One of the best things about Bloodstock Open Air is they embrace new talent in the shape of their Hobgoblin New Blood stage. One of the acts that stood out this year were Piss Viper – a Southern Rock – inspired metal band who formed mid-2014. You don’t get much newer than that! We caught up with the controversially-named five-piece to take about their music, live performances and why they are called ‘Piss Viper’.
So how are you enjoying the festival so far?
Ray: Yeah, really good! We partied last night with our buddies Chaos Trigger, it got a little bit out of hand – especially on the old Dodgems. We caught XVII on the New Blood Stage, they were really really good. The first band we saw were Kryocell. We even caught ArnoCorps last night too! It’s been a great BloodStock so far.
So does your name ‘Piss Viper’ stop you getting any gigs?
Ray: Bar Mitzvahs won’t book us, can’t think why?
Steffan: To be honest, it’s contrary. We get a lot of interest because of the name. We do struggle with radio play because of the watershed and its a ‘naughty word’ my mother won’t say it either.
Ricky: Yeah, BBC radio would play our music but wouldn’t say our name. They said ‘If you want to find out who this is – go on Twitter!’
Ray: They played Soil’s ‘Bastard’ before us but they wouldn’t say ‘Piss Viper’ which is totally bizarre. We didn’t go out to pick an offensive name either. We racked out brains and looked at all these names that seemed a bit pretentious. The name was then thrown in to the mix like ‘What about Piss Viper?’ and I kind of thought ‘Yeah! Let’s go with that!’
Miss Viper: It was that or ‘Anal Fortress’
Ray: Yes! Anal Fortress was off the table
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You can listen to the rest of the interview below via our SoundCloud account:
Our full review of Bloodstock Open Air in Issue 5 of RAMzine
You can read highlights of Thursday and Friday by clicking here.
Keep checking RAMzine.co.uk for more and more interviews.
