Interview: Getting to Death Warmed Up
Rising British hard rock outfit Death Warmed Up are ready to make serious noise with the announcement of their debut album, ‘Wildcard’, out on Friday 17th April. The fast-rising Nottingham crew have also unveiled a brand-new single, ‘Gods Of Rock N Roll’, and accompanying video. In this interview, we get to know them a little better.
1. Hello! Thank you for taking the time to chat to us. First things first, tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got started.
We are Death Warmed Up, a hard rock band from Nottingham. We started out in 2023 when I (Charlie – Lead Guitarist) met Lewis ( ex rhythm guitarist) in college. We began writing music together and decided to form a band. I knew Romarno ( Bassist) from school and we’d been playing together for years, I knew he’d be the perfect fit for the band. Romarno knew Will (singer), we sent him an offer to join and he accepted. We found Alex (ex drummer) on a find musicians website. We had a few small gigs in 2023 but it wasn’t until late 2023 early 2024 that we properly got playing shows and we haven’t stopped ever since.
2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?
We play a mix of hair metal and hard rock, I’d describe our sound as having the catchy melodies and excessive sound of the 80s hair metal scene, crossed with the rawness of hard rock. Similar to bands like Def Leppard, Whitesnake and Skid Row.
3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?
At the moment we’re gearing up to release our debut album WILDCARD. We’ve just released the first single from it, Gods Of Rock And Roll, which has gone down really well. We’ve recently lost our drummer and rhythm guitarist, so getting some new members and going through a bit of a rebrand is top priority.
4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?
We’re really looking forward to people hearing the album, we’ve been playing the songs live for a while, but the production level and the extra layers and effects we’ve been able to add to the tracks on the recordings has really brought some of the songs to life. That said, we can’t wait to get back to playing live, it’s where we cut our teeth and we have some exciting shows booked for this year already.
5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.
We’ve spent a long time crafting the album, it’s something we’ve been promising for a while. Some songs we had written for the album we’d stopped playing live because they didn’t have the effect we wanted due to being limited by having just the five of us. Now we’ve been able to add loads of guitar layers, vocal harmonies and get the drums to sound like a stadium kit, those songs have achieved the sound we’ve been searching for.
6. Making music and being creative can be a very positive experience and can be very good for the mind. In what way has making music had a positive impact on your mental health?
This is quite a personal question, so here’s an answer from each of us.
Will: Making music has been a very effective outlet for me, it brings good relief from the stresses of work and everyday life.
Charlie: Music and band work has become a great way for me to step away from daily life, it gives me something to concentrate on when I need to take a break from everything else.
Romarno: The shows and playing together give me something to look forward to each week, I also love to see how people interpret our songs and how valuable people find our music.
7. It can also be incredibly challenging, more so in the modern times. What have been some challenging aspects of making music and how have you overcome them?
Social media is always a challenge for us, we are musicians not content creators, however we must adapt to give our band and music the best chance of success. It always feels like we’re fighting a losing battle. It also makes us compare ourselves to our peers much more and it’s challenging not to feel disheartened or toxic towards peers and other artists.
8. How do you handle the online aspects of being in a band? Having to put out content constantly, promoting across several different social media platforms, and having your success measured in likes and follows?
This is a tough one and we touched on some of our quarrels with being online in the last question. We hate having our success measured in follows and likes, as we said we aren’t content creators and our success shouldn’t be measured in something we aren’t. Putting out and creating content constantly is also a nightmare, because without a big budget for camera equipment or Photographers/videographers, creating visually enticing content is difficult.
9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?
We try to have fun with the content creation and be as personal as possible, lots of the videos we make will have some sort of comedy aspect, so it’s not only fun for the viewer but for us to film too.
10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?
If you’ve ever listened to our music, wherever that may be, please hit follow and share us with your friends, word of mouth is always the best way to spread a name. In addition to this, if you’ve never seen us live, get some tickets, come to a show and hang out with us. We love meeting people, we always promise an exciting show and if you’re able to buy some merch, it really helps us.
11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?
Here is an answer from each of us:
Charlie: I’m a bit of a petrolhead, if I’m not playing guitar or doing work for the band I’m usually out cleaning or doing something with my car.
Will: I love to cook and enjoy cycling around my village.
Romarno: I like gaming, favourites include Call Of Duty, Fallout and Battlefield.
12. Where can people find you?
People can find us on all socials, we’re the most active on Instagram and facebook though. Just search deathwarmedupband and you should find us. We’re also on all streaming platforms, so again just search Death Warmed Up, make sure to hit follow to keep up to date with our releases and listen to our latest single Gods Of Rock And Roll.
If you come and see us live, come chat to us at the merch desk or somewhere around the venue, we’re always happy to talk.
