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!
Mortishead – Sophie Lancaster Stage, Friday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re from Portishead / Bristol, UK.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Our foundations began mid 2014 and by the end of that year we had performed our first 2 shows.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Portishead – Mortishead. Kinda explains itself given our location but for added detail a couple of our live in Portishead and one of them runs a music studio there. It was there that Mortishead was initially created. They also have the gold disc for Portishead’s Dummy album on the wall in the studio so that, along with ‘Mortis’ meaning ‘death’ in Latin, it seemed an easy choice.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We prefer to not be labelled into a specific genre as we don’t stick to any particular formula. However, in the name of giving you an idea of what we sound like we are often referred to as having elements of extreme, death, thrash, sludge, groove and industrial styles. What makes us unique? Our overall stage show and appearance seems to be what we gets us noticed for the most part but we do also use a relatively unique tuning where the guitars can play in drop C, but an octave lower, as well as drop C standard.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
We’ve been told our live show is an aggressive, explosive and bewildering experience. To give you an idea we take to stage as a dystopian totalitarian regime and maintain that crushing persona from start to finish. This year at BOA we’re heating things up and adding pyrotechnics into the mix so anything could happen! We’re going to be having balls of fire, literally, and cannons that are capable of producing up to 6 meter towers of flames.
Have you played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
Yes, this is our 2nd time performing at Bloodstock. The first was 3 years ago on the New Blood stage in 2015.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
It was towards the end of 2017, via a phone call. One of the best phone calls we’ve ever had.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
The set will mostly consist of our most recent release, our Totality EP. We will, however, be adding in a couple of extras as well.
Which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
It’s tricky because every band has something to offer, hence why they were booked to play BOA. If you’re going to force our hand though it’d be great to see our friends in Forgotten Remains on the Saturday. They also performed with us in 2015 on the New Blood stage and we’ve booked them since to perform in Bristol. Seeing them return on the Sophie stage will be special.
What are you working on at the moment?
Mostly, getting ready for Bloodstock. There’s alot that goes into making the show everything that it is going to be. After Bloodstock, however, we will be looking at getting booked onto the shows that we want to be apart of in 2019/2020 as well as working towards new releases.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
The wildest thing we’ve done will be at this show, featuring pyrotechnics. In the past however our chaotic stage show has resulted in having split heads, concussion and falling (being pushed) off stage.
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Red Bull, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Bulleit.
Mortishead: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
