Alt Blk Era - 2000 Trees Interview

Hey, I'm Cheya and I'm from Old Black Era. Hi, I'm Nairobi and I'm from Old Black Era. Hi, I'm Alex. I'm also from Old Black Era. And we're at 2000 Trees and I'm super excited to talk to you guys because you are my first repeat interview at this festival. The first one, it was 2 years ago, and that was among one of your first gigs since then. It seems like it's been a wild ride. You've had the debut album. We've got the EP out. It seems like things are going really well. I mean, what are some highlights of the last couple of years for you guys? What comes to mind when you're revisiting this festival two years later? Probably beginning my guitar journey, um, supporting Pendulum, the number one album, the Mo Award, just so grateful for everything. You lifted off my top ones. I know you took them all, but another one would be the Music Week Awards for women in music. That one was like really special because we have to, we were in the middle of the pendulum tour and then we literally had to like fly back into England to fly back out into the middle of Europe. So it was, it was drama, but you know, like the stereotype of rock star, it gave that. If I can say that, I felt super cool. Well speaking of rock stars, one experience we've seen you. A few times since then, but in the last two years, we actually visited Brazil for a little time. And on one of the music television channels out there, there was the chilli Peppers, and then you just on normal telly on one of the channels in Brazil. That's crazy. So yeah, it was the footage from there. It's it's something. This is that's how much you got and sometimes you don't realise when you're doing all these gigs what people see, you know, you don't. Were you there for rock in Rio? No, it's just we were just out visiting family. My partner's Brazilian. Oh nice. So we just happened to be there and you just, you were just on the music. That is freaky. Your work follows you everywhere. I'm sorry. I think it was around a year ago. It's one of those. What, what, what is one of your favourite songs of the set at the moment? You're playing tonight in the forest again, Forest is so good at trees, isn't it? What's your favourite song on the set? I would say my favourite song on the set is, and I've got it, my favourite song on the set is at the moment probably probably my drummer's girlfriend. Yeah, that's just that always just gets me come on, we've got to revisit that properly. This was the first song you learned how to play was the one you wrote, the first single, and this was the first festival that I played. as well and it's a banger of a song. It's genuine. It's a proper like what's it called like a full full circle moment for sure. I'm definitely a lot more confident than I was and hopefully I don't mess up again like I did, but it just shows it wasn't that bad. But no, a lot of people think they need permission or they need to know so many things later on. To be able to like play a gig and it's like, no, you actually can just skip to the end. That's, that's where that's where all these variety of influences that you guys have from me. I remember you were wearing a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt and you've supported a pendulum, but there is, there's a metal aspect, there's a punk rock aspect to it. There's a dance aspect, you know, how are you guys pulling all these influences together? Oh, I guess just through the amount of music that we listen to, like me and Che especially. Like, you know, people say I listen to everything, like, no, we listen to everything, and you know why? It's because originally it was really intentional. Like when I was in secondary school, I just, I had a, um, this is so rand, such random law that I'm sharing, but I had a Polish supply teacher, and I really liked him. I thought, you know what, what, what's gonna win him over? 1980s Polish music. Let's go. And I did a deep dive and then ever since then I was like, OK, well now let's listen to like. 1940s Russian music. Now let's listen to French music from the 19990s. It was like really intentional to like learn about as many different genres and different like artists as well in that scene. And that's kind of like stuck with us now. So now we listen to loads of like Japanese metal. You listen to loads of K-pop, but she's an emo girl, so she does it in an emo way, of course. You know if you know Japanese metal. No, I listen to Hyde and like Miyavi and um who's who's our favourite Japanese metal band? The name's in Japanese, so I, I, I couldn't tell you but I could sing it, but you don't want that. And I want to ask both of you, your favourite song on the set today, you know, what else comes to mind when I ask that question? I've been really doing, enjoyed doing Lost in the Back of My Mind off the new EP. That's just a lot of fun. It's a really jumpy song. Gets the crowd jumping. It's just a lot of fun for us to play, so I, I'm really enjoying doing that one at the minute. I think I would have to say come fight me for it. We're opening with that one. Love it. I'm just, just checking that. It does, it's so good. Like I love walking out and going like, if you want it, come and get it. If you want it, come and get it. And also, you know what surprised me is I saw a video of me doing it live and it actually sounded like the recording. I don't know why, but you know, like, um, not that you like don't think that I sound like that, but I was like, damn, I thought it was the backing track. I was like, that's me. Yes, that's amazing. No, it matters. And it has, has that been most of your experience of the last two years? I mean, when, how are you writing an EP and then the next album, I presume, or any singles for it, any songs for it, while, while you, while you're so busy on tour? Are you, are you riding in the back of the tour bus or are you in hotel rooms, or are you scheduling time aside? How are you getting your ideas? The albums are what were already written many moons ago. You've done the Noel Gallagher trick. So it's, it's really weird. I think the Our World EP was pretty new, but in regards to the albums, they are already planned, ready, like marketing plan and all. Like we know what's going on, right? We've got a, we've got a trilogy. We, we need to start thinking about the trilogy tour, do you know what I mean? It's all going on in Camp of Black Era, but how would you say? Are you, are you, are you around anything at the moment? I feel like. Since we're like doing loads of shows, I feel like after a really good show, the adrenaline is still going. It's like, let's make a song that kind of gets that live energy across as well. So that's you know, the BPM, you know what, you know what connected, right? That's your focus group, the live shows, right. What's one of the hardest songs on the set to play, either from a guitar point of view or just that took the longest in the rehearsal room? I'd say the hardest of the set, not because it's majorly difficult guitar part wise, but our world has a lot of like. Uh, changes in terms of effects and stuff on the pedal, so I'm, whilst trying to focus on the parts, I'm also having to change my pedal and also then give a performance as well. So I'd probably say that one at the minute is probably the hardest just because of the amount of changeups and the amount that I have to do in it, but it's not a hard song to play. It's just, no, it's still enjoyable. I still enjoy playing it. That's good, I think, considering that I don't play guitar. The worst song, like, if you handed me a guitar right now and I was like, right, go on stage, everyone's waiting, the worst song to play on guitar, as someone that doesn't know how to play, I think would be Come Fight Me For It, because it's the first song, and I'd be, and, and I'd be so nervous and I'd hold it wrong and I'd just. Yeah, and, and I hope that I'd like the sound guy would just turn me down. You know, there's one trick for that as a guitar player or any instrument. It's sometimes you can't run around the stage on the tricky part, so you do the power stances. Oh, you know what I love? The drop, I love the drop. I love it. Just as low as you can go please, thank you very much to displays, trying to do the splits, doing it. No, that's super fun. So you guys are are working towards the next time, when, when can we expect that and what else have you got coming up in the near future? I actually don't know when it's gonna come out. We don't, we don't know when. But I guess this year, OK, that's a time to be safe, and it is a collaboration. Oh, that's exciting. And it's an international one as well, so it's a real, it's a really big one for us and we're really excited. Oh, that's exciting. I can't wait for that. And before we finish, you've you've touched on a couple of things that I'm interested to ask. What's one bit of gear that you guys as a band couldn't live without that's a little bit of signature. To to what you do, and it can be the cheapest thing or it can be, you know, something that's signature to you guys. You mentioned a couple of, um, you know, technical things you're doing there. What comes to mind? What can I not do without? Maybe it's your guitar, maybe it's, it's something. I mean, yeah, if I didn't have a guitar, I wouldn't have use different guitars, you know, it's the one that would be like, I mean, my, my new guitar, I've really grown attached to and I I really. Enjoy playing it. What is it? What are you playing at the moment? I've just got a house 95 custom guitar. What's the chap's name again? Remind me, Tom. Tom, he's fab, absolutely amazing, and I'm so thankful to be a part of that family, especially some of the artists made in the Midlands that they have on there. Starred in his, his house, this little ride it's called House 95, right? Yeah, and the, the fact that these guitars are so well made, they're so like they're handcrafted and they all. Gain their own little characteristics and stuff from tour wear and show wear that they just become their own unique thing and I like, I really like that and they sound incredible, absolutely incredible. Um, so I think going forward, I don't think I could do without that at the minute. You guys have got all these wider influences, you know, a bit of studio trickery, something that's giving you that, you know, a bit more of that dance music influence, perhaps. Um, I think we like to use a bit of auto-tune, and that doesn't, I feel like when you mention auto-tune, everyone's like, oh, you can't see. But I feel like it just really enhances the vocals. Like you can't, you can't call a guitarist a bad guitarist for using pedals. Like it's basically the same thing. Overdrive's cheating, you know what I mean? No one says that. It's just. It's all about how you use it, yeah, and we like to have like, um, our pedals live as well just to add that extra grip because it's nice. I think that the auto-tune thing as well, a lot of that is expected when anything goes a bit more into the dance music. Everything's more processed and your vocals, they hit from the, from the word go, you know what I mean? You can hear the preamp and the compression on it, just, just punching it right to the front of the mix. That's one thing that I love about festivals is kind of like we do a little prove ourselves that you know we can do it live. The tune is not going to carry us at 2000 trees at 10 p.m. at the forest stage. Yeah, it's because we use it because we want to, not because we wouldn't be able to sing without it. So that's really exciting guys. We'll be there later and I'm looking forward to it. It's going to be an absolute party. All Black Era, check them out. Thank you so much for talking with me. Thank you.