1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band? Well we go by the name of William English and we are from East Anglia.
I guess you would say we are a sludge/doom band with some hardcore elements. We get down and throw our bodies around on stage and we are very very loud.
2.How would you describe your musical sound?
Horrible but at times beautiful. We don’t like saying we sound like such n such a band, or that we fall into a certain genre. We all listen and love different bands and have done for many many years. I think as you grow you appreciate the certain aspects bands bring to the table and take what you love and unintentional to your own conciseness write and put your personality to it. We like riffs. We try to bring awesome riff after awesome riff, its nothing complicated just something you feel is good that we all like and enjoy playing.
3.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music? Ha this is a funny one, a trade secret thats never been discussed. We don’t actually have lyrics as such. Shane will come to practice we will have a song, he then screams freestyle over it. He does this to every song written. somehow remembers the pattern of the screams because it sounds the same every time. We then hit the studio. Shane will then for only certain parts write some lyrics down, normally just odd, random, disgusting words to form some cryptic sentence. It sounds mad, it is mad. But it works. The theme of the album again is quite random Some sea references, some drug references, some just plain funny random ideas.
“ They tell us we need it, Like maggots grow in the wound,
a septic puss filled landscape, a human right to consume”. - Lyrics taken from Captain Tugboat
4.The band formed out of the break up of 'A Horse Called War', what was the decision behind splitting that band and forming this one? This isn’t exactly true., William English formed without current members, Shane, Carter, Dave or Callum. Joe is the only member who’s always been in it. Before it was a hardcore band nothing big or serious although they did make an album with current guitarist dave recording it. I think theres about 100 copies sitting in goes flat somewhere. But the other members left through different times. I suppose the identity of the band started forming when carter went from bass to guitar and shane became the vocalist, also Callum joining on bass too, he can get such a great tone out of he’s gear. A Horse Called War split up because Dave set up a business and couldn’t spare time to be in a band, which is understandable. We tried to go on without him but it just wasn’t the same he was the main writer and creator of A Horse Called War and still is today. William English will always have similarities because shane is the vocalist. But Carters writing is more experimental maybe? We always said theres no boundaries i guess you might get that from the album but no matter what bands or projects we have done, we love the heavy, loud, dirty side of music. You will always get that from us.
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5.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'William English'?
Again this is nothing thought out or serious. If i am correct Shane & Joe thought that the name William English would be fitting for an old school looking bare knuckle fighter with a huge mustache. The name sorta stuck around in joe’s head when forming the band, I think he liked the idea of having a persons name as a band name.
6.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance? Stage performance is easy just check our video to budvessel. Its sums us up really, although there wasnt alot of room to move for the video. We just get down and have it as hard as possible. you will never see us just standing there going through the motions. Its been our philosophy ever since being in bands, even in the early days as teenagers we had it. Shane makes himself look like a bit of a crazy dude really. As for live shows we love playing Colchester. they have a really good scene down there and some great bands doing well already. Theres a real small place in Bury St Edmunds we sometimes play thats decent. Our recent show at the unicorn with Children Of God was a really good show.
7.Do you have any touring or show plans once the new album is released?
We hope to play several shows around england for the rest of the year and hopefully next year the plan is to do a little European tour and smash the uk to pieces aswell. This year our guitarist Carter is having he’s second Child so we will work around that whilst playing gigs promoting the album. Our next show is in Norwich 10th May at the owl sanctuary.
8.The new album is coming out on Grandad Records, can you tell us a little bit more about this label?
This new label has been formed by our drummer Joe. He's very passionate about music and one of he's “life goals” was to make an album with he's best mates and release it on a label that he created. The main target for this label is to find real underground bands and just help them out a little bit by offering to contribute towards either the making of a record or helping press it and generally be a starting platform for good, unnoticed talent. And see where it goes from there really.
9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been to your music by fans of stoner and sludge metal? We, so far have had good feedback whoever or wherever our stuff has been shown. Its been a good time to bring out the album really with the stoner/sludge scene picking up immensely. Im not sure if its been as big as it is now. If we don’t make heads turn though, it’s no loss we will keep doing this till we’re all 6 feet under i think. Some of us started making this sort of music ten years ago, it wasn’t as popular then than it is now but we never cared. We will just keep doing what we do, maybe something will come of it, who knows.
10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?
We hope to just keep writing. We would like to concentrate on bringing out splits and E.P’s. Releasing vinyl would be nice to. But the music will still be hard, loud and heavy. I doubt it will always stay the same, it will progress and at times we may surprise you.
11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?
A lot of old stuff is always on like, Eyehategod,Crowbar,Pissing Razors. we try and support underground artists. The recent Telepathy album is absolutely amazing, those lads are so talented. The Art Of Burning Water are so heavy and relentless and all the lads from colchester are doing well,(Three Thrones, Jotnar, Slabdragger, Old Man Lizard).
12.What are some of your non musical interests?
Three of us are family men, so that takes up the majority of our time. Joe likes to travel and eat. Callum spends most of he’s time casting new magic spells, He is a wizard you know.
13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts? Mainly just please check out the album, have a look at the video, Youtube-William English, Budvessel. And if you have the time leave us a comment on what you think, good or bad. If you’re near a show check us out and if you put on shows please contact us, we love playing shows. Thanks to anyone showing support, its very important to support your local music scene, get out to the shows and buy the merch, its not easy doing this. Thanks to DewarPR as well, they are a major driving force behind this band.
@willenglishband - Twitter
williamenglishband@gmail.com
www.williamenglishband.bandcamp.com
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