Exclusive Sonic Boom Six Interview

We were fortunate enough to catch-up with Barney Boom, the bassist and vocalist from Sonic Boom Six recently, where he was able to shed some light on the direction of their music for the next album, as well as discussing their debut appearance at Sonisphere this summer and shares a few festival stories along the way. We leave you in the capable hands of Tom Forster who is asking the questions today.

You’ve been announced to play the Red Bull Bedroom Jam stage at Sonisphere, how are you feeling about it? Are you approaching it any differently to a normal show?

Yeah, we’re absolutely stoked about it, we’re always looking forward to doing any festival that we haven’t played before. Obviously, it’s more of a metal crowd than we would normally play to in theory but festivals are festivals. People tend to be open-minded and up for it at a festival so it’s all good. We’re not approaching it any differently than any other festival gig in terms of the set and all that. If you start running around trying to cater to specific people at certain gigs you’re just chasing your tail. You are what you are and people are either going to get it or not, especially with a band like us. We’re proud to be playing Sonisphere, it has such a rich history, I remember taping Pantera and Sepultura and Therapy? playing Donnigton on the radio in like 1994 or something way back in the day when we still used cassettes so it’s pretty mad to think we’re playing what that festival evolved into.

You recently released “New Style Rocka”. Will it be featuring on a new album and if so, will there be any new material ready for Sonisphere?

We aren’t sure whether or not we’re going to stick it on the album yet. We’ve already recorded 3 songs and now we’re going to the studio to record another eleven songs so we’ll put the album together from those 14. I reckon it’ll probably end up on there but who knows? Definitely going to be playing a good few new tunes at Sonisphere, the new stuff is great festival fodder that gets you involved first listen.

Are you going to be around for the whole weekend? If so who else will you be checking out?

No, I don’t think we’ll be there all weekend but we’ll be about on the day we’re playing and checking bands out. It’d be cool to see Limp Bizkit and Slipknot cos they’re on the same day we are. But elsewhere on the festival we’d be stoked to see Tek-One, Rolo Tomassi and The Big Four.

At Sonisphere you’ll be going up against some huge names – Limp Bizkit, Slipknot etc. How does it feel to be mentioned alongside such bands, and are you looking forward to playing against them?

Yeah, it’s cool to be on big shows with big bands, it makes it all very bona fide. We don’t feel like we’re playing against them, we’re doing our thing on our stage and they’re doing their thing on a bigger stage. I loved Limp Bizkit’s first couple of albums and James, our guitarist, is a huge Slipknot fan. I’ve never really got into them but they’re phenomenal live.

Tell us how you go about devising setlists; do you have a rigid set of songs or do you like to mix it up? Will you be playing a range of songs from across your back catalogue or do you have a particular set of songs you’re into right now?

We really aren’t one of those bands that mixes and matches. Because there is so much going on in terms of the sampler and backing tracks we like to get a set sorted out before a tour and really get into perfecting that set from start to finish. At the moment, we’re definitely erring towards the new songs and the songs from our back catalogue that have a synergy with the newer material in terms of the sound. We always keep a few of the old ska-punk classics on side as well to please the fans. It’s important to bear in mind the set is for them but you also need to challenge yourself to keep it interesting and make it feel like it’s developing. It’s a balancing act.

Who are you listening to right now? Is anything past or present capturing your imagination or inspiring you?

I’ve really been trying not to get too tied up in listening to one particular band as we’re writing the album because you don’t want it to start sounding exactly like someone else. Across the last few weeks we’ve been really getting into production ideas and listening to acts like Skrillex, Pendulum, Freestylers, Enter Shikari and a whole host of jungle and dubstep stuff to get ideas of how to really mix the rock stuff in with decent dancefloor music.

When you look at line ups for Sonisphere, Download, and Reading/Leeds, where do you feel most at home? Where does your style fit best?

I guess out of those three, Reading and Leeds feels like home because of the punk tent which we’ve played like three times and we’ve even played the main stage. I think that’s the obvious port of call for us. It was funny because the other day Sonisphere put our new video up on their Facebook [page] and got like a non-stop torrent of abuse to the extent the Sonisphere person online had to kind of say something! You kind of read the replies and go, ‘oh, all this stuff about kids being more open-minded nowadays was a bit premature’ but at the same time, it is a metal festival and that really wasn’t a metal tune. You’re always going to get people that don’t like you but if you can get a response that strong, at least you know that you are inspiring the opposite response in kids that do like you. Our style mixes up all kinds of rock, dance, ska and punk and metal so I guess that Reading/Leeds is the best fit but it’s really exciting and cool to go out of your comfort zone. We have a strong live show, we can pull it out of the bag, we always go over well at festivals so I don’t see Sonisphere being any different, I think it will be great.

What are your favourite memories of playing or attending festivals? Any good stories to tell?

Jesus, straight away is Glastonbury 2005. We basically won this weird Battle of The Bands thing to play, but we didn’t even win it. We hate battle of the bands but the organiser of it basically just wanted us to do it so that he could put us on the Leftfield stage at Glasto and we didn’t win, but we still played the stage. So the whole thing felt a little weird but we got there and set up tent. 6am and water starts pouring into the tents. We get up and the entire site is flooded. And by flooded I mean it is absolutely biblical. And the rain keeps going, everything is falling down, everything is in utter turmoil. For the first half of the day, none of the bands ended up playing. Slowly but surely, across the whole day, things started to return to normal but the vast expanses of mud meant that tents and belongings had been swept away and people were in really bad ways. A few people even died, it was that bad. So we played in the mid afternoon but the whole trauma of the flood was definitely still what people were thinking about so it was kind of muted. By the evening, things had calmed down, we went and enjoyed ourselves and the fact that people were out and enjoying themselves again, it felt like a testament to man’s resilience. It was on the news and all that the flooding was that severe. I’ve got lots of stories about attending festivals but none I could really tell here. They all involve something illegal of some description!

You’re known for fusing together lots of different styles and evolving your sound with each new release. What sort of thing can we expect from you in the future?

The new stuff has way more of a dance music sensibility to it but it also takes in some of the recent mixes in metal and dubstep that have been exciting us, so in a way it’s more heavy than stuff we’ve done before. I’d have to say it’s the least ‘punk’ we’ve been, there’s not really any double-time or ska-punk stuff. I know that’s going to piss some kids off that are fans but they’ll always have the other stuff to go back to! What’s exciting us now is something that sounds massive and all has the streaks of electronica in it. There’s way more rapping by me. I think it’s almost more of the original idea of the band in terms of what it sounds like. I think it’s more accessible than the madness of our early stuff. It’s important to us that we move on and we don’t want to leave our old fans behind but we think there are other people out there that haven’t ever heard us that are going to be into this. The first steps towards it you can hear on ‘New Style Rocka’ and ‘What Doesn’t Kill You Make You Stronger’ but we’re going much further on the album.

How do you go about making and recording the music that you do? Are the different styles a result of different tastes throughout the band? Is it the result of a lot of jamming?

It’s definitely not the result of a lot of jamming, there’s only a couple of the new songs that have any element of us sitting there together and playing. Our whole approach has changed a lot along with the changes of musical style really. A huge part of the dancier element of the music has come from writing the music straight onto software on a computer rather than sitting in a room and jamming it out. So that makes the whole process different, you’re really working on creating something that someone’s going to listen to rather than a song for a live set. It’s better in lots of ways but you do lose that magic of ideas coming together in terms of riffs and arrangements that really only appear when jamming in a room. One of us will come in with an idea or riff and then we’ll take it from there. The different styles aren’t really a result of different tastes, because we’re generally all aware of what styles and vibes we’re heading for in any particular tune we’re working on. I’m sure different vibes come through from stuff individuals like but it’s really not a case of one of us liking on thing and another liking another and then sticking them together. I think that would just end up in a bit of a mess!

There’s a lot of doom and gloom around the music industry and in particular rock music at the moment. How are you finding it right now? Do you think it’s harder to break out and “make it” today?

It’s extremely difficult. I hate negative thinking and doom and gloom but you can’t ignore the fact that the CD market has dropped and dropped and if people want to hear a song they can just go and do it on the internet, nine out of ten times for free. It’s a dismal state of affairs but no one is holding a gun to our head and telling us to do this. I don’t know if it’s any harder to break out and make it, I think it’s the same as it ever was, but certainly the rewards at the end of the road for a mid-level rock band are a lot less substantial financially than they once were when records were selling. People that point out the different opportunities the internet has given bands are really misaligned as to how insignificant all that stuff is compared to the magnitude of CD sales to a band. None of it even goes any way near to filling that gap.

Where do you prefer to play your gigs? A festival main stage? Tents? Bars? Academies? Where do you have the most fun?

It’s not the venue so much as the crowd and vibe. You can play a tiny pub and it’s more fun than a huge festival and vice versa you can play in front of 3000 and it’s more intimate than a room of 30. If people are into it and responsive and are up for a dance and a sing and a good gig, that’s the most fun. We’ve never been a band that’s bothered about playing a certain size venue. Part of the fun of live music is the unpredictability of it. We don’t want every gig to be the same and there really aren’t any hard and fast rules for which is fun.

What don’t you get asked about enough in interviews? What would you like to be asked?

We don’t get asked enough what question we’d like to be asked. If I could have one question to be asked more often it would definitely be ‘what would you like to be asked?’; it’s just a great question, it really puts the interviewee in the driving seat. If you want to, you can even jump to the next question, which could be the last!

Finally, if you want to pimp anything: Tour, CD or anything at all, now’s your chance!

Well, we’re recording our new album now but our new single ‘Sunny Side of the Street’ will be available in time for the festivals in July so head over to www.sonicboomsix.co.uk and check that out! Thanks so much for the interview, and thanks to you for reading! See you at Sonisphere.