Since its birth in 2006, there can’t have been many harder-working bands than Lancastrian sludge-groove monster Bastard Of The Skies. After three full-lengths, an EP, and a ‘split’ album, long-time guitarist Rob Beesley stunned its dedicated and growing fanbase by departing the fold earlier this year. Prior to their recent gig with Space Witch, I asked about the effect this had had on the band, plus their recent, incendiary split with fellow Brit sludgers Grimpen Mire. Over the next forty minutes they proved themselves affable, open and disarmingly self-deprecating.
I began by asking how a band from Blackburn, with not much of a metal scene to speak of, were garnering such a name for themselves? The humour is evident straightaway: “When I came for an audition’, says bassist Claire Horrocks, ‘Matt and [Rob] Beesley were sat there with a clipboard and a book entitled ‘How To Be A Successful Rock Band’!!” Rather shame-facedly, vocalist / guitarist and founder member Matt Richardson affirms this fact with a nod. “It’s everything you need’, he jokes. ‘I think my first gig was in Blackburn”, continues Claire, “but the venue closed soon afterwards.” ‘I think Blackburn closed!’, replies Richardson. So how get noticed enough to break out of there? “Despite a couple of early tours in the Midlands I’ve always followed what’s gone on in Manchester, which is now a home-from-home for us”, continues Richardson. ‘I knew a couple of guys here, and had seen a few gigs that Dave at Future Noise (the band’s record label) had put on there, so I hooked up with him.’ Youthful-looking powerhouse drummer Matt Aldred joined later: ‘Matt [Richardson] knew my elder brother and asked me to come down. He initially rejected me the first time around, but I came back successfully a year later. They’d obviously tried all other options!” The thing that sets BotS apart from the majority of sludge bands out there, aside from Richardson’s terrifying roar, is a huge element of groove amidst the ferocity. It’s something the rest of the trio are willing to lay at Aldred’s feet: ‘I’m from a pop-punk background’… ‘but listen to a lot of Tool, Mastodon, Russian Circles, and I find their kind of flow sneaks in to my playing.’
Attention turned to their blisteringly heavy, hostile, and rather magnificent new ‘split’ with Birmingham (UK) trio Grimpen Mire, which I seemed to recall being ‘plugged’ at a phenomenal night both bands played in Manchester a year earlier. ‘I’d actually already recorded the Grimps’ side of the ‘split’ before that gig!’, Richardson states matter-of-factly. ‘I’d spoken to Ian (Davis, Grimpen Mire drummer) about the possibility, and Future Noise agreed to fund it. I recorded their part in about three days, and our four tracks in about eight months! Our last album, ‘Tarnation’, had pushed my old desk to its absolute limits: this has been finished on a new desk.’ I opine that their contribution is a slight return to a more pacy, groove-laden nastiness, after an occasional dalliance with drone on ‘Tarnation’: ‘When we set out writing’ begins Aldred, ‘we don’t really have an aim. It kind of…develops. ‘That’s one reason why it took us so long!’ continues Richardson. ‘Nothing ever ends as you think it’s going to. It takes its own little journey and usually goes somewhere else.’ ‘Something will just spark something off’, continues Claire, ‘and before you know it half a song’s re-written. It’s happened to us so many times.’
I wondered, with the preponderance of bands doing splits these days, what the attraction is from a band’s point of view? “It’s just a better way of getting your stuff out there”, says Horrocks. “It’s economical”, Richardson adds, “and good in a geographical sense as people from a different area, the home of the other band involved at least, will hear your stuff. We did a split a couple of years ago with a band called Catatomic. They’re from Wisconsin and, although it didn’t do much for the bank balance, it got us heard in the US”. “In fact, we know we’ve some kind of following in Brazil as we get quite a few downloads of our stuff from there, and we’ve heard that some guys in Afghanistan were playing Tarnation in the humvees as they were out on patrol!”, reveals Aldred. “Yeah: I’m not really sure how I felt about that one…” jokes Richardson.
So does this, and the fact that Tarnation received airplay on some US online stations, mean that things are on the rise internationally for BotS? ‘I don’t know’ sighs Horrocks, ‘we’ll go where it takes us. To be honest we just do what we do, and don’t really expect anything out of it. You can’t get an ego about it: quite often, if you do, the rug gets pulled out from under your feet.’ ‘We got PR in North America for the split’ continues Richardson, “and if you look at their client list, Neurosis are on it, which was like ‘Oh my God!’. But, small fish, big pond. That’s the way we see it. Dave knew the PR guys from other occasions and they actually contacted us to do it, so it’s nice. It’s not like we can get over there anytime soon but it’s fantastic if we go down well over there.”
So how’s the split been received? “Well Terrorizer gave us a great review,” Claire positively enthuses, “so that was a real “t-shirt over the head” moment! It’s generally been really good, and at the moment that’s probably been the highlight.” Some reviews haven’t been so kind in the past, with one rather huffy reviewer taking issue purely because of the many tongue-in-cheek song titles the band produce. This, it seems, is largely the work of Mr. Richardson: ‘Take ‘Bao Fu’ from the split, for instance’ states Horrocks. “There’s no spiritual meaning; it’s the name of a chinese takeaway! I quite like the idea of some people wondering if there’s a deeper meaning behind a song named after a local chippy! We have discovered since that it’s also the name of a film character.’ ‘Also, ‘What Are You Looking At, Dicknose?!’ (from ‘Tarnation’) is taken from a t-shirt in the film ‘Teen Wolf” states Richardson, in no way ashamed of this rather cheesy link.
Actors and actresses do crop up with alarming regularity. I asked what the influence was. “Simple. I watch shit films. I love ’em! I suggest these things and they just stick.’ ‘There’s a new song we’ve written called ‘Tehachapi’, states Horrocks, “which comes from ‘Critters 2.’ ‘Debbie Rochon, the horror film actress, actually had our track named after her (from second album ‘Ichor! Ichor!’) as the theme on her website for a time!’, affirms Aldred. So are the songs about the people? ‘Largely, no!’ confirms Richardson. “They’re more often than not based on scenarios. The titles are just random suggestions that seem like an idea at the time!”
Richardson also has a steadily-growing resumé as a producer. Is word getting around about this string on his bow? I produce anyone who asks! But I’m between premises at present. I’ve had a studio for the last ten years but, at Christmas, I got a call saying it was to be pulled down. So the gear’s in my back room at the moment! ‘He’ll record anything though’, states Horrocks, ‘some bloke across the way chanting Muslim prayers, the Elvis impersonator down the road…anything. But there’s a lot of doom also: The Human Condition, Arkham Witch, Black Magician’...it’s an expanding list which is growing ever-more impressive.
The split is the first product the band have released without the beloved guitarist Beesley. I asked the reason for his departure, and how he’s missed: the response ‘Well, Claire now has to drive!…’ immediately dispels any suspicion of a fallout, and shows the band still love their absent colleague. ‘One of us may have to learn now’…continues Aldred. ‘Basically, he now has family responsibilities, and can’t commit to the band.’ ‘We miss that big grin’ laments Horrocks, ‘and the fact that, when ‘the dictator’ [Richardson] got going in the past, he’d go over and rub himself up against him, which diffused any situations.’ ‘So he had to go!’ declares Richardson in mock-tyrannical fashion. The teasing of Richardson’s status as leader reaffirms how well they get on with each other. Horrocks later opines that this is the most important thing about being in a band, whilst Aldred suggests that not living in each others’ pockets, a mistake that results in so many bands losing members these days, creates the breathing space necessary to reinforce the bond between them.
One of the most unassuming, funny, approachable units I’ve ever met, it’s almost paradoxical that the violent noise Bastard of the Skies creates is so brutal, crater-creating and downright irresistible. With their portion of the new split sounding as vital and powerful as ever, they are surely one of the greatest, coolest outfits around right now. You know what to do…
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PAUL QUINN
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