I have a chat with, new UK upstarts, Boston Manor ahead of their nationwide tour with Moose Blood
I'm not patriotic in the slightest. Honestly, I don't like real ale, I'm not massively fussed about pies and roast dinners, and I don't like cricket (don't say it). What does bring a tear to my eye and give me an urge to fly the Union Jack is when a British bands comes good on all that back room promise and break through. The early 21st century appears to be a good time for UK rock music and the young Boston Manor look set to join the ranks of Moose Blood, Gnarwolves and Basement.
Coming out of the none-more-British seaside resort of Blackpool the young band have been spending the last few years perfecting their own blend of scrappy, emo influenced punk rock, while at the same time finishing their degrees.
They recently released their second EP, 'Driftwood', and the collection of 6 tracks marks a next step in their development as songwriters, dealing with the trials and tribulations of post-adolescence in the early part of the new century.
Before they step out on tour with Moose Blood around the UK I caught up with Henry Cox to talk influences, plans and the future
Hi there Henry, How are things with you? How was your 2014?
Hey, very well thank you, Our 2014 was brilliant. A lot of awesome stuff happened that we never anticipated.
I know in October you released a brand new EP/mini-Album called Driftwood, tell me a little about that?
We recorded it with Grant Berry back in June and it was released a few months ago on Failure By Design records.
How would you say it's different from your previous material, such as the Here/Now EP?
With Here/Now we were really just finding our feet. Jordan and Ash (drummer and guitarist) weren't even in the band when it was written. To be honest, I still think of it more as a demo. Never the less, I'm still very proud of those songs. With Driftwood, it was really the first time we all sat down together and worked on a proper release, which was great. I think it definitely feels more like a release rather than a collection of songs.
For those who don't know tell me a little it about how you guys got together, who were your mutual influences?
We all sort of knew one another from playing shows in local bands. A friend introduced me to Dan and Mike, who I'd been told wanted to start a band, so we just sat down and started writing. There was no direct influence from any bands in particular. We all grew up listening to bands like Brand New, Blink 182 and NOFX so we knew we wanted to do something in the Pop Punk spectrum but there was no band or sound specifically that we were aiming for.
What's the scene in Blackpool like?
Unfortunately at the minute it's fairly non existent. At one time there were a lot of local shows happening, but almost all the venues have shut down now or won't allow all ages shows. I think in due course it will start up again though. A few of us have been speaking to a decent venue that's just started so we might try and get some shows sorted in the near future.
I know you guys are going out on tour with Moose Blood in January, are you guys excited?
Really excited. We've all been fans of that band for a long time, so we were really flattered when we were approached to do the tour. That album is so sick.
Do you think those guys being signed to No Sleep has been good for UK bands?
I hope so. More and more UK bands are getting picked up now by US labels. Just in the last few months ROAM and As It Is have signed to Hopeless and Fearless (respectively), Gnarwolves have been doing their thing on Pure Noise for a while, as have Landscapes. What this will hopefully mean, at the very least, is that more US fans start paying attention to the array of underrated UK bands that are doing the rounds at the moment, which will hopefully give them more of an international platform.
I know you guys have all recently just graduated from Uni, what are you plans for taking the band forward in 2015? when can we expect to hear a full length from you?
Well we do this more or less full time now, (apart from the odd shift here and there at Shoemarket and Subway) so we're really looking to tour as much as possible. We've got some cool stuff in the works that we can't really talk about now (although we really want to). I wouldn't want to say when a full length will be out. I want to say some time in 2015 but don't hold me to that!
For more info go to www.facebook.com/bostonmanoruk