It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here is Alex from Pariah who play the New Blood stage on the Friday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are all from around Yorkshire; 2 of us from York, and 1 from Bradford. Dig was born in Dubai and moved here when he was about 9 or 10.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We have been playing together as a band for around 6 years with only one lineup change, when Tom joined on the drums in 2018, but we have all been jamming together with various projects from about the age of 10.
Where does the name of the band come from?
The name Pariah basically means being an outcast.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
We have a combination of thrash and hard-core with a lot of added groove. Our style is a mash up of so many different styles in and out of metal.
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What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
We definitely have high energy at our shows. We always engage the crowd and get them involved with the show, especially when we go into the crowd ourselves mid-set.
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
We have been going to Bloodstock for years as fans. My first one was in 2014 and I’ve not missed one since. We absolutely love it at Bloodstock – everyone seems like one big happy family there and the line-up is always stacked with great bands.
Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We won the Leeds Metal 2 the Masses. We had no idea we would do as well as we did as there were some great bands in the competition.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Absolutely over the moon.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
We are going to be playing some new stuff and old stuff. One of the tracks has only been played live by us once before. This is definitely a high energy setlist and we will be giving it our all.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Exodus and Bloodywood are definitely 2 bands we don’t want to miss or clash with.
What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment we are in the studio recording a string of singles to release over the next few months.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Probably one of the best stories was at one of our hometown shows. One of our friends was in the pit during our set, gets an accidental headbutt to the nose, he breaks it and there is blood all over him, he then proceeds to insist he doesn’t want to miss the rest of the bands so he sticks 2 tampons up his nose to stop the bleeding and carry on watching the bands.
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
No doubt it’ll be a can of Stella to get us fired up and ready to play.
