Neck Deep - 2000 Trees Interview

I'm Sam Bowden. I play guitar in Neck Deep, and I'm Matt West, and I play guitar in Neck Deep also. And we're at a 2000 Trees Festival 2026. You guys are headlining. How, how does it feel to be headlining a festival such as this? This is our first UK festival. Headlines. So it is, yeah, it is. So wow. Yeah, insane. And it's our first show of the year. So no pressure. So hopefully, hopefully we do a good job. Yeah, I think we will. We've had, we've had 7 months' rest, so I'm sure. That'll play off fine. What is a favourite song you imagine being on the set tonight? We haven't played When You Know in a a long time. We took it out of the set for a long time and we've just brought it back and I just, I really like that song, so I'm looking forward to playing that. Always in bloom. um that's just always like a a really nice moment, um. We're playing uh Where Do We Go When We Go as well for the first time in a long time and that's always a really, really fun one to play live. So yeah, we're just uh we're we're digging a few of the old ones out today. You're mostly work inhouse, you got to produce your own stuff, you just work start working with a new producer. Will Yip, um, we went and did the last single we released was You Should See Me Now. And we did that with him, and we were kind of trying to like figure out who we would do a record with, and it was an immediate just click, we got on musically and just personally, and it just felt like we could do great things together. And then we went. Over to see him in November, end of last year, did a couple songs and then we just did 8 weeks with him in Philly. Feb through April and yeah we've we couldn't be more stoked, like he was just like incredible to work with, super patient with us, um, which is good because you need that sometimes in the studio. Yeah for sure, we're not really a band that's like one voice or two voice, it's kind of like we, everyone's very involved and has thoughts and opinions and. Suggestions. So when you do an album with a producer, them allowing space for everyone's voice cannot always be on the table. And Will was very much like, I want to give everyone's voice a chance, so if someone had an idea, let's do that and then make a call. You know, so sometimes we'd spend way more time doing things and you know taking side turns and things, but it's worth it because even if 1 out of 10 we stumble on something or that was the right thing, then it was worth it, you know. Is there one song that perhaps wouldn't exist without that being the case? Is there something that caught fire in the room? I think so, and we had a few songs where. Ben wasn't feeling certain choruses or certain parts and maybe we all were, and he was very good at going, OK, well we have that, let's explore this and try this thing and try and just create an alternative and, and we've not always had that sort of environment in the past, like that's absolutely no shade on anyone we've worked with, but I think it just it. Just took off all the pressure and yeah, it was just it was just so easygoing. You want it to be a fun process as well as because there's pressure. You're stepping up a level year after year it seems. And everyone, everyone's in their own heads about that because it's like, you know, you see the comments online and you try not to read that and try not, but it's they're there and. I think everyone feels it and it's like oh we need this one to be this and do this, but he was a a a good reminder that we just got to do us, you know. But take us right back to the beginning and then we'll come back to that cos I'm always interested to ask what were the first songs you learnt on guitar or any instrument? I know the song. Nice Guys Finish Last by Green Day. Really? from Nimrod, yeah. That's a great one. That was the first song I ever learnt on guitar. Or sat down and like tried to learn. That was pretty much it, but it was just like I don't know why it was that song that it's the song that was I picked up a guitar and I was like I could do that. That that seems achievable for me cos I remember like I had friends who were playing and then they were trying to learn like Guns N Roses solos and I'm like that seems terrifying for me like that seems a step too far and then hearing that song for the first time was like I think I could do that and then just spent a long time trying to learn it. My, like, the first stuff I started learning was from my granddad because he, he used to play bass and had a few guitars lying about and he taught me some guitar parts by an instrumental band called The Shadows. Yeah, I don't know the song names and I would have to listen to remember because it's been so, so many years, but that was the first thing that he was like, here's. How you do this or do this or do this. And then um the first song that I really was like an oasis song, importance of being an idol. Yeah, just, yeah. What was a gateway for you songwriting wise early on? I think just the exploration, um, learning as many things. My, my grandparents' next door neighbour was a classical guitar player, so they hooked me up with. Lessons and I would learn certain things and scales and things and I would just try and put it to use and I think by accident started creating things and then by accident was like, oh, I quite like this thing that just happened, but I would have to write things down. There was no way of like recording it or making notes of it. So for a long time it was just I had a book and I would just write in. Just the the chords or the parts or words that at the time meant something. I remember like trying to learn how to record for the very first time and I found out through, there was a band I really liked years ago called The Mascara Story, they were from. Island and somehow I got talking to the vocalist of him on MSN Messenger when I was younger and I just asked him one day like how do you record like music at home because I had no idea like at all. I was like the only person that I knew that played an instrument. Um, and, and he was like, oh, just download Adobe Audition. And I was like, alright, well I'll I'll do that, so I think I went on some snide website and found like a a copy of it. Downloaded that and then I didn't know anything about audio interfaces or anything so I was just trying to literally just plug the guitar into the like microphone jack and like the back of a sound card on an old PC being like surely that'll work, and it sounded terrible, so, so bad. But it was just just through that just through experimentation and then in terms of like. The songwriting side of things, it's always been like something that like I don't know, I've, I it it being with other people and being around other creative people like I don't know that's always the in the inspiring isn't it? Did you guys, did you guys study music at all or find your scene? I I don't want to speak for us both, but I feel that like we both like found like bands like Blink and Green Day when we were younger, but then gradually started to lean. Towards some heavier stuff as we got a bit older and that's how me and Sam met in the first place was through two separate bands playing similar music and then we just met through that. What's a bit of gear you use these days that are signature to the neck deep sound? STL tones. Yeah. Howard Benson, HB amp 03. Yeah, I would say, I would say there's a lot of that with with demos and even the wreck. Yeah, even the rec, even the records where we did full amps, there's still certain parts where. To get that specific sound or like tightness, um, like definition, we were, we were on STL tones and plug-ins, but I would say the tool that Neck Deep could not function without is SE. That's our best piece of gear, and it always has been. Before we finish, please give a shout out to anything you want to promote, what I'll get you guys up to the rest of the year. We're heading to Indonesia in August. Incredible. Yeah, playing a festival in Jakarta called the Sounds Project. So um we've done that twice before. Insane experience. So I cannot wait to go there. Wish we could teleport and not do the flight. Yours is worse because I live in Nashville now, so I'll fly to London.d. Wait 4 or 5 hours for everyone to get to London and then we'll begin that journey together. Do you, do you feel a bit more pressure living in Nashville because that's where a lot of great. Musicians live and it can be intimidating, right? You can be like, I don't know. I think as neck deep, I think the way we are and the way we've grown is not to really have that comparability and like we are who we are. We are happy and content with that and Anyone else that's playing an instrument and doing their thing should be too, you should like, I think there's something to be said about, sure, compare yourself to the best of the best for like an aspiration or like that's what is possible, that's what's possible on an instrument or that's what's possible in Pro Tools or Logic or, you know, from a production standpoint, but you don't need to be the best, you don't need to be, you know, you don't. I think just do your thing, put in the hours, have fun with it, and I, that's what we do. Especially with songs often simple is best, right? It's simple stuff that's massively overthink them. And it's the hardest thing to do to connect with that. I think you guys do it really well. I'm looking forward to your headline set tonight, guys, thank you so so much for joining me. Neck deep, check them out. Thank you. What a band. Lovely to chat with you guys. You too. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.