Project Description

Interview with

CHRISTOPHER BOWES

from

ALESTORM

by Leah Lovegrove

.

.

Hailing from Perth, East Scotland, pirate metal band Alestorm have sailed far across the seven-seas upon their formation in 2004. Since signing to Napalm Records in 2007, the crew of five (Vocalist Christopher Bowes, Guitarist Máté Bodor, Bassist Gareth Murdock, Keys Elliot Vernon and Drummer Peter Alcorn) have released five studio albums, one live studio album and have toured the world rigorously upon each release.

The rubber-duck-loving band are well known for their gigs to be more like heavy metal, merrymaking parties and they can put up one hell of a show as they sing about all things pirate related on their quest to conquer the world’s stages.

Since releasing their fifth studio album ‘No Grave But The Sea’ in 2017, the playful pirate rockers have been touring the world extensively. They’ve been rocking festivals such as the France’s Download Festival, Van’s Warped Tour and playing shows across North and South America, the UK, Ireland and Europe. Last November saw the announcement of their long awaited Australian tour and the band are set to bring their exhilarating show Down Under in February. I caught up with frontman Christopher Bowes and had a chat about the upcoming Australian tour and being a pirate metal band.

.

.

Okay, first of all, with pirate metal. You’re a metal band and decided you’d change that and sing about pirates, ships and glorious adventures? How did that come about?
Yeah, I guess you gotta sing about something. When we got started we were just like, our original plan was to be like some stupid power metal band but then we went to our first rehearsal and then I was like, “Hey guys! I’ve written this song about pirates.” And it was like, “Cool, that’s a cool song. Let’s do that!” And then I wrote another about pirates and it was accidental and then suddenly it all spiralled out of control and then before we knew it everything we did was about pirates. It was like, ‘Okay, I guess we’re a pirate band now.’ That’s sort of how it got started and then it kept going and getting worse and worse and more ridiculous. And here we are today, going on tour to Australia to sing about pirates.

Although your songs are quite fun, unique and about pirates and stuff, do you have any inspirations when it comes to writing the songs or the lyrics or is it just whatever the whackiest stuff you can come up with?
Yeah, obviously in the past when we started it was just like all the usual pirates stuff, so we very quickly exhausted all the pretty standard pirate clichés. You know, digging for treasure, walking the plank, firing cannons, the navy; that sort of thing. So I think these days we’re getting a bit more ridiculous in our song themes but it’s still obviously very much pirate based. I keep meaning to write a song about pirates fighting Batman but we haven’t got that far yet. Batman will get destroyed by the pirates. There’s still millions of things we could do musically and lyrically so we’re not worried about running out of ideas or anything.

That’s great. And what do you think is the craziest song that you’ve ever come up with so far?
*Exhales in thought*

What’s the craziest one? Aw, they’re all pretty silly. I’m trying to think of what the stupidest concept of the song is. There was one we wrote that we discarded because it was so bad, like the worst song we’ve ever written. It was a song about, umm… there’s some treasure you couldn’t see unless you were wearing the right kind of eyepatch. It was just a song about putting eyepatches over and over again. It was a bit of a vague esoteric concept. The song wasn’t very good either so we got rid of that one.

You could’ve come up with the idea to make eyepatches and sell that as merch.
We’ve had eyepatches on the merch stand before, it was a bit silly. There were really crappy. They were basically made out of paper and held together by like cheap elastic. Like, worse than anything you’d buy in like a Halloween costume store. I felt really bad selling them. But we had them and had to get rid of them so people bought these stupid crappy eyepatches. But yeah, it’d be good to do it sometime again with an actual quality eyepatch.

So you’re touring extensively off the release of your latest album ‘No Grave But The Sea‘. How has the reception been worldwide among the fans so far?
Everyone loves it so far. We have this thing when we play live we just basically go on iTunes or Spotify and find out what are the top fifteen most popular Alestorm songs. We just play those. We don’t play songs that people don’t want to hear, there’s no point in that so we just get the fifteen songs that are the most popular and we play those. And it’s a bunch from the new album which is good. There’s like four or five songs that are everyone’s favourites so we just play those and everyone has loved them and everyone sings along to the new songs like ‘Mexico‘, ‘Alestorm‘ and everyone’s favourite ‘Fucked With An Anchor‘. They seem to go down really well. I’m actually looking forward to playing that one in Australia because it feels like a very Australian kind of song. I feel like you people will enjoy that one so I’m looking forward to that finally.

.

.

You’re coming back to Australia in February and I believe it’s the fifth time you’re coming back as a band. You’re playing five shows, one in New Zealand. What do you love about Australia the most and what keeps bringing you back so often?
My favourite thing about Australia is in Perth there’s a little café called ‘Toast’. They do really nice breakfast and we’re looking forward to going there and having breakfast before the first show. I know it sounds kinda lame but it’s really good breakfast.

Good coffee culture too.
Yeah. You’re good at smashed avo on toast and nice cup of coffees. Very Aussie thing. I like that.The last time we were there, that’s when we discovered that breakfast place. We thought, ‘This is the best place in the world.’  We’ll that again this time. Hopefully it will still be there. What if it’s gone? What if it’s shut down? I will be really sad. Life will be over.

You’ll have to start it up again if you ever retire from doing this and work there.
Yes! Move to Perth and open a little breakfast café!

Is it confusing because you are from Perth in Scotland when you come to Perth in Australia? Does that become jarring or you can easily tell by the accent?
It’s very exciting. It was very fun the first time we came. Like saying, “Good evening Perth! We’re Alestorm from… Perth!” Yeah, it was good fun. But your Perth is a lot nicer. You’ve got sunshine and beaches and nice things.

And scorching heat that tries to kill you.
Yeah, it is pretty warm right now. I hope nobody dies.

Do you have anything new and exciting tourist wise that you’ve got planned? The tour poster features you riding on a kangaroo. Do you think you’d be up for that?
Yeah! Absolutely! I could beat a kangaroo in a fight and then tame it and ride across the err, not the Serengeti, the Outback! Different places. All those clichés all at once. Absolutely, I’m down for some of that.

What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had before in Australia?
Um, we went to a- it’s always food related. We had a really good food fight in Brisbane one night after the show. We went to some pancake restaurant and threw some pancakes at each other for like an hour. It was great fun. It’s things like that that I enjoy the most. It’s just food. I’m just here to eat. The music is just like a secondary thing for me now. I just want to go places and eat yummy food.

Well, speaking of food, or rather drinks, have you heard about shoeys? And do you think there’s a possibility you’ll do a shoey up on stage if the crowd chants it?
You’re not the first person to ask me today if I’ll do a shoey in Australia. I don’t entirely think I’ll want- I’ve done one before. I’ve done that. Been there done that as they say and I don’t think I want to do one again. My shoes are pretty nasty. I wear them all the time. Running around on stage and you know, travelling in them for weeks on end. They build up quite a sweat. I don’t think I’m going to do a shoey. You can’t force me to do it, I’ll get someone else to do it.

What if you buy new shoes, do it out of a new shoe and you continue wearing those instead?
If you get a brand new shoe and line it with something. Line it with teflons so it doesn’t absorb in. I feel like that’s not in the spirit of the shoey. I feel like it’s cheating.

.

.

So do you have any expectations for the crowds to be bigger here and more mental than the last time that you were in Australia?
I mean, I think it’s going to be bigger. I’ll be honest, the first time we came it was great and then every time it’s been about the same. It’s like we very quickly reached a point in Australia and we stuck at it. But I think this time it’s, from what I can tell the venues that we have booked are bigger. Melbourne’s sold out already. It’s going to be a much bigger, lovelier show. A little bit bigger and hopefully more people come and it will be lovely and we’ll have a great time and life is wonderful. Yeah, it’ll be good!

Have you ever played any Australian festivals and do you think you’d like to play some in the future?

We’ve never played any festivals in Australia. The only thing we’ve ever done is our little tours. Maybe people would like us more if we do festivals, I don’t know. But the thing with a festival is you fly all the way to the other side of the world – to Australia, and then you get to play for like twenty minutes in the early afternoon on the seventh stage. What’s the point? You know? No one wants that. I know a lot of our fans would be disappointed, you know, do a little twenty-minute show on some side stage somewhere. It sucks either way. So I think we’ll just keep doing our thing; going on tour, inflating ducks and having a party.

Yeah! I’ve heard about the ducks actually. That you had a giant rubber duck as your stage backdrop. And with the latest album release you could get a duck with your logo stamped on the side. Do you just collect rubber ducks from each country that you visit?

We order them in bulk by the thousand load. We get ducks. But uh, maybe not for – oh, they will come for this tour. We’ll get our giant sized duck. More ducks are good. People like to buy ducks. People like all our weird stuff. They’re very strange.

They’re good collectable items! Lastly, is there anything you’d like to say to your Australian fans before you make the trek Down Under?
I’d like to tell them all to make sure you get your tickets in advance because a lot of the shows will sell out. Melbourne’s already sold out. Don’t have your ticket, don’t blame us! And also, eat more recycled beef. And yeah, see you soon!

Sweet, thank you so much!
Thank you for calling, see you all soon!

.

.

ALESTORM – AUSTRALIA & NEW ZEALAND 2019

TOUR DATES

TICKETS HERE

Feb 4 / Capitol, Perth

Feb 7 / The Gov, Adelaide

Feb 8 / The Metro, Sydney

Feb 9 / The Croxton, Melbourne (SOLD OUT)

Feb 11 / The Triffid, Brisbane

Feb 13 / Galatos, Auckland

.

.

Connect with ALESTORM

@ OneBigLink

.

.

.

AMNPLIFY_DT