EMQ’s With The Black Hounds
EMQ’s With The Black Hounds
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Heavy Metal band, The Black Hounds. Huge thanks to their Drummer, Joe, 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?
I’m Joe, I am the drummer for The Black Hounds. Our other members are Ant on vocals and guitar, Connor on guitar and vocals, and George on Bass. We formed in 2013 and are based in Wolverhampton.
How did you come up with your band name?
It all came from us being from Wolverhampton and being fans of Wolverhampton Wanderers, we wanted to incorporate a wolf somehow. Nothing more imaginative than that!
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
As stated above, we are from Wolverhampton, UK and the metal scene has changed a lot over the course of our 10 or so years as a band. Currently the main metal venue in Wolverhampton is KKs Steel Mill which we have been fortunate enough to play a few times and it’s a great venue supporting bands of all sizes. There is also the Giffard Arms which is more of a grass roots venue which we have also been fortunate to play numerous times also.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our latest release will be our second album, “All Kingdoms Fall”. Due for release 1st March.
Who have been your greatest influences?
There really are too many to list here as individuals as, you can probably hear from our style of music, we take our influences from a wide variety of people. As a band we are often likened to Killswitch Engage and Megadeth to name a couple.
What first got you into music?
Personally, I picked up the sticks when I was 13 and saw a school friend playing drums (badly) and I thought to myself “I could do better than that”. As a band we initially formed from the fragments of other bands to continue our individual musical journeys.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
I’m currently listening to Disturbed quite a lot so David Draiman would be cool as his vocals are immense!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Two festivals immediately spring to mind… first would be Bloodstock as we have been trying for the last few years in their Metal To The Masses competitions but it’s not quite happened for us yet, maybe this year! Second would be Wacken open air because it just looks amazing!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
A half-eaten bag of Haribo, weird!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Thank you for showing up and please, keep showing up!
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Lemmy or Joey Jordison. Don’t make me choose!
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
I love creating new music. I love getting in the studio with The Black Hounds and working tirelessly together on our piece of art. On our upcoming release, we have pushed each other more than ever and we have poured our heart and soul into this album. It sounds cliché I know but it’s true. Even if nobody ever listens to it, we now have a piece of work that we created and can be incredibly proud of. A special mention has to go to Jay Shredder (SLL studios) here too because from the very start he has been just as invested in our project as we have and that spurred us on to make sure it’s the best it could be.
Unfortunately, there is a lot to hate about being in a band too. Getting people to listen to our music is extremely hard. I can speak for the whole band here when I say we absolutely detest having to create so much nonsense to post on social media to try and stay relevant, we want to write and play music, not become content creators. The way the music industry is at the moment, more emphasis seems to be placed on the quality of your latest facebook post than the quality of your music.
There are so many moments in a band’s journey that beat you down and hold you back and make you question whether it’s all worth it; Doing a 160 mile round trip and a 10 hour day to play a show to 1 person, missing an evening with your wife and children, getting in at 2AM for her to ask “How was the show?” and me being too embarrassed to even answer the question.
Spending 18 months and thousands of pounds to create an aforementioned piece of art and selling 2 copies in 2 months despite spending hours behind a computer screen updating websites, social media, sending emails, running ads and god knows what else!
I also hate having to pretend like I enjoy all of this stuff, there are plenty more examples I could find but I think you get the picture!
My truth about being in a band is that it’s a lot of hard work, stress and feelings of inadequacy but every now and then, there is a gold nugget to be found that keeps you hanging on!
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
The honest answer is I don’t know. As a musician I hate streaming services that give little to no reward for people listening to/downloading our music. As a consumer, I use Spotify because of the convenience and the wealth of music at my fingertips. I don’t even own anything that plays a CD anymore so how does the industry change to still suit the consumer but also fairly reward the musicians?
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
“The Blackening,” Machine Head.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, or Downloads?
I think I’ve kind of addressed this above. As a consumer, downloads/streaming. As a band, CDs, buy our CDS!
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
In April 2014 we played as main support for Martyr de Mona on their album launch at the Wulfrun Hall, that was a big evening! More recently we opened for Corrosion of Conformity at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
If I was a full time musician, I could probably better answer this question however all members of The Black Hounds have full time jobs. If I didn’t play in a band in my free time, then I’d be spending more time at home with my family instead of dragging myself up and down the country.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
My wife and kids, leaving one space spare. I suppose I could invite my dog too! I spend enough time away from them as it is!
What’s next for the band?
We continue to push our new album “All Kingdoms Fall” by playing shows throughout February and March. We then have the heats for Metal To The Masses into the summer where we have a couple of festivals lined up. It’s a busy few months but we hope there will be one of those golden nuggets in the pipeline!
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
www.facebook.com/theblackounds
www.instagram.com/black_hounds_band
www.twitter.com/theblackhounds
https://www.theblackhounds.bandcamp.com/
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?
Cob
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
You can probably sense my frustration in some of the answers to the questions above. It’s not my intention to provide a negative interview but rather a truthful insight into what it’s like to be in a band. There’s an unhealthy narrative among bands and artists on social media that feel the need to portray everything as great, we’ve even fallen into the trap numerous times before. The truth is far from it most of the time. Sure, there are great moments but there are far too many disheartening moments and you really have to trudge through the silt to create moments that make it all worthwhile.
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.
