Check out our latest band spotlight on electro-rock band, Def Neon.
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What keeps you passionate about creating – outside of music, think films or games for example?
We feel that nostalgia plays a part in the way we write our music – so we’re always trying to capture the excitement we felt watching classic fantasy, sci-fi and adventure movies like Blade Runner, Alien, The Empire Strikes Back, Gremlins and Neverending Story. We’re also big into cartoons, comics and anime, plus horror films and survival horror games – we’re fascinated by the occult.
We’re based in Chester, nearby – talk us through the music scene in Wrexham?
For such a small place Wrexham’s music scene is quite extraordinary. There’s a huge community of bands and musicians and a few core promoters who work tirelessly to keep the local scene thriving. There are key events such as Focus Wales – which gets bigger and bigger each year, and there are some highly acclaimed bands doing great things on the national and international scene such as Neck Deep and Gallops. When it comes to our band though, we seem to do more in Chester than we do in Wrexham. In Chester we’ve played with some of our favourite bands such as 65daysofstatic, Sonic Boom Six and The Orb at The Live Rooms. We’ve also supported The Algorithm and Vessels when the Compass was still open. Each time we’ve played the Gathering (2014/2015) has been amazing too.
Weird question, I guess but what inspired the track ‘Chocolate’?
We wanted to do something a bit punky and simple. It’s the quickest we’ve ever written a track. We had the whole thing written and sequenced in about half an hour. We recorded it that week, and it got played on BBC Wales that same weekend. We’ve played it at every gig since.
What were some of the biggest highlights for you, developing the new record?
The songs are a collection of material we’ve been playing live over the past three years. We’re always writing new material, so it took a while to settle on which tracks worked together as a cohesive body of work.
Getting the tracklisting and the running order right felt like a significant milestone for us. As such record was pretty much finished by the time we signed to Analogue Trash. So the biggest highlight was definitely getting those guys onboard.
Talk us through how AnalogueTrash have supported your work?
Even though we had our record tracked and mixed, we knew that we needed some professional help to actually make the record happen – as well as some fresh ears to critique the material. As a band we’re quite confident when it comes to performing, writing songs and producing our stuff in the studio. But when it comes to artwork, promotion, distribution and all the admin that goes into putting a record out – we just don’t have a clue. AnalogueTrash have not only taken care of all those areas, but have introduced their network of fans and musicians to what we do. They’ve given us sound advice and moral support. They’ve offered us gigs, remix projects and DJing opportunities. They’ve treated us like family from day one.
What’s been a career highlight for you so far?
The highlights are really hard to predict – for us it’s just when an audience is really getting into what we’re doing. Occasions that spring to mind are each time we’ve played at Landed Festival in Mid-Wales, The Gathering (Chester) and Weirdo Youth Club at The Parish in Huddersfield . We also did a headline show in Manchester last July for AnalogueTrash – a lot of friends came along that we hadn’t seen in ages so it made the show very special for us.
