{"id":14824,"date":"2013-02-02T17:44:47","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T06:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/?p=14824"},"modified":"2013-02-02T17:44:47","modified_gmt":"2013-02-02T06:44:47","slug":"continents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maytherockbewithyou.com\/mtrbwy\/2013\/02\/continents\/","title":{"rendered":"Continents"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n<\/a>From Bio:\u00a0 For years, the United Kingdom has provided the hardcore scene with quality acts including BRING ME THE HORIZON, GALLOWS, ARCHITECTS, and ASKING ALEXANDRIA to name a few. Following suit, five friends from South Wales formed a metal band, unaware of how quickly their talent would be discovered. It did not take long for their ruthless, cutthroat style to attract fans the world over, solidifying their after-school hobby as what it actually was CONTINENTS, UK\u2019s premiere hardcore band, set to blow our Yankee windows clear off their hinges.<\/p>\n

We had a great chat to Continents frontman Phil Cross about the band their debut album and their live show.\u00a0 They are most definitely a band to check out and well worthy of being one of our Best Things You\u2019ve Never Heard.<\/p>\n

Thanks for chatting with us Phil, now straight out, we loved the album but for those that haven’t heard it, can you describe it in five words?<\/strong>
\nHectic, chaotic, heavy probably the most heavy shit we\u2019ve written, intense and five words, this difficult, usually I\u2019m able to explain it *laughs* it\u2019s intense and heavy, it\u2019s chaotic and it\u2019s all over the place basically.\u00a0 Anything you want is on there.<\/p>\n

Who would you sight as your major influences?<\/strong>
\nArchitects, The Ghost Inside most of the boys are in to and some of our volumes and counterparts.\u00a0 My main influences are like Cold Conspiracy and stuff like that, I\u2019m more like background hardcore roots but I don\u2019t get to express that as much you know? *laughs*<\/p>\n

What I noticed is a much more metal element to the sound rather than traditional hardcore was this conscious or did your sound just develop this way?<\/strong>
\nNo we never set out to be a hardcore band, we never set out to be a metal band, it\u2019s always been crossed as they say \u2018metalcore\u2019 but we play metal shows and people say that we\u2019re a hardcore band, we play hardcore shows and people say we\u2019re a metal band.\u00a0 So just chuck us in the genre of metalcore I suppose, but there\u2019s a lot of different styles on there really.<\/p>\n

Yeah and I enjoyed it, even at times somewhat of a Pantera type sound\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah, there\u2019s another one of our influences, there\u2019s not much Pantera on there, or as much as I\u2019d like to but next album\u2026<\/p>\n

Your debut has just been released, but the band has been around for a few years, did having this time before release help you to mould the band to what it is now?<\/strong>
\n2010 we started and we started out with a demo that we made 100 or 150 of them and just gave them out for free and basically that\u2019s what shaped us up at local shows as we gave them out before we started playing and then after that we basically recorded one track which is \u2018Trials\u2019 which set us up and got us recognised by Victory as before that we couldn\u2019t afford to record basically.\u00a0 In the end we thought we may as well just do the band and enjoy playing live really, just travelling but we couldn\u2019t afford to take it where we wanted to and that gave us a back in and we had to write the album within three months to be honest.\u00a0 We had a few tracks sorted but the person who had got us signed had told Victory we had a full album ready *laughs*and yeah\u2026 if we didn\u2019t have an album ready it didn\u2019t look good on our part so we did the whole thing in three months.<\/p>\n

I was going to ask you about that, when you have a song like \u2018Trials\u2019 that has been around for some time, when you were putting the album together how did decide what old favourites would make the album or did you just use what you had because you had to?<\/strong>
\nNo, it\u2019s not like that, there\u2019s still one song that I argue with the boys that I wanted on there and they wouldn\u2019t let me have it.\u00a0 Basically \u2018Trials\u2019, \u2018Pegasus\u2019 and \u2018Truth and Lies\u2019, \u2018Truth and Lies\u2019 was originally called \u2018Shutter Island\u2019 and the reason we changed it from \u2018Shutter Island\u2019 is because we want the people that know about \u2018Shutter Island\u2019 give them a surprise as a lot of people only like the middle breakdown, that\u2019s the only reason that song went on is just because of the breakdown in the middle of the song.\u00a0 Otherwise it wouldn\u2019t have gone on there because they just didn\u2019t want to waste that breakdown because it\u2019s just devastating, but the reason we changed it from \u2018Shutter Island\u2019 to \u2018Truth and Lies\u2019 is that we went back to the script writing to the film \u2018Shutter Island\u2019 and it was originally going to be called that is all, pretty boring story but\u2026<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>As for the remainder of the tracks, talk us through the writing process, was there anything that influenced them or were you so set by the time that you just wrote songs?<\/strong>
\nYeah you could say that, partly no, but me and GAZ sat in a room and we were thinking what did we want from it, what type of fit because we only had so much time to write the album that we wanted to show everyone what we could do and what we can bring to the table and put everything in to the first album and show the different styles we can bring rather than being one band, cause sometimes there are so many brilliant bands but sometimes you go through the CD and you skip tracks as so many are just the same track 1 after track 2.\u00a0 Not saying that\u2019s ours, but personally there are a few tracks I thought were different, like \u2018Exhale\u2019 is a completely different style to what a lot of the other stuff, there\u2019s some intense, proper metal, hardcore, we just went for down tempo stuff like in \u2018Loathe\u2019, there\u2019s a lot of that which is a whole different style there which is pretty doomy, a lot of people love that one especially live, a lot of people banging their heads to that.<\/p>\n

Yeah and \u2018Exhale\u2019 was like a metal punk song\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah it is, we wanted to basically put something where the lyrics to that are when we signed to Victory, we found out a few people were slagging us off I suppose, bit of a shame really, some mates told us that people were saying a few words behind our backs, and I wanted to let it all out with that one song, it\u2019s basically just telling people we\u2019ll never change and we\u2019re still the same people as we are now.<\/p>\n

Bit of jealousy there do you think?<\/strong>
\nYeah I think it is, I don\u2019t know why.\u00a0 We\u2019re not arrogant and never have been, I don\u2019t know why, we just saw a chance and we took it, that\u2019s all it is. It sucks really\u2026<\/p>\n

So what is it that makes Continents stand out above all the other bands out there?<\/strong>
\nA lot of people say it\u2019s the live show as well, we\u2019re not like your average metal band and in your face and shouting at the crowd and that sort of thing.\u00a0 We like to interact with the crowd as much as we can, I suppose you look at Parkway they\u2019re not a violent band they\u2019re the kind of band that have a laugh on stage as well, and that\u2019s the type of vibe that we bring, now and again you\u2019ll see me slip across and give one of our members a slap on the cheek now and again and then pretty different on stage, I\u2019ve got a bit of a dance vibe going on with my moves, party popping and stuff.\u00a0 Just people jumping in the crowds, you get people hanging from bars and rafters in the roofs, it\u2019s crazy.\u00a0 I remember playing once and it was our biggest show to date and we were worried that no one was going to turn up to see us as one of the other bands was on and then the whole room was full, you couldn\u2019t even get in to the room to see us, I was like this is nuts.<\/p>\n

Hopefully one day you can bring it down here\u2026<\/strong>
\nI hope so, the sing-alongs, the high fives and stage dives.<\/p>\n

So with the bands set, is it all your material or do you throw covers in as well?<\/strong>
\nNo we haven\u2019t, we\u2019ve spoken about it for a while but we never have.\u00a0 I\u2019ve always asked the boys if we can do like a Manson cover cause I\u2019m a big Manson fan but they said if we ever do they want to do \u2018Fight Song\u2019 but I said no I want to do \u2018Beautiful People\u2019 but then again I just get pushed out I do\u2026 just like I wanted that song on the album and they wouldn\u2019t let me.<\/p>\n

You should get first dibs, you\u2019re the singer\u2026<\/strong>
\nOh they\u2019re starting to take notice now after a few things I said on the last tour where I was right on a few things.<\/p>\n

Plying with a number of bands, have you looked to any live performers to pick up any tips and used these for your own show?<\/strong>
\nSome of the bands I got out and watch out with the crowd, sometimes I suppose I do, it\u2019s sort of like teaching yourself how to be and not to be, you learn from mistakes, like when I used to be in other bands when I was younger I\u2019d go in to the crowd and be singing up to people in their faces and try and get them involved, and that\u2019s all well and good but at the same time you\u2019re scaring people as well so I\u2019d avoided that from now on.\u00a0 I think its intimidating to people that come to watch you, I\u2019d rather entertain than intimidate the people.<\/p>\n

What big plans has the rest of 2013 got in store for the band?<\/strong>
\nWe got loads of tours coming up now, nothing for Australia unfortunately at the moment to be honest that\u2019s a shame.\u00a0 We\u2019ve got the UK tour, a European tour coming up, another UK tour, a few big things in the pipeline but we\u2019re just waiting on confirmation to see if we got it, it\u2019s just a matter of playing the waiting game until we can announce if we got that.\u00a0 A couple of nice festivals to be announced as well for over here and mainly just pumping the album as much as we can really.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to be on the road nonstop, we\u2019ve got tour diaries coming out soon, we had to cut down as we had seventy hours of footage from the last tour and we had to cut it all down unfortunately but we\u2019re going to find a way of using it all so we can show everybody that it\u2019s absolutely chaotic what we get up to, like we took a motorcycle into one night club\u2026<\/p>\n

Well hopefully we can help to get the word out and see what happens\u2026<\/strong>
\nYeah that would be brilliant if you can do that and help sort it out we\u2019ll come over, we\u2019re up for a laugh, that\u2019s what we do.<\/p>\n

Essential Information<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

From:<\/strong> South Wales, UK<\/p>\n

Sounds like:<\/strong> Metal \/ Hardcore<\/p>\n

Band members:<\/strong> Phil Cross \u2013 Vocals, Darryl Sweet \u2013 Guitar, Tom Weaver \u2013 Guitar, Dom Turner – Bass Guitar, Duncan “Ken” Hamill – Drums<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> http:\/\/www.continentsband.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Latest release:\u00a0<\/strong>Idle Hands (Out Now \u2013 Victory Records \/ Riot! Entertainment)<\/p>\n

Check out our review of \u2018Idle Hands\u2019 here\u2026
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