so please introduce yourselves. 

(G) G - I play guitar, sing some of our songs and rock as hard as I know how to whenever the opportunity arises.

(Ry) Ryan - Drums. I hit them hard. Really hard. 

(Oli) Oli – Guitar and occasional vocals.

Rich – Bass and vocals


debut album is out, well pleased? 

(G) 'Well pleased' doesn't even come close, it's what we've been working towards for seemingly forever and it's turned out better than than we could've hoped, so yes, we are over the f*cking moon with it and really looking forward to beating people about the ears with it.

(Ry) It's out at the beginning of November. We are totally chuffed with it. It sounds even better than we'd hoped and has some of my new favourite songs on it!

(Oli) Released 8th November. Very exciting indeed. Neal’s made us sound huge and I think we’ve proved we can write some cracking songs to compliment the stamina-defying rock that has become something of an LSB trademark.

so was it fun doing the album? 

(G) Working on the Rock for about 12hrs a day, back to the hostel, get smashed, kip, get up and back to the studio.... repeat x 10 and out pops an album. I can't think of a more enjoyable holiday 

(Ry) Oh damn right. I'd love to spend months and month on the next one 

so did neal calderwood, put you through your paces? 

(G) Can't say enough great things about the man. We went to him with a strong idea of what we wanted - basically for the record to sound huge like you're having a mountain dropped on your head, and it turned out to be his specialist subject. Drums were battered as hard as possible, the guitars were recorded so loud that the whole studio was vibrating and the bass rumbles like a meat grinder; Neal's quiet, tempered manner is inversely proportionate to his thirst for sonic meltdown.

(Ry) He has a level of focus that defies belief - when we were all getting studio weary, he was still getting the best performances out of all of us. Thanks Neal!

(Oli) He did, but it’s impossible not to be at ease when working with Neal. He can work you hard but you always know it’s only a fraction of the effort he’s putting in himself, so it’s never a problem.

did he push you into area's you did think about before? 

(Ry) Not too much. He ultimately wants it to be your record, but it's great to have someone with his level of experience around to suggest ways of doing things that we may not have thought of ourselves. Studio savvy, I suppose.

so what do you think best bits of the album are, each member please? 

(G) The sound, the riffage, and the intro to 'Silo Mentality' still cracks me up.

(Ry) 'Clout' is pretty exciting start to finish, but especially the ending. Plus there's a fill in 'Through' that I am still amazed was allowed on the record…..

it's an awesome album? 

(G) Depends what you're looking for - if it's the thrill of a massive riff and the joy of a good tune, then you won't go far wrong.

(Oli) It’s certainly not bad. I’ve listened to it a hell of a lot over the last couple of months and I can still stick it on the stereo and rock the day away with a big grin on my face.

so the world are starting to notice the band? 

(G) It's a really slow process, but it's great to see unfamiliar faces cropping up at gigs, and the traffic at leftsidebrain.com is ticking over nicely...

any bad press, any quotes that have made you laugh? 

(G) 'Standard issue blandola brit rock for fans of not very exciting things like Clutch or Therapy or Feeder or Throat….. Rather boring, rather numbing, rather be anywhere but here listening to this….' - if those bands are their idea of 'not very exciting blandola', then i'm happy to be in there with them. F*cking hell! Clutch!

it's been hardwork with the endless gigging? 

(Ry) No way! I wish we played twice or three times as much as we do now 

any mad stories about your travels in the past? 

(Ry) Getting stuck on a hill on a huge patch of ice at 3 in the morning wasn't ideal…. 

(Oli) Having our own temperamental van has caused a few scares in the breaking-down department. And driving straight back from a gig in Newcastle-upon-Tyne to Bristol, dosed up to the eyeballs on red bull and sweets, manically giggling at the crazy fog on the motorway at 5.30 in the morning was quite an experience.

so getting on scuzz kerrang dreams come true? 

(G) That was awesome. Really f*cking exciting. Josh Eve did such a great job on the video - it exceeded all of our expectations. To get on Scuzz was hilarious and to win the video vote in Kerrang! was pure insanity.

(Oli) Just doing a video at all was really cool. The fact that it looked so good was an unexpected bonus. The fact that it got on both Scuzz and Kerrang! was, frankly, more than we had expected at that stage. But it just raises the expectations for the next one…

so where's the welsh connection from then? 

(G) Ryan and I are from Swansea, and the Rock scene there was pretty much non-existent, so we dragged Oli down from Stoke and all moved to Bristol to find a Rock scene and a bass player. As it turns out, South Wales has developed into a hotbed of quality Rock and Metal these past couple of years, but we're still near enough for regular raids across the border...

(Ry) G and me went to school in South Wales, met in sixth from and our Rock n Roll Plan was hatched….. 

mind you Bristol Wales is back to back only a bit of water divides? 

(G) Like they said on the Allbright Bitter ads - "Never forget your Welsh".

so musically who been your biggest influences? 

LSB have been influenced as a group or individually by, amongst others: Therapy?, Kerbdog, Helmet, Rocket From The Crypt, Baby Chaos, The Wildhearts, The Almighty, Fu Manchu, The Workhorse Movement, Weezer, Tad, Queen, The Black Crowes, Sugar, Led Zeppelin, Faith No More, Handsome…

any hopes for working with other bands, people in the future? 

(G) At the moment i'd just settle for getting to tour and do another album - we're always open to offers though...

(Oli) We’re just gonna try to work as hard as we possibly can and see what develops. 

any news? 

(G) The new Mastodon album kicks arse.

(Ry) Our record's out on 8th November and we're on tour the following week. You know what to do! 

(Oli) www.leftsidebrain.com for the latest…