After forming in early 2003, Without Eyes have been storming the Nottingham underground scene now for several years. From their first practice it became apparent that musical tastes within the group were quite diverse, but rather than becoming an obstacle, this has led to a more unique and exciting marriage of ideas within the material produced to date.
Since then they have had weird journeys from Junktion 7 Battle of the Bands to playing CJs birthday in a social club, they have crowded into tiny cars and travelled across the country whilst also playing such venues as Rock City, The Rescue Rooms, Derby's Old Vic and the illustrious Old Angel. Having shared a stage with the likes of My War, Army of Flying Robots, Spirytus, Helvis, Sanzen, Patchwork Grace, and many other up and coming artists; the band have honed their live act into an extremely tight and energetic display that has been well received to steadily swelling numbers.
In 2005 the band re-shaped as a 4 piece and after recording their second E.P at Paperstone studios the band has a new sound and presence. With an album currently being finished and tour dates to be organised as well as a second shot at Junktion 7 Battle of the Bands, Without Eyes are one of Nottingham's most entertaining and diverse rock bands. We caught up with them to talk about how this blind rock monster had grown over the last few years.
Interview
Steph – Tell us about the history of the band, line up changes, how did you meet and stuff?
Cj – There was originally 5 of us in the band and that went for some time, to long, some might say. We played quite a few gigs and recorded one demo E.P as a 5 piece that was about a year and a half ago.
Ant – Then we became a 4 piece, changed the sound a bit did new recordings and stuff….
Dan – And stopped practicing!!
(Everyone laughs)
Ant – We had to find somewhere new to practice so gigs were practice for a while.
Gaz – Your sound is quite varied so tell us what influences your style? How would you discribe your style too?
Ant – I think a lot of people think we are a metal band but I don't really think we are!
Dan – I think we're more melodic than most metal but because of the sound we have live, you can't hear some of those melodic bits.
Cj – Some of the songs we write, I think are heavy than we think they are and they become heavier live too. Sometimes listening back to recordings we hadn't realised how heavy the songs were when we wrote them.
Dan – I think if you asked us to all name our 3 current favourite bands we would all say something different as we have a real range of influence, you'd get 12 different bands just about!
Gaz – Go on then prove it! Name some bands your digging right now?!
Ant – Thats so hard…..erm…okay probably Bloc Party, the new Sikth album and probably Tool.
Cj – 11 differnt band it will be now as mine is Sikth too, but then Deftones and probably Limp Biscuit too, just got back in to that!
Stu – Mine are probably Chilli Peppers, Pantera and Raging Speedhorn.
Dan – Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Blindmelon.
Cj – It is a strange thing describing our sound though, people should come listen and decide themselves I guess but when we started we got compared to Nirvana and Metallica which I don't think any of us agreed with at all.
Ant – We get compared to loads of random stuff.
Dan – Korn, Creed (according to Saggy Pants!)
Ant – It is weird as until you hear yourself played back on record you don't really know what you sound like, it is just what comes to you.
Dan – I have the advantage there as these guys are playing it an concentrating on playing so they can't concentrate on listening to how we sound but I am on top of it being vocalist so I can say that song sounds a bit like so and so and these guys don't even realise it sounds like that when they are writing it!
Ant – But your normally wrong!
(Dan mumbles in agreement and everyone laughs)
Steph – Right well you have a new demo out so people can hear it for themselves, tell us about that, where did you record it and what is it called?
Cj – We recorded it down at Paperstone studios in Sherwood back in March or Febuary. We recorded 3 tracks including some new stuff like Clockwork.
Dan – Clockwork was an after thought and after we recorded it we realised it was probably the best song we had recorded.
Ant – I prefer Mizaru, I am not sure which is best. The E.P is called Bethea after the title track and I really like how it has come out. It is well balanced I think
Cj – It is better than the older E.P, it shows our heavier sides, our funky sides, our softer sides, it has a bit of everything we do on it. It shows the change since Rich left and we became a 4 piece.
Gaz – How do you think the sound has changed since then?
Dan – This band started out at Rock City, we all met there and we were watching shit bands every night and most were truly not great and we just wanted to try and do something new. These guys could play and knew what they could do but I didn't so it was a real start from the bottom experience. The mic we had was from the pound shop and had no insides! So we got ripped off by the pound shop! But when I heard how the songs were coming out I knew I was gonna like being in this band.
Ant – I think our sound is still a bit messy, probably that's cause we are not trying to sound like just one thing. It is a lot harder to try and mix a lot of styles and influences than to just copy a style isn't it?
Cj – We have got more technical over the last year, I think having only one guitarist now, the other instruments have space to breath a bit and add more to the sound and it sounds clearer than it used to.
Stu – Well we have played a lot more so we are tighter too
Dan – I am sure to some people it sounds like it doesn't work at all but that is fine. I don't care…do you care?
Ant – No I don't care
(Everyone nods in agreement)
Gaz – Your in Junktion 7 Battle of the Bands again this year, last year you were knocked out by Spirytus, this year you have already won your heat so tell people about Battle of the Bands, how did it help you?
Dan – Last year it didn't do us loads of good as we got knocked out by such a great band but this year we have come on in leaps and bounds to be honest, and we rightly won but then again I think, with no disrespect, that the competition in our heat wasn't as good this year too but the semi will be tough, there are some great bands in there again and a few I hope we don't meet until the final hopefully.
Ant – The good thing about being part of Battle of the Bands is that you get a huge range of bands playing different styles next to each other and you get exposed to new people and bands and make some good contacts.
Dan – i mean in our heat there was The Unwanted and we have never played with a band like that and I thought they were cool and it was great to meet bands you'd never normally meet.
Cj – It influences you and broadens your ideas. It is great how you get random people you have never met before come to listen to your music, i mean ever heat in busy. You meet new bands, make new fans and get reviewed by local press so it is great exposure.
Ant – Yeah, getting reviews is great cause you can learn from what others think and some times people say things and it brings you down to earth and you can look at things again that you thought were working but others didn't when watching you.
Dan – It is like myspace, that is a god send some free exposure! Any band reading this who aren't on myspace should go right now (read the rest of this later) and sign up because it is free and easy. We have made loads of new fans and met great bands using it, most people who comes to our gig tonight will be because of myspace.
Ant – It is the best form of advertising you can get! You can log in easy, make a website with music that people can download and listen to and update the whole thing easier than making a normal site and it is linked to all these other bands, promoters and venues who you can interact with.
Dan – We have played gigs and spent hours before hand flying in town and still got only 15 people show up but before Battle of the Bands we cained myspace a bit and asked all our 'friends' on there to come and we got a great crowd so it is a great tool.
