FIELD OF GIANTS DEBUT ALBUM, WE ARE – Nov 6 – Exclusive Interview
“We Are” features a blend of heavily distorted guitars with huge sweeping choruses, contrasted by melodic vocals and impactful drums. The band take their influences from a variety of musical styles from progressive rock to traditional Arabic music.
The Oxford based hard rock band, Field Of Giants will be releasing their debut album, We Are. Available digitally on iTunes, Amazon Music, Google Play and more.
The full 13 track album runs at over an hour playtime offering the listener a dynamic experience, going from heavy guitar riffs to atmospheric swells.
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Field Of Giants: We grew up in a small market town called Thame, a pretty quiet place, not a lot going on. But when we were about 14 this rock music scene popped up, almost out of nowhere (at least as far as we were aware) and suddenly everyone wanted to be in a band. That was where it all started for us, once that seed has planted it’s hard to get rid of…without medication
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Field Of Giants: Field Of Giants started as a project and the name seemed to encompass everything about the music, expansive and otherworldly. When I think of Field Of Giants, I hear huge chords in my head with screaming vocals and powerful drums. Hopefully other people feel the same.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Field Of Giants: Online sharing is a tricky one. On one side it’s great, people can have access to your music from anywhere in the world. On the other hand it can make it trickier for artists to make a living selling albums. But with services like Patreon, fans can directly support the artists they love. At the moment it’s still quite a new thing and labels are scared, but I think going forward online music sharing will be how music is distributed. I’d rather have thousands of people listen to our music for free than 5 people who have brought the album.
Exposed Vocals: Since everyone was a start-up once, can you give any smaller or local bands or artists looking to get gigs and airplay some tips?
Field Of Giants: Write good songs, get them recorded somewhere professional (our new album WE ARE was recorded at Studio focus Recordings in Oxfordshire). Then promote the hell out of it! Most local radio stations will play a local band if you send in your music and a kindly worded email. Getting gigs is the same, you kinda have to be “that guy” and ask/bug promoters if they have any gigs coming up you play at.
Exposed Vocals: Do you ever make mistakes during performances? How do you handle that?
Field Of Giants: Yes, everyone does. Try not to think about it, you can get into your own head and freak yourself out that way. If people wanted to hear you play your songs perfectly, they’d just listen to the album.
Exposed Vocals: Do you tour? Anything interesting happen on tour that you think our readers would enjoy hearing about?
Field Of Giants: No, we’re too small for that, we take each gig as it comes. But even that can be tiring so I don’t know how bands like Muse manage to stay on tour for like 300 dates, maddening…
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Field Of Giants: Not sure what inspires music, just some days a song comes together. Probably your brain takes small bits of inspiration from all the music you like and that’s what makes you think “that was a cool riff, I should write that down”. Writing lyrics is different (for me anyway), I tend to take a lot from the news or stories from around the world, most of the time a song is about your opinion on something.
The process for us is always music first, make the music good before you even think about the vocals.
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Field Of Giants: We do www.FieldOfGiants.com (nice plug) to share our music we use Soundcloud (https://soundcloud.com/fieldofgiantsband) and Reverbnation, but we also use Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/FieldOfGiants) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/FieldOfGiants) to help get the message out there.
Exposed Vocals: What are some really embarrassing songs that we might find on your mp3 player?
Field Of Giants: Nikelback (sometimes you just need to hear it) and now of course U2, thanks Apple…
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Field Of Giants: Record the biggest, fattest album anyone has ever heard! Also buy gold suits, so everyone can see how much swagger we have.
Exposed Vocals: Any planned studio upgrades? What are you working with now?
Field Of Giants: Well we’ve just come out of the studio, our new album is called We Are and it’s due for release this Friday (6th Nov). We’re really excited about it, a lot of work has gone into bringing it together, so looking forward to people hearing it.
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Field Of Giants: Sending out a shit-tonne of press releases to everyone (magazines, radios, websites), and then promoting online with social media. Unfortunately not many people go to gigs looking to find a new band, most people know what they like and stick to that.
Exposed Vocals: If you could perform anywhere and with any artists (Dead or Alive) where and who would it be with? Why?
Field Of Giants: Mars and with the London Symphonic Orchestra. I would just get them to play Gutav Holst’s, The Planets and it would be great!
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Field Of Giants: Right now we’re just promoting our new album We Are (out Friday 6th Nov), then after that… not sure really. Probably play some fuckoff awesome gigs!
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Field Of Giants: Sitting in an armchair, steadily rocking back and forth as Jim Carey’s, The Truman Show plays on repeat.
Exposed Vocals: Do you remember buying your first album? Who was it? What was going through your head?
Field Of Giants: I think it was Sum 41 and I was about 12, so not a lot was going through my head, probably girls… I doo remember though not really liking the music that I heard on the radio and it being a revelation when a friend showed me rock music and Sum 41.
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Field Of Giants: I don’t… I’m pretty bad at jumping back and forth between the two. Typically if I need to focus on music for a while my social “real” life goes on hold for a while. Thankfully I’m surrounded by very understanding friends and family.
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2015?
Field Of Giants: Probably another supposed apocalypse. Or Field Of Giants – We Are!
