Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Wednesday 22nd May 2013.
With their latest EP, ‘Stand For Something’ set to be released in the coming weeks we caught up with New Forest band Natives at the recent Hit The Deck Festival. It’s the start of a busy period for the quintet, in addition to the EP release, the band have just completed a tour with Mallory Knox and are currently out on the road with The Summer Set before playing numerous UK festivals ending with the release of their much anticipated album later this year.
The band discussed working with longtime collaborator Duncan Howsley, the importance of being surrounded by people who care about the band, the new EP and album, the UK rock scene, the transition from being Not Advised to becoming Natives and much more.
Already Heard: How have you found the festival so far?
Andy White: Really good so far.
Jack Fairbrother: We’ve never played in Nottingham or Bristol as Natives, so we expected to play to no one particularly yesterday when we were playing this boat which was awesome but it was on the other side of the city to the other venues. We were expecting to walk out and no one to be there but there was loads of people there, and they loved it. We were expecting the same again today but by the end of the site the Rescue Room was pretty full.
AH: I heard the venues in Bristol were 10-20 minutes apart.
Jim Thomas: The one we were at was a good 15 minute walk away from the main venue.
Jack: It made it better that people seemed to know who we were and made the effort to come and see us, especially when there were plenty of other established bands playing.
AH: What bands have you watched yourself?
Jack: We saw Canterbury who were amazing.
Andy: Don Broco and a little bit of We Are The In Crowd. They were all good man. We’re trying to see a lot more today as we played a lot earlier.
Jack: We’re going to try and watch We Are The Ocean and hopefully Pure Love later.
AH: Your new EP ‘Stand For Something’ is coming out soon. What can you tell us about that?
Jack: It’s four tracks that are completely exclusive to the EP and won’t be on the album that is coming out afterwards. The single, ‘Stand For Something’, was recorded and produced with Jim Lowe at Kelly Jones’ (Stereophonics vocalist) house which was nuts! I don’t know how that happened.
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I am a Nottinghamshire-based freelance music writer currently seeking full-time experience in the music/public relations/journalism sectors. Preferably in the East Midlands but I am willing to relocate.
Since 2008 I have written about a variety of bands from around the world for numerous online publications.
During this time I have overseen the day-to-day running of two emerging music websites; managing a team of writers and photographers, organising the development of original content, regularly worked with a variety of companies within the music industry and effectively used social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Tuesday 30th April 2013.
Cambridgeshire melodic rockers The First are set for big things in the coming months. Having just completed a UK tour alongside fellow up and coming bands I Divide and Anavae, the quintet are now set to play Download Festival for the first time as well as release their debut album.
As their new single ‘Take It Back’ shows, they have a sound consisting of powerful melodies, vicious guitar lines and memorable choruses, The First have all the characteristics to emerge from the underground.
With an exciting few months ahead, we caught up with bassist Adam Masters to find out more about the band, their new single, playing Download and more.
Already Heard: Who am I speaking to and can you tell us your role in The First?
Adam: Hey it’s Adam, the bass player and secondary lead singer!
AH: For new listeners, how would you sum up the bands sound and who would you compare it too?
Adam: Imagine if Young Guns and Alexisonfire had an intimate evening… Catchy chorus’ with call and response vocals, and riffs that would remove one’s eyebrows!
AH: This month you’re heading out on the road with I Divide, Anavae and Underline The Sky. What can we expect from The First at these shows?
Adam: We’ve spent the last few months really pulling apart our live show, and taking into account what people want to hear, we’ve also added a load of new material.
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Tuesday 30th April 2013.
Back in the UK for their first headline tour, New Jersey’s The Front Bottoms are set to unleash their sophomore ‘Talon of the Hawk’ in early June. With their brand of acoustic indie/folk punk, album number two sees the duo, comprising of vocalist and guitarist Brian Sella and drummer Matt Uychich, becoming a quartet with Tom Warren and Ciaran O’Donnell joining on bass/keys & trumpets respectively. As we find out, ‘Talon of the Hawk’ is a group effort and sees the band building on 2011’s self-titled début, showcasing a fuller, more rounded sound.
Following their set at the Hit The Deck Festival in Nottingham, we sat down with the band to find out more about the new album, how the new members have changed the bands songwriting, how life on the road has influenced the record, their thoughts on the Hit The Deck Festival and more.
Already Heard: First of all how does it feel to be back in the UK?
Brian: So far, so good. Everything has been pretty amazing.
AH: These are your first headline shows here right?
Brian: Yeah, this the first time we’re playing shows, headlining them and people coming down, which is incredible.
AH: Last time you were here with The Menzingers. How was that?
Brian: That was an amazing tour too. That was awesome because that was only our second ever time over here in the UK and those shows were selling out.
AH: Your new album, ‘Talon of the Hawk’ is due out in June. What can you tell us about that?
Matt: We’re pretty stoked on it. We’re proud of it and can’t wait to play the songs.
Brian: Yeah, it’s like we’ve been playing these older songs for so long.
AH: I hear the new album is an extension of the first?
Brian: For sure. It’s the same vibe more or less. I think it’s a little developed, like naturally developed. We didn’t force anything. We’re all pretty proud of it.
AH: From hearing your set earlier, the new songs sound fuller?
Brian: Absolutely.
Matt: Well we had Tom and Ciaran writing a lot of the parts when we were making the song, and we went down and recorded all together.
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Thursday 2nd May 2013.
With their latest effort ‘Floral Green,’ Kingston, Pennsylvania’s Title Fight showed the capability to add depth to their hardcore punk sound hinting at a more cathartic approach, showing the quartet are more than willing to develop and evolve their sound.
Having briefly returned to the UK for the Hit The Deck Festival before starting a European tour alongside Dead End Path and Whirr, we caught up with vocalist/bassist Ned Russin before closing the Rock City Basement stage to discuss the bands progression in sound, differences between UK and US festivals, their recent split with Touché Amoré, having friends on tour and more.
Already Heard: So you’re playing Hit The Deck headlining the Rock City Basement stage later on. How do you feel about that?
Ned Russin: It’s really weird you know. We’ve been coming to Europe for a couple of years now and we kind of realised what the festival season means over here. It’s completely different then anything in the States. It’s really an honour to come to a festival and headline a stage. We’ve never done anything like it before. It’s really cool to come to a festival and be able to do this. It’s our first time at the festival and we’re having a great time so far.
AH: Compared to American festivals, do you feel there is more variation here?
Ned: The whole atmosphere is completely different. A fest like this can happen in the States and it can be smaller with I guess “underground” bands.
AH: Would you say this has more of a community feel to it?
Ned: Yes. Just people come and they’re so used to it. There’s big festivals like Reading and Leeds, they camp out the whole weekend and kids travel from all over the country. In America there’re big festivals like Coachella and people go crazy but then there’re no smaller bands. It’s either huge or nothing, so to have something where you have every kind of genre involved over here is something really cool, and is completely different to the States.
AH: You’re playing the Rock City Basement stage, which is quite an intimate stage. How important is intimacy to a Title Fight show?
Ned: It’s one of the most important things to us. That’s where we grew up playing in places and situations like that and that’s what we’re comfortable doing. We like to be able to interact with people. As far as I’m concerned the best thing about music is that everybody is on the same level. With a big barrier I’m all for safety and for everybody being protected, I’m also just as interested in people to participate and be able to do what they feel like doing.
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Friday 22nd March 2013.
When you produce a modern pop punk juggernaut like The Story So Far did with 2011’s ‘Under Soil and Dirt,’ you’re bound to set high expectations for it’s follow up. So when it came to writing up our 2013 preview, it’s no surprise the Walnut Creek band made our list of 50 bands to watch.
Having come out of pretty much nowhere and raised the pop punk bar, how does ‘What You Don’t See’ shape up?
Admittedly on first listen high expectations are met by underwhelming disappointment and seemingly a lack of progress in sound. However on further listen its evident that quintet have tightened up their brand of hardcore pop punk; early tracks ‘Things I Can’t Change’ and ‘Small Talk’ thrive off the bands urgency and hint at an ever so slightly more melodic TSSF.
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Tuesday 29th January 2013.
If you’ve been reading Already Heard for a while now then you will know we quite like Moose Blood. They were part of our 2013 preview and recently featured in our “Recommends” series, so you’re probably expecting us to give plenty of praise to the Canterbury quartet’s début EP, ‘Moving Home’ right? Well you’re certainly not wrong!
If you’re a fan of jangly Pop Punk/Emo than you’re going to be spinning ‘Moving Home’ for quite some time as it’s more or less perfect. I’ll go as far as saying it’s the best release of 2013 so far and it’ll take something extra special to beat it.
So you now know ‘Moving Home’ is good but why? Well the six songs on show here are a pure enjoy to listen to as Moose Blood’s mix of upbeat melodies and jangly and driving guitars that are backed by songs about being in love, drinking coffee and nostalgic pop culture references. For example ‘Carbis Bay’ mentions Dashboard Confessional, listening to American Football and singing along to ‘Nevermind’. What more could you ask for?
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Thursday 31st January 2013.
Back in 2004, Chicago Punk band August Premier went on an hiatus but now after an eight year break, they’re back together and with a new record in the form of ‘Happy Miserable’.
With their hometown roots firmly in place, ‘Happy Miserable’ sees the quartet taking an introspective approach and combining it with a upbeat punk rock sound. Tracks ‘Trenches’ and ‘Foo Figgity’ thrive off the bands energy yet have lyrical sentiment as they look towards the future but not forgetting the past.
Already Heard caught up with drummer Mickey Molinari to discuss a variety of topics. From ‘Happy Miserable’ to getting back together to Chicago’s influential music scene and more.
Hi Mickey. How are you today?
Mickey: I am doing just fine and dandy.
Let’s start with something simple. This past year you released ‘Happy Miserable,’ your first record since 2003’s ‘Fireworks & Alcohol’. For new listeners how would summarise August Premier’s sound especially on this new record?
Mickey: It’s always a weird question to ask a band to describe their sound, because bands think they sound completely different from what listeners think. My best answer would be that I think we sound like August Premier. Sure there will be elements of bands we grew up listening too like Alkaline Trio, Screeching Weasel, NOFX etc but I think we’ll always sound like August Premier because that’s who are are. On ‘Happy Miserable’ I feel it’s what we were trying to go for on ‘Fireworks & Alcohol’, but didn’t know how to.
AH: This is the first record following a eight year hiatus. How and why did the band get back together?
Mickey: I think we got back together, because no matter what band any of us were in, people would always talk to us about August Premier. I believe the other guys had all talked about it and decided to do the band again. They weren’t sure if I would do it because I was pretty busy with Danger is My Middle Name, but Chris (Rogner - vocalist) called me and asked me if I wanted to do August Premier again. I called Danger’s manager and told him I was leaving the band to rejoin August Premier, and that was that.
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Posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Thursday 31st January 2013.
For this edition of “If I…” we spoke to Josh Oliver, the vocalist and guitarist from Brighton Alt-Pop upstarts Glass City Vice.
Since forming in 2010, the quartet have played alongside the likes of The Audition, The Xcerts and Freeze The Atlantic, building a solid following along the way.
They’re set to start 2013 with a UK tour alongside Reachback, Bentley Park and Room Service next month and is bound to see the band continue their rise with their mix of sensible pop hooks and dynamic alt-rock instrumentation.
Josh spoke to Already Heard to tell us which Jimmy Eat World song he wish had written, who would play his fantasy festival, what piece of advice he’d give to new bands and more.
If your band would like to be featured as part of “If I…” full details can be found here.
If I could re-record one song it would be…
Josh Oliver: The new David Bowie track - ‘Where Are We Now?’
If I could re-live one tour/show it would be…
JO: Foo Fighters at Reading 2012.
If I had the chance to play one venue it would be…
JO: London Koko. Although its not massive, it looks amazing inside and I have seen some of my favourite shows there!
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Originally posted on AlreadyHeard.com on Friday January 25th 2013.
It goes without saying Bad Religion are one of the most influential punk bands of all time. With a career stretching 16 albums over 30 years, the California band have played a major way in shaping the way punk is today; not to mention guitarist Brett Gurewitz’s Epitaph record label has become one of the most reliable independent labels around.
So on to album number sixteen - ‘True North’ an album which is punk rock as you can be in 2013. Despite their age, Bad Religion still blast their way through relentlessly, yet do not offer much in variety; this isn’t expected by a band like Bad Religion.
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