Interview: Getting to Know Blackmarket

Brit heavy music innovators Blackmarket return with their latest single and video, Asphyxiate, ahead of their highly anticipated EP, Radical Views, out Friday 29th May. 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.

Hey thanks so much for speaking with us! I’m Fraser, our lead singer. We also have Danny on guitar, Cary on synth, Hadleigh on Drums, and Scott on bass. We’ll turn a long story into a bit of a shorter one.. Danny and Hadleigh used to play in a band together called Point Blank way back from their school days. People go off to uni and they end up needing some new members. Scott was invited along by Danny who knew him from school. Cary is actually Danny’s brother so naturally he got invited in to try to put a unique spin on the band with his electronics, which he did. Cary and I worked together at a leisure centre and he ended up finding some old embarrassing videos of me singing on Facebook. He invited me along to try out for his band and from that point on you had BlackMarket.

2. Someone comes to you and asks you to sum up what kind of music you play – what do you tell them?

If we had to stick to an existing Genre, we’d say Numetal. But it’s a bit more than that. If you could imagine Enter Shikari having a baby with Lorna Shore, you’ll end up with something a little closer to us. Throughout the band we have a massive range of influences and music interests. Naturally that helps our music take an interesting new shape.

3. What’s currently keeping you busy? A new album/EP/single release? A new video? Playing live, or planning ahead?

Well for the first time in a while we get to be excited about new projects. We’ve spent the last 6 months working hard on our EP, Radical Views, which is due in May. Now, we have a couple of new projects. First being building a new studio for us to record a new, bigger album. And secondly we are putting together plans for a big show in Watford, our home town. We want to try and give live music in our area a boost and a bit of a revival.

4. What is about this current period that is particularly exciting for you?

For us it’s getting to enjoy that buzz around us which we haven’t had since our early days, before lockdown. We started on such a great and exciting trajectory. But that was all stomped out pretty hard when live music stopped. But now, we feel more prepared and a lot more experienced. So it’s exciting to see what we can do with this new hype building up around us.

5. Tell me about the work that has gone into making it a reality and what it means to you.

Honestly, blood sweat and tears. Putting aside the amount of time it actually takes to create and produce this music by yourselves like we do. You have to make a lot of sacrifices. You have to put a lot of your other life and goals on hold because it really is a full time job. Especially in the modern world of music. Unless you have a lot of money to throw at these things, you’ve got to have all the members in the band committing to give up a lot of their free time. Cary is our Resident producer, he was mixing on Christmas day to get our EP done. That’s passion, and dedication.

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?

Personally I’ve battled with my mental health for a very long time. It’s quite hard to say where I would be if I didn’t have my band mates and the sheer joy we get out of making music together. It’s also such a great way to vocalise how you feel. People can go their whole lives without opening up to someone. I get to just scream it out down a microphone and tell the world how I feel. That can be quite a powerful release. I think for people listening, and certainly for me listening to other people’s music as well, it can help you feel better just knowing you’re not the only one who felt like that.

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?

Definitely! People do forget, even a band like us who have been playing together for 8 years now, have seen the game change entirely on multiple occasions and have had to keep adapting. The hardest change was TikTok being such a large influence on music and success. It changed the type of content you had to put out from being genuine to just crowd pleasing. Yes trends already existed, but now social media trends are EVERYTHING.

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?

Honestly not easily. It’s hard to be seen when you’re not doing what everybody else is already doing. But at the same time that’s simply not us. We aren’t kitchy or corny people. So its quite difficult to keep manufacturing the amount of content required without being forceful or ingenuine. I’d like to hope that what we do is enough and that it reflects who we are. But I’m afraid you won’t be seeing us in cowboy outfits or adding something to our music for the sake of an instagram video.

9. How do you make this part of things enjoyable, and fulfilling, for yourself?

We are definitely getting more used to the concept of just filming ourselves a lot more. As a group we have fun together making the music and just playing our instruments. So we just try to capture that and not force ourselves to be something we aren’t. I think the minute we start structuring these things, is the minute we start to not be ourselves. In time, I believe that would affect our music and the enjoyment we get out of it.

10. Speaking directly to listeners – what would you ask they do to help support you?

Share and interact with us. It’s the best way to keep bands like us going. The more like, share, comment or follow buttons you press, the more you help us. These days whether its a music platform or social media platform, nobody will see us that doesn’t know us, unless you help them too.

11. Outside of music, what do you like to do to relax?

Fraser actually has an allotment he loves to tend to and also loves a bit of SimRacing. Hadlegh’s a big gamer also. But we are all actually pretty religious gym goers, I think for all of us that’s a great stress release.

12. Where can people find you?

Almost everywhere! You can stream us on every major streaming platform. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. It doesn’t cost anything to hit follow and share to let your friends know about us!

Links

Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube