James Spence: Rolo Tomassi | Furnace Fest 2025 Series

Cullen and Mason chat with James Spence from Rolo Tomassi. They chat about the band's history, if they are writing new music, and their upcoming show at Furnace Fest.

Be sure to get tickets for Furnace Fest and see Rolo Tomassi play!

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Wow. Wow, today we've got James from Rolo Tamasi. You
guys actually have probably become one of my most listened

(00:36):
to bands over the last maybe two or three years.
What's funny to me is, you know, you guys have
been around for a while, and for whatever reason, I
genuine like, I feel like I'm pretty knowledgeable. Even if
there's bands I'm not like the biggest fan of or
just don't listen to. I feel like any like heavy
band that has had any sort of like little bit
of success over the last like fifteen twenty years, I

(00:58):
feel like I've at least heard of that, And for
whatever reason, up until like two or three years ago,
I genuinely had no idea that you all ever existed.
But there was a tweet that went I don't know
if it would we would say it viral, but like,
there was a tweet that came up that that had
a video of you all probably back in the MySpace days,
like it would probably been one of you guys first years.

(01:19):
And I think it looks it looks like I could
be wrong. It looks like you're playing in like a
hot topic and you all literally look like middle schoolers.
And then all of a sudden, Eva's voice just like
just goes, you know, the way she's able to scream,
and You're like, wait, how how is that voice able
to come out of that like almost looks like a
middle school or body and you just all like, you know,

(01:42):
dress you dressed the part of like you know, two
thousand and seven or whenever that was. I don't know,
but whatever, For whatever reason, I saw that video and
I'm like, this is just the most amazing, like two
thousand and seven video I've ever seen in my life.
I need to like find out more about this band.
So I started digging into you guys' discography and then
realizing like, oh my god, like you guys just like
every album just felt like a got a little better

(02:03):
and a little better. And I'm like, how did I
miss you all? I I just don't know how. But anyway,
with that said, like over the last two or three years,
you guys have become one of my most listened to
bands on Spotify, and I'm just a huge, huge fan
at this point. So I don't know if you know
what video I'm talking about, of course I do. Yeah, yeah,
it's it just is so cool to me. Yeah, I
think it's it's amazing.

Speaker 2 (02:23):
It's it's really strange because that video, I guess, like
you said, it's not didn't necessarily go viral, but it
definitely has like had a bit of a moment in
the last few years, and it seems that over the
last few years, every six months, someone else will find it,
whether that's like a mean page or something and repost
it like with a different kind of like funny caption.
But the cool thing for us is it seems to

(02:44):
actually be reaching people that want to hear it. It's
not just like people that are watching it being like
ha ha, that's like funny, how ridiculous. It's like people
that want to dig in and kind of take something
from it. But like you said, it is for me
seeing an now it's this bizarre time capsule like something
that was probably like eighteen years ago, and it's so

(03:06):
it's so dated from like how we're dressed, like how
we look, how the band sounds.

Speaker 1 (03:12):
The fact that it's in a hot topic like that.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Right, So it was it was in a vintage clothes
store in London called Beyond Retro, which is still there.
I think I can't remember which branch it was that
there's a few of them, and they used to do
free shows on Saturday, like a matinee. You would, like
bands would get invited to play, and the person that
was booking it was like really into heavy music, so
like every Saturday it would be like really heavy interesting

(03:35):
bands that would go and play, and the bands would
get paid in clothes. So like we got no money
for it, but we we all got like to pick
out like a certain amount of like you know, money
values worth of clothes, which again is just so funny
thinking back to it. But I think in time we've
kind of like reaped the benefits of maybe not having

(03:56):
any sort of financial compensation for the show at the
time by the fact that it's just got such incredible
mileage and is still reaching people now. So yeah, it's
like it's a cool thing. Like, you know, I don't
mind that it's doing what it's doing.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Yeah, yeah, didn't close. I gotta imagine that I got
to imagine that those clothes are probably the most influential
set of clothes you've probably ever worn, even if you
I mean, if you never actually wore it on stage, right, well.

Speaker 2 (04:26):
This is it, and I mean, you know, you can
see how badly we're dressed in the video. I'm sure
you can only imagine how horrendous it was what we
kicked out. So yeah, it's not not in rotation anymore anyway.

Speaker 3 (04:36):
Okay, good.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
Y'all should like, you know, maybe maybe it could be
furnace Fest, but like you guys should just like dress
up like that again, like just total look for a
show and just go all in, go all in and
try to almost like recreate that video.

Speaker 2 (04:52):
I mean, we've been we've been relearning that song so
this this year is it's our twentieth anniversary of being
a band was last month, and we're kind of like
for some of the shows we're doing in the UK,
we've been kind of diving back into the archives. We've
not played that song like at least for fifteen or
sixteen years. There are members in the band now who

(05:15):
joined like after we stopped playing that song who have
no idea how to play it. But we've been relearning
it because it was just like it seems to be
this thing that's just reached so many people, and we
want to do like a set that is I don't know,
just kind of demonstrative of the the way that the
band has changed over time basically, and we were kind
of like, well, we've got to learn that because I

(05:35):
think a lot of people have sort of that might
have been their entry point, or at least it's going
to sort of resonate with people. So we're not quite
there yet. Everyone's kind of learning it in their own
time and will come together and try and play it.
But it's so different to the current material that, Yeah,
it's been a bit of an ask, Like the muscle
memory's totally gone for me, Like I had to really
like ask for the stems for the guy that produced

(05:57):
the record, and it was a miracle that he had
the track separate because you know, again, this was something
we recorded probably two thousand and seven, and he did,
which was great. So I've kind of just been very
slowly piecing it together. But I can just about play
it on my own, but ye, we'll see about playing
it as a group.

Speaker 3 (06:12):
What a what a wonderful little piece of amnesia. I
think I remember out of a similar story, except it
happened the next day that they forgot it. You two
I think recorded Joshua Tree, most of Joshua Tree in
one in one day, but they were all drunk off
their ass and I couldn't remember how to play it
the next day and they had to like spend like

(06:33):
the next month trying to remember how to or figure
out how to play all the parts.

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Again. Wow, I mean, yeah, we were drunk at the time,
but I think eighteen years of drinking since the recording
is probably contribute.

Speaker 3 (06:45):
Into the little residual, do you.

Speaker 2 (06:47):
Know what I mean? Yeah, Yeah, it's over time, it's
all bought and page four.

Speaker 1 (06:50):
Yeah, I imagine. So well, that was, you know, fairly
early on in you guys' history. Yeah, I love to
just hear like how the band formed for you all.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
So the band formed, it would have been around two
thousand and five. Everyone was aged between fourteen and sixteen.
We were still at school. We were a group of
like just very enthusiastic teenagers who loved music, and we
started just getting into heavier music, having sort of been

(07:21):
into like I guess fairly like entry level punk music.
And it was kind of a time when everyone was
sort of just discovering things and sharing things, and I
think we all sort of got into slightly different strains
of like heavier kind of next step on in music
and kind of wanted to do something that sounded like
that that was a bit more aggressive and chaotic and

(07:44):
just more reflective of what what we thought was exciting. Really,
And we'd played in a couple of bands even before that,
like for a couple of years, and that was kind
of like bands doing like Green Day and the Living
End covers and just people like just learning how to
play instruments with a group of people. Basically, I wouldn't
necessarily call it being in a band. It was learning
how to play an instrument. But we would do shows

(08:06):
locally for our friends. That was like bars that I mean,
looking back on it now, I've got no idea why
we were allowed to be in them as people that
were like fourteen and fifteen, and like most of them
have closed, and it's kind of, yeah, that stands to
reason now. But yeah, so we had we'd had experience
playing lives, so we kind of knew how to put

(08:27):
a show on to like some shoddy degree. So we
formed this band and yeah, just started putting on shows.
And I think you touched on it earlier, Like we
were very fortunate. This was around sort of the advent
of MySpace, and we immediately had this platform that we
were able to sort of reach people and find kind
of like light minded people outside of Sheffield, the town
that we grew up in and were based at the time,

(08:51):
and we were able to kind of have a showcase
for our music and people were able to find it
and contact us, and we were just yes, self book
kind of I wouldn't even call them tours now, but
like runs of shows locally, Like we were quite lucky
where where we were from there were a bunch of
like bigger towns with sort of stronger local music scenes
within like a couple of hours drive, so we just

(09:13):
played as much as we could and just I mean,
it's it's one of those things looking back and now
it's really easy to be like, well, yeah, just snowballs
and we recorded six records and towards the world, but like,
it honestly felt so organic and natural, and I'm probably
sort of like missing out a lot just because of
memory and nostalgia or whatever. But yeah, like we kind

(09:36):
of started with sort of just very pure reasons of
just being people that liked music, and we were just
able to kind of, yeah, carve out a niche and
find the people that wanted to listen to it. And
there's a lot of relentless persistence in that and a
lot of sort of failed experiments and low points as
well as high points. But yeah, that's kind of the
early years anyway.

Speaker 3 (09:57):
What really strikes me is that, I mean, you guys
had an incredible sense of understanding of your instruments even
early on, and I mean it's only evolved as time
has gone on, But I mean for people being fourteen, fifteen,
sixteen years old and playing like that, it seems much much,
much more mature. Like if I think about like my

(10:21):
high school days, Mason and nice high school days, you
guys would have been like the one smoking cigarettes well
well before anyone else and drinking at somebody's garage or
something like that, and just having some sort of extra
musical knowledge by I don't know, were you guys classically
trained and stuff like that as well.

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Or yeah, a few of us were. I think we
were really lucky at the time, so that the group
of people that started the band, Joe, who was the
original guitarist who played in the band for like five
or six years, he was like phenomenal, just a complete freak,
and the rest of us had to keep up with
him basically and improve to kind of meet him even
at half of his standard and being in a band

(11:02):
with him. It it changed my understanding of music and
playing music with other people. And I think it's just
one of those things. And I think a lot of
people that playing bands would say this. It's just a
complete look of the draw that we met each other
and that we were in the same year at school
and got into the same thing, and that our path acrossed.

(11:22):
But yeah, he was like a classically trained guitarist, and
I think for him he was he was more into
like that side of it and was like, you know,
a classical kind of acoustic guitar, and he was his
approach to heavy music was different because of that, Like
he would get into certain other heavy bands because of
the way that, yeah, and he would be bringing different

(11:44):
influences to rehearsals and more into kind of the prog stuff,
where I was myself and our drummer were kind of
more typically into like punk hardcore, post hardcore metal core
stuff that was like more our bag. And I think
it was where those kind of two worlds sort of
met that led to a sound in the way that
we did. But yeah, honestly, I would put a lot
of the early stuff down to Joe, who was the

(12:04):
original guitarist, just because it was he was writing like
the bulk of it at the time, and like I said,
he was just so good that the rest of us
had to like really keep up pace to yeah, to
even be able to play along with him. It was
it was really cool, like it made me a better musician.

Speaker 1 (12:23):
So he was the one that was like kind of
the influence on a lot of especially in that first album,
there's a lot of jazzy mathy elements, and I'm guessing
that was all him.

Speaker 2 (12:32):
Yeah, Like the kind of sort of noisier like ambient,
big open spaces, and like obviously keyboard parts on the
keyboard player in the band. That was definitely my contribution
to it. And I think it was the mixture of
those two things that definitely was maybe what made our
bands stand out a little bit, Like there's a there's
a bunch of bands that kind of do the the

(12:53):
Matthew technical jazzy thing, maybe not as young as we
were at the time, obviously, but I think it was
the other elements of everything kind of coming together that
sort of made what we did a bit more unique.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
At what point did you realize that you, like, especially
with Eva, like, at what point did you realize that
she was truly special? Because I mean, I will, like
I will definitively say she's probably one of the greatest
metal screamers and just like generally singers I've ever heard,

(13:24):
and like I'm sure early on you all knew like
like we can't just let her, like we got to
make sure that like she's like like we're highlighting her
vocals because she really truly is next level special talent.

Speaker 2 (13:37):
I mean, I think it was only really like probably
three albums in that I think that she really found
her voice, and especially with the singing, but again that
kind of change that came with a change of personnel
and the change of the material and like giving her,
like you said, just giving her space to sing and
so like really sort of highlight both. I mean I

(13:57):
think like, again, we were so young. I always thought
we were good, and like I was like so cocky
and confident, and and I think it was like it
was the kind of thing, that kind of bravado that
comes from being that young and kind of almost being
a bit more bulletproof because like maybe when you're sort
of in your mid twenties, you're a little bit more.

(14:18):
I don't know, I think you care a bit about
more about what people say and what people think about you.
And I think when you're that age, things just bounced
off of you a lot more. And we would we
would be turning up and playing certain shows with like
people that were ten fifteen years older than us and
just like being so yeah. I remember just feeling so

(14:38):
cocky about it and just being like, yeah, we're going
to go and do our thing, and like I don't
care what anyone thinks or whatever. And I think I
had that kind of confidence because I believed so much
in everyone that I was playing in the band with,
and like I loved so much what we were doing.
I don't want to sound like it's necessarily just an
arrogance thing. I think it was more because we were

(15:00):
kind of Whenever people wrote about us early on, it
was like very much, Oh, they're so young their kids,
they're so young their kids, And I think that was like, no,
like we belong here as well, like don't treat as
any differently, like and yeah, I think just seeing the
reaction that she got, and also like I suppose when
you're in it at the time. You know, I'm not
looking at either and being like, oh, it's a tiny

(15:23):
sixteen year old girl. It's like, what's my sister? Like,
you know, it doesn't look weird to me because I've
always been in a band with her, and like, I
know who she is, and to me, it's not weird
that she can do it. Like I was, you know,
very sort of like yeah, happy and impressed, and I
think what she contributes is awesome. But I think when
you've kind of been around, Yeah, to me, it's always

(15:45):
just felt like normal, like yeah, I don't know any different. Like,
you know, I've been playing in a band with her
forever and even before then, she's always been in my life,
so yeah, I think I just back her.

Speaker 4 (15:56):
Yeah, you know, I feel like I feel like your
Guys' run has been so intriguing because it has developed
in so so many different ways that those first couple
of records I would agree.

Speaker 3 (16:10):
I mean, just like you're saying it, they sound cocky,
like I don't think it's just you. I think it
actually comes through in the records, and as time goes on,
it feels like it actually backs off a little bit more.
It allows much more space to breathe in every instrument
really and and all of you are highlighted. It's not
just Eva, it's it's everybody. And I'm really, really a

(16:34):
big fan of where you guys have taken things in
this this these newer records especially are Man, I can't
step listening to them myself because it does feel like
it's a full experience.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Thanks very much. Yeah, I think we kind of reached
a point with the sound where it was like, and
I feel like this about technical music in general. It's
a lot of the time it's like it's impressive, but
after being impressive, it can kind of leave you a
bit cold, and it's not necessarily something you want to
go back to. And like I can watch someone play
guitar and be like, wow, you're a great guitarist. But like,

(17:10):
if it's not doing anything, if it's not speaking to me,
if something can you feel anything, then it like yeah,
well done. Like I don't know. And I kind of
started to feel like that about certain elements of what
we were doing, and that like it was it was
really really cool that it kind of established us as
a band, and it was this thing that kind of
made us stand out and made people pay attention ultimately,

(17:33):
and maybe like gained as an audience to begin with.
But I think as I was kind of growing up
while I was in the band and my tastes were changing, like,
I always wanted the music that we were making to
be reflective of what I was into and to be
doing something that I felt passionate about. So I mean,
just for the most part, so it didn't come across
as being disingenuous, because I don't think you can make

(17:55):
music like this unless just kind of well into it
and like you believe what you're like what you're putting out. Really,
so for me, like, yeah, it's been the last three
records the ones that I'm most proud of. Definitely, I
think that the most reflective of my tastes, and I
think they kind of came the closest to how I
wanted the band to sound for the last however amount

(18:17):
of time. And yeah, I mean, I'm glad to hear
that it's kind of resonating with you as well. It's like,
it's it's what I like the most about doing it.
It's the material that we play the most. But at
the same time, I don't just want to sort of
completely dismiss what happened early on because it was Yeah,
it was what kind of later foundations what we were
able to do now absolutely for sure.

Speaker 1 (18:37):
Yeah, I will say I think you guys have just
aged like fine wine. To be honest, I just I
actually really do appreciate the way you all started out
with that kind of sound and style, but the direction
that you guys have all gone, especially over the last
couple of albums, I'm like, this is such a great
kind of growth, or at least I see it as

(18:57):
like a total growth in your musician musicianship.

Speaker 2 (19:01):
Thanks very much, And I think like that's that's quite
a nice thing as well, with being a band that
has I guess stuck it out in around a little
bit longer. I think that our audience is kind of,
in a lot of instances aged to the same, you know,
at the same rate that we are, and their taste
of change the same kind of way that ours has.
And yeah, it's good to sort of feel that we're

(19:25):
making something that is it has relevance in people's lives
and that it does kind of it hits the mark
in that way. I mean, I think we would do
it regardless as whether it was relevant for other people
or not because we like it so much, but it is,
you know, I don't mind the validation. It's okay, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (19:43):
Something that's kind of interesting about y'all's history is, you
know a lot of bands that were maybe coming out
around that time, you know, mid to late two thousands
in that kind of heavy music scene. You know, at
some point maybe they like they went all in for
a few years and then kind of maybe like fizzled
out or they needed to take like a a hiatus
at some point. And what's interesting about you all is

(20:05):
it seems like pretty every consistently, like two or three years,
there's just a new album and y'all tour a little bit,
and it's just but there just feels like there's this
consistency to it that has and my projection or my
interpretation of that is that it seems pretty healthy, Like
you all are generally in a pretty healthy place over
the course of your history, and you haven't needed that like, okay,

(20:25):
we need to like get away from each other at
certain points. I don't know, I'm just I'm curious, like
what your reflections are on that, because it does seem
like every two or three years we cann't expect like
a really great album and some touring on it, and
it just feels like it's something that's really sustainable for
you all.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
I think sustainable is kind of the key word. And
I think we probably had like lineup changes exactly the
right moments where there may have been like one person
that wasn't kind of feeling it that sort of was
able to sort of step away, and we were able
to refresh the kind of personnel and the band in
a way that like brought exactly the right energy we
need to continue it. I think so much of wanting

(21:03):
to continue it is a constant belief that we can
we can make a better record than the previous one,
or at least that we have something that we think
we can offer. And like you said, I think for
us it's always been paced quite nicely. I think we
never have felt the need to rush into the record
out because there's this like momentum that we kind of
need to keep up. I think at this point in

(21:25):
we have an established audience, and it's a relatively captive audience,
and they're going to want to listen to what we
put out, and I know that they'll wait for it
at this point as well, like we don't have to
rush to get something out to sort of make sure
people don't forget about us. I also feel probably within
the last ten years at least most of us have
we have like established careers outside of the band, and

(21:48):
we've sort of it was kind of like a constant
battle to begin with to make sure that we can
make everything kind of work in harmony and that people
could have like a life and the band could be
part of that life but not come or consuming, and
that we were on tour ninementths a year or whatever.
So I feel like we've sort of found this balance
where we tore a handful of times a year when

(22:10):
there's a record out, and then that might be like
two two and a half years, then we'll take a
bit of a break, we'll kind of regroup, see how
we feel. And everyone sort of is doing the band
because they they want to do it, not because they
need to do it. And I think it's a really
important distinction, and something that definitely causes some bands to
sort of fizzle out is that they need it, and

(22:32):
that might mean that they're kind of putting out albums
they're not happy with making decisions that are sort of
like business based and maybe not sensible ones, and we've
never been in that position, and maybe that's because there
was never really an option for us to go like
full time with it or whatever. But we find ourselves
in a nice position where we're able to come and

(22:54):
play shows in the US and play shows in the
UK and travel like globally if we want to, because
the option is there to do it. And that's like, yeah,
I don't take that for granted.

Speaker 3 (23:06):
Basically, something I've always been curious about, especially in very
technical bands such as yourself, I feel like the songwriting
process has to be completely different than you know, if
you're a Green Day kind of band, where you know
it's three chords and you know a dust cloud behind you.
This is a lot different, right and you have a

(23:29):
lot more moving parts and so many more layers. What
what would you think is a good way to explain
how the songwriting process works, maybe in comparison to you know,
your your typical hardcore band, Let's say.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
I guess like with yes, so much of the songwriting
that is done out of the room, So like when
we kind of I think some bands would come together
and rehearse and they would I don't know, like jam
out an idea and it would sort of happen. Yeah,
like on the spot, maybe someone would bring an idea
and then they would kind of play around with it.
I think so much of the writing that we have
to do is in isolation. Some like there'll be a

(24:11):
couple of people that kind of contribute the bulk of
the ideas that will form a song, and they might
work on that and really refine it to a point
where it's kind of at a stage when they're happy
for someone else, even within the band, to hear it,
and then over time we will piece it together and
arrange the music together. Like I think we write ideas separately,

(24:34):
we write music as a group in that everyone kind
of has their say in terms of the arrangements. But
there'll be like a lot of time where it'll be
either myself or Chris, our guitarists, who will be working
on music sort of independently. One other person might come
in and kind of write with them, and then when
we're sort of at a point where it feels like
there's enough material will then start arranging songs together. And

(24:57):
I think that, yeah, some of that is down to
kind of the technic aspects of it. If you like
you're working on something that's in i don't know, like
a time signatship that someone's not really going to be
able to just jam along to, you kind of need
to like refine that a little bit at least until
it's at a point where you feel comfortable explaining what
it is. And sometimes that's easier to do with like

(25:18):
a demo that you've written on your own with program drums,
and then ala drummer can then write his own drum
part that sort of at least allows him to kind
of like have creative license. I mean, I think maybe
I've explained it in a bit of a cold way
that would suggest that it's like, oh, two of us
are bringing in ideas and everyone learns it's not. It's
not how it goes like. They'll sort of be like
a development of an idea, and then everyone will kind

(25:40):
of come in have their say on it, will kind
of change elements of it together. But but yeah, it
can be like a long process, a lot of demoing,
a lot of like writing independently, a lot of sending
ideas back and forth. Because most of us live in
different towns, different parts of the UK now evens in
the US, So yeah, it can be quite like labored.
Get to a point where we're all going to be

(26:01):
in a room to be able to play things together.
And again, I think we know that the time together
is so precious because it is hard together on stories
to match up and people have to travel, that we
have to have like an amount of prepared material to
work on rather than just being like, well let's get
together for three hours and see what happens, it just
wouldn't work. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (26:18):
Sure has that changed then as time has gone on,
especially with you guys separating out to different towns and
even different countries, Like iive you guys streamlined that process
more so that you can get down to work a
lot quicker.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
I think so. Yeah. I mean like we've gotten a
lot more proactive with just recording like everything and a
lot of yeah, just making sure that like something is
I don't know, good enough to share with people, just
you're not wasting their time. I suppose, Like I think again,
we've written so much together that most of us kind

(26:56):
of know in our heart of hearts if something is
good enough or is going to kind of make We've
always been quite good at like trimming the fat. And
you know, we're not the kind of band that we'll
go into a studio and record fifteen songs for a
ten track album. Like, if we're going into record ten songs,
we've written ten songs because we've kind of done that
as we've been writing, Like we'll know when to give
up on something, like if it doesn't come together, it

(27:19):
like in a in a particular way, like, yeah, we know,
just to just completely abandon an idea. And I think
that is what you're saying. Maybe, yeah, it's not it's
not necessarily something I can articulate. It's more just like
when you hear something's not working, you know it's not working.
I guess that that's something that comes with experience.

Speaker 3 (27:37):
Sure makes sense.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
Sort of speaking on the writing process here, is there
a moment in this band's history where you maybe feel
the most proud of how you all wrote Maybe not
even maybe necessarily one particular song, but maybe even a
specific moment within a song, Like is there a moment
where you think, like when you think back to this
band and you're like, God, that like the way we

(28:00):
did that, the way we wrote that, the way we
crafted that, the way we developed that it is like,
that's that's how I wish every moment felt like and
I you know, obviously not every moment can feel like that,
but yeah, I'm curious if there's like kind of this
sort of most proud moment that you have when it
comes to writing a particular even a particular part of
a song.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
There's two instances that I can think of. What was
on our most recent record, and it was the only
track almost always, and I'd written it in a way
that I thought was This was an instance when I'd
completely written a song on my own and we'd taken
it into the room and it just wasn't working, And like,
I was really happy with the demo, but the others

(28:38):
were just kind of like, why don't we try it
like this? And we completely deconstruct and again this kind
of goes against everything that I've just said to you,
but we completely deconstructed it on the spot and we're like, okay,
let's do this entire section without drums, and we kind
of like really really stripped back the first half of
the song until it became something completely different. And it

(28:59):
was just one of those instances where I felt everyone
had their say on exactly what was going on, and
they like made an idea that I was happy with anyway,
like probably my favorite song that we've written now, and
we took it into the studio and like afterwards, I
was like, when we had to finish thing, it was like, wow,
I cannot imagine this any other way. That is like

(29:19):
easily my favorite song that I've kind of been a
part of writing. And it was all because of this
instance where someone was like, let's try it this way,
like and had the kind of I don't know it,
it just felt super organic and it kind of came
together in a really really cool way that I can
I can remember the rehearsal like as yeah, and that
was that was a few years ago now. But another instance,

(29:41):
there's a song called a Flood of Light on Time
or Dine Love for Bury It, and again we just
that that song is actually kind of like I guess
it's relatively simplistic. There's like maybe four parts to it
and they repeat a lot, and it's more about the
dynamics in the way we kind of bring it up
and down. And again I remember we were rehearsing a
practice space in Brighton and there's a lot of different

(30:02):
rooms there, and it's the kind of place that you
can go and you can kind of just be walking
down the halls and there's so much different stuff going
on constantly, it's like very easy to kind of get
distracted and just you know, you're hearing an indie band
and there's like a jazz band somewhere, and it's just
like a lot of noise. But we were playing this
song and we were playing the sort of the big
open section at the end of it, and I remember
even then just thinking like I think, like we've we've

(30:24):
written something really really cool here. And we came out
and like one of the guys working on the desk
was just like with so many people asking like who
was rehearsing in there today, because like they loved what
they what they heard coming from it. And I remember
feeling so flattered and that just being like, Okay, cool,
I think we've like, yeah, there's something really really good

(30:44):
has happened today, and like, yeah, we did the song
like just didn't change it all. We recorded exactly exactly
how it was written the first time. And Yeah, it
felt really really special to kind of in like a
place where there's so much going on, like so much
music that a couple of few people had like walk
past and asked, like, who's that rehearsing? It's like, it
felt really nice.

Speaker 3 (31:05):
It seems like you're very intentional about what you like
and what you want to bring to the creative process.
When you when you're thinking about the next songs, the
next the next place to find inspiration? You know, where
where are you digging in? Where where are you pulling out?
Because I feel like as a as a keys guy, right,

(31:26):
you're going to have a whole lot more freedom of
choice compared to you know, a drummer for instance. There's
just there's just so much more at your disposal in
terms of different textures you can use and everything. So
where do you where do you go to try to
find that that inspiration for where you want to take
things next.

Speaker 2 (31:43):
That's a good question, and I think it's one that
I'm kind of struggling with at the moment. But we so,
I mean, I'll talk about the last record at least
to kind of give context for some new material that
we've already worked on. So, like a big feature of
Where Myth Becomes Memory was the sort of very heavily
felted piano sounds on it, and that was something so

(32:04):
like we prepared a piano in that we put like
an extra layer of felt between the hammers and the strings,
and we put mics on the hammers, so you kind
of get this like really sort of I don't know,
like mechanical, and it kind of gives it gives the
piano like a lot of character and like really does
a lot to the dynamics. And that was like heavily
influenced by a lot of piano players, like a lot

(32:27):
of modern contemporary classical musicians like Youte Bathing Hanne or
Annie Oliver Arnold's Nil Sprahm, And I, like, I listen
to a lot of keyboard and piano based music and
I wanted to try and bring that into what we
were doing with Rolo and make it work in a
way that was gonna sound cohesive on a record. And

(32:51):
it's definitely a bit of a challenge, like kind of
taking that to Lewis, who who produced the last three
records that we've done, and being like, I wanted pianos
to sound like this, but it's got to fit in
with the rest of the band, and it's like crazy
amount dynamics and we want it to be really heavy,
but we also want it to be really gentle and
all of this, and like he was a complete wizard
and is able to kind of like see the finished

(33:11):
picture even before we can, which is great. Like you know,
you need someone like that when when you're trying to
tie a lot of ideas together. So we finished that
record and like that was all good, and there's a
lot of really cool feedback about the way the piano sounds.
But then to me it was like, well we did it,
Like we completed that sound, and like I want to
move forward with material and like I love playing piano,

(33:33):
but like I can't do any of that again because
it feels like we took it to the sort of
nth degree and anything else would just sort of feel
like a bit I don't know, we were just recycling
the same ideas. So we've we have written and recorded
a new four track EP that's going to come out
later this year, and with that, it's super heavy. It's

(33:57):
super aggressive. I'd say, like the keys and the sense
are definitely sort of more like industrial kind of like
heavy electronics sort of thing. It kind of like night
and Day with regards to like a piano and I
think in terms of the way that we approached that,
it was very much like what is the furthest away
from that we can get? In terms of at least

(34:19):
in terms of my contribution, was like, what is the
furthest away from that we can get? Like there's there's
maybe like there's one piano sound on there, but rather
than being the kind of very delicate, felted thing, it's
like a really crunchy, distorted piano with there was like
I don't know, filtered through this like amp preset on
the Nord that I used to make it super crunchy

(34:41):
and just sound far away from that because it is
just about, like like you said, like finding the next thing,
and I think you have to sort of I don't know,
like yeah, reflect on what you've done in order to
figure out what that next STEP's going to be. And
for us, it is always about sort of pushing onto
something different.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
I love the idea of like having some sort of
industrial sound with with you know, with the sound that
you guys have already created, Like I love that layer.
I'm just like imagining what that could be right now.
But that sounds super sick cool.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Yeah, I'm really I'm really happy with it. It's gonna like, yeah,
I think people are going to I hope people are
going to like check it out and be into it.
But we're very very proud of it.

Speaker 1 (35:21):
Yeah, does it feel like something that like could eventually
turn into a whole album? You said that you've got
a four song EP that will be coming out. Does
it feel like something that could be extended into a
more fall Link project at some point?

Speaker 2 (35:33):
Oh, definitely, Like I think we're we've always sort of
got one eye on more new material. I think the
plan is definitely. We've got these live commitments this year,
which we're very excited about, Like we have firmus best.
There's a couple of shows in the UK, we're doing
a festival in Canada and we've not been there before

(35:54):
and that's great. And I'm definitely sort of a point
where I'm kind of like trying to coming through like
ideas that I've had that haven't like made it onto
releases recently, and I'm not like there's when I go
back to the whole ideas, it's very much well, there's
a reason that you've not used this yet, right, Like

(36:15):
it couldn't kind of get to that point so I'm
just trying to like mine what's already there to see
if I kind of missed anything. Like I kind of
keep a lot of like handwritten notebooks, and I've just
been sort of like revisiting all of that just to
see what kind of gets me going. And there's like
a few things that I've kind of lifted out already
and been like, Okay, that's that's gonna be. That could
be pretty cool. And also as well, we just we

(36:38):
wrote a piece of music for a film, like for
a short film recently, and I think, yeah, that like
again has kind of like got everyone going creatively in
a way. That's like it's pretty good writing music together,
isn't it. Like I think you kind of need those
like things sometimes because we didn't play a lot live
last year. So yeah, I think I can definitely see

(36:58):
in time there'll be an apple type of kind of
everyone to kind of get together and work on something
that's a bit more of like a full bodied project
for sure.

Speaker 3 (37:05):
Sure, when you write, I got to ask about this
because it's kind of curious. We don't have a whole
lot of bands that come on writing music for a film.
Is that a completely different process? Like do they come
to you and say, hey, this is kind of what
we're aiming for. This is the kind of like build
up we want, or this is the kind of emotion
that's going to be in the scene. Or is it
something where they pick something out from your catalog and

(37:27):
they say, hey, we want we want something like this
for this scene.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
So in this like really specific instance that the person
that's directing and producing the film, he's like a really
old friend of ours. He's an Italian who lives in London.
We met him on the tour that we did playing
in Italy like fifteen years ago, and we kind of
just stayed in contact and I'd seen him like a
handful of times over the last like five years or so,

(37:52):
excuse me, and he he just reached out and was like,
I've been working on like some short films, Like I
knew he was making film, and he's like, and I've
had this idea that like the peak of this film
it's going to be like like basically a metal band.
And it was sort of with this in mind, it
was very much can you write a conventional roller to
massy song for my film? Like I'm going to pick

(38:13):
these two out like I really like the energy of
these songs. Can you do something that sounds like this
and this? It wasn't necessarily creating like like original soundtrack
kind of stuff, and we weren't having to match what
you know, the emotion of a scene or whatever. It
was just like can you write song for the film,
But still like it was very much you know, it's
got to be this amount of time, like it's got

(38:35):
a sort of peak here, And it was cool having
like a brief in that respect, but it was just
like writing one of our own songs ultimately, and we
just finished working on that yesterday, like in terms of
like the mixing and stuff, and like it looks it's
quite surreal because like he had to get actors in
that could play instruments to kind of play it, and
like we had to kind of like give them tabs

(38:57):
and stuff. And I think the really funny thing with
it was like it was filmed because it was filmed
to like a demo that we'd written with like program drums,
and we saw like a cut of a bunch of
actors playing this song that we'd written before we even
played it together. Like it was like absolutely bizarre, Like yeah,
it was just Chris and I that had like written

(39:17):
it together. We'd like kind of done all these parts,
and yeah, there's like a drummer that could play it
before our drummer could, and like, yeah, just quite a
strange experience. But yeah, writing for film is something that
well all the TV or just soundtracks generally is something
that I've definitely I can see a future in that
for our band and for the kind of music that

(39:39):
we do, and it's something we definitely want to explore more.
It was really really nice to have the first experience
doing it with a friend, and I'm kind of hoping
that it definitely sort of gives us a bit of
a platform to kind of build on with that in mind.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
Yeah, it sounds like you guys can be like the
the Magua of of the metal world.

Speaker 2 (39:57):
Yeah, something like that for sure. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (39:59):
Yeah, it seems like every other year they've got a
soundtrack coming out.

Speaker 1 (40:03):
Yeah, definitely, it definitely makes sense with you guys as
band though. I mean, obviously you guys aren't a post
rock band, but there's so many like kind of post
rock type of elements going on, at least in terms
of the sort of soundscapes that you guys create where
it's like, yeah, it totally makes sense that there at
least maybe is some sort of soundtrack potential with this band.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
I hope so. And I definitely think that. Like you said,
it's just there's this kind of like post just generally
sort of influences within it. That's like a lot of
like the textual, I don't know, dreamy kind of elements
to it that I think could work. It's just trying
to convince someone to let us do it.

Speaker 3 (40:41):
Yeah for sure.

Speaker 1 (40:43):
Well, well you guys, I was gonna talk about furnesce FESTE.

Speaker 3 (40:46):
I was gonna talk and then but you go, you
go ahead.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
Great, great, let's do it. So obviously you mentioned furnes
Fest just a bit ago. That's why we brought you
on here to talk about furness Fest. Uh, we're going
to be uh you're you're actually the first episode of
all the Furnace Best Artists that we're gonna interview for
for this year's Furnace Fest. So we're super stoked. I
know you guys have never been to furness Fest before.
This will be Culin and I's fifth year Furness Fast.

(41:11):
We're we're lifers at this point veterans Lifers for the
second half of furnace Fest. Yeah, we're really big fans
of the festival and so we're really stoked. So yeah,
what like what can fans expect at furnace Fest for
this year? Yeah? What what are you looking forward to
with furnace Fest this year? I'm just curious.

Speaker 2 (41:30):
I mean, we're we're just so excited to get to
come and be a part of this. I think as
someone that has kind of grown up like loving American
like music has come out of the States and definitely
like heavy at music, I think the UK has always
looked to America and kind of events like Furness Best
and Health Best and like Warp Tour and that kind
of thing that these are sort of the things you

(41:51):
kind of put on a pedestal and to be able
to get to come and be a part of it's
just it's incredibly cool, like a kind of dream comes
or through kind of thing. So yeah, I mean, in
terms of what people can expect, potentially some new material,
I mean we're going to be coming out like just
swinging and playing like a very very energetic festival set. Ultimately,

(42:13):
I think most of the time when we've told at
least the last couple of tours we've done in the
US has been sort of their headline step that we
would do, which is definitely a bit more, a bit
more of attention is kind of paid to like pacing
and like dynamics and kind of the way the step
flows and everything, and that's great, and like I like
playing like that, but I also love turning up at

(42:33):
a festival and just coming out swinging with all like
the big heavy hitters and getting to do that. So yeah,
I mean that's definitely why I've got in mind it.
At least it's gonna be great, Like we're so excited.
The lineup is brilliant. We've had nothing but good things
about the festival from friends that have played it, so yeah,
it's gonna be cool.

Speaker 3 (42:52):
I would argue it's very different from any other festival
just in terms of its ethos. It's a very it
feels so much more homemade, homespot. I don't know how
else to say that. How else would you say it?
Mason Folksy, I guess you could say sure, I mean
in terms like the music style, but folks is in
like it's.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Not Pete Seeger. But yeah, but there's very few festivals
where the organizers of the festivals are going to be
stage diving throughout the weekend. And this is a festival
where the organizers you will see them at some point
be stage diving. That that is just part of who
this festival is. And uh and that's part of the
reason that I love it so much. Like it doesn't

(43:32):
feel like somebody who's just trying to like get a
money grab in the music industry or whatever. Like these
are people who genuinely love this music. They're friends with
a lot of these people, and they just want to
they just want to see a festival with like all
of their favorite bands.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Amazing. Now, I'd love to hear that. It's very cool.

Speaker 3 (43:48):
Yeah, Yeah, we're very very excited. When Mason and I
heard that Relatamasi was going to be there, we were ecstatic.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Yeah, we're through the we were through the moon for it. Well,
I'm I'm guessing since I mean, you guys are traveling
quite a way as I would imagine, like you're not
only going to be there for one day or for
thirty minutes for your set, Like are you going to
try to see any other sets while you're there?

Speaker 2 (44:11):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (44:12):
What's your plan.

Speaker 2 (44:12):
I mean the plan is to be there for the
whole weekend, Yeah, and to watch as much as possible.
I mean, it's it's kind of cool. I think the
days are definitely kind of split by the headliners. You
can tell it's been booked kind of like top down,
and it kind of all makes sense. The Sunday definitely
kind of speaks to me the most, very much looking
forward to seeing not loose headliner a festival. I'm trying

(44:33):
to think of else. It's playing off the top of
my head now, I mean Converge. I will jump at
any opportunity to see them. There's just so much that
I know I'm going to be into. There's another band
from the UK actually called Delta Sleep. They're playing on
the Friday, I think or the Saturday. I mean, they're
playing across the weekend and it was really nice seeing, Yeah,
another band from the UK that was on it. I

(44:54):
know that like typically year on year there's like at
least one or two, but it was like nice that
it was some people that we know that's going to be. Yeah,
just a bit of a novelty getting to hang out
like at a festival in the US, like Yeah, with
people that we know from home. It's like it's nice.
I just I love the kind of atmosphere that you
kind of get those those festivals.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
I would imagine you guys have toured in the American
South before. What is it that you're looking forward to
the most when you head back to the Deep South
in America? Like, what's is there a gas a particular
gas station you're looking forward to going to, or is
there a particular fast food restaurant that you're looking forward
to go to? What what is it that you're looking

(45:34):
forward to going back to the Deep South in America?

Speaker 2 (45:37):
Honestly, I think I'm looking forward to people saying y'all
with conviction and like actually it just sounding right, Like
I think it's it's there's it warms my heart. Like
the first time like I heard someone actually say that
for real and was like, oh my god, like you're
you're allowed to say that you're from America, was just
it was brilliant. So yeah, kind of being in that

(45:57):
part of the world and hearing hearing the wonderful accent
is going to be It's going to be enough. I mean,
I think I guess the gas station you're referred to
would probably be I don't know, is the Bookies in
Alabama BUCkies? Yeah, okay, yeah, yeah, I mean I'm going
to definitely be getting some beaver nugs at some point then,
but yeah, there you go.

Speaker 3 (46:16):
Yeah, yeah, I do like that you said that about
the accent because Mason and I were were Central North,
so we are on the Great Plains, far far away
from the American South, and when we go to the
American South, one of the first things that we love
to hear is the y'all because it is it is
so heartwarming. It just we'll bless your soul when they

(46:37):
say bless your soul.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
Honestly, like it's yeah, it's terrific, and it's said with
such sincerity and in a way that like I feel
like a lot of people that would try and do
that accident, just yeah, the sincerity just isn't there. And yeah,
I'm a big, big fan.

Speaker 3 (46:54):
Yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
It is one of the most like just welcoming homie
accents that there is among English accents for sure.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Agreed, love it.

Speaker 1 (47:04):
Well, James, Let's talk about your top five most influential albums. So,
I don't know if there's a particular order you want
to do it chronologically, maybe you actually have it, like,
all right, this is like my top album of all time,
but yeah, just would love to hear those top five
most influential albums. And by the way, just looking at
your Wikipedia and seeing some of those influences, and I'm

(47:25):
guessing not all of those influences are just yours, but
a number of those influences and guess he might be
thrown into this top five lists. So but I'm looking
forward to this.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
It's possible, And I think this is the kind of
answer that on any day of the week, depending on
who was asking, I would always give like a slightly
varied answer. There are a couple that will always be
in it, like irrespective I mentioned them earlier, Jane Doe
by Converge is like it would be front and center

(47:54):
of any of it. Like, yeah, it's I think.

Speaker 1 (47:57):
One of the best, one of the best albums of time.

Speaker 2 (48:00):
I'm not sure I can add anything more to the
kind of conversation around that. It's just, yeah, the greatest
conversed by Jenso relationship of commands by the Driving, which
I probably got into a little bit before that, that
was very much like a gateway into much heavy music
for me, I'm going to go with Before the Dawn
Heels Us by M eight three. It's like very simple, very.

Speaker 1 (48:24):
Simply maybe the same person by the way, cool.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
I mean yeah, feel free to keep in such will
send you to the so.

Speaker 1 (48:29):
Far so far, I think we're the same person.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
Cool. And then it's the last two that I think
are the ones that vary quite a lot, like I
think you can those three is basically my contributions to
our band are kind of all based around those three things.
So today for the last two, I'm going to go
with in a Safe Place by the album Leave.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
Love Love the album Leave Yeah, I don't think we've
ever gotten an album is a great That is a
great care.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
It's a perfect ten. Like honestly, I was really lucky
I got to see that played in full church in
London a couple of years ago, and it was just
spectacular that I listened to that all the time. It's
on like such regular rotation. I think it's aged flawlessly
and is so understated. It kind of like post rock

(49:18):
that gets to the point like quite quickly. It's not
like labored, just a very very good record. And number
five this is yeah, maybe the tricky one the well,
not necessarily tricky, it's just the one that kind of
fluctuates the most. I'm going to go with an album
by an Italian band called Laquette and the album is
called La Fini on a Lafine. That album was put

(49:40):
out two thousand and five. The band broke up a
little while ago or just stop being active, but basically
they've reformed this year. I'm going to go see them
playing in Italy in like two weeks. Like I bought
it as soon as I heard that they were reforming.
They're only doing shows in Italy at the moment at least,
so I booked flights, got tickets and I cannot wait
to see them play. It's like a perfect record.

Speaker 1 (50:02):
And again, what kind of music are they?

Speaker 2 (50:05):
I guess like screamer as I would describe it, kind
of similar to stuff like like American Man's like Statia
and Jerome's Dream and that kind of like late nineties screamer.
But they're kind of like part of the next wave
of like European bands that they did it, and like
for me, they're the best like example of the European

(50:25):
like modern screamer bands like often imitated, never kind of better.
I would definitely recommend checking it out. There's like a
remastered version of the record that's just been released, like
there's been like a twentieth anniversary thing. It's gone up
on streamers streaming platforms recently. It's very very good.

Speaker 1 (50:41):
Or all their lyrics in Italian and.

Speaker 3 (50:43):
Yeah, yeah, I love when bands actually like hold true
for them.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
Yeah. I remember seeing them play a few times way
back when, and a couple of I think the vocalists
couldn't speak much English at the time, and it was
like just all I mean, it kind of made you
focus on just a performance even more, like they were
so so, so good and I can't wait to see
them play the Sons again.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
So you guys should release an album that's like all
in old English.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
It would it would definitely hinge on me learning some
old English first. I mean, yeah, ye oldie Tamassi like
that kind.

Speaker 1 (51:17):
Of yeah, I'd be all over that. I think that'd
be fun cool.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
All right, So there's one more thing I want to
ask you, because you guys are from Sheffield, right, That's.

Speaker 2 (51:29):
Where we grew up. Yeah, yeah, I've not looked at
it for a very very long time.

Speaker 3 (51:33):
Okay, do you still have what would be considered a
Sheffield accent.

Speaker 2 (51:37):
Not even close. I don't think. I so my my
parents are from there if they moved there like six
months before I was born, So I kind of I'm
a bit sort of like either neutral or mongrel. I
don't know how you would describe my accent.

Speaker 3 (51:50):
It's just or the mongrel there.

Speaker 2 (51:53):
Not really much of anything, but yeah.

Speaker 3 (51:55):
Sure sure. So what are some maybe some slang terms
that are used generally near the Sheffield area that are
are unique to that area because I know I know
that that England especially or the UK, I should say
it has very very very distinct dialectal differences and slash right.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
I mean, I guess like the band that is sort
of championed Sheffield the most will probably be the Artic Monkeys.
And I don't think I don't think this is necessarily
like something that's just very specific to Sheffield. But if
someone is like grumpy like and then art Monkeys have

(52:42):
a song called Mardy Bum and that is like, yeah,
Mardy is like if you're being grumpy, like, stop being
Mardy like. That's that's definitely something that is the with Sheffield.
I honestly I'm psypathetic if I had to google this,
and I'm kind of doing it while we're just to
kind of just to give myself a bit of a refresh.

(53:03):
Sure there's some great examples on here as well. I'm
just trying to, like, I mean, the one that comes up,
and I guess this is like an old English thing
and would have like regional differences if it's like just
a different word for nothing, and it's like nout note
so and again I've said it because it's always really

(53:23):
good here in Americans say it, but yeah no o
w T now yeah now and then like now is nothing,
but then out is anything. So like oh yeah, I'm
gonna go to the do you want out from the shop?
Like yeah, it's but.

Speaker 3 (53:41):
You love I love those goofy little ones, and every
place has them. The place that Mason lives has some
very very fun ones that make absolutely no sense whatsoever.

Speaker 1 (53:51):
Like what hot dish, hot dish?

Speaker 3 (53:53):
Or duck duck gray duck instead of duck duck goose stuffy?

Speaker 2 (53:57):
Interesting?

Speaker 3 (53:58):
Yeah, yeah, good stuff? All right, Well, what would you
like to plug? Got a lot of things on the dark,
it looks like here, So what.

Speaker 2 (54:05):
Would I like to plug? I would like to plug
an album that I was listening to earlier, So there
is about from Madrid called Crossed. They released an album
earlier called Realismo Aarsente and their bass player is a
good friend of ours. He's someone that's done a lot

(54:25):
of artwork for us in the past. He's a tattoo
artist and yeah, he's been amazing to work with his Banderstick,
and they just put out a great record like yesterday,
So I definitely encourage anyone to listen to that.

Speaker 3 (54:37):
What's the name of the film that you that you
guys are scoring or does it not have a name yet?

Speaker 2 (54:42):
I think I don't know if the title has finished yet,
Like we'll post details on it when when it's up,
But yeah, it's a short film, should be like out
later this year, I think tour.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
Yeah, and it sounds like an EP eventually as well.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
Sometimes yeah, yeah, yeah, just finishing the final detail else
for it, but yeah, it will come out at some
point in twenty twenty five for sure.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
Beautiful love that, Beautiful.

Speaker 1 (55:05):
Love it Jeames, anything else you'd like to plug?

Speaker 2 (55:09):
So I would like to plug that. I was an
extra in the British comedy series The In Between Us. Oh,
sort of really it's sort of this it's like a
comedy series that's almost like to me as someone from
from the UK, it feels more like a documentary on
like how life at high school's actually actually is. And

(55:30):
I was kind of like the right age at the
time to be cast in one of the scenes there.
So if you watch really careful, I think it's season two,
episode five, you can kind of see me in the
background a scene when they're all in the pub together.

Speaker 3 (55:42):
Do you remember what you're doing? Are you just drinking
or are.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
You just drinking? It's very much like background stuff. I'm
just probably just like nursing a beer, like trying not
to desperately awkwardly look at the camera.

Speaker 1 (55:54):
I would think it'd be hard not to just like
constantly wink at the camera, but this is it.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
I'm not a trained actor. It was just right place,
right time, And yeah, they just kind of they just
needed people cast that were kind of roughly the age
that they're trying to portraying there. Yeah, that was me.

Speaker 3 (56:08):
Love it. We just talked to the guys from Berry Tomorrow.
We talked to him a couple of days ago, who were.

Speaker 1 (56:12):
Also literally yesterday twenty four hours ago.

Speaker 3 (56:15):
Yeah, it was twenty four hours ago. And they they
were extras, not extras, they're sort.

Speaker 1 (56:21):
Of an extra, kind of an extra ted Lasso, yah.

Speaker 2 (56:23):
Ted Lasso, Oh, very cool.

Speaker 3 (56:25):
Yeah, yeah, it was a busker, which is pretty fun.

Speaker 2 (56:30):
Nice.

Speaker 1 (56:30):
Clearly, you know, clearly the metal scene in the UK,
it just must not be as profitable as what I
was anticipating if you all are just having to go
on all these other British like some extra money.

Speaker 2 (56:42):
It's the acting side hustle is you know, entertainment. The
two industries kind of acting tandem. So it's as long
as you meet kind of the right casting agents, it's
it's an easy things to sort out.

Speaker 3 (56:51):
It's the small world over there in the on the aisles.

Speaker 2 (56:54):
Well that's it.

Speaker 1 (56:55):
Yeah, across the pond. I had to get one of
those in there.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Yeah, I was waiting for it.

Speaker 2 (57:03):
Well done to try. Yeah yeah, all.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Right, Well when when you take when you take off
on that plane, I would expect when you head out
to Furness Fest, I would I would hope there's at
least one across the pond. Joke that's made as you're
flying over at the Atlantic.

Speaker 2 (57:19):
I mean, I'm definitely gonna remember that, and I'll make
sure it happens.

Speaker 1 (57:23):
Yeah, that's what I love to see.

Speaker 3 (57:24):
In honor of this, I'm gonna go upstairs. I'm gonna
make some chipped beef in your honor.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
So I love it.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Good stuff.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
Well, James, thank you so much for chatting more about
Rola Tamasi. Again, just a band that, even though they're
sort of newer to me, you guys are just like
quickly becoming one of my favorite bands. Just again, like
literally one of my most listened to bands over the
last few years. So thanks so much for chatting more
about it. And we're so stoked to see you at
Furness Fest and hopefully we get to say hi.

Speaker 2 (57:54):
Thanks so much, guys, it's been really nice talking spoke
to Bee. Thanks for the pine words, and yeah, looking
forward to seeing you. It's best ye be well until then,