Can you tell us more about Beneath It All?
The whole culmination of the journey of the band since recording Monument. It has been a hell of a journey, where we’ve all grown tremendously musically, and we’ve really solidified us a unit.
When did you start writing music and who were your early passions and influences?
We’ve all pretty much been writing since picking up our instruments in our teenage years. But in terms of Ironrat the moment Monument was finished we began writing what would become Beneath It All.
What are your main impulses for writing doom metal music?
We don’t go out to write specifically Doom Metal, we write what we want to hear but that’s filtered through a wide variety of our shared influences, our personal life experiences and then the themes and emotions we are bringing out in the songs.
One of the things we love to do is go check out our influence’s influences, for example, out love of Corrosion of Conformity lead us to the Allman Bros, which has massively affected how we approach guitar harmonies.
But we sometimes think Bradford feels like Birmingham would have been in the 60s where a lot of bands are all coming together with a similar vibe that suits the environment.
What do you personally consider to be the most significant moments and pieces in your musical work?
Two things stand out right now.
It was an honour to open Bloodstock (UK Metal Festival) in 2017 on the Sophie Stage that ended with a giant chant of ’Yorkshire!’.
But more recently recording Beneath It All was Martin’s first real introduction into recording vocals, and you could see he was apprehensive on the first few takes and worried about how he sounded in the headphones, but after hearing how good it was in the control room he went back in with confidence and while we’d stepped out only for a moment we’d come back in and he’d slammed through the 2nd song and was layering 3rd harmonies. That was a real pivotal moment and testament to Martin’s resolve and the care and talent of Chris Fielding (Producer).
How would you describe and rate the music scene of West Yorkshire?
West Yorkshire is no stranger to great music be it Robert Palmer, Kiki Dee, Smokie, Terrorvision, Kaiser Chiefs or even Gareth Gates, Mel B from Spice Girls and Girls Aloud or louder heaver acts like New Model Army, Sisters of Mercy, The Cult, Doom, Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride.
Despite nostalgia for long gone venues like Bradford Rios or The Duchess in Leeds, West Yorkshire still has an amazing underground scene and we’re glad to have the Underground and NightTrain in our native Bradford.
The current crop of West Yorkshire bands we really rate are Crowsblood, Wolves In Winter, Pyschlona, Godthryhm and Ireosis to name but a few.
When it comes to being a musician, what are your criteria for quality? What are your main challenges and ambitions as a musician?
We all strive to grow on our instruments, become better at expressing ourselves and grow as songwriters. If there any criteria then its being true to us and what makes Ironrat distinctly Ironrat. Our main challenges and ambitions as musicians and songwriters in the scene we are in is reaching out to new people whilst keeping it all honest, true to ourselves as a unit and not compromising heaviness.
What do you usually start with when working on a new song or lyrics?
With a new song the riff comes first, usually Martin or Wayne will bring something and we’ll all chip in, add our instruments, critique it, build it, work a transition to a new section.
With Martin also being guitar vocals needs to sit percussively first then melodically, and finally lyrically.
In terms of Lyrics it’s been life experiences, mostly the negative ones and exorcising them, be it dealing with a racist bigot or a shit day at work.
Please tell us a bit about the selection process for deciding what to write about. What sources do you draw from for research purposes, and how much time do you generally spend on research and gathering material?
All the song lyrics are coming out of personal experiences, so they are not something we are particularly researching but we are refining the lyrical content, the flow and rhyme and occasionally a quick check that what we are saying is backed up/proven.
As more and more people produce and release music, there has been an exponential growth in promotion agencies. What's your perspective on the promotional system? To what extent do you feel it possibly undermines musical freedom?
So firstly we recognise there’s a real split these days in how to reach an audience, especially due to the fracturing of social media platforms. It feels we lose momentum having to invest so much time into so many different platforms catering to wildly different generations. That said we have been really happy with our relationship with Grand Sounds and they ability to target areas that will have a big impact for us and our sound and they have been reaching audiences that we would not have been able to on our own.
It's a fight to get noticed and then get the good old fashioned word of mouth impact in many different areas that takes us far away from just being musicians, making music and entertaining fans.
The metal scene has changed considerably over the past century. What, in your opinion, could or should be new forms and formats for music? Should we preserve the old-school spirit or move forward together with musical "evolution" (or "degradation")?
We really feel the current crop of bands have a duty to honour the history that’s gone before but also to push ahead and evolve the metal scene.
So we know some folks consider bands like Ghost, Avenged Sevenfold, Five Finger Death Punch with distain, but without bands bridging that gap and introducing new fans to metal then it’s going to die out, it’s not degradation, it’s a gateway. Do we really want to listen to them, no, it’s not my cup of tea, but that’s no reason to shit on what they do and what they bring to the scene.
However you paint it, eventually all rock/metal avenues eventually lead to Black Sabbath/Led Zeppelin/Deep Purple and on that we can all agree.
Music-sharing sites, blogs, and a flood of releases in general are said to be killing music. What's your view on this topic?
Honestly, the more real music the better (fuck that AI shit!), BUT not all music sharing sites are equal. We need to admit that a certain amount of pirating, like good old fashioned tape sharing, is actually really healthy for the scene and friends sharing good bands with friends. But currently there are so few avenue for musicians to make money and promote themselves and many of those are utterly shafting bands earnings. When putting your video on Pornhub gets significantly more money than on Spotify then you know the system is broken, but what other options are there really?
Please recommend two bands to our readers that you feel deserve their attention.
There is so much we could recommend but keeping it down to the two bands that we think you should go see now while they are still ‘underground’ and cheap to see, like Sleep Token in 2018. Well, they’d be Boss Keloid and Barbarian Hermit.
What are your plans for the near future? Thank you and see you next time!
It has felt a slog to get the album out, so finally seeing it in hand will be a just reward. But getting out gigging in Europe, Norway, and hopefully playing or returning to festivals like Bloodstock(UK), Keep It Low, Freak Valley, Sonic Blast, Up In Smoke & Duna Jam.
But these songs have been a part of our lives for so long we are already part way through writing the follow up.