A noisy end to the working week with a most metal of acts, Siderian…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We say we’re a Northampton band but only one of us still lives there, three of us are in Corby and our guitarist Jevs is down in Brighton, the lucky bleeder.
How did you meet?
We are a motley collection of Join My Band users except for our bassist Chris who is our drummer’s best mate (as well as being member number 15!).
How long have you been playing as a band?
With the current line-up about six months, although the band has been together since March 2015 with vocalist Dave being the only founding member left, there’s been a bit of a turnover of members to get us to the stable line-up we have now.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We nicked it off a German band called The Ocean who used it as a song title on their amazing album Precambrian. Upon investigation we discovered that the Siderian was the first geologic period in the Paleoproterozoic Era 2.5 billion years ago when iron was laid down in Earth’s crust, the process allowing the build-up of our oxygen-rich atmosphere. So yeah, you learn something new every day…
What are your influences?
Wide and varied. Vocals – Johnny Morrow (Iron Monkey), Dave Verellen (Botch), Grady Avenell (Will Haven) that sort of harsh, anti-social stuff. Guitars – Slayer, Megadeth, Gojira, Septultura, lots of groove and thrash. Our drummer is a big fan of Keith Moon, Dave Lombardo and Travis Barker. Our bassist everything and anything.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Fast, authentically aggressive, with tons of groove, riffs for days and belligerent vocals.
We know every band thinks they’re different and it is pretty hard to be 100% original these days with such a vast number of bands currently and historically, but we genuinely don’t believe we sound like a clone of anyone. We don’t follow musical fads and trends, there’s no eight-string guitars here, just quick, thrash-influenced metal that isn’t afraid to hop the boundaries of metal sub-genres. We play what we want to and bow to no-one in terms of what we write.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
World events, injustice, racism, austerity, misogyny, betrayal; the usual litany of cheery but vitally important subjects. We’re lucky, we all have good lives compared to many, many people so we try and shine a light on the misfortune of others instead, we just hope anyone reading our lyrics might pause to think. There’s also some slightly more abstract themes such as the inner workings of the subconscious mind and formation of the solar system.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
Live shows have gone from strength to strength in the last year or so. Even though we’ve been a band for four years we’ve yet to hit 50 shows in total due to line-up changes and writing.
Come and see us and we’ve got a blizzard of hair and shredding that is Jevs, the nodding stone golem of Jups doling out the riffs, Chris the bassist weaves in an out of the traffic on stage and drummer John attacks his kit like he wants to break it. Dave is usually found simultaneously screaming his face off while keeping an eye out for things that can be safely climbed (and descended from) to deliver his sermons from a higher vantage point. We try and deliver as tight a set as possible and keep the chat to a minimum in order to get more songs out, that’s why we’re there after all.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Dave was there at Reading Festival in 2002 for the infamous Dillinger Escape Plan poo-related incident. Never seen tens of thousands of people move so fast in order to avoid that particular carrier bag of excrement.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Jackson guitars, Zombie Dust pickups, EVH amps, Blackstar amps, Laney amps, Ibanez bass, AKG wireless kit, Gretsch drums and Mapex drums (yes, he has two kits to choose from), Pearl pedal, Sabian cymbals, Vic Firth sticks.
Dave has a second hand Shure SM58 mic which is the extent of his gear and the rest of the band mock him mercilessly for having no gear and not having the first clue about the rest of the band’s gear.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Thanks for asking. We’re promoting our debut album Origins which will be released on 21st June, nine tracks that dip in and out of metal’s more extreme sub-genres at will, seamlessly mixing a blend of razor-sharp riffery and caustic vocals with percussive battery and thumping low-end. And yes, I did shamelessly copy that description word for word from our press release.
Seriously though, we love it, the production is courtesy of Neil Hudson (Krysthla, Gutworm) at Initiate Audio and Media and he absolutely nailed it. It’s a product that we’re very proud of, especially given the slog it’s been for the band to reach this point. We poured everything we have into the writing and recording process and fully believe we have created something that is worth listening to, it’s just finding those ears now.
What are your plans for 2019?
Pushing the album and accompanying music video to as many people as possible, get some new ears turning our way.
That aside, we’re still in disbelief at having reached the final 12 bands from over 700 for the chance to play the immense Amplified Festival this year and we’ve got our live final for that at the Firebug in Leicester on 21st June (album release day!). The weekend after we’re opening for death metal legends Vader at HOP Fest in Northampton, which is a massive honour for us.
There’s some nebulous plans afoot for a tour to push Origins to people who have yet to see us, and there’s plenty of new towns out there for us to get to.
After that I guess we should think about going back to the practice room to write some new material, which if we’re being honest terrifies us a bit. Doing Origins took so much out of us that the thought of doing it all again is both scary but also a challenge we’re looking forward to.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be supporting and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
We’re going for a headliner that we could realistically see ourselves sharing a stage with and that would be Conjurer who are indescribably good, if you’ve not heard them yet and enjoy pretty much any metal sub-genre, go and listen to them immediately. Openers, there’s so many quality local bands around Northampton that we could give this slot to, but we’ll plump with Lay Siege, go and check out their album Hopeisnowhere.
Siderian: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | spotify
