As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 9th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!
Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Conjurer – Sophie Lancaster Stage, Thursday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Brady Deeprose: We’re based in the Midlands, UK – more specifically Rugby, Dunchurch, and Daventry.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We had our first rehearsal in August 2014 and started gigging in February 2015 – I’d say we’d been writing for most of 2014 before the band became a legitimate project. Our bassist Conor ed just after we finished recording Mire last year.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Honestly, I’m not really sure – we’d been playing around with a few different names, the most notable of which being Black Nest which sounded cool until we found out it’s a village in Hampshire, described as having ‘a golf course, one pub, and access to the Alice Holt Forest’. Conjurer came about at the suggestion of Dan, I think, and we agreed it sounded cool and ‘would do’ until we thought of something better – I guess we still haven’t. Annoyingly, neither of us made the connection to magic or wizards or any of that shit until one of our earliest shows when someone came up and said, ‘You guys were magic!’ and it dawned on me that we were stuck with that shit for life.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
I always describe us as ‘UK-based riff music’ or ‘post-sludge’ – when we started, Dan and I were heavily influenced by bands like Armed For Apocalypse, Gojira and The Black Dahlia Murder. We wanted to break out of the local metalcore scene and start making music that we actually found exciting. We took our ‘modern’ music backgrounds (having gotten into heavy music through bands like Trivium) and fused them with more obscure, heavy and interesting influences. I think the thing that makes us unique is the ability to throw in a curveball, play a 9-minute doom-esque track next to a 3-minute hardcore rager and it still holds together a strong identity and cohesive sound. Especially going forward, we aren’t closing ourselves off to any ideas – if it’s heavy and it’s something we are all feeling, it goes in, and we make it work.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Ever since day 1, our live show has been important. The amount of times I’ve been to see bands that inspire me on record but don’t do the same thing live is staggeringly high, and we’ve quietly vowed never to do that. I’d suggest we are a heavier and more exciting live prospect than on record and will do our best, over 30 or so minutes, to absolutely break you.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
Yes! We were winners of the 2016 M2TM competition in Leicester and played the New Blood Stage the same year. That was a fantastic opportunity to finally play at a festival that we were huge fans of – even though we clashed with Fear Factory, we still played to a packed tent which was a lovely surprise.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
I actually got a call from Simon Hall who runs the Sophie Stage as well as the M2TM competition – he wanted us on board and there was no way we were going to turn that down! I’ve seen some brilliant bands on that stage over the years, including our friends in Boss Keloid the year we played, so it’s a real honour to be up there ourselves.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Fat riffs. We’re coming with everything we’ve got to play our heaviest possible set.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
To be honest, as long as we don’t clash with Gojira, I’m happy. As they’re headlining the festival, I can’t see that being a problem! They’re a huge part of why we exist as a band and almost single-handedly responsible for my progression from ‘starter’ metal.
Mire (reviewed here) only came out earlier this year, but what are you working on at the moment?
We’re currently working on a collaboration with our label-mates Pijn which we’re debuting at another festival this year and will hopefully record before the year is out. It’s a massive departure from what we normally do and is likely to have around 7 or 8 musicians on stage. We’ve also started work on album two which is already looking to be a much darker record in of sound and conceptual approach than anything we’ve ever done. It’s important to me to keep the quality of our output high – you see so many bands dip after the first record and even if it takes us a little longer to get it done, that absolutely will not happen with us.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Conor kicked his shoe off at our last gig and it hit Dan which was pretty fucking crazy. There were also loads of balloons everywhere. Our drummer Jan once had to play with his shirt on at a show in Berlin and hated every second of it. There was a 5-year-old at our Paris show who loved every second of it.
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Red Bull, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Honestly, I’m not super fussed about any of the above – I’d say Red Bull as a mixer maybe? Jan would strongly oppose anything there that wasn’t Hobgoblin and even then, would prefer a stout. My favourite drink at the moment is Fireball & cloudy apple juice. Delicious.
Conjurer: facebook | twitter | bandcamp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgYK2DsL_4o
