Pleiades: The Message Behind The Music
Manchester post-metal outfit PLEIADES have progressed in leaps and bounds since their arrival on the scene in 2016, going from strength to strength and growing in confidence with each passing release. After a couple of EP releases they felt it was the appropriate time to work on their highly anticipated full length debut.
“We used the pandemic as kind of a recharge point as no one had anything else to do but to get creative and build up some material,” explains frontman Andy Calderbank. “We just kept adding and refining and we really to harness that coherent energy between us.”
“We do enjoy sitting down together and going through our ideas in the same room and that is where the purest creativity comes from. We tend to write loads of bits and try to jam them together,” adds drummer OJ Riley.
Affinity With has been a long time in the making, some songs have been around for quite some time and have required very little in the way of revisions which shows just how forward-thinking this collective truly is. “A lot of our own personalities and taste has gone into this one and I think you can sense the enjoyment and passion that we have poured into it,” confirms Andy. “OJ definitely brings a lot more uptempo energy and urgency which creates a more interesting sound overall. We had a couple of songs that we had in the bank and weren’t entirely sure what to do with them but we went into this release with a lot more confidence in our ability to put the finishing touches on them. The opener, Honeyguide has been around in some form since 2019. We wanted to create something that could keep a listener for around 40 minutes and we felt like we had a lot more to say this time round.”
“We were dead set on bringing all the ten songs out as a collective rather than being split. We’re all 90’s babies and it was always the dream to get your debut album under your belt,” admits OJ. “There is a lot of expectation that comes with a debut album as you only get the chance to do it once.”
PLEIADES take a lot of pride in their thematics and delivery of the narrative, weaving a blend of complexities alongside lyrical subjects that challenge the listener to delve deeper and find the messages held within. “I read a lot in 2020/2021 and I didn’t want to write about one isolated story, I wanted it to be relatable and feel like it had the legs to say something rather than just be a story” discusses Andy.
“I wanted it to be a multi-faceted interpretation and whether people choose to read into that or not is up to them. The exciting bit for me is when I can give songs an extra dimension by adding those kind of messages. I’m a big fan of Me Without You and how the subject matter is this sort of whimsical fairy tale but it gets distorted into a much more aggressive sound which can be understood on a variety of different levels. I like to breathe fresh perspective into historical events or approach things at a different angle. A band that is great for that kind of thing is SILENT PLANET. That is the kind of stuff which I go back to and try to dig deeper into the subject matter. Seeing a band do a track by track analysis of their album is probably one of my favourite bits of the process as you can really break the song down into its key components and get a better insight into what they’re trying to say. I think this is a value which can be missing from music today. I’d like for our music to be known as ahead of its time when they look back on our material.”
Whilst PLEIADES want to savour the fruits of their labour and cherish the release of their debut album, they are keen not to take the foot off the pedal too much. Their recent bout of touring has assisted in sustaining the hype and motivation between the members.
“We’re still kind of reeling from the dates with HIDDEN MOTHERS and the reception we received. It was great to speak to the promoters and get some insight from them on who to speak to for future shows and it was just really exciting. Me and OJ were sharing playlists of bands between each other the other day, getting inspired and talking about what directions we could potentially head down next.”
“I really appreciate being in a band with a group of guys who are just completely open to trying loads of new musical ideas where there is no awkwardness about trying different things out and seeing where they lead,” adds OJ. “It’s a really comfortable environment to get creative in. Me and our bassist Josh have been in bands for years and years and we’ve never really been on tour or anything like that so to find these like-minded people who are all reading off the same hymn sheet is nice and we need to remember to appreciate how far we have come.”
Affinity With is out now via self-release.
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