Last week, on the 8th June 2016, The Edge were given the chance to interview Adam Crilly, or just ‘Crilly’, from the Bristol based goth punk band Ashestoangels, ahead of their sets at Download. We talked Download excitement, their new single and the difference between playing at festivals and gigs.
How would you describe yourselves for people who don’t know you?
Different things over the years… last album I think goth punk, but then December Underground came out and they were better at being goth pop than we were so maybe not anymore. What I want to be is a sing-along band.
How’s Download?
Some bands I’m excited to see; bands I’ve been excited to see for fifteen years who I’ve liked since I was young so that’s going to be cool. You get some bands who aren’t great, like the Red Hot Chilli Peppers were terrible. There was just this banging noise and all the sound went, they just jammed for the rest of it then left. That was shit
Do you prefer festivals or gigs?
Camden Rocks [which they were also at]is kind of different because it’s just in town, Download is our first proper festival, the preparation is different to gigs. I went to Download ten years ago and saw Aiden, now it’s fucking insane to be in a similar slot. I’m nervous because Download is something we’ve always wanted, I just keep obsessively checking our equipment; I’m having a hard time processing it.
We’re just trying to make it as easy to deal with as possible, if it sounds great on stage
photo credit: Donna Coombs
that’s awesome but we won’t waste time making it sound good for us when all that matters is what it sounds like on stage.
We came off tour and went to Camden Rocks, and we wanted to make sure everyone had a new setlist to listen to. We played seven songs that we didn’t play on the previous tour. For Download I’m treating it like I’m trying to impress a new audience so we’re choosing the songs we think will work best and we want people to come back for more… but then we play a Misfits medley and the crowd goes fucking mental. But I guess people who don’t know us then hear those well-known songs and think ‘I like this, I want to hear more of them’.
Your new single Down We Go came out recently, how’s it been received?
We played it first time at Camden Rocks. Playing something new that nobody knows can take the wind out of your sails, and it’s a high song so it’s hard to sing in a live environment. People responded great, probably the strongest response we’ve had from a single, people swayed like they were in an ocean, it was really cool to watch.
Are you ever worried about how fans will react when you change your sound from album to album?
Yeah, every single time we put out everything. You get bored of doing the same thing anyway, and there’s so many straight up punk bands so we wanted to write a really good album – I’ve been more nervous to release the last album because between the first and second there were two and a half years, I’m just worried people won’t like it. But I have a weird voice which I think people get into. And I think English people like a guy who sings how he speaks.
Ashestoangels have an acoustic gig planned for July. More details can be found here.
