Rival Bones Interview

With a full calendar,Rival Bones are a band to watch with their intense energy and exciting stage presence.2018 is their year and will not be a boring one for this exciting Manchester Duo.

I interviewed Chris Thomason (drums) about potential collaborations,the dynamics of the duo and whats next on the map for Rival Bones.

What are the dynamics for you guys as a duo,does one write and another come up with riffs or is it a team effort with both?

We're very much a team. We both contribute to all parts of the music with probably the exception of lyrics. There'll be times when I'm struggling with what sort of drum part to write and James will instantly come up with something. Vice Versa i'll come up with riffs in my head, hum them and send them over to James to play. It's really natural as we're both riff heavy so it works super well for us.

Do you feel its easier to make music as a duo compared to as a bigger (more members) band?

We were in a band together before this one albeit very briefly. It was a 4 piece that James had actually had running for years in various guises. We both agreed that it was just so much hassle getting 4 very busy people into a room to rehearse or all to agree they could confirm a gig. There was always someone who couldn't do something and having 4 peoples opinions on music can be a good AND a bad thing. I don't think we'd have it any other way now. booking rehearsals, confirming gigs and making music between the two is us is so much easier and way more efficient. Some of our rehearsals are under 2 hours.

What venue/s would you say have been your favourite that you've played and why?

For me one of my favourites was 'Strangefruit' in Seoul, South Korea. Small, dingy little dive bar right in the centre of town. Wall to wall vinyls, after parties from Zandari festival every night. We played a secret show there and it was unreal. We also played Manchester Academy 2 the other week with Mongol Horde and that was amazing. Awesome stage, unreal sound and when we played it was packed so it felt amazing to play!

If you could do a collaboration with another duo who would you collaborate with?

The Cheeky Girls....

Na, I'm not sure. I don't think 2 duo's collaborating would work very well. I think we'd definitely do something with a rapper as we're very beat and rhythm heavy. If Zack De La Rocha were to call we'd JUMP at the opportunity haha!

Is there a venue you would love to play in the future?

I'm more into festivals. I love the idea of playing Glastonbury or Download Main Stage one day. In terms of venue though, I'd say me and James would love to play the Albert Hall. So much history musically and the acoustics would be mental.

You have a lot of gigs coming up this year, are there any you are most excited for? Any festivals in particular you would like to play?

There's a few festivals we're looking forward to. FOCUS Wales in May should be amazing. Amplified Festival should be boss as well. Gigs wise, we're playing with Electric Six, Fizzy Blood and False Heads at the end of February so that should be great as well! As mentioned earlier we love to play festivals so Leeds, Glastonbury, Download are three we'd love to play.

You played a show with Dead! at the end of January at the Star and Garter in Manchester,are they are band you would play with again? And how would you feel about touring with them?

Dead! were awesome yeah. I'd never really listened to them until we were asked to support them and it was such a great show! They're the nicest guys and we'd definitely tour with them if they asked us!

We're in the U.K. would you like like to focus on next as you seem to be hitting Manchester quite hard at the moment?

We're happy to play anywhere. We want to just get out and play to people! It's been a weird one because we've had so many offers from SJM, Live Nation and other bands for Manchester shows all at once. We weren't going to say no so we've agreed and I think now we're literally Manchester's resident rock band!?