Seven Sisters Interview – May 2017

Hailing from London, these talented ‘London leatherboy’ lads are cooking up a storm in the UK and beyond! They put on a fantastic hip swinging, beer soaked live show to brighten up your miserable lives. Their brand new self titled album Seven Sisters is available to buy, they are gigging around Europe, and if you were kicking yourself because you thought you missed them with Tokyo Blade (totally ballsed up that question) you can in fact still see them! “But where can I see them?” I hear you ask, “and where can I listen to their music?” you utter, “and where can I buy loads of awesome shit?”, fear not and read on.

1. Let’s start at the beginning, Graeme and Kyle are the founding fathers of the project as far as I am aware, how did that come about?

Yeah that’s correct. Myself and Kyle had known each other for a few years, and had been talking about doing some sort of musical project ever since he moved down to London. When we eventually got off our arses and did something about it, it all came together pretty quickly and we’d written the 4 songs that ended up being The Warden demo tape in a matter of weeks. It wasn’t really a full band at that stage, more of a recording project I guess, so we recorded the demo with Kyle playing bass, our buddy Josh Winnard from Dark Forest on vocals and the drums are programmed. We were slightly surprised by how well that tape was received, so ended up putting together an actual line-up to play shows after that. So Steve came in on the drums, Kyle took over vocal duties and Adam came in on the bass. We’ve been a proper gigging band ever since.

2. I loved that the band was named after a sign on the front of the tube, it really is a great name for a NWOBHM-inspired heavy metal project. Were there any other names you considered? Euston would’ve been cool.

Haha, I’m not sure Euston has quite the same ring to it in all honesty. Maybe you start a Heavy Metal band called Euston and see how far you get? =P I’m not actually sure if we had any other names in consideration. Seven Sisters was a name Kyle already had in mind when we started writing songs together, and I liked it immediately so we just went with it. I can’t remember there being too much of a discussion. Despite being initially inspired by a shithole in North London, Seven Sisters can have several other meanings and be interpreted on a number of different levels, so I think it works pretty well as a band name on the whole.

3. The logo is really evocative with it’s mythical, witchcraft vibe. Who designed it?

The logo was designed by a guy called Chris Horst over in the States. He was brilliant to work with, super professional and delivered a great logo that we love, so we’d recommend him to anybody. If anybody’s interested in checking out his stuff, his website is: http://www.horst-art.com/

4. I have seen you guys 3 times, all in London and you always get a really energised reception, what has it been like touring in other cities? I see you are playing France later this year!

Yeah the London shows have got really intense over the last few years. I guess it’s because we play there more often than anywhere else, so people have got to know the songs through seeing us live multiple times. We don’t quite get that level of reaction elsewhere, which is to be expected, but there have definitely been memorable nights elsewhere in the country. A sweaty night in Manchester last summer sticks out in particular. Hopefully we’ll eventually get that kind of reception everywhere, but that will only come through touring and playing the rest of the country more regularly, which we’re more than willing to do.

And yeah we have a few shows in France in November this year. It should be fun as we’ve never played there before. France is usually just a country we drive through to get to Germany or Belgium or somewhere like that to play a festival, so it’ll be nice to actually get out of the car and play some shows. I’m looking forward to the food over there too, as those guys love their cheese and know how to cook a steak!

5. What was it like sharing the stage with Tokyo Blade at Brofest in Newcastle? I was so gutted I missed it.

We actually played Brofest back in 2015, so sadly not the same year as Tokyo Blade. We did play on the same bill as them at Harder Than Steel in Germany last year though, which was awesome, and we’re supporting them at their London show later this month, which should be a great night too!

Brofest was a fun experience when we played as well though. It was like our fourth or fifth ever show at the time, so it was pretty scary being on such a big stage and on the same bill as so many great bands, but we enjoyed it once we got going. I think to be honest it probably came a bit too early for us, as our live show wasn’t anything like it is now back then. We’d love to come back at some time in the future and give the Brofest crowd a proper Seven Sisters show!

6. I love the ‘crystal ball’ tshirt design you guys have just released, by Jack atSeventhBell Artwork. How did that come about?

Yeah we love those shirts too. Jack’s a mate of mine, and we initially asked him to design a poster for our album launch show back in October. He came up with the crystal ball design, and we loved it so much we just had to use it on a shirt too. I think those shirts are easily the best piece of merch we’ve had so far, and it’s definitely been our best-selling shirt so far too as I think we only have a couple left now. Even I haven’t managed to grab one yet!

7. The Vinyl press by High Roller Records of the new record looks amazing! Are you pleased with them?

Very pleased! It had been a lifelong dream to release a proper album on vinyl, so it was a really exciting day when our box of records arrived from Germany and we were able to see what they looked like. It had been a long wait too, as we finished recording that album in about March last year and it wasn’t released until October. Totally worth it though. They sound fantastic too, so High Roller did a great day all round on those.

8. Where can we buy the album and t-shirts and other Seven Sisters goodies?

The best place to buy them is from us at a show as that way we can hang out and drink some beers! But for those unable to make it down to a gig, we have a Big Cartel page where people can buy all our shit online. The address for that is: http://sevensistersuk.bigcartel.com/ People over in Europe can also by the CDs and LPs from High Roller.

9. Any messages to your adoring fans?

Thanks for the incredible support right from day one, and we hope to be able to see as many of you as possible on the road this year. We love you guys!

10. And finally, do tell us about any shows coming up and what else we should be looking out for.

Well the next gig is the Tokyo Blade show I mentioned earlier, at the Black Heart in Camden on May 20^th. After that, we’re playing Metal Brew with Grim Reaper, Skyclad and a ton of other cool bands on July 15^th which should be a great day. We’re playing down in Southampton with our mates in Toledo Steel on August 4^th, and then August 6^th we’re playing an all-dayer over in Limerick in Ireland. And then there’s the French shows in November that we talked about earlier.

We’re always on the lookout for more though, as playing live is what we do best and what we love to do most. So if anyone reading this wants to bring Seven Sisters to their town, get in touch and let’s make it happen!

Thanks again guys, all the best!

Thanks for having us, take it easy and all the best!