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The Black Heart Rebellion

The Black Heart Rebellion has been turning heads for some time now; armed with a their third release “People, when you see the smoke , do not thinks it's the field they're burning”, this band from Ghent, Belgium, is continuing on their own path. Passionate about their music and aesthetics, making sure that each element that forms The Black Heart Rebellion is progression. A path that has crossed with fellow city inhabitants and like-minded souls of the Church Of Ra. RMP Magazine recently had the chance to delve a little deeper into their strong conviction and what THBR makes what it is now.

 

  1. The Black Heart Rebellion sounds self-explanatory but still: what defines ‘a black heart’ and how does it ‘rebel’?

I don't think it is that easy to define.Maybe what bounds us together is that we are very eager to create something that actually matters, although to us. We do not see this band as a ‘job’, nor as a way to spend our free time, but as something that actually has to happen for the five of us. From the moment we get on a stage or start playing the music, we realise what it's all about.

 

  1. For the new release you're working with Ghent-based record label and shop Consouling Sounds. What led you to them?

I guess we met each other at the right time in life. The people at Consouling are just like us: 100% dedicated with what they are trying to achieve. They don't manage their label and shop from a commercial point of view only, the passion for music and the search for likeminded people brought us together I think.

 

  1. Your previous release “Har Nevo” was a shift in sound compared to your earliest work “Monologue”. Has the band sailed into new territory with the latest release?

With “Har Nevo” we succesfully discovered new ways to express ourselves. The use of different instruments and the way of singing learned us we should never stop with questioning ourselves, and always try to improve what we do or why we did something. With the new record we started from those main ideas that had been formed after recording “Har Nevo”. So we went further and deeper on some of those items, to create the sound that felt right to us.

 

  1. The Black Heart Rebellion has gained close ties with the whole Church of Ra, including bands as Oathbreaker, Wiegedood, Amenra and Syndrome. You've played shows together and toured together.How did this kindred connection come forward?

The same as for example the connection with Consouling; we share a same interest in expressing ourselves through music, video art, photography. The output, as in 'the music itself', is just the result, not the main goal. It is the way of creating the music, of 100% giving yourself to the music that bounds us.

 

  1. You've toured Russia with some of fore mentioned bands, a country that doesn't receive too many Western bands. How was the experience?

Great, we met people who can actually be really grateful with what we are doing.We met some people who came from the upper north part of Russia and had to drive for two days to come the concert in Moscow!

 

  1. You had records released in Japan with the previous albums and even played Japan. How does a Belgian band end up in Japan?

Just by an amazing guy who is named Kimiyuki! He had the guts to release our music in Japan just by hearing it on the web, and putting a lot of time and money into it. After that he asked us if we would be interested in performing the music live. Some months later we were actually sitting on the plane to Japan.

 

  1. For the new album I've noticed pictures flying around where it seems you are in the process of making a video. Could you let us in on what's coming?

The song deals about a feeling of disconnection of something that has always been very evident. It has a feeling of solitude. We tried to do the same with the video. We started from some sort of scenery that should feel very familiar, but yet you start looking to it from other perspectives. Nothing is what it seems.

 

  1. Arts and its various incarnations seem to be close to the band, TBHR has even provided the musical background to a theatre production. Any plans in the future to do more collaborations with other artists?

It would be nice to write a soundtrack someday. Movies have always been a big inspiration for us during the writing process of the songs. To write music especially for a specific movie must be quit inspiring.

 

  1. The visual aspect of the band leans close to other Church Of Ra's projects, from dark to light and back seems to be a central theme. How do you see the aesthetics of the band?

I think we are a very visual band. We try to create images with the music we make, so it is evident that we put a lot of effort and detail in the actual visual output of our music, like the artwork of the LP or CD, poster design, and so on.Just like the music, an image can bring a certain overwhelming feeling. We try to find or create that feeling that goes with the music.

 

  1. Most band members hail from other long-gone bands, but are there any current projects that are gaining ground or about to emerge?

Right now we are focussing on the new record, and the coming months we will be very busy with live shows. So in the near future there won't be any side activity I suppose.

 

– David Marote

Elegies

Sheffield, UK has been the hometown to many great musicians, from Bring Me The Horizon to Artic Monkeys and it still remains a breeding ground for great bands. Elegies can be considered to be one of those up and coming Sheffield-bred talents. With a new EP that just hit the streets it's time that we at RMP Magazine interviewed Elegies to find out more about the new release and what the band has been up to lately.

 

  1. Congratulations with the release of your EP, Deadlight Disease. It's been for out some weeks now. How has the response been?

Thank you! The response has been great so far to say it’s only a 3-track but we have had the sort of response we were looking for setting us up for our future plans.

 

  1. You released the new EP on Hassle Records, a label that leaves you in good company, like Lonely The Brave and Frank Iero. How did you get involved with Hassle?

We were first contacted by Hassle after we had some exposure when we released “Throne”, the single from “Daylight Disease”, and after performing in front of a few of their representatives at a show in London the rest is history.

 

  1. Elegies recently did a tour in August, it was called the Road To Nowhere tour. You even made a tour video, how did this idea come forward to feature the glamour of touring?

We never intended on making a specific tour video for our time on the road in August. Aiky (bass) has some camera equipment so we just filmed as much as we could between the six of us and he managed to throw it all together so we could show people what we'd been up to.

 

  1. I believe I even heard the X-files theme song in the background, any fans in the band?

In all honesty I don’t think any of us is a huge fan of the show. The theme song just seems to be a perfect backdrop for Ben (guitar) who is X-tra ordinary.

 

  1. You also went to Leeds festival this summer. How was the experience?Leeds festival was great. We managed to score backstage passes which gave us the opportunity to see some of our favourite acts of the weekend side stage. There was that and getting particularly wavy with all the festival-goers. We left our van in the backstage production car park which seemed impossible to get back to at 6am the next day as security was tight. We all tried to sleep off huge hangovers while the Saturday acts and staff were preparing for the day ahead. When in Rome, right?

 

  1. You even got to watch Kendrick Lamar perform, is the band influenced by hip-hop? We managed to see Kendrick side stage and it was probably the best set we saw. Not just Kendrick but also his live band. An incredible set played by incredible musicians. We try and take a lot from hip hop down to Dayle’s (drummer) rudiments to the way we lyrically try and tell a story.

 

  1. You also released a great video for the song “Throne” from the new EP. A real storyline with a suited guy getting kidnapped by the band wearing balaclavas and all black clothing Where did the idea come from and how is it linked to the song?

 

We’re glad you like the video! The idea came from us not conforming to the 9 to 5 regime which is expected of lads like us who aren’t studying or starting a ‘professional’ career. The idea to kidnap and force someone to watch us came from thinking about the film Clockwork Orange as we wanted to try and bring someone around to our way of thinking. The video doesn’t necessarily link with the song lyrically but it has a strong specific message and the target audience should sit down and listen.

 

  1. Can we expect the balaclavas and black clothing to becomepart of your stage outfit?

I doubt we will be wearing balaclavas when you see us play live, as we don’t really plan what to wear, but I’m sure we’d be up for it if it floats your boat.

 

  1. Elegies consists of six persons and holds two vocalists. Is it hard to keep the band in line with quite a large group?

Having six members has its ups and downs. Sometimes agreeing on certain things can take a while as keeping everybody happy can prove difficult. Fortunately, we are all on the same wavelength and we all know what we want so it’s just a case of going out and getting it.

 

  1. Or what about putting six guys in a cramped van for a long time? No fights or quarrels involved?

To be honest we can’t recall any arguments during our time on the road but maybe there will be at some point? The only reason we could see an argument occurring is about who gets the best sleeping space but who cares where you sleep when you’ve drank and smoked yourself to sleep?

 

  1. For the release of the new EP you made some great mock-up posters featuring the old 'devil weed' quote. So you all like 420 in the band?

Yeah the majority of us do like a smoke. Marshall (guitar) seems to stay away as he prefers a drink but the rest of us will smoke ‘til we are bone dry and looking for more. It has a big influence on “Daylight Disease” and if you look closely at our EP you may see more than meets the eye.

 

  1. Elegies has been a band for over two years now, things are going steady and good. Any big plans in the nearby future?

We have been constantly writing and developing ourselves ready for 2016. You’ll all have to wait and see.

 

– David Marote

Earthside

Jamie van Dyck of cinematic rock band Earthside recently took the time to chat with us about the band’s upcoming debut full length “A Dream In Static”. The record has been released on CD and digitally on October 23rd, 2015, with a vinyl release to follow. Read the interview below! 

1.    Thanks for joining us today. From my understanding, Earthside came about as a progression from your previous band, Bushwhack. Can you tell the readers a bit about how Earthside was formed, and the decision to record a full-length record came about, even before you played a single show?
Jamie van Dyke: With Bushwhack we felt like we’d run our course both creatively and we felt like we hit our ceiling as far as what we could accomplish. Almost like our history was holding us back. We wanted to just start anew, I think there was a stigma attached, in Bushwhack we had just been in college the whole time and in different locations, and I think it was symbolic more than anything. Also, we felt like that name had kind of worn off on us, so Earthside felt like something we could re-define ourselves with, re-invent ourselves with and we were looking to make more ambitious music and we felt that another element of disappointment with Bushwhack was we felt that the local scene we were part of couldn’t really propel us any further than it already had, so we wanted to also take a different approach which was sort of incubated for a while so we could make the record we want, make the connections we want, the collaborations we want, work with the people we want, and build it up sort of silently and in the background, and then just appear as “Hey, we’re Earthside!”. We’ve been working on this for a while and it kind of feels like a project that’s already on the scope of a national act. You know, a label signed act and just jump on the scene right away like that. It seemed like a lot of other bands that had some success, it feels like they came out of nowhere and it made us wonder if maybe the model of just grinding the local scene isn’t the best thing for us and that the best thing we could do is really showcase our compositions and our creativity and make the record we really want and write the music we really want and then take our time with it and really hone it, and then just show up as like “Hey you’ve never heard of us, but this is what we can do.”. That was our approach.

2.    I think a lot of times the bands that do start small in the local scene and build up from there tend to get a following, but they don’t get nearly as big as the acts that just come out of nowhere – which is what you’re planning to do. Of course you’ve released two songs already of “A Dream In Static”, namely “Mob Mentality” and “The Closest I’ve Come”. If you go on YouTube, they have over 50,000 views between the two of them and the video alone for “Mob Mentality” which came out about a week and a half or two weeks ago has about 15,000 (now 25,000) views which is insane for a band when this is the second song you’ve ever put out.
JVD: We feel that way a little, yeah. We’re pretty excited about its initial launch for sure, the reception out of the gate has been really great and it obviously helps when you have a guest vocalist like Lajon from Sevendust and I’m sure there’s a decent chance your line of questioning was going to go there at some point, but having some headline worthy things in there; working with an orchestra, the dancers. I think the early adopters and the sites that cover our kind of music were really enthusiastic. Having them fully backing us right out of the gate has really helped us reach a lot of people very quickly.

3.    How do you think you can capitalize further on the success of this video and who you’ve been working with to create this masterpiece?
JVD: Well first of all, thank you (laughs). Second of all, oh man, how would I capitalize on it? I think it depends on what you mean, right now obviously we’re doing it to propel us into the album release and with the album there will be more people involved and that will help; the other vocalists and other collaborations and other songs that can also go to work for us. As far as this video and this song, I think it really shows the breadth of what we can do and that we’re really, really ambitions and that we like reaching out and collaborating across disciplines, across genres. That way, I think it sets us up to do whatever we want in the future, creatively, which is very important to me. I don’t want to be a band that’s pigeonholed as “they do this.” A lot of bands have a sound and I don’t know if we even have a sound, somebody could say that’s a weakness, but we have an ethos. We have something about us that says we’re this creative enterprise that goes where our hearts and our ears want us to go, and we’ll do whatever it is that we feel musically turned on by. I think “Mob Mentality” sets us up to either go in a more film score direction, to continue to collaborate. This time it was with dancers, who knows what other visual artists we might collaborate with, Maybe we score a film at some point, maybe we go in a more classical direction, maybe we go in a more traditional rock direction, but we’ve laid the groundwork where any direction at any moment is possible and I think we like having that artistic freedom.

4.    You describe yourselves as cinematic rock, is that part of the film score idea, or something different?
JVD: It’s at least an acknowledgement that our music naturally would fit in that realm in a sense that it’s highly emotional and dynamic. Therefore I feel like we have the tools to paint an emotional arc or tell a story with our music. The difference between scoring a film and writing these pieces is our music comes first in these cases, so we can tell whatever story we want with our music and then any visuals that come around it are basically sound tracking us. I think by showing at the same time the whole palette that we have, the colour palette of sound and dynamic and emotion that we have available to us, it does mean that the inverse process is possible too where somebody comes to us with something, whether it be a film or some other visual art or non-visual art, and we can then take our music and be inspired specifically by whatever object or enterprise or project it is and map our music onto that. Kind of react to what we’re seeing or feeling based on that.

5.    If you scored a movie in the past, which do you think it would have been, or which would you have preferred?
JVD: It depends on if it was me scoring it by myself or Earthside as a whole with our rock band instrumentation. I’m trying to think of my favourite movies, what would we have been appropriate for. Doing the first Matrix movie would have been sweet, but the soundtrack that already exists for it is also sweet. Or like Memento, or something like that; something that has the action but also the psychological aspects. I think that combination, where it’s a psychological thriller aspect, that genre would be a good fit for us where there’s intensity but also a cerebral aspect to it.

6.    I think Memento would be a great choice, especially how it all plays out since it’s a huge mental time-warp basically.
JVD: We would musically want get in on the mindfuck, so to speak [laughs].

7.    Can you give us a quick description of the musical experience of each member of the band?
JVD: Frank, Ben, and I were the original three so I’ll start with us. Frank and I grew up together, so a lot of our upbringing musically was through each other. He and I both took lessons at Suzuki, he actually started on violin and I started on piano, and then he moved to piano and very quickly got better than I did and I moved to guitar [laughs]. We were in bands together ever since we were, like, 10 or 11. He went to college at Berklee College of Music for a year and a half before feeling like it wasn’t the right fit for him, but I’m sure he got a lot out of that year and a half. He moved on to Hampshire where he explored music on more his own terms. Hampshire College is a more laissez-faire style school as far as letting you have a lot of academic freedom.I did music at Yale, where the music department had very much a 20th century classical feel to it as far as the composers they would expose you to like Ligeti, or John Cage, George Crumb, composers like that. I’d never been exposed to that, and at first I kind of resisted it because I felt like they really didn’t respect the rock music that I was really obsessed with, and I felt like the rock music I liked was as high brow because it was Porcupine Tree and Radiohead, stuff like that. I felt like they were still not fully respecting it so it was kind of a push and pull. Actually, “Mob Mentality” came out of that experience of them finally acquiescing to let me do rock projects and me saying “Well if I can do a ten-minute full orchestration, maybe you’ll take it seriously.”. This project actually came out of wanting to prove to Yale professors that rock music could be more cerebral than they were giving it credit for. By that time I think they had come around and I’d come around that they just wanted what was best for me and wanted me to see what I could gain from learning about that music and I was not insecure anymore about how they felt about my music, so I was more open to it. That was a little detour there from your question, but it was the story of how “Mob Mentality” started, it was my senior thesis, so it was worth nothing. Ben, at age three, he was in a day-care and he got kicked out of the day-care because they thought he was so disruptive and ADHD. He just kept banging on things and they were just like “this kid’s maybe like violent, he’s got anger issues, definitely ADHD, we don’t know he hasn’t hit anybody but he just keeps bashing things, and we’re just like afraid to have him around the other kids.” So Ben’s parents were very concerned, they took him to his paediatrician, who actually happened to be my paediatrician growing up too, who I also adored. The paediatrician talked to Ben about it, and observed him, and talked to Ben’s parents about it. I believe the story goes, the paediatrician said to the parents “Well, I have some very concerning news,” I don’t know if those were the exact words, very serious news and they’re really terrified “Oh god what is it?” “Your son is a drummer. You’re going to need to buy him a drum set, you’re going to need to wall off a part of your house or a room in your house, soundproof it as much as you can, get him drum lessons, yeah he’s afflicted and it’s bad.” Sure enough, the paediatrician was right because now Ben is a phenomenal, phenomenal drummer. Not a super violent angry person at all, he just likes to hit things in rhythm, and hard. So it’s funny our paediatrician when Ben was like three or four was able to nail him that well.

Ryan is four years younger than me, and three years younger than Ben and Frank, and we only met him in the last five years, so his upbringing we know a little less about. He’s a multi-instrumentalist and plays probably an instrument in any string family you can come up with. He just finished recently at Hart School of Music, University of Hartford’s music conservatory; I believe it was a music technology program.I should say about Ben, for most of his life he’s been just a drummer, but one change from Bushwhack to Earthside is Ben has been much more involved in the creative process and learning about music outside of just rhythm and meter, getting more into harmony, melody, timbre and composition. It’ all hands on deck now in the compositional process now, which is awesome.

8.    Thank you for giving us that insight into each of your lives.
JVD: I think I gave you more than 30 seconds, but oh well.

9.    That’s totally fine, I think the story about Ben will be big a hit… No pun intended.
JVD: (laughs) Oh yeah, I was going to say! Right on.

10.    Thank you so much. The record drops on October 23rd, and it’s called “A Dream In Static”.
JVD: We hope you all love it, we certainly do. It’s an up-and-down journey, so we’re going to take you for a rollercoaster ride of emotions when you check it out. If you have an hour to immerse yourself, we ask that you please do. Let yourself be emotionally vulnerable to the ride we want to take you on. Thank you so much for having me on, James.

 

– James Cross

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

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

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

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