Steel Trees – When Bands Attack Interview
Hailing from the Yorkshire city of Sheffield isn’t often know as a good thing low employment, poor air quality, Nick Clegg… but if you do live there then you really are very fortunate indeed as the one and only Steel Trees are here to brighten up your wretched existence with some of the best grunge fuelled b-movie inspired punk rock mayhem the likes of which haven’t been seen this side of the millennium. So it was a real treat when they took time out from their busy schedule of rocking, watching more movies, rocking some more to have a quick chat about all things Steel Trees.
H: So how is life treating you all? Was Santa good to you? Have you recovered from New Year yet?
ST: Erm we’re constantly recovering from general ill ex pit town health, the air is still grey up here. Christmas is shit when your older isn’t it? We didn’t get one screwball scramble between us. Or a ball in a cup.
H: I understand that Steel Trees has been going since 2010 for those poor individuals who haven’t heard of you yet care to tell us how that came about? Where did the band’s name come from?
ST: We used to be a weird mash up of trippy blues, psych, grunge called Airburst, there’s a retro Myspace page knocking about with tons of stuff we puked out. Steel Trees came about when tom had a dream about walking through a forest full of metal with no oxygen. We were bored of Airburst and Metal forest sounded shit so we said yeah, ‘Steel Trees’.
H: “Attack Of The Stoner Zombie Killer Kids” is a very impressive album, especially for a debut, was it a lot of hard work putting it together? What was it like working with Steve Ellis? How did you find working in the studio compared to performing live?
ST: Thankya! We knew what we wanted to do with Attack and had a few songs to choose from, it was just a case of cutting it down and picking the right ones for the album, listening back to the sessions we dug the quick/sharp/rocking ones most so went with that. Working with Steve is like a tropical holiday sipping codeine cough syrup with George Michael in Skegness…Seriously though, Steve is THE MAN! Completely understands where we’re coming from with riffs, ideas and other general day to day shit. He makes us sound good and he’s a total dude AND his German friendship cakes rule. We always enjoy our time in the studio, and try to strip things down so they have a live feel, But when we start reversing guitars through all kinds of weird effects and listening to Pink Floyd whilst writing songs about Viagra, it’s time to get out and play live. With or without sounding too much like a heavy metal lycra wearing douche from the 80’s ‘We can’t wait to get out and play live and get in your faces, you rawwk’.
H: You all obviously have a deep and passionate love affair with cult and sci-fi movies so in your humble but expert opinions what films would make it into your top ten? If you could make a Steel Trees film what would it be like? Who would play you in the film?
ST: This is way too hard! All the stoner comedies we grew up with and the weird shit we got into later, here’s a mixed top ten, then!
1. Spinal Tap
2. Wayne’s World
3. Clerks
4. The Big Lewbowski
5. Back to the future (1+2, NOT 3!!!)
6. Bill and Teds Bogus Journey
7. Evil Dead 2
8. Night of the living dead
9. Alien
10. Un Chien Andalou
If we weren’t in a band we would probably be filming messed up horror b-movies ha. We’ve always liked the idea of making a stoner zombie killer film too, Von would get Danny Devito to play him, Dog would get Bob Grant and Tom would have Meat Loaf!
H: Other than rocking the fuck out and sci-fi films what else do you get up to?
ST: Something or other always involves rocking the fuck out! We have all night parties at Dogs house playing heavy fuzz versions of tv show theme tunes like Only Fools And Horses and stuff. and generally just jam out with the clam out every other day in Dog’s garage, making riff’s about our shitty surroundings!
H: Any plans for a tour or new album in the offering?
ST: Yeah, yeah, yeah! We’re on tour in Feb and still have a few dates to slot ourselves into if anyone wants us! New single and video out in Feb too! Annnnd a new E.P called “DROOOL” is in the works!
H: Have you found a name for the new song you put on facebook yet?
ST: Not yet, but we really liked one the recommendations ‘Cilla Blacks white and black waxy crack’
H: Having played with some really cool bands which performances really stood out for you and why? If you could play with any band who would that be and why?
ST: Dinosaur Jr were totally mind blowing and cool guys, changed our lives! Dinosaur Pile Up too! We like prehistoric animals. Oh! We recently we played with The Jim Jones Revue too who rock the fuck out and really make a brain blasting sonic assault impact on the frontal lobe. If we could play with any band that would have to beee, Queens Of The Stoneage.
H: Are you looking forward to playing in London? Have you played there before? What would be your ultimate gig to play?
ST: Can’t bloody wait to play in London! we’ve played Hastings before which we’re going back to on our next tour, but it’s gonna be great to hang out in Camden drink some mucky beers and blast some eardrums a whole world away from our usual surroundings. This year we’re concentrating on playing up and down, round and round and everywhere we can, every minute we get we’re trying to book em. Our ultimate gig would be playing at Monterey Pop Festival with Jimi Hendrix and The Who, We were born too late.
The guys are playing a few live gigs up and down the country at the moment so if you want to catch them live you can at the following venues:
Sat Feb 9th The Black Heart, Camden – Mon 11thFeb Soyo Live, Sheffield – Wed 13th Feb Santiagos, Leeds – Thurs 14thFeb Mcleans, Buckley – Sat 16th Feb Brass Monkey, Hastings – Sun 17thFeb Leopard, Doncaster – Tues 19th Feb Thirsty Scholar, Manchester – Fri 22nd Feb Lincoln Imp, Scunthorpe. More dates to be announced soon, we hope!