Interview: THOSE DAMN CROWS
These Damn Crows – Shane Greenhall, Ian “Shiner” Thomas, Lloyd Wood, Ronnie Huxford and David Winchurch – have just released their debut album ‘Murder and the Motive’, which comes highly recommended by us here at GRTR! Over to the band for some Q’s on the album, touring and how the band got its name…
How did the band get together and what’s the story behind the band name?
(RONNIE) Shiner and myself started working on demos, never at any point did we rush out just to start a band. We wanted everything to feel right this time round, the sound and personalities were key. Things started to come together after Lloyd committed full time after hearing what we had been getting up to behind the scenes, we had known and jammed with Lloyd for a few years so this was the outcome myself and Shiner hoped for, after the three of us started jamming out what we had been working on ,we agreed the journey to find the right frontman was imminent.
We felt we were on to something, and some of the demos we had fed to close friends all felt the same. A childhood friend Shane Greenhall who I had known since primary school , also Shane myself and Shiner had been in a band together in college made contact out of nowhere , the timing couldn’t have been better as he didn’t know we had been looking for a singer and wanted me to do some drums for a track he wrote. After an evening of catching up and exchanging stories from over ten years of being apart Shane showed interest and instantly got what we were trying to achieve. A couple of days had passed and Shane started sending over his vocals, along with ideas to compliment. I felt his voice was exactly the way forward and knowing how creative he could be and the history we shared it was a no brainer! 3 became 4 in the Blink Of An Eye hahaha see what I did there.
The great thing about Shane and Lloyd they didn’t want to change or wipe clear the foundations that were laid, only to make them stronger and move it forward together. The next stage was to find a name, we had ideas from all angles but nothing seemed right. I had visited my Dad at some point through this process and found him in the garden shouting at the birds, it was a funny moment which I started writing a song about, later that evening I sang some out of tune vocals and named this track Those Damn Crows. I sent the track over to the boys the next day and weirdly it stuck!, the rest as they say is history. We always thought of adding an extra guitarist but sadly it wasn’t till the album had been recorded and a few shows in that we felt collectively it was needed to move forward. Dave might have been a late addition but was an important one, the live sound has instantly become stronger and most importantly we enjoy each others company. There was never a importantly we enjoy each others company. There was never a shortage of creativity, but now we feel Dave has just added to that wining formula.
What have been the live highlights to date? If you could your with any bands who would it be and why?
(LLOYD) The live highlights for me personally have been playing Steel house festival with my four fellow crows. It was our first open air festival as Those Damn Crows. Personally…If i could tour with any band… for me it would have to be Buckcherry. They come across as such a crazy rock and roll band, so can you imagine the memories we would create? All crazy stories account for great memories don’t they?!
Have you been pleased with the reaction to the album so far from both reviewers and fans?
(DAVE) We are pretty overwhelmed with the positivity we have received towards the album. Everyone of our fans seem to be buzzing and have been very vocal in that sense. we haven’t heard much negativity towards it, but then you tend not to hear those things do you?!… But having said that the reviewers and bloggers are free to speak their minds, and so far have said some very kind things indeed. We have even been overwhelmed with some of the complimentary things they have said. All we can say is that we are immensely proud of what we have produced and are even more excited to be bringing more TDC material to everyone soon!
Could you take us through the writing and recording process behind ‘Murder and the Motive’?
(SHANE) The record is a mixture of demos that Shiner and Ronnie put together, before we were a band, and songs that we all wrote together from scratch etc.
The process is very simple, The song always wins, it doesn’t matter who wrote what, who came up with this/that, there are no ego’s in this band we all know what each others strengths are and utilise them to get the best for the song! Myself, Ron and Shiner each have our own studios, so we had pretty decent demos of our songs before heading in to Rockfield Studios and Longwave Studios to record the album.
Rockfield was personally one of the best experiences I’ve ever had in music. That place is so special and has so much history. It was a pleasure and privilege for us all to record our debut album there.
Has having a family connection with Bullet For My Valentine helped the band at all?
(SHINER) Well yes that’s my brother and my mates, but we are two different bands! It’s sometimes too easy for people before they listen to us to assume “ohh its going to be like bullet” people must take the crows for what we are. Its always bothered me that people would say “well they had help cause of the family thing” when the truth is we work hard at what we do and stand on your own. We can’t learn if we are being told we should do this or do that?. We all grew up together and there is a unspoken thing that goes on “just leave them to it and they will find they’re own way. Don’t get me wrong if we were to ask I’m 100% sure the advice would come but as I said before it’s our band so it’s our way.
How easy/hard has it been for the band to get coverage in a very crowded market of rock acts?
(SHANE) For us… we don’t really focus on ‘The Industry’ or ’The Market’ to see if we can somehow stand out etc, I think we are very comfortable in who we are as a band, there are so many great bands out there, hard working bands that don’t get the recognition or the opportunity to achieve what they deserve, that’s just the way the music game is these days, I think if you are sitting there thinking when is it our turn? Or when are we gonna catch a break? Then ultimately you’re in it for the wrong reasons. Truth is there’s room for us all man!
We want to gig and tour with as many great bands as possible…It’ll only make us better!
Message for your fans…
To everyone who has purchased or downloaded our album…
We can’t thank you enough for your support! We hope to see you at a TDC show soon!
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