Music Review and Interview with Pack of Thieves – Disguises
A really lovely lead vocal adds a unique dynamic to this indie rock track. The accent and the personality shines brightly, the riffs are strong throughout, the heaviness is quite brilliantly contrasted by the gentle vocal and that gives the song a lot to connect with. The lyrics have a gorgeous nature to them at times when you catch the right line and the right musical moment coinciding just right. Really strong song writing, interesting arrangement as well – the band are quite clearly very creative and genuine fans of music and the art of making it. There’s a lot of instrumental play that is quite out of the ordinary, unexpected, yet really well placed within the track. The chorus, or hook as it were, gets caught in your mind, and towards the end of the track you’ve had just about the right amount of time to really soak it up and become properly familiar with the whole song.
This track is definitely something of a hit, in many ways, the main highlight being that contrast, that really unusual difference between the expected vocals of indie rock and the accessible, honest sounding vocal that actually comes through. The band have managed to fuse that big sound with that relatable honesty of the singer songwriter overall genre that is generally so compelling. And so very human. A really nice quality to have within a song. I’d imagine the band would put on quite a big show, a live performance would be great to witness, and the music has so much going on and the performances seem quite passionate and very involved in the moment, very present. They have a sound that is categorically unique to their band, which gives it a freshness, something to be excited about, and something new and powerful to really listen to and become a fan of.
By Rebecca Cullen
Exclusive Interview
Exposed Vocals: So tell us your story. Where did you grow up? What made you decide to become an artist?
Matt (Vocals/Guitar): We’re all kind of from everywhere! Rich (Drummer) is from a place called Bracknell, Will and Ali (Lead Guitarist & Bassist) are from Reading City and I come from a small town outside of Reading called Newbury. We all met each other through previous projects and band ads over the years until we finally ended up with something that clicked perfectly!
I guess like most kids growing up with music scenes we wanted to basically inspire people in the same way we’ve been inspired. Give something back and relate to people who are growing up with the same struggles and experiences that we’ve been through. I think that’s probably the most important thing that drives us to be honest.
Exposed Vocals: How did you come up with that name? What was your inspiration behind it?
Matt: It’s actually named after an Enter Shikari song! Me and Ali especially are pretty big Shikari fans and she thought it would be a decent band name. No one else had the name so we nabbed it! But even though we’re Enter Shikari fans, our goal now is to give it a new meaning.
Exposed Vocals: What do you think about online music sharing? Do you ever give your music away for free? Why?
Matt: We think giving away music for free when you’re first starting out is a must! Let’s face it, people don’t know who the hell you are at this point, but one thing that will encourage them to at least give you a shot is giving them something they can take away for free. At that point they have nothing to lose, it’s a potential follower with a reason to follow you! Also it’s important to be accessible, so online music sharing it the best way to connect with as many music scenes as possible who might be looking for your kinda sound or style. The internet is such a useful tool!
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?
Matt: I guess my best advice would be to be a smart observer. What I mean by that is, see what other local bands/artists are doing to get success, where they get gigs, how they promote themselves, where they get airplay etc. Basically do as much research as you can, network with musicians as much as you can, stalk these bands if you have to! (Not in a creepy way obviously) but I mean if they’re doing well, why does it hurt to get in touch with the venue they just played at? Or the radio station they just got rolled on? Who you know is a valuable thing in this industry.
Exposed Vocals: Where do you usually gather songwriting inspiration? What is your usual songwriting process?
Matt: I feel unless the song is inspired or experienced from my perspective in someway, I simply don’t feel honest singing it. So usually my lyrics are based on something significant in my life that I feel someone else out there has gone through, not only is that sort of therapeutic for me but it could be for someone else out there as well, otherwise I probably would’t see the point in writing music! But what I love the most about this band is that we all contribute ideas, no one is the sole songwriter! And I feel that’s been the key ingredient for us to try making something musically new. So it really goes either way with us, one of us could come into a band rehearsal with an entire song written, or someone just plays a riff and we take it from there!
Exposed Vocals: Do you have a band website? What online platforms do you use to share your music?
Matt: We pretty much have everything except a website at the moment! That’s definitely next on our list but as this particular band is still quite new, we’re mainly focussing on the basics right now. E.g. Twitter followers, YouTube uploads, recording and gigging. Our main 2 platforms we use for sharing our free single right now is Bandcamp (packofthieves.bandcamp.com) and SoundCloud (soundcloud.com/packofthieves)
. I love the simplicity of Bandcamp, it looks professional and there’s a Facebook App of it which you can install to your page as a music player. SoundCloud is also great because it still gives you the download option but it’s also a social networking site for music fans/artists, so there’s always the potential to gain new fans!
Exposed Vocals: If you were given half a million dollars and a year off, what would you do? How would you spend it?
Matt: We’d probably buy new, swaggy music gear or build a recording studio, that would be so sick! Or spend it all on tour booze. Either way we’d use it wisely…
Exposed Vocals: How do you find ways to promote your music? What works best for you?
Matt: Since we’re a new band I think the best way we’ve promoted our music online so far is sharing and posting as much as we can with something that will catch interest, whether it be a YouTube video or a band pic etc. Basically giving people who have never heard of us before a chance to see what we’re all about and why they should stay tuned to us. If it’s what the pros do, we thought we might as well start early!
Exposed Vocals: So, what’s next? Any new upcoming projects that you want to talk about?
Matt: We’re now working on our next single which will be out this spring, along with our first music video! It will be another free download and we literally can’t wait till it’s all finished. We also got our first gig as Pack of Thieves lined up in a month’s time. We’ll be video-recording all our gigs for people who miss out, so definitely worth staying tuned to us!
Exposed Vocals: If you weren’t making music, what would you be doing?
Matt: I probably would have studied harder in school and tried to become a scientist of some kind. That would have been cool. I always loved biology and physics at school and was pretty decent at it, but it all went downhill from when I first started listening to Blink 182 and wearing neon shoelaces…
Exposed Vocals: How do you juggle the rest of your responsibilities while trying to stay ahead in your music life?
Matt: For me it’s pretty easy, I kinda shift between lifestyles like some kinda superhero reject. During the day I work to pay for shit, then afterwards I’m straight onto my laptop booking gigs or picking up my guitar to write songs. I basically make sure I have time for all my priorities. It’s a busy life, but I hate being bored anyway!
Exposed Vocals: What should fans look forward to in 2016?
Matt: Please, please PLEASE check us out on Facebook (facebook.com/PackofThieves) and Twitter (twitter.com/packofthievesuk) for updates of our next free single and music video, they’re gonna be out really soon and we’ll be announcing exact release dates even sooner! We’ll also be starting to work on an EP/Album during the year so be sure to keep an eye on us, we’ve only just started!
