WEBVTT 00:01:09.609 --> 00:01:11.769 Welcome one and all to the latest episode of 00:01:11.769 --> 00:01:15.230 Signals from Mars. Joining me today is Laura 00:01:15.230 --> 00:01:17.849 from the band Kingwitch. How are you, Laura? 00:01:19.189 --> 00:01:22.269 I'm good. Nice to meet you, Victor. Yeah, I'm 00:01:22.269 --> 00:01:25.370 Laura from Scottish doom metal band Kingwitch, 00:01:25.510 --> 00:01:29.269 and I'm happy to be here. Awesome. Happy to have 00:01:29.269 --> 00:01:35.370 you on the show. And it's typically been three 00:01:35.370 --> 00:01:38.609 years between... each release for the band up 00:01:38.609 --> 00:01:43.049 until the new album, Three. Is there a specific 00:01:43.049 --> 00:01:45.590 reason why it took five years to release this 00:01:45.590 --> 00:01:53.989 album? Yeah. After we'd sort of done our sort 00:01:53.989 --> 00:01:57.569 of touring for Body of Light and our last gig, 00:01:57.670 --> 00:02:02.689 I think, was Desert Fest London. like there was 00:02:02.689 --> 00:02:04.409 a lot of personal shit going on with the band 00:02:04.409 --> 00:02:06.810 and we decided that that might have been quite 00:02:06.810 --> 00:02:08.349 a good time just to maybe take a little bit of 00:02:08.349 --> 00:02:13.830 a break. And during that break, Jamie and I ended 00:02:13.830 --> 00:02:18.189 up having a little boy. So that's quite a large 00:02:18.189 --> 00:02:21.229 reason for the space of time in between. But 00:02:21.229 --> 00:02:24.669 yeah, so that's why it took a bit longer. Okay, 00:02:24.750 --> 00:02:27.289 makes sense. Yeah, I was just trying to sort 00:02:27.289 --> 00:02:29.710 out if it was on the family and the things or 00:02:29.710 --> 00:02:31.990 if it was that the band just felt that they needed 00:02:31.990 --> 00:02:34.930 more time to work on on the material or not. 00:02:35.289 --> 00:02:38.909 No, it's mostly just family. And Jamie actually 00:02:38.909 --> 00:02:42.409 had a lot of the music written. He managed to 00:02:42.409 --> 00:02:44.189 get quite a bit of that done during COVID lockdown. 00:02:45.009 --> 00:02:47.110 But we just kind of put it to the side because 00:02:47.110 --> 00:02:50.949 obviously we released our last album during COVID. 00:02:51.530 --> 00:02:53.430 So as soon as like restrictions and everything 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:55.370 were lifted, we just went out and started touring 00:02:55.370 --> 00:02:57.169 Body of Light and forgot about all the new stuff 00:02:57.169 --> 00:03:02.210 that we'd written. Yeah, so the space in between 00:03:02.210 --> 00:03:05.330 was when we were getting busy as well, sorting 00:03:05.330 --> 00:03:08.590 out our new music. Okay. The first thing that 00:03:08.590 --> 00:03:12.550 stands out to me from 3 is just how cohesive, 00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:16.969 aggressive, and how sonically better it sounds 00:03:16.969 --> 00:03:20.919 than the previous releases. Thank you. Yeah, 00:03:20.979 --> 00:03:23.539 I'm assuming that's something that the band was 00:03:23.539 --> 00:03:26.620 trying to do when recording the album. To be 00:03:26.620 --> 00:03:29.939 honest, I don't think there's like there was 00:03:29.939 --> 00:03:32.340 really any kind of conscious effort to make it 00:03:32.340 --> 00:03:35.120 sound a particular way. It's like just kind of 00:03:35.120 --> 00:03:36.580 writing it the exact same way as we've written 00:03:36.580 --> 00:03:39.539 every other album, which is basically, you know, 00:03:39.539 --> 00:03:41.360 like music that we're enjoying playing at the 00:03:41.360 --> 00:03:44.379 time and, you know, music that we like. But I 00:03:44.379 --> 00:03:47.300 think Jamie might like Jamie wanted to make the 00:03:47.300 --> 00:03:52.020 album feel. more natural more like maybe a bit 00:03:52.020 --> 00:03:57.259 raw and um and yeah like i but i don't think 00:03:57.259 --> 00:03:59.099 there was like a conscious decision to actually 00:03:59.099 --> 00:04:04.259 sort of strip it back okay yeah a lot of times 00:04:04.259 --> 00:04:07.659 also jamie produced and mixed the album a lot 00:04:07.659 --> 00:04:11.750 of times bands try to do that And it seems as 00:04:11.750 --> 00:04:14.289 if it's almost their worst album because they're 00:04:14.289 --> 00:04:17.009 their own worst enemies and don't know how to 00:04:17.009 --> 00:04:20.310 be objective with their own music. Yeah, it's 00:04:20.310 --> 00:04:23.949 dangerous. Yeah. How do you think Jamie works 00:04:23.949 --> 00:04:27.569 with you guys to try to get the best out of you 00:04:27.569 --> 00:04:31.009 without maybe allowing you to get by with something 00:04:31.009 --> 00:04:34.310 that just isn't up to what he was looking for? 00:04:34.730 --> 00:04:37.670 Well, Jamie doesn't hold back if he thinks something's 00:04:37.670 --> 00:04:43.230 on shit. Which is good. I mean, you don't want 00:04:43.230 --> 00:04:45.850 for it to be half -arsed. You want it to sound 00:04:45.850 --> 00:04:49.290 good. So we're really lucky in that we've got 00:04:49.290 --> 00:04:54.029 a studio out the back of our home. So it's somewhere, 00:04:54.230 --> 00:04:56.470 you know, Jamie knows he's really comfortable 00:04:56.470 --> 00:04:59.949 in it. And also because we had all that time, 00:05:00.149 --> 00:05:04.410 it was a comfortable way of recording. It didn't 00:05:04.410 --> 00:05:07.839 feel like we were under pressure. And, you know, 00:05:07.879 --> 00:05:09.480 like it gave us time for Jamie to be able to 00:05:09.480 --> 00:05:11.379 say, why don't we try something different? Or, 00:05:11.379 --> 00:05:14.040 you know, like maybe we could try a different 00:05:14.040 --> 00:05:16.060 melody for vocals or why don't we try something 00:05:16.060 --> 00:05:18.240 like a different bass part? Or there was a day 00:05:18.240 --> 00:05:21.819 where Rory was in recording his bass and he thought, 00:05:21.860 --> 00:05:23.339 do you know what? It probably would sound really 00:05:23.339 --> 00:05:25.100 cool with you. Or Rory was like, it would sound 00:05:25.100 --> 00:05:26.519 really cool with my fretless bass. So they went 00:05:26.519 --> 00:05:29.100 and did a journey all the way up to like, you 00:05:29.100 --> 00:05:31.680 know, like way up Scotland to North just to get 00:05:31.680 --> 00:05:33.899 this fretless bass and come back down. But, you 00:05:33.899 --> 00:05:35.790 know, it made a big difference. That was... That 00:05:35.790 --> 00:05:37.930 was for Little Witch. Just those little, tiny 00:05:37.930 --> 00:05:41.269 little sounds, like, you know, just, I think, 00:05:41.290 --> 00:05:44.250 makes all the difference. And it's worth putting 00:05:44.250 --> 00:05:46.709 the effort in to do those kind of things. Is 00:05:46.709 --> 00:05:49.509 it difficult being in a relationship not only 00:05:49.509 --> 00:05:52.250 with the guitars, but also with the producer? 00:05:52.389 --> 00:05:55.069 Does that in any way strain your relationship? 00:05:55.670 --> 00:05:58.269 No. I mean, Jamie and I have been in bands for 00:05:58.269 --> 00:06:01.509 20 years. So we've been in Kingwitch for 10 years 00:06:01.509 --> 00:06:03.410 and we were in another band for 10 years before 00:06:03.410 --> 00:06:06.439 that. So, like, it's kind of, I don't know, it's 00:06:06.439 --> 00:06:09.060 kind of a separate thing. I feel like it's never 00:06:09.060 --> 00:06:12.560 been a problem. I mean, we may shout at each 00:06:12.560 --> 00:06:14.199 other a bit more when it comes to doing the recording, 00:06:14.360 --> 00:06:22.699 but, I mean, everybody does that. Right. Okay. 00:06:24.360 --> 00:06:28.360 It feels like your vocals, you're saying that 00:06:28.360 --> 00:06:30.720 it wasn't premeditated, but it really feels like 00:06:30.720 --> 00:06:35.089 your vocals are... a lot stronger than they have 00:06:35.089 --> 00:06:37.370 been in the past. Not to say that they haven't 00:06:37.370 --> 00:06:40.810 been strong on each of the previous two studio 00:06:40.810 --> 00:06:43.750 albums, plus the EP, but it just seems like your 00:06:43.750 --> 00:06:46.589 vocals are at a different level with this album 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:51.509 as well. Kind of at the same standard as, as 00:06:51.509 --> 00:06:54.670 the music part of things with the album. I think 00:06:54.670 --> 00:06:56.410 that the music has gone to another level and 00:06:56.410 --> 00:06:58.370 I think that your vocals have also gone to another 00:06:58.370 --> 00:07:01.990 level. Thank you. I think when it came to recording, 00:07:02.110 --> 00:07:07.589 well, I personally felt there was a slight worry 00:07:07.589 --> 00:07:10.209 when I was recording that because I hadn't done 00:07:10.209 --> 00:07:13.170 it for a while, because I'd had a kid that was 00:07:13.170 --> 00:07:14.629 like, maybe I'm not going to be able to do this 00:07:14.629 --> 00:07:17.949 anymore. Maybe like, I don't know, my body's 00:07:17.949 --> 00:07:19.470 like physically changed. I'm not going to be 00:07:19.470 --> 00:07:23.769 able to sing, but that wasn't the case. And I 00:07:23.769 --> 00:07:29.519 wanted my vocals to sound natural. but also like 00:07:29.519 --> 00:07:32.379 I wanted to try and get what the lyrics are about, 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:37.560 like try and get the emotion across. And I don't 00:07:37.560 --> 00:07:42.139 know, I don't know how it works, but maybe it's 00:07:42.139 --> 00:07:43.959 because we had that little bit extra time and 00:07:43.959 --> 00:07:45.939 I felt comfortable when it came to recording, 00:07:46.019 --> 00:07:48.819 but I'm never happy with my vocals when it comes 00:07:48.819 --> 00:07:51.660 listening them back. But for this album, like 00:07:51.660 --> 00:07:54.000 I was really happy when I heard the demos, like 00:07:54.000 --> 00:07:58.060 really happy and that never happens. I don't 00:07:58.060 --> 00:08:00.540 know what magic was happening at the time, but 00:08:00.540 --> 00:08:05.480 it worked. Cool. And you mentioned how you guys 00:08:05.480 --> 00:08:07.519 took your time with the album. How important 00:08:07.519 --> 00:08:10.519 was it that the label wasn't pressuring you guys 00:08:10.519 --> 00:08:13.740 to deliver something? Well, I mean, if the label 00:08:13.740 --> 00:08:15.699 was pressurizing us, they wouldn't have got anything 00:08:15.699 --> 00:08:18.339 out of us because, I mean, we were, our hands 00:08:18.339 --> 00:08:21.259 were kind of tied because we had a little boy. 00:08:21.600 --> 00:08:25.459 We're really lucky with Listenable because they're 00:08:25.459 --> 00:08:27.860 just, They're a fantastic label. They've been 00:08:27.860 --> 00:08:31.399 really supportive. They've never, you know, like 00:08:31.399 --> 00:08:36.399 put pressure on us or, yeah, they're just like 00:08:36.399 --> 00:08:39.019 a really, really great label. Laurent as well, 00:08:39.019 --> 00:08:41.899 who runs the label, he's like, you know, he's 00:08:41.899 --> 00:08:44.080 just, he's just got a real love for music, which 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:46.799 is just a, it's just a nice thing from, you know, 00:08:46.820 --> 00:08:53.220 like a big label. Okay. And actually I skipped 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.789 a question here. So let me just go back to the 00:08:55.789 --> 00:08:58.809 recording of the album. One second here. You 00:08:58.809 --> 00:09:01.389 mentioned that, for example, you guys went and 00:09:01.389 --> 00:09:03.850 used the fretless bass on the track. Is there 00:09:03.850 --> 00:09:07.190 anything that you also consciously tried with 00:09:07.190 --> 00:09:10.169 all the time that you had that you maybe hadn't 00:09:10.169 --> 00:09:12.269 done in the past that you said, well, you know, 00:09:12.289 --> 00:09:16.149 let me try this on a vocal or let's include, 00:09:16.350 --> 00:09:21.129 I don't know, some type of a layered guitar part 00:09:21.129 --> 00:09:24.830 that maybe we haven't done in the past. I mean, 00:09:24.830 --> 00:09:26.549 there's like about a million different layers 00:09:26.549 --> 00:09:30.049 of guitars, I think, but we did use our son's 00:09:30.049 --> 00:09:33.509 baby xylophone at the very beginning of the album. 00:09:33.649 --> 00:09:35.690 So do you know that sort of eerie sound that 00:09:35.690 --> 00:09:38.090 you hear as Suffering Life's coming in? That's 00:09:38.090 --> 00:09:43.210 like a sort of warped version of a ting! Rock 00:09:43.210 --> 00:09:48.409 and roll! There you go. I know. There's so many 00:09:48.409 --> 00:09:54.539 stories like that. There's... Judas Priest on 00:09:54.539 --> 00:09:58.240 British Steel, where they just took a tray full 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:01.820 of silverware, dropped it and recorded it. And 00:10:01.820 --> 00:10:05.399 that's a sound that's at the end of the track 00:10:05.399 --> 00:10:09.500 Metal Gods. Really? Oh, yeah. If you listen back 00:10:09.500 --> 00:10:14.340 to it, it's it's the last like. The outro to 00:10:14.340 --> 00:10:18.120 the song, there's like this clanking sound and 00:10:18.120 --> 00:10:19.940 that's that that's them dropping a tray with 00:10:19.940 --> 00:10:21.639 silverware. That's awesome. I didn't know that. 00:10:22.009 --> 00:10:25.490 Yeah. There's another bit as well in the CLIs. 00:10:26.909 --> 00:10:31.009 When you hear a sort of sound underneath the 00:10:31.009 --> 00:10:33.529 guitars, that's actually Jamie. He's got a cold 00:10:33.529 --> 00:10:38.370 and he's going, he's making a really like sort 00:10:38.370 --> 00:10:39.950 of weird noise in the background, but it's got 00:10:39.950 --> 00:10:43.049 rakes and rakes of reverb on it. Right. Wow. 00:10:45.610 --> 00:10:47.590 It sounds weird. It sounds like some sort of 00:10:47.590 --> 00:10:49.509 synthy sound that Devin Townsend would use, but 00:10:49.509 --> 00:10:53.039 it's just Jamie with a really blocked nose. That's 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:56.340 cool. Those are the little details that you would 00:10:56.340 --> 00:10:59.100 never know unless that comes up in an interview. 00:11:02.299 --> 00:11:07.080 Cool. How do your surroundings being from Scotland, 00:11:07.200 --> 00:11:12.460 being from Edinburgh, how does that kind of help 00:11:12.460 --> 00:11:20.779 shape the band's music? I mean. We started out 00:11:20.779 --> 00:11:24.100 in Edinburgh jamming under an old spooky church. 00:11:24.340 --> 00:11:26.759 We were in all these dark vaults underneath this 00:11:26.759 --> 00:11:32.179 old church. I guess that's a pretty fitting place 00:11:32.179 --> 00:11:35.460 to write riffs if you're in a heavy metal doomy 00:11:35.460 --> 00:11:42.139 band. Scotland's got amazing scenery and it's 00:11:42.139 --> 00:11:46.179 quite a good place to come up with lyrics. you 00:11:46.179 --> 00:11:49.700 know, like from like folklore and history and, 00:11:49.720 --> 00:11:52.059 and just like scenery in general, it's just like, 00:11:52.080 --> 00:11:56.059 it's gorgeous. So I guess there's definitely 00:11:56.059 --> 00:11:58.700 a lot of songs in our albums that are about, 00:11:58.820 --> 00:12:02.539 you know, like Scotland and mythology of Scotland. 00:12:03.559 --> 00:12:08.100 Right. So that helps kind of, uh, uh, you know, 00:12:08.100 --> 00:12:11.240 uh, spark creativity. Yeah, I think so. I like, 00:12:11.379 --> 00:12:14.120 well, we all do like really like getting out 00:12:14.120 --> 00:12:17.370 into, you know, like going for like out in nature, 00:12:17.450 --> 00:12:19.950 like walking in the hills. And it's like a really 00:12:19.950 --> 00:12:21.509 good way of being able to sort of clear your 00:12:21.509 --> 00:12:24.330 head, I think. And there's a lot of actually 00:12:24.330 --> 00:12:29.730 like our new album is about that. And yeah, I 00:12:29.730 --> 00:12:32.690 think it's, it's like, it's just important to 00:12:32.690 --> 00:12:37.129 us. Yeah. It's interesting because there are 00:12:37.129 --> 00:12:42.009 a lot of doom metal bands that are out of, you 00:12:42.009 --> 00:12:47.830 know, England, Scotland, the UK. Um, and a lot 00:12:47.830 --> 00:12:51.009 of times you can kind of feel the different textures 00:12:51.009 --> 00:12:54.509 where they're from, uh, to kind of separate each, 00:12:54.590 --> 00:12:57.870 each one of the bands. Like you don't sound like 00:12:57.870 --> 00:13:02.070 orange goblin and you don't sound like, um, I 00:13:02.070 --> 00:13:03.370 was going to say the quill, but they're from 00:13:03.370 --> 00:13:07.570 Sweden. So, I mean, they're all, you guys are 00:13:07.570 --> 00:13:10.429 all kind of in, in, in the doom realm, but you're 00:13:10.429 --> 00:13:12.649 all kind of putting your own flavor on things. 00:13:13.240 --> 00:13:14.840 Yeah, it's cool. I think that, yeah, there's 00:13:14.840 --> 00:13:18.340 a huge pool, but there's like so much variety 00:13:18.340 --> 00:13:23.960 in it as well, which is really cool. Our previous 00:13:23.960 --> 00:13:26.700 band was more of a straight up sort of like heavy 00:13:26.700 --> 00:13:29.659 metal, new wave, like British heavy metal style 00:13:29.659 --> 00:13:32.039 band. And that felt like it was a bit more restricted. 00:13:32.620 --> 00:13:35.279 But like this, you know, the stuff that we're 00:13:35.279 --> 00:13:37.419 playing now just feels like there's much more 00:13:37.419 --> 00:13:40.139 sort of space to be able to be creative in different 00:13:40.139 --> 00:13:42.519 ways. So you could like... like for instance 00:13:42.519 --> 00:13:45.019 this album's got like heavy metal doom vibes 00:13:45.019 --> 00:13:47.840 it's got hard rock it's got a bad folk it's got 00:13:47.840 --> 00:13:52.200 like slight psychedelia like it's um you know 00:13:52.200 --> 00:13:54.299 like they're even grunge like it's got a bit 00:13:54.299 --> 00:13:57.240 of everything but it still still feels like it's 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:00.919 still in that realm yeah yeah yeah it's neat 00:14:00.919 --> 00:14:03.259 there's there's like a thin line between everything 00:14:03.259 --> 00:14:05.879 and you guys are kind of just shaping it to work 00:14:05.879 --> 00:14:10.730 for you yeah like and i think it's we we quite 00:14:10.730 --> 00:14:13.570 dig the fact that there's variety as well um 00:14:13.570 --> 00:14:15.950 you know you used to get like the albums that 00:14:15.950 --> 00:14:17.909 you maybe used to listen to as kids like do you 00:14:17.909 --> 00:14:20.590 know i still listen to them like zeppelin or 00:14:20.590 --> 00:14:25.029 you know like like floyd then lizzie like none 00:14:25.029 --> 00:14:27.570 of the songs are the same none of the songs are 00:14:27.570 --> 00:14:29.789 like every song's got a bit of a different flavor 00:14:29.789 --> 00:14:32.029 to it which um although they still sound like 00:14:32.029 --> 00:14:35.389 the same band um and we personally feel like 00:14:35.789 --> 00:14:37.490 That's like an album that we would want to listen 00:14:37.490 --> 00:14:40.330 to because it's, I don't know, because it just, 00:14:40.350 --> 00:14:43.309 it keeps it interesting. Yeah. Yeah. And that's, 00:14:43.309 --> 00:14:46.090 I think something that's kind of lost in modern 00:14:46.090 --> 00:14:49.629 music where it's become very homogenized and 00:14:49.629 --> 00:14:55.509 very samesy where, and this is all across hard 00:14:55.509 --> 00:14:59.210 rock and metal where bands write one song and 00:14:59.210 --> 00:15:01.710 everything kind of sounds like that one song. 00:15:02.429 --> 00:15:06.450 Throughout the entire album, as opposed to giving 00:15:06.450 --> 00:15:09.909 people different sides of of the band. And this 00:15:09.909 --> 00:15:13.330 is a discussion that I've had quite a bit in 00:15:13.330 --> 00:15:16.850 the past where people have said to me, well, 00:15:17.029 --> 00:15:20.889 you know, an album that's that diverse isn't 00:15:20.889 --> 00:15:23.590 going to go over well with fans. And I thought, 00:15:23.610 --> 00:15:27.129 well, why not? It's always worked, you know. 00:15:27.190 --> 00:15:29.509 And the thing was, well, if you're selling it 00:15:29.509 --> 00:15:32.210 to somebody, you're marketing. something to them 00:15:32.210 --> 00:15:35.190 you should stick to one thing so that they know 00:15:35.190 --> 00:15:37.970 what they're getting and that doesn't make sense 00:15:37.970 --> 00:15:40.269 to me nah it doesn't make sense to me either 00:15:40.269 --> 00:15:42.870 by like it's kind of a weird world now in the 00:15:42.870 --> 00:15:44.529 way that you know like people's attention spans 00:15:44.529 --> 00:15:49.110 are so short and right um maybe people are not 00:15:49.110 --> 00:15:51.090 like they're scared to take it they don't want 00:15:51.090 --> 00:15:54.009 to take a risk on like spending time on an album 00:15:54.009 --> 00:15:58.049 like this i don't know like one song's one way 00:15:58.049 --> 00:16:00.149 the other songs are like no no i'm not into that 00:16:00.149 --> 00:16:02.190 at all i don't know i don't know like i think 00:16:02.190 --> 00:16:05.549 um i i think i dig variety i think it's a good 00:16:05.549 --> 00:16:08.090 thing yeah yeah i i agree with you as well and 00:16:08.090 --> 00:16:10.149 i think it makes it interesting as a listener 00:16:10.149 --> 00:16:13.950 to want to continue to to kind of ride that wave 00:16:13.950 --> 00:16:16.429 throughout the entire album totally as opposed 00:16:16.429 --> 00:16:18.190 to just hearing one thing and saying all right 00:16:18.190 --> 00:16:20.799 i've kind of heard the entire album already Yeah, 00:16:20.840 --> 00:16:22.600 and it takes you on a journey. Like, that's how 00:16:22.600 --> 00:16:24.320 it should feel. Like, it feels like you're, like, 00:16:24.360 --> 00:16:26.740 on a roller coaster up and down. Like, yeah, 00:16:26.740 --> 00:16:31.960 that's what I like about it. Yeah, I agree with 00:16:31.960 --> 00:16:35.960 you. You're credited as working on the graphic 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:41.360 design for the album. Yeah. What was your input 00:16:41.360 --> 00:16:43.779 on that, and what exactly, what aspects did you 00:16:43.779 --> 00:16:48.740 work on? So, originally, I was going to do the 00:16:48.740 --> 00:16:52.190 cover artwork. for the band, for the album and 00:16:52.190 --> 00:16:54.769 I'd come up with an idea there was an old painting 00:16:54.769 --> 00:16:57.490 that I'd done and we thought it was really cool 00:16:57.490 --> 00:17:00.029 and we gave it to the label and he was like that's 00:17:00.029 --> 00:17:02.070 cool but I think we could probably get something 00:17:02.070 --> 00:17:04.769 a bit more fitting to the music and it was like 00:17:04.769 --> 00:17:11.450 so but luckily we knew a very talented woman 00:17:11.450 --> 00:17:14.990 called Roseanne Hayes aka Blasted Heathen and 00:17:14.990 --> 00:17:17.230 we'd worked with her before on t -shirts and 00:17:18.480 --> 00:17:21.140 i asked her if she would be interested in helping 00:17:21.140 --> 00:17:24.140 and i gave her like my sort of concept of what 00:17:24.140 --> 00:17:27.680 i wanted um which was like yin and yang light 00:17:27.680 --> 00:17:32.559 and dark death life corruption innocence and 00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:34.960 i thought you know like it would be cool if it 00:17:34.960 --> 00:17:36.660 was wolves because i felt like that would be 00:17:36.660 --> 00:17:38.960 a good way of representing the fierceness of 00:17:38.960 --> 00:17:41.500 the human spirit and amongst all the shit and 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:44.519 um and she said cool and she went away And she 00:17:44.519 --> 00:17:46.740 came back with about five designs that were all 00:17:46.740 --> 00:17:50.059 like off the chart amazing. And it was really 00:17:50.059 --> 00:17:52.579 difficult to choose which one because they were 00:17:52.579 --> 00:17:55.019 all so good. But we decided to go more for the 00:17:55.019 --> 00:17:57.480 original concept, which was the yin and yang 00:17:57.480 --> 00:18:00.079 concept of the wolves. And that's how it came 00:18:00.079 --> 00:18:03.460 about. So she did the front cover and the back 00:18:03.460 --> 00:18:06.619 cover of the album artwork, which is like our 00:18:06.619 --> 00:18:11.480 faces in stone. And I'm a graphic designer anyway, 00:18:11.640 --> 00:18:16.849 like by D. So I had the time to be able to take 00:18:16.849 --> 00:18:20.609 her artwork and sort of just like, like do with 00:18:20.609 --> 00:18:23.130 it what I needed to do. And I had all the photographs 00:18:23.130 --> 00:18:25.190 and stuff as well from like one of our friends 00:18:25.190 --> 00:18:27.529 had done photo shoots with us as well. So yeah, 00:18:27.630 --> 00:18:30.730 I was, you know, like in a comfortable place 00:18:30.730 --> 00:18:33.470 to be able to put it all together. Okay. And 00:18:33.470 --> 00:18:35.470 that's presented to you in what, Illustrator 00:18:35.470 --> 00:18:38.869 or something like that? I did, some of it would 00:18:38.869 --> 00:18:40.750 have been in Photoshop and some of it would have 00:18:40.750 --> 00:18:46.380 been in InDesign. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, if that's 00:18:46.380 --> 00:18:49.380 what you normally do, I mean, that's easy for 00:18:49.380 --> 00:18:54.720 you to mess around with and to kind of bend it 00:18:54.720 --> 00:18:57.160 in whatever way you want to. Yeah, totally. But 00:18:57.160 --> 00:18:59.859 it was nice to have somebody else doing the artwork. 00:19:00.099 --> 00:19:04.559 It was, it felt, I think because we do a lot 00:19:04.559 --> 00:19:06.619 of stuff ourselves, like, you know, like Jamie's 00:19:06.619 --> 00:19:08.980 done the production and everything, kind of quite 00:19:08.980 --> 00:19:11.720 a DIY band. It can be difficult sometimes to 00:19:11.720 --> 00:19:14.759 pass things over. But it felt nice to be able 00:19:14.759 --> 00:19:17.740 to do it and even nicer because she'd done such 00:19:17.740 --> 00:19:22.220 a good job. Does this kind of give you more ideas 00:19:22.220 --> 00:19:25.940 for, say, for merch or for other aspects? Or 00:19:25.940 --> 00:19:28.700 would you work with any of the other designs 00:19:28.700 --> 00:19:31.500 that she presented? Yeah, I think I'm going to 00:19:31.500 --> 00:19:33.039 ask. I was actually going to ask her. She'd be 00:19:33.039 --> 00:19:35.000 up for letting us use one of the other designs 00:19:35.000 --> 00:19:37.539 for another T -shirt because we've got the album 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:40.799 cover on a T -shirt already. But I think it would 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.089 be... it would be cool to use something. So it 00:19:43.089 --> 00:19:45.470 felt like it all tied in. That would be, that 00:19:45.470 --> 00:19:51.750 would be cool. Cool. You mentioned off air that 00:19:51.750 --> 00:19:54.630 you guys are going to be playing tomorrow. Yeah. 00:19:56.130 --> 00:19:58.470 Is that the first set of shows that you're doing 00:19:58.470 --> 00:20:01.890 in support of this album? Yeah. So it's just 00:20:01.890 --> 00:20:04.809 tomorrow and Saturday. So we'll play in Newcastle 00:20:04.809 --> 00:20:07.710 tomorrow and London on Saturday. And these are 00:20:07.710 --> 00:20:09.250 the first gigs that we'll have played in over 00:20:09.250 --> 00:20:13.109 three years. um yeah so these are um in support 00:20:13.109 --> 00:20:15.150 of the album and then we've got we've got a few 00:20:15.150 --> 00:20:18.250 more shows coming up in the months coming ahead 00:20:18.250 --> 00:20:20.950 but yeah tomorrow's our first gig in a long time 00:20:20.950 --> 00:20:26.369 nervous a little excited though at the same time 00:20:26.369 --> 00:20:30.069 though excited how does um you already touched 00:20:30.069 --> 00:20:32.990 upon being a mother a few times how does being 00:20:32.990 --> 00:20:36.890 a mother and um tying your family into doing 00:20:36.890 --> 00:20:40.410 these shows how does that all work out now Well, 00:20:40.410 --> 00:20:43.970 it makes things a bit tricky because it means 00:20:43.970 --> 00:20:46.289 you can't really do sort of longer tours. So 00:20:46.289 --> 00:20:48.150 it needs to be sort of more select gigs and sort 00:20:48.150 --> 00:20:51.990 of smaller, shorter tours. But yeah, I think 00:20:51.990 --> 00:20:54.869 it will be manageable, just in a bit of a different 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:59.309 way. I think I just felt like, how is it going 00:20:59.309 --> 00:21:02.250 to feel to be on stage as a mum? Am I going to 00:21:02.250 --> 00:21:05.190 feel like, I don't know, will it feel weird? 00:21:08.180 --> 00:21:13.140 Can I still rock out? Well, you'll find out shortly. 00:21:13.319 --> 00:21:20.440 I sure will. A few weeks back, there was a big 00:21:20.440 --> 00:21:24.400 event that kind of triggered a lot of the music 00:21:24.400 --> 00:21:29.180 that you guys play. Back to the beginning shows 00:21:29.180 --> 00:21:33.759 that kind of put a bookend to Black Sabbath and 00:21:33.759 --> 00:21:39.269 Ozzy. And there's a tremendous tribute to them. 00:21:40.069 --> 00:21:44.130 And I don't find it shocking that they were able 00:21:44.130 --> 00:21:47.250 to raise so much money because of how diehards 00:21:47.250 --> 00:21:52.190 metal fans are and how if there's a cause or 00:21:52.190 --> 00:21:55.190 if there's someone that they love, how they back 00:21:55.190 --> 00:22:00.670 them and their projects. As a musician, how do 00:22:00.670 --> 00:22:06.599 you look at a show like that? I mean, I thought 00:22:06.599 --> 00:22:08.259 it was really cool. They were able to raise the 00:22:08.259 --> 00:22:11.200 amount of money and it was really cool to see 00:22:11.200 --> 00:22:14.440 him, you know, like he, it was nice to see them 00:22:14.440 --> 00:22:17.359 again. It's kind of, it was sad. Like I watched, 00:22:17.420 --> 00:22:19.720 I went to their last ever gig, last ever gig 00:22:19.720 --> 00:22:24.700 in Birmingham. And that was, when was that? I 00:22:24.700 --> 00:22:26.339 can't even remember how many years ago that was. 00:22:26.599 --> 00:22:33.759 It was in 2015, 16, maybe. yeah so that that 00:22:33.759 --> 00:22:36.359 was like the send -off but to see this it felt 00:22:36.359 --> 00:22:38.279 sadder somehow and I don't know because I think 00:22:38.279 --> 00:22:41.299 as it felt more final for whatever reason I don't 00:22:41.299 --> 00:22:42.920 know I think maybe because Ozzy's in a chair 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:45.240 it made it seem like it was just that's what 00:22:45.240 --> 00:22:48.099 made it more final but I did think it would have 00:22:48.099 --> 00:22:52.079 been nicer it would be nice if they had even 00:22:52.079 --> 00:22:55.279 a couple of local bands from Birmingham or you 00:22:55.279 --> 00:23:01.299 know like a smaller band or I know that the reason 00:23:01.299 --> 00:23:02.759 why they've got all these big bands is because 00:23:02.759 --> 00:23:04.180 that's what's going to bring in the money for 00:23:04.180 --> 00:23:06.619 the charity. Right. But it just felt like they 00:23:06.619 --> 00:23:08.279 were in their hometown and it would have been 00:23:08.279 --> 00:23:10.400 really cool if they had, you know, given someone 00:23:10.400 --> 00:23:14.000 a small band from the area the chance to sort 00:23:14.000 --> 00:23:17.460 of get up there in front of everybody. Yeah, 00:23:17.519 --> 00:23:19.740 I guess the smallest band that they probably 00:23:19.740 --> 00:23:22.000 had up there, quote unquote, was probably Rival 00:23:22.000 --> 00:23:25.380 Sons. Oh, yeah, maybe. They're not even that 00:23:25.380 --> 00:23:28.990 small anymore. Right, but that's the whole thing. 00:23:29.890 --> 00:23:32.569 What bands would you have liked to have seen? 00:23:33.529 --> 00:23:36.869 From smaller bands? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, 00:23:36.910 --> 00:23:40.369 they're not from Birmingham, but I think Greenlung 00:23:40.369 --> 00:23:42.910 are doing really well here at the moment. I think 00:23:42.910 --> 00:23:48.470 they would have probably gone down well. Obviously, 00:23:48.589 --> 00:23:54.519 we would have. We're not from Birmingham. But 00:23:54.519 --> 00:23:56.119 yeah, like, I don't know. They just would have 00:23:56.119 --> 00:23:58.240 been really, there's like loads of cool sort 00:23:58.240 --> 00:24:03.660 of Jimmy hard rock and bands that would have 00:24:03.660 --> 00:24:08.759 totally killed it. Yeah, absolutely. I agree 00:24:08.759 --> 00:24:12.920 with you. Yeah. What other bands do you think? 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:15.099 Cause I mean, we're, we're at a point in time 00:24:15.099 --> 00:24:18.500 where. We're going to see more of our heroes 00:24:18.500 --> 00:24:23.660 say goodbye, unfortunately. Yeah. But that's 00:24:23.660 --> 00:24:27.299 part of life. What other bands do you think could 00:24:27.299 --> 00:24:29.900 pull off something similar to that as kind of 00:24:29.900 --> 00:24:35.579 a send -off? That kind of style of gig that they 00:24:35.579 --> 00:24:37.619 played. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that style of gig. 00:24:41.180 --> 00:24:44.359 I don't know. Do you mean bands of their era 00:24:44.359 --> 00:24:48.140 or a different era? Of any era. Of any era. Still 00:24:48.140 --> 00:24:58.400 around, yeah. I don't know. Well, Zeppelin are 00:24:58.400 --> 00:25:01.920 going to be playing at the end of the year, are 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:04.720 they not? Maybe they could do it, but maybe not. 00:25:04.779 --> 00:25:10.240 I don't know. But I don't know. It's hard to 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:13.220 say because older, those kind of style of bands, 00:25:13.380 --> 00:25:15.740 they're just... obviously because they've been 00:25:15.740 --> 00:25:18.079 around for so long they've built up such huge 00:25:18.079 --> 00:25:23.799 followings and momentum and godlike stature and 00:25:23.799 --> 00:25:29.539 it was different for them so bands these days 00:25:29.539 --> 00:25:34.019 it's not easy for a band to make it so they don't 00:25:34.019 --> 00:25:39.259 get given money from record labels which means 00:25:39.259 --> 00:25:40.819 you don't get the same amount of time to pour 00:25:40.819 --> 00:25:45.180 into the music as a I don't know. It's a whole 00:25:45.180 --> 00:25:48.000 different beast now. And I honestly don't know 00:25:48.000 --> 00:25:49.700 who would be able to pull off something like 00:25:49.700 --> 00:25:57.700 that in the same way. Do you? I would speculate 00:25:57.700 --> 00:26:02.960 that it would have to be a big band that could 00:26:02.960 --> 00:26:06.059 pull in other big bands along with them. It would 00:26:06.059 --> 00:26:08.039 have to be like an Iron Maiden or it would have 00:26:08.039 --> 00:26:11.160 to be like an ACDC. Metallica could probably 00:26:11.160 --> 00:26:15.130 do it as well. Yeah. Metallica, without a doubt. 00:26:15.410 --> 00:26:17.029 Metallica would probably do it on their own. 00:26:17.130 --> 00:26:23.490 Yeah. But I mean, what I found personally, what 00:26:23.490 --> 00:26:25.750 I found so cool about the event was it reminded 00:26:25.750 --> 00:26:29.329 me of a lot of shows that I saw on TV as a kid, 00:26:29.450 --> 00:26:32.849 whether it was, you know, whether it was Live 00:26:32.849 --> 00:26:34.970 Aid or whether it was the, you know, the Freddie 00:26:34.970 --> 00:26:38.990 Mercury tribute show or stuff like that, where 00:26:38.990 --> 00:26:43.750 there were different events over the years. where 00:26:43.750 --> 00:26:46.130 you would have a lot of these big bands get together 00:26:46.130 --> 00:26:49.390 and play these events. And it was neat. And I 00:26:49.390 --> 00:26:52.289 think that's something that's been lost maybe 00:26:52.289 --> 00:26:55.789 in like the last 20 to 30 years where I'm not 00:26:55.789 --> 00:27:00.150 saying they don't exist, but it's not as frequent 00:27:00.150 --> 00:27:03.269 or maybe just in my mind, it's not as frequent. 00:27:03.269 --> 00:27:05.710 I think you're right. I think you're right. It 00:27:05.710 --> 00:27:06.849 would have been really cool to have a ticket 00:27:06.849 --> 00:27:09.089 to go. It would have been cool to be there to 00:27:09.089 --> 00:27:13.259 sort of, to witness it. because yeah it's like 00:27:13.259 --> 00:27:15.759 a quite a cool like from watching it we watched 00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:20.460 the live stream quite a cool feeling seeing all 00:27:20.460 --> 00:27:23.980 these big bands come together and like you know 00:27:23.980 --> 00:27:25.799 like doing a couple of their own tracks but also 00:27:25.799 --> 00:27:28.200 like doing these covers listening to their interpretation 00:27:28.200 --> 00:27:31.119 of an Aussie song or a you know like a Black 00:27:31.119 --> 00:27:33.700 Sabbath song was quite interesting yeah yeah 00:27:33.700 --> 00:27:37.980 absolutely yeah I'm hoping they uh they release 00:27:37.980 --> 00:27:39.599 it at some point in the future because I miss 00:27:39.599 --> 00:27:42.599 the live feed altogether Oh, I'm sure they will. 00:27:42.740 --> 00:27:49.000 I'm sure they will. Yeah. Hopefully. Where can 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:53.460 somebody go to pick up Three and make sure that 00:27:53.460 --> 00:27:55.640 it puts the most amount of money in the band's 00:27:55.640 --> 00:28:00.220 pockets? Well, if you want to buy it digitally, 00:28:00.400 --> 00:28:05.420 you can go to Listenable Records Bandcamp. That's 00:28:05.420 --> 00:28:08.039 our record label. You can also buy vinyl and 00:28:08.039 --> 00:28:11.329 CD from them as well. on their band camp or you 00:28:11.329 --> 00:28:14.390 can their website as well but you can also buy 00:28:14.390 --> 00:28:18.809 cds and vinyls from us the king witch band camp 00:28:18.809 --> 00:28:21.410 you just can't buy it digitally from our band 00:28:21.410 --> 00:28:28.789 camp okay cool and um as far as keeping up with 00:28:28.789 --> 00:28:30.970 the band what's the best place for them to go 00:28:30.970 --> 00:28:34.089 like our socials like we're pretty active on 00:28:34.089 --> 00:28:38.640 instagram on facebook Yeah, those two are probably 00:28:38.640 --> 00:28:42.079 the best ones. They're both kept up to date pretty 00:28:42.079 --> 00:28:44.539 regularly and they'll have like gig dates or 00:28:44.539 --> 00:28:48.799 like new videos or, you know, all that shizzle. 00:28:51.099 --> 00:28:53.819 All right, cool. Well, I appreciate your time, 00:28:53.980 --> 00:28:57.339 Laura. It was awesome talking to you and I really 00:28:57.339 --> 00:29:00.319 enjoy the album, if you couldn't tell. I'm glad 00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:02.440 you like it. It makes me very happy to hear that. 00:29:02.910 --> 00:29:09.809 Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It totally hits the spot, 00:29:09.910 --> 00:29:13.349 in my opinion, if you're looking for a certain 00:29:13.349 --> 00:29:16.829 style of aggressive doom metal, specifically 00:29:16.829 --> 00:29:20.470 is what stood out to me. If people are craving 00:29:20.470 --> 00:29:24.690 and missing one Ronnie James Dio, for example, 00:29:24.869 --> 00:29:30.170 I think that this will help wet your whistle, 00:29:30.289 --> 00:29:35.259 definitely. Nice. Yeah. Thank you very much. 00:29:35.259 --> 00:29:37.400 And thanks for taking the time to chat to us. 00:29:38.259 --> 00:29:42.259 Absolutely. Thanks so much. We'll see you next 00:29:42.259 --> 00:29:44.420 time. Anytime you want to come back on, you're 00:29:44.420 --> 00:29:46.380 more than welcome to do so. Thank you, Victor. 00:29:46.779 --> 00:30:05.460 All right. Bye. You can watch the show live on 00:30:05.460 --> 00:30:08.519 YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Twitch. Or check 00:30:08.519 --> 00:30:11.599 out replays on YouTube. Go to signalscommand 00:30:11.599 --> 00:30:14.299 .com for more information. This concludes our 00:30:14.299 --> 00:30:14.539 show.