CHARLOTTE: Welcome to Download, you hit the Avalanche stage earlier today as we were just talking about, so tell me a little bit about your experience and your performance so far.
BLAKE: It was hot. That’s it. That was hot. Yeah, it was absolutely crazy cause we’re still a small band and we don’t have many opportunities like this. We’re really fortunate enough to play the RIP stage, which is like at the Courtyard last year at Download and that was wild enough. So we’re invited back this year, which we couldn’t believe, thought we’re gonna be on the Dogtooth stage and got upgraded to the Avalanche stage and it’s mind-blowing, it’s huge, we just tried to soak up every minute, I was quite nervous to be honest with you. But, as soon as we got out there, started jumping around like an idiot, it was fine. The crowd seemed to like to vibe with it. Had a couple of circle fits going and things and we were happy with the turnout as well. Cause, you know, being a small band, you never really know, what sort of pull you’re gonna get. But it was actually pretty packed, so pretty happy with that.
C: If you’ve got circle picks going, you know, you’re doing a good job at Download!
B: Exactly right! You’re not allowed to say Circle Pick either. They tell you, you’re not allowed to say it. So yeah, they just knew to do it, so I was lucky.
C: And for anyone that’s seen you today or they’re just discovering new music, can you give me a bit of background about the band and how you formed and how you found your sound?
B: Yeah, like I say, we’re quite a new band we formed during lockdown. Me and Alice like literally met through a Facebook group, this metal page. We started demoing some ideas and we’re both just kind of like, we love Metalcore, but I think we both just felt the genre at the time at least was a little bit stagnant and we both really like pop music and we just really wanted to throw all of the things we love at it and not really be too constricted. So I think it’s quite an interesting melting pot of tasteful metalcore but with some interesting sort of like soundscapes, a bit more hyper poppy sort of sounds thrown in. So if you like Charlie XCX or Grimes, artists to experiment sounds, but you also like heavier bands, all across the middle course spectrum you might vibe us as well.
C: And you’ve had the chance to tour with some pretty amazing people as well. So can you, just give some highlights and some of those artists that you’ve actually worked with?
Last year we got a last-minute support opportunity with a band called Zeal and Ardor, and they were playing some incredibly huge shows including Electric Brixton and they were the biggest shows of our lives so far. It was an incredible opportunity to go and play two shows with them. Their fans were super open-minded, so I think we went down well with them. But we’ve also been on tour with a band called Bloodywood who are exploding right now. They’re like new metal and they’re bringing this vibe from New Delhi cause they’re from New Delhi in India so their fans are super open-minded and I think we’ve been going down pretty well with them as well. So we’ve been on the Sold Out, well pretty much sold out, European / UK tour with them in March. That was insane. We went to places we know, thought we’d go in our lives, let alone for shows like Poland, like the Czech Republic, we even went to our vocalist, Alice’s hometown in Italy, so we got to stay with her parents in Pecheli, which was amazing. It was just a wild experience, and it was our second-year gig as a band as well. I couldn’t ask for anything more – absolutely stoked.
C: And how were her parents about all of this?
B: They were really supportive. Like they support Leche being a band, they put us up at their house and took us out for traditional Italian meal. It was lush. It’s a great experience.
C: Things that you don’t expect to kind of go alongside with the whole journey.
B: One minute you’re at home, next minute you’re just out for a meal in Italy with your whole band and, your vocalist parents like in Pecheli, it’s like, what’s going on? Music can take you weird places sometimes, or unexpected places I guess. And it’s cool.
C: You’ve recently released your new single Bloodbath, so give me a little bit of context with the Creative Pro process.
B: Sure, yeah. So Bloodbath, I trying to find out our footing, I think in terms of like more of a drum-bass influence sounds, I think it’s a pretty accessible metal song at its heart, but I feel like we added this slight drum and bass vibe into it to really just feel like the song was pushing and really brings the energy to it. We just wanted to have a real belt or a chorus as well. So originally that song was just something completely different. It was me messing around, I was like, right, I’m gonna just chew the guitar as low as it can go and try and make the heaviest riff I can make, and it just see what happens. Then we rewritten the thing about 15 times and then eventually found its way to being that song. We just threw everything in the kitchen sink at it really just to sort of see what sticks, I think it ends up being like an energetic song with some cool, trappy bits and some drum and bass bits, and a really, really heavy stalking breakdown. So for us it’s like a formula that we’re quite happy with and we feel like we’re pretty happy with that song with a guy called Carl Bown for the mix. And Carl Bown is, is a genius. He really sonically made that song sound insane. You may know some of the work he’s done cause new Sleep Token record, he’s worked with While She Sleeps, Bullet for My Valentine, so he is in safe hands of him and we’re looking forward to working with him as well on our EP.
C: You literally just went on to my next question, when can we look forward to some new music so we’ve got an EP on the way?
B: So we’ve got an EP on the way. So unfortunately I don’t have a release date to give you right now, but we are working really hard on getting this body of work together. We’ve got tracks that are being mixed. We’ve got a couple of bits that we’re finishing off in the studio. So we, we it’s definitely gonna be this year there’ll be another tour to announce as well and it’ll probably coincide with that announcement, so I can’t really give too much away annoyingly. But it’ll come soon. I hate saying soon, but it is soon for better point of their word.
C: So we’ve got an EP on the way and we’ve got some tour dates for the rest of this year as well. Is there anything else, any other little surprises that we can look forward to?
B: Yeah, so I can’t really talk about the stuff that’s not announced, but what we are playing an awesome run of shows with a band called Vended. People may know them cause well, one, they’re amazing, but they’ve been on tour with Bloodywood and Wargasm in America, but they’re coming over here and we are supporting them with a band called Graphic Nature who are also our mates so that’s gonna be absolutely mates fest. I can’t remember the dates for playing but its on the internet though, it’s in June so come see us if you want hear two amazing bands and a band, which I hope is amazing.
C: Awesome, thank you for your time dude!
Interview by Charlotte Hooper at Download Festival 2023
