Firebrand Super Rock are coming over Hadrian’s Wall to destroy your town! A four-piece full-on guitar assault from the caverns of historic Edinburgh, their sound encompasses the environment they come from, dark, hard and fast passed but with melody. Forming in 2004 the band are currently unsigned and juggle their day jobs with whatever touring they can manage. Earning themselves a reputation for their ferocious live show the music press is starting to create a buzz around them. I caught up with them supporting AC/DC tribute band AC/BC, in the Bongo Club Edinburgh to get an update on their progress so far. 

Obvious first question but how and who came up with the name?

FSR: A few years ago Victoria wine used to sell a wine called Firebrand which was cheap as chips and amazing, we used to get through cases of it and when we decided to form a band we thought of Firebrand Super Rock. There is a beer called Superbok, and I remember getting through a case and we just decided to call our band Firebrand Super Rock.

Personally I thing it’s a great name, it makes a statement without being too pretentious however sometimes statements need to be made.

FSR:  Well we don’t take ourselves too seriously.

So how did you all get together?

FSR: Frazer and Jamie formed a band and they were jamming with another drummer, singer and guitarist. The drummer was one of my friends from Perth and I used to sing sometimes for his band and he said if you want to sing try this band out, and when I listened to them I said fuck yeah! They just had a lot of balls, I’d like to audition for that and so I joined the band. Then we went through a few drummers. How many have we had now? Five I think?

That’s encroaching on Spinal Tap territory, they went through a few drummers.

FSR: Not that many they don’t explode or anything like that. We’ve been with Bruce for two years now.

So have you been in any other bands before Firebrand Super Rock?

FSR: No not really. Laura was in another band but it was just not very much, we drunk too much and didn’t practice enough. This is Bruce’s twenty third band he’s defiantly the seasoned member of the band.

You can tell because the rhythm section of your band is very tight. On your website www.myspace.com/firebrandsuperrock   you state your influences as Metallica, Iron Maiden and classic rock but, influences aside, how would you describe your music to someone who has never heard you?

FSR: You would have to say it’s loud, abrasive and noisy.

I would have to agree it is abrasive it would strip the flesh off your bones. Your not known for your ballads though?

FSR : We did think about doing an album purely of power ballads. (Joking).

So who does most of the writing for the band?

FSR: Jamie comes up with the beasting riffs and Laura does the lyrics. We come up with ideas pile them together and just jam them out until we have something.

What about personal influences, who inspired you to pick up your instruments or sing?

FSR: It was kind of weird actually because I was never musical, I would only sing with pals at parties or with family when your having a drink. I’ve always loved blues and Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Led Zeppelin it just kind of evolved. My first band wasn’t as much metal; with metal your just drawn to it.

For me guitar wise I’m a total Metallica geek, James Hetfield, mainly for the riffs, they are amazing. I wish I could come up with riffs like that, especially Ride the lightening, Master of Puppets classic Metallica are just riff mania. Sabbath as well, Tony Iomi, they are the best riff bands.

With bass, I’ve not been playing that long really. I like the whole rhythm of it I was always useless at rhythm, give me a pair of drumsticks and I’m pish. I find the bass as a percussive instrument, adding layers.

Drummers that influenced me were Keith Moon, the Stones, too many really, Punk, Metal. More recently Testament the last album was very good.

How about Joey Jordison from Slipknot?

FSR: I’ve not heard much Slipknot but I know he’s an amazing drummer.

Now there is a bit of a buzz around your band at the moment, you’ve had positive reviews from Metal Hammer, Power play magazine have done a piece on you. How does it feel and do you hope it leads to mega stardom?

FSR: Of course we’re loving it. The guys from Metal hammer have been really good to us, they helped to promote the band and when we played at Bloodstock a lot of folk came up to us and said hey we saw your review in Metal Hammer and wanted to check you out. They bought lots of CD’s and T-shirts and that was a lot of promotion for us. We all work, ideally we’d like to do the band as a full time job. The more people that recognize us mean we get a step closer to achieving that.

Loads of folk have helped, press, places we play. A promoter in Manchester, Mark, has really helped us down south promoting gigs. We only played one gig down south not related to him and then we played at the Grand Central and ever since then he’s helped us out a lot. Also Fury UK plays a big part.

Talking of Bloodstock, how did it go?

FSR: It was amazing, awesome there was such a good vibe everybody was there for the same things to just listen to music. When you go to Bloodstock everyone who is there listens to metal and it’s just so good like, you know everyone’s into it and passionate. The whole weekend not just our set. You get to meet loads of folk that you’ve been involved with in the past who are playing on the same stage it’s like a massive family.

And how did you get the Bloodstock gig?

FSR: We don’t actually know. We sent a CD away months before, to try and get a gig. It could have been that or the Metal Hammer boys because they were trying to help us out for either Hard Rock Hell or Bloodstock, and Bloodstock came up, we’re not actually sure.

Either way that’s fantastic. Do you feel that having a female vocalist putt’s added pressure on you in terms of gaining new fans or do you think it’s a positive.  It is after all a male orientated world you’re entering.

FSR: Boy’s can I say just to answer this question it does help. We don’t play the same type of music as Nightwish or Within Temptation so the female vocalist thing a lot of people switch off to it. Laura’s got more balls than most men anyway. Neysayers are soon put in their place when she starts singing.

From myself its quite nerve wracking at first because it’s mostly young guys watching and you feel you’ve got something to prove. I just have that feeling that they’re saying ‘yeah she’s a chick, she’s not gonna be able to do it and we’re gonna laugh her off the stage’. Like I’ve said before you just need to fucking blow their fucking balls off and then they’ll listen.

Have you had any label interest yet as I believe you’re still unsigned at the moment.

FSR: We’ve had a couple of interests from smaller labels mainly European. Nothing that would cause a step up from where we are now. Plenty of rumors, somebody said something blah, blah, blah. A few years ago we had phone calls from A & M stuff like that. One of them wanted us to change and introduce strings and stuff like that turn us into something that we’re not. We want to do what we do but take it to the next level.

So you don’t want to compromise your sound?

FSR: We like what we do and we’re passionate about what we do, we’re not gonna sell ourselves out.

Many bands have been labeled as ‘sold out’ and made the more accessible album and it’s taken them maybe two more albums to build themselves back up.

FSR: It is pointless, we’ll stick to our guns.

How are you finding the touring experience?

FSR: Smelly! It’s great, hard on the liver! You find yourself sleeping on people’s floors but it all adds to the experience. Also it makes ten weeks of work go quick when you know that you’ve got a week of touring to look forward to.

But what about juggling day jobs and touring?

FSR: I think it probably could be worse, its manageable. I think we’re lucky with our jobs that we can get shifts worked out.

Any touring stories that you can share with us?

FSR: We played in a brothel once, an ex brothel but it still had that brothel vibe about it mattresses all over the place. There were some dodgy stains and a bit of a stench! 

So what are your plans for the future, any more shows?

FSR: Yeah some more in October, Doncaster, London, at the ‘Purple Turtle’ in Camden third of October, go there! Were playing with the ‘Blood Island Raiders’ who are awesome, and we’re hoping to get a bigger tour in January to possibly include Ireland.

My final question; which album would you turn up to eleven?

FSR: That’s a hard one. Ride the Lightening – Metallica & Formation of Damnation – Testament also anything by Clutch.

Firebrand Super Rock thank you very much for your time and best of luck for the future. We’ll be following your progress.

Mark Davies