As ever, we’re going to try and cover every single Jäger, New Blood and SOPHIE stage band before Bloodstock kicks off on August 10th. Your chance to check them out and start planning which bands to get there early for!
Trust us when we tell you that this is bound to result in some frustrating clashes because, as ever, there are some great bands on these three stages.
Our thanks to all the bands for taking the time out to answer our questions!
Ward XVI – Hobgoblin New Blood Stage, Saturday
Simple things first – Where are you guys from?
Lex: Generally speaking, Preston, but we’re each from various places in the surrounding area.
Min: We’re inmates at the high security of Ward XVI. Our doctors believe we’ll recover faster if we involve ourselves in extra-curiccular activities such as performing music on stage.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
Lex: Just over two years with our current line up.
Min: We’ve been locked away in Ward XVI for around three years now. A few inmates have disappeared since our original lineup.
Psychoberrie: Four years
Where does the name of the band come from?
Lex: It’s part of the backstory to our whole act, an asylum which was the subject of various abuse scandals (Psychoberrie can probably answer this one better).
Min: Our name comes from the Ward we’re confined to in Whittingham Asylum.
Psychoberrie: I already knew that I wanted to base the concept on a psychopathic serial killer but whilst searching for name ideas I came across some horrific abuse stories that took place at Whittingham Asylum just outside of Preston on Ward 16. Then Martin said “Why don’t we use roman numerals?” And so the band name that nobody can spell was formed.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Lex: We incorporate many genres, each member bringing different influences to the table, everything from Alice Cooper and Iron Maiden to more unusual sounds like Stolen Babies and Diablo Swing Orchestra.
Min: The band was formed around three years ago by an accordionist and a vocalist who both had a love for rock music and theatrics. We started recruiting other inmates and we found a diverse mix of musicians that all contribute something in their own style. We like to try as many ideas and styles as we can, whether it’s metal with dance elements, or punk with folk elements, gypsy punk with speed metal elements – we want to meld our passions and create something people might not have heard before.
Beardy: We have beards! Well two of us have beards. If that’s not enough reason then…
Psychoberrie: Err, Beardy, I don’t think a beard is going to be very unique at Bloodstock.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
Psychoberrie: We’re a theatrical band and we put everything into the live show. There’s lots of blood and gore and all the band members have their own unique horrific deaths to act out on stage, though it’s not just mindless violence, there is a concept running through our songs. Musically it’s very tight, we like the whole thing to flow from start to finish and there’s plenty of crowd interaction such as our circus pit during “Toy Box”.
Lex: We have the theatrical show running throughout our set with people getting shot, butchered with a chainsaw, our infamous ‘circus pit’ etc, such elements always seem to keep the crowd involved and intrigued in what we’re doing.
Min: We take pride in our music, but that’s just half of our live show. We have all kinds of surprises on stage. I hope no one is afraid of live chainsaws!
Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Psychoberrie: I’ve been to a lot of festivals including Download, Hellfest, Sonisphere and Wacken but I’m a Bloodstock virgin.
Lex: This will actually be my first ever festival. Exciting stuff!
Beardy: I think this will be my fourth time at Bloodstock. 2010, 2013 and 2014. I’ve seen some fantastic bands over the years there. Evil Scarecrow on the main stage first thing in the morning in 2014 had by far the biggest crowd for so early in the morning. It was great everyone scuttling left and right. And Twisted Sister ending the weekend in 2010 there’s no better way. For me that hasn’t yet been topped.
Dr Von Stottenstein: This will be my first ever festival as a viewer or musician, so I couldn’t be more excited!
Did you enter M2TM thinking you could win it? Which region did you win?
Lex: Honestly, at times, no, we’ve been up against some astounding bands in the competition, I was always skeptical of whether we had what it takes.
Psychoberrie: This is actually the first year I didn’t care about winning it. That probably sounds bad, but hear me out. We’ve done a couple of M2TM competitions in the past in addition to several other competitions including the Sound Waves music competition where we made the final and performed at Leeds Academy. Each time I’ve placed all my hope on getting through, I put so much focus on the need to be the best that I forgot to just enjoy it. This year I went in with a different attitude. We meet a lot of bands, we make a lot of new fans and we get a lot of other gigs from doing these competitions. Having a great gig in a great venue, playing alongside our friends was what mattered this year and I think taking that attitude probably made for a better performance. Art is subjective and should never really be a competition, I’ve seen so many bands downtrodden because they didn’t get through and I’m like “Why? You played an amazing gig”.
The bands we played with this year were phenomenal and they’re no less great just because they didn’t win. That said I still think this competition is the best thing for emerging bands, just being involved in the heats can be a great stepping stone to bigger and better shows but we should all remember first and foremost that the important thing is to play a great gig for those who have come to see you. Getting through is a bonus.
Min: Not at all. We see any kind of BotB not so much as a competition, but more as a way to perform and network with new bands and this year we got to play with some genuinely amazing bands (big shout out to our friends in Soldato!)
Dr Von Stottenstein: We were in the Burnley region. We had absolutely no expectation of progressing this far, that’s not to say that we aren’t confident or very proud of our music. We are very passionate and work hard to be where we are – we are our own worst critic, but we are far from blasé or cocky. We have a massive amount of respect for the bands we are friends with; we know from the feedback we have had from peers and fans that we are onto something good but we were just happy to be sharing the stage with some of the nicest and most talent musicians around and to be picked as the band to progress from all of them was an honour.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
Lex: Fast, energetic, blood, guts and straitjackets.
Min: There’s going to be a symphonic dance metal circus side show.
Psychoberrie: One like no other that you will see at this or any other festival. We cannot describe our music, we aimed to be different and we achieved it, you will just have to come and see for yourselves.
Dr Von Stottenstein: The set will surprise a lot of people I hope in terms of content, and variety of genres we try and pull from. Hard, fast, exciting and fun… and that’s just Min!
Which main stage band do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
Lex: Arch Enemy and Ghost.
Psychoberrie: I’ll actually die if I miss Skindred.
Beardy: It’s all about Ghost. As long as I see Ghost I’ll be a happy bearded man.
Min: I want to see Ghost and Skindred. I’ll make sure to bring my dancing shoes!
Dr Von Stottenstein: Megadeth for sure. I’ve loved them since the 80s (I’m the old grizzly inmate).
What are you working on at the moment?
Lex: We’ve very recently released our debut album, The Art Of Manipulation, however we still have a few new song ideas in the works.
Min: We had our debut album release party last week, which involved pre-recorded video elements, magicians, live chainsaws, burlesque and broken glass eating. Next on our list will be finishing up a few storyline ideas for the follow-up album, and nailing down a few of our brand new tracks!
Dr Von Stottenstein: Apart from world domination, new songs/album for sure-even though the new release is only four days old!
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done on tour?
Min: Well we took a break from touring earlier this year to record our album, and we all camped outside the studio. After a hard day’s recording, we realised in the field across from us there was an 80s festival with Adam Ant, Gary Numan, Soft Cell… So we decided to sneak in! Once we were in, we attended the silent disco, drank lots of gin, hung out on the camp site with the Avengers (I’m not convinced it was the real Avengers), played on the fairground rides before we decided to check out the main stage… And when I say “check out the main stage”, I mean we got on the main stage! Needless to say, the security at this particular festival wasn’t the best. The rest of the band couldn’t believe our stories the next morning until we showed them the videos, including one of me walking back to our tents with a traffic cone on my head. This is why we need padded cells.
Psychoberrie: That was a top night, a double gin down the hatch and next thing I found myself climbing the stage scaffolding (I’d always wanted to do that). When Min says we played on the fairground rides he failed to mention that nobody was manning them so we were just sat on the chairoplane trying to swing ourselves. We had these torches, there were yellow people (security) dotted about but we kept shining these torches as though we were doing something important as we walked into all the parts we weren’t meant to be in. We even asked other people if we could check their wristbands as they walked past. I wasn’t leaving till we’d been on the main stage. It was pretty cool standing up there, we were just giggling going “We’ve fucking made it, Ward XVI are on the main stage at Rewind Festival”.
Lex: I once threw up purely from drinking too much Dandelion & Burdock. True story.
Psychoberrie: We also found out that he shrinks when he drinks alcohol. This is not even a joke.
Von Stottenstein: Min and Psychoberrie are certainly ones to keep an eye on. I have the video of above and will be using it in the future for blackmail purposes to get extra contraband sneaked into the Ward.
Jäger, Hobgoblin Ale, Kraken, Kingstone Press Cider, Kaltenberg Beer or Bulleit Bourbon? And, yes, we’ll be counting all the votes!
Min: Kraken or Bulleit! If anyone says otherwise, they’re wrong.
Lex: Cranberry juice. Alcohol is for losers.
Psychoberrie: Is this the part where I find out there’s not going to be any Pinot Grigio at this festival?
Von Stottenstein: Is there a lager in there?
Ward XVI: official | facebook | twitter | instagram
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