INTERVIEW: A PRE-GIG SMOKING AREA CHAT WITH PSYCHADELIC ROCKERS WEIRDS

We headed down to Face Bar, Reading earlier in the month to catch up with WIERDS during their recent tour with The Wytches to see how they're getting on in the build up to the release of their debut album "Swarmculture" on 26th May 2017. We talk album artwork, guitar pedals, music videos and guilty pleasures. Catch what they had to say for themselves below and keep those eye's peeled for our Live Review which is on it's way shortly!!

Tell us a bit about the upcoming album “Swarmculture”, what inspired it, how did the writing process unfold and any funny stories along the way?

We always wanted to write a heavy psychedelic album and that’s where the start of “Swarmculture” all began really. Writing the album followed the same flow as always, we all have our areas of expertise and it all comes together with Aidan writing the lyrics. We tend to bounce off each others ideas.

We recorded in the basement of our house, it’s not that big but it does the job. Apparently, we’ve been told, that Alt-J also wrote and recorded their first album in the very same basement so at least we know one great album was written there (shit loads of muffled noise and laughter). Yeah, it’s got music in the walls!

What’s the story behind the album title and artwork?

We wanted to do something different and unique, something that was visually striking. We got the idea from a Vice documentary where a man injects himself with snake venom to keep himself looking young. We thought that was pretty cool so we spoke to our PR guy to try and sort out meeting up with him, fortunately they’re pals (wtf). We made the mirror box ourselves; it gives a great effect when the snake’s inside so we ran with it. (Intrigued we asked them if the venom is actually a viable means of maintaining a youthful appearance). Turns out it is, the guy incredibly actually looks young. So there you have it snake venom keeps you young folks.

Were there any artistic disagreements during the production of the new record?

No, not really! As we mentioned before we’re all part of the creative process; we pitch in with our instruments and respect each other’s opinions. We have the same idea about what we want ‘WIERDS’ to be so we usually agree on most things.

This is a boring one, BUT who are your favourite bands/ inspiration?

This is always a really difficult one to answer our music tastes are forever changing like most peoples so we can’t really pinpoint one band in particular. I could be listening to one band this week and a completely different artist the next. In terms of inspiration we wouldn’t say we’ve tried to be like anyone else or adopted a style, with WIERDS we’ve created our own niche sound and we hope that’s how people see it.

This is a question for the guitarists and bassist, which single pedal could you not live without?

Zachary (Lead Guitarist): I’d probably have to go with my fuzz pedal (we were given a name of the fuzz pedal but the loud bloody fan outside muffled the sound and we’re not gunna take a wild stab at it!)

Matthew (Bassist): Yeah for me probably fuzz aswell, I use an EHX Big Muff.

So you’re on tour with The Wytches at the moment but what’s the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to you guys whilst on tour?

Not much yet it’s still early in the tour we haven’t been with them for that long, they’re an awesome bunch though!

I suppose the weirdest thing that happened was some guy the other night started acting real odd around the merch stand, we’re not entirely sure what was happening it was a bizzare situation. He was chatting for ages about the tee’s and we think he ended up walking away with some stuff at the end of it. The funny thing is that it wasn’t one of our tees he stole…. he didn’t want them.

You’ve played a lot of live gigs/festivals which was your favourite UK venue to play?

Probably Leeds Brudenell Social Club, it’s a great venue awesome atmosphere cheap beer what more could you want!

Do you have any superstitious rituals before you go out on stage?

We don’t really have any rituals before we go on stage maybe just a quick fag break to settle the nerves and making sure we’ve got some water on stage to pour on our heads.

Of all your, so far, released tracks which one do you most enjoy playing live?

That’s a difficult one; it’d probably have to be either “Weird Sun” or “Old World Blues”.

Your latest music video for ‘Valley Of Vision’ see’s you running through a field away from a masked murder being picked off one by one, tell us a bit about the thought process behind this and how/where was it shot?

So the video was shot at a viaduct on the Yorkshire Moors, the place was really cool actually it had a strong presence about it. It was in the middle of a public park/ walk area so there were plenty of intrigued onlookers throughout the day as we were shooting. Lots of dog walkers wondering what the fuck was going on with us lot running up and down being chased by a creepy masked murderer.

We had to get up at like 5AM to start the shooting and the whole day was pretty long winded and knackering. There was loads of takes of us running up and down ungracefully, the field was full of cow shit and mud so it was inevitable that one of us was gunna end up falling over in it.

The weapon used in the video was built by us, it started off as a baseball bat and kinda’ just progressed from there. We actually had a house viewing during the time we were building it, not sure seeing that on the floor of our basement was a big selling point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZ0Wpe4lFig

Like yourselves there’s a lot of great emerging talent coming out of the UK at the moment, which bands have caught your eye?

Vulgarians are great; they supported us on our headline tour back in November 2016. We shared a tour bus with them so it got real up close and personal, they’re a great bunch of lads. Everyone should go check them out, awesome band!

Everyone has a guilty pleasure so what’s the most obscure band/artist on your Spotify/ iTunes librarys?

Aidan (Vocals) - Justin Timberlake

David (Drums) - No Doubt

Zachary (Guitar) - Lighthouse Family

Matthew (Bass) - Die Antwoord

If you had any words of wisdom for an aspiring young musician out there what would it be?

I think hard graft goes a long way, if you put in time and effort into what you’re doing then it’s going to pay off. Also invest in your instrument and gear, if it’s cheap then it’s likely to sound that way. This is an important one make sure you get out to loads of gigs and play lots of gigs yourself. It’s always hard to start with but once you’re on the gigging circuit it gets easier as you get to know other bands and everyone’s got each other’s backs.