5Q Interview - Castellers

Been listening to this 60's influenced band for a couple weeks and thought I'd get in touch for an interview. This is what happened when I interrogated Russell from The Castellers;

 

 

1. What bands or artists would you say influenced your sound?

 

Our sound is massively influenced from the 60s Mod, garage & psychedelia scene. Bands such as The Doors, The Who, 13th Floor Elevators, The Creation, The Kinks, The Who, The Byrds... we could go on but that should cover it.

 

2. What was the inspiration for your song Five Days Time?

 

 

Five days is about a bad acid trip. It fits together as a song because lyrically, which is predominantly Ryan's forte, its pretty abstract & paranoid, the wondering mind drifting in & out of trips. Musically it's a psychedelic waltz which is the perfect backdrop. On the solo breakdown, towards the end of the track, the tumbling guitar/bass line is our take on Alice falling down the rabbit hole, a bit pretentious but its cool.

 

3. What are you up to at the moment?

 

Still releasing our first set of demos, there's a few online with another two still to come. Lack of funds are slowing the process down though. They're all recorded but just need mixing.

Just about to start a set of gigs too, first of which is in Sheffield at the Lava Lounge, Thursday 18th April.

 

4. Do you have any plans for the near future?

 

More gigs, hopefully London, Manchester, Liverpool & Tramlines Festival in Sheffield. We're dying to get back in the studio as we've a load of new tracks & ideas; a Hammond organ driven song, a sitar based tack & a lot more psychedelia. But we need to find pennies to sort all that.

Management & label required!

"We're working on a sitar based track"

5. What new acts have you got you're eyes on at the mo?

 

Temples, love them. Can't remember the last time we've been this excited about a debut album.

 

 

Follow them on twitter @thecastellers

 

Neon Rouge - Fisty Cuffs

This band describe themselves, quite rightly, as blues-grunge, and this song certainly fits that bill.
With the main guitar riff being a heavily over driven, bluesy, angsty affair that gives off a distinct whiff of Black Keys, you can immediately get a feel for the sound they are going for; heavy blues-rock.
The vocals enter and sound very much like Jack White, the singer clearly has very good range and the recorded version has slightly distorted vocals which give the piece some grit and add's some nice raw vocal tones. The chorus is big, just how I like them and has some lightning quick vocals that offer something interesting and exciting to the song. Complete this with some steaming guitar licks and you've got yourself a very decent song. Check it out here;
https://soundcloud.com/weareneonrouge/fisty-cuffs
Another single; Black Mamba is available on soundcloud as well.
Look forward to hearing some more tracks from this lot.
Sam.

The Strypes

I have decided to tackle the subject of The Strypes.
This Irish 4 piece have been accumulating a bit of excitement around them recently mainly because Elton John signed them and they have attracted various celebrities to their gigs (Noel Gallagher, Paul Weller etc) and also because they have a combined age of about 4.
Now I see no problem with this so far. But I then endeavoured to listen to their music and found that they we're almost entirely producing covers of old blues songs. Now, yes, they are barely toilet trained so I will give some lee-way there and the covers are good. Good. Just good, not excellent and not nearly as good as the originals. So this leaves me confused about the furor of biblical proportions that seems to surround them.
But stop Sam, you say! They do do originals! Yes they do. Three in total, and they are all completely and utterly indistinguishable from the covers they do. The songs are exceptionally mediocre. The same, worn out blues-rock format that has already been modernised and developed by the excellent White Stripes and the less excellent, but good, Black Keys. What we need is some high quality NEW music not Elton John and co weeing their knickers about what is essentially an over-rated wedding band.
I do feel, however, that given a chance to develop, this band could become a great little outfit. After all, the musicians are great and the vocals are of a reasonable standard. Why don't we all just leave them alone and give them a chance to create something new and exciting.