Before we interview a band, we do our homework. We scour the web, we read interviews, we listen to their music and we study their social media. With Protafield however, there is precious little information to go on. The brainchild of industrial metal guru Jayce Lewis, lets find out more about Protafield.
This is Lisa Fox for Rock Sins and I’m here with Protafield.
JL: Hi, I’m Jayce Lewis.
JS: Jack Slade.
JL: And we are.
Protafield!
Wey hay. So how’s it going?
JL: It’s going good, you?
Very well thank you, very well. Are you excited?
JL: Yes… we’ve been drinking Monster energy drink, Red Bull everything whiskeys, urine and petrol and that’s what gets us going
JS: Yes.
So you’re going to be flying around the stage?
JS: Absolutely. Believe.
JL: That’s the way.
JS: Believe.
So tell me how the band came about because Jayce you had quite a successful solo career.
JL: Yes. That’s basically how it came about. Done.
Well that answered the question nice and easy.
JS: Cheers we’re Protafield. See you later.
JL: Yes we, I mean it’s, I haven’t started a new band, it’s basically a transition from, it’s just a name change you know? Because the band evolved, my solo career evolved with these guys. Then I lost the deal with EMI, because EMI records collapsed and then Universal came along and signed us up and said, I think you should change your name and I agreed and here we are.
And you became a band rather than just you?
JL: Yes. I mean the way it works is still exactly the same. It’s still, I write the music and I play all the instruments and stuff but we’ve embraced more of the live act and the next album’s going to be involving more of the band writing as well and I’ll just referee it then.
And will that change the sound a bit do you think or will it bring more flavours to the table?
JS: I think it’s bringing extra ideas to, just enhance what Jayce writes. Like being both drummers I can bounce drum ideas off him and stuff like that so, it’s pretty easy.
JL: It’s my baby, you will not touch it Slade.
JS: Well that was just vicious man.
JL: Yes it was. It was.
So where did you come up with the sound because I get a lot of Fear Factory/ Spineshank/ Gary Numan from your music?
JL: Well I’ve been influenced by Fear Factory for a long time now. And then I became friends with Burton, I became friends with Gary Numan, it’s really weird all the people that I’ve been influenced by are all involved in this album. So for me Nemesis was like this is where it really starts, you know, the Jayce Lewis thing was really, really good, it was really great and a great experience but I think it would have been damaging if I’d kept A) the name and B) keeping it kind of media friendly, which is what the remit was when I signed with EMI. Now with Protafield I’ve got the sort of licence to go back to my roots of being heavier and a lot more experimental and that’s exactly what I’m going to do but you know it’s really nice to have all the people that I was influenced by and the bands involved, helping it along, you know, and like Burton from Fear Factory helped come up with the name to give it a concept theme and all of that so it’s funny how things happen in life really. You know it’s like come a full circle you know?
And of course, you know, like AC/DC’s also been an influence on me and this man’s father was in AC/DC, Chris, so it’s really, really weird how everything…
JS: It’s funny.
JL: …it is weird, it’s just, it’s almost like you couldn’t make it up. You know I’ve got Roger Taylor from Queen on the album and Lance Henriksen from Aliens. You know Chris Slade’s son, you know and Gary Numan and it’s just, it’s like everything is meant to happen now, you know, and that’s, you know our second show as Protafield is Sonisphere festival.
That’s pretty damn good.
JL: Yes.
Are you excited to be playing Sonisphere?
JS: Absolutely.
JL: Yes we are, yes.
JS: Absolutely.
It’s great that it’s back.
JL: I agree. I, you know, I was so sad when they weren’t, you know two years in a row they couldn’t do it and now they’ve come back with such an impact with the line-up they’ve got. Incredible, I was blown away by it, blown away that we’re playing it, we’re very lucky and humble. I think it’s gone a lot faster than I thought, I mean I know you’ve said that quite a lot as well. Just under a new name.
JS: Well…
JL: …a fresh name, a fresh band so to speak, it’s gone so quick, it’s awesome. It’s dwarfed the case of what Jayce Lewis has gone, I mean it’s really, really picking up and the album’s not out, we’ve had one bad review out of about 40 or 50 reviews. The album’s been received incredibly well. I’m very surprised at the fact…
JS: It’s great because you normally expect a couple of herrings so to speak, you know……it’s natural, so the fact that there’s only been one that we’ve seen is great.
Was the one negative review constructive?
JS: Not really, no.
JL: The negative review, I can’t remember who it was, but it just, it’s nothing specific about the songs or the name or the image, it’s just that they just don’t like that music. And the way it comes across it’s almost like they don’t like metal or dance or industrial, it’s crazy. It’s shocking. It happens, you know it’s nice to see people with different opinions
So tell me what you’ve got going on for the rest of the year?
JL: We’re going to tour. Tour, tour, got more festivals to do, Alt-Fest and
Forever Sun festival and then we’ve got a tour with HellYeah, Vinnie Paul and Chad Gray and then we’ll probably do another video and then tour hopefully with Fear Factory or there’s a few other bands who I can’t name but we’ve got some, we’ve got some shit in the bag.
There’s not much about you guys online. Is that intentional, because you go to the official website and it’s not there? You go on Wiki you’re not there, you are but the band aren’t.
JL: It’s not intentional it’s just as we said the pace of Protafield, the inquisitiveness about the band has far outweighed the pace of us being able to deliver. That’s what’s happened really, and so we’re going to…
JS: I think it kind of helps in a way as well, if people don’t know anything about us in, like if I don’t know anything about a band but I see them promoted like crazy I will check them out and we don’t mind if people don’t like us that’s cool. But it makes more people sort of interested in our work.
So as a final question, what is your biggest Rock Sin?
JL: Rock sin? Mmm…
JS: Oh man.
JL: There’s a few. Rock sin, what something really bad?
JS: What if you could help us…
JS: What have people said?
People have said, women, some of the people have said illegal substances, some people have said, “Do you know what my biggest rock sin is the fact that I’m not a rock sinner”.
JL: Yes.
We’ve had a lot of guilty pleasures too.
JL: I would say, I would say mine is that I’m not very rock and roll and that I’m…
JS: That’s the same with me to be fair. Yes.
JL: We’re very, no I’m pretty like keep myself to myself and I don’t allow any girls on the bus and stuff, we just, we have tea and biscuits actually, that’s what we drink…
JS: Literally.
And Monster.
JL: And Monster.
JS: Obviously. Yes. Yes.
Perfect, thank you very much indeed.
JS: Thank you very much. Very nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you too.
