EMQ’s With ButcherBird
EMQ’s With ButcherBird
Hi everyone! Welcome to another EMQs interview, this time with UK Hardcore band, ButcherBird. Huge thanks to their Vocalist, Bart, and Guitarist, Rob, 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?
Bart: I’m Bart, I yell, scream, shout, clap, talk, and very occasionally sing over the music. I also write a lot of the words.
Rob: And I’m Rob. I make noises with a guitar and sometimes shout backing vocals.
Bart: We’ve all been friends for years and played in different bands together, but never in this line-up until now. Rob had been stashing away some ideas, riffs, and strange pedal noises, and enlisted me and Iain to help turn them into some songs. Chaz was playing drums for Delaire the Liar at the time, but lent his technical and songwriting skills to ButcherBird too. We’ve found a great process for bringing Rob’s initial visions to life, with all four of us working together to build, chop up, and re-build the songs together in the practice room.
How did you come up with your band name?
Rob: It took a long time! Sometimes it descended into farce with the sheer number of ideas we vetoed. It’s hard to get that perfect balance of a couple of words that tell people what kind of band you are, whilst also sounding cool as hell – and turns out “Curse These Metal Hands” was already taken. Ultimately, one of us was just doomscrolling Wikipedia and came across a reference to this badass Australian bird, and ButcherBird was born.
What Country / Region are you from and what is the Metal / Rock scene like there?
Rob: We all live in or around London, UK. The scene is amazing, with big international acts touring and loads of great local bands.
Bart: Recently, we’ve been really enjoying UK bands like Hidden Mothers, Love Rarely, Chalk Hands, Shower Of Teeth, and Indifferent Engine, as well as more established bands like Conjurer and Frontierer.
What is your latest release? (Album, EP, Single, Video)
Bart: We have just released our debut EP, Drought/Deluge, via Drowning Sea God Records. Check it out on Bandcamp or the streaming platform of your choice. We’ve been incubating some of the songs on the EP for a couple of years now, so it’s been great to share them with the rest of the world.
Who have been your greatest influences?
Bart: As a vocalist, back in the mists of time, I used to love Daryl Palumbo from Glassjaw, who has an incredible vocal range and an amazingly seamless way of slipping between melodic and heavy vocals.
More recently, I’ve been enjoying the creativity of Julie Christmas. Of course, my vocals are nothing like hers, but it makes me want to experiment with different sounds. I also quite like spoken word stuff, including grime artists like Kano, which inspired me to try out that kind of vocal delivery on I’ve Walked in Space.
What first got you into music?
Rob: My parents were fans of Blues and Rock, so I grew up listening to Led Zeppelin, Muddy Waters, Jimi Hendrix, and Aretha Franklin. I remember they had a compilation tape with Paranoid by Black Sabbath on it, and I just listened to that one track over and over. Then, at some point in my teens, my brother picked up a copy of System of a Down’s first album, and this whole world of Punk and Metal opened up. You can appreciate music in lots of different ways, but sometimes certain sounds just speak to you – they capture the essence of a feeling you already had sitting in your brain that you couldn’t express without a soundtrack.
If you could collaborate with a current band or musician who would it be?
Bart: One of my favourite records of all time is “Irony is a Dead Scene”, Dillinger Escape Plan’s collaboration with Mike Patton. He’s an insanely creative musician and adds a real unique style to all his collaborations. Mike, if you’re reading, then get in touch!
If you could play any festival in the world, which would you choose and why?
Rob: ArcTanGent. It’s just great – we go every year and it’s always full of bands we love, and a bunch of new bands to explore. There’s this great balance of Metal, Post-rock, and weird Math/Noise bands. Plus, it has a really nice atmosphere and feels really inclusive.
What’s the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan? Rob: The gift of sweet cool air blown upon my face.
If you had one message for your fans, what would it be?
Bart: We’re really enjoying writing new music at the moment and preparing to play live shows – keep an eye on our socials and we’ll let you know when more good stuff is coming both live and on record.
If you could bring one rock star back from the dead, who would it be?
Bart: I don’t think I would! Imagine how much pressure Kurt Cobain or Freddy Mercury would be under to make a great album after coming back from the dead! I’m not sure that would be conducive to making a good record!
Rob: True, plus would they come back as a zombie? Might not have the same dexterity they had when they were alive.
What do you enjoy the most about being a musician? And what do you hate?
Bart: Most of all, I love getting in the practice studio and bringing new music to life with my best buds. What’s to hate about music? Just like everything in life, tedious admin sucks the most!
Rob: Yeah, there’s something so intensely satisfying about slowly shaping an idea and turning it into a fully realised song. Admin, less so.
If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Bart: Of course, it would be nice if the playing field were levelled out a bit. But then again, that’s maybe a one-dimensional way of looking at it. We set out on this ButcherBird project with the aim of writing and recording music with creative freedom, and to connect with people who like this kind of stuff, through reviews, feedback from listeners, at live shows etc. The music industry isn’t really weighted in favour of smaller bands like us to do that easily. But we’re giving it a go. Maybe ask us again in a few years to find out the result!
Name one of your all-time favourite albums?
Bart: There are not many albums that take you on a completely immersive and uninterrupted journey from start to finish. “Somewhere Along The Highway” by Cult of Luna is one album that you can listen to from start to finish without ever feeling that there is a note out of place. Astonishingly good.
Rob: I think the first time I remember experiencing that “this is an experience, rather than a collection of songs” was the album “Mono” by The Icarus Line, which I still absolutely love. It just feels like this incredible raw performance, which is barely holding itself together but somehow perfectly captures this sense of restless disappointment.
What’s best? Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs or Downloads?
Rob: While my heart belongs to CDs, sadly my collection was consigned to boxes in the loft several years ago, and like everyone else, I now have all music streamed directly into my temporal lobe. I do have a soft spot for cassettes, though, especially the satisfying slow-down as the battery died on your ancient Walkman.
What’s the best gig that you have played to date?
Bart: Between us we have racked up a fair few gigs in previous bands, but we have yet to play one as ButcherBird. But that will soon change. If you’d like to put us on, get in touch!
If you weren’t a musician, what else would you be doing? Rob: Romance novelist. I bloody love love.
Which five people would you invite to a dinner party?
Bart: If my Spanish were better, I would love to have a dinner party with some of the survivors of the 1972 Uruguayan Air Force crash in the Andean mountains. Especially the guy who, upon hearing on the radio that the air search for them had been called off, announced to the other survivors “Great news guys, they’ve given up the search”. After shouting in despair, the others asked him, “Why the hell is it great news?” To which he replied, “Because it means we will have to get out of here on our own”. It would be amazing to speak to people who showed such courage in the face of such extreme adversity.
What’s next for the band?
Bart: We are already 5 tracks into writing our next release, which is really fun, and soon we’ll be announcing our first live shows.
What Social Media / Website links do you use to get your music out to people? https://butcherbird.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/butcherbirdband/
https://www.instagram.com/butcherbirduk/
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!
Rob: Like the UK government, I like to make all my cake vs biscuit decisions based on tax policy. On that basis, I think we should classify anything I can fit in my mouth as a chocolate-coated biscuit, and therefore apply a 20% tax at point of purchase.
Thank you for your time. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
Bart: Always, always, under any circumstances, add alien noises that feel like insects under your fingernails.
Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of said party. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
