PlanetMosh Keeping it Metal
PlanetMosh interview with Sime from Resin, our review of the bands new E.P can be read HERE:
Guys, thank you for taking the time out to answer these questions for the PlanetMosh readership.
For people just finding out about Resin, can you tell me the bands musical direction, attitude and influences?
From day one we’ve always had a love for the whole 90’s grunge thing but you can’t just rewrite classics, you have to take what you love and fuse it with what comes from you. Chez, who writes the majority of the music is in love with bands like MachineHead so there’s a heavier side to the music too in places. The new members have influenced the new tracks so there’s a refreshing change to how we write songs but the one thing we’ve always been true to is dynamics, light and shade. There’s only one attitude you can have as a band at any level if you want fans and that’s to be professional in everything you do, nobody wants to watch and more importantly spend their money on a band who’s “just having a laugh.”
Enjoy your craft but don’t take the piss out of the public they’ll see right through you.
The band’s final gig was at the Firebug on Dec 20th 2014, how long after that did you (Chez and Sime) decide to resurrect the band, and why?
We (Chez and myself) started out as just the two of us and have been 90% responsible for the songwriting so during the end of 2014 we thought if it was possible to find the right people to get on board that kept the essence of Resin to justify keeping the name and also the band alive we’d give it a shot, I think we’ve done that and added something fresh at the same time. It’s still Resin just a bit dirtier.
This is a new line-up for the band, how were the new members chosen, through auditions or were they already friends of the band?
We initially sent out demos to interested people and although some of the stuff sent back was extremely good it didn’t hit the spot or it was too far from where people expect us to be sound wise, we were at the point of knocking it on the head to be honest. We’d tried every avenue, every vocalist that was interested didn’t fit, then out of the blue Dave Gandon, our favourite vocalist from pretty much all the bands we’ve gigged with rings me up saying his band has split and would we be interested in trying him out? Tagging along for the ride is Stu Reynolds on drums from the same now defunct band, (Twisted Species) who we’ve always respected and along with Dave known well for four years.
All of a sudden we just need a bass player (and if you’ve seen Sev our previous one those are big boots to fill) to complete the band. A quick chat with longtime friend Drask (who also wears big boots) and we are in a room rehearsing!!
The first gig with the new line-up was not a low key affair, but a baptism of fire as it was at the very first Breaking Bands festival. Did you not have time to do a warm up gig, or did you just think…Fuck it, let’s just do it?
Yeah most definitely, “Fuck it let’s do it!” We spent most of the weeks leading up to that gig writing new songs and recording the EP rather than rehearsing. It was a pretty nervy affair but it worked. We didn’t die, we went down great and the new lads were instantly accepted by long time fans that had gone to the festival purely to witness the reboot.
You received rave reviews over your Breaking Bands festival gig, did this help to cement the bands relationships with each other as a live unit?
I think it gave the new lads a confidence boost in all honesty, I can’t imagine how they felt walking out on that stage as part of a band that (I hope) has a solid background and decent fanbase. I’m sure they felt they were being judged not just by the crowd but Chez and myself as well. After playing though we knew it worked, ok it takes time to perfect but what a way to get things rolling!!
On a closing note we would like to thank Jason from Breaking Bands for having the belief in us without seeing or hearing the new lineup to find a slot and let us play the festival.
Your new EP is out in a month’s time – how do you feel it’s different this time around?
Massively!! Our first album, “Embrace the Fall” was recorded on a total budget of £80. We had great and awful feedback from it, the awful was more about the production than the songs. We then brought out a single, “Burn” to coincide with our Bloodstock appearance last year with a full studio production and with this EP I think we’ve stepped up yet again. Song wise it’s a clever mix, there’s a track we’ve gigged for a couple of years but never recorded so that’s nice for old fans. They’ll know the song and hear it from a different perspective, there’s a song written probably three years ago but never gigged and a song that’s brand new written by the “new” Resin as a collective.
It’s still Resin it’s just dirtier and bluesier.
Why have you chosen ‘Angel’ as the video?
We’ve always prided ourselves that our lyrics are always heartfelt and personal, Angel is a beautiful evocative poem in it’s own right. The lyrics in that song are the song, you could speak them and it still moves you, it was a no brainer to make it a lyric video, I’ve even turned the sound off it still works!
Did Andy ‘Sarge’ Pilkington bring anything to the table when you worked with him on the ‘Angel’ video, or did you guys already have a storyboard set out beforehand?
Andy is a diamond. I sent him maybe three or four pictures that I thought captured the essence of Angel and a brief back story to the song, he came back with what you see and it’s stunning. We’ve had feedback from people like “it made me cry,” and, “I’ve never been drawn into a lyric video before but I have now.”
What do you think about online music streaming, Spotify for example, whose royalties payment plan is laughable, do you think it devalues your hard work?
It is what it is, things change all the time you just have to deal with and make the most of any current situation. We won’t change anything if the big boys can’t, make it work for you, if people stream and like it give them a reason to buy it, e.g. great packaging, extra songs on CDs, little bonus bits that you just can’t stream.
You can’t stream vinyl, you can’t stream a handwritten thank you, you can’t stream the personal touch that will always be there. Connect with it.
So what’s next for the new Resin?
Hopefully no lineup changes for a fucking long time!!!
We have a couple of gigs before our Xmas party which is always great fun, some awesome stuff for next year coming up. Festivals, etc which is nice and we should really start putting the next album together, right now though we are just hugging each other because it works, and I’d like to think (with no disrespect to any former members) it’s better!
Thank you, and we here at Planetmosh wish you the best of luck.
