Edinburgh band Earl Of Hell follow up two excellent singles ('Blood Disco' and Arrhythmia') with a run of shows over the next few weeks showcasing their 'sinister concoction of all your favourite heavy rock genres'. The guys kindly answered a few questions for 'Ballroom Blitz's Man At The Back' on the band, playing live and the next steps forward for them; check it out below and if you're near to one of the venues listed below, be sure to go see them live.
Earl Of Hell are Eric Brock (Vocals), Lewis Inglis (Guitar), Dean Gordon (Bass) and Ryan Wilson (Drums).
'Blood Disco' and 'Arrhythmia' are available on the digital site of your choice.
Earl Of Hell play live at :-
Little Buildings Venue, Newcastle (30th October)
Ice Box Venue, Glasgow (31st October)
'The Dreadnought', Bathgate (5th November)
MacArts, Galashiels (26th November)
'Legends' (formerly 'Opium'), Edinburgh (27th November)
Facebook - earlofhell
Instagram - earl_of_hell
Hi Guys, thank you for taking some time out to answer a few questions. First off, for those readers who might not be familiar with Earl Of Hell, could you give a short history of the band?
We got together in March 2020 after seeing Lewis’s “Uncle Sam-style” advert. With a handful of songs already written, we found our sound very quickly, gelled together well and after only a few meets the pandemic hit. A while later we hired our own rehearsal room and still abiding by the restrictions, we kept practising on through lockdown and even recorded our first single, “Blood Disco” in April 2021. Since restrictions have been lifted we’ve just started gigging like mad and released our second single, “Arrhythmia” in August.
Who would you say were the main influences on Earl Of Hell?
Each member has their own unique taste in music but there’s a firm middle ground in 70s hard rock, post-punk and grunge. We were brought together by bands like Black Sabbath, Kyuss, The Stooges and Nirvana.
You've released your first two singles this year - 'Blood Disco' and 'Arrhythmia'. Do you have a sense of how they are doing out there in the 'big wide world'?
'Blood Disco' was a really fun first release. It represents us well, captured our sound and our humour perfectly but it came before we’d had a chance to build much of a following. So besides the one fan in Sweden, it’s struggled to make it out of the UK.
On the other hand, 'Arrhythmia' travelled across every continent in a matter of weeks, picking up lots of radio play in Eastern Europe, as well as Italy, Germany, Mexico and the States.
Where did you record the singles and did you have an outside producer or were the singles self-produced?
Both were recorded by our friend Andy Howden at his home studio. Working with him is an absolute joy as he’s just as hard-working and meticulous as we are, he understands the sound we’re going for and fully supports any wacky ideas we have.
Any plans to release an EP or full album in the near future or will you be concentrating on singles for the time being?
Plans are in place to start recording new material next month. We can’t wait to get fired up and capture our energy on record again, it’s a thrilling experience! All will be revealed in due course.
What is the writing process within Earl Of Hell - does somebody come with an almost finished song to rehearsals that you all work on or do the songs come out of a more 'jamming' scenario?
A bit of both. When we first got together we mainly just worked on songs Lewis had written between rehearsals. Though, recently we’ve been jamming out some ideas first, the lyrics are still written at home, then we each play our part in constructing the song once we have all the pieces to put together.
Do you have a favourite song you've written and why? And are there any tunes you're looking forward to 'getting out there' on a release?
Ryan’s the only one with a clear favourite at the moment. ‘I Am The Chill’ is our ferocious new desert-rock number and the drums take a more vigorous whacking every time we play it. Saying that, you’ll probably notice we play everything with a grin!
Now you're back out playing live, what do you have coming up in terms of live shows?
Well, of course we’re looking forward to Halloween! We’re playing the Little Buildings in Newcastle on Saturday 30th October and back up to the Ice Box in Glasgow on Sunday 31st for another wild night of music, burlesque and cabaret. The following Friday 5th November we’re at The Dreadnought in Bathgate and we have another mini weekender at the end of November; MacArts, Galashiels on Friday 26th and back to our hometown on Saturday 27th at Legends, Edinburgh (formerly Opium).
Do any past shows that you've played stand out as favourites? And any favourite venues?
We played our first hometown show at Sneaky Pete’s in Edinburgh last month which was amazing! Not only was it sold out but the audience were so receptive and full of energy and some people even seemed to be singing along which was incredible!
Is there a good rock scene in Edinburgh at the moment? Any other bands from the city and surrounding area you'd recommend to readers?
The music scene in Edinburgh has always been a tricky one to pin down but the whole industry has essentially been reset after lockdown so we’re hoping this will give us a chance to rebuild the grassroots music scene. Even in the capital city venues are taking less risks and most places would rather pay a DJ or covers band to fill a room. However, a lot of bands are still unable to tour that gives us local bands a bigger stage to prove ourselves on. There are a lot of great new bands around Edinburgh and Glasgow and we’d personally much rather pay a tenner to see the likes of Robot Death Monkey playing a sweaty dive bar down a dark cobbled street. We were really pleased to see Dog Tired and King Witch playing Bloodstock Festival this year too, they’re giving other Edinburgh bands a lot of hope!
And finally, what plans for Earl Of Hell for the rest of 2021 and beyond?
Without giving too much away, we have a couple of big support slots in the pipeline for next year which both involve crossing the English border and we’re thrilled to be spending some more time in the studio recording new material next month! Make sure to follow us on streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music and YouTube. We’ve got T-shirts for sale on our Bandcamp page and all other updates can be seen on our social media pages.