Blackened Horde: How did the band get started?
Steve: I, Steve started it having worked with an established band “The Self Titled” for a long time I wanted to do something different and pursue other avenues so I set about putting the band together.
Blackened Horde: What kind of music do you play?
Edd: We have invented a new brand of music, it’s “Harry Potter” metal as we call it… or “Dumblecore” for short.
Ha Ha, no, just kidding, we play whatever the hell comes out. We don’t consciously decide to write a certain way, at least I don’t think we do. A number of reviews of the EP have mentioned Pantera and Machine Head so if you’re looking for a rough idea, I guess that’s it.
Blackened Horde: How has the fan response been?
Edd: Live? Really good, although there is always a chance that people are just scared into cheering and clapping by Adam [Vocals], lets just say you’d better not let him catch you sitting down or looking at your phone. He’s rarely on the stage, he prowls around the audience like some kind of heavy-metal demon headmaster cajoling people and making sure they take part. I looked up the other night and he was stood on someone’s table.
The EP has had pretty good reviews too. I think we must have had about 15 or 16 really good reviews now.
Blackened Horde: Where did the band name come from?
Steve: I, Steve had the name bouncing about for quite sometime .It originally came from a song by “Queensryche” one of my favorite bands, and it has a whole story behind it.
Blackened Horde: Introduce the band members and what they do in the band.
Steve: Founder, bass player, backing vocals, organization, badgering, pestering, grumbling, scabbling and stippling.
Martin: Rhythm guitar, backing vocals, video editing, photographic stuff, getting madly overexcited at everything, shouting, bouncing, jumping off stuff.
Adam: Lead vocals, T-shirt swapping, lyric writing, crowd wrangler [not to be confused with “cordwangler” which is something to do with “The Ballad of Woggler’s Mooly”… google it]
JU: Lead guitar, Cubase stuff, website, and secret things he won’t tell us about.
Edd: Drums & sample pad, counts to four and hits stuff.
Blackened Horde: Who writes the music? Lyrics?
Edd: Martin, Steve and Ju write the music, I think up drum parts to go with what they’ve written then Steve says “couldn’t it go a bit more like boom boom tish boom boom tish on that bit?” and Martin always wants “more crash” so I figure they must all know more about drumming than me as they presume to tell me what to do so I just do as they say and change it back to what I wanted it to be a couple of weeks later when they’ve forgotten what they originally wanted.
Adam writes the lyrics in the main… which is an old fashioned word for the sea. Why he has to go in the sea to write I don’t know, maybe it helps to make him angry.
Blackened Horde: And where do the lyric ideas come from?
Edd: I think they’re based on whatever Adam is angry about at that particular moment.
Blackened Horde: What is your view in Satanism and Occultism?
Edd: They seem to have a monopoly on all the best music don’t they.
I have made a conscious effort not to be an “ist” of any kind whether it be Atheist, Theist, Satanist or Occultist. I’m an “Anti-istist”…. Doh!
Blackened Horde: How many albums/CD’s have you released?
Edd: We have released an EP with 4 songs on it so far, it’s a bit of a “taster” for our upcoming album which should hopefully be ready towards the end of the summer.
Blackened Horde: Tell me about some the songs on the latest CD?
Edd: Well, there’s Bulldozer which is kind of our single at the moment, it has a video and stuff and it’s about… err, what’s it about? Not construction machinery. I know you’re probably disappointed that it’s not actually about the CASE 2050M Crawler Dozer with it’s 81,000lbs of draw-bar pull and robust box-style C-Frame but it’s not so there.
Then there’s F.U.C.K.U. which stands for “Fernando’s Unbelievable Cake Kitchen Upset” which I believe is about an episode of The Great Spanish Bake Off… Oh hang on, apparently it’s not.
Then there’s “Lost Generation” (this isn’t the running order of the EP by the way) which is either about the hopelessness and futility of trying to get on in this oppressive and controlling world, or it’s about the electricity suddenly going off. Not sure which yet.
Lastly there’s “Evolution” which I’m assuming is about monkeys, fish and protozoa?
Blackened Horde: Do you have any side projects?
Edd: I’ve just fitted a seal on the bottom of the shower door if that counts? Also I am currently working on an experiment to convert base metals into gold but it’s difficult to resolve being an alchemist with my philosophy of being an anti-istist!
Musically I have a rock and metal covers band going which is quite fun.
Blackened Horde: Who are some of your musical influences?
Steve: Sabbath, Slipknot, Rammstein, Machinehead, Pantera, Rob Zombie and many more..of course each band member has their own influences.
Blackened Horde: Which current bands?
Edd: I’m a big fan of Nine Inch Nails. I think Steve pretty much nailed everything else with his previous answer.
Blackened Horde: What is the band like when you play live?
Steve: It goes out all guns blazing, very in your face and full of high energy. We tend to take most people by surprise. .Our Singer “Adam” is amazing, he throws himself into the crowd and gets everyone riled up and join him going crazy and interacting with him /us. Also Martin is full of energy beans and also tends to jump around and climb stuff, throw himself into the crowd too given the chance people love being a part of the show.
Blackened Horde: Have you guys ever played in another country?
Edd: I played at a festival in the Czech republic once but I drank some weird liquor that a biker bloke handed to me and don’t remember much after that, I’m told that I tried to take a cat back to the hotel with me and tried to get undressed on the bus… does Scotland count? I did a gig up there once too, the guitar player and I sat up drinking until the sun came up next day and I don’t remember much about that either.
Blackened Horde: How big of crowd shows up at shows usually?
Edd: So far pretty good, I mean you’d lose them in Wembley but generally, the venues we play there’s enough to get the gig hot and sweaty. I think the important thing is that those who do come stay until the end… although Adam has been known to lurk around the door and shout at anyone who looks like heading for it.
Blackened Horde: How is the crowd response when you play?
Edd: Again, so far we’ve had good feedback, Adam has even managed to get people clapping along and jumping up and down so I reckon that’s a good sign.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the US Black Metal/Death Metal scene?
Steve: We have not had that much experience with it yet, however we have now a US Management company who is working hard to get us out touring in the US so I guess we will find out. We have our fingers crossed as we all want to tour professionally.
Blackened Horde: What do you think of the Overseas scenes?
Edd: There are some excellent bands with some really good ideas out there. There’s a band I think from France called “Trepalium” who have a really unique style
Blackened Horde: What are some of new favorite black metal/death metal bands?
Edd: There’s a whole load of them that I love but I can’t read their names.
Blackened Horde: When do you guys plan on writing any new material?
Edd: We are always writing, well there’s loads of stuff written already, it’s a case of polishing it off in the rehearsal room… although mum always said doing that would affect my eyesight.
Blackened Horde: What does the future hold for the band??
Edd: Who knows? All we can do is work hard, keep writing and hope that enough people like it and buy it that it will sustain itself. Ultimately though, I think if you enter in to this for any other reason than to create something you’re proud of and to have a load of fun, you’re doing it for the wrong reasons. Glittering prizes and endless compromises shatter the illusion of integrity yeah…
Contact them at:
https://www.facebook.com/spreadingthedisease.official/
https://soundcloud.com/spreading-the-disease/spreading-the-disease-bulldozer
