Interview with Elin
What can you tell us about the formation of Freefall?
Well most of us met through college! Originally Ben, Callum and I started jamming in the practice rooms doing Fall Out Boy and Paramore covers. That’s when Callum introduced us to Ryan who was in the year above and we decided to start trying to write our own stuff and it really worked! Jack was the last to join though. He’d always been a friend of ours and in our same class but he used to play drums in an old band of his. One day he helped us out and played bass for us for a gig or two, and it just kind stuck!
How did you get to the band name Freefall, and what does it mean to you?
We took so long to choose a band name! It even caused arguments because we never all agreed on one name. None of them really represented us as a whole. One day I was listening to my iPod, jotting down lyrics or words from songs that I thought were pretty cool and I then I heard the word ‘Freefall’ in the song Turn it off by Paramore and mentioned it to the guys and we were all like, yeah that’s cool! I think it really represents how we don’t take ourselves too seriously and just want to have fun with our music.
How did you get to the EP title ‘Rather Be Alive’, and what does it mean to you?
Rather Be Alive is a lyric in the song ‘Alive’ on our EP. The song was written about someone I knew who was very obsessed with image, what people thought and in my opinion quite judgemental. On top of that they managed to pull me into that world with them and when I realised that I didn’t want any of that kind of hate in my life I wrote this song as a kind of note to myself as well as that person. ‘Rather Be Alive’ (taken from the line ‘wouldn’t you rather be alive’) is to remind myself that I’d rather live than be part of that world I was once in.
Can you tell us about the recording process behind the EP?
We recorded the EP with our good friend Claire Sutton from the band All Ears Avow. We met them through a festival we both played at and found out she has a studio in Park Campus ( a university near us ) as well as one in her home town Swindon. Turns out she does all of her own bands recording/mastering etc. so we jumped at the chance when she offered to record some of our stuff! To be honest before that we hadn’t thought much about recording an EP. So good job we met her!
Can you tell us about the themes and influences that run throughout the EP?
I think our main influences for this EP were bands like Blink 182, All Time Low, Tonight Alive maybe a little bit of New Found Glory and Angels and Airwaves. And as for a theme, I’m not sure if we thought of a specific theme it was more of a ‘HEY THIS IS US’ kind of thing! We put our best songs so far on to this to let people know who Freefall are.
What was the hardest part about putting the EP together, and why?
The hardest part was probably deciding what order to put the songs on the EP. We weren’t sure what songs people heard first and what feel they got as they got as they listened to the whole EP. We chose to start with the song Alive in the end because it was one of the first songs we ever wrote and probably one of our favourites.
What do you want this EP to do for the representation of Freefall?
We want this EP to show that we’re quite diverse. We have songs such as Reality Scares Me which is super pop punk, but then the EP ends on Extraordinary which is darker and a lot more like our new stuff. I’d like to think this EP shows that we have a song for everybody! 9) Touring wise, what are you getting up to this year? There aren’t any solid plans so far! But at the moment we’re trying to arrange a week to two week tour around the UK in September. We’re in talks with some bands and promoters so fingers crossed we should have a good time!
Touring wise, what have been your personal highlights since starting out?
We have only been on tour once since getting together and we loved it! We only did bout 4/5 dates but we didn’t want to stop! I think our highlights would include traveling together and seeing new places as well as playing shows every night because that’s what we love and that’s what we want to do! I think our favourite show on that tour was most likely Hull. We played in a venue called O’Rileys and it had such an awesome vibe as well as being a big venue with a huge stage! We love having enough space to fuck shit up at our shows!
What Pop Punk acts have influenced you the most since starting out, and why?
Hmm that’s a hard one because we all like such a wide range of music! If I had to pick a few I’d say definitely All Time Low, State Champs, Tonight Alive, Blink 182. But we’re also inspired by a lot of artists that aren’t pop punk such as Marmozets, Pvris, Paramore, even a bit of Parkway Drive and Taylor Swift
What else can we expect to see from Freefall in 2015?
Other than hopefully a tour in September, we’re hopefully getting back in the studio soon to record a longer EP! We’ve started really finding our sound now and we’re so excited to have people hear our new stuff!
www.facebook.com/FreefallthebandUK
https://freefalluk.wix.com/freefalluk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9L5GjRJfeRg
freefalluk.bandcamp.com/album/rather-be-alive
