EMQ’s with SCARS OF REMEMBRANCE
EMQ’s with SCARS OF REMEMBRANCE
Hi Everyone. Welcome to our new EMQ’s interview with Wrexham, North Wales Metal band & Ever Metal favourites Scars Of Remembrance. Huge thanks to them for taking part!
What is your name, what do you play and can you tell us a little bit about the history of the band?
Hi, I’m Ben SoR Burke and i play drums and try and do backing vocals.
Other members of the band are-
Daniel Dawson – Guitars + Backing Vocals
Mark Harris – Guitars + Backing Vocals
Karl Ditcher – Bass
Mike Edwards – Vocals
Scars of Remembrance are a 5 piece metal band from Wrexham, North Wales. We have been a band for about 6 years but had a few line-up changes in that time.
Ben, Dawson and Harris are founding members.
Our first bassist left after 3 years then we got Karl in.
Over the years we’ve had a few singers in. After our last singer left we decided that the rest of the band would have a go at the vocals, in case we struggled to find a replacement. Now we have our new front man Mike there are 4 of us singing in the band now.
We have done a few rough demos and there are a few live recordings over on our YouTube page.
We compare ourselves to Killswitch Engage, Bury Tomorrow, Of Mice and Men and 36 Crazyfists.
Now we feel we have the right line-up to start taking the next steps as a band and are looking to record an EP, make a music video and play some festivals.
How did you come up with your band name?
Finding a cool catchy band name is very hard, after a few of us came up with crap attempts, Harris shouted out Scars of Remembrance and we all thought ‘That’s cool!’ and that was that, S.o.R was born.
What country are you from and what is the metal scene like there?
We are all from sunny Wrexham in North Wales.
To be honest the metal scene has died a little bit here, with venues shutting up and down the place. There is a local metal Promotions team that is trying it’s hardest to keep the music scene alive.
What is your latest release (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We have just done 2 live recordings, 1 at the live rooms Chester, and a recent one at Glyndwr for a live TV sessions recording, which is mainly to help the students record and film live acts. All available over on our Youtube page.
Who have been your greatest influences?
We all have so many in the band, which is good as if we all liked the same band we’d tend to sound like them.
I started out with Metallica at a prime old age of about 10, but the older I got the heavier I got- Lamb of God, Despised Icon, Job for a Cowboy, Suicide Silence, Emmure ,The Acacia Strain, Killswitch Engage, think you get the idea.
What first got you into music?
I come from a musical family, been in bands with my Uncle and a few Cousins over the years, and my Dad played the side drum for the Royal Welsh Fusiliers, so got inspired at an early age with the drums.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
I think cause our Frontman has a heavy scream and me (Ben), Dawson and Harris are trying to lighten a few of the vocals with some singing, I think I’d like Jason Cameron from Bury Tomorrow to come do some choruses for us as I think his voice is amazing. And Chris Adler from Lamb of God on drums, just to improve me really!
Dawson all day long would say Slash!
Harris would say Charlie Simpson from Busted!!!
Karl would say all of Tool!
And Mike probably JJ Peters from Deez Nuts!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Obviously the Holy Grail of Festivals which is Monsters of Rock/Donington/Download. I’ve lost count as to how many times I’ve been there, and have always said “I’d love to play there one day!” Will my day come??????
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Not sure if it’s the weirdest but it’s a gift I didn’t really expect back, and that was my drumstick after I threw it out after our set!!!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Support all Live Music, if you don’t then these local up and coming acts/bands will never be those bands you go and see headline festivals with 80,000 other people.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Dimebag Darrell, I’m a drummer and like all things drums but for me he was the best Guitarist ever. Only ever seen him once, wish I’d seen him a lot more.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I love playing drums, have most of my life, and playing live is such a buzz, playing music that helps people have a release and let all the bullshit of their daily lives out for that 30/45 mins is nice to see.
I hate spending 1000s of pounds on gear, travelling miles to venues and no one can be arsed to show up, and you play to the other bands and bar staff. I also hate venues over charging for people to get in to see live bands, that’s killing the underground music scene.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
God there’s loads, but one of the main ones and maybe it’s because I’m old, but it’s definitely this new wave of heavy metal moshing called ‘crowd killing’! I still like a good old ‘mosh’ myself, but these dicks are not doing it for the music, they are doing it to hurt people. Seen so many fights the last few years because of it.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Being a CD collector and having hundreds with a good genre range it’s going to be tough, so I’m going to put the album I’m listening to at the moment – Malevolence – “Self Supremacy”.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Think i answered that in the last question!!!
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Probably the recent ones we did in Live Rooms supporting Hed PE one night in Chester then next night supporting Sumo Cyco in Wrexham Live Rooms. It felt nice playing the bigger stages, rather than a pub gig with 5 bands and everyone’s gear crammed in a tiny corner!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
I have a day job so probably that!!!!!
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Sir Alex Ferguson – I’m a massive United fan and he’s the Godfather!
Bret the Hitman Hart – He was my childhood hero!
Lars Ulrich – Yes he’s a dick but he’s the reason I play drums!
Andy Copping – so I could get him so drunk and agreeing for us to play Download!
Megan Fox – Just to see if she really is that fit!
What’s next for the band?
We are trying to get on a few Festivals this year and see if we have time to do a recording, we all lead busy lives so it can be hard.
What Social Media/Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://www.youtube.com/user/scarsofremembrance
https://www.soundcloud.com/scarsofremembrance
https://www.facebook.com/pg/scarsofremembrance
Jaffa Cakes? Are they a cake or a biscuit?
Surely it says it on the pack what it is right??? Jaffa CAKE!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Thanks to all the people that took the time to read all this shit I’ve put down, we would really appreciate you go give us a like on Facebook and check our stuff over on Youtube, and if you do that, we will buy you a pint next time we see you!!!!(but we pick!!!) haha
Also please keep supporting live music before all the venues shut down and there are nowhere for underground bands to play!
Lastly, thanks to Ever Metal for supporting us!
See you at a gig in the near future, Cheers S.o.R Boyos!
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
