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Interview with Seven Sisters
By Dawn ‘The Metal Priestess’ King
Seven Sisters are a four-piece metal band from West London, England forged from the same steel as the NWOBHM acts of yesteryear. They have gained a reputation as a “stellar” act in the heavy metal scene, playing shows all over the UK and Europe and proving that “they are not simply copying the template laid down by the fathers of heavy metal but they are moulding their own sound to usher in a new era.”
I recently had the chance to interview Graeme from the band and here is what he had to say:
Hi, I am Dawn from Ever Metal. Thank you for taking the time to answer some questions for us. I hope you are all well?
All good here, cheers for talking to us!
Ok, for those who don’t know who you guys are, can you tell us a bit about the background of the band?
Sure! We’re a Heavy Metal band from West London, currently promoting and touring our second album which was recently released on Dissonance Productions. Our sound is a bit of a mix of old school Heavy Metal (the NWOBHM movement in particular) and elements of power metal, thrash metal and things like that. We’re pretty progressive in places, but our songs are heavily melodic and hopefully pretty catchy too.
So, your new album, The Cauldron and The Cross, was released in April of this year. How has it been received?
Yeah it’s been received really well on the whole! We’re not massively surprised as we were really happy with the way the album turned out, but it’s always nice when people understand and buy into what you’re trying to do as a band.
Would you consider yourself part of the NWOTHM (New Wave of Traditional Heavy Metal) movement? If not, what would you describe your particular genre?
Yeah I guess so. I’m not sure how much of a coherent movement it is, but there’s definitely a fair few bands around playing traditional-sounding metal, and we’re one of those bands. I don’t think we’re a straight up copy of the original sound of the late 70s and early 80s, but it’s definitely a major influence and I think that should be pretty obvious to anyone listening to our music. We prefer to just think of ourselves as a Heavy Metal band though, rather than trying to pigeonhole it too specifically. It’s too easy to become obsessed with genre labels, rather than just listening to something on its own merit and deciding if you like it or not.
We all have a guilty pleasure when it comes to music, what’s yours?
Not really, actually. I listen to all sorts of stuff, but I don’t feel guilty or embarrassed by any of it as it’s all music I like. I listen to plenty of stuff that isn’t Heavy Metal. But if you mean things that people might be slightly surprised by, then ABBA are one of my favourite bands of all time. That might be a guilty pleasure for some people, but I think they were amazing songwriters with an incredible sense of melody. Some of their song structures are more similar to the type of thing you’d expect a prog band to do than a pop group, but a lot of people don’t even notice as the songs are so well-written and catchy. I think that’s something a lot of metal bands could learn a thing or two from, actually.
What bands have been your greatest influences, both individually and as a band?
Obviously the NWOBHM movement, as I mentioned earlier. But we like a lot of European and North American bands too. Helloween really spring to mind here. We’re also pretty obsessed with Yngwie Malmsteen! We listen to all sorts of stuff individually though. I’m really into hair metal and AOR, Kyle listens to a lot of progressive rock (Frank Zappa is his idol), and Steve and Javi like some of the more extreme stuff like thrash and death metal. This probably all creeps into the overall sound of Seven Sisters in one way or another.
If you could bring back one metal legend, who would it be and why?
Most of my metal heroes are still alive actually. I’d maybe say Ingo Schwichtenberg. I really like the first three Helloween albums, they were a massive part of me growing up and getting into metal, and he’s one of my favourite drummers of all time. I would have loved to get to see him play live.
How have you been enjoying your recent gigs with Toledo Steel? I was gutted I missed the British Steel 2 Festival at the end of May.
Yeah they’ve been fun! Toledo Steel are good friends of ours, and they’re a great live band so it was cool getting to watch them do their thing every night. They’re really funny guys and great company too, so we had a right laugh driving round the country in a van with them. I can’t ever remember laughing as much as I did on that tour!
There has been some controversy over the price of gig tickets recently what with the Ozzy Osbourne/Judas Priest and Metallica gigs. Do you think metal shows are overpriced?
I guess they can’t be over-priced if people are willing to pay them and the shows still sell out, but personally I’m not interested in paying £140 to see Lars Ulrich attempting to play the drums. I’ve always found it interesting that Maiden’s ticket prices are significantly lower than bands like Metallica and Ozzy – and Maiden are actually still good live too. I guess maybe some bands treat their fans with a bit more respect than others, but that’s nothing new. If people are willing to pay crazy money to see a band, I don’t have a problem with it. I just have better uses for my severely limited bank balance myself!
Who is the driving force behind the band? Is there one of you that takes charge and organises everyone else?
Kyle is definitely our driving force. The vast majority of the music comes from him, although I chip in with a riff or two here and there if I have anything good. The lyrics are more of a collaborative effort between the two of us, and Steve and Javi then come up with their own drum and bass parts. So whilst Kyle is definitely the mastermind of the band, I think the songs wouldn’t sound the same if it wasn’t for the individual input of all four of us.
So, what’s next on the horizon for Seven Sisters?
We’re playing some shows in Europe and Ireland over the autumn to promote the new album, and we’re hoping to do as many summer festivals next year as we can. After that, I guess it’ll be time to sit down and start working on a third album!
Well, thank you for your time. Is there anything else you would like to add?
Not a problem. Thanks for talking to us, and cheers to anyone that took the time to read this!
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Disclaimer: This interview is solely the property of Dawn “The Metal Priestess” King and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this interview, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to do adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
LINKS:
Disclaimer: This review is solely the property of [user_login] and Ever Metal. It is strictly forbidden to copy any part of this review, unless you have the strict permission of both parties. Failure to adhere to this will be treated as plagiarism and will be reported to the relevant authorities.