Nottingham indie-rock band Blue Vulture recently released a new EP 'Live To An Audience Of No One' and took time out to discuss their music.
Bainy-Lead Vocals
James-Guitar/Vocals
Dave-Guitar
Paul-Bass
Phil-Drums
Thanks for the interview guys, can you tell us a bit about your various musical backgrounds, influences and how you got together?
Phil-My musical background is generally heavy metal, though I grew up listening to a mixture of genres so the fact the Blue Vulture is considered an indie doesn’t really matter. I started playing drums after hearing Iron Maiden when I was 12 or 13 and being blown away by Clive Burr and Nicko McBrain. In fact, in a strange way it was because of Clive Burr’s death in 2013 that I joined Blue Vulture. Dave and I worked at the same place and were friends on Facebook. I posted a status after Burr’s death saying he had been a big influence on my decision to start drumming and Dave got in touch asking if I fancied trying out for his band. The rest, as they say, is history. I have a signed, framed copy of No Prayer for the Dying on my wall so I’d say that’s pretty treasured. I was going to start learning how to play the piano, but the November lockdown and subsequent Tier systems has nixed those plans. Hopefully in the future I’ll be able to add something to the band that’s more than just hitting stuff.
Paul- I started playing acoustic guitar as a kid after watching a friend of mine play. Moved onto electric in my teens and started playing bass in my early twenties. My musical influences are varied depending on my mood but my favourite bands are probably Dire Straits, the Police, Led Zeppelin and the Clash. Favourite musicians are Mark Knopfler, B.B. King, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Satriani, Santana, and Mark King and Lemmy on Bass. Met my bandmates through our illustrious frontman Bainy since I teach his daughter guitar. I met Bainy after being introduced by my then student Colin Purchase who wanted my help with the Kimberley Jam which Bainy organises.
Dave-I like fuzz pedals. I've played in various cover bands but endless renditions of “Summer of ‘69” left me dead inside until I joined Blue Vulture. The majority of my riffs are based around the D chord, not all, but most. I guess I'm all about Pink Floyd and Frightened Rabbit and sadly haven't heard any music recently that’s “spoken” to me. I would recommend listening to “Dance Music” by Mastersystem and reading “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy. That pretty much sums me up.
Bainy-I am into many different genres, but it's Guitar bands that really get me going, anything from The Beatles, to Slade, Queen, Guns and Roses, James, Joy Division, the Stone Roses, Blur, My Chemical Romance and Maximo Park. I love a charismatic Frontman and wish I was more charismatic myself. I was lucky enough to be a teenager in Manchester during the madchester music explosion and this has had a profound effect on my musical style.
I have a teenage daughter who is arguably a far better musician than I am and although she is largely into what she calls retro music, such as MCR, The Cure, Blur, Bowie, Gorillaz and Queen, she has also introduced me to more up to date musicians such as Yungblud and Billie Eilish, both of which I think are awesome.
James-I have no particular musical background, I simply liked music and one day as an early teen picked up a guitar. I met and joined the band after I was asked if I would like to join. One of my favourite guitarists and probably the most influential is Joe Bonamassa, but a full list of influences would be too extensive to list. I have an original vinyl copy of pink Floyd's the wall, probably my most treasured physical record.
Has Lockdown had an impact on your creativity? Bainy-Lockdown has made it difficult to create as a band, and sadly has delayed the release of our album "To a Degree" which should have come out last year, but we did do a special performance for the We Shall Overcome organisation, which has now become the "live to an audience of no one" EP that we have just released. This has been released on Bandcamp on a pay what you want basis, and all our share of the money is going to Broxtowe Community Projects, which is a charity that amongst other things, provides food aid to people struggling to make ends meet. We worked with live producer Matt Haslam on this and it has led us to make the decision to do the whole album with him when the Virus allows. We hope to hark back to the very live technique used by the bands of the 50s and 60s and can't wait to get going with it.
James-Lockdown has certainly stifled my musicality, I've definitely struggled with motivation, just counting down to practicing with the band again.
Where can folks hear your music?
Here are our links
The link for the EP https://bluevulture.bandcamp.com/album/live-to-an-audience-of-no-one
コメント