The Safety Fire Speak To SonicAbuse

The elusive Safety Fire are responisble for a highly-rated EP entitled ‘Sections’  and are a firey group capable of playing the most blistering metal. We were lucky enough to be able to pose the band a few questions in order to gain a little insight into the band and their new recording.

.1.  Can you tell us a little about how you came to form?
The band formed in 4th year of secondary school (it seemed like the cool thing to do at the time.who knew it WOULDN’T get us girls??) we all went to the same school except for Calvin, who went to primary school with Lori. Dez and Lori were the first members, then I joined because I was friends with Dez, not because i could(n’t) play guitar. For some reason drummers are hard to find when you’re 15, but Lori knew Calvin so we got him involved. Then we stole Sean from another band, and we havn’t looked back since.

 2. What music influenced you collectively and/or individually?
There are a few bands who have influenced us collectively, to name the big ones I would say Opeth, Sikth, Mastodon, Between the buried and me, etc.. but I think we all have our own individual ones too, I love me a bit of Alice in chains, Hot Chip, Deftones, etc… we all listen to different stuff, but as a collective, I know those bands i mentioned before have definitely had a big impact on us.

 3. Do you feel that there is generally enough support for UK bands
who are just starting out and if not how would you like the situation
to change?
I think there can be, it can also be quite hard. Being in a band (if you really want to make it somewhere) is expensive, time consuming and not always easy. what i really hate is people taking younger bands for a ride, the “pay to play” mentality is horrible. I know when we first started out we were pretty naive to all the sharks out there, but I guess maybe that’s how you learn. However there are a lot of people out there willing to put on shows and to get bands to play and help them out a bit. We got given food at a show recently which we thought was amazing, but apparently we should expect it?! the few perks of being in a band! I’m not sure how I would like the situation to change, but some advice to newer bands is that you shouldnt be having to sell 50 tickets to play  somewhere, its the promoters job to get people down, not yours.

 4. You are recording your debut album, can you tell us what we can expect?
 100% pure fucking awesome riffs! and some sick cleans. I think it will surprise a lot of people, for want of a less cheese answer, our sound has definitely matured. I think the songs are more cohesive. There are some really dirgy parts, and some really serene moments too, its a mixture of everything we like to hear. we will be putting some videos up soon so keep a look out and you can hear some snippets from it.

 5. What lyrical themes do the band explore and what influences those themes?
 unfortunately you are talking to one of the guitarists so this isn’t gonna be the answer you might’ve hoped for. If it helps, the album has a bluey tone to it?sorry!

 6. Is the a piece of art or literature that is particularly important to you?
 Im not sure if you mean the band or me individually. I’m not really sure how to answer that as a band. Personally at the moment I’ve been really into the hellboy comics (that’s art AND literature!) but that’s just at this moment in time. I havn’t been (nor have any of the other guys i would assume) to an art gallery in a long time. The last book I read was Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I wouldn’t say it was particularly important to me. I’m just gonna go ahead and say it. Star Wars. Star Wars is important to me…there I said it.

 7. You have a very strong visual identity – who comes up with the
ideas for merchandise like the porno clown (genius by the way) and the
art work for the sections EP
Thanks! I do all the artwork for the band, the porno clown was Dez’s idea though. I dont remember how it came about but he asked me to draw a dirty dirty clown, and thats what came out. surprisingly a lot of people liked it! The artwork for the sections E.P was originally going to be the cross section of a lizard but in the end we decided on a bird. The artwork has never been too “metally” just because I don’t consider us to be a straight up “metal” band, and we never wanted to alienate someone who might like our music but not necessarily want to wear a really metal t-shirt (not that there is
anything wrong with it, but the gore shirts have gotten a bit old now I think).

 8. My dying bride recently issued an album with a tab booklet and
you have posted the tab for your songs online – is this a stand
against perceived antipathy to learning the guitar or are you just
helping out your musically-minded fans?
It’s just so they’re there for anyone who’d like to learn our songs. We know a lot of our fans are probably guitarists, so I guess it’s just to help ’em out a bit if they want to know how to play our stuff. Before we put the tabs up we got asked for them quite a lot, so it’s just easier to put them up for anyone to download. Also it’s nice having people learn our songs, if you do, post a video on youtube! we would love to see it!
 

9. What are your aims for the future?
 “the money, the fame and the bullshit” – Bruce Dickinson, Iron Maiden