Formed in 2009, the five band members are from Leicester, Leamington Spa, Rugby and other parts of the Midlands.
Jay Merry - Vocals
Adam White - Guitar
Nath Morris - Guitar
Matthew Higgins - Bass
Daniel Teale - Drums
They all have experience in previous bands. Playing at Glastonbudget 2010, we wrote: "...
the electrifying Leicester band Go Primitive with a thundering set of hard rock power songs, which brought Saturday's main new acts stage to a resounding close." Gig notes
We saw them first on
Thursday 13th May, at The Squares. We wrote: "
This quintet of musicians certainly knows how to rock and put on a storming set of their hard-edged songs. Vocalist Jay Merry pushed things along with a strong clear voice and they opened their set with a commanding, thumping number that stopped everyone in their tracks. With backing vocals and interesting richly blended sounds, their musical style was difficult to place and seemed laced with a varity of influences. Big bold statements, virbant and sweeping phrases, they were punchy and spikey at times and cunningly atmospheric at others. The band is heading off on a European tour, pulling in Switzerland and Belgium and touring with progressive rockers Pure Soundart . My summary: yummy!"
Go Primitive playing at the Artsin Band of the Month showcase gig at the SoundHouse, 24 the September 2010
Here's our interview with the band:
Artsin: When did the band get together and start playing?
Go Primitive: Go Primitive’s start was a bit of a staggered one, we have all been playing in various bands for as long as any of us can remember, Go Primitive really came from the ashes of an old band Void Illusion and after a few of the members of that left. Adam our guitarist came for a rehearsal and started playing with them almost immediately and then I (Jay) came along for an audition a month or so later and was offered the part as the singer, after a bit of soul searching and a lot of my girlfriend and family encouraging me to go for it I joined a few weeks after.
Artsin: How did the band get its name?
Go Primitive: We had all kinds of names flying around when we where trying to come up with something, some where from different influences that we have, others catchy phrases and we settled on Go Primitive because that really summed up what we where all doing as a whole and as separate members. We where bringing our music back to basics, we where taking what we've learnt in the past and stripping down the bits that where too complicated or pretentious and putting them in a big melting pot, also our music really homes in on raw emotion displayed by people exposed to certain issues in life essentially going primitive.
Artsin: What are the names of the band members and what do they do in the band?
Go Primitive: we've got 5 members in all, myself Jay Merry as the lead vocalist, Adam White and Nathan Morris for our wall of guitars and backing vocals. Higgy on bass and Teale pounding away at the back on the drums.
Artsin: On your myspace it says your influences are "sci-fi rock". What does that mean?
Go Primitive: it's to do with the concept behind the rock. I suppose it is really concept rock but that's both not as catchy and I think not as exciting sounding as "sci-fi rock". If you listened to our songs in the right order you would be able to hear a story behind the music, our guitarist Adam is currently writing a sci-fi novel that we decided to base the music around. we all struggled to write the music that went along the lines of long lost loves and hard times ... the general thing you would think most bands would be singing about because to be honest, none of us have really been through anything that traumatic so writing our music about that would be a bit false to us. while the story is obviously fictional and none of the things in there have happened to us either, there are some comparisons to real life that can be made with the book but that will be for everyone to read someday soon when we start releasing the book in one of its many forms.
Artsin: What's fresh about your sound?
Go Primitive: I would have to say there isn't a single thing in the music Industry today that is totally fresh, so to speak. There are so many bands out there today that no matter what you write someone will say oh that part sounds a bit like "so and so" , but what makes our sound unique is that we have members of the band with so many different influences and styles of playing. Like myself who came from an “Indy” background and then Adam who comes from the “Prog Rock” side of things and Teale, Higgy and Nath who came from much more of a “Hard rock” influenced background. Combining all of this in one big explosion gives us a really “kooky and hooky” indy/prog/alternative sound (laughs). You can literally listen to the songs and hear the individual members in put on each section.
Artsin: What is the most memorable gig you have played? How did it go?
Go Primitive: For me personally it was our first gig at the Caribbean club in Rugby, playing at full metal racket. it was just so encouraging to come out for the first time under this new guise and have our community embrace what we where doing with such open arms. It was also surprising as the music was not that old watching people singing along in front of us, our guitarist Adam was surprised that they knew the words better than he did! And it's a cheesy thing to say but to be honest every gig we do where we get one person coming up to us saying how much they enjoyed it is still truly memorable to us. I also have to give a shout to Glastonbudget Festival which we headlined the big top stage, our biggest and loudest crowd to date so far, it was so much fun on stage!
Artsin: Have you supported any bigger bands? Which bands would you most like to perform with?
Go Primitive: Well, I’d like to say we've headlined a show with Rage Against the Machine, AC/DC and the Chilli's but unfortunately for us that was Glastonbudget! A top Leicester festival that is predominantly tribute bands (if you've not been you should go!) but unfortunately as of yet we've not played with anyone big, but the night is still young. We’ve only been gigging since around March this year and we do have our aims set high. I think if you where to ask the guys who we would like to play alongside you would probably find Biffy Clyro, Alterbridge, Avenge Seven Fold and the Foos among others. I think they would all be the dreams!
Artsin: Who in the bands writes the songs? Which comes first the tunes or the lyrics?
Go Primitive: Generally speaking what will normally happen is Teale our drummer will come along to practise with an idea in his head or guitar riffs to show us what he has been working on for a song, then he'll hand that over to Adam and Nath who will rip apart what he's played till they can find something slightly more refined in there (laughs) and then it's a case of jamming altogether until the different sections start to reveal themselves. After that comes the lyrics and melodies, the way we normally tackle this is firstly by the emotion of the music and then use that to decide what part of the book or what emotion in the story is going to be put across in that song. We really write as a band everyone has input on each section of a song be it guitar riffs, drum beats, vocal lines, bass lines we all put our ideas forward to create the best possible music.
Artsin: What have you got planned for next year? Have you got your sights on any festivals?
Go Primitive: It's a really good time to ask us that. We have recently joined forces with both Forge Studios and Klash Music Management. So we have some very exciting plans for the near future. We are entering the studio in the New Year to record our debut album from which a single will be released sometime in the New Year with plenty of shows up and down the country, we do have some bigger plans but we are still working on these with our management so I can’t really give too much away (laughs).
Artsin: What do you like most about playing in Leicester?
Go Primitive: Leicester has kind of become our “home town” in a way; I mean most of the band are from either Rugby or Leamington with myself hailing from Leicester. We have received great feedback from the shows and the festivals we have played at, even radio stations ... so we love playing in Leicester!
Artsin: Do you have a favourite venue in Leicester?
Go Primitive: It’s only fair you ask that once we have played all the venues in Leicester (laughs).
Artsin: Do you have any new music projects in the pipeline? Recordings, new songs?
Go Primitive: Like I said earlier we are going into the studio in the New Year to record the album. As far as writing goes we have about 2 songs that need finishing up before we head into the studio.
Artsin: And finally, what do you think of Kasabian?
Go Primitive: They're a fantastic band and I've met the singer (Tom Meighan) who was a lovely chap and fingers crossed the lovely crowds in Leicester will be as kind to us as they where/are to them.
Previous Bands of the Month
The Manhattan Project, Backline, Messini Assault, Beat Club, The Utopians, Breek, Subdude, Full Circle, Forty More Autumns, Razmataz, Smoking the Profit, The Heroes, The Truth, The Chairmen (Oct 08), Kids in Cars (Nov 08), Formal Warning (Dec 08), The Steptoos (January 09), The Pennyhangers (February 09), Project Notion (March 09). Skam# (April 09), Shortwave Fade (May 09), The Waits (June 09), Kill The Batman (July 09), The Fazed (August 09), Autohype (Sept 09), Weekend Schemers (Oct 09), AstroManiacs (Nov 09), Azidify (Dec 09), Kicking Habits (Jan 10), Drive by Disco (Feb 10), The Stiggz (March 10), Iziggy (April 10), Third Time Lucky (May 10), Neon Sarcastic (June 10), Silent Resistance (July 10), Ashdowne (August 2010)
