Jason Knight speaks to Tarin, Nick, Tom and Matt from Sanguine about all things rock, Bloodstock and doing things the DIY way.
Pure Rawk: Right, we are at Bloodstock, it’s Sunday afternoon, the sun has come out, and I’m sitting here with Sanguine, interviewing for Pure Rawk. You had an early-ish slot today. How do you feel it went?
N: Yeah, it was cool man, it was awesome…
PR: We came in for the start of your set, and it was really intense right from the start, so coming in from people just sitting in their deckchairs outside, to a tent full of full-on energy. What do you do to psyche yourselves up for a gig?
T: Red Bull and lots of hugging! [all laugh]
T: …yeah, we generally just try and get “in the zone” before we go on…
N: It’s a natural psyche; really, I mean we’ve kinda been together for so long, in a sense, as friends and stuff that it just kinda happens naturally. We’re all very much on the same page when it comes to playing live, we just want to pump it out as hard as we fucking can; as much aggression and energy, as much passion and stuff.
T: Yeah, we wanna give it some balls.
N: Yeah, definitely, so we always start from the off like that.
PR: So when did you start out ..?
T: 2004 was when we put Sanguine together, and we’ve been kinda going since then. Released a demo in 2007 that got reviewed by Rock Sound and it gave it a 9/10 which was just amazing; we thought “OK, we’ve got something here!”, and then 2009 was when we released our first E.P. “Live, Consume, Drive”, which brought a lot of attention, within the first few months Kerrang! and Scuzz TV played it on their playlists along with Propeller TV, and Propeller TV asked for it to be their soundtrack for the MetalTuunes show. So originally, when the program first started, “Live, Consume, Drive” was the theme tune to that.
N: …’cause ’til then we’d just been freaking out in our loft, and we had no idea whether or not people would throw cabbages or whether they’d like us, so we kinda threw it out there, and then we kinda like [awkward laughs]…
T: It’s been a very DIY project.
N: It’s very, very much DIY…
T: It’s been our DIY project in the sense that we did the recordings ourselves in our loft and everything, like the first EP, and this one, we’re kinda moving on, again it was self-recorded.
PR: So are you going forward with your own record label now, for the album?
N: We’ve recently been picked up by a German-based publisher/management company called Manta Ray and they’ve been helping us out a little bit, and we’ve got our long-standing manager Jules who’s been with us through from the smallest clubs to the big supports and all that sort of stuff, so he’s stuck with us from the start. Yeah, I suppose more and more people keep adding to the team, and it’s getting a bit bigger and bigger, and…
T: …it feels like it’s snowballed…
N: Yeah, big metal snowball!
PR: So how did you come to be playing Bloodstock; how did that all start?
T: We just got invited by the Bloodstock New Blood stage. I think it’s because we kind-of touched home with them last year, said “can we play?”, and they said “oh, we’ll come back next year, we’re too late to book you this year”… and then they did, they came back to us. Which again…
PR: …the whole momentum is there…
T: Yeah, helps the momentum.
N: Everyone is being nice to us! [laughs]
T: We’re not begging “please put us on!”, which is one of those things, it’s a huge compliment.
PR: People are listening, you’ve got a quality product …
T: Exactly, the name must be getting out there.
PR: I’ve got to ask about style, because in some ways it’s Metal, but there’s a lot of other stuff in there as well?
N: Yeah…
PR: I mean, I hear the vocal, the particular screamy vocal is completely Metal, obviously that fits this festival perfectly…
T: There’s a lot of other melodies in there as well.
N: I suppose it’s just the range of influences we’ve taken from. I mean, we listen to everything from Johnny Cash to Faith No More, we’ve got a really broad spectrum, and then we never really intended to be a Metal band as such, it was mainly Metallers that come to our shows, when we played locally, and that just kinda stuck.
T: Yeah, it started off as a Prog Rock band, and then dropped a member, became heavy and heavy and just ended up with the sound that we’ve got, so it was purely by accident that we became as heavy as we did, we just like going balls-out.
N: It’s more fun!
T: We realised that when we were on stage, we’re like “RRRgggghhh! I wanna do this! Yeah!”
N: And then obviously, we’ve always followed Metal bands as well, that’s a massive part of our listening, anything from Cannibal Corpse to Slipknot, all the regulars and stuff, but then some more out-there stuff as well, like Devin Townsend…
T: Everyone in the band’s got different influences. Matt really likes Tool and Isis and stuff like that. Tom’s into his Wildhearts…
N: Rammstein and all that sort of stuff…,
T: So Nick and me, we went to college, it was big Grunge fans, you know, back in the day [laughs]
N: So I saw Soundgarden, Alice In Chains, they were a big influence on me when I was younger…
T: The hardcore, just the Gods, Metallica, always staple, in a sense.
PR: So is there a description of your sound?
N: Ha ha ha, it’s just eclectic, basically.
T: Schizophrenic Banshee Metal?
N: We’ve been called everything, just about, yeah schizophrenic. We’ve been compared to a lot of bands, and I think… we’re just Sanguine! [laughs] That’s probably the closes we can describe it as.
T: Yeah ’cause it’s not like other female bands where it’s very Goth and it’s very orchestral, we’ve got orchestral elements in some of our songs, but the other times we’re just like the growl, the scream, and I’ve got a kinda high-pitched banshee-scream going on in there, and then it drops back down into normal vocals.
PR: So does this mean you’re very mellow when you’re not on stage, ’cause all the anger gets let out when you’re singing?
T: Ah, sometimes.
[all laugh]
N: Depends what day..! [laughs]
T: I’m pretty mellow, I have my moments! [laughs]
PR: so you’ve got a London show coming up next week…
N: That’s right, the Water Rats on Saturday, yeah. Looking forward to that, man, it’s going to be good.
PR: …nice little venue…
N: Yeah, it’s a decent venue that is. Be nice to be on that stage, ’cause I think that’s where Bob Dylan started, right..? [laughs] I’ve been random…
T; It’s quite a historical venue that, isn’t it?
N: It’s got a lot of history, yeah.
T: … so we’re really looking forward to that. And we’ve got a big London fan base as well as South West, so we’re starting to grow in London.
PR: So after the Water Rats, what’s the next six months or so going to hold for you?
T: Well, tour: we’re in discussions to get a tour at the moment, so we’re just waiting on confirmation before we can release any details. Same with the album, because we’ve got the 3rd October our single comes out, “For Love”, and then it’s followed up by an album in the new year, so it’s kinda like a sneak-peek of the album? So yeah, lots of things to be pencilled in, to be confirmed.
N: And so we’re also demoing new stuff as well. There’s a while bunch of stuff going on behind the scenes at the moment in terms of: we’re writing more, we’re demoing more, so there’s a constant overlap of more material.
T: …yeah, we’re already demoing for the next album.
PR: So the album that’s about to be released, that’s all recorded up?
N: Yup, that’s all been done, that’s all finished…
T: … just waiting, but we’ve got this single coming out, so that’s “For Love” and then the B-Side will be “Anger Song” so it gives you kind of a glimpse into what will be on the album.
N: I suppose the intention is for us to release quite a lot, because… to get people used to the range of sounds, you notice that if you put out one song that people tend to think “ah, this is that type of band”, but then they get the next one and “ah, OK, it’s not that type of band”, so we’re just going to have to put out as much as possible…
T: Yeah, but you just have to come and see us live, and see a whole set, to get what we’re about.
N: Definitely, yeah.
PR: … and certainly with the album, the thing I picked up from the blurb was recording locations: “Pig sty, burned-out aircraft hangar, above a sex shop…”
N: [laughs] Yeah, we pick our places!
T: …’cause we’re begging all the time…
[all laugh]
T: We just basically find these spaces to be creative in, and it’s just a case of “well, that’ll do, it’s fine.” A loft, a sex shop, well we didn’t care. [laughs] Just give us a space…
N: … just a very big space we can make a fuck load of noise in!
[all laugh]
PR: Who engineers it then?
N: It’s a mixture. We started off with just a friend of ours, Owen Gleeson but he’s got a really good ear for sound. And since then, we’ve been working with Mikee Goodman from Sikth, and he approached us after our first release…
T: He was an excellent vocal coach, in the sense of “this is what you can do with recording”; he’s a guru on vocals, really.
N: The stuff that we’ve just recorded was recorded by Chris Clancy and Dan Bage who are both in an American band called Mutiny Within on Roadrunner (I think they just left Roadrunner, actually…) but they toured most of last year with Soulfly and Machine Head, all sorts of bands…
T: …so people that we kind of click with, we go in, and we just start recording, and you think “ah well, I can work with you”, you understand the project.
PR: It’s quite an organic thing, yep; people show an interest in you and know which direction they can take you in…
T: I mean: we’ve had some offers to work with some big names, but every time we do, they don’t really get what you’re about, so it’s kind of easier to do it with someone who actually understands you as a project as a whole.
N: It’s also who’s got passion and drive, that real thirst to make it sound right, so that’s definitely been a big factor.
PR: So after this, do you get to kick back and relax and enjoy the rest of the festival?
N: We’ve got a couple more interviews, then we’re done, but it’s been awesome…
T: yeah, we get to have a few beers now, finally!
N: …and watch Motörhead, witch I’m really looking forward to.
T: That’s a good reward, isn’t it? A few beers, Motörhead: yes!
[all laugh]
N: (It’s a good day off, man.)
PR: I’ve got to ask you what I’ve asked everyone so far, if you had to give people one compelling reason to listen to your band, what would that reason be?
N: We’d kill a kitten for everyone who doesn’t!
[all laugh]
T: [Sarcastic] Yeah, good one! Yeah, that’s it. No, um… [laughs] I think we’ve got something different to offer in terms of female fronted bands. It is a mixture of techniques, in the sense that it’s not just Opera Metal, and it’s not just Punk Metal; it’s a bit of everything.
N: We’re sort of trying to create a new female sound, really.
T: Yeah, we want to write songs, just songs that you can take away with you, and the soundtrack to your life, that’s what we want to be about.
M: I can genuinely say there’s not many other people who actually sound like us. So unique, definitely.
T: We’re proud of that.
Flying the flag for British rock and metal (literally).
Check out Sanguine at www.facebook.com/sanguineband or www.sanguineband.com. All photos by Trudi Knight, words / interview by Jason Knight.
