Interview: Audio Impulse

Audio Impulse
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What is the story behind your band?

Hey guys its Barry, lead singer and rhythm guitarist from Audio Impulse. I met Nate back in college through our bassist Pat. We quickly became friends and always discussed writing music together. We ended up living around the corner from each other and found ourselves without bands and a lot of free time. I went through a break-up and ended up moving about 45 minutes away from Nate. He came over twice a week to write music and keep me sane. Eventually when we had several songs written we decided to make it a full line-up and asked Pat to join as our bassist. The search for a drummer was a little tricky, we ended up placing an ad on Craigslist and Freeman answered it. He was the first and only try-out we had. The first night he played with us it all gelled perfectly.

How would you describe your sound?

Our sound is somewhat unique but still accessible. Most people say it’s hard to pin us directly in one specific genre but overall we identify as Punk Rock. We have heavy Pop Punk influences that mesh with our love for 90s era grunge. We all have specific bands that we pull our influences from but the common ones across the board would be Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World, Rise Against, Incubus, Nirvana, Wonder Years, and Thrice.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

I would actually recommend our EP that we just released in March called “Straight Shot”. It’s four songs that will definitely get you up and moving. My personal favourite from the EP would be “For The Road” which we are getting ready to release a music video for!

What lessons did you learn from your previous bands that you brought with you to this band?

There are more lessons than I care to list here but there are several main points that we all agree on. Everything we do is done as a team, we either sink or swim together. A good work ethic when it comes to practicing on a regular basis. We don’t ever play a song in the studio or live unless we know it like the back of our hands. Practice makes perfect and we make sure we hold true to that mentality especially in reference to our live shows. We take pride in being able to put on a great live show every time and we can only do that if we are well rehearsed together.

A lot of your vocals remind me of Fat Wreck signed punk bands. Would these acts be counted among your influences?

Absolutely! I grew up listening to NOFX, and Lagwagon is one of my all-time favourite punk bands. Rise Against has already been listed as a main influence in our sound, and they sit in high regard along with No Use for a Name, Less Than Jake, None More Black, Nerf Herder, and the Real McKenzies. All of those bands have definitely influenced my singing style over the years just from constantly singing along to their albums in my car! I always find it pretty cool when people can pick up on musical influences in our songs. It shines the light on how influential music can really be in somebody’s life.

What are some key themes and messages that you cover with your music?

This is probably one of the most important questions you can ask us. All four of us have experienced moments in our lives that had completely wrecked us emotionally. When we were at our worst, there was one constant that kept us sane, and that was music. We each have an album that we define as “the album that saved me” and picked us up from the ashes to grow stronger. Our main goal is to create that album that helps somebody get through life. We understand the therapeutic principals that are within music and do our best to create a safe haven for the fans. Whether we are playing a show to one person or one million people, if somebody walks away feeling better about life then we’ve done our job. Our songs reflect that by portraying the message of you are not alone in a hopeful and sympathetic manner.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

Honestly that depends on the day. I usually end up streaming my music when I’m on the computer or driving, but when I have the time to sit down and appreciate the music, I will rifle through my dad’s old vinyl collection and see what I can find.

Tell us your best tour story.

Well we haven’t been on a tour yet, but we just booked our first one for the month of September this year. We will be heading down south with the Extreme Tour and we couldn’t be more excited about it. I will definitely get back to you with some stories when you interview us again!

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

We’ve gotten a few but our biggest accomplishments have been three things. First we opened for Alien Ant Farm and Hed PE and sold out the bill! Then we won the greatest Alternative Hard Rock album in the country in November 2015 by the Akademia Music Awards. Lastly our most recent accomplishment was selling out our EP release show in March at Connie’s Ric Rac in South Philly!

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

I can safely say that the entire band would be tickled pink if we could tour with Foo Fighters! Dave Grohl seems like such a fun guy and collaborating with him would be hysterical and educational all at the same time.

Audio Impulse (2).jpg

What plans do you have for the near future?

We have a busy schedule ahead of us! We are playing several festivals this summer along with local shows. Then we will be going on tour in September for most of the month. We also will be releasing a new music video for our latest single off of “Straight Shot” called “For the Road” in which we got to work with a great director named Scott Hoon. Then we plan on releasing a single sometime in August or September that we recorded with Shane Garland from Hunger Before Greed Productions. After all of that we are planning on releasing a new album sometime in the next year.

Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.

Outside of the music we are all big gamers. In fact, we got our name from one of the greatest RPGs ever made. There was a game released for the Super Nintendo called Chrono Trigger and it has been rated as one of the best games of all time. There is a move in the game called “arc impulse”, after some research, we found out that name was already taken. So we ended up deciding on Audio Impulse after some short deliberation. It was a name that as soon as we heard it, we knew that was it.


Links:

AudioImpulseMusic.com

Facebook

Instagram

Twitter

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Joseph James

 

Interview: Brutal Harmony

Brutal Harmony
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What is the story behind your band?

The vision behind Brutal Harmony is to bring our brand of  raw metal music set to a storyline that is dark and twisted with classic horror themes.

Brutal Harmony was started as a side project. How do you split your time between your different projects?

Well, in the beginning of the project, we were just playing around with the idea of  what we thought would be different and fun at the same time. So Brutal Harmony was created as a side project to a couple of other more serious bands that we were playing and touring with. As the writing continued, we realized this was more exciting and in many ways  better than what we were already doing in the other bands. So as of February of 2016, Brutal Harmony is our sole project, and we invest 100% of our time and effort into BH.

How would you describe your sound?

Dark, Melodic, and Soulful Metal.

 Do you really live up to the “brutal” aspect of your band name?

We believe the music and our live stage  show will live up to our name. The songs, videos, and the stage show to come with share the story of the Brutal Harmony. We have a story board for the BH band member characters that will play out in our up-coming shows and videos.

The whole mask thing has been done before by bands like Slipknot, Mushroomhead, Gwar etc… How does your overall image affect your band?

Our mask represent those with no name, no spirit, or humanity. The masked characters are known as  The Unity Of Fate.

Who are your key influences?

I would have to say various classic metal bands such as Slayer, Anthrax,  Black Sabbath and many, many others.

What are some key themes and messages that you cover with your music?

Classic Horror Movies , Unrest, and the balance between good and evil.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

We would say, all of the above [laughs].  Vinyl most certainly feels warmer and in our opinion, is the best format.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

Our single “FEAR”. It has all the elements that makes Brutal Harmony what we are.

Tell me about Sonic Outlaw Records. I can’t find much information about them online.

Sonic Outlaw Records is a new independent metal record label set to launch with Brutal Harmony in June 2016. The label is licensed and registered and geared up to roll out and sign a couple more artist before the end of 2016.  The label is owned and financed by a group of private investor’s. There will be much to see later this summer.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

Honestly, we feel our greatest achievement is doing what we love to do as much as we get to do it. Not everyone has that ability and we’ve seen so many great musicians quit music over the years, not because they want to but because life, family, jobs wouldn’t allow for it. The fact that we have all always found a way to overcome those hurdles we think is our greatest achievement so far.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

Slipknot is one of our very favorites but there’s just so many great bands out there these days it’s hard to narrow that down. Be easier to say who we would not collaborate with probably…….

What plans do you have for the near future?

We are still in the process of booking the rest of this year out but so far we have some great shows coming up. Main priority for this year is to finish the album to follow up the single release of Fear. Once that is done we will be hitting the road a lot harder.

Here’s your chance to say anything that we haven’t covered.

The song “flying purple people eater” is reeaallyy hard to get out of your head once it gets in there…….


Brutal Harmony:    Facebook    Website    Twitter    Youtube

 

Interview: Novacrow

Novacrow
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Novacrow are a UK based hard rock band with a generous dose of zombies and sleaze added to the mix – think along the lines of Alice Cooper and Rob Zombie. They’ve just released debut EP Black Syrup, so I sent them some questions to learn more about the band.

What is the story behind your band?

Kitty: Seeing as the truth is pretty straightforward, in that Jonyx and I started making music together and we acquired Freddy and Torben for Novacrow purposes, here is an extravagant backstory.

Jonyx: Originally conceived on the planet of Sexlexis in the Andromeda system, we were sent to dominate Earth through the power of pelvic-thrustingly good music. Unfortunately Sexlexis became struck with the extremely erotic disease ‘Sexlexia’ and we were given the task of finding a cure, the fastest way to spread the word…Novacrow! (continuity errors in storyline may occur…)

Torben: …and then I joined

Where are you from, and what prompted you to start?

K: I have always loved playing in a band and I think the four of us were drawn together, because we all enjoy making lots of noise and embarrassing ourselves. Jonyx and I are from Wolverhampton, Torben is from Norfolk and Freddy is originally from Italy.

How would you describe your sound?

Freddy: A sextastic sonic force.

K: Fat juicy riffs, sleazy vocals and groin-grabbingly good choruses.

T: Top stuff.

What song or album do you recommend for first time listeners?

F: Our EP ‘Black Syrup’ is a must listen for anybody who enjoys being a person. I’d say ‘Fat Frog’ off it would give the best idea of what we’re about.

J: Black Syrup, it’s the tits!

T: I’d personally go for Fight the Horde, I consider it a stomping song.

Why kazoo? It’s definitely not a conventional instrument.

K: Kazoos are just hilarious. We first used one when we did a terrible cover of ‘My Heart Will Go On’ at a Valentine’s gig. People loved it, so we thought it would be funny to add a bit of kazoo into all of our shows. We ended up recording it on the opening track of our EP, Fat Frog.

Torben, you appear to be the punk in a band of metalheads. Does this cause any conflict?

T: When I first joined I wanted to play everything much faster, but whilst punk is my favourite genre, I grew up on metal, owning every Opeth record and listening to them on repeat. Gojira were also big for me, and still are. But having said that, I wouldn’t say it has caused tension, at core we’re all just looking to have fun playing music we love.

Sadly, rock music is still male dominated. Do you find that you’re treated differently to other bands because you have a female singer?

K: It’s hard for me to be objective as (obviously), I’ve only ever been in bands with a female member, but I’d say that we are treated differently to an extent. ‘Female fronted’ is regularly treated like a genre, which is a bit strange, as we often find ourselves billed alongside a load of symphonic metal bands. To us, the fact that we have a female member isn’t an important part of Novacrow. I’ve had my fair share of derogatory comments, but it’s going to take a hell of a lot more than a couple of snide remarks to stop me from rocking my ass off.

It looks like you have a lot of fun playing on the zombie/horror theme. What are some more creative examples of where you have taken this theme?

K: We did a big cheesy B-movie music video for our single Fight The Horde!!! Which was super fun to film. We’ve used this in our live shows too, in one we used a giant screen to show clips creating a ‘storyline’ and had zombies coming on stage and out into the audience. At our EP launch we did zombie face painting too, so we had a whole crowd of the undead.

Between you all, the band covers recording, production, writing and art. Tell me about your DIY motives.

F: For us it pretty much came naturally, we all seem to fit together like a sort of jigsaw puzzle. John has the most experience in photo editing and designing, so he just took on the role of artwork designer. I’m a producer of my own accord outside the band, so I took command of recording, production, and video editing when needed. This leaves most of the artistic direction up to Kitty, so she’ll write most of the songs and we all chip in accordingly.

And then there’s Torben.

Paint me a picture of what I should expect to see at a typical Novacrow gig.

Kitty: Picture yourself at a dingy venue with a cheap pint of beer in one hand. Novacrow comes onstage and suddenly you are weak at the knees. Each member is dazzlingly attractive and unimaginably talented. Their music is so fantastic, you feel faint. Their stage banter is so hilarious, your sides actually split from laughter. The crowd around you are going wild, foaming at the mouth, tits everywhere. You fish out your wallet and you’re literally throwing handfuls of money at the band, they are just that good….

Kitty, I saw that in the list of books you read last year you covered a lot of classic literature and graphic novels, especially some dystopian texts. Talk me through some of your favourites. I know you have a degree in English Lit, so I’m expecting some good recommendations.

K: YES. Excellent question. There are so many incredible novels that everybody needs to read! Obvious choices include Fahrenheit 451, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, 1984, Brave New World, Slaughterhouse 5 and any of Poe’s short stories.

My longtime favourite author is Stephen King. His first person narratives are unbeatable and I love his great sprawling fantasy epics. It, The Stand, The Dark Half and The Green Mile, are a few of my top choices.

In terms of a quirky recommendation, Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer, or Grotesque by Natsuo Kirino. I’ve also just finished the trilogy of 1Q84 novels, by Haruki Murakami, which were fantastically written.

What format do you use the most when listening to music? [vinyl, cd, streaming etc..]

F: I mostly download my music, and when I buy CD’s I’ll import them to my laptop. I ain’t got the time to pick out a CD and put it in a CD player and shit, I just want it THERE!

Torben: MP3s or digital music, whenever I travel or walk I have music in. I have a vast collection of CDs which I listen to whenever I can, because I love having a hard-copy of the music I love most.

Tell us your best tour story.

F: We once played a biker club in the middle of Derbyshire and camped out on their fields. There was a HUGE slug that turned out to be just two regular slugs. There was also a lot of booze, some cooked chicken, a broken pump, and a giant fake plastic horse. And Showaddywaddy.

What is your band’s greatest achievement to date?

K: The fact that we’ve somehow tricked people into believing that we’re a real band, rather than a group of attention seeking idiots. I’m super proud of the EP and the excellent feedback we’ve had from it.

Who would you most love to tour or collaborate with?

F: The almighty GWAR.

K: Wednesday 13, Rob Zombie, Skindred or Alestorm.

T: Murder Dolls or Green Jellÿ who were great fun to play with… anyone who’s up for fun and some heavy music basically.

What plans do you have for the near future?

K: Loads of gigs, working on new material and general badassery

Novacrow:    Website      Facebook     Twitter     Instagram      Youtube