Über Rock Introduces… Collected

Introduced by Monk

Essex newcomers Collected may hail from a small town, but they have big ambitions, as they reveal on their imminently released debut EP, which lands at the end of this coming week.

So, that makes them a highly topical topic for our latest ‘Über Rock Introduces…’ feature. And, we start in time honoured fashion by living up to the feature’s title and asking them to tell who all is in the band…

So, the band is comprised of five members: vocalist Liam Brazitis, guitarist and songwriter Charlie Day, drummer Artis Upitis, guitarist and composer Harry Barratt (aka ‘H’) and finally, the band’s most recent addition, bassist Chris Day.

How did you come together?

We all grew up in a small seaside town called Clacton-on-sea. Charlie and H started the band back in 2008. We both started playing guitar around the same time and would always hang out to show each what we had been learning and have fun, that eventually turned into learning songs together and then deciding to start a band.

I met our drummer Artis in my high school music class, we instantly hit it off and I asked if he wanted to join. He came round for a jam and there was instant chemistry, we all had similar music tastes and jammed Pantera, Metallica, Machine head, Slayer, and Lamb of God for hours. We knew we had found the right person, we hung out all the time after that and regularly practiced together, it was so much fun! We really started to gel when Liam joined the band back in 2015, after our first rehearsal together we could tell we’d found someone who matched the vocal ability and energy we were looking for in a frontman. Ideas started to flow, and we wrote our first song together soon after.

Personally, as a historian, I have an interest in etymology, so I feel have to ask about where the band name came from and if it has any special significance…

It basically stems from the idea that the band is almost like a collected consciousness of the members thoughts, feelings, and ideas etc. We wanted it to be something we can channel all our energy into whether that be positive, negative, or even just musical influence. Then after a while as the band matured that basic idea kind of expanded into the idea that, why can’t that go beyond just us and that together, we are collected.

Does the name reflect what you are seeking to do/achieve as a band?

I think so, yeah. Although we all experience things very uniquely throughout our individual lives, so many similarities can also be drawn. It’s the differences that make us all so amazing but if we can look past them differences, we’ll also see just how much we all share too. Which can be a powerful thing.

Music is categorized into various genres and sub-genres. How would you define your sound? What individual and collective influences do you draw on for your sound?

Oh, that’s always a difficult question because we have plenty of influences to pick from and our sound kind of ebbs and flows a lot. I’d say our older material sounds very influenced by bands like The Contortionist and Monuments so would probably fit in that Progressive Metal area, but our newer stuff is sounding very influenced by Sleep Token, Loathe, Deftones, Red Sparrows and includes a lot more variation in regard to the electronic sounds we incorporate. So maybe sitting more in the post-metal/modern metal area.

You’re just about to release your first EP… can you tell us a bit about it?

The EP is called ‘Say When’ and, as you said, its dropping on 18 February. The single of the title track “Say When” dropped last weekend.

It’s our first official EP so we’re very excited for people to hear it. With the four tracks we wanted to showcase our diverse sound and the direction we’re heading in musically but also keep the backbone of what our fans know us for. So that’s why the tracks are listed as they are, starting fresh then into familiar territory.

Are there any particular lyrical themes/personal issues you are addressing in the song(s)?

Mental health is a big one, and the different relationships you can develop and lose with people. ‘Say When’, the title track, for instance, is about how you can be close with someone for a period of time then it slowly becomes clear that person isn’t who you thought they were, and you’ve just been blindly following along to try and impress them with the type of ‘Jump!”/“How high?” dynamic.

How important is social media in getting your music out there?

Essential at this point, almost everything is online these days with so many different platforms to push content through, add to the constraints of the pandemic on live performing it’s pretty much been the only means of exposure for music.

Is it more important than, say, streaming outlets especially given the fact that the financial returns for streaming can mean a band doing a lot of work for relatively little reward – i.e. you earn very small percentage returns, with the services themselves taking large chunks of your potential income? Is it worth the effort, or is it a fact of the business that you just have to accept?

I think they come hand in hand, if we’ve released something on Spotify or any platform, we’re going to use social media to promote it and direct people where to find the content, so I’d say they’re equally as important. As far as lots of work for little reward, that’s just life as an originals band trying to get somewhere to be honest.

The pandemic of the past two year sled to a log of bands having to explore other methods of generating income marketing themselves. I’m thinking of how many bands found themselves having to go down the live streaming route. And a lot of them charged their fans for watching the shows. I know there are pros and cons to “free” versus “pay per view”, but as a young band I’d be interested to know if, given the shitfuck of the past two years, it is more important for you to get your music out there than to make money out of doing so? I guess the point I’m making is “is it worth some short-term pain for long term gain”?

[It’s] 100 per cent worth getting the music out there, for us it isn’t about the money, we love what we do especially performing and creating together, so for us any wallet pain is worth it, if our music has reached even one person who vibes with it, we’re happy.

Life does seem to be getting back to some form of normality, but do you think the option of things such as lives streams will continue to be used by bands, especially to reach into territories where they may not be able to play, or afford to go to?

Absolutely, it makes bands material and performances so much more accessible to everyone, I know a lot of bigger bands have had a lot of success with streaming on twitch and YouTube. I think there’s more incentive for artists to make the stream free as well because if they have a following, they known they’ll always have an audience watching, and that audience all have the potential to donate to the stream. So, say they have a 1000+ viewers and all of them donate £0.99p that’s £1000 for what could be just a play through in their bedroom. I know I said we don’t think about money, but that is an area of the market that has the potential to be a main source of income for bands in the future.

So, what is next for the band? What is the plan for, say, the rest of 2022 in terms of getting out there and bringing your music to new and expanding audiences?

So, we’ve got the release of this EP, and then we’re planning to gig as much as we can around the ÜK to expand as a band in the scene as a whole and branch out of our local area. At the same time writing new material for our next releases.

OK, now a bit of fun, and a couple of quickfire “out there” questions to give us a wee bit of an insight into your personalities:

Ice cream: vanilla or strawberry? Strawberry
Gravy or curry sauce on your chips? Curry
Salted or sweet popcorn? Sweet
Buckfast or Iron Bru? Buckfast
Smarties or M&Ms? M&Ms
Pineapple on pizza? Yaaaaaas

Final question: when live gigs are fully up and running again, and you have your choice of any bill to be a part of, who would be the three other bands (signed or otherwise) you would choose to play with?

Wow that’s tough… probably Sleep Token, Loathe and Fever 333.

‘Say When’ is released on Friday (18 February). You can get your copy HERE.
Collected officially launch the EP that same evening at Three Wise Monkeys in Colchester.

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