Interview: Simon McAuliffe of Premature Birth

Premature Birth Simon London 2015

[avatar user=”wolfie” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Formed in London in the U.K back in 2011, Premature Birth invented themselves to be a cross between black metal and thrash. Although an unsigned band, the band have done pretty well for themselves playing at Incineration Fest, and releasing a demo back in 2012 and already an E.P back in 2014. I caught up with bassist Simon to discuss the hardships of being an independent band, and about the journey they have travelled so far, as they support Nargaroth for their only London show.

I want to start by asking, how do you feel playing on the same stage as Nargaroth?

I didn’t actually hear of them before the show, but I checked them out, and I think that the followers that Nargaroth have are really cool. I feel honoured to be chosen to play their exclusive show.

I now want to go back in time. How did you form back in 2011?

Billy, Dev and Adam (the band’s guitarist, drummer and vocalist) went to music college and they were the only guys there who were into black metal, and so naturally they wanted to form a band. I have been in bands previous to Premature Birth so they asked me to join which of course I said ‘yes’ to. We then started to write albums and that has continued to this day.

What then, inspired you to become musicians?

I always wanted to be a rock star, I wanted to be on stage and play in-front of people. I used to play for 5 years in front of a mirror.

I want to talk about being an unsigned band. How difficult has that been for you?

It is very difficult. You have to do everything yourself, and you have to put yourself out there. If you want to book a gig you have to directly approach the promoters. However if you put the work into it, then you get so much out of it like a signed band does.

I now want to talk about your music styles. What has influenced you lyrically?

Dev does a lot of the lyric writing. He is into a lot of underground black metal and so he wanted to write about clichéd black metal lyrics – so stuff about fuck God and religion, and then stuff about empowerment, and how to make yourself a better person, and how to destroy everything and you are your own God. We also had lyrics fuelled by other bands such as Cannibal Corpse. For example on our 2012 demo from the song “Wandering in the Night” we have a lyric that is very Cannibal Corpse influenced as it goes: ‘Ripping out Foetus/ I fucked it rough/ I dropped my load/ Soaking it in cum.’

Sticking with the Foetus theme, how did you come up with the band name ‘Premature Birth’?

We thought that it sounds cool, but we are looking at getting away from the name because it sounds more death metal, and we after a name that fits more into the black metal sound.

You played at Incineration Fest last year. How was it for you?

It was massive for us, playing with the bands that were on the line-up. We played at the Underworld, but only to about 7 or 8 people watched us as everyone else was getting tickets, because of the time we were on stage.

Keeping on the same tracks on bands you have played with, are there any other bands you would love to tour with or play on stage with that you have not done yet?

That’s a hard question, but I would say bands that are on the same level as Nargaroth, so bands like Gorgoroth, and also bands that have created a name for themselves in the 90’s, who also follow a Kvlt term.

Lets move on to the future of the band. What are your plans for the future, and what are you most looking forward to in 2016?

Our plans for the future include to record an album this year, which will be 7 or 8 tracks long and we have 5 written so far. Tonight we will play songs on the new album and this is our first time doing so. Playing bigger gigs and carry on with that level, and try not to play so many shit gigs!

In terms of 2016 we will we playing Eradication Fest which is our first multi-day event we will be playing at outside of England. We will also be working on our music videos and push with our new album hopefully out this year, or at least have the recording done.

Premature Birth: facebook | soundcloud

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