Month: July 2015

Turbowolf – Two Hands

Time to get excited: Turbowolf’s new album “Two Hands” is good, really good. This band seems to understand that originality gets you the furthest: with clean but loud guitar riffs, a twist of crazy and a lot of diversity, “Two Hands” slays conformity. The only downside to this is that sometimes the album sounds a little too messy and loses almost all coordination. I say ‘almost’ because luckily this never really happens and in the end it just leaves you with a pleasant sense of being on the brink of insanity.

– Renske Gommer

Deez Nuts – ‘Bout It

Hardcore/hip hop band Deez Nuts is back with their brand new album “‘Bout it”. “‘Bout it” is their third full-length release and Deez Nuts is still very much a ‘love’em or hate’em’ kind of band but I guarantee you when you hear this all the haters will become lovers. The title and opening track “‘Bout it” is a bulky song and really gets you interested into listening to the rest of the album. There is truly a variety of songs on this album with a mixture of other hardcore artists, like Sam Carter on “Band of Brothers”. The song starts with an acoustic guitar and then Sam comes in singing the chorus. Frontman JJ Peters does his distinctive part on the song and the duo makes the song unique, adding in gang vocals from the rest of the members throughout. A lot of the songs go on about drinking and smoking, and even though this is mainly what Deez Nuts sings about, it does tend to get a tad boring if you have been a fan from the very beginning like I have. Nonetheless, this album is truly worth a listen for all you hardcore music lovers.

– Holly Reijs

Siberian Meat Grinder – Hail To The Tsar

Hail to the Thrash! The Russians tsars of Siberian Meat Grinder are all about delivering their own brutal style of hardcore thrash to the masses, finding ways to piss of the crowds and pulling the rug from underneath president Vlad's dictatorial feet. Fury and anger are the main ingredients for this band and they are delivered at a sledgehammer tempo. Expect fast thriving thrash with hardcore elements going against the grain and condemning all that is wrong with today's music scene. The perfect soundtrack to a gnarly full speed skate session and they are even backed by hardcore legend Vinnie Stigma. Fuck your scene, fuck your crew, fuck you!

– David Marote

Cold Cave – Full Cold Moon

Musical centipede Wes Eisold has been going strong with his electronic project Cold Cave for quite a few years now. From being the frontman of the much acclaimed hardcore band American Nightmare, Wes has evolved into more crossover projects such as XO Skeletons and Some Girls, blending electronics with guitar noise. Leading into Cold Cave where Wes takes full control of all the music from the comfort of his home. Numerous tracks and EP's were released through his own label and book publishing company Heartworm Press on limited amounts of vinyl. Time to get all those tracks together onto one full album titled “Full Cold Moon”, previously released on Wes’ own Heartworm Press on vinyl, now available through Deathwish records on CD with added unreleased bonus track.

 

– David Marote

The Decline – Resister

Australian punkrockers The Decline have a new album under their wings. “Resister” is another great chunk of up-tempo melodic punkrock with juicy Australian lyrics accompanying it. Skate punk bursting of energy and melodic choruses are the main ingredients for The Decline and this conjunction has earned them tons of fans worldwide over the years. Fans of punk like Teenage Bottle Rocket and Guttermouth will devour this record. It seems these lads are ready to cross the big pond soon for some euro dates on their upcoming tour. From club shows to festivals like Punk Rock Holiday and Brakrock, it’s to check them out when they hit a town near you. And after their euro experience, they are even embarking on a Japan tour and playing at Gainesville finest, The Fest. There’s no escaping The Decline these coming months.

 

– David Marote

Millencolin

Millencollin are one of Sweden’s finest punk export products from the nineties Mälmo scene and still reigning hard with a new album “True Brew” under their belt. This summer they plan on taking Europe by storm again with their unique punk sounds. Time for RMP to have a chat with drummer Fredrik at the magnificent Jera On Air festival about the new album and of course skateboarding since the band name is derived from a skateboard trick. Time to find out how the brew was conceived.

 

  1. First, congratulations with the new album, “True Brew”. How has the response been?

It's been really good. We're really happy with it and the response and the reactions on the new songs live. It's really nice to have the new album out. We've been working on it for a while and it's nice to be able to play the new songs live.

 

  1. You played Groezrock in early May, how was that show?

Every time it's super nice to be there. It's like a big homecoming party almost. There's so many bands that you meet up with. This year there were like four or five Swedish bands, a lot of bands we haven't met in a while. It's super great organised. European festivals are in general really good and well-organised.

 

  1. So “True Brew”, the title of the album is almost a description of some sort of philosophy. Could you explain this to us?

Yeah, I’m actually the one who came up with the title. First of all it sounded very good as a title. I think it fits us as we've always been in charge of everything about the band, it's us four in the band. It's always been the same guys in the band. We have a lot of respect for each other. When we make songs we always say that we are boiling notes,which is like a brew. We have always been true to ourselves too. It’s always good to stand back all the decisions and the music we make. So it fits the album really well.

 

  1. You also made a great video for the song “Bring Me Home”. The “Life On A Plate” yellow bird is skating around different cities getting into all sorts of problems. Who actually skated in that suit and what cities is it filmed in?

There are several people, it's different in each city. We had a friend of ours making the video. So we travelled around and found some skaters at every location. It's different. Even if you don't know the story about the yellow bird it's like an easy going, funny video. I heard some junkie in NY grabbed one of the skaters.

 

  1. Millencollin is 100% skate punk, not just in sound and style but actually by really skating. The band name comes from a trick called ‘Melancholy’. How tied up to skateboarding is the band and are you guys personally?

It's probably as big of a reason we are a band, we started a band like the bands we were inspired by like Bad Religion and that stuff. If it weren't for those bands and skateboarding we would have never started a band in the beginning. It's been a huge part. Millencollin is music and skateboarding is skateboarding. I’ve never been a skateboarder; the other three guys all skated back in the days. These days they don't skate as much as before. Matthias and Erik, they skate every now and then. We always let the skate movies borrow our music and we played a lot of skateboard and snowboard events. It fits with skateboarding really well.

 

  1. Milencollin also have a skate park in Örebro, Sweden?

Back in Örebro we put up skateboarding contests and give some money to this local skate park to keep it running.

 

  1. So how great was it when Steve Caballero joined you on stage to play bass? How did it happen?

Oh yeah, he's the best of guys. Amazing skateboarder, he's been friends with us for a long time. Every time we meet up at events he ends up on stage with us.

 

  1. Any other famous skaters/musicians you would love to perform with?

We toured with The Rats (Mike Vallely) like ten years ago. Mike is also a very nice guy. Usually it's some of us playing with other artists, mostly Steve Caballero.

 

  1. In the beginning of the band you were on Burning Heart records. Over the years they left, but now they're back. Any plans on working with them again?

It's been really good thing to been working with Burning Heart through the years. They have so dedicated people working there. They helped us a lot and we helped them with bringing their name outside of Sweden. We're on Epitaph now and we like it there so that's probably where we are going to release our albums in the future.

 

  1. Any last words or plans you want to share?

We have a lot of plans. The touring just started but we're super stoked to be out playing live again. We're having such a good time doing that. Really been looking forward for this summer for all the festivals and coming back to Europe in hopefully October or so. Check us out then.

 

 – David Marote

The Charm The Fury

If you’re not familiar with The Charm The Fury yet, you will be in the next year! This metalcore band with a female vocalist/screamer from The Netherlands has been paving its way for a couple of years now and is really marking its place in the scene. So, with the sun shining on our heads and metal music on the background, we at RMP found a nice spot to sit down and have a nice chat with Caroline (Westendorp, vocals), Lucas (Arnoldussen, bass guitar) and Rolf (Perdok, guitar) to talk about their festival experiences, their first full album and how to stand your ground in the testosterone-filled world of metal.

1.    You all hail from the Netherlands, can I assume that you all have been at Graspop before as fans? Do you have any fun memories to share with us?
Rolf: Well, to be honest, only our other guitar player, Mathijs (Parent, red.) has been here before. For the rest of us Graspop stood on top of our bucket list but it just never happened. But now to perform here, in front of such a crowd, that was really awesome.
Lucas: But we went to Groezrock!
Caroline: Yes, we went to Groezrock at least 10 years in a row.
Rolf: But to be honest, I like this more.

2.    And how is it to perform here as a band?
Caroline: Awesome! You’re performing next to all of your heroes; you meet them in the backstage and have a chat with bands you have been looking up to for the last ten years. And all you can think is ‘Please, don’t say something stupid.’ [laughs]

3.    You really delivered a great show today, I really enjoyed it and the crowd did too. But do you see any differences between a Dutch and a Belgian audience?
Rolf: Yes, sometimes we do. We always thought that Belgian people were less feral but we have never been so wrong.
Lucas: Yes, our thoughts were totally wrong!
Rolf: I honestly think that’s also the difference between a core festival and a metal festival. We’ve always been metal fans because it’s commonly known that every metal fan is very kind and the atmosphere is always friendly and when there is a mosh pit everyone helps each other. And that’s what we love. So for us, this is really mind-blowing.

4.    A question for Caroline: what does it feel like to stand on a stage between all that ferocious testosterone?
It’s strange sometimes. You really quick get some sort of attention but I think that you can of course be a woman, but you have to be good in what you do too! You have to be able to compete with masculine colleagues so that gives some sort of extra pressure because you have to really prove that you’re worthy. It still is very amusing, but of course you have to work hard.

5.    And how did you discover that you could both scream and sing?
I think no one can sing or scream by nature. You really have to practice day after day, year after year to master the right techniques.  I’ve always been listening to metal bands and of course there are some frontwomen like Alissa White-Gluz from Arch Enemy but you’ll find very few female-fronted bands in the metalcore genre. And those are the bands I listen to the most. So I was constantly screaming along in my bedroom with male vocalists, which was not at all charming to hear of course. At first I couldn’t scream longer than ten minutes but through lots of practice and persistence I could scream longer and longer.

6.    Has it always been your intention as a band to become a female-fronted band?
Lucas: No, not really. I was actually looking for a vocalist together with our drummer, Mathijs (Tieken, red.) and we stumbled upon Caroline and at first she wasn’t that good [laughing] but we thought ‘She looks good and she has a lot of potential so let’s give it a shot.’ We really wanted a band and Caroline crossed our paths and yeah… like Caroline said before, by working our asses off, we all became who we are now and we are over the moon with that!
Rolf: I joined the band later on but I saw everything change too in just two or three years’ time. And then it’s just a delight to be in a band like The Charm The Fury with all of my closest friends.

7.    What bands are your greatest influences? You already mentioned core bands, but are there other influences?
Rolf: I think that most of us didn’t get their biggest influence from the core bands but from metal bands like Metallica and Pantera.
Lucas: Indeed, the real old school metal. But in our tour bus we listen to black metal, viking metal, even nineties pop and Eurodance!
Rolf: Yes, we listen to everything, also eighties music for example and luckily we all like all styles of music. Of course we get our main influences from the bigger metal bands we like but we also have a hiphop playlist for example so it really varies.  And I think that’s also one of the strengths of this band, that we are not limited to just one kind of music. We really listen to everything and we hope that we can mould all that in what we do. Of course we’re not going to release a hiphop track but…
Caroline: That’s a shame, don’t you think? We actually made a hiphop song a long time ago!
Rolf: Yeah, we made that song just for fun, so we have the liberty to do what we want to do.

8.    In 2013 you released your first full album “A Shade Of My Former Self”. You recorded and mixed everything yourselves. How did that go by?
Rolf: I’ve been to Sweden together with our drummer to record the drum parts but that’s actually the only thing someone else did. Most of the rest we recorded at my place, a very large squat where we had the freedom to do what we wanted.
Caroline: Our drummer really has hands of gold. He’s a real studio man. He not only knows a lot about the basic structures of songs but very often he already has the sound for a killer song in his head. But then he has to mix it all because he only knows exactly what he wants and how he wants the sound to be. He records everything, mixes it and then we send the tracks to someone to be mastered.
Rolf: We recorded the pre-amps at his place but he still lives with his parents so we just came to his house, rang the doorbell and said to his parents ‘Hi, we’re here to record our guitars!’ and repeated that for a couple of days.

9.    I can tell your drummer has a very clear vision on what he thinks the band should sound like. Is he the great mastermind behind The Charm The Fury or do you all contribute to the writing process?
Rolf: A little bit. Everyone plays his part in the band but Mathijs, our drummer, plays a huge part in the production process and in laying the foundation for the songs. And then mostly I listen to what he has and I try to give the songs my own touch so the songs change a little bit and after that everyone can have his or her say in it. So everyone really plays a big part in their own way. So it’s very difficult to replace someone because everyone contributes so much of themselves.

10.    So you’re still playing in the original line-up?
Lucas: A long time before Rolf joined we had two other guitar players but they didn’t look at the band as seriously as we did. But since the band became a serious topic, we haven’t changed our line-up because we felt we could cause earthquakes like this.

11.    You released the song “Carte Blanche” as your first single. Was this a conscious choice?
Lucas: It was the choice of our former manager.
Caroline: Yes, we wanted to pick another song.

12.    Why did you want to pick another song?
Lucas: Well, it’s very difficult to reimagine the way I thought about things at that time. Our mind-set was completely different then in comparison to now.
Rolf: Yes, if we could choose now, we would have chosen “Carte Blanche” too.
Caroline: Yes, “Carte Blanche” is just easier to listen to than most of our songs and it can really loosen up an audience. At that time, I think we wanted more to show our musical creativity and “Carte Blanche” is far from our hardest song to play.

13.    Where do you get the inspiration for your songs?
Rolf: We really get our inspiration from other bands. For example Mathijs, our drummer listens to just one band for a whole week and then he comes to our rehearsal room with a song and says ‘I want to do something like this part of that song,’ and then we start jamming along to his drums.
Lucas: Sometimes it just comes naturally. Often I’m just plucking on my guitar and then Mathijs is jamming on his midi-board and something cool comes along and then we stop and try to work further on that cool riff. But of course we don’t want to just make some riffs or noise, we really want to make songs and that’s what we have to keep in mind all the time.
Rolf: For our last record we really threw away three hours’ worth of material. It just had to fit with another riff so that it became more than just a riff. With all the material we didn’t use, we could easily fill three other records.

14.    You’ve been signed with Listenable Records. How does this deal come along?
Lucas: It comes along fine. Of course we’re not a really big band so we don’t talk a lot. It’s just a nice cooperation but we’re not best friends or something like that.
Caroline: They don’t meddle with our musical creativity and when we want to release something they give us advice on how and when to release. So it’s very informative actually.
Rolf: Yes, our contact person comes to as many shows as possible and he tries to be as involved as possible. It’s nice this way.

15.    Are there any plans for a next album?
Lucas: We’re first trying to find which way we want to go to.
Caroline: Yes, we’re experimenting a lot and we are trying to reflect on what we really want for us and for the band at this very moment. We’re asking ourselves constantly whether this is what we want or not.
Rolf: We haven’t chosen a clear course yet.

16.    So you don’t know where you’ll be in five years?
Rolf: Yes we do! In five years we’re standing on the main stage! No, no, it’s just difficult for now because we focused so hard on this show.
Caroline: And now, we can look further.
Rolf: Yes, we took a conscious choice now by not booking any more shows. We really want to focus on the next chapter.
Lucas: We have been gigging for the last three years and actually you’re supposed to release one album a year so we thought it was time to take a break and reflect on things and make new stuff together.
Rolf: Yes, of course we want to play together. The Charm The Fury is here to stay but we just don’t know yet in what direction were heading.

17.    Do you have any tips for starting bands?
Rolf: It depends on what you want. If you just want to play and keep it as a hobby then you just have to enjoy it and you don’t really need tips. But if you want to take it seriously and play at Graspop, well… the way we did it, is that we didn’t release anything or even mentioned our existence until we had something to show. When we had that we made a Facebook page with professional band pictures and a video clip.
Lucas: And our EP!
Rolf: I thought we release that a short time after.
Lucas: Yes, a very short time after, you’re right.
Rolf: Anyway, we had an EP and a lot of people thought ‘This is really good, why didn’t I know this music yet?’. That was of course because we didn’t have anything yet before. And that’s actually a second tip: never release anything that you don’t fully like.
Lucas: Yes, the package has to be complete. That’s in this age really the way to achieve something. You just have to make sure you have to full package and then you just launch yourself into the world like a rocket. Of course that could lead to some negative response. Some people may ask themselves ‘Where the hell did they come from? They’re just an unknown band with a fancy photoshoot and an EP.’ But a lot of them don’t know or manage to forget that we’ve all been involved with music for the last thirteen or so years.
Rolf: Yes, Lucas and I graduated from a musical education as did our drummer so all of our little pieces of experience make a whole lot of experience when put together. But in the end when you can stay noticed in the music scene, you get the respect you deserve. And that’s something we try to do for each gig. We try to win the audience time after time. We’re very humble and we’re the last persons you’ll hear saying that they’re the best band in the world! We don’t even think that but we honestly try to give it our best during each show we do and we hope the crowd sees that.

 

– Jolien Krijnen & Frederik Geuvens

Strung Out

 Strung Out is back with a new album and it is killer material. Another Fat Wreck band returning to the scene to prove their merits once more! So when the band came over for a European tour at Jera On Air festival in The Netherlands, it was time for RMP Magazine to have a quick chat with main guitar shredder Jake about the new record “Transmission Delta Alpha” and how it's been perceived so far. Find out all about the band that doesn't look back in anger.

 

  1. Congratulations with the new album, “Tranmission Delta Alpha”. It's been out for a couple of weeks now. How has the response been so far?

Thank you. Very good, all the shows have been really good. Everyone likes the new songs. We've been playing them live and they have been getting a good response. It feels good to have some new material out and have people really liking it.

We just did a big US tour for about a month and a half and we just got here and it's been about four shows and we're here for another month. We have about 25 shows total. Yesterday was a good turnout. It was a good turnout at the big Hurricane festival and a lot of people came by the stage when we played.

 

  1. The new album took six years to complete. Was it such an endurance to get this album out?

No, we were busy doing other things for most of that time. We did a greatest hits album, we did a boxset. We went out and played our two albums “Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues” and “Twisted By Design” back to back. Did a whole tour of that in America, went to Australia. So we've been doing lots of touring and about a year and a half ago we started writing for the new one. Got it all together, spend about six months on and off recording it. We took some time with it; we didn't want to rush it and make sure it was the right thing at the right time. Sometimes it's good to make people wait a little longer for something.

 

  1. For the new album you worked with Come Back Kid and New Found Glory producer, Kyle Black. How different was his influence on the album?

It was cool. Every time you work with a new producer they bring something else out of you. They try to get out of you that you're not doing already. He had a good ear for what we were trying to do, he knew where Strung Out comes from and he wanted to keep it a good Strung Out album.It was a very good experience.

 

  1. Strung Out started in the 90's as west coast skate punk, quickly evolving into more metal riffs and so. How do you see the bands evolution over the years?

Yeah, you always have to introduce new things into your sound I think. You can't just do the same thing every time. Sometimes by doing that you get closer to what you originally were after a while. You try some new things and you also stay true to what you were doing. We wanted to keep the energy up really high on this. Just keep it very uplifting and positive. We always liked metal parts and interesting technical types of riffs. We wanted to put the songs first and make sure it's good, a classic sounding Strung Out record.

 

  1. The band started out in the skate punk scene, some of the members still skateboard to this day. How do you see the connection between skating and punk rock?

A little bit, we skateboard to get to the store and so. I think it's still out there. Most of the skate videos these days don't use punk rock music anymore. It's all rap and stuff, so that's a shame.

As a kid growing up in California where we came from it's pretty much the soundtrack to it. Going to the skate competitions you'd always hear punk rock and have bands playing. I think that will always be a part of it. I don't know whatever the kids are into today, that's up to them. For us we always keep doing what we grew up being around, which was definitely skateboard-influenced and things like that. I think it works well with the fast pace.

 

  1. The album comes with beautiful artwork, there's also a painting for every song on the album by Jason aka ‘Amerikan Blackheart’. You also made an art print set as merch out of those. How is it to connect your music to visual art and hearing the response by the viewers/listeners?

 

It took him some time. He definitely spent some time on it. He worked his butt off for like six months to a year getting all that art together. We would change the titles of the song sometimes so he'd have to change the artwork again to fit the song. I think it really turned out really cool. And I think it's a special way to connect the album with you; just a way to make it a physical thing and not just some digital thing.

 

  1. You recently released a video for the track “Modern Drugs”, quite a visual work that has deeper connection with the lyrics of the song.

It turned pretty cool. The visuals are very interesting. All together it tied in very well. It's kind of an extreme song.

 

  1. Another thing that struck me in the video is Jake's guitar decoration, those beer tags or sticker of mostly Belgian Beers. Do I need to ask what your favourite beer is and where it comes from?

Many Belgian beers on there. Lot of my favourite beers on there. I drink a lot of those beers at home so I was saving all the labels and I was like ‘What should I do? Should I cover an amplifier, or just put them on a guitar?”. Some of them are wearing of now because I've been touring with the guitar now and the pick is scratching them off. So I need to drink some more beers and get some new ones. Chimay is on there, and Delirium; I like the strong beers.

 

  1. If you ever were to be strung out on something, what would it be?

I don't know, I smoke a lot of weed so I guess people would probably say I'm a stoner. That's probably it. Strung out can pertain anything. You can do too much of anything in your life. Too much work, too much this, you can be strung out on your girlfriend. You can be strung out on a job. It's what you make of it. For us it's wasn't always about a drug or something. It's more about being strung out on life. It's a punk rock thing, you can be strung out on all sorts of things.

 

  1. Any last words or plans you'd like to share with us?

Just keep touring supporting the record. We'll hopefully come back here somewhere next year and just thank you to everyone for coming out to the show and buying the record and listening to it.

– David Marote

Frank Carter

 We recently had the pleasure to chat on the phone with Frank Carter about his new project, Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes. Their album "Blossom" drops on August 14th on CD, vinyl, and super limited edition hand-painted-cover vinyl. Frank was previously the frontman of the bands Gallows and Pure Love.

 

  1. We’ve been following your career here at RMP and noticed that The Rattlesnakes are definitely a hardcore band, almost in the style of earlier Gallows material, when you were still part of the band – but you still have your own defined sound as The Rattlesnakes. What can you say about the choice to go back to the style of music you played earlier in your career?

I don’t know if it’s a choice to go back to that earlier style. I mean, I think it’s actually a much more mature sound now. Obviously it’s hardcore punk, but I’ve always loved hardcore punk, you know? I took a break to sort of experiment a little bit with my voice in Pure Love and find my seat and wrote a great album there, and now it’s just a case of, you know, starting something new. So I don’t know, there are a lot of surprises on the album. It’s not necessarily just pigeonholed in that one thing. I guess it wasn’t really a conscious decision, it just felt right. We started writing songs, Dean (Richardson, red.) started sending me some riffs and it wrote itself really.

 

  1. So that’s just basically what came out, and that’s what felt right?

Pretty much, yeah.

 

  1. You also mentioned Pure Love, would you say that Pure Love was basically a cleanse for you, you got that out of your system and then you decided to go on and play the next thing?

No, I mean Pure Love was like really a difficult band to be in because we just were dealt quite a rough hand from the beginning, so it felt like a lot more of a struggle really than it should have been. We had the wrong management and the wrong people around us. I don’t know whether it was a ‘cleanse’ so to speak, because that’ll never really be out of me, you know I still love that band but this is what I’m doing now, this is what I’m focused on. I feel like everything happens for a reason, that band was there to help me like, understand how I could use my voice better, you know, because I was quite limited when I was in Gallows. But now I can sing, and that’s purely because of Pure Love, so yeah, I think everything happens for a reason and I don’t know if a ‘cleanse’ is the right word. I don’t know, I feel like it set me up and put me on the right path.

 

  1. I can understand where you’re coming from there, saying you learned to sing with Pure Love, with Gallows you only had one chance really, in “The Vulture”, and that was six or seven years ago now.

Yeah.

 

  1. There’s definitely a huge difference that you can hear listening to the vocals on “Rotten” and the vocals on the Gallows albums “Orchestra of Wolves” or “Grey Britain”.

Of course.

 

  1. Which leads me to another question: there was a really cool saturation effect on your vocals throughout almost the entire EP, if not the whole EP. Was that just a production decision, or is that something that you went in and said “I want to do this.”?

No, just, we were looking for the right kind of sound, you know, and I think a little bit of distortion, you kind of get a lot of that when you’re playing live, you know? We wanted this album to sound live and we wanted it to sound like we were just playing a gig, so when we heard it, we had to bring it down a bit because it was just a bit too much. I think it allows my voice to cut through in the right ways, so it just means I’m not squawking over the fucking top of everything, do you know what I mean? I’m settled down a bit in the mix. Yeah, it wasn’t anything we did on purpose. We didn’t set out to do that, it just happened. Everything with this record has been quite organic; it just sort of came together the way it was supposed to.

 

  1. I believe I read somewhere that all of the instruments were done live, basically, and then you overdubbed vocals and that was it?

Pretty much, yeah, I mean even some of the vocals were done live. The boys were all in one room and then I was in the vocal booth. That’s how I’ve always wanted to record but I never had the opportunity and I feel like a lot of times you spend a lot of time getting the music to sound so perfect and regimented, and you lose a lot of the soul in it that way. Punk music should be about, like the ebb and the flow, you know, like it should be able to push and pull, it should be able to speed up and slow down. And if you’re trying to quantize everything and play to a click, that’s the first thing you lose. You’ve got to stay on the tracks, and I’ve never really been about that, I’ve always wanted to go off the tracks. So yeah, that’s why we wanted to do it all live, and when it came to recording vocals, any bits that I got that I was already happy with, they could stay, and then it was just a case of finding my foot in with the timing and just moving with the band after that already happened. Does that make sense?

 

  1. Yeah, definitely, and there really aren’t many bands that can pull that off these days.

I don’t think so.

 

  1. So many bands use a click even when they’re playing live shows and it just saps the emotion right out of it.

Yeah, totally, and it just means you’re so trapped. I never want that, I don’t want that. I’m lucky I’ve surrounded myself with excellent musicians, so I know that I give one look, or they give me a look, and we can hang back or really, really, push it over the edge if we want to pummel people. I think that’s an important ability to have, and if you take that away you’re kind of cheating yourselves out of an atmosphere. That’s what punk music’s all about, it’s about getting in that room with like a hundred sweaty people and just fucking letting loose. If you’re worried about staying in time, you’re playing the wrong music.

 

  1. You even have people from the right background, you have Memby Jago on drums who was in The Ghost of a Thousand and also you joined you in Pure Love, and Thomas “Mitch” Mitchener who actually engineered “Rotten”, on bass. I’m assuming he’s also working on “Blossom” with you, is that correct?

Yeah, the album’s finished, we recorded the whole thing with Tom and it’s all done. It sounds amazing, fucking really looking forward to people hearing it.

 

  1. I can’t wait, and I should mention that is going to be out on August 14th, so our readers will be looking out for that one, I’m sure.

Yep, August 14th, it’s coming out worldwide.

 

  1. Another thing that many bands don’t do these days, you actually had a bonus track on “Rotten” after “Primary Explosive”, and in the digital age, bands have stopped doing that because people can just skip ahead in iTunes. What do you think of that attitude that people always just say “Oh, we want it now, we’re going to skip ahead.”?

They just don’t have any patience.

 

I think that’s just a product of the world at the minute, but you can counter that by doing what we did – which is just fucking do it anyway. Then even if they do skip ahead, that’s their prerogative. We’ve put it there; we’ve laid it out for them how we believe it should sound. For the people that don’t, the people that forget about it, on the train, or walking or driving, those noises they put you in a place and then all of a sudden you start hearing these chords ringing in, and that’s when you’re really get a feel for it. That’s when it surprises you. Some people, they might just listen to it just in case they missed something, you know, and that’s important as well, so it’s nice to be there. I mean, I could sit here and mouth off about how wrong I think people are, that want everything now, but this is an instant gratification world we’re living in, do you know what I mean? Everything is now, everything is fast, fast, fast, and I think I’ve got to understand that as well, I’ve got to appreciate that. I can’t just fuckingjust go against that too much because we’re going to be the ones that really suffer. I just want to go back really quickly because you missed a member, Dean Richardson, he used to play in a band called Heights, and he’s the guy… Really the band is me and him, we’ve been writing these songs for a long time, and we’ve been writing together for a long time. When I decided I wanted to do the band, he’s the first person I spoke to. He wrote all of the music with me and helped me structure the songs, so he’s kind of the kingpin of all this really, so I just wanted to make sure you didn’t miss him, sorry.

 

  1. No worries, so you’d say he’s the co-conspirator, basically?

Pretty much, yeah, partner in crime-type thing.

 

  1. I think, everything is expected to be so instant, people won’t go down to the record store that’s five minutes away anymore.

No, they won’t.

 

  1. They just go to iTunes, and they won’t look at the art or anything even, which is, I think incredibly sad, because that’s part of it, that’s part of the package that comes with the music and that’s what you, as the artist, especially since you’re a painter, want people to experience.

Yeah, definitely, that’s what’s been so important to me, that’s why we’ve kind of structured the physical aspects of this record the way we have, we’ve put out a worldwide vinyl and on top of that we decided to make one that was purely for collectors, because for as many people out there that want it now, and they want it to just drop into their phone without realizing, there’s also a good amount of people that still care about the artistry behind it. One thing I’ve noticed is, I have a lot of people congratulate me on the artwork, they’ve all said that they really like it and it speaks to them. So we decided to make this really special edition version of the vinyl, which is just limited to a hundred. It’s really expensive, it’s 200 Pounds. But what you get with that, is you get a variant cover of the artwork, which is completely hand-painted by me, so every single one is different, you’ll just get a random one when you buy it, but also you’ll get a version of vinyl that’s limited to 100 and won’t ever be repressed. That’s our way of sort of saying to people, people might look at that and balk at the price and say “What the fuck, who are these guys that can charge that?” but we can do whatever the fuck we want, do you know what I mean? I don’t have to answer to anybody because we set this up totally DIY, all ourselves, we just reached out to a label services company to help us fulfil it. I think that people might come back and check that again, they might see it and laugh at it the first time, then in a week they might come back and say “Oh man”, it just makes people look twice at the physical aspect of it, which to me is really important. I’m a record collector, so I’ve always wanted to get that number, to get that one of a hundred which is never going exist anywhere of the world outside of that, it’s exciting.

 

  1. I think that’s one of the things that has your fans coming back from one band, to the next, to the next, is the attitude that you just honestly do what you want. You make the music you want to make, and you put out the records that you want to make, and if they don’t like it you don’t care about that. You say “This is what I want to do, so this is what I’m going to do.”

Yeah, of course. Obviously, I want the band to be a success, I would like people to like it, but likewise I’m not going to lose sleep if they don’t, because that would be counterproductive. If I wanted to do that, I would just fucking tweet to 20,000 people and say “What do you want to hear?” and then I would write songs accordingly. All of them would be involved in the song writing process, and that would be a fucking nightmare, do you know what I mean? So the quickest way to do it is just for me to write what I love and be honest to myself, and I think that’s what people have always respected about me and that’s what brings people back. One thing I’ve rarely been called is sell-out, you know? I mean I was called it a little bit in Gallows, and that’s understandable, we did sell out, we sold to a major label for a load of money. That was fucking… I would do it again. I’ve always been true to myself and I’ve done what I wanted to do, because if I’m happy and I feel like I’ve got something to say, then I’m going to deliver it the way I think it should be delivered, which is with 100% passion. Raw emotion. It means that I’m able to really get behind the songs, and that’s how I feel at the minute. I really feel like I’m at a defining moment in my career where I’ve got this brilliant album, playing with great musicians, I think the lyrics are my best work ever, by quite a long way, and that feels really, really exciting. It feels like I’m in a good place.

 

  1. I totally agree with that, and it’s funny you mention “Grey Britain” because Reprise ended up dropping you afterwards because, you know, you did your thing.

Because we did what we wanted.

 

  1. Yeah, and they expected Green Day or something.

Yeah, definitely.

 

  1. Unfortunately I believe you have more interviews lined up, but I just want to mention you’re are touring right now and you’re also going to hit up Reading and Leeds.

Yeah, we’ve got Reading and Leeds, I can’t fucking wait man.

 

  1. I think I saw you said it’s your sixth or seventh time out there?

Yeah, I think this year’s going to be my seventh year playing Reading and Leeds and this is the one I’m most excited about because we’ve been on tour now for three or four days, and we’ve only got three songs out really, but the reaction has been incredible. These songs are really connecting to people, on a level which is beyond what I thought it was, so to get back to that festival which is like my home festival, that’s what I grew up going to, and play the majority of an album which will be out by then, which is music that I really fucking care about, I feel like it’s really saved my life, that’s a fucking exciting proposition, so I’m really looking forward to it.

 

  1. Well Frank, thank you so much for your time, and good luck on the road.

Thank you for the interview.

– James Cross

PVRS

Pvris (pronounced ‘Paris’) are a female-fronted three-piece from Boston, Massachusetts. Following the release of debut album “White Noise” in November 2014, the band have gone from strength to strength, the latest of which is a sold-out headline shows in the UK and a European tour. I caught up with Lynn Gunn (vocalist and guitarist), Alex Babinski (guitarist) and Brain MacDonald (bassist) before their Birmingham show to ask about their European experiences.

 

  1. This is your first trip to the UK, so what have been your first impressions of the UK?

Lynn: It’s way cooler, everything looks way cooler.

Brian: Things are old.

Lynn: Things have been here forever, more than America.

 

  1. What has been your favourite part of the UK so far?

Lynn: I really liked Cardiff and London.

Alex: Cardiff was like the only day we had off so we got to explore.

Lynn: We’re going to be going to Bath tomorrow and I’m looking forward to that so that might be my new favourite.

 

  1. Being an American band, have you been surprised by the level of European support? And I’ve noticed you’ve got a lot of airplay on BBC Radio One recently.

Lynn: Yeah, it’s weird because we can’t really see it over in the States so we don’t like understand it or like see which is kind of cool because when we come over here we’re surprised by it too.

 

  1. Recently, you’ve been on a lot of big tours, The World Tour in America and you’re touring with Lower Than Atlantis at the moment. Has there been anything those bands have taught you that you’ve really taken on board or any great pieces of advice?

Alex: It’s hard to pick but I’ve definitely learnt.

Lynn: I feel like we’ve learnt something on every tour. The one thing Sleeping with Sirens taught us was ‘don’t take yourself seriously just have fun with it’. They’re super fun guys.

Brian: They’re some of our favourite.

Lynn: They’re major goofballs so…

 

  1. So obviously you’re back in the UK next month for Slam Dunk.

Lynn: Yeah!

 

  1. Are there any bands on that line-up that you’re looking forward to seeing particularly or hanging out with?

Alex: Definitely You Me at Six and Taking Back Sunday.

Lynn: Don Broco.

Alex: Just everyone, all those bands. Architects. I was looking down the list and just going ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah.’

 

  1. And I saw you were at the BBC Maida Vale Studios, can you tell us anything about that?

Lynn: I felt very self-conscious the whole time we were there.

Brian: I enjoyed it, it was cool.

Lynn: It was, everything else was great.

Alex: It went great, but it was so scary being in such a cool place.

Lynn: It was just intimidating knowing who else had been in there so we were like err…

 

  1. As a band, what would be your biggest goal? Is it headlining foreign tours or headlining your favourite festival?

Lynn: We want to do everything

Brian: Yeah, we want to try!

Lynn: We want to take over the planet.

Alex: I want to play in space.

Lynn: That would be fun. Would sound even work in space? Maybe on a space station?

Alex: I don’t know.

 

  1. You released the video for “White Noise” in March, how much input do you have into the ideas for music videos?

Lynn: Good to moderate, I’ll usually go to Raul Gonzo, our director, with a concept or basis and then he’ll like explode with it and make it come to life basically and like we’ll give him ideas

 

  1. Your Empty Room Sessions have proved quite popular. Are there plans to do any more of those or release them all together?

Lynn: Yeah.

Alex: Yeah, yeah definitely.

  •  

Lynn: Yeah, we haven’t been home long enough to do that yet.

 

  1. As the first female-fronted band on your label (Velocity/Rise Records), would you say that’s put a lot of pressure on you as a band?

Lynn: No, we look at it as being any other band. I feel like other people are putting pressure on it.

Brian: I don’t even think about it.

Lynn: We didn’t even know. There are also a couple bands with girls on it, but they’re not like the singers but we’re not the first big girl on Rise.

 

  1. Can fans expect any new music soon?

Lynn: It’s being made, there’s a lot already recorded, but I don’t know, we don’t know when it’s going out but we would like to release it as soon as we can but it’s not up to us.

Brian: It’s down to other people.

Lynn: But there is, it is being made, there’s already like enough music for a second record. Second, third, fourth, I don’t know. We’re like always making things so. We all have the recording app and then I’ve got like Logic on my computers and these guys are always doing stuff. Everyone’s always doing stuff.

 

  1. So for the really cliché questions now. What is your favourite song to perform live?

Lynn: “Fire”.

Alex: Mine’s “My House”.

Brian: Definitely “Fire”.

 

  1. What or who is your biggest musical influence?

Lynn: Me, probably Florence and the Machine.

Brian: Marvin Gaye.

Alex: It’s hard to say now, but growing up all I did was play Underoath songs.

Lynn: Yeah, but for like influences like sound wise I feel like we take stuff from everywhere, nothing specific but those would be our personal influences.

 

  1. And three words to describe the band for someone who has never heard the band before?

Lynn: Err… Sad, no not sad, moody.

Brian: Dark.

Lynn: and.

Alex: Elegant.

Lynn: I like that.

 

  1. What’s one piece of advice you’d give your younger self?

Lynn: My younger self?

Brain: My right hand *slaps hand*.

Lynn: Screw school. That’s what I’d say to my younger self. My younger self was so stressed out at school and I didn’t even need it. Well I probably did but you know what I mean.

Brian: Same with me.

Alex: My advice would be things always work themselves out.

Lynn: Yeah, they do.

 

– Eloise Doherty