A doom/thrash hybrid, Callus is a three-piece band hailing from Lancaster. Fronted by the effusive guitarist/vocalist Louis Clarke, a hyperactive metaller whom you can just tell would bleed metal in the event of an onstage accident, Callus have made a strong name for themselves, not least with the 2017 EP ‘through blood, sweat, piss and pain’, an absolute monster that serves as the perfect calling card for the band. A self-released effort with awesome artwork from metal legend Dominic Sohor, ‘through blood, sweat, piss and pain’ was good enough to get the band a coveted slot at this year’s Hammerfest, so we took the opportunity to catch up with Louis and find out more about the band, their formation and how the EP was tracked. Read on and meet Callus…
Obviously Callus did the EP last year; you’ve been making a good name for yourself around Manchester and now HRH – can you tell me a little about how the band came together.
So, I think we’re pretty much in our fifth year. We formed early 2013. Me and the bassist, Ben, go all the way back to high school. We were both losers in school, we’d sit inside. Ben was the new kid at the time and he came in and was like “Oh yeah, I like System of a down” and I was like “Yeah – well I like Mastadon and Metallica”, so we’d swap CDs and write riffs and Callus sort of came together. We’ve had numerous guys come and go over the years, but it’s me and Ben (Ben’s the bassist and vocalist and I’m the guitarist and vocalist) and obviously we’ve got a drummer, Ryan.
And yeah, that’s how we formed – me and Ben and, like you say, we’ve just been plugging away at it for as long as we’ve been able to and yeah, we’re in our fifth year.
So, the EP was the debut…
Yeah – it was the debut studio release and then we have a live, unofficial EP (which we did in 2014) which was out before that, but that was just a good recording that we’d done at a local Lancaster show at the Yorkshire House. The EP is called ‘through blood, sweat, piss and pain, and it’s our debut studio release.
How did you prepare for the recording?
We had all the songs already written apart from one, actually, which we wrote in the studio. Our friend, Mark Johnson in Preston, he is setting up his studio – Akkadian Studios it’s called – so he’s getting his name out there and he cut us a good rate and that. We all got on and yeah, we did it in Preston.
How long did you spend recording and mixing?
It probably took about five to six months because…. It was a lot longer than what it should have taken, but we’re busy guys outside of the band. We’ve got jobs, kids, dogs… stuff like that! Like every normal guy. So, it took us longer than we wanted, but we got there in the end. We actually had to fight a lot to get the time for it, and I think that’s why we titled it the way that we did, because it summed up the way we felt at the time. We weren’t going to give up on it and we had to see it into the world and give it the right birth that it deserved.
Different people take different approaches to recording – you can record everything separately and layer it for that clinical approach, or you can lay it all down live… how did you guys approach the EP?
So, all the instruments were performed live in the studio but individually tracked, so we did guide guitars and then we did the drums, then bass, then a couple of guitars (Left, Right and centre). Then we added vocal over the top, mixed, mastered and that was it. Then we were flying.
Was it the same guy who did the master?
It was the same guy, yeah – he hit record, helped us tweak a few dials and generally acted as a producer as well as letting us use his facilities. He had a nice kit there, some nice amps and it was nice to play around with some of those – you know, big Orange ones and there was a Peavey 5150 head and that was really nice.
Yeah! Brutal sound on those. Useless for clean, but if you want to rip someone’s face off…
There’s one bit of clean guitar, like about twenty seconds on the EP. It’s only a short EP, so yeah… it’s mainly meaty guitar tones and riffs… it’s all about riffs!
You’ve done really well getting the word of the EP and the band out there – as an independent band, how do you approach the task of getting yourselves heard?
That’s a good question – it’s really tough. And like you say…trying to juggle jobs and families and everything like that, it’s pretty much every waking minute that you get outside of doing all the stuff that you’ve got to do, has to be on pushing the band in any way. Whether it’s just taking a chance and sending the EP off to a promoter that you’ve got wind of, or chatting to your mates who are playing in bands – “can we get on that line up?” A lot of it is through bands and stuff like that. We’ll support them, then they’ll come and support us. It’s nice, trying to get a repertoire of band networking and stuff helps. Everyone’s in the same boat really and it’s nice to support each other because everyone wants to make it and everyone wants to have a good time with it. At least we do – that’s our priority: enjoy it!
Manchester seems to have such a vibrant scene and Grand Central is a great place with a really friendly audience. Where else have you found really good to go?
In terms of other venues that we’ve really enjoyed, we were in Metal 2 the Masses, obviously, for Bloodstock and that and we’re in our third year of getting on with that one. The qualifying heats were at The Venue in Dumfries (it’s called The Venue) and that was serious – really, really good sound and it’s massive as well and it was beautiful to play there. They had a disco ball and everything. It was really pretty.
How have you found your way on to festival line up, because getting on to the Hammerfest bill is obviously a big achievement…
Sure, well we found out about that and there was a list of people who’d voted for bands and there was a big, public thing and we saw our name on there and we were like “what?! When did that get there?” So, we shared that around and we seemed to get a good response with that. But, we actually won tickets to attend because they do a lot of the giveaways and that, so we got in contact with some of the organisers, sent the EP and it spoke for itself and so they got in touch and said “yeah – come on down, stage 2 and have a blast!” and have a blast we did!
In terms of developing the EP, how did you work on presenting the EP – who put together the logos and the artwork?
Sure, well the logo and all the artwork was done by Dominic Sohor, so he’s done loads of bands, all the way from Boss Keloid, Orange Goblin, Raging Speedhorn… Yeah, so he’s got a ridiculous back catalogue of bands that he’s worked for. We’ve seen his work for a long time. I’ve got like an Orange Goblin shirt that he designed, I got it in 2011 and then I found out, once we knew it was his, we started seeing his work around and we knew we had to have something like that for Callus. He’s doing the album as well, because we’re working on an album… So, we’ve had a few demos back for the album cover and stuff, so hopefully we’ll share more about that soon. A self-released album – we’re doing it all ourselves in an undisclosed location. We’re looking at some label interest for that as well. We’ve chatted to a few people and stuff, and obviously we need to something that works for everybody. Mutually beneficial and that…
…and when you’re trying to juggle jobs and stuff it’s obviously very hard to do everything that you need to do for the band…
We definitely want to take it out on the road and we will do. We’re just waiting for that time when we can get out there for like a week.
Any final words?
Honestly, for everyone who caught us at HRH we love you so much because you made our time here. We certainly won’t forget it. It was a beautiful experience and, obviously, we’ve got the EP on Bandcamp and we’ve got shirts and stuff and keep an eye out for the album. We’re on Facebook and all that – keep checking in and we’ll be sharing more about the album and hopefully some bigger announcements as and when we know about them. Thank you for being on the journey with us.
Make sure you check out the band’s Facebook – Callus are definitely ones to watch.
