INTERVIEW: Kadeem France & Erik Bickerstaffe – Loathe
Heavy music here in the UK has enjoyed a period of creative boom over the last several years. With a bountiful crop of bands pushing their ferocious sonics to the absolute limits as well as building a worthy reputation on the live circuit with electrifying performances, it’s fair to say that our homegrown talent is arguably the best it ever has been. LOATHE are one such band. We know, we’ve featured this fantastic Liverpudlian hardcore a lot this year (check our our wicked feature on them in our April issue), and since then, the band have gone from strength to strength. We caught up with Kadeem France and Erik Bickerstaffe before their performance at this year’s Download Festival to talk about the band’s bubbling popularity, the state of the UK’s heavy music scene and more!
You’re due on The Dogtooth Stage in a couple of hours, how you feeling?
Kadeem: We are hyped!
Erik: Very much ready to take it over.
LOATHE are on the up constantly, you’ve not long been nominated for two of your first debut awards. This must be exciting for you guys?
Kadeem: It’s insane, very humbling, surreal and overwhelming at the same time. Seeing our name up there, the band, it doesn’t make sense.
Erik: Thinking about it now being interviewed at Download, it’s like what? We’re at Download, being interviewed at Download because we’re playing Download, it’s crazy. It’s absolutely mad.
You’ve had a wild year with The Cold Sun just turning one, your first US tour, the LOATHE/HOLDING ABSENCE split. How has it felt for you guys to be achieving so much?
Erik: I don’t know, it’s kind of weird. I’ve just always thought if I put my head to it as much as I physically can, and I don’t slack on anything then it’s just bound to happen. It’s like anything, you have to make it happen.
Kadeem: That’s it, you have to be well calculated and be 100%.
Erik: You have to learn from your mistakes, you’re going to make them, it’s inevitable. I feel like we’ve made a lot of mistakes and I feel like we’ve learnt a lot from those. I think it proves that the fact that we’re here, it’s just really amazing. We’re just really humbled to be in this position.
Do you think climbing the ladder and working with other bands, coming to Download and so forth, you are starting to realise from your mistakes to not just learn, but also grow as a band?
Kadeem: Absolutely, as Erik said that touring is number one, you learn so much from touring alone and I don’t know, I think I’ve learnt more life lessons touring, I think we all have, than anything else we’ve ever done in our lives.
Erik: This is our lives now. It’s ridiculous!
Kadeem: It’s crazy!
You’ve previously said that breakthrough bands were more so in the US and now the UK is coming back. What made you say that?
Kadeem: I feel like now more than ever with heavy music, I’d go as far as to say UK music and stuff, I think the internet more now than ever has bridged such a big gap and so many people connect more than they ever did in the past and now we’re only just starting to see the changes of that and how it’s working. It’s pretty surreal that we’ve lived through this time of music, it’s really cool.
Erik: It’s really cool. It’s not like we’re saying there wasn’t any breakthrough bands before our time but we’re acknowledging what’s on the up now and it seems to be a lot of UK acts, it’s a nice feeling.
Kadeem: For example, bands like PARTING GIFT and SLEEP TOKEN, all these bands that are coming through, we’re just proud to be a part of it really.
Can it feel competitive with so many bands breaking onto the UK scene right now?
Erik: We don’t really see it that way.
Kadeem: Some people might do but for me it’s enjoying the moment, we’re all friends. I’m happy seeing people do what we’re doing. It started off us hanging out at shows and now we’re hanging out playing the shows.
Erik: I don’t personally know anyone in BOSTON MANOR but seeing them up there on the Main Stage is absolutely amazing. It’s so sick to see people who are relatively the same people as us, do what we do and getting to the same point, and knowing that if that was us the way we’d be feeling. It’s so sick that they have that, and they’ve achieved that, and they’ve done it.
Your style is pretty organic, and there seems to be a bit of a surge of upcoming bands with the same attitude to making music. Why do you think this is?
Kadeem: I think people are more straight to the point now with what it is they’re putting across.
Erik: There’s no real thought about ideas, it’s just what comes naturally, and I think what comes naturally is our generation now, I think we’re getting into more interesting stuff and we’re more open minded about music and stuff.
Kadeem: Branching out, growing up with the music.
Do you think you’ll continue to try and branch out and push yourselves with more releases and keep that attitude?
Kadeem: Absolutely, we’re still growing up musically. I doubt we’ll be the same band as we are now in 3 or 4 years, not in a bad way but we’ll just branch out and find more interesting things in music.
Erik: We’re always growing, everything is a build-up.
Who are your influences when it comes to building LOATHE?
Kadeem: DEFTONES and SLIPKNOT.
Erik: MESHUGGAH! There’s a big gap between those, I think more mainstream bands. We aspire to be like them and have the same integrity that they do. I think it’s more so oldies as well like DEFTONES, GLASSJAW, SLIPKNOT.
I’m gutted I’m missing MESHUGGAH this weekend.
Kadeem: Oh no, what? No!
Erik: I’d be like, no! Oh God. Are you going to Golden Gods?
Unfortunately not, it’ll be too late getting back. What are your plans for LOATHE after you’ve finished up at Download?
Erik: We have a seven-day tour with SIKTH in September. I think we have a few more things to announce later on in the year, can’t say what but it is more tours.
Kadeem: In between all that we’re just going to be writing.
Erik: We’ve been writing for a while now, we’re just going to keep going, we might just recluse somewhere, live in the woods. It’s necessary for what we’re trying to achieve.
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