Wildfire 2016 interview: Baleful Creed

Baleful Creed logoDue to matters beyond our control (mainly relating to set times, weather and probably alcohol) we were unable to catch up with Baleful Creed while we were at Wildfire this year. However, the guys were nice enough to let us shoot some questions over to them afterwards…

Simple things first – where are you guys from?

John: As a band Belfast, Northern Ireland, but we are spread out living in Belfast, Bangor, Craigavon and Newtownards.

How did you meet?

Fin: John and I knew each other for years – not knowing exactly when we became friends but definitely through going out to bars and watching bands. We dabbled with a failed version of Baleful Creed in 1993 – that lasted one practice! Eleven years of not going near an instrument resulted in a mid-life crisis moment of trying to finally get a band together just for fun – as it really felt like total beginners getting together – probably getting a release following the cycle of marriage and parental duties that stopped all the fun. A few years of murdering cover songs and really going nowhere inspired me to try my hand at writing my own songs – and that triggered a switch from a covers band to a totally original material band – igniting a spark in John as well to commence his song writing. A few members later and the two Dave’s are now firing up the Baleful Creed engine room – so you’ll hear them on the new album.

How long have you been playing together as a band?

John: Baleful Creed formed in 2009 with Davy Greer joining us on bass / vocals in June 2014 and Dave Jeffers coming on board on drums in September 2014.

What are your influences – individually or as a band?

John: Fin and myself kept a tight group of influences for the BC sound – noting Black Sabbath, Danzig and Fireball Ministry as the main focus for us – but lots of other things creep in, sometimes without much thought, but other bands that reviewers have compared us to have been The Cult, Kyuss and Alice In Chains to name a few.

Describe your music. What makes you unique?

Fin: This started as just something to entertain ourselves – so it was just trying to create some head-nodding, foot-tapping chunky riffs, some bluesy whiskey soaked vocal on top, as I like whiskey!

John: Really no idea what makes us unique lol – hopefully just a nice combination of guitar sound, the tone of the vocals, hopefully the tunes strike the right chord and there is a big huge powerful sound.

What’s next for the band? More dates coming up, new material…?

John: We just had to try and get involved with Wildfire Festival as we had heard such great reports about it – so that was a rare venture out of the practice room this year – as it’s all been about trying to write and record the new album this year. So we have about three quarters of the album recorded and heading into the final straight to write the last few songs for it. After that, there is a real hunger to get back out gigging again to promote the new material, and get to new areas we haven’t gigged before. So the UK mainland is a big target for us this time around.

How did you find it at Wildfire?

Fin: We absolutely loved it! Such a great festival – really good layout with the main stages, a real pleasure to perform there, and best of all was the crowd. Amazing feedback from everyone we chatted too afterwards.

John: Fully agree and just to add in how great the onstage sound was for us, plus really well looked after by the Wildfire crew.

What’s your best memory of the weekend (on stage or off?)

John: I think just the amazing comments we got after playing. No sleep from the night before so I was so shattered going on stage, but after the response for our opening song was incredible I just fed off that buzz coming back from the crowd – took me days coming down from that high!

Fin: Yeah, it was just a huge buzz playing, getting a great response while on stage and then big thanks to everyone that chatted to us afterwards – was all really good feedback and made the journey over so worthwhile. A wee off stage memory was John giving up trying to sleep at 8am and him heading to the lodge for breakfast – and I got to use his airbed, as I forgot mine – that was a blissful 2 hours after a night of only having a thin sleeping bag lol.

What other bands on the bill were your pick of the weekend (or just the day if you couldn’t stay!)?

John: This is where our logistics let us down big style – by the time we arrived on the Friday and pitched our tent, we only caught A Joker’s Rage – and they were amazing – full on feel good factor band. On our gig day, caught a bit of Crowsaw and Sinocence and the rest was loading gear and dismantling the tent again as we had to get back for our ferry. If we are invited back – we’ll stay for longer for sure.

Fin: Aye we missed far too much – and wanted to support our mates from the other Northern Irish bands – and have a few beers with them all, but we’ll make amends for that next time hopefully!

If you could be part of any 3-band line-up (as support or headlining) who else would you have on the bill?

John: I’d do a quick support slot then grab a beer to sit back and watch Black Sabbath. I’d get Cathedral to reform and join in the party too.

Fin: Yes, do the opening slot so you can enjoy getting destroyed by Goatsnake and Kyuss for me.

Baleful Creed: facebook

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