With the amazing Alunah headlining this week’s SonicAbuse night at the Shed, and with their debut album due out in December, it seemed only right to get to know more about the band who have been stirring up a lot of interest in the psychedelic/doom/stoner scene with their original and innovative take on the genre. With a string of amazing support slots and several solid EPs already released, it seems that now is Alunah’s chance to shine.
As for Saturday, we at SonicAbuse are incredibly excited to have Alunah playing in Leicester along with our own Final Coil, third angle projection and the feral Visible clarity and we can guarantee it’ll be an excellent night. However, to whet your appetites prior to the event, which takes place at the Shed, here’s an interview with Jake from the band.
| 1. Tell us how and when you formed?
Myself, Dave and Soph met at a “Sonic Lord” gig early 2006 (Dave’s previous band) and after a few beers found we had the same kind of taste in music and general attitude towards things. We put ourselves out and about gigging wise but our bass player decided it wasn’t for him …hence Gaz joining us summer 2009. We’d known Gaz a few months from seeing his other band “General” play and we seemed to click so here we are. 2. What inspires you musically? Well I guess we all love the whole stoner/doom kind of sound but we all listen to different bands outside of that as well which we hope kind of come through every now and again in our music. Soph’s really into paganism and the occult history so her lyrics have started centre around that more. 3. Although you’re not the easiest band to categorise, loosely you could be called psychedelic doom, a genre in which having a female singer is quite unusual – was that a premeditated decision to be different or did Sophie just fit the bill? Not the easiest band to categorise? I like that! Well the band was always going to have Soph in the line-up once we’d all met and it’s worked out really well because it tends to give things a bit of a twist rather than just another “groove/heavy rock” type band. The fact that Soph sings is always a talking point but it’s not that unusual when you look at the likes of Acid King, Bottom, Serpentcult, Mourn, Blood Ceremony and Jex Thoth. Hopefully the music speaks for itself. 4. You’ve played with countless bands who could be described as legendary – who were the band that you were most excited to join on stage? At the moment it’s local heroes “Sally” who we’ve just played with in Birmingham, a week before our gig for SonicAbuse.com. All of us have seen “Sally” loads back in the day, long before Alunah started. To be opening for them was fun though a touch surreal seeing as they hadn’t done anything for around 7 years. Other than that, the Trouble and Paradise Lost supports were awesome experiences . 5. You have a new album coming out in December – can you tell us about the writing and recording process for that? Writing wise it’s a bit of a mixed bag …there’s a few songs that we’ve been working on since the start of the band all the way through to ideas that Gaz has brought to the table. Put that altogether, trim the fat here and there and get top guys like Greg Chandler & James Plotkin to record/mix and master it and there you have it. The recording & mixing with Greg was an amazing experience…6 long but extremely enjoyable days over Easter (5 of which were probably spent by me & Gaz getting lost round Bassett’s Pole Island just off the motorway trying to get to the studio!). 6. And what can we expect from the album itself? I think it’s quite a mixed bag song-wise in terms of tempo. There’s a combination of longer more epic songs and shorter more straight forward tracks. Overall the sound is far weightier, heavier, thicker etc compared to what people have heard from us before which is what we wanted. The whole pagan and occult concept within the lyrical approach, the overall feel of the music and the artwork really came together well over the last year so it really feels like an “album”…rather than a group of songs thrown together which we think is really important. 7. You’re playing a lot of live dates at the moment, what can fans expect from you as a live band? To be honest it’s pretty much the norm. We play live as much as possible whilst at the same time trying to make sure we are progressing. In terms of what to expect… hopefully a toe tapping, beer swigging time and maybe a song or two might linger in your brain after we’ve finished. And there’s always at least two of us stuffing a bag of chips in our gobs before we start. 8. What are your ambitions for the future? Tour as much as possible, work hard, keep the music coming out and headline Donington…in that order. But first, a fish supper after our gig at The Shed. “Call of Avernus”…the debut album released 6th December 2010. Available in stores and from www.hmv.com, www.play.com, www.amazon.com, www.allthatisheavy.com. ALUNAH PLAY THE SHED, LEICESTER WITH FINAL COIL ON SAT NOV 20TH www.alunah.co.uk |
I'm a self-confessed musical nut with an eclectic taste ranging from lo-fi indie to crushing heavy metal. I also make a blizzard of noise in my band Final Coil (recently seen deafening audiences in the midlands area). I also like cheese. Cheese is possibly the single greatest food (if one excludes bacon). Sometimes I write songs about cheese... but not often 
