As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 10th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!
Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Endeavour – Sophie Lancaster Stage, Friday
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We herald from old Bristol town.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
The band was conceived in late 2009 while Ben and I [Iain] were at music university, BIMM Bristol.
Where does the name of the band come from?
We went through so many ideas over the course of a year. I’m a big Nevermore fan. One day I was listening to their record This Godless Endeavor, that last word caught my eye. It sounded strong, simple, and seemed to capture what we’re about in some way.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We associate ourselves with progressive metal but I think the focus for us is making sure we retain that metal element we all fell in love with in our early teens: Metallica, Pantera, Machine Head and use the progressive influences to add scope to our sound. Plus we have a lot of melodic vocals and string vocal melodies, which is a rarity these days.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band
Everybody in the band is exceptional at their chosen instrument and we gel well together so expect great chemistry and onstage performance. There’s loads of energy and our singer Chris has to be one of the best frontmen in the UK, so the crowd will be drawn in whether they want to be or not. Plus for our set at this year’s Bloodstock we have Doug Hall doing sound who worked with Iron Maiden for over 30 years along with other legendary bands such as Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, and Halloween so the sound is going to be amazing.
Have you ever played Bloodstock before? If so, when?
We played the Jägermeister Stage in 2015 which was great fun, I think we had the first wall of death on that stage.
How/when did you find out that you’d be playing the SOPHIE stage?
Simon Hall has become a big fan of what we do and said if he could make it work for this year he would. Then I got a call from him a few months later asking if we were free to play and of course we were tremendously excited and thankful. Simon and the Bloodstock team have really been supportive of us, they used our song “Drowning Memory” for their new teaser video and they shared our new single and lyric video for new track “Denied, Defined, Defied” off our new EP Bring Upon The Rising Day.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We will be playing tracks from our new EP Bring Upon The Rising Day as well as songs from our previous release From The Darkest Grounds. There may be a little surprise in there, but who knows?
Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
Personally, I would hate to miss Decapitated, and Soilwork. Friday’s my favourite day and I think all the guys want to see Testament. Who wouldn’t? I’m not sure when they’re playing yet but our Bristol buddies Embodient are playing the New Blood Stage, they’re an amazing tech death band so we want to show our support and check ’em out on a big stage.
What are you working on at the moment?
We should have another new song to release with some video footage in the week before the festival, so stay tuned for that, more details shall be revealed.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
We’ve never done too many crazy things while playing, the music is pretty involved so we don’t get much in the way of liberties in that regard, although every now and again I’ll go into the crowd just before the usual mosh pit breaks in our song “Betrayal Of Life”.
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Kraken, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Personally, I’d go for a large Jäger bomb or Kraken and coke. If it’s a band vote I’m going to go for rum!
Endeavour: official | facebook | twitter | instagram | youtube
