Local Band Spotlight – Their Souls For Gold – Interview
Continuing our campaign to get recognition for local bands we feature a young rising force in the vibrant and busy Midlands scene, progressive metalcore outfit Their Souls For Gold. The band will be playing a headline show at The Rainbow, Digbeth with four other great bands on Friday 28th November 2014. The event is promoted by The Catapult Club, long time supporters of local bands. All these bands are well worth a listen and would welcome your support.
Formed in 2011 the current line-up is: George Meakin – Lead Guitar, Jake Morris – Rhythm Guitar/Backing Vocals, Ryan Price – Drums, Dan Wilson – Vocals and Greg Woodin – Bass/Vocals. We started by asking about their musical influences and they were keen to express these individually. Although they support their genre, the bands that they identify with are an interesting mix:
George – August Burns Red, Volumes, Dayseeker
Jake – Northlane, Parkway Drive, Periphery
Ryan – Bullet For My Valentine, Parkway Drive, Slipknot
Dan – Parkway Drive, A Day To Remember, Northlane
Greg – Periphery, Machine Head, Deftones
What’s the story of the band?
After several failed attempts at starting a band vocalist, Dan, and guitarist, George, decided to take a break and write some tracks on their own until the right group of people came along. In September 2011 the band started under the name ‘Of Unlived Dreams’. This original line-up ran for about two months, as did the stupid name, until we had to part ways with our guitarist due to him going to Uganda too much! We got in a second rhythm guitarist but he only practised twice with us and then left due to not wanting to perform! Finally, after our first gig in July 2012, we found our longest serving rhythm guitarist and he’s been with us ever since.
What do you count as your biggest achievements so far?
Over the course of the last three years, we’ve recorded a three track demo, were added to the MAS Records band roster, made two music videos, released two singles, featured in Kerrang! magazine, played a load of shows across the Midlands and matured along with the music we create.
What has been the best thing that has happened to the band since you formed?
Back in April of this year we played our first ever headline show at The Rainbow in Digbeth. We packed the room out and played probably our best set to date with pits, mic grabs and stage dives! At the end of the show, we got an encore and at the request of the crowd, played our most well known track which we didn’t sing over as the crowd sang it for us! It was the coolest show we’ve ever played and we’re hoping that our next headliner tops it!
When and where did you play your first show?
Our first show was ‘Moshfest’ in July 2012 in our school’s sports hall. The equipment was bad, the sound awful but we had four particularly excited band members who felt like they were going to play Wembley. Playing our first show nine months after forming, due to lack of material/equipment/members, sounds like a recipe for disaster; however, despite it being the most uncool thing you’ve heard in a while, we owe a lot to it!
How did it go?
We ‘headlined’ the show, playing just four songs to a room of about 60 people who went absolutely nuts for us! Whether it was because we knew them, they liked our music or they just humoured us, there was movement from the outset. The first song we played was a really bad cover of Fall Out Boy’s ‘Dance Dance’ in which Dan played bass and screamed; the rest of the tracks however, were our own. Unbeknownst to us, people actually knew who we were, knew our lyrics and liked our music. If it wasn’t for this first show, we would not have found our now rhythm guitarist, Jake. Jake watched our set and at the end, expressed his enjoyment for it. We knew he liked the music we played and we knew he played guitar, so when we asked him if he wanted to fill the vacancy, he was more than happy to help us out.
What’s the biggest show you’ve played so far?
In terms of playing to a big crowd, in March of this year we played the O2 Academy 3 with our mates in This Memory; between us and the other bands we managed to sell around 150 tickets. This may not sound many, but with a 250 capacity venue and 5 local bands on the bill, we were stoked on it!
What is your favourite venue in Birmingham to play?
For a number of reasons, it has to be either The Rainbow Courtyard or the O2 Academy 3. Our boy Arthur Tapp of the Catapult Club promotes both of those venues. The sound is killer in these venues and we’ve played our best shows at both.
What does the immediate future hold for the band?
We are currently in talks with a producer to book in studio time to record the heaviest song we’ve ever written as our next single. Once we’ve put that out, we will have one more track to write for our debut EP and then we can think about recording that too. Until we record though, we will be solely focusing on getting our set ready for our second head-liner at The Rainbow, Digbeth on 28th November 2014
Apart from yourselves, what other unsigned West Midlands band should we keep an eye out for?
There’s a few bands that we’re good friends with that are doing really well for themselves; This Memory have just bagged themselves a management deal, Samsara are planning a full UK tour and Wait For The Fall have played to a sold out O2 Academy 2, and also played shows with Me vs. Hero and ROAM. Any of these three bands are on the brink of blowing up really soon, so keep an eye on them all.
If you could have any band/artist cover one of your songs, who would you want to do it and what song would suit them best?
We would have Northlane cover our track ‘Omega Point,’ as it was them that influenced us to write it!
Band links:
Website: http://theirsoulsforgold.co.uk/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheirSoulsForGold
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/TheirSoulsForGold/videos
Twitter: https://twitter.com/TSFG_Official
Bandcamp: http://theirsoulsforgold.bandcamp.com/
Photograph of Their Souls For Gold – Mark Wilson
Are you in a band in the West Midlands and want to be featured on Scene Spotlight? Email your answers to the questions that Their Souls For Gold covered, including a decent photo of your band, and we’ll be in touch! All genres welcome.