Monday, July 11, 2011

INTERVIEW: Bury Tomorrow

GENRE: Metalcore
HOMETOWN: Portsmouth/Southampton UK
RECORD LABEL: Basick Records/Artery Recordings
BIO: After three years of playing throughout the UK/Europe, playing everywhere they could and to anyone that would listen, Bury Tomorrow recorded their anticipated debut full length album ‘Portraits’ in London at Wellerhill Studios, and after it’s initial release on UK label Basick Records in October 2009, the band gained the interest of fans throughout the world which ultimately led them to an encounter with The Artery Foundation. Eric Rushing, founder and owner of The Artery Foundation asserted, “Their songs are so catchy and melodic at times but then just as brutal and hard at others. We are very excited to introduce such a great band to the US.” A US & Japanese release of Portraits followed in March 2010, which led the band to embark on a year of extensive touring, including multiple US/UK/EURO tours and a Japanese run at the end of 2010. The band are currently working on a second album that they hope to release at the end of 2011.
SOUNDS LIKE: While She Sleeps, The Casino Brawl, Shadows Chasing Ghosts, 
Feed Her To The Sharks



How did you guys get started?
This band just started as a group of friends from college jamming together, and over a couple of years progressed to a point where we had some of our own songs and started doing shows regularly around the Southampton area. That was around 2006, and in 2007 we released our first ep, just something for us to sell at shows, and that was when we started playing all over the UK as much as possible. The line up had changed a little bit over time, but we've had the current line up since 2008, and in 2009 we released our first album 'Portraits' and begun touring all over the world in support of it.

Can you describe Bury Tomorrow's sound?
We are a metalcore band, we scream, we sing, we have heavy parts and we have melodic parts. We see both as equally important, and its always been really important to us to mix the two as much as possible. I guess the way we do that sometimes makes us stand out a bit from other bands, but we certainly don't claim to be doing anything unique or revolutionary, we just play the music we like to listen too. Having said that we do have very broad music tastes, we like everything really, so maybe that is displayed in our sound sometimes too. Ultimately we just wanna be able to get on stage and show what we can do, we pride ourselves on our live show.

Are there any bands/musicians that have inspired your music?
As I said we have such broad musical tastes, and I guess everyone has their own artists that have really inspired them to want to do music in the first place. As a band though I suppose over the years we've grown up listening to acts like Killswitch engage and Still Remains and really connected with their sound and have wanted to be in a band a little like that ever since. As time goes on though, and as we tour more we become influenced by those around us and newer acts coming through. More recent bands establishing themselves like Parkway Drive and August Burns Red have continued to influence our music as we progress towards a second album.

Do you have a favorite song to play at shows? 
Mine personally is Waxed Wings, it's a more recent song, that was recorded after the release of Portraits. It's just a good song (in my opinion) and is fun to play. But i think for all the guys we just love getting a response from the crowd, and if the kids are enjoying it so are we. For that reason I guess the more well known tracks we have like You & I, These Woods Aren't Safe For Us and Casting Shapes are alot of fun because they seem to provoke the best response from the crowd, and to hear the words to your songs being sung back to you by a crowd is the best feeling ever.

What has been your favorite band to tour with so far?
We have been fortunate enough to tour with alot of great bands, and made some really good friends because of it, so every tour is fun for us to be honest. I think there are two tours that stand out though, first is the US tour we did with Attack Attack in the states back in March 2010. It was great because we had never been to the states before so that was such an awesome experience for us, something we never thought we'd get to do. Also the shows were the biggest we'd ever played as a band, 1000 people every night, and we were getting such a good reaction from the crowd even though no one knew who we were! Finally, we got on so well with everyone on the tour that it was just an absolute pleasure every day to play a show, truly the best first US tour we could have ever hoped for!The other tour that sticks out is the first proper headline tour we did after our album had come out. Was last September/October and all the shows were really busy or sold out, we were getting a response better than we'd ever dreamed we'd get as a band, and to make it better we had some great friends along on the tour in the other bands so that was really special for us too.

If you could go on tour with any band, who would it be, and why?
I think Jason would say Metallica to this one, which wouldn't be too bad i must admit! However on a semi realistic level I guess we'd love the opportunity to play with some of the scenes really big bands. I'd settle for a US tour with A Day To Remember, and a UK/Euro run with Bring Me The Horizon!! That would be sweet, cause they are great bands and we would be able to expose our music to lots of new people, which is all any band wants really.

What is the meaning behind your last albums title, Portraits?
It was based on Oscar Wilde's 'The portrait of Dorian Gray', and the story behind that. It wasn't a concept album or anything, but the lyrics in the title track 'Portraits' are to do with that story. We just felt at that time Portraits was our masterpiece and we knew when we were making the album we wanted to make music that would last for years to come, hopefully we have done that in some peoples eyes.

What is the craziest thing that has happened at one of your shows?
I'm not really sure that we've had some weird crazy things happening at our shows, ya know stuff that wouldn't normally be seen at a show anyway. We've had strange experiences as a band, like a show in Texas we played with Attack Attack where we did a show with over 1000 kids in a venue, with as many more outside waiting unable to get in. We played a great show, then got in our van, drove round the side of the venue, opened the doors blasting our album which had just come out over there, and sold merch from the roof of the van to the people who hadn't been able to see our set. Or playing to around 3000 people at a festival, again in Texas, or the Sonisphere festival back home in the UK where they had to cap our tent off cos no one else could get in, or playing shows in Japan and actually having people who knew our band, had our CD, and cared enough to want pictures with us!! It's things like that that we just never expected to be able to do as a band, and to us that's very special but pretty weird at the same time. There are a few interesting tour stories for sure, but i'm afraid what happens on the road stays on the road!!

What has been your favorite venue so far?
We again have been very lucky to play some amazing venues around the world both big and small. Firstly our home venue that we grew up playing, The Joiners in Southampton, has given us some amazing shows, but is also genuinely one of the best sounding venues of it's size we've ever played, we owe them a lot. The venue we played to 3000 people in texas was actually an arena so that was special just cos it was so big! Also there's a venue in Austria called the Flex which we've played twice before, they have this like futuristic matrix style theme inside the club, with loads of hi tech gadgety stuff in there, and the sound is just incredible. Too many great places to choose just one really!

Any closing words?
Just big thanks to everyone who has supported us in any way, and we will be back as soon as we can with a new album which hopefully is alot better than the first!!


Bury Tomorrow is:
Davyd Winter Bates: @swearboxjd
Mehdi Vismara: @mehdi_burytomo
Daniel Winter Bates: @danburytomorrow
Adam Jackson: @jackobt
Jason Cameron: @jasoncameron_

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