BAND INTERVIEW - FELL SILENT.
With Christene Miller - March 2006.
Trying to describe Fell Silent’s hard-hitting sound is tricky, even for the band. ‘Groovecore!’ shouts bass player, Max; but the others don’t seem so sure…
Acle: Groove-based, polyrhythmic metal?
Noddy: It’s got the word ‘groove’ in it…
Acle: Dodgy time-signatures, math-metal kinda thing…
Noddy: Groovecore?
Neema: I don’t like the word ‘core’.
Max: Groovy…core….
But Neema, the band’s shrieking vocalist, perhaps sums it up most effectively, ‘we’re Fell Silent’, he says, with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders and a smile.
But whatever they are, before their support slot with contemporary Bristol metallers Ella, the Esquires veterans were only too pleased to spend some time filling us in on what they’ve been up to and their plans are for 2006 and beyond…
Q. Who do you think has influenced you musically?
John: Meshuggah! That’s the only band we listen to!
Max: Bring Me The Horizen, Meshuggah, Poison the Well, Dillinger Escape Plan, Deftones.
Noddy: Maybe a bit of Strapping Young Lad for me, they’re kinda like Meshuggah, but then it kinda varies…
Acle: Yeah, I like sixties stuff, Led Zeppelin, stuff like that.
John: Devil Sold His Soul.
Q. You said on your website you were currently writing for your album, how’s that progressing?
John: Pretty slow, I think we’ve got one more song to write and then we just need to find a studio.
Noddy: We’re lucky enough to have a singer who owns a recording studio, but… er… doesn’t own a place for it to be.
Acle: We’re looking for somewhere.
Max: Advertisement!
Neema: We’re sorting it out.
Max: It’s on the horizon…
Q. What are your plans for the rest of 2006?
John: That’s the main one, finish the album, and then go on tour. Yeah, we’ve actually been offered a tour recently, I won’t say who with yet… but… shall we? Yeah. We were asked to join Devil Sold His Soul with Bring Me the Horizon, so that’ll be wicked.
Q. How important is playing live for you as a band?
Neema: Most of this band, our week consists of doing fuck all unless we’re gigging.
John: Yeah, we actually don’t have a social life at all… well, except for Max. Actually have a full-time job now, so have something to do. [laughs]
Q. Do you enjoy playing Esquires?
John: Yeah. We play here quite often, maybe about ten times in the last year.
Noddy: It’s like one of our locals.
Neema: There’s a good crowd here. A lot better than Milton Keynes - for our kind of music anyway.
Q. You’ve played with Ella before, what do you think about them?
Max: Yeah, they’re wicked, really tight live, really good.
Q. Where should people go for more information about Fell Silent?
Max: MySpace!
Noddy: www.myspace.com/fellsilent.
Q. Where would you like to see Fell Silent in five, or even ten years time?
Noddy: Download, a festival
Max: The Bowl!
Neema: Playing some kind of metal festival at the Bowl.
Max: Just not working. [all agree]
Neema: Being able to make a living out of music.
Q. Does music count as work?
Neema: Music’s definitely not work, we enjoy it.
John: It’s a proper cliché, but I enjoy my life and make money from it… there’s an answer in there somewhere.
For more information on Fell Silent, check out their MySpace site, www.myspace.com/fellsilent their website, www.fellsilent.com Watch out for them live at Esquires again on 5th May.
Interviewed by Christene Miller. www.bedfordesquires.co.uk