Posted on November 18, 2009 - by Editor

Punk’s In Your Blood: The Arteries

The Arteries

Welsh punks The Arteries, have been hard at work over the past couple of years releasing a number of EPs along the way and more recently assembled their collective efforts with their first full record. With a foundation built on friendship and great music tastes, the band has grown from strength to strength, and recently ventured on their first European tour and a stint on the West Coast, USA. Jamie, before catching up on too much sleep after the US trip, spills the beans on the funny side of touring, their recording efforts, Fest 8 and why powerhouse iconic label Epitaph and  the Warped Tour are not quite what they used to be.

Hi Jamie, so for newbies to the band who does what and with what!

Jamie: Hi, I play bass and do back ups, Miles sings, Tim plays guitar, Jenks plays guitar and Rhys drums.

Your MySpace says “We aren’t trying to change the world; we are just a bunch of friends that like to play music together and party”. Is that the core of the band; friends first and fortunate enough to let your music take you on the road?

Jamie: Yeah sure, I mean we pretty much started this band as kids; we were all friends that were into the same music, so it made sense to try and play together. We just kinda stuck at it and grew up a little along the way but it’s basically the same now as it was way back when.

There is a mixed array of sound in the band. How did the melting pot come together as I think there is a metal/ skate punk strength to it all?

Jamie: Metal?!  I’m not so sure about that. I guess the melting pot is quite eclectic; we are all into different bands and types of music so everyone has individual contributions on account of their personal influences. But, at the same time we also have a lot of common ground when it comes to certain bands and genres – I guess this is the stuff that has the most to do with what our music ends up sounding like.

I read in an interview that you “would say anything to do with Ian Mackaye, Chuck Ragan or Chris Wollard” as major influences? Why those three and their music?

The Arteries

Jamie: Yeah that’s true, amongst some others (John ‘speedo’ Reis and Jason Shevchuk.) These are people that have been in a large number of insanely awesome and influential bands! It’s interesting to think why these people but I’m not going to into it because it’s the type of question that needs a full essay as a worthy response. Basically, all of their bands have kicked ass!

‘Blood, Sweat & Beers’ was self released in three parts over 2008 in the form of three coloured 10″ records. It is now available via Household Name Records on CD format. What was the reason you approached it in that way?

Jamie: We wanted to record an album but didn’t have enough free time or money to record it all in one straight run. The idea of doing it in three parts was raised and it sounded like a good plan so we went with it. It worked out well; it meant that we could record each of the three parts over a weekend, and we could raise enough money from the 10” release to pay for recording and pressing of the next part. Our initial intention was to record an album once all three 10”s were out (although it was cool), it didn’t really feel like we had an ‘album’ so we then decided to take four songs from each 10” (and another song that wasn’t on any of the 10”s) to compile our debut album, which Household Name so kindly offered to put out.

We interviewed your label mates and friends The Cut Ups recently. What would you like to tell us about them?

Jamie: They are the best band going so I’ll tell you that!

Who writes the music in the band, is it very much a collaborative effort?

Jamie: Sort of, Miles is usually the person that comes up with the majority of the songs. The way that it usually works is this; Miles comes up with the bare bones of a song, an intro and chorus idea, a verse or maybe even just a cool riff. Then him and I either meet up and think of some sort of structure, other ideas etc. and work on it in his room. Or he’ll take it to band practice and we’ll all work on it and finish it together. Either way we always do that last part so it always ends up being a pretty collaborative effort.

You seem to be prolific on the EP and recording front. Haven’t You have just released another EP and the split with The Cut Ups as well as more listed on your website. Tell us about the upcoming releases.

Jamie: We haven’t released any new EPs but we have just released a new split with The Cut Ups and been featured on two other new 7”s. We recorded five new songs with Pete Miles at his place in Devon one day last summer – actually, we recorded four songs with him that day and then drove down late one night a few weeks after and quickly recorded another one.
Anyways, all five of those songs are now out on recently released 7”s. Two are on our split with The Cut Ups, two are on a 7” as part of The Art of the Underground series that Alex from Lemuria puts out and one (that one we recorded in the middle of the night) is on a four way split 7” titled, ‘Brits Abroad’ that the guys from Banger have just put out.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up. So growing up together as friends; were there lots of gig sneak ins, nights on the road to see your fave bands play and general tom-foolery! Do many bands play in Swansea and surrounding areas?

Jamie: Haha, yeah I guess, many a night of tom-foolery was had! Swansea is pretty cool, Lots of good bands seem to pass through here, there are regular D.I.Y sorta punk shows which is rad, and Cardiff and Newport are near by which also don’t usually seem to have a lack of good shows. But apart from the punk shows in Swansea (mainly put on by Swansea collective, El UFO or us) there music scene is pretty fucked – there are a bunch of club type venues that just put on loads of bullshit. Bowling for soup for example, or CKY at £18 a ticket and they wonder why nobody shows up.

The Arteries

I hear you have some strong views on the Epitaph roster and Warped Tour (you are not the only ones). So what are your gripes with those?

Jamie: Ah man – that is a long road to go down. Basically it’s obvious. Epitaph and the Warped Tour used to rule and now they suck. Simple. Imagine going to Warped tour 15 years ago and seeing The Descendents, or going this Summer and seeing You me at six, or fucking Brokencyde.

Nuff’ said. How was your first touring stint in Europe?  Any good tales from the road?

Jamie: It was a blast; we kicked it off well with a show at the Underworld with The Flatliners (those guys are awesome!) and then jumped straight on to the ferry to Calais. I think we played about 16 shows and from what I remember only two were shit so it worked out really well. One of those shows was bad because the promoter was really young and didn’t really have a clue what he was doing, this was frustrating because he was super innocent and we all felt too bad to tell him that everything he was doing wasn’t right – because he was just a little kid.

There wasn’t anyone at the show, we were supposed to get food but all he had was a packet of crisps and a pack of ham with 4 slices in (there were 6 of us on the tour, and one guy is vegetarian.) He was the support band, just him and he was pretty terrible, then after the show he took us to the place that he has organised for us to stay at and it was just a one room bedsit – that is fine, we have stayed in some really small places and in some really gross places, this place wasn’t even gross. But, the guy brought 2 friends with him for a sleep over so 4 of us had to sleep outside on the street! We got woken up by some tiny tiny old French lady shouting at us at 7am, we were all still drunk, it was a really weird day from that point on, it’s a bit of a blur, one part I remember clearly was driving to a lake that we found the day before, sleeping on the beach for a few hours and then heading out to sea on a stolen pedal.

Haha that’s what makes touring so fun right? You have recently been in the US for a mini tour and to attend The Fest 8. You went there a couple years ago? What are your memories of previous years and what did you expect this year?

Jamie: Yeah I’ve been there just to check it out the last couple of years so this year it was really really great to be able to play, and even better to be able to tour all the way down the East Coast to Florida with our buddies, Static Radio NJ. I was only 20 at fest 6 so my memories mainly consist of sneaking drinks with the marvellous Pugs, getting busted for sneaking drinks – a lot! Seeing Small Brown Bike for the first time and having a lot of fun. I had even more fun at Fest 7 and I don’t credit any of it with being old enough to legally drink, it was just a blast so I didn’t expect any less from this years Fest 8, in fact I expected it to be way more fun and it was. It was like a massive friend’s reunion!

And what highlights did you have from this years The Fest 8?

Jamie: Oh shit, I sort of answered that above.
Specific highlights include; getting to see so many friends that I don’t get to see enough and making loads more, seeing Tim Barry play, watching Tim (our guitarist) sing a song with Snuff and watching Snuff in general, seeing Cheeky and Small Brown Bike again, Dead To Me at the warehouse, Hanging with Pugs watching Pretty Boy Thorson, there are too many highlights to list. It fucking ruled & I wish that it was a month long! C’mon Tony, are you reading this!?

Any further plans for the remainder of the year?

Jamie: Um, there isn’t that much time left but yeah, we are trying to write a bunch or new songs but it’s hard to find the time. Most of us are juggling the last part of Uni, which is supposedly important, and the band at the moment so it’s hard enough to get us all in the same room to practice before shows let alone work on new songs. We have a handful of shows before Xmas, some are with D4, which we are really excited about. In the new year Uni is going to be even more nuts, but we are going to do some sort of tour in March and then get a new record out and tour our asses off from the end of May onwards!