As Newcastle outfit Crux unveil not one but two new releases, Lee Allcock caught up with band member Max to find out more.
Tell me a bit about Crux and how the band was formed…
We’re an alternative rock band from Newcastle that like to dabble in a bit of punk, grunge, and prog-rock. Make of that what you will! Jake, Hallam, Elliot (our old drummer), and I (Max) formed the band in October 2014 after Jake, Elliot, and I left school. Our progress was interrupted as we went off to different universities and for a long time, we weren’t very good. I think we started taking it a lot more seriously when we released our first proper single, ‘Bigg Market’, in 2019. Elliot then had to leave the band in 2020 to commit to his job and we drafted Joe in. We’ve since released an EP and a couple of singles.
You’ve been a bit busy of late. Tell me a bit about your new releases, ‘Empty Home’ and ‘Lost Souls’. What can listeners expect?
We’re really excited about the new releases. In October last year, we recorded four singles with Sam Grant from Pigs x7 at Blank Studios including ‘Empty Home’ and ‘Lost Souls’ and we’ve gone in a slightly different direction with them. The songs are more thought out and melodic and not as distorted as our previous work, probably leaning a bit more towards indie than punk. We’ve consciously tried to write catchy choruses, so we hope anyone who listens to the track is humming it days after.
What did you learn during the recording process?
It was an amazing experience recording at Blank Studios with someone as established as Sam. One technique we learnt which we’ll definitely use in the future was to record the cymbals separate to the shell and snare as so often when recording the drums, the crash of the cymbals will bleed into the recordings of the rest of the drum mix. And so by separating it, we were able to get a much cleaner drum sound.
Moving away from the studio and onto the live setting, what has been your favourite gig to date and why?
Our recent headline gig at Bobiks on June 30th was probably our favourite gig to date. We prepared for months for it and even had the projector playing videos in the background to our songs. It was pretty much full too and it was just such a release seeing the crowd enjoy our songs. We had so many other local artists supporting us watching which was really special including Ruled by Raptors, The Avelons, Hannah Robinson, Keiran Bowe and more. A big shoutout goes to Open Beat UK and Shin Gigs for helping us put on the show and to The Masses and Fossway for their incredible support sets.
And having been around since 2014, what have you learnt along the way?
I think the main thing to take from our 9 years of plugging away is just to enjoy it. It’s really easy to become overly ambitious and have great expectations but the reality is the music industry is very difficult to crack without some form of connection to a label/manager, and there are millions of other musicians who are equally as talented or if not more talented. So it’s always best to remember why we formed as a band in the first place, which is because we love playing and writing music together, and I think that pure passion helps create more unique music rather than music tailored to please others.
And finally, what else can we expect from Crux this year?
We recorded four singles last year, so we still have two more to be released, that’s all I say… and maybe November 24th will be a significant day.
To find out more about Crux, head to crux.band.
