After disbanding the successful Heaven's Basement, Rob Ellershaw and Sid Glover came together with Al Junior and Tom Harris to create the new and exciting post-hardcore band, The Cruel Knives. The band recently opened up for The Pretty Reckless at the O2 Forum in Kentish Town, on their UK tour back in January. But what do's and don'ts did guitarist Sid Glover learn from touring with an established band?
"Touring with other bands is great because you have an audience that most likely don't know who you are or any of your songs so there's no forgiveness, you have to win them over the old fashioned way which really lets you know if you're doing something right or wrong. For a new band it's really good training. TPR are totally dedicated to their craft; the music, the show, so that's just a good energy to be around in general."
Where did you get your name from?
"It's a reference to George Orwell's "Animal Farm”. It can potentially be the most painful process of starting a band, overthinking the name, so best not to force it. It had kept coming up in conversation like it was saying "Oi you idiots, you've already got a name, here I am". Once you've got a name then it really comes to life, it's the Frankenstein moment."
What new challenges does The Cruel Knives bring to you that Heaven’s Basement did not?
"The Black Country accent with our singer was a whole different kettle of fish. I swear in half our songs he's singing something totally different to what I actually think he's written. Musically, we're trying to make the greatest amount of musical impact with just the four of us, you're not gonna see us with backing tracks and stuff like that. HB was a forward, linear energy and The Cruel Knives have a much wider one."
When recruiting for The Cruel Knives, what made you choose Tom and Al rather than any other musicians?
"We didn't audition singers, we just met a couple of lads while we were hanging out in Manchester and Tom was one of them. While we were up there, we wrote a song from scratch together and it sounded great, like something standing totally on its own. It’s a big deal, to meet someone and have it be so easy to write something that you all really like.
As for Al, he had been the drummer of my first band when we were kids and had worked for HB as drum tech and was looking for a band and actually messaged me to see if I knew anyone who needed a drummer. He came round to my place and I played him all the demo's and that was that."
What influenced you to get into music?
"I was always drawn to the guitar; I started playing when I was 3/4, I had my little red Toys R Us acoustic and I carried it around with me everywhere. Jimi Hendrix was probably the first real inspiration, Voodoo Child in particular. Locked myself away for weeks trying to play that fucking intro properly. I've still never heard anyone other than him do it right, and he played it different every time, which says a lot."
During the song writing process, what inspires you to write music and lyrics?
"As a musician you're really just a blender, what goes in gets mixed up and comes out in its own way. Lyrics, everyone has their own process. Always based on true life experiences, but how I address that can differ from idea to idea. I really enjoy writing with Tom and Rob because they have their own approaches and it pushes and pulls in a very creative way, we know when we've got something right because we all agree on it. One thing I am sure of is that you've got to write for you or your collective self. If you're one of these guys who writes with an agenda to be liked then it's almost always tainted with a layer of fakery that you just can't get passed."
If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you most like to play?
"Woodstock 1969 would be amazing but unless you've got a time machine and a good booking agent back there what're you gonna do..."
Where do you want to be in 20 years time?
"Woodstock 2037. Although given the current state of things I think the Time Machine option is probably looking more likely..."
You’ve recently been advertising your new upcoming EP. Can we expect a full length studio album in the near future?
"We're recording the EP at the moment, after that we'll probably book some shows and do the live thing for a while because that's what we love doing most. Then we'll get stuck into a full length album. We've been writing loads so we already have enough songs for it, it's been hard cutting them down to pick tracks for the EP and to be honest we still haven't resolved it."
You can visit The Cruel Knives' Pledge Music page here to order their new EP, merchandise and meet and greet opportunities.
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