Brighton has a good history for M2TM and metal in general. This year’s winners were Gaia and guitarist Olly Rybarczuk was good enough to tackle these terribly tough questions on behalf of the band!
Paul: Let’s start with a brief history of the band; how did you form, how long have you been around etc.
Olly: We (Jamie and Olly) started writing music together in January 2017 with some the ideas that we'd come up with individually before that. Both of us and Jack Woodward first met at the start of uni in 2015 so we were aware of each other's music and we knew there was potential to get a band together because we had similar ideas on writing heavy and melodic progressive metal, which really stood out from the other bands in Brighton at the time. We completed the line-up with Nick and Jack Lowe who both played in Jamie's previous band Magnitude.
Paul: Who is the current line up?
Olly: Jack Woodward on vocals, Jamie Clark and Olly Rybarczuk on guitar, Nick Tappenden on bass and Jack Lowe on drums.
Paul: Describe the band’s sound and influences
Olly: We play a style of progressive metal that's heavily influenced by other bands in the genre such as Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, Cynic, Fellsilent, Meshuggah, Monuments, Sikth, Tesseract and Vildhjarta, and also some bands from outside the genre such as Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Santana.
Paul: Prior to Bloodstock, what are some of the highlights for the band so far?
Olly: The biggest gig that we've played at before Bloodstock was opening for Monuments at The Haunt in Brighton on the first date of the Phronesis tour, which was their first gig with Andy Cizek on vocals, so it was awesome to be a part of such an important gig in their career, We also opened for Gruesome at their first ever UK show at The Green Door Store in Brighton which was a really cool gig for the local metal scene.
Paul: Let’s move on to Bloodstock and your road to the festival. Please tell us about your journey
Olly: After rehearsing solidly for a few months and getting our first setlist down we started gigging regularly in the summer of 2018, playing all around the East Sussex area and quickly building up a local following. We think that having such a dedicated following has been crucial to our success, because most of the momentum that the band has picked up so far has been from word of mouth since we haven't put out our debut EP yet. As for entering the M2TM competition, we've known Mark Woodbridge well for a long time, so we saw through his Facebook that he was hosting the Brighton heats, and we were immediately interested in competing for a chance to play at Bloodstock.
Paul: We know from our friends in bands that getting to the M2TM final is a great feeling. Tell us about the build up to your final and how you handled it?
Olly: There was a lot of rehearsals! We knew that our competition was going to be the absolute best metal bands in the area, especially in the final but in general throughout the competition the bands were all unbelievably good, so we knew that we had to refine every single detail of our set in the rehearsal room, both musically and performance wise, to be as good as possible for a chance of winning.
Paul: What about when you were announced as winners? What were the emotions like?
Olly: We were all thrilled that we'd managed to win such a tough competition, and there was a huge sense of accomplishment with how far we'd come as a band within a year.
Paul: So, moving on to the festival itself, what can we expect from you?
Olly: Everything from big riffs, technical guitar playing to more ambient moments, hopefully there's something in our sound for everybody!
Paul: Which bands are you looking forward to seeing there?
Olly: We're really looking forward to seeing Tesseract because we're heavy influenced by them as a band, as well as Harbinger, Parkway Drive, Sabaton, Soulfly, Thy Art Is Murder, and we're sure that we'll discover some new bands there as well!
Paul: Have you been to Bloodstock before?
Olly: Jack Woodward actually works on the main stage crew at Bloodstock and has done for the last few years, but the rest of us have never had the chance to go before, so it's awesome that we not only get to play but also get to see a ton of other bands there that we've always wanted to see!
Paul: And finally, tell us a guilty pleasure about each member of the band!
Jack Woodward - Eating £20 worth of sweets in an evening
Jamie - I love being the little spoon
Olly - Watching too much YouTube
Nick - I love being the big spoon
Jack Lowe - Buying too many drum sticks
With those guilty pleasures it’s a wonder that Gruesome let them open for them but what an honour on a tour that is tearing up the UK by all reports. If you fancy something a little bit different but still with the thunder to wobble your guts, then get along to the New Blood Stage on Friday 9th August to see these Brighton boys kick it off. My thanks to Olly and the band for their time.
Paul: Let’s start with a brief history of the band; how did you form, how long have you been around etc.
Olly: We (Jamie and Olly) started writing music together in January 2017 with some the ideas that we'd come up with individually before that. Both of us and Jack Woodward first met at the start of uni in 2015 so we were aware of each other's music and we knew there was potential to get a band together because we had similar ideas on writing heavy and melodic progressive metal, which really stood out from the other bands in Brighton at the time. We completed the line-up with Nick and Jack Lowe who both played in Jamie's previous band Magnitude.
Paul: Who is the current line up?
Olly: Jack Woodward on vocals, Jamie Clark and Olly Rybarczuk on guitar, Nick Tappenden on bass and Jack Lowe on drums.
Paul: Describe the band’s sound and influences
Olly: We play a style of progressive metal that's heavily influenced by other bands in the genre such as Between The Buried And Me, The Contortionist, Cynic, Fellsilent, Meshuggah, Monuments, Sikth, Tesseract and Vildhjarta, and also some bands from outside the genre such as Pink Floyd, Radiohead and Santana.
Paul: Prior to Bloodstock, what are some of the highlights for the band so far?
Olly: The biggest gig that we've played at before Bloodstock was opening for Monuments at The Haunt in Brighton on the first date of the Phronesis tour, which was their first gig with Andy Cizek on vocals, so it was awesome to be a part of such an important gig in their career, We also opened for Gruesome at their first ever UK show at The Green Door Store in Brighton which was a really cool gig for the local metal scene.
Paul: Let’s move on to Bloodstock and your road to the festival. Please tell us about your journey
Olly: After rehearsing solidly for a few months and getting our first setlist down we started gigging regularly in the summer of 2018, playing all around the East Sussex area and quickly building up a local following. We think that having such a dedicated following has been crucial to our success, because most of the momentum that the band has picked up so far has been from word of mouth since we haven't put out our debut EP yet. As for entering the M2TM competition, we've known Mark Woodbridge well for a long time, so we saw through his Facebook that he was hosting the Brighton heats, and we were immediately interested in competing for a chance to play at Bloodstock.
Paul: We know from our friends in bands that getting to the M2TM final is a great feeling. Tell us about the build up to your final and how you handled it?
Olly: There was a lot of rehearsals! We knew that our competition was going to be the absolute best metal bands in the area, especially in the final but in general throughout the competition the bands were all unbelievably good, so we knew that we had to refine every single detail of our set in the rehearsal room, both musically and performance wise, to be as good as possible for a chance of winning.
Paul: What about when you were announced as winners? What were the emotions like?
Olly: We were all thrilled that we'd managed to win such a tough competition, and there was a huge sense of accomplishment with how far we'd come as a band within a year.
Paul: So, moving on to the festival itself, what can we expect from you?
Olly: Everything from big riffs, technical guitar playing to more ambient moments, hopefully there's something in our sound for everybody!
Paul: Which bands are you looking forward to seeing there?
Olly: We're really looking forward to seeing Tesseract because we're heavy influenced by them as a band, as well as Harbinger, Parkway Drive, Sabaton, Soulfly, Thy Art Is Murder, and we're sure that we'll discover some new bands there as well!
Paul: Have you been to Bloodstock before?
Olly: Jack Woodward actually works on the main stage crew at Bloodstock and has done for the last few years, but the rest of us have never had the chance to go before, so it's awesome that we not only get to play but also get to see a ton of other bands there that we've always wanted to see!
Paul: And finally, tell us a guilty pleasure about each member of the band!
Jack Woodward - Eating £20 worth of sweets in an evening
Jamie - I love being the little spoon
Olly - Watching too much YouTube
Nick - I love being the big spoon
Jack Lowe - Buying too many drum sticks
With those guilty pleasures it’s a wonder that Gruesome let them open for them but what an honour on a tour that is tearing up the UK by all reports. If you fancy something a little bit different but still with the thunder to wobble your guts, then get along to the New Blood Stage on Friday 9th August to see these Brighton boys kick it off. My thanks to Olly and the band for their time.