EMQ’s With God Unknown

EMQ’s With God Unknown

Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with Welsh Atmospheric Funeral Doom Project, God unknown. Huge thanks to their guitarist, John Courage, 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?

Hello, my name is John Courage and I play guitar for God Unknown. The band was formed about a year ago as a result of various musical interactions with the current band members. An interesting fact is that the band has never actually met up in real life due to our geographical spread. I have met all the members individually over the years.

How did you come up with your band name?

The band name is thanks to a band called The Almighty, there’s a song called “Jesus Loves You (But I Don’t)” there is a line in the lyrics “and I never pleaded to a god unknown”. I was listening to the song, and it stood out as a great band name. 

What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?

I currently live in Wales and there is some great work being done by venue owners in very difficult circumstances. The Welsh language music scene is very healthy although for obvious reasons it has a very polarized audience and seems to favour the various indie genres. The metal scene here in Cardiff does exist but the attendance at gigs is hit and miss and from what I’ve seen, in other parts of the UK the situation is similar. Mainland Europe seems to be the place for decent gigs these days.  

What is your latest release?

‘The Last Glimpse of Daylight’ – single.

Who have been your greatest influences?

Mainly guitar players… there’s so many, but if I had to name some it would be Jason Becker, Shawn Lane, Yngwie Malmsteen, Don Dokken, George Lynch, you get the idea. 

What first got you into music?

Punk was my first love and I’m old enough to remember it as it happened in the UK. At that time, I was only around 8-9 years old, so my involvement was limited but I clearly remember buying punk records as they were released during that time. Shortly after, the metal scene was gaining momentum and I was exactly the right age to participate and lucky enough to witness its growth. The rest is history…  

If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?

Davey Vain from the band Vain. If you don’t know them check out Vain – “No Respect” it’s a masterpiece!

If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?

Festivals don’t really do anything for me personally. I’ve attended a lot over the years. To answer the question, I’m going for Sweden Rock because it’s well organized, offers a good choice of genres and I love going to Sweden.  

What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?

It hasn’t happened yet…

If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?

Thanks for taking the time to check our music, we really appreciate it. 

If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?

I will answer this in a roundabout way, often I wonder what sort of artist Sid Vicious would have become if his life continued.

What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?

Enjoy – the endless innovations and tech that’s available to us these days and song writing.

Hate – there’s not much to hate.   

If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?

Make more funding available at grass roots level to support up and coming talent. 

Name one of your all-time favourite albums?

“Killers” – Iron Maiden.

What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, or Downloads?

In my opinion – Downloads

What’s the best gig that you have played to date?

When I was in Siluria we had a mini tour with Waylander and played a little venue in Bath, we lifted the roof that night! The London gig a couple of nights later was pretty good as well. 

If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?

I’m doing it, my other interests fit in quite nicely around my music interests.

Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?

At this point in time it would have to be the God Unknown band members because we’ve yet to meet in person.   

What’s next for the band?

Write and record more songs and maybe work towards becoming a live band, but that’s way off in the future at this point.

What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people? 

All the usual: https://linktr.ee/godunknownuk 

Time for a very British question now. As an alternative to the humble sandwich, is the correct name for a round piece of bread common in the UK either a Bap, a Barm (or Barm Cake), a Batch, a Bun, a Cob, a Muffin, a Roll or a Tea Cake?

It’s a roll but there are regional variations.

Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?

Thanks for reading and supporting underground music.

Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.