AC Audio Presents: CLONK // DISTANT BLUE // MARVIN'S REVENGE // SCOTT MAKEPEACE

Written by Niamh Christian

Saturday 27th August, Ac Audio Nottingham brought a night full of some of Nottingham's most energetic,  thrilling, upcoming artists to Alberts.

Kicking off the night was acoustic rocker Scott Makepeace. Singing soulful folk songs that bring a positive feeling to all those that listen, it was a beautifully peaceful start to show.

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After a calming set by Scott, the boys in Marvin's Revenge took over the stage. Playing some well-loved, fan favourites such as 'Lisa' as well as showing off their newest single 'Clockwork Pizza Press', Marvin's Revenge managed to put on an energetic show and bring a lot of fun to the stage with them.

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Next up was rock and rollers Distant Blue, bringing some old songs they haven't played for a while due to the absence of a bass player. Despite having to play as a three-piece, losing a guitar pick, breaking a guitar string AND having a guitar strap come undone halfway through a song, they still managed to bring their usual hair raising performance.

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Headlining the stage of this brilliant line up is none other than Nottingham's very own Clonk. Making the stage their own with their filthy hooks and heavy riffs, Clonk brought the crowd to their feet got everybody feeling the energy. After seeing Clonk's set, I can conclude: Ed has got REALLY floppy hair.

PHOTO BY: @its_niamhmarie https://www.instagram.com/its_niamhmarie/

Before the show, I managed to get a chance to interview all of the artists performing that night and ask about their gig stories, music inspirations and upcoming shows and music.

SCOTT MAKEPEACE

PHOTO BY: @photosbysax https://www.instagram.com/photosbysax/

How would you describe your music to someone who has never heard it before?

I'm mainly an acoustic artist, so probably folk music touching onto rock music, that's why I got this gig here because they said they couldn't get an acoustic act who could play with rock bands until they saw me.

I've heard your album that you released last year: No one's in charge. Who or what inspires your music?

Everything you see around you basically, social commentary, not to be cliche but there's plenty to write about when you look out your window isn't there?
I try to make songs positive because anyone can be political and rebellious but we've got to leave it on a positive note otherwise what's the point?

Is there a big message you try to get across with your music?

Like I said, try to be positive. Aye, the world's shit but what you gonna do about it, yanno what I mean?

What is your favourite of your songs?

Depends what mood I'm in. If it's a lively gig I've got a song called 'Run Hide Tell', it's based on government guidelines we've been given when you're abroad and a terrorist attack happens. That's what you're told to do, run hide tell. It was a couple of years ago when the Manchester attack happened and my sister was outside the venue at the time waiting to be picked up after I finished work. So like that was when the government guidelines came out: run hide tell. It's an energetic song too, sort of flamenco rock music. So that's probably my favourite song to play live at the minute.

What's the best gig you've ever played?

Best gig? Probably Tramlines in Sheffield, that's a good gig. Is it Bierkeller? Is it German? Bierkeller yeah, really good atmosphere, really good people, met some good promoters through it all, got good connections.

If you were to go on tour with any artist, who would it be? 

That's a tough one, Have you heard of an artist called Alex Kavan? He's a local artist from South Africa originally. Yeah, he's up and coming. He's like a loop, looper artist, does all the loop stuff. Played with him in Coluna a few months ago, a really good artist. Watch out for him.

MARVIN'S REVENGE

PHOTO BY: @its_niamhmarie https://www.instagram.com/its_niamhmarie/

You released the song 'Clockwork Pizza Press' last month, how has the reaction been from fans?

J: Pretty good to be fair, better than all of the ones we've released so far I'd say. We got more listenings on this one than we had initially on the release point of others. We got a lot of good feedback too.

Where do you get the inspiration for your songs from?

J: We'll just listen to some music and Ollie will come up with the guitar part, Luke will come up with the bass part. 

O: Clockwork came from like early Stone Roses, indie, the Smith kinda. And the chorus is sort of Clash, the Damned and a bit of Nirvana. 

J: It'll literally just be like a riff then we'll make up a song out of it.

Is that your usual songwriting process?

J: Yeah pretty much

O: Just from jamming out

J:  It's hardly ever just one of us writes an entire song, one of us writes a part of a song then we roll of it.

What artist's would you say you get a lot of influence from?

J: When we play live I'd say we mainly get a lot of influence from Nirvana or Foo Fighters because them playing live is amazing. But our sound has got to be Idles I'd say. It expands massively because we're all into different music. Ollie's really into drum and bass, but like we're all into the Beatles as well, and Dead Kennedy's.

How would you describe your music to someone who's never heard it before?

J: You mean like a live set? Probably

O: Loud

J: One word would be energetic, I'd say. Because we focus all our energy into our live shows. We try to put every single bit of effort into it. What about you Luke, you've not said much?

L: Just like loud, and try to have a good time

What is you're craziest gig story?

O: I think my mate getting punched in Sheffield

J: Oh God yeah. We played a gig in Sheffield just before Christmas in Cafe Toton. It was a decent gig. We played and then the band after played and they were playing 'Mardy Bum' by Arctic Monkeys, and everyone had been pushing each other around a bit. One guy was getting a bit mardy, he'd been drinking quite a bit but also he seemed like the type like it wasn't really his scene. And so he literally just went up to one of our friends and just punched him in the face. He cut open his eyebrow, he had blood all down his face, he got a massive black eye and he's still got a little scar above his eyebrow. So yeah that was pretty mental.
L: We get the battle bus back down with a few drinks
J: Yeah we call it the battle bus, it's a bit of a joke. Every time we have a gig that we want all of our friends to come to because we're from like an hour away, we get this bus that Luke's Dad can get from work and then get all our friend on it and travel to Nottingham or Sheffield or wherever.
O: It's a good laugh


Who would your dream tour be with?

L: Idles
O: Idles
J: Idles definitely. I think that'd just be carnage.
O: There's a lot of good bands at the minute, a lot of good bands coming up, like Slaves, Fontaines DC 
J: Yeah well Slaves are massive, they've like reached it now. But I mean Idles are quickly taking over Slaves
O: Yeah?
J: I think it's because they play live so much
O: They do tour all the time
J: And they do write really really good songs.
O: Really deep, energetic, crazy


Have you got anything big coming up?

J: We have a gig like every weekend in May. Our next one is Friday at the Chameleon supporting Damn Cargo. That one shall be really good because we've played the Chameleon before and we love it there. It's probably my favourite we've played, to be honest. And we've got one on the 10th of May. It hasn't been organised properly yet but we think it's happening because we asked the guys and they said yeah but haven't sent me any details yet. For the next couple of weeks, we've got quite a few coming up.
O: All in Nottingham, we've got a gig coming up in London as well!
J: London! Yeah, how mads that? 
O: June 8th
J: We're very surprised at that because someone just literally messaged our page saying heard you on the radio, do you want to come play down in London. There were a few gigs we could've played, one was like the fricking O2 academy but you had to get 50 people to that as an agreement but yeah we wouldn't be able to get 50 down to London. So we're playing somewhere called the Rock Steady which is actually quite a nice venue from looking at it online. It's got a good rating. And it's a Saturday night.


What would you say is your favourite song to play live?

L: In your mind
O: In your mind
J: It's the one we play first. It's like the punchiest one we have and it's really loud 
O: Need only is really fun
J: Yeah, we're releasing in your mind in June and that's probably our favourite song. It's my favourite of the bands, to be honest.

Finally, what is your ultimate goal as a band? What's your biggest dream?

O: We just want to take it as far as we can really.
J: As far as possible is probably the best answer for that.

DISTANT BLUE

PHOTO BY: @its_niamhmarie https://www.instagram.com/its_niamhmarie/

Lucid Liar, you released today and it's very different to most of your other songs. What influenced the change?

K: We got bored

E: We got bored of playing boring music and wanted to do something a bit outrageous and a bit

P: A bit out of our comfort zone

E: Yeah man definitely. So we've all got like heavy influences and we don't really go into them a lot. So it was kind of cool to do that. 

What was the idea behind Lucid Liar?

P: It started off with a riff really, didn't it?
E: Yeah it's proper riffy

P: Something that'll get people bouncing

E: It got a lot of work done on it in the studio, especially lyrically. The last section, a lot of that was written in the studio because it was an idea that our producer had. He was like just go mental for that bit, so we did and it turned out pretty good.

P: The producer had a lot if input

To someone who has never heard you before, how would you describe your music and live shows?

P: Hectic, bouncy, energetic, crazy

E: Mad

P: Fierce

E: Yeah, Naughty!

Last year, you headlined Rough Trade and Bodega. Are there any other big shows you've got coming up?

P: We've got a show in Sheffield on the 3rd of June. That's going to be our first show outside Nottingham and we're really excited

K: It's a big step

E: The plan is we're gonna do these runs of shows that we've got set now, and then we're going to work towards dropping the EP and then we're going to get some bigger shows coming up after that for later in the year and early next year

K: It's gonna get serious in the new year. New year, new songs.

E: Trust me. New year, new tunes.

So the next big step will be the EP, right?

E: That's the one.

Can you name me a big turning point when this became a lot more real? It went from just jamming with your friends to this being serious.

E: Probably Kieron joining the band as a mate before he was in the band was a big turning point, for me anyway because before that all I cared about was being in a band with the best musicians you could get. But then that showed me you don't need someone that's grade A guitar, you just need someone who's your mate and who'll stick at it with you and enjoys working with you. What was your biggest turning point Kieron?

K: Joining the band in the first place. Probably headliningRough Trade. That was like the first big headline show.

P: Selling out the Bodega

E: The bodega show was mad

K: Me and My Big Mouth

P: It was weird to think because I remember seeing Gnarwolves years ago and we played that stage, but not only played it, we sold it out!

E: Yeah that was a big turning point.

If you weren't making music, what'd you be doing right now?

E: Playing football probably, if I never started music

P: Probably something in clothes

K: I dunno, probably writing shitty books or designing fucking games and shit.

What is each of your favourite songs to play live?

E: Of our own? It's got to be 'Come and Join the Party' man. I love doing 'Come and Join the Party'.

P: 'Lucid Liar'
K: Argh you said both of them! Probably 'Whirlpool'.

E: Yeah? Nice.

K: It's more thrashy

If you could tour with any artist, alive or dead, who would it be?

K: Woah

E: I'd like to have toured with Motley Crue, after seeing that film. I think touring with Motley Crue would be fucking

K: Guns and Roses

P: Black Sabbath

K: Yeah Black Sabbath!

E: On a more chill vibe, I would have like to have toured with Matt Corby, not that that would ever happen. He's a cool guy man, I just wanna hang out with him innit.

What is your craziest gig story?

K: Haha, jumping into a drum kit.

E: Yeah, you smashing Peter's drum kit was pretty fun.

P: Fucking snare stand that I got two days ago, that's gone. Snapped clean off.

K: Straight up my arse.

E: Mines probably that Sitwell Tavern gig we did ages ago. When that sound tech started on me midway through doing a set. That was quite funny. He was like 'get off the stage you've had your half an hour', I was like fuck off mate, we've had our half am hour when I tell you we've had our half an hour

P: I just looked at you like what the fuck is going on

CLONK!

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To someone that has never heard you before, how would you describe your music?

G: I think it's very loose but we try our best to use that in our live shows as much as possible. We want to keep it as raw as we can because I think it's that kind of music if it's energetic and it's raw and you can hold it together
F: Basically none of us are very good apart from Troy. 
T: I mean I wholeheartedly disagree with that.
F: Troy hold us together, Troy is the glue


What are some big influences behind your music?

E: Am I gonna steal yours George

G: Probably, I think we copy really badly, bands like Slint and Drive like Jehu. But I don't like to think that we're all like that. Frazier's really into Radiohead. I really like hip hop and Ed really likes metal, Troy really like his classic stuff.
F: Like Mozart 

G: But I feel like when we play we've kind of got that raw sound like Sonic Youth. That's something we're trying to project.

How does your songwriting process go?

F: It doesn't. Like once in a Millenia

T: One of us just sort of brings in an idea don't they
F: We have an argument about it
T: We'll come up with riffs at home and then take months to be confident enough to show them each other
G: It's mostly collaborative, one of us comes up with an idea then we look at it together

What is your craziest gig story?

E: Probably when you broke your bass string
G: We were playing a little venue called the Maze in Nottingham. Everyone plays the Maze
F: Little venue, like we've done so much better than that

G: I broke a bass string so Frazier had to play the bass parts on a whammy pedal, down an octave. And I just had to sing into a microphone which I've never done before, and it was mad.

E: I broke a string too. It was chaotic really.

G: In craziness though
T: I think Mo fest was pretty crazy
E: Mo fest yeah that was fun

T: That was because these two never drink and they had two beers before going on stage and just lost it. 

F: Complete lightweights

If you weren't making music, what would you be doing right now?

E: Crying
T: Living on the streets, I'd be homeless.

What's your favourite song to play live?

F: 'Wafflestomp'

T: Yeah 'Wafflestomp'

G: I really like 'Creepy Song' but that's just because I get to switch guitars at the end.

T: Yeah 'Creepy Song's fun

G: They're all quite fun. I feel like our songs are just written to be played and we're having fun. If we're having fun then we're happy with the song.
E: I really like 'Floppy Hair' because it's early enough in the set that the energies still there and we're not too exhausted to play it and we can put everything into it
T: Also it's named after you
E: Honestly it could be named anything and I'd still like it
T: Frazier has really floppy hair, doesn't quite fall off the tongue the same
E: It's just fun to play

If you could go on tour with any artist, who would it be?

G: That's a good question
T: If the Beatles could do a reunion tour, think we'd get a big crowd there. It's probably be Sabbath for me
G: Wu-Tang Clan