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!
Titan Breed – Hobgoblin New Blood Stage, Saturday
Simple things first – Where are you guys from?
We’re all from Glasgow, Scotland. There’s definitely a bit of Viking heritage in there as well though!
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Johnny (vocals), Pete (guitar and vocals) and myself got together back in May-June of 2015. It was right off the back of the band Pete and I were in together splitting up. We were both in the right mind set to just keep going, start fresh and move forward.
Johnny has been singing with Pete at open mic nights, acoustic sessions and that sort of thing for years beforehand. So it was pretty much straight away Johnny came in, and we had this dual-vocal attack going on. We put together one full track to start then started piecing together a few others and we knew there was something there worth building on. So we started looking for a drummer and bass player.
Lewis (drums) came on board funnily, initially as a stand-in drummer at writing sessions, as the drummer we had couldn’t make the sessions very often. It soon became apparent Lewis was a great fit for us and we asked if he wanted to make it permanent. Luckily for us he said yes, as we were in need of someone with massive sex appeal and he just oozes it!
Mark was the last to come on board, but really things only really got moving when he joined. He was recommend by a friend and came in to that first rehearsal knowing nothing, and left pretty much having picked up everything in one session! He really made us sound like a complete band, and that’s been us all stuck together since!
Where does the name of the band come from?
Naming your band has got to be one of the most difficult things to do! At one point we had collected a list of about 25 potential band names and we’d narrowed it down to a handful. Titan Breed was one of my last minute suggestions, and luckily I forced it down everyone’s throat till they forgot about the other ones!
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We like to think of ourselves as groove metal with a bit of a southern twang. There are certainly elements of thrash in there too. Even though it’s been a few years now, I still feel like we’re in our early days. Really trying to find our sound. However I would say having Johnny and Pete sharing vocal duties makes us unique for sure. They contrast each other so well, and I really feel there is a bit of something for everyone because of that.
Music-wise we’re determined to refine a tight groove based sound. Our individual influences are so varied, ranging from country, rap, nu-metal, power metal… it just goes on. So with each song we put together, personally I hear little bits and pieces that sound a bit like this band or that band. It’s a great dynamic we have. We’re very lucky!
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
If you want a tight sounding metal show with some quality tunes. You should come to see our show, that’s really all I can say! We’ve been gigging quite a bit in this last year and we’re just loving being on the stage right now. We’re also starting to play new songs that we’re testing our for our debut album. Plus if you come to see us, you might get lucky and get to meet Johnny when he gets out into the pit and in your face!
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
I haven’t been myself unfortunately! Which seems crazy considering the reputation it has after all these years. Our singer Johnny goes every single year. I would say he goes every year without fail, but he missed last year and is still raging about it!
Did you enter M2TM thinking you could win it? Which region did you win?
Not at all! We all knew about the competition from previous years. In 2016 we didn’t feel ready to apply, so when it popped up again this year we applied straight away. We applied not knowing if we’d even get accepted as we only had one demo song online at the time. We won the Glasgow region which was absolutely stacked, some real quality bands throughout each stage. The final could have gone any which way! But going onstage we knew it was only up to us, and getting that close, there was no way we were missing out on playing Bloodstock! Still can’t believe it though.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
It’s going to be just absolute destruction from the get go. Relentless is probably the best word I could use. We’ll definitely be saving any ballads for our acoustic Christmas album that’s for sure!
Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Ooft. That’s tough… for me personally I really want to catch Testament so hopefully we don’t clash there! I like The One Hundred as well who are playing the Sophie Lancaster stage, so will hopefully be able to catch their set.
What are you working on at the moment?
Recently we’ve been concentrating on getting new songs together. We’ve been playing the tracks from our debut EP live for quite a while now, so we’re slowly starting to test the waters with new material. So far the new material has been slightly heavier than some of our older songs, so our plan is to spend the tail end of this year working towards twelve plus tracks for a debut album.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?
Hmmm that’s a tough one, as we’re all such well behaved boys from Glasgow! I’ll need to rain check that one and get you down the line at our next interview!
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Kraken, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Honestly, it’s got to be Bulleit Bourbon for me. I’ve been drinking it for years but seems to have a gotten a bit of a push in the UK recently. Saying that, if there was one going I’d take anything on that list!
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