Our regular run-down of as many of the upcoming Bloodstock bands as we can get to talk to us! Final Coil play the New Blood stage on the Friday…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
Greetings, this is Phil – singer and guitarist. We are Final Coil, and we hail from Leicester.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
The core of the band (Richard, Jola and I) has been together since 2008 – with various drummers appearing along the way, like some sort of real like Spinal Tap. That said, an early version of the band existed as far back as 2003. Come to think of it, we’re pretty ancient!
Where does the name of the band come from?
When I formed the band, I was studying literature so, perhaps inevitably, that was my inspiration. The name is a hybrid. From Shakespeare, via Hamlet, we get the idea of a mortal coil. However, with a band already out there called This Mortal Coil, I didn’t imagine they’d be any too pleased if we jumped up and pinched their name. From Dante, we get the idea of Hell as a series of concentric circles, with the deeper levels reserved for the most malevolent of sinners – people who take the last Jammy Dodger [scoundrels – Ross] and that sort of thing. So, I combined the two, as the ideas of finality and damnation seemed in keeping with the generally jolly themes found within our music.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
This is always a difficult question, not least because whenever we’re reviewed, we’re described through the lens of the listener’s own experience. I think we’ve been variously described as prog, doom, post-grunge, post-rock, post-metal… the list goes on. I know it’s a cliché, but I really didn’t have a genre in mind when I started the band. As someone who listens to a huge range of music, I guess a lot of influences creep in and, in that sense, I imagine the progressive tag is probably the most accurate.
Within that, the most obvious sonic cues would be Alice in Chains, Pink Floyd, Tool and Nine Inch Nails – and what makes is unique is our willingness to blend those somewhat disparate elements into something that sounds like… well, us. Heavy riffs, strong lyrical themes, and vocal harmonies all lie at the core of our sound, as does our desire to take the audience on a journey – and that’s certainly what we’ll try to do at Bloodstock.
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What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
For a band who are pretty nuanced on record, we’re incredibly dynamic on stage. We put everything into our performances, so they tend to be loud, sweaty, and intense. For those who have seen us before, it should come as no surprise that, for all that we exist in a prog realm, we were picked to support Marky Ramone in London based on the energy of our performance. That said, we’re not focusing exclusively on our heavier songs. I sequence our setlists like our albums, so there’ll be a mix of heavier songs, and more progressive pieces – perfect for a day headlined by the wonderful Opeth.
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Many times! The first time was in 2008 (also headlined by Opeth, funnily enough), and we’ve been too many times subsequently to count. The first year we were there, the band had yet to reform, and it never occurred to me in a million years that I might one day have the opportunity to play the festival. I was just happy to be in a place that was so friendly, and which seemed to so closely represent the heavier end of my musical tastes. It’s an amazing place and it’s always a pleasure to be back at Catton Hall – I just can’t quite believe that this year, we’re attending as artists.
Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
Although we’ve played M2tM on several occasions, and reached the finals along the way, this year was different. As we were promoting our third album, The World We Inherited, we simply didn’t have the time to devote to the competition as well as focus on launch gigs (which had very different set requirements). However, Simon Hall put out an open call for bands on his social media and, somewhat on a whim, I sent an email in. Honestly, knowing the sheer scale of the response he was likely to get, I didn’t imagine for a second he would pick us, but I am immeasurably grateful that he did!
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Oh-my-god-we’re-actually-playing-Bloodstock-fuck-yeah!
What sort of setlist can we expect?
As I noted above, it’s always been really important to me to sequence set lists so that they take the audience on a journey. There’s a strong influence from the likes of Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, and Nine Inch Nails (especially Fragile-era) in that regard. We’ve got three songs from the new album, and one each from our first two, and the idea is that we start heavy, explore the wider realms of our sound, before reaching a climax with the final song. It’s going to be a dark, heavy, proggy ride…
Stage times haven’t been announced yet, so which other band do you most hope you’re not clashing with so you can see them play?
Well, Final Coil always come first in my mind, so wherever we are on the set list, I will be delighted. That said, the bands I am most looking forward to seeing (if possible) are Enslaved, Rotting Christ, and Opeth.
What are you working on at the moment?
Well, this year (so far) has been all about promoting the third album, The World We Inherited. We played our album launch at the Black Heart in London, and then did a number of shows with the wonderful Teiger. Right now, we’re planning our first ever shows in mainland Europe – which is incredibly exciting. To date, we’ve recorded there (the first two albums were tracked in Italy), but not had the chance to play live. We confirmed the first of the shows today and are planning one or two more – so, I’m looking forward to announcing that soon. Alongside that, I’ve been busy writing the fourth album, and it’ll soon be time to start looking for the right studio, and the right producer, to bring it all together.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
The wildest thing I’ve seen at a live show from a band perspective would either be Monster Magnet incinerating the stage at the Big Day Out festival, or Dillinger Escape Plan hurling a bag of shit at the audience at Reading. From an audience perspective, I guess it would be a guy trying to take a piss in the moshpit at Metallica and getting punched by an enraged guy standing in the line of, err, fire. For me, it would probably be getting hauled out of the pit with blood streaming from my head, having been kicked twice by a passing crowd surfer who was, rather inconsiderately, wearing New Rocks. Either that or, falling asleep in the middle of the Napalm Death pit thanks to a slight miscalculation as to, um, tolerance levels…
What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
Sadly, as the vocalist, I don’t drink before going on stage, so it has to be the decidedly un-rock and roll tipple of Vocalzone tea. I’ll go and sit on the naughty step now… Thanks for your time, and see you at Bloodstock!
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