Interview // The Destroyers at Threshold Festival 2014
Threshold has seen some
excellent names headline over the years but 2014 brings a band known for their
unique music and performance ethos. That is, Birmingham’s monster 14 piece
band The Destroyers, who will rock the stage on the opening night of the festival.
#srcz spoke to the bands Jamie Fekete to find out just what we can expect of
them…
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Well we’re really happy to
play at Threshold as we’ve heard great things about the venues and crowds. What
can you expect from us? A massive juggernaut of sound filled with screaming fiddles,
haunting duduk solos, and blazing horns… plus the usual mayhem of
hurdy-gurdies, vortex cannons, throat singing and violin juggling. We have some
new tracks showcasing incompetent Northern wizards in The Wizard of Warrington;
a disturbing glimpse into the dystopian Milk the Cat, where humans are forced
to drink cat’s milk from their feline overlords; an obese pied-piper who gorges
himself on our Sorrows, Tears and Woes, and the amazing Vortex Cannon! (This
actually exists, we have one! You’ll have to see the show to see it in action)
Two / Your album Hole in
the Universe has a neat connection to the retro-futuristic themes at this
year’s festival. Tell us a bit about the album…
HITU was the second album
with Paul Murphy who supplied the lyrical and chordal skeleton of the songs
around which the band grew the musical flesh and muscle that became typical of
our sound. Paul’s great lyrics dealt with a wide assortment of themes: Where
Has the Money Gone? tackled the Ponzi investment scandal of Bernard Madoff and
the aftermath of the banking collapse; Hole in the Universe was about galactic
voids ‘filled’ with nothingness; On the Moon about the 1950s adventure comic Dan
Dare, whose brilliantly imagined cartoon world of outer space warring with the
Mekon is definitely retro-futuristic and spookily fits the festival perfectly!
Three / Threshold has seen
some large bands over the past four years. How many are in The Destroyers and
how did you all come together to make such glorious music?
There are 14 of us
presently in The Destroyers, there have been over 50 members/deps of the life
of the band. The people who started it grew out of some members of the
Birmingham Conservatoire and underground Balsall Heath basement sessions and we
just kind of accrued and gathered musicians on the Birmingham scene along the
way!
Four / There will be at
least one giant robot at the festival this year. Who is your favourite robot
and why?
Favorite robot? Got to be
Marvin the Paranoid Android for his positive and upbeat take on life…
Now the world has gone to
bed!
Darkness won't engulf my
head!
I can see by infra-red!
How I hate the night!
Now I lay me down to
sleep!
Try to count electric
sheep!
Sweet dream wishes you can
keep!
How I hate the night!
Five / The band’s sound is
very distinctive. What factors have helped form that sound?
Leighton, one of the
violinists and main music writer for the band puts our sound like this…The
band’s sound began with learning traditional tunes from Romania, Serbia and
Bulgaria, and shamelessly but inexpertly trying to copy from bands such as
Taraf De Haidouks and Fanfare Ciocarlia. But our sound and influences soon
widened as we started to compose new material and incorporate tunes and musical
influences from other parts of the world. There are a great abundance of
us in this band and as individuals we all have our fingers in many different
kinds of music; we conjure a burgeoning panoply of multifarious congruence and
juxtaposition, hyperbole and candor, poignance and glee!
During this process of
fermentation our style and nature became less easily or adequately classifiable
and we became increasingly confident in its own intrinsic nature and
potential. Our diverse palette still held gypsy folk music and klezmer
right at its centre, and we held onto and developed the initial seed of
anarchic jubilation and preposterous rambunctiousness that I think I mentioned
earlier. One of the great things about it is the way it makes people
smile – you should see the sight from onstage when we get to the bit of Sirba
which modulates to the major and a thousand people all reflect the energy back
to us on their beaming faces and in their movement!
Six / We’ve heard you described by one source as
“The sort of rogues who would take you out for a night, fill you full of mead,
strip you to your underwear and then tie you to a lamp-post”. Is this true and
is it likely to happen at some point during the festival?!
Haha probably. Just bring
the gaffer tape and whiskey and I’m sure we can sort something out!
Seven / With such a packed
line up at the festival, are there any bands you’re looking forward to see?
There really are too many
to pick from but ‘She Drew the Gun’ sound great!
Eight / Finally, how would
you describe The Destroyers in just five words?
Burgeoning panoply of
multifarious congruence’ sounds sensible.
Interview and words by
Sebastian Gahan. Photo courtesy of the band.
