UK London based metal outfit High Rise are unleashing their brand new EP Endeavours upon the world today. We caught up with the guys recently to get the lowdown on their beginnings, how the EP has come about and what else is on the cards.
Welcome! Please introduce yourselves to our readers:
Hi everyone! This is Tom (lead guitarist), Joe (vocalist), Ryan (Bassist), Ricky (Rhythm guitarist) and Jon (Drummer) and we’re High Rise from South West London!
Please tell us a little bit about the history of the band:
The band has taken a few forms over the years, Joe and Ricky and I (Tom) started it back in college in 2010, we actually booked a show with Bury Tomorrow and Of Mice & Men a time at The Peel in Kingston which was INSANE… BUT! We were a bit young, a bit silly and we let a few things get the better of us and broke up before we had a chance to play it! Without intending to (and while pursuing other projects and life choices) we decided to reform with a renewed fire in our collective belly recruiting Ryan, Jon and teamed up with our incredible management Down For Life Music! We’ve been a bit full steam ahead ever since.
Which one of you is “the funny one” in the band?
This is a hard one as we’re all a bit ridiculous really…Ricky is just naturally a hilarious human being without much effort, Jon is the meme king, Ryan and I are very blunt/deadpan one. Our guitar tech Dan, well, he’s just a dirty bastard. But the crown surely has to go to our boy Joe, whether he’s cracking jokes or is the butt of ours, either way, he makes us laugh, a lot.
If you had to describe your sound, how would you do so?
In a nutshell, you could say we fall into the Hardcore / Metalcore / Alternative Metal genre, but as we strive to be different. Our aim is to cram as many aggressive guitar riffs, melody and instrumentation into the verses and then bring it all back down again for the choruses so you can all really sing your hearts out. We love hearing people shout and sing back our lyrics, it is honestly the best feeling in the world!
Do you have a particular way of song writing and writing music, or does it vary?
It goes without saying, Ricky is our main songwriter. If we were baking a cake, it would be him that makes the sponge, we just come along and slap our jam and icing and decorations on top. We all tend to get an idea for how we’d like it to sound like, Ricky goes away and gets these ideas and brings them to the table with a more structured idea, then we then tend to re-arrange, reshape and add everything else into the mix. The top line melody and lyrics usually last, depending on where the first initial idea comes from. We usually tend to write about current issues in our lives or across the world, art inspires us too! We’d love to think our music and lyrical approach is relatable, and that the listener can take something away from each track.
You have just announced your brand new EP Endeavours, which will be coming out at the end of March. What can you tell us about your new EP that isn’t top secret at the moment?
Without revealing too much here, we’re just truly excited for everyone to hear it, in all honesty, it’s taken us a while to find the sound that works best for us and now we finally feel like it’s there, we’re ready to unleash this one onto the world and we can’t wait! Definitely a few surprises in store with this one!
Related to the above, you’ve just dropped the video for the EP’s first single, My Solitude, Your Hope (which we thought was rather good) – what made you choose that as the first single?
Absolutely loving and appreciate all the love for it so far, thank you! We’re glad you like it! It was a hard decision to make as to which would be the first, we just felt My Solitude, Your Hope really spoke to us all the most, it just felt right that this would be the first one that everyone heard as some of the others are so different!
You’re about to hit the road with Everyone Dies In Utah and Scream Blue Murder – are you looking forward to the tour and what can those who are going along expect from a High Rise live show?
We can’t wait for tour, both incredible bands who we can’t wait to hit the road and hang with! We always tend to go all out at shows, we try to get as many as we can be involved and really give it our maximum energy at all times, we always like to make sure everyone who is in that room has the best time possible! Heavy shows (as fun and as rough as they can be) are great fun, but still needs to be fun for those not taking part in a pit!
If you had to choose one song of yours to show to potential new fans of the band, which one would it be and why?
We really want every song on this EP to be heard by as many people as we can. Each song is unique in its own way and we feel different types of fans will appreciate and interpret the songs in their own way. If we had to choose though, it would have to be our title track Endeavours as this is a great amalgamation of everything we have to offer on the EP.
Who would be your dream band to go on tour with?
There’s just so many to choose from! We’d love to tour with While She Sleeps, Beartooth or Architects, or Foo Fighters, now that would be the dream!
What is the best flavour of ice cream?
It’s gotta be salted caramel, there’s something about salt with sweet that surprisingly just works so well!
High Rise’s new EP Endeavours is released today. They have a release show for the EP at The Fighting Cocks in Kingston tomorrow (30th March).
