Page 34 - Black Velvet Issue 85

BV85 pg32,33,34,35,36:BV85 pg34 16/06/2015 01:28 Page 3

BlackVelvetMagazine.Com - 34
ever going to get this money back?” We had became reality. cess to amazing things if you decide to seek
to borrow money, so obviously all that stuff Laurence says, “With the album, like it them out, whereas usually people don’t.
and then trying to do his vocals in a few said in the documentary, it was kind of weird Technology can be an extension of our-
days.” because that all happened in a kind of finite selves. It can be used to enhance things
“It was just a weird one,” says Kier. “I small amount of time as the album was or...”
lost my high range. It’s never happened be- going through, so that’s why it felt a bit “Technology is like when the Sex Pistols
fore, it’s been pretty resilient. But eventually weird. Maybe we were just looking for it. happened for rock music,” butts in Lau-
it came back. It took about four weeks for it Who knows. But it was a bit spooky in the rence. “Suddenly everyone could do every-
to come back to about 80%. Unfortunately sense of what was written about was almost thing. Technology has given the same sort
we had to go and record the album in two! I prophecised ourselves. We stopped playing of thing. We can now record in our own liv-
just had to struggle through that. I didn’t talk shows. We completely dropped an entire ing rooms – to an extent – you don’t get that
for three days at one point. That wasn’t fun. album, moved home to the countryside and amazing sound, but you can do things that
I just sat in Will’s bedroom watching docu- didn’t know what really to do with ourselves. you wouldn’t have been able to do. Record-
mentaries about space! It was a tumultuous It did mimic life. But all that stuff, we’d been ing we had to go round our friend Nick’s
experience.” through before, and that’s why we were writ- house and he had an 8 track recorder or
ing about it really. But it was more about the something. You couldn’t record on your lap-
nbreakable Hearts’, the album, is story. I was just using the story and it just top… well, you didn’t have laptops.”
‘Umade up of four sections; Exile, happened to be that the story kind of came “Now they have Garage Band on the
Loss, Recovery and War. These were in rela- true.” iPhone 6,” says Kier.
tion to the story that the songs are about, but “I think it’s made it easier to be creative
the guys say they’ve experienced each pre- he band weave important subjects in a way that they couldn’t have done years
viously in life. Tinto their story for their listeners – al- ago but at the same time it’s slowly disman-
“As soon as we left our home town we though you may not realize what they are at tling everything,” says Laurence. “It’s a hor-
were exiled,” says Laurence. “We left our first listen. Laurence tells Black Velvet, “The rible beast, technology. But yeah, it’s also
home town, moved to London and we had main thing, which is quite relevant now, is affecting our political landscape and rela-
nothing. We just worked all day, got home at kind of the rebellion of it and recognising tionships, everything. It’s like a disease.”
night… I remember when we first moved into what is wrong with the world and what’s The band have enjoyed using technology
our own flat we didn’t even have a TV or any- wrong with the country we live in. How much to their advantage, in relation to the band
thing the first week so we’d just get home is being hidden from us. All I’d like is for peo- though. Band mastermind, Cyrus Barrone
and sit there.” ple to look a little closer.” (AKA Shane), made an online community
“And look at each other,” laughs Kier. He adds, “There are a lot of general feel- specifically for Fearless Vampire Killers fans
“Yeah, that was definitely like being ex- ings and stuff that everyone should be able – namely, the Obsidian Bond. Kier tells us,
iled,” continues Laurence. “Loss… loss hap- to relate to. I think the main thing for me is “Until that point we’d never had somewhere
pens to everyone, doesn’t it? We’ve all lost that I wanted people to open their eyes a bit. that we could put some of our extracurricular
family and stuff like that. And the kind of re- Me included. Writing that story helped me stuff. And for some people that’s quite over-
juvenation, the more positive stuff definitely look at the way the world is and work out whelming. One minute you’re talking about
happened when we started getting success- how many things that I haven’t noticed that an album and then the next “We’ve got a
ful. We had a long time when we were play- I’m starting to see now.” comic” and “We’ve got a book” and then
ing shows to no-one.” “David Cameron!” spouts Kier – who in- “We’re doing this”. It’s all these contradic-
“We literally played to one person in Lon- cidentally tweeted for followers to vote tory things going on. Some people just need
don once,” says Kier. Labour at the recent general election. that simplified. So we wanted to define a
“We had some terrible gigs,” reminisces “Just the way the whole government is clean ‘this is who we are, look and listen, and
Laurence. “We have been in some bands at run by people who are completely out of if you want to know more, here’s this place
home where we’d been playing to two peo- touch with the real people,” says Laurence. and go deeper into it’.
ple. Fair enough they were our mates but we “That’s how it is in the world - Grandomina. “There are two halves essentially to
kind of had a thing going and a few fans. So There’s this elite society… they’re keeping Fearless Vampire Killers,” explains Lau-
we’d gone down, moved to London to try us poor for a reason. They want us to be on rence. “There’s the half that most of our fans
and be famous and we failed. And then we benefits. They want us to be at the bottom so are into, which is, we play music and we look
got Kerrang! and stuff like that and that was they can be at the top. You can only have so a bit odd. That’s who we are and you can
all coming back from it. Recovering. And many people at the top and they need us to look at that on the surface but if you want to
then the war, what had happened before the stay that way. That’s how they get power. go deeper then we’ve created this place
release was things going crazy, being on the They use us as a scapegoat.” where you can go which is the Obsidian
Kerrang! Tour, that felt kind of crazy. We had “I’m going to dislodge a few… Take my Bond. There was so much going on, and a
to fight for who we were. People were mak- place!” smiles Kier. lot of people didn’t need to hear all that. So
ing fun of us all the time for wearing makeup. having a place that the ones who really do
We felt like we were fighting. All these things n ‘Edge Of Eternity’ they sing, ‘It seems care can go, it just made perfect sense. We
kind of happened but they didn’t happen so Ito me that everyone’s got an excuse to needed to build something tangible rather
intensely as they’ve happened now. Now it’s hide. Nobody’s speaking their mind. They’re than just a single page on the website. We
so accurate. And I think we’re in the recovery just retreating inside’. Do they think that is needed somewhere all these people could
part now.” true in today’s society? then meet up and communicate in a safe en-
The band filmed a documentary while “Absolutely,” says Kier. “I think there’s a vironment as well rather than being on Face-
recording ‘Unbreakable Hearts’, which degree of numbing with all the stuff that we book and Twitter where they can be ridiculed
shows what the band went through while have access to, we can just plug in now. I and stuff like that. The same for us, we got
making the album. It shows the down points, think a lot of people retreat in on themselves to indulge our deepest geek fantasies in cre-
the tough times, the stress, the war… The and they kind of blind themselves to the is- ating it. Shane created a whole points based
band put the documentary on the deluxe ver- sues there are.” system where you get achievements. It’s like
sion of the album – but if you haven’t seen it “‘Where they implore for salvation’ that World Of Warcraft but in a social networking
fear not, as they are thinking of putting it on is Twitter and Facebook,” says Laurence. sense. You get coins, you get pretend money
Netflix at some point. It’s definitely worth “This is what we do now. Any thoughts we that you can then buy stuff with, old demos
watching, and shows that life in a rock band have we immediately snuff them out by wast- and various silly items, hopefully in the fu-
like Fearless Vampire Killers is not just a ing time staring at a screen. I do it as well. I ture, maps of Grandomina as well. So yeah,
walk in the park. We had even more respect sit there, sometimes I haven’t got any inter- we wanted somewhere we could indulge our-
for the band after watching the documentary net and I’ll be pulling on it.” selves, and then we could present a clean
as it shows how devoted the five members Kier adds, “I’ve been doing a lot of read- cut Fearless Vampire Killers image to the
are to the band, how much they put into the ing on this, not reading actually, listening… rest of the world, and then everyone can get
album, what problems came their way, and I’ve been watching a lot of stuff around it, it’s all the stuff that doesn’t necessarily need to
how they dealt with them. The four sections, quite an interesting subject, we won’t go into be shown to everyone on the Obsidian
Exile, Loss, Recovery and War, all came to it all, but with technology and the access of Bond.”
life while working on the album. It was al- information that we have now, it can be a
most fate how what they were singing about brilliant or crap thing. You have all this ac-
FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS