Arriving on site twenty minutes before my first interview was always going to be disconcerting but when the person I’m talking to is the genuinely delightful Paige Lee from Outright Resistance, I knew it would all be fine. Read on for all things Outright Resistance.
What are you thinking of Amplified so far?
Well we only got here at 11:00 so we’ve just put up our tent but I think it’s really cool for a new festival to be as smooth as this, especially as the first year of any festival has teething problems. I haven’t encountered any problems here, there were so many signs which was really useful as we’re always that band that gets lost! There’s always tomorrow though, we’re on at 11am opening up the main stage so that’ll be interesting… No one is allowed to be hungover!
Ah, I’ll be in here interviewing at 11:00.
I might come and find you because I’ll be using my wireless mic tomorrow. I might go for a wander!
Who is it you’ll be sticking around to see this weekend?Â
Oh man, there’s so many of our friends playing over the next few days. We Came From Ashes are on now I think, Raging Speedhorn too. I’ve wanted to see Heck for so long because they are the band I want Outright Resistance to be because they’re so mental which we aspire to. I also want to see Trapt because our drummer is always talking about them, he’s been singing their songs constantly! Broken Jaw are friends of ours too, but I can’t think of any others off the top of my head. I’ve probably left loads of people out because I suck. Oh! Press To Meco would be good because I literally saw them described as “The UK’s answer to Billy Talent” and Billy Talent are one of my all time favourites.
Did you guys all travel up together?
Four of us did, our guitarist is coming up with his mum because she is the worlds biggest Puddle Of Mudd fan and she lost it when he got her a plus one.
What were you listening to on the way up?
Well me and my drummer came up together and he really likes 80’s pop. So he was threatening to play Belinda Carlisle the whole way up here unless I made some CDs. So, I made two CDs; a “Heaven” CD and a “Hell” CD. The “Heaven” CD is stuff I knew he’d like with loads of deathcore and super heavy stuff, the “Hell” CD was full of pop punk like A Day To Remember and Hollywood Undead and everything to make his teeth grind! In the end we got through both CDs and it was quite fun watching him squirm at Attack Attack! An angry death metal drummer listening to Attack Attack!
Where would you like to see Outright Resistance go in the next few years?
Well we just came back from Europe a few months ago so I’d like to get to the point where we can go and do Europe regularly and touch down in the US. That’s something I want to do within a year because we’re already working on that one. Basically though I just want to tour lots because we should have the album out by then, I mean it’s only been seven years in the making! We want to do lots of festivals and be able to tour in the UK where people know who we are and can get excited for that. As long as I’m playing shows I’ll be happy though. At the moment I’m really satisfied with the band because people come to the shows and they know what to expect from us and they’re getting to know who we are as people because we’re playing shows every week which is around 50-70 shows a year though I’d like to push that to 100! That’s what I want to do.
And similarly, what has the band got in the works for the rest of this year?
We’ve got a tour coming soon which we need to confirm. That’s gonna blow people’s faces, it’s gonna blow my brain to pieces too that’s for sure! We’re headlining Beermageddon which will be cool, we’ve been planning a massive stage show for that which is super exciting. We’re going to Ireland again with Ten Ton Slug and Devil Wants Her Swagger Back and we’ve also got some recording soon but I can’t spill a lot from that. I think that’s it other than a load of random shows. Lots of busy stuff!
For people who don’t know you, what from your own discography would you point them too to familiarize themselves with the band?
I like that question because I can be really cheesy and say “The latest EP because it’s the best thing we’ve ever done and blah blah blah”. In seriousness though I would point to Me Vs IÂ (review here) because it covers a lot of our different styles going from a deathcore song into a Hatebreed song, etc. Also the EP covers a lot of the issues we like to talk about like mental health issues, LGBT and GID, so I feel the EP covers all of that and if you listen to that I think you’ll get a good idea of who we are and where we came from.
On a similar note, what’s the key message you want to get across to people in both your music and live shows?
Ah nice! OK, well the key message that we tend to put across is in “We Are Here” which, now more than ever after Chester’s death, is about how depression and mental illness is literally a killer and can affect anyone in so many ways. It doesn’t matter who you are and it doesn’t discriminate and it doesn’t care who you are in life, it will just attack and try to bring you down.
What we like to say at our shows is that if you feel like you have no one you can talk to or anything like that you can chat to us or send us a message on our personal page or the band page and we’ll always respond because there are some people who feel they can’t talk to their friends because they’re embarrassed or their family as they are worried they wont take it seriously. Sometimes you just want to vent it out to someone who is completely unbiased and doesn’t know who you are. So, we always have our ears open to listen because people listen to us when we do our crazy rambling on stage.
I think that’s the key thing to put across. It is really cheesy and it is a cliché but genuinely you are not alone, especially in metal, there are so many people here for you and we always want to be there too.
I remember you saying a similar thing at the Brighton show.
Well we try and put it in every gig because even if it’s one person that gets it who needs it then that’s a victory and it’s a big deal.
And lastly, with The Rolling Stones “Top Metal Albums” list going around, what are a few albums Outright Resistance would put together to create your “Top Metal Albums” list?
So Lamb Of God’s Ashes Of The Wake is something we all love because it’s quality from start to finish. Absolutely perfect. I don’t even really like the band but The Blackening by Machine Head would probably be in there though I really can’t get with Robb Flynn’s voice.
I would controversially personally have Attila’s new album because that’s my favourite new album to come out in a long time along with Emmure’s new album. Those are two bands who would’ve been a guilty pleasure two years ago, now I’m thinking they’re releasing the best music of any bands at the moment, bands like Machine Head are now releasing average albums, Lamb Of God are still killing it though… Nevertheless, these little bands are producing amazing material at the moment, it’s so addictive, like crack… not that I would know what that’s like obviously!
Parkway Drive’s The Deep Blue should be in there, I’m wearing it right now for God’s sake! That’s probably one of our favourite joint albums. I feel like I’m missing something that I’m going to kick myself for missing as soon as I walk away. Oh. Slipknot. Iowa. How did I miss that? I think that would be our joint list for sure, maybe a little bit of Limp Bizkit on the side for good measure!
Outright Resistance: facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
Amplified Open Air Festival: official | facebook | twitter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcrBKnl3b9g&spfreload=10
