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Artist: Akercocke Date Added: 14/08/06 (questions answered on 11/08/06) More Info: Akercocke's Official Website Interview by: Lou Akercocke are one of those awesome bands I find myself listening to again and again (I find them especially good when trying to cope with long bus journeys). I started annoying the band via MySpace for a couple of months (I messaged them about important things... like chickens...) and then I eventually asked them for an interview. Luckily enough for me, Peter Theobalds agreed to it... Lou: Please could you let me know which of you lovely fellas answers this :-) Peter: YAY!!! Ok here we go... T'is I The Baron of Blonde, Pedro, Peter The Bass. Lou: Are you sitting comfortably? *waits for you to say yes* Then I shall begin... I was going to begin this with either a question about chickens or "will you play in my living room?"... Instead, I will start with a simple "How are you?".... And will you play a gig in my living room? Peter: I'm very well thank you, skiving off work to do this interview, and yes we'll play in your living room...do you have a PA system we can use? Lou: What's going on in the world of Akercocke at the moment? I've heard about a 'pinkie injury'... Peter: Yeah I managed to dislocate the tip of my finger in a rather silly accident, its ok but has meant I haven’t been able to touch a guitar for a few weeks which is quite shit cos we are right in the process of writing new stuff... so I have been on the bench... grr... Lou: So, you're back in the studio at the moment. Can you tell us a little bit about the new album? Will it have the same sort of sound/feeling as "Words..."? Peter: Difficult to say at this point, we have about 3 ideas in progress... to me they sound fresh as a daisy...even more different to the last album...but it’s difficult to be objective. We always try to write something fresh, to keep ourselves interested and not keep churning out the same album year after year. But I guess the proof is in the listener... so you'll have to hear it and tell me. Lou: Do you know what the album will be called? Peter: Probably something to do with goats and pits of eternal damnation, maybe we'll throw in an expletive too like "whore" or "bastard" to get the censors going. Lou: When do you plan to release it? Peter: When it's finished...but it would be nice to do that before either a: people forget who we are or b: we get rheumatism or arthritis. Lou: Have you got any tour dates coming up? Will you be playing any of the new material at these shows? [A tour which includes you guys and Corpsing would be excellent! *hint hint*] Peter: we have been confirmed as a headliner for the Damnation Fest in October, and we're currently trying to book some more shows around that and do a UK tour to places we haven’t visited before. Lou: What's been the best gig you've ever played? Peter: Download 2004 for the sheer rock star massiveness and our last London show for sheer vibe it was soooo amazing to have everyone singing along! Next stop Butlins! Lou: ...And what's been the worst? Peter: I have a very selective memory... i tend to blank out the bad ones... probably one where I played the entire set a semi tone out of tune cos I didn’t know how to work my new digital tuner. nobody else noticed though haha... Lou: Which is your favourite track to play live? Peter: At the moment it’s probably Verdelet, but its head to head with Enraptured By Evil, that’s a lot of fun! Lou: Has anything embarrassing ever happened to you onstage? Peter: Putting my foot on the monitor in a Steve Harris style in front of 700 people and having the monitor fall over causing me to stumble onto it. I was saved only by my crutch hitting the corner. Nice Lou: What kind of venues do you prefer to play in? [*thinks about asking the living room question again*] Peter: I prefer the little clubs... they vibe so much more and you can see people's faces (thereby judging if they think youre shit or not) so I guess living room would fit into that category too. Lou: Akercocke album artwork has always been pretty eye-catching. Who designs it and does the band have any input into the design? Peter: I do all the design, we usually chat about concepts and images then I go and create them, sometimes with a photographer sometimes just me and the PC. David also chips in with some of his beautiful linework illustrations too as on the last CD. Lou: For all the 'techies' out there... What equipment do you use? Peter: We just got an endorsement with Hughes and Kettner so we all use them now, Switchblade Guitar Heads and I have a beautiful Quantum bass rig. David uses an unendorsed kit so we don’t mention the name here unless they wanna give us stuff! Haha I think it's safe to say that you're pretty well known now! What has been your weirdest fan experience? Peter: Ooh that’s a hard one, there’s been a few of varying degrees of weirdness. The most scary was actually a few years ago before we were so well known so it was even scarier...I’d met a girl in a club and gone back to her house and in her living room was a shrine of pictures of the band and of me...I didn't stay there too long. Usually they are just cool though, like in the US we met 2 great guys who brought us a huge bottle of fine bourbon and showed us a bunch of photographs they'd taken of us and wanted us to sign. I like those ones :D Lou: Do you feel that Death and Black Metal has become more widely liked and accepted in recent years? Especially since mainstream magazines such as Metal Hammer and Kerrang! cover bands like Akercocke on an almost regular basis. What are your thoughts on this? [Personally I feel this is a pretty positive thing] Peter: I agree, its great. More and more kids are into extreme metal as well as other genres. I think a few years ago it was more tribal... if you like black metal you cant like death and vice versa, now you go to see morbid angel and you get old metallers, hardcore Colombian death purists and emo hair kids all moshing along together. That’s gotta be good. Lou: Which bands are you really into at the moment? Anyone you could recommend? Peter: I'm totally into three bands right now Blood Roses are a beautiful indefinable sound, RSJ are total sledgehammer brutality and Chic - for those that don’t know are a defunct disco band from the 70's that kick out fat ass grooves Lou: A hypothetical question now... Imagine your throwing a dinner party, which 6 people (living or dead) would you invite and why? Peter: Easy - Alan Moore, John Entwistle and Keith Moon, Johnny Depp, Christina Aguilera and Peter Cooke cos Alan and Peter would bring the anarchic sarcasm that I love, John and Keith would bring the rock and roll chaos tempered by Johnny's mad genius and Christine Aguilera would bring the glamour. Lou: What music would you have playing in the background of that dinner party? Peter: Curried Jazz by the Indo-Brit Ensemble. Lou: Which bands/artists inspired you to get into Metal? Peter: In various degrees of extremity I started with Led Zeppelin and Free, then got into Nuclear Assault and Anthrax, then into Death and Napalm death...its only been in the last few years I finally got into Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden... I always do things the wrong way round. Lou: What are your Top 10 favourite albums of all time? Peter: Oh Christ that’s fucking difficult! There are so few perfect albums...definitely... but in no particular order are Daydream Nation - Sonic Youth Nothingface - Voivod One Outside - David Bowie Quadrophenia - The Who Led Zeppelin 3 - er... Led Zeppelin Sticky Fingers - The Rolling Stones OK Computer - Radiohead Curried Jazz - The Indo-Brit Ensemble Scoundrel Days - A-ha Dirt, Extremeties and Other Repressed Emotions - Killing Joke Lou: Have you got any 'guilty pleasures' in your music collection? Peter: No I am unashamedly into uncool music. Fuck opinion Lou: What would you say has been the high point of your music career so far? Peter: Being able to still pursue it, I’m lucky enough to work with some guys who are every bit as despicable and unpopular as I am so the only outlet we have in life is to get together in a room and make horrible loud noises. Lou: What's your drink of choice? [I might by you one next time you play in London- hehe] Peter: Jagermeister or Goldschlager! But I’ll settle for a pint thanks. Lou: Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions. I wish you the best of luck for the future. Peter: THANK YOU!!!!!! Respect P. |
