alexrflores-blog

[alexrflores-blog]

Photo credits to Callum Jupp

INTERVIEW WITH BOSTON MANOR: “WE’RE GONNA GO DEATHCORE!”

Boston Manor recently released their latest album, ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’and I interviewed Jordan Pugh before their show in Birmingham at Mama Roux. We talked about this tour, their change in sound, and what's to come next!

Last night you played your biggest headline show to date, how did it feel?Really good; I’m in shock to be honest. I was saying to the guys that it’s the first time it felt like we were a proper headline band in terms of lighting, production, and set up. Everything looked all pro and the amount of people that came to the show was insane.

Considering it was the biggest headline show you’ve played, how was the crowd compared to other recent shows? The room we’re playing today is quite small and intimate so it’s rowdier in that sense because everyone’s crowded. You still have the front third of the crowd that are rowdy, just a bit bigger so the response was really good.

Are there any other intimate shows on this tour or is Birmingham [a venue with the capacity of 200] a one off? I don’t know if you’ve been to Leeds, but Key Club is tiny. The stage is literally just a box in the corner, that’s it. That’s going to be a mental one because nobody can really crowdsurf and if they do, they’re going to knock the mic stands over

Obviously smaller shows have a different vibe to them, but how come you decided to do this rather than sticking to venues as big as Electric Ballroom? We wanted to obviously sell them out and if it came to an overwhelming amount, we can always upgrade. We’d rather start off small and then upgrade if we need to.

Moving on to your latest album, ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’, how was the reaction to that compared to ‘Be Nothing.’ and your EPs? We were kind of up in the air with the reaction because it was quite a dramatic jump from ‘Be Nothing.’, so when the singles came out the reaction was great. We just hoped that the album would follow through. The first track is quite hip-hop-y so we didn’t know if we were going to shock our fans and have them think, “have they just gone hip-hop now?” So we did that and took the risk. Luckily, quite a lot of people have been quite positive in terms of all that. 

How long ago did you realise that you wanted to do something completely different to your previous music? We’ve always wanted to stray away from the pop-punk label but it’s more of a gradual thing; you can’t just do it overnight so we had to do it over the course. I’d say ‘Be Nothing.’ into this is the biggest jump. 

Since that was the biggest change, how did the writing, recording and producing process compare between the two albums? We wrote all the songs quite beforehand and developed them more with Mike Sapone in a sense that we already had the basic skeleton for what way we wanted. We knew that Mike is quite a rock producer, Taking Back Sunday and Brand New, so we knew he’d bring something to the table which would make it that little bit different and stand out to ‘Be Nothing’. We had all the songs there, he just developed, evolved, and moulded them into better rock songs. 

So what type of sound do you think is going to come after this album? Are you going to stick with this sound or change to something different? We’re gonna go DEATHCORE! hahahaha, completely different!

Haha, go for it! Then go from deathcore to jazz. Yeah well, we don’t really know yet. We want to change it up a little bit but for the most part I’d say it would be quite similar in a sense. It will be more of a subtle change, but it’ll still be different.

So more similar to the contrast between ‘Driftwood’ and ‘Saudade’ rather than ‘Be Nothing.’ to ‘Welcome To The Neighbourhood’ Yeah, because we feel like we’re on a really good path with what kind of sound so we don’t really need to change it that much but we probably will anyway.

Of course, I’m assuming you’ll probably get to the same point you were at with your pop-punk music; where you enjoyed it at the time but eventually you ended up wanting to do something different. Yeah, there was that whole pop-punk revival thing that came through, and music tastes change and develop so all of us listen to completely different music now. Otherwise, everyone will bring out the same record. We have to stand out of the crowd in one way or another.

This album has a very strong “branding” and aesthetic to tie it all together. How did that idea come about? Well we knew the songs were quite moody anyway, so we wanted to build it around that aesthetic and base it around our hometown. We always had the idea that we wanted to have a really old good-looking car and we managed to find the guy that owned one and we did the photo shoot at… 3 in the morning? It was at some random industrial state in Bristol I think, with Josh Halling. We we were taking different angles with smoke and we were all freezing our tits off. It took about 2 hours, I think, to get everything. It was worth it in the end and we got what we wanted. We wanted to tie that branding and have a distinct look so as soon as someone sees that kind of car, they think of the album. We knew we could link it with music videos with the whole colour scheme (black and red) which gives off the moody/ danger-y vibe and that’s what we were trying to go for.

[alexrflores-blog]

INTERVIEW WITH BROADSIDE - “WE’RE GOOFY GUYS BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY, WE’RE ALSO WEIRD DEEP ARTSY GUYS.”

Last night in London, Broadside had their first headline show and it sold out. I interviewed them before their show about their recent album, “Paradise”, projects outside of the band (including Dorian announcing something) and, comparing their band to McDonald's and sour cake.

So today is the beginning of your first UK headliner, how are you feeling?Ollie: I’m excited, it’s going to be a good time, a nice sweaty time. Dorian: Tonight is sold out which is cool and tomorrow night is apparently sold out too which is really neat. It’s kind of cool that we did a smaller venue just because the intimate setting and being able to have a room packed and have the energy up the whole time is really sick.

Yeah, today is quite a small venue but are there any other places in the UK you want to headline that are bigger? Pat: I want to headline The Underworld Ollie: Yeah I want to sell it out The Underworld is definitely one of those venue that everyone loves Ollie: It’s not too posh and it’s real as well. It’s just a really well-rounded place. Pat: It’s just shitty enough to not make it the high end of shitty Dorian: Exactly, the perfect amount of shitty. It’s in a nice location too. True, since it’s in the middle of Camden. It's close to Temple Of Seitan too which is always great. Pat: Oh yeah, now that’s there too! Ollie: Oooooohh baby, I love food. And cyber dog is wild.Dorian: How do I get a job a dancing? Ollie: You don’t even paint your finger nails black you’re definitely not getting the job there.Dorian: Oh man!

Last week was your first time playing Slam Dunk, how did that go? Pat: It was an experience. We’ve played warped tour before and a bunch of festivals but this was another level Dorian: The same thing that happen to us during the first time we played warped tour happened to us at slam dunk but just a lot more. We expected maybe 40 people to sing a word or three and then a sea of people were there and we were just like “Why are you here? State Champs are on in 20 minutes, seriously, what are you doing here?” Ollie: I paid them all to be there. Nobody’s a fan of music, people get payed to show up. Trust me. Dorian: That’s right, going to concerts is their job.Is that all bands or just you guys because nobody likes your music? Pat: It’s true for us at least Ollie: Just the best bands. I can’t speak for anyone other than us and Marilyn Manson but that’s the case for both of us.When are you paying me for being at your gigs then? Dorian: We already paid you, what are you talking about?

How was Slam Dunk comparable to playing Warped Tour two years ago? Did you pay people to go to your sets there too? Dorian: Well now I’m curious as to how warped tour is going to go because Slam Dunk is going to be hard to beat. That was absolutely insanity. So, I think as of now, as far as festivals go that’s been the best. Pat: It will be easier to compare once we do Warped this year because we’ve grown in the two years it’s been since we’ve done Warped so it will be interesting to see how it goes after this. Moving on to talking about your album “Paradise”, there was a theme in the lyrics about perseverance. Was that something you had in mind before you started writing? Ollie: With this album we wanted to write a poppy and uplifting sounding album but put some serious songs in there too. That’s just how Broadside is. We’re goofy guys but at the end of the day we’re also weird deep artsy guys. So we were just trying to put both efforts into that and we wanted to write an album for the people who care about us and that would directly relate to them. Obviously not everyone’s in a band and not everyone’s saying shit that people want to hear. They’re just saying things that are safe so we wanted to write an album that sonically is fun but if people want to dive past that, there’s substance there. Pat: Also, I think the poppy aspect of it will make it easier for people to listen to but the more they do, they’ll be like “Oh I’ll read the lyrics instead of just listening without paying attention” Dorian: It’s a trick. Like cake that’s sour on the inside. Ollie: We’re like McDonalds. It’s red and you’re like “OH MCDONALDS!” but then you feel miserable after. That’s what we are. Pat: What???I think that’s just you Ollie. Dorian: Yeah, you’re happy when you’re eating it but then sad when you’re done. Ollie: Yeah see, he gets it. Read a book Pat.

The last song on Paradise, “I Love You, I Love you. It’s Disgusting”, is completely different to anything else you’ve released. How did that come about? Ollie: I like cute stuff, I like couples I love romance I like the beach, and I had a ukulele lying around my apartment. I’ve always wanted to write a love song and I thought it would be cute to have a sort of beachy love song. People find elements of our music as “their” love songs but I Love You is a true love song in its purity. It’s just a straight up “hey man I’m in love and I’m feeling good” which is also the type of song that people end up regretting later. I listen to a lot of my favourite bands who say, “yeah I wrote this song about my ex-wife and now im fucking miserable and everyone loves it”. But you know what? “I Love You I Love You. It’s Disgusting” is CUTE… for now. Dorian: That was a lot of fun to write and it was cool because it was outside of our element because we always stick to guitars and “vroom vroom” noises so it was cool to slow down and mess with new chords and ideas.

Do you think you’ll have more songs like that on next album like that, or stick to you “vroom vroom” sound? Ollie: That’s a good question. I think we’re still trying to figure that out. Dorian: It will change the second we start writing. We love different styles and sounds every five seconds so we’ll see where we end up. Although, the new stuff we’re doing is also outside of our comfort zone a little bit and we’re excited about that.

Ollie has his solo project, Baxxter, and also writes outside of the band. Dorian and Pat, do you think you’ll end up doing something separate too or will you concentrate on Broadside? Pat: I’m going to put all my efforts into broadside because I’m not creative enough to think of anything else. Dorian: that’s not true. You came up with a smart way to hang the banner up just now.

You can be a professional banner hanger! Pat: …but that would be for the band. Dorian: This is also for the band, but you do have creative ways to wrangle everyone’s thoughts and say “hey guys, here’s a simple solution”. We’re all like “hey we should do this” “we should go here” “let’s go visit the Eiffel Tower” and Pat’s like “hey, here’s a list of things we’ll do. Pick.” Ollie: I can always count on Pat when I’m hungry and I’m like “Pat, tell them we need to eat”. And he’s like “HEY we need to go fucking eat. It’s feeding time, Ollie’s a baby”. Pat’s really funny too. So what I’m getting here is that you can be a personal assistant and a comedian. Pat: Yeah so no, I don’t think I’ll do anything else. Dorian: Well actually, I’m the vocalist of another band now. It’s with a bunch of friends because they ran into a situation, so I said I’d fill in and it ended up pretty cool. We’re dropping a single in three days

Oh really? What genre will that be? Dorian: it’s pretty, pop-punk stuff. Pat: I think it sounds like All Time Low Dorian: Does it? It sounds like all time low then, Sweet. But yeah, it’s cinematic stuff and it’s cool because when we started working with those guys it opened everyone’s mind into different directions because it provides different perspectives on areas that we can take this band as well. Like with Ollie’s solo stuff, we’ve started incorporating ideas from that into this band to experiment and become better creatives.So now Pat can hang banners for your band too. Maybe you can have Broadside headline with Baxxter and Dorian’s new band as support acts. 

Ollie: Honestly that’s not a bad idea, we’ll have a lot of fun but we’ll just be really tired. Pat: I’ll tell you what, you guys can open and I’ll do a comedy set, and THEN broadside. Yeah fuck every other band. Ollie: Yeah it will just be us, we can kick out the rest of the band because they’re irrelevant. Pat: No, Jeff can do sound and Dom will do merch. Dorian: Jeff can do sound and pyro for your comedy set. So other than your comedy tour, what’s happening after you leave the UK?Dorian: We’re going to do some writing so we’re pretty excited about that and then we have warped tour coming up. Very stoked about that. We have something lined up for the fall so we’ll see how that goes and then we’ll hit up the studio. I’m looking forward to that! Are there any last words you want to say quickly?Ollie: Make our band famous. Pat: If anyone knows how to equate people in a crowd to merch sold, let us know. Hit us up in the comments below but on a serious note, thank you for all the support. Ollie: sorry for joking so much but at the same time, it’s much better to joke than to cry. Dorian: I’ll also like to specifically thank London for being the first show we’ve ever headlined. We’ve never headlined a tour before which is crazy to think about, but we sold out our favourite city on planet earth so thank you for all the love and support.

[alexrflores-blog]

INTERVIEW WITH ROAM - "WE'RE THE YELLOW BAND!"

Roam, a pop-punk band from Eastbourne have recently released their second album, Great Heights and Nose Dives. They went on an intimate tour this month to differ from their usual larger capacities, giving these shows a sweatier feeling. I interviewed them before their Milton Keynes show and we discussed topics including the album art for GHAND, being known as "THE YELLOW BAND", and even album three! This is quite an intimate tour, what made you want to focus on smaller venues rather than doing shows as big as you can? Sam: Well first of all, we're playing some places we didn't play on the last headliner tour. We've been to Bournemouth for the first time and Milton Keynes which we haven’t been to much, so we thought we'd try it out and do some smaller, sweaty, fun shows. Miles: kinda made sense really, I think we'd rather play packed out smaller sweaty shows than do a bigger room and maybe get 50 to 100 more people in but there be more empty space if that makes sense.  Sam: we thought we'd give it a go and that's what it's all about. It’s been amazing so far and we’ve really enjoyed it. 

So other than how sweaty and packed it is on these shows, what other differences are there between the more intimate shows and your regular gigs? Sam: Not a whole load of difference really. I feel like because it's a smaller tour, there's more of a chance to play some songs we don't normally play like ‘home’, and ‘while the world keeps spinning’ for the first time. We thought we'd give it a go and it's been really fun. Apart from that, there's not really a huge difference, just the same-old. Miles: There’s less pressure going into it, being more like 'let's have fun'. Are you planning on doing larger shows with this album or are you planning on this being the end of it? Miles: our aim for this album really was to just headline more. On backbone we did a LOT of support tours which were obviously good but we feel like now is the time we want to prove ourselves as our own thing, and have people care about us for being us rather than just the band they stand through five times a year. I think we’re achieving that since we only headlined the UK once on backbone and we've already headlined twice on this album. Yeah, being your own band rather than just support.

There's quite a big difference between backbone and GHAND. So when you finished this one, were there any difference in how you felt about the album it in contrast?Sam: That's really difficult actually because you do get caught up in the moment. When we released backbone, at the time we thought 'that's the best thing we've done' and then obviously we've grown since then as musicians so with Playing Fiction- we're then like 'oh this is the best thing we've done'. We knew straight away since we finished it (GHAN) that this was our favourite thing we've done. We're SUPER proud of it. Miles: I think being in a band is one big learning curve as well. Of course, most bands will improve over time Miles: Even with stuff like the writing process, I know going into album 2 everyone was like 'we've made some mistakes or done some things that weren't necessary', so we learnt a lot of lessons going forward. We've even done the same now, we've been having preliminary discussions about album 3 and we're like 'what are we gonna do differently that we like'. We've learnt from what didn't work but that's more to do with the writing process. It's just one of those big learning curves. There's no set formula and we're still a young band discovering who we are as well. I think we all felt very positive about GHAN. We worked with the exact producer we wanted to work with and he made it sound killer so I think we will always be very proud of that. Other than having more fans since the release of Backbone, how has the reaction to the release of this album been different? Miles: We kept the people that have been with the band from the start happy but we also appeal to a bunch of new people who would've listened to the first album and been like 'ah it's cool but it's not really my thing'. If you look on YouTube, when we released the first two singles, there were a lot of people that were like 'I didn't care about this band before but now I do' and I really respect people for saying that. Shitting on people on the internet isn't cool but if people are like 'yo I didn't like your band before but I've given you another chance and I really like this new stuff' then that's really good.

Yeah, and it shows that everyone can see how much you've improved over time. Miles: Yeah, and the people that liked Backbone are still on board with the new stuff so it's good to keep everyone happy but also bring in new people.  

On another note, the album cover for this is the cactus and the balloon. What was the inspiration behind that? How much input did YOU have into it? Miles: God, this is racking my brain now Sam: The idea of a cactus and balloon is kind of like the great height and the nosedive. Something can be almost fragile and on the edge of going wrong very easily. Miles: It was actually Fraser Taylor from a band called Young Guns. We told him what the album's about, the highs and lows and making the best of every situation, and he pitched a few ideas which was nice cause none of us are arty people (I mean, Alex draws but that's a recent thing for him). It was cool to go to someone and be like 'this is what the album's about and this is what we're trying to portray. What's your take on it?'. Fraser said the cactus, balloon, and a strong colour scheme. He had fun with it and that's how it turned out! Miles: I think one thing we're becoming more conscious of is making sure all of our merch ties in with that so that people see it as a bigger picture.

So you essentially want those colours and items to be your brand. Miles: Yeah, currently the Roam brand is red, yellow, a cactus, and a balloon. We feel like that's our thing and I don't think we had that at all on backbone. Our stage setup is completely yellow and it's got the album name which means that when do a support tour people KNOW who we are, we're THE YELLOW BAND!

Do you have any plans for the future that you can say? Sam: we're gonna do some more headliners.  Miles: A headline overseas I think. I still think we have a lot of life left in this album, but we've been preliminarily discussing album 3 since we don't want it to get really close to when we're due to record and then panic and force out ideas. It'll be better to have stuff under our belt that's occurred naturally. But like Sam says, headlining other places, playing overseas, and writing! 

Do you already know when you're gonna start producing your next album? Or is that something you'll figure out in the future? Miles: Not really, but it's better to think about it sooner rather than later so that the songs are produced because we were feeling it and not as meeting a deadline and a stress thing. Are there any last things you wanna add? Miles: Not really, just check our band out! Sam: Come to a show, do a mosh, come see the yellow band. Miles: Get on board with the yellow.

[alexrflores-blog]

Photo credits: lena_v29 on Instagram

INTERVIEW WITH HOMEBOUND - "THESE ARE THE MOST PERSONAL SONGS I’VE WRITTEN, LYRIC-WISE"

Homebound are making huge milestones in their career. Following the release of their EP "More To Me Than Misery", the pop-punk band from Farnham have (finally) gone on their first headline tour. In contrast to all the support tours they've done recently, they definitely had a slightly longer set list this time which gave them time to be more creative with their performance. It was their time to show their talents more than before as this is their first step in becoming their own band rather than just a support act. This was THEIR show. Everyone who spent the night at Thousand Island was there to see them, rather than another headline band and only stood through their set because they arrived at the venue early. A longer set not only meant that they had enough time to play every song from their last two EPs, but it also meant the audience had more time to open up pits the size of a third of the venue, be dripping in sweat, and lose their voices singing along to all the new songs. The only downside to the gig was the fact that there was not a single crowd surfer or stage diver. At a venue without a barrier and after having numerous people on top of me at all their support sets, it was quite a surprise. However, that didn't stop it from being a gig that will remain engraved on the audience's mind for a while. Most people had high expectations on how Homebound will be as a headline act and they certainly didn't disappoint. Before their I had the chance to speak to Charlie, lead singer, about their tour, EP title, and their change in sound.

This is your first headliner, how is it feeling so far? It’s been good! Every night we’ve been surprised in a good way. We had no expectations of what to expect and we’ve always felt quite nervous about doing it. We’ve done a lot of support tours and it’s good to know they haven’t gone to waste because a lot of people come to these shows and have said “I saw you when you supported trash boat” “I saw you on this and on that”.

Even myself, I’ve seen you support so many times, it’s cool seeing you finally headline. That’s the biggest request. They can only see so many songs when we support so it’s been nice on this headline tour to do a bit more than we usually do. We’re kind of improving now so it feels good; It feels like we’re starting to mould into more of a headline band.

You recently played this venue with Broadside, what are you expecting to be different tonight? That show was really good, we’re hoping it will be much the same. When we played that show we knew we would be headlining it later so for us it was a bit of a warm up I suppose. We know there’s going to be a lot of familiar faces from that show coming to this one. We were excited by this; we like the venue, it’s a cool room, and we’ve always had good experiences when we’ve played here but yeah it should be a good one.

Are there any other venues you’ve supported that you want to headline in the future? Oooh, I don’t know. We’ve played some cool venues so far. The key club is really cool, quite a well known venue and we’ve played loads of shows there so it’s cool to headline that one. I’m not too worried about the headline aspect, it’s just cool to have played certain venues. People have been anticipating and wanting it so it feels good to finally be able to do one.

How come you didn’t do a home town show in Kingston for this tour? Even Kingston isn’t really our hometown. We’re from Farnham which is near Gildford. We’ve always considered London to be our hometown show because there isn’t really a scene there for us to actually play a show. I’d be surprised if anyone turned up really. How has the reaction been from the audience when you perform the new songs? Really good, we were slightly apprehensive at first; we weren’t sure what to expect. With the slightly different direction with the sound, we weren’t sure how people would necessarily take it because we’ve always been plastered into that pop punk mould. Which is fine, that’s what we’ve always been but this time we wanted to try and do something different, try and find our own sound, which led to the darker and heavier side on the record. It’s quite raw, and I think that does come across. I think it shocked some people when we put out our first single, but I think for the most part, most people like the slight change in sound. So far so good, on the three shows we’ve already played there’s been loads of people singing along to the new stuff. How were you feeling before the release? Were you just scared about the reaction to the different sound? I wasn’t scared, I don’t think. At the end of the day we wrote the music first and foremost for us and it’s what we wanted to do and that doesn’t change whether or not people liked it or not. So many bands feel like they have to tick certain boxes, or do certain things in order to fit in a demographic but I suppose we wrote everything for ourselves and we like that and we just sort of did that for ourselves. I mean you’re always nervous when you release a record, no matter what it is. It’s a mixture of feelings; it’s more of a nervous excitement if anything. But it’s really nice for the songs to finally be out there. Especially for me, these are the most personal songs I’ve written, lyric-wise.

Are there any specific songs that are the most personal? All of them. This EP dwells into some of the darkest feelings I’ve had and they all sort of surround themselves in issues that people have. Whether it’s relationships, life ambitions, or how you find yourself in a bit of a dark space. It feels good to have it finally out there because I use these songs as a way to get it out on paper, as a way of releasing that so it’s a cathartic experience. It’s a way of expression and that’s what it is for most people and that’s why a lot of us do it so it’s understandable that’s what most people get out of it.

"More To Me Than Misery" is quite a long EP title, and so was the title of your last EP. Was this deliberate or just a coincidence? Not really, some people find it difficult to name titles and they overthink naming titles. It was just one we were talking about and I think it just fits. It wasn't really a debate whether it was too long or too short, it was just a good summary of what I wanted the EP to express. It comes from one of the lyrics but I twisted the name in order to make it sound like a positive thing because the lyric is "nothing more to me than misery".

Getting rid of that single word changes a lot. I did it on purpose really because I wanted the EP as a whole to represent the fact that the experience has sort of helped in the sense that having experienced these things there is more to me than misery and it just rolled off the tongue quite nicely.

Maybe it's a bit too early to ask this but three EPs now, do you think next will be another EP or is there a chance of there being an album? At the time when we were thinking about what we'll do for new music, we felt we needed to do another EP again. For a lot of people, the last EP was the first they've heard from our band and we didn't feel like people were necessarily ready to get a full length record from us so we felt like we needed another EP then hopefully to push on to a full length.

So you'll see where this one takes you and then you'll figure it out. Exactly and also, it was a nice way to introduce the change in sound and what people might expect from us in the future.

Do you think you'll stick to that sound rather than a more typical pop-punk sound? I think so. Nobody ever wants to write the same record twice either. We always want to progress but we will see what happens.