In November, rising UK thrashcore crew Tortured Demon hit Audio in Glasgow for the last night of their first headline tour. The lads killed it as they have done every time, and in addition to wrecking my neck during their set, I had the pleasure of getting to catch up with frontman Jacob Parkinson following our introduction at Bloodstock and their set at our own Moshville Oktoberfest in 2023.
You’ve just come from Manchester where you headlined the Thrashchester Festival. How was it?
Incredible. We’ve been on the road since the fifth of November so coming into Manchester to play a hometown show and seeing so many familiar faces and friends, it has really made the tour and our hometown show a very special one. It sold out. It’s one of those fever dream moments where you have to pinch yourself a bit. It was really good, really cool.
This is your first headline tour and tonight in Glasgow is the last night. How has the tour been overall?
It’s been really good. The reception at all the gigs has been ace, even in some of the cities where I thought to myself, “I don’t think many people are gonna turn up here because we’ve never played here before”. We’ve never played in Swansea before, we’ve only done Birmingham once, and even then we were ing another band so headlining, I thought, “there’s only gonna be 10 people here”, but at every show the reception has been top. I’m pretty blown away by it to be honest. I’m really chuffed and really proud of how we’ve done it.
The tour started in Edinburgh, then you did all the dates in England plus Swansea, then ended the tour in Glasgow which I thought was quite strange. Is there any particular reason for that, or is that just how the tour dates have worked out?
That’s just how it’s fallen into place. I think I’ve questioned that every single date on this run! It’s just logistics. It’s nice though. Edinburgh’s a beautiful city and I love being in Scotland.
Are you staying tonight and going home later, or are you going straight home after the show?
We’re sticking around tonight. It’s the last night of the tour so a few beverages are on the cards for sure.
Tortured Demon are working on some new stuff and you put out the first single “Nothing Left to Say”. How’s the reception been to the single?
It’s been really good since we dropped it. All the lovely comments from people that dig the band are really validating of why we do what we do. Even personal compliments to me where people tell me my vocals sound good. The music video has had a good reception and the streams are doing well. I don’t think it could have gone much better for us to be honest. Obviously you can always strive for that bigger thing but for a band of our level, we’re all really chuffed at how it’s gone.
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You were doing the pre-production in August so what stage is the production process at right now?
We haven’t hit the studio for any of the new stuff yet. The bulk of it is done, we just have to go and record it and once we do that we’ll smash it out within a reasonable amount of time. Hopefully in 2025 we’ll have the new record out. Right now we’ve had the tour and we wanted the single to boost the sales for it, which I’m sure it has done. We’ve only done the pre-production – scratch tracks, demos, that sort of thing.
Obviously you can’t put a date on it yet but lets say provisionally aim for roughly within the first six months, then hit it out at the Summer festivals?
I think we could definitely aim for something like that! Definitely 2025!
Have you done anything different now that this is the third album and the band is maturing?
Obviously Joe (Parkinson, drummer) and I are brothers and we still live at home so we spend a great deal of time together. He does the bulk of the writing and I’ll oversee things here and there, add lyrics and little changes. Rory (Marsland-Smith, guitars) will do the same thing. It’s a collaborative thing but Joe does a lot of the writing and he always has done. It’s not like that’s set in stone or anything but we all definitely want to have a say in what we put out. It’s just the way things have been and that’s the roles as musicians we feel the most comfortable with. Not that the rest of the band don’t like writing music because we do, but Joe’s always been a lot more creative than us. He’s a great guitar player and a great writer, and I think him doing a lot of the writing, then bringing our opinions in and making changes here and there, that’s how it’s worked since we started when we were 12-13.
Have you tried anything new in of the production?
We did the single with a great producer/sound engineer called Samuel Turbitt at Ritual Studios. He’s a really good guy and knows his stuff. I’m sure he put his own spin on things to get the best sound he could. This is the first album we haven’t used real guitar amps on. We’ve used Kemper (amp profilers). I use Kemper live. I use the Josh Middleton SLT tone hub – I use his patches. We used something similar in the studio. We wanted to get as close to a studio sound as we can live. We used a couple of different things bass-wise. Joe did some slightly different tunings on the drums. To my knowledge I think those are the only things we did differently. If I had a producer’s head on me I could go into the specifics but my brain is too small for all of that!
Rory was announced as ing the band in February 2024. What has he brought to the table?
Rory is an amazing guitar player. In of lead playing and ferocity behind the rhythm playing, it’s a great backbone for me as a vocalist and guitar player to have that behind me. We’ve all come together as a collective and we’re working well together.
You also got sponsored by Jackson guitars earlier this year. How did that happen?
We did a tour with Xentrix and their guitarist Stan has a deal with Jackson. He put me in with their rep and I just e-mailed them. I think for any guitar player it’s a dream for something like that to happen. I can’t understand it – I don’t really think much of myself as a musician, I just do my thing and that’s it. So for me it’s a big accolade, it’s absolutely amazing and they’ve been really good to me with my guitars. It’s awesome to be a part of that family. I’ve played Jacksons literally since I started playing guitar. Let’s say Ibanez messaged me, or I got in touch with any other guitar brand, I wouldn’t be true to myself because I don’t want to promote something that I don’t truly gel with. Jackson has been my go-to from day one because I love how they play. Even when I first started to play I played some of the lower range models and even those are amazing, well-playing guitars that are built well. I’ve never had an issue with any of mine.
Looking at your future plans, is releasing any other singles or videos prior to the release of the new album something you have in mind?
Definitely! It’s always good to put out a couple of “teasers” with a single to showcase what the album will sound like. It’s definitely in the pipeline in of promotion for the big release.
What about touring plans for 2025 – are there any gigs confirmed?
We love touring. We’re a live band and we don’t really do well with doing TikToks and social media. I’m a very socially awkward person so it’s quite daunting for me when someone puts a camera in my face and expects me to talk to it. I have gotten a lot better because we’ve brought in Louis from Battle Jackets London to do our socials and he’s really pushed me. I’m really grateful for that and I’ve done slightly more interactive things on social media. Where we shine is in the live setting so we want to tour as much as we physically can because that’s the best representation of who we are as a band. We want to be on the go as much as we possibly can to spread the word.
That’s a call for any booking agents and festival bookers to get in touch!
Absolutely please do – don’t let us be bored!
Finally, most of the gigs that you’ve played have been within the UK. Have you got any ambitions to travel further afield in 2025?
100 percent! We’ve got a distribution deal in Asian territories like Japan. We’d love to go over there but you’ve got to be 20 to apply for a visa because it’s technically work. I’d love to go over to Europe – it’s definitely on the cards!
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Tortured Demon will be performing at this year’s inaugural Bloodstock Winter Gathering indoor day fest at KK’s Steel Mill in Wolverhampton on Saturday the 6th of December.
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