When The Sun Comes Down Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

R: The band is Thomas Hand chaste (that's me!) and Alexsander Scardavian. In 2015 we met  after long time in a musical instrument shop so we decided to make up Where The Sun Comes Down. In the 80's I was the drummer of Death SS and then Paul Chain Violet Theatre. Apart from WTSCD I keep producing and playing in Sancta Sanctorum and THC Witchfield. About Alexsander Scardavian he played with Paul Chain from 1989 to 2012, with Steve Silvester from 1992 to 1996 and he is founder of Strange Here from 2014.
I believe Alexsander is really the only one able to play with Paul Chain and very well indeed with the right feeling. For the realisation of this album  we asked Claud Galley (Death SS, PCVT) to play the bass in two of the tracks and exhumed Santis Goram's voice – R.I.P.- (Death SS, PCVT) in Welcome

2.Recently you have released an album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

R: Our sound comes from what was created in Death SS/PCVT. It is a kind of English  / American rock with some Italian shades, I'm sure that it'll sound strange to you, but this is my thought of it. Something like what happened with the English progressive music which once appreciated in Italy it gave immediately material to start new bands, but with an “Italian Taste”. The same happened with the project of Paul Chain with the only difference that if Progressive Rock put bands on our Italian musical scene the Rock I'm talking about didn't, apart from Death SS/PCVT. Surely things changed during those years which followed the beginning of our rock bands like for example a few of different musical instruments were added to that sound, but without changing the foundations and the attitude of it. It anticipated what now is called Doom.   

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

R: Lyrics touch topics like the inner world of man (Myself), paranoias and mental personal trips. From Mister Lie, which talks about liers, to social suffering (Voyage) or the memory of the past years (Because we were fools) and a classical idea such as the metaphor of the shipwreck and so the existence. Orazio, Ovidio, Lucrezio and so on till Pascal and Nietzsche, they all dealt with the situation of man swinging on his ship into the storm in the middle of the ocean with no fixed point to rely on.

4.The band members come from some legendary bands that have been around for a long time, what is it that motivates you to keep going after all of these years/

R: Passion for music first of all. To put together a song and all the stuff you can arrange with it's fantastic and personally I spend quite a lot in composing. It becomes your own satisfaction when you see good results from your effort. Certainly we used the stages for the need of expressing ourselves, definitely not for money.

  

5.There was a lot of Occultism in Death SS and Violent Theatre, are you keeping that tradition going with the new band?

R: I have to make things clear: the band Death SS was overtly towards occultism, but this concerned just the founders of the band. So Steve Silvester who announced this particular information and Paul Chain who changed his mind releasing the album Detaching from Satan. As far as I know nobody else was interested about that.
Paul Chain and me shared the idea of life which could be understood from the point of view of death, what Paul used to call “the funeral ladder”. Basically it is the understanding that the consciousness of death can bring. An idea carried on in PCVT too, but without any occultism apart from what is called the Theatre of Life. Personally I am philosophically a materialist and I don't believe in God. I can't see why I should believe in Satan. It would seem stupid to me

6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'When the Sun Comes Down?

R: the name was Alexsander's idea and I agree with his point of view, again there is in it the image of time passing towards everyone's death. You see we don't sound very happy, do we?

7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

8.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

R: sorry but this band was born with no interest in live gigs. In 2011 I had a serious road accident and since then I can't play live any more, at best I am able to play drums for half an hour, so touring it would be really too stressful for me.

9.On a worldwide elvel how has the feedback been to your music by fans of metal?

R: not long ago the album has been released, not much reviews so far but the ones we know of are very satisfying with good comments in it. We felt that was a good album and now it seems so. We have been struck by sentences like “a voice from sorrow and rage” , “ neurotic neurosis” or “ litanies similar to the British new wave or Joy Division”, “never ordinary arrangements” and “ the childish album cover is something underneath which lies the deepest abyss made of rage and sorrow”. Everything said about it it was already felt and experienced by ourselves... great uh?

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

R: we don't know yet. We are recording new stuff but we'll see later what to do with that material.
What I'm saying is that usually we do improvise trying new things and when we have enough work done we combine different parts of different takes and see what comes out. The second step is listening to everything many times attentively before we  compose the real song project which will be recorded properly for the album. Different combinations give different colour to the song which gives different taste and direction to the whole album. So, we'll see what is going to happen.

11.What are some of the band sor musical styles that have had an influence on your music

and also what are you listening to nowadays?

R: Alexsander Scardavian: Cream, Black Sabbat, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix. I listen to old bands not really known by the people and classical music too (Bach, Penderecki, Mozart).
                                 
Thomas Hand Chaste: I come from a family of musicians and loving music people. I listened to every kind of music with much interest. In my discography there are many different things. Not just music anyhow but society give me remarkable material to work on. Lately I'm into classical music.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

R: A. S. : my interest is about  the inexplicable and I love Jesus Christ.
T.H.C. : after my accident I can't work so I'm resting upon the mountains where I own a little cottage in the bush where trees and plants keep me busy enough. I read a lot.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
R: who loves the music should change the approach towards it. We'd love a wider view about what has got as Rock. New genres have been created and names we don't actually need. This is a way to split listeners instead of the opposite and so it creates limits. I believe that if we don't change the way we think or instruments to play we still live in the Rock Era. You can call it “Heavy, Country, Electronic, Dark” whatever it is still Rock. I'm pretty sure in a hundred years people will make any difference between Chuck Berry and Nirvana or N.I.N. and The Who. All the same artistic expression called Rock. Better if we take back the music as the whole of it without develop boundaries for the listener.

Callus Interview

For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
We're a raw power trio looking to make rooms rumble where ever and when ever. We call ourselves a stoner thrash band hitting hard with riffs and harsh vocals making quite the obnoxious sound, not for the feint hearted!

So far you have released 2 ep's, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on both of the recordings?
HEAVY. Really heavy. Like Ben said earlier we kind of describe ourselves as “Stoner Thrash”, the length of the list of bands we draw influence from is stupid.
We love the thrash sound, but we are also really into the more mid-tempo down tuned riffs, with more progressive elements thrown in. We draw influences from as many sources and sounds as possible and we try not to limit ourselves in what we do musically, even with us being a three piece.
The first EP is “Live At The Yorkshire House” which… yeah you guessed it, a live recording we had done in Lancaster in 2014. The second is “Through, Blood, Sweat, Piss and Pain” which is our first studio effort. 


3.
What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
I honestly cant tell you, me (Louis) and Ben write from the heart and its whatever comes out it makes complete sense to us. We have no limits in what we want to write about, it comes from a deep dark place within and that makes sense to us. We like to leave it open to interpretation, I would hope that if anyone was to read (Its not like you can tell what we are saying when you listen to it!) they would form their own vision about what the music’s about.
Its personal man.

“Giver, of life’s last trick on me
Taken, all your fear is ours to see
Crawl, cower no escape now I leave you blind
Poison, roots inch their way into your mind”

“Drop your guard
Crossed cold steel
Disregard
How you feel”

“Darkness writhes, into the path I tread on
Eats the light, feeds on my misery
Took your time, because we’ve been waiting for you
Stand and fight, fade out another day”

“Scrutinize
All my lies
See through me
Eat the key”



4.
What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Callus'?
We’ve thick skin and cold hearts we couldn't get a name more perfect. Gritty ass name for a gritty ass band!

(From the Dictionary)
Adjective
Adjective: callous
Showing or having an insensitive and cruel disregard for others.
"His callous comments about the murder made me shiver"

And yes there are two ways of spelling Callus!

5.
What are some of the best shows that the band has played over the years and also how would you describe your stage performance?
We’ve had so many good shows and traveled to all sorts of places but the one that comes to mind is actually a home town gig in Lancaster at The Bobbin on may the 4th a few years ago when we were starting out, for me personally (Ben – Bass and Vocals) it was that show that brought the realization that we can and will be unstoppable.
One of the best shows for me (Louis) was at The Star and Garter in Manchester… brilliant venue and it was one of those night where everyone was In the right mood and it all just kicked off.
As for performance It sounds and looks aggressive as fuck and that’s how we’ll keep it! We’ve been described as monstrous, seems quite fitting!

6.
Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
We're always up for gigs anywhere we can but we’re all family men and have commitments at home, we may not be able to take all the shows that we are offered family comes first.
We take things as they come and in terms of shows its fairly quiet at the moment but a tour will definitely be on the cards in our future.

Upcoming dates are as follows
May 23rd Wakefeild, The Snooty fox
June 10th Burnley, Sanctuary Bar
June 16th Morecambe, Bath Hotel

It’s also fair to mention here that we also got confirmed for next years Hammerfest in Wales which is a mind blowing opportunity for us and one which we are extremely humbled by.
The date for that is March 16th 2018 (!!!)
Oh and Sepultura are playing the same festival… bit of a “holy shit” moment.

7.
Currently you are unsigned, are you looking for a label or have received any interest?
It’s not something we’ve discussed massively before I'm sure if somebody approached us we’d love to make a deal or something.

8.
On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of stoner, doom and thrash metal?
Im not too sure on a worldwide level to be honest!
I think the best way to answer that might be that we have played with a few foreign bands before, one night we played a show with Tombstones (Norway... I think) and Witch Mountain (US) and both bands said they caught our set and were really into it so that was amazing to hear and very humbling, both bands were amazing.


9.
When can we expect a full length and also where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We have plans to be recording again late this year or early next year we just need to sort our funds out and get our plan of action together. We're gonna keep writing, gig when we can and see what path shows up for us.

10.
What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
We love all things heavy we’re a bit of a mix to be honest but for bands pushing us there was a local band called Fighting Keegans that pushed us further than anyone else we loved what they did and they are the reason we started up ourselves. We owe them a lot. Mastodon has got to be one of our all time favourites their music blows our minds.

11.
What are some of your non musical interests?
Ben – Pokemon, Dragonball, all anime really and of course the major all day sesh.
Louis – Reading the works of HP Lovecraft and Stephen King, also a massive Halo fan and record collector. 
Mark – Western films, record collecting and bongs.

12.
Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?

Thanks for reading if you got this far guys…

If you fancy keeping up to date with the band use your computer skills and find us on…

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Callus.band/?ref=br_rs
Bandcamp: https://callus117.bandcamp.com/

Or even better come to a live show and see what its all about…


May 26th Wakefeild, The Snooty Fox
June 10th Burnley, Sanctuary Bar
June 16th Morecambe, Bath Hotel

Pyreship Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?
J) It's kind of a funny story of how it came to be.  Sam, George, and Steve were all in a band called Defending the Kingdom, and it was in the process of winding down. About that same time, I had inquired about some Sunn cabs on Craigslist, Sam turned out to be the seller, and I noticed he was wearing an Isis hoodie, which is a band that's been an inspiration to me since their inception.  We talked sporadically about gear and bands, and just kept a dialog going. He invited me to jam some months later, and a childhood friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a decade or two, Steve, was their drummer. It was instant chemistry!  We all come from different backgrounds musically, which lends itself to an in-depth and interesting writing process, more so than anything I've ever experienced. We're all fans of some fairly disparate styles of music, but we always find common ground in heavy, emotional riffs!

2.How would you describe your musical sound?
G) We originally wanted to be sludgy doom but started to evolve along more of a post-metal trajectory. Steve and I try to provide a stripped down, solid background for Jason and Sam to go crazy with. We tend to fall into a groove and let them solo, make noise, add embellishments and so on. The biggest thing for us is just doing something interesting that feels right and not being a slave to traditional song structures.
S) We try to get every riff or passage to have as much atmosphere and mass as we can manage.  George and Steve also have a really keen knack for maintaining momentum and movement.  Stylistically, I think we maybe expected to sound like Bongripper or Sleep, initially, and there's definitely an element of that, but we also had this massive raft of 90's influences like Soundgarden that started to seep in, plus bands like Cult of Luna.

3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?
J) Man, that's tough. We may seem very politically oriented, but in reality, we are just talking about the social climate around us, as we have vastly different political views. Our goal, lyrically, is to talk about our darker life experiences in an inspiring way and hopefully create a sense of self awareness in an environment where there isn't much middle ground between being lost and being trapped. Even if the world is crumbling around us, we're called to love each other as human beings, and there CAN be a light at the end of the tunnel if we choose it. It's human nature to wrestle with notions of retribution against the people who've wronged you, people who you may feel have damaged the human condition. Most people seek change by criticizing their immediate situation, and oftentimes that only contributes to the problem.
G) Dark themes and lyrics for dark times. Most songs are us directly working through our baggage and personal trials.
S) Sometimes it's easier to let go of a thing when you can just scream it out.  A lot of it is just this dejected lament, but we try hard not to get whiny or preachy.  Two of us live sober and I think one of the underlying themes was breaking the connection to a thing you falsely love.  In a larger sense, tho, that can also encompass toxic interpersonal relationships, toxic economic and social systems, etc.

4.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Pyreship"
G) I always thought the concept of the Viking pyre-ship ritual was both awesome and terrible. You would have soldiers drinking and piling the decks with food, treasure and weapons. It was a sort of farewell celebration because you were sending a loved one off to a better place and doing it in style. But, one of the darker aspects, which most people don't know, is that it wasn't uncommon to force slaves and concubines to burn to death with their masters. Some wives even chose to burn with their husbands. So this beautiful funeral celebration can also be a very disturbing affair. And that kind of strikes a chord with us. It seems like more and more we're surrounded by people obsessed with wealth and fame who are happy to let the world burn down around us. And we're stuck with them, so you just have to try and find the beauty and hope in it if you can.  It's a powerful image. Good and bad. Hope and sorrow.
S) This is much more of an abstraction, but it touches on what George was saying.  I really liked the idea of the burning sea - Earth is a water droplet floating in space and we're causing it to heat up and evaporate.

5.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?
G) Well, our first show was opening for Conan... so it's hard to top that. But honestly we've been blessed to play with some awesome bands full of amazing people. Most recently we played in Lafayette, Louisiana with our label mates Forming The Void. Awesome band and the nicest guys. That was a great show.
Live, we try to let the music move us and give everything we have.  We're not a bunch of 20 year olds jumping around or trying too hard at Dillinger Escape Plan craziness. But we all focus on playing well and being tight too.
S) Yeah.  Conan for sure.  I was going through a really rough time when we played our first show, and when they launched into Total Conquest I lost my fucking mind.
We pack a lot of amp weight on stage, try to effect as huge a sound as we can, and really get into each song without coming across like we're trying way too hard.  Moving tons of air is a big part of our live set.

6.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?
G) We're trying to focus on playing more out of town shows and are hoping to do a weeks' tour here and there & maybe fly out to some festivals. That kinda thing.
We have some really cool shows lined up. Another show with Conan. Our album release show with Forming The Void. A few other big shows in the works.

7.Currently the band is signed to 'Black Bow Records' are you happy with the support they have given you so far?
J) We couldn't be happier to work with Jon and Black Bow. I wish all labels were as easy to work with and still took care of business like they do! We feel like they run a label for the musicians. We are completely honored they have asked to work with us!
S) Agreed.  They have some really great bands on the roster.  Jon is a really down to earth dude who still manages to be totally passionate about his art and the art of others and sharing it with the world, whether live or recorded.

8.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of sludge and post metal?
G) Despite each of us having been around for awhile the band is still kinda new. So we're still getting ourselves out there. That's where Black Bow is truly a godsend. They have the means help bands get out to a bigger audience a lot faster. Every time we play or get our music to a new group of people the response has been amazing. We get a lot of "holy shit man!" It feels like it's already something big and it hasn't even hit the streets!

9.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future/
G) Our first album is us kind of finding ourselves. Figuring each other out. Now we just click. The new stuff we're working on has a better groove to it. The dynamics are more drastic and flow better. We'll probably have a bit more vocals. It pretty exciting.
S) Space.

10.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
G) All of us are influenced by stuff like Neurosis, and Isis but then we all kinda have our own odd little favorites. Jason loves emo stuff like Drive Like Jehu. Steve is all about Radiohead and Messugah. Sam is kinda all over the place. Everything from Nick Cave to Kowloon Walled City. Sam and I both are huge death metal guys too. But I'm probably the only guy really into hip hop and rap. I grew up in New York so I'm all about Wu Tang, Gravediggaz, Mos Def, that kinda stuff. My favorite new album it the new Kendrick Lamar. But the whole band's been obsessed with the new Cult Of Luna album Mariner and this Belgian band Brutus. The singer for Brutus is also the drummer. She's ridiculous. To play and sing like she does she must have lungs like a weather balloon.
S) Everything George said but I'd add that I consume 80's thrash in unhealthy doses, and the death metal bit is contemporary brutal death metal (the Euro variety, not its degenerate bro-dude American counterpart).  Also, did you know there's this whole YouTube sub-genre of sci-fi soundtrack music that's slowed down like 800-2500%?  If you're into ambient or drone shit, go do yourself a favor.

11.What are some of your non musical interests?
J) Sprituality, family, yerb, skateboards, Topo Chico.
S) Bikes, cats, knives, coffee & cookies.

12.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
G) Yeah! Go to Pyreship.com. We've got a blog, links to our Instagram, Facebook, merch store... all that stuff. Our album is out on May 26th. Buy it. Stream it. Live it. Go check out Monarch cabs. Go check out Sam's other band Omotai. Go check out Forming The Void and all the awesome bands on Black Bow records. And thank you guys for talking to us.
S) Monarch cabs.  You want one.  Or in my case, fifteen.