Last year was a good year for music here at The Ripple office. So many new bands crossed our paths, brought through the door by postman Sal, filed away by our intern Monica and cleared by the quality control team of The Sheriff and the Redneck Wookie. One such band to land on our doorstep, courtesy of our good friend Ryan at Rock Ridge Music, was Attack! Attack! UK. Brandishing a full on, hyped up, pop punk blast, the boys really made an impression on our ears. With that in mind, you can understand why we couldn't wait for Will Davies, their mad bass player to plop on down on our red leather interview couch and spend some time with us.When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkle, the first time I ever hear Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a Few minor epiphany's since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears. What have been your musical epiphany moments?
Growing up I was surrounded by rock and blues music that my dad played in the house. Stuff like Muddy Waters, Cream, Rolling Stones, Robert Johnson etc.. So luckily I was never suppressed with Barry Manilow records or anything like that!
I can remember borrowing Kill 'Em All off one of my sisters friends at school when I was about 13. I put it on my stereo and skipped to this track called "Anesthesia: Pulling Teeth" and spent the next few minutes being blown away by this insane distorted bass solo! It was so raw and mean but melodic at the same time. That moment definitely changed my perception of the bass and inspired to take my instrument seriously!
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, The idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?Every time is different for me. Sometimes I just start off with an idea or riff and record it into pro tools just to inspire me. Then I'll build on to it adding chords, a bass line, a lead line etc and every part I write will give me more ideas and impact on the other parts until I get a basic version of the song. Then I'll take the idea to rehearsal and we'll Jam it out.
Other times I'll just be playing a guitar and I'll get a riff and a chorus in 5 minutes and the song writes it self.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
I get inspired by so many different things it's hard to really pin-point what they are. Sometimes it's going back and listening to long gone records from my youth and really getting into them. Listening to different styles of music can throw up ideas you would have otherwise never thought of. I find small things inspire and motivate me, like waking up early in the morning puts me in a good mood, kinda' focus's my mind or if it's a really hot, sunny day I'll sit outside with my guitar and absorb the sun.
On the flip side to that though really bad things that have happened have motivated me. Earlier this year a friend passed away, which really gave me a kick up the ass. It made me realize how lucky I am to be doing what I do and to give it my all because some people don't have those chances.
Genre's are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?Honest, energetic music with catchy chorus's and grooves you can shake your ass to!!
What is you musical intention? What are you trying to express or get Your audience to feel?
I guess we want people to get the same level of enjoyment out of our songs that we have got from writing and recording them. Every time we play live we do it with the intent to blow people away and have them hooked on us for 30 mins and getting involved, whether its jumping around, circle pits or singing along.
In songwriting, how do you bring the song together? What do you look For in terms of complexity? Simplicity? Time changes?
As a band we look at our individual parts and listen to what sounds good and what doesn't sound good. I think the key to every good song in it's most basic form is its simplicity. In terms of complexity, we see that as the icing on the cake. The sections or fills that give the songs their edge and excitement. That could be a really locked in drum and bass fill or a really cool guitar line.
The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have Made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living.What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?
You just have to keep your head down and work as hard as possible! There's no point trying to resist new technologies that make music ready available and similar things to that... you just have to embrace it, and look at other ways in which you can make a living. We want as many people in the world to hear our record as possible, we'd appreciate it more if people legally downloaded and payed for it or bought the CD from a shop but at the same time, if someone downloaded it for free, loved it and past it onto their friends who would then
come to a show and buy a t shirt or even the actual record then that's cool with us.
I also think it's really important to utilize websites like YouTube and Myspace. It enables fans to get close to the bands as possible and have an insight to their lives and allows interaction between bands and their fans.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and Roll moments?Haha! There are so many that it's hard to pick them out.
Recently on the way home from a show everyone was drinking Jagermeister in the van and listening to a play list of Papa Roach, Limp Bizkit and the fresh price full blast. People were dancing in the back of the van and rapping along and suddenly at 70mph on the motorway our guitarist stopped dancing, announced he needed a piss and opened the side door of the van!! All chaos broke out when this happened and our driver had to pull over for fear of someone getting killed!! The best thing is that he doesn't even remember it happening!
Where do you see you and your music going in ten years?
I think we will always be wanting to better ourselves and our songwriting... It would be good to be able to get to a stage where we can experiment with different styles of music or instruments and still write awesome songs.
What makes a great song? Who living today writes great songs?
Several things. A great riff and chorus are obvious ones. I think songs that tell a story and have a sense of development are awesome, it probably has something to do with growing up with Bob Dylan records. I would say he's one of the worlds best living songwriters.
If a song makes you feel a certain way it's definitely doing something right.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
Well, it was called 'Fire in the Sky' and was naturally about getting abducted by aliens. I wrote it with some of my friends in my music class. I can remember I had the intro riff and the basic chords. I think it was like a 3 chord verse and 3 chord chorus. Then my mate wrote the lyrics and melody and another friend wrote this awesome wah guitar lead line. Needless it was a hit in my year at school!
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?I have two pieces. One was a piece of coursework for my A Level music exam I did when I was 17. It was basically an Orchestral piece with Counter Melodies, motifs, inverted motifs.. all that jazz! I got an A for it.. I know it isn't rock n roll but I couldn't care less.
My second song is Time Is Up which is the last song on our debut record. I struggled with that song for ages and then came up with the riff and was like 'FUCK YEAH!!'
When you write a piece of music, do you consciously write from the Mind set of being different than what's out there now?
No. I write what I feel sounds good. I think if you try and write something just to be different from what's out there already then 90% of the time it's going to be crap. Everybody is unique and so if somebody comes out with a new sound or style I think it's down to their personality and that person being them and not because they set out to be different.
What's the best record store in your town?
Spillers Records in Cardiff. It's a small independent record store which has everything you could ever want and is really inexpensive. It's also the oldest record store in the world and it has a load of mojo! You should check it out because it's always being threatened with closure. Check it out http://www.spillersrecords.co.uk/
Thanks for joining us. Can't wait to hear the next album!
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