BLOODSTOCK INTERVIEW: Black Moth

Continuing our massive coverage of Bloodstock Festival, we had the chance to speak to Harriet Hyde [Vocals] and Dom McCready [Drums] of emerging UK doom/stoner rockers BLACK MOTH to get some new information on their upcoming new album whilst also simply having a good ole’ chin wag.

How does it feel to be playing Bloodstock?

Harriet: I’m extremely excited to be playing Bloodstock, like, it’s a little ridiculous. The atmosphere here is incredible and I keep having to remind myself that we’re getting on the stage.

Dom: Bloodstock is probably my favourite festival by far, I came last year just as a punter and it was fucking amazing.

At the start of the year was playing festivals like this a goal for BLACK MOTH?

Harriet: Yeah absolutely. Our third album isn’t due out until October or November, so touring and playing shows have been kinda off the table so festivals are the way forward for this year, cause they’re always a lot of fun.

Is it time to start playing some new songs live?

Dom: it is indeed, we will be playing some new songs off the record today…

Harriet: We’re doing about 50/50 new songs, so should have 4 or 5 new songs before the club bangers.

How has the writing process been?

Dom: Long. To be honest, some of the songs we’ve had in the works for like, quite a long time, and then some of the new songs, once we have decided to take some time off touring, we intensely worked on them and hung them out.

Harriet: It was fairly intense. Half of the band live in London and the other half in Leeds now, so we’ve had to work around the distance thing, but the songs have flown together quite nicely actually. We had quite a clear idea of what we wanted to do, and because we’re so used to working with each other now that it just flows quite naturally whenever we’re in the rehearsal room.

Does it feel like BLACK MOTH are finally becoming the band you’ve wanted it to become?

Harriet: Yeah definitely, everyone who has heard the album has said that it sounds like BLACK MOTH have found out who BLACK MOTH really are now, and that’s a really good feeling.

What sort of inspirations did you look to when writing the album?

Dom: It’s quite an interesting album, in some ways its darker and some of the lyrical content is, but also at the same time its more rock n’ roll, so its quite a good mix.

Harriet: And everyone who has heard says it’s the heaviest thing we’ve done.

Was that the goal?

Harriet: I don’t know, it’s kinda just like chasing the buzz a bit, cause you always wanna get more and more, and bigger and badder.

Dom: We just fucking enjoy playing heavy music, it’s just what we like to do, so I don’t know if its ever a conscious decision, I think its more just this is what we’ve written, we really like it and it also happens to be really heavy.

Harriet: We’ve also gotten a new musician in the band for this album, Frederica Gialanze, she is an absolute classic aggressive Italian shredder, so that’s definitely added to everything.

How has bringing in a new member effected the dynamic of the band?

Harriet: She fits in so well that we didn’t even try out any other guitarists. She literally came along and smashed it.

Dom: We were gonna try out more but we cancelled it. It’s been cool though because I think she brings some influences to the table that none of us could. These were huge influences for her and that’s an interesting dynamic. I’d say she’s into a healthy mix of classic rock and thrash metal, among other things.

Does coming to festivals like this give the opportunity to gain inspiration from your peers, especially when seeing them live?

Dom: I’m not always at school when I see music, yeah sometimes you see a band and thinking ‘fucking hell that’s cool’. Maybe its something to do with their show or their stage presentation, obviously you don’t rip people off but you may well take inspiration from others live show yeah.

Harriet: It all seeps in.

Is it important to set goals when you’re in a younger band?

Harriet: I don’t know, we’re not really an aspirational band, we just kinda chase the buzz and the party where it is. We take whatever comes our way and sometimes the littlest things can be the most fun.

Dom: I just wanna play live, but obviously I wanna play in front of as many people as I can because I want as many people as I can to listen my music. So in that sense yeah, but we’d be happy stuck to that stage forever, like if we happen to get the point where we head to main stage then great but its not necessarily a goal.

So after the album is released is it just relentless touring for BLACK MOTH on the horizon?

Harriet: We have a UK tour booked in for then, and then yeah other things will get planned after that for sure.

Dom: Europe later after than

How do you guys choose support acts for tours?

Harriet: usually just our mates who are fun to party with. They have to be shit hot as well, just not quite good as us.

Dom: You wanna get along with them, they need to be a good band, and relativeish to us…

Harriet: I don’t know, not to similar to us. I get bored really easily so I want something entertaining all the time with some variety, so I’ll be looking for that.

Before we go then, what is the one good reason why people should listen to BLACK MOTH?

Dom: Dirty, sexy riffs.

Harriet: That’s a good answer.

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