With “Dead On Arrival” due to drop on the 7th, we thought it was time for everyone to get to know a little more about Manchester punks Without Andrew, so what better way to do that than have a chat with the band, find out how they came together and discuss the upcoming album.
We guarantee there’s a song on DOA for everyone, and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the band for their co-operation in this interview, and for making it their own, they went out of their way to let us into their creative process and to introduce themselves as individuals and as a band.
Who are Without Andrew and what brought you all together?
Without Andrew is made up of: Sam Robertson – Guitar/Vocals. Tom Peline – Guitar/Vocals. Danneh Gleave – Bass/Vocals. Mat Buckley – Drums/Vocals.
“The band took a while to come to this line up with Mat and Sam starting the band in 2012(?) maybe a bit later, with our then bassist. We recorded our first album “Let’s Boo-Boo”, with a good reaction and a lot of gigging. Then we parted ways with the bassist, Danneh was filling in at first, and it was only after we wrote “Stay Away” (from our second record) that it became apparent that it would be a great move to add him to the band, we asked him about a month later on stage at a show, to which he said yes.”
“This year we embarked on a UK tour and in the process of booking, we reached out to someone we knew from gigging with previously, Tom, who was booking our Glasgow show. Tom moved his holiday with his missus around just so he could put on our show, he then asked if he could join us as second guitar for tour, also sweetening the deal with extra fuel money input if needed! Little did we know that Tom was planning to stop doing music after the tour, but we had so much fun we changed his mind and he didn’t want to quit music, which was rad! We (Mat, Sam and Danneh) had some talks, and with the great time we had on the road and the improvement to our sound due to his presence, decided to ask to Tom to join and he said yes! Here we are! That it the short version!”
“Dead On Arrival” is released on December 7th, how does it compare to your previous releases?
“This is probably our strongest album yet, all the songs have great potential and they show off our abilities vastly, the songs range from ska punk, pop punk to emo ballad! This album gets even more personal than the last, which I think really helped up the song writing! The album has at least one song for everyone to love and we believe that will show when it drops.”
So first up is “Lost Souls” and it does feel like a battle cry as the lyrics suggest, a call to arms to rally the troops and a welcome to the new album, was this the intention when making this the opening track?
“The idea of rallying people in unison was a big intention with this song, (we were) wanting to make sure people didn’t feel hopeless, and if they did, that it was okay and they would always have someone. We all suffer with mental health issues and we have sung about those issues before, but this was definitely more towards being a positive movement for someone, to help them through a tough time! Funnily enough, it being the opening track was just down to the fact that it felt like an opening track, with the acapella chorus at the start, it just felt right.”
“Vault 13” was a firm favourite from the start, and along with the harmonies and riffs of “Devil”, it appealed to our pop punk sensibilities. How would you describe these songs?
Sam: “With “Vault 13″ I took a lot of inspiration from older and more (technically) simple songs, where they were nice and straightforward, and to the point. For me, when I listen to the track, I feel upbeat and energised with the higher speed of it, yet also more invigorated to do something, as the content of the song is scarily true for various nations around the world.”
Danneh: “”Devil” is a song I wrote as an expression of my darkest feelings of hatred and self loathing, this song is very personal to me out of everything on the album. To be able to create something with those hard times from this. I feel like the music also enhances the dark feelings, with the heavy emo and fast punk influences. The song really started to come together when Mat wrote the harmonies, and the beautiful verse guitar lead riff just added that extra sense of awesome emo punk rock.”
“Fuck You! You’re A Racist” gives us old school ska punk vibes and Rancid “…And Out Come The Wolves” era feels, and obviously it’s a big ‘fuck you’ of a song! We can tell what it’s inspired by but what motivated you to speak up and put it into a song?
Mat: “I was in work one day and overheard some externally racist comments made by someone of higher authority and it just grated on me so much that when I went to clean the toilets I started singing the line “Fuck You, you’re a racist. I don’t know how you can’t see this” and it just flowed from there.”
As we’ve established, this album has a healthy dose of old school ska punk and rock vibes, with a generous helping of pop punk angst and heavy emo, does this reflect in your musical influences?
“We all have interests in some of those genres, some more than others, but I think a lot of it comes from the wide variety of what we listen to, with each person being so different and we just apply what we love to this weird, punk/pop/angsty sound we have going on!”
Upon first listen of “Freefall” we wrote “simple, singalong, sing away your sorrows” in our notes and the beauty is in it’s simplicity, does that make sense? How did you create such a catchy song with such diverse parts?
Tom: “Yes, it makes complete sense! It’s a simple song with a simple message, we all have moments of loneliness and hopelessness, but you’re never alone and there is always a light.”
“Sanctuary” makes for a great second single from the album and is a solid representation of “Dead On Arrival”, why did you choose it as a single?
Sam: “Initially it was a track that was just put forward at a random practice during a break and, at the time, I wasn’t so sure how it would sound when coming together as a full band piece, as I had only heard it acoustically with me not having the tools to make my own proper demos. We had a quick jam at a practice room and worked with it slightly, adding various things and taking others away, until we all felt happy with it. It was when we fully recorded it and heard it back, that we all agreed this was a song that was easy to connect with, whilst still being powerful and something we thought that people would love.”
“Broken Hands” has a much moodier vibe about it, with a great intro, we especially love the drums…
Mat: “Yeah, “Broken Hands” was a weird one. It came about from me buying a new bass and writing the bass hook you hear at the start, and I kinda just let it flow. The song is heavily inspired by Miss Vincent musically, especially in the drums and that aggressive down-picked Johnny Ramone-esqe Guitar, but with a more Creeper vocal style mixed with a tiny bit of As Sirens Fall. It just flowed into what became a great catchy song that has some nice dark lyrics, but I felt very proud of that song upon finishing and felt it would go down very well.”
“It Doesn’t Seem So Bad” is the pop punk love song of the album, the “we don’t give a fuck as long as we’re together” song and, along with the dynamic of the two voices working together so well, it’s what makes it so endearing. We all need something to lift us up, a little spark of light in the darkness, and this is the song for that.
Danneh: “Going back to what I said earlier about “Devil”, this song lyrically to me is quite contrasting in that, whilst it acknowledges the same darkness of “Devil” it shows hope for the future and acknowledges that I do think things will get better.”
Can you describe the process of creating “It Doesn’t Seem So Bad” for you and Mat?
“Mat led the way with the music on this one, starting off with the incredibly catchy acoustic guitar, which I believe he had aside for a different song initially but upon hearing it all the ideas started rolling between the two of us, leading to what is this great catchy song with feel good vibes.”
Onto the final song “Burn Me Up”, which features some powerfully raw guest vocals from a friend of ours, the lovely Mikey Lord of As Sirens Fall, and it truly feels so personal and heartfelt. It’s an awesome song and so beautifully put together, we’ve listened to it so much that we already know every single word, how do you feel about closing the album with such an emotionally charged song?
“First of all, thank you for the kind words. It feels like the right thing to do, it’s a super strong song and it flows so well, it’s just fits. It feels like the best way to close this record as it encapsulates so much intensity and emotion, you almost need a sit down! Kinda like the opening song, you just know when you know.”
This question has been touched on throughout the interview but how ‘hands on’ are you as a band with the whole creative process, from writing the music and lyrics, ideas for music videos, etc?
“We all give our input on everything, if someone writes a song we all work on our own parts for those songs. Typically the person who wrote the song sings it, but there are exceptions, mainly on older records. Certain people are better at certain things so they do the main part of that, for example Danneh heads up things like graphic design; album art and posters, etc, while still having input from everyone on what they think works and such.”
Time for the final question, what plans do you have as a band for 2019?
“As many shows as we can, hopefully another Tour and possibly new music! Just hit it hard and keep doing what we love!”
“Dead On Arrival” is released on December 7th.
Find Without Andrew on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.
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