It’s always good to see a band finally getting the acclaim they deserve, none more so than for Attica Rage.
Attica Rage are a rock band from Glasgow who have been on the go since 2003. They have toured extensively throughout the UK and Europe and are now on the cusp of super stardom. They have received unanimous praise from the music press for their latest release Road Dog, and were nominated for the Loud/Metal Recording of the Year in the 2011 Scottish New Music Awards.
Never one to rest on their laurels or take the comfortable route, Road Dog marks a slight departure for Attica. Jonny said “We’re really proud of the album. We have tried to incorporate a lot of different genres in the one album, whilst still remaining faithful to the Attica sound. We have an instrumental classical track on the album which Richie actually wrote when we lived in Spain for a while. I just took his existing music and embellished it.” Metal Hammer awarded Road Dog 8 out of 10, saying “The distilled greatest hits of rock and metal, bashed out with passion and honesty.” The Daily Express “Attica Rage are in danger of giving loud biker rock a good name”. Rock Radio’s Tom Russell has been a long-term supporter of Attica and said “Totally blown away on first listen, I’ve always liked these lads and with this new album they’ve excelled themselves”. Attica actually signed their record deal at the start of the year live on Tom’s Rock Radio show.
Road Dog was officially released in April and since then Attica have been on a major UK headline tour promoting it. Jonny said “This tour has been great as we’ve played some venues for the very first time.” Attica will be playing the Classic Grand on Friday 16th September and Jonny is very excited about this, as it will be a homecoming gig for them. Jonny said “We want to make this Glasgow gig an event. We will be playing the album from start to finish and the guest musicians who feature on the album will be appearing with us on stage”. Noteable among these are Dave Arcari, an alternative blues musician from Glasgow. To make the night complete for all the metal heads out there, Praying Mantis will be appearing as Very Special Guests. The icing on the cake is that Attica are also filming the gig for a live concert film.
From their humble origins as a covers band who would jam on a Saturday and whose members consisted of Jonny and his brother Richie, they soon added to their line up with bassist Colin (aka Big C) and axe man Stephen Bell. Jonny explained “For the first few years of our existence we played a lot of covers, then graduated to writing and performing our own tracks. There were various line up changes before the current one, we thought about bringing in a fifth member but decided to keep it to four. We started taking the band seriously from 2007, recorded our first album Ruin Nation and then things really began to kick off for us.”
I was curious about the story behind Attica Rage’s name and asked if Jonny could shed any light on this for me. He said “The influence for our name was the Attica Prison riots in New York in 1971.” Inmates of the Attica Correctional Facility rioted after the death of a black prisoner who had been shot to death by prison officers. The prisoners rebelled and took control of the prison, taking 33 staff hostage in the process. By the time the uprising was resolved, 39 people had lost their lives, including 10 prison officers.
The four members of Attica Rage have many different influences, with each member bringing their own musical preferences to their sound. Jonny said “ACDC and Black Sabbath are probably what you could call our ‘core influences’ but we are influenced by everything from 1970s classic rock, heavy metal from the 1980s and 1990s and the grunge movement of the 1990s. Colin loves goth stuff like Sisters of Mercy and Type O Negative. Stevie is a fan of glammy, upbeat rock like Mr Big, Guns n Roses etc. We are all fans of Metallica, Motorhead, Ozzy and Iron Maiden, who are amazing, and still relevant today.” I asked Jonny about the inspiration for the lyrics and he confessed “I do find writing lyrics difficult as I don’t see myself as a lyricist or a poet. I try to write lyrics from my own personal viewpoint and my life experiences.” When describing how Attica Rage go about writing songs Jonny said “The music always comes first. I have a notepad of song lyrics but generally I build lyrics from a song title.” Generally the recording process for Attica follows the path of Big C or Jonny recording home demos which are then given to the rest of the band and worked on together. Due to their connection as brothers Jonny and Richie are often on the same wavelength and sometimes Richie will just hum a riff and Jonny will understand exactly where he’s coming from. Jonny explained “Back to the Old School is really the only track we wrote together as a band. Generally we all write separately and then tweak it when we come together. This means that our songs have greater variety and there is also more emphasis on our individual creativity.”
Attica have toured extensively in the past and are on a UK headline tour at the moment. I asked Jonny about their touring exploits and he said “We’ve played a lot of festivals and it’s great playing on the same line up with bands that we’ve grown up with. I find it hard to play it cool with people like these because I am a fan myself. I’ll chase after people and ask for pictures and autographs! We opened the metal stage at the High Voltage festival and our dressing room was opposite Slash’s and right next door to Judas Priest’s area, although it was all cordoned off and we couldn’t get anywhere close! That was a great gig, we played to around 2000 people, which was brilliant for being the first band on stage. That is the biggest festival we’ve played and we went down really well.” Having played so many gigs it must be hard for Jonny to pick out a gig which he would classify as his favourite gig but he said “Our shows at Hard Rock Hell and Hammerfest have been very important in helping us to build our fan base. At our first appearance we opened the Young Blood stage and worked our way up to opening the main stage last year.”
But all gigs are not great gigs, as Jonny pointed out. “Once in Grangemouth back in 2006 we played a gig in the basement of a pub. Now we played well but it hadn’t been promoted at all so the organiser decided to open all the doors to let the sound out to the street. It was the middle of winter and we were absolutely freezing but had to make the best of it. There were only 5 or 6 people there but the view we take of gigs like this is that you need to make the best of it. Whoever’s there has made the effort to get there so we’ll always give it our best shot.”
As you would expect from a rock band, Attica Rage have had their share of rock and roll moments. Jonny laughed “At Hard Rock Hell IV last year, Big C decided to smash his bass up at the end of the set….but he went too far and ended up smashing a hole in the stage. Now, we were supporting Saxon and the stage manager came running over to us after we came off stage freaking out because of the 8 inch hole we had left behind us!” All’s well that ends well though, as Jonny said “The manager had a laugh after it. I like to think that we were just testing the stage for Saxon and found a weak spot that they might have put their foot through.” Attica have also played gigs surrounded by fire breathers and pole dancers, a must for any self-respecting rock band.
Atticahave crammed a lot of living into their current incarnation and I asked Jonny what he would say was their greatest achievement. Jonny replied “I would say this album, Road Dog, as we’re really proud of it. Getting signed to a label was also amazing, and so is getting to where we now are in our career. On a more personal level as a guitar tutor, I ran a rock school over the summer for a youth group of teens with disabilities. This was actually held during the same time as the London riots and it was so inspiring to see kids helping each other and channelling their energy in a conductive way. The kids loved every moment of it.”
Social media has had a huge impact on the growth of bands and Jonny agrees that this has definitely helped Attica get to the stage they are at today. “Social media is brilliant for building your fan base. It lets you immediately hear music, see what you look like and find out what you’re all about. It also lets you keep in touch with your fans and interact with them. We’re never above making contact with our fans, we have no egos at all and like being accessible to them. You’ll always find us at the bar having a drink with our fans rather than hiding in the dressing room.”
It is quite common for local bands to struggle to get the gigs and make a bit of money from them. In fact, bands frequently put on gigs at a loss to themselves. Jonny had some words of wisdom for small bands on the cusp of their career. “There is a gap between big and small venues. The best thing that bands in Lanarkshire can do is to put on their own gigs and not wait for a promoter to do it for them. A lot of venues do a ‘pay to play’ system with bands, which is not a good situation at all. A band should hire their own venue, choose their own line up and promote it themselves. If you charge money on the door you’re more likely to take home some money at the end of the night. To be honest, when we were at the beginning of our career the small gigs were about the only ones we made any money from. Bands should also play outside Glasgow as well, and spread their wings a bit.”
Jonny keeps up with the Scottish music scene and has a few names to look out for. He said “15 Times Dead, Komatoze, Firebrand Super Rock and Ten Tonne Dozer from Shetland are all bands to watch out for and that I’m excited about at the moment but there are many others. Get out and support your local scene!”
So discover proper rock music, at its best, and purchase Road Dog at your earliest convenience. Your ears will thank you for it.
