Prime singer Lee Heir:
"Instead of doing this interview online as per usual, I’m in the Playwright pub with the fellow frontman and guitarist who is one of my longtime friends in music - now of his new three-piece band Kill The Moon - Jake Marriott.
I caught them at the Chameleon Arts Cafe in Nottingham (Supported by Alice’s Ants and my other friends Zadkiel UK) and they were excellent, and with only a couple of recent shows they must be high up on the local scene’s totem pole already in terms of energy and rock songwriting talent. After having a good catchup over a few pints and discussing how Black Sabbath and the original Alice Cooper band were musically up there with the very best prog bands, we got down to business, with me on typing duties and Jake… Just being Jake."
LEE HEIR: It’s been an enjoyable evening catching up. Were you happy with your recent launch for ‘The Book Of Nothing’ single?
JAKE MARRIOTT: Very happy. For a Tuesday night at The Chameleon it was the best it could have been. We’re not extremely well known yet, but we got a good crowd, good supports… It was a great atmosphere.
LH: Did Alice (from Alice’s Ants) co-promote the gig with you, as she was on the door a fair bit that night?
JM: No she didn’t. None of the band are actually called Alice. Emily is the lead singer, Sam is the guitarist. They knocked it out the park. But I felt bad. They did a Blink 182 track for their last song and did it so well, I kept going on about it. I don’t normally like Blink 182 but it worked really well… I kept rambling on about it and I should have said “The rest of the set was good too!”
LH: Did you have a few pots (beers) that night?
JM: No, I was drinking water, my voice was so hoarse when I woke up the morning of the gig. So I drank pints and pints of water. I sang okay in the end… I only had 20 bum notes!
LH: Sorry, I’m just checking my intelligible typing. My ex used to take the piss out of me for my two fingered typing…
JM: You’re an impressively quick two-fingered typist.
LH: Thank you. I have to say, your performance the other night was the best I’ve ever seen you. It had so much energy, and I told you after the show that, even though you have the 70’s hard rock thing going on, you also had the kind of edge that you’d see from the likes of Andy Gill from the post-punk band Gang of Four.
JM: Thank you, that’s very kind to say. I’d had lots of technical issues and my guitar was out of tune. But it didn’t bother me like it would have in the past.
LH: Feedback?
JM: Yeah. Great feedback. The best since the Maze show (now-defunct Nottingham venue)…
LH: No, any feedback on stage I mean!
JM: Ohh yeahhh… I quite like the noise.
LH: Turn that fucker up to 11. Do you think your phenomenal jittery energy came from the fears about the sound and your voice?
JM: We just felt like a live band. It was authentic. I was happy with it, and didn’t worry too much. This is who we are, Kill the Moon, and these are the songs. Two songs into the gig, the panic set in and I sounded like the squeaky voiced teen from The Simpsons.
LH: The kid with the spots?
JM: Yes, thats him.
LH: So your new single… Tell me more, as I had no change and didn’t get chance to grab one from you the other day. What’s the track listing?
JM: The main track is ‘The Book Of Nothing’… and alongside it is a remix by Kim (Keeton - bassist/producer). I was saying to her last night “How did you pull it off?” She virtually sorted everything, t shirts, CDs, production.
LH: Where was it recorded?
JM: Kim’s bedroom. She really knows her stuff. We decided to get a CD ready for the gig. Spend loads of time promoting it, and make it a really good one.
LH: When did you record it?
JM: The weekend before.
LH: The weekend before??
JM: Yes. Cat Biggs did the art at the last minute and I was a bit worried that it might not fit the lyrics, as I’m quite passionate about getting that right. I needn't have worried, as with everything we've ever asked her to do, Cat nailed it and then some. I think that might be my favourite artwork we've used thus far, in fact.
LH: I thought it had an 80’s New Wave vibe to it, I’m hooked on bands like X (LA Punk band) at the moment.
JM: It’s colourful. A lot of bands are instantly dark these days.
LH: Like me with the skull and bones and the charcoal grey background on the new Prime CD…?
JM: Yeah… But your music and persona is naturally colourful.
LH: I like that musical mix, dark music with colourful artwork or anything that isn’t a 100 percent match. It’s a nice clash.
JM: That reminds me of when I left my previous band (Flaming Fields) and briefly formed a band called Robots with some metalheads. One of the guys used to take my tracks, and then every riff on there became a noodley metal tune. We had a cool robot motif on the first CD design, and I was thinking this could pop up at regular times throughout various releases - a little bit like Radiohead’s little creepy doll insignia… Instead, the guy came back to me and says “I think I’ve got the artwork and logo just right…” He comes back with a design that is a big skull on a black background.
LH: Ha ha, that’s never been done before. And there’s one more song on the new single?
JM: It’s the demo to ‘Fluctuate’.
LH: You played it twice the other night, it’s a great song.
JM: Oh yeah… we did, we encored with it! We needed something to send to promoters, and this song made sense, but it sounded like a demo as it had programmed drums, so its not the finished article. that will be on it's way soon!
LH: If you’ve got a solid track, why waste it…
JM: People around us, friends and family really liked it. I’d normally be paranoid about putting a demo on the CD, and I’d apologise for it, but not any more.
LH: It feels like you give less of a fuck now. Such as your search for your next drummer. You’re still trying to get a settled lineup obviously, but your temporary drummer Will Giddings was great.
(At this moment, myself and Jake spot a really creepy guy stroking the hand of a Chinese girl behind us. He says "You have long hands... Perfect for piano playing..." )
LH: Do you want a bit of this (drink)? (Lee looks down at his glass)
JM: Stop trying to get me drunk.
LH: So have Kill The Moon got any more songs to record?
JM: We have loads, we’ve made a great leap forward lately and it feels good. Without wanting to sound arrogant - again - I didn’t think I was technically good enough in the past… but now I know I'm a great ideas guy. So now I’m feeling more confident, this new stuff excites me the most. I feel like we’ve finally got the essence of what we’re all about. And (in terms of recruiting band members) we’ve arrived at a certain level now. If someone comes along saying “I dont wanna do this” then simply fuck off and join another band who doesn’t want to succeed.
LH: How long is it that we’ve known each other now?
JM: I was thinking about this earlier…
LH: Thirteen years I think.
JM: Yes, that’s about right, wow.
LH: You’d get lesser prison sentences, and it is like a prison sentence knowing you.
JM: I forgot I was an underage boy when you met me! (Laughs) Because you sent a 30 year old man to meet me…
LH: With a shiny silver jacket and a cigar…
JM: A Jamaican man in an all denim suit.
LH: We were so young when we met. Neither of us had bands, we were dreaming to be in one. Why didn’t we form a band together?
JM: I joined you briefly on bass. You had Steve (Walker) on guitar, Abby on backing vocals and Trevor the Jamaican on drums, and we’d practice at your house. Trevor was so relaxed and kept bursting into song randomly yet he was pitch perfect every time.
LH: I wouldn’t have stopped playing with you ‘cause I didn’t rate you; the project probably petered to the ground like most things I tried to start back then.
JM: Well, I felt like I should have been in a metal band back then.
LH: I’d completely forgotten about all that.
JM: You me a demo CD of tracks when we first met and I can’t remember what they were. I’ve got a vague memory of reggae punk.
LH: It was Steve on lead guitar, some demos I did with him and some local guys. I actually did a couple of acoustic gigs with Steve at the start of this year, I wanted to try something different and he’s always really open minded. But then he messed me around on an all-dayer in Matlock or somewhere, and decided to book loads of family stuff the same day. The gig turned out to be really crap, Phil Ashmore took our place, he’s one of the best acoustic people in the North Notts area but the poor bugger got drenched in torrential rain that night!
JM: Steve was always humble about his playing. “I should be much better , I've been playing for ten years…“ So I always thought, wow I’ll be amazing in ten years then… but I never got any better! (Laughs)
LH: I think you were similar players in a way… bursts of energy … That middle class aggression coming through! (Laughs)
JM: He just played simple chords with feeling, that should have stuck in my mind… Instead I thought “I want to play really complex thrash metal”… What a waste of time.
LH: Great catching up with you Jake.
JM: Let’s not make it so long next time!
LH: Definitely not.
Kill The Moon - "The Book Of Nothing" Single is out now on CD and MP3.
Prime UK Band - 'Art / Facts' compilation is out now. CD version is out in November.
Links:
Kill The Moon CDs can be ordered via - www.facebook.com/KilltheMoon.Band/
"The Book Of Nothing" can be heard at - soundcloud.com/user-720195280
Lee Heir of Prime UK Band is online at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ukprime + Twitter / Instagram: @primeukband + Youtube: @badfridaypictures
Spotify 'Art Facts' Link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2GocqlOhEgW5hoL4exwxrJ
"Instead of doing this interview online as per usual, I’m in the Playwright pub with the fellow frontman and guitarist who is one of my longtime friends in music - now of his new three-piece band Kill The Moon - Jake Marriott.
I caught them at the Chameleon Arts Cafe in Nottingham (Supported by Alice’s Ants and my other friends Zadkiel UK) and they were excellent, and with only a couple of recent shows they must be high up on the local scene’s totem pole already in terms of energy and rock songwriting talent. After having a good catchup over a few pints and discussing how Black Sabbath and the original Alice Cooper band were musically up there with the very best prog bands, we got down to business, with me on typing duties and Jake… Just being Jake."
LEE HEIR: It’s been an enjoyable evening catching up. Were you happy with your recent launch for ‘The Book Of Nothing’ single?
JAKE MARRIOTT: Very happy. For a Tuesday night at The Chameleon it was the best it could have been. We’re not extremely well known yet, but we got a good crowd, good supports… It was a great atmosphere.
LH: Did Alice (from Alice’s Ants) co-promote the gig with you, as she was on the door a fair bit that night?
JM: No she didn’t. None of the band are actually called Alice. Emily is the lead singer, Sam is the guitarist. They knocked it out the park. But I felt bad. They did a Blink 182 track for their last song and did it so well, I kept going on about it. I don’t normally like Blink 182 but it worked really well… I kept rambling on about it and I should have said “The rest of the set was good too!”
LH: Did you have a few pots (beers) that night?
JM: No, I was drinking water, my voice was so hoarse when I woke up the morning of the gig. So I drank pints and pints of water. I sang okay in the end… I only had 20 bum notes!
LH: Sorry, I’m just checking my intelligible typing. My ex used to take the piss out of me for my two fingered typing…
JM: You’re an impressively quick two-fingered typist.
LH: Thank you. I have to say, your performance the other night was the best I’ve ever seen you. It had so much energy, and I told you after the show that, even though you have the 70’s hard rock thing going on, you also had the kind of edge that you’d see from the likes of Andy Gill from the post-punk band Gang of Four.
JM: Thank you, that’s very kind to say. I’d had lots of technical issues and my guitar was out of tune. But it didn’t bother me like it would have in the past.
LH: Feedback?
JM: Yeah. Great feedback. The best since the Maze show (now-defunct Nottingham venue)…
LH: No, any feedback on stage I mean!
JM: Ohh yeahhh… I quite like the noise.
LH: Turn that fucker up to 11. Do you think your phenomenal jittery energy came from the fears about the sound and your voice?
JM: We just felt like a live band. It was authentic. I was happy with it, and didn’t worry too much. This is who we are, Kill the Moon, and these are the songs. Two songs into the gig, the panic set in and I sounded like the squeaky voiced teen from The Simpsons.
LH: The kid with the spots?
JM: Yes, thats him.
LH: So your new single… Tell me more, as I had no change and didn’t get chance to grab one from you the other day. What’s the track listing?
JM: The main track is ‘The Book Of Nothing’… and alongside it is a remix by Kim (Keeton - bassist/producer). I was saying to her last night “How did you pull it off?” She virtually sorted everything, t shirts, CDs, production.
LH: Where was it recorded?
JM: Kim’s bedroom. She really knows her stuff. We decided to get a CD ready for the gig. Spend loads of time promoting it, and make it a really good one.
LH: When did you record it?
JM: The weekend before.
LH: The weekend before??
JM: Yes. Cat Biggs did the art at the last minute and I was a bit worried that it might not fit the lyrics, as I’m quite passionate about getting that right. I needn't have worried, as with everything we've ever asked her to do, Cat nailed it and then some. I think that might be my favourite artwork we've used thus far, in fact.
LH: I thought it had an 80’s New Wave vibe to it, I’m hooked on bands like X (LA Punk band) at the moment.
JM: It’s colourful. A lot of bands are instantly dark these days.
LH: Like me with the skull and bones and the charcoal grey background on the new Prime CD…?
JM: Yeah… But your music and persona is naturally colourful.
LH: I like that musical mix, dark music with colourful artwork or anything that isn’t a 100 percent match. It’s a nice clash.
JM: That reminds me of when I left my previous band (Flaming Fields) and briefly formed a band called Robots with some metalheads. One of the guys used to take my tracks, and then every riff on there became a noodley metal tune. We had a cool robot motif on the first CD design, and I was thinking this could pop up at regular times throughout various releases - a little bit like Radiohead’s little creepy doll insignia… Instead, the guy came back to me and says “I think I’ve got the artwork and logo just right…” He comes back with a design that is a big skull on a black background.
LH: Ha ha, that’s never been done before. And there’s one more song on the new single?
JM: It’s the demo to ‘Fluctuate’.
LH: You played it twice the other night, it’s a great song.
JM: Oh yeah… we did, we encored with it! We needed something to send to promoters, and this song made sense, but it sounded like a demo as it had programmed drums, so its not the finished article. that will be on it's way soon!
LH: If you’ve got a solid track, why waste it…
JM: People around us, friends and family really liked it. I’d normally be paranoid about putting a demo on the CD, and I’d apologise for it, but not any more.
LH: It feels like you give less of a fuck now. Such as your search for your next drummer. You’re still trying to get a settled lineup obviously, but your temporary drummer Will Giddings was great.
(At this moment, myself and Jake spot a really creepy guy stroking the hand of a Chinese girl behind us. He says "You have long hands... Perfect for piano playing..." )
LH: Do you want a bit of this (drink)? (Lee looks down at his glass)
JM: Stop trying to get me drunk.
LH: So have Kill The Moon got any more songs to record?
JM: We have loads, we’ve made a great leap forward lately and it feels good. Without wanting to sound arrogant - again - I didn’t think I was technically good enough in the past… but now I know I'm a great ideas guy. So now I’m feeling more confident, this new stuff excites me the most. I feel like we’ve finally got the essence of what we’re all about. And (in terms of recruiting band members) we’ve arrived at a certain level now. If someone comes along saying “I dont wanna do this” then simply fuck off and join another band who doesn’t want to succeed.
LH: How long is it that we’ve known each other now?
JM: I was thinking about this earlier…
LH: Thirteen years I think.
JM: Yes, that’s about right, wow.
LH: You’d get lesser prison sentences, and it is like a prison sentence knowing you.
JM: I forgot I was an underage boy when you met me! (Laughs) Because you sent a 30 year old man to meet me…
LH: With a shiny silver jacket and a cigar…
JM: A Jamaican man in an all denim suit.
LH: We were so young when we met. Neither of us had bands, we were dreaming to be in one. Why didn’t we form a band together?
JM: I joined you briefly on bass. You had Steve (Walker) on guitar, Abby on backing vocals and Trevor the Jamaican on drums, and we’d practice at your house. Trevor was so relaxed and kept bursting into song randomly yet he was pitch perfect every time.
LH: I wouldn’t have stopped playing with you ‘cause I didn’t rate you; the project probably petered to the ground like most things I tried to start back then.
JM: Well, I felt like I should have been in a metal band back then.
LH: I’d completely forgotten about all that.
JM: You me a demo CD of tracks when we first met and I can’t remember what they were. I’ve got a vague memory of reggae punk.
LH: It was Steve on lead guitar, some demos I did with him and some local guys. I actually did a couple of acoustic gigs with Steve at the start of this year, I wanted to try something different and he’s always really open minded. But then he messed me around on an all-dayer in Matlock or somewhere, and decided to book loads of family stuff the same day. The gig turned out to be really crap, Phil Ashmore took our place, he’s one of the best acoustic people in the North Notts area but the poor bugger got drenched in torrential rain that night!
JM: Steve was always humble about his playing. “I should be much better , I've been playing for ten years…“ So I always thought, wow I’ll be amazing in ten years then… but I never got any better! (Laughs)
LH: I think you were similar players in a way… bursts of energy … That middle class aggression coming through! (Laughs)
JM: He just played simple chords with feeling, that should have stuck in my mind… Instead I thought “I want to play really complex thrash metal”… What a waste of time.
LH: Great catching up with you Jake.
JM: Let’s not make it so long next time!
LH: Definitely not.
Kill The Moon - "The Book Of Nothing" Single is out now on CD and MP3.
Prime UK Band - 'Art / Facts' compilation is out now. CD version is out in November.
Links:
Kill The Moon CDs can be ordered via - www.facebook.com/KilltheMoon.Band/
"The Book Of Nothing" can be heard at - soundcloud.com/user-720195280
Lee Heir of Prime UK Band is online at:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ukprime + Twitter / Instagram: @primeukband + Youtube: @badfridaypictures
Spotify 'Art Facts' Link:
https://open.spotify.com/album/2GocqlOhEgW5hoL4exwxrJ
Primeband.co.uk
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