The Bad Apples
Matt: Mine is probably “The Death Of Rock & Roll” ‘cause its super heavy and I get to scream the chorus, it feels epic. Unfortunately we’ve not released it yet, but you’ll be able to get it on the 10th of July 2015 from our Bandcamp at www.thebadapples.bandcamp.com
Tom: Erm, mines “Go Slower”, which is a b-side from the Death Of Rock & Roll single. Mainly ‘cause its really fun to play live, I really get into it.
How do you write your music?
Matt: Normally i’ll write the music, send it off to tom, if he likes it then i’ll write some lyrics, then we jam it out when we see each other. It’s a bit of a weird process but that’s pretty much the only way we can do it, but it’s always music first, lyrics after.
Tom: Other than that we sometimes stumble across a riff or something we like in a sound check or a warm-up, which we’ll then remember and form into a song later on.
What influences do you have?
Matt: For me, it’s a lot of grunge and old Rock & Roll, e.g. Nirvana, Pixies, Led Zeppelin, The Black Keys, even old Bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf. However, I am also really influenced by heavy metal, especially Pantera.
Tom: Yeah, i’m influenced by drummers like John Bonham & John Fred Young, also, Bill Wards drumming at the Black Sabbath show in Paris, 1970, when they play War Pigs! I’m also really into spoken word / Hip Hop artists, like Scroobius Pip & B. Dolan.
What’s the best experience you’ve had with your project?
Matt: We played this awesome show in Hemsby, but we were a bit tentative at first, we had to bring our own PA and Backline and were playing outside, then it started to rain so had to cut the gig short. Luckily, we’d brought acoustic guitars with us as well so we spent the rest of the day playing Wonderwall on repeat and getting pissed up with a load of tourists.
Tom: I enjoyed playing Ruston Rocks 2014. It was the first gig we had played totally sober and people seemed to really enjoy us and kind of stood up and took some notice.
What plans do you have this year?
Matt: We’re releasing our single on the 10th of July, aside from that we’ve got a load of gigs booked over the country, we’re just trying to get ourselves out there as much as possible so we can keep doing what we love. We’re also running our official website, its got all the info etc. on it www.twobadapples.co.uk
Mention something you don’t like about the project?
Matt: The amount of travelling we have to do. Because we live so far apart we can’t really just come up with an idea, nip down to the rehearsal space and jam it out, there’s a whole lot more forethought that has to go into it now.
Tom: We have trouble finding people that gel with our style in the Norwich scene, there’s loads of local pop-punk bands & cover bands, some of which are awesome, don’t get me wrong but we’ve only ever found one or two bands we really clicked with.
Mention the biggest sacrifice you did for the project?
Matt: Probably not drinking before shows. We played this awful show at The Blueberry in Norwich which was an all-dayer. It was just me playing guitar because Tom had previously broken his hand by punching me in the face so couldn’t play drums. So, I decided it was a good idea that we drink a pint for each band that played before we did, all the bands had 30 min slots. However, we’d turned up 5 hours before our slot so by the time it was my set we were both absolutely hammered and crippled. It did not go well.
What band, music project or soloist from your city do you like?
Matt: There was this band called Southlakes that I really got into, I don’t know what they’re doing at the moment though.
Tom: Mark Thaxter, he’s a sound engineer, mixer & drummer, he’s been involved with some really cool projects; Couch, Fascists To Ashes, he recorded Mire, he’s recorded all of our releases and he does these acoustic sessions called Boneless sessions that are really cool. He’s had Jim Higgs and Ducking Punches on there (amongst others), you should check them out.
If your project was a word, what would it be?
Tom: Chaotic.
Who answered these questions?
Matt and Tom (Over the phone)
Where were you when you answered the interview?
Matt: On the train
Tom: In bed.
What did you think of Zoe – Nada
Matt: Yeah, i enjoyed it, not something i’d normally go out of my way to listen to but it was good, I like the atmospheric synth stuff especially.
