last word in, I’d say I still believe I’m the best kept secret in the history of graffiti in this country!

The one and only Temper we salute you!

Be sure to check out his latest collection ‘Cover Versions’, Temper’s take on 12 classic LP covers, such as Led Zepplin’s ‘Physical Graffiti’ and The Verves ‘Urban Hymns’. Drawing on a childhood obsession with album artwork, Temper adds his own signature twist to these unique pieces.

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Peter once declared himself to be foremost a writer and that music was merely the vehicle by which he hoped his writing would reach the wider world. Peter’s submissions of poetry and short prose pieces in issues 3 to 14 of Ian Allison’s brilliant and short-lived literary “zine” demonstrated that promise. Copies were snapped up quickly at the time of publication and will assuredly become highly prized collector’s items in the future for those with the time and income to track down and collect. The life-style of a prolific touring musician is evidently unsuited to the creation of lengthy literary prose so the prospect of a full-length novel or even short stories remains so far a tantalising project for a future. His writing to date would appear to be a preparation for the time when his working schedule allows that kind of commitment.

Nina is a good choice as editor she has status and respect in the music world; revered by her fans for the detailed and passionately loyal portrait of cult guitarist Johnny Thunders, she has been a fan, close friend and chronicler of some of the music world’s darker more troubled talents and she writes with humour, pains-

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takingly researched biography with and obvious sympathy for her subject which is demonstrated by the care and integrity of her research. She has written about Nico, Peter Perrot and Leee Black Childers amongst others.

It took about a year and a half of trips to Nina’s flat in Barnes before she was ready to take on the task of removing this albatross from around my neck.

Firstly I had to assure both Nina and Peter that I was happy to forego my role as “self-styled literary agent” secondly it was required to familiarise Nina with Peter’s idiosyncratic manner and style of business. Once those objectives had been achieved Nina made short work of picking out suitable passages and weaving them together into a cohesive whole. Peter’s subtle accolade to her on the back of this book reveals something of his skill as a writer as well as to hers. It’s worthy of the Times crossword puzzle “Watch Nina write, she riots” 9 across: who riots? The STYLISH kid! In five words the bard of Albion slyly complements the doyenne of the gothic and of baroque and roll biography, assiduous researcher, painstaking recorder of crucial minutiae. If you read her biography of her teenage idol legend Johnny Thunders you will appreciate why she has been treated with rare reverence by the Hollywood film company who are currently in pre-production mode.

Nina’s task in editing the journals demanded the same technique resorted to by Alan Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac when faced with a trunkful of closely written pages with no numbers or indication of intended order.

Which is supposed to be page one and how does one collate the random sheets into some semblance of sequential order?

You just assemble them in whatever way seems to work and hope for the best … if Gysin and Burroughs cut-up theory is correct this intuitive assemblage will be an improvement on the author’s order of writing. That is how the classic Naked Lunch was put together and Nina’s task was similar: confronted with fragments of indecipherable

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scrawl, creating this elegant sequence from the random sequence has proved to be a remarkable achievement.

The books of Albion rewarded close scrutiny by the avid fan prepared to decipher the spidery hand-writing whereas for Albion to Shangri La reveals an open secret hidden in plain sight - that this guy can write I don’t know another to equal him in this generation – it’s a more mature hand, poetry as prose by a writer of stature who is clearly developing his craft. Within the covers of this book one finds the true individual; the expatriate lifestyle with its frequent journeys by Eurostar, domesticity, favourite television characters such as comedian Tony Hancock, Steptoe, Peter Falk of U.S. cop show Columbo all hang together with to create a remarkable gentle candidly intimate portrait of the prolific musician and artist. The usual suspects amongst the now familiar circle of friends are lightly touched upon and there are some surprising revelations including a declaration of love and his intentions to take a life-long partner.

The final third of the book and tour diaries is equally personal but more rewarding for aficionados of Babyshambles and reveals the inside track of touring solo and with the band.

If you have any interest in the man or indeed contemporary culture this book is good value for your money. I recommend you read it.

Currently available on Kindle, paperback copies of ‘From Albion to Shangri-La’ will be available from all good bookstores, including Foyle’s and Waterstones, on July 1st.

Peter will be signing copies of the book at Waterstone Oxford Street Plaza in London on Friday 4th July at 5pm.

Review by Paul Roundhill

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Nina with Peter’s suitcase used to carry his diaries.

‘I lugged them back from Camden in a 1950’s cardboard suitcase’ – she told in an interview with ‘upthealbion.com’

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