From time to time, one of our contributors will recommend an artist/band they think deserves your attention. No record labels, PR companies, bands or band’s management will ever have made these recommendations. It is simply one music fan putting their taste on the line in the hope of sharing good music. The questions are intended to give just a basic introduction to possibly your new favourite artist/band.
So without further ado, let’s crack on with another introduction, in which Silent Radio’s Paula Farr recommends Heavy Salad for your audible delectation.
Who are ya?
A cult of 4 super freaks and 3 white witches Lee, Allan, Rob, Esther, Lucy, Ally and Oscar who make music and fun together.
Where are you from?
Earth mainly, everyone always says East Manchester but it’s actually all over Manchester Stockport, Worsley, Mossley, Levenshulme, City centre and Newton Heath but we make all of music together in Ancoats.
How long have you been doing what you’re doing now?
As a band we’ve been making music together for 16 months now but individually all of our lives.
Is being a musician your full time job?
Yes and no, we are literally at it everyday and it seems to be getting busier by the hour, we totally live it. Actually making enough money to eat is hard in the music industry unless you’re Madonna so we still have to hold down day jobs as well and someone has to pay for Allan’s 33 different snare drums.
Are there any obvious influences in your music?
Flaming Lips, SFA, Pavement, QOTSA seem to come up a lot in reviews and stuff and they’re right but we have so many influences between us that not a day goes by when we aren’t sharing new music with each other.
I think we just want to be a wigged out version of the Beach Boys crossed with our imagination of what a Twin Peaks roadhouse house band would sound like!. Blur, The Beatles, Beastie Boys are a huge influence too collectively.
Are there any not so obvious influences in your music?
Yeah lots of 50’s stuff, weird old jazz and surf records, dance records, prog jams, Motown, anything from Twin Peaks, horror movies. Yeah quite a lot even like old french songs.
Any musical Guilty Pleasures? Come on you can share, we’re all friends here!
Lee always says there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure! So loads too many to mention we all really like a good pop hook. Megadeth, Fantasy by Mariah Carey (rad tune) come to mind.
Apart from yourself of course, what other band/artist would you recommend our readers check out?
Our friends Working Mens Club, The Maitlands and The Battery Farm are all totally awesome.
Tell us about the defining moment when you thought ‘Fuck, yes I want to be a musician!’
Rob: Watching my dad play a live AC/DC video on repeat like constantly when I was about 6 and then a couple of years later watching Slash walk out of a Church into the desert in a Guns N Roses video. I was like that’s what I want to do Forever.
Allan: Dad used to watch music shows like old grey whistle test and live stuff like Woodstock and AC/DC videos. And also hearing Bonham, Reni and Tony Allen – drummers that changed my life.
Lee: Probably Adam Ant and Boy George. They made you realise you could escape reality and create your own world.
Does what go on, on tour, stay on tour?
Golden rule isn’t it!
You’d probably have to ask the Priestesses (Lucy, Ally and Esther that) they are far more rock n roll than us dudes in the band they actually scare us at times. But yeah we’ve had a few wild ones particularly staying over in Sheffield when we were making the record and some pictures of the morning after were pretty chilling. I think if you listen to some of Lee’s words on the record there may be some nights where reality was blurred should we say.
What’s your favourite gig as a gig goer?
Medium to small size venue shows Gorilla, Deaf, YES etc. We go to a lot of gigs together but we’ve all been digging on recent shows from an Australian band called Tropical Fuck Storm (pre end of the world). Going to these kind of shows is always great as we always bump into a lot of friends. We also love to go out and watch friends bands and our favourite small venue to watch a show is the Eagle Inn – Salford. The place and the live room just has an electric vibe and one of our backing singers Esther runs the place.
Who, in your wildest dreams would you like to collaborate with/be produced by?
We’ve been so lucky to live out some dreams in our short-time as a band and work with both Ross Orton (Arctic Monkeys, WMC, Amyl and the Sniffers) and Christophe Bride (ACR) on our first album ‘Cult Casual’ and the experience was so good it’d be dreamy to work with those guys again. But it’d also be a dream, and this is something we talk about a lot, to work with Stephen Street, Mario C (Beasties) and also get out to Rancho De La Luna.
Best place for people to find out what you are up to?
Our FB, Insta or come have a chat at a show. Dipped in Gold Recordings is good place to pick up the record for exclusive stuff.
Anything to declare?
We are making it all up as we are go along and have no idea what we’re doing.
Nothing in that case but guitars, honest!.
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