Q: Hey, can you tell us a bit about where you come from, and what made you want to start a career in music?
A: Oxford! Love the place – I grew up there, and saw the 90s live scene evolve into what it was, with Supergrass, Radiohead, and Rise all blossoming into the airwaves. On the other hand, it’s been sad to watch it devolve, but a few places still hold it together. My mum, who is a saxophonist, would take me to all the gigs and a lot of the rehearsals she’d been in bands with in that era in Oxford and around the UK! I got to see a lot of it evolve. The older I got, the more I was drawn to writing my own music and invested in an Akai S2000 sampler, making a range of different ideas. But in 1999 I had meningitis B and lost my memory, so until 2016 when I kick-started my music again, I was very distant from the world of music, and it was frankly depressing. I wrote our previous album, Child Of Dirt, on that experience and the difficult childhood I had, and then we moved onto this album to get the band all working together. It’s been such a good experience!
Q: And what other artists have you found yourself listening to lately?
A: Lately it’s been all post punk material, along with dark wave and gothic. Some of the more recent stuff has been Tool, and I’m currently checking out Black Midi.
Q: Who were your first and strongest musical influences?
A: For me, it has to be the classics, from Beatles and Bowie through to Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, but also what I grew up on with The Cure, Smiths, Joy Division, Kate Bush, Depeche Mode
Q: You have just released your new album ‘Birds Aren’t Real’. Is there a story behind it?
A: Isn’t it obvious? Birds are clearly a ploy created by the government, made entirely of cybernetic organisms set out to monitor our every movement! Birds Aren’t Real, as a song, explores the viewpoint of an alternative truth that a person might latch onto, with a Spanish affinity for no good reason other than we liked it, and a sudden punk throwback for the chorus.
Q: What is the message behind your music?
A: After spending 5 years writing the epic life story album that was “Child Of Dirt”, we needed to write something from scratch that was a lens on the world, this time on “alt thought”, a spin on the mesh of madness spread across the world in war, propaganda, lies, slander, hate, denial, and conspiracy. We wrote 3 songs around this along with 2 more on a perspective on the suicide of someone close, and the experiences of growing up in school with a mind that isn’t compatible. This became the album: “Birds Aren’t Real”.
Q: What do you feel are the key elements in your music that should resonate with listeners, and how would you personally describe your sound?
A: We did some work to give it a late 70s/early 80s sound like with Killing Joke, in order to give it some authenticity. Our sound is quite journey-oriented, and is there for listening as well as picking up some upbeat vibes here and there. I don’t see us staying still with that in particular though!
Q: Do you feel that your music is giving you back just as much fulfillment as the amount of work you are putting into it, or are you expecting something more?
A: We’re definitely going away glad we did it, but it only entices us to write more and see where else we can take it. We’re satisfied, but that’s always going to be temporary when we’re writing music that’s a sort of lens on the world, I’m finding.
Q: Could you describe your creative processes? How do you usually start, and go about shaping ideas into a completed song?
A: Currently I’m finding that we get a few ideas for sounds, and with the topics that I come up with, I tend to find a way to make them fit in. Lyrics are melded by the music, but the bullet points are often found first. We have found ourselves writing music that inspires me to think of a direction for a song, too. That’s been a lot of fun.
Q: What has been the most difficult thing you’ve had to endure in your life or music career so far?
A: In my life, it’s been working through addiction problems after abuse I went through in childhood along with losing my memory from meningitis at 17, but lately it’s also bee helping my kids work through the things that school life throws at them. In music, there’s been all sorts with us, from losing band members over falling out on issues outside of the band, to creative disagreements and concerns on pace, but otherwise we’re definitely enjoying what we do together as part of the experience.
Q: On the contrary, what would you consider a successful, proud or significant point in your life or music career so far?
A: Proudest moment, musically, has been accomplishing these 2 albums together and still remaining fairly intact! Proudest moments for me personally would be becoming a dad, connecting with my children, marrying my wife, Sara, and helping fellow sufferers of abuse along the way. I don’t like to compare any of it though, it’s just good to be living in the moment.
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