Bleed Again: Taking Over Download
When Brighton-based metalcore band BLEED AGAIN were invited to headline The Doghouse Stage at this year’s Download Festival, of course they jumped at the chance. A couple of days later, we catch up with them at the festival to find out how their set went and how they’ve been enjoying everything.
Vocalist James was the first to know, and they joke about how fast he responded to the invite. “So much so, I spelt it wrong. About 15 S’s in the yes. Yessss.” Though they’d been attending the festival for years as fans, this was their first time to play, and it certainly felt like a jump from some of the stages and crowds that they were used to. Before their set, the band was told that they could be playing to 5000 people, but by the time they finished, they were told it was closer to 10,000.
While the band all had some time to get their nerves in check and prepare before the show, Chris was maybe the most nervous, stating, “I haven’t been able to sleep, just thinking I’m gonna be stood on that stage, looking out at people. Once the music started it was like, I can’t move.” Other members of the band were calmer, with James explaining, “I just had this knot in my stomach and I felt really sick. We walked into the Doghouse during the day when it was empty and saw the scale of it, and I was very nervous. But unlike Chris, the second the intro started, I just kind of clicked into it.”
Every band dreams of playing huge shows, and in metalcore specifically, Download is pretty much as big as it gets. While the nerves and pressure could prove to be too much for anybody else, BLEED AGAIN took that feeling and ran with it, knowing this was their chance and they had to pull it off. While they are forever humble and grateful, they certainly played like they deserved that spot, and for a crowd of metallers who just wanted to kick off the Download weekend, they were welcomed with open arms. While Chris calls the show ‘magic’, James describes the feeling of hearing everybody in the crowd, saying, “we wear in ears on stage, and I had to keep taking them out because I just wanted to hear the crowd. It was so loud, it was insane.”
Though BLEED AGAIN were fully aware of the gravity of the moment, they couldn’t help but inject their personality into their set, and it seems important to them to never take anything too seriously. A huge part of this is just absolutely bullying their guitarist Sam, and James explains, “I do this thing where I just get up and wave my hands in the air that Sam can’t stand, so I knew I was definitely doing that in front of 10,000 people. Trying to be a metal band and be serious on stage is quite difficult for us, because we can’t stop smiling and laughing.” At the beginning of their new song Parasite, their other guitarist Simon edited the click track to say ‘Sam is a gimp’ in a robotic voice in his in-ears, which understandably, completely threw him off. Sam laughs, “I can’t wait to play this new song, and I’ve just been called a gimp in front of 10,000 people. We’re all pissing ourselves and everyone’s like ‘What’s so funny?’”
While some moments are deliberate, others are just purely the way they are, and the band explain that no matter the size of the stage, somebody always ends up bumping into somebody else. Chris explains, “We joke that we haven’t playing a single gig together where he [James] hasn’t stood on my foot, and thankfully we found a stage big enough where he didn’t stand on my foot.” James laughs, stating, “I will. It could be the biggest stage on planet earth.” Whatever the conversation, it always comes back to how grateful the band are for the opportunity. James states, “When we got up there, we could feel the sound of the music coming through the state. That’s when I was like, ‘oh my god, it’s actually happening’.” Chris adds, “just to look out and pick someone out and go, ‘I’ve never seen you before in my life, and you’re there, with your arms in the air, screaming the lyrics back at us.’ I just started giggling like a five-year-old girl.”
Taking a moment of sincerity, the band pay tribute to their friend Olaf, who they sadly lost last year. They describe how he was always a part of their Download group, with James stating, “If you ever came to Download you probably saw him, because he was huge!” Chris explains that Olaf was a huge BLACK STONE CHERRY fan, and how he hopes they can catch their set for his friend, making playing the festival on the same line up all the more meaningful. This weekend is clearly full of sentimental moments for all the members of BLEED AGAIN, and Sam explains, “It’s like something you think about in your bedroom, 12 years old, having first picked up a guitar. You think, ‘that will never happen’ and it did. Ridiculous.”
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