Artist:  The Final Sigh 

Date: 22 February 2006  

MM - How do you feel the bands sound has developed since it originally started?
Owen - Well it's totally changed, but subtly.  We still play some of the songs the band did then, in with what we play now, one song in particular which was the first song we ever wrote.  When we first started out, the people who were in the band at that time with me were into a lot of very different types of music to what we all listen to now.  Although, I'd say we're all into pretty much different things anyway.

Steve - I think that's how we get our sound.  We all come to practise together and all put our own input in to writing a song and that all comes from different people all listening to all different types of music.  A few of the band listen to the more hardcore stuff, whereas some of the band members will listen to more chilled out sorts of metal.  It all comes together well.  Having said that if we're writing one bit of a song and one person does not like it then we will change it until everyone's happy with it.  Every type of music is about feeling and when you're up there on stage and playing to a crowd, you have to be feeling the song.  If one person's not totally into it then you can tell by watching the band's reaction. 

MM - The band released their new album back in May last year, would you like to tell us a bit about the album?
Greeny - We recorded some, the drum parts, at Studio Seven in York and the rest of it was recorded at home in a basement surrounded by sheets because we didn't have a lot of money. 

Owen - Basically we did it over about 11 months.  We did 3 sessions over a period of about 8 months with drums, and then we did a lot of the guitars down in the basement.  In total it was about 11 months of tracking and mixing, scrapping stuff and then starting again.  We re-did all the vocals about half way through.  It was more a case of we did what we could, when we had money and time.  With me being in Manchester most of the time we were doing it, there were a lot of time constraints.  We didn't really have all that much time to work on it, as we were only able to work on it for a day, then we wouldn't do anything for two weeks.          

Dan - It was quite fun trying to get it finished as my computer was slowly dying.  It was all kept on my laptop which just kept crashing more and more frequently, but we managed to do it justice although my computers completely dead now.  

Greeny - I think because it took 11 months to do it kind of adds to the story.  I feel it's more an introduction as to where we were then and where we are now.  As we said there are a lot of songs over a different period of time.  When Anticulture came along and picked us up, they listened to the first version of the album, which we'd put out self-financed and these guys had already recorded.  Then I joined just after they'd finished doing the album and we managed to mix it up a bit more.  We added a couple more tracks and dropped a couple.  It's really more of an introduction and something which tells a story.

Simon - Although it sounds like we spent a hell of a lot of time on it and it was made over a very long space of time, the whole point of doing it over that space of time was that we were continually tweaking things and making sure the end result was something we were happy with.  That's why we're all so proud of our first album.  With any first album it's going to be pretty difficult but we managed it and we're happy with the result.  A lot of the bands we know when they get around to doing an album or whatever they're basically in the same situation as us and have no money and stuff.  I get the feeling that a lot of bands tend to rush things and they've only got enough money for two weeks in the studio and they have to try and cram 10 - 12 tracks into two weeks. 

Steve - I think you feel under a lot of pressure when you're trying to record an album in such a short space of time.  You feel it more in the studio that you have to get it right.

Simon - Especially with the money as we all had to finance this ourselves and pay for it by doing jobs and things.  Myself and Dan are both students, I've got three part time jobs and that's how I make my money, eat, pay the bills, and do the band.  We kind of work as well as being students.  We're not the lazy drunken layabouts that you normally associate with students.           

MM - Do you think it's fair to say that your original thoughts on how the album might sound, and how it actually turned out are very much different?
Owen - Yeh, I would definitely say its been a journey of where we were then and where we are now with the album.  We've already started to work on new material and we've been in the studio tracking some new stuff.  We're also working very differently now to how we did back then.  We were taking it easy mainly because we wanted to get it right and stuff, but musically and technically we've moved on.  I'd say we're all better musicians now than we were then. 

Greeny - It's become a lot more serious and a lot more focused, and although we're all very proud of our first album, there's a lot of things we could have done a lot better and differently, so we're using it as a learning experience to change the way that we're working. 

Steve - The way that we're working now, every time we get into the studio we track everything that we do and then we mess about with it to see how we want it to sound.  Finally when we're happy with everything, we get back into the studio and do it under pressure in two weeks. 

Greeny - Because it's all been prepared, we've tracked everything that we've put together, when we do go back into the studio, there's not going to be the pressure that a lot of bands feel when you hit the studio and start wondering where things should go. 

Simon - Yeh now it's all organised before we start and it's like bish bash bosh, we can practise before we go in and get it all right, then just go in to the studio and get it all sorted. 
 
MM -  Who writes the songs that you perform, is it one particular person or do you all play a part?
Simon - We all have input into the music.  I mainly write the lyrics but they are under scrutiny.  I write a lot of stuff about things that are happening in general.  I tend to write a lot of stuff down in a little red book and then I open them up for discussion and tell people.  If they agree with them that's cool, but if they don't then we can always change it.  If different people have different ideas then we all sit down together and have a chat about it.

Greeny - I think with the new stuff as a whole you've come to us with ideas for the lyrics and we've all sat down and worked on them whereas perhaps before it was more a case of what do you think of these lyrics and if there wasn't anything glaringly out of place that would do.  I think these days everybody has an input into everything and it really is a whole group feel. 

Steve - Musically whereas before it was more a case of just trying to get some practise space and either going away from the practise space feeling really pissed off because you hadn't done anything, you hadn't written anything and the sort of thing most bands feel at one time or another, or you could go away from a practise thinking that was an absolutely brilliant practise and you've practically wrote another song in that one practise.  Now we don't just have a practise session every week, we also have a writing session.  We can now actually go into the practise space ready to practise something rather than just getting there and deciding what to do. 

Greeny - I think it's an interesting approach we have now because every one of us can play the guitar and every one of us will sit and write riffs.  We're crossing instruments and crossing different styles which is bringing up all sorts of new ideas. 

Steve - I think it helps when members can play more than a couple of instruments. 

Greeny - It also allows us to be able to demonstrate an alternative idea.  I myself haven't got any idea how to play drums, but I can play guitar and bass, so if I was to say to Steve to do this with the drum beat, I would try and describe it vocally.  But that's not as good as say Dan who'll say shift over and I'll show you what I mean, then Steve does it better. 

Owen - I think also another tool that was always there was that I was really keen on the idea of having keys, but at the time I was the only guitarist so it never really happened.  But it's something that we've played with on and off and we're in the process of getting it to work properly.  We did have a keyboard player for a while which sounded really good and this is something that we all really want to get in there.  Si's even written a song that's been done entirely on piano.   

MM -  Stepping back slightly, you're currently signed to Anticulture Records, how did that come about, did they discover you or did you discover them?
Simon - We sent stuff to them and the main guy threw it in the bin.  One of the staff who works beneath him, Jazz, she picked it out of the bin because she was bored and gave it a listen, and instead of doing what Steve had obviously done, she played the first song, which is rain noise.  We thought it sounded quite nice and it would be a great way to start an album, but obviously it didn't really grab the attention of the people it should have.  Jazz listened past the first track and thought WOW! this is good, and gave it back to Steve to listen to. 

Owen - They then got in touch with us and said they wanted to come and see us live, to see if we could pull off what they'd been listening to.  They came down to see us play in Manchester and turned up about 5 minutes before we were due to go on.  So we didn't really know who they were, we just knew there was these people out in the crowd.  Then afterwards we sat down and all had a chat and it all started from there.  There was a few months of negotiations and then we signed to them in February. 

MM - How have you found the label, have they been supportive of the band?
Owen - We've just passed the first anniversary of signing with them this month and a lot has happened over that time, a lot has changed.  Everything was so slow to get started in the beginning, when we gave them the album they said we could change a few things.  So we went off and changed some bits and recorded new stuff, everything was really gradual. 

The label themselves have changed a lot as well.  When we first signed with them they only had about 3 bands.  I think we were the fourth band to be signed to the label.  Now there's about 10 or 11 bands signed to them.  Basically they've grown rapidly and perhaps because we'd become used to this personal contact with them, at times it's felt like we've become distanced from them.     

Greeny - The main problem that we had was that we weren't sure what to expect from the label.  We'd gone into all this as any band does with their first label, perhaps a little naive.  It's probably taken us the past 12 months to work out what they expect from us, and what we can expect from them.  Especially with everything changing so much with both the label and ourselves, we're still finding our feet a bit.  Overall it's definitely worked out for the better. 

Owen - It's really nice to see your CD in shops.  I work in HMV and I have mates who work in other HMV stores in Leeds and so I get to hear about sales of the album and stuff.   

Simon - It was one of my little tick boxes for life to have an album out. 

Greeny - Walking into a record store a few hundred miles away and seeing your album on the shelves in there is a bit of a head trip. 

Simon - I went over to France because my girlfriend's French and we went out into one of the shops over there where you can buy everything from nappies to cd's, and it was on the shelves there.  That was really exciting for me to see it there on the shelves in a different country.  

MM -  What sort of a deal do you have with Anticulture, is it just for the one album or does it go further than that?
Simon - It's 3 years with options on two further records. 

Dan - We've been in touch with them quite a bit over the last few months to talk about what's next. 

Simon - Yeh, although we're still quite a way off completing the next album. 

Greeny - We could just throw out another album, but for our own sakes, if not everyone else's, we need to get everything spot on. 

Owen - I think the thing with this band is that, especially on this tour with Horse, wherever we go, whatever we do, wherever we play, we're always going to be some kind of misfit, because we're not any one thing, and we want to keep it like that.  We could go away and write a generic hardcore or metal album to a pretty reasonable standard, but we want it to be perfect, and we want to be ourselves as well. 

Greeny - We'll never comb our hair over to the side and wear tight trousers! 

Simon - Yes, we do tend to avoid fashion.    

MM -  Would you like to tell us a few thoughts or stories behind some of the songs off the new album?  I've noticed some of them have quite quirky names.
Owen - Basically we are very immature and we find things funny that aren't and that's where most of the song titles come from. 

Simon - We won't go into the sexual depravity that is behind 'Donkey Punching'. 

Owen - 'Ryo Hazuki' I named because I got addicted to Shenmue on the Dreamcast for about a year.  That was pretty much all I did for a year when I wasn't at work, so I insisted on naming a song after it even though the lyrics have absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever. 

Greeny - A lot of the time on the album the lyrics aren't related to the song title.  We're already coming up with some quirky song titles for the new album when it's ready. So as far as trying to relate the stories back to the songs themselves, it's quite a tenuous link.  There are links there, but they aren't all that specific.   

MM -  The band have already had some success on the radio, in particular Chicago Metalworks springs to mind?
Greeny - Yes we've been on Chicago Metalworks quite regularly.  I think it's dropped off recently, but since the split with RSJ came out, which was just before I joined the band, we were in the top 100 listener requests for over a year and at number one at times.  Which is pretty good considering they cover literally every type of metal music.  So you had Slipnott, Slayer and the like all sat below The Final Sigh which is a bit of a head-trip.

Owen - That was all down to the fact we toured with RSJ and we met a band from Manchester who had contacts at this radio station in Chicago.  They'd got their track selected for a sampler that the radio station were doing and they recommended the radio station check out both us and RSJ.  Following on from that I got an email and then a phone call about it.  We've got a track on their sampler which went out.  We hadn't actually finished mixing anything at the time and I think it was before we'd re-recorded the vocals.  I think at this point there was also quite a bit of lyrical change in some of the songs, in particular with structures and stuff.  So it was like a really rough mix, there were bits in it where there was only one guitar because I hadn't mixed in the second guitar parts yet.  But I sent it off and it got included, it was sent out all over, mainly in Chicago I think. 

Steve - As well as Chicago Metalworks we've also had quite a bit of pick up on the underground UK radio scene.  Places like Totalrock have given us quite a bit of support.  Our biggest pick up recently has been in France.  We've had quite a lot of radio stations in France requesting copies of the CD, or just picking up on CD's that our French contact has.  There's a guy called Charles who works for Anticulture and he's been promoting us over there.  So we've had quite a significant pick up in France since the release, it all sounds very promising.

MM -  Have any members of the band been in other bands previous to The Final Sigh?
Owen - We all come from pretty random backgrounds.  I myself are into quite extreme forms of metal, but that came about quite late on.  I was in a band previously who were like prog-pop-metal, similar to Devin Townsend or Earthtone 9. I was also in a couple of hardcore/metalcore bands for a few months but they all fell by the wayside when The Final Sigh came along. 

Steve - Dan and I were in a band together many years ago, that's how I actually got to join the band.  Back then The Final Sigh's drummer had just left and Dan knew I played the drums, so he came round to my house and said the band needed a drummer.  He brought along on mini-disc with some songs on that the previous drummer had done.  I listened to the drums and shit myself on hearing them as there was a lot of double kick drumming and I wasn't able to do that.  The band wanted me to come down and practise about a week later, so I went out and got a £1,000 loan, bought a drum kit and a kick peddle and played almost solidly for a week before the practise. 

Greeny - The reason I joined the band was the drummer in my previous band had just joined RSJ, who these guys were on tour with.  The Final Sigh's bassist had just left while they were out on tour and because I'd been in the band with the drummer from RSJ, he knew I was looking for another band and he put us in contact. So that's how I got into the band. 

Simon - I think one of the biggest successes of the band is that we all have very different musical tastes, both in the bands we're been in previously, and what we've been listening to.  I've been in grunge band and a pop-punk band at the same time.  Side projects were just something that I did in my spare time.  

MM - How would you describe your target audience?
Owen - Our target audience?  We don't have one.  We mainly play shows where one of us knows and likes the bands that we'll be playing with. 

Steve - Anyone that likes us is a bonus.  It's a real buzz when people come up to us after shows and shake our hand, tell us how much they enjoyed our set and that they'll come out and see us again. 

Greeny - It's often not the type of people you'd expect to like our band. 

Owen - That's the key thing about it though, all the people who come to speak to us after the shows are all completely different.  We don't ever get just the standard metalheads or hardcore kids, we get everybody.  It really is so random which is probably why we tend not to try and play stereotype shows.  A lot of the bands we quite like and play with regularly we actually get on with.  Although in many respects they are very different to us.  We don't feel particularly out of place playing with them and I think that's important.  As long as you feel like you belong to somewhere then the audience are going to be more into your show.  It is important to us that we keep on appealing to as many different kinds of people as possible. 

Greeny - I think because everyone's from such different types of musical backgrounds, we can all appreciate really good music.  If other people think that we are playing good music, then they will come up and say it, regardless of whether they listen to metal most of the time or not.  If they like what we're doing then they'll tell us and that's the most reassuring thing. 

Steve - We do tend to get a lot of musicians coming up to us after the shows.  Perhaps being a musician allows them to get it a bit more.  They appreciate the guitar parts are very intricate and that our music has all different time signatures.  It's not just in your head chuggy kind of music all the time. 

MM -  The band's name The Final Sigh, where does that come from?
Owen - Our old drummer.  We argued for about 2 weeks what to call the band and at the time it was the only name the rest of us couldn't argue with, so it just stuck.  We hope people won't try to read too much into it as it could mean so many different things depending on how you look at it.  I suppose that's probably why we stuck with it because it doesn't actually mean anything in particular.  I think The Final Sigh was probably one of the first sensible suggestions we had, which was why we agreed on it.

MM -  What song is your personal favourite to play live and which one(s) get the crowd going wild?
Greeny - What gets the crowd going wild and what are our own favourite songs are probably completely different. 

Simon - Well my favourite song, although the others don't like it, is Donkey Punching. I love Donkey Punching and I really do love playing it live.

Steve - I think my favourite song would have to be the first song that was ever written, Don't Make Dirty Movies, probably because it's the least knackering for me to play.  Being a drummer I get very tired and this is the kind of song where I can have a bit of a rest, although it's still very heavy and I think the crowd love it. 

Greeny - To actually play live my favourite would probably be To The Unfaithful, probably because I can dive around in that song more than any other.  My favourite song that we have at the moment would be the new one Too Many Kisses And Not Enough Spiders which I also love playing live but I really have to think about more. 

Owen - Mine would be In Two Weeks You'll Be Dead So Can I Have Your TV.  I like the song title, I like most of the riffs, and it's complicated enough for me to not get bored which is usually why I dislike songs.  I find once I can play something I tend to get bored with it very quickly.  That would be my favourite song to play live though. 

Dan - I think I'd have to agree with Greeny and Si and say both Too Many Kisses and Donkey Punching.  It's all about getting a balance between diving around and being able to actually play what you're supposed to at the same time.  Both of those two songs are good for that.  

MM -  OK, a two part fun question now. (A) If you could have anyone locked in a room so that you could torture them for a day, whom would you choose, and how would you torture them?
Steve - Can this be in a sexual way?
MM - Any way you want. 

Greeny - Would that be Cheryl Tweedy or Jessica Alba?

Steve - Oh yeh.  Cheryl Tweedy and Jessica Alba, both in the same room. 

MM - And how would you torture them?
Steve - I wouldn't talk.  There certainly wouldn't be any talking going on in there. 

Greeny - It would have to be me torturing these four bastards because they've been doing that to me for nearly two years now. 

Simon - You love it really.  I don't know who I would like to torture.  Probably a certain man from Sheffield with a really bad haircut.  I'll not mention any names. 

Owen - It would probably be anyone who's in a haircut metal band.  Other than that probably Simon, but I torture him already any way although I've never actually locked him in a room before.

(B) Now turn the tables. Who would you most like to be locked in a room with for a day and how would you like them to torture you?
Greeny - Keira Knightley and any way she wants. 

Owen - Natalie Portman, but maybe when she was a bit younger. 

Steve - Funnily enough I'd probably say Cheryl Tweedy and Jessica Alba. 

Greeny - How would you like them to torture you?

Steve - I don't know but I'd probably end up with a big red end!  Perhaps I should say a very red arse.  Oh I love that kind of shit, anything dirty and I'm straight round there.  It's awesome. 

Simon - I don't know, I have a girlfriend so I feel I shouldn't answer this question. 

Owen - Well I've got a girlfriend and I've answered it. 

Simon - Yes but if I let you know what she does to me in the bedroom then that's not really fair. 

Steve - Well what you could do is let Simon in to torture her and then when he's finished you could let the rest of the band in to do it. 

Simon - No way!!!  Oh I swear this lot, last tour we did this lot came to my mum's wedding because it was slap bang in the middle of the tour.  I swear I have never seen such a bunch of drunken uncultured twats ever.  It was the funniest thing in the world watching them all get absolutely hammered and start smoking on the local hay bales in the middle of the field, getting rather undressed and naked ... and kissing certain members of my family as well! 

Steve - Yeh, but it was his uncle. 

Simon - Oh don't even ask.  Greeny about two minutes into it when we'd only just come back from the church, he couldn't even stand let alone see. 

Greeny - I was on holiday!

Simon - Yes and so was your brain. 

MM - What's the most precious thing(s) in your life right now?  
Steve - I think my most precious things at the moment would be my car, my motorbike and I love my drum kit.  Probably because they are the most expensive things I own ... and of course my family. 

Simon - For me it would have to be the moments that I actually spend with my family because I hardly get to see them.  They all live down South ... and of course my girlfriend.  She's moving up to Leeds soon so that's going to be much better.  

Dan - I would probably have to say my friends and family because they've all been so good to me ... and of course my guitar. 

Owen - I would probably say time with my girlfriend because we don't get to see each other much.  That and my two new guitars that I got just before we came out on tour. 

Greeny - I would have to say my computer because I'm single and there's pornography.  It really is as simple as that.  Free pornography for a single man is class.  The more USB ports the better. 

MM - What does the future hold for The Final Sigh?
Owen - The new album, lots more gigs. 

Simon - Hopefully a chauffeur called Jeff so Steve doesn't have to drive. 

Greeny - Probably many more dislocated knees!

Steve - I think the future's bright, it's starting to look really good.  We've got a lot of things coming up and the new album to work on, so everything should start to get better from now on. 

MM - Finally is there anything you would like to say to all our readers out there to close off the interview?
Steve/Dan - Buy our album! 

Greeny - Cut your bloody hair! 

Simon - Actually buy a pair of jeans that fit and that are not for girls, especially if you're a bloke.  My god just what are you doing?  No one needs to see your testicles. 

Steve - Just come down and see us live, that's when you get the full feeling of what The Final Sigh are all about.  We really put all our energy into our performance so come on out and see us. 

MM - Thanks again guys and best of luck with the rest of the tour and the new album.   

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