The Spotlight: BOA New Blood Interview With Bastard (Paul H)

Bastard, almost the original name for Motörhead [that was Bastards], and a thousand bands since. This bunch of hardcore in your face maniacs hail from Norwich and won their M2TM final. Here’s what they had to say about the band, M2TM and metal.

Paul: How did you form, how long have you been around etc?

Sam: The band formed unofficially quite a few years ago with a couple of different members but it never properly got going other than writing a few songs and having a few practices. The band as it is now has been a thing for roughly a year and a half!

Paul: Tell us who is in the current line up?

Sam: The current line-up is Alex on Drums, Verty on Bass, G on guitar and Jim is the vocalist.

Paul: Describe the band’s sound and influences?

Sam: As cliché as it is for bands to say this, we really can’t pin it down to a certain sound! We go by as being a hardcore band and the earlier songs are more hardcore, but I think it’s more the DIY hardcore attitude rather than the sound. Our influences vary massively from each member, but currently for writing music we’re taking influences from Cancer Bats, Gallows, Frank Carter and The Rattlesnakes and Every Time I Die, Red Fang and Bring Me The Horizon.

Paul: Prior to bloodstock what are some of the highlights for the band so far?

Sam: We’ve played some awesome shows in the last year but a couple of highlights that come to mind is playing in Camden, we love that place, and we got to play the main stage at The Waterfront in our own city Norwich which if you know Norwich well or live there you’ll know it’s a big privilege to play on that stage.

Paul: Tell us about your journey up to Bloodstock?

Sam: We really feel like the band is picking up quite a bit of momentum, released our debut EP last year and recorded 3 singles which we’ve put out this year one after another. Got great responses from each song even though every single we’ve put out has been very different not only to our debut EP but from each other also! None of the singles have the same genre or vibe. Put out a music video for our single Mouth Breather which was actually debuted on the Bloodstock podcast, footage taken from some shows that our mate Will filmed and edited together for us so if you want to get an idea of one of our live shows watch that video!

Paul: Tell us about the build up to the final and how you handled it

Sam: Every round we played in this year’s M2TM we just treated as a regular gig, we didn’t wanna get too far ahead of ourselves and get our hopes up as we were against a lot of good bands! We give 100% at every show but when we knew we were playing the final we really needed to make sure we stepped up our game, again we didn’t wanna get our hopes up but we played our set well and then just got drunk and had a good time with friends and getting to know the bands we were playing with and just overall having a really good night so even if we didn’t win we’d made some new friends and contacts in bands!

Paul: What were your emotions like being announced as winners of M2TM?

Sam: We really couldn’t believe it! Even though we were treating every round like a regular gig we’d be lying if we said once we knew we were in the final that we weren’t all drooling at the mouth to play Bloodstock. We know how big of an opportunity this is so when our name was announced Is was quite surreal, didn’t seem real at all!

Paul: What can we expect from you at bloodstock?

Sam: Just pure high energy from the start of the set all the way to the end. We like to think we’re quite an honest band, from the music and our live performances. We write heavy songs we like to play and hopefully other people like too, we don’t write stuff we can’t play live and we’re just 4 regular guys jumping around the stage like a bunch of idiots but we have the best time when we’re playing live and I think people recognise that and that makes them enjoy it even more, what you see is what you get with us and I think people generally appreciate that. We love it when people get involved and mosh at our shows. We have a panda as our mascot, so the rule is if you see someone wearing a panda mask, they’re the target!

Paul: Which bands are you looking forward to seeing at Bloodstock?

Sam: The main bands we’re looking forward to watching are Parkway Drive, Thy Art Is Murder, Cancer Bats just to name a few. Oh, and rock legends Scorpions obviously as we’re playing on the Sunday too, Rock You Like A Hurricane is one of the biggest riffs ever!

Paul:  Have you been to Bloodstock before?

Sam: Jim has been before, the rest of us are new to Bloodstock!

Paul: If yes describe the best 3 things about the festival

Sam: Beer; Awesome atmosphere; Killer line ups

My thanks to Sam for taking the time to get this interview completed. Looking forward to a bit of Bastard? Then get to the New Blood tent on Sunday 11th August for a dose of in your face metal.