[avatar =”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Those more observant readers will note that Mosh did a pre-Bloodstock interview with this band. Whilst I was chatting to Dave from Alunah, he mentioned that Paul was a good friend of his and that he was up for an interview. After saying hello, their PR came up to me asking if I’d be willing to interview the band. There was also a special guest that briefly appeared….
Apologies for the delay in getting this up, moving house and having equipment failure does not exactly help with transcription much :/
Thanks to Paul and Chris for their time.
MT: You’re playing on the New Blood stage a little later on today, are you excited for that?
Paul: We’re quite excited for that, a little bit nervous but we’re looking forward to it.
Chris: It’s the biggest gig we’ve ever played so we’re really looking forward to it.
MT: Are there any bands you are looking forward to watching today?
Paul: I want to see Dead Label, Alunah and Black Label Society. I wanted to see Propane, but I think they just finished. I also want to see Orange Goblin as well.
Ben: More interviews than David Cameron this bloke!
Paul: That was Ben from the little known band, Orange Goblin. I’ve known Ben a long time and he’s a good friend of mine.
Chris: I wouldn’t mind checking out Onslaught and Propane.
Paul: I’ll probably go and watch Rob Zombie just for the stage show.
MT: Are you working on any new material at the moment?
Chris: Very much so. We’ve got about 5 or 6 new tunes at the moment, but we’ve had a few lineup changes in the past year. But the lineup seems fairly stable at the moment and once we go back to Belfast we’re hoping to finish up the writing and get something out the end of this year early next year.
Paul: We’ve got a few slots lined for the rest of the year. English Dogs, Discharge and some band called Beholder!
MT: Is the production of the new album going to be any different to the previous?
Paul: Yes, definitely. Our previous album sounded a little processed to me. I personally prefer a punk sort of sound and I would like to bring the guitar sound out.
Chris: We pride ourselves on our live set and we practice really hard to keep it good. We feed of each other so much in the live set and when you go in the studio I feel as though we loose that element.
MT: What would you say your main influences are as a band?
Chris: Paul and I come from the classic background of like Black Sabbath and I’m personally a big blues fan. We never claim to be reinventing the wheel but we try and bring our influences into the genre.
Paul: The thing I love about hardcore over modern metal is that it still has riff and groove at it’s hard. Whereas, some of the more modern metal has lost the whole riff structure and I think what a lot of people appreciate is a good solid riff that you can nod along to. Chris is very jazz inspired and brings a lot of runs into the bass, which adds a lot to the music.
MT: What’s the sort of gear that you use live?
Chris: Bass wise, I’m using Ernie ball strings on a Music Man stingray. The kind of stuff we are doing, I wouldn’t consider using many other basses as we tune down to C.
Paul: I use a Gibson Les Paul custom Zach Wylde with EMG’s. That then goes into a Zach Wylde overdrive, I’m a big Zach Wylde fan, and is then fed into two JCM 800’s. For the extra heavy tone, I play using 74’s but it still gives clarity. There’s no point in being heavy if there is no clarity.
Chris: I also use Mesa heads and it gives the sort of sound I’m looking for and is really good.
MT: Thanks for your time guys!
