Tell us about:

Your latest single you have released:

Refuse of the Past is based on the 1971 film, The Omega Man, which is another spin on the classic ‘The Last Man on Earth’. Something resonated with me in regards to that film and I’m not sure what and I love the quote, ‘Refuse of the Past’. The song is a fast and furious thrasher with a blistering opening from vocalist Stevie. It’s one of my favourites of all the songs we’ve done.

Your first single and how you felt when it was released:

If you mean the first ever single we released, which was the fast paced Mrs Lovett’s Pies, then we were incredibly proud of it and it turned out miles better than we expected. It was just a seed of an idea Katy and I had and to see it realised was a special moment. We were also expecting no one to take any notice of it and we were amazed when people started listening to it.

Your favourite song that you have created that is an album track:

A good question. I have a few but at this moment I would say The Ashen Child: New Home from our latest album, The Ashen Child. It is my favourite  vocal by Stevie, I love the groove, the backing vocals are epic and the chord change after the middle 8 still gives me chills. It’s not really mentioned that much in reviews, but it’s a bit of grower so I’m not surprised.

Your favourite song to play live:

As The Crows Peck at your Bones. It’s fast, has lot of cool riffing, a superb vocal melody from Katy and a chorus that, even after four years, still has me singing at random moments in the day. I just find that song has lots of energy and it was also the song where the whole thing clicked back in 2019. It always holds a special place for me.

Your most emotional track:

I would say Time Dilation which is also off The Ashen Child. It’s a heartbreaking love story across time and space. A colony ship is near the event horizon of a black hole and time is passing quicker at one end of the ship than the other. Our hero travels from one end of the ship to the other just to be with his love, but it takes him over 50 years to get there only to die of old age in her arms when her reaches her.

Describe the feeling you get when you walk on stage to do a show:

Nervous, always, I think it’s healthy to be nervous before a show, in fact before any public performance whether it be a gig, a speech or sport. The nervousness helps with the energy and boost your performance, well, it does for me at least. When I get too nervous, I just practice guitar or backing vocals. I try to keep my mind busy otherwise I start to over think the occasion and worry about everything that could go wrong.

The hardest track to play live:

The Abduction of Olivia Soams from our first album is one of my favourites, but it’s very difficult to play. It’s fast and there are lots of parts to it, I certainly don’t make it easy for myself or others. It sounds awesome though, very heavy and energetic. 

Essential items you always take on tour with you?

Thomson’s Tea. I’m English, so it has to be tea.

Describe your fans in three words:

Awesome, kind, patient.

A song by another artist or band you wish you had written:

There are so many. If you were pinning me down, I’d say Wake up Dead by Megadeth. I just love the riffs, the energy and the way it’s structured is very unconventional. It’s a blueprint for every aspiring song writer that you don’t need the conventional verse chorus verse chorus formula to make a classic song.

What we can look forward to from your band this year:

We’ve just released our new album, The Ashen Child. We have the next album planned out and I would say 80% of it is written now. We have 16 songs in the mix but this will get whittled down to about 8 or 9 depending on time and costs. After being away for a couple of years due to singer changes and other challenges, it’s just nice to get more material out there.

Hopefully, with the new album, we can get some momentum back into the ranks because we’d ideally like to finish writing the new full-length and get it recorded before the end of the year or at least before Easter 2024 and get it released in 2024 as well. We’d like to squeeze some live shows in at that point but we’re short on a bass player at the moment, so completing a line up would be next as well.