What have been your favourite moments from your three years in Kaine so far?
For me, the highlights of my time in the band have probably got to be the 10-year anniversary show at Colchester Arts Centre and Burr Fest at The Dome in London with my favourite of the two being the 10-year show, which has been the gig with the best crowd so far.
I also got a dent in my new car trying to find somewhere to park at night in the rain for a crappy hotel that was possibly also a drug den so there’s that too.
How have you changed since joining Kaine?
I own more shirts without sleeves and more music equipment.
But seriously, I feel that I’ve become more confident and comfortable when performing on stage. Before joining Kaine, I pretty much stood still, not doing much. Obviously, I’ve still got room for improvement but I’m getting there. For the next album, I’ve adopted the use of a pick for most of the new songs as I feel the sound of it suits some of the material much better. It’s also given me the chance to get more familiar with a pick as I never really used one in the past, with the only song prior having me sometimes use a pick was “Loudwire” on Reforge. Also apparently a lot of venues have crap monitors for bass players, If I even get one that is. I recall one venue claiming that they can’t put the bass through the monitors, so that was fun.
What were your experiences recording Reforge The Steel?
Most of the main writing for Reforge had already been done prior to me joining the band. I mainly just worked on my own basslines. But I feel that a lot of the time everybody is subtly changing what they play over the course of weeks or months of playing the same songs. Even some of the songs that we have recorded already are played differently than what’s on the album versions.
Recording Reforge was fun as we hadn’t really been working together as a band for very long, although Rage and Liam had been working together for a little while before Toby and I joined. And Toby and I were previously in another band together for a couple of years.
All the rehearsals and gigs leading up to the recording of the album did not prepare me for the seemingly endless guitar harmonies that were added to the songs on Reforge, however.
How about The Waystone Anniversary EP? How did you find working on that?
The Waystone was pretty fun to record, as a lot of the album had subtle changes with everyone throwing their own takes and different influences on the original versions of the songs.
The title track was probably the most difficult to learn and remember each part, what with how many different sections the song has and the different time signatures for certain sections. We also came to a decision of changing the original bass focus intro and making the song more concise. I think it’s the only time in any of the songs we’ve recorded that feature bass tapping except for my version of the bass fill in “Fall of Jericho” when we play that live. Even so, the final recorded version was different from the original version I initially wrote. As I initially wrote it on the six-string bass, utilising the high C string but In the end, I recorded it on the five-string and decided to not go as high.
What have you contributed to the new Kaine album?
On the new album, I’ve got a song that I wrote most of but had some input from the rest of the guys, I also have another couple of ideas that I just haven’t put into music yet.
And obviously, I’ve been mainly writing and playing my own basslines for each song but have been simplifying them somewhat to suit the different nature of the new material. The new album has been a different experience to write, as most of it wasn’t written beforehand with us learning how to play it.
Are you looking forward to hitting the studio in the coming months to record it?
Well, I can’t really say I’m not at this point, can I? Anyone want to take bets as to how many extra harmonies Rage and Toby add to the songs?
In all seriousness, being in the studio can be frustrating when you keep messing up the same take, over and over but at the end of the day, it’s great fun.
Are you excited to play live again, now the band is clear to play again?
Since March 2020, we’ve had a total of 1 gig, which was a Livestream only gig a couple of months ago. I can’t wait to be back out playing especially with the 13 or so gigs we have booked for the next few months this year. It’ll also give me a chance to use my new Spector that has been in the past few rehearsal videos in a live setting for the first time.
What are your ambitions with Kaine moving forward?
Well hopefully, as well as all the gigs we currently have booked, it would be great to get to play some larger venues, even as a support act for some more well-known bands. Of course, a tour or two wouldn’t hurt either.
I’d also like to try and get an endorsement of some kind from one of the brands I use, even if it’s just cables.
What would be your dream gig?
For a dream gig or scenario, think it’d have to be headlining a sold-out tour, not even necessarily in massive stadiums or venues. Just decent-sized venues with great crowds, doesn’t even matter where in the world they are.