Saturday, October 04, 2014

Interview with Stiletto Farm

 
Stiletto Farm. I love them and so should you. 
Especially seeing how much their full-length debut 
album, "January Sales", kicks major ass! I want 
to thank the guys for talking with us today and 
(if you haven't already) be sure to check out my 
review of the band's (very cool) full-length debut 
below!
 
Andy: For our readers who might not be all that 
familiar with your band would you please introduce 
yourselves. Whose who in Stiletto Farm?
 
Stel: I'm Stel, I'm the bassist and singer.
 
Davyd: I'm Davyd, I'm the guitarist.
 
Newt: I'm Newt, I'm the drummer.
 
All: And together we are STILETTO FARM!
 
Andy: Stiletto Farm is "the last wish of a dying 
friend". If it isn't too uncomfortable to talk about 
could you tell us the story behind that 
statement?
 
Stel: Sure, it doesn't make us feel uncomfortable 
at all. The fallen friend is a guy called Jason White. 
He was a mate Davyd and I used to hang around with. 
He came up with the idea for this band. We planned 
the whole thing out together quite meticulously, 
despite the fact that none of us could play anything. 
His death came without warning and scared the shit out of us. 
Obviously there was only one reasonable course of action 
after that ...Learn to play, take on the world, get 
revenge!
 
Davyd: Jay was one of those people who could entertain 
a room without even trying, a true rock star!! Of course 
the only logical thing for Stel and I to do was keep on 
rocking for him. And we play so loud that 
I'm sure he can hear us wherever he is!
 
Andy: Musically what influences Stiletto Farm as a band?
 
Stel: Anything and everything, even things we totally hate! 
Even a crap song can have a chord transition or something 
you like the sound of ...and then you can swipe it! Hooray!
 
Davyd: We all have a massive range of inspirations. 
If it can make you move then it'll influence us.
 
Stel: But mostly Cliff Richard!
 
Andy: And as individuals?
 
Stel: Anything delivered with conviction, I wanna 
hear something that makes me believe that they believe it. 
You can't go wrong with Motorhead (Andy-You got that right!) 
or early Manic Street Preachers. Also I've got a real soft 
spot for the old Kings of Rock 'n' Roll, Little Richard and 
Elvis Presley. You can't beat that stuff.
 
Davyd: Motorhead runs through mine and all of Stiletto 
Farm's veins, but give me some Backyard Babies or 
The Wildhearts with their killer riffs and vocal harmonies. 
On the flip side give me some ear bleeding shredding 
and brutal drumming from the likes of Black Label Society or 
Pantera, I love it all. Though I can't forget the band's 
who first inspired me to pick up a guitar like The Beatles, 
The Who, Chuck Berry, Muddy Waters. Without these guys,where 
would rock be?!
 
Andy: Nowheresville! That's where! You are so right. Without
those early bands/artists (along with The Rolling Stones)
rock ass we know it just wouldn't be the same. 
 
Newt: I think for me personally stuff like Motley Crue, 
Skid Row.. etc... Old 80's rock/metal, its always been my favourite 
and helped me develop my drumming style to more of a personal one. 
But I'm also into my blues rock purely because of how sweet 
it all sounds! I'm pretty easy going, as long its none of that 
fake crap you hear on the radio!
 
Andy: I agree. Thankfully you can usually pick out the fake
crap from a million away! Otherwise (and again, this is one thing
that I really love about your band!) it sure as hell seems as
if all of our music collections have a similar flow. But anyway,
the 2012 single "Decimation Baby" was your first 
release correct? It must have seemed a bit surreal 
re-recording it for your full-length debut album. 
I mean you've come a long way!
 
Davyd: There was a little deja vu re-recording it, 
but from listening to the original and knowing it 
could be better it was a blessing in a way being able 
to do it justice this time and make it a real 
ballbreaker of a track.
 
Newt: I wasn't in the band when it was originally recorded, 
but I took a go at changing it up a bit, making it into 
something different so when we came to re-record it, it came 
back with the punch we wanted, and I bloody enjoyed doing so!
 
Stel: We reluctantly released the original in 2012. 
We weren't happy with how it turned out, but we 
needed something out there. It was a real boon to redo 
it bigger and better. The new version 
makes the old one sound weak as piss!
 
 
Andy: I'll agree to that. The updated take sounds beefier. 
There's more of an edge to it. You had the technology to 
rebuild it and you did. Kind of like the Six Million Dollar
Man! LOL! Back to the album though.
Besides the more obvious numbers what songs 
were written specifically for "January Sales"?
 
Stel: 'Dead To You' and 'Princess' were the songs 
we cobbled together just before going into the studio. 
We had a lot of ideas for extra guitar parts and 
keyboards and stuff for those songs, they were written 
to be played in the studio. The other songs were 
written with the live performance in mind, but we 
were always aware that they would have to 
fit on an album together at some point.
 
Andy: How has the reception been for the new 
tracks from fans?
 
Stel: Other than yourself and a select few others, 
nobody has heard anything yet. The album will be 
released early October. That said, we did release the 
song 'Adrenaline TV' as a little sneak peek and the 
reception to that has been overwhelmingly positive. 
I think people are surprised at how much better than 
our last single 'Bad Reception' it is.
 
Newt: My Mum likes it! 
 
Andy: Hey, as long as Mom is happy that's all that 
matters anyway! LOL!
 
Andy: So, tell me about "Princess". As I don't have 
the benefit of having a lyric sheet in front me could 
you break it down for us? It actually seems to be quite 
the departure from what (lyrically at least) lies at 
the heart of "January Sales"
 
Stel: 'Princess' is little uplifting number about 
how we live in a world that will allow someone as 
debauched as Nicki Minaj to show her face at the 
Nickelodeon Kids Choice Awards. If I was a young girl 
in today's world, I would feel very lost and betrayed. 
The idea of doing a ballad was a bit of a risk for us, 
but we figured if we filled it with as much hate as 
the rest of the album we could pull it off.
 
Davyd: You know it's all gone to shit when little 
kids are singing Rihanna songs about s&m
and twirking along to Miley "chicken legs" Cyrus. 
Let kids be kids!
 
Andy: You're so right guys. Today's kids have to grow 
up way to fast and more and more if seems as if 
everything-TV, movies, magazine and music is 
overtly sexual. Like Davyd said, let kids be kids!
 
Andy: Staying on the topic of subject matter we have 
"Covered Bruises". Could you touch on this number?
 
Stel: Drugs, anti-depressants, self abuse, megalomania, 
and dragging yourself out of hell! All the good stuff! Haha!
 
Andy: Toss in some sex (for adults only kiddos!) and 
that sure as hell sounds an awful lot like rock and roll!  
 
Andy: One of the key things that I took away from an 
album like "January Sales" was how there was so much 
variety, musically-speaking. Was there ever a discussion 
about making "January Sales" as varied as possible or 
did things simply evolve in that fashion? Given your 
many influences I'm leaning towards the latter.
 
Stel: Lyrically we had an agenda. None of the lyrics 
deal with fantasy, they are all grounded in the real world. 
They all deal with some kind of harsh truth. However, 
musically it was pure instinct. It's just the 
way it naturally came out.
 
Davyd: The album just seemed to evolve over the last year, 
I don't think we ever said let's make a Punk song, then a 
Metal song, then a ballad. We just played and what you hear 
is what happened.
 
Andy: As you are smack dab right in the middle of it what 
is your opinion on today's rock scene?
 
Stel: There's a whole shit-load of these 'Metal by numbers' 
bands, bands playing it safe, because they know it makes 
money. Most record companies don't want to gamble, 
so the bands that get the recognition are boring as all 
hell! Also a lot of Hard Rock bands seem to be embarrassed of 
themselves, bands like The Darkness and Steel Panther. 
I get the feeling those bands are poking fun at themselves 
because they feel they have to. We got laughed out of 
town when we started, because we do what we do and we're 
serious about it, we didn't feel the need to turn ourselves 
into a 'joke band'. We just gave everyone the finger 
and carried on regardless. Not many bands dare to be themselves 
for fear of being torn down, It's a shame.
 
Andy: I cannot stand The Darkness and Steel Panther 
for that exact reason. What's more it just kills me how 
magazines like Metal Hammer just kiss their asses like 
they are the greatest thing every! Give me a break!
 
Davyd: Most labels are just too scared of originality. If it 
sold records last year, let's flog that dead horse this year! 
The amazing, original music seems to get left by the wayside.
 
Newt: There's a lot of good bands out there 
investing a lot of their own time and money into 
making music their career, but it all seems to 
be getting pushed out of the way by this 
new "Hardcore" scene which personally I'm not a fan of.
 
Stel: Basically, what we are trying to say is 
everyone is a smelly cunt ...except us! Haha!
 
Andy: I couldn't agree more! Haha!So tell me guys, 
what's next for the world's greatest rock and roll 
band? World conquest?
 
Stel: As soon as the album's out we'll be heading 
to the south side of England (we're northerners you see) 
That will be our first stop. Then I guess it all depends 
where the album does best when it comes to our 
next destination. We are looking forward to escaping 
the country though, that's for sure, haha! World conquest? 
Why not?!
 
Andy: I imagine everyone reading this is asking the 
same question-Where can I find out more about Stiletto Farm?
 
Stel: www.stilettofarm.com, Twitter, Facebook, 
even Instagram now! We're total internet whores! 
Talk to us!
 
Andy: How about the new disc? Where should fans and 
newcomers alike head in order to purchase a copy 
of "January Sales"?
 
Stel: You will be able to download it digitally 
from iTunes, or if you want a hard copy, you 
will be able to order it from www.stilettofarm.com
 
Andy: Excellent! While we are in the same ballpark 
how about other Stiletto Farm's merchandise? Some 
of us want to represent your band here in the states! 
Will we see t-shirts soon?
 
Stel: Aye, we've got badges and t-shirts and 
what-not on our site too. Though last I heard 
we were running low on shirts, we're due another 
order any time now.
 
Davyd: We'll be getting all kinds of goodies in 
the future so keep your eyes peeled. I won't be 
happy until we've got action figures, 
skateboards, stealth bombers, etc!
 
Andy: Very cool. As an action figure collector I would 
proudly display your figures next to my Walking Dead, 
Star Wars, G.I. Joe and Universal Monsters ones!
 
Andy: Alright, you three get the last word. 
Seeing as your awesome and stuff! Anything we missed 
that you might want to cover? Any wrongs that should be 
made right? Favorite cocktail recipe that you'd like to 
share? You've got the mic guys so tell it like it is!
 
Stel: We'll just leave you with the wise words of 
Elvis Presley: 'Truth is like the sun. You can shut it 
out for a time, but it ain't going away'. 
Cheers, we'll see you soon.
 
Andy: I hope so!
 
http://metalmark.blogspot.com/2014/09/stiletto-farm-january-sales.html
  

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