I’m currently obsessed with Hail Mary. The melodic start to the aggressive climax is amazing! What was the process for creating a track like that?
Thank you! It was all based around that automaton-like bassline. Our bassist at the time, Paul, had been kicking it around for a while and playing it in the room whenever he could. We knew we wanted to do something with it so we essentially constructed the entire arrangement and song structure around what he was doing there. Ultimately, it's his music with my lyrics.
It was the first time we'd taken a more band-based, in-room approach to songwriting. It ended up being the approach most prevalent throughout Dark Web, the album that Hail Mary is on. It used to be that me and Dom, our guitarist and my brother, would write separately and bring finished songs in a la Morrissey & Marr or Lieber & Stoller. The two of us had to learn to be less precious about our shit, and ultimately it benefitted all of us!
What are some of your influences? Some of the stuff I’ve heard gives me some Reuben vibes. The UK punk scene seems in good hands.
That's a nice comparison and I can hear it, though ultimately what we do is borne of a wide range of things. I think a lot of what you can really hear - certainly in the more recent stuff from Dark Web - comes from bands like Bloc Party, Gang of Four, CLT DRP and Evil Blizzard. There are foundational influences like IDLES, The Smiths, The Velvet Underground etc, but ultimately we're always trying to evolve and try new things. I've been variously told we sound like anything from Funkadelic to Theatre of Hate to Radiohead to Pere Ubu, so I dunno. Whatever we're feeling I guess.
What are your touring plans looking like into 2027. Where can I catch you guys?
Busy! We're working on new stuff so the first half of the year will be spent trying that out live. We're in Banbury on 19th February, Luton on the 20th, then making our Isle of Man debut across the 13th and 14th March, with more being booked all the time and Manchester & Liverpool dates to be confirmed. 2nd half of the year hoping for full UK tour with some Europeam dates. It all depends on how things pan out.
Do you have any pre-show rituals? I’m always interested in warmups and vocal exercises. I don’t think this gets asked enough when it comes to hardcore bands
I always end up pacing around like a tiger and muttering to myself to get into the right headspace. What we're doing isn't a performance because it's real - it's a real exorcism of real thoughts and feelings - so it's important to me to feel it. I can't speak for the others but that's about as far as we go in terms of pre-how rituals, I think. That happens right before we start as well. Generally we're just watching the other bands and enjoying being there.
Are you guys writing and recording at the moment, if so, what can we expect in the future?
We are. Our new single Your House Looks Spooky is out now!. It's a standalone single but we're currently booked in to begin recording on album 3 in October, with a view to releasing in the 2nd half of 2027.
Favourite Horror movie and why?
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It's visceral, brutal, nihilistic and unflinching but also deeply weird and kind of silly in places. Like our music in many ways I suppose.