I posted a recommendation for the self titled debut album from Black State Highway a few weeks ago. The album has now been released through Cherry Red Records along with the single “Ain’t Got No”. Black State Highway are a young band who play a outstanding brand of bluesy, riff-laden rock n’ roll music. The band features Latvian Liva Steinberga on vocals, Olie Trethewey and Swede Yonnis Crampton on guitars, Gordon Duncan from Scotland on bass and Harry Bland on drums. I contacted the band to answer a few questions and find out more about them.
NI ROCKS – Thanks guys for taking some time to answer a few questions for Rock Radio. I understand the band formed at Brighton’s Institute of Modern Music. How long have you been playing together and what were the circumstances of you all coming together as Black State Highway?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – Some of us already knew each other before going to Brighton. For example Olie, Liva and Gordon used to play covers around the pubs in Reading to earn a bit of cash. It wasn’t until we all moved to Brighton and met Jon that Black State Highway was formed. Jon was actually a very last minute addition and we hadn’t even heard him play when we asked him to join. We just knew that he played guitar and that he had longish hair, but asked him because we needed a guitarist very short notice to play at one of BIMM’s gigs with the rest of us, and Olie happened to pass him in the hallway and ask him.
NI ROCKS – You’ve got quite a multi-national line-up with a Latvian singer, Swedish guitar player and Scottish bass player. Being half-Scottish myself I’ll resist the temptation of asking which of those three speaks the best English! Is that multi-nationalism a reflection of the students attending the Institute or just purely coincidence?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – Haha Gordon gets by..
It’s a pretty fair reflection of the institute, it seems to attract students internationally and as a result you find yourself surrounded by people from all over the world which is pretty cool.
NI ROCKS – How did the deal with Hear No Evil / Cherry Red Records come about?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – It came about when our manager invited Hugh Gilmour (who runs HNE) to one of our gigs. We already had an E.P pressed and ready to go but we were just planning on selling it ourselves. After Hugh expressed some intent we began to work together and Hugh advised that we needed an album, so we scrapped the E.P and made the album. Most of the work prior to the albums release was actually done on more of a verbal agreement and it wasn’t until quite recently that we signed officially with the label. This was quite important to us because it showed that Hugh and the people at Cherry Red like Matt Ingham and Lauren Archer were perhaps investing themselves in us and doing it because they wanted to not just because they were contractually obliged. We were so lucky to get this opportunity at this early stage in our career and we are incredibly grateful to Hugh, Matt, Lauren and our fantastic manager Chizzy Kakizawa, for all the hard work and for being such pros.
NI ROCKS – Your self-titled debut album was released on 18th August. Tell us a little about where it was recorded and who you worked with?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – We recorded the album at a studio in Brighton called Metway, which is owned by The Levellers. We chose this studio because it has a big enough live room that bands can be recorded live. It was really important to us to try and capture what we actually sound like playing together and keep that sound as pure as possible, this was something that could be achieved in this studio, and we feel we did achieve this. There was actually a variety of engineers who worked on this album, which was due to their availability. Each engineer has their own style so some can put on a bit of a producers hat and give opinions and others prefer to work the desk and leave the rest to us, In truth it would have been nice to do the album with a producer but firstly we couldn’t afford it and secondly I think we did a good job on our own. We did the best we could at that particular time, which is all anyone can do.
NI ROCKS – Do you all take a part in the song writing process or are there a couple of key individuals?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – It is a mixture really. Much of the time either Olie or Olie and Jon will write music and record demos, at which point Liva will record her vocals over the top. When the demos are finished they get sent to everyone else and we take it into the rehearsal studio. Sometimes the songs are totally transformed as Harry and Gordon put their own ideas into them and sometimes they work as they are on the demo. There are also a couple of songs on the album that were written all together in rehearsal though, for example “Trouble” just sort of happened within about 10 minutes of jamming.
NI ROCKS – Do each of you have a track from the album that is either particularly meaningful or just a favourite to perform?
OLIE – My favorite track from the album to perform is probably “Free”. Its one of the newer songs so it’s still more fresh and it’s an opportunity for me and Jon to put on our Fuzz pedals and make some filthy noise.
LIVA - For me “Trouble” has always been a favourite both as a song on the album and to perform. I feel the song is a bit about me and is easy to relate to. The pace and general riffage of the song just gets me going every time. It's a playful yet serious vibe going on and when we perform it live I always feel very fierce and confident.
HARRY- I think its defiantly got to be “Common Man”, Its one of those tunes as a drummer you can really sit back on, I also get to use my sampler for a few sub drops which is always fun.
NI ROCKS – Your website and the press releases state that there’s a strong 70s rock influence in the band as well as more recent influences. What bands /musicians in particular have influenced the different members of the band?
OLIE- I am a huge Hendrix fan, he is the reason I wanted to play guitar in the first place so he has to come first. More recently I've been getting into Joe Bonamassa a lot and also people like Gary Clark Jr.
LIVA - There definitely is a strong 70s vibe in what we are doing. I think all of us appreciate and have been inspired by the greats like Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix and many more. I for one like a mismatch of music, but as of what inspired me it would definitely be Led Zeppelin. It's the type of music I always wanted to do, it came naturally and I am over the moon that we are in a position where we can do it. As for newer bands and artists I like Triggerfinger(which is a ban favourite I think) Philip Sayce, who is a great guitarist and should definitely get more acknowledgement, Richie Kotzen, Clutch, Joe Bonamassa and at the moment absolutely digging a band from Brighton, Royal Blood.
HARRY – I really like the idea of keeping it simple, especially with the stuff we play. Rock players like Taylor Hawkins, Brad Wilk, Chad Smith I take huge influence from as they are all hard hitters but they all do it stupidly well! On the other side I'm really into a lot of the great gospel hip hop players like Aaron Spears, Jerohn Garnett, Thomas Pridgen to name a few as they bring a whole new meaning, dynamics and feel.
NI ROCKS – And following on from that, a question I like to ask most people we interview. You’re all very young so I’m sure you’ll have no trouble remembering the first album you bought and first concert you went to?
OLIE – According to my mum the first gig I ever went to was Ray Davies but I don’t remember it at all. The first album I actually bought with my own money was either “Zeppelin IV” or Pantera “Cowboys From Hell” I can’t really remember. I was quite lucky that my Dad had a good collection that I could rummage through when I was a kid.
LIVA - So this is not gonna sound very rock n roll, but the first album I actually bought myself was "Britney" by Britney Spears...I was like 11 so Britney was totally the way to go. As for the first gig I can't really recall the order of these two as I think they were very close to each other, but it was Whitesnake back in Latvia, I was very young and remember loud music, bright lights and sleeping on my dad's shoulder, and the next one was Steve Vai, me and my dad again went to watch it and I remember being totally obsessed with the support band, as they all were wearing cowboy hats, boots the lot and I thought it was the most awesome thing ever. I think I was in the ages between 6-8. FYI still to this day I'm trying to find out who that support band was, maybe one day!
HARRY - I think my first album was “Blood Sugar Sex Magik”. Certain people may not agree with me but I am personally a huge fan of Chad Smith’s playing on that album! The whole Hard Rock Funk thing was what made me want to play in the first place. The Chilli's were also the first band I saw live, they played at Majeski stadium in Reading with Ben Harper. Seeing them go nuts on such a huge stage to that many people was inspiring!
NI ROCKS – Following the release of the album on 18th August what plans do the band have to promote it further within the UK. Any tours being planned or videos being recorded?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – We are planning a UK tour, you can find all of the dates on our website, we hope to just keep adding more and more gigs and keep going for as long as possible so keep checking incase we add one near you! Our single “Ain’t Got No” was released alongside a video so you can find that on youtube but I’m sure we’ll do more videos along the line.
{youtube}ApEpko3tQ7s{/youtube}
NI ROCKS – What band would you ideally like to land a support tour with?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – This is a tough one, perhaps the Belgian band Triggerfinger, not only are they a great band but their crowds are always amazing, a European tour with those guys would be insane!! Unfortunately they don’t seem to venture over here too often but if you ever see them advertised we highly recommend you check it out!
NI ROCKS – How active are the various band members on Facebook, Twitter etc and how important do you think the whole social media thing is in promoting the band?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – We are all fairly active on social media, and of course we aim to keep on top of facebook and share our world with everyone. Social Media has become crucial to bands and important to a bands success. As a band you are always trying to attract new fans and friends so social media is a great way to connect with people, promote ourselves and share what we’re doing. It does also have its negatives though. People don’t need to leave the house to experience music or socialize anymore. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing all of the time and if someone wants to check out a band they only have to sit in front of a computer so there is less incentive to go and support local bands and music scenes. This is putting a strain on a lot of great venues and musicians but hopefully venues will manage to stay afloat and then rake it in when everyone remembers how good it is to watch live music!! Anyway rockers love to go out, have a few jars and have their faces blasted by Marshall stacks so we’re fortunate to be a rock band.
NI ROCKS – Finally, what would you hope to have achieved as a band by this time next year?
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY – We really hope that by this time next year we will have played at a few of the big rock festivals and perhaps have recorded another album. We would also love to get a good support tour under our belts, and basically just work our asses off to continue going forwards. We know that it will be a long hard slog to get to the level we want to be at and we are going for it 200%.
NI ROCKS – Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions. Best of luck with the new album.
BLACK STATE HIGHWAY - Thank you so much for supporting us and playing our music, it means a lot and we really really appreciate it!!
Check out http://www.blackstatehighway.co.uk/ or https://www.facebook.com/blackstatehighway for more information.