Band: ButcherBird
From: London, UK
Their formation story:
(Bart, vocals): “We’ve all been friends for many years and played in different bands together, but never in this line up until now. Our guitarist Rob quietly compiled a stash of ideas, riffs, and otherworldly pedal noises, and enlisted Iain and me (Bart) to help turn them into some songs. Chaz was playing drums for Delaire the Liar at the time, but he’s a productive beast and was able to lend his technical and songwriting skills to ButcherBird too.
"Overall ButcherBird feels like a really natural line up, with each member on their best instrument. We’ve found a great process for bringing Rob’s initial visions to life, with all four of us working together to refine the songs in the practice room.”
Their sound in their own words:
“We make music out of sharp angles and emotions. Our aim is to take a complex, technically challenging musical idea, and transform it into a coherent track that tells its own story. Musically, we love lurching structures, alien noises from Rob’s pedalboard (some made possible by his DIY pedals), as well as descending into pure filthy rock and roll power.
"'Trajan’s Massive Column,' the first single we released, is a good showcase of these elements, so if that’s your bag you’ll hopefully like more of what we make. Genre-wise, our deepest inspiration probably comes from early 2000s hardcore bands like Botch, Converge, and The Chariot, but we like to throw a few other influences in there from sludge, post-hardcore, and further afield.”
Latest release info:
“Drought/Deluge is our first EP and we never originally intended for it to have any grand theme, but when we looked at the lyrics, the common theme seemed to be balance: How we live our lives on a knife edge and tread a narrow path to keep everything together.
"For example, 'Circadian' talks about how we should avoid nagging doubts closing off our inspiration, and 'Of Roads and Realms' is about staying grounded with the people around us whilst not losing that sense of adventure and growth. 'Be the Rabbit' is about warding off extremism and stopping it corroding our society and minds.
"The fragility of this balance is what inspired the artwork for Drought/Deluge - trying to stop the extremes of our lives from pulling us apart.”
Future plans:
“We’re busy writing new material and would love to get some gigs booked too.”
What other bands from their region should we check out?
“We love a whole bunch of different bands in the UK, including the mighty Conjurer, Bossk, Sugar Horse, Host Body, Ashenspire, Love Rarely, and Chalk Hands. Every year we make our pilgrimage to ArcTanGent festival in the rolling hills above Bristol and discover new bands from the UK and all over the world.”
ButcherBird on social media: Facebook | Instagram
Tagged: butcherbird
