Pre-Bloodstock interview: Endeavour

Endeavour Bloodstock 192Due to the huge number of bands playing at Bloodstock this year, and the fact that our two roving reporters will actually want to watch some of them, we’re doing a little round of pre-festival interviews this year. We’re focussing on the bands playing the Jagermeister and Hobgoblin New Blood Stages so they get a chance to convince you to go and watch them. Remember, these guys and gals are the future of our musical world!

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

We’re based in Bristol but we’re actually a little spread out. Our singer Chris is orginally from Swindon but also lives in Bristol, our bassist Ben is from Cheltenham, our drummer George is from Reading, and I live in Bristol but was raised in Rome (Italy) by an Australian Dad and Scottish Mum, I’m the runt of the band haha.

How did you meet?

We all went to the same music Uni, the Bristol Institute of Modern Music (BIMM). Ben and I met in my first year there in the common room. We somehow ended up jamming “The Glass Prison” by Dream Theater and pretty much instantly formed the band. We auditioned George and Chris in mid 2011; I met George at a musician’s networking workshop at Uni and Chris was originally in my class as guitar student but everyone was always very aware of his vocals chops.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

We started rehearsing towards the end of 2011 and recorded our first demo which was released early 2012 along with starting to play live.

Where does the name of the band come from?

It took a while to name the band. One day I was flipping through my iTunes to listen to some music and I whacked on Nevermore’s “This Godless Endeavor” and then focused in on the last word. I thought it sounded cool, let Ben know and he liked in too. We changed the spelling to the British spelling of course haha.

What are your influences – individually or as a band?

There’s an obvious progressive influence but we’ve always tried to maintain a raw agressive quality to our sounds which stems from the stuff we all grew up listening too. As individuals we like different stuff: Ben is really into his Jazz and Fusion music, Chris loves anything Devin Townsend related as well as quirky stuff such as Shining from Norway and Mr Bungle, George is an Iron Maiden and Will Smith fanboy but also has a thrash background loving bands like Testament, and as for myself anything that moves me: doesn’t have to necessarily be flashy or technical but anything with clear emotion whether that’s Pantera, Mozart, Periphery or Billy Joel.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

People have heard all kinds of influences in our music from Machine Head, Meshuggah, Opeth, Slipknot, Nevermore. It’s hard to say but we definitely think our niche as a band is creating immediate, powerful and catchy songs that have a progressive edge to them but still maintain a vibe that most music fans can connect with. we’ve had a lot of listeners who generally speaking are not into progressive metal or metal full stop who like us which is a good sign. Our audience have also noted our use of harmonized vocals which is rare in the scene and is our little nod to Alice In Chains.

What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?

We don’t actually play live as much as you’d think as all of us are very busy but we all have lots of experience playing live inside and outside the band so we’re very well versed in that area. I think what we bring to the live show is lots of raw, no bullshit energy that is pretty rare at the moment. We don’t try to be anything we’re not so we have the metal front but there’s also humour and good vibes as well. Basically we take the stage, rock the hell out but also have a laugh with the crowd.

When/how did you find out you’d been selected to play at Bloodstock?

Without sounding up ourselves, I think we were quietly confident. We competed a couple years back but we were really new to the scene and didn’t have as big of a fan base as we do now in Bristol. This time round it was much easier to draw crowds and the crowds were much more responsive to us. We did get a little worried when we saw our friends in Mortishead play the final who did go onto to win the slot on the New Blood stage, but the judges were apparently so impressed by us that they gave us a slot on the Jagermeister stage :)

What sort of setlist can we expect?

For Bloodstock we’re not gonna throw in too many surprises or curve balls, we’re just gonna do what we know we’re most confident with so expect tunes from our debut EP From The Darkest Grounds.

Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?

We’re playing around 4pm, we’re not sure whose on at that time but we would love to see Sepultura.

What are you working on at the moment?

Right now we’ve actually got quite a few big plans in the works, but we’re keeping things under wraps until we have some more concrete information to divulge or once we see some real progress. But let’s just say, expect lots of news things from Endeavour in the not too distant future.

What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?

We’ve not been on tour yet, but our singer Chris also plays in One Machine who had their first UK tour a couple of months back which was apparently full of shenanigans, and Ben and George play in a function band that play holiday resorts which entail experiences involving shit colour cars and bloodstained bed sheets haha.

What advice would you give to a young band just starting out today?

Don’t jump on a band wagon. It’s ok to – shall we say – ‘steal’ or ‘rip-off’ ideas from your influences; everyone does it, your influences are part of who you are and help you to get started on songs and ideas. Once you start to get more experience writing music start to see if any unique patterns emerge in your style and harness them. Get tight, rehearse, but not for too long; the only way you’ll get REALLY tight is by playing live. And also playing in a band isn’t all fun and games, it’s hard work to get your name out there, whether it’s by travelling to play shows, being present online, networking with other bands and music industry people, and by investing your own money. All in all though don’t sell out and stick to your guns.

If you could be part of any 3-band line-up who else would you have on the bill? One band above you and one below – a chance to plug a smaller, unsigned act!

I think it would be awesome to open for Xerath (who are on the mainstage on Saturday). I think they have a similar mindset to us musically even if they sound fairly different. Under us I’d say we’d have our friends in Control The Storm to start the evening with some good anthemic vibes. They also played Bloodstock a few years back.

Endeavour play the Jagermeister Stage on the Sunday.

Endeavour: facebook | twitter | soundcloud | bandcamp | youtube | bigcartel

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 Comment
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
trackback
August 1, 2015 1:47 PM

[…] Endeavour […]