The Beat Surrender

Splitting there time between Leeds and Sheffield, Volcanoes have conjured up a melodic and engrossing sound that could well see them be the next band to break out of Yorkshire and deliver anthemic tracks to the masses that are laced with an uber cool edge.

We caught up with the four piece for a quick chat after their gig for us at The Northern Monkey in Leeds….

Hi gents, firstly, how did you enjoy your gig at The Northern Monkey?

Very good taa, always good to get back into it after Crimbo.

It’s clear you enjoy playing live as a band, do you still get as much of a buzz from gigs as you first did?

Yes. Sometimes more. Sometimes less.

Talking of which you started out as an acoustic two-piece, how did you evolve into your current line up?

I like to credit the full band idea to myself, but it’s probably not true. I think Sam found it a lot easier doing the 2-piece cos you don’t have much to worry about the reliability of other band members, all getting together to practice, making sure everyones’ available to gig etc. But I thought the songs would sound brilliant with a full band so we got a drummer and bassist to record our first EP, and it worked really well. The drummer and bassist at the time weren’t too fussed with Volcanoes long term, so since then we got Boa on bass and Ash on drums and everyone put’s their heart into it. Sam knew Boa from a while back, and Ash came from the internet (in Yorkshire).

Do you still play acoustic gigs as two piece, or even as a four piece?

We did one recently at the Adelphi in Leeds, just myself and Sam. We don’t do it often, but I enjoyed it a lot, even though it was a pretty quiet afternoon gig. Sometimes the songs can be easier to get across acoustically cos it’s not so damn loud and people can hear and maybe get what you’re singing. I really like it when we both sing at the same time, and that comes out well acoustically.

Your last EP got some excellent reviews, do you put much stock in reviews?

It’s really easy to let bad reviews get to you, and let good reviews make you think you’re brilliant. It’s nice getting good reviews, and crap getting bad ones. But one man’s junk is etc. It’s easy to build a big thing out of reviews and even easier to forget that a review is just one person’s opinion. One recently said the guitar solo in Temple was ‘wanky’. Sam took it to heart. An old review once said they bet we all swagger around like we’re in Oasis.

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