Interview: Filthy Mellow Orchestra
Interview: Filthy Mellow Orchestra
-What got you into music, and if you had not gotten into music what would you be doing today?
For Jake (vocalist/guitarist) he got into music at a very young age being played old school rock n roll and blues/rock by his grandad. This quickly turned into an obsession when he picked up the guitar aged 12. He is a very single minded person and is solely focused on music, this is the only thing he likes to do and has no idea what he’d do other than this!
Lewis (bass) was inspired to make music when he first heard and got into one of his favourite bands Motörhead. The love he has for the band continues to grow and inspire him even now. Lewis is very health conscious, he eats well and works out a lot, so that and work would probably be his main focus if not for music.
Liam (drums) weirdly enough was inspired to start playing the drums by Guitar Hero believe or not! He is a very skilled engineer and if he’d never picked up the drums sticks he’d be continuing on his career as an engineer.
-What do you like to do when you are not playing music and how does that influence your creativity?
When Jake isn’t writing music he’s practicing music and when he’s not practicing music he’s listen to music or going on ‘Guitar Safari’ to buy new guitars and amps. Liam is a big fan of video games and cooking while Lewis also loves cooking and spends a lot of time in the gym.
-How long has your band been around?
The band hasn’t been around that long. We first formed in November 21’ but we immediately got to work writing and preparing a memorable live show as it was obvious to us all that we want to make music together and play our music on stage as much as humanly possible.
-Where are you based and how did that influence your music?
We are all based around the Cambridgeshire area and I don’t know that it influenced our music a huge amount. Although we are very lucky with the bands we get to play with locally as Cambridge has a great music scene that we’re very grateful for.
-How did you come up with the name of your band and what does it mean to you?
The name is something Jake has had floating around in his head for years and although it wasn’t chosen for any specific meaning we like that it expresses the diversity in our music…Filthy and Mellow.
-Tell me about your most memorable shows.
Well at the time of this interview we’ve only done one show. It was at Melbourne Rock Club and it was a crazy night playing in front of a brilliant crowd! We’re very grateful to everyone who came out to support us and the venues organiser and staff were really lovely. Like every show we do we put everything we have into it because we live to play live.
-What is your favorite venue to play at, and do you have any places you want to play that you have not already?
We’re very excited to be playing the junction at one of the legendary Fiver nights soon. It’s a brilliant venue run by great people and the sound is brilliant!
We like to dream big so we’d like to follow in the footsteps of bands we like (Alter Bridge, Architects and Meshuggah) and play the Royal Albert Hall one day!
-If you could play any show with any lineup, who would be on the ticket?
Between the 3 of us we decided that we’d like to be a on a bill with Royal Blood, Nirvana and Alter Bridge. For obvious reasons this won’t ever happen but it would be one hell of a show!
-What is some advice that you would give to someone who is just getting into playing in a band and some advice that you would give to your younger self?
For both of those we’d keep it simple and just say…Enjoy yourself, take the rough with the smooth and don’t be afraid to step away from traditional song structure!
-If you could go back in time and give yourselves advice, what would it be?
Write more! Practice more! Jam more!
-Of your songs which one means the most to you and why?
At this point we’re just excited to share all of our new material! We’re putting a lot of effort into putting together the best overall show/setlist we can. But the song that means the most to us right now would be our debut single ‘1 A.M.’ because it’s our first recorded effort and gives us a chance to share our music with people through another medium, not just on stage.
-Which songs are your favorite to play and which get requested the most?
Jake loves playing our upcoming single ‘1 A.M.’ live because it gets people going and you can really feel the energy! Liam likes one of our more mellow songs called ‘Sinner kills saint’ which is a very emotional song with a big chorus. And finally Lewis loves to play a song of ours called ‘Burning’ which is a essentially super heavy blues/rock with a fuzzy bass intro.
-What is the creative process for the band, and what inspires you to write your music?
I think it’s safe to say that this band jams more than any other project we’ve separately been a part of. Even if someone has an idea outside rehearsal it will never be a fully complete idea, I think we’d feel that that’s rude to the other members because it would be denying them the chance to input ideas. So one way or another all of these songs have been jammed and worked out by all of us together in a room and that process is also part of what inspires us to write.
-What kinds of messages do you like to get across in your music?
Our Vocalist/Guitarist Jake writes all of the lyrics for the band and a lot of his lyrics are based around his experiences having mental health issues and the experiences that have come from that. He’s also a big fan of having a heavy/dark song and putting positive/uplifting lyrics in it to counter balance the theme. But the lyrics aren’t edited much once they’re written, we’d rather they be true to the feeling of the song than word for word perfect.
-Do you ever have disagreements in your band, and how do you get past them?
We’ve never had a serious disagreement in the band because when it’s all said and done we’re very close friends. We might have a difference of opinion when it comes to the direction of a song but by experimenting and trying out everyones ideas it gets resolved very easily.
-What are your plans for the future, and do you have anything that you want to spotlight that is coming up?
So right now we’re focused on rolling out our debut single ‘1 A.M.’ that’s coming out Friday May 13th on all streaming platforms. After that it’ll be time to get our heads down for our summer tour around the southern half of the UK which will be announced very soon.
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