North East outfit Pigsx7 head to Sage, Gateshead this month so Nathan Douthwaite caught up with them to speak about hometown gigs, their latest record, and to discuss how they decided on their name.
First of all, the Sage is a homecoming gig for you as a band. What makes this venue so great?
There are loads of great venues in the North East; some of our favourites are Star and Shadow and The Cluny and we’ve played both of those the past couple of years. We’re looking forward to seeing how our live show carries over into the Sage; it should sound and look very impactful in there given the equipment they have at their disposal and the capacity of the room means we can get some extra heads in there too. The past few Newcastle shows we’ve oversold a little and then had to start turning people away which was a shame.
Will the show be any different with it being in your hometown?
There’ll be a lot of friends and family there which always makes these shows feel a bit more special. It’s also the final date of the tour. In the past, we’ve usually started tours in the North East and ended them elsewhere so it’ll be nice to end the tour here when we’re well oiled.
Your second album, ‘King of Cowardsʼ, is out now. How has your sound and writing process changed since the first record?
We were a band for four years before we released our debut album. Taking that long to release it had its benefits but we certainly didn’t want to wait so long to release our second so we put ourselves under a bit of pressure to get another album to our label. Sonically, ‘King Of Cowards’ benefited from us being able to record at the new Blank Studios premises. Our guitarist, Sam, designed and built the studio so he knows every inch of it – it has a huge live room which definitely enhanced our recordings. We also experimented more with extra layers and textures. This record features moments of insane sax playing, some extra help on vocals from our friends, small parts of percussive piano and some wild synth playing courtesy of Richard Dawson.
There are more tracks on this album than your first but no fifteen-minute brain melters. What made you go with more ‘traditional’ length tracks?
I’m not sure the length of the tracks are all that traditional as there are some pretty hefty chunks still on ‘King Of Cowards’ that I think are just as brain melting. I certainly don’t think any intensity has been lost anyway, which is important. I suppose this time around we had more ideas that were strong enough to stand alone as separate songs.
Youʼre going to be playing some big festivals this summer, but are there any in particular youʼre very excited about?
It’ll be our first time playing at Green Man and End Of The Road so we’re looking forward to those especially. We played Arc Tangent last year which was really great so we’re looking forward to going back down for that too. Supersonic is one we’re well up for too as it’s a marvellous festival and the line-up this year is particularly stellar.
Finally, Iʼm sure itʼs an age-old question but Iʼd lose sleep if I didnʼt ask. What made you decide on the name Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs Pigs?
A bad day in the office.
Pigsx7 play the Sage, Gateshead on Friday 19th April. Tickets, priced at £12.00, are available from sagegateshead.com.
