It’s that time of year where we set out to interview as many of the Sophie, New Blood, and Jager bands as we can in the lead-up to one of the most anticipated festivals of the year, Bloodstock. Answering our questions here are Strangle Wire who play the New Blood Stage on Sunday.
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
To keep things simple, I’ll just Belfast, Northern Ireland although we’re from all over the place.
How long have you been playing together as a band?
We started jamming together in June 2016, so just over 5 years.
Where does the name of the band come from?
I think the first time I heard the term was when I was on tour with my old band in 2012. We were sitting in a shitty hostel in Nottingham when one of the guys said something about a strangle wire and I remember saying “I’m having that for a band name”.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Ultimately we’re Death Metal. I’m not really sure what makes us unique. I suppose our main strength is that we focus on the song, rather than the genre. We don’t get overly caught up with trying to sound like any particular style of death metal, nor are we obsessed with just trying to be fast or heavy for the sake of it. The result of it is some pretty riffy death metal with a lot of variety.
What’s your live show like? Why are people going to watch you instead of another band?
I think it’s a good balance between energy and intensity, both of which are pretty infectious. So I suppose if you want to watch a show that will energise you and make you want to bang your head, then you should maybe check us out.
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Have you been to Bloodstock before? What did you think?
Sadly not. This will be the first time at Bloodstock for all of us.
Which M2tM region did you win, or did you come through other channels?
We submitted our EPK straight to Bloodstock in response to a post that Simon Hall put up.
Can you put into 10 words or fewer how it felt when you realised you were heading to Bloodstock?
Absolutely fucking ecstatic.
What sort of setlist can we expect?
It will be a mixture of old tracks with a few new ones off our upcoming album thrown in for good measure. It’s a good mix of speed, heaviness and, dare I say it, melody.
Which other bands do you most hope you’re not squished up next to so you can see them play?
We were really looking forward to see Necronautical, Foetal Juice, Elder Druid, and, of course, The Crawling. Although I have a feeling we collide with Necronautical and won’t be there on the days Foetal Juice, elder druid and The crawling play.
What are you working on at the moment?
Currently we are working on the release of our debut album. We recorded it last year in between lockdowns, so we’re now just getting the artwork sorted and all the supporting content that goes along with it. Bar that, we are writing for album no. 2 in the background.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Hmmmm, I’m not quite sure… Watching the singer of The Dillinger Escape Plan bounce a table across the Rosetta bar one night, whilst on stage, moments before somehow managing to detach the disco ball from the ceiling using nothing but an SM58 was pretty spectacular.
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What drink do you throw back to get yourself fired up before going on stage?
I would love to be able to say something cool like “we all take a shot of whisky before every gig”, but that would be a lie. We’re boring as fuck and just drink water. Take that, Motley Crue.
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