Enjoy!
Can you tell me what first inspired you to make music, what made you pick up a guitar and start writing songs?
Originally I was a pianist. We don’t talk about that because I only got to step 1 and then gave up when I went into junior high. I was always a singer even when I couldn’t sing I’d cut about the house singing whatever was in my head, but it’s hard to pin point a moment when I decided I wanted to be a musician. A lot of things factored it but i think wrestling has a lot to doo with it. I used to absolutely love WWE entrance tunes. Shaun Michaels, Edge, and Triple H were some of my favourite wrestlers and their tracks were the best. I remember triple H coming out to King of Kings at Wrestlemainia 22. I had to search for this band and funnily enough they also sang ‘line in the sand’ for Evolution and ‘The Game’ for triple H’s original theme. The band was mötorhead. From this I started getting more into rock and metal. There are nameless songs from WWE, thinking about it now, that actually sent me down this path.
Because of my like of mötorhead and YouTube recommendations I had the inspiration to play guitar. I think it was shortly after hearing iron man by black sabbath just about the time I turned 13. My brother had this old tanglewood and all I wanted to do was learn it and play that riff. I started out with bass notes and took it from there. By the time I got to 4th year I wanted to start a band.
What bands posters did you have upon your bedroom wall and what was the first record you ever bought and why?
Okay so at one stage I had a poster of nearly every band I listened to. Like one of those bedrooms where posters were stacked on top of each other. We moved house and it broke my heart because all the posters had been up so long they couldn’t come down without getting destroyed. Even in my now early 20s I aim to have that again soon. I had a subscription to metal hammer when I was 14/15 that I got as a Christmas present. They sent me posters every month so after the year my walls were plastered. I had maiden, megadeth, sabaton, you name it, it was up there. I was a metal head at this stage. It’s mad to see how much my taste has evolved since then.
So I don’t know if this counts but my first record I bought was one of those compilation greatest hits of rock multi CDs. It had everything from Bullet for my Valentine, Motörhead, to mott the hoople, and Blue Oyster Cult. I did, shortly after, buy Holy Diver by Dio which was an amazing album. I’d say that’s the first actual physical CD I bought. The first vinyl I bought was Royal Bloods first album back when it came out.
Can you tell us about how the band got together, was there a specific style of music you wanted to do when you started out and how has that evolved over the lifespan of the band?
This is so long winded because it’s been like 5 years since I started my first band where I met the original drummer of Blackout Season - Peter McCabe. We shared guitar tutors and obviously he was in my first band and every other band up until blackout. Once I started SRC Armagh I met Johnny Morgan. Johnny and me have been friends since the first day we met and having him in a band with me was a great feature because him and I just click so well. When we started out as feedb+ck I had already wrote system and own way. I don’t know what inspired these songs nor did I have a vision as to how they’d turn out. I was just writing and if it came out like that then it came out like that. I wasn’t really focusing on genre I just wanted to write what I wanted to write. As the years have gone on I’ve taken it more seriously.(I still have a hell of a lot of fun I just concentrate more). I’m focusing on my style and what works for me and what doesn’t work for me. Structuring songs was never my strong suit so I always take the extra effort to spice it up. Now in the past year we had Jack Luke come and go from the band after Peter. Jack was fantastic but he had other commitments and it’s hard to balance both. We’re now with our current drummer Paul Swann and he’s fitting in very nicely. We’re focusing on new stuff but it’s still blackout material. I feel like we still haven’t found the definitive sound that is Blackout Season but I feel like we’re close. We have the songs, we have the guts but I think when we get together to record we will find the missing link.
Since the band got together you’ve been prolific in your releases with the Feedback and Basement EP’s coming out at the start of 2018, Black Lipstick Girl in July 18 and then most recent single Do You? July last year. Are there plans for a further release this year or an album? Do you think the album is still a relevant format in the face of streaming?
Everything is kind of up in the air at the moment we had planned some studio time but that’s out the window. I think for small bands an album isn’t the worst thing but it’s definitely not the best. We have a plan for further release but we wanna keep it under our belts for now while we work out the kinks. It’s all sort of subjective. Some people will sit and listen to an album some will pick one song. Chicago Typewriter released an album in December 2019 and it was like a story. It made me sit down and listen start to finish and it was captivating. Hands down one of my favourite albums and my favourite bands on the scene.
Can you talk about your song writing process and your approach to lyrics, what topics or themes do you cover, do you approach them from experiences you’ve had or from an observational point of view?
At lot of our songs, like most, are about people in our lives. People are what impact my life the most. I have written songs about/for people who have told me their experiences. For example, outside of Blackout I recently wrote a song for a friend who is going through a really rough breakup. They told me what happened and how they felt so I put it into a song.
Lyrically I try and avoid cliches and repeating myself. Melodies are where I hit a lot of speed bumps. I can find myself singing a song I already wrote over something new. Staying fresh is never easy but it’s rewarding. Songs aren’t written in 5 minutes. I’ve been writing the same song for about 3 years and I’m still not happy with it. I’ll know when I am.
You also run Breakout Music, what was the motivation behind starting to put shows on and running a podcast? Can you tell us about the shows so far and any plans for future shows, is this something you’d plan to keep growing?
Growing up outside of a city where there is a music scene as good as the one we’re so lucky to have in Belfast, you have to put on your own gigs. After our show at bluesberry in warrenpoint way back in 2017, I put on every gig we ever played. I organised my own sound, i booked the bands, made the posters, I did everything a promoter would do but I was just doing it for myself. Breakout put a name to it.
I wanted to do it for other bands because we can’t be playing that often to play with every band on the scene we love because there’s so many. I also don’t like the way some promoters have treated bands (not just in Belfast). I’m not naming names but I feel there’s too much pray on new bands that will bring a crowd who won’t expect money or whatever. Breakout is a safe space where I make sure that bands who play for me know that they if they play they get pay.
In regards to the podcast it’s also a circumstance of getting the word of breakout out, getting bands to talk about the shows. At the end of the day it’s about the bands so we want to know what they think about it. The shows at the moment are in standby but I have a lot of big plans for breakout that will really benefit artists and the scene. I want something massive in Belfast city. Again I like to keep it all under wraps because there’s nothing more annoying than saying this is happening and it never happening.
The artwork for the releases so far definitely seems to be creating an aesthetic for the band. Was this a conscious choice and is it something that will continue across future releases, how would you continue to expand and develop this aesthetic?
I think originally we set out to have black and white as our aesthetic for the past while but its no longer that band. There’s something on the way and things are not changing but evolving. We have lots planned and it’s killing me to keep it secret. We’re still nailing every aspect of the band and any aesthetic will come naturally. Sometimes forcing it can ruin the entire vibe. Don’t fix it if it isn’t broken!
The scene both north and south seems to be stronger than ever, is there anyone you’d want to shout out to?
There are so many bands I want to shout out. So I’m going to do a big old list of the top of my head in no order because I absolutely love them all.
Sit Tight
Cloakroom Q.
Fagash McCann
Alice La
Witchkicker
Chicago Typewriter
Paper Tigers
Pascalwillnotsurvivethis
Mosmo Strange
Peace Evan
Bear Skin
Aeons
Civil Simian
Adam Grant & the open doors
And finally in the vein of Rob Gordon. What are your Top 5 favourite records.
I did something similar to this a while ago so I’ll try and keep it brief!
Royal Blood - Royal Blood
Track for track this album is perfect. It’s been an album that I’ve done everything to. It’s just sex hate and angst in circular fashion.
Chicago Typewriter - From Mountains to Megaliths
I love the concept and the story of this album it’s a journey. It’s not just background music. You can hear the time, effort and emotion that went into this. No two riffs similar. It has all the good components of any great album.
Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes- Blossom
Began listening to this album when I was 17. It’s nothing short of a masterpiece. It inspired a lot of my early writings and still does to this day along with a lot of their stuff. We actually covered ‘I hate you’ at our first gig this year and that song makes you feel so powerful!
Highly Suspect - Mister Asylum
I see the running theme of first albums but again oh my god this album is amazing from start to finish. The intro track will trap you and keep you there until the end. Fuck me up is an anthem too.
Neck Deep - Wishful Thinking
The sound from this album is what makes me want to jump ship and start a pop punk band. Every track gets me so hyper. What did you expect and Damsel in Distress were the first neck deep songs I ever heard and they blew my mind. This was my intro to pop punk and got me into a lot more bands
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