Interview with End Of The Spectrum

There are some great young bands coming out the UK at the moment and a lot of them releasing their material for free! London five piece End Of The Spectrum are doing just that. If you head over to http://endofthespectrum.bandcamp.com/ you can download the bands 4 track EP for free and I really suggest you do, it’s a catchy piece of progressive alt rock, lead song ‘Ashes’ being a favourite right now. We caught up with all the band members to ask them a bunch of questions and found out about their unhealthy obsession with Adam West’s Batman!

Who are you and what do you do?

Becca – I’m Becca. I sing!
Jamie – I’m Jamie. I play guitar.
Mark – I’m Mark, guitarist for End of the Spectrum.
Ryan – My name is Ryan, but pretty much everyone calls me Sciz – I play drums.
Sean – My names Sean, I play Bass.

How did you get started?
Jamie – My uncle gave me a broken acoustic guitar he found in a skip. Classy.
Mark – I started playing guitar after watching friends play and wishing I could do that. I moved to London from Scotland to study music and Jamie came across me and asked me to try out.  Once we got playing together we clicked.
Becca – Road trips. No better place to sing than when you’re in a car for days on end. 

Favourite book and why?
Ryan – The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss is incredible – Read it, and the sequel came out on March the 1st, in fact, I’m going out to pick it up as soon as I send this!
Becca – Weaveworld by Clive Barker. He creates a thousand universes, all more exciting than this one. 
Mark –  Just finished reading a book called “This is your Brain on Music”, which was really interesting. It looked at the way we as humans have always had an amazing sense to identify what’s right and wrong about music since our early years. We always know when someone is out of tune or when a rhythm isn’t right, to a basic level, before we can even speak a language. Has to be a favourite of mine now.

Favourite film and why?
Jamie – Catfish because it’s amazing, simple as. Check it out!
Mark –  I absolutely love Disney/Pixar films. Wall-E especially.
Ryan –  Ah, I can only pick a top two! A Clockwork Orange is amazing, disturbing and beautiful. On the complete other end of the scale but equally disturbing and beautiful is Pan’s Labyrinth.

Best experience in the business?
Mark – My best experience was definitely Outhouse studios. Being there was a great experience for me and I’m sure for everyone else as well. Also, while we were there we got wished luck by one of my favourite bands, Enter Shikari, which was a massive moment for me.
Ryan –  I haven’t had more fun or been more proud than the recording of this EP – The guys at outhouse are wizards and so friendly, it felt like home and was hard to leave!
Sean – So far it would be working with the guys at Outhouse when we recorded our EP, they were amazing! 

Why should Soundscape readers care?
Jamie – Everyone loves discovering new bands don’t they?
Ryan –  I think it’s fair to say we are working hard to make something that people enjoy. This has been our dream for a long time now, and if people take a moment to listen to us, and talk about us with their friends it would mean so much. Without other people’s support we almost certainly wouldn’t be making music today! 
Sean – We wouldn’t be making music if it wasn’t for other people, and its our dream to make music, it’s what we love! 

Tell our readers an interesting fact about your band?
Jamie – We have a strange obsession with the original Batman tv series starring Adam West.
Mark – I’m the only member that wasn’t born in England. 
Ryan – When I’m not playing drums I’m a fire breather and circus performer.

Who are your role models/idols?
Jamie – Well I started playing because of Frank Iero & Ray Toro (My Chemical Romance). So those guys I guess!
Mark – A massive influence on my guitar playing has to be Simon Neil, Rory Clewlow, John Frusciante, Tom Morello, and Lee Gaze.
Ryan – Brandon Boyd makes beautiful music. There aren’t enough people in the world like that!
Sean – I love Paul Turner’s (Jamiroquai Bassist) bass lines. His creativity is immense!
Becca – Michelle Branch, She’s the reason I wanted to sing and play guitar,  she is effortlessly cool. 

Hardest thing about the current business?
Jamie – People not being able to come to terms with new bands/sounds. They have to pocket us into something negative to make themselves feel more comfortable. Don’t paramorph us into something we’re not!
Sean – Just getting out there really, and grabbing peoples attention! 
Becca – I think there are now, more so than ever, the most amount of young people starting up bands. One band is a needle in a haystack, getting noticed and getting heard by a mass will always be the hardest thing.

Random Questions!

Strangest gig you’ve ever played?
Jamie – As a band, probably our last gig. The promoter did a terrible job so 80% of the audience were the other bands playing that night. Was one of my more fun gigs to play though.
Mark – That would have to be jamming with some eastern europeans at three in the morning in Leicester Square. That one will live in my mind for a while.
Sean – The strangest was a gig in a London bar with a load of funk/indie bands. We were the only Pop/Rock band and no one barely even acknowledged our existence! We enjoyed it though, that was the main thing.

If you could choose one super power what would it be?
Jamie – Why can I only have one?! Superman has like 5.
Mark – The power to read minds. I could have fun with that.
Sean –  Telekinesis. It’s a lazy mans dream! 

If you won the lottery what’s the first thing you would do?
Jamie – Put it all on black!
Ryan – Buy a house and set up a recording studio – My shopping list is all ready!
Becca – I’m going to be your stereotypical girl and say go clothes shopping. My student loan is going  on funding being in this band. I’m being deprived of girl things!

What do you want on your gravestone?
Jamie – “AFK”
Mark – Respawn in 10, 9, 8, 7…

Ever been attacked by an animal?
Jamie – A bee flew in my ear once . And I panicked and squished it while it was still inside my ear
Mark – I got attacked by a goose when I was younger and regularly get attacked by low flying pigeons.
Becca – Almost got eaten by a swan when I was five (I’m 5’3 now, imagine how tall I was then).

Favourite Batman actor?
Ryan – Adam West, if you haven’t seen the “Some days you just can’t get rid of a bomb” scene then you haven’t lived, we were in tears.
Jamie – Adam West.
Sean -Adam West.
Becca – Adam West.
Mark – Why is everyone saying Adam West? The anti shark spray was funny but, come on! Maybe I take Batman too seriously… My favourite has to be Christian Bale.

Most embarrassing thing to happen to you while in the band?
Mark – Waking up late for a practice because I my house mates had replaced my phone with a block of cheese. That was an awkward thing to explain to everyone.

What’s the best and worst part about being in a band?
Jamie –  The best part is you get to work and spend a lot of time with friends. The worst part is you have to work and spend a lot of time with friends.
Mark –  best part is friends and if you have writers block, one of them won’t. The worst is the stress it can sometimes induce being with the same people for a very long time. May want to kill each other by the end of it.
Sean – Best part would have to be the live energy and the connection we have on stage, you cant beat that feeling! The worst part would be the times when we disagree, but we manage! Were pretty adult about it all. 
Becca – The best is definitely finding new ways of communicating things you otherwise had trouble expressing, and then receiving absolutely amazing feedback from strangers who can relate,  worst I would say is finding the money to afford being in a band. 

What would you rather be, Ninja or a Vampire?
Jamie – Vampire! But before they became all Twilight gay. The League of extraordinary gentlemen’s vampire is awesome! (Peta Wilson)
Ryan – Definitely a vampire – They have all the good bits of Ninjas and more, I don’t come out in the daytime much anyway!
Sean – A Ninja definitely, I wouldn’t want to live for hundreds of years! 

What’s the last album you bought?
Jamie –  D.R.U.G.S – Destroy Rebuild until god shows.
Mark – It was two at the same time actually. Tribalism by Enter Shikari and Ritual by White Lies.
Ryan – Destroy  Rebuild Until God Shows self titled album, well worth it, buy it.
Becca –  Francesqa’s EP ‘We Lived’. Does that count?

Most embarrassing clothing item owned by you or a band mate?
Mark – Jamies very nice grey and blue t shirt with scarf attached, very feminine.
Becca – I don’t think anything could embarrass these guys. Sciz has been known to dress as a woman on occasion. He has a nice collection of pink wigs. 

Tell us an embarrassing story about a band mate or grass them up for doing something?
Becca – Accidentally  throwing drum sticks across the stage is probably my favourite. I haven’t fallen over… yet (I just jinxed it didn’t I, damn it).

You can check the band out at facebook http://www.facebook.com/endofthespectrum and Twitter http://twitter.com/eotspectrum and download the EP free from http://endofthespectrum.bandcamp.com