Empire State Bastard have revealed how former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo obtained concerned with their excessive metallic band – and why they took him to Greggs.
Empire State Bastard is the brand new excessive metallic challenge created by Biffy Clyro’s Simon Neil and former Oceansize frontman Mike Vennart, and options Lombardo on drums alongside Bitch Falcon’s bassist Naomi Macleod.
Talking in a current interview for NME’s In Dialog sequence, Neil revealed that the pair spent two weeks speaking about drummers who may “play like Dave Lombardo” earlier than sooner or later throughout the pandemic they mentioned: “Lets simply fucking get Dave Lombardo’s deal with and e-mail him?”
“Inside 24 hours he obtained again and was like, ‘That is fucking nice, what are you pondering?’ We’d by no means even met him, however ended up with this on-the-phone relationship for a few 12 months or so,” Neil continued.
“He actually understood what we had been making an attempt to do with this album and band. He’s so busy and will get approached for lots of issues, however as quickly as he got here again and mentioned, ‘That is particular, I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna play with you and make this document’ – that’s once we went, ‘Proper, that is fucking occurring.’”
“We needed to shift into gear, as a result of if Dave Lombardo says it’s a superb bunch of songs then you understand you’re onto one thing! We’ve been doing this for twenty years, however he makes us need to do it for an additional twenty years,” mentioned Neil. “We’re nonetheless not fairly used to it although, are we?”
“No, in no way,” continued Vennart. “It’s one factor being on stage, that’s exhausting sufficient in itself, however you wanna attempt going to Greggs with him. He’s like, ‘What’s these things?’”
Neil added: “Mike had him in each fucking grocery store in Todmorden the place we had been rehearsing – Lidl, Aldi, Morrissons – searching for fucking Brylcreem!”
The pair then revealed they’d taken Lombardo down the center aisle at Lidl. “He was like, ‘Wow, this place has all the things!’ He got here out with an organ-grinder,” mentioned Vennart earlier than Neil added: “You should purchase a bridal robe and a few haggis. Welcome to Britain. He did marvel why there wasn’t a lot recent fruit and greens and we needed to clarify: ‘These days are gone, Dave’.”
Empire State Bastard is rounded out by Naomi Macleod from Bitch Falcon on bass. “She’s the glue on this organisation,” Vennart informed NME. “She’s completely marvellous. She carries herself so effectively and she or he’s such a bad-ass participant, man: so heavy, so loud, so brutal.”
Neil added: “Mike’s identified Naomi for some time and knew that she was simply the right individual to play these songs. We could be a bit flappy, however she has this stoicism that introduced us down once we had been getting nervous and adrenalised. Seems that after the present she was shitting herself as effectively!”
“She additionally brings soul to the music, which is why I believe this music is particular,” he continued. “Should you don’t hearken to a lot excessive music you then may wrestle to search out the soul in it, however this document and the music we play is jam-packed with it. We’re very fortunate.”
Elsewhere within the interview the pair spoke about debut album ‘Rivers Of Heresy’ and the way forward for the band, whereas Neil gave an replace on his different side-projects Marmaduke Duke and Trippie Toe.
The band are attributable to play Glastonbury Competition subsequent weekend as a part of a European competition tour. Take a look at the dates under:
JUNE
21-25 – UK, Glastonbury, Earache Takeover
JULY
07 – UK, 2000trees Competition
21 – Norway, Malakoff Rockfestival
AUGUST
02 – 05 – Germany, Wacken Open Air
17 – UK, ArcTanGent
