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When it comes to doom, all roads lead to Birmingham. It’s been several decades since those first Sabbathian rumblings first erupted, but Brum has done a good job of keeping up its reputation as the spiritual home of heavy metal. One of the most exciting new(ish) cadres of doomed souls to emerge from the area, Alunah, melds classic UK doom with psychedelic shades and stoner fuzz, tossing in a heavy dose of acid rock and dirty blues for color. Vocalist Soph Day is a formidable talent, both onstage and on record, and an all-around lovely person besides. Her voice drives the band, in turns sweet and sultry, and always powerful. The band are currently working on some new tunes, and are understandably still high off the fumes of their recent and very successful Desertfest appearance alongside heavyweights like Corrosion of Conformity and Orange Goblin. I spoke to Soph about their upcoming LP, Janis Joplin, and the Devil’s music.
Kim Kelly: It seems like 2012 has already been a busy year for you! Can you tell me a bit about what’s going on with Alunah? What are y’all working on right now?
Soph Day; Yeah, I can’t believe it’s only May, seems like a lot further into the year! We’ve been working on our second album “White Hoarhound” which is coming out around Summer time on PsycheDOOMelic. We’ve had Greg Chandler record us again, he’s the main man in Esoteric and has worked with acts such as Serpentcult and Moss previously, so in good company! This time, Tony Reed from Stone Axe is mixing and mastering. He has just worked on the new St. Vitus so, again, good company! The album should be ready mid-june and then all the press will be handled! As well as that, we’ve been gigging, most notably we played DesertFest back in April, and have some cool shows coming up including a date with Karma to Burn.
KK: For those who don’t know you yet, could you give me some background on your musical adventures, and tell me what the relationship is between you and Alunah?
SD: I’ve always been involved in music in some form or another, I played violin, clarinet and organ as a child/teen and then moved onto the harder stuff hahaha! I helped start Alunah along with Dave and Jake back in 2006 and apart from Gaz who joined a few years back when our previous bassist left, that line-up is the same. Originally I solely provided vocals but the last four years or so has seen me on guitar also.
KK: What is your day job? How did you get involved in that field, and what do your colleagues think about your bands & involvement in metal?
SD: I’m an Internet Marketing Consultant for a small firm based out in the Leicestershire countryside. My degree is actually in Graphic Design and for years that is the field I worked in, then a combination of that and marketing. As online marketing and search engine optimisation has become more prevalent, I developed an interest and that’s what I do now. It comes in mighty handy for the band! I don’t think my colleagues are bothered either way, they ask questions about the band and some of them are into rock / metal themselves, but I have never received any negative feedback from anywhere I’ve worked. My last boss (I had a marketing role in a Solicitor’s firm) was a huge Black Sabbath fan, massive! In fact, when I first spoke to him to arrange the interview, we were on tour and had to decline the interview. When asked why I couldn’t make it I “came clean” and told him I was touring – he thought it was the best thing ever and we struck up a conversation about Sabbath – needless to say I got the job!
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KK: What’s your favorite book?
SD: I must admit I don’t read as many books as I would like to, and the last books I read were the complete Sookie Stackhouse (True Blood) collection hahaha. A book which frightened the living daylights out of me, and probably had some part to pay in me being vegetarian, was Iain Banks’ “Wasp Factory”. It just seemed so horrific to me and really struck a chord, I couldn’t stop thinking about it months after I’d finished reading it and I’ve probably read it 50 times! I really love Irwin Welsh’s writing too, “Trainspotting” got me interested and I then sought out his other novels and plays.
KK: What’s in your purse right now?
SD: Haha great question! I’m guessing you mean handbag (forgive me, I’m English!). If so, I have a purse/wallet, Blackberry phone, tin of Vaseline, a letter reminding me to get my ass down to the opticians for my contact lense check haha, some Ibruprofen tablets, a spoon (??),
another tin of Vaseline, some plectrums, hairbrush, White Hoarhound rough mix CD, a bottle of water, and a Filofax. Some right shit in
there!!
KK: How did you get into metal in the first place, and what inspired you to pick up a microphone?
SD: Originally, when I was 13/14, I was well into my indie rock and Britpop, and from that I moved onto Grunge which I still love today. I kinda got into metal once I met my Husband and band member, Dave, when I was 15 – he was big into Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Anthrax, Iron Maiden etc and, apart from Maiden (who I can’t stand), I started listening to them and found more bands I loved such as Testament – one of my personal favourites! We both kinda got into the kind of music we play through Kyuss and Cathedral, and then had fun finding all of the other bands that make up those genres! Our third and fifth gigs, respectively, were supporting the legendary bands Trouble and Paradise Lost, which were really special shows for us. I definitely listen to less metal now and more of those offshoot genres – stoner, doom, sludge, psych etc. As for who inspired me to pick up a microphone, I have three names… Tairrie B Murphy, Janis Joplin and Lori S!! Big Brother and the Holding Company and Acid King are two of my favourite bands of all time, totally different in style musically but both with kick ass ladies on vocals! Same goes for Tairrie B, who I have followed since her Manhole days. I met her this year and she was very kind about Alunah. We had the pleasure of supporting Acid King last year and to see Lori nodding her head down the front was a dream come true. Sadly I’ll never meet Janis, but I have seen Big Brother and the Holding Company play with a very brave lady on vocals; they’re big shoes to fill and she did Janis’ memory proud.
KK: Female-fronted doom bands have been all over the place lately, from the psychedelic rock of Blood Ceremony to the harsher tones of Monarch, and all points in between. It’s not uncommon to see a woman slinging bass in a stoner rock band, or pounding the drums for a sludge outfit. Do you think the world of doom is more welcoming for female musicians, when contrasted to the other extreme realms (black, death, thrash, grind, etc)?
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SD: Initially people hated us, and a lot more than likely still do. Even though there are many women in doom, I don’t think there are many with the same singing style as myself. That’s not me being egotistical, either, as I don’t consider my vocals to be technically sound or particularly strong, but I do think we’re doing something different, and it’s taken a while for people to get it. I’m not sure how accepted women are in the other genres you mention, as I’ve never really gotten into those kind of bands, so am pretty ignorant as far as that is concerned. I can only talk from experience with the doom/stoner genre and let’s just say, the majority of people don’t care as long as the band are decent, we will always get tagged “female fronted” but that comes with the territory. There are only a few neanderthals who don’t think a women should be fronting a band, let alone singing melodic songs and playing guitar. I know you get it too, shock horror a woman knowing her shit about music! A woman in a band should be a regular occurrence rather than a novelty, which it has the danger of becoming.
KK: The Devil’s always had the best tunes, and doom has more in common with the dirty Delta roots of blues and rock’n'roll than most of Black Sabbath’s bastard children. Your vocals and the guitar licks scattered throughout Alunah’s tunes bear a heavy mark of those slinky, smoky grooves; how big of an influence would you say that the blues has had on your sound, and how did you get into that kind of music?
SD: The blues has had a massive influence on my vocals and Dave’s riffs! As I mentioned earlier, Janis Joplin is my favourite vocalist. My love of the blues comes from her and also the likes of Led Zeppelin, Cream, Blue Cheer, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors. Through them, I was exposed to Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Etta James, Howlin Wolf, Bessie Smith, and Billy Holiday. Dave’s a huge blues fan, which led us to the USA and honeymoon in Memphis and New Orleans. In fact, we first met you at the Black Tusk/Monstro show in Memphis at the Hi-tone Cafe. Whilst we were out there we saw some awesome blues bands, but visiting Sun Studios, Graceland, Rock ‘n’ Soul Museum, Gibson guitar factory, and Stax Museum were equally amazing! With the blues, the music wouldn’t exist without the story, that’s what I love about all those early artists – they had a story to tell and they told it so damn well!
KK: Who are some of your favorite vocalists (male, female, whatever!)?
SD: Janis Joplin is my favourite vocalist of all time – raw and powerful, but beautiful and soft at the same time! Keeping with the women, I also love Joni Mitchell, Lori S, Tairrie B Murphy, Nancy and Anne Wilson, Beth Gibbons, and Grace Slick. Not forgetting the men, I’d say I’m most inspired by John Garcia and the way he forms melodies, but I also love Layne Staley, Robert Plant, Bob Marley, and Jim Morrison. So, yeah, a bit of a mixture right there for you!
KK: How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?
SD: Hahaha depends where I’m going, I generally cannot function without a shower – I’m a bitch all day without one! Probably about an hour but most of that is spent drying my hair!
KK: What’s your favorite non-metal record? Your favorite metal album?
SD: Non-metal its a toss up between “Dummy” by Portishead or “Trouble” by Ray Lamontagne but my favourite albums change constantly! As for my favourite metal album, I’m not really a fan of straight up metal but, if you’re talking favourite heavy album, I’d say it’s between Goatsnake’s “Flower of Disease” or Spiritual Beggars’ “On Fire”.
KK: The last words are yours!
SD: Cheers Kim, it’s a pleasure to be interviewed by your good self! We’ll be touring White Hoarhound end of the Summer / early Autumn and have our album launch in Birmingham in August. We also have some dates planned throughout the early summer also. Keep visiting our website www.alunah.co.uk for more information, and be sure to come and find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/alunah.doom.