Alestorm
Avast, ye landlubbers! From the deepest darkest depths of eastern Scotland comes Alestorm, a drunken band of three mad Scots and one Irishman on an epic quest to slay posers, drink beer, and be the greatest damn band that ever did sail the seven seas!
Describing their style as “True Scottish Pirate Metal”, Alestorm plays an infectious blend of folk and power metal in the vein of bands such as Turisas and Korpiklaani, but with a unique piratical twist. I caught up with the guys for a quick chat…
Hello there pretties, how are things going in your lovely world?
Hello! We are all doing wonderfully thankyou, on a little break for the summer at the moment so were nice and chilled.
We are proper 100% loving your super hot new record…tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it…
Thankyou very much! We like it too. The inspiration once again was booze really, wanting to create awesome bad ass drinking music that people can rock out too...and what better than throwing a few pirates and accordions into it.
To anyone who hasn’t heard of you yet, how would you describe your sound?
This is the part where I could ramble on something very in depth about how we sound or say something really funny like "it sounds like [insert artist here] on [insert narcotic substance here]" but we are a silly folk metal band singing about booze and pirates. Thats it really...
If you were going to give us just one song of yours to listen to so that you would become our new favourite singer, what would it be?
P is for Pirate! Its a bonus track from our new album only available on iTunes, seriously you will never have to listen to another Alestorm song again once you have heard this masterpiece.
If you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
We really wanna do Don't Stop Believing by Journey. We got to play with Journey a few weeks back and I was blown away. Everybody loves that song though, its a classic. Hopefully youll be hearing us do this song and maybe a few more covers just for fun!
And can you sum up your good selves in just five words?
Really really really good looking.
What makes you stand out from the crowd?
We are quite a silly looking bunch really, I guess that helps...Dani is dwarven, Chris looks a bit like a tree in bermuda shorts and Ian walks around and plays drums with his boxer shorts hanging out so were easy to spot. Ill be the one at the bar...
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on a cd this weekend, why should they buy yours?
"Black Sails at Midnight" is the long lost Jennifer Ashley novel. A whimsical tale of suspense, adventure and daring romance. So deep, so meaningful, that once you've listened to it, you'll want listen again and again, gorging yourself on it's nautical splendor. Many women (and men alike) will fall in love with it's characters, full of manly, dashing pirates (much like the band), who will stop at nothing to capture the hearts of loved ones, find new and exciting lands and drink all your beer.
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
I hear Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition are doing the festival circuit next year which im quite excited about. I would have them on before Nokturnal Mortum because for some unknown reason they never play outside of the Ukraine, and Ryanair dont fly there from Belfast! For my main headliner itd have to be Prince, that would be awesome.
What has been your favourite musical memory to date?
I saw Shane McGowen supporting Girls Aloud on St Paddys Day once in Belfast, he was so wasted he got sick on stage and got dragged off, this then sparked a riot in the crowd to which the police responded by setting off a load of police dogs into it. So yes, my favourite music memory was when I was chased by an angry dog at a Girls Aloud concert.
If all of the bands equipment was on fire, what one piece would you save and why?
Well guitars are replaceable and you would be doing the Keytar a favour if it went up in smoke. Ian doesnt have any drums of his own really so i'm gonna have to say i'd be saddest if our orange inflatable seamonster who joins us on stage occasionally called "seagam" kicked the bucket. I dont wanna have to go to Slovenia to get a new one!
Who do you think is the greatest artist around at the moment?
I think one of my favourite artists ever in Neil Buchanan, even when I was a child I appreciated his work on programs like Art Attack and Zap! Ive never seen anyone make a spaceship out of a washing up bottle quite like it. Now I believe he is reforming his amazing heavy metal band from the eighties called Marseille in which he plays guitar. What a hero...
If you could only listen to one CD for the rest of your life, what would it be?
I am currently learning french off a series of CDs by Michel Thomas, I really dont wanna give up on all my hard work now so I guess in the tragic event of only being able to listen to one CD again, it would have to be that one. Merci.
Okay, now we want to ask you some random questions; Tell me about the most terrifying experience of your life…
I once got tricked into doing that maze game you can get off the internet where randomly in the middle of it a corpse comes up on screen and starts screaming. I nearly crapped myself...
What’s the most stupid purchase you’ve ever made?
I went to a car boot sale while I was drunk last summer, worst idea ever. I think I got a spirit level, subbuteo with no teams and ornamental bellows... It did only cost me about £6 in total though.
Why go to the top of a tall building, only to put money in binoculars and look at things on the ground?
I dont, I use the binoculars to look in peoples windows of course!
Cheers, good luck with everything & thanks for making my day slightly more entertaining!
Thankyou very much!
FemaleFirst - Ruth Harrison
Avast, ye landlubbers! From the deepest darkest depths of eastern Scotland comes Alestorm, a drunken band of three mad Scots and one Irishman on an epic quest to slay posers, drink beer, and be the greatest damn band that ever did sail the seven seas!
Describing their style as “True Scottish Pirate Metal”, Alestorm plays an infectious blend of folk and power metal in the vein of bands such as Turisas and Korpiklaani, but with a unique piratical twist. I caught up with the guys for a quick chat…
Hello there pretties, how are things going in your lovely world?
Hello! We are all doing wonderfully thankyou, on a little break for the summer at the moment so were nice and chilled.
We are proper 100% loving your super hot new record…tell us a bit about the inspiration behind it…
Thankyou very much! We like it too. The inspiration once again was booze really, wanting to create awesome bad ass drinking music that people can rock out too...and what better than throwing a few pirates and accordions into it.
To anyone who hasn’t heard of you yet, how would you describe your sound?
This is the part where I could ramble on something very in depth about how we sound or say something really funny like "it sounds like [insert artist here] on [insert narcotic substance here]" but we are a silly folk metal band singing about booze and pirates. Thats it really...
If you were going to give us just one song of yours to listen to so that you would become our new favourite singer, what would it be?
P is for Pirate! Its a bonus track from our new album only available on iTunes, seriously you will never have to listen to another Alestorm song again once you have heard this masterpiece.
If you could cover another band’s song, what would it be?
We really wanna do Don't Stop Believing by Journey. We got to play with Journey a few weeks back and I was blown away. Everybody loves that song though, its a classic. Hopefully youll be hearing us do this song and maybe a few more covers just for fun!
And can you sum up your good selves in just five words?
Really really really good looking.
What makes you stand out from the crowd?
We are quite a silly looking bunch really, I guess that helps...Dani is dwarven, Chris looks a bit like a tree in bermuda shorts and Ian walks around and plays drums with his boxer shorts hanging out so were easy to spot. Ill be the one at the bar...
You know we’re having a bit of an economic crisis here at the moment, if people wanted to spend their last £10 on a cd this weekend, why should they buy yours?
"Black Sails at Midnight" is the long lost Jennifer Ashley novel. A whimsical tale of suspense, adventure and daring romance. So deep, so meaningful, that once you've listened to it, you'll want listen again and again, gorging yourself on it's nautical splendor. Many women (and men alike) will fall in love with it's characters, full of manly, dashing pirates (much like the band), who will stop at nothing to capture the hearts of loved ones, find new and exciting lands and drink all your beer.
What three bands would you have to headline your dream festival?
I hear Sublime Cadaveric Decomposition are doing the festival circuit next year which im quite excited about. I would have them on before Nokturnal Mortum because for some unknown reason they never play outside of the Ukraine, and Ryanair dont fly there from Belfast! For my main headliner itd have to be Prince, that would be awesome.
What has been your favourite musical memory to date?
I saw Shane McGowen supporting Girls Aloud on St Paddys Day once in Belfast, he was so wasted he got sick on stage and got dragged off, this then sparked a riot in the crowd to which the police responded by setting off a load of police dogs into it. So yes, my favourite music memory was when I was chased by an angry dog at a Girls Aloud concert.