EMQ’s With Crone Tye
EMQ’s With Crone Tye
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Alt Rock/ Metal duo, Crone Tye. Huge thanks to Mik and Tye 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?
Mik Crone, I am primarily a guitarist but I’m also a music producer. In this project I am programming music and playing guitar. The project came together when I found myself having a rekindled interest in industrial music. I knew Tye from the band INHERITOR could sing and scream so I felt he would be the ultimate right hand man. Kinda like Mick and Keith, Gene and Paul, and Bert and Ernie.
I’m Tye Jozefowicz (yep, that’s a lot of letters), I put the vocals together, sing and deal with the lyrical side of things.
How did you come up with your band name?
Mik: My surname, his first name.
Tye: It’s simple and literally sums up its parts
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Mik: We are from the West of Yorkshire, Leeds/Bradford area. An area that has a major influence on gothic music, electronic music and metal. Look at the heritage; Sisters of Mercy, The Cult, Paradise Lost, Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction, Then a bit further south we have Bring Me The Horizon, Def Leppard etc., The current scene has some great metalcore acts.
Tye: I’ve found the Leeds scene hit and miss since Covid, but there’s an amazing flourishing hardcore scene and we have our fair share of death metal acts. As of late, I’ve been really chuffed with the new people I’ve met playing the Bradford scene, there’s a real passion in the air still in the gigs there, especially at events like Shadow Fest!
What is your latest release?
Crone Tye – ‘No Guts, No Glamour’. It’s our debut single out now on all streaming services.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Mik: Al Jourgensen, Alec Empire, Nic Endo, Trent Reznor, Danzig, David Lynch, Abel Ferrera, Gary Oldman, a mixture of music and film.
Tye: In Crone Tye, I’m very much influenced by the same as Mik, namely anything Tim Skold has done, which makes sense as he started in glam metal with Shotgun Messiah and became an industrial and rock icon!
What first got you into music?
Mik: My uncle had Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on vinyl. I was also obsessed by the AC/DC Let There Be Rock live in Paris concert film. I used to set the VCR to record the metal shows that were on late nights on ITV. Power hour, Music Box etc. MTV didn’t really take off in the UK until the 90s then only rich people had satellite.
Tye: Ever since I was young I’ve also steered towards more extreme, weird and alternative things and interests, so around my last year of primary school when I discovered rock and metal, things just snowballed at an exponential rate and continue to do so now!
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Mik: Tye from this project. He is in other bands. Apart from him I don’t really know. It would depend on the project. It would be cool to work with Debbie Harry, Lady GAGA, maybe even an orchestra. I did orchestration at university so I would be confident writing classical music.
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Mik: Download. Donington Park has been the spiritual home of Metal since 1980. When I was a kid the campsite there was wild. Unknown bands turning up in trucks and doing gigs on makeshift stages. Fires burning. It was like a post-apocalyptic wonderland. Bucket list there.
Tye: I need a time machine as it would be Donnington in the 90s for me!
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Mik: I’ve never received a gift from a fan.
Tye: I’ve had certain garments thrown onstage. A fan brought me a full pack of Krispy Kreme donuts to a show last year which was really kind!
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Mik: Stay humble, treat people as you like to be treated and remember the deadliest people are the ones who don’t advertise it. Watch out for them. Don’t post your whole life on Facebook. Especially the weird cryptic one liners. It comes across as desperate and you are advertising your issues to the world. Go seek help from someone who cares. They are out there.
Tye: Stream all my music on repeat please
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Mik: Wendy O Williams.
Tye: Dimebag or Randy Rhodes, those guys had amazing careers cut ridiculously short.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Mik: Creating art and the expressive forms of taking something and making it a reality. I love the recording process. Layering sounds to create an overall mix in a song. I hate the way trends are brought to us to create a marketing strategy. It’s ok to like more than one kind of music. With age grows knowledge of different genres and eras that the majority of youth aren’t aware of. I find inspiration in all rock music from the 60s to present day.
Tye: The entire creative process, even the trying parts, because they’re so rewarding and are my biggest outlet. Like Mik said, seeing something you made with your friends appear from nothingness and pure ideas is something I’ll never quite wrap my head around, it’s real life alchemy. I can’t stand the algorithmic, content oversaturation breeding ground that the music industry is now basically hand in hand with. Nothing is more metal than checking your TikTok likes.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Mik: More funding for grassroots venues. Less sneaky tactics to push bands. Pay to play, pay for likes, playlists etc. Strange how nobody makes money from the industry but the companies stay in business…
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Mik: Zodiac Mindwarp and the Love Reaction – “Tattooed Beat Messiah”
Tye: Let’s go for something less predictable, one of my top Manson albums is “EAT ME, DRINK ME” from 2007. A lot of people consider that a point where he fell off a bit, but it’s one of my favourites by him and one of his most interesting if you know how to listen to it and where to look.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CD’s or Downloads?
Mik: CDs for audio quality. Streaming for the sheer amount of music you can access. I know there is the argument that nobody makes money from streaming. Nobody made money from physical sales either unless you were super successful. Look at the Limp Bizkit/Universal lawsuit.
Tye: Spotify is expedient and convenient as anything, but I’m a CD man at heart.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Mik: All gigs are either good or bad. The venues are what I tend to remember. Holmfirth Picturdrome is a great venue. Marquee in London was great as was The Borderline and Camden Barfly back in the day. Leeds Cockpit was good too. The best venue in the UK at the moment is Percy’s In Whitchurch.
Tye: There’s been so many over the years it’s impossible to pick a single one really. Playing the O2 Academy in Leeds when I was 16 to nearly 2,000 people with Demoralised was insane, but then I’ve headlined smaller venues like The Key Club and The Wardrobe in Leeds with INHERITOR’s previous embodiment and it’s been just as wild and memorable! I played a wedding with INHERITOR on the 31st May in Glastonbury, some fans/promoters we’ve worked with booked us for the night do! That was the most fun show we’ve done in years.
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing?
Mik: I would be working in a cinema, in front or behind the camera. Something artistic. I like painting too. Custom motorcycles as well.
Tye: Locked in a cage or ring with another topless man hitting each other, or writing, or exploring some random country putting myself in really precarious situations probably.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Mik: Al Jorgensen, Mia Goth, Gary Oldman, Michael Madsen, Dario Argento
Tye: GG Allin, Harold Schechter, David Lynch, Vladimir Nabokov and Henry Rollins. Let’s make it interesting in a plethora of ways. I can’t cook though.
What’s next for the band?
Mik: I’m currently working on the next single. Just sent it over to Tye for his input. Once that is done I would like to make a music video. We are both active in other aspects of the industry whether it be other bands, music education, production work, journalism, session work. So it all adds to the bigger picture.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people?
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?
Mik: A bap.
Tye: No one’s ever argued with me when I’ve opted for the slightly more peaceful “burger bun”, so I’m sticking with my lateral thinking based doughy answer. Wtf is a Batch? I refuse to believe a singular item can ever be called a ‘batch’.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Mik: Please check out our single. If you like Industrial-tinged Sleaze Rock with an 80’s Hair Metal twist that takes influence from Gothic culture and the horror film genre, give it a go!
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