On this episode I have Ian and Will from Southampton goth punks Creeper. At first I thought this would only be a short chat but ended up being a fifty minute half drunken diatribe on Creeper, punk, DIY and all things related as we sat around a tent at Hevy festival. And it's awesome.
WARNING: I drop a "hard C". That is to say, I use the C-word.
Some back story for you.
When we arrived in Ashford, Kent, we procured a sizable cache of booze and jumped in a taxi bound for the campsite. Upon our arrival and much to my dismay, we found out that I was the only one on the guestlist for the festival. After contacting one of the site managers I managed to secure a pass for my compadre Craig and we made our way to the press area to pitch our tent.
Originally, I had agreed with Creeper’s PR person that I would interview them between 1.30 and 2pm. We didn’t get into the campsite until 1.30 and by the time we finished erecting our tent we had completely missed our allotted time slot.
Later that day, after I completed the hastily rearranged Fightstar interview, I bumped into Ian and Will and apologised for missing our interview slot. They suggested that we do it there and then, so after retreating to a safe area (outside our tent) and cracking open a crate of Fosters, we sat down and began talking.
What unfolded is one of the most natural, open ended and honest interviews so far. It’s also perhaps one of my favourites. I had no time to look out my questions because of the impromptu nature of it, but what happened when we sat down was, I think, a pretty remarkable conversation.
My sound man Craig does a lot of talking. Not that that’s not a bad thing. Just a notice for you.
Highlights include:
Funeral for a Friend and some straight edge chat.
Creeper write music using tea, a crap keyboard and researching the themes of their records.
The Callous Heart is the culmination of an attempt to write a punk record they hadn’t heard before.
Taking influence from Jim Steinman, his middle 8s and using a mellotron.
“Borrowing” from Elvis Presley.
“The Creeper Workshop” and how the band is very hands on about everything, particularly with references to the video for The Honeymoon Suite.
Still DIY despite being on Roadrunner and how the label give them complete creative control.
Having to adopt a character on stage to perform but walking a fine line between being pretentious and stepping outside of yourself.
The character is basically like putting on someone else’s shoes.
Playing with sincerity and appreciating where they are now.
The gender and race gap in punk rock – how we need to sort out equality in the punk scene.
How the key to touring is not to party every night.
The chorus is the most important part of the song.
Caring about song craft and and trying to be better songwriters.
The Bouncing Souls, Alkaline Trio, My Chemical Romance and AFI and great choruses.
The “relief” feeling of a good chorus.
Appreciation of Bangers.
Loads of bands were mentioned too like Ink and Dagger, Samhain, Danzig, Misfits and a bunch of others.
People love talking about their art and what creative influence helped shape who they are. People enjoy knowing that their voice and their art is being taken seriously, and I hope that’s what I’ve managed to achieve with this podcast.
Creeper are brilliant guys who deserve to do well. I've no doubt they'll go on to do big things in the coming months.
Enjoy the episode.
Featured Music
Intro: Voodoo Puppets – Electric Chair Blues (used under CC licence, you can check it out here).
Creeper - We Had a Pact, Creeper - Into the Black, Creeper - The Honeymoon Suite.
I make no claim to the copyright of any of the music in this episode.
Links
You can get the first Creeper EP for free here. You can pre-order This Callous Heart here.
Will also mentioned a really great English punk band called Bangers who you should check out immediately after the podcast.
Thank you!
My thanks are eternal to you and everyone else who has listened to the podcast and helped me get it to where it is. It’s no longer on the front page of iTunes but YOU can help me get back there. If you could take a second to rate and review this podcast on iTunes I’d love you forever and ever. Questions? Feedback? You can do either by dropping a comment in the comment box below. Or you can hit the contact link to show me some love by using the cool email form. Social Media I’m on a few social media sites, so it’d be pretty handy if you could show me some love over there. Check out the Facebook page. Or you can get me on Twitter.
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