Empress

Empress are currently tearing up the UK on tour with Bring Me The Horizon. With their debut album recorded and a busy summer ahead, it looks like big things are afoot for the prog rockers.


Music News: So you're in Manchester tonight to kick off the first night of the Bring Me The Horizon tour, are you stoked to be on the tour?

Tom Meadon (Guitar): Yeah we can't wait to get out there.

Music News: Are there any dates that you're looking forward to playing particularly?

Edd Unwin (Drums): I think we're looking forward to pretty much all of the dates but some of the dates that are a bit closer to us like London could be really cool. I don't think there's any kind of bias going towards any dates though because they'll all be amazing, they're all sold out so it should be pretty cool.

Music News: You're a relatively new band having only formed in 2011, give us a brief rundown on all things Empress.

Ollie Loring (Vocals & guitar): We started really because we were in bands before and we just hated the music that we were playing, we felt like we were playing music to appease other people. Ed, Alex and I all started jamming it took us like three years to write stuff and then Tom joined to give us the perfect combination. We got the three first songs 'Perplexed Again', 'Left in Awe' and 'Nostalgia' finished and people seemed to like it so it's gone from there really. The main thing is writing music that we want to hear, that's always been our ethos, we've never wanted to follow any scene. It's worked so far.

Music News: How have you been finding people's reaction to Empress at gigs?

Ollie: It's always been good but first of all we'd played in different bands for 4-5 years so it was a bit weird but gradually as we've got better live the crowd reaction's been better as well. It's been cool and it's really fun to play new music in front of people especially since we've just released this new music video as well so hopefully some people will know the song.

Edd: I think that because we're still a new band and we're still fairly unknown it's been one of those things where it takes a little while to get going but we've been on some really good tours and it seems that now people are starting to recognise who we are and they seem to like what we're doing so it's good to get some good feedback in the crowd when we play.

Music News: Like you just said, you've recently put out the music video for 'Deeper in Disguise', what was it like to film?

Tom: It was very last minute, I think we'd only decided the venue a couple of days before but it's a really cool place. We had one of our friends Ross doing it and he's super professional so yeah it was really good.

Music News: Why did you choose to release 'Deeper in Disguise' as a single?

Ollie: I think it was mostly because of the length of the song and it was also best suited for a video, not in a single way though because with none of our songs we want to be like 'oh that's a single' but the song really suits the video and the ideas and concept of it. We wanted to set a good precedent straight away but all of the songs on the album are awesome, none of them are filler, we love them all just the same.

Music News: What's the reaction been like to it?

Tom: It's been pretty amazing really.

Ollie: Yeah we're always really happy to get positive feedback from people whether they're fans that have come down to shows, people that have just discovered us or people like Daniel P Carter who are in powerful positions. So it's nice to get feedback from people that are respected across the industry.

Music News: You played your first ever festival the other day when you appeared at Hit The Deck, what was it like popping your festival cherry?

Ollie: Yeah it was our first festival as a band, the Bristol date was a bit weird because all of the venues were all so far away from each other, it was really fun though. Nottingham was awesome, it was so good and we got to see Feed The Rhino and a couple of other bands afterwards. Hopefully it gives us a taste for the summer when we're playing some more festivals.

Music News: Yeah you're playing a bunch more festivals this summer, which ones are you most looking forward to playing?

Ollie: All of them really but Download is going to be insane.

Edd: Yeah that's going to be awesome.

Music News: What will it be like actually being on stage there rather than watching bands play for a change?

Tom: I don't think it's something that we've really had time to think about a great deal, I mean we went to Download last year and we got to see some really awesome bands but it's something that I don't know how the feeling is going to be until I get up there. I think I will be really nervous because of the prestige of the festival itself and the amount of people that will be watching us. It's a different environment for us because we're playing in a tent so there's different acoustics and the sound for us probably won't be as good as it will be for people at the front but we're just going to lap it up and enjoy it as much as we can because we're looking forward to it.

Music News: Playing at Download will be different to a normal gig as well because you've got to draw people in to see you rather than the bigger bands.

Edd: Yeah we're hoping it rains haha!

Music News: You've wrapped up the recording of your debut album, how was the whole process for you?

Tom: It was pretty intense really for a month but so rewarding having the final product afterwards, we all love it and think it's awesome, we can't wait to put it out.

Music News: How did the actual songwriting go?

Ollie: It was good, it was very last minute though, I think we had five songs and we had a month to record the album so we had to write another five songs insanely quick. For a lot of stuff that was the best way but with the vocals on some of the songs I didn't have the lyrics until the day of recording, I think sometimes rather than being too prepared it's good to have a bit of spontaneity to it.

Edd: It's wicked to be able to get creative in a studio as well, like Ollie was saying with his vocals it's the same with all of us. You have certain ideas and concepts for what you want to do but sometimes you'll get thrown into a situation which you're not used to and everything changes at the flick of a switch. But it's good because obviously we got spend a lot of time in there and it really gets the creativeness out each person so I really enjoyed it.

Ollie: We got a bit of cabin fever as well because I was at the studio for a week and I didn't leave there once.

Edd: I think I watched every episode of Storage Wars! We watched Gangs of New York five times as well and I feel asleep and missed the ending every time.

Music News: Are there any themes that run throughout the album at all?

Ollie: Lyrically I suppose there is a bit, we wanted to get the album to flow musically as well and I think that it does, rather than sounding like separate songs where it can get a bit boring. If you listen to Dark Side of The Moon by Pink Floyd it flows nicely and we wanted to try and get that, I don't know if we've achieved it, I think we have but hopefully people will think the same. That was the main thing though, trying to get it to sound like it was one thing rather than just individual songs.

Music News: So when can we expect the album to be released?

Ollie: I think we're aiming for around September, obviously it depends on labels and stuff like that but that's when we'd like it out by.

Music News: What do you want to get out of the rest of this year as a band?

Tom: More tours hopefully, I think we just want to play as much as we can, whether it be on tour or playing festivals. We don't really care, we just want to play to as many people as we possibly can.


Empress will be playing several festivals this year including Download Festival and Hevy Festival.