Metalcore’s Young Constructors
Since forming in 2004 and recording their first album as 17-year-olds, Brighton’s metalcore outfit, Architects, have been on a continual rise to the top of the metal and hardcore scene. Now describing themselves as a little older and a little wiser, they’ve toured alongside bands such as Gallows, Enter Shikari, Napalm Death and SikTH, played live on Radio 1, secured a worldwide recording deal with Century Media Records and completed a US tour. Nats Spada chatted with guitarist Tom Searle about the band’s forthcoming album and other important matters.
Your third album, ‘Hollow Crown’ is going to be released in January 2009, where did you end up recording it?
Tom: We recorded it at Outhouse Studios in Reading, it’s like a second home now as we’ve recorded there before. I think we’re a little older and a little wiser these days, so this time around we had a better idea of how to get the results we wanted. We played around with keyboards and electronic drums and Sam (Carter – vocals) did a lot more melodic singing and pitched screaming. We weren’t experimenting as such, but rather expanding our sound.
‘Hollow Crown’ is the last song on the album – tell us about the song and why you chose to use it as the album title?
That song is totally different from anything we’ve ever done before and it doesn’t represent the rest of the record’s sound at all – it’s the closest we’ll ever come to doing a ballad! We’re a metal band but we’ve always had a wide range of influences and we don’t want to be afraid to show that. We know some people won’t like the song at all, so we chose to make this the title track because we wanted to show that we don’t write music to appease others: we write what we want to, whether that suits outsiders or not.
What do you think about Johnny Truant, one of Brighton’s most prolific metal bands, calling it a day?
Johnny Truant definitely had a big impact on us when we started out. We owe a lot to those guys for helping us get on our feet in the beginning so it’s sad to see them go. Everyone should make sure they make it down to their final shows.
How was your recent tour of America?
The shows we did up in Canada and the shows in New York and San Diego were all particularly awesome! We got to stay in one of those trashy trailer parks, it was fucking mental! It involved cockroaches, the stench of death and a local sex offender. Not cool!
You have some amusing videos posted on You Tube – ‘Apocalypse Now’ and ‘Pool Party Extravaganza’ being my favourites. Who comes up with the ideas for these videos?
Mainly we all just mess around and sometimes there happens to be a camera there – we’re a silly bunch of guys and we’re not afraid to show it! The videos aren’t premeditated, it’s all spur of the moment. People seem to enjoy them though and it’s cool to give our supporters more than just music and t-shirts to interact with.
The last time I saw you perform to a packed crowd at the Concorde2, I recall Sam saying there were people that had said you weren’t “big enough” to play a venue of that size, tell us more?
Firstly that show was an amazing day for us, it was a dream come true to headline Concorde2 as we’ve been going to watch bands there since we were 14. Basically, we had heard that a few people we knew were saying the show would be empty and that we were “overestimating the size of our band”. Fuck them though, we’re still thankful to everyone that was there for proving them wrong!
What’s on the Architects tour rider?
All the usual stuff: water, beer, Southern Comfort, vodka, tequila, sandwiches, crisps, Kinder chocolate and a dinosaur or crab toy. We used to have a cardboard cut out of Ricky Gervais on there until one promoter got bizarrely offended by the request!
What has been Architects stand out moment of 2008?
The European tour with Bring Me The Horizon and the headline tour we did with Dead Swans in March were both fun times.
When you’re home in Brighton, where do you guys hang out?
That’s a secret!
Architects new album ‘Hollow Crown’ is released on January 26th 2009 and they headline Concorde2 on 31st January 2009.
www.myspace.com/architectsuk
Words by Nats Spada, December 2008
Photography by Tom Barnes
