interview with Tsar Bomba
How was the band formed? We were friends from school and all in different bands and we decided to join forces
Where are all band members from?/Who does what in the band? We are all from Epsom/Ewell, Alex Somerville is on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, Harry Hoyle is on lead guitar and occasionally does backing vocals, Harrison Galliven plays the bass guitar and Nick Stamper plays the drums
What was the ambitions of the band when you started? Same as anyone, not have to spend our lives sitting behind a desk (Alex)
Could you explain your music to someone that haven't heard you? I guess you could call it an eclectic mix of alternative and indie but they are very vague terms.(Harrison)
Where was your first gig? Our first proper gig was at O’Neills in Kingston in a big event called Kingston Oxjam with all proceeds going towards the charity Oxfam, a really neat charity really close to Harrison’s heart (Nick)
It was a very special night for me (Harrison)
Where was the latest gig? At the Islington O2 academy, in Islington, also a neat night where the money also went to a cause close to Harrison's heart. (Nick)
I'd say potentially an even more special and emotional night for me than that night at O'Neills (Harrison)
Who writes your songs?/Who writes the music who writes lyrics? Alex and I write the songs in general. I'll come up with some starting music to play around with and basic structure and then Alex comes up with a couple of vocal melodies and we go from there. The end structure tends to come when we play it round with the whole band, Nick then adds some tasty grooves and Harrison puts in some serious funk. (Harry)
Who has the best sense of humor in the band? Me, just kidding it’s definitely Nick, no question, ask anybody. (Alex)
What's good/bad with the band?/What genre do you feel you are? I feel we are an indie rock band, but in the end genres are just spaces that the man wants you to conform within (Nick)
It’s just rock, though I don’t know what the hell that means anymore. (Alex)
Why did you pick that particular style?/What are your songs about? They’re about everything really. (Alex)
Some are comments on society, some are more personal passionate nights of love et cetera, some admittedly are not about much hahahahaha (Harry)
Do you write your own material or mainly covers? Own material, who does covers these days? Chyeah (Harry)We do some covers (Alex)Have you made any albums?/If yes what are they? We're currently recording some EPs on Harry's 8 track (Alex)
Do you have any clips on YouTube? Nope, sorry, really sorry (Alex)
How old are you?/What got you started in music? We're all 17. Most of us started playing in primary school, I guess you listen to what you like and it inspires you to do your own thing. (Alex)
I always listened to my father play guitar, that was always special and it made me want to play (Harry)
At what age did you start playing? I've always kinda sung, started guitar at 11. (Alex)
I think I started playing guitar at around 9/10, not properly writing until about 13 (Harry)
How old were you guys when you first stood on stage? 11 for me (Alex)
What year was the band started? Last summer, so 2013 (Alex)
Best/worst gig you've played? Best was probably a gig in our mate's garden...haven't really had a "worst" one in my opinion. (Alex)
What places will you be playing in in the immediate future? We’ll always be playing in and around London Town (Nick)
Which band is the best you've seen?
Drenge, Eagulls or The Fat White Family come to mind (Nick)
Drenge at reading was definitely a treat, I would also say Arctic Monkeys at earls court and perhaps Kasabian at Hard Rock Calling. (Harry)
definitely Paul Simon yeah (Alex)
Is it always the same songs live? Not always, We at Tsar Bomba love a bit of variation. (Harrison)When we write new stuff we add it to the mix. We change it to suit the crowd (Alex)
What has been the best/most promising gig so far? The best was probably one in our dear friend Luke Giles’ garden because it was good fun and we seemed to get a good reception, even if most of the crowd were our good friends. (Nick).
Have you had any bigger tours from start to now? Too many to count, too many. No, no tours. (Alex)
How big crowds do you usually play for? Not big, nobody really wants to hear risque music anymore (Nick)
We have had some great turnouts in smaller venues but we have also played to some pretty minimal crowds. But we have a pretty dedicated fanbase of around 4 people who will see us anywhere (Harry)
What are the plans for the rest of the year? Write and record, distribute our songs, etc. (Alex)
Where do you usually play? In and around London Town (Nick)
How do you get psyched up for a gig? I usually play some deep house music or some Motorhead albums, that gets me prepared (Harrison) Post an ambiguous tweet to show how emotional and difficult my life is (Alex)
What are your goals with your music? Obviously we'd all love for our music to reach a wide audience so we could play the massive gigs but really if we can at least make a living out of it and have a really devoted fan base, that would be the dream. As long as we think it's good stuff I'll be happy with what we've produced. (Harry)
Guess I just want people to feel something when they listen to it. (Alex)
When did you decide to go all in for the music? As soon as it started. (Nick)Is it easier to get your inspiration from older bands or from bands more modern? That's difficult, I’d say its more or less the same, there are quite a lot of lesser known but great bands around at the moment, but obviously there have been so many great bands in the past as well, there’s plenty to draw inspiration from, then and now (Nick)
What are your sources of inspiration?
Beatles, Pixies, Radiohead, Smiths (Harry)
A bit of the cure thrown in there as well for good measure (Harrison)
The Beatles really. That’s what lit my songwriting wick, so to speak. (Alex)
The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Freidrich Engels (Nick)
What's the first step when making a new song? Usually the Riff (Alex)
Then structure (Harry)How do you feel about the downloading of music instead of buying albums? I'm a massive supporter of record shops and vinyl. I think that downloading music as MP3 has sort of destroyed the culture of sitting down and listening to a record. People don't really care about the effort that goes into making an album anymore, it's all about the singles and album charts these days. (Harry)
Long live Banquet records. (Nick)
What he said (Alex)
What would be your dreams for the band? For people to listen to it and feel something, as long as someone feels something then I’m content. (Alex)
Besides your own music, what genres and bands do you listen to?
Anything that’s good, dude (Alex)
What do you hold most dear? My cat and Harrison of course, He is my rock (Alex)
Iarty Records (Nick)
What would be your greatest fears for the future? A continuation of this exploitative capitalist society (Nick)
When you are on stage, what do you fear most then?
Harry messing up (Alex)
Alex’s voice breaking (Harry)
Harry dropping the ball, again. (Harrison)
Harry ruining the night with sloppy guitar play, again. (Nick)
Have you been part of any other projects?
I’ve been in two bands before this, one when I was very young and one a couple of years ago. I’m definitely the most happy with what we’re doing now (Harry)
Quite a few, I guess, I’m not ashamed of anything I’ve done (Alex)
My old band We Are Tombola was a big part of my life (Nick)
I honed my skills in my previous project, it was a band called Hidden Fires, with Harry involved as well (Harrison)
Have you been in any other bands?
Yeah, we've all dabbled (Alex)
We Are Tombola (Nick)
What do you work with outside of the band and the music?
Sport and making gains (Harrison)
People hating me (Alex)
I work at Chessington World of Adventures as a roving salesman, i sell all sorts, pencils, sweets, furry animals you name it I probably sell it (Harry)
What would you do if there was no music?
I'd carry on working at Chessington World of Adventures as a roving salesman (Harry)
I'd probably be a personal trainer at the gym (Harrison)
I'd be a professional video game player (Alex)
I'd be a political activist (Nick)
How important are your fans?
Very (Nick)
Very Very (Alex)
What's the funniest/most memorable thing a fan has done for you? One of our friend’s younger brother made a T shirt with our logo on it and another one of our friends printed one of our early soundcloud pictures on a T shirt as well (Nick)
How often do you rehearse? It depends really but we try do it every couple of weeks but if we have a gig coming up we’ll rehearse a lot more (Harry)
Where do you rehearse? At Casa del Stamper (Nicks house) (Nick)
Name 2 of your own songs you like at the moment? Pipe dream and Obliterate (Harrison)
The new ones. So yeah, what Harrison said. Pipe Dream is probably my favourite of ours (Alex)
I would say Talk Like Thugs is my favourite of ours, and Bastard Behind the Eyes (Harry)
What do you feel is the best live band you've seen?
The Fat White Family or Kasabian (Harrison)
May Contain Nuts (Alex)
What drives a band that isn't all that famous and renowned to try to make a living on their music and to keep playing? It's fun, that's it really, it keeps things interesting (Alex)
People who are creative want to continuously make new things, not work in offices. (Harry)
Do you have any webpages?
https://tsarbombauk.wordpress.com
https://soundcloud.com/tsar-bomba-uk
https://www.facebook.com/tsarbombauk
Any pearls of wisdom for all other bands out there? I'm in no position to give advice to anyone (Alex)
Ask around local venues mainly and make sure that you use social media to its full potential (Harrison)
Describe your show, visually and musically
We don’t really buy into showmanship, we’re pretty relaxed on stage and are there to play our music, thats it really (Harry)
It’s just us playing, that’s all. If people like it they like it. We’re not still, we move, but as Harry said, it’s about the music (Alex)
How do you view the musicindurty of today? It's alright, some good, a lot of bad, a lot of average. That's the way it's always been though (Alex)
What advice would you like to give other bands? If I were a big figurehead in music which i’m not, I would say write what you think is good and what you want to write, someday someone may come across it and think its classic. (Harry)
What are the biggest obstacles for a band? Getting a big enough fan base to get noticed, getting noticed in general actually (Harry)
What is best/worst with playing the clubs?We’re too young, so we don’t play clubs. Well, we played one, but not many were there (Alex)
How would you describe your sound in one sentence
Happy music, sad lyrics, or the other way around, who cares anyway (Alex)
Riffy music with catchy melodies (Harry)
What is your favorite crappy instrument? Stylophone (Harry)
What was one of the most quarrelsome times for you in the band?
We get along really well so we haven’t had a big argument yet. touch wood that never happens. (Harry)
Harrison once started getting angry at us for being to passive and out of shape physically, but I gave him a stern talking to and he knows his place now (Alex)
Whats your Pre-show ritual?
Shots and tuning (Alex)
Maybe having a peak at the crowd (Harry)
Tack detsamma!
allt bra?