Hold Tight! PR

Band name:  The Sun Explodes  

Location:  Carlisle, UK  

Genre: Prog/Alt/Metal 

Links:  http://www.thesunexplodes.com || http://www.facebook.com/thesunexplodes 

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

We’ve been going almost 4 years in total now. The band started as a result of 2 local bands splitting up (both of which Al was in at one point) and we’ve always made it our mission to write original, creative music and enjoy the shit out of playing it live. Although we put a lot of effort and as much capital as we can into recording, live is where we feel we shine, our gigs are full of energy, sweat, blood, and many other fluids. 

You have a new release coming out soon – without giving too much away tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

We always try to ensure no two tracks on one of our releases sound the same. With that being said however we felt our lead single “SevenThreeOne” just about managed to represent all the elements we feel make up most of the music, that is: Frenetic techy sections, epic/large sections, lots of time signatures, lots of key changes, and some quiet bits so you don’t get too much of a headache.

After recently signing on with Possessive Management for management and booking, we plan to tour the shit out of “We Build Mountains”. We’d love to make a progression from the toilet circuit gigging wise, although we realise it’s going to take time. Maybe in 12 months we could progress to the sink circuit. (It’s not the toilet, but adjacent to it. Same room though)

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

Its loud, energetic, depending on what sort of mood Dave’s in you might experience any number of things you probably wouldn’t expect to experience when you thought to yourself “hey theres a gig on tonight, I’ll go to that why not”. 

We DO get described as “tight” but honestly, it doesn’t feel like that on stage, it feels like chaos. We generally take “tight” to mean: “I’m surprised you guys managed to still make a noise that sounded like a band whilst behaving like you did on stage, well done”. 

How does the band prepare for a gig?

Sacrifice a virgin. Just kidding. Anyone who looks at a member of TSE instantly loses their virginity. And if you’ve lost it already it grows back, and then you lose it again. What was the question again. Oh yeah, usually what happens is Al attempts to organise everyone, Jamie attempts to unorganise everyone, Dave panics a bit, Mike and Alex play it cool.

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Oh shiiiiiit this is hard. Let’s start with:

Arcane Roots, we played with them a year or so when they were on the up, they’re creating some ace original music and they’re spot on guys. Also their engineer Chris Coulter mixed our album and did a fucking excellent job of it.

TesseracT. Because James might read this…Also they are exceptionally good and would teach us a thing or two.  

Andrew WK. Because he likes to party hard. 

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

Our friends from Blackburn called “Falter”. If you see that name on a poster, give the doorman whatever amount of sterlings he wants and we guarantee you’ll have a good time. 

It’s difficult to say, the internet/social media has been ubiquitous pretty much since the inception of the band. So it’s difficult to imagine life without it, all I can really say is it’s definitely part of our daily lives and part of the routine in terms of promotion. It’s certainly very easy to get yourself “out there” these days, but as a result of this, there is a veritable sea of mediocrity “out there”. So in order to get noticed you still have to be captaining a very big and shiny ship. These aquatic metaphors doing anything for ya?

What’s in your cd player right now?

Honestly we all listen to such different stuff it’s a really hard question. (And by hard, I mean, its 8 o clock in the morning and none of the others are out of bed yet and won’t be for hours). Some of us are really digging Mallory Knox’s new album, we love what Aliases are doing, Queen greatest hits never leaves the CD player, debut album from our friends in 22, amazing. 

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

If you made it to the end of my shit interview then you surely have time to click a YouTube link and find out if we’re shit or not?! Honestly as long as your favourite band doesn’t have “bieber” or “brides” in the name you should be fine…

For press opportunities, interviews or muffins contact lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  The Rocket Dolls  

Location:  Brighton, UK  

Genre: Alternative Rock/Metal 

Links:  http://www.facebook.com/therocketdolls || http://www.youtube.com/therocketdolls 

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

We got together in 2008. All we’ve wanted to do is simply tour loads, and create a ‘less is more’ type vibe live as we’re a 3 piece. People have been blown away by how big we sound for just 3 of us. Also people have always struggled to lump us in any one specific category, just because we incorporate many different sub genres in our sound. The most important thing is that we’re very humble guys, and are just very happy and grateful to be in a position to be recording, and playing music - as its the coolest thing in the world. So because of this we try to have as much fun as possible, and appreciate every minute of it.

You have a new release coming out soon – without giving too much away tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

We have our debut album out soon called ‘Eyes’. When people listen to it I think they’ll love it, and be blown away at the production, the tones, and because of the fact that there are a handful of different sub genres within the music. The album has all kinds of influences in it it from Grunge, to Punk, to Metal, to Pop Rock, to Southern Rock, to Doom. What we really want to achieve on this album is not to be pigeon holed into one genre, because I don’t think people can :D

For the next 12 months we just want to be in a good position where a lot of people have heard our record, and we can do good tours etc. We want to have had good reviews, and good radio play, and we hope that in the next 12 months a lot of people are enjoying our album :D

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

In our live shows we want to create a ‘less is more’ feel to it all. We’ve done our homework with tones and things because it’s vital in a 3 piece that your tones are on the money. People who’ve seen us live have always said how huge we sound for just 3 of us. 

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

3 bands we’d love to tour with would be:

KING’S X - because they’re our 3 piece piers, they’ve done 15 albums, and just keep plugging away through thick and thin - and we find that very inspiring….also they have heaps of groove - and we’re groove guys.

SEVENDUST - because very imply put - they were one of our main metal influences growing up. 

ALICE IN CHAINS - because we love their desert rock/evil sounding grunge, as we feel that we have a strong influence there. We feel we’d go down really well with them!

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

One band we’d love to give a shout out to would be SWORN TO OATH. They’re good friends of ours, work unbelievably hard, and are absolutely incredible live. 

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

The internet has been everything to us to be honest! Without it we’d be stuffed. 

What’s in your cd player right now?

In my CD player right now its ‘16 Stone’ by BUSH.

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

To summarise: People should listen to our band because we’re not just one genre, we’re a huge sounding 3 piece, we have heaps of groove, and evil riffs! ;) 

For press opportunities, interviews or muffins contact lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  Sleepers Awake 

Location:  Columbus, Ohio, USA.  

Genre: Prog/Sludge/Melodic Doom… dunno… Metal works… 

Links:  www.sleeperrock.com || http://www.facebook.com/SleeperRock

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

Rob and Chris (Thompson) started Sleepers Awake years ago, with roots going back near a decade. The current permutation started in 2008 with the addition of Chris (Burnsides), on drums (also referred to as Ambrose for sake of avoiding the two Chris issue). The first album, Priests of the Fire was released in November 2009. After brief regional touring, our then bassist left the band. Ambrose having played in other musical projects with Kedar asked him to join at bass and from there we spent the next 2 years performing regionally and working on Transcension in one stage or another.

Our music has been an effort to merge many of our different influences into a unified sound. We’ve sought to create a wholly new amalgam of rock and metal stylings, taking nods at Opeth, Mastodon, Queen, QOTSA, and Tool. Lately our writing has leaned a little more towards a variety of technical metal bands, from Uneven Structure and Meshuggah to Intronaut, while also incorporating more of the dramatic, doomy atmospheres of bands like Katatonia. Basically we’re all huge metal wonks and doing our best to fuse together a new and interesting sound.

As far as why we do it, well, we can’t really imagine not doing it. That would be horrible. It’s a multifaceted answer. We do it for all the reasons above but I suppose from a personal perspective it’s just a pure love of performing, creating, and sharing and performing those creations with other people that understand us. We’d be mentally unhealthy without that pursuit. One of the feelings that we live for is that feeling when we hear from someone on the other side of the planet who loves the record. So as far as what we want to achieve it’s a simple extension of why we’re doing it: to communicate our art with others.

You have a new release coming out soon – without giving too much away tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

A highly crafted metal epic meant to be played from start to finish that is, at its core, a nod to the grand tradition of concept records. It may be commercially foolish to write “an album” anymore in the age of the single but this is really what we’ve all been fed on and we sought to write a record whose full weight is appreciated when listened to as a whole.

Plans for the next 12 months.

Right now we’re planning a music video for one of the songs on Transcension, setting up Spring tour dates in the US, and continuing to write new material and perform regionally. And then of course world domination shortly thereafter… just as soon as our death ray arrives from Sky Mall Magazine.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

Four sweaty meat golems demolishing your favorite club

How does the band prepare for a gig?

Well the first step is practice, practice, practice! After that the next most important element in show preparation is not getting shitfaced before going on the stage. We don’t have any magical incantations or anything awesome along those lines unfortunately. Ambrose seems to have to pee every five seconds right before going on stage, so there is that too.

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

1.) Opeth: Mikael Akerfeldt is fairly high on our list of idols and at the same time he doesn’t seem like he’d be a complete dick to a smaller band. He’s been hilarious and seems pretty down to earth every time we’ve seen them play but at the same time he is probably one of the most musically intimidating people I can imagine meeting. They’re respectable on a lot of levels I think.

2.) Intronaut: They have a really awesome blend of intricate musicianship and raw organic emotionality which, over the course of their career, they’ve found how to do in a way that is wholly their own, and I suppose that is in essence what we’re really aiming for with Sleepers Awake.

3.) Castle: We just played with them the other week when they came through town and they were awesome musicians and awesome people to boot. They have this really cool sort of doom/thrash hybrid with these fantastic image inducing lyrics and Liz has this really haunting voice and stage presence. I think the latent motif here is that we really respect metal bands that have unique structures and musical identities. We like to see devotion to authenticity and experimentation in full stride.

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

Ohio is literally overflowing with talent across the board but as far as metal and rock bands I’d highly suggest people check out Neon Warship, Bringers of Disease, The Black Antler, Red Sun, and Megachurch.  As far as we’re concerned these guys have all absolutely achieved what they’re going for and deliver an awesome show every time.

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

A lot of the motivation we have comes from all the support we’ve gotten from around the world. We once had two guys from Florida fly up to see us play a show in a dingy little rock club in Columbus, just for the hell of it. Things like that are all but impossible without the internet and while we love the home town support it really is a crucial factor in our motivation for share our music with a wider audience. After all, the internet is how we met you lovely people at Hold Tight!

What’s in your cd player right now?

Right now I am spinning Castle’s latest album Blacklands. Heavy drums, spooky vocals, sweet riffs. Just a fantastic metal record start to finish.

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

Why should you listen to our band? To paraphrase some famous dead guy “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is there to see it, then they’ll probably miss out on a really fucking sweet metal band.”

For press opportunities, interviews or muffins contact lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  Enochian Theory

Location:  Portsmouth / Brighton, UK 

Genre: Progressive / Rock / Alternative 

Links:  www.enochiantheory.co.uk || www.facebook.com/enochiantheoryband 

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

Greetings and salutations, thanks for this little chance to chat about the band and the mechanics of it.

We formed in late 2004 as a 4 piece, recording our debut E.P (A Monument To The Death Of An Idea) with that line up before ‘shedding skin’ and slimming down to a lean, mean rock trio and we haven’t looked back.

I’d hazard things really started moving forward after we lost said member of the band in December 2007 as things really weren’t moving forward for the previous couple of years.

We wrote and recorded our debut record (Evolution: Creatio Ex Nihilio) within the following 5 months of this upheaval happening and that secured attention from various record labels…but being as the industry is, they took their own sweet time and we didn’t want to wait about for them to pull their fingers out…so we released the record ourselves on our own label (Anomalousz Music Records) and kept complete control, securing some great press and feedback, including radio play.

This got it noticed once more and eventually Mascot Records signed the band up for a few albums and this is where you find us right now in 2013, promoting our second record, ‘Life…And All It Entails’…which you should all listen to…you may like it.


You have a new release coming out soon – without giving too much away tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

Well, without giving too much away…it’s certainly a ‘progression’ (har  har) from our debut record and I’d like to think we’ve evolved within our own sphere of writing music.

I’m not big on explaining what, when , how and why with our music and simply suggest that people keep an eye out for the ‘Inversions’ video and the single…or go straight for listening to the new album.

Plans for the next 12 months.

What do we do for a living, gentlemen?

TOUR, TOUR, TOUR!

We’ve had some great tours already this year, starting with dates across Europe with Nuclear Blast records act, Threshold.

We were out in Europe with them in March, and we’ve just played a festival slot at Hard Rock Hell: Prog, alongside some truly great bands.

The odd single show here and there in Southampton and Cardiff, before heading out for some dates with 70’s symphonic rock band, The Enid in April and May and then back out again for more dates in may with TesseracT!

We’re simply looking to really get on the road this year and do what we couldn’t quite do last year…and that was get damn shows that are good!

During any ‘downtime’ we have in-between shows, we’ll continue to write music for the 3rd album and that will all slowly come together as and when it does.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

Well, I wouldn’t know personally as I’m usually onstage playing and thus wouldn’t know what it was like to watch us! haha

But I’ve been informed by many people that it’s a good show and the records translate well live, as we tend to play them very close to the originals, but only with a little bit of ad-libbing and ‘jazz’ just to make it more interesting for us onstage.

We love playing live, as it’s a chance to simply rock out…and everyone needs to let things go once in a while…it’s where we truly come alive…

How does the band prepare for a gig?

We prepare by gathering in the shape of a triumvirate, sacrificing some small metal-core inclined teenager and then summoning the absolute power of  Shub-Neggurath and other ‘ancients’ as part of rituals to fuel our beings…

Nah…not really. 

We warm up on our instruments, ensure the plethora of equipment we have to set-up is working correctly and getting ourselves in the right frame of mind to perform for people.

As I said earlier, we love playing and try to ensure that our live show is a heartfelt and entertaining performance.

I guess for us, it’s as much about being entertaining as it is being technically precise…we like to have fun onstage…usually at the crowd or ourselves expense!

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Oooo…a tough one.

I guess I would have to stick to the same 3 acts I’ve always wanted to tour with…3 acts that have shaped my own music journey and thus shaped the bands music in it’s own way.

Mr Devin Townsend would be a top chap to tour with, been a fan since…well…before ‘Ocean Machine’ came out and his work has continued to move forward.

Had the pleasure of opening for Strapping Young Lad once in Portsmouth with my old band…that was amazing…but not enough!

American Grammy slamming ‘prog’ band, Tool would be another band we’d like to play with, as we’re big fans of their material throughout their career.

As for the third band, I’d love to hit the road with Meshuggah…they are perhaps my favourite band of all time…to date.

Their music taught me so much about music generally and namely the wonder that is rhythm.

But in summation, we’d tour with anyone, anywhere, at anytime.

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

Shout outs, ay?

Bands we like, ay?

Simpson, ay?

☺

Well, I like bands/acts that work hard and try their best to be better…coming through adversity all the much better for it.

We’ve come across some good bands on the road or through friends.

I’ll simply say, have a listen to these acts…they all work hard:

Dragon Eye Morrison, Bloodshot Dawn, Jurojin, Dead Pin-Ups, Tony Haven, Raiden, Joe Black and Dakesis.

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

It’s certainly given many bands a voice where they’d never have had a snowballs chance in hell before.

Getting any audio recorded used to mean having to go to an expensive studio where they had the ability to use large desks and reel-to-reel equipment…but now, it’s the age of the ‘bedroom producer’.

Powerful home computers with cheap or free DAW’s installed on them ensure that anybody with a modest budget can get music recorded…and I think it’s great that this has become available to pretty much everyone.

For us, we use a lot of the social media networks to promote the band…I’d hazard that it’s practically a modern day from of ‘word of mouth’.

Some guy in U.K shares a link, someone in U.S who is a friend of that person hears it and passes it on…and so on and so forth.

For the cost of a large PR campaign via magazines and such, you can take out a targeted advert on sites and really spread your music to people who perhaps would like it.

We embrace technology, it’s a tool to be used and something to be respected in a way.

What’s in your cd player right now?

CD player, dear?

How frightfully archaic!

haha

I think it’s sitting in my pile of audio junk in the corner of my home studio at the moment! Haha

But thanks to the wonders of online music packages like Spotify, Grooveshark and such, I’ve been digging the last Efterklang record as I’m a fan, as well as various music from across the last 100 years, ranging from Alice In Chains to The Algorithm to Cookie Monster…Pachelbel to Michael Nyman…Infected Mushroom to LTJ Bukem…Axis Of Perdition to…ermm…Tesseract…

Whatever generally comes on to the playlists I’ve put together.

Sometimes people share some good stuff with me, but most of it hurts my ears if I’m honest!

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

Do a few lines and listen to our music…

Oh…sorry!

I just re-read the question…haha

As I said before, I’m not good at this sort of thing but I’ve found through the various responses to our music that most people have found something they’ve enjoyed about it.

I believe one of the funnier things I’ve come across was a whole message board of cliquey teenage guys who’d taken to disliking us immensely for whatever puerile reason they’d created and were doing their best discredit our music to other people.

Those other people invariably checked us out to see why we were SOOOOO bad and came away going thinking “Actually, I liked that…what are those guys on about?”

☺

Have a listen…you may like it.

For press opportunities, tour press, interviews or muffins contact James@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  Damned Spring Fragrantia

Location:  Parma, Italy

Genre: Progressive metalcore

Links:  www.facebook.com/damnedspringfragrantia || www.soundcloud.com/damnedspringfragrantia || http://damnedspringfragrantia.bandcamp.com

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

We started in 2006 as a metalcore band when we were just adolescents. Some lineup change all over the years helped us to get the sound we always wanted for our music. We do it mostly for passion and to spread our music as much as possible, so we can say we’d like to be in everyone’s cd player and do gigs everywhere.

You have a new release coming out soon on Basick Records – without giving too much away, tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

A massive, groovy sound. The songs flow one by another without any pause, we’d like the listeners feel like being under an overwhelming current while listening to it.

Plans for the next 12 months.

Have our debut album “Divergences” out (via Basick Records) and hopefully to promote it on stage as much as possible.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

Someone told us recently we’re like a big fist in the face! We just try to play as well as we can and to give back the same groove we put on the songs.

How does the band prepare for a gig?

Rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing, rehearsing…

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Meshuggah, for the great inspiration they gave us.

War from a Harlots Mouth, for the same reason and because we’ve been listening to them from their first records.

Vildhajarta, because of thall.

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

Amia Venera Landscape, a great band from our country.

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

We can say that “Lost Shores” official video, uploaded into a youtube channel, helped us to sign with Basick Records and since we’ve posted “D.M.Z.” we gained a bit more popularity on the net. Internet helped us so much till now, we hope it’ll help us even in the future!

What’s in your cd player right now?

Fallujah - The harvest wombs

Intronaut - Habitual levitations

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

We believe that people could listen to us for the variety of sounds that can be found in our album.

Our sound comes from a combination of all kinds of music that we love to hear and for this reason we think that all the people who listen metal sounds might find interesting ideas in our album.

In fact, our music could be listened by people who love mainly hardcore/metalcore sounds or more melodic riffs but also by people who love progressive/mathcore sounds.

DAMNED SPRING FRAGRANTIA will release their album through Basick Records this summer. Keep an eye out for more news, coming soon. 

For press opportunities, tour press, interviews or muffins contact Lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  Godsized

Location:  South London / South England

Genre: Hard Rock

Links:  http://www.facebook.com/Godsizedband

Godsized - Moving On by Godsizedband

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

The band formed in name only in 2005 in Croydon, South London, adding various different band members from further and further away from this initial starting point as time has gone on. Now we have band members who live in different countries! We continue to push Godsized because we love it – anybody trying to make it in the music industry these days has to love it because there is less money out there and more competition for opportunites than ever before. Basically what we want to achieve is to be doing this thing full time and be out on tour pretty much permanently. This is a band that thrives on the thrill of the live experience.

You have a new single out – for anyone who hasn’t heard it yet, tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

We’ve been lucky enough to tour all around the UK and Europe pretty extensively over the last couple of years and we often hear, “You guys are awesome but you sound so much bigger live than you do on the record”.  So we’re aiming for a more live feeling record with “Time” – not to take anything away from any previous productions as we are extremely proud of everything we’ve done before.  Godsized is a band out there making music that not a million other bands are doing right now – and our production will mirror that. While lots of rock & metal bands are going for multi-layered, highly polished productions we wanna get away from that a bit by building a record based around live takes and the energy that comes when musicians are all in a band playing together.

Plans for the next 12 months.

Tour, tour, tour, festivals and tour. We really wanna get out there and promote this new CD and will be trying hard to get to places we’ve never been to before or places we’ve loved playing but due to scheduling, etc haven’t been able to get back to for a couple of years.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

I think it’s a high energy show, we always try to give it 100% everytime no matter what happens before, after or during the show. I have a sticker taped to my pedal board that says “What the fuck, fuck shit up” which is Chuck Dukowski/Black Flag quote – basically we wanna make sure if you come see us play you’ll leave with your ears ringing, your voice gone and probably drunk. Pretty much the same state the band will be in.

How does the band prepare for a gig?

The pre-show dressing room rehearsal is, I guess, a standard rock band ritual. We’ll listen to some cool tunes backstage, warm up a bit and then have a round of macho-handshakes/back slaps and a couple of shots of Jagermeister. Our intro music is Stranglehold by Ted Nugent – as soon as I hear that the first shot of adrenaline kicks in.

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Alice in Chains but I think we’d be a good musical mix and we’re all Jerry Cantrell nuts, Down for pretty much the same reasons and Metallica because basically what rock band wouldn’t want to?

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

A very cool band we’ve recently done a couple of shows with: Welcome the Howling Tones – clutch-y, bluesy rock.

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

I don’t think we could have done it without the internet and social media! We’re a DIY band with no deal and we handle as much as we can ‘in-house’ this make our fan-base and being able to interact with them absolutely crucial. I think the days of bands and rock stars being un-touchable and aloof is rapidly diminishing. We really appreciate every single person who comes to a show, buys a CD or T-shirt or just pops up on our facebook wall to say hello. We want them to know without them we couldn’t carry on doing what we’re doing.

What’s in your cd player right now?

Orange Goblin – Eulogy for the Damned

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

If you like your rock music chunky, loud and with seriously hooky vocal melodies, we’re your boys. We’re not re-inventing the wheel and we are not trying to, classic style rock with modern sounds and attitude. We are making music we are 100% passionate about and we always give it everything we’ve got onstage. See you on the road!

GODSIZED have readied their much anticipated debut album ‘Time’, to be released in Apriland are giving away the first single ‘Heavy Load’ for FREE on the 25 February, as well as releasing a new video, the day before they head off on their UK / European headline tour.

Catch them live throughout the UK and Europe in March and April on their 11th Hour tour:

For press opportunities, tour press, interviews or muffins contact Lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  Napoleon

Location:  Exeter, UK

Genre: Melodic Hardcore / Metalcore

Links:  https://www.facebook.com/Napoleon.Devon

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

We’re a 4 piece band based in Exeter, Devon UK and we don’t really know what genre we are. We started in December 2010 and put out a 7 track EP called Cinderella in 2011. Since then we’ve gone through several line up changes and in May 2012 we released a 4 track EP called What We See, which has had around 20,000 downloads. We try to write and play music thats an exciting mix and a little bit different to most things that around at the moment. We want to keep playing as many shows as possible in as many new places as possible and take this as far as we can.

You have a new single out – for anyone who hasn’t heard it yet, tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

The new single is a fast one! 

Plans for the next 12 months.

Throughout March we will tour the UK and Europe with our American buddies in Being As An Ocean. Shortly after that we will write and record a new single/video. Then this summer we’ll finish writing and record our debut full length album and any chance we can we’ll tour the UK and Europe and hopefully some new places like Russia, South East Asia and Australia.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

Thats a tough question, we never really plan whats going to happen at our shows. We just try to be ourselves and have a laugh whilst still being professional musicians and play the songs to the best of our ability. We’ve definitely gone into this year with 10x as much energy, and we’ll constantly be trying to up our game.

How does the band prepare for a gig?

We just chill out and go with the flow really. On tour we just seem to get into autopilot mode. A good dinner always helps and we always make sure we get our greens.

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Counterparts, Hundredth and Architects because they’ve been the biggest inspiration to us! It would be a dream to hang/play with them every night and we think we’d suit a similar crowd to them!

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

If you dig bands like Volumes and Structures etc then go check out Shields. Extremely talented up and coming UK band!

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

The internet has been a huge help to us as a band! We put our EP up for free download which meant the Internet was the only place you could get it. This meant that it was easily shared around on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter and it helped us to reach a new, much wider audience that wouldn’t have heard us otherwise and wouldn’t have bought a cd. We update our Facebook daily and it’s the only way people can hear and see what we’re up too and find out about shows or new merch. We’ve even found new members for the band and our driver just by posting off of our Facebook page. We also tab all our songs on Guitar Pro. Ryan lives in Manchester and the rest of us live down in Exeter so he uses guitar pro to learn the songs from home so he doesn’t need to be down with us every time we write. Without internet and technology we probably wouldn’t be a band!

What’s in your cd player right now?

Stick To Your Guns - Diamond. We think it was the best release of last year, along with The Ghost Inside -Get What You Give and Architects - Daybreaker. 

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

We love to experiment and try to write and play music thats a bit different to everything else out there. We like to think theres something in it for everyone and we’re always going to be pushing ourselves as hard as we can! 

Head over to https://www.facebook.com/Napoleon.Devon to check out the band further. Their single ‘Brought Here To Suffer’ is out NOW, pick it up on iTunes here. 

The band are also on tour throughout March - check tour dates here » http://www.facebook.com/Napoleon.Devon/app_123966167614127

For press opportunities contact Lisa@HoldTight!PR

Band name:  The Omega Experiment

Location:  Michigan, USA

Genre: Progressive Metal

Links:  http://www.facebook.com/theomegaexperiment

Tell us a bit about your band – how long have you been going, why you do what you do, what you want to achieve.  

We formed in the winter of 2009, but the basic idea and concept has been floating around since 2007. It started as just Ryan (Aldridge, keys) and I needing something to do with our time after getting clean from a very rough bout with addiction. I had a concept laying around and we started to jam, and it all fit perfectly to address what we had both just gone through. After it caught on with the internet community, we figured we owed to ourselves to push it as far as it can go; to bring it to the live environment, and to release it worldwide. We want to be able to bring our music to the people that want it through touring, and continue pushing ourselves in the studio to make the most epic audio experience imaginable to us and our fans. 

You have a new release coming out soon – without giving too much away tell us what listeners can expect from it. 

They can expect to be flung into an emotional rollercoaster on a grand scale that is simultaneously joyous, demanding, tragic, and hopeful.  

Plans for the next 12 months.

We hope to get back out into the live setting, both locally and to Europe near the end of the year. We also eagerly anticipate the re-release of our debut through Listenable Records in February. 

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show.

We don’t leave much room for contemplation. It’s a sonic shower from note one; where the music does the majority of the talking. It’s an uplifting experience for sure. 

How does the band prepare for a gig?

Practice, practice, practice…warmup, warmup, warmup. 

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why

Devin Townsend Project because they are all super guys and it’s been a dream for some time; Dream Theater because they are the kings of prog and the exposure would be great for us; Stealing Axion because we are all really good friends and the laughs would be neverending.

Name a band you’d love to give a shout out to and think people should listen to (not your own band)

The guys we hired to tour with us last summer have a band called Aviations that are all Berklee musicians, and are extremely talented…especially for their age. You can find them on Facebook. 

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

Internet and technology are entirely responsible for where we are, along with the hard work of a lot of good and dedicated people. We wouldn’t have a fan base without the internet. 

What’s in your cd player right now?

God Forbid- Equilibrium 

 Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

We have a fresh perspective on the genre, and we don’t limit ourselves to the typical influences you hear in most of progressive metal. If you like your music epic and emotionally demanding with an open-minded approach, give us a listen. It’s very honest stuff. 

Head over to  www.facebook/theomegaexperiment to check out the band further. Their self titled debut album will be released by Listenable Records on February 25 2013. Order from here. 

For press opportunities contact Lisa@HoldTight!PR

BAND: ODESSA

LOCATION: BIRMINGHAM UK

GENRE: METAL / HARDCORE 

LINK: www.facebook.com/ukodessa || http://www.odessaofficial.co.uk/

Tell us a bit about your band ­ how long have you been going, why you do
what you do, what you want to achieve.

We’ve been going since 2010, our aim as a band is to get as many people hearing our music as possible and checking out what it is we do.

You have a new release out – for anyone who hasn’t yet heard it, can you tell us what listeners can expect from it.? 

Carry The Weight is fast, heavy, melodic with lots of aggression. We’re so excited for everyone to hear it, let us know what you think. 

Plans for the next 12 months?

For 2013 we are aiming to step things up a lot, this means bigger and better performance live, we are aiming for bigger tours, and really using this year as our year to prove ourselves within the UK/European metal scene.

Tell us a bit about what it’s like to experience your live show. 

From the first chord it’s packed full of energy and carnage, one thing we always do is interact with the crowd because in my opinion it’s more than 5 guys playing a song, we connect with the audience and do our best to make sure the people watching remember us.

How does the band prepare for a gig?

Relentless practicing, but generally as a rule at shows we all have our own rituals. I myself (Rich) tend to do my warm ups away from the rest of the band and get in the ‘zone’ I guess. After I’ve done this we have a little prep talk and set our gear up and begin the set.

Name 3 bands you would love to tour with and why.

While She Sleeps - These guys are great, and have worked so hard to get everything that have right now. They are a band who we look up to and admire there work ethic.

Stick To Your Guns -One of my personal favourite bands, a real inspiration and put on a great live show. Would be great to share the stage let alone tour with these guys.

Parkway Drive - Possibly the biggest metalcore band to day, and have helped pave the way for up and coming bands and opened doors for a lot of bands. I think anyone that plays some sort of heavy appreciates what they have done for the music scene. 

Napoleon - We’ve toured with these guys in 2012, they are the sickest band live. Put on such a great show and such genuine guys. If you’ve not checked them out make sure you do!

How much has the internet and technology helped your band to get to the point it is today. 

The internet is such a crazy thing, you can be anything you want to be. In this day and age who isn’t on the internet, who isn’t on facebook, who isn’t watching videos on youtube? We owe a lot to the use of the internet, we released a video for a song called All I Have in September 2011, which has gained over 160,000 views in the space of just over a year. This has opened so many doors for us, and without the use of the internet I’m unsure if we would have had the same response. Technology has made everything so much more accessible, it makes us able to write demos with nothing more than a computer a microphone and a guitar, it’s nuts.

What’s in your cd player right now?

Emmure - Slave To The Game

Counterparts - The Current Will Carry Us

Major League - Hard Feelings

Ok you have a few lines to tell us why people should listen to your band. GO. 

We’re so passionate about what we do and always put everything we have into our music. Weather you like you your stuff heavy or melodic, we’ve got music you will enjoy.