Nothing More have really caught our eye over the last few years, so seeing their set at this year’s Download was a real delight. Chatting with the guys afterwards was equally as exciting – we just love that they’re a band who speak with so much thought and insight no matter what they have to say.
We’re at Download this weekend and you guys played your set already. How was that? And what does this festival mean to you guys?
The set was good! We played here one time four years ago at the Avalanche Stage in the tent – this year we moved up to the second stage, so that was really cool! But yeah, it went well, the UK is great! In the US we don’t have festivals this size. To look over on a hill and there’s like 50,000 people watching a band is truly epic and inspirational and it really kind of centres us back on why we got into music. Well, not WHY we got into music, but it’s that same feeling we had as kids. Seeing these gigantic bands, on these gigantic stages. And then there’s just this massive synergy of people rocking out together!
Cool. Have you guys managed to catch any of the other bands on the line-up? Anyone you’re excited to see later?
Honestly, no.
(Everyone laughed)
I’ve seen that Volbeat are playing right now on the TV behind me. I saw Marmozets – same thing – a couple of hours ago, I was really hoping to catch DragonForce, but they played when we played, so…
Download is all about those clashes, unfortunately!
Well I got the best seat for DragonForce because I rode in the shuttle van from the buses to the stage, and I got to meet them and hang out with them for about ten minutes. So, yeah, I don’t need to see them play now! That was enough.
You big fans of theirs or?
DragonForce are just one of those bands that are so insane that I want to see them live. Pretty gnarly!
So you guys were obviously around for a while before you took off with your self-funded, self-titled record. Did you have any idea just how much you were going to take off like that? Was there any inkling?
No, you know we did it for almost ten years before kind of getting the opportunity to take things worldwide. I don’t know, you don’t know the A to B. And everything does look different than I think we had pictured in our heads. But at the same time, everything is great, you know? A lot of things actually turned out better. A lot of bands hate their record label or hate their manager or you know you hear all these terrible stories or… and we’ve just lucked into having just awesome people around us all the time. Pushing us. And even festivals like Download being early adopters and believing in us before we had ever played in England before. Our first show here was at this festival. Which was awesome, so!
Wow!
I don’t know. We can’t be more happy, so…
That’s incredible. So this one’s a little more deep. You’ve cited Alan Watts and other notable philosophers as inspiration and even used quotes and lectures in snippets. So how did this come about, and what piqued your interest in the teaching of philosophy and things like that?
Well we all grew up in the church and I went to a Christian school for thirteen years – yeah, crazy! And it was all a part of our lives. And we’ve all kind of moved on from it in different ways. But when you grow up like that and you take it seriously, like it is more… well, you think of Christianity or you think of any religion or philosophy… and I think Alan Watts is one of those guys who has studied enough or knows enough about every religion and has soul searched enough… he just kind of ties it all together in a way that we all love. He’s…well I know when I got into him, Jonny’s the one who introduced us to him, and when I listened to all the lectures, there’s so many things that he said, that it’s like I had the thought or more than that, I had the feeling, but I wasn’t able to put words to it. And he’s just like one of those guys that does. He says some things and it’s just like “ohhh, man! I’ve felt this way for like ten years and didn’t have any way to like say it”, you know? And to have it like reflected back at you too just brings a lot of peace.
Of course! That’s probably what philosophy is all about. So moving on, you have an eclectic style that’s kind of hard to pinpoint. How would you personally describe it? Was the range of different descriptions you’ve had intentional? Was that something you sought?
We definitely try to keep it… We don’t want to be a band where every song is the same and stuff like that. We try to spread our musical roots as deep as we can while still trying to sound like the same band. And recognisably so! Which is important. But it’s…I don’t know. I’ve always had a problem with that question when it’s asked to be honest. Because I’m like well what do you listen to? If you listen to these bands you might like it, but it depends! It really depends on the song.
It’s a personal experience too hey? Like whatever you’re interested in?
Yep. And I’m also extremely biased, ha.
Fair enough. Moving on. So Mike Wengren from Disturbed once cited Nothing More as an example against the “rock music is dead” argument. How does it feel to have that level of responsibility thrust onto your shoulders? Do you feel like you need to be game changers or do you just keep doing what you’re doing?
I don’t know! I feel like we need to be game changers, but at the same time, it’s art! So you can’t work too hard at being game changing because it’s all subjective. I don’t know, we just keep our heads on straight and keep progressing as people…never having the idea that like “we’ve made it”. We’re just carrying on with what we’ve always done and hopefully taking everything to another level. And being a part of whatever the next wave of what everybody’s doing. It’s not trying to really be…well, I don’t know a band that’s trying to do that…we’re just trying to kind of do our own thing, which is making sure that we’re doing something different, which we all fundamentally believe is what we should be doing. If other bands – hopefully new or up-and-coming bands are inspired by that and try to do the same thing, because that’s where you start getting the next greatest band, that influences all these following bands, that’s by people taking risks and taking chances. And that’s all we’re trying to do, just be ourselves.
Brilliant. You’ve got a few shows coming up with the likes of Stone Sour and Five Finger Death Punch. Which of these are you looking forward to the most?
Uhhh…we have the last show of this trip overseas I would say, we’re doing a show with us, Volbeat and then Guns N’ Roses in Spain. I’m a big Guns N’ Roses fan and I am very much looking forward to that, I’m gonna lose my voice. The whole nine yards. It’s gonna be great! Never been to Spain either, so…
It’s amazing! Eat tapas. Eat lots of tapas. And drink…It’s great! We love Spain.
Oh yeah? Well with the Stone Sour shows too, we just did a first of a few we’re doing with them the other day. They’re really, really nice guys. Awesome crew, great crowds. So I’m sure those will be a lot of fun too.
Finally, what else is on the horizon for you guys? Any big plans coming up?
There’s stuff that we may not be at liberty to discuss. Uh, there’s things in the works, you know? And really we’re just pushing the album right now and as far as writing the next one, we’re all kind of just documenting ideas on our own right now. There hasn’t really been much time to get back in the jam room and see what happens but you know as the year winds up into early next year, we’ll probably start jamming a lot again. And we will probably have a record at some point!
Well, we look forward to it. Thank you so much.
Thank you!
And thanks for a great performance earlier. Take care!
Interview by: Claire Louise Sheridan
