[avatar user=”Mosh” size=”50″ align=”left” /]Due to being buried in stuff at home, I couldn’t make it to the Skid Row gig in Edinburgh recently. They was doubly annoying as it meant that I missed the chance to see the rather excellent Sister who were touring with them. I rather enjoyed the recent EP (Dead Boys Making Noise) and the full album Disguised Vultures that came out at the start of 2014, and their raw, punky attitude makes them seem like the ideal travelling partners for Snake and company.
Ah well, as it turns out I may get another chance to catch them sooner than I hoped… Read on as Jamie Anderson, the band’s vocalist, replies to a handful of questions I was able to pose him by email. Thanks, Jamie!
One EP and two albums in and still a “new” band, only formed in 2006. Tell us a little about where you all came from to find yourselves working together as Sister.
Well,we met each other outside of a concert in our hometown. Cari said he was looking for a singer so we decided to start playing together, and so on we became Sister.
How would you describe the style of music you play? Do you have any particular influences in terms of the music or lyrics?
We don’t put ourselves in a specific genre or anything like that, we just combine everything we like and it becomes Sister. Everybody in the band grew up with the same influences (bands like WASP, Crűe, Priest, Twisted Sister) but in these days we listen to a lot of different music, everything from black metal to Cher! To create great songs I think it’s important to keep your ears open for new music and influences.
Between the early release of Deadboys Making Noise and this year’s Disguised Vultures, do you reckon your sound has changed or evolved? If so, in what ways?
No,not really. We are still the same but we like to play heavier and a little bit more rough nowadays. Our development comes just natural I guess.
Do you play live to enable you to write/record new material or do you release songs to be able to get on the road and play in front of a crowd?
I don’t really know to be honest. To make a long story short It’s like this: Tour-write-release-tour-write-release. You have to release new music/videos to make yourself interesting and to win new fans.
Much has been said of your energetic live show. How would you describe a typical Sister gig?
Sweaty,energetic, total madness! We are a live band and when we hit the stage we just lose it and we always give 100% no matter what!
You’ve just finished a UK tour with the legendary Skid Row, and you’ve had some other impressive support slots over the last few years. You even opened the main stage at Sonisphere Spain a couple of years back! What, so far, has been your biggest “I can’t believe we’re here, doing this, with these people!” moment?
I’ve met a lot of big artists/bands during the last years so for me personally it’s pretty cool that I’ve met many of my favourite musicians, but at the end of the day they are just humans like you and me.
But to be on tour with skid row was just amazing! Actually, I have never toured with such nice and polite guys like them! To open up at the main stage at Sonisphere was pretty cool as well!
What’s been the wildest thing you’ve seen at one of your gigs?
Hmm,it’s hard to say… but I see a lot of Sister tattoos when I talk to our fans after our shows and that really touches me to see hardcore fans like that!
Do you still play as many shows as you did when you first started? You put in a lot of time on stage, particularly in and around Sweden, to get where you are.
I actually quit school because of all the gigs we had back in 2006/2007. We used to play at smaller clubs around Sweden and sometimes we weren’t old enough to play but the promoters would let us anyway. Nowadays we focus on doing bigger tours and festivals instead of that many single gigs.
So what current / future plans do Sister have? Any forthcoming tour dates or are you even thinking about a third album yet?
We will do a headline tour across Europe on the Disguised Vultures album in February and March 2015.
We are working on the third Sister album right now so stay updated!
