It is my great pleasure to present you the brand new 2-track debut EP by SEALCLUBBER, a sludgy and grimmy punk act from Stourbridge, UK. Titled ” Sticky River”, will be released via Witch Hunter Records and Carnage Club Records on 2nd August. . Keep tracking it and look for announcements and release dates on their official Facebook profile.
Taste the two heavy tracks below and scroll down to read my interview with the band. If you are a fan of KYLESA, BARONESS or OLD MAN GLOOM, it’s something you should check it out immediately!
Don’t forget to check out my last Carnage Club feature – SPERARE free download & interview.
Hey, SEALCLUBBER! Nice to meet you, guys. How are you?
Hey! Nice to meet you too. We are all really good thanks, just heard the final mixes of our forthcoming EP and it’s sounding heavy as fook!
Cool! We’ll get to that, but first off… tell me what kind of name is SEALCLUBBER? :)
We just wanted to see how many people we could offend :D It was kind of inspired by our Dutch buddies, DIRTY EAST GODVERDOMME and their hatred for seals, after they had some beer pinched by the blubbery swines. When we were toying around with different names, we wanted something quite brutal with a small amount of shock value. We don’t profess to being pro sealclubbing though before you get the WWF on us.. and we don’t mean the 90’s American Wrestling Federation!
:D Would you change it if they threatened you?
No way! The people need to know what these seals are capable of. It might just be petty theft now but they could be responsible for the biggest crime outbreak since the Birmingham Riots!
Alright, boys. Let’s get serious. Tell me how did you form this pack, how did you come up with the idea for SEALCLUBBER?
Si B:
We all met up through either inactivity or frustration from not being active enough, wanting to stray away from what we were doing in previous bands. What started out as a stoner jam, soon developed into something much riffier and heavier. With my filthy riffs, Si’s speedy punk beats, Ste’s dirty ‘crunk’ bass and Byron’s need for note skids… SEALCLUBBER was born!
Tell me more about those bands. What projects have you been involved in before?
Having all come together from Birmingham & Black Country based Grunge / Grunge Metal / Punk bands, some of which are still active now, we don’t want to name drop previous projects as we really don’t want to be compared to anything else we’ve done before. We got a little bored of the same revolving door-esque gigging circuits we were involved in with bands we’ve come from and wanted to breakout and experience different bands, venues and hopefully different countries too.
Shy guys you are, huh? :D Do you all live in the same city?
No not really, some of us have shady pasts that we would rather forget about… :D Nah, we just want a fresh start musically with no comparisons to previous projects. We all live within a 2-3 mile radius, just outside of Stourbridge, West Midlands (UK). Which is handy as only one of us drives!
How often do you rehearse and meat up to broach your plans to conquer the world?
We rehearse two to three evenings a week in a normal week, luckily our rehearsal room is literally 5mins down the road just outside of Stourbridge. As we’re a new band it’s all about putting our ideas together at the moment to write new songs and find what sound we’re going for. Although next week will be our very 1st gig so we’ll probably up our practicing game between now and then!
You supported OPIUM LORD in the beginning of April right? Tell me more about this show.
Yeah we were meant to be but I came down with a bad case of food poisoning on the afternoon before the gig and had to cancel. So gutted as it was a descent sized venue and it was packed too. But now we have a clean bill of health it’s onwards and upwards! We have since had our first gig and had a really good reception which will hopefully lead to a couple more shows before the EP launch next month.
Oh, damn. Bummer!
Tell me, are there a lot of cool venues in the area?
Not as many as there used to be unfortunately. Stourbridge and nearby areas used to have a really fruitful music scene but venue closures and a surge of clubs who only have tribute acts have put a downer on local music. There’s still some cool small venues around Stourbridge as well as a couple of relatively new venues that should hopefully grow into descent venues. Labels like Carnage Club are also doing an excellent job aiming to promote the underground talent we have in the area.
Any local bands’ names you’d like to spread around?
There’s a few underground, local bands from different genres who are definitely worth a listen…. OPIUM LORD, VICIOUS BASTARD, TOMORROW COME THE WOLVES, NEW ALASKA, CONSTANT WAVES, ADAM BECKLEY. Birmingham based BOVINE are well worth a listen too if you are into riffy, stoner-esque music!
Alright, let’s move on to your new EP. Tell me more about it. How proud are you of your first-born?
So very proud! We wanted to get in the studio to record as early as possible to keep things fresh to our ears, with a view to creating a sound with the rawness of our sound in a rehearsal environment. I’m pretty sure we’ve achieved that after hearing the final mixes last week! Chris Traverse at Temple Of Boom Studios in Stourbridge was superb to work with and knew exactly what sound we wanted to create. We also had Luke from OPIUM LORD who did a smashing job assisting with the recording, which also gave us an extra pair of ears. The tracks should be being mastered as we speak!
What’s the timetable for the release?
It’s scheduled for release via Carnage Club Records on the 13th May, with a launch show TBC. We like to think of it as a small but mighty appetizer EP which will be a taste of what SEALCLUBBER is about, which we hope will leave people wanting to hear more!
Is SEALCLUBBER your full time gig now or do you all have side jobs and don’t focus sooo much on the band?
For me (Si B), SEALCLUBBER is my main focus, other than my 9-5 day job (Gotta pay the bills somehow!). Other than an income, the job doesn’t really mean anything but it pays for recording, petrol money for future tours and shiny new equipment too! I think the same goes for Si our drummer as he has a day job too. Which leaves Byron and Ste, who have decided to take an early retirement in their late 20’s :D so there’s no excuse for not pulling their weight when the band is concerned!
Alright, guys. Before we end up, could you sum it up and reveal your plans including touring for the rest of 2013?
On top of releasing our debut, we’re continuing writing and beefing up our set so we’re road ready. We’ll be sorting out a few UK dates, as well as hopefully heading overseas to Europe later in the year. We’ll probably squeeze in a second release later this year too so stay tuned! All updates will be on our social media sites and information on releases and tours will also be on www.carnageclub.co.uk!
Great! Any plans for holidays?
Nothing planned yet but we could do with getting away from this ice age that has hit England…Any colder and we may be considering visiting you in Poland!
Ha! I try to stay patriotic, but sometimes it’s so hard to believe there are no more interesting places in Europe than Poland :)
Scandinavia, Prague, Italian villages and green Greek islands like Corfu – that’s what highly recommend when it comes to European travels.
So.. that’s about it, right? Would you like to add anything else?
Just to give our facebook page a ‘like’ (sealclubber, one word) for news on the forthcoming EP and any up and coming tour dates!
Thanks!
SEALCLUBBER Facebook
SEALCLUBBER e-mail
Carnage Club official website
Carnage Club Bandcamp
Carnage Club Facebook
Carnage Club Twitter
Carnage Club e-mail
