October File Part Deux
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Editor's Note: Yeah, we just ran an October File piece earlier in the week, done by the always thought-provoking Ken McGrath, but we figured we'd hit lead throat Ben Hollyer up for some more political bulletin board material. As you'll see, Darren and Hollyer had quite the go-round on a myriad of social and political topics. Enjoy.
What can one say about a black metal band that sounds like Dark Throne or a stoner rock group that sounds like Kyuss other than, “This sounds like Kyuss or this sounds like Dark Throne.” Musical clones are endemic throughout every musical genre or style. I don’t know if that stems from labels jumping on the band wagon to sign the next big thing, bands lacking creativity or just their being fans of a certain band and wanting to express their affinity for the said group. It could be one or all of these reasons. Nonetheless, hearing the same shit repeatedly becomes mundane and tedious. However, every so often I receive an album by a group with enough creativity and artistic intelligence to create something new and diverse. The United Kingdom’s October File is one of those groups. Their latest album Holy Armour From the Jaws of God manages to not only mix various styles such as punk, hardcore, and alternative metal, but they do it will a ferocious energy and massive sound. Every group grew up idolizing certain artists, and this album shows the band’s influences such as Killing Joke, but October File borrows lightly, piecing together many parts of a musical puzzle, rather than using one piece to comprise the whole.
Another interesting aspect of October File’s music is their outspokenness. The group strongly believes certain aspects of modern society indicate disastrous results, and feel compelled to point out these flaws to both express frustration and a word of warning. Not every one will agree with this band’s opinion, but their wiliness to express those opinions define the meaning of being an artist and living in a free society. Part of their frustration stems from governments eroding our rights, and their citizens wiliness to let go of their freedoms. October File’s lyrics tell many stories about war, religion, global climate change and other issues that plague modern society. Front man, Ben Hollyer spoke to Blistering.com via email to explain some of his song’s concepts and other topics concerning October File.
Blistering.com: Are you happy with the result on Holy Armour From the Jaws of God? Did it meet your expectations?
Ben Hollyer: I think as a musician you don’t really set your self any kind of expectations towards how your work will sound. We write songs as the mood takes us, that way we can write songs that are actually based on feeling. There’s nothing worse then a hollow song! The last couple of years have proven to us that (with the line up problems we had) we really enjoy making music and nothing more. If you can focus on nothing but the writing then you are never disappointed by anything else that may or may not happen. In regards to being happy about the result of the album, the answer is hell yes! We’ve struggled through line up problems which has set us back several times. You get to a low point after a while wondering if there are human beings on this planet that will actually deliver what they say they will!
Blistering.com: Your bio states, “Musically, October File deliver an even heavier and more direct approach than the highly rated last EP. Do you agree with this statement? What made this album heavier and more direct?
BH: I completely agree with this statement, we have refined our sound over the years and through new equipment from Warwick and Framus we have managed to set upon the type of sound we feel happy with. An audible mix between a 50-story building collapsing and one hundred mile an hour head on collision. We wanted a sound that would wake the dead. The directness of the album came from the principle of writing music for ourselves. How many times have you sat at your desk and though “I hate my fucking job” how many times have you thought “Why did they invade that country? Oil? Money?” All our songs have thought and meaning, heavily laced with irony and spite. In a world like ours today it’s not hard to write songs of truth about the evil in our world.
Blistering.com: One of the aspects of highlights of the album, for me, is the bass. It is so upfront and large. For quite awhile, bands placed their bass in the foreground, focusing entirely on the guitar. Recently, bands have been returning to a more audible bass sound. Was it your intention to give the bass a major part in your music?
BH:Our bass player is a six foot three Glaswegian … could you imagine a little plink sounding bass? This was unintentional; Steve has always had a sound very much at the forefront of the band. But having said that, as a band we are always agreeing that the October File sound is a mixture of four instruments and not three and a singer. Add Steve’s personality to his Fender Bass and six-foot bass rig and you’ve got it made!
Blistering.com: October File has a distinct sound owing to industrial, punk, hardcore and even alternative metal, yet October File does not fit solely into any one of these categories. Do you think it is important to maintain a sound that doesn’t borrow too heavily from other groups?
BH: Absolutely, who wants to sound like everyone else? There’s a lot of generic shit music out there, we don’t want to be tarred with the same brush. There are hundreds of bands out there for the glory and to get their cocks sucked. If we never played a venue again we wouldn’t loose any sleep, obviously we enjoy playing live, but to be a good musician you accept that you make music for yourself and everything else comes afterwards. I find it funny looking over reviews of the band, some say punk, some say emo, this makes me laugh my ass off. Why not have the balls to say, “You know what, I have absolutely no idea what I just heard?” I think it is very important to remain true to your sound. If you set out to mimic another band, you will fail and you will not earn any respect for your craft. People say we sound a lot like Killing Joke, I can understand that, they are our friends and we respect them highly.
Blistering.com: Influences are a thing bands cannot completely hide. Even bands like Black Sabbath that invent styles and genres still have bands that were influential. What bands made an impact on your sound?
BH: Well going back to my last point Killing Joke have had a major impact on us as a band. I have never felt such a presence live before. Steve and Matt (bass & guitars) have toured with the Stranglers and are massive fans of Big Black, Gang of 4 and other such bands. I think that is where our punk side comes from. I personally am heavily influenced by any kind of thrash or death metal ranging from Kill Switch to Cryptopsy. John, our drummer, listens to lots of fairly odd music, he likes female fronted bands. Yeah we know; we take the piss out of him too.
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