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Interview with Chris and
Matt from Thirteenth Sign
April 24th 2009 by Chris Davison - Photo by Strawb |
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Norfolk based deathly thrashers Thirteenth
Sign are the best thing to come out of Norfolk since...well, let's
just say they're the best thing to come from that Godforsaken
county. Having just played a mightily impressive gig at Hammerfest,
Prestatyn, I snatched a few minutes with the band in a quiet part of
the pub.
Here at Hammerfest, I'm speaking to Chris (guitars) and Matt (bass)
from the impressive Thirteenth Sign. Having watched Thirteenth Sign
today, frankly easily the best band so far (although you're only the
second band on)!
C: (Laughter)
M: (Laughter)
C: Fucking hell!
You sound completely tight and professional.
Tell me the story of the band, somebody...
C: Basically the bands being going...we started as the Skeletal
Embrace about ten years ago now, and we just kept going and going
and going, and we changed our name to 13th Sign about four years ago
M: Yeah, about that.
C: Because it seemed a little bit more metal. We recorded the album,
"Oracles of Armageddon" about three years ago
M: More or less three years, yeah
C: We were un-signed so we bought and paid for it ourselves, and
basically just over a year ago we got signed to Battlegod
productions in Australia, and a year later, here we are playing
here, which is just brill! |
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The
band's got a real Australian vibe, a kind of Destroyer 666, Razor of
Occam kind of feel to you. How did that come about?
C: Because we're from Norfolk, there's only Tasmania which is
nearer, so we're on the doorstep really! It's all just geographical,
really ?
So the songs are all about Crocodile Dundee
then?
C: No! We don't have any crocodiles in Norfolk really!
Coming from the middle of nowhere myself (at
which point Chris checks how many fingers I have!), how hard is it
establishing yourself in the wilds of Norfolk?
C: It's gone through fits and stages. We had a while where we would
play and get a lot of support, but for instance at the minute you
play there and there's nothing there. The scene's actually dead in
the water. So you're really up and down, up and down the whole time.
We've been going for ten years, so you just have to keep going and
keep going whatever. |
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So what next for you guys?
C: We're really desperately hoping that here people will see us, and
obviously we will get more publicity from coming here and playing
here than we would back home in Norfolk as well. We've got a gig
coming up in Norwich, check out the myspace page. We are currently
halfway through writing songs for the next album, we've got about
two thirds of that all written and kind of done. That's coming out
sounding a lot darker and heavier.
M: If you can imagine us sounding darker and heavier!
C: It's much darker and heavier, and obviously we're hoping that
this (playing Hammerfest, ed.) will open some doors, we'll play it
by ear and see what happens, really.
And if you could say something to the readers,
what would it be?
C: I'd love to hear them say, "I just bought the 13th Sign album!".
I'd love to hear them say that! You can buy it in HMV, via Plastic
Head
M: Amazon, Play.com
C: Or contact us, and we'll sell you a copy.
www.myspace.com/thirteenthsign |
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