These guys will have had the day off today – local holiday up here – so we made them work for us and answer our questions…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are based in Glasgow.
How did you meet?
We have all played in other bands in the past, so we were all aware of each other within the scene. The band started off as Bearers of the Divide, over time the band started to evolve, some line-up changes happened within the band and new members were needed. We reached out to people, held auditions and recruited our drummer, Craig, and vocalist Jase. We instantly clicked and the rest fell into place.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We have been playing together as a band for just over a year now, it’s been a great year. A lot of good things have happened, we’re really excited to see what the future holds!
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
Before the band re-launched we were known as Bearers Of The Divide. But with new members and new material we wanted to rebrand, so we shortened it to BEARERS. A lot more to the point.
What are your influences?
Our influences range between Periphery, Texas In July, Northlane, Mastodon, NOFX, Architects, Killswitch Engage and more. Lyrically the inspiration comes from real life, everyday monsters.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Each member of the band is very open minded and happy to try new things, experiment and go against the grain. We like to change it up a little – combining genres but refining them so the songs still sound organic and natural, keeping a good contrast within and between songs and of course including just the right amount of brutality throughout. We wanted the album to be a descriptive piece where all of the songs are related in their own subtle way, each is a different chapter of a story.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Yes, the theme in a word would be ‘Humanity’. Taking inspiration from real life monstrosities, those who have been born into the wrong existence. Despair, violence, anger and rage. Strong emotions that drive these monsters to commit such horrific crimes. The survivors who deal with the consequences and the products of these monsters. Each song is put to you from a different perspective.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We like to keep the energy high throughout our set, we have also programmed our own stage lights to help bring some more atmosphere to the crowd. We also like to include some stage blood, I feel this helps get our message across to listeners, given the lyrical content it’s very apt and again, it adds to our atmosphere. We believe live performance shows should be more than just a listening experience. We want you to feel our music and harnessing people’s other senses helps us achieve that.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Probably need to be the time Jase dislocated his knee, we were one song into our set and it dislocated, but of course the show must go on so after a few minutes we continued playing and finished the set with Jase sitting down. But I think it added to the performance, keeping in mind the style of music and lyrical content.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Connor: Mayones and a Kemper
Murray: Ibanez and Axe fx
Pete: Ibanez and Line 6 POD HD Pro
Jason: Shure pg58 wireless mic
Craig: Pearl export series kit, Mapex black panther snare, Iron cobra pedals, Zildjian custom crashes, hi-hats and ride, sabian holy China, Istanbul trash splash and meinl dark custom China
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We released our debut album Inhumation on Friday 13th September, we cannot wait to let everyone hear the story we’ve created. We have a limited number of physical CDs available too, check it out on our Big Cartel.
What are your plans for the rest of 2019 and into 2020?
We will continue writing new material and refine it for our next release. We’ll also be playing more shows around the country, we want to get as many people listening to us as possible. We want to spread our suffering.
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!
Opening for a band who has a huge stage show, something theatrical, Rammstein for example would be amazing. It would be such a thrill to be a part of that and a great learning experience, would be great if we could borrow their flamethrowers. It would not matter to us if this band supported or came after us, but to share the stage with Godeater would be class
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