Being tipped as ones to watch can often cause pressure amongst bands, putting them on a pedestal of talent, but indie punk rockers Abattoir Blues are taking everything in their stride.
We caught up with Abattoir Blues in the car park behind newly opened Omeara, located near London Bridge, in order to gain a brief moment of silence for a quick chat before the band jumped on stage.
The venue was full to the brim with people chatting, drinking and eagerly awaiting the bands to play. Musicians, industry and competition winners gathered in the tiny venue to celebrate DIY Magazine’s Class of 2017.
“DIY have been pretty big supporters of us which we’re obviously really glad of. We’re hoping this year will be a good year for us, so this is a great chance to keep that ball rolling,” says frontman Harry Waugh.
After the release of their debut track Sense in November, Abattoir Blues have a lot more to offer in the near future. The track’s, slow but strong build up keeps you waiting for what’s next to come. With Waugh’s intense vocals combined with gloomy, post punk-esque guitar riffs, the track is one for all to hear.
“The reaction to Sense was really good. Lots of people have told us that they’ve felt an emotional significance which is nice because that’s exactly how we feel about the song. We’re really happy with it all, it had been a long time coming. We all felt so relieved and excited when it was released,” exclaimed Harry.
Being a Brighton based band, it’s not unusual that they’ve been to The Great Escape festival many times in the past, and are set to play it this year.
“We can’t wait, we always love it. We’ve done it in the last few years but its only ever been the unofficial shows. The Alternative Escape stuff is always really good but it’ll be nice to be on the proper one,” he continues.
What is unusual though, is what happened at one of their gigs last year.
“Someone shat themselves, at TGE last year. He was a friend of a friend and apparently he passed out because he was so fucked. And then he came back round again and realised that he’d shat himself. We don’t want to make that a habit, it’s not the ideal reaction.”
Bands from Brighton often praise the city, due to its multicultural, ever-expanding music scene and the constant amount of gigs that are on offer to new and upcoming bands trying to break into the music scene.
“We love Brighton as a place, we’ve all been living there for about five years now so it’s always great to come back and play or put on a show. Our friends are all from Brighton too so our mates always come down and we can see everyone and have a laugh.”
The band regularly find themselves at gigs in Brighton supporting their friends and newcomers on the scene. Prince Albert is a venue they often go to and Green Door Store even more so as dummer Scott manages it.
“Green Door Store is our favourite venue to play, the smaller places are better as they’re more intimate and full of character.”
Filling in for Scott for the night was Paeris Giles, drummer of The Magic Gang. Learning the set must have been easy for Paeris as he lives in the ‘echochamp house’ – the house that the majority of both bands live in, aptly names due to their Brighton based label Echochamp, who also represent Sulky Boy, Breathe Panel and Manuka Honeys.
“An album would eventually be our goal, but there’s definitely a few more steps to come before it. We’ve got an EP in the pipeline, we’re just trying to write as much as possible and just hone our sound properly before we jump into too much.”
With the name Abattoir Blues, coming from Nick Cave’s album, it’s obvious they as a band draw so much influence from Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds. In light of this, we chatted a bit about what else influences them.
“There’s five of us in the band, so obviously we’ve all come from slightly different backgrounds. It’s hard to define, it mostly spans from hardcore to current stuff. Lyrically we get a lot from Leonard Cohen, he used to do great stuff. But yeah, we have a really wide range but it’s great because we’re always finding new ideas and new bands.”
With their success rising, Abattoir Blues are set to continue in their mission to make a name for themselves.
“With the band, we don’t really have an end goal, we just keep enjoying it as it happens. Obviously, again we’d really love to do an album, that would be a big thing for us, but as lame as it sounds we just take it as it comes. Things seem to naturally progress quite slowly for us, so we’re just going to keep on at it and see where it goes.”
Catch Abattoir Blues live on their tour with their pals The Magic Gang right now:
MAY:
1st – The Leadmill, Sheffield
2nd – Sound Control Basement, Manchetser
3rd – The Sugarmill, Stoke
4th – Academy 2, Leicester
5th – Academy 2, Birmingham
6th – Waterfront Studio, Norwich
8th – Portland Arms, Cambridge
9th – Rescue Rooms, Nottingham
10th – Academy 2, Oxford
11th – The Horn, St Albans
12th – Heaven, London
Cracked Vinyl 