I had Burnt tapes down as Play of the Day recently and mentioned that “the songs are heartfelt about people and relationships or friendships that evolve”. Songs that touch all our lives.
I sent some questions over to Phil and here is a selection of what he has to say
Some history?
We all first met at one time or another in Athens, Greece so this is really where this whole story starts. We used to spend summers hanging out at studios, jamming out tunes we had written, but as none of us by this point lived in the same city or even country, it never went further than that. Fast forward to 2014 and we had all ended up in London – we recorded a demo in the attic of an abandoned pub in North London, and we’ve been playing shows since then. It’s been a long time coming but we got there…kinda. Since then we have almost played 200 shows, put out a few releases, toured Europe a few times and played shows with some of our favourite bands, meetings new faces and seeing strange places along the way.
Alterations sees the collaboration of a couple of labels, how did that come about?
We’ve been lucky to have had a lot of love and support from people in the scene who we respect and look up to, and when it came to putting out our first proper record we didn’t necessarily want to leave anybody out of what we were trying to do. At the same time, this is DIY punk, vinyl and cds cost money, and we didn’t feel comfortable in putting that burden on one label entirely. We wanted what we were doing to be as cooperative as possible, that’s the corner stone of punk rock after all – both Umlaut Records and Lockjaw Records have been massive for us – check out their incredible rosters!
Your songs are short sharp introspective sing alongs. How hard is it to get all band members to sing along and relate to personal lyrics?
I think a lot of the themes that we touch upon are personal to us, but are also very open in terms of being relatable to other people. As a band we’ve also been lucky (or unlucky) enough to have faced similar experiences or challenges, and maybe thats what makes our bond so strong. A lot of the writing tends to be a very collaborative process and we all add a little something into the mix.
You have highlighted the fact that people can feel down and depressed and how positive mental health is important. You have supported mental health charities in the past. Why that particular issue?
It’s a topic that hits very close to home for many of us in the band on various levels. It is hard to open up and talk about if you are suffering, but equally as important is learning to know how to deal with those close to you who are struggling and need your support. There are a lot of great charities working to build this awareness, and it only feels right to be part of that. The punk scene feels more and more like a safe space for anyone afflicted to open up, and be given that encouragement and support, but there is still a lot of work to be done outside of the community.
niallhope
