Interview with She Burns Red

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Rockmantic Weekender, Carlisle

Friday 9^th February

Interview and photographs by Linda McDermott

I get the chance to catch up with Scott, Naz, Andy and James of She Burns Red at the Rockmantic Weekender in Carlisle to find out the answer to a few questions.

Question: Why do bands influence you?

James – The Wild Hearts are a massive influence on me because they have catchy choruses and melodies and the like, that’s why I like them.

Scott – I’m not a massive listener of them nowadays but they stay in my heart. The Foo Fighters are that band. Dave Grohl is very inspiring and made me take up more instruments than just the drums, I play a bit of bass and do a bit of singing.

It’s inspired me to branch out and also contribute more to songs, I’m not just the drummer who makes a noise in the background.

Naz – I listen to a lot of different music, some of it has got very little to do with what I actually play or the guitar itself. I pick up on many different things that I hear in music, and I think, I really like that little bit there, or I really like that little hook. I listen to random artists and playlists at work, on the radio, or on Spotify shuffle. I just pick up the little things and change them into potentially something that I find useful in what I do.

Question: What drives you?

James – I’ve dedicated my whole life to music, it’s one of the most important things there is. It’s there when you wake up in the morning, it’s the beating heartbeat of my life.

Question – How do you guys decide who sings what in the songs?

Andy – I guess it all comes naturally. We hadn’t really written anything for a while, but when we got in the room the other night, I had the structure of the song; we just went on a roll and after about ten minutes we had completely changed it but that’s how it should be. We’ve all got such a massive hand in writing the songs there are no bad ideas. It was Naz who came up with the idea of Scott and James singing harmonies and it totally made the song, and then you get inspired again, it’s great. I think that’s the most exciting part of being in this band.

Naz –There are no real egos in this band, someone comes up with a vocal line and a melody, we discuss it and think, well that particular melody will probably suit James’s voice better so we’ll give it to James or vice versa and think it would work better for Andy and then Scott is so good at harmonies as well.

Andy – The secret is not being precious about things.

Naz – Definitely, it’s a game-changer. The best pop songs in the world have amazing vocals and harmonies. Just to name one, Hotel California, by The Eagles, that’s what they do, take away the vocals and it’s just a long song, you know it’s great. The arrangement is fantastic for guitars but think about that. Guitar arrangements are thought of as vocal harmonies.

Naz -The vocals are the most important part of songs, they’ve got music.

Andy – People listen to the words first don’t they?

Naz – Absolutely

Andy – You’ve got 15 seconds so if you’re going to meander in and mess about, you’re going to lose. So, if you can get straight into it, that’s when you’re going to catch people. Get the singing in quickly and even kind of introduce the chorus somehow, so it’s already in people’s heads, then you can do anything you want after that.

Scott – I think what makes this band work is that we are all obsessed individually with different elements of a song. I really love the bridge and James and Andy love the lyrics and hooks and Naz is an all-rounder.

Question: You are debuting a new song in your set tonight; can you tell me a bit about it?

Andy – It’s actually just a bunch of ideas, I know what it’s about but it’s not quite there yet.

Question: So, are you still working on it?

Scott – There’s always room for improvement as it’s not been recorded yet. It could change between now and then.

Andy – I’ve been in the studio and doing the lyrics to a full song the night before, I always feel I write better in the studio anyway. The morning, we recorded ‘Heavy is the Head’, I was still writing the lyrics. I was having a conversation with my friend the night before and then that was it I wrote the rest of the song in the morning. I don’t believe a song is finished until it is recorded, but we’re desperate to do something new tonight so we decided to go for it.

James – The new song sounds great though.

Naz – It’s heavy.

Andy – We use a She Burns Red tried and trusted formula.

Question: What are the band aiming for?

James – That’s the problem of being in a band, there is always more to do, and there’s always another peak to reach. I think the thing is to enjoy it.

Andy– We’re getting to play gigs, and people are singing our songs back at us.

It’s a privilege in itself as a lot of bands don’t even have that. We played here in 2021 it was our first gig together. That was three years ago and nobody knew who we were, and we were second on the bill. We were on pretty early, and it was quiet because of COVID-19 and to go from that three years ago to tonight it’s wild and insane.

Naz – It’s all happened so quickly, and it’s so rammed out there and we’re headlining tonight. I just went outside for a quick smoke and people are coming up to me calling me by name, folks I might have seen once or twice but we’ve played so many festivals over the past two years I don’t remember everyone unfortunately. It’s amazing when people are saying to me ‘I’m really excited to see you on that stage tonight.

James – I’ll never get used to that.

I think that they may just have to get used to that as their popularity grows and they play more and more gigs and festivals. With that, my time was up, and I went to join everyone else in the venue who can’t wait to see the guys do their thing. I predict that this is going to be another phenomenal year for She Burns Red.

If you want to find out more about She Burns Red check out the following.

‘Out of Darkness’ album on all streaming platforms

Videos

Heavy is the Head