Jason also caught up with Kennedy, Goonzi and Martyn from Bleed From Within at the Metal Hammer Tour gig in Birmingham.

Review by Jason Guest
Photos by Samantha Knight

Midlands Rocks: Thanks for taking time out to speak to us at Midlands Rocks. How’s the tour been going so far?

Goonzi: Amazin’. Every night’s been packed.

Kennedy: It just seems to be getting better. I know a lot of bands say that, but it genuinely has got better…

Goonzi: Crazy…

MR: What size venues have you been playing?

Goonzi: Probably about the same size as this [The Temple at the HMV Institute]. In Bristol, it was about 400 capacity…

Kennedy: they’ve all been between 200 to 500 capacity and they’ve all mostly been sold out as well…

G: Definitely makes a difference to the other tours we’ve done. It seems a lot of people are going crazy for these bands too…

MR: Are the fans here for one band more than another?

Martyn: I think the package is really strong, actually. It’s one of the tours – that I’ve been part of – some nights… every night, the bands get a good reaction. It starts off with a good reaction and it just gets better for each band. It’s been really cool…

Goonzi: There’s no competition between the bands…

Martyn: We’ve been friends for quite a while with every band on the tour so we’re just having a laugh…

MR: Have you guys played abroad? What’s the reception been like?

Goonzi: The furthest we’ve been has been mainland Europe. We recently just toured with All That Remains, Soilwork, and Caliban all over Europe, went to Scandinavia for the first time. Feels like metal’s accepted over there and people come out to gigs more, it’s just a lot crazier…

K: We do better over there than we do here. We did a headline tour over in Europe in summer and we were pulling the same amount of people, alone, as this tour has been pulling here. I think Europe’s better. This tour is going to Europe and playing venues double the size.

MR: So, if we can talk about your music, between your albums [2009’s Humanity and 2010’s Empire], has the writing changed?

K: For Humanity, we wrote all of that stuff when we were sixteen to nineteen and…

G: We used to just write things on the spot and throw songs together quite quickly but now, we kinda take more time over it. We record stuff, send it to each other, then piece songs together, and then we go into the studio and try and make full songs. We take songs apart and try and make them as perfect as we can make them.

MR: So more time crafting the songs rather than piecing riffs together?

K: Sometimes you just come out with something quick and sometimes it’s some of the best stuff you ever wrote because you’re not thinking about it too much.

MR: Is there a difference in the album [Empire]? Is there a progression between the two albums?

G: We’re writing at the moment for the third album. It’s not completely different but we are trying to build on what we’ve done before and not do the same thing, always trying to better ourselves.

K: I think the first album’s got more of a death metal influence, then the second album is much more melodic.

G: We just tried to focus on the things we liked on Empire and build on that for the next album.

ME: I just sit and write riffs and try not to think what it ‘should’ sound like…

G: This is our new guitarist [points to Martyn]

MR: So you’re writing together?

ME: We’ve got systems to record stuff and e-mail. It ranges from ten second guitar riff clips to two minute ideas. I’ve got a massive folder in my bag full of just ideas. I got one or two almost full song ideas we’ve played around with in rehearsal.

G: ‘Cos Martyn lives in Bath/Bristol area, we make it work sending, e-mailing each other things, and when he comes up to practice, that’s when we start piecing everything together.

K: There’s so many bands where every member stays in a different country, it can definitely work.

MR: Technology helps then?

ME: I know of bands that record an album and they don’t even play the songs together as a band before they record. They record it, you know, all their parts and then they go into the studio and that’s the first time they play it. I don’t think I would enjoy that very much but it’s not a bad way. I prefer the more natural, organic, “let’s have a jam and see what happens”…

MR: How did you come across Martyn?

ME: We’ve known each other for five years, since my previous band…

K: You don’t want just anyone in a band. You want someone you’re comfortable with, really good friends with, ‘cos all of us in the band have been best friends since we were kids pretty much, and we want someone we’re comfortable touring with and living with.

G: We could’ve auditioned a lot of people from Glasgow…

K: There was no one in Glasgow that would fit in the band who was as good a friend as Martyn, and he was leaving his previous band anyway… perfect timing.

ME: When my last band played in Glasgow, we’d stay at Ali, our drummer’s house so I’ve felt comfortable for a while. Even from the first practice it was, like, ‘Cool’ ‘cos I’ve known the guys, there’s been none of that ‘he’s the new guy’ and, like, I’m English and because I’ve known the guys for so long, when they get especially drunk, their Scottish accent tends to take over a bit more.

G: We call him ‘England’ [laughs]

ME: [laughs] Yeah, we got a lot of people, ‘what did they say?’, and I have to translate [laughs]

MR: So you’re fluent in Scottish?

ME: I can understand it but I can’t speak it really well [laughs].

MR: Back to the music. Who are the main influences for you guys?

G: It’s hard to say. Every one of us listens to a lot of different stuff. Kennedy loves Elvis. I love The Black Dahlia Murder. Ali loves Tool. Davie (bass) loves black metal…

K: I’d say my biggest influence with vocals would probably be Underoath. I just love the way that guy writes lyrics and puts them to the songs. He’s just genius. He’s got such an aggressive voice and he just sounds so passionate. I just love the aggression in his voice and his lyrics are amazing. Some of the lines he has are just amazing. I’m also influenced by, like, Lamb of God, The Black Dahlia Murder, Pantera – Phil Anselmo is just the most pissed off frontman ever. That’s what you want to see in a metal frontman. The themes on our first album, a death happened in my family so that’s pretty much what I was about and the second album, Empire, is more positive. It’s about how I dealt with that, got through it. When you experience stuff like that, you feel like what is their left to live for…

ME: I think, for me, with lyrics – I don’t listen to a lot of lyrics, I listen to guitars and stuff – I prefer that kind of anger, that being something that has happened to you. It doesn’t have to be obviously about what’s been happening to you, when it symbolises something, more passion comes out in the voice and you can tell. One of my favourite vocal recordings is the last Architects record, his voice is just completely passionate and it makes that record, whereas there’s a lot of death metal bands, you can feel it, y’know… You can tell when they’ve just gone in and said, ‘right, what’s the first line?’ That makes a band even better for me, and people can relate to it. Like, Kennedy said how his lyrics are about how he lost someone close to him, if someone reads the lyrics, they feel they can relate to him or the band, it shows it’s more ‘us and the band’.

K: I’ve also had a lot of people message me online and come up to me at shows and stuff, they’ve said the lyrics helped them through hard times. That’s what I want, that’s what I want to hear.

MR: Yeah, it’s good to have that relationship with your favourite bands. Was there a point when you realised how successful the band was becoming? I take it you guys have jobs too.

K: The reason we have jobs – I don’t know how it would’ve been ten years ago – is no one buys CDs anymore.

G: The highlight for me was when we played Download in 2009 and we were clashing with A Day to Remember and Parkway Drive and I thought no one was gonna come see us because it’s the same kinda fan base but there was like four thousand people in the tent. That was a big eye-opener for me.

K: We went to Europe for the first time and it was pretty shit and then we go over on the new album for a month-long headlining tour and we sold out a venue in Holland for 550 capacity. We got home and we were just gutted to be home! [laughs]

MR: You said about CDs not selling. In the advent of the internet and piracy, do you think it’s difficult for bands to establish and maintain themselves?

G: A lot of bands are doing it for themselves today. You don’t need to go down to the shops, you can just download the media…

K: It’s good and bad because… It’s easier for a band to get more successful nowadays because everyone just downloads an album to just check out, whereas you won’t buy an album if you’ve never heard the band. It’s also hard because it’s harder for bands to stay because they’re skint.

ME: I think it’s hard because there are so many bands, more than when I was a kid. Everyone and their mum can make a band. A lot of them are really good and you get really young guitar players and drummers who are really talented and they are out there doing it instead of just sitting on some street corner robbing people. I admire that they want to do that because that’s what I was like. But, like, seventy percent of it is just, like, crap! [laughs] I don’t mean to slag ‘em but bands that are getting somewhere are for a reason. It doesn’t matter about album sales, it’s ‘cos their music’s good.

G: I think if a band is genuinely good then they will make it somewhere.

MR: Yeah. So, what’s the plan after the tour?

G: We’ve got a short Euro run, and Hammerfest at Pontyns. Paris, Extreme Fest. Then continue writing the third album and have that done by the end of the year, get that out early next year. That’s about it…

MR: Anything else you want to add for our readers and the fans?

ME: Thank you to everyone that came out for the tour, and giving me a good reception because I didn’t know what to expect. I was quite nervous but I’ve had a wicked time. Buy ‘Empire’. Or download it, I don’t care. Just listen to it. Learn the words and sing with Kennedy!

MR: Cheers lads.

Read Jason's review of the Metal Hammer gig here