Bloodshot Dawn Interview

It’s day two of Decapitated’s UK tour, and it’s the turn of Manchester to experience this death metal onslaught. Beth Avison and James Weaver sat down with Anthony Ridout (bass) and Doug Anderson (drums/vocals) from support band/rising stars Bloodshot Dawn to talk music, gigs and booze.

To start off, you released your album independently. How was that process?

Anthony: Expensive. It cost a fair amount of money because we didn’t have any label support. It meant we could do anything we wanted with it, we weren’t pressured to make it sound a certain way which we were really happy about.

The album has come out and it has had positive reviews. Have you had any record label interest?

Anthony: Yeah we have had offers but to be quite honest, we do so much ourselves now. We do all our own management, all of our own promotion, the band now funds itself. The offers we have been getting haven’t really been worth our while. We are getting interests from various people but I can’t tell you anything else, but there is stuff on the horizon definitely.

You seem to have grown pretty quickly. How does that feel?

Anthony: The band has actually been around for about nine years so it was very small and a bit of a side project back in the day. It was the album that pushed us along, it feels amazing because all the work we have put in has finally paid off.

Now you’re touring with Decapitated, which must feel pretty awesome?

Anthony: Yeah it’s amazing.

You have a tour coming up in Japan. How did you hear about the interest over there?

Anthony: That was through a band called Deals Death that Josh (McMorran, Bloodshot Dawn vocalist) manages. They were going over to Japan. I think there was an opening spot and Josh managed to get us on it somehow. I don’t know much else on that I’m afraid.

Actually, in relation to that you were number one in Japan recently.

Anthony: Yeah number one in imported CDs. We couldn’t quite believe that. That was amazing, especially since we are supposed to be going over there.

Breaking other countries can be such a hard task, a lot of bands find it difficult.

Anthony: Absolutely. We haven’t actually played outside England and Ireland, so it is going to be quite a big deal travelling half way across the world.

Do you think you will go down well with the Japanese crowd?

Anthony: If I have to guess, I think we probably will. We have had a lot of people adding us on Facebook telling us how much they like the album and the music. It seems all the feedback over there is going down well so far. We regularly send out shipments of CDs over there as well. They keep selling apparently which can only be a good thing.

You played Bloodstock this year and delivered a very good set. How did you find the festival?

Anthony: Yeah it was amazing. After we finished we were on such a high we got unbelievably drunk so the rest of the festival is a bit of a blur to me.

Did you see any bands on the main stage?

Anthony: Yeah. Iced Earth, Testament…

Doug: Dimmu Borgir.

Anthony: We ended up on the New Blood stage quite a lot because loads of bands we know were playing.

Doug: Yeah like Flayed Disciple. Depravation on the New Blood stage. They did really well.

The music itself is very technical. When you were writing this album who were your primary influences?

Anthony: This question always takes ages. Our influences are more or less every band we listen to and that is not an exaggeration. Our music is very varied, it has always been a key aspect of Bloodshot Dawn.

Doug: Our main influences are quite a lot of Polish death metal, like Decapitated and Vader. Lots of Gothenburg stuff like old In Flames and At the Gates and new school death metal.

Anthony: There is some thrash in there as well, so yeah we chuck it all together and we get an album but it takes a while.

And you have been writing some material lately?

Anthony: Yeah we have, we have a new song coming out soon. We were planning on releasing it before we came out on this tour, but we couldn’t get enough funds.

You made a video teaser for this on Youtube didn’t you?

Doug: Yeah I’m not sure everyone got the troll face reference but we didn’t want to give anything away so we ended up putting some respectable music on.

Is the new album a couple of years in the pipeline? Or are you going to tour as much as possible?

Anthony: Yeah it takes a long time for us to write and there’s the fact there is no pressure from labels to put an album out this year. But with the single we really hammered it out quickly but it’s not rushed at all. We are really pleased with the finished product. It took a lot of concentration from us to sit down and write the song. So we only wrote that one in two weeks.

Doug: But it’s come out well, we are pleased with the track and the production is awesome. It was at a local studio to us called Envy Studios. It is hopefully something we can put on the album as well.

And have you run into any trouble on this tour at all?

Anthony: It has gone pretty smoothly actually, normally the first day is one of the worst as everyone needs to get into it. But it has gone really well.

Doug: Just before we went on we heard our intro but we were still in this room so we had to run out to our instruments. I just about made it to my kit in time.

If you could tour with any band who would it be?

Anthony: I know a sound like a complete kiss ass but I would say Decapitated, we are really lucky to be on this tour and they are really sound guys. To be honest we aren’t that fussed as long as we get on with them and have a great time. That is one of the main things, getting on with the other bands. If they have been around a long time they might not want to talk to you.

Final question, have you got any festivals planned for next year?

Doug: We have one but we aren’t actually allowed to announce it yet.

Interview by Beth Avison and James Weaver for louderthanhell.net