INTERVIEW BY UK METAL UNDERGROUND
http://www.ukmetalunderground.com/index.php?topic=4471.0
Hi guys, first things first – tell us a little about how long you’ve all known each other? How did you meet?
Mark – Ah, it all seems so long ago! I’ve known Dave since he moved to London from Wales years back. I needed a guitarist to play on a studio project I was working on which became Soul Destruction, so I asked him if he’d like to get involved.
Simon - I was promoting gigs at a great little venue in Hampshire called 'The Tumbledown Dick' and Dave approached me about booking his band at the time, Breed Apart. I distinctly remember thinking 'this bloke's way too pushy..!' hahaha!! We got chatting tho, and I told him I was a lonely drummer in search of a decent band. He went home and got a really dodgy sounding CD of something he was working on called Soul Destruction, who were looking for a live drummer.
Mark – As oppose to dead one?! Yeah, so Dave asked Si to come down for a jam and seeing as he was the only drummer we could find who could play to a click track, we asked him to join!
How has your music evolved since you first began playing music together?
Mark – I suppose the biggest way it’s evolved is that it’s much more of a band effort now and the writing process is thrashed out in the rehearsal room rather than by me and a computer, as it was in the early days!
Dave - It’s got heavier, probably more riffy but still retains the essential elements that are Soul Destruction like the loops, background effects etc.
Tell me about where you grew up. How did it affect the music you went on to make and what were the first bands you ever played in?
Simon - I grew up (or maybe just got older) in what's basically just a fucking field. An incestious little shithole with only three surnames in a 10 mile radius. I didn't even pick up a pair of drumsticks until I was eighteen, and my first few attempts at bands were embarrassing. I think it's fucking amazing that young people now have so much to be influenced by and are picking up instruments at such an early age - I've been blown away by bands who I’ve not legally been able to buy a beer for!
Dave - I grew up in East Anglia before moving to Wales when I was 12. Up to this date all I had listened to was classical music and was fairly dismissive of any other form of music. I guess that was because I am a ‘cellist and both my parents were huge fans of classical music. Anyway, when I moved to Wales I met a chap called Chris Dale (Bruce Dickinson and Sack Trick). We became best friends and still are. He leant me a tape of KISS Alive II and I was blown away. I promptly went out and brought as much metal as I could. Chris and I played in a school band called MACH 4 and later in a dodgy thrash band called Black Orkhyd!
Mark – I grew up in SW London and I guess the first band I played in that got any kind of recognition was a band called Sanctum. That was in the late nineties and we toured incessantly and played some awesome gigs. I guess that made me realize how much fun it can be to make music with some of your best friends and that’s the most important thing: to make the music you love with the people you respect and it doesn’t matter what anyone else thinks.
Do you find the current sad state of the UK, and on a global scale with the recent financial collapse, an inspiration for music/lyrics?
Mark – I don’t think that the financial crisis itself is an inspiration for music so much as the general stupidity that got us here in the first place. We have a leader who was never elected and basically spent ten years itching to move next door only to find it all falling apart when he got there because of his own reckless policies as a chancellor. The way the government continues to act is both stupid and irresponsible and will probably lead to more problems. So I guess the political side of the financial crisis is the more interesting and is the thing that makes me angry; and politics and kicking against those who govern have always provided inspiration for great music.
So what’s your approach to songwriting. How does the creative process work? Who writes the music?
Mark – The music is generally a band effort, one of us will have an idea and we’ll just jam out different beats and ideas and build the song up piece by piece. Simon is great at coming up with beats that can just take the song in a completely different direction. Once we’ve got the main parts of the song I’ll write some lyrics and vocal parts and then we’ll work out the arrangements in rehearsals. Then Dave and I will get together and work on any string parts or background loops and effects etc.
Your new album “There is No Profit in Truth” has just been released. What kind of reaction has it been getting?
Dave - Everyone that has heard it has been blown away. I’m really proud of it and of us as a band. It’s great when you see people in the audience singing along.
Mark – Well, it’s early days, the album has only just come out but we’ve had some great reviews and some really cool things are being said about it.
Are you satisfied with the finished result and would you change anything if you could?
Mark – This album was SUCH a labour of love. We had so many setbacks and problems during the recording of this album that it never looked like seeing the light of day…. I’m really happy with the way it turned out in the end but would I change anything? Yeah, I would have just stuck some mics around in our rehearsal room and let us play the songs back to back and call it a rap! In fact, I think that’s how we are gonna record the next album: 1950’s stylee!
Dave - Yes I would change the penultimate note that I play in Spiral! No nothing.
You’ve had great reviews for the album so far – so what are the essential elements you need to make a great metal record?
Mark - Hmmm… It’s attitude. It’s that intangible thing that makes the hair on your neck stand up or gives you that excitement that makes you want to release pent up energy…. It’s that moment like when Corey Taylor screams ‘here we go again motherfuckers’ at the beginning of people=shit and you just know it’s gonna kick off. It can be a guitar riff, a drum beat, a vocal hook. Metal is the music of excitement and energy and a great metal record has to evoke those feelings.
Dave - Good solid riffs, great lyrics that mean something, power, passion and creativity. Oh and it must be played loud!
Do you think being on an independent label gives you more creative freedom?
Mark – Absolutely! ubR have been awesome and have never tried to take us in any direction or to dictate to us in any way. That goes for the music and for other things like artwork. Their philosophy is really one that we are the musicians and we should have the freedom to create the music. I guess they wouldn’t be happy if we came up with a jazz odyssey concept album tho!
Have you started writing the 2nd album? Is there any info you could give on that, possible new influences and ideas for the band?
Simon - Yes, we've got about three songs that are near completion, and a fucking catalogue of ideas and riffs! We've always described ourselves as an experimental band and we're always as creative as we can be in a musical genre that has no boundaries. I mean, although we've added string parts, keys, bongos(!), drum and bass loops and samples in our songs before, there's nothing to say that we have to continue to do that to be Soul Destruction - in fact the three of us have written songs with the bare essentials (just bass, guitar, drums) without any 'backing' or additional parts, just simply to rock the fuck out, and it's still sounded like the same band. We're not restricted by fitting to a specific genre or pigeon holed as sounding identical to another band and we've never been part of a particular scene.
Dave - I guess the new songs are getting heavier but at the same time more intricate which is great for me as the guitarist.
What motivates you to keep making music?
Mark - Besides the money, booze and loose women you mean?!... ;-)
Dave - It’s in my heart…it’s my life and it’s fun. To play the music that I love with two of my best mates…I ask you what could be better? Corny but true.
Mark – Yeah, I’d have to agree it’s the music we all love playing and we enjoy being locked in a small dark room with each other.
What bands or players do you feel have been your biggest influences?
Simon - I think we had it fucking sweet in the 90's and i get constantly mocked by mates for being 'stuck in '94'!! While the metal scene had fucking legends like Pantera ripping the shit out of everyone and Machine Head making the most stunning debut metal album ever, the Seattle grunge scene got fucking huge, and produced legendary bands like Pearl Jam, AIC, Nirvana and Soundgarden. Not to mention RATM and Faith No More opening people's eyes to other influences in rock and smashing down the doors to other genres.
Mark - I think the best description we’ve had of us is ‘like Soulfly if Trent Reznor was in the band’ and I think that kind of sums up my influences. I love the rawness and energy of bands like Soulfly and Machine Head but am influenced by the production and thinking of people like Trent Reznor and Maynard James Keenan to make music without boundaries.
Dave - Now I have to be careful here as I like a lot of the older metal bands as well as the new ones. I guess my personal influences cover: Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Metallica, Mudvayne, Prong and Tool but I still love classical music which also influences me…some Wagner and Mussorgsky is really heavy.
What’s been your biggest challenge as a band? Have you been able to overcome that challenge? If so, how?
Dave - Keeping it together when things haven’t been working for us. Being the mates we are and having belief has kept us going.
Mark - Our biggest challenge has to be stopping Dave playing cheesey metal riffs at any opportunity and we’ve overcome that by introducing a yellow and a red card system like in football, two yellow card offences means we turn off his amp!
What If: You are given a chance to support ANY band on their world tour. What’s the dream line up for you guys?
Simon - Any band we could constantly party with and become great mates with - gigs with Down would awesome!! We've already gigged with some cool bands and made some awesome friends from other bands, and there's a definite spirit in the metal community that you just don't get anywhere else.
Dave - There are so many bands. I guess in terms of scale then Metallica but…that’s a difficult question! I’d love to play with Lamb of God.
Mark - Wow, that is a hard question. The dream bill for me to play on would probably be something like opening for Machine Head, Slipknot and RATM… Mainly because I could watch all those bands every night for a year and never get bored!
What is your opinion about today's mainstream metal scene?
Mark - I know that music is very cyclic but I have real problems with bands like Trivium that whilst, technically, they are awesome and they have great vocals etc, I just don’t get why regurgitating a poor mans ‘Ride the Lightning’ all over again is considered good music. Oh and we hate the whole emo thing!
Dave - Pretty mundane…I feel that I have heard it all before. The production maybe better but it’s the eighties all over again.
Are there any new bands that you have been listening to?
Mark - Not especially new but I’ve been listening to ’65 days of Static’ a lot recently. Those guys are awesome! I also like what ‘Romeo Must Die’ are doing at the moment as well.
Dave – er, does Sabbath count as a new band?... Don’t ask me I tend to like the odd song and then promptly forget who the artist was – Simon has to help me.
Simon – Yes, The Ghost Of A Thousand - their debut album was absolutely fucking awesome. I think they've just signed to a major, and they deserve all the success they get.
Tell us about your next shows and why we should be there?
DAVE: Well we don't have any till fuckin October! Focusing on labels and new material at the moment, so be ready for us live soon and get working on your neck muscles, you'll be needing 'em!
What are your plans for the future?
Simon – I'm going to get another round in and then go listen to Lamb Of God, like you should.
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