Conjurer - ATG 2026

So Nina here for Andy Guitar because Andy Guitar cannot speak. Um too busy partying I heard. Uh-huh, so they say. If you don't mind introducing yourself to that camera over there please. Hi camera over there. I'm Brady and I play guitar and shout in the rock band Conjurer. Yes, um, so we started the main stage earlier, that was a sicker, it was. And it was just, just the ambience, you know, with the screen behind you, it was just, it all worked really well. I was so good, glad cos we've done that, the screen twice before and it didn't not work, but it wasn't right. And so we, I say we, Noah, uh, our drummer and our lighting engineer Sam. Put in so much effort to like get it working properly and I do not understand how it works, but they crushed it, so it looks incredible no it was nice, it's something that we wanted to do, we had uh our friend Ashley B who um is an incredible photographer, she made all the visuals for us and they're all um organic. So it's kind of like oil running through water and then she filmed it all and synced it up to the songs. It was like such a, a pleasure to, to have her do that and then to be able to use it at a show like that is ridiculous. So yeah, it, it was really good fun. And and so ATG you you've played a few times before, um, and how, how does it feel to play a festival like this where, um, I, I think one of, one of the things we're talking about is a festival that's, there's a lot of musicians here. Full of nerds. Does that feel like you're being judged or you're being understood? What I love about this festival is that there isn't any judgement, like you can have a band, like Tony Danza yesterday who was, it was just a million notes, and then you can have a band play like Mono who will play 3 notes for the whole set, and like, Everyone is just here to appreciate good exciting music regardless of what form that takes, so if ever there was a festival not to feel judged at, it would be this one. and I, I really like that, like we, I kind of feel like we're the house band at this point cause we've played so many times and um. But it it it's, it's the, the field in England that I feel the most welcomed in. So, um, yeah, it's, it's been a real joy and privilege to be a part of this community and to, to get to, to know that when we do something new, James is gonna wanna have us here. It's weird to have made a band. That, that we try and be challenging and interesting and niche, and then we come and play here and we're like, oh I feel like we're the mainstream band. Yeah, 100% and and every time you will get the same crowd or even a different crowd, it doesn't matter, but some like you always get someone that gets what you're about, and that's great. Um, so speaking about the newness, obviously your album, um, Unel last, last year, was it last year, yeah, what year are we in, um. Slightly different to the, the couple of things you've done before, possibly deliberately a bit more. Step back, not, not necessarily acoustically, but you know, maybe fewer notes, fewer like, definitely fewer notes, Christ, I was like, Danny, we've we've gotta stop with all these notes. Yeah, so I was gonna say, is that a conscious decision to like enjoy it more on stage, or is it like, just actually we just enjoy doing this a bit better than what a little bit of all of the above, um, definitely Pathos, cos we wrote that record in the pandemic and recorded it there. And um. It was, we didn't really get a chance to play it in a room together until we started touring it, and then we were like, oh these songs are really difficult and there's so many notes and for that a lot of that tour we're like, we're just stood watching the fretboards, like not really getting to enjoy it as much as we'd like, so there was a real conscious effort to, uh not simplify but just to um. Make stuff that felt good to play as well as sounded good, and that's something we never focused on before, like our old drummer Jan was really like, If you can, like, legally make your hand in this shape, then it's fine, we'll put it on the on the album, and now we're just like, OK, can we get the flavour of that idea, but make it easier and fun and maybe like sacrifice 10% of the sonic perfection to give us 70% enjoyment, and I think a lot of that, even though the record is, Quite sad, and you can feel that tangible, like we are having fun playing these songs and I can just like really focus on the performance and enjoying it and not just like counting. Yeah, 100%, I feel that really comes across because um you guys have been doing um a bit on social media. You guys have been playing acoustic, uh well, putting acoustic reels out of um some of the songs and, In a way, because you just mentioned, you know, the previous record Pathos was, you recorded it during the pandemic and stuff and, This, the new putting out the songs er acoustically gives me a bit of the um COVID vibes, not in, in a great way, not in the really bad way, as in like, you know, just when you felt more connected to the artist and it's like, oh that's how they are like at home and stuff, so where did that come from? We were talking about this and like, we do not like content as a band in general, like just the idea of like doing stuff for the sake of having something to post is gross, so. It's one of those things you to an extent have to do, and we were like, we would like to do something. I said to Noah, like, what, what do you really like when you see it, cos like Noah and Danny are especially like are the, the music nerd nerds, and they love, you know, seeing what, and I they were like oh when bands do like little acoustic things or they're just playing their songs, giving you a different interpretation. Like I really loved that, and I was like, well cool, if that's what you wanna see, let's do something like that, let's like have a, we just sat down for an afternoon and, and played through a bunch of bits and just like, kind of had a laugh with it, it felt, It didn't feel like we're making content, it just felt like we were like hanging out and playing music and hopefully other people will enjoy it, and that that's what I meant about the pandemic thing because it was, you know, it's people just being at home, it's like, well, I fancy doing this and hopefully someone will want to watch it, it's not deliberately like, oh let's clickbait this, let's like, you know. And I feel that really comes across, it's really just you guys enjoying playing. Yeah, just like there's been more comments about my socks and jeans in that video than anything else we've done in years, so yeah, no, mate I'll wear something outrageous on the next one and just I mean I can lend you some outfits. Thank you, I appreciate it, I can make it work. Welcome to the set today. What is your favourite song to play live, um, from the current set, not necessarily a fan favourite, just something you like to play live. All of the unsolved stuff is, I mean, kind of directly engineered to be fun to play, so that is, that has been great, but um, all apart, I think is such, A good song, like when we, we put that together and I, I do so little of the writing compared to the others that I like, I almost feel like I get the fan experience, I'm like, God, is this us, like this is great. Um yeah, and like kind of as soon as that came, came together, it felt like just such a, a cool. So, like I really love the interplay between the parts, it's, it's probably one of the trickier ones to play, but it is so satisfying, the way it comes together, so every time we play that, I have a good time, and then um Let Us Live, because I have very few vocals, so I just get to like play guitar and like hang out a little bit, um, so that's always fun, but yeah, all the new stuff. I, I would love it if we could just play the whole new album every night, like that would be, that's the dream for me. Oh, that's a testament to like enjoying what you wrote as well, like we're talking. Yeah, and now the tricky bit for us is trying to philtre in, like we've got a couple of tours coming up and how are we gonna do a mix of older material while still playing a lot of new stuff, um, so we're we're throwing in a few songs. So we haven't played live in forever, uh, over the next couple of tours just to, to kind of keep it interesting. Interesting. So speaking of the next tours, please tell us where, when, when and where that's happening. September we're out with uh Geria in the UK uh so that'll be our last UK shows of the year, um, and then we play throughout Europe with Devegganna Freihein in October, question mark. I wanna say October. Edit with a don't edit, let, let it lie, no one knows. People will turn up in October and it's actually November, so who knows. No, I think I'm, yeah, it's gotta be October, um, and then we are in theory, going back to the US in January, but that hasn't been fully booked or announced yet, so we'll see. We'll see you when we see it. And um sadly or happily, er we have to talk a tiny bit about guitars, um. So what are you playing on stage and if you're not playing it, what is your favourite guitar? I, so I'm such a utilitarian guitarist, so I, I play guitar because that is what I do in the band and in terms of like guitars, I bought a, an LTD V300. Uh, years, like 1013 years ago, like white flying V because I needed a guitar that could handle the lower tunings that we were using. I, I never really, I wasn't like, I don't wanna be a flying V guy, I just wanna like play guitar. This was cheap and available, great, I'll do it. I ended up playing it for like 7 years and just kind of became, I got so used to it, it's such a massive instrument. It didn't have a particularly long scale length, but just like the way it was constructed was huge. So then when I'd play like a quote unquote regular guitar, they'd feel like tiny little baby guitars. So yeah, so I kind of have been, I'm now stuck in this trap of having to have large instruments to feel right, um. And so I, the, that guitar got absolutely ridden into the ground. I did not look after it, I just gigged it for 10 years relentlessly. And then Chris from Carillion was like, can I make you a guitar? I was like, would love that. Can you just make me an absolute workhorse? Like I just want something that I can just abuse and yeah, so it's uh the Carillion Flying V is what I'm using at the minute and. I've had it for a couple of months, it's like not quite baritone scale length, but it's extended so it handles the tunings better, and it, it, yeah, it's an absolute unit, um to be honest, so I've been, I've been playing that for the last, Pretty much a year now, and then I have a an LTD Phoenix which is I've, Andy from Turbowolf was like, he played a Firebird and I was like, that is the coolest guitar I've ever seen, really wanted a Firebird and actually I just spoke to the guys at Anderton's, I bought that Phoenix from Anderton's cos it was on a crazy discount accidentally. And so yeah, I bought it and then they raised the price and I was like class, let's go, you got in at the right time. Literally, yeah. And apart from the guitars, any other piece of gear that you couldn't do what you do without? We use core cortexes for the tone, but it is literally, it's a single block with an amp on it, and then I run that into a valve power amp. I've got a Fryat FS 100. Through a cab and it's the, the Frye is the, the game changer because we had, we've done a couple of shows direct to the PA with no cabs, awful, hate it, feels gross. And then I, I did, I had a, an orange pedal baby for a while which was like perfectly alright, and I was like this is fine, this sounds like cool, and then we got the, the valve power amps and I was like, oh this is night and day, like this sound. I got that valve power amp and I sold my, Tube head, like the same week, like I was like oh this gives me everything that I want from this sound on stage, and then you know I can send uh a line out, a DI to our front of house and he blends the, The mic on the cab and the director and I'm like I trust him to do what he's doing, but on stage, it still feels real and like a, like a real band and it matters as well, like 100% not just, you know, pretending to play. Yeah, yeah, and it like I just think it sounds bad, the direct from PA thing, like it can sound good, but that, that real tangible feeling of, of playing an amp through a cab is. So specific and unique and we're like we have a lot of feedback in what we're doing and trying to get that with a muddler it's just like not just feels disingenuous. You have to like specifically design a patch just to make feedback. I'm like no I just wanna get this from my amp because that's what I'm doing. So we try and for convenience we have the digital rig, but in terms of like how we actually want to operate as a band, we want it to feel as traditional as possible and. And that's the, the way like if we, we play small enough rooms, I'm like let's just crank the amps and don't even put it in the PA like that's, it's fine, like it is, it it is just trying to be, have that old school kind of mentality of what a band should sound like and just to make it a little bit more convenient for ourselves. Yeah, that that's perfectly the the right balance I think. Yeah, I think so I think that's all we have time for, yeah, thank you very much. Oh thank you, it's been a pleasure.