Firstly congratulations on the new EP.
An Angel Called Night was produced by Lindsay Gravina of Violent Soho & Magic Dirt fame. What did Lindsay bring to the table that shines through on this EP?
Lindsay brought experience and knowledge and an innate understanding of the craft of song writing. He wasn’t just there to do a spit polish of things, we went deep into the process, and didn’t come out until we had something that satisfied both the band and him personally. He got into the trenches with us and got us to dig deep playing and arranging wise, which makes him a great producer and really is why he has the reputation that he does. Plus he keeps vampire hours which works well with us.
What was your biggest challenge in putting out this EP and equally what was a positive surprise during the process?
It’s always difficult for a band to put something out there independently, something you’ve crafted and worked on together, and send it out into the public. The biggest challenge became the biggest positive in that we were trying to evoke a certain mood and feeling with An Angel Called Night, that excitement of the dark, of the unknown. And the first time we heard it back after it was recorded we knew we had some 'little hairs on the back of your neck stand up' shit.
Every album tells a story, what does An Angel Called Night say about Society Of Beggars?
That were a night-time band. That we aren’t scared of being a bit darker than most of the stuff you hear out there but are still willing to have some fun with it and try and make a punky fast song that you can turn up loud before you go and have a big night.
Is the song writing a collective process for you as a band or a duty that is largely picked up by just one of you?
We mostly always write together, sometimes someone will bring in something, whether it’s a riff or a melody idea, and then it’s just a process of working it and reworking it to see what sticks. We like to work out the subtleties and dynamics in the room first, because if you can’t translate it over to just an acoustic guitar and someone knocking on a piece of wood than its probably not going to work song wise.
Were there any particular artists you were listening to at the time of writing / recording that (even subtly) influenced the overall flavour of the record?
Yianni and I listen to a lot of hip hop, Dibi will listen to some metal and Nicolai will listen to classic rock type stuff. And we all cross over, we don’t discriminate because a great song is a great song no matter what genre. Yianni in particular saw the lyrics 'the stars will remember and so will I' on an old piece of piano music whilst visiting a relative in a nursing home. It’s that kind of thing that kicks it off for him in his mind, and then you end up with a song that sounds like Frank Sinatra fronting the Buzzcocks because of our influences melding together.
You will be playing a string of east coast shows in November for A Tour Called Night. Do you find touring to be inspirational whereby it helps you write and create more material or are you so focused on the task at hand that writing and creating new material takes a back seat?
We always try something new when we’re playing live. We feed off the energy that an audience gives us and there’s no divisions between us and people that come and see us play. We never really stop writing, we’ve got recordings of little things on our phones that we try to flesh out constantly, and being in new places and having new experiences on the road definitely inspires that.
Looking forward can we expect to see a full length player in 2017?
An Angel Called Night is the first release off the 5 song EP we recorded with Lindsay at Birdland Studios, just a little entree before the main course. We're excited for people to hear the full piece very soon and bringing our madness to the masses in 2017.
Thanks for your time.
