Interview by Jason Guest
Photos by Samantha Knight

Midlands Rocks: Hi Josh. How’s the Razor Tour going so far?

Josh Middleton: Yeah, awesome. We haven’t done a tour since December. We had a few months off and I’ve been ill since then and I’m on antibiotics with a sinus infection so I’m just getting back into the swing of it and try to ignore the constant pain in my throat. But the shows have been really good, really busy, some of the busiest we’ve done headlining.

MR: You’ve got a good bunch of bands on.

JM: Yeah, it’s a really good line-up, really diverse…

MR: I was reading that you’ve got a different relationship with [debut album] Conclusion of an Age now.

JM: Kind of, yeah, it didn’t quite come out as I’d hoped, in terms of just the overall feel of the album. We kept getting lumped in with metalcore, which is something that none of us are into or influenced by, but then looking back you can see why. It’s the mixture of the melodic stuff and heavy stuff that’s something that we like doing but it came out a bit too obvious maybe. But I’m not a huge fan of it to be honest. At the time we were really happy but we just wanna move away from it a bit at the same time…

MR: So has the change in the line-up allowed that, now that you’ve taken over on vocal duties?

JM: Not really, to be honest, because I’ve always written nearly all the music, and when we were still a five piece, I’d kinda gone off it anyway then and wanted to go for a new production, for a slightly different sound, to make Edge of the Earth sound a bit new and fresh. The production on Edge of the Earth kinda helps distance from the last album.

MR: You worked with Scott Atkins again…

JM: Yeah, really good guy. We also said that the production was something that we wanted to work on ‘cos we found Conclusion a bit too sterile, a bit too polished, everything was as perfect as we could get it. We went off that a bit and just wanted to get something really warm, a balance of clarity and heaviness. We listened to a lot of stuff like Neurosis, stuff a bit more ballsy. We wanted to make it more intense, more, like, human and make you feel something as opposed to sterile and robotic heaviness. The production adds to it a bit, makes it a bit more ugly…

MR: With the line-up change, was Jamie leaving a mutual decision?

JM: Not entirely. On the last tour we did with him about a year ago, he kind of said towards the end… we were kinda expecting to come back from the tour with a bit of money for a change because normally we don’t make profit off a tour. Merch covers the driver, the sound guy and stuff like that. We were thinking we might derail and at the end of the tour it was like, “I can’t keep doin’ this if I can’t come back with money and can’t pay rent and stuff. If we don’t start making money outta this in the next few years, I just can’t do it.” So that was a big thing to us. Another thing was we just didn’t get on that well and musical differences and stuff like that, he was more into deathcore and stuff that we weren’t really into. But, erm, he’s since kind of said that, when we actually spoke to him to say, ‘look, we don’t want you in the band’, he said that wasn’t really the reason but we didn’t want to wait and see what happened in case he did leave. We just wanted to move forward and keep moving and not lose momentum, which is another reason why I do vocals. To find the right person, it’s pretty hard to get the right person, so we felt it nest to not waste any time ‘cos we could’ve been out the loop for 6 months trying to find someone and lose all the momentum we’d built up.

MR: Were you reluctant to take up vocal duties?

JM: I really wanted to do it. I never, growing up, wanted to be a frontman or singer or centre of attention or anything, I just wanted to be in a band. I just really love music. But I really wanted to do vocals and just… like I said, just thinking we may not find the right person, I’m so specific over everything we do – not like I control everything, everyone has an input – artwork, production, and the music, so much thought goes into all of it, the lyrics, titles, so much thought goes into it, we just thought it’d be better if I did it. But, yeah, I wasn’t reluctant. The other guys were a little bit at first because of downsizing and not having a singer that can move around, and the fact that they hadn’t heard me, but after a while it was fine. It takes a lot of work to practice doing both at the same time…

MR: especially with your riffs!

JM: [laughs] Yeah!

MR: As singing’s something you’ve not done before, did you have to go through the whole ‘learning how to sing’ thing?

JM: Yeah, I had to do a whole lot of training. I bought the Melissa Ross ‘Zen of Screaming’ DVDs (www.melissacross.com) to get some tips on that. I’d only ever done backing vocals in the band before so I had to just force myself into it. I’d always had favourite singers and people I’d like to emulate, people like Chuck Schuldiner from Death, Scott Kelly from Neurosis, and Kirk from Crowbar… I’m into the more gritty stuff…

MR: Are you the one that brings everything together in the band?

JM: I do most of the song writing and I’m really lucky that the other guys in the band are laid back enough to trust what I’m doing and we always make changes here and there. On the first album, we were a four-piece when we recorded it, just me on guitar, and we got Bailey in, our other guitarist, just after we recorded it so he’s been able to write stuff for this album as well. It’s not all me…

MR: How about influences? You mentioned Neurosis and there are prog elements in there…

JM: Yeah, me and Bailey – and all the other guys now – are really into Rush and 70s stuff like Pink Floyd, bit of Yes, some early Genesis… it’s creeping in more. When we wrote most of the music for the album – we started recording it at the end of 2009 – there wasn’t a he amount of prog influence, so stuff like the interludes and intros to a few songs were things we did at the last minute that were more prog inspired. The songs are quite long, prog-y as they are, but that’s more from like an ‘…And Justice For All’ or Death’s ‘Symbolic’, whereas I think on the next album, more 70s stuff will creep in.

MR: Keyboards?

JM: More for weird, ethereal noises and stuff like that, yeah, but maybe not too much actual keyboards. We’ve got a sampler that we use live for some of those sounds.

MR: For the new album, you said you’ve gone for more feel than technique – you’re all clearly technically adept. Do you think you’ve achieved that working with Scott again?

JM: Yeah, the first album sounded exactly how we wanted it to. The next time ‘round, we wanted something more natural sounding, and the reason we went back to Scott is because he doesn’t really have an ego and he’s really get at getting whatever you want. I think certain big producers would probably be a bit more against trying to do something a bit more raw than they’re used to, worried that their name might get a bit tarnished, y’know, ‘if you wanna come to me, then that’s how it’ll sound’. But he’s really good at trying to make you guys happy and he did exactly what we wanted this time ‘round as well.

MR: How are the new songs going down live?

JM: Really good. We’ve been opening with ‘Empyreal’ and that’s been going down really well. Crowds seem to be getting really excited.

MR: That’s in two parts on the album…

JM: Yeah [laughs], it’s kind of a superstitious thing. There are thirteen actual songs on the album and that song fades into a clean, ambient bit, and we cut it to make it fourteen [laughs]…

MR: You stick to standard tuning. Are you not tempted to go for a 7-string or detune?

JM: No no, I really like trying to work within standard E tuning. I think you can get away with thicker and nicer sounding tones when you’re in E because it’s not as muddy. When you start down-tuning, you have to add loads more mids and it’s a bit less flattering. I’m just a massive fan of Metallica and I like playing along to Metallica songs and it’s really annoying being in a different tuning if you’ve got a locking system [on your guitar], and I just wanna be in E all the time now. That’s mainly it. Just playing along to …And Justice for All’ is just one of my favourite things to do [laughs]. That’s the main reason to be honest. [laughs]

MR: The new album, Edge of The Earth, is 72 minutes long…

JM: Yeah. We were worried when we handed it in to the label though, thinking they’d say it was too long, and most people think it’s too long, but I think it’s value for money. It’s the same price as any other album. We really wanted it to be like a double album but the label was kind of against it, they thought it’d be a bit pointless. But there’s nothing ‘filler’ on the album. We thought it’s all the best stuff we’d written and we didn’t want it to go to waste, like, as bonus tracks, they all deserve to be on there. And if we held any songs back for the next album, we’d probably have gone of ‘em by then. Some have marked us down a notch in reviews because they say it’s too long or something. But if somebody gets into Metallica and sees two albums for a fiver, they’d by both, it’s not too much music… That’s just me. I like long albums [laughs]…

MR: Yeah. ‘Master of Puppets’, ‘…And Justice For All’ – two fantastic albums – and prog albums are long too. Have you thought about vinyl releases?

JM: We really wanted to…

MR: The artwork for both of your albums is absolutely fantastic so it’s be nice to have something…

JM: …big? Yeah. Totally. We’ve actually got a pre-order package up now where fans can buy CD, T-shirt, and a flag of the artwork. We really wanted vinyl but it’s really expensive and I don’t think enough people would buy it. But I wish it was vinyl. I’ve never been into downloading, even if you pay for it. I like having the physical product so it would’ve been awesome to have vinyl but we just couldn’t do it.

MR: With the debate about CDs and vinyl – CDs being ‘cold’ as they’re digital and vinyl being ‘warmer’ – it’d be nice to have a great big lump of plastic…

JM: Yeah, yeah, maybe we’ll keep pushing and re-release it on vinyl.

MR: you’ve been touring with some high profile bands (Fear Factory, As I Lay Dying, etc). Has it been made easier to get on those tours because of being on Nuclear Blast?

JM: Just having an album out in general helps, but it’s to do with our booking agent and management, they really good at putting the feelers out. But being on Nuclear Blast helped raise our profile a lot. They’ve got a lot of credibility so being associated with Nuclear Blast helps, yeah…

MR: How were the responses on those tours?

JM: Really good. Fear Factory was a year ago now. Yeah, really good.

MR: And how about the bands themselves?

JM: Dino from Fear Factory… I dunno if he requested us to be on the tour, but they offered us an American tour but we couldn’t get visas in time… but first show on the Fear factory tour and he started playing one of our songs on guitar. Mental! Yeah, and the As I Lay Dying guys were really nice. So yeah, really nice people.

MR: You mentioned America. You gonna be heading over there?

JM: Hope so. We’ve been there once, did the New England Metalfest, just one gig that was really good. We sold more CDs than we expected, having not toured over there. It’s just a matter of getting an offer really. If it was up to us, we’d be over there straight away but we’re just waiting for the right tour because it’s expensive – flights and visas…

MR: You waiting for a support slot?

JM: There’s so much space to cover and I don’t know if we’d pull enough of a crowd on our own, really…

MR: How are sales over there?

JM: Good, about 4000, which is good considering we’ve never toured over there.

MR: Do you think downloading has had an effect on the metal scene?

JR: I hate to say it but I think it’s a good thing. It means it’s hard for bands to make money but more people seem to be coming to the shows and probably buy more merch than they would have done in the past anyway. It probably equals out if anything. I’m just against downloading because I like CDs. And stuff like ‘Guitar Hero’ has probably helped. On the Dragonforce tour, there were loads of 12-year old kids in ‘Guitar Hero’ t-shirts who’d probably only heard about them through ‘Guitar Hero’ and then came, saw us and some other bands aswell.

MR: How did you get on the Dragonforce tour? What was the audience response? Your styles are really different.

JM: I think we had enough stuff going on on guitar to keep them interested [laughs]. We’ve got enough technical, widdly solos and stuff that kept them occupied, I guess that’s why we didn’t get booed [laughs]…

MR: Are there any songs from Conclusion of an Age that you think will remain staples of the band’s live set?

JM: Yeah, I think there are a few. ‘Terras’, that we did a video for… ‘Reflections Through Fire’… and ‘After Lifeless Years’, but we haven’t learnt how to play it yet, ‘cos I used to do all the widdly guitar stuff that I can’t do whilst doing vocals and I haven’t taught it to Bailey yet.

MR: Are you writing at the moment?

JM: Yeah. I’ve probably got half a new album’s worth already. ‘Edge of the Earth’, it was 2009 when we started doing drums… We did drums in September 2009, then the Dragonforce tour in November to Christmas, guitars and bass in January, Fear Factory tour, headline tour, guitar solos in the studio, went to India for a few days to play one gig, and then the line-up change, and Scott started doing the Cradle of Filth album… so yeah, it’s been ages coming and a lot of new stuff’s come really quickly so I’ve got a lot of stuff…

MR: So the album’s out March 11^th. Are you gonna be touring more to promote it?

JM: To be honest, we took a bit too long to finish the album, like, mixing and stuff, and the album was hopefully gonna be out in January and this tour was supposed to be for it, but it got pushed back. Maybe as a support and maybe another headline at the end of the year…

MR: Good news. Have you anything to add for the fans?

JM: Thanks for supporting us. Please buy the album.

MR: It was a pleasure talking to you. Thanks for taking time out.

JM: You too. Thanks.

Sylosis’ second album, ‘Edge of the Earth’ is out on March 11^th. The Midlands Rocks review can be found here: www.midlandsrocks.co.uk/reviews/album-reviews/cd-reviews/sylosis-edgeoftheearth

You can also read Jasons review of the Metal Hammer Razor Tour gig here