Alt-rock foursome Standing Tall have been making a name for themselves this past year, with the release of their new EP 'Still Breathing'. Hailing from Norwich, the band is made up of vocalist and guitarist Blake Marchesi, bassist Tom Bircham, guitarist Holen Wong (sorry, former guitarist - Holen unfortunately left the band in early October, but I wanted to include him anyway) and drummer Dan Bowley.
Since their formation in November 2010, Standing Tall recorded their debut EP 'Life.Obsession.Violence.Emotion' which was released in May 2012 (available for free here - http://goo.gl/6YfC3), and were back in the studio in early 2013 with their new material, released in the form of a five-track EP entitled 'Still Breathing' in July 2013, for which they also released a music video for, and had support from other homegrown heroes Fenrir and Searching Alaska for their EP release gig. With influences such as Deftones, Foo Fighters and Alexisonfire, this band's unique sound is hitting the local music scene and has been receiving brilliant feedback. I had a catch-up with the guys just before their EP release back in July, here are some of the things we talked about:
How is 'Still Breathing' different from your debut EP, and how have you guys as a band changed since then?
It’s a lot better than the first release. Musically we have matured a lot since the writing the first EP. We also lost a member Josh a couple of months after recording the EP as a live unit. It has changed us a lot, but for the better, now everyone is on an instrument we seem a lot more in tune with each other playing shows.
What about your experiences in the studio when recording 'Still Breathing' back in January?
Oh the experience was so good, we recorded the EP with Dan Lancaster who has worked with some of our favourite bands and he was just brilliant, a little strange but brilliant. Dan is a cracking musician as well and as a singer he is so bloody good so for Blake to be able to work with him and get some tips was even better. We recorded our first EP at a friend’s studio just as he was starting up so this was a bit of a step up for us and there was no beating around the bush with Dan if you played something and it wasn’t good enough it went in the bin and you did it again and the EP sounds better for it.
Describe your new E.P in 5 words!
Punchy, dynamic, catchy, melodic and sexual.
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