Over the next five days, I’ll be on the road all over Ireland, being the driver/tour manager/jackofallatrades for the Ireland-tour of German and Irish metal bands Killtribe and Gacy’s Threads. I’ll provide the official tour diary here and on the Killtribe-website. As an apetizer, here’s an interview with both bands so you get a feel for what we are up to. More dispatches from the road soon, Wifi-access across the country permitting.

Gacy’s Threads are a Metalcore band from Belfast, and have been recently named as one of the Irish bands to watch in 2011 by Hot Press magazine. They have been constantly touring Ireland (and also did a short tour in Hungary), supporting bands like Fear Factory, Cancer Bats, and August Burns Red. Gacy’s Threads will be on tour all across the country north and south again on the St. Patrick’s weekend, together with German newcomers Killtribe, who are hailing from Aachen in the west of Germany. Not that the band members are freshmen at their first year in metal college: they shared European stages with Slayer, Soulfly, In Flames and Caliban. I spoke with both bands about touring, the metal/core scenes in Northern Ireland and the Republic and why people should attend their shows naked.

Gacy’s Thread’s

How often have you played the Republic before? And is there a difference between the scenes and the audiences in the North and down here?
Aaron Vance (vocals): We’ve played the republic on multiple occasions in our short existence as a band, going as far as Cork, Limerick and Galway as well as Dublin.

Personally, with playing in the Republic on a fairly regular basis, I’ve noticed that there is a larger hardcore/metalcore scene than up in the North and it’s always refreshing to play with bands close to the same style of music we play, bands like Murdock, Red Enemy etc.
That’s not to say I don’t like playing up North, I love it also! Give us a stage and we’ll play!

Blane Doherty (guitar/vocals): We’ve ventured down to the Republic quite often in our 3 or so years in existence. We actually traveled down for maybe our 5th or 6th show. We’re definitely one of those bands that want to make the effort to get all over this crazy wee country!

As for differences in the shows, I think especially regarding Dublin because it’s such a bigger city compared to Belfast you can attract more people from each scene as there is simply more people and fans of each form of music. But we love playing both north and south!

Is there enough space for Irish Metalcore bands to establish themselves on this tiny island, in terms of record deal, proper touring and endorsements? Or do Irish bands have to start looking at the UK and other countries for touring and selling records at some stage, to avoid playing the same clubs and same audiences over and over?
Aaron: Definitely not! I’m of the opinion that for any band in any part of the United Kingdom to really make a name for themselves, you need to be willing to travel all over, especially bands from the North or South of Ireland. I mean, when you look at how many touring bands overlook Ireland as a whole to play whilst in the UK, you realise it’s because there simply isn’t a large enough market or promotion for our kind of music here. Bands can certainly work towards making a reputation for themselves playing shows up and down the Ireland but I think you need to be willing to make that leap over the water to take things to the next level in terms of a touring career.

Blane: I would love nothing more than to say NO! bands don’t have to look at the U.K and beyond to make it as professional musicians but unfortunately in my opinion they do.
I believe bands can most certainly make their name, get noticed and make the right moves here, but even if that happens you will at some stage have to venture off across the water to start making a big buzz and name for yourself. There just simply isn’t a big enough market/scene here for this type of music to be self sufficient unfortunately.

Over the last years, Metalcore has become a more and more accepted style – do you still differentiate between Metal and Hardcore influences in your sound?
Aaron: Personally I wouldn’t pigeonhole Gacy’s Threads into the metalcore category. Whilst we take influence from bands like Unearth, As I Lay Dying etc. I feel we lean more towards the more noisy, chaotic end of the spectrum, more akin to Botch or Converge, though I’d say our influences are definitely apparent in our music, and as long as folk enjoy it, I don’t mind what they call it haha!

Blane: I don’t think we fit perfectly into the metalcore style. I think we’re a bit more rough around the edges and try to go for a less polished sound that what metalcore is typically known for.
However, a huge bulk of our influences are derived from either metal or hardcore bands and I think you can definitely here that in our music.

What has the future in store for Gacy’s Threads? Plans for any new recordings?
Aaron: Well after the tour with our bro’s from Killtribe is done, we have plans to record a single before the summer in between a few shows. After that we’re hoping to start on the album and hopefully make our way across the sea for a short stint in Germany with the Killtribe lads if they still want to be our friends after the madness of this coming tour ensues haha!

Blane: We’re hopefully going to get on recording a single around March/April time after our tour with Killtribe and then after a few shows promoting that we’re going to start work on our album.

We have quite a few songs written and many more in the pipeline so fingers crossed when it does eventually get done and out there it’s going to be something we’ve put a lot of energy and work into and hopefully everyone will get to hear what we think is our proper sound.

And last but not least, as this is buggering me for some time now: is your band name related to John Wayne Gacy?
Aaron: Yeah, we get asked this a lot, our own fault I guess! I think Currie and Blane were watching a documentary about Gacy one night and thought the name up! They suggested it to us and considering no one could come up with anything better, it stuck I guess! Sounded better than something typical like “bloody hands of a goatmonster massacre” haha!

Blane: Haha… yes it is, we do get asked that quite a lot. lots of people think because of the word threads it relates to his clown costume but we weren’t that smart. It actually relates to the ropes he used on his victims.
I just want to clear up tho that we don’t actually write or sing about this sort of thing… it’s just in the name! haha!!

Killtribe

Is this your first tour in Ireland? And why Ireland? I guess for a German band a tour on mainland Europe would make more sense?
Max Widdra (Bass): This is the first Killtribe-tour in Ireland. Some of us toured there in 2008 with the band „Barracuda“, which was a great experience. We played three shows, Dublin, Cork and Belfast. We met Gacy’s in Belfast. Great evening! And now we are happy to say, WE’RE BACK! Prepare yourself!

Malik Aziz (guitar/vocals): Yeah, literally on stage when the lads had their second gig ever, I guess – but we were really impressed. An absolute hellfire on stage, something between Dillinger and an atomic explosion, haha! Was really fun watching. I am so looking forward to play with these guys. And sleep in Currie’s (Gacy’s Threads drummer) bed.

You were recently looking for a new guitar player – have you established a fixed line-up for the Ireland-tour?
Malik: We did, indeed. Our long-time friend Patrick Portnicki helps us out. He did it two times before and it was great. He is a funny guy – beware of his jokes- and a great guitar player. You can see him in the »Quad« video we recently released: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGrhPwgmPd4

Are there any plans to do some live-recordings in Ireland? And, are you planning to publish new material at some stage this year?
Max: We planned to record the shows on video tape. That’s pretty much it. And we got a lot of new material. Prepare yourself for songs like „Burn“. This one kicks ass. A song for the girls.

Getting back to the sound-question that I asked Gacy’s Threads above: how would you describe your sound? Is it pure Metal, or is there some “Core” in there somewhere?
Malik: The old question that everyone would answer differently, haha. In my eyes it is very much metal. Since none of us is in the »Core« business we don’t have many influences therefrom. You could argue: hey, you slow down at the end of this song, that’s a CORE-BEATDOWN. And I would say: ever heard »Old« by Machine Head? So sometimes it is really in the eye of the beholder.

Expect the aggression of Slipknot, a little bit technical fun of some Meshuggah-ish bands and some strange Killtribe song structures. Add clean vocals here and there and a br00tal live show then you know why you should attend those shows.

Do you have a message for the Irish metalheads? Something they should bring to the shows, like umbrellas to protect against the sweating Killtribe?
Max: Umbrella it is. If it protects you from drowning in blood, sweat and beers. Bring yourself, good friends and expect a great evening with our friends from Gacy’s. Come naked, we sell shirts!