Antlered Man Interview and Gig Review
Here at Whatculture, we’re always on the lookout for the hottest new bands, and following our review of their debut album earlier this year, we caught up with the guys in Antlered Man.
Here at Whatculture, were always on the lookout for the hottest new bands, and following our review of their debut album earlier this year, we caught up with the guys in Antlered Man a few hours before they took to the stage for the first night of their Villains and Vigilantes tour in the intimate setting of Southamptons Joiners.WC - Hi guys, cheers for coming, can I just get a quick band introduction before we get going? Sam - Im Sam, I play bass. Danny - Danny, I play guitar. Ollie - Ollie, drums. Damo - Damo, Im on vocals. Old dirty Damo, they call me. WC - Hahaha, first things first then, the name Antlered Man, where does it come from? Danny Well, we wanted something that sounded really formidable and cool. Theres too many clichéd names out there, so we just thought wed go for something different, and its been really fucking detrimental ever since. It even got a mention in a Guardian piece by a guy who used to play in Scritti Politti who was talking about band names that are hard to understand. Weve never even been reviewed in the Guardian and it said take a band like Antlered Man for instance and we were like shit, weve hit the pages of the Guardian for all the wrong reasons! We play a lot of gigs in Germany and trying to explain it over there Damo It has two meanings over there, either youre a man whose wife is cheating on you, or youre a man with antlers. I think its an easy name for us to use because we do all different kinds of stuff. If youre called Blue Thunder, you know what kinda thing youre getting, but if youre called Antlered Man you dont know what its gonna be, it could be folk, it could be heavy. Sam Antlered Man is often followed by sorry? WC - So, talking about your sound, whenever I mentioned to people I was chatting to you, people asked me what you sound like and Ive never really had a full answer Ollie Go on then, what did you say? WC - Well, the best way I could put it was a British System Of A Down, I can hear bits of System, Faith No More, I guess alternative noise rock, what would you guys say? Ollie Thats kind of accurate, we have nothing against System, we have nothing against Faith No More, theyre both really cool bands and to be honest we find it difficult ourselves to say how we sound, but really its just what we like. Danny Were more interested in projects, like the idea of Queens Of The Stone Age as a band, constantly expanding and changing members, thats a really cool idea. We have home demos and weve recorded so much different stuff, softer stuff, really heavy stuff as well as somewhere in the middle, so we couldnt quite put our finger on it, but we knew we wanted it to be more expansive than our previous ventures, we wanted it to be big and epic. Damo I think it has to grow on you a lot, some crowds dont really get it. Danny Were still trying, in things like press releases it asks how you want to describe this set of demos and were like ah, shit. Ollie I think the sound is a bit random, especially with a band like us having one album to look at, its all a bit fucked up. If we were to end now people would be like what was that? but hopefully two or three albums down the line well somehow get a sound that people know. At the minute, every day were trying out new amps and new pedals so were just trying to build a sound. When you get a new band and theyve been writing for a year and the songs all sound similar, we didnt do that, we just picked the best songs we all liked, the lighter ones, the heavier ones and it just worked. Damo When people listen to the album, they come and see us live afterwards and they seem to get it a bit more, watching us do it live. After listening to the album it can be confusing and listening to it again, it can grow on you, but people somehow think we wouldnt be able to do it live, its just a bit too weird. Sam I dont think we ever set out to find a sound, we were just thinking of what would make a cool song, then the next week wed have another idea to throw in a whistle or a flute and try and make a song around that. Danny Theres nothing worse than listening to a band just peddle on with the same kind of sound. But then at the same time, like the rest of the guys grabbed me this morning and said did you see Muse on Jools Holland last night? They really sucked WC - Did they do that new Madness track? Ollie Yeah! He had a KAOS pad on a twin necked bass and was playing bass just rubbing his finger around. Danny They started off with a lot of promise and then for ages peddled that same sound, then tried to do dubstep and became a parody of themselves, thats what we didnt want to become. Like Sam said, its just a different musical venture and its continuing every time we get in the studio. Sam When we were doing the album we didnt have anyone to please apart from ourselves, we were just doing it for each other. Danny We did a Ye Olde English thing, it was some fucking weird medieval song. Damo We were trying to write the Lord of the Rings soundtrack! Danny - Things started getting really experimental when we tried putting a strip of card in a fan and hook it up to an octaved mic and see what would happen, and it sounded shit. Ollie Album number three mate, album three. WC - Ive gotta ask about the slide guitar on a platform that you use on stage, whats the deal behind that? Damo We tried to expand and have other members in, but because weve all known each other for such a long time they either couldnt keep up, or couldnt tour with us because they didnt wanna quit their jobs so we tried out a guitarist and it didnt fit, but we felt we had to have those parts live, so it was more out of necessity. Danny Also you look fucking weird with a guitar round your neck. Its like full concentration in the face to the point of your tongue hanging out a little bit. Damo Its like Oscar De La Hoya in a dress, it just doesnt look right. We put it on a table so I can use it for other things, Ive got a KAOS pad but Im not gonna put it on a bass guitar. I can use it for vocal tricks on the new album. Danny I like the way that we call it a lapsteel to soundmen, lapsteels are really expensive, but its just a souped up Epiphone on an ironing board. WC - You said you play a lot of gigs in Germany, how are the crowds different, do you feel like they get it more over there? Damo They let their hair down a lot more, you see in some crowds they might be more reserved at first, but in Germany they just dont give a shit as long as they like it. Ollie In England people dont wanna rock out to a band that they dont know but in Germany if its good music, even if its not good music they just go nuts. Danny I think that were more cynical in regards to English audiences because were fromLondon. Theres a level of dedication that used to exist in London thats now happening inGermany, ever since the wall came down they feel more liberated, its like the 60s over there. Weve had people come up to us in Germany that said they heard us on the internet and drove for four hours to come and see us. Ollie We played here just over a year ago with Exit_International before the album came out, a local band went on first and brought about 20-30 people, as soon as they left us and EI played to the sound guy and each other. Danny - And Exit_International are a three-piece, so they had one more crowd than us. Ollie Since the album came out were getting better crowds and slowly spreading, but in Germany were getting so many more people, like five or six times bigger crowds. Danny - I think weve always been conscious that were a slow burning kind of band, wed attract a crowd of people whod really like it and really get it, as opposed to people who are sitting on the fence, but I guess thats our fault for being fucking stupid and putting bits of card in fans. WC - So, do you hope this tour is gonna make things bigger? Ollie Maybe after the second album comes out, thats when youre able to do a few hundred people in each town, but on the first album you cant really expect to pack venues out. Danny As long as youve got more stuff to work with, more material, you can make a kind of buzz and then press agents can come out and do their job. Its not really as black and white as band plays stage, comes back six months later and the room is full, theres a lot of stuff behind the scenes. WC - When can we expect album number two then? Ollie Were demoing in December, hoping to have recorded it by February or March and then have it come out by September. If we had it our way wed bring it out as soon as its done, but theres so much stuff to go through. Damo Were gonna finish these dates, do a German tour then tell everyone were done till March or April. WC - To finish off then, have you had any famous fans say hi at your festival gigs? Ollie Well, we havent exactly played poker with Bono or anything. Danny Now would be an ideal time to spread our Paul Weller rumour Ollie Right, we met Paul Weller this one time I really cant do this. WC - Im intrigued now! Danny We were unpacking our drumkit at a gig, and you basically had to do it on the stairs, and Paul Weller walks past and was like really good set guys! so I went in for a bit of a hug and you know the highlight bits on the side of his hair? They smelt like shit! Ollie So then Danny tells me about it and I want to smell it. So whilst he was chatting I went for a sniff, and the rest of the hair smells fine but the highlights it was like a mixture of Head and Shoulders and shit! Sam And then me and Damo got in awkward situations because the boys told us about it and we wanted to see if it was true, so I kept going behind him at the bar to order drinks but getting a little bit too close. Danny That sounds like the weirdest rumour, but I promise you its true. WC - Thats a brilliant story to stop on guys, Antlered Man think Paul Weller smells of shit. Thanks so much for your time, and see you around!Make sure to check below for my review of the gig to follow-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Later that evening, the guys took to the stage, but not before a three-band strong support bill, containing plenty of diversity that was befitting of the Antlered Man sound. Opening the gig was local boys Armature who crossed a weird divide between post-hardcore and post-rock. Instrumentally they were great, with a lengthy Maybeshewill-esque instrumental track being my definite highlight, but at a tiny venue like the Joiners, they needed to command the stage and move around a lot more. The performance was so static that they looked like they were having an awful time, there was a real lack of stage presence. Next up was the first band on the main touring bill, Birmingham based Romans. Their punchy but catchy post-hardcore was up there with the best from their genre, and their energetic stage show which included members ignoring microphones in favour of screaming across the stage at the small crowd, a drummer who pounded his kit like a man possessed and guitarists who took full advantage of their wireless leads to go on wander round the venue whilst playing. Their fun on-stage banter was engaging, even if the response was limited due to the tiny audience. With a bit of luck, these guys could be huge. Main support duties were handled by We Are Knuckledragger, encompassing a much heavier end of the spectrum, with pummelling hardcore combined with some math elements. It was the first outing of the band with their new drummer, but you couldnt tell that at all as their playing was ferocious but also completely on point. Carrying on through broken bass strings and with probably the most lovable lead singer in all of hardcore (apologising to a group of people that he kicked a Strongbow can over, a moment that looked rock and roll but was actually a huge accident) who was clearly so thankful to be playing in spite of the size of the crowd that had turned out (Id say it peaked at 15, most of that being the other bands on the bill), their set was fantastic, and Id definitely advise you to check them out. Finally came the headliners and the guys I was there to see, Antlered Man. One of the things I loved about this tour was earlier in the day Id witnessed a conversation between the bands discussing where they were going to play on the bill, as its being promoted as a triple-headliner, and each band had no qualms about playing first or last, and said they were completely fine with changing it up every night. Playing what felt like a comparatively shorter set then the other bands, which was probably due to the longer length of Antlered Mans songs, they powered through some choice cuts from their debut record which made sure to incorporate the weirder parts of their songs; a slide guitar played sideways on a wooden platform and a tin whistle/vocal whistle trade off to name a couple. Regardless of the miniscule turnout, the guys performed as if they were playing to a much larger room, and werent planning on toning anything down due to the size of the show. This was rock and roll in its purest form, a band giving their all no matter how many people they were playing to. Keep an eye out, all three of these bands deserve much, much bigger things. https://www.facebook.com/ArmatureMusichttps://www.facebook.com/romansonlinehttps://www.facebook.com/WEAREKNUCKLEDRAGGERhttps://www.facebook.com/antleredman