Another lifetime ago, back in the muddy confines of the fields of Castle Donington at Download 2012, Jamie caught up with a couple of the lads from UK Math Metal rising stars The Safety Fire, bassist Lori Peri and guitarist Dez Nagle. Discussions of tents, festivals, their touring plans for the year and more await those who read on…
Rocksins: We’ll keep this fairly quick as you guys seem nice and dry and hopefully you’ll be staying that way for a little while, have you guys just got here (to Donington)?
Lori: We came down last night as we wanted to miss all the traffic, which seems to have been a pretty good idea!
Rocksins: You got here in time for the absolutely ripping overnight torrential storm then?
Lori: Yeaahh *laughs* I think the tent took a brutal, brutal battering. I was quite surprised when we opened the door on my new tent this morning that half of it wasn’t missing.
Rocksins: This is The Safety Fire’s first time at Download, probably the stupid question of the day but are you excited?
Dez: Yeah! Really excited. We played Sonisphere last year and obviously Download has a bit of history with Donington behind it. I think the history behind Donington kinda puts more prestige with it as well and we’re also playing a lot higher up on the bill than we did at Sonisphere so it’s really great to come back and play another festival…in the rain *laughs*
Rocksins: And you’re also playing Hevy Fest later in the year?
Dez: Yeah, that should be good fun.
Rocksins: I saw you guys a few months ago with Rise To Remain at The Portland Arms In Cambridge…
Both: Ahhhhh *laughs*
Lori: That was a fun show!
Rocksins: I think with the stage such as it was you guys spent more time in the crowd than on stage
Lori: *laughs* Well you know, we were just showing the kids how to dance, none of this two step stuff
Dez: Yeah man!
Rocksins: Was (The Rise To Remain Tour) a good tour for you guys?
Dez: It was pretty brilliant because on that tour we did basically all the major markets but all the smaller markets as well. We played twenty one dates all around the UK which was a hard slog but it was great. I think the day before the Cambridge show we played London and it was a sold out show at The Underworld…
Rocksins: That was Austin (Dickinson, RTR frontman)’s birthday as well wasn’t it?
Lori: Yeah.
Dez: So yeah after that show we came down to Cambridge and Cambridge is fine but when we got there we were like “Ah…this….this is a pub!” *laughs*
Lori: I think sometimes those can be some of the most fun shows though.
Rocksins: I think there was about 100 people in a room designed for about 60 which made it quite interesting…
Lori: It was a very good show for us because we buzz off the crowd and they really got involved for us.
(Anyone who wants to know more about that extremely good “pub show” can read the review here).
Rocksins: It’s only a couple of weeks time now until you have a few shows lined up with a certain band called Gojira, you must be looking forward to that as that’s a pretty big deal!
Dez: We watched them last year at Sonisphere from by the side of the stage and we all love that type of music anyway, I don’t know if the others had seen them before but I hadn’t and it was just amazing.
Rocksins: I know what you mean, I was in the crowd for that set and they were phenomenal.
Dez: You know what I mean? Unbelievable! So to play with them is an exciting and also scary prospect.
Lori: We’re going to really have to up our game, but it’s those kinds of challenges that you have to rise to. It can only make you better, so we’re really excited.
Rocksins: Is it just the three shows?
Dez: Yeah, it’s just a short thing for their CD release. 25th I think is when the CD comes out and we’re doing Sheffield, Birmingham and London. London has sold out and I think the other two are getting there.
Rockins: Awesome.
Lori: Yeah, it should be really good.
Rocksins: After the stuff we’ve already talked about and Hevy Fest are you doing any other European Festivals?
Lori: We’re doing Brutal Assault, which I think has diversified a lot more than the last few years of it. Traditionally it seems a lot more like a European battle metal and death metal festival so it should be interesting playing a festival like that. We’ll probsbly be the lightest band on the bill!
That’s not happened too often so that’s saying something! We’re going out there with our good friends in Bleed From Within and The Human Abstract and also The HAARP Machine so it should be pretty fun as well.
Rocksins: And then in September/October you’re doing Europe but not the UK with Periphery and Between The Buried And Me?
Dez: That should be announced now but there are UK dates at the beginning of October which is awesome.
Rocksins: Don’t worry this won’t be online for a few days (interviewer’s note – months rather than days)…
Dez: That’s when it’ll all come out! *laughs*
Lori: But yeah, there are UK shows, nine UK shows in total. There’s eight shows in the UK ahead of the run in Europe and then the last show will be in London at The Shepherds Bush Empire.
Rocksins: Nice venue to finish things off at.
Lori: Exactly, it’s a real hometown show for us as well so to be coming home to such an iconic venue on what will be the biggest tour of our career (so far), that will be incredible.
Rocksins: Your album’s been out for a few months now, are you happy with the reaction to it and how it’s gone down with the fans?
Dez: It’s really interesting – we were in America when it came out and at the beginning of the tour there were people who had come out to see us and they’d made that known by talking to us and whatnot but as the tour went on, the album had been out for a little while and the crowds quite clearly knew more of the material and they seemed to like what we were doing.
Lori: By the time we came to New York, that was just a crazy show and there were insane pits and crowd surfing and all sorts. That stuff was happening before but there was a real growth in it as the tour went on.
Rocksins: Does that mean you’ve managed to beat (The Safety Fire’s best friends) Rise To Remain in going to the US then? I know they’ve tried to get out there a few times and it’s not happened for them
Both: Yeah! *laughs*
Lori: We did have a little race between the two of us.
Dez: I think they’ve done the rest of the world though!
Lori: I think that’s the only one we can win now, where else is there, Antarctica? *laughs*
Dez: Yeah we’ll have that one!
Rocksins: Ok guys, just one last question that we ask everyone and it doesn’t always apply, who are your favourite Simpsons characters?
Lori: Hmmmm…..
Rocksins: Or you can go Family Guy if not Simpsons.
Lori: No Simpsons is good.
Dez: Maybe Duffman?!
Rocksins: Good choice!
Dez: Duffman is thrusting in the direction of the problem!
Lori: I gotta go with Moe Syzlak I think.
Rocksins You’re the first person who’s ever said Moe.
Lori: Great, i’ll take it!
The Safety Fire will be on tour in the UK and throughout Europe with Between The Buried & Me and Periphery throughout Autumn 2012. The full list of UK dates, which begin last night (October 1st 2012) in Reading, is available below:
October 1st – Reading – Sub 89
October 2nd – Wolverhampton – Slade Rooms
October 3rd – Glasgow – The Garage
October 4th – Newcastle – O2 Academy 2
October 5th – Manchester – O2 Club Academy
October 6th – Leeds – Cockpit
October 7th – Bristol – O2 Academy
October 8th – Southampton – The Brook
November 2nd – London – O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
For more exclusive interviews with metal artists like The Safety Fire, please keep checking back with Rocksins.com regularly. The Safety Fire’s debut full length album Grind The Ocean is out now on InsideOut Music.