Bloodstock 2019 – Band Feature/Interview: Bastard
Bloodstock Open Air 2019 is nearly upon us and to say we’re excited is an understatement. We adore the festival and this year’s line-up is simply phenomenal. From the Ronnie James Dio Main Stage to the Sophie Lancaster Stage to the New Blood and Jägermeister Stages, there is something for everyone! Not got your tickets yet!? What are you waiting for!? Head over to the Bloodstock Festival website here and join thousands of like-minded head-bangers for a weekend of quality rock and metal.
Bastard are a 4 piece aggro hardcore band from Norwich, Norfolk. They take pride in being very DIY and hands on with everything they do and have managed to gain a decent following in Norfolk. They’ve been gaining more fans with each show they play as well as being asked to play outside of Norfolk including Camden. Their main influences include Every Time I Die, Cancer Bats, Gallows and Trash Talk just to name a few!
They took part in the Norwich leg of the Bloodstock Metal 2 The Masses events seeing off fierce competition to emerge as winners and earn their place at Bloodstock 2019.
They will be playing the New Blood Stage on Sunday the 11th August 2019.
Interview
1. Congratulations on winning the Norwich leg of the M2TM and earning your slot on the Bloodstock New Blood Stage. What made you decide to take part?
Thank you! We’re ridiculously excited. We played the competition last year and a couple of us have played it in previous years with different old bands and it’s always been a fun time. We tried to treat it more like a normal gig rather than a competition as we never thought we would win and just use it to be able to play with local bands and make some friends with those bands so the fact that we won our region just made it that much more special.
2. What were some of the highlights of your competition run?
Having our mates at every leg of the competition was awesome and one of our mates had this panda mask which he bought with him and has now kind of become our mascot, the rule is if you’re in the pit and you see the panda, attack him! Seems to go down well every time it’s made an appearance and gets the crowd involved.
3. Describe the feeling if you can upon hearing your name read out as the winners?
It was quite surreal, the whole night was a good time and we were all having a laugh, all getting drunk and played a good set, so then at the end of the night hearing our name being called out as the winners was absolutely insane and just topped one of the best nights as a band off for us!
4. How big of an opportunity is playing the New Blood Stage for Bastard? We’ve seen some bands really grow from it over the years!
Easily the biggest opportunity we’ve ever had! It’ll be the biggest stage we’ve currently played and (hopefully) the biggest crowd we’ve ever played to, all being well and we don’t suck so hard that everyone leaves the tent!
5. What can Bloodstockers expect from you come festival time? Why should they come see you?
We pride ourselves on having high intense energy from the start of the set right until the end. There’s no standing still for us, we hate to watch live music and the bands are just standing still looking bored, where’s the fun in that? We feel like we’re honest regular guys playing honest heavy music. What you see is what you get with us, we’ll be running around the stage being idiots and people seem to enjoy it every gig we play. Let’s just say you won’t be bored watching us.
6. Are you regular attendees to the festival or will this be your first time?
Jim our singer has been before but for the rest of us it’ll be our first time! But I’m sure we’ll be back after this year whether we get the opportunity to play again or just simply there as general public!
7. Are you hanging about all weekend? If so who are you most looking forward to seeing?
We’ll all be there for the entire weekend, getting drunk, partying in standard Bastard fashion, meeting new people and making friends and seeing some awesome bands! The bands we’re all most looking forward to is Parkway Drive, Cancer Bats, Code Orange, Thy Art Is Murder and of course seeing the rock legends Scorpions who are headlining the day we’re playing.
8. What does the rest of 2019 look like for Bastard? Shows? Releases?
We’re always busy on something, we’ve just put a music video out made up of live footage from gigs this year. We’re currently working on songs for the next EP and we’re also going to make a couple of extra songs for a split EP we’ll be doing with some friends. We’re getting quite a following in Norwich and getting more and more regular shows in our area. A couple of times a year we like to put on and organise our own gigs and just get bands we’re friends with, get drunk and have a good time it usually goes down pretty well, we’ve done it twice now and both times we’ve sold the whole thing out! We’ve got an all day festival event for charity in Cambridge and another charity event we’re playing with deathcore legends annotations of an autopsy which will be entirely a covers set which we’re very excited about!
