AGAINST THE FLOOD
PHOTO BY: Tom Barnes  l  WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/againsttheflooduk

AGAINST THE FLOOD IS STILL A “YOUNG” BAND THAT STARTED IN 2009 BUT YOU GUYS ALREADY HAVE AN EP OUT AND YOU ARE BUSY WRITING SONGS FOR A NEW RELEASE. YOUR “CREATIVE JUICES” MUST REALLY BE FLOWING AT THE MOMENT?

DAN (DRUMS): Their definitely flowing strong, we jam and practice quite a bit so we always come up with new riffs, rhythms, melodies and ideas. It’s just a matter of marrying the ideas together and pushing for the best technically and musically. We’re all still learning new things and pushing our chops to edge. We could write 20 riffs and parts of songs, but we just need to chop them down and pick the best bits. It can cause debate, but it always means we all end up happy. The new stuff is gonna be killer.

JONO (GUITAR): Yeah, Church and me are always butting heads over ideas in practice but it’s always for the better, we just want it to be as good as it possibly can be.

WILL YOUR NEXT RELEASE BE AN EP OR ARE YOU GUYS AIMING TO COMPLETE A FULL ALBUM?

DAN: The next release will be a combination of the 3 tracks we’ve done and the 2 we’re currently about to record. Every song after that we’ll save for an album.

WHEN WRITING, DO YOU GUYS ALL SIT TOGETHER IN ONE ROOM AND WORK OUT THE SONGS OR ARE THERE ALWAYS ONE OR TWO INDIVIDUALS WHO ARE THE “CORE” SONGWRITERS THAT WORK ON SONGS AND THEN GIVE THEM TO THE REST OF THE BAND TO DEVELOP AND FINISH TOGETHER?

JONO: The earlier songs were mainly formed from riffs or ideas I had at the time, which we took in the practise space, fleshed out and everyone added their bits to it but generally we write as a collective. A couple of the times Dan would hum riffs or ideas into a phone, which I’d have to take away and convert in to an actual piece of music.

JAMES (GUITAR): What happens most of the time is we’ll work on songs as a group in the rehearsal space and then me and Jono will go round to his to record and refine it. The amount of hours me and him have spent there is crazy but it’s definitely worthwhile as you hear things differently to when you playing them.

DAN: Demoing it works really well for the vocals cause me and church can sit down and listen to specific parts over and over to get the vocals patterns rights.

I KNOW IT’S HARD TO COMPARE THEM BUT IF YOU HAD TO COMPARE THE SONGS THAT YOU ARE WRITING NOW TO THOSE ON THE EP. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY HAS BEEN THE BIGGEST DIFFERENCE MUSICALLY SO FAR?

JONO: When we done the first tracks most of the music was already written before Church joined the band. With the newer stuff, Church being a guitarist himself he’s brought in a lot of new ideas and riffs, which is good as we all approach things in different ways.

DAN: A lot of the vocals for the first tracks were written on the fly in the studio as church only joined like 2-3 weeks before the recording, so we’ll definitely be able to expand upon that. Also the newer songs we’ve written have had the vocals more in mind.

AFTER LISTENING TO THE SONG “LEFT WITH US” I MUST ASK WHAT GEAR AND GUITAR TUNINGS YOU GUYS USE TO CREATE YOUR HEAVY PUNCHING SOUND?

JONO: The guitar I’m currently using is a Jackson DKMGT set up in Drop C. The majority of my sound comes from the distortion on my Marshall JVM210 head.

JAMES: Our setups are pretty simple at the moment mine consists of a Dean Vendetta 4 through a Mark II peavey 5150.

DAN: PDP toms and bass drum with clear Remo Emperor heads and a coated head on the bass drum. Pearl Masters snare (14” x 5.5”). Sabian AAX’s and a Pearl Eliminator double pedal.

JONO: For the recording we used James’ set up through a Marshall 1960A cab. Buckland (Bass) used a Fender Aerodyne Jazz DI’d, although now he is currently using a Warwick Corvette through an Ampeg SVT450H.

WITH MOST OF THE MANUFACTURERS RELEASING NEW GEAR BETWEEN MID TO END OF JANUARY; IS THERE ANYTHING NEW THAT YOU GUYS ARE LOOKING OUT FOR AS MUSICIANS, OR ARE YOU GUYS HAPPY WITH THE GEAR YOU ARE USING AT THE MOMENT?

JONO: I’ve just currently ordered an ESP LTD EC-1000 in see-thru Blue, which looks tasty. It’s going be for experimenting in other tunings, we’re thinking of writing some new songs in Drop B for a heavier sound. I’m also looking around at getting a few pedals and trying out some new heads too.

DAN: Thanks to battering the hell out of my crashes and cracking them I’m gonna get some new brighter sounding crashes that can cut through the music a bit more when we play live. Maybe some Zildjan A customs. I’m currently on Sabian AAX’s, they sound sick, but it’s time for a change I think. Also, gonna be on the hunt for a new snare, there are so many variations, but I know I want something with a bit more crack!

DO YOU KNOW YET WHERE YOU GUYS ARE GOING TO RECORD YOUR NEW MATERIAL AND WOULD YOU SAY THE BAND IS AIMING FOR A MORE “REAL” SOUND TO THAT OF A “POLISHED” SOUNDING RECORD?

JAMES: Yeah, we’re going back to Outhouse Studios (You me at Six, Architects) where we did our previous songs. They produced a lot of the British underground metal bands so they know what we’re trying to achieve. Its gonna be a real tight raw in-your-face sound!

WOULD YOU SAY YOUR FIRST EP HELPED THE BAND TO KIND OF GET A FOOT IN THE DOOR WHEN IT CAME TO BOOKING SHOWS AT THE BEGINNING, AND ARE YOU HOPING YOUR NEXT RELEASE WILL DO THE SAME?

DAN: Yeah we’ve definitely had a positive response to it. I would say this first EP is almost like promo that people can listen to and go “damn, I wanna hear more”. It gives promoters and agents a really good idea of what we are about, no messing around, just 3 songs, made by 5 guys that will blow your balls off and it’s what we aim to do live for these promoters as well. The new songs will hit even harder and we’re pushing it further in every way. So we definitely hope it has the same effect and it gets us some more attention.

THE BAND IS CURRENTLY LOOKING TO BOOK SHOWS FOR 2010. ARE YOU GUYS STILL INDEPENDENT OR LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO MANAGE THE BAND AND DEAL WITH THE “HEADACHES” SO THAT YOU CAN CONCENTRATE MORE ON YOUR MUSIC?

JONO: We’re still independent at the moment and we’ll take that as far as we can but there might be a time when we’ll need someone with a bigger contact roll than us. Personally I like dealing with the “headaches” so I know what’s going on and I think it’s a hell of a lot more satisfying doing it all off your own back.

EVERYBODY ALWAYS WANTS TO KNOW A BAND’S MAIN MUSICAL INFLUENCES, BUT WHAT I WANT TO KNOW IS; IF YOU NEVER HEARD ANY OF YOUR MAJOR MUSICAL INFLUENCES, WHAT TYPE OF MUSIC DO YOU THINK YOU WOULD BE MAKING TODAY?

DAN: Probably something more straight forward from a technical playing standpoint. I’m really into my hip hop and RnB from the early to mid 90‘s, so I might have just stuck to solid beats and groove drumming seeing as that was the stuff I liked playing when I started learning. But then Nu-Metal happened :-p

ANY OTHER COMMENTS OR ANYTHING ELSE FANS SHOULD LOOK OUT FOR?

DAN: Look out for lots of shows around the UK in 2010, some new tracks in February and the release of the new 5 track EP. I’m really excited for people to hear the new stuff, we’ll be hitting fans with plenty of video blogs, demos and recordings. We’re always playing and writing so just expect a lot of action from Against The Flood 2010. Keep up to date with our myspace http://www.myspace.com/againsttheflooduk

INTERVIEW BY NEIL VAN ZYL