Back in August, we reviewed Promethium’s awesome new album Origins. We recently caught up with their singer Gaz to ask him a few questions.
Could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about the band?
I am Gaz, the singer from Promethium. We are a metal band that plays old school style metal melded with newer elements of metal. It’s a fairly progressive sound that we have which uses a lot of influences from all over.
You recently released your new album Origins – what was the writing and recording process like?
It was fairly long. I live 250 miles away in Newcastle so I got the demos posted over to work on then sent them back with vocal ideas. We get together to record demos then work out what is working and what isn’t. From there we stripped down the songs we had to make the album ones and then edited them down.
Which track is your favourite on there?
For me it’s Rain, I just love singing it live!!
Actually one of my personal favourites is Rain – could you describe the story behind that track?
It wasn’t actually written by me. The bass player sings in Massive Wagons and had this track that he wanted us to do. He loosely wrote about me as I was singing it. It’s about addiction really or at least having a vice that you believe is actually your friend, always there through the bad times but your reality is blurred by it and actually its more likely the cause of the issues in the first place.
The artwork is particularly interesting. What’s the story behind it? It matches the title very well.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if we had this cool story about it, sadly we don’t. We gave the ideas and the concept to a graphic designer and he came up with the cover you see now. It is awesome though, we love it.
You’ve already released a video for your track Visions from your last album Welcome To The Institution – are there any plans for a single from Origins as well?
We do, I think there will be two videos. We’re just storyboarding them now so watch this space. There should be some news shortly.
I’ve heard nothing but good things about your live shows. What can fans expect at a Promethium show?
Thank you. We generally fill the show with energy, power, chaos, fire and brimstone, sex, violence and nudity. We can be fairly unpredictable live, I like to get involved in the pit….if I can get one started. I’m often off the stage. We just have a massive amount of fun. It’s a great night!!
What would you say is the best gig you’ve played?
We just played the Snooty Fox in Wakelfield and got it recorded on DVD. The crowd were unreal. Lots of moshing, it was awesome. The venue is excellent – great sound guy, great gear, the stage is fantastic and they have live music 7 nights a week.
Do you have any interesting gig stories?
I once turned up to play a gig in Leeds, but it turned out the gig was in Bradford. Then there is the usual Promethium stupid pranks like replacing Viagra in the paracetemol packet! Other than that, we are the good Christian Metal Kids who are here to spread God’s word. Sorry, I meant Satan, I get confused with my role as a priest.
If you could play a show with any band, who would you choose?
I’d choose Pantera but obviously that can’t happen now sadly. Live they were unreal and Phil is a hero of mine. I grew up with them in my stereo so that would be a wicked show.
And what are the band’s plans for 2014?
More of the same, gigs, promo and the American dream. We have a few new things we are working on, some live stuff, new tracks, some festivals for next year, hopefully. It should be a busy year, we will see what happens.
