Interview: Jeremy from This Is Endless.
Interviewed by Tim Finch
The last time we spoke to Jeremy was just before lock down and he was riding a crest of a wave following the critical acclaim of the release of his other band, Red Method, new album. Now the whole world has changed but his focus remains solid on his music, This Is Endless have just dropped a monstrous new album and we want to find out more!
The Razor's Edge: Welcome to The Razor’s Edge…
Jeremy: The Razor's Edge yeah? Fuck yeah!
The Razor's Edge: I only spoke to you a few months ago, a lot has changed since then! How are you coping with life at the moment?
Jeremy: To be honest it hasn't been that bad. For me as the song writer for This Is endless and Red Method and all that... it's given me the opportunity to write more material. I've got nearly half a record written for Red Method and I've got an electronic album coming out as well. It's been useful. It's been a time where you need to use it wisely and make the most out of it. I've upgraded my studio, I did stuff I always wanted to do, I've bought new guitars. So it hasn't been that bad, but obviously I am feeling it and I want to see some hope now, I want to see some gigs coming back coz things are a bit all over the place at the moment, a bit scary.
The Razor's Edge: So what's your thoughts on the gig front. When do you think live shows should return?
Jeremy: Thats a hard question that one to be honest. I am in a position myself of where i don't know how severe this virus is in terms of how it can mess up people and young people. We've got a lot of information out there from all sorts of experts, but there's too much now and too many things floating all over the place. Whether it's a good idea to come back as soon as possible... I would say "yes I'd love to" but at the same time we need to be cautious. Whats the best way round it? In a heartbeat I'd say let's do a gig tomorrow and fill up a venue and play and just fucking have it!
The thing with me is that I've seen a friend loose his Dad through COVID, it's a strong virus and we don't know how severe it will be. There's a lot of miscommunication, we don't know the severity of it, people are saying youngsters in Spain and France and in England there's no youngsters dying, it's only old people. It's like what the fuck is going on here?
I definitely want to go and start playing. I can't wait to get back on the stage, even with social distancing or whatever it takes I'm happy to go for it and I'm happy to start at any time!
The Razor's Edge: So you guys dropped a beast of an album just a couple of weeks ago. How do you feel that’s been received so far?
Jeremy: Amazing to be honest. This Is Endless is a band that we put together, with Luca - the guitarist of my old band Ted Maul - we did it because we were bro's, we missed each other, we wanted to carry on playing and we wanted to do something new and heavy. But it wasn't a band that we intended to take over the world with and put every single thing of our lives into it. Luca is away in Italy, the drummer is also in Onslaught and he is busy, we've got the brothers from Dead Beyond Buried and they are busy in their own lives. I'm busy with Red Method and other projects. So we said; we are going to get a few gigs and few tours and we are going it kill it and then we are going to do a few killer recordings.
I guess because I didn't put so much effort into it, in terms of writing and spending year writing, spending time of the artwork and rehearsal. It was more of a bang, bang, bang ok let's do this, let's focus, let's write songs pretty quickly, let's lay it all down. It happened pretty naturally because we've been doing it for years. We've received more from the media and the press, it's been unbelievable! Everyone is loving the album, the messages we've got saying "it's killer" and booking us for tours. I did not anticipated that at all.
I think partly sometimes it's forced when you try and do something and put so much time and effort into it, and sometimes when something is really natural and it just happens because it happens. I call it minimum effort for maximum results! [laughs].
The Razor's Edge: For anyone who has not heard you guys or seen you live. How would you describe this album to them?
Jeremy: A pure savage brutal assault. Imaging a brutal UFC fight from the beginning with flying kicks to the head and proper hooks and jabs to the face all the way to the end. None stop brutality!
The Razor's Edge: I think that perfectly sums it up! I’ve seen comparisons made to Morbid Angel, Nile and even Napalm Death. What’s it like being mentioned in the same circles as those legends?
Jeremy: We are not kids, we are all reaching our forties. We grew up when bands like Morbid Angel, Deicide and Hate Eternal were the kings of death metal and to a certain extent the invented and pushed the boundaries of extreme and death metal. We grew up with that stuff and we are going to have that influence on our music. We tune a bit lower than your average death metal band, our riffs are a bit Morbid Angel-y. It's where we are at, where light and darkness comes from, it's a place inside of us that just develops naturally and thats what comes out when we write death metal. We don't need to think about it or over complicate it like a lot of newer bands do with twenty styles in one song. It's whatever feels right at that time, thats what comes out and we don't complicate it. We just say fuck it, this is the way it is.
With Napalm Death, we've got a little of the Napalm sound as we have the same producer, Russ Russell, and having that fierce, raw, primitive kind of death metal sound, it's very Napalm Death. The guitars are in your face and everything is on attack.
I've heard a lot of comparisons but it's all good!
The Razor's Edge: When it came to putting this album together, how does the writing process work for you guys?
Jeremy: The first E.P. was me and Luca writing it. For this record we had the amazing drummer Perry, the drummer from ted Maul and he wrote a lot of sections. He's such a good drummer that you play a riff to him and BANG he gets it immediately and he plays it really tight. We also have Mike who is a great writer, the top notch of death metal and having him behind this record has pushed it massively and given it that serious, no fucking around, Morbid Angel feel to it.
A lot of the songs were written by me in my studio at home, some were written by me and Luca and some were written by Mike in house and then we brought it all to rehearsals and hammered them out there, changed sections here and there and just messed around. But it didn't take long, we didn't spend to much time on it, the songs were good we played it and it feels right, the vibes were right and we just carried on with it. We went to the studio, bought six days with Russ Russell, went there, smashed it all and drunk ourselves to death whilst recording it. [Laughs] It was a quick thing.
What we wanted to do is capture the live essence of it all. A lot of bands these days just record until they get it perfect and I;ve done that with other projects in the past, thats totally fine. But with this one it's the kind of raw feel and we wanted to capture that old school death metal do it precisely and getting the live aspect behind it. I think that lacks these days, the more new bands come our the more mechanical it sounds, I miss the old school vibes and I thought lets do something we can do it from the beginning to the end.
The Razor's Edge: Did you manage to get it all recorded before any lockdown hit and did that affect any aspect of the production process?
Jeremy: Actually we had it ready for a year. We went on tour with Blood Red Throne and we were going to put it out then. But I was busy with other things and it wasn't the right time. But when COVID hit, we though the album was recorded nearly a year ago what are we going to do? If we wait for a tour we could be waiting for another year or two so we thought let's get it out and get people listening to us and at least the words out. So people are ready for when we come back, we are ready to hit the road you know. We already have a few things lined up with a few big bands here and there so it'll be just a matter of jumping on the road and moving on.
The Razor's Edge: You’ve mentioned working with Russ Russell, legendary producer. What impact does he have on the band and the finished product?
Jeremy: The guy is a genius. Apart from being our brother, he's a legendary producer just look at his CV! What he does is that he lets you be yourself in the studio. Some people might need a bit of help here and there, but I saw it as a chance to be open and record whatever you want to record. When he hears something that isn't right he'll tell you and we'll move on and do it again. But the beauty of working with him, he will always be up for working towards what you want to be doing. He will always help you achieve that, whether it's melodic vocals or a double kick he will go down that route with you and say "try this or try that", which a lot of producer will say "no that doesn't work. But with Russ he is good like that. His sounds are amazing, his ear is superb, he is very easy to work with and he puts in the hours to complete the product.
The Razor's Edge: With an album out, I guess you should be hitting the road right now. Did you have any shows booked that have had to be cancelled?
Jeremy: Yeah, we had a festival in London a hardcore/death metal festival, I can't even remember the name. But it got cancelled a few weeks ago. We did have a few booked but they are all getting cancelled one by one.
Because I book all the gigs for my other band, Red Method, I thought I'm going to give it a month or two, see where we are at and start booking again. I've had to reschedule a tour already nearly three times and thats a lot of effort going backwards and forwards to promoters. So now I've said, I'll give it until October and we'll know a bit more about whats happening after Christmas then I'll get the ball rolling.
The Razor's Edge: A lot of bands are jumping on the streaming band wagon. Is that a route you have looked at, at all?
Jeremy: With This Is endless, no, to be honest, we haven't even spoken about it. We said nah fuck it, lets get the album out and keep it hard core you know.
The Razor's Edge: Obviously you’ve got other projects on the go alongside This Is Endless – and indeed the rest of the band have too - how hard it is to juggle this band alongside your others?
Jeremy: At the moment it's ok, Red Method's album came out in February and This Is Endless just now, and I had planned it so I could tour with both of them. The problem is now, because of COVID, when all the bands go back out I did cancel nearly 48 gigs with Red Method so I need to reschedule all of that. Thats a hell of a lot of gigs and with This Is Endless we are going to have to tour so thats going to be a lot of jiggling when everyones aloud out.
For day to day life, it depends how much you do in the band. I guess for me Red Method I manage the band as well and it takes a lot of my personal band. I also co-manage This Is Endless with other members of the band. If This Is Endless was as intense as Red Method has been this would be intense. I guess as I did say this is our side project, but we still want to tour and release killer albums.
The Razor's Edge: You’ve only been a band for four or five years, but looking back, if you had your time again would you do anything differently?
Jeremy: I guess we could have put a lot more effort into it, but the band was never intended to go down that round, from the beginning we said that this was never going to be our bread and butter. We have other things in our lives and we agreed, all of us, we are going to make this happen but we all want to live and keep the other part of our lives in tact. That doesn;t mean we aren't going to come and blow every single mother fucker away on the stage. WE ARE, its a tight band when we are live and thats one of the best sides of the band.
The Razor's Edge: So finally, what’s next for you as a band. Where do you go from here?
Jeremy: We wait until things clear up a bit with COVID and then plan a decent tour with the band. As I mentioned before we are talking to a few big bands who are happy to take us. You will hear us, and with some quiet major bands. That will happen immediately when restrictions are lifted.
We've also started writing new songs, so in a year or two there will be a second record coming out and it should be killer, should be dope!
