It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are The Injester who play the New Blood Stage on Sunday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
As disaffected and discarded of the circus train we’re a travelling troupe as you know! But we are genuinely slung across the UK with only a couple of us living in the same place on the south coast.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
The majority of the line up has been together in some form for five years but hadn’t played or launched the band. When we did in 2019 we played our debut show at Hammerfest 2019 as a 7-piece but have settled on the six of us ever since. So in reality its 2-3 years of relatively active clowning around but only where covid restrictions allowed during that time!
Where does the name of the band come from?
All sorts of jester style capers.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Blatant disregard for worrying whether we deliver what people expect or pandering to what people want based on the visual impressions. We probably surprise a few people when they listen to us, we aren’t afraid of mixing it up genre and approach-wise. To address the elephant in the room – we don’t sound like Slipknot et al. We think they’re brilliant but when putting our collective issues in the melting pot the brew is a much different flavour!
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
As a group of six gents laden in latex under hot stage lights I’d suggest our fans dedication to be on the front row within feet of that is second to none! But for those who are yet to check us out and are planning to head to Bloodstock – it’s a weekend of bands and we’re something a little different. We’ve all been in different bands and bring different bits to the party so hopefully there’s plenty of variety for every discerning palate.
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Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Yes! We’ve been numerous times and a number of us have played it before and love it so we’re delighted to be back! It’s also a testament to the Bloodstock team that they have grown it from a tenacious upstart in the festival world into having the fiercely loyal fanbase it has. They punch above their weight and make brave band choices too. Can you tell we want to come back again!??! Kudos to them though – particularly this year!
Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We had with Bloodstock through one of our previous bookings on the festival so we didn’t go through MTM but we have all seen/played/ed/voted or helped judge different locations of the competition over the years!
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Amazing! Now please can Boris unlock so we can rehearse!
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We’re doing this interview on a break from recording our debut album as a follow up to our Introducing The Injester… EP so expect previews of our new album tracks, and “Knifeblower” and “Apophenia” from our EP.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
We started typing out a list and we basically would have ended up typing the whole line up out as there are loads and all of us would pick different options but Black Atlas and Terra IV – both of whom we are playing a Bloodstock warm up with at The Castle in Luton, Paradise Lost, Jinjer, Conjurer, Cradle of filth, Orange Goblin, Therapy, Priest, Napalm, Speedhorn, Evil Scarecrow, Ward XVI and Raised By Owls and many more!
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What are you working on at the moment?
Our debut album. A music video is due shortly and we#re getting lots of dates into the diary – so if promoters are interested give us a shout!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
One of us was at Reading and saw the guy from Dillinger crap into a bag and chuck it into the crowd many moons ago… [This is a really common answer to this question! – Mosh] As for us, we all have our stories but this would give away the value of the mask in many cases!
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
Well one of our new album songs is called “Gin & Bone” but we haven’t quite decided what the Gin & Bone cocktail is… but are working our way through some positively vile options. If your readers have a suggestion for a suitably drinkable Gin & ……… based beverage, please suggest and we will give this a whirl!
Header image by Marianne Harris
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