Our Lives in Music… Air Drawn Dagger

Creeper: Eternity, In Your Arms We have collectively been listening to Creeper since their first few EPs. We adore their mix of Punk and theatrics as it’s something that really resonates with us. They stand alone, doing what they want and making the music that feels normal to them. We were so excited to see where they would take their themes and narrative for the first full length release and we were not disappointed!  The James Scathe story was a great way to launch an album and the amount of effort that went into conspiracy websites and cryptic messages etc. helped blur the line or reality and fiction that make this band so special.  The album itself is a whirlwind of relentless rock anthems as well as a country song and a piano ballad. It’s diverse and lyrically lives within a concept, yet still remains relatable. It certified Creeper as one of our favourite bands and proves to the world that rock acts can take risks, be individual and still take over the world.

Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes: Modern Ruin All of us in Air Drawn Dagger have followed Frank Carter in some way or another for the past 10 years. He walked it the long way round but with the Rattlesnakes, it finally feels like the artist we admire finally found himself. Following a brutal debut, we are all excited to see what Modern Ruin would hold, little did we know we would all become collectively obsessed. You take the ferocity of Gallows and the huge melodies of Pure Love and multiply that by some brand new dreamy elements equal Modern Ruin. From a 60 second opener about his dog, infectious punk singles, harsh social commentary on the migrant crisis to a psychedelic singalong about his baby girl. This album doesn’t take you on a journey, it kidnaps you with a gun in your mouth and drives you off a cliff. This is a great example of a sophomore album and seeing it come to life on tour felt like a school trip to watch a master at work. I don’t think we ever stop leaning from Frank Carter. He is our Guru of Punk.

Lewis (Bass) Rob Zombie: The Sinister Urge I first heard the track Never Gonna Stop (The Red, Red Kroovy) on WWE when I was about 7. It was a pro-wrestler’s theme music and I think the combination of the huge melodic riffs and the theatrics of pro wrestling just blew my mind. I persuaded my parents to get me the album and to their credit, they did. It immediately threw me into the wired wonderland of Rob Zombie. Filled with horror movie samples, lyrics on necrophilia and genre mashing done right. Never Gonna Stop features a more of a dance beat whilst tracks like Dead Girl Superstar have a glam element to them.  This album is solid through and through plus, it features collaborations with both Ozzy Osbourne and Kerry King. That was another element I appreciated more as I revisited this album. This is defiantly a cornerstone for my love of rock, all things theatric and genre defying music. Also it teaches us all the valuable lesson that if you’re stuck for album artwork…. just take a picture of yourself looking like an angry hobo and whack a blue filter over it. Works like a charm.

Nelly: Nellyville Okay, so opposite side of the coin here, but this album is a banger. I must have got this album when I was about 9, I can’t quite recall why so I will just put it down to the following reasons;

-Dilemma being a stonking tune that was never off radio and TV.

-My love of hip hop was expanding.

-Nelly’s plaster on his cheek that seemed really cool for some reason.

This album did leave its impression though and it still gets played in the van on tour. Not even just the hits, I mean sure Hot In Herre, Dilemma and Work It (featuring Justin Timberlake) are bonfire party starters, but album tracks such as The Gank , #1 and Splurge all showcase Nelly ‘s intricate mix of melody and rhyme that makes his delivery so unique. From storytelling and comedy skits to angry motivational tracks and party anthems, Nellyville is a lesson in dynamics and is hugely responsible for my taste in intricate melody’s and the hip hop elements starting to poke through in Air Drawn Dagger…. This album has a lot to answer for really.

Sam (Guitar) Smashing Pumpkins – Siamese Dream Okay where to begin, massive fuck off fuzzy guitar riffs, huge pop melodies, Corgan\’s distinctive voice and an album that\’s basically the perfect melting point between grunge, psychedelic, rock and pop.  I was introduced to this album through the guitarist in my previous band and it really made me pay attention to my own songwriting and in particular how you can make more noise with the guitar. There was this one part I think it\’s in Hummer, where there\’s this weird keyboard part in the upper register. Yeah that\’s a guitar and it sounds completely different and its genius. Either way to this day I still want to come up with a riff that\’s half as sick as the one in Geek U.S.A.

Sam: Beastie Boys – License to Ill  So teenage Sam knew what he liked, and that was Iron Maiden, Led Zeppelin and grunge, he definitely had no time for your electro hip-hop rap bullshit. Then he heard Sabotage and bought this album, which didn\’t actually contain Sabotage.  So this album showed me that there was other styles of music I liked beyond rock and metal, it\’s definitely hip-hop influenced but I think what drew me to it was that they sampled old rock songs and used that as a basis for a lot of their songs so they still had that feel in there. The reason this album is so important to me is that it really opened me up to a lot of new styles of music and expanded what I can do with music.

Maisie (Vocals) Bring me the Horizon: Suicide Season. When I first heard this album, I was a 13 year old indie kid who\’d just out of a glam rock phase. I was listening to a lot of different bands but nothing was really resonating with me. It got me into heavier stuff that I used to shun which was a big step towards fuelling the fire of me wanting to be in a band, partly due to the performance side as well as musically.

Maisie: My Chemical Romance: The Black Parade. I\’ve been a fan of My Chem for as long as I can remember. It was a hard decision between this and Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge and is definitely one of my main influences for wanting to start a band. They\’re a band central to being your own ridiculous self with a large serving of flamboyance and Black Parade really captures that for me. I love the theatrics and every song absolutely nails it. To conclude teenage me knew what she liked, and that was emo anthems.

Ross (Drums) Red Hot Chilli Peppers: Stadium Arcadium This album was the first album I bought and fell in love with to this day. Its melodies and groove have stuck with me and made me dive into music. Being a double album it showed how much one band can do, and looking back now realizing how much that album has influenced my drumming style and my feel. With all the styles held within that album it was a pathway to different artists and music which led me to find heavy rock and metal in my own way.

Ross: Bullet For My Valentine: Scream Aim Fire This album is the one that made me want to play the drums. I wanted to play hearts burst into fire, it all really got out of hand from there and 6 years later I’m still playing and listening to this album. It still holds a lot of influence in my playing now without me realizing. To this day i still know every single lyric to each song.

Air Drawn Dagger have just released their spanking new single, Gods VS Peasants, as a Free Download, via Alya Records

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