An Evening With Rival Bones - Jimmy's, Manchester. Q&A
February 25th saw me take my first ever step inside the neon lit, popular and hip, Jimmy's bar and venue in Manchester, NQ. Bought a pint of their own-brand Jimmy's lager and readied myself for an evening of headbangin' and chin waggin' with James Whitehouse and Chris Thomason of Rival Bones.
Complemented by the cared-for acoustics of the underground stage room, the call of Rival Bones roared and reverberated through the ears of willing prey. Their set was raucous. Loud. Proud. Invited the crowd. 'You Know Who You Are' - the track that shot first and asked questions later - the trap that established their snappy dominance. The pair played like they were hungry, instrumentals would meet their eyes as they deviated their hunt. Chris Thomason attacked James Whitehouse's meaty riffs with swings and rim-shots. A new song,
'Hot Blood' seeped it's way into the set. They left the set with 'Scars'. Their performance demanded the attention of the venue and scorched the crowd just enough to be warmed up for the headliners, False Heads. "I think the aim of these gigs to drown out the music upstairs" James Whitehouse declares, only to be reminded that in fact the entire venue is listening. The frontman is very natural with the audience and reflects off their mood well. "I think the trick at this stage in the game is to be able to pick out when people are enjoying it..." The pair have a respect for each other that is demonstrated in the songwriting and that seemingly allows them both to be equally applied to the performance. The impact of their sound is unforgiving - a force to be reckoned with. So, surely their minds are worth picking too? I arranged to meet up with Rival Bones at the Jimmy's gig to do just that - I caught them after their set, during False Head's headline performance. James grabbed me a can and we walked our way back upstairs to the bar area to start recording. Here's how it went.
S: So that’s a decision you’ve made just now is it?
J: Yeah, y’know it’s just constant we should do more stuff where it’s sort of *claps hands* going like that and then it’s just like half-time *stamps foot*
S: I’ve got to say. Man, I made so many bass faces during that set
J: YEEUS. You know what? From someone who’s desperate to be a bass player, thank you.
S: Nah no worries, man. I really enjoyed it.
J: Thank you so much. Thank you for coming. S: Yeah! Now worries at all, thanks for having me. How are you both?
J: Very well, feeling really good… really good. I really enjoyed the show. Great crowd. The sound was really good for me on stage, it’s awesome, man. I’ve only ever been here once – drinking with Chris’ dad.
C: Not me, just my dad. *laughter* yeah, the sound is awesome here.
J: Yeah, really good. After we established that the venue and sound quality was of good standard, we decided to search for a quieter spot in the venue to record the interview. The pair invited me to the backstage room, “This is about to get real exclusive”, James leans to me and says as Chris pulls back a curtain to reveal a door. Behind the door was the room granted to the bands for storage space - seemingly for beers, instruments, and equipment. The door shut behind me, cushioning the wall of sound omitting from False Heads’ live set, blaring ‘TWENTYNOTHING’ medleyed with Basement Jaxx’s ‘Where’s Your Head At’. We hunched ourselves in where we could fit. I took a stool while Chris b-lined for the bean bag. James sat on a tattered leather sofa and covered his leg in beer, enabling the real talk to commence…
S: So, the last I saw you both was the 26th January supporting Mongol Horde. Tell me about that, what you’ve been up to since.
J: In terms of playing, I think that was the best show we’ve ever played. Not necessarily because we technically played the best but because it felt the best from our side. It was an amazing night. Firstly, the sound was amazing. Secondly, Frank Turner could not have been more generous with his time or any of that.
C: We played, we didn’t get time to pack our stuff away at the end, so we just drag it along, put it to one side. And we went and watched Mongol Horde and then afterwards we went down to merch table to speak to people and all that. We came back up and all our stuff was packed away for us and we were like “What the fuck is this?” We never get this”, and the guy was like – “That’s what happens when you play places like this, it’s what we’re employed for and we’re like…
J: “Fuckin’ fair enough!”. I felt like an idiot for packing my stuff! Yeah, it was an amazing night though. C: Oh yeah, I didn’t. Yeah and we played at the Star and the Garter, Manchester with DEAD, a couple days later.
J: Which was nothing like as good. DEAD were great, don’t get me wrong but you know it was like one extreme to the other. But this week has also been pretty good we also played with Electric Six at the Manchester Academy on Wednesday which was pretty good.
J: Yeah, I mean it’s always a weird one, that. I ‘ve done opening shows before, for the previous band that I was in. And it was was weird because we played for a 2,000 count venue. We walked out there, started the show and we spent half an hour with 2,000 faces waiting for us to stop. We didn’t get that though, from Mongol Horde, we walked onstage and everyone wasn’t like losing their shit like they were with Mongol Horde obviously but we weren’t watching faces lit up by their mobiles. S: I think sometimes it must be difficult for you guys to completely gauge how much the audience does appreciate you though, like - especially if it’s the first they’ve heard of you.
J: Yeah, while you’re waiting for someone else. S: Sometimes I wish there was a more obvious way of saying “Hey, we’re actually really enjoying this” sort of thing. J: Well I think the trick at this stage in the game is to be able to pick out when people are enjoying it. Like, the show we did tonight – the crowd wasn’t dancing their dicks off or anything, but I definitely got the sense that they were enjoying it, so. S: So, how would you describe being in a two-piece as opposed to a fuller band?
J: We actually decided a while ago that the fact that we’re a two-piece is not a unique selling point anymore, like there’s so many now.
C: There’s so many now. And we always say, you know, who’s gonna mention it first, us or the person who’s interviewing us – Royal Blood.
J: Yeah, so we like to get the Royal Blood thing out the way
C: *laughs* It’s out the way now! With the success of Royal Blood I mean two pieces aren’t like… Well with the exception of White Stripes but they’ve been gone for a while now and there’s a whole new generation of people who probably don’t really know them that well. And I think, now that they’re so big, it’s not as special as you might think it would be. We’re just a band, but it just so happens that – in Liverpool, especially we just couldn’t find 4 people who are willing to sit in a room every week and play heavy rock music, so we just figured we ought to do it. We figured it out how to do it afterwards, it was never like “Let’s be a two-piece”
S: Yeah it must be a lot less stress to correspond with just one other person.
J: At the end of the day, as well like – it’s a songs game, it’s all about the songs you're playing it doesn’t matter if it’s two people playing or if it’s seven, if you write good songs – that’s the goal here. It wasn’t like a “I just want to be in a two-piece”, it was a logistically sensible decision. S: You could say, having less people equals less filter, you know what I mean? Like, there’s less opinions you have to go through when deciding on material or writing songs.
C: And it’s just easier, like we’ve both been in bands where it’s just like “Yeah, we’ll meet on Thursday and have a rehearsal at seven”, then one person can’t do it and then it’s “Oh well let’s change it Saturday at two” and then “Oh, but you can’t do it”, whereas with James I can just ring him and go “Can you rehearse tomorrow at three?”, “No, but I can do five” “Cool, that’s fine with me”. And I think that’s what’s liberating I think with this band, I love it. I’ve never been as interested in playing in a band as I have with Rival Bones.
J: Yeah, same.
S: Yeah, well understandably. I appreciate how you guys have tackled the industry and I guess, managed to keep doing things at your own accord. And I guess your set up might tie into that, perhaps having more freedom? C: Yeah. Well, Yes and no. Well we have…
J: I guess the sense of responsibility is greater. C: Yeah J: Certainly, like – from my side, because I’m the only one playing anything melodic at all – then if I play a wrong note, that’s the whole melodic side of the band playing the wrong note, know what I mean?
C: Whereas I just play the drums like any other. Well, we’re loud aren’t we. I feel, anyway that we produce a noise that, could come from a five piece. I don’t think it really makes that much of a difference. It just so happens that we are. And we seem to get pidgeon holed as a two-piece, and suddenly everything ‘must be like this, this and this’.
J: I think the proof of that is, when we’re in a studio – everything you’ve heard is recorded live – there’s no click track, you know we don’t overload it with loads shit and we hadn’t actually used a bass guitar to that point, like we actually set everything up and just track it.
S: So what you’re hearing is what you get?
J: And I think that surprises people sometimes, they’re like “wow, you actually sound the way you do on the record”, and I’m like, “Yeah, because this is exactly what we do on the record”.
J: Yeah, exactly.
S: So with that in mind, what would be your advice for people starting out?
C: We’ve had this recently, actually at Mongol Horde, there was a guy who come up and said “Yeah, I fucking I loved you. I want to start up a two-piece”. I think you’ve been giving him advice, haven’t ya?
J: Yeah, I think at the end of the day – the best thing to do is know what you want and remember that it’s a songs game. It doesn’t matter if you’re a shredder or anything like that. No one wants to hear a shredder playing shit music. It’s a songs game, one hundred percent of the time. C: You’re only as good as the songs you write, whether there’s two of you, three of you, four.
J: Every movement we make is about serving the song. C: The thing is, right. And I think James will agree with me. We don’t really listen to much new music, not necessarily.
J: Sometimes, definitely.
C: And I think we listen to a lot of the same old stuff, and I think it’s because we want to create that, now. Because a lot of it still ain’t going. Like there’s Audioslave, they’re our bigges- our favourite band. And obviously they’re not going anymore. You’ve only really got Rage against the Machine, well, Prophets of Rage going on playing the older stuff. And we just want to write stuff that’s like that but newer, and put a different spin on it. And we think they’re good songs, y’know. It’s not just like, get a whole bunch of people together, hammer guitar solos and like, even the pedal configuration for James isn’t really that important, is it? J: Well, I mean
C: I mean, obviously it is, to get the sound, but it’s always the song that comes out of that.
J: With the pedal board as well, I’ve got a big pedal board but it’s set-up so I do as little toe-tapping as possible – cause no one’s come to a show to watch me press buttons. People come out to see me, just fuckin’ – really give it all I’ve got.
S: I respect that, yeah. Nah, I agree with that, sometimes I feel it can be the size of the pedal board that makes the band.
C: And, like with the interaction as well. Like James said, he does as little toe-tapping as possible and because you’re not having to do as much, you can actually get into the music and I think one of the biggest things about watching the band live to alluring to it. James actually has this joke, I can tell this right? That, when we’re big enough, we’ll have someone to sit at the back, pressing all his buttons.
J: I tell you what – that’s not a joke, in all seriousness. So my pedal board will live backstage and we can just get on with the show. Because I just don’t care about that stuff, I don’t need to see a fuckin’, you know.
S: Well yeah, I mean that strikes out to me that, in your song-writing – you have an appreciation for each other instrumentally, you’re keeping each other in mind in the song-writing and creating a larger impact because of that.
C: Well, I think you have to.
J: I think a big part of it as well, is like – again, it’s all about serving the song. We- I find that all of our songs have a- they go through a certain life-span before they get to a point where it’s like, “Cool, that’s how it is and that’s how we’re always going to play it”. It starts off with us: “What if we did this really technical thing there?”, and we think “Yeah, that’s cool” – we do it once on a show and we walk away thinking, “What’s the point of that? What did it add to the music?”, and it’s so necessary so,
C: There’s so many songs that we’ve written in a rehearsal room, then we’ve played them at one or two gigs and we just stick them on the back burner. Then again, saying that – we’re releasing a single in April, the B-side to that single – one the first song we had ever wrote were’nt it?
J: Yeah.
C: We played it. We recorded it. We didn’t release it and then we just stopped playing it for maybe a year. Then we got back into it and played it again and now we really wanna do it. So it just changes, doesn’t it? What you want to do, but yeah I think when there’s two of you, the songwriting – you have to appreciate each other. It can’t be all riffs and the drums just carrying on with it. I think you have constantly think about how those two things work, whereas in a normal, a ‘normal’ band, you can just have a drummer and bassist is just sitting on it while the guitarist is just doing everything and you that can be awesome. It’s just James, he can’t really solo well, so uh…
C: There’s a lot of bands where the lead guitarist is all anyone is there for and they’re just there thinking he’s awesome, you know what I mean?
J: I think if you’re going to get away with that you need to be like so good at guitar where it’s perfectly acceptable for someone to say “Yeah I’m only here to hear him play guitar” and there aren’t many out there that are like that, certainly not in this day and age.
C: I think the last band I genuinely think that was like that, where every single one of them, could be the main guy, is Rage Against The Machine.
J: Yeah. Hundred per cent.
C: Tom Morello is bloody brilliant, Brad Wilk is a ridiculously good drummer. And then Tim Commerford is a ridiculously good bass player, and then Zack de la Rocha is good at real rap, slash singing, so. Great writer.
J: Activist.
C: Political.
J: Humanitarian!
S: Yeah completely, good example… What would you say has been the hardest or most rewarding part of starting up this duo?
J: I’ll give you a specific example.
C: *sniggers*
J: It’s driving down to London…
C: Yes.
J: To do a show at two o’ clock in the afternoon, and this past week, our promoters been giving us loads of shit because we haven’t sold any tickets even though, we have never played in London, and we’re on at two in the afternoon and the tickets are twelve quid. And we will get there, play for no one, and then drive for four hours back. That’s tough but you know, we know better than that now.
C: I think, for me – on a bit of a selfish level, like every other band I’ve been in. You’re just the drummer, you know, you sit at the back and after the show everyone’s going up to the singer or the guitarist and saying how awesome it was whereas with you and me, you know I just get a bit more recognition and I just think that’s a really brilliant thing and you know I just love playing gigs. It’s always a bit more intimate, we’re obviously facing each other. I’m not just sat at the back like “Hi”, y’ know. I think that’s the best thing for me. We’ve both said that if this band where to split up or whatever, I don’t think I would ever do a normal band setup again.
J: Yeah, I don’t know what I would do without this band. Can I just say, I feel like the way that we’re talking is super charged up because bloody False Heads are just fucking smashing it in the background. *Performs False Heads Impressions with loud grunting and hand clapping*
S: *laughter*
J: “ROCK AND ROLL, BOYS! YEAH!”
C: *laughter* is that what they say?
J: No.
C: I was gonna say.
J: that’s all rock and roll, mate.
S: *laughter* yeah, so uh. It’s been like a year since your last studio release, uh. Scars. you played it, second to last.
C: Scars is coming out in April. Uh, I think it’s April 6th, around that time. The day it comes out, we’re actually going to be in the studio writing the EP that’s gonna come out after that.
S: Nice!
C: We went to South Korea, didn’t we?
J: Like we’ve signed a sort of, a publishing deal in that time. And, through that have gone to Korea and, I’m South African, I went home for a few weeks.
C: We were given some free recording time in this brand new quarter of a million pound studio so we waited to do recording there and then that took a while for us to get back from, and then getting that back to the new label who’ll then sort out PR, and schedule it because it’s got to be out at a certain time. We’ve had the song since like, October?
J: Yeah something like that.
S: What would you say is the tedious part of this profession?
J: There’s a part of every gig that you’re taking seriously. There’s the, y’know. Cause we’ve done a certain amount of “Okay, what time are we on stage?”, “eight thirty”, “Okay, we’ll be there at eight”. We play the show and then pack up and drive home. But now we behave- we’ve agreed that we have to behave like a proper band that’s properly playing proper shows. Which means we’ll pitch up at 4 o’clock, we’ll sound check at half six or seven then we’re onstage at half eight. Then we’re waiting until the headliners finish and we’ll hang around to sell merch. That’s a lot of waiting around.
C: We’ve been here since two. We’ll probably get back at eleven or twelve so a whole ten hour day.
J: So a big part of it is waiting around, it’s not glamourous. It’s good though.
C: It can be tedious because, you’ve obviously wrote something and between October and now, we’ve wrote X amount of songs that we feel are better or have pushed it, and that’s the one that’s not getting released and it’s kind of like, you have to really. The whole PR Machine, it takes a whole twelve weeks. So whatever you release you’ve got to give it twelve weeks minimum. Ad that’s if you write it, record and send it off in a week. But it’s one of them thing ain’t it. You’ve got to deal with it, I guess.
S: So how does that coincide with your, well you prioritise single releases and making sure you have frequent releases, don’t you?
J: Yeah, definitely. I think, the industry, the way it is, and certainly with a band our size – putting out an album is…
C: Not gonna work.
J: Kind of pointless, because no one’s got the attention span for it. Maybe, a small handful of fifty people will go through it but you can’t put an album out for fifty people, you know what I mean? I think I would rather put out more frequent material, periodically over a few months, rather putting it all out at once and then what? You just don’t hear from us again.
C: Also, with a band of our size, it’s easier if – over the span of two years, you’re gonna get two singles, two EPs. You’re gonna be able to see clearer how you progress in those years and if you’re still pretty young and you’re progressing and you’re writing more. Our first songs that we’d been writing are very different to the EP. You get a better snapshot of…
S: And then I suppose your studio releases are more true telling of what progression has been like.
C: Putting out one album every four years? Like, who’s going to be bothered? They’ll forget who you are.
J: Yeah. Well you can do that when you’re the fuckin’ Foo Fighters, I mean. We don’t have any hits yet.
S: Yet.
J: It’s all about the next one.
C: As soon as the single is released it’ll be “What’s next?”. Are they done? It sounds like they’re done but it’s half nine.
J: Nah I think they’re still going.
S: How do you expect your sound to develop over time?
J: I’m curious to find that out, myself, at this stage in the game - it’s any way the wind blows, really. We’re completely writing, always to satisfy ourselves.
False Heads’ set had finished, the lead singer Luke Griffiths, topless and sweat ridden bursts into the room, making a surprise appearance on the interview.
J: You alright, dude?
C: How was it?
L: Yeah, it was alright. Crowd Was a bit stiff, but…
Rival Bones’ tour manager pops his head round the corner to notice us recording. “Doing an encore?”, he asks Luke.
L: No.
J: *laughter* “Fuck that noise!”
He spots me recording the interview and apologizes for elbowing during Rival Bones set and dodges back out the room.
J: You haven’t lived until you’ve been elbowed by a tour manager.
S: He didn’t even elbow me, he turned around and sorry, I said it was fine though I didn’t know what for and he insisted a sip of his beer so, the show went on.
J: Fair enough.
C: So yeah, we’ve experimented some, haven’t we? Like at the start we did like a sample pad thing.
The rest of the False Heads clamber in and start cracking open beers.
S: Any artists you’ve been listening to recently?
J: All sorts of odd stuff. I find that, one day it’ll be Audioslave, one day it’ll be Clean Cut Kid, to Noel Gallagher’s Flying Birds or Audioslave.
C: Whereas I can go a lot heavier.
J: I tend to find that because I have a musical job, I’ll finish work and I’ll just want to listen to something quiet and soothing.
C: I’m the opposite. So I’ll listen to something that gets me really pumped up. Like I’ve been listening to a lot of, I don’t know why – a band called 36 Crazyfists. Check them out, man. They’re like a shit screamo band but like.
S: Sounds right up my alley.
C: They get you angry. Queens of the Stone Age.
J: That explains your behaviour in the group chat.
C: So we have a group chat and I get dead antsy all the time. You can tell when I’ve been listening something heavy cause I’ll be super drilled and like.
J: You know when you need to start taking him seriously when he starts using the word, ‘shambles’.
C: “Oh, this week’s gonna be a shambles, next week’s gonna be a shambles”.
S: So I have some hot fire questions to round this off.
J: Yeah, go on then.
S: Biggest fear?
J: My dad dying.
C: Aw, dude. That’s well deep. Now you’ve made me feel like mine’s shit cause I was gonna say spiders.
J: *laughter* The rest of this had better be good cause that was a big start.
S: Who would win in a fight between you two?
J: Oh, him.
C: *laughter* you reckon?
J: Mate.
C: Nah, I’m not as tall as him.
S: Would you train?
J: Mate, I would run away.
S: *laughter*
J: I’d be dead before he found me, like if I knew this guy wanted to fight I would be out of here.
C: Yeah, have you seen how hard I hit the drums?
J: Oh, mate. That is not a beating I could take.
S: Those rimshots, man.
C: If you’re ever hitting the snare and it’s not a rim shot, what’s the point?
S: That is the truest shit I’ve ever heard, that.
C: Exactly.
S: And least favourite drink?
J: Jack Daniels. Or raisin juice.
C: Mine is black coffee. I just hate it, so bitter.
S: I have to be very miserable and tired to ever consider going for a coffee.
C: I don’t get all these people who are like “Oh I really just want a cup of really dark coffee”.
J: I mean, tea.
C: Tea, I’m not that big on either. Too sweet.
S: Wow. Well, guys, thank you so much.
J: No worries, man sorry again you weren’t on guest list.
S: Ah, not at all man.
J: I promise you are on a list, somewhere.
C: *laughter* “That feels nice”.
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