Where you guys from man, and how did you form?

I’m from Glasgow, and Campbell, our bassist, decided to start up a band that consisted of acoustic stuff and electronic noises. But that soon dissipated, because of the others who realised we all kinda had a history in heavy metal and we couldn’t really get away from that. So we decided to add a heavier element and got in Martin our drummer, through a mutual friendship with Biffy Clyro. A couple of albums down the line, we brought in Ian Cook to beef up the sound a bit, and that’s the story so far I think.

How long you guys been around?

Since 1998

What kind of heavy metal where you guys into?

Oh just like the really bad stuff. I was a huge fan of Megadeth, Metallica and Eden. I had a little foray into Guns and Roses and Poison and all that shit. Campbell has got a really bad metal collection of things like Saxon, and his brother has a huge collection of Japanese heavy metal. It’s just something that once you’ve experienced it, you just get bowled over by it, not that it’s had an influence on our music really, but it’s just more of a passion thing…

Well there’s nothing wrong with that, I’m a metal head myself…

Aye, but still Guns and Poison are more cheese than it is heavy, and it’s just one of those things you need to put behind you and just try to get through… I was a huge Cinderella fan too, but I don’t know if I should be admitting to that (laughs)…

What other kind of things influence your song writing?

I think anyone who you know tries to push, not necessarily the boundaries, but tries to push themselves musically (and that can be anyone). I’m personally a huge fan of Neurosis, Converge, Meshugga – that’s the extreme side of the spectrum. I think all these bands try to push themselves, and are completely different from what is regarded as mainstream, and what it’s like without thinking in a commercial sense - just people who can express themselves without thinking, they are always the bands that influence us the most.

So what kind of bands have you guys toured with over the years?

Quite a diverse range actually. Henry Rollins, Thursday, Isis, The Rogado’s, Super Junk, you can kinda tell in a sense the kind of band we are from who we’ve played with, which is not necessarily a bad thing. A lot of the tours have worked and a few kinda haven’t if you know what I mean… I mean when you buy a ticket to a gig you go specifically to see the headline act, any support bands are just a bonus, and we have had a few gigs where we just haven’t gone down too well…

What would you say has been the best gig you’ve done to-date?

The best gigs I find are always the one’s where no-one’s there because when you step into a room and there is only like 50 people in front of you the barriers are broken down and we always find we can just enjoy ourselves. You don’t ask yourself up on stage are whether these people enjoying themselves, all you have to do is just look down at their faces and you can tell if they are or not. So basically I personally always enjoy the gigs that are meant to be the terrible ones. Whenever a place is packed out I always have to concentrate on doing my best, and I’m always nervy and I can never relax.

Have you guys been touring abroad?

We certainly have. We have toured the States three times, Scandinavia, and mainland Europe a lot. Funnily enough, Germany is our kinda favourite territory, we go down well over there. We’ve toured a hell of a lot on reflection for such a small band.

You’re ready to start promoting your new album SECLUSION. Tell me about that…

It features six songs and the short film that we did, and the film has a soundtrack of one of the songs, and also an alternate score, so you can choose which song you wish to play along with it. It’s a kinda strange package but we are proud of it, especially because we recorded and created it completely by ourselves, and we came up with the idea of the film ourselves. We are happy with the work that each of us has done.

Do you guys regard yourselves as experimental or progressive?

I can see why people might call us progressive, or prog I guess, and I’d love to think that people thought we where experimental. We like to experiment and try to push the musical and visual boundaries. I think that’s what great art is, people pushing themselves and their art. I just don’t see the point in people doing things like this and just sticking to one style or vision you know, it doesn’t make sense to me. I mean the mainstream is called the mainstream because a lot of people like it, and I think if a lot of people like something it then it becomes your duty as an artist to try and create something new, something that by its name is alternative to listen to.

What do you do to chill out and relax?

We work shit jobs, there is this kind of misconception that if you’re in a band and you’re signed then you’ve got it sorted, and you’re never going to have to work again. That is definitely not true, especially in today’s industry. If you in a band you have to love what your doing, because if you don’t, then you are going end up giving up because it can become that hard to just make ends meet.

Finally, where would you like to take your music?

I’m not entirely sure about where I’d like the music to go. We are just excited about what we’re going to do next. The thing I love about being in this band is we can do whatever we want from a writing and creative point of view. Don’t get me wrong we are not going to do anything like go hip hop or country or anything, but I just want to keep pushing. I’m too realistic for any aspirations of main stage rock stardom, I think a dream come true for me would be to inspire other bands to create and be a part of their musical evolution.

Ade

Band Photographs By Jayne Duncan