London has for long been a breeding ground to some of the hardest bands in Europe. Not only big city life creates a need for creative release of everyday anger, stress and frustration, but also the presence of notorious bands like Knuckledust, Ninebar or TRC creates a good environment for this type of sound. Tirade is one of the newest addition to London scene having been around since 2010, although the guys involved in the project have been active in number of household bands like Injury Time and Ninebar. Here’s what Tom, who does vocals for the Tirade, had to say in an interview we did recently.
London has for long been a breeding ground to some of the hardest bands in Europe. Not only big city life creates a need for creative release of everyday anger, stress and frustration, but also the presence of notorious bands like Knuckledust, Ninebar or TRC creates a good environment for this type of sound. Tirade is one of the newest addition to London scene having been around since 2010, although the guys involved in the project have been active in number of household bands like Injury Time and Ninebar. Here’s what Tom, who does vocals for the Tirade, had to say in an interview we did recently.Listening to the demo it sounds like the band was born out of a fascination with the raw and heavy side of hardcore music – can you tell me about that?
Well we originally came together with the aim of playing heavy mid tempo hardcore. Over the course of writing our first 6 songs our sound has strayed a bit from that, but as you can tell we definitely are influenced by some of the older dark and heavy bands eg Sheer Terror, Breakdown, Merauder.
This is some of the stuff that really got me deep into HC back in the 90s. Of course as you can probably hear we have some elements of more typical straight up HC and maybe a couple of beatdown type moments too, that definitely describes what we are into as a band.
How would you describe the lyrical content of the first demo? Is there any advice or knowledge that you would like to get across to the listeners?
The first demo lyrics are all quite personal, dealing with topics such as overcoming everyday struggles, people who are all talk and image but no action, growing older and more disillusioned, fighting against whatever holds you back. So not really looking to put across too much of a specific message with my lyrics, they are a vent for the experiences, frustrations and realities of everyday life and about getting beyond them, something I think everyone can relate to.
London hardcore has always been a breeding ground for heavy, tight sounding bands. What do you attribute it to?
Don't know really, some pretty diverse bands have come from London and continue to emerge, but I guess acts like 50 Caliber, BDF and in more recent years Prowler have been instrumental in exposing the metallic beatdown style that our city became notorious for. Newer bands like Crippler seem to be keeping this sound going for the next generation. You are definitely right in thinking there is an affection for the heavier end of things here!
The other thing about London based bands is the longevity of the bands, something not that common among other scenes. You have Knuckledust as a good example. It deserves respect, especially taking under consideration the high cost of living in London. What’s your opinion about it?
We have a core of older heads in London, of which I am proud to say I am one, who have been going to shows and playing in at least one if not more bands for well over a decade with no sign of quitting, that's what I would attribute the longevity of many London bands to.
Knuckledust are definitely an inspiration and I am proud to say Tirade's first show was their 15 year anniversary show, an amazing night for many reasons. I guess their consistency and dedication as well as that of other bands helps to keep the spotlight on London.
Can you recall any challenges you faced while balancing the personal life with being part of hardcore?
Its an ongoing challenge, balancing life, work and relationships with rehearsing, recording and playing shows, obviously I spend a lot of time looking at schedules so that we can book practices as we are still writing new material. We are all older guys who still devote lots of time to HC so we have outside pressures like work or looking for work, and our guitarist Si will be getting married in a few months.
So everything we do has an element of challenge in it, we are all fully committed to Tirade though so all these outside pressures are just something we have to deal with in order to further ourselves as a band, we will never let them get in the way of something we love.
Have you ever felt like giving up? What kept you going?
Not sure if you mean giving up on life in general or HC? I guess the two are linked very closely in my case, hardcore really has always kept me going and given me something to look forward to. I love to play, write or just go to shows and this has stayed constant with age, continuing to inspire me along with the obvious things like family and friends.
Do you remember what stirred the desire to be in hardcore band in you?
That is going back a while, I guess it was the mid 90s when everyone in London was quite new to hardcore, first getting to know each other, realising what was possible and making connections. The whole 'support your scene, Do it yourself' aspect of hardcore was fresh in everyones minds and it was a very different time to now.
As for nowadays and what started Tirade, we are all good friends and longtime hardcore fans who spend plenty of time together anyway, our bassist Paulie, drummer Ammo and guitarist Si had been jamming together in one way or another for a while, I was looking for something else to get involved in having finished the new Nine Bar album, and we first got together and started writing in November 2010.
Do you still follow any new bands in the scene? What are some UK bands we should check out?
Yes of course, both on a UK level and also worldwide I am always keen to hear new bands.
In the UK I would urge people to check out all the Rucktion Records acts such as my other band Nine Bar, also Kartel and Diction who both have new releases in the works, Chains of Hate who have a split CD with Surge of Fury about to drop, as well as True valliance, Deathskulls, Prowler, Injury Time.
Cold hard truth and Pay the Price are some other bands from around the UK I would definitely recommend.
What are the plans for the band? What should we except from Tirade in the future?
We plan to keep on writing, we already have a couple of new songs well on the way to being ready so we are at the early stages of thinking about a followup release. Also hoping to play as many shows as possible in 2012. I'm also gonna be designing shirts in the next few weeks.
