Steak: A Step In The Next Direction
Having slow-roasted (sorry) under a medium grill (just go with it, please) since first forming in 2010, the beefy boys (oh dear) in London’s STEAK have seen their star rising (tried and failed with something meat-based here) in recent years. With their self-titled new album, we sat down with new member, guitarist and vocalist Tom Cameron, and guitarist Reece Tee to talk about the recent explosion of all things doom and stoner in the UK metal scene and, of course, to discuss that much-anticipated new album. So gird your tenderloins (send help now) and tuck in!
We started off by talking about the stoner rock scene in general and how it inspired the band to get together in the first place. “The simple answer is that we just loved that music,” begins Reece. “Earlier in our lives we discovered KYUSS and then got into bands like TRUCKFIGHTERS and then early in the career of the band that’s what we wanted to do. We were very much entrenched in that stoner rock sound and fully embraced it really. We weren’t ever frightened of being tagged with the stoner rock moniker and we went head first into that. KYUSS literally changed the course of my life.”
That sound has definitely developed over the years though, as heard on STEAK’s last album, 2022’s Acute Mania. The classic desert rock influences seemed to be making way for something different, as Reece explains. “That was definitely the first sign of us doing something a bit different, probably at the expense of some of the fans of the earlier, riff-heavy stuff. What we’ve got with this new album though is a bit of everything coming together. You’ve got the heaviness of some of that earlier stuff along with some of the more progressive ideas from Acute Mania, and with Tom joining the band we’ve got a whole new perspective on the music.
“It’s just all evolved really naturally over time,” adds Tom. “We’ve never really gone into a studio saying we need to make a song that sounds like this or like that. Everything’s just evolved and merged together naturally and I think amidst all that we’ve come up with something that’s a bit different and a bit of a step in a new direction.”
One element of that evolution that really stands out on the new songs, especially on the colossal Cometh, is the beautiful vocal harmonies that Tom has added. This, along with the added weight of another guitar, really feels like it’s given the band another arrow in its cosmic quiver. “This is the first album where we’ve actually had two vocalists working together instead of just Kippa (vocalist Chris Haley) doubling up which in the past has sometimes made things sound a bit linear,” says Reece. “I feel that we’re only just scratching the surface of what they’re going to be able to do together. Watching it from my side of the practice room, I get goosebumps when they lock in on those vocals and I think it’s only going to get better and better.”
Obviously new blood in a well-established lineup – no matter how well the band may already have known Tom – changes the creative dynamic, although in STEAK’s case it seems to have injected the original members with a new energy. “Honestly, the biggest challenge coming in, and the way I saw it, was that I could shake the other boys up a little bit and actually make them realise how good they are,” Tom adds. “They’re all quite modest about it all and I think sometimes it was about bringing a new perspective and shaking things up a bit. Which fortunately has worked!”
This modesty has also perhaps hidden behind a curtain of classic stoner humour in the past (2013 EP Corned Beef Colossus anyone?), something the band acknowledges has also changed over the years. “We’ve been around a long time and in our younger days we definitely hid behind the leaping about and the booze and the tops off onstage and all that. We built a bit of a reputation for that sort of thing in the early days,” explains Reece. “Now we’re actually a bit older and wiser, I think we can allow ourselves to focus a bit more on enjoying and immersing ourselves in the actual music we’re creating.”
As we like to point out here at Distorted Sound HQ, the UK doom and stoner scene has never been in a better place and in many ways that scene has grown out of the success of Desertfest, the now globally famous London-based celebration of all things heavy and psychedelic. As well as being an absolute riff machine, Reece was in fact the founder of this glorious festival. Has he also noticed the scene developing as Desertfest has continued to grow year upon year? “Definitely when we started it was a much smaller scene. Over the years it’s obviously grown but it’s always been about giving a platform to bands who otherwise might not have had much of an audience. To play to five or six hundred people at Camden Underworld is a big opportunity for a band and if they know that opportunity is going to be there year on year, it gives them even more of a reason to work hard in their rehearsal room. There’s UK bands like PSYCHLONA and GURT that have now become such a part of the UK scene and I do feel that Desertfest has definitely helped build that up.”
With gigs coming up after the release of the new album, including a performance at the Las Vegas Planet Desert Rock Festival alongside fellow British psych rock legends SERGEANT THUNDERHOOF, it really feels like STEAK, fifteen years into their career, are on the brink of taking things to the next level and you can’t help but feel a sense of pride that a British band so central to the UK underground scene will finally be getting their flowers.
Steak is out now via Stickman Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS133 here.
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