What inspired the name of the band? What are your influences and are they the same as when you started out?
I am a big James Bond fan and I love the concept of the evil organisation Spectre. I thought the word was strong but it needed something else as there are other bands called Spectre. It was the film What Lies Beneath which sealed the deal as it was on television at the time so I put the two together and voila! Something just clicked.
Iron maiden, definitely as I grew up on them, they certainly gave me my love for all things metal. Megadeth as well. I think Megadeth gave me my love of riffs and speed. I think our music has a sense of drama about it as well, especially in our slower and more progressive elements, this is certainly born out of listening to far too much Savatage. But the blueprint for The Spectre Beneath and how we combine female vocals with heavy, fast music comes from Kobra and the Lotus and Unlucky Morpheus.
how and why do you write what you write?
I’m very riff driven so I tend to jam to a drum program and come up with a bucket load of riffs and then start piecing them together like a jigsaw until it feels right and one idea transitions seamlessly into the next. One example is the song The Abduction of Olivia Soams from our debut. There are a lot of ideas in those six minutes but, for me, none of them are jarring and they do all sound as if they should be from the same song. Once I have the bare bones of a track in both riffs and structure, Katy and I work on the melodies and alter and change the music to suit. I love the song writing process. The idea of getting a seed of an idea and developing it into a huge track will never get for me.
The only themes I explore is if I have an idea for a story or a narrative which will cover several tracks. The other tracks are usually flash fiction in lyrical form. We certainly don’t write about real world themes, and I think it’s come across as being unconvincing if we did. We’d rather stick with zombies, sci-fi, old-school horror and so forth.
Metal is the only musical genre that gives me a sense of satisfaction and scratches that itch if you know what I mean. I recall listening to The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden and something clicked and I thought, I want to do that. I loved the combination of pace, aggression, melody and drama and I find writing music with all those attributes quells the restless creative drive I seem to have. I do find if I don’t have a creative outlet for any great length of time, I can become irritable and frustrated at myself. To answer the question, I would say I love genre, I love the puzzle element of putting a track together and it makes me creatively satisfied.
how and why do you write what you write?
I’m very riff driven so I tend to jam to a drum program and come up with a bucket load of riffs and then start piecing them together like a jigsaw until it feels right and one idea transitions seamlessly into the next. One example is the song The Abduction of Olivia Soams from our debut. There are a lot of ideas in those six minutes but, for me, none of them are jarring and they do all sound as if they should be from the same song. Once I have the bare bones of a track in both riffs and structure, Katy and I work on the melodies and alter and change the music to suit. I love the song writing process. The idea of getting a seed of an idea and developing it into a huge track will never get for me.
The only themes I explore is if I have an idea for a story or a narrative which will cover several tracks. The other tracks are usually flash fiction in lyrical form. We certainly don’t write about real world themes, and I think it’s come across as being unconvincing if we did. We’d rather stick with zombies, sci-fi, old-school horror and so forth.
Metal is the only musical genre that gives me a sense of satisfaction and scratches that itch if you know what I mean. I recall listening to The Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden and something clicked and I thought, I want to do that. I loved the combination of pace, aggression, melody and drama and I find writing music with all those attributes quells the restless creative drive I seem to have. I do find if I don’t have a creative outlet for any great length of time, I can become irritable and frustrated at myself. To answer the question, I would say I love genre, I love the puzzle element of putting a track together and it makes me creatively satisfied.
Live?
We tend to pick our favourites with a conscious effort to mix up the tracks so we don’t pick an hour of 100mph blasters or too many slow ones. Although we do avoid a couple of tracks. The Abduction of Olivia Soams from our first album is one of my favourites, but it’s very difficult to play, which is a shame. Hopefully one day we’ll get it nailed. We just rehearse as much as we can, it’s as simple as that. If there are songs which are narratively related then we tend to put these together in the set. If I was watching us, I’d want us to do that.
Live?
We tend to pick our favourites with a conscious effort to mix up the tracks so we don’t pick an hour of 100mph blasters or too many slow ones. Although we do avoid a couple of tracks. The Abduction of Olivia Soams from our first album is one of my favourites, but it’s very difficult to play, which is a shame. Hopefully one day we’ll get it nailed. We just rehearse as much as we can, it’s as simple as that. If there are songs which are narratively related then we tend to put these together in the set. If I was watching us, I’d want us to do that.
What plans do you have for the future?
We’ve just released our new album, The Ashen Child. We have the next album planned out and I would say 80% of it is written. We have 16 songs in the mix but this will get whittled down to about 8 or 9 depending on time and costs. After being away for a couple of years due to singer changes and other challenges, it’s just nice to get more material out there. Hopefully, with the new album, we can get some momentum back into the ranks because we’d ideally like to finish writing the new full-length and get it recorded before the end of the year or at least before Easter 2024 and get it released in 2024 as well. We’d like to squeeze some live shows in at some point but we’re short on a bass player hence why I’m playing it on the new release, so completing a line up would be next as well.