EMQs With SENTIENT
EMQs With SENTIENT
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Metal band, Sentient. 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?
We are Sentient, a 4 piece metal band from Hertfordshire and we play what can only be described as ‘Heavy Spaghetti’.
We originally formed in 2018 but had some member changes in 2021/2022 which is when we really began to establish the band. We released the EP ‘Sentient Is Dead’ to mark the member changes and managed to win the Hitchin M2TM 2023 competition, going on to then play the New Blood Stage at Bloodstock.
How did you come up with your band name?
That’s a question for our old guitarist who is no longer in the band lol. We wanted something that didn’t immediately make you think of any specific genre, so we thought of some quite neutral-sounding names, Sentient being one of them. Hang the bastard was taken.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
We are from Hertfordshire and the Rock/Metal scene here is really beginning to thrive. We are seeing bands like Dead Flesh and Praetorian start to break out of the scene and go on to bigger and better things, whilst a lot of other strong local bands are also gaining momentum and getting ready to also break out. Bands such as Earthbound, Must Kill, Kodama, Burdensome, Lowdown, Invicta, just to name a few. There’s going to be big things coming from all of those bands.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Our latest release is the follow-up to ‘Sentient Is Dead’, which is titled ‘Long Live Sentient’. It’s a much more aggressive, raw and brutal offering. It’s a very accurate representation of where the band is at right now. Angry and with something to prove. We’ve taken everything we’ve learnt over the past few years and put it all into this.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Ooof! That’s a tough one. In terms of the sound of the band, we are very influenced by bands like Meshuggah, Fit For An Autopsy and Lamb Of God. But we’ve been metal heads for a long time so theres loads of little influences from bands such as Gojira, Pantera, Sepultura, Machine Head, Slayer, Metallica, Down, Tool, we could go on and on lol.
What first got you into music?
How does the saying go? “First you get the money. Then you get the power. Then you get the women”. Unfortunately for us, music hasn’t brought us any of those things lol.
I think all of us grew up with music in our homes, whether it was our parents or brothers and sisters, and with our tastes I think we all gravitated towards the more alternative stuff. We are lucky that we grew up in a time where music was still quite common on TV and you had shows like Headbangers Ball and Beavis and Butthead that would introduce you to all sorts of great bands. Primus, Crowbar, Alice In Chains to name a few.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
The Vengaboys! We currently have one of their songs as our intro music and it always gets people hyped up before we play. Having them actually play the song on stage as our intro music would be insane haha. But if Vengaboys aren’t available, then I think working with Lamb of God would be a dream come true for all of us.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Good question. It would either be Bloodstock or Download. I guess technically we’ve already played Bloodstock, but to play the main stage or even the Sophie stage would be insane. Download would also be great but I think the Bloodstock audience is a little bit more extreme and probably more of our audience. If we can’t have those two then I guess we could settle for Glastonbury so long as we don’t follow Dolly Parton. No one upstages Dolly.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I don’t think we have received anything that weird so far, which means this is a great opportunity for someone to step up and take that award!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Send us more weird gifts lol
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Dimebag Daryl. His influence on modern guitarists is so huge and so many of us never got to witness it live. There are a lot of great musicians who are sadly no longer with us, but Dimebag was still at his peak and was taken in such a sudden and devastating way.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Music is such an incredible tool for uniting people and giving people an outlet. It’s great to see the community that grows around live music, especially in the local scene. It’s absolutely something we enjoy. Meeting like-minded people and sharing a musical bond with them. It’s even more mind-blowing when you see people react intensely to a song you’ve written or have someone tell you that one of your songs means so much to them.
The music industry itself is the part we dislike the most. There are so many people just looking to exploit bands and their fans just to line their own pockets. In what other industry are the creators themselves so incredibly exploited? Billy Corgan tells an interesting story about how the record labels made a deal with Spotify where the record label charges a tiny amount in royalties in exchange for shares in Spotify. What this means is that Spotify pay basically nothing to play the music that these labels own and the labels make their money from their shares in Spotify. Who loses in this situation? The bands, who get 10% of that 0.001p that Spotify pays to play their songs.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
See the above rant haha. It sucks so much that bands these days have to get part time jobs, sometimes full time jobs, just to fund their careers and there doesn’t seem to be any way to change it. Dont get me wrong, we don’t need to go back to the 90s where bands spent millions on music videos and had gold plated swimming pools (*cough* lars *cough*) but it would be nice for bands to be able to pay their bills without needing endless side hustles.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Pantera – “The Great Southern Trendkill”
It’s just downright nasty. Heavy. Uncompromising.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Vinyl, hands down. Especially if it was recorded onto tape with analogue gear so you get that warmth that seems to be lost on digital recordings. I think a lot of us oldies grew up with physical media and enjoyed flicking through the booklet and reading the lyrics that came with vinyl/CDs. Thats definitely something thats been lost with digital media and only seems to be getting worse with bands phoning in dodgy AI artwork.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Our 2023 M2TM final. It was such an incredible gig for us.
For a long time, we felt like we never really fit in with our local scene. Our music was a little bit different to what everyone else was doing, and I think a lot of people didn’t really know how to take us. So to play that final show and have so many people there wearing our shirt, chanting our name, and singing along to the songs. It was incredible. I think for the first time we felt like we had been accepted by the local scene, and I think that meant more to us than actually winning and being booked for Bloodstock.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Failing at something else lol. JB used to play rugby on the weekends before the hangovers got too much, so maybe he would be a rugby player. Tom M is into power lifting, so no doubt he would be involved in strongman competitions. Tom would probably be a video director (he’s currently directing the video for a Jackals Backbone song). Ricky probably wouldn’t exist lol. If he’s not playing music, then he’s writing it, recording it, producing it. It’s just impossible to imagine him doing anything else.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Dead Flesh, so we could have some Fresh Bread with our Heavy Spaghetti!
If they’re not available, then I think we would love to sit down with some big names and hear about their experiences in the music industry. As much as we love metal, we also love other genres, so it would be cool to hear someone like RZA from Wu Tang Clan, or Dr Dre talk to people like James Hetfield and Robb Flynn about their experiences in the industry. Maybe even someone like Hans Zimmer, so he could share a completely different perspective. Who knows, he might be a secret Machine Head fan (Or Vengaboys!).
What’s next for the band?
Our new EP, ‘Long Live Sentient’ came out on April 4th. Available on all digital platforms.
After that … there’s been whispers of a full-length album, but we couldn’t possibly comment on that.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3rBhYtdun2dP5Esc7X4Whl?si=dzp99PM5RfCHlp-rtc-ZDA
https://www.facebook.com/longlivesentient
https://www.instagram.com/longlivesentient
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!
Ooo interesting! I think regardless of what we believe a Jaffa Cake to be, it clearly identifies as a cake (its in its name) so we should respect its pronouns and call it such. Sentient supports everyone, regardless of their biscuit and cake status!
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Long Live Sentient.
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