Category: Interviews
The BIG Über Rock Interview: Paul Gray (The Sensible Gray Cells/Professor And The Madman/The Damned)
Despite the ongoing lockdowns across the Überverse, it has been a busy year for punk legend Paul Gray. While The Damned may have been one band forced into an unforeseen hiatus, the break has meant that the bassist has been able to concentrate on not just one but two “side projects”, in the form of Professor And The Madman, who recently entertained us with their excellent ‘Seance’ album, and more latterly The Sensible Gray Cells, which has seen him team up with another of this long-term bandmates, the ever charismatic Captain Sensible, to produce an equally impressive second collaboration, which sees the light of day later this month.
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Über Rock Introduces… Seek Harbour
While there have been many negative aspects of the ongoing lockdowns, such as the absence of live gigs for the better part of the past seven months, one up side has been being able to use the extended periods of downtime to seek out new bands and new talent. One such recent discovery to come our way earlier this month was southern English metal crüe Seek Harbour and their latest single, ‘Sleepless Water’. With the band also celebrating a new management deal, Monk took the opportunity to find out a little bit more about the four guys, their background and the challenges of getting their product out there in the midst of a pandemic…
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Über Rock Introduces… Hells
Given we at Über Rock like nothing better than to try and showcase the talents of someone starting out, we are always keeping and eye and an ear open with everything we do. In this case, the big lad by the name of DJ Astrocreep met this talented young lady, Helene, in someone’s gaming stream – and on his birthday. After a brief chat, he checked out her music demos and was pleasantly surprised to find she had a single coming out a few days later. A couple of listens later, it was clear that she is a talented person and definitely deserves to have a spotlight shined upon on her, just after self-releasing her second single. So, he had no hesitation in hooking up with her and getting her to introduce herself to the wider Uberverse
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Brittney Slayes (Unleash The Archers)
Over the past decade, Canada’s Unleash The Archers have been slowly and steadily building a reputation as being one of THE rising forces of the international power metal scene, not least since the arrival of vocalist Brittney Slayes. It is a reputation that was firmly cemented by most recent album, ‘Abyss’, released this past August. There is no mistaking that it is an absolute beast of an album, and one worthy of all the positive feedback which has been fired its way. So, having spent weeks immersing myself in its utter gloriousness, Jonny B jumped at the chance to have a quick chat with Ms Slayes about the album, it’s characters and story and how both the band and the Canadian music scene have been coping with the wave of lockdowns in the wake of the continuing C-19 pandemic.
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Burton C Bell
It’s not often you get to chat to the singer and founder of the first band you paid to see live, almost two decades prior, but that’s what DJ Astrocreep had when he got to chat with Burton C Bell via Skype recently. The former Fear Factory frontman is continuing with another project of his, in Ascension of the Watchers, alongside John Bechdel and Jayce Lewis, with the latest of their efforts, ‘Apocrypha’, released this past week, following his very recent step down from the band he co-founded 30 years ago.
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THE BIG ÜBER ROCK INTERVIEW – ALFIE AGNEW (PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN/ADOLESCENTS/D.I.)
If any band defines the description of a trans-Atlantic punk supergroup, then it most definitely is Professor And The Madman – a composite of some of the biggest names in the genre both here in the Über Kingdom, in the form of The Damned alumni Paul Gray and Rat Scabies) and from across the pond, in the no less notable form of SoCal legends and Adolescents/D.I. stalwarts Sean Elliott and Alfie Agnew. Two years down the line from their iconic ‘Disintegrate Me!’ album, the release of which was followed by a (so far) one-off show at London’s infamous 100 Club, the quartet reconvened – well, as best they could, bearing in mind recent circumstances – to lay down tracks for its follow-up, the masterful ‘Seance’, which is coming our way in mid-November.
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Johannes Eckerstrom (Avatar)
Theatrical goth rockers Avatar release their new album, ‘Hunter Gatherer’, on 7 August. So, the big lad by the name of Astrocreep took the opportunity to catch up with charismatic frontman Johannes Eckerstrom about the album: mind you, it took two attempts to get the conversation on tape, thanks to the beauties/vagaries of Microsoft updates launching themselves during the uploading process. However, with the interview successfully saved at the second attempt, among the topics we discussed, at length, were how a track on it has been seven years in the making, as well as being his biggest challenge to date, his thoughts on the heaviest song ever and a rider request that maybe worried some venues about what they were getting with the band!
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Steven Jones (Bleed From Within)
Glasgow heavyweights Bleed From Within are about to assault our aural cortexes once more, with the release of their fifth studio album, the highly impressive ‘Fracture’, this coming Friday. Having had the pleasure of being able to absorb the album for several weeks now, Jase Walker had the opportunity to chat, appropriately socially-distanced of course. to guitarist Steven Jones about the release, where the band are coming from with it and, of course, the challenges of promoting new product in an age of lockdowns, pandemics and quarantine:
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Arta Salehi (Quinn The Brain)
Quinn The Brain are a new band from Houston who this coming week are releasing their first official EP, ‘Open Wide’, which Gerald S can pretty safely say is his EP of the year. It was a show by the awesome Pretty Vacant (also from Houston) where Arta Salehi (vocals/ guitar) and or resident stetson-wearer met by chance a few months ago. The G man has been playing the EP nonstop since probably the end of February or beginning of March, and more recently recently braved the Covid lockdown and utilized the power of the internet to chat formally to the frontwoman about the band’s past, present, and future.
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Adrian Goleby (Caligula’s Horse)
Earlier this month, our resident proggie, Jase W, reviewed ‘Rise Radiant’, the excellent new album from Australian progsters Caligula’s Horse, which is released next week via InsideOut Music. Well, they must have liked what he had to say about it, as the next thing he know he’d been invited to fire some questions across the interweb to the land down under, and specifically to guitarist Adrian Goleby, to ask about the album, songwriting, his memories of touring in different territories and choosing setlists…
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Ross Jennings (Haken)
Regular ÜR readers will know by now that Jase W is a massive fan of London-based progressive metallers Haken. He has expressed his admiration for them several times, most recently this past week when he raved about their forthcoming new album, the appropriately titled ‘Virus’. So, when he got a call from the big boss at ÜRHQ asking if he wanted to have a chat with vocalist Ross Jennings, of course, he politely declined… did he heck!?
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The BIG Über Rock Interview – Rick Ruhl (Every Mother’s Nightmare)
It’s probably the understatement of the 21st century to say that the global Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the music business into complete and utter chaos, with touring schedules decimated, festivals cancelled, album releases delayed… the situation confronted by many artists, especially as to whether or not they’ll be able to continue as before once we, eventually, come out the other side of this crisis and return to some form of normality. Prior to the international lockdown being introduced – or not, in some cases – Memphis hard rockers Every Mother’s Nightmare were in the final stages of recording their latest album. Earlier this week, the band’s frontman and founder, Rick Ruhl, checked in, via the offices of EMN’s record company, HighVolMusic, to give us an update on where things are at with both the recording and the band itself…
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