Interview: Blood Youth

It’s been a crazy few months for Blood Youth. Formed at the very end of 2014, the Lincolnshire-based band have quickly gone about making a name for themselves. Having played shows with Silverstein and Architects alongside a smattering of festival appearances, Blood Youth have been winning over many admirers with their brand of cathartic melodic hardcore. As well as appearing at Download, Takeover and Fury Fest, they also headed out on their first UK tour alongside Trash Boat in July in support of their debut EP. Released in June, ‘Inside My Head’ showcases the quintets mix of big guitars, pounding drums and scaling, impassioned screams delivered with thorough confidence.

After a busy summer, we met up with vocalist Kaya Tarsus and guitarist Sam Bowden just hours before their set at Hevy Fest. The pair discussed their recent festival appearances and the importance of playing them for a new band. They also commented in detail on the transition from being Climates to becoming Blood Youth as well their future plans.

AH: So Hevy Fest is the latest of many festivals appearances for you.
Sam: Yeah we’ve done Download. Was that the first one?

Kaya: Download was the first one but we’ve done stuff like Fury Fest and Takedown Fest as well earlier in the year. But this summer, Download was the first summer one we did.

AH: How important is it for a new band like Blood Youth to play festivals?
Kaya: I think it’s really cool because anyone can come and see you. We have people coming to our shows now and they say things like “the first time I saw you were playing Download.”

Sam: It’s great exposure for a new band because people come to the stage regardless. It’s just great for people to hear you for the first time at a festival.

AH: It’s good just to get your name out there.

Kaya: For sure especially at Hevy Fest as it’s for a lot more underground bands.

AH: You’ve just finished a tour with Trash Boat. How was that?
Kaya: It was really good.

Sam: It was a lot of fun. We had mad inflatables.

AH: I was at the Nottingham show.

Kaya: That was a good show. At a lot of the shows, we were just taken by surprise.

Sam: The music had been out like two weeks.

Kaya: Yeah the EP hadn’t been out that long and we already had kids coming to the shows knowing all the words.

Sam: We definitely didn’t expect any of that. It was sick.

AH: When I saw you in Nottingham, you wouldn’t think you had been a band for six months.
Kaya: (laughs) That’s a good thing.

Sam: Yeah definitely. Nottingham and London was just crazy. So good!

AH: How was the transition from being Climates to Blood Youth?
Sam: It’s not really a transition. That band had ran its course and we all wanted to do something different. So at the start of the new year we were like “ok this is what we want to do, this is the music we want to play.” As for Kaya coming in, we met each other for the first time as we were saying “lets put some vocals down on these tracks” and that was that. It was simply “Hey Kaya lets do some vocals.” Everything happened so fast. In every band I’ve done in the past, there has always been some sort of struggle but with this the vocals were down quick, the recording went great, the shows went great. We’ve been really lucky to get these festival slots.

Kaya: I wouldn’t even see it as a transition. That band ended and then we started this but obviously…

Sam: I think because it happened so fast, it looked like it transitioned into something else. We all just want to be playing music and we were just fast acting on it.

Kaya: For sure. I was a fan of Climates and we love fans of Climates to be like “I love Climates and I love Blood Youth” as well. I was in old bands and I’d expect fans of them to be exactly the same. That is what we’re aiming for.

AH: You mentioned the EP, how has the response been so far. Pretty positive?
Kaya: Yeah it’s been pretty crazy. We weren’t really expecting the sort of coverage it has been getting. We do read reviews and things like that and it’s really nice to hear what people have been saying. It has gone down well.

Sam: We can’t complain at all. The amount of reviews and people sharing it and commenting on it has been great. It’s all been the same. We’re really pleased with it.

AH: After today you’re heading to Europe to play with Architects.
Sam: Yeah three shows with Architects and then a headline show in Frankfurt and then we play Destruction Derby. It’s a sick week.

Kaya: Yeah so first show with Architects tomorrow so that’s going to be mad. We’re all huge fans.

Sam: They’re like our favourite band. It’s going to be so good.

AH: You’re also playing Ghostfest in September.

Kaya: I’m really looking forward to Ghostfest personally because I’m from the Leeds area. Me and our tour manager grew up wanting to go to Ghostfest and be like “I want to play it so badly,” so when we got offered that I was so excited. Again with this festival (Hevy) I came in 2012 and Dillinger Escape Plan played, Architects played and stuff like that. I never thought my band would one day play, so it’s rad. But also Ghostfest will be amazing!

Sam: It will be really sick and we get to see Stray (From The Path).

Kaya: Chris, our guitarist, loves Hatebreed so he will be going off on one.

AH: Beyond on that what other plans do you have?

Kaya: There’s a few things we’re discussing and talking about. We do want to write more material. We’re currently doing pre-production for the follow up to ‘Inside My Head.’ We’ve done a lot of gigs in a short space of time.

Sam: We’ve got things in the line of we might have some stuff to announce for the end of the year but we also might not. Right now our focus is on this second EP, and carrying on from where ‘Inside My Head’ left off. I think things will be announced some time in the near future.

AH: Because you’ve playing a lot of shows since you’ve got together, has that helped you be more like a band?

Kaya: For sure yeah. Last night we actually watched clips from our first ever show and our second show was opening for Silverstein. We watched that and then watched a show we played a few months afterwards…

Sam: The difference is insane.

Kaya: It’s crazy.

Sam: We saw clips from the first show and we were saying “we sounded like that? oh god!” Even though it was only so many months ago, the progression in that short space of time has been great.

Kaya: Yeah. It has been getting tighter and tighter. So it’s all been good.

‘Inside My Head’ EP by Blood Youth is out now on Rude Records.

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