South West UK band RXPTRS have recently released a music video for new track ‘You, Me and The Devil Make Three’ (watch the video below!) which received over 50,000 streams on Spotify within the first two weeks. The band who have been releasing music since 2018 were all set with huge summer 2020 touring plans prior to the global pandemic. As with all bands at the moment, things are being put on hold set to resume when possible. We caught up with vocalist Simon Roach who told us what the band are currently up to in lockdown and sheds some insight into what RXPTRS are about.
RAMzine: Hello! How’s lockdown treating you? Are you still having band meetings via the internet?
RXPTRS: Hi! We’re reasonably lucky with the fact that 3 of the 5 members live together, so we’ve continued writing, doing video performances and filming playthroughs here. We have had plenty of meetings over Zoom as a full band too, as well as doing some full band Q&As/acoustic nights over Twitch with our fans. It’s been a difficult time for sure, but we have made things work as well as they can.
RAMzine: How would you sum up 2020 so far?
RXPTRS: It’s been turbulent, for sure. We’ve hit the ground running with some great shows, new single, one tour, some great festival and tour announcements, including Danny Worsnop (Asking Alexandria) and Dead Girls Academy from the US, then blam, COVID.
RAMzine: You are a fairly new band, just a few years old. How did the band members come together and decide on what sort of music to make?
RXPTRS: Yeah, we got off the ground in 2018. We all had played together in some form, from other bands and depping for each others bands. We were all good friends before we started making music together. We never discussed what type of music we were going to make. It was never a calculated decision, it was a let’s throw our favourite stuff into the mixer and see what we make. That’s still kinda the ethos. To be truly happy I think we have to take off any restrictions and go where we want.
RAMzine: Who or what are your biggest influences for music creation?
RXPTRS: We don’t take one influence over any other really, we don’t consciously think of anyone, however, as such huge music fans, I think subconsciously things drip through into our music. I think the amount of music we have access to in this age, you can’t help but absorb it all. Each of us have our own favourites for sure, and they all come from very different areas. I (Simon) am an old school grunge lover, everything that Chris Cornell or Layne Staley touched were golden. Harley loves musical storytellers like Trivium and Nothing More. Mat is influenced by contrasting styles of bands like Manchester Orchestra or Iron Maiden. Ian loves the heavy riffs with Beartooth and Atreyu influences and Sam loves timeless bands like Incubus and Deftones.
RAMzine: Your recent single ‘You, Me and The Devil Make Three’ is very hard-hitting, it’s making us miss the atmosphere of live shows!! The video suits the music really well, the visuals and sound are spot on. What’s the song about and how did that translate through to the video?
RXPTRS: The song ‘You, Me and The Devil Make Three’ is about the incredibly talented people that surround us, and have for years. Gifted artists, business-minded people, musicians, all talented beyond measure but are their own worst enemies, they have their own demons that hold them back. Whether it’s substance abuse, alcohol, a lack of confidence, low self-esteem, these stop them from hitting the unlimited potential they know they have deep down. We used masks and makeup to symbolise some of these traits and got some of those friends down to come get crazy with us in the music video. It got mad and messy. Me and Mat painted the lyrics of the song up and down the walls and floor of a black corridor and just let loose.
RAMzine: Which song of yours has meant the most to you and what’s the story behind it?
RXPTRS: ‘YMATDMT’ was a nice tribute and a personal song, however, to me the song ‘Temple’ still hits home the hardest. I wrote it about my dysfunctional relationship with my father growing up. We were like red rag to a bull, and it’s something I never really addressed flat out, we just fought in fiery outbursts and then I moved out. So, really assessing that situation and putting that into song form was difficult and rewarding.
RAMzine: If you could share one message with the world, what would it be?
RXPTRS: Find your self-worth, and then go express the sh*t out of yourself. It’s what everyone needs right now. Be excellent. Be excellent to each other.
RAMzine: We’re assuming you’ll be unleashing a new album or EP soon, what can you tell us?
RXPTRS: We have stuff cooking, plenty in the pipeline. A lot. However, with this current state of the country, everything is very much delayed with no real clarity as to when things will get back to normal. We were meant to be in the studio in April so that’s knocked the initial plan, but keep your eyes and ears open, as there’s a lot going on behind the scenes.
RAMzine: Once lockdown is over and things start getting safer for people, what do you expect your tour plans will look like?
RXPTRS: Large. Large, large plans. We have some dates booked in for the UK and Europe. We’ve just announced that we will be part of Hard Rock Hell’s Road Trip in Ibiza, alongside Skindred, Reef, and LA Guns. We’ll have rescheduled dates with Danny Worsnop and Dead Girls Academy when it’s safe for them to come over from the States. Currently, our festival dates are being rescheduled along with UK runs, so again, we’ll be keeping everyone posted when those are concrete! Right now the Live Music and Events Industry has taken an absolute battering because of COVID-19, it’s possibly one of the worst-hit industries. We’ll be doing everything in our power to get that ball rolling again when we can. In the meantime, it’s super important to help those bars, clubs, venues, and staff in every way we can, so until then we’ll be doing some streams and raising some cash for those who need it to keep this industry alive and kicking!
