Invading from the north, Brit rockers Fizzy Blood have officially arrived. Fresh from a string of support slots that include band of the moment Spring King, alongside a number of UK headline dates, these chaps are nailing the art of heavy-set rock. It’s safe to say Fizzy Blood are onto something special, which is precisely why we caught up with them, somewhere in a shire, to talk everything from Jurassic Park to offending the musical gods.
Thanks for taking the time to chat guys. Have you ever been to St Albans before?
Benji: I came here a few weeks ago actually, took a trip to the National History Museum. We stayed in St Albans. It was class.
Tim: I went there once when I was little. I really loved dinosaurs and they had that big – I think it was T-Rex?
You know they’ve now discovered T-Rexs weren’t as fast as we thought? It couldn’t physically run that fast without breaking its legs.
Tim: Oh really? Balance can’t have been great either. Yeah, that makes sense.
Jake: Didn’t they have deadly tiny arms too?
B: They got it all wrong though. I read it a couple of months back.
J: But we’ve seen the pictures on Jurassic Park, it’s gotta be true!
Yeah, apparently they had tiny slasher arms… Anyway, back on topic. For readers who may not have heard Fizzy Blood before, how would you describe your sound?
T: Paul answered this a while ago with a line I quite liked. I think he said, ‘It’s vague without being arrogant’. It’s just rock music but I think the key to it is you can make your own mind up about it. Probably quite a few bands say that about their own music but…
B: We do get a lot of people coming up to us saying we do sound like different bands, but they’re on such vastly different sides of the rock spectrum that it’s easier that way.
T: I think other people’s comparisons – like “you sound like such and such” – is so much better than us putting a term on it. Now you’ve got all these labels like ‘Horror Rock’.
B: I heard a band that we really like get described recently as ‘Sex Grunge’. What does that even mean?!
We got a ‘dystopian post-metal’ offering through the other day… whatever floats your boat I guess? But onto your new material…
J: Yeah, the EP came out at the end of August, around Reading and Leeds Festival time.
B: It was actually the same day we played Reading.
It’s got a rougher, punkier edge to it. Was that a natural progression or did you choose to take that route?
B: The time between recording Feast, our first EP – we actually recorded it back in 2014 – and this last one in 2016 was a good couple of years. In between, we recorded a couple of singles which we did as a ‘build it from the ground up’ sort of project, whereas Feast and Summer of Love were recorded live as a band. I remember after we recorded “Animals”, the thing we enjoyed about our first EP – and what caught people’s attention in the beginning – just wasn’t there. So we decided to do it again and refine the process. With the first EP, all six tracks were recorded in the space of a day.
Quick turnaround?
B: Yeah, we did it all live. We did vocals in your college [nods towards Jake]. The second EP was five tracks in five days; it was the same process but just more refined.
J: I think it sounded a bit rougher as we were allowed to spend more time – not that we had a lot of time – but we got to spend more time on guitar tone and stuff.
T: It’s like the musical equivalent of taking ages to wake up, y’know? That kind of thing. It’s good.
“It’s a bit like one of those fictional tea parties where everyone invites Stephen Fry, so then you’re like ‘Well actually, I don’t really want Stephen Fry at my party,’ – Benji, Fizzy Blood
Like a hungover morning at a festival? Speaking of – yes, this link is tenuous – it’s time to create a fictional festival line up. Shall we make this a free for all and pick 4 headliners to take part?
T: Phwoaar. I mean, are we talking dead or alive?!
You’re allowed to resurrect the greats.
T: I mean, I’d like to say Miles Davis but I don’t think that would happen. Can that work? I’d like to see him live.
J: If you hadn’t guessed, we’re making this a bit of an artistic festival.
B: It’s a bit like one of those fictional tea parties where everyone invites Stephen Fry, so then you’re like ‘Well actually, I don’t really want Stephen Fry at my party’. It must be sick to be constantly invited to tea parties, but he must be great company… I’m gonna be honest, I’d quite like to see Oasis play our festival actually.
J: I dig that but now the pressure’s on me because I’ve been helping you out.
T: What about The Beach Boys back in the day?
J: Nah, they were no good live.
T: Hmmm, Bowie? Prince?
J: Yeah, let’s add Bowie. Go on then.
B: I bet he’s up there now thinking, ‘Not another one?!’ We’ll just get a reply saying, ‘Sorry boys, I’m already booked up.’
[cue laughter]
T: Stuff like this is so hard for me because although I know I’ll never meet them, I feel like I’m betraying Hendrix by choosing someone else.
J: In that case, Jimi can go in slot 4. It’s a difficult thing, because there’s way more to it than just who you like. It’s would they be a good headliner. They need to put on a good show if they’re headlining my festival. You know what I mean?! Miles would be class.
You don’t want to have to hand out refunds…
T: Wait, do you know who’d be sick as well? Beastie Boys!
J: Beastie Boys would have to be in a tent though so it could properly go off. Let’s just leave it there. They could play a secret gig or something. Midnight – right after Oasis.
We like to give smaller bands a push. Which up-and-coming bands are on your playlists at the moment?
B: It’s gotta be Indoor Pets and Tigercub.
T: I have to give Forever Cult a shout out. They’re our support. These are all bands we’ve put on in the van at some point.
These are all going on the second festival stage right?
J: They’ll pop up in the tent with the Beastie Boys.
T: Avalanche Party are great at the minute. Oh, and Weirds as well. They’re class.
If you could sum Fizzy Blood up with three random objects, what would they be?
J: Lager, Cigs and Coffee.
[laughter ensues]
T: I don’t think it really encompasses our sound but it encompasses our personalities.
J: Our choices aren’t cool enough. We just need to get more specific guys. Amber Leaf, Tesco Lager and Costa Coffee. But it would have to be the costa coffee from those corner shop machines.
B: I mean, we’re quite literally an advert for doc martins. Can we add black shoes?
J: Shiny, lace-up black boots, service station coffee and… a chicken nugget share box?
Are we talking 20 here? Usain Bolt style?
J: Yeah, 20.
B: Oh, and bad hair cuts.
T: That’s more like it!
J: Shiny leather shoes, service station coffee and bad haircuts.
Who’s had the bad haircuts?
T: Paul. Well, not to name and shame him… He’s very aware his hairline is receding – he’ll admit this himself – and he does whatever he can to stop it.
J: He’s had a long list of bad haircuts.
B: He’s an eccentric in every sense of the word. I’ve never met anyone like Paul.
T: Do you remember when he posted that picture straight after he’d had his haircut?
J: He’s a friar tuck.
T: Nah he isn’t! He’s just an eccentric.
B: He’ll be a weird, weird old man if he ever gets there… He’ll be a weirdo. Can you imagine his grandchildren? “Uncle Paul coughed on me again.”
[cue yet more laughter]
J: He’s our weirdo.
What have you guys got coming up? Any material that may have fallen by the wayside while you were putting the EP together?
T: Yeah, we went through a writing week. My hometown is just outside of Manchester so we went back for a week and recorded some tracks. We ended up with about 14 songs. Five of them made it onto Summer of Luv and the others will probably never see the light of day.
J: Nah, that’s not true! One of them made it onto the next EP. “Stangers”. It’s the same track, it’s just been changed tonally…
B: The new EP’s all done, we’re just waiting for it to be mastered. Got the artwork, we’re all ready to go.
T: Fingers in all the pies.
