For those who may not know who you are, introduce yourselves quickly.
Radka Nemcova – Vocals, Rhythm Guitar
Matt Plumley – Lead Guitar
Dominic Cahillane – Drums
Theo Corcoran – Bass
Describe your sound in as few words as possible.
RN: Progressive rock, international vibes, heavy melodic riffs, contralto vocals, cinematic sound.
DC: Vibrations
MP: Female fronted prog rock
TC: I’d say our sound is best described as heavy progressive rock with international influences, I’ve heard the word melodic chucked around a bit as well.
Who are your three biggest influences as a band?
RN: It’s hard to name just three bands as there are many bands we love but I would definitely mention Perfect Circle, In This Moment, Queen of the Damned soundtracks. (The first choice I would choose for the technical side and second two choices I love for the production side.)
What’s the meaning behind your band name?
RN: AREN is made of my initials (‘RN’ = phonetically ‘aren’) I used Aren D. as my artistic / musical pseudonym as no one was able to remember or pronounce my name haha. I chose the second word ‘drift’ because I like to drift and our music should make you drift too.
We came up with lots of different names but everyone liked Aren Drift so we kept it as a band name.
How did you approach our latest release in terms of writing and recording?
RN: Writing is my favourite part so it was just a fun bit for me. I love it. Recording was good but mixing was the difficult part of the whole process.
I am very creative person and I have very strong visions in music and art and I imagine things how they look and sound before they are actually written or filmed. Mixing itself is very creative process and we struggled to get the sound we wanted. However, it was a great learning curve and I’m already excited to apply everything we learnt into our next recordings.
MP: In terms of the recording, we were on a budget, four days in total for five songs, some unreleased at this moment in time. We pretty much had the parts written before we recorded, but somehow ended up re-recording most of the guitar parts at my home studio. When you are on the clock you don’t have time to mull that sound over and try different amps, settings, different guitars, you literally stick a mic in front of your amp and off you go. So that meant we weren’t quite happy with the sound we had. It was a big learning curve for us; we have plans to do things differently next time.
Do you have any personal favourite songs on the release?
RN: Snow Queen. I think the song determines Aren Drift’s unique style.
DC: Light Hole
MP: Sun Goes Down for me.
TC: I’d say my favourite song of the new EP is light hole, it’s one of my favourites to play live as well, but I do also really like “snow queen”.
Explain the meaning behind the album title.
RN: ‘Beneath The Surface’ – We want the listener to go deeper at all the levels while listening our music. Some of the reviews we received say that you need to listen the songs a few times until it fully reveals their potential. I was actually very glad to read that because that’s what I love about music.
The artwork represents what’s beneath your skin, inside of the Earth’s core, inside of you.
Tell us about the video for Snow Queen and its concept.
RN: Snow Queen music video was partly filmed in Czech mountains and partly in England. I wanted to produce something powerful and arty. A music video which captures a story as well as the feelings.
Sun Goes Down music video is solely my arty outlet.
I don’t want to say anything else. Just watch it J
Do they tie in with the themes around the song? If yes, why? If not, why not?
RN: It does. I don’t want to reveal everything. Let’s say you need to listen to the lyrics and watch the video.
Were they fun to shoot or proved to be quite a challenge?
RN: When we were shooting Snow Queen, I was two days in the mountains in -20°C wearing a dress. It was snowing and I thought my hands and nose will fall off so yeah… it was fun haha.
I believe everyone enjoys shooting the music videos. But post production is proper hard work. I believe the devil is in the details and I have very strong visions so I usually spend long time working on the post productions. I produced both videos myself in co-production with Ollie Dolling. It was great working with him. I’m already excited to work on our future videos.
MP: Definitely one of my bands highlights and the results were way beyond what I expected.
Do you have any live shows lined up at present?
RN: Follow us on Facebook. We are planning 2020 UK tour! All the dates will be there.
We were also booked at Concorde 2 in Brighton in June 2020 which will be an epic show.
In regards to the closer dates I would recommend you a gig at Black Heart in Camden, London on 20th September. We are supporting Esoterica. But if you want a ticket, be quick as the show might be sold out soon 😉
What are your favourite songs to perform live?
MP: Our new song Sirens, I love it and the response we had to it at the EP launch which was the first time we played it live, was very moving, loved it.
RN: I really enjoy playing Sirens. It is our new song and by my opinion it is musically the best piece which I’m very proud of. At the moment I’m playing with a thought to write trilogy for Sirens. I have whole concept in my head + the ideas for the video so let’s see if we can do something about that.
DC: Porcelain Dolls has a nice few changes where I can bring a few different styles in the song. For all out energy, Passion Kills is always the track I’m scanning the set list for.
TC: As I said, light hole is one of my favourite songs to play live, as well as one of our new songs called Delirious.
What are the best and worst shows you’ve played to date?
DC: I think it varies for each of us; I’ll leave it down to the fans
TC: I’d say the worst show I’ve played with Aren Drift was my first one with the band, I was slightly nervous, which is odd for me, and I just didn’t quite gel with the music! But our best show in my opinion was our EP release, the sound was great, the crowd was amazing and we were all playing at the top of our game!
If you could open for anyone, who would it be?
DC: Tool would be immense
RN: Deftones, Korn, Marilyn Manson, Perfect Circle, Alice in Chains, In This Moment
MP: Wolf Alice, lead singer is a girl and they rock, great live band from what I can tell on YouTube, I’d then get a chance to watch them in the flesh every night J
Oh yeah and Faith No More, they are still rocking, check out SuperHero from the Radio 1 sessions on YouTube.
Any comical stories from your time as a band you can share with us?
DC: Now that would be telling, shame on you. 🙂
Any closing comments?
Thank you for your support. We appreciate every single person who goes to the live gigs and support the local music in general. Thank you.
Check Aren Drift out further @…
https://www.arendrift.com/ https://www.facebook.com/arendrift/ https://www.instagram.com/aren_drift/
RingMaster Review 06/11/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Blow Joe is next up and straight away drums tease and tempt, their beats an infectious coaxing matched by the glorious lure of the bass. Swiftly the guitar casts melodic strokes across their irresistible dark bait before the track opens up a web of hooks and grooves, a hard rock infusion erupting upon the compelling landscape.
The EP opens up with its title track, Penny Drop initially stroking ears with fuzz loaded riffs before the same guitar begins deviously scything across the senses as the tones of vocalist/guitarist Jimi Trimmer break. Simultaneously the tenaciously strolling beats of drummer Aidan McGill erupt alongside the just as sturdy bassline of Lewis Patterson, guitarist Issak Patternson continuing to tease and tempt alongside the lures of Trimmer. Just as you think you have a handle on the song, it twists into a whole new channel of virulence to manipulate and seduce, never once taking its foot off its imagination and feverish enterprise.
Such its mighty roar and success, the following three tracks sit in its shadow but fair to say there is little about each which fails to bring added pleasure to the EP. Mountain Song is the following encounter, a blues tinged groove emerging from sonic air to spark another body trespassing, keenly infectious canter. Again the vocals play a big part in any tempting but similarly guitar and rhythms imaginatively shape a song which settles rather enjoyably in the ears.
Did you have a particular aim for the band initially and also in what you wanted it and your sound to offer?
You mentioned the internet. How do you work and weave your social media sites to use them most effectively?
Be My Guest follows, a great dark grumble courting its croon before it roars with gusto and power, d’Arbigny’s fine vocals to the fore. His bass is a pulsating throb in its midst, the biting beats of Allard swinging with relish as Pavillon’s guitar weaves a melodic and sonic tapestry, the track as much a seduction as a trespass. With a rousing blues rock lining, the song is a tenacious pleasure quickly matched in enjoyment by the contagious shuffle of Red Coach. Its gentle emotive beginning does not give a clue to the energetic dance to follow, alternative and grunge tinged rock colouring its subsequent magnetic rock ‘n’ roll. Feet and hips were soon involved once it did hit its stride, the song one of many casting persistently nagging hooks.
The mellower caress of Reflections is courted by the great dark shadowed throb of bass and volatility in Ben’s beats which never erupts but magnetically stalks the melancholic beauty of the song’s heart and touch. A song which just grows over time and listens, it brings another enticing aspect to the Mammoth Temple sound which only grows when the track does uncage its muscle.