Month: July 2018

A Conversation With… Employed To Serve

Now, the moment I heard this next band on Milk Teeth’s 2017 UK Tour I was immediately hooked. That’s the only way to describe the pulsating energy I was able to witness as I watched them shred and scream with joy. Now on the first date of their short run of UK shows, I had the chance to talk to Sammy and Robbie from Employed To Serve on Touring, their future plans and some pivoting, Friends style.

 

Jack: Hey guys, nice to see you again.

Sammy: It’s nice to see you to, where’d you see us last time.

Jack: Last year with Milk Teeth in Leeds.

Sammy: Was that one at the key club? That was a cool one.

Jack: It was mental. So, the first date of the tour, how does it feel to be back? Because I was chatting to a friend about you, he said are they touring?

Sammy: What us?

Robbie: It’s kind of funny because in the past we’ve done, what feels to us is quite extensive touring and now over the last year we’ve tried to keep the UK to a minimum so if you’ve gotten into us within the last year or so, it might look a bit selective.

Sammy: There was a stage, maybe even a year where there was a tour a month.

Robbie: It’d look like there’d be one planned in January and then a summer one and then an autumn one. When we were planning for the year, it was a case of what we could do, we would do and now it’s like we don’t tour as much is because we don’t want to overdo the UK if you know what we mean. When we first started we wanted to get to as many people as we could but now we want to keep it a little more selective in the UK and make sure people don’t get sick of seeing you.

Sammy: It’s a balancing act in that respect so people don’t get sick of seeing you or sick of the fact you don’t come to their city. That’s a constant. We know a lovely guy in France who messages us every time we announce a tour and we do play France but just not near him.

Jack: That’s like Milk Teeth up north, well the North East I’d say because they do come to Manchester and I’m the one saying, give them time, they’ll have a plan.

Robbie: We’ve had that with this tour as well because this in Newcastle is the furthest north we’re going, there’s no Scottish date and we can’t say too much but we do have plans for some northern dates down the line but it’s usually if we’ll say there’s a plan, there’ll be one.

 

Jack:  That does bring me to my next question as well because Wolverhampton is where you’re playing tomorrow (July 24th). You don’t hear about bands playing there too often.

Sammy: No, it’s my first time playing there, it’s always usually Birmingham. We always enjoy playing new and interesting places, for instance, we played four shows back in May to warm up for the festivals, we played Huddersfield at The Parish which was so incredible and the set up with that venue is fantastic. Then we played Leicester, Norwich and Cardiff which isn’t so much of a strange one.

Robbie: Even way way back before we had our first album out we got invited out to Kings Lynn near Canterbury and there was like 100 people there in a pub. We have had the opposite before.

Sammy: But you have to be in it to win it. But Wolverhampton should be interesting.

 

Jack: And compared to the Milk Teeth tour what’s been the biggest differences in the set?

Sammy: Well for this tour we’re playing the whole of the last record in full so we’re playing three tracks never played before live but it’s quite exciting for us because we’ve already started on new material and it’s a nice way to close the book and if all goes well, we’ll be adding those to our sets by the end of the year.

Robbie: So, when this opportunity came up to play them, it’s a nice way to cap off the record. I mean some tunes we might not play for a little while to make way for new material in the set. I just hate having songs you’re never going to play live.

Sammy: It always feels weird to do that. That being said, there’s a track in the set tonight which is like that. Our signer Justine doesn’t have any vocals on it and it’s just me singing so it’s a bit of a switcheroo where she’s playing bass and we’ll have three guitar players. It’s not something we’ll be doing every show.

Robbie: I stay on the drums though.

Sammy: What we’ve learnt in the past is that certain players shouldn’t switch instruments. There was this one time where we played a show at a chicken coup.

Robbie: The event wasn’t happening for most of the day and so someone provided everyone with these jugs of traditionally made cider, the lethal stuff and you occasionally had to let the glass out but we were like it’s this kind of weather then we turned up to the field where the chickens weren’t there in the coup but it smelt like some animals had been there and our singer was the only person who hadn’t any liquid courage so far and she was very aware of the situation but I played in sunglasses and we couldn’t hear anything but we switched and adamant that we could do it and we learnt very quickly.

Sammy: In fact, it was at 2000 Trees that you conspired with, I mean I can’t remember what festival it was, but you were like woah we should swap instruments.

Robbie: We were all going to swap but the plan involved me and our other guitarist swapping and then we weren’t going to practise but we decided to just try it in practice.

Sammy: And anyone at Trees can tell you there was no switching of instruments.

Robbie: Every once in a while, we will go to switch but he’ll give us a look, don’t you dare.

 

Jack: The other day you guys tweeted to drop everything and listen to LLNN. Who else would you recommend listening to?

At the moment my favourite albums have been Melted On The Inch by Boss Keloid and Mire by Conjurer. I’d recommend them.

Jack: Beartooth’s just had a good one on The Rock Show.

Sammy: I think Rough Hands had a track on there last night as well I think.

Jack: I was driving to the train station, listening to it and my mum bless her was saying this sounds like Slipknot.

Robbie: And then she turns it up and starts headbanging.

 

Jack: No I did.  And I’ve got a few quickfire questions for you know, four questions pick two each.

Sammy: My favourite 12 numbers.

Robbie: 5.

Jack: What TV show are you addicted to?

Robbie: I’m really into movies and can’t escape ones from directors I’m a huge fan of. When it comes to tv shows, my wife always wants to get into some hot new drama but Tv is a safe place for me and I just like to rewatch The Office or Alan Partridge as if it’s just a safe place. Oh, wait scrap that, The Handmaids Tale.

Jack: For me, it’s The Big Bang Theory at the moment.

Sammy: Easy to binge.

Jack: Exactly, it’s either that or Brooklyn Nine Nine.

Robbie: Friends for me, just whack it on.

 

Jack: Have you ever had a pivot moment?

Robbie: oh yes. When I first moved into my flat at University, we couldn’t get the sofa in and it was wrapped around the door and her parents had just moved to Canada and we were just stressed out because we couldn’t get it in and she just shouted down the corridor like if my dad was here he could get it in and we screamed your dads not here.

Sammy: There’s been sometimes where I’ve helped people move stuff out of the house and you’re just left to wonder how they got things in. it’s like they’ve put something on a bare bit of land and built a house around it. How do you get a bed into that place? Like a top floor flat with a four-person lift limit.

Robbie: You need a vacuumed packed one, assemble it outside and then just think oh no, not again.

 

Jack: And TV show you’re binging Robbie?

Robbie: I’m rubbish with them. I’ll watch one then wait for ages before watching another. The last one was Twin Peaks, the third one. It’s like for anyone who’s seen the original, it’s intense and gory in a good way, not for the sake of trying to be shocking but I think that’s the last thing I watched. I started watching Dexter, Sons Of Anarchy and by the fourth season, I lost interest in it.

Sammy: This is why I love the UK Office and Extras, it’s six episodes and I heard about their process. It took them three months to do three months of dialogue and that’s why it’s so funny.

Jack: That’s the thing there’s 20ish episode series, when you get to the episodes that drive the season forward it’s just pointless.

Sammy: All those that are 22-episode seasons, you only just need 13. But maybe that’s just us, maybe we’re not prepared for the worldbuilding or we’re just impatient.

Robbie: Gimme the good stuff, gimme the facts.

Jack: That’s what I like about films like A Quiet Place or John Wick, they take their time in setting up the surroundings.

Robbie: A quiet place was one of my favourites of the last 5-10 years, but I felt like that about annihilation. Genuinely, annihilation has some seriously unsettling things like I can’t unsee that. Another one I tried to get you to watch was Green Room. Because anything he does is so consistent. It was so of our world.

Sammy: We got mangled like that once at a show.

Jack: What?

Sammy: No not really. We’d never accept the gig.

Robbie: And in the film, they’re financially stricken but I’d just ask my parents and they’d probably say go play the Nazi Punk show. You want the cash. In this world, you have to graft.

 

Jack: So next question?

Robbie: You pick a number.

Sammy: 2.

Jack: The last time you cried?

Sammy: I’m thinking either tears of physical pain or emotional pain. I hate to bring it back to films again but in GOTG 2 when Yondu dies and they do a Viking sort of funeral and then the revengers accept him back and there are the fireworks.

Robbie: For me, it probably will be a film… erm Schindlers List.

Sammy: Didn’t you watch that after the world cup though?

Robbie: Oh yeah, after England beat Columbia on penalties, I cried.

Jack: I think just about every male English person did.

Robbie: My friend’s girlfriends Australian watched it was with us and she was like Louis Theroux amongst the nutters. When Eric Dyer scored, I screamed out on the balcony, but it was amazing. Weirdly I was full of a sense of pride, They’re not a semi-finals team but they lifted a nation and they’re an average age of 24. That’s nuts.

Sammy: I’m not too much of a football fan, whenever it’s the world cup I get swept in the buzz of it.

Robbie: It’s the best one of our generation.

 

Jack: And the next number’s to you Robbie.

Robbie: 9..

Jack: What record do you own but never confess to owning?

Robbie: I don’t know, what don’t I confess to owning? You know what? I’m not that proud, I’m like I’ll fly the Nickelback flag.

Sammy: He’s pretty proud of that one so no shame and erm… I’m thinking. Can you think of anything?

Robbie: Ooh maybe any of the like early gory death metal from back in a day.

Sammy: Like this is horrific but I love this Necoric Disgorgement, Amputated Genitals.

Jack: Those are two words I have never before heard in a sentence before.

Robbie: First time for everything. Nothing you’d bring up at a dinner table with yourself.

Sammy: I like the first CKY album which is an unpopular opinion but it’s not really a guilty pleasure.

Robbie: Not for what you listen to.

Sammy: Yeah I was going to say maybe Carly Rae Jepsen but saying that.

Robbie: No don’t do this. That’s something weird but we can’t stand those people who listen to pop music when they’re in heavy bands.

Sammy: But some are better than others in my opinion, I’d rather listen to Carly Rae Jepsen over Ed Sheeran though. I’ll give credit to her songwriters and producers.

Robbie: They did a good job there.

Jack: That’s the beauty of the earworm, then drown them out with something else.

Sammy: Amputated genitals, right there, give em a listen and a like.

 

Jack: Don’t tempt me. And last number Sammy?

Sammy: 7

Jack: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve come into on the tour bus?

Sammy: Unchewed pieces of pasta that have been thrown up.

Robbie: We’ve had a lot of sick from our old bass player. He was the sick guy. He’d be like oh I’m going to be sick, pull over and I’m like no so he’d be sick all over the floor.

Sammy: To be fair, he was also sick at bass.

Robbie: We were cool with the second one, not the actual sick.

Robbie: He left it in our van once to go to work and we use it on a day to day basis because it’s mine and our singers but luckily he came round the next day and I made him clean it up, and he was with his new girlfriend as well.

Jack: I bet that was fun for him.

Sammy: Well, karma came back to get him in the end.

Sammy: Occasionally there are half-eaten bits of food. But nothing too surprising after a five-date tour with a full band being in there.

Jack: Blood sweat and sick.

Robbie: That seems to be the ETS way.

Sammy: Well he’s not in the band anymore but odds are it’d be Justine. She was the last person to be sick in that van. It was when I picked her up from the airport, so it was just travel sickness, nothing particularly rock and roll unless she was smashing the beers on the plane.

Jack: 50-50 chance. You never know.

A Conversation With… Leeched

Now it’s certainly been a while since I’ve been up to a heavy gig and I couldn’t be more excited to be. The heavy scene was where I got started with music in the first place, at a Halloween show of all places! Since then, I’ve spread my music taste across many genres and now I’m listening to and seeing more music from this genre than I ever have before.

*Please note that this interview takes place after Leeched’s set.

 

 

Jack: Hey Laurie, you’re from Manchester right?

Laurie: Yes.

Jack: I do love it down there, but it’s been too long.

Laurie: It’s like here but fewer hills.

 

Jack: I was going to ask, before the set, were you going to play any new tracks?

Laurie: There were four of them, The third track, The Stone And The Steel, fifth and sixth; Guilt and A Mouth Full Of Dirt, Born In Sand for the seventh. Two of those are out now Stone and Steel and Guilt and there’s another coming next week.

Jack: I think I was surprised there wasn’t a bit more movement out there for your set.

Laurie: We do have the hardcore influences and people can do what they want but our sound is a bit more immersive and atmospheric. Sometimes people do bounce off the walls, but they can do what they want. We’ve played to one person before but that’s the way it goes sometimes, it doesn’t bother us because we’ll play it.

 

Jack: How’s the new release going to be different from the EP?

Laurie: Like I was saying before, more atmospheric is the keyword. I’m not trying to decipher it too much so you know, most people sit and write riffs but we push it in a way that makes sense for us. There’s no easy way of answering that but the EP was just really fast and when the album came about we threw some stuff together to find what we wanted to do but we added a lot of synths into the music and the fact we structured it more you can see it’s something more polished.

 

Jack: What’s been the best bit of 2018 for you?

Laurie: Playing Techfest the other week. Great festival, great turnout for us and that was awesome. Return To Strength in Germany as well.

Jack: Were there people just drinking the two pinters? I love that invention.

Laurie: In fact, there was, you just look out and there were about 10 people drinking them.

 

Jack: And Employed To Serve tonight and you won’t be gone long as you’ll be back with Full On Hell next month.

Laurie: Oh, that’s going to be fantastic.

Jack: You’re just one of those bands who seem to be everywhere.

Laurie: Well, you just gotta work hard but you have to do it in the correct places and keep doing it.

Jack: And now time for some quickfire questions. Choose 4 numbers between one and twelve and we’ll see what (if any) random things are said:

 

Laurie: 3,5,8,9

Jack: Is the glass half empty or full?

Laure: Well, that depends on what’s in it.

Jack: The last time you were angry?

Laurie: Yesterday, I was working and some stuff went wrong. I’m a sound engineer and it just made everyone there angry. I don’t normally get angry but rarely.

Jack: Three words to describe yourself?

Laurie: Tired, Hungry and I’d like to say, patient. You can’t expect everything to go right all at once.

Jack: Especially with the beard for the patient part. You look like a better version of Jesus from The Walking Dead.

Jack: What record do you own but never confess to owning?

Laurie: I’m not going to answer that properly and say I don’t believe in guilty pleasures, you don’t have to hide it if you love something.

 

Jack: And what are you looking forward to in the next 12 months?

Laurie: The record coming out, all the tours we’re planning and hopefully next year do it twice as big.

Jack: Tech Fest better watch out.

Live Review: Employed To Serve @ Newcastle Think Tank

Date: 23/07/18

Support: Lizzy Farrall

Pulsating with energy and the booming vocals to match, this can only be an Employed To Serve gig. It’s not their first high energy gigs of the year as well, having hit up different parts of the UK just before the festival season arrived, to well and truly thrust this band back into the spotlight. What’s more is that they had their amazing record behind them, ‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’ in full to back them up all the way. What you have to remember here as well, this is the closing chapter for the record, which did huge things for them and got them to tour so many amazing places and they were sure to have a few surprises in store but above all, a headbanging good time for everyone in attendance tonight And for a Monday night, the fans were truly ready to show Newcastle what it was missing from its city. From the outset, I was hoping to see something truly amazing tonight, to see this community of music lovers unite when bands do tend to skip Newcastle sometimes. What I was able to see though,  is the reason why bands come to Newcastle.

 

First up were Leeched. They’re a Hardcore band hailing from Manchester and are a group that demands your attention! What I saw was something more atmospheric than anything, particularly down to their new tracks off their debut record ‘You Took The Sun When You Left’ which included ‘The Stone And The Steel’. Don’t get me wrong, Leeched were absolutely fantastic and they couldn’t have done any better if they tried. On the other hand,  I was a little mad at the audience that they didn’t bounce off the walls for some of their heavier hitting tracks though, as it seemed as if it was the perfect time to be doing so but Leeched didn’t care in the slightest. What they came to Newcastle and on the tour to do was show Newcastle just who they are and why they demand your attention right now. For that, I applaud them and will look forward to seeing the moshers at the next gig and hopefully see more new material from them.

 

Onward to Rough Hands. I really didn’t know what to expect at the first glance. They could’ve been anything from an Indie band to Pop-Punk based on their look. But you had to see that first note play and then these comparisons were shattered instantly. They were inherently a band you just had to listen to from the start. What’s more polarizing was the way they delivered themselves. Again, their sound did come across as something more atmospheric than I’m used to but they delivered everything a good set should be promised of; massive sounds, great vocals and should they have a good audience, a little bit of movement. What I was failing to understand again, was why didn’t anyone move again? But at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because what we all came to see were performances from brilliant acts. That being said, I’m hoping Rough Hands are on to be the next big thing for the hardcore scene and if that comes true, who else better to mentor them than Employed To Serve? They have all the makings to be a force to be reckoned with in the future, and with that in mind, this is what makes their material so unique, just take a track such as ‘Symptoms Of Regressions’ fall into this category as it mixes the soft vocals which are inherently unpredictable and them mashes the hardcore to fill yourself with the energy frontman Alex channels.

 

Now, moving to the headline act in Employed To Serve. I was expecting things to be loud and rowdy, and I was not disappointed. It was for any ETS fan, probably what they’d been waiting for since the record was released as what came forth was uncontrollable energy in the form of ‘The Warmth Of A Dying Sun’ which as many people probably do know is a fine record in the hardcore genre of recent memory. What’s more is that the band were just captivating to watch from start to finish (I had to leave three-quarters of the way into the set but everyone got their money’s worth from them). But apart from the tracks and the stage presence of the band, what else can be said about the band? One thing is that the live music seems more polished than ever as it was just clear and concise, no mucking around from them because they came to bring the audience some mayhem and that’s exactly what they did. For anybody lucky enough to see them on their short UK run, you’ll have been in for a treat of a show because from the announcement, I knew the tour was going to be something special. They’re a band that doesn’t want to overdue touring the UK at the moment and you can see why. No, it’s not because we’re getting sick of them. It’s because we don’t want too much of a good thing. It’s something that needs to be special for them and the fans and which new music on the horizon, I can’t wait to see what will become of the set next-time as more carnage will be guaranteed.

 

Rating: 8/10

Leeched

Rough Hands

Employed To Serve

Palaye Royale On Upcoming Tour: ‘The Final Boom Will Be The Finale’

Palaye Royale are up to it again. They’re teasing something.

Taking to Twitter, the band addressed their upcoming headline tour, “Will be the finale”

Naturally, this sent their fans into a panic.

I guess we’ll find out soon enough. If there’s any more info on this, I’ll be sure to update.

Green Day Teasing A Dookie Anniversary Tour?

With everyone seems to be planning anniversary tours at the moment, Green Day are seemingly jumping on the bandwagon.

Taking to Instagram, Tre Cool posted this.

They did play Dookie in full at the Leeds and Reading festivals about five years ago and with Dookie turning 25 next years, could we see an anniversary tour?

Stand Atlantic Finish Recording Debut Record

They’ve been away and they’ve been busy but the Aussie newcomers Stand Atlantic have finished the record of their debut record!

Check it out for yourself!

There’s no information other than guesses at this moment but it looks like ten tracks are incoming with Stevie Knight as their producer.

Hopefully, we’ll see them play a new track when they play their upcoming tours!

You Me At Six Adding More ‘Take Off Your Colours’ Shows Due To “Phenomenal Demand”

In case you somehow missed the news from You Me At Six’s camp this week, they announced three very special shows in honour of the 10th anniversary of their debut record, ‘Take Off Your Colours’.

The three shows were originally part of their already announced November tour and they sold out in twenty minutes! Yes Really!!

But dont worry, they’re adding more!

Check it out below.

 

 

Music Video’s 26/07/18

The list is back. For those who are new to the blog, every Friday I post a weekly list of ten music videos. I scower the world of rock for the next best video and now I’m back blogging for all you wonderful people, the top ten list is back. So let’s get on with things and first up is Trash Boat. This is taken from their upcoming record, ‘Crown Shyness’ which is due to drop on July 13th.

Next I turn my attention to Waterparks with the video for ‘We Need To Talk’. It’s off their most recent record, ‘Entertainment’, which was released via Equal Vision Records.

 

Hopeless Records have signed a new band recently, called Lotus Eater and the Scottish Metalers already have released a new video. Check out ‘Break It’ below.

 

And a little more Popier sound as of now. Fall Out Boy have dropped the video for ‘Bishops’s Knife Track, only two weeks after Pete Wentz tased a to-do list via Twitter.

 

Where’s Like Pacific been? Making a goofy video of course! But now, the Canadian Punks are ready to show you the new video for ‘Self Defeated’.

 

Going to everyone’s favourite Emo rapper in the form of Nothing, Nowhere and front his third full-length record, ‘Ruiner’ you can check out ‘Rejecter’ below.

 

Following the departure of Douglas Robinson last year, it was easy for any band to call it a day. But, that wasn’t the case for Night Verses. One Year on, they’ve released a new record and here is ‘Vice Wave’.

 

Now, Sweedish rockers Normandie are entering a new era for the band as they’re gearing up to release a new track but for now, we have the infectious track ‘Ecstasy’ for you to view below.

 

Now another band who are setting off on a new era are Set It Off. They’ve been away for quite a while now, and the plans have come into fruition. They’re releasing a new record but there is no release date as of yet. On the other hand, we have their new track, ‘Killer In The Mirror’ to keep us preoccupied.

 

And for the last new band for the list, who else is there to put on than Twenty One Pilots? They’ve recently announced their new album, ‘Trench’ and what else can they announce other than a tour? How about a music video for the track, ‘Nico And The Niners’? Check it out below.

And that’s it for another week here on the weekly music video list. Be sure to check back next week for another list of the best music videos released in the last week.