It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are former Band of the Day Mastiff who play the Sophie stage on the Saturday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from Kingston Upon Hull, which is most commonly referred to as Hull, because neither the monarchy or our fair city wish to acknowledge they have anything to do with each other, and rightly so.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Mastiff has existed in some form since around 2013, but this particular incarnation has been together since early 2017. But most of us have played in various bands together for the last couple of decades, so there’s plenty of history between us.
Where does the name of the band come from?
We originally had a different, much more generic name that nobody was ever really happy with, and in the spur of the moment at a battle of the bands Mastiff was plucked out of the air as being something that sounded menacing and tough. In hindsight it’s probably just as generic as the old name – we know of at least one more active band called Mastiff in the USA, who we actually have a nice friendly relationship with – and we could probably have picked something much cooler, but it’s stuck now and that’s part of our brand, I guess.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
To begin with, Mastiff was pretty straightforward sludgy hardcore, and there’s a reason we were constantly compared to Crowbar and bands of that ilk. Since we released ‘Bork’ in 2017 though, we’ve evolved quite a bit to the point where it’s hard to really slot us into any easy metal subgenre. There’s a lot of grindcore in our sound, but then also lots of influence from late 90’s metalcore, death metal, doom and even bits of black metal. We’ve worked hard to figure out how to incorporate all of those elements without it sounding too patched together and schizophrenic, so that whatever particular sound we’re channelling on a song it always still sounds like Mastiff.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Our live show is highly volatile and aggressive, punctuated with moments of daftness because as much as we try to play it straight-faced and grim, we’re a set of silly boys really and even though our music is pretty dark, we still like to have fun. In times gone by we’d say very little onstage and would fill every second with noise and to attempt to create a very ominous atmosphere, but we realised that crowds actually respond better to us having a laugh and engaging with them than us pretending to be evil. I think that makes for a good festival show, you can come start a circle pit but still smile while you’re getting roughed up.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
An earlier incarnation of Mastiff actually won the Metal To The Masses contest in 2015 and played the New Blood stage, though only two of the five of us were in the band then so this is a brand new experience for most of us! Our shouter Jim also did a guest spot with Bongcauldron at their final show at Bloodstock 2019, so I guess that makes him a festival veteran!
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
I believe the Bloodstock team reached out to us in January/February this year, so we’ve had it in the books for a good few months. We had to keep our mouths shut about it for a little while, but we’ve had to spend a lot of time keeping secrets the last few years so we’re used to it at this point!
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What sort of setlist can we expect?
Even though our album Leave Me The Ashes Of The Earth will have been out for almost a year (and recorded for almost two!) by the time Bloodstock rolls around, we’ve still only played a relatively small number of shows since it released, so our set will draw heavily from that, with a track or two from 2019’s Plague thrown in there too for anyone who’s been paying attention for a little longer. We will almost certainly be grafting our way through all 75 seconds of “Acid Breather”, the song we contributed to the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, too, so we’ll be hoping the gamers in the crowd are ready to throw some moves in the pit.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
They’re in right after us so we’ll definitely be watching Pupil Slicer – our bass player Dan’s label Trepanation put the tape version of Mirrors out so he has something of a professional interest in them killing it too, but they’re such a sick band it won’t be a chore ing them. We’re also hoping we get to check out Spirit World and Lorna Shore, plus having Malevolence close out our stage will be awesome.
What are you working on at the moment?
We’ve been writing the follow up to LMTAOTE for a few months now, we’re hoping to get into the studio before the end of the year but we’re not quite ready yet. When we made the last one we were technically free agents and did it off of our own backs before MNRK got involved, so it was a fairly low-pressure scenario, whereas now we know that a lot more people are going to be hearing whatever we do next, so we don’t want to rush something out before it’s ready. We’re trying to make the definitive Mastiff record, and so far we’re pushing ourselves harder then we ever have before.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
It’s maybe cheating because it wasn’t a Mastiff show, but a band that a couple of us played in a long while ago played a show with Daughters once, and witnessed the guitar player from another band on the bill whip his dick out and start pissing at the front of the stage, at which point the singer from Daughters got on his knees and started lapping it into his mouth. It was a very disgusting affair, and probably should’ve clued us in early that the guy was a grubby deviant.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
The honest answer for most of us is just whatever cheap beer is available. Most of us have quite discerning taste when it comes to drinking beer, but smashing down an 8% DIPA when you’re about to go play the guitar in public isn’t the smartest. For the ones of us that drink, after we play is when the good drinks start flowing, we’re all old and ‘wise’ enough to know that’s the time to party.
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