EMQ’s With Mother Vulture
EMQ’s With Mother Vulture
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK based Blues-Punk band, Mother Vulture. Hugfe thanks to their bassist, Chris Simpson, 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 Chris Simpson and I am the bass player for Mother Vulture.
How did you come up with your band name?
We nicked it from Them Crooked Vultures and Wolfmother. We almost went with Vulture Blood, but one of us said it sounded too similar to Royal Blood, so we joked “Oh let’s just call ourselves Royal Crooked Wolf Mother Vulture Blood” and we were like ooh, Mother Vulture, that sounds cool. Yoink.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Bristol, UK. It’s pretty great. Heriot, Knives, Split Chain, Rxptrs, Profiler, among others, are a great example of some of our recent exports. We’re very proud to be part of it, although we’re not really cool enough to be considered part of it.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
We released our newest single ‘Slow Down’ in January. We’re stoked with the reaction to it, it’s currently our 2nd most-streamed song of all time, just behind ‘Go Big or Go Home’, so I think it was a success.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Andrew W.K.
What first got you into music?
The soundtrack to the video game “Jet’s N Guns” by Swedish synth-metal outfit Machinae Supremacy.
And School of Rock.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Andrew W.K.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Download baby!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
I don’t think we’ve ever had anything weird, we’ve had some amazing gifts though. One of our most amazing and long-time fans made us bracelets with “Morrisons” written on them, which we all still cherish to this day.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
How long would it take to push a trolley through the big Morrisons?
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Zappa. Actually no, let him rest.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Playing live is what we’re all about. Everything revolves around the live show. There’s nothing quite like it. We hate having to go to work at 6am the next day.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
I think there needs to be more support for grassroots music. We are just beginning to hit a crisis where we don’t have headliners for these large events. There just isn’t a way for bands who are doing well at a low level to jump to that next step up. Venues and events are subsidised by the government in places like the Netherlands and Germany. This would be a massive help. I would like to see local support become commonplace at large venues, too. Imagine there was local support at every show at the Bristol O2, how quickly these acts would develop into larger and more successful bands. We’ve played the O2 once, and it was amazing how transformative it was.
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Andrew W.K. – “I Get Wet”
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Vinyl is where it’s at. It’s the only physical medium we really sell anymore.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
It’s a toss up between Bearstone Festival in Croatia 2022, which was the first mainland Europe show we ever did, and Thekla, Bristol 2025. After the Thekla show, we all went backstage and just wept for a few minutes. It felt like we had finally reached the level of standards we apply to our own performance, and it felt so good to finally achieve it.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Probably living a stable, happy, and healthy life.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
The three members of Ramkot, Andrew W.K. and his +1.
What’s next for the band?
Expect a lot more from us this year, we just don’t know when we’re doing it, so we can’t really talk about it yet.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
https://linktr.ee/MotherVulture
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!
Well it ain’t called a Jaffa Biscuit is it.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Andrew W.K.
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