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 is Drip Fed Empire who play the New Blood stage on the Sunday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We’re all based in Bristol but we individually come from all over the UK – a mix of Dunfermline (a small town outside of Glasgow), Birmingham, and St. Austell (Cornwall). Only one of us is Bristol born and bred.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We’ve been releasing music for as far as 6 years under this name but I wasn’t really functional as a proper band until 3 years ago.
Where does the name of the band come from?
Our drummer came up with it so we’ll let him explain this in his own words: “I decided that it made the most sense to name the band the way we see the world and the direction it’s moving in. A lot of us aren’t strangers to the fact we are gradually heading into a new world order, or something of the sort. The idea of the term “drip fed” means that everything you see is controlled by something else and like-wise these things are governed by something beyond their comprehension too, like a food chain. Empire is obviously self explanatory.”
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
As a genre bending band we like to incorporate elements of EDM with metal styles. On the organic side we’re drawing influence from Metalcore, Nu-Metal & Post Hardcore to name a few. Then on our electronic side we’re drawing influences from pretty much anything that slaps – mainly drum & bass, dubstep, house, trance, techno & industrial. It’s a big ol’ melting pot of styles and we don’t limit ourselves to one vibe.
I think the way our songs can be fully blown metal tracks littered with synths or the fact they can just as easily be polar opposite, essentially dance tracks littered with winks to our metal influence. The transition between these kinds of styles can easily happen multiple times within one song also.
If you like what we do, consider ing us on Patreon for as little as £1 per month!
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Pure energy! We strive to just get up there and sweat, no holding back. You know we want to go as hard as we can at every show we play. It’s total chaos you won’t know who to look at. Lots of dancing, lots of moshing. Metalheads getting down and skanking along to essentially rave music is always a spectacle too, haha.
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
This is actually all our first Bloodstock. We’ve always wanted to play so we’re stoked to experience it for the first time as fans & artists.
Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We won the Nottingham region of M2tM. Our old manager thought it would be a good way to break us into the Nottingham scene where he’s based as the early heats are free entry shows with a great crowd draw.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Feels like a dream come true.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
A bit of something for everyone with a few surprises. Definitely going to be some interesting and unexpected areas to the set.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Lamb Of God, Malevolence, Heart Of A Coward, Necrogoblikon and Sleep Token
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently gearing up for our debut album which we start recording early next year. So behind the scenes there is a lot of solid writing.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Once our singer Jay at a previous M2TM was swinging a metal rod out of a mic stand around on stage and caught and ripped our guitarist Jordan’s nose ring out with it by accident. It started pouring blood everywhere but he didn’t miss a note or stop playing like a trooper. By the time our singer noticed it had happened he went over smeared the blood around and started licking it off his face and hands, haha. After we finished the song he said on the mic if that’s not the most metal s**t you’ve seen I don’t know what is.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
As un-metal as this sounds we stay sober before our shows. Just lots of water. This excludes our drummer who tries to do this but he’ll most likely chuck back a beer or two.
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