“We’re in constant planning mode now,” Van De Beek explains. “Our online group chats are constantly full with either talking shit or planning shows and releases, working on whatever’s coming up next. We just had the launch and we’re planning more, we’ve got a tour coming up, we’re planning overseas trips. We’ll be releasing some vinyl, working on a new video clip for our next single. There’s always something on the go.”
The aforementioned launch released the lead single, Devil’s Bells, from their upcoming EP, and saw the four-piece share the stage with good pals The Ugly Kings. While there are more launches ahead (there is, in fact, an entire tour supporting Indonesian band The SIGIT taking place throughout May), as debuts go Van De Beek is feeling pretty good right about now; the success of the show was soon met with their inclusion on this year’s CherryRock lineup.
“The launch was probably better than we expected, to be honest,” he laughs. “We had Two Headed Dog on board as well, they’re such a good ‘70s rock’n’roll band. It was a great response, we played a longer set than usual. Played some new songs. Devil’s Bells, we played it later in the set whereas we used to open with it, so as soon as people heard it they started to really get into it. It was good to see people already knowing the songs, having that kind of support. But with Cherry, it’s fantastic, and also very humbling to be invited on at all since we’re such a young band. We’ve played a handful of shows and have started to get a reputation, so it’s great, and a nice step career-wise. It’s the first time I’ll have played Cherry, even though I’m usually there every year and do the artwork. It’s the first time I’ve played the stage outside.”
Van De Beek is a graphic designer – a career he shares in common with bassist Tom Hulse – his artwork comprising of carefully crafted tour posters and band merch. The band’s members are a disparate crew, all united by a shared love of stoner rock and Black Sabbath. Having banded together ten months ago, after meeting at an Ugly Kings gig, Van De Beek, Hulse and guitarist Christos Athanasias began scouring the land for a lead singer able to elevate their sound to another level. Enter Pierina ‘Pip’ O’Brien.
“We had no real idea where we were going, we just knew we liked that good, slower stoner rock stuff, so we started writing and fooling around in the studio. We jammed around for months and then started looking for a vocalist. We never knew we wanted a female vocalist, but we were totally open to the idea. It’s very much a male-dominated vocal scene, and Tom had put together a rough vocal guide to audition singers. He has a kind of Ozzy Osbourne voice, and sent it to some male vocalists. But having Tom on backing vocals, as he is now, is too hard meshing two male voices together. That’s when we started thinking about getting a female vocalist, and we’d had Pip on board with one of the Ugly Kings’ singles, Goodbye, and we all knew her pretty well so thought we’d see if she liked what we wrote. Turns out she does, thank God.”
BY ADAM NORRIS
