Issue 28 - September 2014
Bean The Movie and the takeover of Reading's press fridge: Tom and Lee on the future of
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P 3: PULLED APART BY HORSES - Tom & Lee P. 30: PLUMP DJS Interview C. Massei - Reading photos M. Fletcher
Interview by Nelly Loriaux
Interview C.Massei - Reading photos M. Fletcher
Interview by Matt Dawson
P. 6: BLACKLIST ROYALS - Nat & Rob P. 8: PAPA ROACH - Jerry Horton
By Mark Fletcher - Photos C.Massei & M.Fletcher
P. 32: NONPOINT - Elias Soriano P. 34: THE ROZ BRUCE INFUSION
Interview and photos by Mark Fletcher
P. 10: ROCK'N'ROLL MUSEUM - Paul Ro X5 P. 36: THE COURTESANS By Paul Roundhill & Cristina Massei
Interview by Nelly Loriaux
Interview by Sophia Disgrace
By Cristina Massei - Photos Mark Fletcher
P. 14: AMERICAN HEAD CHARGE - Ted P, 16: BILLY THE KID
Interview by Mark Fletcher - Photos C. Massei
P 39: MISTY MILLER
P. 40: LITTLE MATADOR - Nathan & Dave By Cristina Massei - Photos Mark Fletcher
P. 18: BRUTALITY WILL PREVAIL - Louis & NIck P. 42: THE BULLETPROOF BOMB By Mark Fletcher - Reading photo C. Massei
By Cristina Massei - Photo Mark Fletcher
Interview by Matt Dawson
Live review by John Morgan - Photo C. Massei
Interview and photo by Mark Fletcher
By Cristina Massei
Interview and photos by Mark Fletcher
By John Morgan & Kristian Kotilainen
P. 20: CANNIBAL CORPSE - Alex Webster P. 43: GOBLIN - DAWN OF THE DEAD P. 23: DZ DEATHRAYS
P. 24: FRONT BOTTOMS - Brian & Ciaran P. 26: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BURLESQUE
P. 44: TRASH'D FESTIVAL 2014 PREVIEW
P. 48: ALBUM REVIEWS
By Sophia Disgrace
P. 28: LONELY THE BRAVE - Mark & Gavin Interview and photo by Mark Fletcher
COVER PHOTO CREDIT: Mark Fletcher
CONTACT US EDITOR IN CHIEF & ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Cristina Massei thewickedwitch@sonicshocks.com ASSOCIATE EDITORS: Matt Dawson - cygnus@sonicshocks.com Nelly Loriaux - nelly@sonicshocks.com US CORRESPONDENT: Denise Britt - denise@sonicshocks.com
Contributors on this issue WRITERS: Mark Fletcher, John Morgan, Paul Roundhill, Sophia Disgrace, Cristina Massei, Matt Dawson, Nelly Loriaux, Kristian Kotilainen PHOTOGRAPHERS: Cristina Massei, Mark Fletcher
General enquiries, review requests and unsolicited material: info@sonicshocks.com Advertising enquiries and info: advertising@sonicshocks.com PLEASE NOTE: We listen to everything but - often in your own interest - we don’t always review it...
September 2014
By Cristina Massei
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The follow up to acclaimed soph-
omore album ‘Tough Love’ is finally out. With ‘Blood’, Pulled Apart By Horses are no longer a band to watch but a reality to be reckoned with in the UK rock scenario. Their plan for world domination doesn’t end there anyway: we meet Thomas Hudsons and Lee Vincents at Reading Festival to hear more about the record, but also an upcoming concept album on Sean Bean and – following on the footsteps of Iron Maiden and Status Quo – their own brew with a True Blood twist. We also talk about Marilyn Manson, David Cameron and Lee’s wife. Here’s what’s been going down… You said in our preview you would play in full drag with 25 cabaret dancers and fireworks at the end, did that happen? Lee: No, we couldn’t afford the fireworks in the end! Tom: We all had curry last night so the pyrotechnics were in our trousers. Lee: We might have a sparkler that we can light later! Tom: We can all write our names with it! How was playing main stage, did it meet your expectations? Lee: Main stage at Reading is kind of the Mecca for rock bands in England, the crowd never disappoints. Tom: One half of the crowd were a bit more rowdy than the other half so we had to find a way in the set to balance it out and bring everyone together. Lee: We basically had to get them to fight each other, like a competition – they were being really rude to each other! How did that go down with security? Tom: They were fine, that’s their job! Let’s talk about your new album ‘Blood’, starting with a game of word association… If ‘Blood’ was a car, what car would it be? Lee: The Batmobile! Tom: A Skoda! If it was a drink… Lee: Bloody Mary obviously! If it was a sex toy? Lee: It would be a David Cameron shaped butt plug! Tom: It would be the Paris Hilton sex film, but in Bolton.
‘One Night in Bolton’! Very creative! Now describe it in your own words. Tom: Heartache, pain, joyous fun and a lot of cakes. The bonding of four minds in a healthy balanced relationship. Lee: it’s the sound of four souls being put in a washing machine and then dried in a tumble drier that was brought from heaven! ‘Blood’ is your third album, how do you feel you’ve progressed since your debut? Lee: We learned to play! Tom: Whereas before we hated our instruments and punished them as much as we could, we now kind of know how to play a few things Lee: We make sweet love to our instruments now! So there’s some kind of melody in there somewhere… Lee: There is, yes! I think we’ve kind of evolved over time into a lean rock beast. Aside from learning to play your instruments, how did the song writing evolve?
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Tom: We had a lot more time with this one. Lee: Yeah, we had more time which is cool, also we did our second album with a young man called Gil Norton, who has produced some legendary rock albums and he taught us a lot, how to write songs, and so we’ve stolen all his moves basically… Sorry Gil and thank you Gil! Where does the name come from? Tom: Our guitarist James Brown, he’s a massive Sean Bean fan and he wanted to call the band Golden Eye first ‘cause Sean Bean is like the evil enemy in Golden Eye but there were already a few bands about with that name so he went with the film Black Death where Sean Bean gets pulled apart by horses. Lee: Our next album is a concept album about the life of Sean Bean! We started writing already. Give us about six months! Tom: I’ve been thinking about it and I think it’s gonna be called Bean! Lee: It’s gonna be called ‘Bean The Movie’ Tom: It’s gonna be called Bean Sean Bean Lee: Bean Bean Sean Bean! I’ll make sure I pre-order that [laughs]. Tom: It’s gonna be hard on google So who are you gonna watch today and who are you going to avoid? Lee: We’re not going to avoid anybody! Jake Bugg is playing… Tom: We’ll definitely take a rain check on that one! But our friends Marmozets are playing soon, second set of the day, I think we’ll be catching them Lee: While She Sleeps will be playing as well, I’d like to see them Tom: Arctic Monkeys I’d like to see as well, a good northern band. Lee: Some fucking great tunes. I wished I saw DZ Deathrays earlier, Dry The River…
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Tom: Royal Blood. We get to do it all again tomorrow in Leeds. Lee: It’s the beauty of Reading and Leeds. Tom: Groundhog day! Lee: We’re like Bill Murray - Tom’s like Andie MacDowell! If you had to spend 10 minute in an elevator with anyone who would it be? Lee: My wife probably! [Both laugh loudly!] Tom: A really good elevator technician to make sure we could get out on the right floor. Lee: Maybe Marilyn Manson, I’ve always wanted to go for a beer with him so maybe being trapped in an elevator with him would be the second best thing, may be I’ve got a carrier bag with four beers - me and Brian with a few hours to kill, I’d think it be pretty cool. Tom: Or the receptionist to tell me what floor to get off on because I wouldn’t have a clue. It might be a bit scary with Manson… Lee: I love him! Tom: Under the facepaint he’s just a normal geek! Lee: He’s super interesting. Tom: He looked better in The Wonder Years. Lee: Love that rumour! What’s next for Pulled Apart By Horses? Lee: We’re going to do acoustic shows for the first time ever, we’re bringing out our own beer called Blood. Plans to sponsor any festivals? Lee: Maybe in ten years time it’ll be the Blood Reading and Leeds weekender. Tom: Probably not when they realise our own blood’s gone into it! [laughs] I hope you guys take over – Tuborg’s being a bit lazy refilling the fridge today!
© Mark Fletcher
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By Cristina Massei First joining us on the Sonic Shocks Reading couch is Nat Rufus, firm handshake and a jovial smile hidden behind dark shades. Twin brother Rob follows sporting a smile to match, a frailer figure and a pair of deep magnetic eyes exuding an excited mixture of enthusiasm and courage. The brother’s lust for life was tested when Rob, only 17 years old, was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer. The three years that followed made them appreciate that life more than ever, as they came out on the other side determined to make the most on their time on Earth. Rob has lost a lung in the process but Nat is there, their bond stronger like their passion for music. When Rob and Nat went to record Blacklist Royals’ third album after writing material separately, they found that – 10 years or so later – the memory of that tragic time had found its way into the songs. Unknowingly, both had felt the need to find some kind of closure by sharing that experience through their music. ‘Die Young Without Me’ was born, an album stripped down to make it sound ‘just like two brothers singing in a room’, says Nat, recalling the words of producer Ted Hutt. ‘When he listened to the material he said we should take a different direction to make
it special, find the right sound to reflect what the record was all about. One day we were going through the songs together, both singing, me with my guitar and Rob on drums, and Ted said that was it: the sound of two brothers singing in a room’. ‘Working with Ted was great – adds Rob – and having a British producer makes it all more rock’n’roll!’, he laughs. Talking about the decision to unearth this particular time of their life right now, Rob continues: ‘It didn’t happen intentionally, it just happened. We were in a bad place while touring for our last record, and for the first time we both separately started writing songs about that. Was therapeutic, a weight off our chest and an experience we wanted to share: two young twin brothers, one of them terminally ill. Was a very personal album and the rest of the band wasn’t behind it. We changed band members, record labels, producers, wasn’t an easy record to put out, but we did and it feels like a closing to a painful chapter of our lives. We can now move on’. Blacklist Royals rocked the Lock Up Stage at Reading on the Sunday, after play© Mark Fletcher ing well received shows in Manchester
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and Bristol and a successful performance at Leeds. Rob and Nat have played together in bands since the tender age of 13, and while the energy on stage is still the same and the passion grown stronger, the reality of life on the road is much more challenging for Rob. ‘I had one of my lungs removed as a consequence of the cancer, so I’m left with 40% breathing capacity which can create problems. Add back pain, nerve damage on one of my hands… but we couldn’t imagine our lives in any other way. Music is what got us through that period’. From a practical point of view, the consequences of the cancer will always be there, everyday reminders of years of excruciating battle; reminders, on the other hand, o f how precious life really is. ‘ Yo u learn to appreciate what you have, be grateful for every moment and for being able to d o what we do. And we have our
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fans to thank for it’. The British legion of which will be glad to hear that Blacklist Royals are hoping to return before the year is over… Looking at Rob and Nat’s twin smiles you can’t help but wonder: is this brotherhood as perfect as it looks? Do these guys ever fight like the rest of us? ‘Hell yes! – laughs Rob – We play together, live together, go out together… Of course we argue, we argue a lot! For the most stupid reasons! – so stupid he can’t remember what the last argument was about. So Nat, how would you describe Rob in 3 words? ‘Jacket, trousers, boots! I’ll play it safe!’ he replies laughing after a brief pause. Rob plays it even safer: ‘Black, black, black!’ is his 3-words description of Nat. Did you know, black is not really a colour: a black object absorbs all the colours reflecting none of them to the eyes. But Rob’s eyes can still see the rainbow through Nat’s dark shades. Die Young With Me is out now. We suggest the striking LP gatefold available via Juno HERE.
© Mark Fletcher
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© Cristina Massei
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Jerry reveals how the band keep on delivering, ‘We still enjoy playing the shows and we still love the feeling we get from the crowd especially on these festivals. We look to these kind of things as a challenge to make new fans especially with Reading and Leeds, they’re not as core rock, metal, as Sonisphere or Download’. Given they haven’t played Reading in a while they also acknowledge they have to step it up and make an impression on everybody but in the knowing that if they ‘put it out there’, then it comes back. “…putting it out there…’ as Jerry puts it also includes new material and albums. Jerry reveals that the new album ‘Face Everything And Rise’ – an acronym for FEAR – is finished, the mix is just about done and will be battling to choose 10 tracks out of the twelve recorded to feature on the album as Jerry admits ‘we set out to record something heavier but we have an Attention Deficit Disorder when it comes to music’ but reassures that it still sounds like Papa Roach and is excited about the direction of the band and the music and really looking forward to what the fans think. The single of the same name is due in October this year with the album in January 2015.
By Mark Fletcher After an exhilarating fifty minute set on the Reading main stage on Sunday, the Papa Roach band arrive in the press area still buzzing. We managed to catch up with lead guitarist Jerry Horton. ‘We haven’t done this festival in thirteen years and so we were very excited to know we were doing it and I actually liked the slot that we had’; it was actually mid afternoon and whilst the British weather was fair, it wasn’t too hot and it wasn’t raining, the crowd was at capacity and Jerry explained ‘once we started seeing the dust fly, we knew we had it’. Still managing to keep the energy levels high since their inception in 1993 and with more than 20 million album sales under their belt,
Jerry explains that the music has been modernised a little with trickier beats and riffs and have also tuned down a little giving a heavier feel. Lyrically the inspiration is about Jacobi’s current position and journey of what he has been through and given he has been sober through the whole album process ‘he wanted it to be more positive without moving away from the struggle’.
© Mark Fletcher
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There maybe a chance to see Papa Roach as they promote their single in October but the tour following the album will not be until June 2015. Chilling out after a gig normally follows with listening to music on the tour bus. ‘Sometimes it’s metal night, sometimes it’s 80’s Pop night, sometimes it’s Hip Hop Reading Festival Jerry would like to play with, he finally arrives at ‘Queens of the Stone Age, I’ve seen them a bunch and obviously
© Bryson Roatch it would be different and some people would think it was a strange match up but I love the vibe and I think it would be cool’. Look out South America, Australia, and South East Asia because Papa Roach intend on playing there soon! Parting with a message for fans Jerry says ‘Fans in the UK, thank you for being so loyal we always talk about you in other interviews with other countries, we love playing for you guys. Look for the single in October, it’s called ‘Face Everything And Rise’ and the album in January by the same name, we’re excited for you guys to hear it and we can’t wait to play some new songs to you on tour’.
Watch the full video interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DULQoe7ktc
© Cristina Massei
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rock’n’roll museum presents
By Paul Roundhill
PAUL RO X 5 - ltd edn 30 x 5 photos by Paul Roundhill An exhibition of 30 original (limited edition) photographs. 1976-2014 @ Indo, 133 Whitechapel Road, E1 1DT London - From 2nd to 30th September 2014 https://www.facebook.com/events/763673010338594/ I blame my terminal lack of aspiration on my religious background, singing in the church choir - the Old testament book of Ecclesiastes “All is Vanity! saith the preacher ….” This lack of ambition and seriousness when it comes to AMBITION has bemused and dismayed everyone from my parents to friends and associates - not least myself. With a selection of his photographic work showcased at EastEnd venue Indo throughout September, it's time for our readers to find out more about one of our regular and most talented contributors. Photographer and multimedia artist Paul Nicholas Roundhill was born on 25th March 1955. He attended St John’s Leatherhead where he was naturally outstanding at English the use, writing, understanding and performing. He performed in many theatrical productions and also a co-writer and producer of annual pantomimes. Accepted for a place at the National Youth Theatre in 1973, Paul instead chose a job as ASM and performer at the Palace Pier Theatre Brighton. He was filmed by BBC2 Omnibus in his role as a stooge with Nat Jackley in Music Hall at The Palace Pier Theatre, Brighton then at the Windmill Theatre, Great Yarmouth. He then embarked on a year’s foundation course at Epsom School of Art acquiring experience and training in photography, film, video, performance as well as drawing, painting and printmaking, and successively took a degree in fine art at Brighton in the brand new experimental Com-
bined Studies multi-media fine-art dept again using photography, video, film, conceptual and performance art. In 1977, Roundhill began to document the punk scene photographing the emerging Brighton new Wave bands. His curiosity for photography, street culture and alternative scenes would lead him to explore several forms of art and later to get strongly involved in the research and recording of London East End’s sub culture. Between 1980 and 1995 Paul developed a strong interest in fashion, founding and running retro vintage design boutiques in Kensington Market, Carnaby Street, Piccadilly Circus’ Trocadero and The Pavillion Ultra Dig. He sourced, designed and manufactured all stock which was intended to be at the cutting edge of fashion and totally exclusive. He also worked briefly as a consultant and researcher for Katherine Hamnett and John Galliano. In 1990 Roundhill began performing poetry on the club scene and began regular poetry nights in Soho; he was then asked to promote spoken word events for the Soho Jazz Festival ran by Peter Boizot of Pizza Express until 1996. In 1994 he also ran 12 bi-monthly nights at the Marquee Cafe entitled “With Intent” each documented on hi-8 video; 120 performers appeared over the series of events.
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Between 1996 and 2000 Paul researched and documented the emerging sub culture in the East End photographing girls addicted to crack and selling themselves on the street. He made his flat a sanctuary and persuaded the girls to write about their experiences. Raw and powerful accounts of their lives were published in the “Idler” magazine and later in “Full Moon Empty Sports-bag” a literary and arts magazine which he was commissioning editor of between 2004 and 2006. He collaborated with Cambridge graduate Bengali journalist Sanjiv Battacharia on a feature about gangs and the drug trade for The Evening Standard’s E.S. magazine “Streets of Shame” and with Sanjiv photographer Robbie Cooper on a year-long project culminating in a colour feature in GQ magazine called “between a Rock and A Hard Place.” Subsequently Paul was approached by a director for ITN who had seen the Evening Standard piece and together they researched and shot a cutting edge documentary for the London Program introduced by the Big Breakfast’s Philip Gayle. It was called “Bangla Voices” and went out on a Sunday it involved exclusively Bangla Deshi individuals, addicts and families of addicts, even
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dealers wearing masks were included to tell a direct and crucial story of the emerging hard drug culture developing at that time in the East End. In February 2003 Paul was introduced to Pete Doherty. It was the beginning of a prolific friendship that would often hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. Doherty would frequently be found at Roundhill’s flat where he would find inspiration for some of his finest art, all documented in a series of homemade videos still available on https://www.youtube.com/user/professorro. Paul Roundhill collaborated with Peter Doherty from 2003. He set up with him the company and website BalaChadha, acted as his literary agent, published his work, prose and poetry in his free literary magazine “Full Moon Empty Sportsbag” and developed his project of Blood Paintings. Roundhill was also credited for writing “The Saga” on the second Libertines album. Despite a powerful body of work and extraordinary creative mind - especially in the fields of photography and poetry – over the past decade Paul Roundhill’s art has sadly been overshadowed by his friendship with controversial rockstar Doherty. It’s time finally for the world to discover the vision and talent behind the headlines.
© Paul Roundhill
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Š Paul Roundhill
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© Paul Roundhill © Paul Roundhill
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Sophia chats to guitarist Ted Hallows as American Head Charge hit London… How did it feel to be playing London again? How did your set at Download go down? London was amazing, such a great crowd. We always have a blast playing there and it was killer to do a show with Kill Devil Hill. I’m a big Pantera and Type O Negative fan, so it was very cool to see Rex Brown and Johnny Kelly’s new band. I even watched their sound check. They are great guys and awesome musicians. Download was over the top, the energy and excitement coming from the crowd was electric. It has been one of my most memorable shows for me thus far. American Headcharge have been through a helluva lot as a band.... perhaps more so than others-what has been the hardest obstacle for you as a group-personally or professionally to overcome? This is true, for me personally and I think for a lot of the guys, it’s trying to get the machine running again and
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we are off to a great start. We are really beginning to pick up a lot of momentum. We had a great tour cycle supporting the Shoot EP over the past year and now with the success of our Indiegogo campaign, we will be heading back into the studio to record a new full length album. That being said, I think trying to juggle the home life versus the touring life with relationships, family....etc. is difficult. There are times when we are gone for long periods of time and it can add a strain to any type of relationship. We are going to have a really busy 2015, so it will always be a struggle to find the balance. Do you think the bands experience of addiction, loss, label issues and so on have inspired you musically? How does your new material differ from older work? Sure, everything affects us and also inspires as well. The new material has those elements of the past… the fast, heavy and industrialised type of qualities but it also has new dynamics to it. The Shoot EP gives a taste of the more recent song writing showing a new direction but again, with recording a full length album, we will be able to dig deep and bring all these elements to
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the table. The EP was just a small sample of what is to come. Check out the teaser video we just released on YouTube for a few sample ideas of what could possibly turn into new songs on the album. The Nu Metal movement is enjoying something of a revival at the moment. AHC were often placed within this sub genre; do you agree/disagree with this placement? I think American Head Charge is really a unique band and I can say that because I›m the new guy with an outside perspective. I don›t think we can just be placed into the Nu Metal genre, because there are so many different elements to this band. Especially when everyone hears the new material, I think it will show that we can›t really be labelled as one specific style of music. Would you agree that the increased use of technology and the internet has given bands, such as AHC, the ability to take back some of the creative control from the major labels? Are you able to also connect more with the fans as a result of this? Absolutely. I’m a big believer in the power of technology and the internet, it›s brought the world closer together. We utilise it to share song ideas, spread the word and get our music to the fans. We really do get to retain all of the creative control and have the option to release it independently if we so choose. As far as connecting with fans, most definitely, after the success of our Indiegogo campaign, I›ve gotten to know a lot of our fans around the world on a first name basis and I appreciate all the help and support they give us by spreading the good word of Head Charge.
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Which track do you most enjoy playing live? Can you tell us a little bit about the song you’ve picked? This is a tough question because I’m a fan of so many of the songs. I would probably have to say “Ridicule” because of the different time signature and the dynamics of the song, it’s a blast to play and the chorus is always stuck in my head. How has the metal/alt scene changed since you were last performing as AHC? Cameron just dropped by, so he’s going to answer this one. Cameron: I can’t say that I really had my finger on the pulse as far as the metal/alt scene but what little exposure we’ve had, has been great. Especially as of recent, touring with some really great bands such as RSJ and Maple Run. I would say the scene is alive and well in the UK and anyone that says otherwise is a retard. Where do you envision AHC to be in the next year or so.... It’s going to be a really busy year for us. We are just about to start recording the new album and then we will be touring relentlessly. We already have the rest of 2014 already planned out, we are looking forward to our upcoming European / UK tour with Soil and Hed PE in October and we are just starting to plan a touring schedule for 2015. I’d like to do a world tour supporting the new album and also play some places the band has never been before, or hasn’t been to in a long time, for instance... Japan and South America.
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By Mark Fletcher - Photos Cristina Massei Although not playing the Festival, Billy the Kid dropped by to have a chat on the Sonic Shocks couch about her flight from Canada amongst other stuff. ‘I like to make up songs, play guitar and I’m called Billy the Kid…Kid because I was always the youngest member of the band and people used to call me the kid’. Playing in different Punk bands over time, this current outing is Billy’s fourth acoustic solo venture. ‘I have a new record coming out with Frank Turner, who’s from here (the UK)’, The album is called ‘Horseshoes and Hand Grenades’ and the name came from ‘a nod to the idea of luck and destruction, there’s an old timey saying “Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades” and I was thinking about it with this idea about being on the verge of something, not really knowing what’. Billy admits to being independent most of her life in her music, releasing her own music on her own Indie label and this is the first time she’s had help (from Frank Turner), so that’s the luck part. Maybe the destruction part is Billy’s reveal that she has a light and dark side and prefers to be the master of her own destiny? The musical foundation for her album derives from being the product of the nineties , growing up with Nirvana and later, Canadian artists like Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and the Banned. Lyrically maybe the fact that ‘I was a teenage runaway, I was a foster kid, I left home when I was super young and started booking my own tours and basically any chance I could get to play or leave town’. Making up her own rules along the way and not following them, she confesses to enjoy running away but will she hang
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around enough to build a fan base? ‘It feels like home to be on the road’. After a few dates in the UK Billy embarks on a month long tour with Billy Bragg admitting she is a huge fan and the guy who recorded one of her first punk albums used to make her mix tapes as his way of producing her. One of the tapes had ‘New England’ at the end and she used to keep repeating it and falling asleep with her Ghetto Blaster in her arms and ‘I was convinced that one day him (Billy Bragg) and I would fall in love and write political songs and live happily ever after and it wasn’t until the first time I saw him in Vancouver that I realised he was a little older than me and my heart was crushed’. Whilst there maybe no time after gigs to chill out because of packing and moving on, ‘Whenever I time alone, I’m always writing’. Having a book and a guitar is Billy’s version of watching TV. Her process varies from sticking to a riff for a year or the same lyrics for months before finally getting it or producing something in a day. When asked who she would like to spend 10 minutes with, stuck in a lift, she responded ‘I’m a big Ryan Adams fan… …It would be so entertaining because he’s completely insane but with the best of intentions’.
Watch the full video interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdQZ8DfMSdc
© Cristina Massei
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Š Cristina Massei
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By Mark Fletcher Ending their tour
with Reading Festival Louis says ‘This is definitely a tick off the bucket list and I’m still buzzing from playing’ and then Nick confesses ‘I remember watching this festival on TV with my Dad when I was twelve watching Sum 41 and Less Than Jake and never thought that in twelve years time I’d be playing it’. Proclaiming to be a bunch of young, good looking gentlemen from around the globe (corrected by Nick who thinks mainly the UK) playing loud angry, hard core metal music, they enjoy touring, playing other countries and maybe ‘countries where bands have never been to before’ says Louis but Nick is quick to add ‘we are kind of scary on stage, but as people we’re not’. ‘We take a lot of influences from so many types of music like Nick is a massive Radiohead fan, a massive Pink Floyd fan’ as Nick adds ‘we have our sound but you apply all of your influences’ then Louis resumes ‘I’m a massive Bruce Springsteen fan,
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I have a Bruce Springsteen tattoo’. As for the name, Nick explained that the member who thought of it left a while back so the origin is a mystery and he also admits that none of the band really like the name but they see it as unique but admit it can be awkward when explaining to strangers what the name is. One member left last year and posted some comments that indicated disappointment and that things weren’t what he expected. Giving their side of the story Nick says ‘we could be here for hours talking about it but it came down to him not wanting to tour, we wanted to tour, we toured with this man (Louis) ‘coz he filled in, so that’s what we did and he left, it ended on a bad note which is a shame’. The both of the guys agree that opportunities must be taken rather than regret the missed opportunities when you reach your forties. Touring and playing is an obvious enjoyment that the band have and they feel privileged to have it but also remind us of the fact that it is hard work too, like
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travelling sixteen hours from north Germany only the night before the Reading gig but with the reward of it being ‘the sickest gig we ever played’.
would be Jennifer Lawrence ‘she’s beautiful and she also seems like a really cool person… …I am in love with her’
Album wise, ‘we’ve been writing on tour and demo’d some songs in Austria the other week in our hotel room’ and there are tour commitments but they think an album will be recorded early part of next year.
To finish off the day Louis is going to eat everything he can get in his mouth but would like to see ‘Pusha T’ whilst Nick wants to check out Bombay Bicycle Club but explains he is trying to get drunk but was refused a beer in the press tent by a girl who was angry and aggressive. None of that from the Sonic Shocks team!
As for the massive tattoo collection between them, they love tattoos and the artwork. Wonder if we can get them to reveal for a photo shoot? Being stuck in a lift for ten minutes with anyone, Nick reveals he would choose Danielle from Haim ‘I’m in love with her, I think she’s beautiful. She’s silent and ten minutes in a lift you could try and work her out’, he then admits he feels creepy about his admission but he also says she plays guitar well. After a while to consider Louis finally reveals his choice
The final message is to the fans ‘thanks for everything, thanks for all the support, if you’re having fun, we’re having fun’. You can watch the full interview with Louis and Nick here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L19BAjtePsM
© Cristina Massei
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Interview by Matt Dawson
As one of the biggest death metal bands in the world get ready to release their thirteenth release Alex Webster (bassist) chats to Matt Dawson about producers, songwriting, playing Damnation festival for the first time and why Phantasm and Powerslave are one of his top 5 films and albums respectively… With A Skeletal Domain you decided to work with Mark Lewis after three albums with Erik Rutan – was there any big fundamental differences between the two producing wise? Mark did things a little bit differently when it came to recording the guitars, we generally do quad tracking which is four tracking with guitars. With Erik for example you would two tracks with one guitar sound then go back and do the two tracks with the other guitar sound, with Mark we’d generally tried to get all four tracks done for each song immediately also with the bass sound instead of mik-
ing up a cabinet we used two really killer DI boxes and blended those together. The big difference working with the two guys was I would say the technical side of it more than anything and they just have a slightly different approach but they’re both great guys and a lot of fun to work with so it was a pretty easy transition to work with Mark. We’ve had a taste of the album through Sadistic Embodiment - will the rest of the album be classic Cannibal Corpse or may there also be a possible slant towards a 2014 outlook? I think it’s pretty consistent with what we’ve done before but there are some differences for sure, [it’s] probably the most different sounding album we’ve done in years, there’s a lot of variety from song to song which is something we always try to do but there’s also some different things –
it’s hard for me to explain but there’s sound people haven’t heard from Cannibal Corpse before: different styles of lead guitar, different riffing styles. I think it’ll be an interesting one for our fans but it’s still full on death metal. What would you say was the most intense track to work on? Of the four songs that I wrote The Murderer’s Pact was probably the most challenging to record – it’s a little bit of a different style, it took time to get the best performances on that song, once we got into the studio I wrote an additional harmony part for one of the fast parts so Pat [O’Brien] had to learn that [laughs] in the studio and that’s no fun then I wrote a weird bass line. For that song I wasn’t finished writing all the additional dressing on the song so to speak prior to the recording so it made it harder to record because we
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had less time to prepare. Can I ask what the other three songs you wrote for the album were? I did music and lyrics for all four – The Murderer’s Pact, Vector of Cruelty, Headlong Into Carnage and Bloodstained Cement. As with the other guys whenever we write these songs we’re trying to make it so that the song sounds quite different from the other while still being death metal. You guys have quite the legacy in death metal – what are your thoughts on that? To me I feel it’s very strong, something that the whole scene should take some pride in is the consistency and longevity that it’s had, bands like us or Monstrosity and Incantation – there’s all kinds of bands that have never stopped from the very beginning – not just American bands either like Vader that have been consistent for decades. It just shows it is high
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quality music, an awesome genre of music and there’s no reason for it to ever go out of style. It’s never really been IN style, just a great form of underground music that has a ton of staying power which is as strong as ever, there’s tons of great bands that are still coming out- relatively recently formed bands, stuff that’s gotten big over the last ten years such as Corpus Mortale or Hour Of Penance and there’ll always be more. I think for the foreseeable future things will continue this way with more great bands coming out and the older bands like us sticking around. Which new death metal bands would you recommend? Hour Of Penance, Corpus Mortale, Rivers Of Nihil, Aeon. You’re also a member of Blotted Science who released a very strong album quite a few years ago – how are the talks going along in regards
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to a follow up? Yes, we’ve actually been writing for quite a while now. With that band we all have to fit it in when we can because Hannes [Grossman] has been busy with other projects like Obscura until very recently and Ron [Jarzombek]has a few different projects going on as well – guitar teacher plus instructional DVD’s, I’m obviously busy with Cannibal Corpse and Conquering Dystopia. We are trying to get a complete album written and have it be ready to record for sometime at the end of the year – I get home from tour in December, that’ll be enough time to do the recording or at least most of it. We’re hoping for a 2015 release. Speaking of tours – you’ll be playing London on Halloween – thoughts on that given the significance of the date? It should be a big night – we’ve al-
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ways had great shows in London regardless of the date so when you have a band like us with songs that are dark and violent and have it on a holiday that’s also dark and horror themed hopefully all those things will make it better than normal. We think Aeon and Revocation are amazing bands – we’re very pleased with that bill, a solid night of metal. A Metal Blade specific bill too! Well over the years Metal Blade have gotten a very strong roster – they’ve always had one with a lot of variety but throughout the 90’s we were one of the few death metal bands, it’s a great label. You play the Damnation Festival in November – on its tenth anniversary for the first time – what are your feelings on playing there? That’ll be great, I’ve heard about the festival from our fans and to be able to play it on the tenth anniversary (headlining the Terrorizer Stage) – that’s great. I’m sure we’ll have a great time! Given that Cannibal’s lyrics are quite dark, horrific and gory and how Florida over the past decade has become known on the internet for its own horror stories – what would you say is the most fucked up one you’ve heard about? Jesus, it’s hard to say. We’ve been living in Florida since our fourth album, we came from Buffalo New York and moved down to Tampa in 1994, the reason we chose Tampa was in part because we got to know that city from having recorded there at Morrisound Studios where all the Florida death metal bands had been recording and we liked them a lot. Having lived in Florida for twenty years we’ve gotten to know it very well and we’re definitely part of the scene down there at this point but as far as horrific stories in Florida there’s been so many! There’s crimes all throughout the states but Florida has its fair share of weird crime – things that are strange, if you check out Florida Man twitter account it
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compiles all the strange and unfortunate things that are happening – if a newspaper has weird stories, one of them is from Florida, I don’t know why that is – it could be that Florida is less grounded – the neighbourhood I grew up in the north was around for 150 years, the one I live in Florida – twelve years! Cannibal’s also had its fair share of censorship issues over the years – one of your favourite films is Phantasm which was put under Section 3 by the DPP during the UK’s Video Nasties panic – why does Phantasm stand out for you? I like things that have a surreal kind of feel to them
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pening? Leaving all these questions and having it be bizarre and surreal makes it more frightening to me. There’s also that great image of Angus Scrimm walking through the steam coming off the back of an icecream truck. He’s such an excellent villain – I like the idea that the villain cannot be beat and sometimes in horror it’s also effective when the protagonist feels kind of alone and nobody will believe his stories – the movie Jacob’s Ladder is another one of my favourites and that’s got a lot of those similar features. Any modern horror films you find really effective? There’s some but nothing that struck me in the same way as the ones that did when I was younger – part of it might be because I’m older now and what I find frightening now on a visceral level are different to those I found frightening as a ten year old so the kind of movies now that creep me out are the more realistic ones. I like the remake of I Spit On Your Grave, Inside and Hostel. Thoughts on the second Hostel then? It was good but I feel too many things were explained – sometimes it’s important to leave things unexplained. I like the first – at this point one better because there was so in my life I don’t believe in any kind much mystery. of supernatural things, I’m not a religious person or anything like that On an album level I noticed that we but when I was younger I was fairly have an album in common when it religious so a lot of the movies I saw comes to Iron Maiden in Powerslave when I was young had surreal things – What is it about that album that or something that was an evil force, makes it one of your top five of all to me when things are left unex- time? plained it lets your imagination fill in I love Iron Maiden and feel they’ve the blanks. been consistent throughout but that Phantasm had a lot of those things album’s a peak to me of their 80’s that captured an almost nightmar- albums. It’s just a strong musical ish kind of quality – there’s differ- machine, really heavy and well exeent ways to approach and one of my cuted. The bass playing fantastic and favourite ways is that nightmarish prominent in the mix. It’s a heavy way, Phantasm does that with the metal band at its finest. Musically strange things: Why does the villain flawless. bleed yellow? Why does he have these spheres? Why is all of this hap-
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© Mark Fletcher
By Mark Fletcher Having played Reading two years ago, the band are back and ‘It’s good to be back’. The guys have known each other since High school, after which they formed a band ‘and that band slowly formed into this band and kept on going’. The new album ‘Black Rat’ is now out but the expectation on sales in the UK and Europe is zero, ‘it’s not about the sales man, it’s about putting out an album that you think is good’. ‘Getting people down to shows and going crazy is all we care about’. The band believe their fan base is getting better in the UK: ‘we’ve been coming here for 3 years now and it’s starting to pick up a little bit, it just takes a long time’. Basing themselves from Australia still they admit ‘we are pretty much touring all of the time’. But the best crowds are still in Oz because they’ve been playing there for five years and after the second record came out the crowd ‘went crowd surfing every show and stage diving and stuff, it was a lot of fun’. The band have just completed one tour, they have two weeks off and 30-40 more shows. After which they will be heading off back to oz in October ‘to do a tour’ then back to the UK in November. These guys clearly love the rock‘n’roll lifestyle because they admit to always
Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRorS8Tvhz8 touring and when asked how they chill out, guess what, they chill out by playing shows! The rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle must involve beer and when asked what the beer of choice was, here’s what they had to say, ‘my favourite tasting beer is a beer called three sheets from Sydney but my favourite beer for aesthetic reasons, image reasons, and taste is Victoria Bitter’ apparently it’s cheap and makes you look like trash. Influences for the album have come from touring with other bands Blood Red Shoes, Band of Skulls and Foo Fighters influences the way you write. Influence for new album from Reading could include Pulled Apart by Horses.For the rest of their time at Reading the band will chill out drinking beers and watching bands before heading to Leeds.
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© Mark Fletcher Interview by Mark Fletcher Joining us to chat looking full of energy is Brian, sporting his Black Sunday T shirt. There’s no wonder he’s full of energy and hyped up: ‘We just got playing half an hour ago, it was amazing’ were Brian’s opening words and, I have to say, after watching some of their show on the Lock Up stage, they were well and truly welcomed to the Reading Festival. Speaking about the reception and expectation Brian goes on to say ‘It not only met expectation, it blew it out of the water’ and the crowd were bigger and better than the guys were expecting too. This theme of better than expected continues into the opinions of the recent European tour as Brian just starts to talk about the last time in Europe with ‘Brand New’, Ciaran (guitarist with the band) rises into camera shot wearing a happy grin as Brian goes onto explain each time they come to Europe, it gets better and better. ‘And we played Ireland too just two days ago, it was amazing’. Speaking about the difference between a USA crowd
and European crowd, Brian explains they are different and Ciaran intercepts with an explanation of different chants for drinking where in Ireland they chant ‘down in one, down in one as opposed to (in the USA) chug, chug, chug’ before going on to say the most tame crowd is from Oklahoma, Nebraska. But doesn’t really know why! The best crowd in Europe was apparently in London where they got to play to 3,000 people when they played with ‘Brand New’ and ‘Saves the Day’ where ‘we had the honour to open for both of those bands’ and ‘it was unreal. And then after that we went and played an after show with Saves the Day, it was incredible’. Their intention is to come back after going home, playing a few shows and recording a new album. ‘We’re not touring October through December, so I guess we’ll write it (the album) then’. The latest EP ‘Rose’ is named after the drummer’s grandmother. This is the first in a Grandma series of EP’s named after band members’ grandmothers with the next one maybe called ‘Anne’. They contain older songs.
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The explanation of ‘Front Bottoms’ as a name is derived from watching the movie ‘Sexy Beast’ with Ben Kingsley where someone said “they touched my front bottom”. ‘In the States, I had never heard that term used before’ but after seeing the movie Brian expressed ‘That’s as funny as hell’. The name is never an issue in the States but there have been difficulties in the UK where the band were told the name would not be used on flyers. Brian goes on to say ‘We stayed true to it because if you don’t like the name and you can’t get past the name, don’t listen to the music. But if you can get passed the name, fan for life!’. After their press obligations, the band will be driving to Leeds for the other half of the festival with the hope of catch- © Mark Fletcher ing Blink 182 and Macklemore, whilst probably grabbing some ‘garbage’ food along the way, or ‘rubbish’ as Ciaran corrects Brian. They confess to even eating grass, as Brian bends down to pluck grass from the ground and proceeds to feed Ciaran then stating ‘the pesticides really give it the extra spice’ and then explaining part of the reason of the tour is to ‘play some shows, drink some beers, but what we are going there for is to eat their grass.’
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Closing the chat Brian leaves a message for the UK fans and viewers, ‘Thank you for having us, thank you for listening to our music, and not been turned off by the name!’ Watch the full interview here: http://youtu.be/FJHqS1rPWto
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Burlesque! By Sophia Disgrace Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond! My name is Sophia Disgrace and I’ve performed at numerous events in the U.K and abroad, from festivals to the most exclusive clubs. I tend perform in a neo burlesque style and incorparate other elements, such as fire play, into my routines. Burlesque - or ‘the art of tease’ as it’s also known, first rose to prominence in the 1950’s; in recent years it’s enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again. Here are my pick of all things burlesque this month... House of Burlesque Presents SPEAKEASY @ Madame Jo Jo’s - Soho, London Saturday 13th September from 6.00pm Step below the illicit streets of Soho and indulge yourself in some forbidden delights.... This new weekly event is held at the original den of debauchery - Madame Jo Jo’s. Settle back into the sauce-tastic surroundings and allow ‘Hostess with the Mostess’ Tempest Rose guide you through a night of burlesque frivolities! A pre how burlesque class taught by an industry star can also be booked, depending on ticket purchased. For further information and tickets please refer to http://www.houseofburlesque.co.uk THIS FILM IS A CABARET OLD CHUM @ the Wedgewood Rooms - Portsmouth Monday 22nd September from7.30pm to 11.00pm Watch the legendary film ‘Cabaret’ and enjoy a line up of stellar entertainment, courtesy of Joe Black and friends?! Where’s my ticket?! Yes, a gal (or guy!) really can have it all....Grab your popcorn and watch the 1970s genre classic, starring Liza Minnelli (she won an Oscar for best actress for her role in it, fact fans) AND get yo self a night of showtime greats shaking their tushes in actual real life too! This event is a part of The Making Waves Film Festival -www.makingwavesfilmfestival.co.uk Tickets are an unbelievable £10.00! Please call The Wedgewood Rooms for more details - 023 9286 3911 COQUETTE BURLESQUE & CABARET CLUB @ The Duchess - York Friday 3rd October from 7.00pm to10.30pm Don’t miss the last Coquette show of the year - it’s gonna be a good’un! Lou Safire will be living up to his exotic namesake, with a thrilling mix of sideshow pizazz and circus skills. Vocalist Em Brulee will be compering proceedings, whilst burly starlets Starla Bright and Cece Sinclair will leave you begging for more! Obligatory magic tricks will be provided by Tom Crosbie, and prepare for a walk on the dark side via the mysterious Cocoa City Cabaret. Oh and don’t forget to dance the night away! A medley of tunes will be spun by wonder DJ Tripp Hazzard! Phew! Sounds like fun right? Tickets are £12, please call The Duchess for details - 01904641413
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This month’s velvet curtain reveals...
BURLESQUE SPOTLIGHT!
Head to www. janinebasil. com for a crazy good selection of handmade items! From burly fascinators to pop art shoe accessories, this woman can make it all! If you like glitter, sparkly things and retro cool this shop is for you. I think I like her super cute unicorn hair pieces best of all - hint hint! Next month I shall shine a ‘lil light on another burly Pin Up… Don’t miss it *wink*!
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Š Mark Fletcher
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By Mark Fletcher After timing slot mix-ups and band name mistakes we finally get the right questions to the right band after a giggle about the whole situation. Lonely The Brave, back from last year, found the gig amazing. They’re a bunch of guys from the same town that finally came together, with different influences from classical to metal stimulating their music and ultimately their album ‘The Days War’ out on September 1st. The record, out on Columbia, has been delayed slightly: ‘we were signed to Hassle records in the UK and Columbia approached us about an international deal’ but for the might of Columbia to work the way it needed to, they requested a few months delay in the launch in order to promote and ready the international market. ‘It was our choice completely, if you want to go ahead we’ll support you’ being a tough decision when you want to get your album out there, the band believe it has been the right one to make. In order to support the broader fan base, every major festival across Europe has been played with more to come; ‘We’re back out there in a couple of weeks, back to France, back to Holland’ and with a launch party at
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Dingwalls in Camden, London on 4th September the guys are excited ‘It’s going to be a really big night for us, it’s sold out!’. The band chose to produce the album on CD, Vinyl, MP3 and admit ‘A record should actually be a record, it’s not a collection of songs, it’s a record from start to finish’ and should also be something you can touch, feel and smell! ‘We’ve got a book pack version coming out that has got all Dave’s lyrics in it’ Next up for Lonely the Brave is more show. Throughout September they will be joint headlining a tour with the Marmozets. And in the words of Keith Lemon, the message from the guys is ‘Stay in school, but even if you don’t you could join a band and do something’ and for the fans ‘Thank you, thank you for all the support, we’ve been absolutely blown away every time we play any show anywhere. We’re amazed people still show up and today is a prime example of that’. And there’s a thank you too for sticking through the delay of the album. Watch the full interview here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR61EGw0U6c
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With residencies at FABRIC, XOYO and THE NEST in London and worldwide tour in Australia, the Far East, Canada,USA and Europe, globetrotters Lee Rous and Andy Gardner certainly have had a full calendar on their hands. Nevertheless, they still managed to fit even more into their busy life by setting up their own ‹Grand Hotel› label gaining support from Annie Mac and Porter Robinson. Not content with launching tracks such as ‹Hammer House› or ‹Skylon›, Plump DJ›s are now releasing their own infectious bass heavy ‹ Roll Dope Rhymes ‹ which they described as ”Deep Space Disco”… Tell us a bit about yourselves We are Andrew Gardner and Lee Rous of London, born in the early 70s in the UK. We grew up listening to disco, rock and roll and soul music as kids. A love of early hip hop, house music, acid and the rave scene of the 80s and 90s fuelled our fire that forged the breakbeat scene and music of the last decade. For which we are known worldwide for co-creating through our early releases on Fingerlickin records and perpetual touring. We have been DJing and producing now since 1998 as Plump DJs, during which time we have served a 10 year residency at London’s Fabric nightclub. We also toured the world extensively, headlining many of its largest and smallest festivals and clubs. In recent years we have performed regularly at London›s premier music lead venues XOYO and The Nest, and remixed the likes of Deadmau5, Orbital, Mark Ronson and Paul Oakenfold. Last year we performed at Glastonbury in front of 40,000 people on the Arcadia stage, this being one of the high points of our career to date. We still meet up at our Soho recording every day and make electronic dance music, which we release on our own indie Grand Hotel record label. I suppose we are a sound research and development team really You describe your style as ‘Plump Music’...tell us a bit more about it As artistes we have continued to develop over the past 16 years, our sound has changed naturally, we are continually inspired by the music of the worlds dance floors, and feel that our current creations are the result of experiments in the studio and
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By Nelly Loriaux reflective of our experiences on tour. We are also feel we have a very ‘London’ sound, due to us performing regularly here since 1998. It’s natural to take on the sounds that one immerses oneself in. Over the years in interviews, many people have asked us to describe our sound, being that in many cases we are being asked questions about a hopefully innovative piece of music that we may have created. We are not fond of trying to describe a sound, especially our sound, so we now use the descriptive ‘plumpmusic’ which seems to sum our sound up nicely. Do you have a favourite live set? What makes you decide to play a particular record? This has changed in content and style in many ways over the years. Firstly we now play house music predominantly in our sets as well as a healthy mix of bassline house, breakbeat, old and new electro, acid house and new rave tunes. 10 years ago our sets were mostly made up of the breakbeat tunes of the era, the boot was very much on the other foot. Adapt or die right?!? We perform simultaneously on 4 Pioneer decks these days, using a Q2 splitter box that enables us to use all 4 decks at the same time. Back in the day we played back to back, the records were up to 9 minutes long in some cases, these days we rarely play more that 4 minutes of each record. This style of playing we first saw popularised by hip hop DJs of the late Noughties from the USA. The music we were making back in the day was more progressive with complex drawn out arrangement ideas. These days we prefer our mixes thick and fast, even though our general BPM has slowed down to around 127 from the heady heights of 140 BPM back in the day. We still play a mixture of off the cuff records and set pieces. We feel that real DJing is as much about reading the crowd
and responding accordingly as it is about being a selector and bringing the freshest tunes to the fore. Totally pre-programming your set is a lazy thing to do, however practice makes perfect, if you want to do some tricks...you gotta plan that shit! Do you get up and coming DJs giving you their mixtapes and demos? If so, what has been the most original way a DJ used to get your attention? To be honest we try and listen to everything that is sent to us, however in reality we only manage to listen to listen to 5% or less of music that is sent to us outside of the official promo company mailouts each week. We listen to, review and report back on at least 100 records each a week. That’s nearly 1000 tunes a month. The best thing for an up and coming artiste to do is get your music signed by a record label. They will then make sure its of a high enough standard to be sent to a professional DJ. The label should finance the record to be promoted through a quality promo company. Then you will get proper feedback from someone like us, and you will be able to make an educated decision on the next step forward. There is too much un-vetted music out there clogging up the system. This is no good for anyone. If you can’t get anyone to listen, but you believe in what you do and can’t afford to mailout your records yourself, get your mates together and put on a little party, play your music and see what happens. You never know if enough people have a good time, they will tell others to come down to the next party you put on. You may start something original!! Do you ever encounter DJs that overstep your boundaries? Professional DJs like us are an odd breed, we spend a lot of lonely time on our own on planes and in airports. Then we are thrust into the limelight and get to perform in front of 1000s of people. We meet promoters and
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make friends all over the world who we rarely see subsequently, at the expense of quality time with our friends and family on the weekends at home. It’s all a bit topsy turvy really. The peaks and the troughs vary considerably, as does the money we can earn from the job that although is highly prized, is also short lived and potentially very bad for your health. Many DJs develop funny traits and characteristics as a result, they can grow shy and timid, get bolshy and cocky, arrogant and rude, manipulative and two-faced, some grow wise and kind. They really do come in all shapes and sizes. We try not to let other peoples negative problems effect us. To be honest we are hard enough on ourselves to let other people’s points of view or actions effect us in a bad way. You are not only successful DJs but also producers and label owners. How to you juggle with the 3 roles? We try and make sure we stay healthy by eating, sleeping and keeping fit and healthy. This helps us juggle the many roles that we have DJing, producing and running a label. We also have colleagues that help us manage and run the label and our careers. We have professional management, agency and label assistance. We also work with a PR and design company
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to assist with our press, artwork and videos. On top of this we look after our personal essential social media avenues and websites. Being plump is far from just playing records and making music these days. We also have the promo companies that we do music reactions for each week, and we also try and assist in the promotion of any gig we do. It’s a 24/7 occupation...but we love it. What piece of software/hardware/ plugin could you not live without? - Logic - Mackie desk - Yamaha NS10 and Genelec speakers - Lots of machines made of wood Although Ibiza has always been the mecca for electronic music, the past few years has seen a huge growth in the Las Vegas EDM scene and America’s insatiable hunger for dance music. In your opinion, has Las Vegas become the ‘New Ibiza’? No, the basic cultures that back up both destinations are so different one could never be compared to the other. Dance music may be the glue in both situations, but the environments both socially, architecturally, and geographically come to think of it, could not be more different. Ibiza is an island on the ocean, and Las Ve-
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gas is a town in the middle of a dessert. Ibiza is filled mostly with Europeans, and Las Vegas is filled mostly with Americans. To say that many people go to each destination to party, and have a holiday is correct. You can compare steak and ice cream because they are types of food..but that’s where the similarities stop! The increasing popularity of electronic dance music has also seen an increase in DJs payday, with Calvin Harris earning an estimated £30 millions in 2013, topping the FORBES list of highest paid DJ. Do you feel ‘top’ DJs ‘deserve’ such salaries? Yes What projects are you currently working on? What can we expect from you in 2014? Thanks for the interview. We are currently working on a new album, and proceeding extended dance singles. Each will be accompanied by artwork and a video leading up to the LP later this year. We are touring Canada in November, and Australia and the USA in the spring of 2015. Between now and then we will be visiting Hungary, Spain, Germany and France to DJ as well as performing all over the UK and in London at our beloved Nest club in Dalston. Eat, sleep, make some killer dance floor records, repeat!! :)
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With new album The Return on the h o rizon for the Floridan based band, the worlds of hip-hop, Yo Gabba Gabba and more are discussed in Matt Dawson’s chat with vocalist Elias Soriano. While working on this album you’ve mentioned that listening to hip-hop reinvigorated your creative flow – which albums in particular ignited the spark and which hip-hop albums in 2014 – if any- have helped it continue? I listened to old and new. Phonte’ from Little Brother, his solo record “Charity Starts At Home” is lyrically just food… Good food. Get you some. As for new records, Kendrick Lamar’s “Good Kid, M.A.A.D. City” from front to back really got me back into listening to entire records again. Not since Circa Survive have I really been rocking whole records until I came across Kendrick’s new record. As far as delivery it was the new Eminem record that absolutely blew me away. Talk about word-play and phonation. Some of the triplets, patterns and just over all “you think you know?” delivery he dropped on “The Marshall Mathers LP2” made me hungry to get writing. This is the second time the band have worked with Johnny K – what is it like working with him once again? It was easy. We both wanted to make the record sound better than the last one. Luckily we recorded at a time where Johnny is starting to build his own gear and building the mixing side of his studio up. He seems to be mixing
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a lot more, so the gear is at its peak along with his mixing groove right now. There was little to no changes this time around. We walked in ready so the focus was really on the tone of the record. We wanted the record to sound sharp, and powerful. It’s safe to say this record cuts like a sledgehammer. You’ve added a new lead guitar player in BC Kochmit – what are your thoughts on his addition to the band? Excitement… Pride… The guy is a beast. When Andy decided to bow out almost 7 years ago we chased BC then. Unfortunately the timing wasn’t right and he wasn’t available. This time around the stars aligned perfectly for us and blessed us with one of the most talented and visually exciting guitar players in the industry. His resume’ should be enough, but his skill, work ethic, design and artistic talents, and finally his song writing abilities are all things we look for in new members. To be involved and treat this like it should be treated. Like a living, breathing thing that needs the attention of a son or daughter. Granted you let it go out and make mistakes sometimes, but for the most part you direct and lead it to success and happiness. BC in the band is like having the Super Nanny living in your house. Glad to have him as part of the family now. What would you say is your favourite and your most personal tracks on The Return? My favorite hands down is Razors. Something about that song that just makes the pride well up inside of me. I feel like that is the best representation of Nonpoint 2014. Widowmaker is the most personal. I recently lost my father and
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it gave me a chance to reflect on life. His…Mine… the one I’m trying to live. It made me look at a lot of my decisions and the decisions of my family when it came to how they live their lives. It’s not easy being a parent, partner, sister, brother or any other member of a family. This includes friendships. Personally we make secret decisions that lead us to live a certain life. Sometimes, or should I say MOST of the time for someone else. Widowmaker was about that sacrifice. I love what I do, don’t ever get me wrong when I say this, my choice to be Elias from Nonpoint is like being stranded on a desert island that gives me food, happiness and those around me happiness and sometime salvation from their own lives.. But the island has chosen to keep me here forever because of the affect my staying has on those around me and everywhere my music reaches. So I decided to stay, and hope that my efforts in places I don’t get to even see I bring happiness. But it’s a life sentence. How was it signing with Metal Blade records along with continuing a relationship with Razor And Tie? It’s exciting considering we have had little to no representation of our music overseas other than an ITunes upload, YouTube videos and the occasional EBay victory. It’s too often that bands and labels in the US get trapped into the notion that it’s impossible to travel to Europe because of the expenses. That’s not the problem, it’s what you do when you get there that matters. Metal Blade is what is going to help us change that all. The label itself is a powerhouse, but now with us on the roster it’s gonna BLOW UP! I bet Jay Z and Kanye sign within the next year. Jk… No seriously, we needed a label like Metal Blade to take the reigns overseas so we can start fulfilling all the requests for us to tour outside of the US. Metal Blade is the right label for us. They believe in the band and have started working from day 1 of the papers being signed. So how is it? It’s tits covered in whip cream. How much are you looking forward to touring with Eyes Set To Kill in the USA? There is a buzz about them around these parts these days so it’s gonna be cool to see what they bring as far as fans, but I really haven’t had the chance to catch them live so I can’t give an honest answer on their catalogue. HELL, I
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GOT A 3 YEAR OLD… All I know is Gabba Gabba songs right now. lol. Anyways, their name came up a few times so we decided to give the package a try. What are the plans regarding UK dates? We’ll see what offers start to roll in when the cord drops. If I hadto guess I’d say early next year. Marketing and touring plans all start coming around this time so we’re all still in waiting. Speaking of tours – weirdest thing to happen while on tour? About 6 years ago we played a small town in the middle of the country by the named of Skullbone, Tennessee. Skullbone in its hay-day was the bare-knuckle boxing capital of the US. It was obviously a proud time then. Now it has a population of about 300 and host’s a festival style concert called “SkullFest” or “Metal-Fire Fest” or “Skull-FireBarbedwire Fest” or whatever it was called (If you haven’t already noticed all the calendar designated brain cells are on vacation in Jamaica), and we were so cordially invited. Upon leaving the show we began the hour long trek to the highway down the same 30 mph road we took to get there. As we turned the corner our headlights passed over the most perfect, beautiful Painted horse scratching it’s nose on a fence post of the property containing it. As we completed the corner our perfect picturesque moment flipped unexpectedly. I think I remember the exact quote was, “Awwwwe that is just the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my... OH MY GOD IS THAT A DEAD GUY IN THE ROAD!?!?!” About 50 yards up the street a shirtless man in jeans lay in the center of the road… So we stopped and a couple of us got out of the bus and yelled down the street, “You alright buddy?!” Just then a truck pulls out of what seemed to be nowhere, with its high beams on. “Hello?!” my tour manager yells… At this point we can’t see the guy in the road, we can’t see who or how many are in the truck, we got $15k+ on us in the middle of SKULL-FUCKING-BONE, TENNESSEE. I look at my TM and say, “Get the fuck back in the bus… Fuck that guy.” I look at the bus driver, and say, “Go and don’t stop for nothing.” We blasted past them ducking under the windows and got the hell out of there. By far the weirdest thing to ever happen on tour.
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Roz Bru Infusi on is nstantly their gig list ance adding to d are worthy co of a w and when visitatch. To check where http://www.roz bruceinfusion.c o.uk Their album ‘Yo u Deserve to Be Here’ ca online or downlo aded from iTunnbe purchased es.
Interview and photo by Mark FLetcher
September 2014
We had a chance to catch up with Roz Bruce Infusion in their tour bus after their slot at the Jackdaw Festival on 16th August 2014.Haling from the Midlands the three piece consisting of Roz Bruce on vocals and guitar, Gaf Evans on Bass and Dominic (Dom) Dillon on Drums bring an alternative rock to an interesting level with hints of the past melded into their own creations. With Roz and Gaf having studied music and now teaching, coupled with the breadth of experience from Dom, the band is a tight unit of competent people delivering their own brand of creative sound. Let’s start with the band name, Roz Bruce Infusion: where did that come from, because its name would suggest something and none of you boys look anything like Roz… Roz: Gaf came up with the band name so Gaf can explain. Gaf: Well Roz is obsessed with tea and teapots and… Roz: We won’t drag you into that but with tea and teapots you infuse flavours and well it sounded nice and so it’s an infusion of us really. So who are you and how did you get together? Gaf: I’m Gaf playing bass and I know Roz because I work at a music school in Birmingham and Roz was one of our students for a while. I’d seen her play a few times and realised how talented she was and when she was talking about getting a band together, we spoke and that’s kind of where it came from. Dom: I’m Dom the drummer and I’m the baby of the band. Roz phoned me one day and asked me if I wanted to join a band and I thought it sounded good because at the time I was just messing around with bands and I fancied another go at doing own material so I did. Previously I’ve played with Telescopes and Sunhouse many years ago when I was a young man. Why a three piece? Dom: Because it’s a self governing democracy. You can’t form cliques in a three piece. Roz: No you can’t, and I think it gives more of an impact being a three piece as well. It’s like a lot of bands that are a three like Cream, Nirvana and Jimi Hendrix Experience, everyone knows who’s doing what and it gives more power I think. Is it more challenging musically?
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Roz: It hasn’t been really except for the album in the studio we have laid an extra guitar down to give a little more humph, but we don’t need the extra guitar live now Gaf has his pedal that gives an octave above his bass during solos so it sounds like there is two guitars playing. Gaf: We went through a few line ups in the early stages with two guitarists but it wasn’t working. So when the last guitarist left we thought we would keep it as a three piece, and it’s worked ever since. Dom: Obviously Roz is the queen bee and we just do as we’re told! Of course, that goes without saying. With only three of you and being musically trained, where does the influence come from for the Roz Bruce Infusion music? Roz: Well for me I like all of the songwriters like Nick Cave, Patti Smith, Leonard Cohen and anyone who likes writing about something, Lyrically. Lyrics are important to me but we all have differing influences. Dom: I don’t know what my influences are really. I’ve listened to so much music over the years it’s really difficult to pin it down but for me it’s about playing it how you feel it really. I can’t say that I’m influenced by this or that, you draw a little bit from everything you listen to. Gaf: I’m in a similar position to Dom really. After listening to music over thirty odd years, I’m in to all kinds of stuff from Death Metal to Drum and Bass to soul and funk. So I would say there is no particular artist that influences my playing but I like players who are more groove based than technical but if I had to pick someone, John Paul Jones was an influence early on. Because of the breadth of music and genres around today, the route to success is tough. How do you get people to like your music? Dom: Well if you’re honest musicians or writers, you don’t give a fuck if people like it or not because you’ve got to like it before anyone else. It’s got to be honest music first. Myself and Roz have had this discussion many times and you’d rather have ten people at a gig that genuinely get it and understand it and know what you’re on about than a load of indie kids who think you’re the coolest band of the moment. But it’s part of your musical journey, we love writing it, recording it and playing it live again and again.
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As for the fame thing, the kids aren’t coming in at the bottom end. Twenty years ago people used to invest time in getting into bands and getting into the music but with the Internet everything is so instant and kids aren’t coming out to check out bands so there isn’t the same level of passion for it. Roz: And the people who do like it, really like it and they are honest about it and it is appreciated more. How did you arrive at the album and the songs that made it onto the album? Roz: It took longer than it should have to record if I’m honest but we’re really pleased with the final product. Because no one really has any money we ended up doing the album via Kickstarter. We’d built quite a fan base and everyone was asking ‘Where’s you’re album’ but we didn’t have the money to do it ourselves so we ended up getting everyone to pre-order it so we had enough money to get it done. We got it recorded and mastered at a good price but it was getting them printed and paying outstanding mastering costs that lead us to using Kickstarter. But we were lucky to have enough people to believe that we would produce a good enough album for them to part with their £10 in advance. What are we going to see from the Roz Bruce Infusion in the near future? Roz: Another album that is going to be better than this one. Dom: With a slight shift in direction with a different feel to it. This album has almost got a live feel to it, which is what we wanted. Roz: Yes it is but the new album will have more of a theme to it and will have more of a story throughout the album. And I’m learning to play piano so there will be piano on the next one. Well there has to be now ‘coz I’ve gone and said it! We’re also going to make sure we get on more festivals next year so with a new album, we can push that hard at the festivals. What’s the drink of choice on tour? Roz: Tea! Dom: I’m not a big drinker ‘cause I’m always driving but if we had a driver it would be beer. But beer on a tour bus would be warm and horrible so my second choice would be ice cold Stella out of the fridge. Gaf: Any decent beer would do for me!
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September 2014
Š Raymond Cheng
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Let me introduce you to Light, Darkness, Rebel and Temptation. With their untamed, decadent, unpredictable and unapologetic blend of electro-pop-rock and unadulterated videos, The Courtesans push the boundaries beyond what may be regarded, by many, as acceptable… First of all, tell us a bit about yourselves? When did The Courtesans story begin? Hundreds of years ago with Japanese Oiran later called Geishas and in feudal Europe with the court mistresses later named courtesans. What they all have in common is the charm, intelligence and the ability to entertain. We just carrying on the tradition and applying it in the 21st century sir ;) What’s behind Light, Darkness, Rebel and Temptation? Facets of every human, you might be just like us. Do you share the same influences? Or are you 4 pieces that thrive to create the perfect quartal harmony? We are like air, fire, water and earth – we couldn’t be more different from each other yet together we are everything that you need to live and create - the perfect environment! We do share some interests. Our influences, although different do cross paths in many places. Generally we have eclectic tastes and an insatiable curiosity. The first video I checked was your cover of Velvet Underground ‘Venus In Furs’ (2012). The aesthetic was compelling, an erotic and sexually charged visual display that would fit Marquis De Sade’s ‘Juliette ou les prosperites du vice’ novel’. Was this the beginning of your journey? You are an amazing observer sir, indeed Sinead’s angelic face and innocent looks (don’t be deceived tho) juxtaposed with the dark, hard and domineering looks of Jones’ (don’t be deceived there either haha) had inspired the theme of the video where Sinead is gradually corrupted or, if you prefer her inner darkness, eroticism and lust are brought out by the rest of us (as you’ve mentioned - very Marquis De Sade) By the way, did you know that one of us is actually related to him? Though we can’t tell you which one or we would have to kill you ;)
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Which other covers would take your fancy? I would quite see you doing one of these 3: Marilyn Manson’s ‘Para Noir N.I.N ‘Closer’ Placebo Fuck You (Archive cover) Any particular favourite amongst them? All of them! In fact N.I.N - Closer was discussed about a year ago but we paused the proceedings as another band covered it at that time so we decided to wait and come back to it. Just thinking of this track gets us dripping ;) Hopefully we can make it even dirtier. You also did a Video for pledgemusic.com (a bit more demure but still enticing), what made you decide to go this route? Did it meet your expectations? Did you get any valuable feedback out of it? Did you meet your goal? We are a self funded band and at the time we thought - if our music (in the form of an album) is ever to see the light of day – we would need help from others, luckily the reaction exceeded our expectations for which we are extremely grateful. We did raise a little bit more than we expected and that came in very handy as things often don’t go to plan in the creative process, things you’re not happy with, the need to re-record etc. especially when you are not following a template! What was on offer through the keyhole of your boudoir? Keyhole of our boudoir dear sir, shows things that would make the kinkiest of you blush so we will keep them in the dark.....for now ;) Next stop, ‘Dirty Killler’ (2013) which I would describe as Carrie meets Hitchcock and Luis Bunuel in Poe’s ‘House Of Usher’ or maybe the castle of Draculesti. It felt like you were delving into a darker side of life, a stronger BDSM feel as if the protagonists were losing control and falling deeper and deeper into a schizoid Kafkaesque realm. Is that relating to something close to you? Or is my mind going a bit too far in trying to analyse your vision? And again a faultless observation and a deep insight from you (we admire the fact that you are reading a lot and to top it up, authors whose work we love). Indeed, as you watch the last scenes of the video the girls,
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appear to be actually unharmed in the shower, showing a finger to the viewer and washing off the blood, it makes you think – what the hell just has happened? Were they dreaming it all? Were they actual killers? But we don’t want to reveal too much, we want people to watch it haha! It also had a more prominent electronica vibe, is that something you will pursue further? It does. Possibly because it was actually a remix, by The Bad Atom, we heard it, loved it and just went on and did the video, there are some elements of electronica in the album - definitely something we will be embracing in the future! Now we come to your latest video ‘Genius’: Haunting/ethereal vocals, gripping guitar hooks and thumping beat, again a seemingly different direction in your sound. What was the inspiration for this track? Were you trying to draw a metaphor with the Salem witches? (But in your case being burnt at the stake for refusing to sacrifice your own opinions of how beauty should be perceived) The concept of the video (chain breaking, burning at the stake etc. again, we don’t want to reveal too much) is such a wide metaphor and that’s why it can be interpreted in many different ways depending on the viewer’s experiences. Firstly, for us it symbolises women’s struggle to fit in and to be accepted by endlessly “improving” their bodies - just to be rejected (burnt) at the end, as the perfect physique can’t guarantee to bring love into your life. Another thing.... Anima Sola – translates as the “lone soul” or “lonely spirit” it is taken to represent a soul suffering in purgatory. Image depicts a woman breaking free from her chains surrounded by flames, but is her soul burning in the fire of hell or does her heart burn with the fire of love? Talking of sound, how would you describe it to someone who has never heard or laid eyes on your videos? If we would compare our sound to a cake (mmmmm we love cake!) it would have a base made of deep, floor shaking sub bass, a cream filling of power chords mixed with dirty, brain twisting feedback. The icing would be made of sweet yet dark vocal harmonies. How does that sound for tea? All in all, your videos ooze unbridled sexuality, a visual eroticism that
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draws you in, so what can people expect from your live performance? How can you recreate this onstage? What kind of theatrics are you bringing to your audience? We intend to keep a lot of the sexual energy that comes across in the videos for the stage, we are now leaning less on the theatrics as witnessed in our earlier shows ie wax pouring, mild bondage etc It’s become more of a sexually charged dark and moody rock show but we see what we do as ever changing. So could become a full on erotic circus! We will see...... I believe your admirers are equally male and female, but which one actually gets you the best? We think different aspects appeal to a different people - males, females, younger, older etc. We think (and we will be guessing here a little bit), that women love the empowering aspect of our band and the fact that even though we have our insecurities – we are prepared to fight them. We are also in touch with our sexuality and not ashamed to show it but not in a tacky, vulgar way and not purely to please men - we think women like that. They feel they’ve got it in them too and we become sort of a catalyst or trigger for them to express and explore it. Men on the other hand (and we will be guessing here even more haha) find our image and music refreshing and enticing for the fact that
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we don’t follow a template of a ditzy and so-sweet-that-can-make-youvomit girl-groups, neither are we trying to fit in the rock/metal genre by being super hard, nearly masculine “rock chicks”. Hopefully men will find our live show an erotic experience, not a cheap turn on but an actual experience. Men can see that we are not weak girls being manipulated but being who we are on stage and of course enjoying the music. After all art, beauty, music and eroticism appeal to everyone regardless gender. I love your uninhibited and shall we say daring freedom of expression but some parts may be construed as lusty ‘exhibitionism’. I would suspect some people have tried to belittle your visionary creativity; how do you counteract their small minded negativity? Lusty exhibitionism - We don’t really have anything against that label although it is not as simple as that. Exhibitionism is our way of fighting the insecurities implanted in us from an early age but also a way of expressing our sexuality. Sexuality is an integral part of everyone’s life. In a tasteful way we are trying to place it where we feel it belongs – alongside all things natural and acceptable to us. It is as important as eating and breathing whether people choose to suppress it or embrace it, you can’t escape it and from our observation
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suppressing it does have adverse effects on your well being both mentally and physically. Regarding nudity many of the feminists are scared of showing too much flesh in case they will be perceived as sexual objects... Understandable but that shouldn’t be the case and that applies for both men and women - our bodies are a work of art by nature! Being naked doesn’t equal being sexually aroused as much as being fully clothed doesn’t equal being not. Having a mini skirt doesn’t mean you are gagging to be gang raped. We were born naked and no one should be objectified for being nude, man or a woman.... Your debut album ‘1917’ is out soon, what can we expect from it? A bittersweet yet uplifting cocktail that will get you drunk in about 39:17 minutes, an eclectic, dark and cinematic mixture of doom pop and electro rock. What about live performances? Where can we submit to The Courtesans’ spell? We are playing Glasgow, Scotland, River Friday 31st October and Saturday 1st November, and keep an eye on the web for more dates being added: www.thecourtesans.org www.thecourtresans.co.uk www.facebook.com/thecourtesans https://twitter.com/the_courtesans h t t p s : / / w w w. y o u t u b e . c o m / watch?v=6SfY_myDFFQ https://www.youtube.com/user/CatrionaVillenhardt/videos https://soundcloud.com/thecourtesans http://instagram.com/thecourtesans http://www.reverbnation.com/thecourtesans https://vimeo.com/thecourtesansmusic https://plus.google.com/ u/0/+ThecourtesansOrg/posts Anything else you’d like to add? Thank you very much for the indepth questions, you obviously had a good think about it! Much love, The Courtesans xxxx
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By Cristina Massei 20 years old Misty Miller it’s still excited after a well received set at Reading Festival: ‘it was wonderful, spectacular!’ she comments. And she managed to play all of her set this time, despite her current drummer being even louder than the one playing at The Great Escape – where they were taken off-stage for being too loud!’That was a joke, got me so angry! I couldn’t believe it…’. Catching Misty live is a great way to be introduced to her soulful concoction of melody and rawness; seemingly spontaneous, exceptionally confident for a girl playing her first Festival of this size, she’s obviously in her element. ‘Playing is my favourite part of the job, and here is it’s like a family, plenty of people I know.’ © Mark Fletcher The feisty South Londoner started writing music at an extraordinarily young age, reTalking about London Transport, our girl admits she’d be leasing her first album when she was just 15 years old. a taxi girl if the budget allowed, but for now has to stick Asked how she feels about that record now, Misty has no to night buses. We agree, anyway, that rush hour is way doubt: ‘I hate it! Do you like what you did when you were scarier than a deserted city at 2am! 15? I feel proud of it like I can feel proud of when I learned nd to write and read, but it’s just something I did when I was Misty next single ‘Stars’ is out on 2 November and deals with toxic relationships, while B-side Marmalade ‘is about a teenager’. So how do we get to the current, darker, gritan acid trip actually! They say if you’re on acid tier Miss Miller trip and you eat oranges you’ll come off, and it’s of Taxi Cab? ‘I not true’. And in February 2015 we should finally grew up, met be able to get the album she’s proud of. ‘It’s all some awful peofinished’. ple… Things just change when We notice a big tattoo of a boxer on her arm: ‘I you grow up…’ was dating an Italian and I thought would be cool having an Italian boxer!’. Then we talk about hair We find out more dye: after blonde, red and what else, Misty loudabout that Taxi ly embraces her goth side and swears to never Cab video: ‘was bleach again. We think this brunette version is so just an excuse to her... and I’m sure her hair will be relieved too. make out with each other!’ says Her final message to the world is ‘Do whatever Misty, and she you want… unless it hurts anyone!’. We couldn’t tells us about agree more. her bass player Watch the full interview here: pulling a girl he ends up kissing http://youtu.be/0UUBTXVDatk on camera ‘I felt © Mark Fletcher left out though.’
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September 2014
By Cristina Massei
Last time we spoke to Nathan Connolly it was very early days for his new rockier outfit Little Matador. I remember seeing them live at the Barfly in Camden and being blown away by a surprising display of energy and a heavy sound I did not expect from the Snow Patrol guitarist.
© Mark Fletcher The way he clearly felt at ease in his new frontman capacity was also unanticipated, and the chemistry between members was tangible. Today at Reading Festival we catch up with Nathan joined by guitarist Dave Magee (LaFaro), and they’re in great spirits dancing to the Oldies played in the background. Little Matador’s self titled debut album came out in April, but for those still not in the know we ask the lads to describe it in their own words. ‘Honest dirty sexy rock’ is the answer. About the lyrics, Nathan confesses the album is ‘completely auto biographical, it’s a pretty intense record to make and really honest… Most times I write about what I know’.
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Photos Mark Fletcher
When asked to compare the record with their live performances, Nathan and Dave have no doubt that a studio work will always differ. ‘I think our shows are more vicious and intense than the record, but most bands are like that anyway live’. Now that they’ve been taking their show to plenty of different stages, we ask which size of stage fits them best: ‘Festivals are good to show what we do, what we’re about. But the music we make belongs to sweaty rock clubs, it’s where we thrive the most’. With a new Snow Patrol album planned for 2015, likely to be followed by an extensive tour, we have to wonder where this leaves Little Matador – a band that, Nathan already cleared it with us months ago, is the real thing rather than just a side project. He doesn’t seem worried, confident they’ll all be able to manage despite everyone’s ‘other’ bands. ‘We wrote this record in between tours… It might not be for another year or two for another Little Matador record, but we made such a good one this time that it feels like this is just the beginning’. Dave adds: ‘We were all busy when we started this but it doesn’t take off the commitment. We’ll see what happens but would be a shame leaving it on a shelf too long’. We end our chat with a game of word
© Mark Fletcher
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association: what would Little Matador be if it was… a drug? ‘Cocaine’ Nathan replies promptly. … A car? ‘a dirty old banger… a Ford Capri, a second hand Capri probably!’ – ‘with some dubious stains on the front seat’ contributes Dave. … An ice-cream flavour? ‘Rum & Raisins’ – which happens to be Little Matador favourite pre-gig preparation… minus the raisins of course. Little Matador have some more gigs coming up before the end of the year, make sure you check https://www.facebook.com/ LittleMatador/events to keep upto-date. Watch the full interview here: http://youtu.be/L2pkp5vYoTg
© Mark Fletcher
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their debut single ‘Suitcase’ supported by Zane Lowe on Radio 1 and as they recover from Reading/Leeds and prepare for Bestival, their second single ‘Five Green Bottles’ is still not out. The track and b-side ‘Shoes’ – to be released on September 8th – were produced by Attwell on his floating studio on the River Thames Self-releasing through Paper Round Records, ‘Five Green Bottles’ shows the band’s first release was no accident. It does reveal a slightly different side to the band but their raucous edgy guitar driven sound is still more than present whilst front man Joel Douglas’ hooks and reels you in with his distinctive vocal delivery. Pre-order the single on iTunes HERE and Limited Edition 7” Vinyl HERE. A full album ‘is in the pipeline, but in the distance’. For now, the lads are planning an EP and are eager to spend the rest of the year gigging around the country. ‘Would be nice getting a support slot with someone’ adds Joel, before showing his impatience talking of what he calls ‘a slow progression’ for the band. The others seem to disagree, but they’re all on the same page when looking at the future: ‘We’re ready to go now!’. School is over – By Cristina Massei ‘we’ve just finished our A levels actually’ specifies Tom, They managed to get a slot at Reading and Leeds – and making me feel just slightly old… a few more festivals – after just a single and a half: take The plan for world domination starts at Reading and ends some doing. So what’s The Bulletproof Bomb secret, ‘as far as we can’ – although Reading’s main stage and aside from their handsome manager James and Tom’s the Rolling Stones’ fame would be nice. Joel would actuquirky fashion sense? Maybe the influences: a mix of ally be happy with the NME stage, not too much to wish Libertines, Elvis Costello, The Clash, Sham69 and The for really. Young, funny, talented and making friends, this Streets. Something for everyone! Or maybe is the magic is no doubt just the beginning for The Bulletproof Bomb. of producer Rory Attwell (The Vaccines, Yuck, The Palma Violets) and his red boat. A whole new meaning to the Watch the full interview here: word ‘rocking…’. http://youtu.be/2Rxs5XtFBzM At the tender age of 18, the five South Londoners had
© Mark Fletcher
LIVE
September 2014
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With its high ceilings and Gothic charm, the Union Chapel in North London is the perfect setting for the Premier UK screening of zombie cult movie “Dawn of the Dead”. Seen it before??... Yeah, me too, loads of times, but tonight it’s a wee bit special. Below the movie being shown on the big screen are Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, providing a live soundtrack accompaniment. An ambitious undertaking, but one that worked very well. I would have preferred to see the full Director’s cut of the movie, but this edit (along with the bonus of live music) was welcomed by one and all in attendance. A few issues with sound levels at the start could not deter from the fact that this is one hell of an original idea, and with the same format taking in Dario Argento’s classic Suspiria on the next night, I can only hope that we get to see and hear a lot more events like this in the future. The evening was kicked off with an interesting Q and A with Claudio, during which he gave film fans a candid view on the film and his association with the horror movie scene of the classic 70s period that we all know and love. A top night enjoyed by all. 8.5/10
By John Morgan
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September 2014
Trash Cannes presents
Trash’d new wave fes tival 4 -7 S th
th
eptember
vic godard nick rosen the new yo rk dollies nina anton ia iphgenia b internationaal/ al times lucy brett the fabulo red diesel us plu
s special gu est celebr and other ities acts to be announced.
The Stade Hall, Friday 5th September, 7.30-11.30 £5.00/£6.5 0 Memorial A rt Gallery, Thursday 4th September (free), 7.30-11.00 & Saturday 6th, 2.00-5.00 £3.00 The Brass Monkey, Saturday 6th September, 5.00-11.00 £5.00/£6.5 0 East Hastin gs Sea Ang lers Associatio n, Sunday 7 th September, 4.00-late (f ree) Early bird tic kets availabl e now at www.trash cannes festival.co.
uk
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Sonic Shocks - Issue 28
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What is taking place this weekend in Hastings is not your typical Festival: Trash’d is a tribute to diverse forms of art, including music, but also fashion, literature, film-making. If you’re not familiar with Trash Cannes and Trash’d New Wave Festival, here’s what it’s all about from the creator itself, Keith Rodway, before we meet two of the artists in attendance at the 2014 edition… Hi Keith! First of all for the uninitiated, what is Trash Cannes about? Trash Cannes celebrates the incredible diversity of the arts in Hastings, a town with one of the largest per capita arts communities in Britain, as well as featuring top-grade music, fashion, film and literature from all over Britain. Can you tell us what to expect from Trash’d 2014 new wave festival? Trash’d will feature the Trasherettes Fashion Show, Lucy Brett of the BBFC talking about representations of sex in mainstream cinema, an amazing silent film with live score, a talk about author Peter George who wrote Dr Strangelove while living in Hastings, artists film from Derek Jarman’s cameraman Richard Heslop, Philip Sanderson of the Storm Bugs talking about his project the Snatch Tapes, classic punk from Vic Godard and Subway Sect, close-harmony punk covers from the New York Dollies, author, journalist and biographer to the bad boys of rock Nina Antonia talking about Johnny Thunders and Pete Doherty, plus author, filmmaker and activist Nick Rosen discussing off-grid living. We have a music event, RAW, for young bands to get feedback from established industry figures – Segs from the Ruts, Steve Finnerty from Alabama 3, Katharine Wallinger from the Wedding Present, Nina Antonia and Tara Rez from Brighton band the Duel. Also, we’ve organised an exhibition of classic covers and artworks from International Times, Britain’s first underground newspaper launched in 1966 and still going strong. All in all, an eclectic mix! Is there any particularly interesting new artist we should check out? We have a private view of paintings by London-based visual artist Cat Rosseiter, she’s one to watch for, and Hastings band The Piercings – keep an eye on them. Also author Ryhs Lloyd, filmmaker and composer Sam Harris, and author and filmmaker Iphgenia Baal too. All fresh, all brilliant in their fields. The addition of punk is a recent development, are you planning to further extend the Festival’s theme in
the future? The whole festival celebrates the DIY ethos of punk, its in-your-face directness and lack of pretence – so, yes! There seems to be resurgence of interest in classic punk – it’s never really gone away – and Hastings is the ideal place to reflect that. Expect some surprises for next year... Is it difficult to curate a bill that includes punk, music, literature, performances and talks? To be honest, in itself, not really. The whole process of curating any festival is like herding cats – you’re dealing with artists, after all! – it’s a matter of identifying the people you want and then inviting them to appear, which, again, is relatively easy – especially if you’ve got funding, which we now have. People are flattered to be asked, even if they’re relatively high profile – Duncan Reid (formerly of the Boys - now reformed for another go round, and financier of Avatar), TV Smith, filmmakers Daisy Asquith and Toby Amies, Nina Antonia, and Vic Godard have all been a delight to deal with. You just have to be determined and not take no for an answer. How – and when – did the idea of Trash’d come together? Trash’d is a new project coming under the banner of our umbrella organisation, Trash Cannes. Trash Cannes came about from conversations with my co-director, filmmaker and author Garth Twa in 2012. Keith Allen had just finished his film about the death of Princess Diana, which got trashed at the Cannes festival, and Quentin crisp famously remarked, on hearing of Diana’s death, that ‘she was trash and got what she deserved’! So, we screwed together ‘trash’ and ‘Cannes’ - and hey presto! Before we knew it, we had a festival on our hands. Running a Festival is not the easiest of things these days, why did you decide to get yourself into this? Naivety, foolishness, idealism...take your pick. Both Garth and I love film, music and literature and we’d always wanted to have an event that celebrated those interests. A festival is a great thing to do if you get it right.
It is a challenge though. It’s incredibly stressful, to be honest, but in our case, one of those things you just feel compelled to do. What are the biggest difficulties you found in running Trash’d? The biggest challenge is getting funding. No-one wants to go first. Once you’ve got one backer – in our case, after 3 years, we now have Arts Council funding – the others might follow suit, if you keep on at them. But even then, it’s hard work persuading potential funders that what you’re doing has real value in terms of social engagement, which is ultimately what it’s all about. Time for thank you’s: where did you find the biggest support – financial and not? The biggest support came from the incredible range of artist we’ve engaged with –our patron, TV Smith, has been fantastic, as has Segs of the Ruts, and Richard Heslop (again). Vic Godard has been a tireless ambassador for us this year, we can’t thank him enough. Our volunteers and festival staff have been amazing and my inner circle of advisers – Ben Browton, Peter Treger, Judy Parkinson and Tina Morris – have all been amazingly loyal and generous with their time and expertise. I’m very lucky. Plus a big shout out to all the local businesses in Hastings who have supported us, and the Arts Council – we wouldn’t be here this year without them. Finally, the arts community of Hastings, who have been brilliant too. I hear you’re working on your fourth short drama as a filmmaker, can you tell us more? The Mariner’s Tale is a magical-realist fable about a proud middle-aged academic who wakes up one morning to find his house has set out to sea. The film is an allegory dealing with the effects that unresolved emotional trauma has on everybody in one’s life – it’s often up to them to pull together to give support and help resolve the issues. Without community, we become isolated. It’s a common and important theme in society at the moment I think.
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Sonic Shocks - Issue 28
Legendary British punk band Vic Godard and Subway Sect headline the punk night on the 6th at the Brass Monkey. Hi Vic! I’d like to talk first of all about your participation to Trash’d Festival, how did you get involved? Through Ben Browton, we first met at Gatwick airport in 2010 on our way to Jordi Valls’ London Punk Tapes Exhibition in Barcelona. Is there any other artist on the bill you’re looking forward to check out? The New York Dollies sound like an interesting proposition. What are your feelings on the diversity of a bill that puts together music and literature, performances and talks? It’s exactly the kind of thing we gravitate towards, I’ve have always enjoyed playing at events where there is a bit more than music and Trash’d has the lot, art, music literature, film. You recently released a 30 years retrospective of your work, it’s quite a milestone… Going back to when it all started, where did you imagine yourself in 30 years back then? I’ve never looked forward and in those days, things changed every few weeks with something previously unimaginable happening. Subway Sect were a major feature in the late 70s punk scene, then in the 80s you started experimenting with jazz, swing and Motown sound. In 2002 with ‘Sansend’ you showed an interest in hip-hop, sampling and dub. How important is keeping an open mind for an artist’s longevity?
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I wouldn’t say a major feature, more a minor footnote. I think that the Sect’s early output has aged comparatively well and right from the start in 76 I used to listen to a lot of different things - reggae, Debussy, Satie, Francoise Hardy and 20th century American music and my musical tastes are still expanding and evolving. We were always thinking up new schemes, mostly ridiculous and I have to admit I still do, one of the latest is I want the group to do a Molière play! I don’t really take these ideas seriously but I do take song writing seriously. In 2007 you took the songs for the album that was never released in 1978 and released ‘1978 now’: what in particular did you feel needed updating from the original and why? It wasn’t an updating - it was bringing together all the songs from the 1978 live set on one album. For years I’d been using an old rehearsal cassette from ‘78 to teach the old classics to Sect line ups and it annoyed me that the sound wasn’t good enough. The original recordings never surfaced and in 2007 I had the right line up, with Mark Laff back in the fold on drums, to finally record and release the songs as 1978 Now. As it happens 1979 Now! is due for release this year, a collection of my northern soul songs, produced by Edwyn Collins and out on Aed Records 6th October. 30 years on, how have your live shows evolved? The main difference is I have been collaborating and doing gigs with other groups as well as Subway Sect including The Sexual Objects, The Bitter Springs, a jazz combo at the Glasgow Jazz Festival (2013), The Leopards, Shock and Awe, The Long Decline and a Catalan group Mates Mates (7” Vic to Vic els famelic 2013). The fruits of some of these collaborations can be found on Live & Rare Vols 1 and 2 and 30 Odd Years (all on our own micro label gnu inc www. vicgodard.co.uk). Things are generally less chaotic than in the old days but no two gigs are the same. The Sect has a much larger repertoire covering punk to northern soul and it’s a lot more enjoyable now. I hear there are plans to re-unite the ‘Songs For Sale’ era line up with Chris Bostock, Rob Marche, Sean McLusky and Dave Collard for shows later in the year, can you give us more details? Yes- all of us except Dave Collard, who lives in the US and can’t make it over, are playing at Club left at the 100 Club on 20th November. We are planning to recreate the original vibe of the club when it started in 1981. Johnny Britton is reprising his role as dj and we’ve got Tom Cat coming along but not sure he’s up for reprising ‘I’m Not A Juvenile Delinquent’! Other treats in store. I have to ask… How did you decide in the mid 80s to become a postman - out of all possible day jobs - and are you still doing that in between gigs? Fresh air and lots of time to write songs and yes, I’m still a part time postman. Is there still a punk movement today, and where do we find it? That all depends on how you define punk. How do YOU define punk? That’s a hard one to answer but for me personally it means being able to have a go at various things without really having the requisite skills to do them, having original ideas and not worrying about what the mainstream gets up to.
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Sonic Shocks - Issue 28
© Cristina Massei Sonic Shocks’ old friend, much revered music journalist and author Nina Antonia, is one of the very special guests at Trash’d 2014. Hi Nina! Tell us first of all what you will be doing at Trash’d. I will be at Trash’d to announce the screening of Danny Garcia’s documentary ‘Looking For Johnny’ and participating in a Q & A session about my books as well as doing a signing. Tell us more about ‘Looking for Johnny’ and your collaboration with Danny Garcia. Danny is a Spanish documentary maker who made ‘The Rise & Fall of The Clash.’ He’s a big Johnny Thunders fan and after his Clash film, he roared into action with a heartfelt documentary about Johnny and because I felt he had the best of intentions, I got involved alongside many of Johnny’s fellow musicians and friends to participate. Danny has done a great job. What are your thoughts on an event blending together so many forms of art? Multi-Media events can be really exciting – feeds the mind, soul and spirit. How did you get involved?
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I was asked, am thrilled they are screening ‘Looking For Johnny’ and Hastings is a magickal place, Aleister Crowley retired there. You shot to fame for your Johnny Thunders biography, was that idea generated more by your love of writing or music? I’m not sure that I shot to fame with ‘Johnny Thunders – In Cold Blood’ but the book has garnered cult status over the years and is now widely recognised as the authorised biography. The idea was generated by my love of Johnny’s music and a wish to write about it. I wanted to capture time in a bottle. Your latest release is Peter Doherty’s ‘From Albion to Shangri-la’, how did the collaboration with Peter come about? He entrusted his journals to me and I set about transcribing and editing them. Credit goes to Paul Roundhill and Jerome Alexandre who were both rooting for a meeting of literary minds. Was it difficult to collate his diaries into an organic reading? Is there any part of it you felt more uncomfortable interpreting? There were some things I edited out and some I left in but before it went into print, I took a proof copy to show to Peter so that he could make sure he was okay with the contents. It was going to be contentious however way you look at it but nonetheless it’s a historical record of a certain milieu and an honest and at times introspective account by one of the most significant artistes of the 21st century. I imagine you had quite a few encounters with Peter in the process of putting this together. Who is really Pete Doherty in your eyes? A very talented individual, someone who fights against conformity and believes in freedom. Both Thunders and Doherty are rather tormented figures, what’s your fascination with them? I’m drawn to people who live by their own code and don’t compromise but it can be a difficult path. The role of the true artiste is to challenge society. What’s your dream artist - musical or not - to write about? I’ve been lucky enough to have written and worked with my dream artists. What’s next on your agenda? Finishing up the screenplay for the Johnny Thunders biopic and staying out of trouble! Buy Nina's latest book 'From Albion to Shangri-La at the special web price of £10 directly from Thin Man Press: http://thinmanpress.com/order-from-albion-to-shangrila-special-web-price-10/
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Sonic Shocks - Issue 28
ALBUM REVIEWS
NEW MODEL ARMY Between Wine and Blood September 8th sees a new release from Bradford’s favourite sons New Model Army. Not a new album, not a live album, ‘Between Wine and Blood’ is a combination of the two: a disk of 6 new studio cuts is twinned with a disk of live recordings featuring material from the band’s last studio effort ‘Between Dog and Wolf’. Makes sense? Thank God for that. The live disk is a timely reminder of just what a good live band this lot are. The songs from the last studio album marked an experimental change in the band’s sound and this comes across well when listening to these recordings, whereas the six new songs continue the band’s journey into new horizons and directions. A perfect example of how a band with some great music in its history can still make great music in the present. 7.5/10 By John Morgan http://newmodelarmy.tmstor.es/
YOB Clearing the Path to Ascend
GODSMACK 1000hp
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BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY EP-licious
Better Safe Than Sorry is an experimental, up-andcoming power trio from Berlin that started under a tree in Görlitzer Park only a year ago. Hailing from different countries and musical backgrounds, these guys have found their own special blend of rock, funk, grunge and clever lyrics. After intense busking, Bone rattling riffs and rejamming and gigging, they lentless rhythm patterns I found the vocals very have just released their dominate this release, monotone, delivered in a first 6-track EP “EP-Licious”. with vocals ranging from way none too dissimilar “The Fall“, “Fallen Angel“ guttural to almost Ozzy to a certain James Het- and the super funky “Some Osbournesque walbalings, field. However, there are Body To Blame“ stand out adding an interesting take enough hooks and melo- the most and as a whole, on the music scene known dies in the songs to keep this EP is an exciting simply as doom. Tracks like them attractive to fans joyride. I especially like the ‘In Our Blood’ resemble a of the band.There is a big unexpected jamming, that’s return to Neurosis during market for this type of when their true potential their ‘Thru Silver in Blood’ metal, and although its and skills shine through. period, relentless and un- one I don’t quite under- There’s still a few loose ends compromising, whereas stand, I know that this is to tie up before perfection tracks like disk closer ‘Mar- an album that will contin- but I have the feeling that row’ display an almost ue to make that market further commitment will prog rock approach to expand. solve that, no doubt. This heaviness. is just a taste of what’s to I didn’t like it, but I know I come. If you‘re into music If you like your metal to will be in the minority. that refuses to limit itself embrace doom in all its to the norm then check out connotations, then this is 6.5/10 Better Safe Than Sorry and an album for you. show your support. (https:// w w w. f a c e b o o k . c o m / By John Morgan 8/10 bstsorry?fref=nf) Listen to “EP-Licious“ here. (https:// http://goo.gl/yxokyi By John Morgan b e t t e r s a f e t h a n s o r r y. bandcamp.com/releases) http://goo.gl/VYQcsy By Kristian Kotilainen Portland Doom technicians Yob return to the fold this summer with a new full length album .This is a record that i”ve been looking forward to for some time now, and to answer the question “was it worth the wait?” the answer is most definitely a resounding YES..
Massachusetts heavyweights Godsmack return to the fold with their 6th studio album. The band have been around since the mid Nineties, and you can tell that the music that inspired them then is still very much the music that still inspires them to this day.