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First of all, thank you very much for doing this interview! How are you today? No worries, it's a pleasure. And, well, it's Friday, another 50 hour plus week at work and not much sleep, the usual ;-) Tired, but looking forward to a relatively chilled weekend for once. (I realise this will bear no relevance by the time it gets on the site but not to worry!) 
I know you must have covered this before quite a lot, but how come you left Reth? Basically, for me, after a lot of great times, the band felt like it had started going in reverse. We'd done so much in the last few years (I joined mid 2005 after they'd been going for quite a few years already), and everyone was totally on the same page, wanting to push it up a few levels, get more mint gigs, supports, tours, recordings, festivals, the works, and then for most of 2009, aside from a couple of ace gigs in the first half, the last 7 or 8 months of it, it felt like I wasn't in a band. We managed 2 full band practices and 2 gigs in 7 months, so it was just dropping to bits really. Many conversations about sorting it all out were had, but generally it never got sorted, and there were a few tensions starting to arrive as well. Since this all came to light about me deciding to leave, there was talk of the next recording getting done no matter what, (we had 6 songs complete and another couple in parts), but 6 weeks on there has been no steps to sort that either, and with The Afternoon Gentlemen getting a big tour, release and festival appearances for the summer on their calendars, and not really hearing from anyone about trying to sort the recording, even just a quick demo of it so the songs actually officially exist, it totally seems to justify me leaving and doesn't look like there'll be anything happening in the near future. The last year has been massively frustrating and the band as a whole just wasn't getting it together. It's a shame as the last full practice and gig we did, everyone got on great and we sounded almost as tight as we ever have, but there you go. Just not enough commitment between the five bodies to make it fully work out how it should have. One thing I'd like to mention is, that, in part, the announcement was made to try and shake things up, to really make the folks in the band get it back on track, my actual statement was 'The December 5th gig in Bradford would be my last with Reth', but, then continuing conversations let it to be revised as it being my last gig, unless everyone sorted things out, and showed that things would change, but then others agreed with my sentiments about things going in reverse and not being happy with the situation, and so I wasn't the only one thinking that calling it a day was the option. We've just missed out on playing with Leng t'che down in London, a gig we were on the bill for for months, even though I personally would have been happy to play it, everyone else just seemed to decide that they were also done with the band. It's never been my intention for Reth to stop, I just wasn't happy, and there's no point in it continuing if it's not going to get any better. It's gutting because the band write some of the best music I've ever heard, honestly, especially the newer stuff, it's completely hats, amazing songs, riffs, ideas, heaviness, but it just shows there's a lot more to it than that. Do you know what the future of the band is? As far as I can see, the final recording won't get made, and there'll be no more gigs, so you'll all just have to make do with downloading the demo and the 'Precursors' CD for free here:- http://www.lovelytimepromotions.blogspot.com Are you planning on doing any more musical projects? Already on that. During the last 6 months whilst getting a bit fed up with the lack of action gig wise especially, I started looking around to set up another line up, a band that would be made up of individuals prepared to play a lot of gigs, committed to it, able to travel and do lots of stuff, eager basically, and it took a little while to fully sort it, but there is a line up that is writing songs and starting to jam, looking to get gigs from April onwards I'd say. The name of the band is DIASCORIUM, it's a name that I've had an involvement with in the past and it's being resurrected. As ever, same as with all the other bands I've been involved with, it's a big mash up of varying metal and extreme styles, with the option and possibility of covering whatever we feel like at the time. It's moving steadily towards the target of having springtime live outings. You can see how things are here:- http://www.myspace.com/diascorium 
How did you get into the music business in the first place? Was it always your passion? Pretty much. The first band I was in begun at high school when I was 15/16. An indie / rock / grunge / weird band, in the vein of Stone Roses, Primus, Hendrix, Sonic Youth. We were called Bathroom City! Fun name, fun times. I was good mates with them all and they needed a bassist, I didn't play, but the guitarist handed me a bass and said 'learn that', pretty much literally, so I did, and we wrote a dozen songs, played a few mint gigs, did a really scratchy demo tape, and that was me hooked! I'd done a few solo ambient and keyboard tapes before that, and then from then on, I've pretty much always been in bands, been involved with club nights or putting gigs on, and doing solo nonsense! My aim is to be involved with / be on a hundred releases, and am about half way there (if I'm including compilations and such like). Who are you favourite bands from the UK right now? So many. Bands like Neuroma, Foetal Juice, Kastrated, Mucofloris (new band ex-My Cross To Bare), Executive Distraction Tasks (even though they're not really a 'thing' any more), Noxious Coitus, Revokation, Electric Mud Generator, Rolo Tomassi, Crepitation, Wreck of the Minotaur, Aghast, Esclavage, Antares, Infected Disarray, this lot all float my boat, either always fun to watch live or just ace to listen to. Too many to fully list though, there's so many amazing bands in the UK, in many different styles at the moment. Do you have a career highlight so far? Playing the Obscene Extreme Festival in 2008 has got to be it really. I've done a lot of stuff over the years with bands, toured with Canvas (Belgium, Holland, UK), Narcosis (Ireland, 3 weeks around Europe), Reth (Ireland, UK), but as an individual time, that is definitely it, was the 4th time I'd been to the festival so I loved it already, and then when we actually got to play it on a blistering hot Saturday afternoon with a few thousand people watching, loads of our mates over there for the festival, and plenty of new faces actually eagerly anticipating us playing or coming up afterwards giving us broken English praise, that was just amazing. I don't remember much from about 2 hours after that funnily enough. The whole excitement and drinking sprees of the entire week all hit me and it's just a gap in my memory, but, every second of the actual gig is in there! I want to, and will, play many more things like that. I have to! What was the first album you ever bought? Christ, erm, first one that was of any goodness, probably Kill Em All or Ride The Lightning, maybe 'Peace Sells', not sure really because as soon as I was able to afford to buy records, I found an amazing second hand record shop in a small market in Leeds Town Centre called Right Track, and I was buying 10 things at a time, looking through their thanks lists and then buying all of those as well. As soon as I found that place, and through listening to the Radio 1 Rock Shows and John Peel programs, I was hearing about and finding the early stuff of Sepultura, Deicide, Morbid Angel and loving it. 
When did Lovely Times Promotions start and what do you do? You have recently stopped putting on gigs, sighting the general apathy in the UK from audiences not supporting the scene and bands being unprofessional. Why do you think this has happened? How can we solve it? Lovely Time Promotions actually only existed putting on gigs for 8 months. The whole thing only started at the beginning of 2009. Seems to actually have had a bit of an impact. I was offered the chance of putting on as many gigs as I wanted, all styles, down at The Subculture, so I took it on, me and a mate Craig (from Solitary Mass) put on about 50 gigs, just with the intention of trying to be as fair and honest with bands as possible, and try and push things as much too. It's a battle uphill, especially in Leeds, as there are so many venues and promoters doing things, it's tough to try and do something without treading on someone else's toes, and then if there is a clash, it's then twice as hard. We used to hammer everywhere as much as we could promotion wise, and we hope that we did the best we could, it felt like we did, but to be honest, I was getting more and more disillusioned with the amount of work for very little return, not necessarily money wise, even just turn out wise. Sometimes we'd put together a top line up, get a thousand plus flyers out, get all the bands to shout, post on loads of forums, do text outs, put it on some listings, hammer myspace and facebook everywhere, and still struggle to get 25 folks in. The apathy in this town is a disgrace. As ever, same with Raw Nerve which I've been doing for about 10 years, there's always more to dealing with bands or being involved with music than just putting on a gig here and there, which is where the problems are. A lot of people in bands just think they can plug in and play, get drunk, get paid and be loved, some of the people in bands know there's a bit more to it than that, but as far as getting REALLY down to it, and pushing their own band (which some of them don't really bother with) and also helping push other bands, venues, gigs, records (to buy or download, whatever), they don't think about it, they can't be bothered, it's all too much effort, and that's where everything breaks down. If the people in the bands have got this attitude, why should the people out there come and support smaller gigs or bands? The way I look at it, say there's 4 bands playing, 4 members in each, each member brings just 2 friends, then that's 32 people at the gig straight away, which is usually enough to cover venue / sound guy, some petrol for all the bands, in a smaller venue is a good start, and to me, that doesn't sound like too much to ask. I've always played in bands that could guarantee 20-30-40 people coming along to most gigs that we'd play, and that, for a promoter is a great thing, but some bands and people in them just don't make the effort to whip people's interest up. It was getting silly as well, the amount of bands, even vaguely established bands, that were turning up to the gigs without the equipment they said they could bring and share, or turning up as they were supposed to be going on. With every gig, we messaged all the bands, trying to get it all as organised as possible, and then on the day things would just go wrong because of bands not carrying out what they've said they'd do. In a few of the last half dozen gigs, we actually had to organise hire of the entire backline because between all the bands they couldn't get together a drum kit and two guitar cabs (my bass cab was at the venue already, for people to use if needed). It seems to me, as someone who has played in bands for 16 years, a bit ridiculous that bands don't have their own gear, or can at least to arrange to share or borrow something if required. Two of the gigs this happened at were all dayers! Eight bands and not a full backline was offered to be shared, but then two of the bands turned up with full backline anyway after we'd sorted out getting a hired backline together. Things like this make me despair at the scene, and the way that bands just want things spoonfeeding to them. There was enough time in the messaging before the gigs for them to say 'yes can we' or 'no we can't' but some bands don't even give you that. I realise not all bands want to 'get somewhere', but, if you're at the stage of playing gigs, you need to support, somehow, if it's in being able to bring some equipment, or being able to bring 20 friends to the gig, or at least shouting about the gig on your facebook, myspaces, forums, texting folk. A lot of bands blame promoters if anything goes wrong, but they need to be looking at themselves as well. Regarding the attending audiences, I realise (and am prone to it myself), that nobody can go to all the gigs out there, with commitments, economic climates and all that business, I'm not expecting anyone to do that. The worst thing is when someone says they are going to a gig and they don't, facebook event pages are the worst for this, a great tool, but why bother saying you're definitely going if you're not or have no intention. I've seen / played at gigs where 200 have said they were coming, and there was 20 or 30! It's frustrating for bands and for promoters. The number of times I've put on gigs in Leeds where there'll be plenty of folk travel from out of town, where mates from Manchester or Liverpool or Hull have made the effort to come here, but people 10 minutes walk away from the venue can't be bothered. It's a sorry state of affairs I think, and in the last year, there are many promoters who have given up on it, and I really don't blame them, the only thing I am putting on gigs through now is the once monthly club night I am involved with at The Subculture, which is just starting in January, called ARISE - http://www.myspace.com/ariseclubnights and we're only going to be putting on bands that won't mess anyone around, that will play their part in the gig, in the organising, the sorting of equipment, the promoting. Bands that put the effort in will get their rewards, without a doubt, if they want to get somewhere, all they have to do is put that extra little bit of effort in, and it definitely gets recognised in more places than they might even realise. What do you think of music downloading then? Is the CD dead? It's not dead, it's just too expensive! Simple as that. Granted there are loads of discount places and second hand shops and mail order places online that offer great prices / deals, and so people are still going to use them, and whilst it'll never be the same as owning the CD or vinyl, with all the artwork, the bands thoughts, and the physical thing in front of you, to be honest, downloading is almost as good, even if you're wanting artwork, usually it comes with it, or you can download that anyway as well. To me, my argument, as it always has been and always will be, for downloading, is that I get to hear a million percent more bands now than I ever did. People can get online, onto a good music blog for instance, and if they downloaded everything on it, they can hear and 'own' more things in one day than they could buy in 10 years. Most of these are bands that you wouldn't ordinarily ever get to hear their albums, or would have to risk a tenner to get their album, on the off chance that it's good or not. Obviously the best outcome is that people download everything, and still buy the things they think are good once they've heard it. In an ideal world that would be the situation. Something I’ve always wondered, how do you manage to get the rights tolet people download the music for free, like the Lidskjalv demo forexample? Well, in the instance of the Lidskjalv one, I'd actually been talking to the man behind that recording for a lot of years, back in the early times of MP3.com, Raw Nerve had a 'label' on there, and we set up about 20 releases on there (stuff like Tangaroa, My Cross To Bare, thekevorkiansolution) doing the artwork, promoting the bands, setting up their pages on there, all that sort of stuff, and Lidskjalv was one of them, simply because I'd heard the songs at the time and loved them, some really awesome black metal, wish they'd done a lot more recording.. So, that was something a little different to the other 'releases' we post on the blogs. All the stuff we class as 'free' on there actually is. It's with the band's consent, they've either got in touch and asked if we like it can we put it on the page, or (mostly) they're things I've found on band pages or on forums that the bands themselves have posted around. 
Who came up with the ‘No More Apathy’ compilations? Guilty. As a follow on to the whole rant a little higher up about the apathy of the gigs and general bands getting stuck in and shouting thing, I came up with that, and hopefully as the releases tick over, bands will get the idea that the more they shout for their own stuff, in turn helping other bands, the chances are that more folks will then turn around and help them, and so it progresses. I've done a few compilations and free releases in the past before and this just seemed another logical step to take after doing the gigs. How can bands get on them? Just check out the myspace page, at http://www.myspace.com/lovelytimepromotions and all the information is there. Are you still running Raw Nerve? What does that involve? Raw Nerve still exists, but, well, it's pretty much just limping along at the moment, shame really, I think the age of music forums is slowly passing, and whilst it's still an awesome place, the momentum for that has gone now. It used to be filled with thousands of reviews, band profiles, galleries, interviews and there was a night called Raw Nerve, all the initial gigs I put on were under the banner of Raw Nerve too, and there's definitely great potential for it, but it needs a proper team to take it on, something I was always trying to find when it was more in its prime. There have been some awesome, productive and dedicated people working with me on it in its more glorious times, it's a shame that the team couldn't have grown really. The forum slowly ticks over though, and is still worth a look I reckon... http://www.rawnervepromotions.co.uk Thank you very much for the interview, do you have anything to say to say toour readers? Thanks for giving me a chance to ramble for ages about stuff I love. I guess the main things to say is, rather than just listen to a band, if you like them, tell people! Post on your facebooks and myspaces about any bands, not just big bands, smaller bands for folks to check out, whack up their links, any good blogs for finding more obscure music, post about the local venues or mate's gigs. Really, if a few handfuls of mates of people in bands also start shouting about things, then it's the whole six degrees of separation thing, word about bands and gigs can spread like wildfire. And, if you're in a band, and you want to get yourself a bit more established, or the word spread, all hands need to be on deck in some form or another, in this day and age, promoting yourself is ultra easy, yes there's way more competition, but 95% of those bands out there won't bother, as a whole unit and individuals, to push themselves out there properly, the ones that do are the ones more likely to get to where they want to be. Maybe I'm just deluded or romantic or just stupid, but it makes sense to me. Anyway, yeah, thank you again, and keep up the awesome work on this site, it's a fantastic place.
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