Ahead of the release of their debut album, we sat down with one half of She Burns Red to chat about it, as well as their future plans and signature sound!
How have the last six or so months been?
It’s been pretty busy, man! Just rehearsing, gigging, getting everything prepared. We started a kickstarter to raise the money for the album. It’s been pretty hectic but it’s been pretty good at the same time!
You guys smashed the kickstarter too, Right? Like it almost happened over night?
It was such a big surprise to us. We didn’t realise how many people actually cared. It was one of those things where you don’t realise it until these sorts of things happen. It takes you back a little bit, makes you realise the sort of support you have.
Is there any specific theme running through the album?
It deals a lot with metal health. But more so in the sense of coming out of a bad time and actually finding positives, rather than finding the bad stuff. The album cover itself was done by Andy Pilkington. We never gave him a brief, we just let him listen to the album and that’s what he came back with. It was one of the first times we’ve all agreed on something! Usually it’s an absolute battle but it made sense and it’s quite a powerful image. I think just by looking at the cover it will give you an idea of what it’s about. And then once you’ve listened to the album, the cover makes even more sense. We’re really chuffed with that!
What’s the writing process like with you guys?
It’s quite a collaborative thing. We all come in with our own ideas and just kinda chuck them into a melting pot and see what happens. We all have completely different influences from each other, as well as a lot of the same ones. Whoever comes up with a good idea and it flows at the time, we just run with it. If something’s not working we don’t force it to work.
We are quite harsh in that. If something’s not right, let’s not waste time, let’s just get rid of that. If anything in the future come up it might work for, perfect. Everything we’ve done has come together really fast. We all put our opinions across and we do all listen to each other. I think you have to. We’ve learned to be honest with each other and to not be too precious about our ideas. If you are too precious then you’re not going to get what you want because no one’s going to agree with you. You might as well do what’s best for the band.
Do you guys have a favourite track off the album?
I’d say my favourite track is ‘Crack the Sky’. I think live it’s sounding amazing. It’s just like a groovy, catchy song. It’s one of those songs that immediately from the start it gets your head moving. To me, if I see a crowd moving in time to the music, that’s when I know it’s doing something. Whenever we play that song like I always feel like it has such a good effect on the audience. Also the ending hits hard which is cool!
Have you got much planned for the end of the year?
We’ve got a lot of gigs planned actually! But we are waiting to see how the album does, what happens with the album, so we’re not making certain, definite plans. We’re just letting what happens happen. We don’t want to plan too much and crash and burn. We just want to take it as it goes and see what happens. So far it’s been great so we’re enjoying it whilst we have it!
You guys are doing Rockmantic and Call of the Wild next year with Raz and UPSTGD. He’s your manager, right?
Yeah, it’s kinda a weird long story. It was just when the pandemic started and he had Call of the Wild booked but obviously had to cancel that. At the time we had a venue that we were working out of that could do recorded livestream gigs. I got in touch with Raz saying I could arrange something there under the Call of the Wild banner with a couple of the bands. He said it was a good idea but I think it might be too expensive. We spoke on the phone for a couple of hours. I said we needed a manager but he said he was enjoying putting gigs on too much. Then the next morning Raz messaged saying he’d listened to our EP all night and thought we had something.
We didn’t even have a drummer at the time! Scott hadn’t joined the band! It was just a really weird scenario. We met him at a service station down the M74 outside on a picnic bench. No drummer. But I think he must have just heard something in us. We have really gone from strength to strength with him. He’s done great work for us.
What’s it like to be accepted into this NWOCR scene?
Yeah, it’s just a bunch of people who want to hear new music! People criticise when they live high school, their taste sorta stops there and they don’t listen to anything after that. But there’s all these people that love hearing new bands. And the fact that you can talk to each other and to the people who come to the gigs, I think people really appreciate that.
It’s also good for people who want to go to gigs but don’t want to spend £70/£80. People can see these high quality bands at a lower price and smaller venues where it’s a bit more intimate. It’s great for that, and the more support the better for these bands. And because the ticket prices are so low they’re more inclined to buy merch and say hello. It’s brilliant!
Most of these bands if they weren’t playing they’d be there anyway. There’s some bands that have progressed from the NWOCR scene, but you bump into them and they’re the same people because they’re still linked in that space.
And finally, how would you describe your sound?
I’d say melodic, alternative, heavy rock with a punky element. Grungy too, there’s a lot of grunge! It’s kinda hard because there’s so many different influences. The album has so many different styles and genres. it’s a tricky one to answer. I guess that’s a good thing!
We consciously try and make every song sound different, as well. That’s a big thing for us. We want to make the songs sound different but still sound like us. Some bands have a formula but we don’t really have that. We just work with what we’re working on in the moment.