{"id":28857,"date":"2013-05-22T12:01:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T12:01:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-arcane-roots\/"},"modified":"2018-03-11T01:37:53","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T01:37:53","slug":"interview-arcane-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alreadyheard.com\/staging\/interview-arcane-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: Arcane Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s here! After plenty of hard work and recognition after their <\/span>‘Left Fire’<\/em> EP, <\/span>Arcane Roots<\/strong> have finally released debut album <\/span>‘Blood And Chemistry’.\u00a0<\/em>And what is the blood and chemistry behind the album? Well you’ll be treated to melodies, off putting time signatures and plenty of riffs.<\/span><\/p>\n

It would be an easy comparison to bring up Biffy Clyro, and that’s something we spoke about when we met up with vocalist\/guitarist Andrew Groves before their London show on their recent tour of the UK. Other topics include the journey from ‘Left Fire’<\/em> to ‘Blood And Chemistry’<\/em> and pagan ritual tools…<\/p>\n

Already Heard: Here we are at the Electrowerkz in London \u2013 are you looking forward to the show tonight?<\/strong>
Andrew Groves: I am indeed; London shows are always “the big show” for any band, because that\u2019s where the press are, but for us it\u2019s our home show as well, and it\u2019s become a really special thing \u2013 kind of like sleeping in your own bed. It\u2019s really nice that we get to go to some amazing countries, and do some amazing things and play in places we\u2019ve never been to before, and be in hotels, and that\u2019s fun, but after a while I can\u2019t wait to get into my old slippers. At the same time we know it\u2019s going to be an amazing response, and every time we play here I almost well up, just to see all these people that bought a travel card for me. It\u2019s a very surreal and humbling experience.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: The new album has just been released \u2013 congratulations! Talk me through the journey from the first EP up to now.<\/strong>
Andrew: ‘Left Fire’ our first EP IS as it sounds \u2013 that kind of left field type of approach. We wanted ‘Left Fire’ to be out of the starting blocks; guns blazing, spiky, angular, as many things in one song as possible. Before ‘Blood and Chemistry’ we toured ‘Left Fire’ for two maybe three years. And we learnt a lot, and loads of things happened as a band, and we had to equate with all those things. Before we did the album the hardest thing was just the fact that we had done ‘Left Fire’ and it had done really well, and now we had a label and managers involved, and all these other people. And they had expectations and I had expectations of what my first album was going to be\u2026 and what do we want to do with that? What do WE want to be? What band are WE going to sound like? And where are we going to go with our music? We did almost everything under the sun to almost force that feeling, and it ended up being that three of us went to record some demos, and for some reason the recording equipment was a bit late so we had some extra time, so we just rehearsed. And then we were like \u2013 \u2018we\u2019ve not rehearsed in years!\u2019 Like, we\u2019ve never been in a room; we\u2019ve just played gigs. We\u2019ve been kind of lucky and lazy that we can just get up on stage and play and its fun. Then we just started writing songs really quickly, and I talked about what I wanted the songs to sound like and the ideas and where I wanted it to go\u2026 and then we just started knocking out songs.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

AH: Does the title \u2018Blood and Chemistry\u2019<\/em> mean anything or have any significance or did you just think, \u2018yeah that sounds cool.\u2019
<\/strong>Andrew: So lyrically, the whole album is this tie of emotion to something that\u2019s kind of hard and very physical, with blood being very warm\u2026 and the whole album just seems like a very crimson coloured album, and it has this kind of warming thing. And then chemistry is quite hard and calculated and cold, and lyrically the songs all play around with that juxtaposition \u2013 you can use science to describe something but it can\u2019t describe how it feels. I liked playing around with that.\u00a0At the same time it was us finding our \u201cbrotherliness\u201d. We asked the label to stop everything so we could rehearse for a month, and we worked from 9 til 6 every day just rehearsing. It was great to wake up and be like; \u2018What am I going to create today with my two best friends?\u2019 So it became about that chemistry between the three of us.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: In terms of the record \u2013 did you have a manifesto going into the studio and a clear idea of what it was going to sound like or did that happen organically during recording?<\/strong>
Andrew: A bit of both \u2013 we were working with a new producer who initially we argued against, having always used Chris (‘Left Fire’ producer) \u2013 he lives with us and we\u2019re very good friends, and we\u2019re always under the ethos that the people we work with are growing with us, and will still excite us every time we work with them. It actually became a bit of a power struggle between us and we had so many stresses and strains and long nights. But we got there and I ended up talking to him all night about what we believed music should be about. We didn\u2019t even know what it was going to sound like. We went to the studio and I was like; \u2018I\u2019m gonna chat to the guy and be like, look; this is the music I\u2019m into, this is what I believe music should be about\u2019.\u00a0Going to the studio and recording the smallest little things that nobody hears but they\u2019re just cheekily under there, and a cacophony of lots of things\u2026 I love the idea of that whole John Frusciante and Omar Rodgriguez train of thought, of the record moving along but so subconsciously \u2013 and this producer was a master of that, so he had my heart very quickly. We just knew we wanted to make something that stood up and was ballsy and kicked the shit of stuff when it needed to and it really slammed, but at the same time I wanted it to be beautiful and something I could just sit back and listen to the intricacies of it and the nice little treatments underneath it. As long as I was satisfied that everyone had put all their heart and soul into it, and really concentrated on it and worked hard enough that it would be a really good record. But we were surprised the first time we heard it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Did you record a lot of stuff or just the album\u2019s worth?<\/strong>
Andrew: We recorded exactly 12 songs because that\u2019s what I wanted the album to be, and I didn\u2019t like the idea of recording 50 million songs and then cutting it down \u2013 it\u2019s kind of like saying well lets have 50 million kids and then get rid of some. I love those children, thanks. We\u2019re not Romans! <\/em>So we recorded exactly 12 songs. And then it ended up being 10 songs.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Coming up you\u2019ve got Takedown Festival, and of course Reading and Leeds amongst some other festivals. Which festival are you looking forward to playing the most?<\/strong>
Andrew: Reading and Leeds is going to be awesome \u2013 just because it\u2019s Reading and Leeds. And seeing our name on that poster is like… wow. And I get to see Nine Inch Nails, which is going to be awesome, and we get to hang out with Biffy. Arctangent festival is going to be really good too \u2013 the guys that run that are the same guys who run 2000 trees. Also BBK in Bilbao is going to be good, as we\u2019ll get to see Twin Atlantic who we toured with.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: You touched on seeing Biffy Clyro there\u2026 reading over some reviews of ‘Blood & Chemistry’<\/em> \u2013 the Biffy comparison really comes up a lot\u2026<\/strong>
Andrew: Yeahhhh\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Do you get sick of it?<\/strong>
Andrew: When I\u2019m in a good mood it\u2019s fine, but when I\u2019m not in a good mood I find it a little bit lazy. It\u2019s just a bit… come on… I\u2019ve got a beard… ok\u2026.\u00a0It\u2019s cool, I understand that journalists need something to reach for and you need to be like; this band sounds like blah blah. You know when someone\u2019s mum says, \u201coh you\u2019re in a band?\u201d And you sigh.\u00a0 And they say \u201coh what\u2019s it sound like?\u201d And you have to say Biffy. Because it\u2019s the only band that they might have a chance of knowing. So fair enough. The funny thing for me is the amount of times I\u2019ve described something to someone and said \u201cI want this part of the song to be like this\u2026kind of like Biffy.\u201d Then the bits that we actually think sound like Biffy no one else does or picks up on. It\u2019s always some other random part.\u00a0They\u2019re awesome guys and they\u2019re very kind about us and we can\u2019t deny that we listened to them a lot as kids. They\u2019re an awesome band. They\u2019re just writing good songs. At the time of writing the album I was just listening to Meshuggah and Every Time I Die. And then KT Tunstall.<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: A perfect fusion\u2026.<\/strong>
Andrew: Haha yeah. We\u2019ll let the music do the talking; I think we\u2019re slowly carving our own mark. People go “Is it Muse or is it Biffy?” Hopefully there\u2019s a third option now. It\u2019ll be annoying for a long time, but people feel the need to put you in a box and we\u2019re aware of that\u2026.so we couldn\u2019t do a record that was TOO out there because it needed to fit into a space. Otherwise that\u2019s the first thing that people write about.\u00a0But I\u2019ve seen some really cool reviews where I\u2019ve been like; “You GET it.”<\/em><\/p>\n

AH: Other than the obvious \u2013 Toothbrush, pants, pagan ritual tools… what\u2019s the one thing you can\u2019t leave at home when touring?<\/strong>
Andrew: Pagan ritual tools? Well\u2026 I like my toothbrush and I like my pants\u2026 but I take this watch everywhere with me, and I like that too. I like shirts\u2026 a nice clean ironed shirt, just makes me feel nice about myself for the rest of the day and gives me that extra 5% I need to play a good show.<\/em><\/p>\n

‘Blood And Chemistry’<\/em> by Arcane Roots<\/strong> is out now on Play It Again Sam<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Arcane Roots<\/strong> links: Website<\/a>|Facebook<\/a>|Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n

Words by Katie Malcolmson (@KAMalcolmson<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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