It starts sedately enough – a band playing in a forest; the music reminiscent of Belly and the Cranberries – combining folky vocals with alt-rock violence. There’s sensitivity here for sure, but also something indefinably feral that threatens to unleash if the band would only let it.
The video progresses and you blink. Did the singer have that bruise in the establishing shot? Maybe it’s a blemish on the camera – nothing to worry about. The song explodes – the guitars twist and burn and suddenly you’re face to face with a monster, bruised but unrepentant.
It’s a powerful video and, for many, the first taste of Siobhan Mazzei’s acclaimed consumed by chaos EP. Hailing from Leicester, Siobhan made a name for herself as a singer/songwriter. Her talents saw her win the Original Bands’ Showcase twice in a row, place a track on a compilation featuring Billy Bragg and open for Mollie Marriott. More recently, Siobhan evolved her song-writing to incorporate a full band, first with the self-recorded In Wolf’s Clothing and then, more recently, with the Neil Segrott-produced consumed by chaos. We had an opportunity to sit down with Siobhan and chat about her storied history and her musical evolution. Read on and meet Siobhan Mazzei.
You’ve been around for a while now, and I think, early on, you won the Original Bands Showcase… twice in a row, wasn’t it?
Oh my gosh! You’ve done your homework!
So, that was predominantly for an acoustic performance –was that pretty much as you started out?
More or less; yeah – It was the OBS unplugged competitions. I was predominantly an acoustic solo act for a long while. It’s only in the last couple of years that the band has come together. But yeah, as you’re aware, I’ve been going at it for quite a while and trying to make some sort of career out of it.
That’s a good starting point, because the OBS has a good reputation, so did it help you find a platform from which to launch the band?
I’ll be honest with you. There was a big gap between the two, so I don’t think that OBS necessarily helped to form the band, but it did give me a bit of a push because the festivals I ended up playing, like Summer Sundae and Strawberry Fields (when that was a thing), gave me a push in that respect. The band always needed to happen really, and I just happened to stumble across the right guys to make it happen at that time.
Was it before the band that you got on to the charity compilation that you did with Billy Bragg?
That was when I decided to record and produce myself but with band elements, if that makes sense. There was only one track on there that was purely acoustic and that was ‘courage of your convictions’, which was the one that ended up on the charity compilation with Billy Bragg. But that time I was definitely solo – I hadn’t even got to a band at that point.
Going from the acoustic material, where it’s comparatively easy to self-record in terms of equipment and so on, towards a full band – what was the initial impetus behind that?
The band kinda happened because I ran out of things to do on the acoustic guitar, basically. A lot of my acoustic stuff, I’d try and utilise (I still do, to be fair) the acoustic as much as possible, so banging, tapping, you know – banging with the drums or bass notes while doing tapping – and it just got to the point where I realised I was writing songs in a band format and I was trying to transpose it all on to guitar and I figured I should consider having actual band members who’d do those bits instead and produce the noises I was hearing in my head.
One of the big differences, I guess, is that you’re suddenly thrown into an environment, even though you’re operating under a solo name, where there are elements of compromise with various members, whereas before, everything was completely under your control – was that a challenging transition to make?
No… I don’t know actually. It was challenging in the fact that, when organising gigs, I had to consider all the equipment that we’d need – amps and stuff – and organising three other humans to be in one place at one time. But the music itself, no. The guys were really easy going and they’ve got their artistic flair on each part of it. The fact that they’re insanely talented also helps! Yeah, they’re really easy going, and that helps a lot. So musically it wasn’t that much of a challenge, but logistically, yeah – especially with Joe, because he’s like the busiest man in Leicester.
So, in terms of writing, do you still write everything and then farm it out to the band to put their stamp on?
Yeah, basically, I’ll come up with everything. I’ll do demos – doing each part – and then send it to the guys and they’ll say yay or nay, and if it sounds good, we’ll head into the studio and they’ll work their twists on it and good to go!
The EP you’ve just finished, consumed by chaos, putting that together – that’s the second electric piece?
Yeah, the first was ‘In Wolf’s Clothing’. That one we did ourselves at DMU recording studio. My guitarist had just studied recording at that University, so he had three months left of his usage of the studio, so we raced in there to record some stuff. ‘Consumed by chaos’ was the first time that we have, or even I have, gone into an actual, proper studio and had a producer… you know, a mastermind recorder.
It was Neil Segrott… How did you get involved with him, because he’s got an amazing history…?
I’ll be honest with you, I’ve known him for a really long time in the music scene in general. He did sound for me both individually and for the band a couple of times over the last couple of years and I’d put something up on social media like: “cheers Neil, I’d love you to record us one day!”
And he’d respond with “that’ll be great!”
So, I was sort of yanking on his sleeve asking if he actually wanted to record us, because we really wanted him to do that and he managed to find time in his incredibly busy schedule to fit us in.
I saw Tommy Emmanuel recorded with him…
Yeah, he’s worked with some amazing people. I think he’s currently on tour with a three-piece folk outfit who’ve got a massive following in the folk area. He’s great and it shows in the EP – the quality is just insane and it sounds incredible.
So, did he take on a sort-of A&R role where he’d talk things through with you or did you go in cold and just record from scratch?
Well, we already had the songs anyway. It was just a case of getting them recorded. So, he basically set us all up, we recorded the tracks and then he suggested a couple of things here and there, but it’d be like: “ instead of going up with your voice, why don’t you go down on this bit?”
So, it was stuff like that and we’d be like: “yeah, that sounds cool!”
But yeah, we went in with ready songs and he recorded them.
You didn’t send him demos or anything like that?
No, nothing like that -we just got in there and started playing basically.
It sounds like a live recording with minimal overdubs?
Well, mostly… it started off with me on guitar, tracking vocals, and the drummer. No clicks, on any of it. No click track…
Was that a conscious decision to do without click?
Yeah – by Neil mostly. I’d worked out all of the BPMs and stuff for everything and he was like “no, this is how I do it here.” And I was like “you’re the man!” So, we did that. Then the bass got recorded, and then lead guitar… most of my guitar that was in it was just the first guitar that I put in there in the first place. So, yeah, half live; half not live, if that makes sense.
It’s a big sound that you’ve gone for – there seems to be some Pearl Jam, some Cranberries… going for that bigger sound, the heavier guitars and all that – how did that evolve?
I think that in me it’s always been there, but when we first started the band, I had my acoustic and the songs that had been created… we were essentially singing songs that I’d done on acoustic guitar. So, when I started writing the newer stuff that was on the EP, it was like “let’s get the electric guitar out!”
And, before I knew it, I’d bought an Orange amp and pedals and shit that I’d never had before. It just sort of happened, but, like I say, I think it’s always been there. It just took having three other members for that to happen.
Have you seen a shift in your audience? Folk audiences can be quite partisan but then, bring out the electric guitars and, going all the way back to Dylan, there’s almost a reaction of “heretic!”
To be honest, I’m not entirely sure where I go or what place I fit within the music scene. As you say, the band is really heavy, but my acoustic stuff is still quite folky. I’m sort of doing both at the same time at the minute and it only seems to be… I just seem to have a following that like my songs, no matter how heavy or soft they are. I think it’s more about the lyrics if that makes sense. So, yeah, I’ve got a mixed audience, I should say. I’m still wondering where or how I go forward…
You stepped out with Molly Marriott and she bridges the blues / hard rock gap – have you found those sort of support slots help to raise the profile and get the name out there.
I think so, yeah. I certainly have fans that I didn’t have before. The thing with Mollie Marriott – I don’t know if you know how that gig came about, but she basically put out a competition sort of thing whereby whoever covered a song off the new album and did it the best (or that she thinks was the best) would get a chance to play a gig and I won.
What did you cover?
Oh god, what did I cover?! Control – a song called Control. It seemed to fit, in the most non-pig-headed way possible – it seemed really easy. But that’s because it’s really close to my own writing style, so I saw the competition and within the hour I’d done the cover and banged it up on YouTube. It just sort of happened – it was meant to be, clearly!
So, yeah, doing that gig – that certainly helped. Especially playing at such a good venue in London, it’s a good one to have on the old musical CV. All the different gigs we’ve had, we’ve had different types of fans. Like Hands off Gretel, I keep seeing different faces that I’ve seen before at those kind of gigs. So, yeah, we’re just trying to build up a fan-base at each one of those gigs.
For the video, your guitar is really unusual – it’s got like a Telecaster neck but semi-hollow body.
Yeah. It’s a Jim Atkins signature. He’s from Jimmy Eat World and it’s his signature guitar that he released through Fender. Yeah, it’s a wicked guitar and it’s everything I ever wanted. I love telecasters; I love semi-hollow body guitars and it’s fixed neck/ It’s ideal, because it works really well in loads of different types of songs. It can do quiet ones really well and really beefy ones too…
It growls nicely on the video
Yeah – absolutely.
I wouldn’t have expected it to be a Jimmy Eat World style instrument…
No, me neither but it’s his signature guitar and it’s got P90s in it, so it’s like beef-central.
The video is quite attention-grabbing – how involved are you in developing the aesthetic of the video and who did you work with for that clip?
So, it was a friend of mine called Jane Hurst and she’s someone that I met through a friend of a friend and I’d been involved in a couple of projects with her for her uni work and she basically was kind enough to say that she owed me a video, so we met up for a coffee and chatted for a couple of hours and the idea came to me. It was funny because I said… I didn’t really want a really scary video and then, as I talked more about it, I figured we should do something that was more Blair Witch kind of thing and it just sort of went from there. The eyes and stuff were definitely my idea. Yeah, that was probably the best thing I’ve ever bought – those contact lenses. So, yeah, I’d say I was pretty involved but the way that the story evolved – that was all her, really in terms of where and when it all happened. I was just like “I’m going to turn into a …person and bleed everywhere!”
I started watching it and I couldn’t work out if I was imagining the changes…
Yeah, a lot of people were thinking (or have told me that they were thinking), that I looked really tired and that no one had done my make-up and then they’d suddenly click half way through what was actually going on!
The last question is that it’s difficult, I think, for any artist now (probably harder than it’s ever been) to stand out from the crowd – you’ve been on tour and had some really good support slots. How do you find the work that goes outside of the music – to get yourself heard?
It’s well hard man! It’s like a never-ending climb. Some days I feel like I’m getting nowhere and then I’ll remind myself that I’ve done this and this and this and tell myself I shouldn’t beat myself up so much. I hate this saying, it’s so cliché, but it really is just the right place at the right time. That’s the only way to do it because there are so many musicians and so many people who want that break – there’s so much talent as well and how you find yourself as an individual among all that is just crazy! So, yeah, I’ve got no idea! I just hope it happens someday.
Find out more about Siobhan via the band’s Facebook page here.
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