Ahead of the release of their debut EP The Hunter, The Gatherer, we caught up with Arizona to find out about this up-and-coming band. See what happened below!
Can you introduce yourself and tell me a little about the band?
We’re Arizona, and we’re based around the edges of Suffolk and Essex, right out in the sticks. We are a 5 piece that consist of:
Brad – who is a tour bus driver for bands all over the world and our guitarist.
Ben – who is a Barber in Southend and our other guitarist.
Jordan – who drives a van and makes deliveries of all your favourite goods. He slaps da bass.
George – who builds blood gas analysers for the NHS and hits things with sticks.
Jacob – who is a Design & Technology Technician in a school in Suffolk and is our vocalist.
How did you get started?
We formed back in 2011 when Jordan and George had met each other while getting tattooed by the same person on the same day. I think they had said how they were both wanting to start a band and it just went from there. Jake then met George at the train station, and again got chatting about music. We created a joint facebook chat and all got chatting about the kind of thing we wanted to achieve and how we could go about it, and before we knew it we were practising in George’s barn!
You’re currently getting ready to release your debut EP The Hunter, The Gatherer, can you tell me about the writing and recording process?
We spent an insane amount of time during the writing process. We had broken all of the songs apart a thousand times, I was bored of them before we had even recorded pre-production on them before going to the studio! But it was a blast being able to write them with such passion and at any point say “I’m not happy with that 3 seconds of chorus, lets change it”. The studio actually gave us another outlet to continue refining the songs, when we thought we actually couldn’t refine them anymore. We have used Empire Recording Studios in Guildford exclusively since we started recording anything we had written, and we have a really good relationship with Sam Burden who owns the studio.
Were there any tracks that were more of a challenge to get down?
The only song I can remember being a challenge to get down was The Gathering. We weren’t fully sure about it when we entered the studio and we knew we needed to do something to round it off. We had recorded all the music and some of the vocals had started to be put down but something was still missing. That night after spending 8 hours in the studio we sat with the pre-production version of the song on George’s MacBook and tried to layer some more guitar parts, move some vocals around and mess with some synths to try and get it how we wanted it, after a while it finally got to the point where we were happy with it, and thats the version we have on the EP.
Which track are you most proud of?
Brad says The Hunted, because its heavy as EFFFF. George says Black Hart because its put together really well, and it will be stuck in your head for days.
Any interesting tales from the studio?
One time we came back from a day at the studio, and we head straight out to town and drank way more than we should have. We came back to the guys house we were crashing in and hid chicken eggs all over his house, in different rooms under different hiding places, in lamps, under popurri, under the stairs and on a light fitting. Bearing in mind yeah, he wasn’t in the whole night and had entrusted us with the safety of his house. He hasn’t contacted us saying he has found the eggs, so we’re pretty convinced he hasn’t found them…yet.
What has been your best experience in the business?
We played a birthday show for Brad in his home town. We never expected to have such a great turn out, and for people to actually be singing the words back to us. We had people making their way through the crowd from the bar just to bring Brad shots while he was playing our set. His Dad even brought him two Jagerbombs as well. Jordan’s bass string broke so we couldnt play anymore, then Brad’s guitar jack broke as well, and we found out a few days after that our good friend Jack from Idols Of Apathy had broken his arm after he fell down a flight of stairs after a pit opened up.
And what’s the hardest thing about being in the business?
Having no money, ever. We’re always struggling to save for the things we have to do, but we always manage it in the end, I guess if we didnt try so hard, we wouldnt be talking to you now.
What inspires you?
Everything inspires us I think, we’re always turning up to practise with new ideas that we might have got while driving in a van, or cutting someones hair. Sometimes its pretty hard to get inspiration for stuff, but I think when you stop trying for it, it becomes a lot easier.
Who are your role models and idols?
U2, I love U2. Without U2, I dont think I would be the happy person I am today, I love U2. U2.
