We sat down with our good friends Sons of Liberty while at Winters End the other weekend, catching up about their latest album and plans for the year. Check it out below!
How was the set?
Oh, it was great! We haven’t done anything since October last year. So we’d had a bit of downtime, we’d had a couple of rehearsals, but a big gig like Winters End is always a bit of a challenge! But, it was really cool! Kira Mac were super early with their soundcheck so we got loads of extra time to get more comfortable with what we were doing. We were at least an hour earlier than we should have been so we got to have a bit more time. And a shoutout to Rich Brinley of NWOCR who did our front of house sound tonight! Everybody’s reporting how great it sounded.
It’s been a couple of years since we last daw you and since you’ve had a lineup change, how’s that been?
Oh wow, that is a little while! So yeah, Russ has come onboard after the songs were already written, we’d demoed them up and we’d been in the studio a couple of times, the backing tracks were down. It was like “what the hell do we do now?”. So we sent a couple of mp3s to Russ on email and like an hour later two songs came back with some worked up backing vocal ideas. So the click was right there! We put him under a bit of pressure as we’d spent way more money recording than we really should have done. Originally Rob left, then Rob #2 was fronting the band for a little while but when he came to the studio that didn’t quite work out. So we thought okay, we’ve spent a lot of time… but Russ stepped up to the plate. Three or four days in the studio, after about 10 days doing demo versions. So we worked him really hard, but the reaction has been fantastic!
Yeah, the album seemed to go down really well!
Thank you! And live too, there’s a lift in the energy of the band. Yeah, he’s a bit younger than we are, not beating around the bush here! But he’s brought a challenge to the rest of us to lift our game a bit.
It did look like you were having fun up there!
Oh Christ yeah! And that’s absolutely what it’s about. We’re not gonna make one million pounds out of Sons of Liberty, but we are going to have a damn good time doing it! So as long as that comes across on the stage too, that’s wonderful!
And you played an unreleased track for an EP, right?
So when we recorded the album we had 13 songs recorded that were all treated exactly the same way. When it came to… vinyl is really challenging, like 44-minutes maximum. Once we worked out which songs would fit the vinyl we thought we should just go with the 11 songs on the CD and keep the other two back for future use. So for the October gigs that we played the two unreleased tracks we put out on a little EP and it’s gone really well! Six songs from the album, one from the EP, and it seemed to work pretty well!
I imagine there’s some writing going on still too, right?
Yeah, I mean Fred is prolific. He sends me stuff… after the week you can log in and there’s another message or track or riff idea that he’s come up with. That’s where most of the songs start. A couple have gone a little further with Russ doing some lyrics and vocal ideas, but we’ve not rehearsed or got together as a band. We’ve just been focused on making the most of what we’ve got in the can, so to speak!
Have you got quite a busy 2025 planned?
Yes! So kicking off late February until early May pretty much every other weekend we’re doing three or four gigs. It looks really cool as a tour poster! Couple of festivals in the summer. We’re playing A New Day which is a new one for us. It’s associated with Alford rock and blues. It’s quite eclectic, it’s more of a mini Glastonbury-type festival with lots of different types of music. But they’ve slotted us onto the bill! We played Alford last year and off the back of that we got the booking for this.
Then in the Autumn another run of gigs around the UK. So yeah, the diary for 2025 looks pretty damn good! I think we get to o to Scotland twice. We seem to have gathered quite the crowd up there having played the Winter Storm festival a couple of times. And that seems to ripple over onto your own gigs in Edinburgh or Glasgow! It’s nice that we’ve latched onto a few people there!
Do you have song you wish you could have written?
Most of us have pretty big classic rock histories. Freddie would probably say ‘Rock Bottom’, UFO. Me and Mark are more Blackfoot, so something like ‘The Highway Song’. Steve’s a bit strange because he likes his extreme metal stuff, or the operatic stuff, so he latched onto Nightwish and stuff like that. Russ, being a bit younger, he comes up with something a bit crazy. He loves his Bon Jovi, but loves to throw in a bit more of a pop thing.
Yeah, it seems like bands like to throw in a bit of a pop cover every so often!
Yeah well me and Freddie go back a long time playing in bands and we did the whole cover band thing. My approach was to take things like ‘Footloose’ and rock up the guitar riff a little bit and turn it into a rock song. It always went down well! The craziest thing we ever did was ‘The Final Countdown’ by Europe but with kazoos doing the keyboard run!
We had the pleasure of sitting down to chat to Greg of the amazing Hush Money about their new album and plans for the future! Check it out below!
The album just came out a couple of weeks ago now, it seems like it’s gone down a storm?
Yep! It seems to be going over well! That’s a good thing. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback. A lot of… I don’t want to use the term unexpected but it’s more than we thought would happen. Especially given our previous catalogue! It was a nice surprise!
What went into the decision to hold off on putting the album out on streaming, to just sell physicals for now?
Yeah, so we had gotten some advice from an executive, an A&R rep from our record label, who basically said to do it right there’s certain things we’d have to have. So we decided to got into a hybrid release mode where we were able to recoup of the money we’d lost for that. I saw a calculation that for every CD you make $10 on you have to have 5000-7000 Spotify streams. So when you’re a growing band… we’re not on the levels of Metallica at this point so every dollar counts right now. It was due in part due to being able to recoup some of our costs but also because we do have a lot of fans who do genuinely enjoy the physical copy, to have the CD or vinyl in hand, which is cool. It kinda gives them the opportunity to say ‘I heard all of this before anyone else’. We want to give something to our fans in that regard!
How would you describe your sound? Any specific inspirations you draw from?
I would say our music is very Southern influenced. I know that’s a very broad-stroke term but you look at our music and it’s got the southern rock, it’s got the outlaw country, it’s got the traditional country stuff in it. But it’s also got aspects of like Otis Redding R&B in it, it’s got some blues in there. It’s a hodgepodge of all southern music meshed into one. It even has gospel elements in there! It’s really where we’re from so it’s indicative of the music from our area. We grew up listening to everything. My dad was a traditional country artist for years so it was all Waylon Jennings and Meryl Haggard and stuff like that. But we’d get in the car with my mom and she’d be turning on Zeppelin and AC/DC. We listened to everything growing up!
Though the album’s only just come out, I imagine you’ve already got some new music in the works?
Oh, it never stops! As soon as we finish one project we start working on something else. We never stop writing. Whether it’s quality and makes a new album remains to be seen, but we never stop writing, we never stop working, trying to get better. We draw inspiration from everywhere so at any one time we’ll have a whole Catalogue of stuff to work through. As any songwriter will tell you, half of them may be shit, but if you find one or two of them in there, that’s good!
Have you got a busy 2025 planned?
Yeah, we’re compiling dates right now. We’ve got stuff coming in all the time so we’re trying to sort through it and piece together the travel. We’ve got plenty of shows coming up this year. Should be a good year! The new record has been very well received, we’ve seen a lot of engagement on it. So that tells me people are enjoying it and they’re maybe more likely to come out to see us now!
Any plans to come back to the UK at all?
We had an offer to come play a festival over there so we’re just trying to see if it’s viable for us, if we can make a trip out of it. Hopefully it does come to fruition! But our absolute ambition and goal is to come back. When we came over the first time, it was something like we’ve never experienced. We were talking like ‘oh this is cool’, but we didn’t realise how cool it was. We were excited for the opportunity but we didn’t realise the fact that the scene over there is so much stronger. People enjoy the music. When we were out there we weren’t competing with the TV or the game that was on. Beer in hand, in front of the stage they were rocking out, then afterwards we were taking pictures with folks, we were signing records. It was absolutely a phenomenal experience. Especially Call of the Wild festival, that was one of the most fun things we’ve ever done! I have people from that festival reaching out to us all the time asking us when we’ll be back. It makes us feel so good, that it was well received!
You’ve touched on it a bit, but are there any differences between here and back home?
It‘a like people are more invested in the music, in of itself. I think that a lot of times when you have so much, it’s so oversaturated in places… over here there’s very much a few top styles of music: pop-country, hip hop and pop music. Anything outside of that is like pulling teeth to try and get visibility on. It’s amazing that we were able to land on so many different radio stations out there and Spotify playlists. But when I sat down and made a call to 100 different radio stations out here I was met with ‘if it’s not charted, we don’t want to play it’. That’s kinda discouraging, especially for an artist trying to gain visibility. So there’s a big difference in the acceptance of all styles of music, over there. They show up, they’re invested, they’re enjoying it. They actually go out to hear new music. That’s something that doesn’t happen a whole lot any more. We’re met with a lot of cover show offers. I use this line a lot but at some point ‘Sweet Home Alabama’ was an unknown song, and now it’s played in every bar across the world! How are people gonna learn out music if we can’t play it?
Yeah, I thinkthe southern thing is really taking off again here, too.
And that’s a good thing, diversifying your music. I think the world is starving for real music again. I hate to use that word but it’s all very overproduced these days. I know our record was a high quality production but I feel like there’s so much it’s just overkill. I think people are longing for music that makes them feel something, and there’s not a lot of that any more.
I’ve been a pretty big fan of this band since discovering them off their first album a few years ago now. The band’s unique blend of southern rock and Americana/folk had me hooked immediately. And since interview them a couple of times and seeing them live, we’ve gotten pretty friendly and I’ve only become a bigger fan. I’ve been rather impatiently waiting for this album to drop since the singles started coming out months ago, so now that it’s finally here I can’t wait to finally dive in!
Opener ‘Rotten Apples’ has almost a punk beat and feel to it behind the southern rock guitaring. The slide guitaring throughout is amazing. Dave’s voice comes in over the top of the bluesy verse, fitting in perfectly. It also builds to a massively catchy chorus, one that sounds like it’d be a lot of fun live! We also get an amazing guitar solo tucked in the middle of a real cool bridge part. It’s a simple song in terms of structure, but is a lot of fun and crafted perfectly. And it sets the tone for the album excellently!
The riff for ‘S.O.S.’ is heavy and fantastic, the track having a real driving energy to it. It’s also again catchy vocally, throughout this time too, the verse and pre feeling just as sing-a-longy as the chorus! The lyrics in this are pretty fantastic too, a lot of fun and very well put together. It’s a very 70s/80s hard rock style track with a Southern edge still, that then takes a surprising, abrupt but shockingly fitting turn to Iron Maiden with its bridge. The band are no stranger to wearing their inspirations on their sleeves but blending them perfectly and still making it all feel very Outlaw Orchestra. This is another excellent track and one that makes it onto our playlist!
‘Fear the Bite’ slows things down into spooky banjo time territory, another sound the band pull off amazingly. Dave’s raspier, whispered vocals are incredible over the top of the simple percussion and banjo riff. I also love that it stays at the same steady, low dark-folk level throughout. I imagine the temptation was there to build it up into a stomping rock song, but I love this sort of style and a full track of it from them was amazing. It also still works perfectly in the context of the album and the band, and breaks up the release with something completely different early on. The band are so far three for three on awesome songs!
Then you have ‘El Dorado’ that is arguably the previous song with the rock elements like I mentioned and damn, it’s incredible! I love the distorted guitar over the quick, amazing banjo playing from Pete. And the riffing all round is incredible, just like the vocals are. I love it slowing down in the middle too, the guitar replicating the banjo riffing, almost turning the track metal for a moment. The dynamics of the track are incredible, it taking multiple twists and turns throughout, keeping the listener constantly on their toes. It’s another amazing track, and another easily playlisted song!
We’re very familiarwith ‘Holy Ground’ here. I feel like I gushed over it enough in that reaction video, but months on I still LOVE this track. It’s a dark, plodding Western-blues track that is once again something rather different to the rest of the album, but still is distinctly Outlaw. I adore the lyrics throughout the song too, being maybe my favourite on the album. And those heavy bridge riffs and southern rock solo… *chef’s kiss*. Fans of the band will have enjoyed the hell out of the song for months already, just like me, but for new listeners or anyone who hasn’t heard this yet, I can’t recommend it enough. It showcases the bands talent for songwriting perfectly, and is packed full of excellent moments.
‘Small Change’ is a quick, steady-paced blues-rock pallet cleanser, and is an infectiously fun track. It’s completely different to the last few tracks but picks up the energy perfectly. It’s another track that sounds like it would be amazing live, too. At sub-two-minutes it’s the perfect short slightly sleazy southern rock track at this point in the album!
‘Sunday Drivers’ slows back down the pace again into a plodding, subdued blues track, and I love it! It fits the name of the track perfectly, and has some absolutely incredible guitar playing throughout. There are brief glimpses of distorted, heavier guitars in the chorus, but they are fleeting (in the best way). It also perfectly fits the name of the track, it being a truly excellent choice. It’s a chilled-out track that almost begs to be played in a smoky dive bar somewhere. As a massive blues rock guy, I absolutely loved this.
Lead single of the album ‘Bag of Bones’ is amazing, and really draws together every sound they have showcase over the album into one epic sound. There’s some awesome riffing and guitaring, some awesome lyrics and some damn catchy vocal melodies throughout. It has a chilled-out feel but is still distinctly rocky, even in a late 90s/early 2000s pop rock or grunge way. Honestly, it’s the same feeling that ‘Graceless Time’ has, though that track also includes a healthy dose of incredible gospel to the proceedings with the massive backing vocals, making the chorus sound huge and incredibly catchy. Yet again it’s two more amazing tracks!
Single ‘Born to Be a Thief’ is another we are rather familiar with. It’s yet another fantastic change of pace; a darker, foot-stomping, folk/Americana-drenched rock track. I’ve spun this a lot since it was first released, and it fits so well within the album that I’ve listened to it a bunch more since. Everyone works their asses off through the track, the drums, banjo and guitaring all being highlights of the track. It’s been on our playlist for months at this point, and is a huge high point of the album!
The closing track, ‘Outlaw’, is straight up rock in all the best ways. I love that in a time where most bands slow things down for the final track, TOO instead play the biggest, highest energy track they have on the album. It’s somehow the perfect blend of 70s/80s Southern rock and that again more 90s pop/almost indie rock sound. That chorus is amazing, as is the heavy blues middle part and the excellent solo over the top of it. It’s a cracking, high-energy way to close out the album that once again draws together a lot of the elements that we’d heard prior perfectly. And it’s yet another huge highlight of an album packed full of them!
Overall: This was an incredibly fun, amazing listen. I wasn’t expecting to talk about almost every song in so much depth, but the band constantly changed things up and did something new throughout that was impossible not to touch on. There was never a dull moment, and all three members are so incredibly talented for crafting something so unique and with clear passion and heart too. They put their all into this release while still sounding like they had a blast, and it in turn makes the listener have a lot of fun too! There are very few, if any, like The Outlaw Orchestra these days, and with another incredibly solid release like this, they are very much at the top of the pack in their style!
We had the pleasure of sitting down with the awesome Elvie Shane last week to chat about his latest album, his touring plans for the year and the state of country music. Check it out below!
How would you describe your sound?
With Damascus I was dead set on not having a specific sound, I just wanted to create a record that was very diverse. Each song way recorded in a way that catered to the song and the lyrical content as much as possible. I grew up listening to a lot of heartland rock; a lot of Steve Earl, Bruce Springsteen. So message wise my inspiration comes from them, but sonically my producer is a huge Black Keys, White Stripes, Alabama Shakes, so we managed to incorporate a lot of that. We also enjoy a lot of lo-fi and hip-hop, so we got to implement a lot of that into this record.
I would just say that my sound is honest. It’s a sound that is true to each song. Whether it sounds like honky tonk or gospel or rock or R&B… the whole goal is to evoke some kind of emotion from the song, so whatever caters to that!
What would you say about the state of country music at the minute?
It’s beautiful chaos. I’m not a fan of all of it, but I’m a fan people being able to come in and do whatever. I think the days of genres are coming to an end; we are all melting pots this day and age with music. We have grown up listening to so much. The country sound was the country sound because it was just being developed. Same with rock. A lot of people my generation and younger, we’ve been listening to all of this stuff and we come from so many different places of the world, there’s so much to draw from. So you can have Zach Bryan on one side, Shaboozey on the other. You can do what you want to. Music City is officially Music City and not just Country Music City. Some people hate that, I really couldn’t give a shit. I just want people to live their live and create, to do what they love and have a good time doing it. Of course I have my knee-jerk reaction sometimes when I hear stuff. But in then end we’re all trying to do the same thing; we wanna sing and write songs and do what we love, and kudos to anyone who’s doing that!
The album came out a couple of months ago now, what’s it been like to see the reception to it?
I think it’s been much better received than my original record. Backslider; I’m very proud of that record, but it was very bright eyed and bushy tailed, life was going really good when I was making that record, while with Damascus it was going much more normal. I don’t know what people were thinking truly, but I do believe my overall theme for the record was the struggle that I see in the world. I think that a lot of people are struggling, a lot of people are pissed off, and I just want them to know that someone sees what’s going on and wants to talk about it.
With Backslider everyone was really excited for a little while and then it went away. With Damascus it seems like the longer it’s out the more people start to talk about it.
Did that understand of people’s struggles play into the album title?
Yeah, Damascus is obviously the story from the bible with the apostle Paul on the road to Damascus is where the idea originally came from. I had no idea where I was going after that original record. I’d done everything I’d ever dreamt of. I got a record deal, a number one, my life was in this amazing place that I wasn’t familiar with. But with Damascus, the first two songs that we wrote for it were ‘Baptized’ and ‘Forgotten Man’, which are two very different ideas and different sounding songs. I was like, how in the world do I put this all on the same record. So the idea of Damascus steal came to me. You’ve probably seen the kitchen knives made out of it with all these black lines in them. The way they’re made is you take all these different types of steel, you throw them in a forge together and beat it together, and all those lines are the different layers of metal. And it creates a really strong metal and really beautiful knife blade.
So I thought what if I approach this album like I’m making a knife, and I’ll listen to as much Mac Miller, as much Johnny Cash, Foo Fighters and Alabama Shakes as I can. I’ll use all of that as my metal and create a Damascus knife and hope that it cuts deep. That was the plan and I feel like it came together!
What was it like working with Little Big Town and Jenna McClelland?
So Jenna is actually an old friend of mine who is probably the most amazing female vocalist I’ve ever heard in my life. She lives down in Alabama and doing the bar scene and putting her music out, but she also came on the road with me for about a year singing backing vocals. So I was in Alabama, at a beach house on a writers retreat, when I wrote ‘Jonesin’’. So I called her as she was like an hour away to come and sit in on it!
And then with Little Big Town, the day we wrote that song I’d listened to ‘Boondocks’ on the way to this writers retreat. So I had it in my head and wrote that song. And while we were writing I got a little drunk and looked up at the guys and said ‘I’m gonna have Little Big Town record on this track with me’. They just looked at me and laughed. Well, when we got done I got on Instagram and sent a Karen Fairchild a video of us just jamming the song and was like ‘Hey, I listened to Boondocks today, thanks for the inspiration!’. And then about 20 minutes later I had some more shots and went back and sent ‘fuck that, what I actually meant was if you like this, it would be really cool if you guys sing on it with me’. The next morning I woke up to a message from her saying ‘we love it, let’s do it’.
They’re so awesome to work with, they’re such good people. They’ve not forgot where they came from. They worked very hard to make sure the song got what it needed. We actually ran out of time because they were working so hard on the background vocals. I didn’t get to feature them on a main part. But it came together really well. I love the contrast of their smooth, beautiful harmonies with whatever the hell this raspy thing I’ve got going on is!
It’s certainly a highlight of the album!
I wasn’t feeling the song that much at first. Then my buddy, Adam Wood, says what if we go ‘I’m tired of coming in last’. I was like ‘hell yeah, I agree with that shit!’. I’m putting in a first place effort every day. We had come first with ‘My Boy’ off the first record, we got to ring the bell which was amazing. But after that it was like I was forgot about, you know? I was the dog that got kicked out the house and lives in the yard now. I’d grown frustrated, and when he said that line I felt that way, and I know the guy swinging the hammer or turning the wrench does too. So we brought it to life and I’m glad to have it on the record. That song is also my tip of the hat to country music.
I imagine you’re writing some stuff again already, too?
I have no earthly idea what I’m doing next. I’ve been writing a little bit, but I don’t wanna be. When Backslider came out I couldn’t wait to write more as I felt like I hadn’t said it all. With Damascus, I feel like I finally created the record I always wanted to, and said what I wanted to say. So now, I’m toying with the idea of maybe doing a more R&B/soul record. I’m never going to try to put out the same record twice. I don’t want to do that. I just wanna explore all the things in music that have inspired me. One thing I’m not really great at is writing love songs. So I’m interested in trying to approach that with the next project. I’m lost right now, I don’t know what to do.
I might just do the reverse Jelly Roll and put out a hip-hop record! Can you hear my ass rapping?!
You’ve got a fair few dates planned for the rest of the year now, right?
Yeah, I mean, I’ll take more if they’ll come. We’ve got some shows with Brothers Osborne, Miranda Lambert, Travis Tritt, Midland. We wanna come back over y’all’s way. Last year I broke my ankle a week before I was supposed to fly out there, so hopefully they’re not too gun-shy to invite me back! It’d be cool to get back out to you guys.
But yeah, we’re just out here grinding. Just trying to spread the word and spread the music. Keep gaining new fans. I’m doing it like Noah’s Arc baby, two by two, come on in!
We had the chance to sit down with the wonderful blues rock guitarist/singer Tom Killner, to chat about his latest album (review here) and his touring plans for the year. Check it all out below!
How’s it’s been to see the response to your new album?
It’s been great, to be fair! It’s different to the last albums we’ve done. It’s great that people are on board with it and like what we’ve done, which I’m really grateful for!
And it’s been a little while between releases, right?
Yeah! Somebody said it’s been six years since the last one, one of the reviews was like ‘it’s been over half a decade’ and it’s like wow, where’s that gone?! Yeah, time seems to slip by rather quickly. Especially with ‘that thing’ that happened that we don’t like to mention. So yeah, six years now. But we won’t leave it that long until the next one!
And what’s the writing process like for you? Do you write it all and then bring it to the band or do they sit and write with you?
It’s a mixture sometimes. Generally I’ll have a riff idea or the lyrics or an idea of the lyrical content. And I do like to chat with the band and get musical ideas. I do like other people’s input into stuff. It’s important that it’s not just a singular vision for the songs. The track ‘No More’ was originally a ballad, I wrote it on acoustic guitar. It just didn’t work. And then Rich, the drummer, said ‘let’s try it this way’, and this was like a week before we were due to record. Like lyrically there were no issues but musically we were struggling a little bit. And that’s when we take it to the band and swap and change it and things.
So it’s sort of a mixture between myself doing bits and pieces and the band coming up with ideas. I more or less let them have free rein with what they want to do on the tracks. That’s down to them.
Is there a particular story or theme throughout the album?
I don’t think there’s a story, you can’t call it a concept album. It’s an accumulation of songs I’ve written… some I wrote years back and we’ve toured them for years. Some of them were done literally the week before we recorded the album. But all the songs are from a certain point in my life, pinpointing what it was like then. Some are just pure fantasy, some are observations on everyday life. So that’s kinda the theme from the record, pinpoints through life.
I imagine there’s some music floating round for the next project still, too?
Yeah, I would say so! The vinyl format that we did, you’ve gotta cut down to a certain length or you start to loose audio quality, which a fun constraint to have. And the cost of having a double LP is unattainable at the moment. But yeah, we have got ideas and songs and riffs that didn’t make it onto this record that will be on the next one. And hopefully it won’t been too long before we start getting those together and having the next one written.
And do you lean more towards albums as opposed to single or?
I’m in both camps, to be fair. The industry is changing with how to capture your audience; you’ve got to move with what is happening, really. I would say I’m in the camp of I like a full album but I’m not afraid to have a couple or three singles from the album before the release. It sort of gives the people an indication of where it’s gonna go. Today it’s really hard to keep the attention of people. We’re in the world of 15/30 second videos. I’m 28 now so I sort of caught the end of when you used to go into shops to buy singles. So the singles thing has always been there, but it’s a rarity these days that bands are purely releasing LPs or full albums.
And so you’re on tour next month, right?
Yes! We are headed out with Hush Money, from Georgia. I can’t wait to be heading out with them. It’s crept up on me, seems like this year has disappeared already! We have a few dates with them across the UK; Scotland and the North-East and down to Wolverhampton and finish off at Call of the Wild. Really looking to that!
Then in July we’re heading out with Preacher Stone. These shows that we’re doing, we’re playing venues that we’ve never been to before, meet in new friends, so we’re looking forward to it!
Have you got much planned for the summer/back end of the year?
We’ve got quite a few festivals throughout. There’s plans for a tour later on this year on our own. It’s not been announced yet but we’re working on that! But mainly through summer it’s festivals.
Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?
This question comes up a bit and I think it changes on a daily basis! A big one for me would be Blackberry Smoke. They’ve been on the playlist today so that explains why! Lukas Nelson, he’s really cool! Jason Isbell is one of my favourite artists in the Southern rock camp, phenomenal songwriter!
We had the chance to sit down with the awesome Gorilla Riot ahead of their set with Asomvel the other night (review here). Check it out below!
How’s the tour been so far?
This is the fourth show we’ve done upto now. Glasgow were cool. Weirdly enough it’s took us 10 years as a band to get up there, which is a bit odd. But it was good man, good vibes, definitely want to go back there. Then Newcastle, same again. Then Blackpool, played there a million times before but it was sweet!
And what can we expect from the show tonight?
Just some good old-fashioned rock’n’roll. It’s just a 30-minute set so just a power half-an-hour. Well, whatever Arj can sing, which is everything!
You’ve not long added a backing vocalist, what’s it like to be/have that in the band?
Luci: It’s really nice! I’ve known everyone for a long time; I’ve done a lot of Arj’s solo stuff and the acoustic side of things, and it’s been really nice to join in the rock band! We have fun, we have a good laugh!
Yeah, hearing you guys at sound check it all sounded to mesh together perfectly!
That’s good, it’s all downhill from now! That’s probably the best soundcheck we’ve done on this tour. It’s a great venue here, we’ve done it once before and that was cool!
And you guys are on the last week of the album crowdfunder, right?
Yeah, around that. 26th, so it’s close! We’re over it [the goal] now anyway. Which is mega. I didn’t think we’d get that response that quick. Everyone just rallied in and helped for the cause. It’s like us, you’re gonna get it done so get it fucking done. And within a week it was done! No fucking about or bullshit.
Is the album all written, then?
It’s all done, recorded and ready to go! We started recording it like two years ago and the recording process took a while. It’s been ready to go for a little while to be honest, but it’s just releasing it that we needed the help with.
Have got a rough idea of when we might get some new music?
It’ll be the back end of the year. I think we’re trying to aim for autumn, not winter. That’ll give a bit of longevity for the back end of the year to get on the road and work it. The album launch is booked, though! Not 100% set on dates but end of September, early October time. The plan is to be on the road for most of October, we’re still finalising gigs at the minute, and that will probably extend into November and December too.
We have Rock the Peak, and a few Stripped Back shows through the summer time to keep us going, too.
How did the Stripped Back shows come about?
We’ve always done it, to be fair. There’s a lot of influence running through the band and instead of just putting it into one we kinda separated it. People make the mistake of thinking it’s acoustic, but it’s not. It’s just less loud. Arj plays acoustic on most tracks, there’s more backing vocals, slightly different arrangements… it’s nice for us to hear the songs differently. If you look at our last record, Peach, it’s a full-on grunge album, while if you go back to the American Honey EP, it’s more soulful. It’s just good to separate on them and focus on it.
I don’t know, I’m just excited for the new stuff. As soon as we did that we did a couple of gigs with the Stripped stuff and I absolutely loved it. But then you do five or six shows of that, and you get a little bored, and you wanna do the rock stuff again. Who is anybody to tell you what the fuck to do? I’m gonna get paid anyway!
Do you have a dream tour lineup you’d want to be a part of?
It’s one of them I’m gonna be honest, I’m fucking sick of rock music! I don’t know, I’m pretty happy to just go with it and see what happens. I don’t really have a dream tour or situation. I’d like to play at Manchester Apollo at some point. That was the first gig I ever went to there. In regards to all that stuff though I’m just happy to ride the wave and go with it!
I like Gary Clark but they have a stint and then drop off. If Temperance Movement were still about that would have been cool. Skindred would be cool because they’re nice guys. I’d love to open for Keith Richards. Not the Stones, just Keith! At the Ritz or Royal Albert Hall or something like that.
A pretty stacked week as always this week, with everything from rock to country to metalcore. Let’s check it all out!
Blue Oyster Cult: Ghost Stories
The legendary rock band are back with their 16th studio album. The gap between the last two albums was a whopping 19 years, so it’s so nice to see the band clearly finding their passion for writing again, returning with another only four years later. And, what’s even better… it’s good! Is it as good as some of their best work? Not quite. But for a band that are going on six decades at this, they are doing a phenomenal job. Buck and Eric’s vocals still sound just as great together as they did in the 70s, and come up with some awesome, catchy vocal hooks and melodies. Tracks like ‘Cherry’, ‘Soul Jive’ and the jazzy ‘Shot in the Dark’ are personal highlights. Heck, we even get a great punk track with ‘Kick Out the Jams’. However, honestly, there isn’t a bad track on the album. It’s great, fun, chilled out soft-bluesy rock, and if you’re a fan of the band already you’ll love it, I’m sure! It probably won’t make our Best Albums of 2024 list, but it’s a damn good album and one the band should be damn proud of after all these years. 8/10
Tyler Hubbard: Stronger
We’ve already reviewed this album! Check it out here!
Mark Knopfler: One Deep River
I’ve been a fan of the Dire Straits frontman for years at this point. Not to age him drastically (heck, not that he’ll read this), but my Grandad is a big fan of the man and passed on that fandom to me in my early teens. And, being not only a soft rock fan, but a wannabe guitarist in a blues-rock inspired band, of course said fandom continues to this day. And the album was exactly what I was expecting; chilled-out rock music filled with incredible guitar work and some awesome vocal lines. I enjoyed it all, but standout tracks were definitely ‘Scavenger Yard’ and ‘Before my Train Comes’. Honestly, I don’t really have much else to say about the album. As I said, if you know Mar’s work, you’ll know exactly what to expect heading into it. It’s slower, lower-energy Dire Straits. If that’s your sort of thing, you’ll like this, just like I did. However, I know it certainly isn’t for everyone. Still, it’s an easy 7/10 from me!
Kris Barras Band: Halo Effect
The UK rock frontman (and former cage fighter, bet you didn’t know that?!) Kris Barras and his band are back with their fifth album. I’ve been a fan of his work for a while now, ever since ‘Hail Mary’ came out and hooked me in. So, know this comes from a place of love when I say… this is fine. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly some good songs, and some that stand out the more I listen to them. The foot-stomping ‘With You’, anthemic ‘Reflections’ and the almost power metal single ‘Secrets’ are all clear favourites of mine. However, there is so much music out these days that sounds like this that it risks getting lost in the shuffle a little. The heavier NWOCR sound, Alter Bridge/Black Stone Cherry mixed with early 2000s dad/butt rock, is being done very well by so many bands at the minute. Whether it’s Those Damn Crows, Florence Black or Stone Broken, or so many other bands not in the UK, there is tonnes of this style that is great. And this is also great, don’t get me wrong, but does it stack up to some of the best? Potentially not.
It’s growing on me more with subsequent listens, don’t get me wrong, but I’m going to struggle to work out what score to give it. The riffs are awesome and go hard from start to finish, Kris’s vocals are as good as ever, and it does have some massive, catchy choruses. I hate to be THAT fan, but I did find myself enjoying their older, more blues-oriented sound. It set them apart from the pack a little more while this just sounds like everything else. Still, again, it’s not a bad album, and I’ll most likely be listening to a good few of the songs a fair bit moving forward. 7.5/10
Imminence: The Black
The metalcore Swedes are back with their first album in three years. I have to admit, I am very much in two minds with it. When it goes hard and gets heavy, I love it. Tracks like ‘Desolation’ and ‘?’ are amazing thanks to the heavy guitars and brutal screams. Even when the vocals get cleaner in parts of the tracks, it still has a heavy edge to it all. Heck, ‘Heaven Shall Burn’ is essentially a deathcore song. The strings in it were also an excellent touch. However, other tracks, such as the opener or ‘Death By a Thousand Cuts’, suffer the knock-on effect of Bad Omens’ Tik Tok popularity. Don’t get me wrong, variety isn’t an issue and is even encouraged. However, I’m not a fan of the kinda winey, radio-bait sound of these songs, Bad Omens and BMTH’s modern stuff. I’m sure I am in the minority with that opinion, given the popularity of the style, but give me heavy or give me nothing, please! Heck, even just a more interesting ballad would have been nice!
Still, there is certainly enough on here that I liked and to keep me entertained. There are a good number of songs that I’ll certainly have on a lot in the coming weeks and months. However, as an album as a whole, it isn’t for me. If you are into any of the bands I previously listed though or that lighter, more atmospheric/pop end of metalcore, this will certainly be for you! 7/10
Týr: Battle Ballads
I never feel like there’s enough Viking metal on this page, so damn am I excited to inject some more into it! The bands ninth studio album goes just has hard as their last few does. The first release after the critically acclaimed live album A Night at the Nordic House, it had to pull out all the stops, and that’s exactly what this does. Right from the intro it is epic, folky heavy metal music, and I loved it until the very last minute. Tracks like ‘Unwandered Ways’, ‘Hangman’ and the title track are all massive highlights. Also, big shoutout to the beautiful ballad sung in their native tongue, ‘Torkils Døtur’, it’s awesome.
Don’t go into this expecting Amon Amarth as it’s certainly lighter than that, more of a NWOBHM meets power metal vibe. However, it certainly channels a similar energy and epicness and passion. It’s a solid album from start to finish and one that I will most certainly be listening to again. Now I just need to hear all of these live with an orchestra behind them, too. I’m not asking for much! 8/10, this was great!
Gun: Hombres
The British hard rockers have certainly enjoyed one hell of a career resurgence in recent years, thanks in large part to being an adopted uncle/godfather to the ever-growing NWOCR scene. This album certainly continues their impressive run of momentum. It’s a great album that perfectly fuses the modern sound and style with that of the 80s sleazy hard rock that inspired them. The Axl Rose-inspiration is clear in the vocals, as is Slash’s in the guitaring, while it also has a touch of the likes of Motley Crue and Love/Hate, but all modernised to fit with the current sounds. Honestly, it sounds like a new version of UYI-I, or what Chinese Democracy should have sounded like.
Tracks like ‘Take me Back Home’, ‘Lucky Guy’ and the very British ballad, ‘You Are What I Need’ are all perfect examples of what I mean, and are all big highlights of the album. However, the more I listen to the album, the more I fall in love with every track. There is a lot to love on this album, and there really isn’t a bad track on it. Being a fan of the band for a while, I can confidently say that this is up there amongst my favourite albums from them. Any rock fans should check this out, they certainly won’t be disappointed! I’m gonna be cranking this a lot in the coming weeks and months. 9/10, great stuff!
Tom Killner: Borrowed Time
British blues guitarist/singer/legend Tom Killner is back with his third studio album, and first in over half a decade! It certainly doesn’t feel that long ago, but also feels like a long time coming. I’ve been waiting rather impatiently since it was announced last year, so can’t wait to finally be hearing it in full!
It’s an awesome, chilled out rock album, that has a hell of a lot more to offer than basic blues. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of that too, on tracks like the opener and recent single ‘Light it Up’. However, tracks like ‘One Day at a Time’ have a more chilled-out, almost easy listening feel. Then ‘On the Other Side’ and ‘Borrowed Time’ have definite Lynyrd Synyrd/Blackberry Smoke country vibes combined with the blues, too. All the songs mentioned previously are certainly highlights. However, there isn’t a bad song on the album, and the whole thing is one big highlight, honestly. It’s clear a lot of love and dedication was put into this album, and I can’t fault it at all. I’m on my third listen through already this weekend which, given how much else I have to listen to, is a real testament to how great this release is. If you’re a rock, blues or country fan, or even if not, check this out, you won’t be disappointed! I have to. It’s an easy 10/10!
ERNEST: NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE
The country superstar is back with his third record, and first in two years. Settle in, ladies and gents, it’s another long country album! It’s 26 tracks, nearly an hour-and-a-half, and honestly a little bit of a mixed bag. I’m a big fan of Jelly Roll, but damn if the opening track that features him isn’t just straight cringe. And the variety in the sounds, while good and greatly appreciated in this long of a release, does come across more of a ‘I used to write songs for others and haven’t quite found my own sound yet’ case. The song he does with Morgan Wallen, ‘Hangin’ On’, for example, just sounds like another Morgan song. Then again, his duet with Lainey Wilson is beautiful, and he and HARDY do a really interesting cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’. And the more upbeat, quirky tracks on here, like ‘Why Dallas’ and ‘Smokin’ Gun’, are definite album highlights. However, there is a LOT to this album, and a fair number of the tracks towards the back end are covers. I’d have much preferred he cut some of them out, did an EP or something with them instead, then load everything he had in the studio into one long release. It’s not a bad album at all, and if you’re into the more radio-style of country music, you’ll find plenty to enjoy. I just don’t think it’s anywhere near as consistent as it could be. 7/10
The Georgian country rock band Blackberry Smoke are going on nearly two and a half decades in the industry, and in that time have brought some absolutely incredible music to the scene. Now eight albums into their illustrious career, the band show no sign of slowing down! We’ve already checked out the singles released on our YouTube, and safe to say they’re pretty great. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the whole album!
Opening on the lead single is always a great bet, and few are better than ‘Dig a Hole’. The first time I heard this track was actually at The Long Road last year, and have loved it ever since! We’ve since done a reaction video to it, alongside two other of the singles, and I remember praising it highly then too. It’s a steady-tempo, swaggering southern rock track through and through. It doesn’t do anything massively unexpected, but also doesn’t really need to, it’s just a great track! The riffing is a massive highlight, and the vocals are catchy as anything! A great start!
Another single, ‘Hammer and the Nail’, is up next. It’s another foot-stomping, awesome country rock song. It’s an infectiously catchy chorus that will go down insanely well live, I’m sure. Honestly though all the vocals in the track are catchy. I love the melody between the vocals and guitar in the verses, nearly following each other. We also get an awesome little guitar solo tucked in the middle, fitting the tone of the song perfectly. Out of the three singles I reacted to, this was the one that stuck with me the least. However, after listening to it in context with the album, I have to say I loved it a lot more!
The first non-single of the album, ‘Like it was Yesterday’, is just as good as the singles. It does have a slightly more chilled out, more country vibe than the previous two tracks, though. There’s still a touch of rock to it, but it’s more in the guitar work and tone. It’s more Lynyrd Skynyrd than heavier Cadillac Three, that’s for sure! And that’s certainly not a bad thing, it’s a great song that is gonna be stuck in my head for days to come. It’s a track that easily makes our playlist!
‘Be So Lucky’ chills out the vibes even more. The main focus is on the steady, cleanish guitar riff and Charlie’s vocals, a simple drum, bass and keys backing. Even if it does feel a little bigger in the choruses, which is awesome, it still has a stripped-back feel to it all. It’s almost a ballad track. I LOVE the harmonies on the chorus vocals, too. I really love the lyrics as well. The band have always been fantastic lyric writers, and this is up there with ‘One Horse Town’ for me. And it has one of my favourite guitar solos on the album, simple yet so very effective. It’s another awesome track!
‘Azalea’ is the most recent single from the album, and the only one I haven’t had the time to check out yet. It’s another chilled out track, almost diving into more folk territory than even country. I love the almost Newton Faulkner riff that runs through the majority of it, and the vocals fit perfectly over the top of it. It’s a beautiful, simple track that surprisingly fits perfectly on the album and feels right at home among any other Blackberry Smoke songs. And it’s a really great choice to have this as the midpoint of the album, too!
‘Don’t Mind If I Do’ picks the pace immediately back up again in the best way. Going back to their blues rock sound, reminding me heavily of ‘Rock and Roll Again’. It’s a very Status Quo riff and the subtle piano in the back is amazing. And again, the chorus is a massive highlight of the track, being made for massive arenas and festivals. We also get another awesome guitar solo, again fitting the tone perfectly. I love how easily the band can transition between different sounds and feels, and they do it effortlessly on this album. It’s another track that makes our playlist, it’s awesome!
The main riff for ‘Whatcha Know Good’ is a fantastic one, a country-blues masterclass of writing and playing. I love the darker, moodier tone it gives the whole song. The whole track has this slower, attitude-dripping feel and pace to it that I instantly fell in love with. It’s such a simple yet incredibly effective track, and one that I’ll have on a hell of a lot in the coming weeks and months!
‘Other Side of the Light’ is another slower, acoustic track like ‘Azalea’. It’s a fantastic track with one of the best choruses on the album. And it has some more of those awesome lyrics I was talking about earlier, being fantastically uplifting. However, I can’t bring up great choruses without talking about the following track, ‘Little Bit Crazy’. It’s up there with one of my favourite tracks they’ve ever done, and it’s all because of that incredible chorus and all the vocals going on in it. Heck, it opens on the awesome trio of vocals, setting the tone for the track perfectly. And when done with the band, it sounds MASSIVE. The verses and solo are also awesome, but I can’t get over that chorus. It’s a track that easily makes our playlist and damn, I need to see it live!
The closing track, ‘Barefoot Angel’, somehow draws together all the sounds previously on the album into one epic track. Whether it’s the fuzzy southern rock riffing, slower acoustic verses or the huge, arena-filling choruses, it feels like the perfect crescendo. And again, the lyrics are incredible, a beautiful love song. I love the Synyrd-style bridge and outro too, it feeling almost like jamming than anything else. What a fantastic way to close out the album!
Overall: I loved this! I know I would, given how much I love the band and enjoyed the singles I’d already heard. However, to finally be able to sit down with the full album was awesome. Every track is amazing, and it’s arranged in the perfect order; never once getting boring. The band simply do their own thing and it comes across so well on track and in a live setting. I cannot recommend this album enough to anyone into rock or country music, you’ll find something to enjoy for sure! And I’d easily put it up there alongside The Whippoorwill and Like an Arrow as my favourite releases the band have put out.
Local boys for us, Smoke Over Elsewhere, have been going from strength to strength in the UK underground rock scene for a couple of years now. Their blend of southern with the usual UK rock sound has turned a lot of heads. Their debut EP came out earlier this month and, after their previous two singles, I can’t wait to hear it. Let’s check it out!
Opener ‘Told You So’ builds up perfectly through a great bass and drum line, adding in the guitars before exploding into the HUGE main riff. The verse is fun while the chorus is simple yet dripping with attitude and swagger. There isn’t necessarily a huge, arena filling feel to it, it reminds me more of some of the Appetite for Destruction album tracks, ripping through awesome riffs and brief vocal sections. It’s a hell of a lot of fun as a track and skirts the line between hard rock, southern and heavier indie perfectly. A great way to open the EP!
‘Fire Blind’ channels the same heavy, hard southern rock swagger and riffing as the previous track. I LOVE the playing that’s going on through the EP, and especially here with the inclusion of the slide guitar. The chorus here is pretty catchy, and has more a doom/stoner vibe to the delivery. An almost Monster Magnet or High on Fire type feel. Honestly, there wasn’t much I could think of saying about the track outside of it’s a great song that’s definitely worth checking out.
Another great riff forms the basis of ‘Crazy’. If there’s one thing that’s a clear highlight of the EP and band in general, it’s these sleazy, hard rock riffs. It’s another great chorus in a simple yet incredibly effective track. The drum fill was great in the middle, too. It’s all one level and tempo and there really isn’t a massive amount to the track, but that’s if anything part of its charm. The band don’t need to do anything flashy or reinvent the wheel, they just play good rock music!
Closer ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Woman’ is practically exactly the same as the previous track, and the two before that. It’s the origin of the EP’s title, and it’s an infectiously catchy chorus surrounded by of course great instrumentation from the band. It’s my favourite track on the album and easily makes our playlist. It’s the perfect way to conclude this short, straight to the point EP!
Overall: This is exactly what I was expecting. And, for anyone going into this expecting a straight forward hard rock album with a bit of blues and Southern edge to it, you’ll feel the same. I have to say though, this release is definitely less southern than their previous two tracks, which was slightly disappointing. Still, it was a lot of fun and a collection of tracks that I would LOVE to see performed live. Each member is a master of their craft and came together to create something really great here. Hopefully we get a full length soon!
We caught up with our good friends The Outlaw Orchestra ahead of their amazing 3rd stage headlining set at Call of the Wild Festival. Check out as we chatted about the scene, new music and their next five years!
P.S. I’d highly recommend watching the video if you get the chance, there were times where I just couldn’t type up the back and forth nicely!
How’ve the last few months been since we last chatted?
Terrible. Really bad. We went to try and get a bank account and they turned us down as a band. They said we don’t have enough information. Admittedly I [Dave] was a bit lax in putting forth my side of things. But the music, it’s been dragging along a bit but we’ve been so preoccupied with the bank that we’ve done nothing!
And what’s it like to be a part of this NWOCR scene at the minute?
It’s brilliant. I think they’re spearheading the world of rock within the UK. I think they’re going to take Download festival, Castle Donington to task, and it’ll be the ‘NWOCR festival; formerly known as Monsters of Rock/Download festival’. And because they’ve been so good to us over the years, I’m sure that when it comes to it they’re gonna go ‘Outlaw Orchestra, we’ll put them in the top three on Saturday night!’.
They’ve always been so damn good to us and they’re a bunch of super nice guys. We always have a great laugh on interview with them. Literally from day one. And they’ve got their next CD coming out and we’re on it! It’s super cool!
It definitely seems to have diversified a lot in its time too!
That’s always the case. If you start something and it grows you’ve gotta try and gather all the marbles as they fall out and it becomes bigger and becomes a bigger monster. But good on them, they’re soldiering on with it! It’s nice to be part of it!
What’s it like to be playing these sort of festivals?
Yeah, since day one we’ve made so many friends and all the people here come and watch us time and time again. We’ve got so many supporters. Even the festival bookers are so positive about the flavour we bring to the festival.
We’re hoping as we grow and we know more of the crowd, maybe some of them work for Starling Bank!
Are we working on new music?
Yeah we are! We’ve always got Outlaw ideas to record. We just went into a studio, Rogue Studios, right by Wembley Stadium. So that was super cool. They’d just worked with the guys from Megadeth and then us. It was a good studio!
If you are a musician you should work with different people, work at different studios. You get an engineer you’ve never met and they are not familiar with you. You get their take on it. You’ve just gotta hope that there’s a chemistry and if it works, bingo!
So we’ve got a few tracks down for a new album. Here’s a question though: Does a band drop an album, or does a band release singles? Now, I’m from the school that you drop an album, but the new kids on the block are telling me that you do singles and hold back say four tracks, and bring out a collective album. Maybe add a little bundle package with a T-shirt etc. I still like the idea of bringing out an album but you could then argue on what format. You say CD and all the kids out there today get confused. What’s the alternative? Vinyl? So we’ve chucked about six grand behind minidisc!
Have you guys got much planned for the rest of the year?
Busy year for festivals! It’s looking very good. We have another festival in West Sussex, and Rockin Ribs down near Summerset, and Maid in Stone Festival. That’s the site and plan that Ramblin’ Man used to be at, but is a completely separate festival. We managed to play Ramblin’ Man, back when we were supported by Foreigner and whatever…
Rockin Ribs is a great one. It’s a mega mega Americana festival. Cars, trucks, BBQs, monster trucks crushing cars and stuff. It’s the UK redneck central, it’s brilliant. They even have a wrestling ring! It’s super cool. Some serious beer drinking at that one!
Other than that we’re on later today, in the tent by the exit.
What can we expect from your set?
A few covers. Some Motorhead covers. Some Beatles. We’ll do ‘Come Together’ as I thought Tina Turner did the best version of that. We were going to do Private Dancer but Pete’s moves weren’t up to scratch! Always gotta chuck in some covers. We did a tour with Warner Hodges who played for Jason and the Scorchers, and he said to us ‘do three of your own and chuck in a cover’. Keeps the crowd happy and it works a charm. ‘Finally, I know this one!’ and all that. ‘I didn’t realise it was these guys who wrote Rocky Mountain Way!’.
But yeah, that’s what you can expect from us! We’ll go warm our fingers up and then go do some rock ‘n roll!
Do you have any plans for the next say five years?
I don’t think we’ve got a five day plan, have we?
I really wanna play Shepherds Bush Empire. We love that venue. Super cool. Brixton Academy too. The Oprey would be something special. The Roundhouse. You can get a support slot here and there and play some really cool venues. Then you know you can pull a good crowd!
Five year plan… you never look beyond where you are. You never know how it’s gonna go.
In five years I want to have gone into rehab about three times. I wanna get hugely fat and then rehab, rehab, then reform after all the court cases, lose all the weight… Different rehabs each time too, drugs, booze, then sex, which was how all the weight was lost. They lead from one to the other. Then come back looking terrible but reformed. Arrested a couple of times for trying to score dope in Times Square or something like that. Then the cover of Rolling Stone!
So that’s the plan for five years… desperation. The desperation tour. Tagline ‘The Car Crash that Nobody Wants to Look At’. And we’re gonna start tonight!
