“We never ever sat down and said we’ll write a song about global warming or anything like that. (If I say) this song is about how people are inconsiderately buying big cars and chopping down trees so they can have nice coffee tables and things like that, it makes me sound like a tree hugger,” says Ben Hollyer, vocalist for English hardcore-ish bruisers October File. A group, which if you haven’t heard them yet, are as far from being hippies as can be.
“I get frustrated by stupid people, cause there are a hell of a lot of stupid people who do stupid things for no reason. And I think that’s what a lot of the songs boil down to. Things like "Beautiful" and "South" (off their debut, A Long Walk On A Short Pier) were about the evilness of some kinds of women and things like that. I got asked by someone from an American magazine, who was obviously quite pissed off with us so I don’t know why he wanted to do an interview, but he said “oh if everything in the world was going ok, how would you feel about not having anything to complain about?”. I just thought, what does that mean? What are you implying? I won’t have anything to moan about. The songs aren’t moaning. The songs are about the way some things are in this world. That in itself is just fuel for yet another song. I don’t really know why this album, took so much of a political point of view. I think it might be the way the lyrics have been refined and the types of stuff we’ve written about fits in better with the music, but it certainly wasn’t a structured decision to do that.”
Ben is referring to the stance October File have taken with their new record and second full-length, Holy Armour From The Jaws Of God. An album, which you can probably tell from the title alone, focuses very strongly on the issues of war, politics and religion. These issues were touched on in the debut as part of a wider attack. This time around they’ve gone straight for the jugular. They’ve got a more rounded and heavier, focused attack., one which is still driven by their weird sense of melody and that pumping, diesel guzzling bass which defines their sound.
“I’m really pleased ‘cause I’ve been on a secret undercover mission to make the band a little bit heavier,” the vocalist reveals. “We did a single first (in April 04) and we got single of the week in Kerrang! (English music magazine). I was quite pleased with that, but it was quite melodic and quite girly and then we did ‘Long Walk…’ and a few other bits in between. Gradually getting heavier and heavier and heavier and then the new album just kind of comes out five steps ahead of where you would have expected it to come out. I’m really pleased.”
“I would have personally liked to have put a little more time in to the production, but I couldn’t be there for some of it. We had to put some days aside for Jaz to sing on one of the tracks. But I’m really pleased. The artwork looks really good. It’s been really well received. It’s exactly what we wanted and we’ve not got, pretty much, a stable drummer (John Watt). It’s where we want to be where we can play music and practice and rehearse and play shows without it being a hassle,” he continues. Watt came onboard in April 07, joining Ben’s fellow founding members Steve Beatty (bass) and Matt Lerwill (guitar) in time to record, but not partake in the writing of the album.
As for Jaz. Well, the Jaz Ben is referring to is of course Killing Joke, and obvious October File influence, Jaz Coleman. A definite coupe for them as fans, but one Ben didn’t actually believe was going to happen.
“It came about from the tour (we did with Killing Joke),” he explains. “Jaz came up to me after a show and goes, “you sound like this guy I know?” and I said “Who’s that?” and he said “me”. That’s obviously a massive compliment and he was just really, really nice to us. Steve, I think, just asked did he want to sing on one of our tracks and he said yes. Steve kept saying that Jaz was going to sing on one of the tracks and I never really believed him.”
“One day I called Steve up,” Ben continues, getting into the flow of the story. “He was in his car and I said “Alright Steve, what are you up to?” and he said “I’m going down the studio, I’ve got Jaz in the car”. I went “yeah, yeah”, when I heard this “Hello Ben” and I went “fuck”. He asked, “are you coming down tonight?’ and I went “uh yeah”. He’s on the album because we asked him,” he adds finally. “He watched us most nights of the tour we did with them and spent quite a lot of time hanging out in the dressing room and obviously we kind of partied afterwards. He’s a really nice guy. Mental, but really nice. I’m really pleased with it.”
Jaz Coleman isn’t their only influential fan though, as Prong have asked October File to open for them on their European tour this January. “It all started a couple of years ago when we toured with Killing Joke, probably about a year, just under two years ago, we did a tour with them for around a week or so. Got on really, really well and started to meet some of the guys that Killing Joke knew, Ministry and people like that. We ended up doing a couple of shows with Ministry, which then went to the tour with Prong. Kind of a case of the word spreading through the people we’d played with. Which is a good thing, a very good thing. So we’re pleased with that.”
