Thrash metal band, Headface from Brighton combine elements of doom and progressive death to their sound, making them not your average thrash band! In this interview they discuss their hiatus and what they have been upto, their formation and what to expect from their set at MammothFest in Brighton tomorrow!..Expect 'cool trainers' and 'pointy guitars'!...
Firstly you have been on a hiatus, how is it to be back and what have
you all been upto?
We decided to work on some new stuff for a bit cos we hadn't really done that in around a year. We're hoping to have even more new material sorted for Mammothfest, and we're really enjoying playing some gigs again with some fresh additions to the repertoire as well as hammering out the "greatest hits".
As some of the members are from technical death metal band, Hole In The Sky, how hard is it to work round this and do other projects?
Occasionally both bands want to take on commitments like recording or
playing shows that would clash, but then again it's just like anything else like people having to go to work or other stuff that comes up.
There just aren't enough hours in the day, and it really doesn't help how slack we can be sometimes. For example, last time Sam and I met up intending to work on some new songs, we just sat around smoking, drinking beer, and ordered some pizza instead of playing music. So I guess being easily distracted is slightly more of an issue.
How did the two bands come to form?
A few years ago, when the Hobgoblin still had metal and punk being played the whole time, our vocalist Aidan and I went to a gig there where we saw a couple of bands that came across as all style and no
substance and we figured we could do better. Monty came on board to play bass and we had a couple of drummers before Sam, who I had known for a few years for reasons I can't really go into.
Sam and Oliver in Hole In The Sky had been working on ideas for their band since they were teenagers, and gradually picked up enough other dudes to start doing some gigs. In 2012 Rik, who was the original
vocalist, fell ill to cancer, which would eventually take him from us. By this time, Monty had been doing lead vocals in Sea Bastard for a while and Funeral Hag for a while before that, and seeing as how close he was with Rik and also how well he got on with the rest of Hole In The Sky, it just made sense for Monty to step in.
Both Hole In The Sky and Headface are on the line-up of Brighton's metal festival, MammothFest 2014, how excited are you for this and how does it feel to have both bands on the bill?
We used to play on the same bill a bit more regularly than we do these days (even though we actually both played at the same gig a couple of days ago) it's always a fun thing to do. Having seen both bands change over time and refine our respective approaches has been a bit strange at times when I think of how far we've both come along, but it's also been really enjoyable.
Mammothfest is obviously going to be pretty heavy. I'm really looking forward to seeing Abhorrent Decimation again, they were probably the most brutal band I saw at Bloodstock.
As you have been working on new material, will you be airing this at
MammothFest?
Yeah, we're hoping that we might have enough new stuff that it'll take up the majority of our set. That depends on how productive we are between now and then though, so we'll have to try to be less useless
than we usually are.
What do you think of the comeback of the festival and what it represents for the music scene in Brighton?
It's really cool when we get events down here that seem to consolidate the local metal scene. I emember the run up to the previous Mammothfest
was like that. It was great because Steve ran an on-going battle of the bands, and because there were so many people at most of those shows I'd constantly be running into loads of friends who I'd not seen for a
while, everyone was going to those gigs.
The local scene's probably healthier than I've ever previously known it to be. I think that's in no small part to do with the quality of some of the local bands, you've got dudes like King Goat, Fifteen Litre,
Wyrdforge, Abhorrent Decimation, we're kind of a bit spoilt really. We also get some great touring bands stopping by, Jackhammer Promotions have really been holding the fort down on that front.
Can you give us some information on the new material and how do you think it differs to your previous releases?
Well one of the new songs was composed entirely by Monty, and it's the first song in our repertoire that I didn't so it's quite different right off the bat in that respect. The stuff that I've put on the table
recently, I've been trying not to come up with stuff that's as conventionally thrash as some of our previous tunes are. That being said, one of the new ones I've done is completely, indisputably old school thrash so I guess that didn't really go according to plan.
What would you say inspires you most as a band?
I'm not sure if you'd call it inspiration, but it's really just feels instinctive for us to meet up, have a beer or two and hang out while kicking up an awful racket. We've a lot of collective experience from
previous and other current projects (a short while ago Monty found himself simultaneously in four bands), so playing metal kind of just comes naturally to us at this point. That and Exodus.
What can attending festival goers expect from your performances at
MammothFest 2014?
Monty and I both have really pointy guitars, Aidan normally has pretty cool trainers, and Sam might not wear a shirt if it's a bit warm.
What other plans do Headface have for the rest of 2014?
We've got loose plans to record. And Disneyland.
Be sure to check out Headface's performance at Mammothfest tomorrow, 30th August at 1.35-2:00pm! You can still get tickets on the door! (See details below)
http://www.myspace.com/headfacethrash
http://www.mammothmetalfestival.co.uk/
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