Following on from their huge performance at Slam Dunk Midlands we spoke to Eddy Brewerton and Mark Osborne of Moose Blood. With 2016 shaping out to be their biggest year to date we couldn’t wait to find out what second album Blush is set to bring and to find out what other plans they have up their sleeves.
Firstly, a massive well done on your set earlier on today. We caught it and definitely think the arena venue suits you brilliantly! But how was it for you?
Both: Well thank you!
Eddy: I loved every moment and couldn’t believe how many people were there you know? We had a little bit of technical difficulty at the start but these things happen.
Mark: It happens but as long as you get past it and out the way quite quickly. Not let it ruin the set completely because then it can write off your whole show.
E: Just the amount of people there in that room watching us. It just blew me away.
M: I mean just playing in an arena is just massive, it’s pretty cool and we’re fortunate to have done that! It was really really fun.
E: We’ll remember it for a while.
2016 is shaping out to be a massive year with dates on your Autumn headline tour already sold out including Koko, did you think this time last year achievements like that would happen this quickly?
Both: No [laughing]
E: Even when we got told we’re doing Koko we were like we’re never going to sell that out ever. So for it to sell out nearly five months in advance is just incredible.
M: It’s things that you think are never going to happen. You’ve asked if we thought it would happen that quickly but I don’t think we expected it to happen at all.
E: Let alone play it and to do that room on our own is nuts.
M: Yeah totally, we think if you’re going into a room like that you’re doing it as a support act not to do it ourselves.
Here’s a question we couldn’t resist asking considering your album name, but what makes you blush?
M: Loads of stuff, I get embarrassed really easily.
E: I’m really clumsy, I trip over a lot.
M: Loads of things, I’m very insecure so pretty much anything!
I’ll Keep You In Mind From Time To Time became a must hear album in 2015, will Blush have the same formation and sound to it or can fans expect something different?
E: I think it sounds a bit different. Definitely, the way we go into writing lyrics is still really honest, I mean they’re things that actually happen in our life so hopefully still be relatable for people.
M: That’s just the way that we write so we haven’t changed the way we write at all. Hopefully, we’ve just been able to write better and put songs together better than we did for the first album.
E: A progression yeah.
You worked with Beau Burchall on both albums, can you explain to us the recording process?
M: We started with some ideas or whatever and then take them to the boys to try and make them full songs and demo those songs and send them to Beau. Then go out and record with Beau and he’ll have his input into things or he’ll push us and say “you can do that better, you can do that better” and actually produce us and give us a lot of help. I think he really gets what we do so he’ll really push us to make sure he tries to get the best out of us and he’s an incredible guy to work with. We want to work with him all the time!
E: He wouldn’t let us settle for anything he didn’t think was good enough.
M: We’d write something and he’d go “you can do better than that.”
E: He’s incredible. Not only that but he’s become like one of my closest friends too and like as a band we love him.
M: We couldn’t believe initially we got the experience to work with him in the first place so to be able to do that twice is just unreal. He’s one of those people that makes it really hard to say goodbye to and you just don’t want to leave.
E: It’s so sad when we have to!
Do you feel any pressure after how well received your debut album was to match it this time round?
E: It’s just the pressure we put on ourselves I think we wanted to make this record in our eyes better than the last one. We worked ourselves up a little bit and I think we still are when we actually think about it. No-one’s putting pressure on us, it’s just ourselves.
M: It’s just from us because of how well received our first record was which we couldn’t believe that this time around people have that basis of comparison and they’re going to compare this record to the first record. So it was just the pressure on ourselves to be like we need to make a record that’s at least as good if not better than our first one.
If you had to sum up your time so far in Moose Blood with one of your own lyrics which would it be and why?
M: That’s a tough one!
E: Erm…
M: My time in Moose Blood has been incredible but there aren’t really that many incredible lyrics.
E: Cheers mate.
[All laughing]
E: Thanks!
M: What?! I can say that if I write them!
E: Unbelievable.
M: But you know to be like ‘oh I’ve had such a lovely time’, we haven’t written anything like that.
E: Nothing’s really er…
[long pause whilst Eddy and Glenn think it through]
M: I’d say “it wasn’t getting drunk I loved it was being with you” because I’m with my best mates and we always get drunk so that’s that.
That’s a nice turnaround to the question, good effort!
E: Well done mate!
You’ve got your UK and European tour coming up, you’re playing bigger venues but what can we expect from the shows? Bigger production?
E: We’re going to do as much as we can.
M: Afford to do.
E: The record’s out, well will be out by then so there will be a lot of new material and we want to make it a bit bigger, more of a show. Because like you said they’re bigger rooms but it’s down to what we can afford really.
M: We kind of had brief discussions about it but I think because we’ve got quite a bit of a time, things like that will probably come together a bit later on and see what we kind of financial state we’re in to see what we can afford.
E: We’ll do our best to make it a bit more of a spectacle really.
Big and fancy isn’t always needed for a great show as you’ve proved today, just you guys onstage will be enough for everyone. We’re sure it’ll be a something special!
E: Really? We’ll just have to wait and see!
What can fans expect from you in 2016? With the album and tour is there anything else lined up?
E: We’ve got a few things kind of in talks and that we’re confirming now that haven’t been announced yet which are kind of incredible things for us.
M: The bits that we have announced, there’s the fair few bits we have announced and there’s some more we haven’t.
E: We have our headline run in The States when we go over and we’re going over to Australia. The record coming out is the biggest part.
M: Things seem to crop up along the way, that it might not be oh it’s not happening now but then it could be you get an offer to do something and in happens in a month or something like that. We’ll see, we just want to be as busy as possible so hopefully we can fill any gaps we’ve got!
Thanks for your time Moose Blood, enjoy the rest of your festival!
Interview by: Nicola Craig
