North East emo band ThreadBear are preparing to release their new album this month so Lee Allcock caught up with frontman Jon Teggert to speak about being in a DIY band, plans for the rest of the year, and working with Bob Cooper.
For those of our readers who haven’t come across ThreadBear before, can you describe your sound to them?
We’re a bit of a mixed bag really. We don’t really have a set formula for writing as our songs can go from being really pretty to really heavy in a verse. Whilst we may describe ourselves as an “emo” band, we actually have a really wide range of influences.
You recently recorded your new album with Bob Cooper in Leeds. What was that like? Did he give you any advice?
Bob was great. Tonally, he made us sound incredible; the man’s a wizard with a guitar pedal and made us sound raw but huge at the same time. He got us to record live which we’ve never done before but it really worked for us as it feels like you’re listening to us as we should sound. He’s also a total perfectionist performance-wise and that really comes across on the album.
It took you a year to write the album, so did you come across any issues?
We never really had a time frame until we actually booked the recording sessions and by then, we had already written a good chunk of the album. After that, we could really look at songs as being part of the album as opposed to just writing songs. As a band, we’re constantly writing and pushing ourselves so we had to be really picky with what we were going to include.
What artists were you most inspired by when writing the new album?
At the time of writing and recording, we were really getting into a band called CSTVT and they made us really focus on pushing ourselves instrumentally. We really love bands like You Blew It! Free Throw and Algernon Cadwallader but, to be honest, the only thing I remember listening to during the recording was ‘Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge’.
If you could play any venue in the world where would that be and why? And what would you have on your rider?
The Brudenell in Leeds is one of the best venues in the world. Sam and I saw Free Throw and Somos play at a venue called the Sinclair in Boston and it would be sick to play there for sentimental values (and playing in America, of course). If we’re being optimistic, headlining Download and our rider would contain 800 bottles of Summer Fruits Oasis, some Chardonnay for Shane, plenty of Gamma Ray, a really nice blanket, Chilli Heatwave Doritos, and an omelette we wouldn’t eat.
What are the difficulties you have come across due to being a DIY band?
Money is hard: we had to fund everything ourselves and alongside working full-time, using holidays to actually do band stuff definitely takes commitment. We also only have our own backing so we need to stay motivated even though we might play to empty rooms sometimes.
And finally, what else do you have planned for 2019?
We’re putting on an album release show at The Head of Steam in Newcastle on Friday 5th April and we’ll definitely be going on tour at some point during the year. We’re already writing new songs that might see the light of day in 2019 too and if Sam doesn’t start a million other bands, we might not break up!
To find out more about ThreadBear, head to threadbearuk.bandcamp.com.
