The Burning Crows

Prior to their headlining gig at the Borderline, I met up with Norwich rocksters The Burning Crows in their dressing room for an interview. I am greeted by Whippz, Lance, Will and Chris as if I were Queen Saba – hey, doing interviews can be fun!

The guys are laid back and warm, and obviously in great spirits to play the Borderline. As frontman Whippz tells me before I start throwing my questions, it’s the first time the band is playing that particular venue and they are excited about it. I can’t help thinking that this is the doing of Matt Goom, the band’s manager and also super-talented drummer of The Quireboys - who set the same venue ablaze not too long ago, or so I read.

Music-News:
Ok guys, what’s been happening since I saw you play at the Intrepid Fox a few months ago?

Whippz:
Well, we released our EP ‘Never had It So Good’ back in March and that was received real well. So after that it’s been a large thing just getting the tour together.

MN:
So tell me about the tour then, how’s that looking?

Whippz/Lance:
Oh great, we’re going everywhere. Started in Norwich on Saturday, then Wolverhampton last night, here in London tonight, then we’re heading down to Sheffield, Newcastle, Glasgow, Belfast, Dublin, Cardiff, Nottingham… In Dublin we gonna play two shows, one in the afternoon at the Phil Lynott Exhibition, which is going to be incredible. And then in the evening we play at The Academy – a full set as well. So you know, it’s great and we’re real excited about playing in Ireland.

MN:
It’s early days into the tour of course, but what has been the response so far?

Whippz/Lance/Will:
It’s been really good you know. All the people, including the media who come to see the shows, always seem to be really into it. A fair bit also comes from media having reviewed our EP you know, they’ve been saying things like “Oh this is really cool, do get involved”, so people get curious to check out our gigs. The band is always up for anything, so it’s just a real positive and good vibe. And we also seem to be incredibly lucky getting asked for interviews and things.

MN:
You guys also work on a new album I believe. What can we expect from that?

Crows united:
Well, it’s still going to run in the same vein; it’s still our brand but it’s going to pick up from the EP. So we probably make it a bit more developed on a couple of songs in. We gonna use the same studio and we gonna use the same producer (Nick Brine), so basically it’s working with our team. I mean the thing with the EP was that we didn’t know how people were going to respond, we just put it out. But as I said the response has just been really incredible. So that encouraged us to really invest a lot of time and effort in the new album. I mean, the new songs are all going to be incredible. Best thing you’ve ever gonna hear, haha.

MN:
So who is the chief songwriter, who is the Crow with the most input?

Whippz:
It’s gotta be Chris, our glass eye bitch drummer.

Chris:
Yeah… I write all the songs. These guys do absolutely nothing! Nah, I write my parts but that’s about it.

The others:
Nah he’s not. You see, he’s in denial about his glass eye, and he has a temper.
Seriously, we just play with ideas and take it all to the studio, then see what works best. As for our topics, you know we’re not trying to change the world, we’re not the most political people in world – really we’re not. Though what’s been happening to Pussy Riot, that’s just really bad!

MN:
With all the accumulating tour stress and being busy with penning new material, is there ever a moment when you think ‘It would be great to put up our feet and rest for a while’?

Whippz/Lance:
Haha, no! We’ve not been putting our feet up for two years now. This (ref. to the interview – Ed.) is putting our feet up. Now that all’s rolling having a day off is luxury. We got two days off in fourteen days, I mean, that’s a holiday!

MN:
Any groupies knocking on your doors yet?

Lance/Whippz:
We could possibly name a few, but then they never call us, haha. We look forward to seeing you later on, haha.

MN:
Of all the shows lined up, which is the one you look forward to the most?

Crows united:
It’s just mad because all the places we’re playing we never played before. They’re all kinda first time for us. I mean last night was Sunday night in Wolverhampton and you think “Gawd, I wonder what it’s going to be like” but when we got there it was incredible. The place was kinda rammed and everyone was just really up for it. The support bands were great and it all looks as if it’s just getting better and better. The buzz just grows as you go on, you know.

MN:
Any future plans for touring other places in Europe?

Crows united:
Well not so much outside the UK just yet, but yeah we talked about it actually. People want to see us in Japan and in the USA and some places in Europe, it’s like people want us all over the place you know. So we gonna look at the situation and see what we can do.

MN:
I’m sure that you can do it and will do it. Meanwhile, I look forward to checking you out tonight.

Crows:
Cheers Claudia and thanks! See you outside.

(Please read my Burning Crows review in the ‘Live Gigs’ section)