Issue 53 of Stencil Mag

www.stencilmag.co.uk

Interview with Danny

What is it like to be an upcoming band in Brighton?

It is quite tough! There is so much great music out there, so many talented bands, you have to keep going full speed or get lost in the sheer amount of artists. On the other hand, the challenge is exciting. There is no room for slacking, which is a good thing for us.

How did you get to the album title ‘A Motion Paralysed’, and what does it mean to you?

‘A Motion Paralysed’ was the working title for the song ‘Never Enough’ and was meant to describe the moment of sleep paralysis. When we were picking titles for the album ‘A Motion Paralysed’ stuck with us, as we have been idle for quite some time, but still moved on and came back with a label deal and a debut album.

It felt like we were stuck in one place, but were actually moving on. We were paralysed in this motion.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout ‘A Motion Paralysed’?

Lyrically this album is still talking a lot about love. But we tried to approach it differently. On this record there is a love song with death as the outcome, there is a love song with a happy ending, there is a love song that ends in self-destruction. But we also talk politics, Generation Z and what is actually going on out there in the world. Turning on the news is depressing and this darkness that is surrounding our society at the moment is omnipresent. At the same time everyone is going through tough times personally at some point or another.

This all floats into our songwriting process.

How did Liam from Cancer Bats end up joining you on the track ‘Silence Means Nothing’, and what do you think he brought to the song?

We were lucky Cancer Bats were touring the UK whilst we were in the studio, so we just reached out and Liam instantly said yes! His vocals fit the song perfectly and he definitely shaped it to make it heavier and sound the way it does now. He was under the impression it was the poppiest track on the record and tried to convince us to go full-on heavy. Whilst not listening to that advice, we brought it out as the first single, as he said “You were off the radar for a while, but ‘Silence Means Nothing’, here you go again!” And here we are!

We've read that you "embraced many styles of music" with this release. Can you elaborate on that, and maybe about what artists/film scores/bands have really influenced you with this album, and why?

We always try to combine various genres and create a mix of something new. On this record major influences were PVRIS, Queen, the German rapper Casper, but also Machine Head and While She Sleeps.

Now mix this all together, add a little John Williams and Hans Zimmer and out comes ‘A Motion Paralysed’.

This is just a natural process to us. It’s the stuff we listen to on a daily basis and naturally influences us. We are currently listening to Mark Ronson, the new Panic! At The Disco and Beartooth. It’s going to be interesting!

We've read that "Overall, it’s some of the band’s darkest material to date" so can you tell us how you personally think the sound of the band has progressed?

I think at the very core this album is based on ‘The World Around Me’, adding the rawness of ‘December’ and finishing it off with recent experiences we had. Whether positive or negative, it all came together on ‘A Motion Paralysed’. With it being a full-length we had so much more room to experiment, rather than squeezing all of it into five tracks. ‘A Motion Paralysed’ is a more sophisticated, grown-up River Becomes Ocean and, despite experimenting with different genres and sounds, it also aligns with what we have done previously.

Who produced the album, and how would you say they helped shape it?

We mainly self produce. We have done this since the beginning. We have been recording with our touringbassist George Donoghue, who also co-produced the record with us. We always want to have the demos as close to what the finished product will actually sound like, but there are obviously endless options when working on a song. So when George comes into the process it is great to get another opinion and little tweaks on the songs to put the cherry on the top.

How did the artwork for ‘A Motion Paralysed’ come together?

We tried so many different things, from photo-realistic, to epic designs, and nothing felt right. It was only when we completely cut back going to our white logo on a salmon background, where we thought “Hell yeah, this is actually it.” Sometimes there is beauty in simplicity and overthinking completely kills all vibes. For us, coming back after a little break with a full-length record, this simple design does it all.

Looking back on 'December', how happy are you with this release still?

Musically we still really love this record and what we have achieved in such a short timeframe. We were about to hit the studio when our old bassist left. So we started from scratch, but already had all the deadlines and release dates lined up. We therefore rushed the whole recording, editing and mixing process too much.

It took us 4 weeks, from the beginning when we wrote ‘December’ to having an end product. We are still proud of this record and the feedback was very positive, but it nevertheless feels good to bring out a fulllength that is thoroughly planned and elaborated.

What else can we expect to see from River Becomes Ocean in 2019?

There are a couple of more videos coming out and we then hope to be on the road for the majority of the year. We have also already started writing down some ideas for the follow up album so that it doesn’t take us another three years to release new music.

How did Tomorrow Is Lost originally get together?

We formed back in February 2017, but I would say that the line-up didn't really solidify itself until Marc joined us in around May 2018. So, it's definitely been a bit of a crazy start for us - but they say everything happens for a reason, and I'm very confident that things are just as they should be right now and there's nothing we would change.

How did you get to the band name Tomorrow Is Lost, and what does it mean to you?

With the exception of myself and Joe, as a band we actually only met twice before our first gig, which always sounds a bit mad...so we needed a name for the show. We were flicking through what little lyrics we had at the time and Joe suggested “Tomorrow's Lost” and we just went with it. The apostrophe didn't last long, and so 'Tomorrow Is Lost' was born from that, and we never looked back.

Can you tell us a bit about how you found your sound as Tomorrow Is Lost?

I think we're still finding it, and that's really exciting. One of the beauties of being “Out there” from day zero meant that we have been developing our sound very publically right from the start. None of us are seasoned songwriters or performers, and we didn't spend months on end writing or rehearsing behind the scenes (though god knows we would have liked to!), because we just didn't have time.

We were raw and out there in all our unfinished glory, but I think that was (and maybe still is?) part of the appeal. Regardless, I see it as a good thing because it's helped us to create a very inclusive and intimate experience not just for us but for our fans too, many of whom have been loyally supporting us from a very early stage. I mean I'd be lying if I said I don't cringe when I watch those earlier performances back (who doesn't, am I right?), but I wouldn't change any of it.

Interview with Cass

Was there a particular moment when you realised that this band had the potential to be something more than an upcoming band?

For me, as individuals and as a unit we're still very much in our infancy, and even over the last 18 months the growth for us as performers and songwriters is something that I think we all have a lot to be proud of. Most excitingly for me though, is just how much more I think we have to give, and the potential that we're sitting on. We've been blessed with some incredible opportunities and we have an awesome team of people around us which has put us in a very fortunate position, and I think it would be pretty poor for us not to recognise just how much that's played a part in the successes that we've had up until this point. But aside from that, we've also been tasked with some real challenges to overcome too, we're learning constantly and it's all for the greater good.

So, how did you get to the EP title 'The Shadowman', and what does it mean to you?

‘The Shadowman’ is a bit of an enigma, even for me to be honest. He's definitely become the unofficial band mascot, but there was always a much deeper meaning behind the creation of the character and I'm never quite sure if that was lost a little because it was never fully understood, and maybe it doesn't need to be, I don't know. But facing up to past experiences and the emotions attached to them is something that I've struggled with for a very long time, and ‘The Shadowman’ as a character gave me a bit of an outlet, not a pseudonym as such, but something I could hide behind. I suppose he became a manifestation of the emotions and compulsions that I couldn't explain or control, and gave me a way of saying things that I wouldn't have otherwise been able to say, which is really liberating, and it's something that really helped me to develop as a writer. So much so that the authenticity of the lyrics in our newer, unreleased songs is something I'm now really excited about. So for me, there was never going to be any other title for the EP.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout 'The Shadowman'?

I tend to write about personal experiences, and there's a vulnerability attached to that which can be quite difficult to handle at times. But we're all human, and we all feel, it's about the only commonality that we all share; so if the emotion captured within our music resonates with and speaks to even one person, going through any one experience at any one time, then for me that's a good job done.

How did the music video for 'Shadowman' come together, and can you tell us about the meaning behind this track in particular?

Lyrically, ‘Shadowman’ as a track is about inner conflict. It's about the battle between the rational and the irrational state of mind, and the lack of control that can take over. The scenery for the video was absolutely stunning up in rural Northumberland, we shot the video over two locations; up on the hilltops and down in these really dense woods. The hope was that we would capture a contrast of light and dark and I think Shaun Hodson at Loki Films nailed it quite perfectly. The rain kept off too (just), which was a huge bonus.

Who produced 'The Shadowman', and how would you say they helped shape it?

We worked with Dave Boothroyd from Reel Recording Studios in York, and it was great because we worked with him on the two first singles, so it felt totally natural to go in and record the EP with him. Dave B really gets our sound, where it's headed and what we're trying to achieve, so we find that ideas sort of bounce around quite a lot and I feel like he has really nurtured us in our earliest days. I think we've set the standard high, but I'm very much looking forward to smashing it out the park with the next release.

What else can we expect to see from Tomorrow Is Lost in 2019?

For me, 2019 is about proving our worth. We grafted relentlessly for the whole of 2018 and we've been rewarded very generously for that; but we're still a very young band, and we really want to give something back to all of the people who have invested in us and taken a chance. But I still think we're very much at the starting block, and I'm really excited about what the future holds for Tomorrow Is Lost.

Interview with Mel

Can you tell us about how June Divided originally got together?

I met Chris (guitar) back in college. We've been writing and working together ever since. When we got out of school, we found Keith (drums) on Craigslist of all places. Lenny (bass) got involved about a year later.

So, how did you get to the band name June Divided, and what does it mean to you?

We were graduating college in June, and it felt like our lives were kind of splitting up. Years later and it still kind of makes sense to me because June is a shake-up kind of month for a lot of people - things change right at the start of a new season.

What was it like to be an upcoming band in Philadelphia?

Philly rules, so, it was great. There's lots of support here. Bands, fans, radio stations, venues. People make up a scene, and our music scene is great because the people are great.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you had the potential to be more than just an upcoming band?

Are we more than just an upcoming band? Haha, I don't know. We work well together and we love each other, so I think we always knew we had something special - even if only between the four of us.

So, how did you get to the EP title 'Body Wars', and what does it mean to you?

I feel like the title track is pretty self-explanatory. The hook is "Why can't the head and heart just get along now?" and that pretty much sums it up. It's a record about acknowledging your inner conflict.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout 'Body Wars'?

Inner conflict and being at war with oneself makes up a lot of the record. To go deeper into that, it touches on relationships, the way you view yourself, bad habits and moments in life that you can't keep forever.

Can you tell us about the 'Party Wars' companion album. How did that idea come together, and how does it coincide with the 'Body Wars' EP? The idea started when Chris showed me a remix of ‘Body Wars’ that he was working on for fun. I was like, “Oh this is awesome, let's finish this.” Once we sat down to work on it, more re-imagined ideas for the songs on the record came out, so we kept it going. So it's really a project between Chris and I, and it's been in the works for a while. We jokingly called it ‘Party Wars’, but then it really stuck as the title, and the label was on board to release it.

What track did you have the most fun doing a remix/alternative version of, and why?

Not sure what Chris' opinion is here, but for me, either the ‘Firestarter’ remix, or the acoustic version of ‘Body Wars’. They were kind of my babies, and they fell into place pretty simply.

Going back to 'Body Wars', who produced the release, and how would you say they helped shape it?

Fred Mascherino (Taking Back Sunday, Terrible Things, The Color Fred) produced it. We wanted to spread our wing a little bit with the sounds on ‘Body Wars’, and Fred was all about the experiment. As a songwriter, he taught me a lot too. He's a classical theory guy, much like myself, so it was good to work with someone with that kind of background as well.

What was the hardest track on 'Body Wars' to put together, and why?

Man, writing that record feels like a lifetime ago, but I do remember being specifically stuck while writing ‘Firestarter’. I call it "First track paranoia." I knew it was going to be the album's opener, and the pressure had me second guessing a lot before it finally fell into place. The writing of ‘I Didn't Mind’ came together pretty easily, but we recorded and produced that one ourselves, so the making of it was kind of crazy. We rented out a studio in a snow storm we didn't really see coming. We survived solely on pizza, beer, and trail mix, and almost killed each other during the process. Somehow we all survived, and it ended up being the single.

How did the artwork for 'Body Wars' come together, and what does it mean to you?

I hit up my friend, Lauren Fleming, because she does these beautiful, dark photographs. Lauren had photographed us before, and I just felt like her art really fit the message of ‘Body Wars’. She did a beautiful job. Go follow her work at @LFBPhotography on Instagram.

What else can we expect to see from June Divided in 2019?

Touring for sure. Also, new music is always in the works. Keep up with us on our socials for news, releases and general shenanigans.

Interview with Claire

Can you tell us about how All Ears Avow originally got together?

We all met through gigging on the same circuit, some of us had been in a band together before and we got on so well we decided to form All Ears Avow.

How did you get to the band name All Ears Avow, and what does it mean to you?

It’s so difficult coming up with a band name. We were actually scrolling through my iTunes library looking for inspiration. The Incubus singer Brandon Boyd had a song on his solo album called ‘All Ears Avow!’ and it made it to our short list. We thought it was fitting because it essentially means “Everyone listen”, and we obviously want everyone to listen to us.

You've said that "Rock music seems like it’s swallowing itself whole lately". Can you elaborate on that, and what you think it takes to be more than just an upcoming band in this day and age?

I just think that to be a straight up rock band and be doing something new in this day and age is the most difficult thing in the world. So much of it has been done before and because of that no matter how talented or catchy the songs are, you don’t stand out above the noise. Then a lot of people are pig headed about it and want to stay true to rock music, but rock music wasn’t invented so that you just continue to follow some sort of tick list of how a musician should be or sound. For me, the ones that really do stand out at the moment are the ones that are taking inspiration from other genres and are constantly trying to push things. You’ve only got to look at the direction of acts such as You Me At Six, Don Broco and Deaf Havana have gone in to see that.

Leading on from that, what is it like to be an upcoming band in Swindon?

Honestly, previously it’s not been great. We had a lot of venues close down and the music scene was struggling quite a lot, it didn’t feel like people were really supporting upcoming bands. It’s what pushed us out of Swindon I guess into trying to tour as much as possible. But recently things have been on the up, there’s a lot of young bands coming out of the wood works that are killing it both in and out of the town and people seem to have got a bit more of a taste for it again.

How did you get to the EP title ‘Skin & Bones’, and what does it mean to you?

Well we already had it as a title for one of the songs which is about how no matter what your tastes are or what you want to be or do in life you should be comfortable in your own skin and own your body and your self. We felt like that song basically encompassed the whole EP and summed up the themes within it so it made sense for it to be the title track.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout ‘Skin & Bones’?

It really fits all within one theme of self confidence, but within that it’s about cutting people loose that have a detrimental impact on your mental health and fighting for what you want and believe in.

Who produced the EP, and how would you say they helped shape it?

Sam Winfield at Studio 91 produced the EP. Sam helped massively. We came to him with the songs and we just said, “Here’s how they go, this is our sound, this is where we want to take our sound please help us get there” and he just absolutely nailed it and we really credit him with helping us get the songs to the next level.

The track "‘Got Lucky’, is informed by the band’s parents’ record collections" so can you tell us a bit about how that track in particular came together?

It started as almost a bit of a joke track that I don’t think we necessarily expected to become anything. I started writing it and was just enjoying the process as a kind of guilty pleasure exercise. Then we decided we actually just really liked it and what does guilty pleasure even mean anyway? It’s the song that made us finally go “Why are we trying so hard to fit just into the rock category” and loosen up a bit about that sort of thing.

What was the hardest track on ‘Skin & Bones’ to put together, and why?

Probably the title track. It’s got so many interweaving parts that we had to be really careful with how it all fit together and to keep it flowing. But for the same reason it was also the most fun as it took a lot of experimenting and we love that.

How did the music video for 'Skin and Bones' come together, and what was it like to work with Oliver Duncanson?

It took quite a lot of planning getting costumes, props, decorations and trying to get the right people. Things fell through at the last minute too with some people suddenly only becoming available for a couple of hours instead of all day. Jake’s mum is in the video and we had to make out that her part was much smaller than it was and that she wasn’t needed for long just so she wouldn’t get nervous about it. She ended up having a blast and her riding the lad dressed as a unicorn at the end will forever be a highlight for all of us! Working with Oliver was great as well. He knows not to expect something straight forward from us and he’s so patient with our ideas, it could have only worked with someone like that.

What else can we expect to see from All Ears Avow in 2019?

We definitely plan or releasing more music, other than that we’ll be touring as much as possible everywhere we can!

Interview with Linda

How did Halflives originally get together?

As far as I can remember, I always wanted to play music in a band so it all started from there. When the time came, I looked around for musicians and from connection to connection I met the guys one after the other.

Fun fact: the first time I met Oscar (bass player), it was at a party in a villa, he was drunk, unbearable and I hated him! (haha). It's funny that today we're best friends.

How did you get to the band name Halflives, and what does it mean to you?

Surprisingly, we had all the songs from our first record written before we even had a band name. I had been thinking about it for a while until one day I came up with a conversation that I'd had once about love and someone who told me that "Life is half without love". And it hit me just like that: the band name had to be Halflives.

Can you tell us about how you found your sound as Halflives?

By the time we started to write demos for what would become the first Halflives release, I had gotten more and more into pop and electronic music. I wanted our sound to take the best from pop (catchiness), electronic (synths) and rock (energy) and make it something that I would like to listen to myself.

Was there a particular moment when you realised that this band had the potential to be something more than an upcoming band?

I couldn't say that there has been one precise moment fixed in time. Every time someone is singing back our lyrics at a show or comes after we play asking "How are you guys not bigger yet?", then I realise there's something more happening here, that it's not just a regular music video posted on YouTube or something that goes unnoticed. People are really saying there's something about us and when they say it I want to believe them.

Let's fast forward a little bit now then. Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

2018 was another intense year of touring! We went to the UK twice and pretty much all over Europe again. I personally particularly enjoyed playing Пинтя Fest (Pinto Fest) in Ukraine, as it was a really big stage and the crowd was excited even if it was pouring rain! As for club shows, Paris and London are always my favourite.

You did a show with PVRIS, how did that go, and what did you learn the most from performing with them?

Yeah, we played a one-off show in Bologna, Italy with them. It was a great experience especially because the crowd asked for us to open the show so people were really there for us too. They even took out some paper cards reading "We all have half lives" and raised them up when we played our song ‘Collide’. It really warmed my heart.

Looking back on 'Crown', what do you remember the most about putting it together, and why do you think it's gone on to relate to so many people all around the globe?

I think it's a very self-empowering song that makes you feel good about yourself despite the sh*t you're going through. And that's a relatable feeling no matter who you are, what you do, everybody has their "crown" to take. As for the songwriting process, I remember spending a lot of time with our producer in the woods, ha. We stayed there with an acoustic guitar, singing the first ideas for the song, completely unplugged and starting from there we developed it.

How did your single 'Fugitive' come together, and if possible, can you tell us about the meaning behind it?

‘Fugitive’ has been a long process and it's been through a lot of changes before it came to sound as it does today. This song is about feeling lost and far from home, be it in a literal or figurative way and it's a story of finding your way back. And at the end of the day, there's no place like home.

How did the music video for 'Fugitive' come together, and what was it like to work with Benjamin Bachelard?

Benjamin is a great director to work with! He's been very available and proactive in suggesting ideas.

He's been with us in the whole process of writing the video, giving advice when scouting locations etc.

He's been very professional and we will surely work with him again!

As for the video itself, since I moved to Paris a while ago I wanted the video to be shot here to express in images the fact that I was far from home and connect with the meaning of the song.

Have you started work on any new material just yet, if so what can we expect from it?

We started to write new songs, we're taking our time to make sure we come up with a result we're 100% proud of. You can expect to wait a bit more but we promise it's going to be worth it!

What else can we expect to see from Halflives in 2019?

We're currently on tour in the UK with The Faim and Chapel and that's a very exciting way to kick off the new year! After that tour, we've got some more studio sessions lined up so there's going to be a lot of songwriting this year.

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So, how did you get to the album title 'This Too Won't Pass', and what does it mean to you?

It’s a nod to that famous quote that I always had a problem with. Nearing 30 I now know more than ever that time doesn’t heal anything. It has to come from you and sometimes it’s just too much to go away on its own.

A lot of these songs describe that feeling and the title just felt fitting.

We've read that "During the recording process, you found yourself gravitating towards the meaning of the word ‘evil’" so, can you elaborate on that?

Evil is just my general opinion on the world today. I sometimes feel suffocated by the negativity that people display and this album talks a lot about that. I am sure it has always been there but I am effected by it now more so than ever before.

How did the music video for 'Sometimes You Meet The Right People At The Wrong Times' come together, and what was it like to work on?

rview with Christopher

Tiring haha. Being thrown into a box with three other grown men for four hours of shooting was a blast. It was inspired by the ‘Close To Me’ video by The Cure. The director ran with it and we came up with that concept rather quickly.

Your very own Danny Rico produced the record. What do you enjoy the most about having this kind of creative control?

We have done all our records in house. It’s great, it’s relaxing and very rewarding. It’s a lot more work but it feels so much more your own when it’s done.

How did the track 'Congratulations, Christopher Hodge' come together, and can you tell us about just how important Christopher Hodge is to the band itself?

I was finished writing demos for the album. Our manager called me up and asked for one more song. I went home and wrote it in a few hours. I dedicated it to him for that reason and when we put it out his new baby boy was born. Hodge is the reason Can’t Swim is a band. He pushed me and gave me the confidence to do this, without him we would be nothing.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'This Too Won't Pass' to put together, and why?

‘Winter Of Cicada’. Lyrically it was very very personal and I was very apprehensive about releasing it.

How did the artwork for 'This Too Won't Pass' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Growing up I was very into Japanese culture and art. The oni is a symbol of evil or devil in Japan. It is something that I loved the look of and made sense with the themes of the record.

Looking back on 'Fail You Again', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Can't Swim?

Very proud. Seems like ages ago but I think it gave a good blueprint for people to understand what our band is about. I think we will be playing ‘Stranger’ for years to come and we have ‘FYA’ to thank for that.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'Fail You Again' at the moment, and why?

‘All The Moves We Make Are In The Dark’ is a favourite. I love the energy and hearing the rest of my band sing the gang chants every night still gets me excited.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK/European tour, and what can attending fans expect?

We love it over there. Plenty of songs from our new record but we will certainly be playing the old songs as well. Limited merch items and hopefully a lot of catering.

So, how did you get to the album title 'A Bird In The Hand'?

It comes from the old saying “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.� Which, in short means to appreciate what you have, a sentiment I’d like to think resonates throughout the record.

You've said that "This album is more personal" so can you elaborate that, and some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout the album?

I became a father in January 2018 and most of this album was written in the beautiful, bubble period that was created in our home when we brought back a tiny, precious life we had created. With that the album became more about my world and my family, rather than the world as a whole. That said, as the bubble started to fade, songs about plastic pollution and Amazon echos started popping up.

How did you end up working with Ben Lovett once more?

Ben produced my first record 10 years ago, I know I needed to do something special for my 10th album so going full circle and getting back in the studio with Ben seemed appropriate. Ben is the busiest person I know, so I was chuffed that he found time. He sorted the studio, the musicians and the overall sound of the album, I turned up with some songs and he steered the ship from there.

Can you tell us about how the "backing band" came together on this release, and maybe what this line-up brought to 'A Bird In The Hand'?

Ted from Mumford & Sons swung by and laid down a bit of bass and Chris Mass, Mumford’s touring drummer played throughout and Ben played Keys. We also had Tommy Heap on bass and Christof Van Der Ven on guitar. All incredible players that brought the full bodied sound to the album.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'A Bird In The Hand' to put together, and why?

Probably. ‘Please Give Generously’ as it’s a song about homelessness and I wanted to get my point across without digging into the wider politics behind it. It was the hardest, but I wouldn’t say it was hard. I’ve never found songwriting hard, if I did I’d probably stop.

How did the music video for 'Magic' come together, and what was it like to work with Jem Mitchell?

Jem is a friend. An incredible photographer. Pretty much the only photographer I’ve worked with in the last five years. I had the idea for the video, but wanted it to look slick and professional, I normally make my own videos but felt this idea (friends and family with their kids hearing the song for the first time) needed to look super stylish.

Jem was the first person I called. And he delivered.

Also, can you tell us about the meaning behind that track in particular?

The song is the story of the birth of my daughter. A rollercoaster of emotions and up there with the most important days of my life.

What kind of impact has becoming a father had on you as a musician?

I’ve started writing lots of songs about it!

Looking back on 'Cushty' how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Beans on Toast?

I’m happy with all my previous work, I think ‘Cushty’ sits comfortably with my back catalogue, generally though I’m looking forwards to the next record rather than backwards at previous work.

Looking back on 'Standing On A Chair' what do you remember the most about putting this record together?

Being sh*tfaced. They were very hedonistic days.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

I’ll be touring for the most part of this year. It’s what I do and it’s what I Love. I’ll be doing a UK run, then mainland Europe then Australia. Oz being a first for me. Exciting times. People can expect the usual mix of drinking, thinking, laughing and loving.

What else can we expect to see from Beans on Toast in 2019?

Writing, recording, releasing and touring some more songs.

Interview with Lorna

Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

2018 has flown by! It’s hard to believe that we began the year with a USA coast to coast headline tour with the amazing Will Varley opening for us. Despite taking the roof off our tour bus (but you don’t ask about low lights so we won’t go into that) we had an amazing time! The East coast has been a second home to us for a while selling out bigger venues and playing more shows whilst the West Coast is harder to reach but steadily becoming an extended family home for Skinny Lister. After that we did a mini tour of Germany with label mate Sean McGowan opening up. Always a special experience!

Festival season was good to us and especially 2000 Trees. The crowd there was immense. The tent was over flowing and the dust that was kicked up added to the awesomeness of the gig. Amongst all of that, we were lucky enough to record album number 4, ‘The Story Is…’ which is going to be out on Xtra Mile Recordings on March 1st. Can’t wait to share that with everyone!

We finished the year with our own Christmas Party in London at the Garage, Islington, which sold out very quickly. We were joined by Buster Shuffle, Beans on Toast, my dad (aka. Party George) & the one and only Elvis Presley! A superb night & a great way to end a fantastic year.

So, how did you get to the album title 'The Story Is...', and what does it mean to you?

Well Dan tends to write songs about real life events. Sometimes they’re so true we can’t believe he’s written them! Obviously because they hold so much truth in them, they really mean stuff to us. They become a kind of snapshot of that time in the band’s life. ‘The Story Is…’ came almost immediately which is good as otherwise we’re in a whole world of pain with the democratic nature of the band!

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'The Story Is...'?

It’s probably our most eclectic album yet with a lot of different sounding songs on! The main theme is the true stories that run throughout. You’ll find lots of different influences on there though from the more folky stuff, through punk, to even slightly disco pop! When in the studio putting the songs together it’s sometimes hard to see how they fit into the “Skinny sound” however, when we listen back and the songs have settled in, there’s usually something that runs through the core and makes them firmly part of the band’s DNA.

How did you end up working with Barny Barnicott, and how would you say he helped shape the album?

We had wanted to work with Barny years ago as he had mixed a James Yorkston album (Dan is a huge Yorkston fan) but it never worked out. This time, Thom had been working with him on a side project. We got in touch with him as we listened to quite a bit of his work, sent him our demos and he was keen to make it work this time so we were very excited. He certainly shaped the sound. He’s very into pedals and button pressing but like I say above, he transformed ‘The Shining’ & he also really helped build ‘The Story Is…’ one of our most recent singles, by introducing the band to bells and tubes and a wonky piano he had in the studio. He definitely wasn’t afraid to experiment.

Leading on from that, how would you say the sound of Skinny Lister has progressed/changed since the release of 'The Devil, The Heart and the Fight'?

We follow the songs really. It’s quite hard at this stage, so fresh out of the studio, to quite know what we’ve created. I think after the positive reception of ‘The Devil, The Heart & The Fight’, where we let ourselves off the folk leash somewhat, we have dared to explore further into different genres. There are still some very folky numbers on there but I think it helps keep things interesting for us to follow the songs and treat them in the best way for them to come alive.

How did the artwork for 'The Story Is...' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Max has been messing around with his phone camera on tour for the past year or so capturing “Reality bends” whilst on the road and posting them on his Instagram account. We thought that would be a really great way of depicting Skinny Lister’s story during the making of the album. The shot used on the front cover has great colours throughout it and has several of the themes on the record incorporated loosely in the busy street scene.

The last time we spoke, you were just about to unleash 'The Devil, The Heart and the Fight'. Looking back on that album, how happy are you with it still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Skinny Lister?

We’re still very proud of it and we tend to play a lot of the songs from it live still. Crowd favourites seem to be ‘Geordie Lad’, ‘Wanted’, ‘Devil In Me’ & ‘Hamburg Drunk’. ‘Devil In Me’ is an example of that “Is this a skinny song?” question mark that we have when in the studio recording, but it has become a solid feature in our live set, and again the same for ‘Geordie Lad’. I think maybe it helped open up our audiences. They’re definitely growing since we released it so maybe that’s it!

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

Of course we cannot wait! Recording is all very enjoyable but it’s playing the songs to the crowd, which is what really drives me. The tour kicks off on the 28th February in Brighton and that seems like an age away. I will definitely be tapping my fingers and counting down the days despite being busy with making videos etc for the singles that will be released ahead of the album release.

What else can we expect to see from Skinny Lister in 2019?

We’re aiming to play as many festivals as we can. We’re soon to announce another US Tour, more videos, more gigs, more people, more flagons…in fact just more more MORE!

Interview with Ben & Lucas

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you had the potential to be more than just an upcoming band?

Ben - We share the same amount of passion for music and our drive to make this a career is all the same.

When you are all on the same page it makes it so much easier. We’d all been in local bands before that and had never really got to where we wanted to be. So we said at the very start of InVisions that if we are going to try this again, we do it once and we do it right.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Between You & Me', and what does it mean to you?

Ben - ‘Between You & Me’ is a phrase everyone has said at some point when confiding in another person or divulging personal information. It’s the lead in to a confession, an off-the-record statement. It wholly sums up the themes that this album explores and the way in which it portrays them.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influence that run throughout 'Between You & Me'?

Lucas - I think ‘Between You & Me’ is a lot more introspective than our previous album. Throughout the writing process there have been a lot more personal things going on and a generally broader look at the way things happen to us and people around us. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some no holds barred, in-yourface attitude tracks on there. But I’d like to think this record is a lot more dynamic and covers a variety of headspaces and coming to terms with these issues and opinions. ‘Down & Out’ is a particularly standout track for me as it follows the concept of feeling low, not knowing if things will get better and the irony of being hopelessly hopeful at the same time.

What made you want to unleash 'Good For Nothing' first?

Lucas - We work in a pretty standard way for most modern bands now with Alex & myself working on pretty complete demos in our home studio set ups before showing the rest of the guys and then working on elements to finish and perfect the tracks. ‘Good For Nothing’ was one of the few tracks that Alex and I actually sat down together to write and in a single night, we had all the music written and tracked. The writing sessions for ‘BY&M’ actually started before we released our last album and this was one of the first tracks completed. We thought that if after a year and a half of sitting on this track that we were still diggin’ it, we knew that it should be the first track we release!

You've just unleashed 'Too Far Gone'. Can you tell us about the meaning behind this track, and what you enjoyed the most about working on it?

Ben - This is just straight up a party anthem and a reminder to not worry about other people’s opinions and to just cut loose and be yourself because we’re all a little bent outta shape in some way or another. This song is hella fun to perform. It just carries so much energy and it’s just a constant bounce. I don’t think there is a particular point that I love working on more than another it’s more just the general development and hearing music grow from a demo to the finished product!

How did you end up working with Sam & Joe Graves once more?

Lucas - We’ve known Sam & Joe since we were kids as we grew up playing shows with them in our previous local bands and have always recorded with them! They’re just the best at what they do and also just the easiest and by far the funniest people to work with so it was a no brainer! I think this time round we had more of an idea of how we wanted the record to sound so a lot of it was figured out in pre-production but Sam & Joe just took the blueprint and incorporated their external perspective and made sure it surpassed everything we could have expected! I think when you’re so close to a project sometimes you can get stuck in your ways (AKA demoitus) but having that third party to tell you something can be better or to bring fresh life to songs you’ve been sat on for ages is always beneficial!

What was the hardest song on 'Between You & Me' to put together, and why?

Ben - Damnnn. Some were harder than others for sure but I guess every song gets the same amount of attention. For me personally it was probably ‘Destined To Fail'. It really pushed my vocal range and tested how far it could go. But that’s all part of progression, if you don't test yourself how can you improve?

Looking back on 'Never Nothing', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of InVisions?

Ben - I’ll always be happy with that record, for a first release it blew all our expectations out the water, we didn’t think it would have taken us to where we are today. This record made 2018 an unforgettable year for us really, now we just have to make 2019 bigger! I think it represents us well because a lot of the time it’s about being f*cked up, but we also hit real life issues on the head, maybe in a manner some people will disagree with, but we ain’t here to p*ssy foot around anything.

How would you say the sound of the band has grown/changed?

Ben - I’d say we have definitely found our sound. With the first record, as is true with many bands, we didn’t really know what kind of band we wanted to be yet. So we took everything we loved from that record and took that through to the writing process for ‘Between You & Me’. The new record is definitely a lot heavier but we’re still about those catchy melodies, big hooks and not playing it safe!

What else can we expect to see from InVisions in 2019?

Ben - A lot more tours both in the UK and abroad and obviously the release of ‘Between You & Me'. We’re pretty busy booking up the year and it’s starting to look pretty hectic already! Other than that we have a few things up our sleeves but they’ll all be revealed in due time!

Interview with Nathan

Can you tell us about how the current line-up of Inglorious came together, and what they have been like to work with so far?

We had a photoshoot yesterday, which was our second time of all being together. We did the photoshoot at the London Gibson Guitar showroom and it was wonderful to be surrounded by my friends. The new guitar player Danny has been a friend of mine for 3-4 years. He did a cover video of one of our songs on YouTube when he was 16, I knew he was amazing. Then he moved down to London and started playing at Metalworks in Camden, where he met Dan Stevens, the other new guitar player. The two of them have got such great chemistry and respect for each other. They’ve been my friends for four years, so it was a very obvious choice. Even on the last tour, Danny Dela Cruz was teching for Andreas, our last guitar player. So he’s gone from making a cover video for us, teching for the band, and now he is in the band. So, that’s pretty cool. Vinnie was recommend by a couple of friends of mine. I said that I needed a phenomenal bass player that could play all of the stuff that has been done previously, and have a groove and feel, because that was all that Phil our drummer was concerned about. He was the guy that everyone suggested. I seem to like having one person from outside of the UK in every line-up. Vinnie is from Brazil, but he lives in London, so he brings a different, exotic flavour to the band. Which is pretty cool.

So this album sort of represents a whole new era of Inglorious then?

Yeah, I think so. We still have Phil Beaver on drums, who is the heart of this band musically, and then you have me singing. I’ve sung on every song so far, so hopefully the fans will be happy. We can create more exciting music. Also, we can enjoy being on tour, be happy, and love what we are doing without any problems. Which is going to be really exciting.

When did the first glimpses of 'Ride To Nowhere' come together? Was there a particular song or moment maybe?

Basically we got together at my old house when I was living in Berkshire. We’d all get together. I like writing in one room. I find it very bizarre, especially now, that bands can write albums without even meeting each other. I find it really strange. We all got together at my house, and sat around in a circle. They’d bring ideas and riffs into the circle, we’d jam them about. If it works then we go on with it. Then if not, we toss it aside.

We did that over about 4-5 days, wrote the bare bones of the album. A couple of songs like ‘Glory Days’ were constructed in about 15 minutes in one of those sessions, then I wrote the chorus in that time, and went away and wrote the verses. So yeah, that’s kind of how we write. A song that came first is ‘Where Are You Now?’, our first single, which was actually an idea that Andreas had. I heard it, and I loved it. I started working on that with him, and then we changed it a bit with the whole band. Now it is what it is today. So that was the first song that we wrote.

What made you want to release 'Where Are You Now?' first, and can you tell us about how this track came together?

I think we looked at it more as a first single, because it’s different to anything we’ve done previously. It’s much heavier. We wanted to show people that we were going for a purposely more heavier sound on this album. Also, it’s got a great chorus. It’s a song that people seem to like, and it’s a great live song, which is really exciting. One thing we’ve learnt over the last couple of years is that you’ve got to write songs that translate well live, because ultimately that’s where the future is. We looked at writing this album with live in mind.

So, how did you get to the album 'Ride To Nowhere', and what does it mean to you?

To me, it’s a bit of a dark one actually. I lost my grandfather and my best friend all within a year, this year (2018). At the time when we were writing the album, I wrote a track for my best friend called ‘Never Alone’. I really went into a very dark place, questioning my own morality I suppose. I was really struggling with the whole idea that these people had left me, and I felt really alone. Also I kind of think that it represents the album, the roller coaster imagery on the front represents that it’s a very up and down thing. Hopefully it does feel like a ride. I’ve never wanted two songs to sound the same on any album. I can hand on heart say that I’m proud that I don’t think that they do. That’s what it is kind of about. So yeah, it’s quite dark really.

It does have dark themes, however, there are parts that will inspire hope right?

There are moments of light on there, and shade. It’s a heavier theme. So it’s either about people that I really love, or that I’ve lost, or it’s about people that I really dislike. It’s heavier lyrically. Musically it’s a lot darker.

There are a few more metal moments on there, the riffs are a bit chunkier and grungy. I just think that’s it’s different to anything that we’ve done before.

There's a really cool structure to the track 'Never Alone' with its acoustic opening, how did it come together, and what was it like to work on?

Yeah, actually Drew Love wrote that kind of theme at the beginning. The original demo was called like “Nickelback” something. I was like “Yeah, it almost does have that sort of feel to it, that sing along acoustic/type vibe.” Then when all of the instruments kicked in, I knew in the chorus that it was going to be about my friend. That song happened quite quickly. Drew went away and had a different solo, which we straightened out, it went a bit proggy in the middle, in the original demo. Then it came back, and it just sounds great. I’m really happy with how that song sounds. I think it’s a really good song to honour my friend, who I wrote it about lyrically. I played it to her husband and children. They were really impressed, so that is all that matters.

How did you end up working with Kevin Shirley once more, and how would you say he helped shape the album?

This time around, we worked him a bit differently. Previously we wanted the album to have that big, baggier, kind of vintage sound. Which he nails, obviously. He has done so many albums which sound great like that.

This time around we wanted it to sound a bit tighter. We wanted the drums to be a bit more organic sounding.

To have a little bit more edge to it in the vocals, and a little bit more bite. I think he has definitely nailed that.

We came to work with Kevin because he has mixed all of my heroes, and I think he has mixed everyone’s heroes! Our manager sent him a message one day saying “Hey, this band would really love to work with you, please let us know if you’re interested.” He listened to us, replied straight back and said “Yeah, I’d love to.” So we’ve started a relationship with him, hopefully going forward we get to work with him again. I love what he does, and he is so good.

The acoustic track 'Glory Days' acts as a perfect closer to the album. Can you tell us about how it came together, and what you enjoyed the most about working on it?

Yeah, it’s interesting that we close an album with an acoustic ballad. I think it’s a nice way to set you up to want to listen to the album again. It came about because of the breakdown of a relationship in my personal life. I’ve never been this honest lyrically, about my mistakes, and my relationship. It was a really hard song for me to write, because I knew that the people who the song is about will hear it. In the studio, I cried when recording it, on the third take. Which is the one we ended up using the majority of. I felt like I needed to do that, it was almost like therapy recording that song. I’m really pleased with the way that it’s come out. It’s a really tough song to sing, and I don’t quite know how I’m going to do it live yet. It’s hard to listen to.

You've once again really pushed yourself as a singer on this album. So, how would you say you've approached it differently as a vocalist compared to what you did on the last album, or would you say it's mostly been the same process for you?

On the first and second album, I am so used to being told, and expected to be the singer. Everyone is like “He sings! Great singer!” I think that on this album I wanted to show people that I am a songwriter as well. That I could write lyrics that meant something. Not lyrics about the usual. I feel much prouder with this album, knowing that it is about people I love (and dislike). It’s an honest representation of my feelings.

Was there anything that you learnt from creating 'Inglorious II' that you maybe went on to apply to 'Road To Nowhere'?

We learnt that if an idea doesn’t work, then don’t spend ages on it. We’ve had songs that previously haven’t made albums. ‘Tomorrow’ on this new album, is a song that we had recorded for our original demos four years ago. It’s changed a considerable amount. So the riff is the same. That’s about the only exception. Apart from that, if we’re sitting in a room, and we’re feeling like the song doesn’t work, we do put it aside. We found it more important this time around. Before we recorded 18 songs and then picked a few for the album. This time we only recorded what we were going to do. So we had more time in the studio. More money to be able to put keys on there, more acoustic parts, percussion. More backing vocals. So that has made this album a slightly more produced album than our previous two. I’m really happy with that.

I wanted to ask about your work on 'War of the Worlds'! How did you get involved with that, and what was it like to work on?

Yeah, my manager actually sent my videos to Jeff Wayne. He requested to see me at his home studio. I went down there and recorded the song with him. He was blown away, so he signed me to do the tour. That was like a year ago. So I knew for a year that I was doing the job. It was amazing, I absolutely loved it. I got to play some of the biggest venues in the whole of England. Including the 02/MEN. All of these amazing rooms where I’ve seen so many of my heroes, so that was pretty cool. Also working in a production that big is just amazing.

Seeing a machine like that work. The amazing crew, the band, and the orchestra. It’s just a wonderful thing to see. We just turn up at 4 o clock for sound check. To know that the crew have been in there for 12 hours already, getting it ready for you to go on stage is just amazing. It’s really awesome. I loved the tour, and hopefully one day I’ll get to do it again.

Inglorious got to perform on the main stage at Download Festival last year. How was that, and what do you remember the most from that day?

The show was amazing. Playing the main stage at Download was unbelievable. We didn’t think that there’d be anyone there because Guns N’ Roses were on the night before. We were first on the Sunday morning, so we thought that everybody was going to be in bed, and no one was going to come and see us. We walked out on stage, and I think that there was about 10-12 thousand people there at 11 in the morning. So that was amazing. Then the other great thing about the day, is that my family came to watch. We spent the whole day together getting drunk, and watching the Ozzy Osbourne. It’s a big thing, and still something I hold as a life changing moment. It’s unbelievable to think that we’ve come this far.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

We’ve very excited. We are very ready, and you are probably going to get an equal amount of songs from each album that we’ve done. So the favourites from I-II, and then to show people some of the highlights from the third album. Also, more up and downs in the set. We’re a bit maturer. We want to play some slow stuff, and some heavier stuff. We want to take them on a real exploration through our back catalogue of three albums.

Also, I want to show off this new band because they’re amazing. There’ll be a moment in the show where soloists really get to let rip. I’m going to take a little moment for myself to sing a little cover as well. Maybe honour some people. It’s going to be about great music, tight musicianship, good performance, and lots of good songs.

What else can we expect to see from Inglorious in 2019?

Lots more festivals. Then we’ll be going on another tour later on in the year. Hopefully going to do an acoustic tour. A live DVD. We shall see. I don’t know, maybe a Christmas song!

Interview with Eugene

Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

It is really hard to pick a few highlights because truly 2018 was full of absolutely awesome events. I believe the Latin America tour is definitely in the top 5 for me, not only concertwise but also in terms of visiting some magnificent tourist attractions like Mexican Pyramids for example. Those shows were also super cool, especially in Santiago and Buenos Aires. Besides this the fall US tour gave us a lot of impressions too, we saw the Grand Canyon and the Niagara Falls, and such shows as our LA gig will always stay in my memory. And of course it is worth mentioning festivals, particularly Summer Breeze, Resurrection, Motocultor and Metal Days!

Those were incredibly insane performances.

So, how did you get to the EP title 'Micro', and what does it mean to you?

Well, on one hand isn’t it a perfect title for a mini-album? On the other hand it is the concept of the EP – paying attention to details and the inner world of our personalities and lives, getting deep inside, just like looking through a microscope.

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'Micro'?

Musicwise we do try not to follow trends while composing. We tend to let it go, or even flow naturally, omitting all sorts of limits and boundaries. As a result we manage to have diverse and unexpected material.

As for the lyrics and topics we covered, it ranges from anger to fear and from love to despair, in short words.

You've just unleashed 'Dreadful Moments', how did this track come together, and what did you find the most rewarding about working on it?

‘Dreadful Moments’ is a song which Vlad and I composed together back in May and then I wrote the lyrics which came very naturally, I just followed the feel of the music. This song is special for me for a few reasons… It is rather different from everything we had before, for the first time we managed to make a very dark song, we’ve never had anything like that! It has an almost doom-metal atmosphere. Together with very unorthodox musical transitions and ideas, it makes this song stand out not only on this EP but generally in the discography of JINJER.

What was the hardest song on 'Micro' to put together, and why?

I can’t say that any of the songs were hard to put together. ‘Dreadful Moments’ was hard for Tatiana vocalwise as she has always found it difficult to work with uneven rhythmical structures, but it seems this is it if we are talking about difficulties

Who produced the EP, and how would you say they helped shape it?

Once again we worked with Max Morton as a sound-producer, he worked with us on ‘Cloud Factory’ and ‘King of Everything’ before this. And once again working with him was a pleasure, Max somehow manages to understand us perfectly and implement all our ideas into reality. And on top of this Max always make his own contribution to the final result as a sound-producer.

How did the artwork for 'Micro' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Riley Schmitz is an author of the artwork and when we saw that work for the first time, we knew that this woud be the cover. It looks exactly like a photo takes through an electronic microscope!

Looking back on 'King of Everything', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Jinjer?

It was a huge step forward for us in all the respects, however now we are a bit tired of it, nothing negative, but it is time to move forward. And of course that was the album which helped us to breakthrough! Songs like ‘Pisces’ and ‘I Speak Astronomy’ may always stay on our set-lists live.

What made you want to re-issue 'Cloud Factory', and what did you find the most rewarding about revisiting the album?

It is easy! Nobody knew that album. It didn’t have any distribution or promo and this album really deserves it.

It is also a milestone in the history of JINJER. And finally this album got some well-deserved exposure.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK/European dates, and what can attending fans expect?

We have just played one-third of the winter tour with Amorphis, Soilwork and Nailed to Obscurity and it is going very well! Sadly we had to cancel our performance in London, but the rest of the package will play.

Again, Visa issues are a big pain in the ass for us, however we will definitely come back to the UK this summer to play at Download and Amplified Festival. So be ready for us to pay back all your long-term anticipation!

What else can we expect to see from Jinjer in 2019?

There are tons of plans for this year, just stay tuned and do not miss something important.

Interview with Ben

Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We started the year off with a little headlining run playing some smaller markets we hadn't been to in a while.

Then we got to go back up to Alaska and played a few nights at the Alyeska Ski Resort which is always fun.

Got to ride snow machines out to a glacier. After that we hosted our annual Lucero Family Block Party back in Memphis and had a great time. The Turnpike Troubadours were nice enough to come play that one. Over the summer we went on tour with our old friend Frank Turner for about a month. That was cool because we took the opportunity to play our then-yet-to-be-released new album ‘Among The Ghosts’ front to back every night.

Some folks liked that, some folks didn't. I loved it. We also got to go back to Red Rocks out in Colorado for the album release show. That place is always magical. We did the Americana Fest in Nashville and then hit the road for most of the fall on a big headlining tour for the new record. We wrapped that up by going to the U.K. for six shows. That was our year. One of the coolest things we've ever done, we made a short film directed by my brother Jeff Nichols for the song ‘Long Way Back Home’. You have to look it up.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Among The Ghosts', and what does it mean to you?

That line ended up in the last batch of lyrics I wrote for the record. I used it as a song title too and I'm pretty sure I wrote that a couple nights before our last day in the studio. So the album didn't have a title and that song didn't have lyrics until the very end of the writing process. The music to the song ‘Among the Ghosts’ was some of the first I'd written and I wanted the lyrics to be exactly right and it took a long time to find them.

When I wrote the line I was thinking about leaving my family behind to live on the road among ghosts. I was thinking about trying to continue to live among the dead. For what that's worth. Maybe the ghosts are people that lost their way, or dreams that are dead and gone. Some folks have taken it to mean the spirits of Memphis' past. I tried not to make it too specific in the song.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout 'Among The Ghosts'?

Family was a big theme on the record. My daughter had just been born when I started writing the record.

Leaving them behind to go on the road or back into the studio was always difficult. It's a kind of heartbreak I hadn't known before. So even though I'm happier than I've ever been there was this new kind of sadness in leaving them behind. There was also a new kind of seriousness and importance to everything. I had people in my life I cared about and that I wanted to be there for. The future mattered. Which was brilliant. But at the same time there was more to lose.

How did you end up working with Matt Ross-Spang, and how would you say he helped shape the album?

We've known Matt for a long time. We'd been wanting to work together on a full album for a long time. He has always been very driven and very focused, and I'm real happy that he's getting the credit he deserves for the work he's doing. We were lucky that he didn't pick up and move to Nashville. He's a Memphis boy and Memphis needs talented young folks like him to stick around. He knows how Sam Phillips meant that studio to be used and I believe he's making old Mr. Phillips proud.

What was the hardest song to put together on 'Among The Ghosts', and why?

With Matt Ross-Spang's help all of the songs came together very naturally. I'd work on the main parts of the songs and then bring them into the studio. We would all set up on the floor and just start playing. They came together fairly quickly, but then it was Matt's editing and mixing ear that really made them shine. ‘Back to the Night’ was interesting. It was originally twice as long as it is on the record and I never could figure out proper lyrics. So we chopped it down and asked the actor Michael Shannon (who has worked on all my brother Jeff Nichols' films) to do a spoken word piece on top of it. It was an experiment and unlike anything we had done before but I thought it turned out perfectly. I didn't know that's what that song would become but once it was there it couldn't have been any other way.

Can you tell us about how Memphis inspires your music, and why it has gone on to just be so crucial to the heart and sound of Lucero?

Like it says in neon lights as you cross the Mississippi River bridge, it really is the birthplace of Rock & Roll.

And even though those golden years were a long time ago you can still feel that history when you drive around the city streets. It's that history that keeps a guy like Matt Ross-Spang around. It's that history that inspires guys like me to write songs. You might never top what happened here in the past, but just getting to add a small footnote to the story of this town is fun as hell and a dream come true.

It's nearly been ten years since the release of '1372 Overton Park'. Looking back on the album, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

It was such a surprise. It was our first record with producer Ted Hutt and we learned so so much from him.

We couldn't have made ‘Among the Ghosts’ with Ross-Spang if we hadn't learned what we did with Ted. He is the first producer that really cared about the songs from the very beginning to the very end. We wrote and re-wrote and took it apart and put it back upside down. The process was very intense and very involved. And the end result was a huge step forward for us. The band had the most members it ever had, with Rick Steff on Keys and Todd Beene on Pedal Steel and Jim Spake on Saxophone and numerous trumpet players. And we were kind of just reveling in all these sounds and what types of songs the band could write and play. I had no idea how much fun I was having at the time. I'm very proud of the work we did back then.

What else can we expect to see from Lucero in 2019?

We will be opening for Flogging Molly in the Spring. And then doing more European shows and maybe some festivals. I have a feeling we will be playing here and there all through the year, with a longer headlining tour in the Fall. Hopefully we can find some time to get back in the studio with Matt Ross-Spang and see what kind of stuff comes together.

Interview with Björn and Bastian

So, how did you get to the album title 'Verkligheten', and what does it mean to you?

Bastian - It all started with David popping that idea a few years back, but at the time it was kind of weird I think. ‘Verkligheten’ means reality in Swedish and the album has a lot to do with reality and how you escape from it. The title is the perfect soundtrack to how this album turned out. It is very dark and full of Swedish melancholy, but somehow very uplifting, so I think that it was just the perfect and appropriate time for this title.

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'Verkligheten'?

Björn - The main theme I would say is the impossible balance between realism and escapism. With age you are sort of forced to face reality, but also need to find new ways to escape in order to stay sane. Some of the lyrics are full of escapism and some are more social realistic and it creates an interesting contrast.

How did you end up working with Thomas "PLEC" Johansson, and how would you say he helped shape 'Verkligheten'?

Bastian - Björn and David already knew Plec as he has been previously involved with their 80s rock band, but he also did the mastering of our special release ‘Death Resonance’.

Working with Plec was nothing but amazing. He is a really cool guy. He is very passionate and driven in a way that will make you do your best and have a good time doing it. Even the hard parts. He has done a killer job making ‘Verkligheten’ with us. I think he has taken the Soilwork sound even further and he has made a shining example of how we sound with this current lineup. I can easily see us working with Plec again in the future.

How did the artwork for 'Verkligheten' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Bastian - The artwork for ‘Verkligheten’ is made by French artist Valnoir and we wanted him to do something completely different from previous albums. The colours are very bright and nothing close to anything we have done before. The universe that is displayed on the cover is really backing up the album themes. Since a lot of it is about escaping reality and floating to somewhere else where you are sort of weightless and free from the constant confrontations of reality, I think you can say that the cover is an illustration of that place. It’s very spacey, almost fantasy-like and sums up the vein that runs through the album I would say.

How did Bastian Thusgaard become a part of Soilwork, and what did he bring to 'Verkligheten'?

Björn - It was actually Dirk who recommended him since he was a drum student of his. The transition was very smooth since Bastian was already touring with us by the time Dirk left permanently for Megadeth. I think that it definitely helped before approaching the songwriting for a new album. Bastian definitely had a big impact on this record and brought the extreme game as well as a fantastic stomp with a lot of finesse.

The record has the longest gap between any record. Why do you think this happened, or did it just naturally take that long?

Bastian - I think the gap between ‘The Ride Majestic’ and ‘Verkligheten’ was something we all needed by the end of the touring cycle for ‘The Ride Majestic’. It was a massive tour and we went so far with it. I jumped in half way and played like half a world tour. We had some very good experiences touring with ‘The Ride Majestic’, but due to the heavy touring schedule I think it left everyone a bit drained in the end. We all needed to recharge our batteries and find inspiration in order to get creative with Soilwork again. That sometimes calls for a break. It is also very important to us, not to release albums as an excuse to tour. There are enough of those out there and we always aim to come up with something different and to surprise our fans and ourselves. We also had a lot of time to write and record ‘Verkligheten’, and we have definitely put some serious effort into this album.

How did Tomi Joutsen & Dave Sheldon end up joining you on the album, and what were they like to work with?

Björn - I got inspired by the fact that we’re touring together with Amorphis and I’ve been a long time fan.

‘Tales of The Thousand Lakes’ was one of the soundtracks to my youth. When I was working on the song ‘Needles and Kin’ there was something missing and I was thinking of Tomi. He’s a master of low growls. Dave Sheldon is an old friend of mine from the time I was living in Toronto. I moved back to Sweden a couple of years and miss the times I had with Dave, who’s a brilliant musician so it only seemed natural to ask him to guest as well.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

Bastian - We are very excited to bring ‘Verkligheten’ to our UK fans on our upcoming tour dates. The response we have gotten for ‘Arrival’ and ‘Full Moon Shoals’ has been very positive, so we are definitely looking forward to bringing our new material to the live stage. The EU tour that we have with Amorphis in Feb is going to be a blast. The tour is a co-headline so we will have a new stage setup with us and our fans can expect a live performance full of new songs and of course the classics covering our career. You don’t want to miss it!

What else can we expect to see from Soilwork in 2019?

Bastian - We have a lot planned already, but it is always work in progress you know. We launch the release of ‘Verkligheten’ with a big EU Co-headline tour with Amorphis where we will bring Jinjer and Nailed to Obscurity with us. We will also go back to Australia, Japan and for the first time ever Singapore. We are really excited about that. The summer already looks very busy as well. I’m sure we’ll see all of you out there sooner or later.

Interview with Lou

Looking back on 2018, what have you been up to touring wise, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

This past year was such a big one for us. We toured with Starset, Jonathan Davis (Korn), two headlining tours and played a bunch of incredible festivals such as Shiprocked, Welcome to Rockville and Carolina Rebellion. We were also writing for most of the year and went into the studio with Howard Benson to record our new album ‘Erase the Pain’. Some highlights of the year were playing to massive crowds of about 40,000 people at the festivals and going to the Bahamas on a rock cruise to play for fans!

So, how did you get to the album title 'Erase The Pain', and what does it mean to you?

‘Erase the Pain’s’ title and artwork are very symbolic of our whole process making this record. While writing the album we were realising the topics we were talking about were very emotional and painful, not to mention the music was just coming out more aggressive than we ever have written before. This was just our moment to really let go and create something like this.

Can you elaborate on some of the other main themes and influences that run throughout 'Erase The Pain’?

The tonal message of this album is pretty dark. You can feel it in the emotion flowing throughout the music and lyrics. Some songs were about the pain of not being who someone wants you to be, some songs are about the feeling of being so low and not knowing where to go when you feel that way. It’s a journey on the darkness that life can take you down until you finally find the light.

What was the most challenging song from 'Erase The Pain' to put together, and why?

I think the most challenging song to put together was either ‘Fragile Bones’ or ‘Patient’. For ‘Fragile Bones’ we were stuck at the chorus musically and we had to really wrap our heads around which chords we wanted to use to make it as big as we wanted it to sound. ‘Patient’ on the other hand had like 10 different versions of the song so there was a lot of writing and re-writing until we finally nailed it.

How did the front cover for 'Erase The Pain' come together, and what does it mean to you?

We spent a lot of time creating mood boards over and over again to try and find the right image to reflect the album. We probably had over 60 pages of mood boards when we were done. Eventually we found this image of an ouroboros and it captivated us. We chose the ouroboros to represent this album because the ouroboros symbolise a never ending cycle. In life you will always have pain, but like the snake you can shed your skin and start over again. Your past doesn’t have to be your prison. Your pain doesn’t have to be your cage.

How did you end up working with Howard Benson, and how would you say he helped shape the album?

We’ve always wanted to work with a legend like Howard and our manager and label were able to set it up.

Being in the studio with someone like Howard is very interesting because he’s going to push you to get the best out of yourself as an artist. He really emphasised the message that you have to have meaning with what you’re writing. He’d say “We’re selling emotion here”, so he really got the best out of us and forced us to dig deep and pull out everything we were feeling.

You've just unleashed 'Fragile Bones'! Can you tell us how it came together, as well as a bit about the meaning behind this track in particular?

‘Fragile Bones’ started months before we went into the studio in a hotel room on tour. It was a very frustrating time of writers block for us so we were really at ends. We kept coming back to the song and I couldn’t figure out the lyrics to it to save my life. Frustrated, I sat and wrote about all of the pressures I had been feeling in my life and it finally started to click. When we were in the studio the chorus wasn’t coming together the way that we wanted until we made a chord change that pulled everything together. The song is about feeling the weight of someone who is trying to make you into something you’re not. I feel like that pressure is something that people go through daily from their workplace to their home life or in any other way as well.

Looking back on your self-titled album, how happy are you with it still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Palisades?

The self-titled in my opinion was our rebirth as a band. It was a bluntly honest and true album that we’re still so proud of to this day. We found our sound on that one and it’s set us down the path of music that will be our most mature and real art to date.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from your self-titled album at the moment, and why?

There’s definitely a few. We still love playing ‘Through Hell’ because it’s such an in your face song as well with more emotional songs like ‘Dark’ and ‘Memories’ because they just connect really well with our fans. Of course ‘Let Down’ is always fun because that’s the crowd favourite.

As a UK based magazine. We must ask, what do you enjoy the most about touring here, and are there any memories that just really stand out to you?

We love the UK so much. The people really care about music over seas and that’s so awesome to see.

We’ve gotten some UK flags with our logo on them given to us at concerts and that’s some of the coolest gifts we’ve ever received. Playing Reading and Leeds as well as Download Fest were two gigantic highlights in our career. We’ve even spent an American Thanksgiving at a Nando’s!

What else can we expect to see from Palisades in 2019?

With the release of ‘Erase the Pain’ expect to see a lot of touring and festivals and we’re going to definitely be heading back over seas. To all the fans out there make sure you follow us online and we can’t wait to come see you again!

Interview with Jason

How did your recent tour with Bring Me The Horizon go, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

The recent tour with Bring Me The Horizon went very well. I think that it was really important for us to see how far this message can go on a global scale. Rather than just focusing on the issues in America. We really saw that this message (which is what we intended) really does spread further than just one region, demographic or one issue. They actually find themselves throughout the world, and although they may dress themselves differently, at their core they are very similar. People want the same things. When you offer them an opportunity to discuss and change these things, they show how eager they are. That’s exactly what this tour did for us. Aside from them being amazing shows with a large attendance, I think that the fact the message was able to translate so well across the ocean was one of the biggest highlights about the tour.

You guys have received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Performance, congrats! How rewarding is this to you, and why do you personally think your live shows have gone on to become so iconic/special?

Of course it’s very nice to be recognised amongst our peers in a contemporary setting. As far as musicianship goes in our careers, as musicians goes. This idea of winning a Grammy is more than just grabbing a gold gramophone and putting it on a mantle as an accolade. I think that this is much bigger.

There’s a platform here that we can utilise to further the messaging. To spread the message even further.

So while we are very thankful and grateful for this nomination, we are going to make sure to take our message to the grammys, and utilise, like we said, this arena that we are given to spread the message, and show more than just our own circle or audience of people what we are talking about. It’s about getting this across to more people, ears, minds, hearts. Making sure that we talk the talk, walk the walk. That’s what we’ll be doing when we get to the Grammys this year As far as the demonstrations go. If there’s anything to be gleaned from them, or taken away from our shows. It’s very kind of you to say that our demonstrations are iconic and special, we appreciate that. If anyone is to consider that about our demonstrations I think it’s because there’s a sense of authenticity that we subscribe to as performers, as musicians. As people as well. If you bring your own authenticity into any skill or craft or experience, well then it’s recognised. Thankfully we’ve been able to hone in and inspire each other in very important ways as a unit. We continue to grow as a unit, and offer each other more inspiration, and incentive to do well when we perform on that stage. We also want to honour that.

We know that we are privileged. It’s very much a blessing for us to be on that stage each night. Saying what we say, how we say it. Doing what we do, and how we do it. We’re very lucky. The shows are supposed to portray that. They are supposed to portray our excitement, and our thankfulness to be on that stage.

When did the first glimpse of ‘Strength In Numb333rs’ come about? Was there a song, or particular moment, where you just knew that the album process had started?

Honestly the moment that I stepped into John Feldmann’s studio in Calabasas in February of 2017. When we wrote the song ‘We’re Coming In’ we had already began to write ‘Strength In Numb333rs’. We had so many songs. Even when the EP came out, we were sitting on so many songs. I think enough to write an album or to release an album. So, we continued doing so. Without seeming hyperbolic, it seemed as though this process was inherently prolific. We were able to write at least one song every time we stepped into the studio. We were able to create something we were proud of every time we came into the studio.

Whether that made it onto this album or not, we were able to put this together as a body of work. I think we have another albums worth already. We are granted the privilege of having studios of beautiful and high calibre, that are accessible to us at all times. We also have the privilege and honour of being a part of a collective that has extremely talented, dedicated and hard working people. I guess that combination of things lends itself to high productivity and creativity rates. From the moment we wrote the first song, I knew that the spark had been lit.

So, how did you get to the album title ‘Strength In Numb333rs’ and what does it mean to you?

The idea of ‘Strength In Numb333rs’ is very much how it sounds. What it sounds like. An idea of solidarity.

An idea of strength that we possess. Yes, as individuals, but we are greater, or we are a greater sum when we combine our parts. So this idea is also a play on the use of the number 3 obviously. That finds itself throughout many themes, if not all themes that relate to Fever 333. It’s reminding everyone of the idea of the three Cs. The community, the charity, the change. How these pieces are contingent upon each other.

They all hinge upon each other in order to make a better tomorrow. As well as a conscious decision to remind everyone of the foundation upon which this whole project lies. That is the three Cs. That is community, charity, change.

Who produced ‘Strength In Numb333rs’, and how would you say they helped shape the record?

John Felmann and Travis Barker were producers on this album. I think that they helped shape the record by bringing their expertise, their talent, their time, their passion. The type of investment that we received from them is beyond anything that we could of expected. The approaches and the ideas that were living outside of the realm of what we would of brought to the table initially, or what I would of done initially, was just really a blessing. In a very real way. I think that the largest piece of inspiration was their own passion.

Watching them operate as the musicians, and the artists that they are. The way that they create, craft. The drive after all these years, and all of this success. All this time that they put in to making the moves and art that they have. They still are some of the most driven and hungriest, artist/creators that I’ve ever encountered. So, the passion and their particularity unique drive. The investment that they showed us really did push this record into realms that I don’t know that otherwise it would of reached. Again, John Feldmann and Travis Barker, they are Fever 333, just as much as anyone else.

How did the music video for 'Burn It' come together, and what was it like to work with Djay Brawner?

The ‘Burn It’ video came together because Djay and I have worked together before. We worked very well together. I personally am quite particular with who I choose to work and share these ideas with. I always want to make sure that they are able to be realised in a way that’s unique/challenging. That can also be considered confronting, but I think that that is all a part of art. Djay feels the same way. So we met and we discussed directing this video together. As soon as we got into the conversation together, it all clicked, and it all made sense. He was very much on the same page. He wanted to see the same things that I did. He wanted to challenge conventions in the same way that I did, visually with the content. So, working with him was fantastic, and I plan on working with him in the future. I feel very lucky to of worked with him on such an important piece of art. Such as ‘Burn It’.

Interview with Josh

Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

Did a lot of fly dates and the whole summer was the Gen X summer tour with P.O.D., LIT, Alien Ant Farm, and us. We had some great shows, typical BC nights where we played a great set and hosted the party.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Warpaint', and what does it mean to you?

People and cultures use Warpaint to go into battle and to also celebrate huge milestones in their lives, the Indians were always so cool looking for me and an inspiration so that’s how I connect with it.

Can you elaborate on some of the main themes and influences that run throughout 'Warpaint'?

There was a lot of change taking place throughout the songwriting for ‘Warpaint’ some good and some painful and I just wrote from the heart and gave an honest interpretation of how it effected me. That always makes for good songs.

What was the hardest song on 'Warpaint' to put together, and why?

We did a lot of rewrites and we wrote so many songs to get to the batch that made the record. I think the biggest surprise was ‘BENT’ it took me a few swings to get a good chorus, the verse was so good we had to make the rest of the song work and it was frustrating at times but the end result is amazing.

What made you want to work with Mike Plotnikoff once more, and how would you say he helped shape 'Warpaint'?

Well first of all he’s a lovely human being and we wanted nothing but good people around us so that is first and foremost. We had a lot of success with ‘15’ and Mike has made a lot of successful records with the “active rock” type bands. We needed BC to grow and change sonically and he was the right fit.

Leading on from that, how would you say the sound of Buckcherry has progressed/changed since the release of 'Rock 'n' Roll'?

The things that were stunting BC’s growth have been removed and now we are back to doing what is best for BC. We are always working with our team and making adjustments to get better, we are becoming better songwriters on every record and we are passionate about what it stands for.

We've read that you "took into consideration all the factors and what this record means to, not only us, but the great BUCKCHERRY fans around the world" So can you elaborate on that, and maybe how the creative process for this record compares to anything that you've done before?

It simply means that we left no stones unturned, we did everything that was asked of us and kept our integrity intact. I don’t want to oversell this record, but let’s just say it’s damn good.

How did the idea come about for covering 'Head Like a Hole' and how did you go about taking the Buckcherry approach to the track?

We were just set up in the studio to track and it happened very organically, we were talking about covers and what would work with my voice, it had to be somewhat reckless. ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ is a great record and I love this song and the lyrics, so we jammed it out and it was a no brainer.

How did the artwork for 'Warpaint' come together, and what does it mean to you?

We wanted a young face that’s neither a boy or girl, with confidence in the eyes and Warpaint of course. we wanted an iconic image that would look good across the board.

Looking back on 'Rock 'n' Roll' how happy are you with that album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Buckcherry?

I’m happy with every record before I put it out, there are some great songs on that record. I don’t look back, only forward. We play songs of ‘RnR’ all the time and they are great live.

Is there anything that you learnt from creating 'Rock 'n' Roll', that you went on to apply to 'Warpaint'?

I learn every time I make a record, it just made me better at my craft.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

They can expect a celebration of life and their money's worth.

Always excited.

What else can we expect to see from Buckcherry in 2019?

You can see a great record cycle unfold with our new record ‘Warpaint’ dropping in March.

Inter

When did the first glimpses of 'Five' come together then? Was there a particular song or moment maybe?

The first writing sessions that we did for the album were at the end of the summer 2017. We started as we always do, by writing a couple of songs that don’t really make it, because it takes a bit of time to get back into it. We wrote songs like ‘Finish Line’ and ‘Kick Me’ on the record quite early on. I feel like the acoustic guitar was something that we did quite early on in the writing session. I remember that because it’s something that we haven’t ever really used before on any of our music. That was exciting when that came together.

So yeah, we started in the same way that we always do. Charles came over here to my flat in London. We work from my spare bedroom for a few weeks at a time. It all comes together that way, bit by bit. A slow process. We write a lot of stuff that never really goes anywhere. We did the writing in patches here and there for a few weeks at a time.

You took a trip to LA with producer Ed Buller. Can you tell us about that time, and how it helped shape the album?

Ed is a long time collaborator of ours. He has worked on three of our previous records. We went and worked with him just to get the songs into a better shape basically. He has always been the person who has understood our music the best. He takes apart the songs, and is very bluntly honest with you about them. For example, he’ll say “That verse is no good, you need to change that!” Then you have to change it! It’s good, and nice to have that honesty. If you roll with it and try and make suggestions work, often they work out really well. Basically he helped us with the songwriting and the arrangements of the songs before we went to the studio. I’m really glad that we had that time, because we wrung another 20% out of a lot of the songs, and improved them a lot. It’s always a pleasure to work with him.

Alan Moulder, Flood and James Brown also came in to help as well right? Can you tell us about what they all brought to 'Five'?

So we made our previous record ‘Friends’ at least in part with James Brown. We worked with him for a couple of weeks on it. He’s just an amazing engineer. One of the best I think in the world. Especially for doing the kind of music that we do. In the studio it’s really inspiring to work with people who can work fast, and he works really fast. If you have an idea of something that you want to try, a certain sound that you have in your head. Even if you’ve pulled a sound from another song, whatever it might be, a piece of 70s rock, 80s pop, a ballad from somewhere. He can make that happen really fast, it’s great. Over the years, I’ve found people like that really enjoyable to work with. We fit together with them well. When you find those people, you want to work with them as much as possible.

It’s the same with Ed, and Alan Moulder. We’ve worked with Alan on two of our records before. We just know that he is one of the best mix/engineers probably ever. We know that he is going to get the most out of whatever we are doing, and what we are doing with the album. I think he did such an amazing job on this album, especially on songs like ‘Time To Give’, because he had to do so much arrangement for that in the mix. A lot of what he did is really musical and perfect for what we were hearing in the songs and on the album. We were so thrilled to be working with him again, and he is such a nice bloke.

rview with Harry

Then with Flood, it was just a pleasant surprise. Flood and Alan have worked together and owned that studio for years. He was working on something else, just pottering around in the studio. He’d pop in every now and then, and listen to the progress that we were making with the record. I think that he liked it, and he had a few ideas and things that he wanted to try.

So he said that he’ll come in one afternoon and work through them all. That’s exactly what he did, and the contributions he made to the album were great. Mainly the synth content. He did a lot on songs like ‘Tokyo’ and ‘Believe It’ which we were really thrilled with. We were just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

Flood is an amazing producer. He thinks outside of the box, and comes up with ideas that no one else will be able to come up with. It’s a great pleasure to work with someone like that.

By having so much support and input on the record, was this maybe an attempt to have more creative freedom than ever before? As it really seems like you wanted the record to sound exactly how you envisioned?

I think it’s fair to say, that we were probably more creatively free. We tried a lot of ideas on this record that we hadn’t tried before. I mentioned earlier about the couple of tracks with acoustic guitar on them. I know that isn’t something particularly wild, but for us that was something very new. Something that we’ve not really tried before. We did feel more confident on this record to try things like that. Also, we felt confident enough to not pull the songs too far away from what they were originally, when we were writing. On every record when you are writing (On our last couple of records), you often try really weird things, and put those ideas in some weird places. When we’ve made records previously, we’ve watered those ideas down a lot, just to pull the record together, make it more coherent, and for the songs to sound similar to each other. We definitely worried about that a lot less on this album. With ‘Five’ we really tried to push those ideas further in a different direction. We worried less about the coherence of the record. We focused on the variance on it, making the songs sound quite different to each other. That whole idea of taking a journey with the music. Getting a different vibe, or feel from the record. It was something that we were really keen to explore, and I think that we did that on this record. We feel very proud of that, and very proud of the album.

We know that this is of course your fifth album, however, is that really all there is to the story behind the album title?

The nostalgia was in our minds. Approaching ten years as a band in January.

What that means for our career, and where we are at. So ‘Five’ is a nice title in that respect because it marks the passage of time, and how far we’ve come, and the albums that have come before it. Then also, we were up against it timing wise when we were coming up with an album title. Charles suggested it, and we were like “Yeah, that’s perfect.” So we stuck with it. For me, it’s kind of a nostalgic thing. Being ten years in, five albums in, and thinking about what that means. It felt like an appropriate title for that reason.

Once again you've really pushed yourself with your vocal performance on this record, but for you, how would you say you've approached this album differently as a vocalist? Or maybe it's just been a similar approach?

I’ve learnt a lot about how to sing over the years. I’ve probably learnt more about the way to sing properly than anything else, in the process of making the music we’ve made, and playing the shows as well. I’ve never been much of an actor I suppose. I’ve always found it hard in the past to impart emotion into my singing, and to make it intimate. To get the meaning of the lyrics across. I think that I’ve learnt a lot about that. I found it much easier on this album to do that.

To perform a lot more when we were recording the vocals.

I think I’ve always done that in the past at our shows. The shows are constantly evolving, and the way that I sing constantly evolves. When you live with the songs for so long it becomes really easy to impart that feeling/intimacy into those tracks. I thought about that a lot when we were recording the album. Like, “How am I going to do that? How am I going to feel about these songs when we are three months into touring them? How is that going to change them?” So I lived with the songs for a long time as well. In the studio, I wouldn’t say that we did loads of takes on the tracks, but we did do quite a few. A lot to get the performance right. It’s just a confidence thing for me. Figuring out how to get that emotion and that intimate feeling into the music. I have got better at doing that.

When it comes to the lyrics, we are aware that Charles covers most of this, but if possible, could you tell us about some of the lyrical content or themes that run through the album?

This album is tied together less than the previous one. A lot of people know that the previous album had a loose concept behind it. Being about a person arriving in a new city, and what that means, the emotions behind that. What that process of assimilating into a new culture feels like. This album doesn’t have any theme behind the lyrics. I feel like they all deal with what Charles has always written about best, which is kind of people’s personal feelings and emotions towards events, and things that happen in their lives. It’s always from a very personal space, Charles’ lyrics. The only other thing I really need to say is that I’ve always found it very easy to sing Charles’ lyrics. I think that they always carry a lot of feeling in them. They sit very well with music. He is great at writing those kind of lyrics. I am very grateful that we have someone like that in our band. I’ve always found it extraordinary that Charles is able to write lyrics so quickly, and I did feel like he wrote quite quickly on this album, quite spontaneously. In the writing process, we would get a chord progression and a rhythm together, and kind of loosely put a melody over it. He is great at just sitting words into that melody and making them work. I feel very close to Charles’ music. They suit the music and the band so well, and they are so much a part of who we are as a band musically.

It's nearly been ten years since the release of 'To Lose My Life...'. Looking back on the album, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

I feel like we were rabbits in the headlights, the whole time that we were making that album. We were so lucky to have Ed Buller and Max Dingel producing it. They really held our hand through that process. In the end we came out with a really good record. One that has given us our whole career. There are so many riffs on the first album I suppose. Being quite young that we were, but also as a band with not much experience you often make a load of really weird decisions. Often a lot of mistakes. It’s whether those mistakes, kind of come together, and make something. It’s purely by accident whether you stumble across something that’s unique and interesting about your music. I feel like the mistakes on that album always turned the album in a good direction, and put us in a good place. So we were very lucky in that respect. Also, we were very lucky to be guided by those two producers, and all the people who were working with us at the time. Back then we just wouldn’t of been able to do it. I think that we found part of that process really hard, because we were so young. Feeling the pressure, and the weight of expectation. Even just the money that people were putting behind it. It was more money than we ever even thought about before. To make that album, to record it. To be in a position to do that, and for it to be a success was amazing. We look back very fondly on that time, and we learnt so much. We feel very close to that album.

How did the music video for 'Believe It' come together, and what was it like to work with David Pablos?

We made a couple of videos on the last album with David, and it was just me last time. I had been to Tijuana to make the video for ‘Take It Out On Me’ on the last album. I just had an incredible experience there. I would go as far to say that it really changed my life in how I viewed the world in a lot of ways, and how I felt about Mexico. Also about other culture, people. I just had a wild time making that video, and I met so many people that I would’ve never of got to cross paths with. Not in a million years. To have that experience is one of the great pleasures of being in a band. When you go to a new place like that. Especially in Tijuana as well. It’s such a weird city. It’s not necessarily on the beaten path that many bands follow. We spent like a week there.

It was an incredible experience. We were there with people who knew the city, and grew up there. They can take you around and show you these amazing places, and introduce you to these amazing people. There’s so much about the city to love. It’s also such an interesting place politically, with it being right on the border, with everything going on with Trump. It’s just a really wild and amazing place. I’d recommend anyone visit it.

Perhaps especially if you’ve got someone who knows the city well.

Working with David is amazing, he’s just a great, creative guy, and an amazing director. I think that his capacity for hard work and dedication to making something great is amazing. It’s definitely something that I would struggle with. He pulled together an amazing couple of videos for this album. He ran around the city like a mad man. He pulled in like 8-9 locations a day. It was incredible. He’ll always be a dear friend to the band. We’ll always really admire what he does, and how he does it. We love David. I think that also, he has opened us up to a whole new audience in Mexico. We are playing quite a few shows in Mexico this year. I don’t know if we’ve announced them all yet, but we are playing a couple more shows outside of the Mexico City ones. We love going there. To make the music videos there, and play there, is a great pleasure for us.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

We are very excited. It’s been a long time since we’ve been on the road. I think that part of the excitement for us is that we get to go into the rehearsal studio as well. Which is something that we never do. We don’t rehearse before we record an album. We just go into the studio and piece it together from the foundations of the demo. It’s a whole new experience. You have a whole new understanding of the songs, when you go and rehearse for a tour. I’m excited to see how the songs are going to shape up, and how they are going to develop as we rehearse them. Also how they are going to develop once we start touring. Piecing the show together. We want to put together a show that people want to see. Our fans can expect us to play songs from across all of our albums, and hopefully we’ll cover all of the songs that people want to hear. We are just really excited to play. We always work hard on delivering a good show. We are excited to do that again. Hopefully we won’t disappoint anyone! We are just super excited to get out there and play again. Find our feet in the live shows again. The shows at the beginning of a tour are always kind of the best. For us we are always slightly terrified about the new material that we are playing. That fear, and nervous excitement is part of what makes the shows really great. Especially when they’re good, and they come off. So yeah, we’re really looking forward to it.

Interview with Mike

Touring wise, what did you get up to in 2018, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

2018 was a busy year for us in supporting the new ‘VOICES’ album. We hit festivals like Rocklahoma and Metal in the Mountains, Memorial Day Meltown with Saliva and Blue Ridge Rock Festival with Lamb of God. In between we hit a small headlining run throughout the SE and ended out the year with a Canadian Tour with Fozzy, Jared James Nichols and Deadset Society for the Judas Rising Tour as well as the Stitches and Scars Tour with Like a Storm and Palisades.

So, how did you get to the album title 'Voices', and what does it mean to you?

After writing was complete it was apparent that the overall theme to the majority of the songs dealt with dealing with internal issues and emotions, and at the core internal ‘VOICES’ determining the outcomes.

What was the hardest song on 'Voices' to put together, and why?

I would have to say ‘Underneath my Skin’. It was the last song to write to complete the album and we set the benchmark pretty high with every song leading up to it.

Our writing philosophy was to make the next song better than the last so we gave the album our all and made the last song the most difficult.

How did you end up working with Damien Starkey, and how would you say he helped shape 'Voices’?

Damien is a very close friend and extremely talented! We were looking to make a shift artistically and I knew Damien could help us accomplish what we were looking for. Damien was a major contributor in all aspects of making this album so special.

Leading on from that, how would you say the sound of Farewell To Fear has grown/changed on this release?

The sound achieved on ‘VOICES’ was a major leap forward for Farewell to Fear, but necessary to where we wanted to go with it. In my opinion, you have to continue to change, grow and try new things in order to stay relevant and avoid staying in the same place for too long.

How did the artwork for 'Voices' come together, and what does it mean to you?

We wanted something that was classic and dark, just like the material on the album. We went through many images to capture what we were looking for and this one clicked!

The response to 'Underneath my Skin' has been pretty huge. Can you tell us about how that track came together, as well as what it means to you?

As mentioned earlier, ‘Underneath my Skin’ was the last track written on the album and we wanted to make sure that it was as good, if not better than any track on the album. ‘UMS’ was also a product of trying new things and stretching our ability to create a hard hitting emotional song that could cross over into mainstream / active rock (It ended up #29 on Billboard MRI!).

Have you started work on any new material just yet, if so, what can we expect from it?

Quite honestly, we have been so focused and excited to support the ‘VOICES’ album and play these song live we haven’t put too much energy into new material just yet, although the thought has entered our minds.

What else can we expect to see from Farewell To Fear in 2019?

I feel like 2019 will be a break out year for the band with new tours and festivals for sure! Connecting to our fans and the opportunity to create new ones is our number one goal and can only be done by meeting them in person. I’m pretty sure you can also count on a NEW album release, Q-4 of 2019 as well.

Interview with Craig

Looking back on 'I Am Human', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Escape the Fate?

I’m very happy with it, ‘I Am Human’ is one of the songs I am most proud of creating. Something my mom and kids can be proud of ya know?

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'I Am Human' at the moment, and why?

I love playing ‘Broken Heart' and ‘Do You Love Me' as the crowd always sings along loud. Love that.

What do you think you learnt the most from creating 'I Am Human' as a musician?

I learned that sometimes a good melody is all you need to create a good song. This was our first album where a voice memo from my phone turned into the title track.

Tough question time. Looking back on 'I Am Human', which song would you say was the hardest to put together, and why?

In my personal opinion ‘I Will Make It Up To You' was difficult to lock down, the why is simply because it was a Robert song and those are usually good ideas but tough to finalise. Haha.

It's been ten years since the release of 'This War Is Ours', so looking back, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

I remember being overly stressed considering it was my first album under the ETF name.

You're doing a tour to play the album in full. Have there been any particular songs that you've really enjoyed re-visiting? If so, which ones, and why?

Songs we never really played live like ‘On To The Next One' or ‘Let It Go' have been a lot of fun to play.

So for you, why do you think the album went on to relate to so many people all over the globe?

Does anyone really know how or why certain things connect? Trust me if I knew the formula I’d continue to recreate it haha, all I can say is I’m very happy it did and very humbled we are able to celebrate it by performing a 10 year run.

So of course, how excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

Well attending fans can expect what we always bring, a hell of a good time!

What do you remember the most about touring in the UK/Europe for the first time?

I’d have to say it’s what I don’t remember that I remember. But the simple answer is “Amsterdam”.

What else can we expect to see from Escape The Fate in 2019?

More shows, more music, more us.

Interview

Let's start straight off by discussing the short hiatus the band took. Why did this happen, and how important do you think it was for you to do this at that time?

Over a year ago, we wrapped up touring for the last album ‘Where The Light Shines Through’, and it really felt like we wanted to hit the pause for the band, take a break from touring, be home with our families. Really focus on our personal lives. Kind of give the band a rest. Give ourselves some space. It was an incredible year for us, to be home. It was very rejuvenating. It really gave us a new perspective.

What made you want to get back together so soon then?

What eventually ended up happening was that we love music. We love making music together. During the course of the year we found ourselves working on music because of the joy of it. Not under the pre-tense of a job, or a band. Or anything like that. It was really refreshing to kind of approach music with a new perspective.

A rekindling of the reasons of why we play music in the first place.

w with Chad

So, when did the first glimpses of the album 'Native Tongue' come together?

I don’t remember exactly which song came first. I do remember Jon was working on the idea for the song ‘Let It Happen’. Which is the first song on the album. For me it was appropriate to lyrically have a song like that.

Coming out of this time at home, not knowing what the future holds. Just sort of approaching the future with open hands. I really resonated with that concept. I remember telling Jon that we’ve got to work on this as a band. This is too good, and fitting at this point in our lives. The three of us, Jon, Tim, and myself just came in and started jamming on that. It came together very quickly. It felt very reminiscent of the earlier sound of Switchfoot. Guitar driven, rhythmically reminiscent of an era that is very fond to me, the ‘Nothing Is Sound’ album, and the tours that we did around that time.

How did you get to the album title 'Native Tongue', and what does it mean to you?

The concept is really simple. All of us live in this society, this culture. That’s speaking out of fear/hatred very often. I think that the concept of the native tongue being love is forgotten. We have more in common with each other, than we often realise. We focus so much on our differences these days, and knowing that as humans our first language was that of love. You’re born into this world, and then you’re given time and attention, comfort. Those things are eventually forgotten. So I think that the concept of that song is that hatred is not our native tongue, love is.

What do you enjoy the most about producing your own material, and what did that creative control bring to 'Native Tongue'?

This is our most diverse record stylistically, that we’ve ever made. I think maybe that is because we produced it ourself. We didn’t have anyone in the room to sort of keep us in any rules, or guidelines. There were no rules. We were on hiatus, and we were at home making music because of the joy of it. I think that that is evident in the music.

How did you end up working with OneRepublic on the track 'Native Tongue' and can you tell us about how that song came together?

We met those guys over the years at different festivals, and had stayed in touch. Played some shows together. We have a mutual admiration for their songwriting, and as musicians. The opportunity came up to work with Brent and Ryan. They definitely leant some production ideas, and some songwriting ideas to a couple of the tunes on the record. I think it’s sort of a beneficial thing as an artist when you have a sparring partner. When you’ve got someone else that is pushing you. It’s different than maybe working with a traditional producer, when it’s actually a peer. It’s someone in a band that gets the kind of music that you enjoy making.

You can push each other.

Another song that has a really interesting and unpredictable structure is 'Dig New Streams', so can you also tell us how that one came together, and maybe what you think it adds to 'Native Tongue'?

We jokingly refereed to this record as ‘Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band’ and what Queen would sound like in 2018. Growing up we had a very wide variety of musical influences. Definitely that whole ‘Sgt. Pepper’s’ sound, the whole kitchen sink, and no rules. Taking a song into different territory musically in a few minutes time. ‘Dig New Streams’ is that. It’s a real journey. For me it’s probably the most ambitious single song that we’ve ever recorded.

So, how did Kaela Sinclair end up joining you on the track 'The Hardest Art', and what did she bring to it?

Kaela Sinclair has got an incredible voice. We are big fans of the band M83. We definitely wanted a female voice on that particular song. To capture the lyric. With the song itself, the lyrics have a beautiful concept. Very poetic, and hypnotic. It’s definitely got some of that dance element on it, compared to some of the other tracks on the record. We just wanted to explore that with the female voice. She was kind enough to sing on the track, and we loved it. We definitely had to have it on the album.

I wanted to ask you. As a drummer, how would you say your approach to this album has compared to anything that you've done before?

Exploring new sonic landscapes with some electronic sounds. Then also going back to our roots with the song ‘Let It Happen’ where it was sort of the three, bass, drums, guitar. That trio of instrumentation from our early years. Not being afraid to go back to that. Sometimes as an artist you don’t want to re-visit territory, you are always pushing for new sounds. It was both. It was sort of a nostalgic time for me this last year, to be home, and actually pull out some of my old drums. That I hadn’t played in a long time. To set them up, and dust them off. Sounds inspire songs. In the course of the last year at home, we definitely took it in all different directions sonically.

Tough question time. What was the hardest song on 'Native Tongue' to put together, and why?

I would say a song like ‘Voices’ was challenging. It’s all about the nuance and the subtlety of the sounds, and the parts. You can’t hide behind a big rock drum sound. It’s got to be subtle and to fit into the space of the song. That one was challenging. I think we pushed ourselves into new territory.

How did the music video for 'Voices' come together, and what was Brad Davis like to work with?

Brad is just an incredible musician and visual artist. That particular video really captures the concept of how the song is talking about how we are all surrounded by the noise, the chaos, and the voices. Within our own head. That struggle, human struggle to define that clear voice, that true north. Visually that video really captures that feeling of the distraction and the chaos around us. The process of the video was really fun. We shot it here in San Diego in our hometown. We went down to a rougher part of town, late at night. We were carrying a bath tub down the street, and got a lot of strange looks from some of the homeless people wondering why in the world there’s this band filming with a bath tub in the middle of the night. It seemed appropriate for the song. It fit the concept.

Looking back on 'Where the Light Shines Through', was there anything that you learnt on this record, which you maybe went on to apply to 'Native Tongue'?

With ‘Where the Light Shines Through’ It brought back a lot of the guitar sounds of Switchfoot. There’s a lot more guitars on that record, than the previous record. I think that we continued in that on this record. I think that there’s a return to some of that guitar driven rock that we are known for in the past. For me it was definitely something we learned that we enjoyed during the touring of our last record. A lot more guitar solos!

So, what do you want the listener to take away from 'Native Tongue'?

Conceptually the title track is really the tip of the spear. Music and art can sometimes feel like a way for an artist to throw punches at the conflict that we see in the world, and what’s coming at us. For me, I do believe that the concept of love being stronger than hate is important in this day and age. When I turn on the news I often get overwhelmed and turn it off. It is reassuring to me to remember that there is hope, and that there is truth in the world. Through these songs it was a cathartic experience for us, to be reminded of that. To explore that hope.

'You Found Me' was released as a single to promote the sequel to the film Unbroken.

How did that happen, and can you tell us about what you enjoyed the most about working on this track in particular?

Absolutely. The story of Unbroken is about a soldier during World War II. POW hero. That resonated with me personally. Both of my grandfathers fought in the war. My father was in the military. I have a lot of respect for those that are willing to serve the country in that way. So when we were asked to write a song for Unbroken: Path to Redemption I felt this sense of honour to be involved with a project like that. That means something to so many people. The song came about very quickly, the producer of the film really resonated with that particular song and lyric. It fit the end of the film really well. We were honoured to be a part of it.

It's been ten years since the release of 'Hello Hurricane', looking back on that album, what do you remember the most about putting it together?

It’s great, and amazing. It’s a gift. To have the longevity that the band has had, and to still enjoy those songs today. ‘Hello Hurricane’ for me, is one of, if not my most favourite album that we’ve ever made. We toured that record, playing every song in order, the entire album, from front to back. Maybe it was the most complete piece of work that we’ve ever created. It felt like one story. I’m very proud of that record. Still am today. We still play those songs. There’s very few records that we play that many songs off, but that was a very good one for us.

So, what else can we expect to see from Switchfoot in 2019?

We are excited to be back together touring this year. To be playing songs from ‘Native Tongue’. We’ve been rehearsing here in our studio, it’s just been an amazing time lately. Everybody is very excited about the new music. Going back on the road. We are privileged to be able to play these songs live. That’s where we live and breathe as a band, with the live show. It’s always been a two way conversation with our audience. We are excited to deliver these songs first hand.

As this interview sees us look back on the career of Taking Back Sunday, we wanted to start with an older question. At what moment did you realise that you had the potential to make this band your career, and how exciting/life changing was that for you at the time?

There were a couple of moments that I felt like that. There was one moment at practice while we were writing ‘Great Romances Of The 20th Century’ where I felt like the band was at a new level and once people heard that song and what we were doing that we were going to take off. Also, in the very beginning of our touring for ‘Tell All Your Friends’ we were playing Irving Plaza in New York City and there was a crowd reaction like we had never seen before. It was an amazing feeling and it was nice to see people reacting that way. We couldn’t believe it when we were done with the set and that was really the beginning of the success of Taking Back Sunday.

Let's fast forward now then. Looking back on 2018, what did you get up to touring wise, and can you give us a couple of personal highlights from your time on the road?

We did a fantastic Ampitheater tour with Coheed and Cambria this past summer. It was a lot of fun for a bunch of different reasons. They are a great group of guys, it was summer outdoors and I hope we can do that with them again sometime in the future.

So, how and when did the idea for 'Twenty' first come about?

Interview with Mark

The band started out in 1999 so the idea came about when we sat down to start planning our 2019. We realised it may be good to take time to celebrate it and we also recorded a few new songs to show that we’re not going anywhere. So we put that together as the album with an awesome cover and it is out now!

Can you tell us about the process of actually deciding which tracks you wanted to go on 'Twenty'?

When we play live you could tell what songs people go the craziest to and that’s kind of how we chose the songs for ‘Twenty’.

What did you find the most rewarding about looking back over your career?

The most rewarding thing is the fact that we still have a career. We are incredibly lucky people. I think every single time that we go to the studio to make a new track, we go in there knowing that it has to be the best thing that we’ve ever done and I think that’s what helped us stay around.

How did the front cover/album artwork for 'Twenty' come together, and what does it mean to you?

Well we’ve been using the panther a lot so we talked to an artist who had done some great tour posters for us and asked if he had any ideas. He came up with a few and then Adam worked with him to get it to be exactly what we wanted. It has the elements that represent us on there and it’s really cool art. We just saw the finished version and it’s very nice in person and LP size!

Can you tell us about how the new songs 'All Ready To Go' and 'A Song For Dan' came together, and what they were like to work on?

‘All Ready To Go’ was an idea that Shaun and I went into the studio in Long Island and laid down. We had the first idea for the music. We sent the track to John and Adam in North Carolina and they put their ideas to it and that’s how we ended up with that.

‘A Song For Dan’ is an incredibly sad song about losing somebody close to you when you least expect it. Dan was a very close friend of ours that is no longer with us. He was the inspiration behind that song.

Looking back on 'Tidal Wave', how happy are you with this album still, and what do you think it's done for the representation of Taking Back Sunday?

I love ‘Tidal Wave’. And I think it’s helped the band show people that we are here to stay.

As a UK based publication. We must ask, what do you remember the most about touring in the UK for the first time?

A lot of things pop in my mind right off the bat when I read this question. One of them is sitting at whatever venue we were playing in London and looking out the window with Adam at the line with all the people waiting to get into the venue. It was a crazy thing because we had no idea if people were going to come to see us or not and the show ended up being sold out. It was a pretty great experience.

What songs are you still really enjoying performing live from 'Tidal Wave' at the moment, and why?

‘Tidal Wave’ and ‘You Can’t Look Back’ seem to be the songs that go over the best from that album. They are really fun to perform live.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK/European tour, and what can attending fans expect?

We’re always very excited to go to the UK and Europe. You can expect us to put on a high energy show that’ll kick you right in the arse. WATCH OUT!!!!

What else can we expect to see from Taking Back Sunday in 2019?

A lot of shows with us at our best!

Interview with Paul “Pablo”

There's notably a bit of a gap between 'Wildness' and ‘Fallen Empires’, so can you tell us about that time, and what the road leading up to your latest release has been like?

We haven’t done anything in five years. We all had a break, as we’ve been a band for 22 years now. We’ve been on tour or recording an album for most of that time. We’ve never really had a break, so we decided to have one. I was living in Los Angeles, so was Gary. I built a recording studio, and was running that as a business. Everyone had their different side projects. Gary had Tired Pony, with the guys from REM, and Nathan had Little Matador. I played in a band with Nate from Foo Fighters, Lieutenant. So we had that project.

We just had different things going on. Once we decided that we had enough time off, we just started the album. Gary had a lot of problems with the lyrics. He is quite a perfectionist. A lot of bands think of it as secondary, but he spent a lot of time on them. We had the bases of a lot of the songs on the album, but he wanted to get the lyrics done before we went into the studio. So it was a different way of doing it this time. He took a bit of time to do that. So that took about a year, trying to get that sorted. Then the album itself was recorded really fast, in a month or so. It was good to have a bit of a break. It felt like enough time.

So, when did the first glimpses of 'Wildness' come together then? Was there a particular song maybe, that really started the process?

There’s a song called ‘Life On Earth’. That’s the pivotal moment on the record, and that’s what the whole album is kind of about. Lots of different stories about ‘Life On Earth’ all the different natures that come with being alive. That song had to be right for Gary, with the lyrics and the sentiment. I feel like that one took him the longest to write. Once he had done that, and finished that. I think that he had the confidence, and then the rest just poured out. So yeah, that was the moment.

So, we must ask, how did the band get to the album title 'Wildness', and what does it mean to you?

‘Wildness’ means so many different things. It sums up like ‘Life On Earth’ in some ways. The inherent instinctive natures that people have. One of the lyrics in ‘Life On Earth’ is “Ancient Wildness”, it’s to do with the ancient wildness, and the inherent nature of human beings. What’s been built into/intoxicated you from living in society. The imagery as well, just being totally wild, and crazy. I just think that it’s a cool word, and it suits the whole thing. It’s a little bit about ‘Wildness’ as well. Gary stopped drinking and doing drugs, so it’s kind of a reflection on that wildness and aspect of his life. So, it can have quite a few meanings. Especially to Gary.

There are certainly some intense lyrics in there, that are of course cathartic to Gary. So how rewarding has it been for you to see him pen these lyrics and overcome some troubling times for him over the years?

Oh it’s amazing. I had no doubt that he could. I think that by having that amount of time away from it, made him more self-critical. Having a departure like this, people are going to judge it so much more when you’ve been away and you come back with something. Probably in the back of his mind he was thinking a little bit about that. It’s kind of weird. Five years seems like a lot, but a lot of bands do that. They take five years off all the time, and nobody seems to really notice. It doesn’t really feel like anyone has noticed with us. Everyone has been like “Oh yeah, they did have time off!” and we’re like “Yeah!” I always knew Gary would overcome, but I just think he needed to go through that process. The minute he got on stage for the first time for this album cycle, and sung those songs, especially like ‘Life On Earth’. After that amount of time writing it, it actually came into fruition when he played it in front of the crowd. That was the very moment that he knew that “Right, that’s it, I’ve done it!” I think he was pretty pleased with it, and that it meant a lot to him.

The album does have a feel of hope to it as well though right?

Yeah! I think that’s the case with a lot of our songs. Especially with songs like ‘Chasing Cars’, ‘Run’ and all that. People think that they’re sad songs, but they are actually very hopeful. There’s nothing we write that is negative and miserable.

So, how did you end up working with Jacknife Lee once more, and how would you say he helped shape the album?

Yeah, so Jacknife has been with us since ‘Final Straw’. So that’s since 2003, and he has basically done all of our albums that have been successful in our later career. He is also part of the band. He’s almost like an extra member really, and we all sort of work together when we make a record. It just seems weird to do it without him. We were thinking about it for ‘Wildness’ but then it had been so long, that we had wanted to be back to what we know. We didn’t want to add another element into all of it. It’s good to have someone that’s not really in the band, but as close as someone else who would be in the band. They have more perspective, because we do this every day, and they get a break from it all, so he is kind of like the perfect person to do it. He’s cool because he records all of these other bands, and learns tons of stuff. So every time we come back, he is like “Well I learnt this from this band!” etc. It’s cool to have his experience.

This is your first album with Johnny McDaid as a full member of the band, how did he join, and what did he bring to the process?

Well Johnny is an amazing multi-instrumentalist. He can play guitar, piano etc. He has been playing with us for a very long time, off and on. He has been a friend of the band for a long time. He started playing with us, at the beginning of the album before the last one, but now he has officially joined, and this is the first album he has played on. It’s kind of different because he is such a great piano player. So, a lot more songs are centred around that. We tend to just write from guitar, and the keyboards we had before were more synth sounds or samples of little sounds. We’ve never had somebody in the studio that was playing piano, and being an actual proper keyboard player. It’s been quite nice to have the songs starting from a different perspective on different instruments.

Leading on from this, how would you say you've grown as a bass player as you put 'Wildness' together?

It’s not that crazy! I’m always getting better on bass. The thing is, I got thrown straight into it head first, because the first gig we did, I’d never played bass before. So I’m always learning. I was a terrible bass player when we started. I could play guitar, but that doesn’t mean that you can play bass. It took nearly three years before I could say that I was actually playing it. It’s been great playing in Lieutenant with Nate from Foo Fighters, because back stage, when we were sitting around, I’d be like “Can you teach me some bass?” He’s been giving me some little bass lessons.

So I’d say that I’m definitely a lot better now, than I was. So yeah, it’s just been cool to learn some little bits from other people.

How did the idea for a Greatest Hits album come together, and what was it like to actually pick which songs you wanted to go on the album?

The reason that we wanted to do that, is that we wanted to show people that we had a back catalogue of songs that they might know, plus a lot of the older material. A lot of people think “Oh, that’s just the band that play ‘Chasing Cars’!” which, you know, that’s definitely our biggest song, but, there’s so much more.

There are like four singles for each album. So it’s more of a retrospect, and it’s nice to just show people the history of the band, rather than just two songs like ‘Run’ & ‘Chasing Cars’.

It's been ten years since the release of 'A Hundred Million Suns'. What do you remember the most about putting this album together?

That album was a lot of fun to record. It’s one of our more weirder albums, and it’s probably my favourite in some ways. We started getting the songs together in Ireland, and then we went to Berlin, to Hansa Tonstudio. Where David Bowie recorded ‘Low’ and Iggy Pop recorded ‘The Idiot’. It’s a very cool place, with a lot of history. So, we spent a lot of time there in Berlin, and that really shaped it. There’s a lot of weird sounds in some of the music that we were listening to. Philip Glass and weird stuff like that at the time. At the end of that album there’s a song which lasts 17 minutes! A piece of three songs together, a trio. That came from a lot of German, weird classical music. So yeah, that was a really fun album to record.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

Well, there will be a lot old songs, and a lot of new songs! We are kind of trying to switch it up each night. The light show is incredible. Davy Sherwin, who is our lighting engineer, he has won quite a few awards for the lights that he has done for us now. This is the best one that he has ever done. It’s pretty insane. I end up making mistakes, because I’m too busy looking at all of the lights! They are definitely in for a visual and audio treat.

Interview with Jay

Was there a particular moment when you realised that you could be more than just an upcoming band?

There were a number of occurrences. I think the first thing, an old friend of mine, he is a promoter. His name is Joe Rinaldi. At that time, he was booking for the House of Blues on the strip in LA. We had played one show at the Roxy the night before. Joe called me up, and he really has some pull in town. He says “Hey Jay, what’s up with this new band? What’s it going to take? I want to book you guys.” I was like “Man, we just got started, I don’t know Joe!” He says “I’m going to give you your own night here at the House of Blues!” I was like “Oh sh*t, what! Yes of course, that sounds great Joe” He gave us our own night. We didn’t even have to sell tickets, or nothing. He gave us a night for free at the House of Blues. The audience got in free, and everything. It got packed out to capacity. So I think that Joe Rinaldi stepping in, and giving us a chance, was a real leg up. I owe a lot to that man. He is now a promoter down in San Diego.

The second thing, was when our first manager Tom Consolo came knocking. That’s a really big deal. Tom is a really good guy, and he called us up on the phone. He said that he’d like to represent us. He is a very respectable veteran in the industry. So, I knew that we had something. It was going to carry things beyond our musicality. You can be a really great band, but if you don’t have people who are willing to go out there and work really hard, for you, and with you. It’s going to be really difficult to get any traction.

You guys took a bit of time off to create ‘Feral Roots’. So what was it like to play a handful of dates in 2018, after having so much time away?

Yeah! This last year we did not tour as much as we typically do, that’s because we were working on this new record. For the first time in our ten year career, we took time off to kind of recalibrate, and to take stock with what it is we’re trying to do. We signed with Atlantic, and we switched up a lot of our team. We wanted to reassess what our position was, and what our goal was as a band. So with that we took some time off from touring. We only did about two tours all year. We did a couple of one offs.

We just made our new record. With the ones before that, we would get into the studio with no material, write and work our arses off. Record what we were writing, and then leave. That was it. So the opportunity to take our time with writing. Be a bit more discerning with our creative output was very healthy, because we’ve done it both ways now. We didn’t take a long time recording the record. We took a long time writing it.

There’s a big difference there. We didn’t just sit in the studio burning up money, or studio time. Scott and I traded ideas back and forth. He’s out in California and I’m out here in Nashville, Franklin. We got our ideas together, and then finally when we had enough we went into the studio for 4-5 days.

Indisputably, after taking six months off it was great to get back out on the road. I don’t know what it’s like to have time like that off. Nobody in the band does. We’ve never done that. After taking that break, and then going into the studio. It was good to get back out, and on the road, and appreciate what that experience is.

That was a game changer for me. It showed in the band’s performance, and our collective energy. That’s one of the most fantastic experiences with touring, that I’ve ever had. Even above touring with Sabbath, opening for these bands. Just realising your potential together. Getting this new energy, it feels like having gold in your veins. It’s good.

You worked with Dave Cobb once more, correct?

Absolutely. We were at the mercy of Dave’s schedule really. He is so busy. Our long time producer. He has won awards, and made platinum records. I’m so proud of him. He has become quite a big deal over these recent years, and he is the only producer that I want to make records with. We needed to take time wherever he could afford it. That in turn allowed us more room for writing and developing. It was great.

How did you get to the album title 'Feral Roots' and what does it mean to you?

In working on all of these different songs. I moved my family out into the country over this last year. Just as we were beginning to work on this record. I grew up in the mountains, out in the wilderness. Two miles back on a dirt road. When you grow up that way, the wilderness doesn’t leave or lose you. I think that there’s a part of me which is always wanting to get back to that wilderness. Surrounded by trees, woods and all manner of animals. Deer, everything. I think it really informed my creative outlook, my introspection as to what it means to be domesticated. To have left the woods, and be returning, there is a domesticated side.

That I think never lost its wild nature. That informed the narrative for the entire collection. I coined ‘Feral Roots’ to mean a return to form. Like remembering what you really are. It’s like owning a pet. You look at your dog, thinking it’s your buddy, your family friend. Then sometimes that dog will see a bird, you look at their eyes, and you go “Oh sh*t” that’s still a wild animal in there. He is my dog, but he is still part wild.

For us as people, we have that same thing. We live in an information renaissance. It’s an increasingly/growing world culture. In a world community. Never in the history have we ever had that, it’s not something that we know. So, on the timeline, this global community where everyone is talking to each other, that whole thing, we’re living in its infancy right? I think that as we look around in our lives, we are surrounded by things and information that we are creating. It’s all made by human hand, and it’s all born of someone’s imagination right. So, we’ve learned to live in this world of our own creation. We look to the wilderness, because the wilderness is the only thing that we didn’t create. The wilderness created us. So I think that a return to form is imminent. Not like everybody is going to sell everything that they have, strip down and go back to living as a cave man. I don’t mean that. I mean, reassessing how fast this train is going, and what is important. If we don’t slow it down, and take stock, it’ll slow down on its own, and that could be dangerous. ‘Feral Roots’ is really about understanding that and looking for that part within oneself that is still wild. That rugged individualism. To put oneself in harm’s way, in order to find out your true essence. That’s ‘Feral Roots’.

How did the track ‘Do Your Worst’ come together?

Scott had this riff. That riff in particular. We were totally isolated in this wilderness for a week. We set Scott up. Like “Hey man, let’s turn it up, let’s crank your amp, and let that terrible sound move across the water, play for all of those snakes, and all of those evil creatures out there in the reservoir.” We turned it up, and immediately that riff had a certain menacing tone to it. I sat on it for a little bit, and got some ideas in my head. I got some pictures, it’s like you’re watching a movie in your own head, then you write to it. I really just got something menacing. I knew that the devil had to be involved somehow, not that I even believe in the devil. I believe in danger. So I think that that menacing tone and riff that Scott had, definitely informed what I wrote around it, the lyrics, and the narrative.

You’ve got you, and then you’ve got the devil. Then right in the middle you’ve got a woman. The story itself is kind of old hat told in a new way.

'Back In The Woods' has an epic drum intro to it, and the track overall makes for another great first initial glimpse of the album. Can you tell us about how it came together, and maybe what it was like to work on?

The band was working on this new jam coming off this riff that Scott had come up with. They were in the studio. It started out, jamming it out, taking shape, and Scott’s giving direction to Miley/Dave. It’s a typical thing where he is like “Hey, I’ve got this idea! Check it out” So everybody throws in, and they start listening and playing to it. It’s just got such teeth on it right. I had been sitting on this term “Back In The Woods” I had a chorus like that for some years. All I had was a chorus, and I just put it on the shelf. When I heard that music, right away I go “Oh yeah!” I ended up writing the lyrics about a guy who is trying to out run the cops. That’s what that music sounds like to me. I’m a firm believer, that when you have a piece of music and you’re going to turn it into something. you’ve got to listen to it, and let the song be what it’s trying to be. Instead of wrestling it. I couldn’t imagine that music ever being a love song. It just sounded like something really rowdy. So, I wrote a story about a guy who tried to out run the cops. I believe that it fit very, very well. And how about that guitar solo. It’s great.

When Cobb was mixing it, I was looking at him going “Hey man, turn that up, really loud! Can you make it too loud?” I think that that solo needs to hurt people’s ears when it comes in. Typically, that’s not my usual approach to mixing, but I think that it works perfectly.

'Shooting Stars' has an awesome choir accompaniment to it. What made you want to bring in a choir for that track, and can you tell us about what they were like to work with?

For a vocalist, singing with the choir like that. That’s really a bucketlist thing. It’s a dream. We are talking like real, real vocalists. These people are so talented, and so lovely to work with. We went on over to Ocean Way Studios, here in Nashville, to record. For me to sing with this choir. I’m going in like “Wow, these are real vocalists here” It’s a little bit intimidating.

They are so good. They are all incredible vocalists. Then as soon as we start making music, there was no intimidation, there was no nothing. It was just music, a joyful noise. I think it was the lyrics that determined that we should bring a gospel choir into it. I am so happy that we did. Getting to sing with people like that. To sing such a positive message together, it’s pretty moving. That’s a musical experience that I will never forget.

There are many parts on this album where you're once again really pushing your vocals 'Imperial Joy', 'All Directions', 'End of Forever' being just some examples.

So for you, when you look at the album, how would you say you've grown/or approached it differently maybe to anything else that you've done before as a vocalist?

I may of painted myself into a corner there. The vocal arrangements that I wrote for this are very demanding. We are getting into pre-production rehearsals, and these songs are difficult to sing, but they are also a sh*t ton of fun, because they are so active. Vocally they are engaging. We’ll see how things go when we’ve got to play these songs night after night.

It might just kill me. I was writing these parts and songs, thinking “Who are the Rival Sons right now? What are we doing?” I’ve always been proud of the artistry and musicians in this band that I get to play with every night. These guys are killers. They are not just up there playing.

It’s ruthless. Approaching this album was like “Let’s crank up the heat as much as possible here!” Thematically, artistically, performance wise.

That’s what you get with the ‘Feral Roots’ album. I look at everyone’s performances, from Scott, Dave, Miley. I think that everybody turned in their finest performances to date. I wouldn’t throw praise like that around very easily. They definitely deserve it.

Looking back on 'Hollow Bones', is there anything you learnt from creating that album which you maybe went on to apply to 'Feral Roots'?

All it is is this polaroid snapshot of exactly who you are at that moment.

Who the band is. We’ve always made records in a very rough shot way.

Trying to capture the immediacy of a live performance. Every record that we’ve made, what you’re hearing is the first and second time of us ever playing these songs. Capturing that energy is paramount, and this record is no different. You carry those experiences with you, they accumulate. That’s what develops your instinct as a band. We are just getting better at what we are doing, and it’s still just a creative snapshot, it’s who we are, it’s like a family photo. Think of your school photos as a kid. Each year you look dramatically different because your face changes so much. You get taller, you get acne. There’s such a huge difference from year to year, when you look at those school pictures.

With bands it’s the same, because we are growing very quickly. We are experiencing so much, so quickly. It’s more than just different clothes, and different hair cuts. There are a lot of changes beneath the surface with each record.

How excited are you for your upcoming UK tour, and what can attending fans expect?

They can expect the same thing that we’ve always given them, and that’s a no hold bar, leave everything on the stage live show. That isn’t going to change. We are going to be unleashing a few tricks for people.

With introducing this new group of songs. It’s just expanding the empire in one way. We are looking at maybe switching up some lights, we’ll have a new backdrop. None of that’s groundbreaking, because bands grow that way. What the audience is going to get more than anything is a renewed sense of purpose from the band, when they come see us live. I think that making and releasing this record has bolstered our position in the current rock scene.

How did you first get involved in acting?

As a child I always enjoyed role playing and enjoyed drama in school. However I didn’t pursue drama academically. It wasn’t until I graduated from a business degree when my year tutor encouraged me to work in this industry. At that point I decided to finally follow what I loved.

I moved to London to pursue a career in acting. I didn’t have experience as such (only in school plays and studying Shakespeare), but I sent my CV out to agents anyway, and in the meantime, started reading about Stanislavsky and Strasberg and as a result, decided to take a course in Method acting. I started to get auditions and was invited to audition to be a presenter for Blue Peter, which was such an honour.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get it. I soon after managed to get a small role with a former Bond girl, Rachel Grant, in a Channel 4 series titled Zero to Hero. I appeared in the second series which, unfortunately was never aired.

Alas rejection and the cutting room floor are a big part of this business. After a few successful TV jobs, I finally got a call to be one of the Goblins in Gringotts Bank in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Who were your main acting influences growing up, and why?

I wouldn’t say that there was anybody in particular, but I did feel inspired by Hensons’ work with puppets and sci-fi and fantasy films of the 80s, that involved creatures etc. A later influence, as an adult, was Ahmed Best and Andy Serkis’ work with digital, Motion Capture characters. They were ground breaking.

What was your first major project, and what do you remember the most from working on it?

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 was my first acting role in a major film, all the way back in 2009.

And I felt so humbled to be part of such a big and cool production. I got to work on one of of the most amazing sets I’ve ever seen. It was stunning!

Can you tell us a bit [MORE] about your time on Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2, as well as what it was like to work with director David Yates?

I’ve taken away with me such fond memories from that production; the set for example and the chandelier. Wow wow wow! The people and the cast and crew were all so nice. Oh, and how can I forget the prosthetics and the super talented CFX guys who made them? My Goblin was so cool looking. I think if I was a man and a hundred years old, that’s what I would look like (haha). I do remember we were called at 4am in the mornings to get ready. It was a four hour process to put the make-up on. I did fall asleep once or twice in the chair and awoke only to be scared by my Goblin make-up. They were that good! It was amazing how they managed to make a handful of females look like men. The consumes were very clever!

Being my first major film, it’s something I’ll always keep with me. It was such a humbling experience to work on such an iconic film. I was mesmerised by the sets and most of all the people. The film industry is full of such nice and talented people. So much talent I can only aspire to. I remember David Yates being incredibly nice to everyone and very calm throughout the production.

So, how did you get involved with Star Wars, and can you give us a couple of personal highlight from working on this huge franchise?

Ohhh Star Wars! So, back in 2013 I was working on Guardians of the Galaxy and I got a call to audition for a film in Pinewood, but I had no idea what it was. I turned up to a lovely team and little did I know, I was auditioning for R2-D2. But for once, I was too tall (hahaha). I was just grateful to have been asked. Then back in Feb 2014 I had a meeting in Pinewood to be a creature actor and was told I would be going to Abu Dhabi for the first couple of weeks of filming for episode VII. This experience is one I will never forget. It was the most fun I had in 40 degree heat. Mind you, I had prepared myself by doing two weeks hot yoga before we flew out. One of the creatures I played wore a fat suit and after lunch it was very funny as colleagues would joke that I’d eaten too much!

There are so many high points from that production, that it’s hard to mention only two. I think for me, being on set working with Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher is a story I can always proudly tell my family. I mean Han Solo and Princess Leia! As a Star Wars fan, this was like a dream come true! Also, working with one of the best directors, J. J. Abrams, was another dream come true (Super 8 is one of my favourite films). His vision and passion are so great. And he’s also a super cool person to be around. And not forgetting Tommy Gormley, the 1st AD who ran a smooth running ‘ship’ or should I say, Falcon!

There are so many more personal highlights I can tell you about, but I think we’ll be here for days. Working with so many legends of film is a big one, but holding THE lightsabre is definitely also up there.

Can you tell us a bit about what the creature/droid workshop is like in Star Wars, and what you found the most rewarding about working with that team?

What an amazing team, it honestly felt like a family. Everyone was so nice, so welcoming and so professional. Neil Scanlan had put one of the best teams together. Everyone has such pride in what they do and came to work with a smile on their faces everyday. A team who definitely looked out for each other, I can say I’ve made so many friends from it that, that has to be one of the most rewarding things to come from the experience.

I do remember going in for fittings and being mesmerised by the creature creations every time.

The workshop itself is a hive of creative activity. Each creature in my eyes was so well made and brought to life by talented creature actors, sculptors, engineers and artists. Such a collaborative environment. It’s amazing.

Can you tell us about what it was like to work alongside Lupita Nyong'o for Maz? My role as the Maz Kanata Motion Capture Double came when I thought I wouldn’t have any more work on the film. After Abu Dhabi, I was asked to go in and meet with JJ and Lupita about a new role. I was then asked to be the Motion Capture Double - the body - of Maz. As I’ve worked with movement throughout my acting career, this was a welcoming role for me. Lupita was so nice and had so many cool ideas about Maz. She told me she’d sat with JJ and had discussed the idea of giving Maz a limp, as she’s a 1000 years old.

She suggested wearing a weight on a leg to give Maz the limp, which I did. What a perfect idea and it worked so well!

On camera the crew shot on both Lupita and I separately. I would watch Lupita do her pass with the dialogue and movement. Such as the passing of the lightsabre to Daisy (and Carrie Fisher, though that scene was ultimately cut). I would concentrate on Lupita’s every movement and do exactly what she did, including delivering the dialogue when it was my turn to shoot. Maz has to be one of the best characters I’ve had a chance at playing.

You did your own stunts in Attack The Block! Can you tell us about that process?

I played the female alien that’s seen at the beginning of the film that fights with John Boyega. The kids ultimately kill me! Spoiler alert. Sorry! This is the first film I worked on with John Boyega (obviously we later reunited in Abu Dhabi for The Force Awakens). It was cool working with him and I could see straight away he was going to go far.

I was lucky and glad to be doing my own stunts. I’ve always been comfortable with being a stunt performer here and there. There is a fight scene (which I mentioned earlier, as it leads to my characters’ demise) with my alien and Moses (Boyega). We practised on crash mats before filming and on the actual shoot day I think it went pretty well. I was thrown onto Moses and he falls to the ground. Then I proceed to beat him up! I then had to run off in a straight line. As my visibility was limited, what I thought was a straight line ended up being a circle! They then gave me an ear piece with directions which saved me!

We were doing a night shoot in -3 degrees, but my alien suit luckily kept me warm! The suit was designed by Spectral Motion and I flew out to LA for the fitting. My costume was half my body weight and I had to run on all fours with arm extensions, which, and I’ve mentioned it before elsewhere, is probably STILL the best work out I have ever had. The entire process of having the suit developed, the fittings and wearing it on the night, and making it believable excited me immensely.

What did you find the most exciting about playing the stand in for Rocket, and why do you think so many people have become fans of this brilliant character?

Feisty thing isn’t he? I appreciate my credit online is often shown as stand-in, but I was actually the on-set Rocket (along with Sean Gunn). They used a “Stuffy” as a stand-in. I was involved with the movement and reference where Rocket is carrying things, such as in the prison scene, carrying his food, walking to his cell, when he is jumping out of the space ship, and the hero scene work with his gun. And what a big and heavy gun that was! But the physical prop helps to inform how the character moves.

I was working alongside Sean Gunn who did most of Rocket on set. What an amazing talent to have brought him to life whilst filming. It made it so much easier for the other actors to bounce off of him and Bradley Cooper’s voice is just perfect for Rocket. I think that’s why he’s become such a brilliant character. A true collaboration.

James Gunn made such an incredibly funny and captivating film, the cast was so cool to work with. They all did such a fantastic job!

What's the hardest part about being an actress, and why?

My physicality comes into this. For me, one of the hardest things about being an actress is to get mainstream roles where you see my face. I very rarely get auditions for more standard or principle actor roles where I’m not in a costume or a mo-cap suit. I’m also often turning down work as I am not working in this industry to be an Elf. Unfortunately, sometimes my height can be restrictive in that sense, but not enough to stop me.

I occasionally give talks at schools which touch on these things and how we should never let anything stop us from achieving our goals. I can say I am very fortunate to have managed to build a strong enough reputation within the industry that I get the opportunity to play some amazing characters.

Alternatively, what's the most rewarding part about what you do, and why?

Seeing characters come to life and captivating audiences has to be the most rewarding part. I don’t tend to do many appearances (conventions etc.) anymore but when I do, it’s wonderful meeting people and hearing about how much they love the characters I’ve helped to bring to life. And hearing from all the kids or receiving positive feedback from attendees of my talks; it’s great to see the joy in peoples faces - Particularly from the children - and read about how much they enjoy the characters and films.

What else can we expect to see from Arti Shah in 2019?

Ohhh let’s watch this space, I think 2019 will be an exciting one! Aside from some film work, I’ve a couple of other projects that I’m working on that’ll hopefully see the light of day this year. Perhaps the one that’s exciting me the most at the moment is a writing project I’ve been working on. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

Reverbnation.com/awakethedemons - Facebook.com/awakethedemons/ - Instagram.com/awakethedemons Awake The Demons, also abbreviated ATD, is a heavy metal band from Constanţa, Romania. Formed in 2016, the band originally consisted of vocalist Claudiu Ciorbaru - 15 years old at that time - who is also the lyricist and songwriter. After working solo for one year, driven by his dream, he asked his best friends to lend a hand and help him create "something big". Soon after, Dragoş Mărgărint (20 years old, guitarist - joined in 2017), Levent Musa (21 years old, keyboard player, producer - joined in 2018) and Radu Ştefan (18 years old, guitarist - joined in 2018) became a part of the project. Dragoş had to leave the band in 2018 due to personal reasons leaving Claudiu, Levent and Radu the only remaining members.

Awake The Demons debuted in April 2018 with ‘Downfall’, a track made entirely using computer programs which was inspired by Five Finger Death Punch’s ‘Canto 34’. Their next song, ‘Uprising’ - this time with no programs used - was released in May 2018. Both had limited success. Demoralized, the boys nearly abandoned the project. After some deep soul searching, Claudiu was too determined not to leave it like that and made the leap of faith to keep pushing forward. ("Brothers... this band is my reason to live, my only dream! Metal music is my love so I won't let a small set back get to me, we must keep going!”)

With help from Erick Draven, a fellow musician and now friend he met while promoting ‘Uprising’ on social media, and Ritual Burning, a metal band from Chicago, Awake The Demons released their demo, ‘Cycle Of The Damned’, just weeks ago. It met with wide success and positive feedback. It was the band’s first "complete" song, a track which Claudiu describes: "The track talks about my life and the title says it all. The moments I suffered alone, the moments I thought I was done for good, each obstacle in my journey... each moment of sorrow seems endless, a hellish cycle of the damned". It was the success the band craved for. The single very quickly played on four radio shows in the US. The band was highlighted in a YouTube podcast - “Licking County Metal Heads Weekly - Season 3 Ep.1” and was being spread all across social media by fans. This incredible exposure and support led to the band getting more attention from metal lovers worldwide.

The band will next be featured on “The Autopsy Report Rock & Metal Radio Show” and “Metal Coffee PR”.

Claudiu follows and is influenced by metal bands such as Five Finger Death Punch, Arch Enemy, Bullet For My Valentine, Parkway Drive, Breaking Benjamin, Woods Of Ypres, Opeth a.s.o. and is inspired to create new music. (“I was introduced to metal when I was 12. From that point music is my life. I always listen to what I feel and I feel what I listen. This also applies for writing lyrics. consider myself a lucky person because I’ve got the chance to talk with Ivan Moody (Five Finger Death Punch). He kept me motivated and going”).

The band will be back to resume their work and try to reach the world's biggest stages: "I will keep working, Levent and Radu will keep working with me. We will do it together and make the dream come true! All we have to do is to promote our songs to the growing number of fans and fill out permanent band members."

So, when and how did you first get into art?

As a kid, my family moved around, a lot. Something like 14 schools in 12 years. This made it hard to have friends and develop social skills. So I started drawing as a way to deal with social anxiety. Also, I didn't have any natural talents or aptitude for drawing. My natural talents were mostly athletic. My family didn't have enough money for insurance and gear for me to play sports, but reams of paper were cheap. Art was just something to do.

What was your first major project, and what do you remember the most from this experience?

My first major project was variant cover art for Angel comics (IDW). I was asked to do covers on Thursday of San Diego Comic-Con and the first cover was due Monday. I wasn't going to be about to start work on the cover until Sunday night so I stayed up all night and digitally painted a giant headshot of Angel with his vampire form in the background. I was in such a hurry and had very little colour print experience at that point so my monitor wasn't calibrated. When Angel: Old Friends #1 came out, I ran to the local comic store to get a copy and was horrified. It printed dark and with a red tint. I made some adjustments to the art and was able to sneak in changes to the second issue. When it came out, now my contrast was off. So I made changes again.

When the 3rd issue came out, my art wasn't on it. I thought I was being pulled off the book (for doing crappy art) but issue 4 came out with the art I did for issue 3 on it. The colors were still off. So I had this one last chance to be able to get the colors right for the 5th issue. Just to be safe, I also fixed the art IDW didn't use and sent it in as well. A couple months later I was in a comic shop and saw a copy of Angel: Wesley Spotlight with the art I originally intended for Old Friends Issue 4 on it. The colors were perfect. So I finally nailed it with issue Old Friends 5 and the Spotlight cover.

Who were your major influences as an artist growing up, and why?

My influences varied a lot growing up. Initially, it was animation. In particular Robotech, Voltron, and Shirow Masamune. Then, Jim Lee's art got me interested in comics where I discovered older work by John Byrne, William Stout, Sienkiewicz. The epiphany for me came when I was shown a copy of The Art of Dragonlance in high school and saw Keith Parkinson's oil paintings.

So, how and when did you first get involved with Speed Racer?

I've always been a bit of an entrepreneur. My friend Dennis and I had been publishing indie comics for 10 years as BloodFire Studios and we wanted to expand. I also had a lot of Hollywood producers talking to me about various projects I'd created to make into film or TV shows. So we decided to bring on outside help to run things and create a new company with a friendlier name than "BloodFire". About this time I was in LA a lot for meetings and stopped into Harmony Gold to hang for a bit with Tommy Yune and we chatted about how I wanted to take on some licensed books. Tommy mentioned the rights for Speed Racer were about to expire.

Tommy had worked on Speed Racer for DC Comics years before and still had notes from the series creator Tatsuo Yoshida as well as some story outlines he'd always wanted to do but wasn't able. So I asked if I could acquire the rights, would he write the comics. Tommy introduced me to some people and I took that back to my partners. Their people spoke to our people and after a couple of meetings, I think it was April 2011, I got a call that we now held the global license for one of the most iconic animated properties in the world.

What was it like to be both the cover artist, and creative director, and did taking on both roles present any challenges?

It was fun. We didn't have the budget to bring in a big name to do the covers so the guys in charge of the purse strings asked me to do them. It was a Start-Up and in that sort of world, you need to be able to wear multiple hats. That and I think I work better collaborating with others. Tommy Yune was not only the writer of Speed Racer, but he was also an amazing artist and creative director of Robotech at Harmony Gold. When it came to the stories and designs, I was his director. When I did the covers, I asked him if he would direct me. I also helped colour most of the books so I also bounced those off of Tommy as well. It was the most fun I ever had working on a project.

Which cover did you find the most exciting to work on, and why?

Issue 2. One of the reasons the Speed Racer movie and so many reboots in general failed was they tried to reinvent the property instead of using the stories and characters that fans love. With Speed Racer, we were able to tell new stories by tying together all the unrelated episodes of Speed Racer. We filled in the origins of major characters in a way that kept the show's continuity intact. We even found creative ways to bring in the original Japanese Mach Go Go Go content that was omitted in the American version. The cover to Issue 2 shows Captain Terror redesigned as a severe burn victim and the first car Peter "Pops" Racer's built. He called the car "The Mifune" after his girlfriend, Corinne Mifune, who would later be known as Ma Racer. It also gives background as to why Racer Motors has an "M" in its logo. There's so much symbolism and background narrative in a simple cover design.

What do you find the most rewarding about working in the world of Star Wars, and how have you gone about taking your own approach on this iconic franchise?

The excitement of the fans is the most rewarding part. Seeing someone's face light up because of something you worked on is such an amazing feeling.

As for my approach, one of the coolest things about Lucasfilm is that they take narrative storytelling seriously.

George Lucas always thought of storytelling as fine art and that carries over to what I do. I like how Frank Frazetta elevated fantasy and science fiction art to the level of fine art. My approach to Star Wars art is to tell a story. Give a good narrative. And try to do it in a way that reinforces the idea that Science Fiction, even a western about space wizards, can be respected on the same level as a painting that hangs in a museum. This art isn't just to make a quick buck. I hope the stories I tell in my art affects people like the movies affected them. I don't think I've hit that goal yet. I'm still not good enough. But I hope someday I will be.

Your work on Rogue One is really cool. What did you enjoy the most about working on these new, and already iconic characters, and how would you say the tone/style compares to how you approached the rest of this world?

Thank you. The Star Wars Celebration painting I did for Rogue One (called "Built On Hope") was the first time I did a "Talking Heads" montage sort of composition for Star Wars. Of course, the master of cinematic montage is Drew Struzan. Very few people have been able to tell a story and arrange a compelling composition. Usually, they do one or the other to an acceptable level or do both mediocre and the whole piece fails entirely. For me, the story to tell was the connection of these new, unknown characters to the Star Wars films everyone knows and loves. The moment to tell for me was the line from Rogue One, "Rebellions are built on hope." I could use a montage of the characters to show how they tied into the opening scene of Episode IV and have the Death Star and Darth Vader looming above it all.

Hard question time. Which Star Wars character have you found the most fun to illustrate, and why?

That's not a hard question at all. Boba Fett, the attitude, the battle damaged armor, his demeanor. just everything about him makes him fun to illustrate. I love working on pretty much any character in Star Wars, but Boba Fett is my favourite.

What was Angel: Old Friends like to work on, and how did this world compare to anything else you'd done before as an artist?

Prior to Angel, I was mostly doing underground comics and covers for indie publishers or spot art for lesbian lifestyle or alt-rock magazines. So this was the first time I realized that when you do an image of a celebrity for an officially licensed project, most of the time, those celebs see your work have to approve it.

Most just give the green light or a couple of notes to make corrections. On occasion I've had projects come back with a note saying "wow you made me look awesome, thanks!". Those are amazing to get.

What's the most challenging part about taking on the famous Xenomorph character?

I think the most challenging part of Aliens is making a unique image that works. So many amazing artists over the years have come up with some great compositions featuring the xenomorph and it’s such an iconic design that is hard to come up with something that is both good and also hasn't been seen before. It's easy to come up with something new. But something new that doesn't suck is the challenge.

What world would you really like to work on that you haven't done just yet, and why?

Magic the Gathering. I was such a MtG nerd back in the day and it was such an influence on me when I was just starting out. I love illustrating fantasy worlds and monsters. As far as types of projects, I would love to do an illustrated novel or series of fantasy book covers or movie posters. I love traditionally drawn movie posters and book covers. They're far more eye-catching and stand out so much more than photo images.

What else can we expect to see from you in 2019?

The usual stuff I've been doing of course (Star Wars, Aliens, etc) but I also need projects I can live stream on my Twitch Channel (ww.twitch.tv/kohseart). If I'm working on something I can't show due to NDA, I will work on several creator-owned projects that I can live stream. The first project will be a collection of illustrations I've been working on based on some horror stories. There is also an illustrated Dragon book I've been writing and I have a Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/kohse) that people use sort of like art layaway. You put money into it each month and after you built up enough, you commission me to do a big painting or you purchase one of my existing pieces. If it’s a commission, I usually work on Patreon commissions live on Twitch so the client can watch it being created.

I've also been talking with a couple of writers and editors about doing a comic book again but I usually don't get to live stream those. So with any luck, someone will hire me to do a comic book, Magic the Gathering cards, illustrated book covers, or movie posters. Bonus points if they let me live stream the project. A vague answer, I know. But I can't talk about most of my work until it's already done so the best thing is just to tune into my Twitch Channel.

Reel Big Fish - Life Sucks Let's Dance Ska is the one genre of punk that I have never gotten into. It has never really appealed to me. However for a while I did listen to a lot of Buck-O-Nine. But that was only because my best friend back then loved them and he was always listening to them. It’s not that I don’t think it’s bad, it’s just not for me. I will admit that I have seen Less Than Jake and Reel Big Fish live and I had fun. And that’s what I got from this new Reel Big Fish album, ‘Life Sucks…..Let’s Dance!’. Every once in a while we just need to dance and have fun.

The album starts with the title track and right away you just can’t help but feel happy, it really does make you want to dance. ‘Pissed Off’ is also a fun one. The thing I like about this track is the fact that they are singing about how someone has pissed them off but yet when listening you can’t help but smile. Maybe that was the point!

One of the standout moments for me is ‘Another Beer Song’. I guess it would be considered a part to ‘Beer’, one of their biggest hits. Much like the first one it’s exactly what you think it is, a song about beer and yes it’s silly and fun. ‘The Good Old Days’ is another track that sticks out, and I really like the positivity that comes from it. It’s not what you think it’s about. It’s about how one day we will look back at today and remember today as the good old days. So it’s in a weird way telling us not to dwell on the past but enjoy life now in the moment. I dig that.

So what I got from listening to this release is exactly what the album title is. Life can suck but there are times we just need to dance and enjoy the small things. And this album is just that. These guys are having fun with what they are doing. RC

Outright Resistance - Cargo Cult Being point blank honest, I didn’t feel this album. Though the riffs were incredible and the drum work is next level the vocals just grate on me. That’s not to say that other people might not like it.

‘Scripture’ the second track on the album does have an awesome melody to it and it’s certainly headbang-able (if that’s a word). The point before the breakdown at the end is awesome and it comes together into an awesome heavy track but the vocals are difficult to get past.

I can see why other people would love this, such is the marmite of all music. You can love what you love and hate what you hate. I do enjoy heavier music and it’s clear this band have had a lot of influence from Slipknot and Parkway Drive, especially on the songs ‘Lone Wolf’ and ‘Cargo Cult’.

‘Error Incarnate’ finishes this album off with some awesome breakdowns. It’s not fair for me to say this is a bad album, clearly a lot of work has been put into it and when you get the very talented Justin Hill producing it you know you’ve got something quite special.

Ultimately, I think this album will be released to praise from the metal community and Outright Resistance will be ready for where this album will take them. There’s nothing like a decent metal album, one that you can just sink your teeth into and just get lost in.

Heavy riffs, monterous vocals and speed drumming fast enough that you think a wrist will break. Well, that’s what Outright Resistance seem to be best at. RO

Fever 333 - Strength In Numb333rs Fever 333 (having dropped the "The" at the start of their name) have had quite the ignition to their band over their first few months. But it is with their debut full length album, ‘Strength In Numb333rs’, that the band will surely fully catch fire.

The energy of their live performances, is already something of legend despite such a short time together, and it can be fully felt across the album. Tracks like the album's first single ‘Burn It’ infuse the listener with energy from the word go.

The chorus is one that seems destined to be sung by crowds in very large fields at festivals, and is the perfect kick off to the album. ‘Animal’ combines the elements already heard with Jason Aalon Butler's seamless hip hop vocal delivery in the verses to a chorus that is one part arena rock and one part Rage Against The Machine-esque rage fuelled funk rock.

Winding up further, ‘Prey For Me’ features some of the album's most politicised lyrics and some of the most aggressive riffing and drumming as an accompaniment. For as much as Jason's varying vocal styles carry the album, Stephen Harrison's riffs and Aric Improta's percussion are essential elements to Fever 333 and all three are completely on point throughout. ‘One Of Us’ continues the powerful lyrics (though the child-esque vocals at the bookends of ‘One Of Us’ feel like a slight misstep), and ‘Inglewood’ sees the album tilt once again almost into full hip-hop ballad territory. It won't be to everyone's taste - but despite the multiple variations in styles, the album feels coherent throughout, rather than merely a collection of songs.

‘The Innocent’ returns to rap / hip-hop metal territory with another fabulously huge chorus. It also features a gargantuan breakdown, which means this will hopefully be one of the stand out moments of any Fever 333 live show in the future when that drops mid song. It's understandable with everything that has come already that there is a small dip in the last handful of tracks on the album, but there's still time for the ‘Am I Here?’ to make its mark with some wonderful use of strings (another new element added late into the mix). Likewise the album closing ‘Coup D'Etalk’ doesn't quite hit the heights of some of the early tracks but is definitely still worth your attention, from the jarring tech metal flavoured riff to a chorus that wouldn't be too out of place on a modern Fall Out Boy record (at least until the riff kicks back in). Also of note, the album's final lyrics will ring very true with many listeners.

Overall, this is a fantastic first full length release from Fever 333. It's a statement album, one that people will take a lot of notice of. Calling them this generation's Rage Against The Machine might be a label that has come a bit prematurely, but if they are capable of maintaining this level and keeping their internal fire going over a couple more albums, it could well come true. JG

Clockwork Wolf & Co - In The Sunshine For some good old western rock and roll, I certainly wasn’t expecting it to come out of the album cover of Clockwork Wolf & Co. The artwork seems to suggest an alt rock or melodic “core” genre but these guys are an unexpected pleasant surprise. A few hints of jazz and bluegrass swing in and out of time with a walking pace that somehow never gets old. ‘In the Sunshine’ seemed to be the strongest and most pungent on the album to me, and although this is certainly no reason to complain I do wish that the rest of the tracks packed the same sort of punch.

‘Old for New’ was promising with an intriguing riff to introduce the track, however the vocals fell a bit short. At times, the vocals on ‘In the Sunshine’ can feel just too clean. While, it is hardly a complaint from me that the vocals (or anything for that matter) is too clean and too polished, I think for this album it might be fitting to have just a bit more oomph and a little more “grunt” style. Overall though, this was an excellent and pleasant surprise. LD

Misgivings - Hermitage For as long as I can remember music has been a part of my life in some shape, form, or fashion. Most things in my life I can identify with an album, a song, or a band. Back in 2000 I was living in a small town in South Georgia, about an hour and a half north of Gainesville, FL. Why is this important? Well our scene wasn’t that good, so we kind of adopted the Gainesville scene. Which meant bands like Hot Water Music, Gunmoll, Against Me!, Army of Ponch, and countless others played Valdosta, Ga quite regularly. I was very fond of the post-hardcore/punk sound most of those bands had. So when I heard Misgivings for the first time I was instantly taken back 19 years to Valdosta, Ga. Misgivings is a punk band from far away from good ole Gainesville, Fl. They are from the UK. Which as we all know has a really great history when it comes to punk rock. But what many probably don’t know is that one of the most influential punk bands of the 90s, also hail from the UK. And that band is Leatherface. They are a band that comes to mind when I listen to Misgivings. There is no doubt in my mind that they were an influence on these lads.

This influence is apparent instantly with the opening track, ‘Call It Off’. It for sure has a throwback sound. A sound that I feel we don’t hear a lot these days, I mean it’s out there, you just have to look for it. The next track, ‘The Artless Life’ is also one that stands out. Again we have that 90s punk throwback feel. The only thing missing is the raspy singing. I also like that it is only 2:22 long. Classic punk rock! That’s another aspect that sticks out about this release, the length of the songs.

Another track that shines is ‘Johnny Come Late’ This is one of those classic working class punk rock songs.

We need more of those in this day and age. The songwriting is solid throughout the entire album and this is one of many moments that truly show that. The last output, ‘I Keep Hoarding Up’ is the one that I envision drunk sweaty crowds singing along to while hugging each other. This is the crowd pleaser, the sing-along anthem.

At 8 tracks long, ‘Hermitage’ is the best album you did not hear in 2018. So if you are a fan of any of the bands I mentioned above or any band on Fat Wreck Chords or No Idea Records 10-15 years ago or The Menzingers, or Spanish Love Song now, then I would give this band a listen. You very well may find your new favourite band. RC

Young Culture - (this is) heaven What the band gives us is 5 solid pop-punk/pop-rock songs which the hardcore fan base of the genre are going to absolutely love. The two lead singles in ‘Drift’ and ‘21 Days’ show that the band are putting their strongest work out there for people to hear, and given enough time I think both tracks will become mainstays in their set list.

The lead singer Alex Magnan really shines through on the song ‘Deluxe’, the vocals flow very well and are in perfect sync with the guitar. For me this is the best song on the record. The track ‘Breath It In’ at times made me think of Jimmy Eat World with some of the guitar work, as well as the tone and style of the song, it hearkens to memories of summer evenings with friends from years gone by.

Young Culture keep to the more traditional subjects of the pop punk genre, ‘Drift’ being a prime example - “My smile's turned to a frown, I always wanted you around”. The band is still so young all being only in their early 20s, but if they can maintain this standard - or even improve on it - they have the potential to become one of the big names of the genre. LS

From States Away - I Swear This Light Won't Fade Let me say this first. I love pop-punk and I always will. There is something about that genre that just feels right for me. So now with that said, I will be the first to say that over the last few years there has not been a lot of pop-punk bands that I enjoy. I feel like the genre is a little watered down at the moment. However there are bands that sneak through that I do end up enjoying or even loving. In the past few years bands such as Like Pacific, Centerfolds, In Her Own Words, and Forever Came Calling have been a few that I can’t get enough of. Now, I can add another band to that list, From States Away.

‘I Swear This Light Won’t Fade’ is the third EP they have released and I have not made it around to listening to the first two because I’m stuck on this one. And the crazy thing is this release is only 4 songs and I want more. So maybe when I’m done with this review I’ll finally dive into their back catalog because in my opinion an EP should leave the listener wanting more and this one does this. I cannot count the times I have restarted it after it has ended. It really is that good. The first thing that sticks out are the lyrics. I like lyrics that are relatable, lyrics that are real.

And I will say that over the years that has become more prevalent in pop-punk. But it’s also how one goes about writing those lyrics, and the lyrics here are well written. The first track, ‘Night & Day’ starts off really slow, just some guitar and vocals and then the rest of the band joins in and it begins. While this is your typical song about heartbreak, it’s how they go about it, the wording. There is a verse that goes, “tear me down from the ceiling fan. I’m tired of talking in circles. I’m strung out on the window sill, tearing pages in my journal”.

The feeling that he is referring to is one that most of us have felt at some point in our lives but to hear it be said in a different way adds to it. And the “woah-ohs” are the icing on the cake, so pop-punk.

The next track ‘Hair’ displays Chris Lauletti’s vocals very well. While he has a great voice, this is the track that he really shines on. This track is obviously about a break-up and going through it in your head. As that alone is painful. Upon seeing the name of the next track, ‘Elm Street’ I was instantly hooked, as one that loves horror films. The thing about it is this, they use Elm Street and Freddy as a metaphor for going through life.

Genius! The line, “But I’m not scared of anything except what resides in me”, truer words have never been spoken. The last track, ‘Stalling Out’ is my favourite. Do you know how you sometimes hear a song and for some reason you instantly love it? This is one of those for me. This EP came out at the end of 2018. If I had known about them then, this 4 song EP would have easily been one of my top releases of the year. I can’t wait to see what the future holds for these guys. RC

Hot Knife Club - Moon Box Hot Knife Club are one of those bands that transcend musical barriers, fuzzed up guitars, horns and a real gift for mashing them all together to fire out a real sonic experience. Being able to drop Saddam Hussein and both John and Bruce Wayne in the same sentence gets a big tick in my book but there is far more than dropping The Duke into lyrics. The opening title track moves with a psychedelic suave, from the initial words of wisdom from Bruce Lee to the 70s cop show breakdown, they have great dynamics that can have chaos swirling all around before pulling it right back and sending it crashing around you again.

‘Touchdown Denver’ has some great hooks and chant worthy melodies, the lone vocal is seriously catchy on its own and has a melody all its own. The synths are just another part of the song, every instrument holds its own and gives its individual signatures. The opening of ‘Repetitive Beats’ for some reason, makes me think of someone playing ‘Eye of the Tiger’ wrong, a trick of the mind perhaps. Again, the vocal skips and jumps its way through, its poetic and utterly brilliant.

Closing out with a more laid back ‘Fozzy’s Blimtin’, well more chilled out until a huge wall of riff hits you, this is an EP that is a superb example of how to inter breed the genres, there are bit of the Chilli Peppers’, a bit of The Specials, some acid jazz and a lot of great songwriting that comes together greatly. There are so many layers to these songs, and it all comes together to make one of the most exciting releases that will be heard this year. It may not be to everyone’s taste but if you’re open to new experiences then this set of songs is a must and I suspect this band will be one hell of a live experience to boot. AN

Last Union - Twelve The first track ‘Most Beautiful Day’ makes it clear from the opening few seconds that the band are here to make a statement. Their frontwoman Elisa Scarpaccio leads the way with her outstanding vocals, which fit the band’s sound to a tee and they are definitely worth a listen.

Up next we have ‘President Evil’ with a guest vocalist in the form of Dream Theatre frontman James LaBrie. LaBrie’s vocals pick up right where Scarpaccio left off and again his vocals work so well with the bands rock driven sound.

LaBrie’s voice is in fine fettle, and you can feel the band up their efforts as well, they never once take the foot off the pedal in these opening songs. The guitar solo in the middle helps break things up slightly but the band finish the song on a high.

They continue to keep their raw energy flowing but with a slight change in pace with the track ‘Hardest Way’.

Still keeping themselves on top form with Elisa Scarpaccio again leading from the front with her strong vocals that combine well with the keyboard on the chorus, the guitars of Cristiano Tiberi also get more of a chance to shine through here, which helps to keep the song moving along nicely.

What comes next is my favourite track on the album in ‘Purple Angels’; it’s a track that’s loaded with rhythm guitars that are really on point and there’s a hell of a tempo. The band kicks things up a notch with this song and it’s a really enjoyable listen, especially with Elisa Scarpaccio continuing to impress.

The album keeps moving along at a brisk pace. The next track of note is another featuring James LaBrie called ‘Taken’, it evolves as it goes on and becomes something to remember, LaBrie once again shines through here as he shows what a talented frontman he is. ‘Ghostwriter’ shows a more aggressive side of the band, it’s short, sharp and to the point in a way that might be a little bit over the top. ‘Limousine’ bursts with energy, its lyrics are also rather catchy, and it has some interesting guitar work - listeners will have this on repeat time and again.

The album closes out with ‘Back in the Shadow’, a track that has a rather unusual melodic arrangement to it, throughout there are a number of elements from the other songs on the album put to use to finish this release on the ultimate high. It’s like a greatest hits song, borrowing all the best elements from the rest of the album.

‘Last Union’ have made a really strong debut, at its core it is built on progressive music combined beautifully with some truly outstanding vocals from both singers on this record. LS

Dirge - Lost Empyrean Coming through with their seventh show of tonal hymns, these guys have quite a lot to show for themselves. At first I was a little daunted, and perhaps a bit judgmental of the track lengths - the shortest song on ‘Lost Empyrean’ is a brisk six minutes and thirty three seconds. Losing focus on the track was my main concern with this album because with such long moments sometimes it can be easy to get lost. That being said, the last thing I did was get lost among this release.

For fans of atmospheric, earthly adventures in a guttural wonderland, these songs are for you. ‘A Sea of Light’ brought down the house for me. At nine minutes and thirty five seconds, it’s a magnum opus. All of these tracks are well rounded and carefully detailed. If you haven’t already listened to it then you should do so. Right now. LD

River Becomes Ocean - A Motion Paralysed This is a band on the alternative rock spectrum that I’ve not heard of, they’ve been around since 2013 and have had a few EPs and it seems as if the underground scene has been waiting for their debut album and finally it has arrived. River Becomes Ocean seeks to cross the divide between genres and stamp it out entirely. This is ‘A Motion Paralysed’ and it is wonderful.

We begin with a homeage to their hometown Brighton, this piano introduction is simply joyous, it sparks feelings of hope, of longing of emotion that you didn’t think could be tapped into. I’ve never listened to a piece of music and considered it myself emotional but ‘Brighton’ hits all the right spots.

We then delve into ‘This Hell is Heaven Sent’ a heavier song than I expected after the slow intro, however this seems to be where this band are at their most comfortable. The riff is incredible and the vocals, both clean and screaming work with the music so well, it’s a great way for this band to introduce themselves.

What I love best about this band is that they don’t stick to one genre. The heavier songs on the album like ‘Addicted’, ‘Apart’ and ‘Silence Means Nothing’ featuring the brilliant talents of Liam Cormier from Cancer Bats are all awesome. I find that if an album does try and split between musical styles sometimes it can fail, these guys have just found the secret to it though. The rhythm for ‘You Said’ is a proper dance track and elevates this album from a standard rock output to something else entirely. The way it incorporates the synth music into the whole melody is amazing. Finishing with ‘The Fall’ a sombre heart warming song that picks up into a lovely rock ballad, an awesome way to finish an incredible album! I really think these guys are going to move onto bigger and better things and quickly. RO

Tenacious D - Apocalypto Tenacious D have been quiet for a while, mainly probably due to Jack Black’s movie career and Kyle Gass’s side project Kyle Gass Band. So their long awaited return has been with baited breath for their fans all over the world and what they return with is so random and so ballistic and so them!

Not just content with releasing an album about the end of the world and life beyond it they also released it as a movie on YouTube. It’s quite fitting that in the first five minutes they jump literal sharks, If this was any other band it would be annoying but because it’s them it’s almost expected.

I won’t say the songs aren’t great, some of them are downright ludicrous, from sleeping with cave women in the romantic ballad ‘Making Love’ to fighting a massive penis/vagina monster in the brutal metal ‘DADDY DING DONG’ but it all feels weird to think that a man bordering on 50 created this mess of an entity.

Perhaps that’s part of its charm, the whole idea that you don’t have to grow up and you can do what you love but when a man is thinking of a robot sent from the future to a post apocalyptic world so it can have sex with Tenacious D you have to ask questions! The lyrics are just insane as well. We also have the marching KKK song (because why wouldn’t there be KKK members in this?). “In the USA you are not allowed to be gay, that’s what the lord says” is another wonderful fruitful lyric that Black has thrown together.

Even without the movie this album is just bonkers, I don’t know if it sounds better if you’re high or drunk but for me it’s just Tenacious D doing another Tenacious D sounding thing. The songs are good, I’ll admit that, they don’t take themselves too seriously and you can sit and listen and zone out but after years of this isn’t it time we expect more from Tenacious D? I imagine if we asked that question to Jack Black he’d say “No!” and do something equally insane to match it. This is the D everyone has always known and loved, only now it’s animated. RO

DeeVer - You Need This Former Inglorious man Billy Taylor returns with his new band DeeVera, they have an album that is memorable and at a time when there are few British bands making some noise they are crashing firmly in to the midst of that company.

Opener ‘Fire at Will’ has a nice chunky riff which breaks apart for some nice melodies as does ‘All Come Running’ which has a hook laden opening bass line that hovers around the whole song, occasionally dropping out to allow for thumping inter sections.

The production is very fine on this record too, everything is ringing clear, the melodies, the big riffs and of course the vocals which sit at a perfect level. There have been a few albums of late where the mix has let them down, they have taken great care to make sure everything is spot on, from the rhythm section to guitars and vocals, it’s bang on.

The songs are structured nicely too, clearly defined sections that at times take on different styles but keeping it nice and organic with nothing sounding out of place.

‘Back Down’ begins with a softer opening which gives way to some dirty open chords and the thumping bass which Phil Appleton is constantly banging out alongside Dan Higgins to give you a solid block in the rhythm area while Taylor and Stoker have rustled up an impressive partnership.

Billy Taylor has something good going on here, with the potential to be something VERY good, it is as impressive a debut as I’ve heard in a while.

The album has a distinctly British feel, finding bands that fly the flag for British bands is a great thing but it is great for rock in general as well so when you next hear someone talking about the death of rock you can point them in the direction of DeeVer, as well as the other British bands doing very well just now. You can show them that rock is still very much alive, as it always has been.

It’s also in very good hands. AN

Rival Sons - Feral Roots American blues rock n roll band release their new album ‘Feral Roots’.

Lead single ‘Do Your Worst’ opens the album in style with driving riffs, effective gang vocals and soulful blues vibes.

‘Back In The Woods’ showcases their fine talent, with great drumming, hard rocking guitars and impressive high pitched and varied vocals. This adds some fire to their roots.

The title track ‘Feral Roots’ opens with an upbeat pleasant intro with stripped back vocals and again highlights their soulful sound. This is the longest song featured on the album which helps give it that epic sound which is very memorable and acts as the perfect representation of the album.

With a title like ‘Feral Roots’ you might be expecting a in your face, straight to the point heavy rock n roll album, and you do get that at times with the opener ‘Do Your Worst’ but this is more one of those albums that you need to listen to a few times to truly appreciate its craft and swagger, as it’s more of a slow burner but that’s not a bad thing at all. CL

Keuning - Prismism Dave Keuning, probably best known for being guitarist with The Killers, is here with his debut solo album, now, I don’t know what to expect. Straight away, ‘Boat Accident’ brings with it a distinct 80s feel and is very catchy, although it is ‘The Night’ that has me sitting up taking notice, synth and delay laden and a little ploddy, I find it a fine tune that really starts the album off for me.

‘The Queen’s Finest’ is again slow but supremely catchy with Keuning’s voice providing a nearly narrated feel and it finds me thinking of bands such as Flesh For Lulu and The Psychedelic Furs.

It steps up a gear in pace with ‘I Ruined You’ a bit chunkier in sections with some great melodies cutting in and out making for some awesome hooks and singable sections, a real stand out on what is shaping up to be a great album.

To be fair, there isn’t a song on here that I can say I dislike, and I can’t find anything but good things to say about this album.

Dave Keuning has made a superb album fit to grace any collection. When expectations are exceeded like this, it just makes your day. RO

Soilwork - Verkligheten Scandinavia is one of my favourite continents for rock/metal. They just get it, from bands like Entombed and Amon Amarth or Satyricon and Mayhem right the way back to Bathory they just know how to do it. Soilwork are one such band, forming back in 1995 I guess you could call them veterans of the genre now, their 11th album is also the longest gap between albums they’ve had but at only three years since ‘The Ride Majestic’, you can’t really grumble. The fact that they have managed to be so prolific in getting quality albums together is a testament to them. It is reason enough to count them among the top bands of the past few years.

The title track works as an intro, ‘Arrival’ is where things really get banging, chock full of huge riffs, dual guitars and melodies, it is a crushing start and really sets the tone for the album as ‘Bleeder Despoiler’ goes for the throat early on with guttural vocals giving way to crisp vocal harmonies before ‘Full Moon Shoals’ slows the pace down.

The dynamics are done right, it has been a fast and ferocious opening so dropping the pace down gives the chance to take things back up a level with maximum effect which they duly do as the song descends in to a myriad of sounds before coming down again.

The big moments do what they should do, songs like ‘When the Universe Spoke’ have moments of freeflowing metal which are then broken down to tender breakdowns but are again given a burst of energy and crash in to its ending.

Soilwork have released the first great metal album of 2019 and it is a banger. This album will be in a few top tens when December rolls around. AN

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Jinjer - Micro The EP is overflowing with technically and emotionally intense instrumental content from start to finish, intertwined with unique hard hitting clean and unclean vocals that really enhance its musical presence. For example, ‘Dreadful Moments’ really showcases its melodic progressions well without jeopardizing the antagonistic heavy overtones this band is greatly known for. There are interesting vocal range changes throughout that create a listening experience that is not only fun to listen to, but lyrically will be greatly lauded for combining awesome music with such dark content.

‘Teacher, Teacher!’ keeps in step with its aggressive instrumental centerpiece while still providing a reason to give it a listen. While instrumentally it can feel repetitive to listen to for this style of music, Jinjer tries to change things up within every musical beat they put out, technical guitar choice, etc. Especially with ‘Teacher, Teacher!’. Within one listen people will see why it’s one the best tracks on the EP. ‘Perennial’ releases the heavy rock tension by giving us a different type of tranquil intro to chew on, while slowly creeping back into the heavy metal momentum that has been woven throughout. The EP comes to a close with ‘Micro’, which is practically one of the best moments on this release because of its full change of pace for the whole thing. With no vocals, this instrumental surprise is a welcoming final experience. Complete with beautiful acoustic honeyed elements and subdued percussion, this short piece will delight listeners as it’s a completely different vibe from the rest of the EP. All in all, this is a satisfactory attempt that utilises its instrumental, and lyrical vocal pallets rather well. SA

Master’s Call - Morbid Black Trinity Ever since Master’s Call came out with ‘The Spirals Crane’ in 2016, Birmingham England has been lit up on fire with one of the best up and coming metal acts to date.

‘Morbid Black Trinity’ is no different with its great production and deep symbolism within its three tracks. ‘MBT’ talks about the darkness that lies within us all on a spiritual platform and how this changes the world around us, with each song delving into these emotional subjects in three different parts. With hate, evil, and oppression being the most concrete symbols within this EP, such dark lyricism is accompanied by some amazing musicianship. Words cannot stress enough how talented this band is instrumentally, and in many ways this is the main staple for this project. Even for those in which the likes of Cradle of Filth and Conjurer musical tastes are not really your style, the instrumental prowess throughout this EP is simply enough to make this so enjoyable to listen to.

Lyrically speaking this is a deep musical experience. This is an important EP for today's generation, in which self expression musically in many countries is frowned upon due to a myriad of political climates who banned certain types of music from being made. This is especially true for vocalist Shayan, who moved from Iran to pursue his own musical interests. From start to finish this message can be felt in every word, ‘My Eyes Are The Night’ being the most impressive of the three.

Master’s Call have been making quite an impression within the Black Metal genre, and this short EP is quickly proving that quality can come in all shapes and sizes, and their time to shine has only just begun. SA

Mark Deutrom - The Blue Bird It seems that when it comes to solo projects, Mark Deutrom really knows how to capture an emotional moment in anything musically he touches. This is no different with January release ‘The Blue Bird’. The 13 song album is composed of Mark Deutrom leading in with vocals, guitar, and bass, and keyboards along with R.L Hulsman on the drums and Aaron Lack on percussion and vibraphones.

A mostly instrumental soundscape of an experience with a few vocal pieces here and there, moments like ‘Radiant Gravity’ ooze of bluesy greatness and lazy wafting guitar chords that seem to dance around over beautiful tenebrous progressive rock undertones. Other moments such as ‘Hell Is a City’ is another progressive rock darling that takes us through a chimerical abstract state with soft tense vocals that accompany melancholic guitar chords and dispirited vibraphone tones.

As the rest of the album progresses, highlights like ‘Maximum Hemingway’ changes the game of the album entirely with its use of energetic and aggressive instrumentals and different use of rigid vocals throughout. The album ends with the masterpiece ‘Nothing Out There’ which calls out to early 1960s progressive, psychedelic rock vibes with glitzy honeyed guitar tones that paint the entire end of this amazing musical experience.

Overall, ‘The Blue Bird’ provides unique exposure to progressive and jazz like nuances throughout. For anyone that is interested in a rare cocktail of blues and rock elements, this gem is for you. SA

Astronoid - Astronoid While the world of metal seems at times to conjure up ever more obscure subgenres, when you hear Astronoid's self-titled album, it becomes quickly apparent why the band have been described as dream metal.

Astronoid list their influences as many, not least the maestro Devin Townsend who you can definitely tell has an impact on the band's approach to this album, but there is a tremendous amount going on here. A loose summary would have them pinned as a sonic child of TesseracT and Death Angel mixing with vocals of a combination of Coheed and Cambria and Mew. While that might sound like quite the mixture, it is justified. Their music has a very ethereal quality, at times with a power to almost make you feel like you're floating on a cloud in the softer moments before they then come back in and pummel you with a barrage of riffs, but still in an uplifting way.

The opening track ‘A New Color’ soars both instrumentally and vocally. The follow up, ‘I Dream In Lines’, showcases more of the complex riffery Astronoid (namely Casey Aylward and Brett Boland) are evidently extremely good at while Matt St Jean thunders away behind the drums. ‘Lost’ is a song that definitely encapsulates the dream metal label; it's a song that the listener will very easily lose themselves in, coming up for air only to hit the repeat button at the end of the track. ‘Fault’ is another song that’s carried throughout by the impressive drumming of Matt St Jean, while ‘Water’ pitches itself nicely with a great balance between ambient and going full on heavy post-metal. It is possibly the only track on the album where it may have benefitted from slightly less vocals and more instrumental, but it's a very minor nitpick.

Towards the end of the album, ‘I Wish I Was There While The Set Sun’ bears the strongest resemblence to some of The Devin Townsend Project's work. Aside from the vocal differences between Devin and Brett, it's a song that wouldn't feel out of place on ‘Epicloud’ or ‘Transcendence’ - something which is very much meant as a compliment. The album concluding ‘Ideal World’ has a guitar tone in keeping with latter works of Red Sparowes, giving it an added grandiose feel which fits in very well with the album's escapist sound.

By no means are Astronoid going to appeal to everyone. It is an album that will likely take a few listens to be fully appreciated. But for those who like their metal expansive without being full on prog and where heavy riffs are definitely there in spades, ‘Astronoid’ could well be one of your favourite albums of 2019. JG

Papa Roach – Who Do You Trust?

Alternative rock quartet from California release tenth album ‘Who Do You Trust?’

Unusually they open with a song called ‘The Ending’ which starts with a dynamic electro intro. This makes for a good start especially as it has a mix of their old and modern sound, making a well-balanced rock anthem, with varied vocals from Jacoby Shaddix.

Lead single ‘Renegade Music’ is intriguing, with high energy throughout and a rebellious rock edge, it makes quite the impact and it is clear to see why they picked it as a single. ‘Not the Only One’ offers a change in tempo and direction, it is upbeat in parts and offers some rapping masked with strange effects. It is very changeable and explores lots of genres making it very ambitious. I don’t mind the rap parts but the effects seem a bit overpowering and unnecessary. However, this is a good diverse song with an unexpected punk grunge ending that takes you on many twists and turns.

Title track ‘Who Do You Trust?’ is immediately catchy, with groovy rhythms and beats and sports a very Rage Against The Machine vibe. It will go down well in a live environment and does all it needs to as a title track.

‘Elevate’ opens with memorable strong chant vocals which are uplifting before edgy rapping kicks in, overall this is a pop rock number with hip hop vibes once again, so combing the best of their sounds.

‘Come Around’ keeps the pop momentum high with more positive vibes which makes a hard impact. ‘I Suffer Well’ is a welcomed surprise being the most aggressive with its punk vibes and fast pace, this is a much needed addition in a sea of pop ridden tracks. The only back draw is that it feels a little out of place. Overall, this is a must hear track.

‘Maniac’ offers another infectious rock anthem with well written lyrics. Final song ‘Better Than Life’ is a great one to end on and it packs a punch. It’s a nice summary of the rock, rap and different elements explored throughout the album and it is well executed. I think just as this album is mixed in its genres, the feedback will also be mixed, some will like it and others may not but they should be commended for trying something different and continuing to expand on their sound. At times this is their most daring release yet with songs like ‘Not The Only One’ exploring so many sounds in one, keeping you on your toes as the album does throughout.

It is a very ambitious and dynamic release. CL

Switchfoot - Native Tongue Latest single ‘Let It Happen’ opens the album in a big rock anthem fashion, with heavy guitars and great vocals, setting the bar high. Title track ‘Native Tongue’ is a refreshing and jaunty track which is brimming with creativity and represents the album very well, whereas ‘All I Need’ is a stripped back acoustic driven hopeful track whilst being very “mainstream”, making for a feel good anthem. It is a nice reminder to appreciate the right and simple things so it is a stand out track that you should listen to.

‘Voices’ has an exotic and slightly alarming intro which marks a very different feel and tone. It embraces the popular alt rock rap style but it feels a bit like them trying to jump on the bandwagon. That being said it is well executed and offers up more diversity. Keeping things fresh and upbeat ‘Dig New Streams’ is very groovy and jazz infused bringing the swagger with upbeat vibes yet again.

‘Prodigal Soul’ highlights some of the best vocal capabilities in another slow acoustic bare number which is emotive and powerful. To add more variety ‘The Hardest Art’ features guest vocals from Kaela Sinclair which compliments the track well and helps it stand out further.

‘Take My Fire’ brings some of the rock angst back and is a welcome direction, with hard hitting riffs and great bass lines and distortion, making it a must hear moment. This is a very alt rock album that offers a mix of everything. It is ambitious and expansive, so it is bound to please. CL

Splendidula - Post Mortem ‘Post’ is an eerily slow introduction track that sets off the album nicely, and builds curiosity in the listener. ‘Nami’ has heart wrenching guitars and bass rattling drums. The vocals are powerful, however, this is more of an instrumental heavy song, and doesn’t show off the vocals as much. The screaming comes in quite unexpectedly, which could jar some listeners into turning away. ‘.38’ starts off with a heavy guitar riff, which is juxtaposed with the clean vocals.

The unclean vocals come in, but are quite underused. ‘Aturienoto’ starts off with an acoustic guitar and clean vocals, which lasts for over half the track, but it builds up midway through, and is a nice slow listen, although at over 7 minutes in length it can make it feel slightly slogging. During the last 2 minutes, the song picks up as the instruments go freestyle, and there’s a nice outro that kicks off the next listen, ‘Stream Of Consciousness’, which has an uptempo drum beat and a guitar riff that sounds like a car revving its engine. The clean vocals are strong as well, however, the unclean vocals - which are very good - feel very underused.

In conclusion, Splendidula’s album, ‘Post Mortem’ has some strong instruments and powerful clean vocals, however, with a lot of the songs being over 7 minutes long, the unclean vocals get very little time to shine.

KB

Second to Sun - The Walk 'We Are Not Alone' starts off with an ear grabbing guitar riff and drum beat that builds up. This introduction goes on for 1 minute and 15 seconds, when the screaming vocals kick in. Unfortunately, due to the production, the vocals often get drowned out by the instrumentation, which is now feeling repetitive as it continues throughout the track. It never changes. Sadly, it can seem lack lustre after the first 2 minutes.

'Black Lines' starts off with a faded guitar riff, which then frantically increases as it goes on. Unfortunately again, the vocals are drowned out by the instruments, although in the second verse, the vocals are clearer due to the guitars being toned down a bit. The frantic screaming might not be to everyone's taste, and they might prefer the instruments, which are allowed a lot of time to shine on the songs.

Third track 'Home' starts off with an eerie calming effect, therefore hoodwinking any listener who listens to it because it then kicks in with screaming vocals. The distorted effect on the vocals come out of nowhere, but they are more prominent and powerful, and add variety. The outro matches the calming intro, therefore making it go full circle.

'From Outer Space' is a calming interlude track full of eerie synthesisers. 'New World Order' has an intro that sounds like something out of a science fiction movie before the instruments and vocals kick in, which - when played live - will cause mosh pits to erupt left, right and centre, and 'To Live' has an enchanting keyboard playing in the background, therefore causing the instruments to be a bit diverse.

Final track, 'We Are Alone' is not only noted for the similar title of the opening song, but also for its sombre instruments, which lasts for two minutes before picking up slightly, and then not really dropping, which leaves this album slightly anti climatic. In conclusion, 'The Walk' is a heart pounding album, however, it doesn't quite reach its full potential. KB

Bring Me The Horizon - Amo. ‘Amo’ is the sixth studio album by British rockers, Bring Me The Horizon which sees them continue their more “pop” sound. It’s hard to believe this is the same band that released the deathcore/metalcore album ‘Count Your Blessings’ in 2006 but like many bands a change in sound is part of their evolution. Opening song ‘i apologise if you feel something’ starts with strange synth sounds and high pitched delicate vocals, making for a very angelic and ethereal sound which warms things up nicely and sets the scene of what is to come…

Lead single ‘MANTRA’ from the off it sounds more rock orientated with catchy hooks and riffs and features clever and well delivered lyrics from Oli Sykes. This is a good representation of the album and their new sound at its best. Latest single ‘Nihilist Blues’ follows featuring Grimes which offers a strange contrast with dark lyrics and upbeat sounds, something that this album does throughout. ‘in the dark’ is a bit more stripped back and still carries that upbeat optimistic sound instrumentally even though the lyrics aren’t that positive at times but tries to remain hopeful with lines like “Well, I'm looking on the bright side now”, it is emotive and nicely delivered. Taking us back to the heavy side of things is ‘Wonderful Life’ featuring Danni Filth (Cradle Of Filth), it has a huge chorus with powerful fierce and honest lyrics “I'm on the edge of a knife. Nobody cares if I'm dead or alive Oh, what a wonderful life”. ‘heavy metal’ features rapper Rahzel, it is edgy and honest and addresses the bands extreme change in sound and the reactions to this with lyrics such as “I'm afraid you don't love me anymore 'Cause a kid on the 'gram said he used to be a fan. But this sh*t ain't heavy metal” but it does go on to say “(And that's alright)” in the lyrics also. Ironically yet appropriately the outro is the heaviest you will hear them on the album and is a great and perhaps sarcastic nod to their old sound. This track sums up the album well, no it’s not heavy metal, but it doesn’t have to be and the end result is “alright”. Closing song ‘i don’t know what to say’ is somewhat alarming to begin with and like the opening track it has an angelic feel to it so it comes full circle and seems like a good and fitting way to end.

There is no denying that this more pop driven album is very well written musically and lyrically. It is also cleverly produced and they have most definitely achieved what they set out to do. CL

Architects - Modern Misery Starting off with an eerie synthesiser before kicking you in the face with unclean vocals, which are a surprise to newcomers who might be unaware of their discography, Architects' latest single combines heavy verses and clean choruses to create a slick and easy song to sing along to. The heavy instruments, especially the drums, drive the song along like a beating heart, and the ear worming chorus show off Sam Carter's clean vocals, whilst the unclean vocals in the verses seem like a monster is trapped inside him and is trying to escape. KB

Cellar Darling - Insomnia ‘Insomnia’ starts off with a fast paced drum beat, before haunting vocals come in, keeping in time with the drum beat. The chorus has powerful guitar riffs which match the vocals. There is a flute instrumental moment, which is an interesting part because it goes as quickly as it arrives, but it is nice to mix up the instrumentation a bit.

The song seems to finish midway through, teasing the listener before launching into a long and riveting guitar solo, that gets faster and faster, and is reminiscent of Guns N' Roses. The haunting vocals come in again without any instruments, letting the audience appreciate the beauty, before going into an acoustic outro. The length and repetitiveness of the song might turn some listeners away as it is 6 minutes and 52 seconds in length, but the haunting vocals will leave the audience spellbound. KB

Mastodon/Kvelertak/Mutoid Man – Birmingham O2 Academy - 22/01/19 As 2019 welcomed its coldest evening so far, New York natives Mutoid Man do their best to shake up a sparse crowd and soon get things heated up with their vicious and visceral assault of groove infused metal.

Despite facing a few sound glitches it didn’t stop them delivering the goods as they smashed through their set. It’s then down to Kvelertak to keep up the merriment and they waste no time working up an already enthused crowd with their blood curdling Norwegian rock. I say rock, but this is a band who fuses together hard rock, extreme metal, hardcore punk and black metal and they do it well. Their set was laced with pummelling drums, scorching vocals and pulsating riffs as ears were pierced by a triple guitar attack, but it’s left to masters of metal Mastodon to close tonight’s antics.

Beams of bright lights and a plethora of trippy psychedelic imagery lit up the O2 Academy in Birmingham, you simply knew that you were at a Mastodon gig; within minutes of them appearing on stage, the floor had erupted into a sea of screaming bodies as fists pumped the air, heads banging rhythmically. Half way through their electrifying set it seemed Mastodon had the crowd in the palm of their hands, with sweat drenched fans indulging themselves in the thunderous melodic tracks and sing-along choruses offered up with both new and classic tracks and if that wasn’t enough, Neurosis’ Scott Kelly joined the band on stage to take over vocal duties. Tonight’s offering was none other than a masterfully melodic, metal onslaught from start to finish. EB

The Streets - Birmingham O2 Academy - 19/01/19 Though my love for music is definitely rock and metal there are certain guilty pleasures for me, Mike Skinner’s The Streets are one of them. Seeing him play out to a sold out Birmingham Academy was an incredible spectacle and one that I won’t be forgetting before long.

The support act was exactly what you’d expect from the Brummy rapper. The crowd were treated to the musical stylings of The Manor a three piece group from London who managed to get the crowd bouncing along with them as soon as they ran onto the stage. Their songs were very typical of the “macho man lifestyle”. A few of their choice tracks including ‘The Sesh’ which ranted about texts and whatsapp, ‘Know what I Mean’ and ‘Ibiza’. Before their last song they said how humbled they were to be supporting Mike Skinner who is their hero to rapturous applause from the audience.

Like I said, this isn’t the usual style of music I listen to, but when The Streets kicked in with that opening beat of ‘Turn the Page’ started and the crowd including myself started jumping and chanting I felt like there was no other music I needed. To say Skinner was interactive with the audience would be an understatement.

He asked fans for beer, he asked a crowd of people to push a “lovely coat” to the front so he could look after it and he ran about like a mad man.

The set was packed with the hits you’d expect ‘Don’t Mug Yourself’, ‘It’s Too Late’, ‘Has it Come to This’ and some newer tracks too. Before ending with the brilliant ‘Geezers Need Excitement’ from his debut album ‘Original Pirate Material’ Skinner demanded a circle pit, again something else I never thought I’d see.

Though it was great to see Skinner interacting with the crowd so much there was something a miss. He kept bringing it back to “We’re not going to be here forever” and “Life is precious” it just felt a bit ominous, though it didn’t let it get him down. Even the heart wrenching ‘Dry Your Eyes’ for an encore felt hazily happy as people donned lighters and phones.

Ending the set with the brilliant ‘Blinded By the Lights’ a slow moving but still somehow upbeat track followed by the staggeringly huge ‘Fit But You Know It’ Skinner said his thank yous and goodbyes and left the stage.

The Streets have been away for a long time and no other artist really emerged in their stead, they’ve come back and proved they can still do what they do and well. I hope this is the start of many shows now that Mike Skinner has returned. RO

The Urban Voodoo Machine – Carlisle The Source Collective - 14/12/18 It’s been three years since I last watched The Urban Voodoo Machine live, one of the finest bands I have or am likely ever to see live. It’s been almost a decade to the day since I first saw them open for The Pogues in Glasgow. A bit has changed since I last saw them but what hasn’t changed is the unique, in your face bourbon soaked, gypsy bop n stroll.

Unfortunately, it is a sparse crowd here in Carlisle tonight but from the way Paul Ronney Angel and his troops perform it might as well have been packed to the rafters because they performed as though it was, and the show had the feel of a private party about it because of it.

Opening with ‘High Jeopardy Thing’ and ‘Cheers For The Tears’ they then pay tribute to fallen brothers Nick and Skipper with a heartfelt ‘Fallen Brothers’ which brings a good singalong in the audience, something encouraged to do from the start.

There is however, a sacred Rule #1 when you see Urban Voodoo - “sh*t the fuck up, I’m here to listen to the band not you talking to your mates”, it is a harsh lesson for some as ‘Baby’s Turning Blue’ is promptly stopped early on as loud talking, selfie taking crowd members are suitably chastised and quite rightly as well. Just why people would go to a gig and do that is baffling to me.

‘Help Me Jesus’ is always a favourite and the end of December regular ‘Goodbye To Another Year’ brings proceedings to a masterful end.

What can I say about this show? Exactly the same as every other time I’ve seen it, the Urban Voodoo Machine are one of the great live bands Britain has to offer. The best way to describe it is to go and see it for yourself, whether there is 15 or 1500 people there you can be assured of a show you won’t forget.

Do yourself a favour and check them out, chances these road dogs will be somewhere near you soon. AN

Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats – Glasgow G2 - 18/1/19 The G2 is fairly busy from the start, with the earlier curfew time of 10pm there isn’t much time to waste so a healthy crowd is in for Blood Ceremony who make it worth the early arrival with a great set. Packing groove with fine melodies and making great use of the Hammond organ. I love a Hammond organ, so the heavy usage is music to my ears and front-woman Alia O’Brien manages to make a flute sound the most natural thing in the world in this style.

The lights soon drop, and the projector fires up which means Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats are about ready. They burst into ‘Wasteland’ opener ‘I See Through You’ and the sound is superb, the projected visions work a treat and really create a nice atmosphere to go with its soundtrack.

The silhouetted figures on the stage are illuminated by a small amount of backlight. They smash their way through a superb set that moves nicely through their back catalogue and of course their latest release.

Songs such as ‘Mt.Abraxass’ and ‘Crystal Spiders’ sit perfectly with the new songs. ‘Shockwave City’ is sure to go down as an essential one for the set-list for years to come. The visuals up on the screen is a simple idea but it works in a venue this size perfectly.

The early curfew also doesn’t leave much time to waste and they use every minute to the best effect, the words are few, the music is plentiful and that does the talking well enough.

They bring a great atmosphere where the crowd can just lose themselves in the music and visuals and they send everyone into the freezing Glasgow night, very happy indeed. AN