Back in February Cutting Teeth dropped their debut single, ‘The Great Delusionist’ and there was just something about it that grabbed us and didn’t let go. It was a strong release, determined and brutal, an accomplished piece considering it was a debut, and we loved it! We knew we’d found another band to love and this song was only the start.
Fast forward to June, and we celebrated a heady summer with ‘Life Of A Loser’ featuring heavily on it’s soundtrack, we listened to it while getting ready to go to gigs…yeah, when our team hangs out we really do listen to all the bands on our Spotify playlists! This song had both the strength of it’s predecessor and a little something more for good measure. The band have been earning their stripes by playing on some amazing gig line ups and gaining a following along the way, while recording more material for the release of their debut EP. So who better to feature on our blog than a band we’ve been watching go from strength to strength in such a short time.
Who are Cutting Teeth and what brought you all together?
“Cutting Teeth is basically a bunch of loser pals who like to write riffs and jam out. It all started with myself (Adam) and our singer, James, going and seeing Frank Carter in Leeds and just being mega inspired by it! We wanted to be a 4 piece punk rock band…kinda changed as we started writing. After writing what turned out to be The Great Delusionist, we decided we needed to actually get people together who we knew. I knew Jono from college and he jumped at it, and James knew Nath from years back, so drums and bass were sorted pretty quickly! Morgan then joined and it all fit, we all enjoyed hanging out and the music turned out alright!”
Why did you choose this band name?
“James had been wanting to do his own project for a long time, away from other bands and he had a list of names ready to go if the occasion arose. Cutting Teeth makes sense as we were all starting something new, it was a new band and venture, so it fit the phrase pretty well…plus the artwork we could fit around it was cool!”
‘First Cut’ is released on October 12th, what can we expect from your debut EP?
“‘First Cut’ is a collection of the demos that made it basically. We all had so much to bring to the table and these were the songs that developed from that. What this EP symbolises is a mash of different influences and styles we all love, and us trying to find a sound. For example, ‘Once Bitten’ and ‘The Great Delusionist’ are very punk, Every Time I Die, Cancer Bats kinda feel, whereas ‘Life Of A Loser’ and ‘Details In Devils’ are straight forward While She Sleeps, Beartooth with dabbles of ETID chaos. And ‘Swanky’ is just swanky, ha-ha!”
And your release show is on the 13th at The Key Club in Leeds, your first headliner, how are you preparing for that?
“Well for starters we’re preparing without Morgan, ha-ha! He’s double booked for both that show and the show the evening before, where we go to Wales and open for Bleed From Within! I’d say we are preparing by tightening up the set, we have a few new songs we are working on, as well as some other visual concepts. It’ll probably be a one-off occasion visually, so we’d definitely suggest coming down for it (of course we would, its our own headline show!).”
Who are your musical influences?
“It varies hugely. I think clear influences for us are: Every Time I Die, Beartooth, While She Sleeps, Cancer Bats and even The Dillinger Escape Plan, but we all listen to so much. Loathe, Galleries, Turnstile, Vein, Angel Dust, Holding Absence, God Complex are just a few that come to mind that we all regularly listen to and either go “imagine if we could do something like that” or just get generally inspired to make music.”
You’ve got a number of shows under your belt now and have played alongside some great bands: which bands have you enjoyed playing shows with, and what bands would you like to tour with in the future?
“Big question. We’ve been very fortunate with the shows we have played in such a short time. Every gig offers something new. Personally, Galleries were very gracious to have us for our first show and gave us so much support so that was special. Opening for Parting Gift and Modern Error was also excellent as they’re two unreal bands and really nice people, and they’re just blowing up as the days go by! I think tour wise, the dream tour would be bands like Loathe, Every Time I Die, Vein. The ETID headline tour in winter, ETID, Turnstile, Angel Dust and Vein, ruddy hell, that is a perfect tour for us. So long as the people are chill and there are riffs, we will tour with anyone!”
The independent scene is really strong right now with bands supporting like-minded bands, putting together their own tours, etc, how do you feel you represent it?
“I think we represent only a minor part of it. It’s a very exciting time to be a part of this independent alt scene currently, especially up North as there are loads of amazing bands working their arses off to get somewhere, so to see friends get opportunities is great! With the EP headline show, we got to choose the opening bands we had on so we immediately said we wanted local Leeds bands who we admired. Covent, tremendous band from Selby, we’ve known for a long time now. Nomasta, absolutely ferocious three-piece that just have such a cool sound, mega riffs, huge drums, driving bass. Their music is great! Captives were put forward by our manager, as we didn’t even know they existed at that point, as did the world, but with their newest single they’ve just released, they have monster hooks. So yeah, we just wanted to choose local bands who we admired and wanted to play shows with! Its a very eclectic show and we hope people enjoy that!”
What other bands would you recommend?
“Well, the three mentioned above, Covent, Nomasta and Captives for sure! Other local bands and that we’ve played with, Vida Wasteman are an incredible funk band from Sheffield, mega cool vibes. 99% Cobra are riff machines, The Escape Artist, Galleries, Talkshop. Just get to local shows and see local line ups! Also don’t be afraid to go on suggested artists on Spotify, you find gold there!”
How involved are you all with the whole creative process of writing the music, making the videos, designing the merch, etc?
“We are all heavily involved. Up until now, and likely for the foreseeable future, we have done all of our own designs, logos, merch and have been heavily involved in the production of our music videos and songs. Sometimes it gets tough because everyone is so creative, it can get a bit like “there are too many cooks, everyone go away”, but we always land on something that we all adore. We are very much looking forward to outside collaboration, who doesn’t want outside input every now and then?”
What’s next for Cutting Teeth?
“What’s next, nice! Well, we open for Bleed From Within in Wales on the 12th October at Hobos in Bridgend, followed by our headline EP release show on Saturday 13th October. That’s the immediate future. November, we are writing, writing and maybe recording. We feel as though we have found our sound now and we are unrelenting in making that sound into a reality. We have more songs done and more songs brewing, so who knows? ‘First Cut’ releases October 12th, but it may not be the final release of 2018 from Cutting Teeth…you’ll just have to keep up and find out.”
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