Lightning Sharks
"Screaming In Bolsonaros Face"
Lightning Sharks, post-hardcore newcomers from Bristol should have let this year's ArcTanGent Festival shake. Because of Corona, it couldn't take place so they decided to move their concert into their rehearsal room and shared the event with the whole world. I've invited the guys for an interview and we talked about their idea, their music, and the current worldwide situation.
Anne: Hi! Thank you very much for this interview! How are you doing today?
Sam: Hi, Anne! Doing great. Thanks very much for speaking to us.
Anne: Due to Corona, you were forced to postpone your ArcTanGent Festival gig. To treat your fans with some live music anyway, you decided to play the concert in your rehearsal room and share the live stream online. Thanks a lot for that! It was great to see you play! Are there other ways you are dealing with passing the time while we all have to wait for everything to finally go on?
"We are proud to be a part of the ArcTanGent Festival"
Sam: Thank you! We are such huge fans of ArcTanGent and it was a pleasure to be involved in any capacity. That festival is a great way for niche bands like us to reach a like-minded audience, there's a real community spirit involved. As for passing the time, well - My usual line of work is as a sound engineer, and sadly all of the live shows have been canceled for the foreseeable future so I have had plenty of free time. I've been doing some writing and our guitarist Andy has a keen interest in skateboarding so he's been spending a lot of time on his board. The lockdown softened earlier this Summer, so we jumped back into our rehearsal room as soon as we could gather again, so as a band we are backfiring on all cylinders.
Anne: I heard a rumor, that you will play the opener at ArcTanGent 2021. Is it true?
Sam: The lineup for Arctangent 2021 hasn't officially been announced yet - So all I can say at the moment is wait and see!
Provocative and loud
Anne: You are calling yourselves a "provocatively horrible noisecore band" Did you always want to make really loud and crazy music?
Pete: Lightning Sharks was born from our collective affinity for the late 90's Noisecore and Post Hardcore. As a result, there's always been a certain element of 'good-natured chaos' to our sound, combining and contrasting the mayhem with melody.
"I always have been obsessed with extreme music"
Sam: I've pretty much always had an obsession with extreme music. One of the first records I ever bought with my own money was "Enemy of the Music Business" by Napalm Death when I was 14 years old. Stuff that sounds discordant, chaotic, and harsh is extremely listenable to me, it's pop music to my ears.
Anne: I think we have something in common here. Which bands had the biggest impact on your music?
"We are fans of late 90s noisecore"
Sam: We are hugely inspired by the late 90s and early 2000s "Noisecore" sound, as it was referred to at the time -- So bands like Botch, Drowningman and Deadguy were big influences when we first started writing.
Anne: Tell me one thing that the world needs right now.
Sam: A cure for Covid-19!
Anne: If you had the chance to talk to one of the world's leaders. Who would it be and what would you tell them?
Sam: Oh, god... The chaotic punk inside of me would want to talk to someone like Jair Bolsonaro or Donald Trump, and just scream in their face and give them a piece of my mind. I don't think many of the fascist or authoritarian leaders of the world are likely to be won over with rational arguments or kind words, so I am sure I could use the time to speak to a more receptive world leader, and encourage them to be more productive or even raise a profound or important issue such as climate change... But screaming in Bolsonaro's face sure would be cathartic.
"Artists in Bristol love to blur genres"
Anne: You are originally from Bristol. How would you describe the music scene there?
Pete: Bristol has long been a melting pot for artistic expression - especially for those aiming to blur genres to create unique and new sounds. We're incredibly proud to play our small part in continuing this tradition.
Sam: Bristol has a lot of fragmented scenes and subcultures doing their own thing, but are all interconnected through the local venues which are linchpins of the scene here. The city was best known internationally for the Trip-Hop connection in the 90s with Massive Attack and Portishead, but in recent years there's been an upswing in the number of guitar bands making waves. Probably the most popular band from Bristol at the moment is Idles, who are lovely people and deserve all of the success they are getting. I miss the live music scene here. You could find a gig any night of the week.
Anne: You've released two demos on Bandcamp. Will there be a record soon?
Sam: Yes, we are recording our first EP later this year. We had planned to have an EP recorded and released by the time we performed at ArcTanGent, but the pandemic forced our studio to close and we had to reschedule our session towards the end of the year. We're looking forward to putting that out very shortly! An album is a little way off yet, but we will get there.
Anne: What's up next for Lightning Sharks?
Sam: Record and release an EP, keep writing new music and hopefully start playing live again once it becomes safe to do so.
Anne: Thanks for your time! See you at ATG 2021!
Sam: Thanks, Anne! See you there.