I had the pleasure to sit down with Scott and Sean from upcoming rock band The Miser, to talk about the band and their new album:
- What’s behind the name of the band and what are your influences?
Scott Haslett: “We were originally a doom band, and were called Death and The Miser, that was influenced by a painting with the same name, that if you google it, is quite telling as to why it’s called that. However, as time progressed we wanted to embrace our roots a bit more. We’d all kind of grown up listening to rock music, and so we dropped the Death and kept The Miser and started playing Rock. Our influences are bands like Thin Lizzy, Black Sabbath, Motorhead and Ac/Dc.”
Sean Crocker: “I’d definitely say we were influenced by Thin Lizzy, and wanted to do something like them, but it never quite got off the ground in that way.”
- What’s the process behind the writing for the music?
Scott Haslett: “The writing happens very organically. I’ll record demoes of the guitar riffs that I’ve come up with on Logic, then record a drum track, and play it to Crocker, who writes the lyrics and then we show it to the guys.”
Sean Crocker: “The lyrics are generally based on whatever’s been annoying me that day. Whatever my mood is on the day.”
- What are your favourite songs from the record to play live? And where there any themes that crept into the music?
Scott Haslett: “I quite like playing Stroll On, that’s got quite a nice solo, the Babbage songs are always good to play, as is the title track. Whiskey Tears is a good one, we’ve closed the set with that song a few times. And people always have that riff face, which is something.”
Sean Crocker. “Got to be the title track for me.”
Scott Haslett: “Our guitarist Ben wasn’t with the band when we recorded it, so he’s not on the record. But he’s brought a lot to the table in terms of recording things and writing as well. As for themes, I think it just depended on what mood we were in, or rather what mood Crocker was in.”
Sean Crocker: “Yeah I was in a pretty crappy mood for most of the album’s recording.”
Scott Haslett: “With a song like Jack the Riffer, I think it just sort of came from an EP we’d done which had a man dressed as a Victorian Gentleman, playing guitar with a corpse leg guitar.”
- With the record industry being the way it is, how are you guys promoting yourselves?
Scott Haslett: “Doing a lot of self promotion through social media. We’re playing a lot of shows as well, trying to get our name out there.”
Sean Crocker: “You’ve got to be present on social media and to show that you’ve got some independence otherwise you’re not going to get anywhere.”
- What plans have you got for the future?
Scott Haslett: “The album comes out in May and we will be touring for it, we’re currently booking tour dates. We’re also writing for a second album, as we don’t want to waste any time. The record will be up on Spotify, Bandcamp and Amazon.”
You can check the band out on social media here:
www.facebook.com/themiserband
themiser.bandcamp.com
instagram @themiserband
soundcloud.com/themiserband
twitter @themiserriffs