NO CONSEQUENCE
PHOTO BY: Marianne Harris  l  WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/noconsequence

DECEMBER STARTED OFF ON A BIT OF A SAD NOTE WHEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT PHIL (VOCALS) WAS LEAVING THE BAND AND THAT HE WOULD BE REPLACED BE ADAM WINTER FROM THE FINEST BLOODLUST TILL A REPLACEMENT IS FOUND. HOW ARE THINGS LOOKING AT THE MOMENT?

It was really sad to lose Phil, but we know it was for the right reasons & we’re still in touch with him as much as always! The vocalist hunt’s going really well, without saying too much there’s a couple of people we’ve been chatting to about coming down to rehersals and maybe doing a couple of trial gigs in Jan, from what we’ve heard we’re fairly spoilt for choice which is great, but Phil’s boots are hard to fill!

STILL THE BAND CAN CONSIDER 2009 AS A GREAT YEAR BECAUSE YOU RELEASED YOUR DEBUT ALBUM IN AUGUST TITLED “IN THE SHADOW OF GODS”. HOW LONG DID THE WRITING PROCESS TAKE BECAUSE YOU MAKE SOME REALLY TECHNICAL MUSIC?

2009 was a fantastic year for us; it was great to see the album released to the dribbling masses. The writing process is fairly drawn out; the songs go through many stages and revisions until we feel it’s ready to be played live. Things are made a little easier because we write pretty much everything in guitar pro, it makes it really easy to write an idea down and email it to everyone else so riffs can really quickly develop into whole parts.

Some of the songs off the album were written fairly quickly (Forged & the Arrival), but songs like Latitudes & the Fallen took loads longer cos we got so in depth in all of the parts to make them all gel. Overall though we were really happy with how it came out, it pushed us as musicians and we hope it pushed the listeners, but we definitely want to up the ante for the 2nd album!

DID ANY OF THE BAND MEMBERS MUSICALLY “SURPRISE” EACH OTHER WITH THE SONGS AND IDEAS THAT CAME OUT TO FORM THE FINAL PRODUCT; AND WHO DID THE COVER ART FOR THE ALBUM?

I think we all surprised each other and ourselves when we wrote & rehearsed the songs, it was always strange when there was a song with a fairly easy guitar line but Phil B (drummer) would complain about learning his drum parts and the other way around. It was strange cos we often wrote & added lines to each other’s parts without really caring if it was hellishly difficult to play or not just so long as it sounded good & worked for the song, but in a way that kept us all on our toes when it came to learning them & recording them.

The artwork was done by a couple of artistic gods that call themselves “Top Two Studios” (http://www.toptwostudios.com/). We’d seen some of their previous work & were blown away, so we got in touch and worked with them on ideas/themes for the album artwork. They really drove it all forward and took our ideas on board but also contributed heavily into the final look and we were all speechless when we saw the finished work, we definitely look to use them again!

AS A BAND THAT USES TWO VOCALISTS; IS IT A CASE OF: “YOU DO SINGING PARTS AND YOU DO THE SCREAMING PARTS”?

Yes and no haha! Well when we got Kaan on board he brought a new range & style which worked really well with Phil’s, but we also wanted to have some sung lines which Phil wasn’t as comfortable with as Kaan, so as Phil crushed the lower end and Kaan touched up the higher notes the vocal textures kind of just happened.

It wasn’t a conscious thought to have Phil do this and Kaan that but their voices worked together in such a way that they just sounded great when they did the lines they did on the album so it kinda stuck. Maybe our new vocalist will change the dynamic a little but we’re looking forward to seeing the guys & seeing what they can bring to the table.

I REALLY ENJOYED WATCHING THE VIDEO BLOGS YOU GUYS MADE SHOWING HOW YOU PLAY THE SONG “AGE OF FEAR”. I HAVE TO ASK WHAT GUITARS YOU GUYS USE BECAUSE THE ONE LOOKS LIKE A TELECASTER BUT SOMETHING TELLS ME IT’S NOT…OR IS IT?

ahha! Yeah it’s a Tele! It’s a Fender custom, a real workhorse guitar, stupidly good to play. I also use a white Ibanez JEM 7V, it’s my baby (although it’s getting proper battered now!). Dan’s main guitar is a Palm Bay (he’s just bought another one haha geek) and he’s got a Jackson as a backup.

DID IT TAKE A WHILE FOR THE BAND TO FIND THE RIGHT COMBINATION OF AMPS AND GEAR THAT “WORKED” AND FORMS YOUR MAIN SOUND TODAY?

When I joined I was using a Marshall TSL100, which was great for more classic rock/metal. Dan had his ENGL Fireball and it worked so much better for our sound, it was really crisp & tight sounding & you didn’t have to crank the gain to get it sounding heavy you could roll it back a little and get a really tight, focused & crushing sound that cut through the drums.

I replaced my Marshall with an ENGL Powerball which compliments Dan’s Fireball really well. The Fireball has a slightly fuzzier sound than the Powerball but together they cover a much wider sonic scale than you could with the same amps. We spent too long working on our settings to get the right sound, especially when we recorded the album but we reckon it’s paid off.

IN YOUR BAND BIO THE BAND IS DESCRIBED AS A “MODERN METAL BAND”, BUT WHAT DOES THAT REALLY MEAN IN YOUR OPINION; DOESN’T ANY GENRE PROGRESS ANYWAY AS TIME MOVES ON?

Yeah totally, but with most genres, especially metal, you get a real wide range of bands doing completely different music all under one genre. You can go a bit genre mad and get into the whole ‘lounge thrash death jazz math core’ until you are so pigeon holed it takes longer to explain the music than to listen to it.

We feel that our music isn’t just one style of music, it’s not all Tech for example, but the songs flow between genres and the best and simplest way we could describe ourselves was as a ‘modern metal band’. We don’t rely on too many older sounds our obvious influences are bands form the last 5 years or so, so it seemed to fit our sound really well without giving the listener too many preconceived ideas to skew their first impression of us.

THE BAND HAS ALREADY CONFIRMED SHOWS FOR EARLY IN THE YEAR. WHAT ARE YOUR AMBITIONS FOR 2010 WHEN IT COMES TO LIVE SHOWS?

We want more!! 2010’s going to be a really busy year for us, we want to do more UK tours & hopefully some more festivals, but we’d really love to play out of the UK. We’ve got some really promising bookings in the pipeline as it doesn’t look like we’ll waste any time looking for singers so we’re really going full steam ahead with bookings.

ONE CAN PROBABLY SAY THAT IT IS STILL “EARLY DAYS” FOR THE BAND AND THAT THE BEST IS STILL TO COME AS YOU GUYS GROW AS MUSICIANS. ARE YOU AS A BAND HAPPY WITH THE FAN BASE YOU’VE BUILT UP SO FAR?

Yeah we love our fans! As much as most bands say the same thing we see where they’re coming from. We’ve met some of the coolest people on our travels, even at the worst gig there’s been people there for us and at the great gigs they’ve done us proud! We did a gig in Oxford with TesseracT & these two guys came all the way over from Ireland for the gig, it was amazing!

We’ve all been really blown away by how good the fans have been to us, we like to stay in touch with them on Facebook & Myspace and it’s great to have that kind of extended family, it really makes it all worthwhile! Lemme just wipe the tears away, on another note, the band boobs girls have been keeping us warm at night with their piccies they’ve been sending in to our FB, keep up the good work girls!

DO YOU GUYS SOMETIMES GET LOST ON YOUR WAY TO GIGS OR DOES A GPS HELP?

Haha we get lost on the way to gigs even with GPS! Seriously some venues try their best to hide away in the most random street corners, as far as humanly possible from loading bays & food bah! We haven’t had any major f**kups with GPS just yet. We usually travel in a car & van, so by the time I get to the venue in the van the guys in the car will have tracked it down and be ready to help me with all the equipment (HA! As if…) It’s deffo a million times better than the pre GPS gig experience but does take the fun out of getting lost!

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

Happy New Year to all our fans! Keep an eye on our websites (http://www.noconsequence.co.uk / www.myspace.com/noconsequence etc, etc) for new gigs & updates on the vocalist hunt, and nearer the spring maybe some snippets of new songs that we’ve been working on ;-)

Harry // NC x

INTERVIEW BY NEIL VAN ZYL