EMQ’s With Unwanted Guest

EMQ’s With Unwanted Guest

Hi Everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Alt Metal solo project, Unwanted Guest. Huge thanks to main man, Dave Fox, 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. My name is Dave Fox, and ‘Unwanted Guest’ is my solo project that I started back in 2020. I am mainly a guitarist and play regularly with NWOBHM band Seventh Son, but during the COVID crisis I wrote and recorded enough songs to put out my own album, which I did (Grave Metallum). I pushed it like mad and it got into the Amazon Hot New Metal Release charts at no. 10.

How did you come up with your band name?

Mental health has always been a part of my life in some form – shyness, anxiety, imposter syndrome etc – and I wrote about it in a song called ‘Unwanted Guest’ (on the first album) and this was a fitting name to call my project.

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

I’m from Sheffield and the metal scene here is known for its variety of subgenres, with a rich variety of bands doing well including Malevolence, Bring Me the Horizon and Doomsday Outlaw.

What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)

My latest release is my brand-new album “Bonedead” out now on all streaming services as well as on CD from my website unwanted-guest.com. 12 tracks of retro-influenced alt-metal.

Who have been your greatest influences?

My influences are varied and start in the 80s with bands like The Cure, The Mission and The Cult, then on through the 90s with bands like Senser, Clawfinger, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine, and finally with more modern bands like Opeth, Queens of the Stone Age, and Tool.

What first got you into music?

I first got into music by having a tape player at home that could play my dad’s old 8 track cartridges! He had quite a collection including Status Quo, Queen and Slade! I used to love the fact that you could press any of the 4 buttons on the front and a different song would come on. I remember his Gary Glitter cartridge getting chewed up in the mechanism once and he wasn’t pleased. Looking back, I now think the machine did everyone a big favour!

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

It would have to be the legendary Download Festival, although with Seventh Son, we’ve played numerous NWOBHM festivals including Mearfest, Hard Rock Hell and Brofest in Newcastle.

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

I was once sent a package of plectrums with my name on them and was told to throw them out at a gig I was playing. I did and I still don’t know who sent them to me.

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

Thank you not only for supporting me but for supporting small independent artists. We all appreciate it so much. It’s so difficult for smaller bands and performers to get their music heard these days. 

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

I’d like to see what John Lennon would be doing now if he was alive. I also thought the deaths of Scott Weiland, Layne Staley and Taylor Hawkins were tragic and would love to have them back with us.

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

I love writing, recording, producing, playing, the accolades, the feeling of camaraderie, the self-positiveness and the sense of achievement. 

I hate the travelling, the waiting around, the setting up of equipment, the quick change-around when doing festival gigs, the cost of guitar strings, the lack of money for the effort you put into it and other bands relying on you to pull crowds when it’s their gig!

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

I think the fact that anyone, and I mean anyone, can get their music published on streaming sites like Spotify and Apple Music. There is a ton of shit music out there to dredge through before you come across a band you like. I’m not dissing anyone here, I’m simply saying that these days, anyone with a home computer can create some noise and then pay a company like TuneCore, to get it on all the streaming sites for you. I think there should be some kind of vetting system. Also, a lot of playlist curators charge a fortune so that they will put your music on their Spotify playlists. Again, smaller artists struggle to get heard whilst the bigger artists sail on through.

Name one of your all-time favourite albums.

I have a few: Stone Temple Pilots – “Core”, Alice in Chains – “Facelift”, AC/CD – “Back in Black”, Senser – “Stacked Up”, System of a Down – “Toxicity”.

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

You’re going to expect me to say vinyl but I’m not jumping on that bandwagon. Sure, vinyl was great, we know this, but CDs were smaller and more convenient and for me being a music buyer in the 90s, CDs were the best – you could play them in your car – what more do you want? 

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

The best gig I ever played was probably Sheffield City Hall supporting the legendary Saxon back in 1992. 2000 people, one awesome venue. I remember the guitarist from Saxon, Graham Oliver, asking if he could use my Marshall stack as his rig was still in America! I said yes of course, but I wonder what would have happened if I only had a small combo amp?

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

By trade I’m a mechanical engineer so I’d be either on a CAD design program or a horizontal boring machine. Other than that, I also design websites and have a small shop selling pipe dreams to geography students!                            

Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?

I presume alive OR dead, so here’s my list:

Christopher Hitchens, Stanley Kubrick, Butch Vig, Stewart Lee, Neil Armstrong.

What’s next for the band?

With the release of the new album “Bonedead”, at the moment I’m in the throes of collecting all my awards and royalty cheques but when this imaginary period is over I intend on having a year off, doing more work with my other band Seventh Son. Then, all being well, I’ll start working on my next album, album no.3, for possible release in 2026/7.

What social media / website links do you use to get your music out to people? 

Website: https://unwanted-guest.com/

Twitter/X: https://x.com/UnwantedGuest__

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/UnwantedGuestDF/

Bandcamp: https://unwantedguest.bandcamp.com/album/bonedead

There’s a long-standing food-based debate here in the UK. And we’d like your help. So… A Jaffa cake – is it a cake or a biscuit? Discuss! 

A Jaffa Cake is exactly that – a cake! Cakes are soft, biscuits are hard. I don’t know how anyone can think it’s a biscuit. In fact, I’ll go as far as to say that anyone who thinks a Jaffa Cake is a biscuit is totally off their trolley and needs to have a brain transfusion asap

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

Thank you for asking me these great questions, I’ve enjoyed answering them, although I did miss quite a bit of Schindler’s List, which was on the TV at the time, but other than that, thanks again and please, please, please, support small independent artists just like ever-metal.com are doing. Peace.