written by Marko Jakob
Pix666: Hello Gaz. Thanks for your time. How are you doing these days, are you alive and well?
Gaz: Definitely alive haha thank you. It’s been a strange year because of COVID, but managed to meet and join TDH and loving it. Always look for the positive in a bad situation.
Pix666: The chapter of This Dying Hour seemed to be over when two of the original members passed away prematurely. What a tragedy, my condolences guys. Now you have re-formed the band. Please introduce your band to the readers in a few short sentences. How did you get to know each other as a band?
Gaz: I never met Dave and Sean, what I do know from the band and the fans is that they were amazing people and my heart goes out to the family. We’ll carry their memory with us.
Nat, Ash & Duncan have known each other for years playing in the music scene separately in various bands and together. Ash approached me through YouTube with the amazing tracks they were writing and asked me to try out and here I am!
Pix666: What was the reason for you to become a musician? What kind of music did you play before joining This Dying Hour and how would you describe the kind of music/genre you play with TDH.
Gaz: Great question… Music has always been driving force for me, no matter what I might be going through in life there’s always the right song to help you through the bad or lose yourself to. I have sung in many different music genres, but metal is my ultimate favourite style of music. TDH is great mix of Nu Metal, Metalcore & there are elements of Industrial Metal (mainly vocally) – but we firmly sit in the Metalcore genre.
Pix666: You are from different counties, how do you manage to work together as a band at the moment?
Gaz: We have been in lockdown almost the entire time we were writing the EP. There is 330 miles in-between me and the guitarist but that shouldn’t stop anyone. We have video calls and everything is digital now… and all the music writing has been done in our own homes, passing ideas back and forth. These guys are the best musicians I’ve ever worked with, although we haven’t been able to smash out songs in a studio we’ve never been out of contact whilst writing.
Pix666: A few days ago you released your first joint video clip for the song ‘Cornered’. It’s a really energetic song that really rocks. Where did you shoot the clip and who was part of the film crew?
Gaz: Thank you! Awesome to hear. That was so much fun to film, that track is all about passion and pure energy. We spent the day in an abandoned building on an old military weapons site in the South East of England. We had the pleasure of working with Loki Films. Loki Films have produced amazing videos for Architects, Soul Fly, Monuments and even WWE Star Chris Jericho’s band which is where Nat discovered him.
Pix666: Your EP ‘Fire & The Blind’ is supposed to be released this year. Is there already a release date, and where can the fans pre-order/buy the EP?
Gaz: Yes and I can’t wait to hear what you and everyone thinks of tracks, personal favourite is the title track “fire and the Blind”. The release date is the 9th of April this year and will be available across all main platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer.
Pix666: Now you have ‘chosen’ exactly the time of the pandemic as the period for the restart of the band. What complications does the pandemic bring with it, also in terms of long-term planning of concerts?
Gaz: I don’t know if I’d say difficult, but definitely meant we had to try new ways of writing; instead of jamming out a track together, we’ve done this by Zoom/WhatsApp.
I think the pandemic brought people closer together, musicians and fans. Everyone has helped keep music alive. There might not be concerts happening, but they will be back and stronger than ever. I have massive appreciation for every single person who has shared and helped spread the word about TDH.
Pix666: What financial impact does this have on your band if you can hardly play any concerts? You certainly can’t really expect much from the proceeds from streaming. How do you keep your heads above water – is there cool This Dying Hour merch to buy?
Gaz: “Put your money where your mouth is” we believe in the music enough to finance it ourselves. We will be out touring and anything we do make will go straight into the next releases and making them bigger and better. We will have some merchandise coming out soon, the request from the fans for this has been massive and we have some designs coming real soon.
Pix666: Another question… are there any big problems for British artists after the UK leaves the EU? At least I can imagine that it won’t be as easy as before to deliver merch to the rest of Europe.
Gaz: I don’t think anyone truly knows yet. What we do know is touring will cost more, as we will need to apply for visa’s in countries we wouldn’t have before. As for merch (and touring) we will certainly make it happen; fans want it, we’ll make it happen.
Pix666: Your video now has about 5,000 views on YouTube. I’m a fan of statistics of all kinds. What about you guys? Do you look at the numbers of streams, the views on YouTube, or do you know, for example, in which countries the people who listen to your music live?
Gaz: We were blown away by the reaction to the video and all the streams the single “Cornered” is receiving. This is our first release and we obviously want it to go well, the response to the track has been amazing.
We will be keeping track of the numbers, especially when the EP is released, it helps us to understand which tracks have done the best and what the fans what to hear more of.
Country and city data will help us plan where we tour and at the moment, 3 days into the single release that’s showing as: UK, Germany & Austria.
Pix666: What is the current situation in the UK and especially the mood among the people?
Gaz: I think I got it right before when I said that people are closer, it’s forced everyone to stop and look at what matters.
Pix666: As a musician, you surely spend most of your time creating music – but what else do you do in your free time when you want to distract yourself – are there any interesting hobbies you pursue? 😊
Gaz: You’re right a lot of music haha so apart from that I’m a student of Wing Chun Kung fu which I’ve been practicing for around 3 years now.
Pix666: Do you have any other news about your band, that you would like to share with the fans?
Gaz: So much! Obviously, the coming EP in April. Which will be a supported with a video for Fire & The Blind which we made ourselves during lockdown.
Further down the line we have plans to produce a video for one more song on the EP before we move on to finalising songs for the next EP.
Make sure to follow our social media which can be found at www.thisdyinghour.com.
After the EP promo look out for a release in July…. I won’t say anymore on that, but this is going to be an epic release/music video.
Pix666: Thank you very much for the interesting answers – Good luck with your music and stay healthy!!!
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photo © Charlie Rolfe
