'We’re extremely lucky to have an unbelievable wealth of talented and creative friends'

Mos Eisley Cantina Band, endless bangers! Jawa Juice and chips. Ethan (synth player) would be the chef as he’s worked in many kitchens so I’m sure could cook up a storm!

I wouldn’t say we feel representative as much as our being a tiny cog in the great expansive machine of the Bristol music & art scene. 
It’s a small enough city for everybody to know each other, but it doesn’t mean that it’s short of individuality and innovation and for that we’re very grateful to be living here and to be a small part of it.

For instance, just last week I saw some Japanese contemporary ‘Butoh’ dancers, at what felt like a secular church called The Mount Without (has a statue of a Mobius Strip on the ceiling?!) and that was completely on a whim. There’s always new and interesting events going on and I can’t see that stopping anytime soon.

For bands, new and established, go to The Louisiana near Wapping Wharf. Run by the nicest family who are the biggest proponents of new bands and artists in Bristol. Without Mig and the Louisiana’s support, we wouldn’t have gotten past playing in our own bedrooms, nor would we have met the friends we have today without playing shows there.

For anything a bit more leftfield and experimental, Strangebrew is the one. Not just bands, but fashion shows, theatre and generally cool and weird stuff happens there! 

For beer I know it’s a cop out, but I’d say Estrella on draught.

HAAL was born out of my own guitar noodling when I was about 13, after playing for many years trying to learn Muse and Rage Against The Machine riffs. I’d have all these riffs stored away in my brain, but had no where/one to practice with when growing up in Devon.

I basically moved to Bristol to pursue this, as I knew that I’d meet likeminded people who’d want to be involved in something creative. Then ironically, I formed a band with two people I went to school who’d also moved to Bristol and HAAL was born.

I’d say Nine Inch Nails and early Biffy Clyro are big childhood influences for me personally that informed my guitar playing and songwriting, but I can’t speak for the others. Our differing musical tastes informs the sound, as we’re all into varying stuff as a whole. Currently listening to a lot of Digable Planets and Boards Of Canada!

I think it’s a love-hate relationship really. As saturated as social media has become, it’s incredible for finding new bands and experimental artists that pre-internet might have sunken into obscurity or never would have been given a chance by the old mainstream.

However, it does feel like a drag to have to promote via instagram all the time when you’d rather just be earning your craft through meritocracy, but I guess that’s always been the case wth art under capitalism, one way or another!

I also envy the old guard who would’ve had to go to the record shop to first hear some music rather than get it through streaming immediately. I reckon that would’ve been lovely.

Alfie: Yeah! Joe C. our bassist is a genius, taught himself all via Reddit with cloning pedals for us that we didn’t have the money to buy, but he’s now gotten to the stage where he is conceptualising and crafting his own designs.
My fave he’s made me is one we dubbed ‘The Cockpit’, as it’s got 23 switches or something?! One switch is one we can’t use at all lest we break the amps as it’s a 100dB boost! Very much a didn’t stop to think if he should, but if he could type thing there..

Joe C: I’d say my favourite is called the ‘Joey Special’. It’s the one I’ve made the most of for the most people which I think is testament to how good it sounds, plus it was the most organic in terms of of figuring out the right recipe and was my first original design.

For one I’ve discarded - spent months designing a pedal that reprocesses any instrument through a synth engine with a programmable sequencer, spent 5 days building it and within 30 mins of plugging it in, it went straight back in the cupboard. An absolute abomination.

Not necessarily crazy, but nevertheless bad! We travelled 4 hours to play a support slot show up North just for the promoter to not pay us at all then blocking us, despite it selling well. That was weird please don’t do that promoters!

We’re extremely lucky to have an unbelievable wealth of talented and creative friends that all specialise in different aspects of art, so it was a no brainer to have them all involved in a big collaboration for this and ‘Back To Shilmarine’ is very much celebration of their talent.

It was creatively overseen by our old schoolmate Chris Burton, who is primarily a graphic designer. 
We realised that, like you said, we had been very much using only digital and synthetic imagery to convey our past music and felt this time it felt right to go more analogue and tangible to round off this part of the band’s journey.

We’ve had our logo since the start of the band and wanted to base the EP’s art around the narrative of its meaning and origin, and what better way than to immortalise it in stone. 

We felt it looked perennial and lost to time, so we wanted to etch it into a stone tablet and build a story around that. Our costumes are a mixture of the old (medieval bee keeper masks) and new (suits and smarter) with a keen focus on the juxtaposition of this, as it makes everything feel timeless and baseless and ultimately unsettling.

We worked with the incredible prop maker Ivy Upjohn of Clump Collective to craft the stone relic, who are a Bristol based collective that have done work for Folly Group, Joe Lycett, Katy J. Pearson and more. Her attention to detail is second to none and I implore anyone creative to work with them.

As for the costuming and photography, it was done by Jess Agnew, KC, Archie Rayment & Lydia Cashmore. All good friends of ours and all creative juggernauts in their own right.

04/05/24 - Wanderlust Festival, Southampton
18/05/24 - Rough Trade, Bristol w/ Jerome - GravyTrain - Ekhidna
06/06/24 - The George Tavern, London w/ Unlucky & Sulk - Bad Vibrations
16/08/24 - ArcTanGent Festival, Bristol