After the release of their new single “Oh God”, we tracked down The Battery Farm for some more details about them and their upcoming album Dark Web…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are from north Manchester via Wigan & Salford and based in Oldham. What a melting pot.
How did you meet?
Me and Dom, our guitarist, are brothers so we met by chance one cold December night in 1993. Me and Paul used to act together on the Manchester fringe theatre seen so we know each other from there, having met about 10 years ago. I met Sam about 5 years ago just before we formed the band as he worked at the same place as me. We’ve basically pulled a load of disparate parts together and, somehow, turned it into something beautiful.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We formed in March 2019, so just over 5 years now.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
The band name is about the sense of life closing in on you and suffocating you. It’s meant to starkly evoke violence, brutality and nihilism and a sense of helplessness. When me and Dom put the band together, we wanted something that encapsulates our internal terrors, and our fears and anxieties about the world at large in a visceral, powerful way. The Battery Farm does that pretty well. The name is actually taken from a lyric in one of our songs, “When the Whip Goes Crack”; ‘harm after harm, life’s a battery farm’. So I suppose ultimately any ulterior meaning comes back to those words.
What are your influences?
They’ve evolved as the years have gone on. We started out as a heavy Punk band influenced by bands like IDLES, Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Tad and Nirvana. We all listen to everything we can get our hands on though and this has crept into our sound. I’d name bands and artists like The Beatles, Parliament, Kendrick Lamar, Caribou, My Chemical Romance, Bloc Party, Neu, U2 and Nine Inch Nails. There’s also a tonne of really innovative Pop music about at the moment as well that’s important to us too, from artists like Billie Eilish, Olivia Rodrigo and Bambie Thug. We always termed ourselves a Gutter Punk band with all the gnarliness that entails, but as we’ve evolved it’s expanded into something darker, weirder, more introspective, and more open to experimentation. We’ve got a diverse mix of influences, and hopefully we can keep adding more while keeping things coherent.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Our sound is fuelled by fury and confusion at the state the world finds itself in, as well as being full of self-reflection. This lends a kinetic, claustrophobic intensity to what is a ferocious and powerful sound. We are equal parts intense and beautiful, our songs cut through with a shimmering streak of melody and a sardonic wit among all the bleakness and heaviness. We combine elements of punk, post punk, math rock, glam, industrial and even UK garage in places to make something that is singular, and human – sometimes terrifying, sometimes ridiculous, always captivating.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
I guess we covered this to an extent in the previous answer, but as a writer I find myself constantly driven by the sense of personal dread I feel at the hellscape that has been created for us as we stare down the barrel of a potentially terrifying future. Our debut album FLIES covered subjects like the Human capacity for dehumanisation, collective desensitisation to violence, nuclear war and radicalisation. Our new single “O God” explores the idea of a merciless universe ruled by chaos, in which we’re all at the mercy of nothing but chance. That sounds relentlessly heavy but a lot of it is fed through the prism of metaphors like the idea that Roy Keane is a deep state hologram or stories about murderous wooden spoons. I like to be absurd as much as I like to be matter of fact. Ultimately, I’m a reactive lyricist so I write about how I feel and what I’m thinking about. It just so happens that I’ve spent the last 5 years haunted by a deep and abiding existential terror to go alongside my general depressive malaise. Nom nom.
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What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
It’s been described as terrifying, unforgettable, powerful, ferocious… all the good adjectives! Basically, every gig we do is an exorcism, which in turn means we’re a relentless and powerful live band. We’re loud, heavy and hard to take your eyes off while also being able to slow things down and bring people right in when the time’s right. Ultimately we’re a blitz, with a singular sound that has been honed over years of hard, hard graft. I’m not afraid to say we’re one of the most exciting live bands in the country. Should I be?
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
I don’t really have any singular anecdotes from gigs. We’ve just had a tonne of amazing experiences and met a tonne of amazing people. We’ve played in the middle of the street in northern Germany. We’ve supported Buzzcocks in a church. We’ve played The Ritz with The Chameleons. We’ve played a band vs band set in a wrestling ring. We’ve shared festival bills with the likes of The Men They Couldn’t Hang, Bob Vylan and Clt Drp. We’ve left sweat literally dripping off the walls in the Netherlands, Manchester and Scotland. We’ve sold out venues we never would have dreamed of selling out when we started. We’ve been able to play all over the UK and in Europe. We’ve played gigs with our heroes, some of whom we’re able to count as friends now. We’ve had the adventure of a lifetime. The whole thing is wild. The whole thing is ridiculous.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
I just play a Squier Stratocaster and have recently brough a Roland Electric Piano in. I don’t know the specifics! Dom plays an Italia Mondial Duo fed through an old Boss ME-70 digital effects pedal, from which he has singlehandedly shaped our sound. He’s built so many incredible, totally unique guitar sounds from scratch on that ME-70 and gets an astonishing sound out of it. Honestly, that pedal is the bedrock of our sound. Sam’s got a nice Pearl drumkit and Paul plays some kind of Fender bass. Paul’s actually a guitarist and keys player primarily, and he brings a guitarist’s attitude to his bass playing that, again, adds a really unique element to our sound that is integral.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
Our new single “O God” was out everywhere 26th July. It’s the first single from our forthcoming 2nd album Dark Web, which is out 29th November. It’s a big step forward for us in terms of sound and scope and we’re very, very proud of it. I think it might surprise a lot of people, but to us it feels like a natural next step. We also have an album launch gig on 29th November at Deaf Institute Lodge in Manchester, with our friends TV Face and Guts as special guests. This is the biggest headliner we’ve ever done so it’s a big moment for us. It’s going to be special. Tickets are at linkree.com/thebatteryfarm
What are your plans for the next 6 months or so?
Build to the album, revealing it piece by piece until it comes out. We like to create a world for each release and we’ve started to let it unfurl now. We want everything we do to be as immersive as possible, which is a tonne of graft but so very worth it. We have a nice run of gigs lined up in the build to the album release, and we’re hoping to announce a proper album tour for early 2025 as well. The next 6 months are looking like the biggest we’ve ever had to cap off the most exciting, most important year we’ve ever had. It all culminates 29th November with the release of Dark Web.
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!
I’m being self-indulgent here because both of these bands are bigger than us but headlining a bill with Evil Blizzard and Chemtrails would be amazing. We’ve played with both of them before and – I think – we can count them as friends now, but to headline a bill featuring both of them is dream fodder, it really is.
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