Beholder Interview at HAMMERFEST II

Next up for interrogation is BEHOLDER, a 5-piece metal band from the Midlands here in the UK, who have been taking Britain by storm with their love for the truest form of metal.

PrimalNoise unfortunately missed their performance on Thursday 11th March, having only arrived at Hammerfest onFriday morning. But we caught up with Vocalist Simon Hall, and bassist Si Fielding to talk about the show, their climb in the music industry, their new album and what makes them get up there and give it their all!

BEHOLDER: Simon Hall & Si Fielding.

PrimalNoise: Okay, to start off with; can you introduce yourselves?
Simon Hall: Hi, I'm Simon, Vocals for Beholder.
Si Fielding: That's a funny name...
Simon Hall: Yeah it is! Simon Vocals, yeah. x]
Si Fielding: I'm Si, Bass, from Beholder.
Simon Hall: Si Bass... yeah...

PrimalNoise: You're all called Simon, aren't you?
Simon Hall: Yeah...! There's three of us called Simon. It's a bit of a pain, so we call us; Fungus, Gimli and Mongo. How flattering are they?! Bless...
All: *laughter*

PrimalNoise: That is quite bizzarre. The only band i've heard of with three members all with the same name.
Simon Hall: Yeah, called 'Simon'. I know... we gotta sack one at least, haven't we? *joking*
Si Fielding: Make it me!!
All: *laughing*

PrimalNoise: That's mean! *laughing*
Simon Hall: Ahh it's just banter isn't it. We're all having to spend so much time together we all just wanna get away with each other!! *laughs* Nah, we have a laugh. We love messing around. Primarily this is a band of guys who really are incredibly close and we do take the ROYAL piss out of each other 24/7. I think that's translated in the music that we write too.

PrimalNoise: It's the British thing to do though, isn't it.
Simon Hall: Yeah, yeah! You HAVE to do it!
Si Fielding: I think it helps as well with the writing process because people put emotions and all sorts of series of thoughts on the line and y'know, if someone comes up with a riff, and you don't like it it... if you can't communicate with that person and know you're in a safe place to say "I don't like that riff because..." it's not a personal dodge. So being close as a band, i think that kinda helps.

PrimalNoise: So how was your show last night?
Simon Hall: Well, to be quite honest, we've been 18 months in the making and it was probably the best show we've delivered.
Si Fielding: I second that.
Simon Hall:Yeah it was 45 minutes of pure bloody anger, agression... with big fat smiles on our faces. Yeah, it was really, really good. And it was really nice to see the kids signing along to the words aswell. That, for me is just amazing.
Si Fielding: Yeah, i mean we had the best time we've ever had. Fantastic.
Simon Hall: We're all a little warn out, cuz it went on until about 6 this morning. As I was saying, that people were singing. We were playing songs and they're singing it back to you... it makes you realise that you've got on to something special.

PrimalNoise: What sorts of venues have you been playing? And where abouts do you seem to be the most popular?
Simon Hall: Well y'see, this is the strange thing. We've just had an interview, and he said that Newcastle are screaming out for us. And we've never ever been to Newcastle. So it's been mad. That kinda blew me away, so we will be booking Newcastle next time.
Si Fielding: And Ireland as well!
Simon Hall:Yeah, Ireland are screaming out for us as well. Basically, we've hit London. The past couple of weeks we've done London, Brighton and those areas. I mean we've been doing some smaller clubs, but full! But... shit we've never been there. But it's still really bizarre that you start something, and then 18 months later the kids are singing the words back. It really is.
Si Fielding: It's a bit of a culture shock.

PrimalNoise: Do you prefer those smaller venues, because they're more intimate, aren't they?
Simon Hall: It makes no difference, really. Big or small. We can play a 50 seater club, or a 10,000 venue. Though we would like more 10,000 venues... *big grin*
All: *laughter*
Simon Hall: At the end of the day, if you're in a club and have, i dunno... 50 kids in there, having a good time with smiles on their faces, you've done your job. Y'know? It doesn't matter if you sell 2 CD's or 200 CD's. Well, the record company will tell you different but, at the end of the day, as long as people are picking up on the honesty of the band, and the fact that we're doing this for all the right reasons, we're not doing it for money cuz we're aint MADE any. In fact, it's cost us a bloody fortune! But you know, we're doing it for the right reasons. I am STILL that 13 year old kid that was prancing around in front of the mirror. I'm just a few years older, and a couple of pounds bigger. Only a couple of pounds, mind! *laughing* So yeah, we love it. Just love it.

PrimalNoise: We have a lot readers from abroad, like America, Europe and Japan mainly, are there any plans to go overseas?
Simon Hall: Yeah. Yeah, there's some talks of us going over to the states at the end of this year or early next year. Certainly we'll be going to Europe right before the end of the year, as well. The album's gonna be released in Europe in the next couple of weeks, and we've already had some very, very positive reviews from France and Italy. SO yeah, plenty more to come. There's plenty of places we want to get out to. As much as I think Europe's gonna pick us up, i'm bloody convinced the Americans are gonna love it. Because it is that hard-edged heavy metal, rich melody, and I think that's what a lot of bands have.... lost sight of in the last few years. They did try and sound like Swedish deathcore, they didn't stay true to themselves. I know that's gonna piss a few people off, but I'm being honest about that. And that's why I think that the English bands have been kinda overlooked in the past few years, because I don't think they're being totally honest with themselves. So I just lost a LOT of friends out there now. *laughter* I do see it as, if you go out there and with all the honesty and integrity with what you're doing, you WILL be, You'll win, in the long term. Now what 'winning' means, I don't know! Will it mean selling millions of albums? I doubt it. But Beholder... we're fucking true! And I can go to my grave a happy little bunny. *laugh* Not any time SOON though.

PrimalNoise: Do you find it lucky being a British band and getting a lot of positive feed back from playing in the UK, because the UK is one of the hardest countries to break.
Si Fielding: It really is. It is for metal! But any time I walk on stage and someone looks at me and smiles, while I play, I'm happy.
Simon Hall: The beautiful thing is, we were absolutely bloody terrified about reviews. Because we didn't know, should we take them seriously? Should we not take them seriously? Yeah, we take them really, really seriously now because they've all been really good! *laughing* Metal Hammer; hats off, they absolutely loved it. They said, 'they're flag-bearers for the traditional British metal... we expect them to be, worldwide... ", that kind of thing, and i dunno, we're five guys from Nuneaton and Leicester and thinking "What the bloody hell is that all about?"
Si Fielding: Classic Rock did the same.
Simon Hall:Power Play did the same. Cool!!

PrimalNoise: Tell us about your album 'The Awakening', how did that come about and your influences behind it.
Simon Hall: It's a melting pot. And that, again, goes back to the honesty, because we've got Chris and Martyn; the younger guys in the band who like everything from Skindred, Slayer, Meshuggah, Killswitch Engage, Masterdon - that kind of stuff. Fungus is more into the Wildhearts, Motley Crue, stuff like that. Myself, I'm very much grounded with Black Sabbath, Nevermore, things like that, y'know, the singers? Ronnie James Dio. A singer listen to singers, it's as simple as that isn't it? Gimli, Simon Cliffe, he's classically trained. He's a brilliant guitarist. But when we put all these things in the pot, it was really weird because we thought "What are we gonna come up with?". It could have been a royal f*ck up! But no, it came together really well, to me. To actually WRITE it, we actually did it in 6 weeks flat. No problems.
Si Fielding: The whole lot. The album album. It was pretty intense!
Simon Hall: Yeah. 6 weeks. But ya know, I'm absolutely made up with it. Why not? Why not. We're proud of it.
Si Fielding: Yeees!!

PrimalNoise: Okay we've got a very strange question for you now that we just love to ask...
Simon Hall: I bet you have! We get asked many strange questions, we've heard it all... *laughs*
PrimalNoise: Well WE find it interesting. *laugh* This is our trademark question. If you were sent to prison... Who would you want as your cellmate, and why?
Si Fielding: *laughs* Now be very careful... Um... *thinking*
Simon Hall: *thinking too* That's a bloody brilliant question; I love that. Uh... Now, do I go down the road of wanting someone deep, meaningful and philosophical, y'know filling me with pearls of wisdom... Or do I want someone like Lemmy? Who would just a great laugh. I think I'll go with Lemmy. *laughs*
Si Fielding: Mine is Tommy Lee.
Simon Hall:They're pretty really lame answers really... We didn't come up with the Dalai Lama or anything, no. No pearls of Wisdom. Nah, we'll talk to Tommy Lee and Lemmy. Okay... *laughing*

PrimalNoise: Who would you guys like to tour with, and why?
Si Fielding: At the minute? We'd all like to work with Nevermore, I think. But, then again, with the same token I think we'd work well with DevilDriver.
Simon Hall:Yeah, I think DevilDriver would be a great tour. I think that would be really good. We were having a chat with Dev earlier. He said he really liked what he saw last night, he said it was great! We had Five Finger Death Punch guys say they really liked the show last night as well. So, when you actually get guys like that tipping their hat to you and say, "Yeah, I really liked that" -- WOW. I'll play like that everytime! Yeah... and Ronnie James Dio!
Si Fielding: I knew you were gonna say that...
Simon Hall:Ahh... I love the guy to death. He's the most outstandingly charming man in this industry, cuz lets face it, it's full of bloody idiots! Isn't it? There are some blithering idiots! Bands... and bands management and agents alike. But, I met him at Sweden Rock and he came out with his hand out and introduced himself as 'Ronnie'! I said "I know, I have had your poster on my wall for 20 odd years!" *laughs* Great guy. I'd love to tour with him. Then again it'd be like little and large again! So tiny. Him and Gimli would go great together! *laughing*

PrimalNoise: Who are your musical influences and current favourites?
Simon Hall: I'd have to say it was way back, with people like Ozzy Osbourne with Black Sabbath, that kind of thing. Current favourites.... Nevermore.
Si FIelding: Musical Influences, going back... everything from the original Van Halen, with David Lee Roth, Led Zeppelin, Motorhead, through to Motley Crue. Current favourites... I'd have to say anything produced by Simon Cowell.
Everyone: *laughs*
Si Fielding: Simon Cowell... You rock. *laugh* Oh, and Lamb Of God. Stunning.

PrimalNoise: Final question. What have you got planned for 2010?
Si Fielding: Keep promoting this album, playing more gigs and... spread the word!
Simon Hall:Spread the luuurve. Spread the word, baby!

PrimalNoise: Thanks very much!
Beholder: Thank you!

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