Exclusive Interview: Weaponry talk “My Name Is Glory”!

The first glimmer of hope for a summer scorcher of an EP titled “Forever Nothing” from Reading based Post Hardcore merchants Weaponry landed just a few days ago in “My Name Is Glory“, a ripper of a lockdown lyric inspired single with an earworm riff and huge chorus alongside a classic music video. Vocalist Al Bristow took a few moments out of his busy schedule to talk to us about it in this exclusive interview as once again we blindly follow Weaponry…

After all the work that went into the making of your sophomore EP “Forever Nothing“, how did it feel to get the EP back from Producer Daly George, mixed and mastered? Have you noticed anything listening to those songs back that you didn’t notice in the rehearsals or in the studio thanks to that mix? “Not really! I was pretty focused while we were making them so I was pretty confident how they would turn out. Daly is bloody good at what he does and he does tweak little bits that you really have to listen out for like echos/delays etc but if they weren’t there it would make the song flatter. It sounds huge if I do say so myself!!”

While “Something I Lack” has been your biggest song to date, in our eyes “My Name Is Glory” is your most accomplished musically. The growth in the band over the songs is there for all to see. As a teaser for the EP, what made you choose “My Name Is Glory” as the first single and how does it feel to have it out in the World for people to check out? “Thank you for saying that! I think we all agreed going into the recording that this would be the first single. It just felt right. It was the newest song as well so there was a worry that it was just recency bias but I think it’s a good first track for this EP for sure”

Talking about musical growth, you went into the studio and played the rhythm guitars yourself, taking the pressure off Max Ashworth so they could concentrate on the leads and solos after Dan Ashworth exited the band. How impressed have you been not only with Max stepping up to being the lone gunman live but also with their studio work? “Every rehearsal we have I think Max gets better. We reworked a few songs initially so they can be played with just one guitar but they still keep coming up with new ideas like a delay pedal to make it seem like 2 guitars at certain points. I’m really open to messing with the songs even when they are recorded. Prodigy do that. There’s a skill to playing them exactly as they are but adding in new elements all the time helps refresh the songs. As long as you’ve still got all the good bits as a core, go wild. Max rips out his first solo on Glory too. I think it’s great but that was the reason I took it upon myself to learn the rhythms. I didn’t want them to have too much pressure to play all the parts. I’ve been playing guitar for almost 20 years so it was no sweat!”

You’ve mentioned how “My Name Is Glory” is lyrically a pandemic inspired song. How challenging would it have been to write an EP that didn’t include anything about what had happened in the World during the plague years? “I have quite a few different ways of how I approach lyrics and I write quite often so we definitely could have not mentioned the pandemic at all. Sometimes I’ll have a really great hook line and write around it (I did this with Blindly Follow Us and “Stand your ground like china in a bull shop” and how that could show passive aggressiveness) or ill have a whole idea of what i want to write a song about (Something I Lack – I believe addiction is caused by lacking something) and sometimes like with Glory I will come up with a title first and work back wards. My Name Is Glory was first going to be about overcoming something that was dragging you down, then that wasnt working so i moved on to how it is the opposite of loser, something like the saying “My middle name is…” danger or winner or whatever. Then I just had a sour taste in my mouth about how throughout this global pandemic people were still meant to be productive and winning at life by completing goals. I just thought it was a bit too much. All we had to do was nothing. But it got to the point where the people who did do nothing might have felt bad for doing what they were told to do to keep everyone safe! And that’s how it all linked in. It fit perfectly with the rambling verses and this new hook Max brought to practice and as soon as Tim and Jay tried out a bit with just them two it was golden”

Your previous singles were released in a purposeful order that built on one another however “Something I Lack” has been huge for you and perhaps “Blindly Follow Us” hasn’t has the success you had hoped for and that it merits. How have you found dealing the highs and lows of being in a band? “I dont see it as a low really. Blindly Follow Us gets one of the best reactions live and still has plenty of streams. We are seeing the same people listening to our music multiple times instead of 1 listen and never returning so i just think it needs to reach more people! Thats the tricky part…”

Aside from the EP release, what’s next for Weaponry? “Normally after a release we’ll be getting gig ready but we’ve just had this huge urge to write again! We have written 2 awesome songs recently and they both have similar themes so hopefully we can keep on with that and get another EP complete! We’re looking at doing multiple dates in a few months when the ep is out proper too so watch out for that. And then probably an appearance on Top of the Pops. Is that still a thing???”

…Blindly follow Weaponry…

https://weareweaponry.bandcamp.com/

http://www.instagram.com/weareweaponry

http://www.facebook.com/weareweaponry

http://www.youtube.com/c/weaponry