Sunday 10 August 2014

Introducing - Our Fold

Our Fold release their fabulous second single, the ribauld guitar stomp of She Goes On today.  We spoke with Damien and Dan from the band about their nine-year path to being one of the most exciting "new" bands in town.

The band consist of Damien Riley on vocals, Dan McLaren on bass and vocals, Sam Evans on drums and Gaz Drury on guitars and vocals.

Damien explains how the band got together. "The band in its original form came together around April 2005. My ex was in Australia and China doing photography so I had some cracking all nighters which attracted, shall we say, the most colourful of characters that Westhoughton had to offer, three of which ended up in my band!"


She Goes On is their second single, following on the heels of last year's Dive. It's backed by Returning Son, which was recorded in a caravan and which shows off the mellower side of Our Fold's canon and a third track Overwhelming Understatement.  It's the start of the process leading up to the release of an album later this year or early next.

"She Goes On is the first 'proper' thing we wrote as a band. Alisdair the original lead guitarist came up with the bass line hook and we just thrashed it out in Ryan's garage. It got us excited and was probably the catalyst for us to take ourselves seriously."

"The video was based around the lines.."Let's find a motel and screw 'til we're blind..." Everyone would say "Motel?? You're not fucking American!" not knowing Westhoughton has its very own motel, The Mercury Motel on the A6. It's featured in the video. Also the line, "She 'll tie me up there and leave me to die..." Hence the silly scene with the lads all bound up. Sitcom Soldiers did the video and are a cracking bunch to work with. Ben storyboarded it and we ran with it!"

"The album is recorded and almost mixed. There's a brand new tune we've got though called A Little Too Late that we need to go on the album. It's a beast. Get that recorded, get the rest finished off and hopefully towards the end if the year, we'll have an album. Giving 'Chinese Democracy' a run for it's money this bad boy!"

"The rest of this year will be spent getting the album release sorted and the next single. We've done a track called Terrific which has become a live favourite. Saul Davies from James mixed the track and dropped some haunting touches of violin on it so we're excited for folk to hear that one. We're also gonna be touring around the UK later in the year so look out!"
Our Fold have taken the long route to where they are today.  A quick look at our iTunes library reveals about sixty Our Fold tracks from over the years.  Whilst they haven't been prolific in terms of single releases, they've been extremely active writing and recording and have always had an altruistic view of their artform.

Damien expands "The sharing so much thing, it was just that we had so many songs sat there doing nothing! We're more about the people hearing the songs than anything else so we just whacked them out there. Burning discs for gigs and handing them out etc. It didn't cross our minds in the earlier years to release anything. We just loved playing and recording. Now the album is finally getting there we've took down the demo versions of those tracks and re-recorded them. It's amazing how far we've come listening to the new stuff."

"Nine years does seen like a long time but when the band isn't your only job, life gets in the way too. We're on our third lead guitarist and second drummer so as you can imagine, every change reels you right back to the rod tip, teaching songs, settling in."

"We scrapped two whole albums because we didn't like them. That's just us. Every time it seems like the wheels are leaving the runway, something comes along and firmly grounds us again. But that's being in a band. That's what it's all about. We feel like we've been on the edge of breaking through for a good while, but with the current lads in the band I've never been happier. Laughing our socks off all through rehearsals these days. Love it. Not one ounce of negativity."
Finally, we ask why people should choose Our Fold and his reply is as direct and forthright as their sound.

"I think the main reason to listen to Our Fold is we're an honest band, not like these 'fashionable' new bands these days where if the laptop or sampler packed in all you'd hear is the drummer. We don't tie ourselves down to a genre either. We go from sweet ballads to complete balls out punk anthems, because our influences are so varied. There's something here for everyone..."

She Goes On is released today. It's available from iTunes and Amazon.

Our Fold play Bolton Food And Drink Festival on August 24th and This Feeling club night at Manchester's Ruby Lounge on September 12th.

Our Fold's official website can be found here.  They are also on Facebook and Twitter.
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