BACKLASH Interview

BACKLASH WANT TO ROCK'N'ROLL ALL NIGHT, AND PARTY EVERY DAY.
AT LEAST, THAT'S THE IMPRESSION SECRET ADMIRER GOT WHILST GETTING TO KNOW HARRY, RYAN, DAVID AND JAKE A LITTLE BETTER.



Why did you choose the name Backlash?

David : I did an engineering course a while ago and er, there was like a thing on the machine and it’s called ‘backlash’ where it kind of flicks back and my teacher just said ‘you are going to get backlash from that’. And I just thought that’s an alright name. I put it to them and they kinda liked it really.

Jake : And it does slightly refer to us, sort of thing. Because time is moving on but we are trying to flick it back again and get some more classic rock going on.

Harry : I wasn’t intelligent enough to get that, I just thought it sounded decent.

What inspires your lyrics?

David : It’s bits and pieces that I pick up. Like if I hear something, like ‘Pull The Plug’ was something my mum said. So I write it down and try and come up with some lyrics and fit it to whatever. Like, usually it’s about women. And rock’n’roll. And we just put it together and see what it’s like.

Harry : I just write strange instrumentals.

What do you want people to get from your music?

David : Just, you know, appreciate it really and just rock. You know, we are trying to do the old style. But you know, bring it back and...

Harry : Maybe like introduce people to bands we have been influenced by.

David : Yeah, keep rock’n’roll living really.

Harry : That’s our goal in life.

What influences the Backlash sound?

David : We’ve all got our different influences. Mine are AC/DC and the Iron Maiden sound.

Harry : I like a lot of Maiden, and Bucket Head.

Jake : I’m influenced by basic drummers but also by more the technical drummers. Sort of Guns’N’Roses era.

Harry : Judas Priest is a big one as well.

Ryan : I don’t know why but I started off being influenced by Nirvana and then I met these guys and I kind of changed the music style that I liked.

Harry : Ali G.

What’s the best gig you have played so far?

Harry : It’s either the talent show or Racehorse pub.

David : I think The King Billy pub.

Harry : That was fun.

Jake : That was really good.

Were you playing to your kind of crowd there?

Jake : There was tonnes of drunk people, you know.

Harry : Some guy said we sounded like a Mexican American on guitar, or something like that.

Jake : It was a fantastic audience.

David : And we got a good response from them. The audience, they really go for it.

How do you go about writing your songs?

Harry : David mostly writes the lyrics, sometimes. Then Ryan will write the bass, usually.

Jake : David generates the very rough ideas and we tend to chip in and change stuff until we eventually have a song. But I wouldn’t say our songs are ever properly finished because we are always trying to add stuff. It’s always an evolving process. Because we’ll hear something and think ‘oh that’s a good idea’. And maybe try it sort of thing. We are always trying new ideas.

So they might sound different each gig?

David : I’d say we work more on our stage presence than the live music. The live shows, it’s more about what we are…

Harry : Also when we write, we try and add a lot of texture to our music. Me and David won’t always play exactly the same thing on guitar. We’ll base it around the same rhythm but we’ll each do something different.

Jake : Sometimes the changes are really subtle. Sometimes it’ll literally be one note out or a beat different. But for us it adds such a different dimension and it’s just fantastic to play live.

For someone who hasn’t heard you before, what can they expect?

David : Loud.

Harry : It’s sort of like, erm, a lot of the songs are very varied and I wouldn’t say like, it’s all one genre. Some songs are influenced by some genres and some are…yeah.

David : We add our own twists to it.

Harry : There is a lot of variation.

Jake : A lot of our songs tend to be played with the same energy. No matter what song it is, it will be played with the same energy. Generally we will all be playing really well.

David : We always give it our best.

What are your plans for recording, are you going to do an EP?

Harry : Last year we did an EP, just of like demos and stuff. It was five tracks and we just did that in a day and it wasn’t that great but Ryan wasn’t in the band then, so I recorded the bass.

David : We recently did our new single, which was ‘This Town’ and we done a b-side track which is called ‘Pull The Plug’ which is from the first EP.

Harry : But it’s like a new, re-recorded song. A different mix on the vocals.

Jake : We spent a lot more time, this time because last time it wasn’t that great.

Ryan : And it shows how we change because ‘Pull The Plug’ is different from the first EP.

So you are always looking for progression in your music?

David : Yeah, definitely, I think we’ll just keep writing them and keep putting in more afterwards.
Jake : Because we formed this band when we were all kinda just starting off kind of thing. And we have all been playing for a bit longer but we are all technically beginners, so there will always be a degree of change.

Thanks guys!

David : That’s cool.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY JACK PARKER.