2011 saw the birth and sudden rise of Hull’s east coast party tech quintet The Colour Line, who have gone to support bands like Shadows Chasing Ghosts and Massacre on Broadway. Their live shows have being described as pure chaos and legitimately dangerous. Recently they replaced Chris Acaster on vocals, leading to upset from several fans. Since their first show in August of 2011, The Colour Line have reached heights that most unsigned bands take months to reach. Nico sits down for a bit of friendly Q&A with the band.
Nico: The first and generally most obvious question, what are The Colour Line’s plans for the year?
The Colour Line: Recording and touring as an absolute priority. We haven’t really had the time or money to do either for the last few months as we’ve been pretty much constantly playing shows since we first started, so we sat down and figured out some tour dates for March (which you can find on our Facebook page). As for recording we are hitting the studio mid-March and will have an EP available for free download, hopefully by early to mid-February.
N: What is the biggest influence on the band’s music?
TCL: Considering we’re a metal band, it’s very rare that we actually listen to any metal, and we’re proud of the fact that a lot of our outside and individual influences can be heard in our music. They range from gypsy jazz to dance music, and even though we don’t incorporate dance music or dubstep into our songs, the styles are still a huge influence on our music. It also wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say that our biggest influence is ourselves as the whole point of creating this band was to force ourselves and each other past our comfort zones and push us to play faster and tighter than we have done before, which is why each song we write is crazier and harder to play than the last. It definitely works; we’re all better musicians now than we were six months ago.
N: How would describe the band’s music to potential new listeners?
TCL: We’re fast, frenetic and fun, a healthy dose of everyone’s favourite bands in one bitesize chunk. For fans of The Dillinger Escape Plan, The Chariot and SikTh.
N: Since forming, the band have gone onto support some of the rising stars in the underground scene. Which band has ben your favourite, so far, to share the stage with?
TCL: Definitely Dead Harts and Veils. They are two of the most unique bands in the UK at the minute, both of them really are doing something different with their music and we are incredibly thankful to have had the opportunity to support them. We have also played with Red XIII from Blackpool, another incredible band who get tighter and tighter every time we see them play or share the stage up to the point where it’s almost like listening to a CD through a sound system when they play live. A few weeks ago we headlined above an American hip-hop artist called Raine Wilder who absolutely blew us away, if any readers are fans of Professor Green or Eminem he is well worth checking out.
N: You recently replaced Chris on vocals, is there any specific reasoning for this?
TCL: We haven’t been happy for a long time with the sound and style of his vocals, we all felt they weren’t progressing as fast as the rest of us were on our respective instruments and eventually push just came to shove and we had to do something about it. We had confronted him about it several times and he just didn’t seem willing to change as the rest of us were so we parted ways. We want this band to be the best it can possibly be and if the only way we could improve the vocals was to replace them, then that was what we had to do.
N: Following the announcement, of replacing Chris, you received several negative comments and messages, do you have anything to say to the naysayers?
TCL: If people only came to our shows to support Chris, it’s fairly obvious that they weren’t fans of the band to begin with so there’s absolutely no reason for us to lose sleep over negative comments from people who weren’t into the band in the first place. In any case we’d rather have five fans that enjoy our music and come to check us out as a band than a room full of kids who only turn up for the frontman! We never have been and never will be a band that is about one person, a band is (by definition) a group of musicians, not just a vocalist, or a guitarist, or any single member and a lot of people can’t seem to grasp that. As far as we’re concerned we made the right choice and we’re more than happy with Sam’s sound and we can’t wait to show people our new material with him. One last thing we will say is that Chris is now concentrating on his tattooing career, so if people still want to support him (as we hope they do) then they should do so by booking in with him at Twisted Image Custom Tattoos in Hull.
N: How does the song writing process, for you guys, progress?
TCL: One of us will come up with an idea for a riff or will start humming a melody, and once a foundation pattern or order is set we slowly add a basic drum rhythm, more guitars and bass, and then try and fit it together with some other ideas that may be floating around. Once the basics are down we will experiment with lead parts and offbeat drum patterns until we’re completely happy with every part, and then we’ll add the vocals and set out lyric placement to each section. Vocals are always last to add as there is a lot of arguing involved in our writing process, and more often than not someone will come up with a better idea at the last minute which completely changes half of the song, which is probably why it takes us so long to write!
N: When can we expect an EP or album release?
TCL: As we said earlier, we are hoping to have an EP ready for early March, until then there will be regular updates on our YouTube channel with various riffs and new material we’re writing for it, so keep your eyes peeled for those videos.
N: Are there any bands you’d suggest our readers check out?
TCL: Everyone should check out all the bands we have mentioned up to now, as well as Gratitude, who are an incredibly tight band from our hometown of Hull. There are too many to mention but we occasionally tag bands we think are great so keep an eye out on our page for those posts on our Facebook page.
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