We sat down with the Derby-based metalcore lads to chat about their recently released debut EP, their future plans, and their dream tour. Check it all out below!

How would you describe your sound?

So the way that I’ve always described it is that it’s modern metalcore, but with a focus on the duel vocals and big riffs. Big harmonies, big riffs… metalcore! It’s all good saying ‘it’s nu-core’, it’s all this, but it’s just metalcore really!

Yeah, I agree. There’s probably bits of nu-metal in there but that’s kinda like what… nu metal kinda formed into metalcore when you think about when genres came into it. You’re always around the outskirts of different sub-genres. If you don’t merge different bits in you don’t create your own sound, anyway!

What’s it like having two different vocalists?

So mine and Seth’s previous band, we had two vocalists then, so I’m used to it now. I enjoy writing for two vocalists as well. You can get more down, you don’t need to be as conscious on where you’re gonna breathe and stuff like that. You have the other person to pick up that slack. I think it’s almost easier to write for two vocalists.

Was it always the intention to have two vocalists in the band, or did it just fall into that place?

We were all mates before this band, we all knew each other and have known each other for at least 10 years. So we started writing and sent it to people who weren’t in bands or who would be interested, and it kinda naturally formed from the people who took interest in the music.

Yeah, I [Nick] was doing it and then we were showing Ash the tracks and he said he’d love to get in on it as well and it was very much like ‘the more the merrier!’.

And so the EP came out the other week, the reception seems to have been great!

Yeah man, so far we seem to only be getting positive responses on it. We’ve not seen anything really negative said about it yet so touch wood! I’m looking forward to seeing how people react to it when we’re playing it live and they’ve got a bit more familiarity with the tracks. Playing shows before with only one single out, people know that one but unless you’ve been to every gig we’ve played you may not know the others so well. So really looking forward to this weekend [Bloodstock] to see if people have been listening.

It’s quite humbling to see. Every day we look at the views on the videos and monthly listeners and stuff and they’ve shot up way more than we even expected ourselves. It’s really humbling. We were at like two digits before we started the doing the campaign, and now it’s gone up like 900%! There was only one song there for like two years but now that everything’s on there it’s really taking off. And obviously playing Bloodstock at the weekend, it may continue to go in that trajectory.

Have you all played Bloodstock before with previous bands then or?

Ash plays in Sworn Amongst so has played there years ago now. People have attended Bloodstock in this band, but outside of that it’s about it! I [Nick] went last year, but prior to that it was back in 2010!

I imagine it’s quite the bucket list gig as well, being just down the road?

Absolutely, man. It’s the biggest metal festival in the country. It’s known worldwide for being an accolade of a festival to play. It’s mad that we’ve got this opportunity, absolutely!

Have you guys got much planned for the rest of the year?

We’ve got a few shows dotted about later on in the year. I think maybe it’s release EP two…

We’ve got Hometown Festival on the 29th September at the Hairy Dog. And then following that we’re knuckling down on EP two, which is yet to be officially announced! But yeah, just that and continuing to write and record really. We’ve not even put out the next EP and already we’re working on a full-length release.

We’ve got a bit of a trajectory now so it’s time to put our foot to the floor and keep it that way!

Is it looking like next year for the 2nd EP?

Yeah, I’d say early next year is what we’d probably target towards. Obviously was want an amount of time for people to listen to what we’ve done now. So after the next festival we’ll probably look at doing the next lot of releases and music videos. I think we’ve probably recorded about 90-95% of it. So it’ll be another five tracks coming pretty soon. We wanna keep it close enough to this release that it’s evident it’s meant to be a double release. But obviously we don’t want to force it or straight away! It’s about timing it right, but quarter one is definitely the aim for it.

What’s the writing process like for you guys?

It’s a lot of voice notes and Dropbox clips. Daryl will write a riff, send it to me like ‘I don’t know what to do next’, and I’ll send him a voice note back explaining an idea, and it’ll get put in the group and Ash will have a melody for it or what have you. It just keeps on like that until we get into the practice room to start jamming it out a little bit. Record some demos, tweak it. It’s a fine tuning process constantly until we decide to rack it properly.

Most of the time, one of the vocalists will bagsy doing the lyrics for that song. Unless they’re working on it together at the time, that is. Otherwise the song ends up with a little less meaning behind it. That’s why the songs work like they do, because the meaning is from a sole perspective.