Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – SHOUT

Swedish rock band SHOUT are the next band ready to take the A-Z interview all about their experiences and upcoming releases.

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music: If you want blood with AC/DC

Best Experience While On Tour: A day off in Barcelona hanging on the beach ain´t bad

Cover you would really like to do? Come out and play with Twisted Sister

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features: our lyrics ain´t very deep haha! The deepest message is probably to live free!

Easiest Song You Wrote: Scream!Shout!

Favourite album/single/EP you have released: we haven’t released it yet but it will be our upcoming album PEOPLE OF THE NIGHT

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played: we have only played one gig with SHOUT so far, we played at BULLETs release party for their new album Dust to gold. And it was a great gig and we had a blast!

Happiest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band: every time you get to hit the stage you´re one happy camper!

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members: one of us have had a black belt in martial arts 😉

Jokes You Have In The Band: oh I don’t know, we joke about anything we can laugh about in the moment, we are probably pretty bad at jokes haha!

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song: Scream! Shout!

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show:  the longest travelled distance would be from Sweden to Maryland for one show, its 6595 km if you ask siri haha!

Movie That Best Represents The Band: That’s a hard one! Detroit rock city perhaps?

New Band You’d Recommend:

Us! SHOUT! We are a new band just releasing our debut album this fall titeled PEOPLE OF THE NIGHT

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal: judas priest

Place You’d Most Like To Tour: USA or Japan

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers:

If you think you are too old to rock n roll, then you are! “Lemmy Kilmister”

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release: The title of our forthcoming release is PEOPLE OF THE NIGHT and it’s a tribute to all the headbanging rockers out there!

See Us Live At: Unknown at the time

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band: 

haha! I have no idea!

Unusual Merchandise: we are thinking of getting black unicorns, we just have to find them first!

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs: 

its always fun with live versions and do some sing along parts.

Worst Experience On Tour: well touring with the Scams once our drummer got hit in the head with a guitar amp that fell from the 2nd floor and had to go to the hospital and get stitched up, that was a close one! But surprisingly both his head and the guitar head still worked afterwards! Haha!

X-rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries: well that would be the head to head collision I just mentioned!

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played:

That would be at Sweden rock festival with The Scams

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band:

Black panther maybe? Unless any zoo have captured a unicorn!

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – MOLLY GRUE

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music: Eye of the Tiger

Best Experience While On Tour: Getting escorted around like a VIP just because

some guy took a liking to the music

Cover you would really like to do? Hold On, Hold On- Neko Case

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features: ” But there’s no roads paved in gold, and there’s no glories untold and the thought of all I gave to you has left my blood running cold.”

Easiest Song You Wrote: Ghost in the Room

Favourite album/single/EP you have released: Anyway (single)

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played: Performing at my own solo art show

Happiest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band: This project is new, so my other projects’ happiest moment was getting over 700,000 streams in a month

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members: The official drummer is actually a vintage cymbal monkey

Jokes You Have In The Band: It’s not really a band, just a solo project. But if I ever go crazy enough with the solitude of it, perhaps the cymbal monkey

may start telling jokes.

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song: Hush

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show: With my other project,around 1500 kms

Movie That Best Represents The Band: May by Lucky McKee

New Band You’d Recommend: King of Foxes

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal: Neko Case

Place You’d Most Like To Tour: The U.K.

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers: The happy ending cannot come in the middle of the story

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release: ‘Anyway’ is the title of the first single from ‘Molly Grue’ and the title is just a word that is used to change topics or to avoid something

See Us Live At: Dates/places pending

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band: Hush

Unusual Merchandise: No merch yet

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs: I’d like to strip Hush down a bit, just have it be vocals and an acoustic.

Worst Experience On Tour: When the bathroom at the place that we stayed at was physically too small for my bassist to fit into.

X-rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries: Other than my guitarist accidentally mixing medication with alcohol and perceiving his fingers to be melting into the fretboard in the middle of the show, no injuries

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played: With this project, I’ve only ever played in an art gallery, but that was pretty rad.

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band: Although I *should* probably say monkey, given the project mascot a monkey; I’ll go with an Emu. It seems to get frightened easy and then bounds around awkwardly. Seems about right.

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – TORONTO BLESSINGS

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music:

Welcome To The Jungle by Guns n Roses. My mum bought me the cassette when I was eight years old! She had heard the singles and thought it might be something I might like. Little did she know that the rest of the album was full of swearing with songs of drugs and fuckin! When I heard Welcome to the jungle the first track, it blew my head clean off! I was hooked on loud rock music. I’ve never looked back.

Best Experience While On Tour:

Just being on tour is mostly great. This band is yet to tour, but all three of us have been in several bands together. We’ve been lucky enough to play some of the largest and prestigious stages in the UK. The best experience is just getting out there and playing your music to new people, it’s the most enjoyable way.

Cover you would really like to do?

We’re not in any rush to do a cover. But we always seem to mention them every now and again. The bands that have been mentioned are The Smiths, siouxsie and the banshees and depeche mode. Also Erasure has been mentioned! Hopefully one day we might decide on one.

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features:

All my lyrics are pretty deep to me. I am very much a heart on my sleeve, real life observer. Out of the songs we have released I’d say Sorrow Can Swim. It’s about addiction and not realising that you’re trying to fix a problem with another one.

Easiest Song You Wrote:

The easiest song we have written is definitely our latest single Give Nothing. Murray our drummer brought in a couple of cool riffs one rainy Thursday evening at practice. We pretty much pulled it into a song in about 10 minutes. It just felt right from the off. On the back of this song we scrapped a full album of songs and wrote another 6 or 7 in next to no time. It gave us a creative kick up the rear.

Favourite album/single/EP you have released:

Well, we’re a pretty new band so we only have 2 singles out at the moment. Out of the 2 I’d definitely say Give Nothing, as mentioned before it was a game changer for us. We have a new single called Bad Decision coming out soon, so look out for that.

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played:

This band is yet to reach that peak. We are ready though! Our first gig meant a lot though. As this band is the first band I’ve done lead vocals in. I kind of reluctantly took on the mantle, mainly due to self doubt. But after the first gig I proved to myself that I could indeed hold my own. It gave me the confidence to crack on!!

Happiest moment in the band:

Toronto Blessings overall makes me happy! I find this band an amazing release. When you’re having a shitty week, I look forward so much to practice. I get to hang out with my best mates and make a beautiful racket.

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members:

Dale our guitarist is an amazing chef! He does alot of the cooking at the festivals for Jaegermeister en all.

Jokes You Have In The Band:

Hmm. Maybe when our drummer was on tour and had drunk maybe a little too much. Whilst said drink was being puked back up, he kept screaming TWARB and we were like what? Then he was shouting TWARB COFFEE whilst gut wrenching. We were non the wiser! Turns out he was quoting some obscure late night sketch show he’d seen! We’d never heard of it, but Twarb Coffee has remained in our dialect forever!

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song:

Well this set of songs are so fresh we haven’t played any live yet! So at our next gig which is real soon we’re going into the unknown. We’re starting the set with a song called Hopes & Dreams. It starts with a pulsating Synth which drives the whole song. You can’t help but move with it. It’s very hypnotic on a purpose. Not many riffs or lyrics, it’s like a noise rock dance song. Maybe!

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show:

For this band our it would have been for our first gig which was in London. So nearly 200 miles. But in previous bands we have toured the all the UK and several spots in Europe.

Movie That Best Represents The Band:

Bad News.

New Band You’d Recommend:

They’re not really that new, but we love the band Meat Wave. A very powerful 3 piece. They make a powerful sound but its all very dynamic too. I’d definitely recommend you check em out.

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal:

At the moment we’re all buzzing about the band Idles. They seem to be an unstoppable force at the moment. A ferocious live band, but they still know their way around a song. Perfect.

Place You’d Most Like To Tour:

I reckon we’d love to do a US tour or Canada. That would be a good laugh! Also a bit closer to home would be Europe. I am sure we can sort that out in the not too distant future!

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers:

Be kind to each other. Consider other peoples feelings. Patronise the arts. Smash the right wing.

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release:

Give Nothing. The title and the meaning of the song go hand in hand really. The thought behind the song is no matter who we are or where we are placed on societies ladder we’re all living in a pretty bad place. It’s getting to a point where everyone are getting self centered without even realising.

See Us Live At:

Coalfields Festival – July 14th

Packhorse Leeds – July 21st

Lots more dates to be added.

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band:

It would have been one of our earlier songs that is now scrapped. The one where we first got something we all liked would be Sorrow Can Swim.

Unusual Merchandise:

At the moment we have no merchandise, so that’s pretty unusual huh? Maybe we’ll get a stick of rock with our name on. Tasty and rocking. Oh dear.

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs:

It would be cool to do an electro version of any of our songs. We’re trying to incorporate more Synth into our writing, so I think it would hand itself over to that style really well. A big dirty electro version of Give Nothing would be Amazing. Probably.

Worst Experience On Tour:

Always the worst part of touring is the waiting around. You live for the gig itself, but alot of the other stuff can be a real pain. It’s worth it though.

X-rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries:.

Over the years, we’ve all had a guitar head stock in the face. I actually had one to the back of my neck recently at the end of a set of the other band I play in (The Lock & Keys) Luckily I think we’ve escaped injuries so far. But I have seen people’s noses explode and ears nearly being ripped off from friends in bands, from onstage carnage.

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played:

This band is all relatively new, we’ve been locked up writing and writing. But we’re all seasoned vets of the gigging malarkey. My personal favourite would have to have been with our old band Cavorts. It was at Manchester Academy 1 supporting Dragonforce! It was a Friday night, everyone was up for it. We were first on and we just ripped it up and played a stormer. Good Times.

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band:

Snake. As we have a joke side project that has never practiced or written a single riff, but it lives in our hearts and minds called Battle Snake! It’s full on thrash with all the songs to be about various Battle Snake’s throughout the history of war. Ssssssssssss

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – LEAVING EDEN

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music:  

Hi I’m Eric from the band Leaving Eden.  It’s my pleasure to chat with you today. We are from Boston Mass area USA.   For me the song would be something from Black Sabbath. Probably War Pigs or something like that.

Best Experience While On Tour:

It’s fun to travel and we have been to 47 States in the USA, Canada and overseas in Europe. So great to meet new people and see things that we could have never seen if it wasn’t for the music. For me really that’s the best experience. Playing with bands like Black Sabbath Disturbed Alice Cooper Shinedown it’s all very surreal. And yet you get to meet some of these people and realize that they’re just people. Yes I’ve met some assholes that we’re just so high on themselves but most of the time people very cool. Continue reading “INTERVIEW – LEAVING EDEN” →

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – FOLLOW THE SUN PROMOTER – SAM TUCKER

This is CloseUp Promotions first 1-day festival in Portsmouth, can you give us a bit of background information as to why you decided to create Follow The Sun?

With the upcoming festival Follow The Sun coming soon, we had the chance to chat with Sam Tucker from CloseUp promotions all about the upcoming festival!

After the back to back successes of CloseUp Festival in LDN, we wanted to bring a unique, intimate one day festival to the South Coast. There is so many exciting artists in the area we work with frequently, and with the weather (we hope) great on the coast during summer, we just couldn’t resist.

How was Follow The Sun Festival planned?

We use the Wedgewood Rooms for all of our shows in Portsmouth, so it just seemed like a logical step for us. We’re used to shows/one day festivals so keeping within that

framework, we built the lineup/aesthetics from there.

You have formed a lineup including the likes of Marsicians, Bel Esprit and Me And The Moon, how did you filter and select performers for the lineup?

We’re really excited to work with all of these acts again, we’ve worked within them before both locally and across the country, we always pick our favourite artists musically and the artists we know will promote/work hard for the festival.

Being the festivals first year, how do you aim to expand the festival over the next five years?

That is a damn good question.. We have lots planned, but unfortunately can’t be divulging that just yet. We’re currently working within the Edge of the Wedge, but I don’t see what could stop us taking on the main room in years to come.

Is there anything you feel many British festivals do not incorporate that you wish to bring to FTS?

Intimacy. Don’t get me wrong, I go to loads of major festivals and they are all great, but for me I don’t feel like there is anything better than seeing one of your favourite bands in small venue. It’s something you’ll remember for a long time and key for us when creating live events. We’ve capped this event at 100 exclusive tickets for that very reason.

How far do you feel small local-talent festivals can help boost a performers career and fanbase?

I think its huge, there is very few opportunities where they’ll be a large, essentially ‘free’ crowds/people that local (or any bands for that matter) acts have the chance to

perform infront of.

What are some things attendees to the festival can expect?

One of the best Saturdays of their year. 8 of the UK’s most exciting artists, in a reputable intimate venue, 5 minutes away from the seafront. Not much sounds better than that eh?

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – IN THE CARDS

On the cusp of releasing their new EP ‘Eyes Beyond Reflection’, we had the chance to hear about the bands take on their favourite tracks of the album and their experiences in the Stoke-On-Trent scene!

Hello! Could you please introduce yourself and your role in the band?

Amy: Hi I’m Amy and I’m the lead vocalist.

Dan: Hi I’m Dan and I play guitar and sing backing vocals .

Nath: Hey I’m Nath and I am the bass guitarist.

Conor: Hi I’m Conor and I play drums.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Tonight Alive and 30 Seconds To Mars in the past, do you personally draw inspiration from them in your music?

Nath: Personally I draw inspiration from all music that I listen to but 30 Seconds To Mars come under that bracket of bands I have listened to since I was young, so it’s fair to say they have had an influence on my songwriting without me really knowing about it.

Dan: Tonight Alive are one of the biggest female fronted bands in the world and we definitely see them more as a band we can actually aspire to in regards to status. There aren’t a lot of female fronted bands in the alternative scene so to see a band like them reach the heights they have, it is incredibly inspirational.

Your new EP ‘Eyes Beyond Reflection’ is on the verge of being released, out of the five tracks featured, which is most personal to you and why?

Amy: Although all of us have individual songs that are most personal to us, collectively the song most personal to us as a band would be ‘Mazes’. It discusses   the desire within people to become more than what they are now and ultimately become a better version of their current selves.This is a mentality and sentiment that as aspiring musicians we try to carry through day to day life.

What is your process for writing, do you collaborate or do you each contribute in separate parts?

Amy: Our songs usually stem from one idea brought in by one of us, which is then developed within rehearsals and writing sessions. We have recently built a small recording space which has changed our writing process slightly, as we are able to record/track ideas and craft songs in a slightly different way now. Being able to hear our ideas back in demo form is so helpful when trying to piece a song together.

You’ve also stated you pride yourself in ‘replicating records as accurately as possible live’ but do you ever find the transition from recording to live performances difficult?

Conor: Our songs are always solidified during rehearsals and on stage a long time before we take them into the studio. Of course it is very likely that certain elements of songs will change during the recording process, but we think we manage these changes pretty well, or at least we hope so!

You as a band come from Stoke-on-Trent, a smaller town in the UK. Have you found it difficult to break into the music scene because of your location before?

Dan: We have really enjoyed working our way around the music venues in Stoke and have been given many great opportunities here, however it is a lot more difficult to generate a strong fanbase in our home town due our genre of music not being the most popular. We love getting opportunities to get our music out to other cities around the UK to new audiences in new venues.

Which track are you personally

the proudest of from ‘Eyes Beyond Reflection’ and why?

Nath: I think we would have to say Careful Eyes. We went to a practice session with the aim of creating a completely new song from start to finish and worked for a whole day. Eventually we came out with the completed song from just the one session (something that doesn’t happen often!). It came together very organically which is why it remains one of our all time favourites.

Thanks again,

Nathan

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – CREJUVENT

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music:

One of the first examples I can think of that made me go “Damn, THAT’S what I want to do!” is Heartwork by Carcass.

Best Experience While On Tour:

I once saw a GIANT slug that just turned out to be two separate slugs. Also skiing in a banana costume and getting hammered in Slovenian mountains.

Cover you would really like to do?

It’s one I’m actually working on right now: Vesti la Giubba, the famous aria from Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci opera! Otherwise, Skeksis by Strapping Young Lad.

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features:

Taken straight from Word Vomit off the debut Time EP:

DENTAL PLAN! Lisa needs braces!

DENTAL PLAN! Lisa needs braces!

DENTAL PLAN! Lisa needs braces!

DENTAL PLAN! Lisa needs braces!

Easiest Song You Wrote:

Off the debut EP it would definitely be the title track Time. I remember every single part of that song just came out so naturally as I was dicking around with my old housemate’s amp, it really just wrote itself.

Favourite album/single/EP you have released:

So far it would definitely have to be the debut EP Time! I gave myself so much creative freedom and I tried to really take the time needed to make it as perfect as the vision needed it to be.

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played:

Metal Days in Slovenia 2017! And subsequently Winter Days of Metal 2018!

Happiest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band:

With this project it would probably have to be playing this year’s Metal To The Masses competition. I was playing with three other full bands (whereas I just play on my own with backing tracks), and considering I only had like 3 friends there I still managed to get in second, losing by only about 4 votes! It showed me that maybe there IS a bit of a market for the stupid shit I’m doing!

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members:

I have a much cooler alter ego called Ben Hannah. He’s totally not a banana disguised as a human.

Jokes You Have In The Band:

The back cover of the debut EP features an extremely faint picture of me wearing a skinned 6 foot inflatable T-Rex as a costume. So far nobody has commented on it.

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song:

Fuck This Shit. It prepares you for the rest of the set by punching you straight in the balls and setting the tone for the rest of the nonsense to come.

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show:

I drove from Manchester to Slovenia last year with one of my other bands. It took us about 30 hours to get there and 24 to get back.

Movie That Best Represents The Band:

A Clockwork Orange. Funnily enough, the plot of that movie is what I based the lyrics of Code Orange on (hence the title)

New Band You’d Recommend:

Gonna give a shout out to my man Joey from Conscript! He released an EP towards the end of 2016 and is also doing a similar thing as me with the whole “one man band” approach but is doing a way better job at it! Go check out his stuff, it’s awesome!

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal:

Strapping Young Lad. Although given the whole history behind that I’ll settle for Anaal Nathrakh.

Place You’d Most Like To Tour:

One giant European tour would be amazing! I’ve already lived in Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK for most of my life, so all of Europe feels like home to me in a way.

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers:

Don’t read quotes from strangers online

.

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release:

It made a lot of sense to name it after the track I was most proud of. Time is about a small crisis I had a while back whilst I was in a relationship that wasn’t exactly the healthiest. I started projecting all my negativity towards my misuse of time and I sort of felt I couldn’t think or process my thoughts in time with reality, which lead to a profound feeling of helplessness and introspective confusion that I wasn’t (and still am not to be honest) prepared to handle.

See Us Live At:

Liverpool somewhere probably. I don’t tend to perform too often as I like to focus on my releases. I’ll be looking to do a bit more shows as my schedule clears up though.

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band:

The first song I ever wrote for this project can be found in the set of demos I released back in 2015 called Chained in Sleep. Oh how things progress…

Unusual Merchandise:

It’s not advertised or anything, but I’ll pretty much sell whatever disposable body part I have if people want it. Does anybody want to buy a bit of bellybutton fluff or trimmed facial hair?

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs:

I’d like to add more industrial elements as time goes on and really up the insanity element of the music in some way.

Worst Experience On Tour:

I stayed in a hotel last week with one of my other bands Novacrow in Nottingham. I’m pretty sure the people in front of us were trying to book a room to cook meth (or whatever other drugs) in, instead of beds they just laid out two mattresses on the floors for us, and in the middle of the night somebody unlocked our door and walked right in, saw that we were sleeping there and walked back out. But at least we didn’t get stabbed so that was nice!

X-rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries:.

I’m usually good with injuries, I tend to bash my knee on my bass quite often but that’s pretty much it. I once ever so slightly pricked one of my fingers on my right hand just before a show, and about halfway through the first song I think to myself “I’m sweating way more than usual, my hand feels soaked!” and when I look down I can just see my bass completely covered in blood. Also the drummer for my other band dislocated his shoulder trying to do a handstand underwater and I had to ride the ambulance with him to the next city over to get him treated. That was pretty dumb.

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played:

I played this small festival many years ago with my old band from the Netherlands and whilst there was virtually nobody there, we got all the free booze we could possibly drink afterwards and we ended up crashing in this massive tent full of couches and chairs and we had an absolute blast!

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band:

Hippopotamus. They look all cute and derpy but they will FUCK YOUR SHIT UP. They are the world’s deadliest large land mammal and the kill up to 500 people a year. That’s fucking crazy.

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – WEESP

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music: Metallica – Fuel, Iron Maiden – Fear of the dark

Best Experience While On Tour: drugs experience

Cover you would really like to do? Cult of luna – A greater call

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features: Song from new album, that we have released on 5th april 2018. ‘Red nead glow’ – We believe that in each person there are good and evil. This song is about what happens when we fail to keep the balance. It’s about inspiration, excitement, actions, consequences and guilt. It’s about the demons that live inside of us.

Easiest Song You Wrote: I think we don’t have easy written songs, every song is written with with blood and sweat

Favourite album/single/EP you have released: Definitely it’s new album ‘Black Sails’. Personally i also like ‘Our own gale’ single.

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played: We all love to play annualy festival in Kherson (Ukraine) called ‘Krock’. For sure – this is one of the greatest festivals we’ve played.

Happiest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band: Every new song, new video, new release and new show makes us very happy.

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members: We decided to create a Bro Button mobile app. When you fuck a girl and need some help from your bandmate – just press it. No long talks – press a button.

Jokes You Have In The Band: Everybody sings to each other a song – Yooou are faaagoooot and all your friends are bums – in russian.

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song: We started all of our recent shows with ‘Read Neon Glow’

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show: I think maybe 1500 kilometers.

Movie That Best Represents The Band: Im thinking about superheroic DC Movie. You know – dark one with tough heroes.

New Band You’d Recommend: Light the Torch!!!

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal: Light the torch – why not =)

Place You’d Most Like To Tour: Germany. Berlin and Hamburg.

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers: Don’t let the world break you and you will change it some day.

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release:

According to the legend of Theseus – he went along with the doomed young men and girls to the island of Crete to the minotaur in the hope of killing the monster.

And the ship were under black sails, symbolizing grief and mourning. But the return should have been under the white, after the victory. So ‘Black Sails’ embodies all our listeners, like-minded people and all those who stand out, dream, love and believe.

See Us Live At:

–

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band:

I think it was Smells like teen Spirit by Nirvana.

Unusual Merchandise: We have big badges like 10cm in diameter,

and two sizes of fridge magnets.

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs:

We have acoustic versions for some of ours songs, and even performed it few times.

Here is video for acoustic version of one of ours song:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6LvrHZuYKPg

For the new album we will prepare acoustic version too.

Worst Experience On Tour: When we have great venue, with all the staff and technically brilliant, but no one come to see us, because of some reason. This happens with every single band, and i think – it’s definitely the worst experience.

X–rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries: Once we got in traffic crash on tour, but with no Injuries. Lot of hangovers.

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played: There were huge amount of shows and every show was special, so it’s really hard to answer this one.

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band: The Lernaean Hydra

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVEIW – THE SOURHEADS

A Song Which Made You Want To Make Music:

Ozzy Osbourne – Shot in the dark. I used to tape the Rock Show from the TV that was on in the middle of the night and the video for that song was really cool at the time. Ozzy looks like a drag queen in it. It was amazing and Jake E lee was on guitar.

Best Experience While On Tour:

Any gig where we get a rider is a plus. A nice pizza always goes down well. Apart from that all the gigs are pretty similar we just try and give everything we can in the performance. It’s always nice to get paid.

Cover you would really like to do?

Not really a big fan of covers live as there are plenty of cover bands and tribute bands around I think it’s important to remain original and produce the best music you can as a band. I think in the studio LA Woman by The Doors would be a good song for us to cover as we are all influenced by The Doors.

Deepest Lyrics One Of Your Songs Features:

All of our songs have great stories to them the best thing to do would be to listen to the album as Jake writes like a poet. We have songs about demonic possession relationship breakdowns rock and roll swagger and general debauchery. I’m raging mad dog she’s my killer pill. Mad dog is about a relationship where people can’t live with or without each other.

Easiest Song You Wrote:

There is a new song that we have just written called killing machine that’s pretty straightforward it’s a slow stomp type song a bit similar to Adam and the Ants in its rhythm.

Favourite album/single/EP you have released:

Our album Care plan for the soul is a debut release and we are really proud of it. We feel there are plenty of Great lyrics and the music is driving yet subtle in places. We seem to be receiving great reviews so I think we did something right.

Greatest Show/Festival You Have Played:

Camden Town London at the Unicorn. That was a good one. We played there with Red Spektor and The Healthy Junkies….had a nice size crowd.

Happiest Moment You’ve Experienced In The Band:

The day we received our limited edition splatter vinyl from our record label. When I was a kid I used to save all my money and buy vinyl from the local record store so to have it go full circle and actually have the Band release a vinyl was pretty impressive. A great feeling of achievement and a middle finger to all the people who doubted us.

Interesting Fact About One Of Your Members:

Jake our singer won Come dine with me on Channel 4. Everytime it is repeated we get an influx of middle age women adding us on social media. So in that respect it’s a really cool thing for the band. It’s got a bit repetitive for Jake now though.

Jokes You Have In The Band:

Not sure about that we are always joking around and playing pranks on each other. We are all pretty funny individuals so there probably too many jokes to mention can’t really think of one in particularly. Two snowmen stood in a field one says to the other can you smell carrots?

Kicking Off Your Set Is Best With Which Song:

We start our set with a song called My rock and roll. It builds with a bass and drum groove and the guitars and singer have a question and answer kind of build up. Then all of a sudden it bursts into full on. Jake likes to chant some of his Mojo at the start of the show and set the mood.

Longest Distance You’ve Travelled To Play A Show:

We are still on our UK tour promoting our debut album South Wales is pretty far away that was a five and a half hour drive there and five and a half hours back. But when you have a bunch of drunk rock and rollers in the car time goes pretty quick.

Movie That Best Represents The Band:

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre because we are all a bunch of freaky individuals. We do draw the line at cannibalism though but Jake is pretty handy with a chainsaw.

New Band You’d Recommend:

Red Spektor are a great band. We tour a lot with them and we are all really good friends.

Opening For This Band Would Be Ideal:

Queens of the Stone Age will be pretty cool Clutch maybe Alice Cooper, ZZTop any bands that has a legacy.

Place You’d Most Like To Tour:

America, it’s huge. California is the same size as the UK and all the states have different weather. I love America I go every year four four weeks if I can.

Quote That You’d Like To Pass On To Readers:

You can take the money take the dog but you will never get your hands on the rock and roll of life.

Reason For The Title Of Your Recent/Forthcoming Release:

Our drummer lamb is a pretty deep thinker and we thought that the album shows various states of emotion. The news and media is so negative nowadays and the internet has no boundaries of censorship so your soul can get burnt. We just thought take some time out to take a deep breath create a care plan for the soul.

See Us Live At:

A venue near you and if we aren’t there give us their details and we will try to get there.

The First Song You Ever Played Together As A Band:

The song that is the oldest is Don’t get caught I am the Lotus. The band has been playing that for around 7 years I only joined in 2016 and we got the record deal the same year but that song goes way back. It’s a strong song and one of our best. It gets the greatest response from the fans live

Unusual Merchandise:

We don’t have any unusual merchandise just the standard stuff although I did make a mistake and got some window stickers made. I thought the order said 100cm it was actually 100mm. And I made them black so nobody can see them anyway. Felt like banging my head against a brick wall

Variations You’d Like To Do On Any Of Your Songs:

We already did that. Our song Demon was remixed in a drum and bass style by Ben our bass players brother Simon who was the drummer of Inme. We are open to other people remixing our songs in different genres. We like to think of our band as a multi genre act.

Worst Experience On Tour:

I once played with a band that was supporting Wrinkle. Wrinkle went on to become The Cribs. The whole gig started late and they over played so we ended up not playing at all as there was an early curfew because of sound levels. So pretty much a waste of time as been there at all.

X-rays Or Any Other Treatments For Band Related Injuries:

Luckily we haven’t had any broken bones yet we do Jump Around quite a bit though. A nice packet of Alka-Seltzer and antacid tablets is about as medical as we get.

Your Favourite Show You’ve Ever Played:

All our shows are our favorites as long as there are people there and they respond to the music it’s hard to pinpoint any single one. The London ones are always good and Stoke-on-Trent has a cracking scene. Newcastle-under-Lyme has a great little venue called the Free Bird everyone is so friendly and into music.

Zoo Animal That Best Describes The Band:

A tiger because they are pretty cool. I love the colours and they can pounce at any time. Suppose it’s better to be a tiger than something like a baboon or an anteater.

Caitlin Interviews, Music News

INTERVIEW – SUE – THE HELLFREAKS

Can you please introduce yourself, your role in the band and your favourite album to this date?

Hello there, here is Sue – singer & only former band member of The Hellfreaks. Music and especially underground punk, hardcore, psycho – scene life has always been big part of my life, so it’s hard to pick out one album. So my choice might surprise you even more as I pick a hardrock band & hardrock is by far not my favorite genre – but this piece just packed me in so unexpectedly.  I guess the album that I have listened to more than anything else is Going To Hell from The Pretty Reckless. Despite that I could mention any Distillers album.

The new generation of The Hellfreaks came to life in 2015 after the band split in 2014. What was the decision behind the comeback?

I moved away from my hometown Budapest to Germany, Berlin at that time of the split up, and was struggling really hard with accepting my new situation without music, with building up a new life without having a band. It was more or less like a very heavy break up, that dragged me shockingly deep down.  It was a heavy period for me and right when I started to accept the situation we got the invitation to the Ink ‘n’ Iron Festival, a legendary festival in Long Beach, California. It literally brought the band back to life: but we had to leave the old weights behind. That’s why we came back with new members, a new spirit and new energy – I think this email changed my life more than any other lines so far. This invitation meant the rebirth of The Hellfreaks. When we saw this invitation, me & our old drummer Rico knew that we just have to figure out a way to make it back with The Hellfreaks on stage, as it is really rare to face this possibility as a group from Hungary.

Your latest album Astoria was released at the beginning of 2016. Are there any plans for a new album?

Plans are not enough to write a new longplayer!
We are already working on it. Honestly, we have been working on it for a pretty long time now; we’ve been in the songwriting process for quite a year. It takes us much longer than ever before, but not because of lack of inspiration, way more because we’ve changed the whole concept of our songwriting. The new songs are not born in the rehearsal room anymore.
It had been a long way till we were able to manage possibilities at home to work and record on demos – so now we’re going much more into details, concepts and selecting with an ice cold heart to put the right pieces, ideas and songs together for the upcoming album.
Our fans are used to getting a different sound with each album, and we’re still far from the end, but it is out of question that this album will for sure be the next step in the right direction for us. Or at least “right” in our point of view, but we are happy to see the development of our work. Everyone who liked Astoria, will for sure LOVE the upcoming one.

You’ve also had the chance to tour across parts of Europe and America, do you prefer to tour in the US or Europe?

There are no preferences. US & Europe are two totally different worlds for us, however, they have the same feeling on the stage. Of course there are pros and cons on both sides. We’ve toured way more in Europe, so there are clubs all across the continent we play regularly at, and where we feel like home after all these years. Compared to the US, it’s small, so the distances are manageable.
US is still a new world for us. It gave us way much more stories to tell and there is so much we still haven’t seen. So we really hope that we will make it back soon. But there are also other places on our bucket lists, like Japan or Australia, that we really want to, but couldn’t make it so far.

What was one of your favourite shows and why?

After hundreds and hundreds of shows its impossible to answer.
There are some special shows that left some bigger footprints in my mind. For example our gig at the Wave Gothik Treffen, where we played in front of a couple of thousands of people for the first time. Or our gig at Force Attack, where the organizer of the festival just left with all the money in his pocket, and literally left anarchy behind. I’d never seen a festival so much out of control, but we didn’t hesitate to do the concert anyway. Or the gig at Ink’n Iron – maybe not because it was as special a gig, but it was a special feeling. A feeling of “I’m back again.”.

You describe your genre as modern punk-rock- riot, what influences your genre style?

We started as a psychobilly influenced band, which is a very strict genre. Music & lyrics-wise it has its magical world, but is also has its boundaries. So after the rebirth of The Hellfreaks, the biggest issue was to leave all these boundaries behind. But there wasn’t really a fixed concept. We all come from different  genres – all kids of rock music, but I guess I don’t have to describe how wide this genre still is. So it was much more like that: we put all together what we had and just let ourselves be surprised by the outcome.
Our very first song of the new line up was “Back To My Planet” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr7CvojaliA) Personally, I think that this is the only new generation song where you can still hear some of the old rock’n roll feeling. After that we dared to make the second step of finding our own new sound and that was the flow how Astoria came alive.
We learned a lot during the recording process – we learned the strengths and weaknesses of each other and based on that, we are just trying to do and create everything in a way where each of us can shine with their best side.

What is next on the list for The Hellfreaks?

Writing and recording the best album ever in our history. We already have a videorecording planned for this summer and of course we’re having a couple a of clubshows and also some major festivals around Europe this summer. Come and join us!
05.05 – Hungary, Székesfehér at Nyolcas Műhely01.06 – Romania, Revolution Festival 13.07 – Serbia, EXIT Festival 16.08 – Czech Republic, Pod Parou Festival 03.10 – Germany, München at Bürgerhaus Glockenbachwerkstatt04.10 – Germany, Ludwigsburg at Rocknrollbar Ludwigsburg05.10 – Switzerland, Meyrin at Undertown06.10 – Italy, Treviso at Nasty Boys01.11 – Germany, Hannover at SubKultur 02.11 – Germany, Erfurt at Ilvers Musikbar03.11 – Germany, Berlin at Wild At Heart16.11 – Hungary, Budapest at Robot

Which of your tracks describes The Hellfreaks the best?

“I’m Away” is pretty much the best to summarize The Hellfreaks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=guaEK62mxno