Here’s an eclectic one for you.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Jon: We all live in West Yorkshire, but originally I was born and grew up in Wales.
Giuseppe: Yes, we live in and around Leeds and I come from Apulia region (Southern Italy), basically the famous heel!
Bryan: Wakefield for me.
Neil: Coventry but I now live in Leeds.
How did you meet?
J: They were looking for a drummer and put an advert online, I applied and now they’re stuck with me!
B: Met online through MyBand.
N: I answered an advert which G put out online for a singer, ed, then we immediately lost the bass player and drummer! Sorted now though.
G: Well, when Neil ed in early 2015, I was playing with a bassist from Manchester and this guy quit immediately, I don’t very well why. After one year of playing with a drum machine and another newbie bassist, we found Jon and finally, after again a year, Bryan. However, in 2014 I already founded the band in London with a bassist friend of mine (called G like me), but I had to leave London for personal reasons and thus restart the band from scratch here in Yorkshire.
How long have you been playing as a band?
J: About 3 years.
B: About 2 years or so now for me I think?
N: As the current 4 piece unit, around 3 years but me and G have been doing this for a lot longer.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
G: It’s a (bad) mix up of New Model Army (an old English post-punk band) and “20th Century Boy” by T. Rex. That reflects a bit my love for post-punk, folk and glam rock music. About “terminal”, well, it’s the ambiguous term of the whole equation… many people feel confused by it and what it could mean. However, I have to say that is intended only as computer as were called in the ‘70s… and here another parenthesis is opened… the name contains a kind of criticism against our Western societies or some aspects at least.
What are your influences?
J: Some of the bands that have had the greatest influence on me musically are System Of A Down, Mastodon, Gojira and Deftones.
B: Quite a few bands, mostly punk / pop punk / ska for me with a bit of metal and occasionally acoustic stuff, such as Alkaline Trio, Blink 182, Zebrahead, Offspring, SOAD, Frank Turner.
G: I grew up listening casually vintage Italian pop music, because of my parents’ tastes. But at the end of my teen years I discovered heavy metal music, the old classic bands I mean. So, yeah, roughly my main influences are those above.
N: So many… Personally I’m a child of Britpop and that’s what got me into music in the first place so the likes of Oasis are my main influence, but I’m a musical magpie, I’ll steal from anywhere and everywhere if it sounds good.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
J: G is probably the best person to ask about this, as he’s the main songwriter. Each band member has their own influences that they bring to the music. It’s a real mix of styles but we make it work.
B: We have a bit of variety in our songs, a bit of punk, prog, acoustic, some ska.
N: Post-punk indie rock with hints of metal, ska, punk and many others as Bryan and Jon say. We’re keen to not be pigeon-holed.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
N: I tend to write from a position of anger, whatever’s pissing me off that week! I try and not be too obvious but there are political themes throughout my writing and definitely an active dislike of the modern narcissistic nature of society. The landscape of life in the 21st century has been a rich lyrical hunting ground for me so far and there’s no sign of that changing any time soon either.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
J: Loud, intense and thoroughly entertaining. Maybe about 20.
B: Very loud, try to avoid the drummer as much as possible so I don’t go deaf! With this band maybe 15 or so, in total probably around 40-50.
G: Yep, I agree with you, guys. As New Terminal Boy, around a couple of dozens, while as “musician” probably more than 60.
N: Our social media output always describes the live show as “glorious noise” which is a lyric from our song “Jack of Clubs”. It’s loud, I shout a lot and offload a lot of emotion at the crowd. We don’t have much to work with beyond the music so it’s all about that.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
J: Our guitarist G starting a mosh pit!
B: Seen a guy crowd surf on a inflatable surf board all the way from the stage to the end of the crowd and back to the stage.
G: But, Jon, unfortunately I started that mosh pit only after that our gig!
N: I saw the frontman of a band once offer on the entire crowd for a fight. Didn’t work out well for him.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
J: I use Paiste cymbals, Aquarian drumheads and Vater drumsticks. I’m open to endorsement offers for drum kits though!
B: I have a mania and ESP bass. Use Neil’s bass amp and a Sennheiser mic if I use my own.
G: As quite old-fashioned dude, only standard Fender (Stratocaster) and Gibson (Flying V), plus a Laney VC30-210. I love the sound of 10” speakers even though the clean sound is “eaten” a little, but it’s the price to pay. Finally, a Jekyll & Hyde OD/Distortion pedal (first version) and the only one digital piece I own, a Korg DT-10 as tuner. Basically, a pretty dry sound in the end.
N: I have a Takamine electric-acoustic which sometimes makes an appearance but not always (I’m a singer, not a musician) and my basic vanilla Shure SM58 mic.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
J: Our new album Nowhere; Now Here is the main thing we’re promoting at the moment.
B: As Jon said, the new album Nowhere; Now Here.
N: Yeah, obviously our first self-produced album. We’ve had it in the pipeline for a good long whole and we’re really proud of it. I think it gives a really good of us as band and it’s hopefully going to do well for us.
What are your plans for 2019?
J: We’ve got a few gigs lined up over the summer, including a festival in Berwick which I’m very excited about.
B: Get more gigs and look into writing new songs.
G: About the new songs, a dozen are almost ready to be played and there are chances they’ll be release altogether as new album by the end of next year!
N: More gigs, more music, more New Terminal Boy!
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
J: We’ve played with some incredible bands around Leeds over the years but I’m going to be boring and pick a few of my favourite bands. System Of A Down would be the headliners, with Deftones as the opener.
B: Would love to Streetlight Manifesto as I’ve never seen them before and Offspring before us.
N: I’d love to be able to share a bill with Maximo Park, they’ve been one of my favourite live bands for years and always deliver a brilliant performance. Before us (they’d probably deserve to be ahead but that’s not the question) but I’m mates with a band called Silverlode who straddle more musical styles than us but are a wonderful set of musicians. Check them out.
G: Not sure how I can reply, I have too many bands in mind. Maybe I could put on the table (not in a particular order) Smashing Pumpkins, John Frusciante, Radiohead and Uli Jon Roth, not mentioning some old Italian rock bands I really love (one above all, CC Fedeli alla Linea).
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