Along the Desolate Pathway

Traditional doom metal band Desolate Pathway are one of the six bands that we’ve announced so far for Sarcomafest 3 on 6^th May. I had a chat with Vince Hempstead (vocals & guitar), Mags (drums) and Dionisio Perez-Mavrogenis (bass) before their recent superb set at the Camden Unicorn.

JP: So I’m here at the Camden Unicorn with the guys from Desolate Pathway, who are one of the first bands that we’ve confirmed for Sarcomafest 3 in May. We’re really pleased about that so thought that it would be good to have a chat with the band. So to kick-off could you tell me a bit about the background of the band etc?

Vince: I started the band as a solo project called Origin Konrad and I was writing tunes and decided that as the stuff was pretty cool I’d like to form a band and play it live. So I changed the name to Desolate Pathway, advertised for a drummer and bassist in early 2014 and it went from there really. It’s been a troubling couple of years of toing and froing with different members and trying to find our feet and get more established. Over the last several months it’s really come on leaps and bounds and I’m really happy at the moment with how things are going.

JP: I’ve definitely seen the band’s name mentioned a lot more in the past few months. So you released the “Of Gods & Heroes” album last year and I can definitely hear a strong trad doom influence on it. Is that the main style that you’re all influenced by or is there more going on in the pot?

Mags: I’ve definitely been influenced by doom from an early age but I like lots of other stuff as well. I think that all the stuff we listen to comes through. People tend to specify bands as an influence and we never really write songs to a particular genre.  It sometimes just depends what comes out of the pot on the day.

JP: I think that it’s cool these days that there are so many different styles of bands in the doom scene, from trad doom bands like yourselves to much heavier bands such as Conan and Slabdragger – there’s such a wide spectrum these days.

Vince: I didn’t go out to play doom. I just played and wrote what I liked and then we kind of got categorised into that genre. It’s like Black Sabbath. Although they’re one of the biggest doom bands, I don’t see them as a doom band. They’ve got jazz and blues influences and we’re kind of influenced by that style as well. If you want to put us in that genre we’re happy with that as we love that music and the vibe. However, I just went out to write the music that I love.

JP: I think that there’s a bit of elitism about it sometimes and the way that I look at it is that it’s either good music or not good music. Do I like it or not? I happen to be a massive fan of doom but I’m an 80’s kid so I also love thrash metal, death metal and grindcore. When I first heard Candlemass back in the 80’s that just got me into the whole doom thing; the heavy riffs and Messiah’s vocals just mesmerised me at the time.

Mags: We’ve definitely got some doomy passages in the songs, so we’re probably leaning more towards that sound than the NWOBHM, which we’re also influenced by.

JP: So apart from Sarcomafest what else does 2017 hold for Desolate Pathway?

Vince: We’ve been fairly quiet as we’ve been looking for a full-time bass player. To date we’ve been playing with temporary bass players until we were lucky enough to find Dio over here. Going forward we’ll be looking for more gigs and festivals. We’re playing Doom Over Vienna in Austria in November and we’ve also got one in Sweden that we can’t mention yet. We’re pleased to have Dio on board and this is actually his first gig. He’s only rehearsed twice with us so we’re looking forward to it.

JP: Any other UK festivals lined up at all?

Vince: No, nothing at the moment. We’ve been waiting for the bass player position to be filled so from now on we’ll be pushing forward. This is not an audition Dio by the way so there’s no pressure! We want to look to book more festivals without a doubt. We’ve kind of picked specific festivals with similar genres of bands that would benefit us with networking and meeting people. We have turned down gigs before as it’s no good for us to be on a festival with several death metal bands, which would not make sense. It’s just trying to find that right festival or gig that will suit us and we can enjoy ourselves. That’s what it’s all about!

JP: Totally agree. The vibe here tonight is fantastic and there’s a great turnout. I’m really looking forward to seeing you guys live for the first time and many thanks again for doing Sarcomafest in May. The first two festivals have been brilliant with a great turnout so we’re really looking forward to the third instalment.

Mags: You might change your mind when you see us!

JP: I’m sure I won’t Mags. I’ve heard the album and it’s brilliant! So just to end the interview could you let me know who your favourite band is?

Dio: Definitely Black Sabbath.

Mags: Black Sabbath too.

JP: Are you going to see them on the last tour at all?

Dio: Yeah man definitely.

Mags: Also Candlemass for me too.

Vince: I would say generally Black Sabbath but I’m also really passionate about and heavily influenced by Candlemass as you can probably hear from the music!

JP: Definitely. I must admit that when I first heard you the first thing I thought was that these guys like Candlemass.

Mags: That’s a big compliment, thank you.

JP: Well many thanks guys and I look forward to seeing you later tonight.

Desolate Pathway live at the Camden Unicorn

Famyne – Bring the Doom

Prior to their recent headlining appearance at the Camden Unicorn I sat down with the 5 guys from Canterbury doom band Famyne (Tom Vane – Vocals, Alex Tolson – guitar, Alex Johns – guitar, Chris Travers – bass and Jake Cook – drums) to talk a bit about the history of the band, Canterbury Doom and their plans for 2017.

Famyne at the Camden Unicorn

JP: First of all many thanks for agreeing to do this interview guys. Famyne are one of my favourite bands at the moment and it’s only made better by the fact that you’re fellow Men of Kent!

Jake, you were telling me earlier that headlining here today feels like you’ve come full circle as you guys played here a couple of years ago.

Jake Cook: Yeah we played here in February 2015 when we opened for Alunah. It’s nice to see that two years later the band has progressed to the point that we’re now headlining the Unicorn.

JP: And you’re playing again with Alunah soon.

JC: Yes we’re main support at the Lounge in Archway on 9^th April.

JP: So let’s get the easy stuff out of the way first, could you give me a brief history of the band, how you formed and came about the name etc.

Tom Vane: So we started around 2014 when I met Jake in a pub in Canterbury and we just started practising and coming up with new stuff whilst jamming. We slowly started to form the band and bond together.

JC: I then met Chris in another pub, he was on his own and headbanging away in the corner!

Chris Travers: Too right man. Keeping it real!

JP: Do you remember what you were headbanging along to?

JC: Gojira man. You came up to me, gave me a cuddle and we started windmilling together to Gojira.

CT: I don’t think Gojira was on. It was just some stuff that they used to play in The Foundry on a Friday night; probably some rock ‘n’ roll like Twist the Night Away or something! We got talking, had a big cuddle and then found out that we both liked Gojira and it went from there. He messaged me in the next few days and I thought “who the fuck is this?” and he said “do you want to come for an audition? Do you remember we spoke about it?” I was like “who’s this!”

JP: So moving on to the name then. Obviously Famyne spelt with a “y”. How did that come about?

TV & JC: Yeah spelling was never our strong point! We all got G’s and X’s in English GCSE at school! But we mainly got it from the track called Famine off the Heritage album by Opeth, which was one of our favourites at the time. Famine was suggested as a name so I looked it up on Google as you do with every band name to search it. I found that some band had it in the 80’s so we couldn’t be called that then! But at the time I was doing an English course at uni and I’d done old English style and stuff so thought why don’t we just stick a “y” in there and make it a bit interesting. It also goes with the whole Canterbury historical image and stuff so we thought why not you know? I think it looks pretty awesome!

JP: It sure does. I’ve seen you describe yourselves in another interview as Canterbury doom so tell me a bit about that. Why is Canterbury doom different to London doom etc?

JC: Well you know the whole Canterbury scene in the 70’s, which was a bit proggy. Well we like to think that we incorporate a bit of prog into our whole doom sound and marry the two nicely. I am personally massively influenced by prog. If you go back to the 60’s you’ve got bands like The Wilde Flowers, Soft Machine and Caravan that came out of Canterbury and kind of at the beginning I was trying to bring that influence into the band and push it in a more proggy direction.

Chris Travers: So we calmed it down and said no!

JP: I can definitely hear more of a proggy influence on the newer material that you’ve been playing recently.

JC: I think that’s just us getting bored and trying to put more interesting stuff into the songs!

JP: It has to be said that you must have a t shirt with Canterbury Doom on the back. That would be awesome!

JC: I don’t know, we don’t want to make too much of a big thing about it otherwise where would it stop!

JP: Before we talk about what this year holds for Famyne let’s concentrate a bit on last year. It was a big year for you guys and I probably know what the highlight was but you tell me.

Famyne as one: BLOODSTOCK!

TV: Yup Bloodstock all the way man and obviously Sarcomafest too.

JP: Well Sarcomafest goes without saying!

CT: After Sarcomafest it was definitely Bloodstock.

JC: And we’ll be supporting Metal to the Masses in Kent again this year. We’re also going to be Metal to the Masses headliners and guest judges in Brighton on the 20^th March.

JP: So how was the whole Bloodstock experience? Obviously I know that you guys were camping on site all weekend but the day of the actual gig, how did that feel for you?

CT: It was pretty surreal and crazy to be honest. I’d never played a stage that big before and it was just all so professional. It was the professionalism that really took me back actually. We’re used to playing in dingy grimy pubs and setting up our own gear. We each had a soundcheck and the whole team were amazing and good fun.

JP: Well it sounded great and you guys did well to stay sober before you went on! I saw Chris about an hour before hand and he was on the edge!

CT: Yeah I think I had to do a shot of tequila before we went on! I think I must’ve smoked a whole box of cigarettes backstage too. You know when the sound guys tell you to just chill out before you go out in front of a big metal crowd a cigarette is your best friend.

TV: When you’re out the back you feel like a gladiator waiting to go out into battle you know so the stomach does start butterflying a bit.

JP: So that’s last year done. I’m going to ask the obvious question now. I’ve seen you live quite a few times and heard the new material, which is superb by the way. So when are you going to release these songs on an album?

JC: Thanks. Late this year I would say. We are looking for an autumn or early winter release probably followed by a tour.

CT: We’ve still got a few more to write though!

JP: So any news on a label as yet then?

JC: Maybe! We have some interest but are keeping that on the downlow for now.

JP: Great news. I look forward to hearing it. So following Bloodstock last year, are there any festival appearances on the horizon this year at all?

JC: Well we have applied for Beermageddon.

JP: I’m glad to hear that as Colin told me to ask you about Beermageddon!

JC: We’ve applied for everything basically. I’ve been on the promotional warpath since Bloodstock. We’ve got a great run of gigs coming up, playing all over the place including Leeds, Brighton and Bristol for Hollow Fest. We’re doing as much as we can basically.

JP: What about the Doom v Stoner fest in Sheffield? I attended that last year and it was a great festival.

JC: Yeah we’ve applied for that. If the worse comes to the worse we’ve all got tickets anyway so we’ll be there whatever.

CT: We’ll be supporting UK doom and either way it will be thoroughly enjoyable.

JP: So we’re going to get more live Famyne and the album out by the end of the year.

JC: Oh yeah!

JP: So last but not least can you each tell me what’s top of your Famyne wishlist for this year?

Alex Johns: Being sponsored by Jagermeister or Jack Daniels would be good! Or maybe Gibson would be great too! Pretty much just to have a successful year and carry on as we have been really. That’s all I can ask for!

Alex Tolson: That people continue to come out of their homes to see us and have a beer and a good time.

JP: Everyone I’ve ever brought out to see you guys has thought that you were great. I know that the Serpent Venom guys were impressed with your Sarcomafest set.

CT: Yeah they were cool man. Amazing. Much of the same really, bigger and better things and just keep going as long as we can.

TV: Boring!

JP: So come on then you two (Tom & Jake), give us something interesting. What do you want from the year?

TV: I want our album to make people realise just how great we are (laughs!!).

JP: I know that Jake won’t have much to say. He’s normally pretty quiet and reserved!

JC: I hope for a very successful year and that we progress to the next level. I do really hope that we can do our album release show at the Underworld in Camden. That was a target when we started as a band and thought about our aims. One thing that Tom and I agreed about after seeing Acid King at the Underworld in 2014 was that our original goal was to play on that stage. So we will try and plan our album release show for the Underworld in Camden. That is my personal goal for this year.

JP: That would be awesome. I don’t want to blow smoke up your arse too much but I think that you’re a fairly unique band in the UK doom scene at the moment. You mix the doom and prog so well, with a bit of grunge every now and again. I really do hope that you’re successful and have a great year.

Famyne: Cheers Jules, much appreciated man.

Post interview photo with the Famyne lads.