Every Hell: Sax appeal
Born from the Ashes of UK post-metal legends BLACK PEAKS, EVERY HELL burst onto the scene in mid 2024 with the release of their first single Freaking Out. The track was a statement of intent, blending driving punk rock, huge hooks and fuzzed out saxophone, coining the phrase ‘doom-pop’ to describe it and garnering them attention from major radio stations in the process.
As the band gears up for the Halloween release of their debut EP Vertebrate, Distorted Sound met with founding member/vocalist/saxophonist Will Gardner (formerly of BLACK PEAKS) over Zoom to discuss all things EVERY HELL, starting with the band’s origins.
“I never get tired of telling this story,” enthuses Will. “Because it’s quite unusual actually. I’d been writing some stuff and got my riff chops together during like the third lockdown and just as we were able to come out of that I got an email from (singer-songwriter and occasional BLACK PEAKS collaborator) Jamie Lenman. He messaged me and and Mark Roberts who is a very old friend of mine who I’d worked with for years but always as a producer. Jamie said ‘hey dudes let’s do this cool band where Will plays really heavy sax and I play bass and Mark hits the tubs really hard and we’ll just be really heavy and crazy’.”
Will agreed and the trio spent a day together throwing around riffs that Will and Jamie had already been working on and within six hours they had written five songs. Unfortunately, that was as far as Jamie Lenman’s involvement went. “It was so productive and had a really interesting sound. After a few months we kept nagging [Jamie] and eventually he was like ‘I just don’t have time for this’.”
Will and Mark knew they were onto something though, so rather than sacking off the songs they’d written in that session, they enlisted former BLACK PEAKS bassist Andrew Gosden before bringing MEMORY OF ELEPHANTS‘ axe-slinger Toby Stewart in on guitar and the core, full time lineup was solidified. And although not an official band member, ex-PHYSICS HOUSE BAND multi-instrumentalist Adam Znaidi is also a contributor, adding keys and additional instrumentation to the compositions. “Adam is a legend. We gave him the tracks for the EP and he’ll just write stuff on it and be like ‘use whatever you want’ and then Mark subtly puts it in there.”
From that original jam session, the songs Freaking Out, Revery and The Watcher would end up being fleshed out for Vertebrate EP, with two more songs Ghost and Another Killer being written later down the line with the newly solidified line up. Having demoed the songs in Mark’s home studio, the band went to Middle Farm Studios where they recorded live and on tape. “That was Pete [Miles] the producer’s idea. He’s been talking about doing that with me and Andrew since about 2015, saying, ‘come in and we’ll just do it straight to tape. It’s rock and roll, and you’ll get way more energy out of it’. And I’ve always been like, No, I want to get my parts perfectly. But it’s the first time as a musician that I’ve been comfortable enough to do that and I think the other guys would probably say the same thing.”
The result is a collection of songs that are fizzing with raw energy, which convey the vitality of an EVERY HELL live performance. “That’s it,” agrees Will. “You know with bands like TORCHE, EVERY TIME I DIE and even AT THE DRIVE-IN, there’s so much energy and by keeping the scuffs and mistakes in there it’s great for the overall vibe. I think for the album we’re going to spend a bit more time on it and go over it with a fine tooth comb and layer up the guitars but for this EP in particular it was definitely how we wanted to do it.”
A key part of the EVERY HELL sound is Will’s saxophone, which he drenches in effects until it barely sounds like a sax at all, sounding somewhere between a lead guitar and a synth, using it as much of a riff writing tool as a guitarist usually would. He’s a professional sax player outside of his main bands but the approach he takes for EVERY HELL is different to his day job.
“A lot of our stuff was written on sax through loads of pedals and quad cortex and whatnot and I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get the right sound. It’s difficult because to some it might be seen as a gimmick and a few people have been like ‘it doesn’t really sound like a saxophone’ and it’s like yeah that’s the idea. I’ve spent 24 years getting a saxophone sound but that doesn’t interest me within [EVERY HELL]. I’m more interested in that buzzsaw cutting through. It’s more exciting when it’s adding a new layer to the riffs and hopefully that doesn’t put too many people off.”
With Vertebrate being released imminently, there are plans to tour and play festivals, including Noizzefest in April alongside the likes of EL MOONO and HIDDEN MOTHERS. But with it being launched on Halloween the most pressing matter is getting their costumes ready for the launch party at The Black Heart in London’s Camden Town. “We’ve been texting each other costume ideas and I think we’re all going as characters Garth Merenghi’s Dark Place but the question is ‘is it OK to be Dean Learner, with the afro?’ I don’t think it is. Maybe a blonde wig and heels would be better!”
Vertebrate is out now via self-release. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS114 here:
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