“Imagine the original Soul Sanctuary as an amoeba – sliding around, but never really going to get anywhere. The current Soul Sanctuary has sprouted wings and left the planet! That’s really the best way i can put it!” Mike Burrough- Vocalist

Soul Sanctuary are a Six Piece Alternative Metal Band from the South Coast of
England, formed in 2006.

The last few months have seen Soul Sanctuary go from strength to strength,
gaining much notoriety and appraisal from their peers for their outstanding and
energetic performances and original, but catchy song writing.

On a Quest to Conquer the world one song at a time with their unique brand of melody driven
metal, Soul Sanctuary leave a trail destruction and mayhem in their wake. A
show certainly not to be missed…. by ANY HEAD BANGER!

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Interviewee’s name: Luke Gibson
Position in band: Vocalist

Interviewee’s name: Ed Stevens
Position in band: Lead Guitarist

Interviewee’s name: Michael Burrough
Position in band: Vocalist

Interview by: Scream

Headbang Today: We pierce the air above our heads with our metal horns and
welcome Soul Sanctuary to HeadbangToday.com with HUGE grins of glee and
excitement on our feeble faces! Welcome dudes, we are delighted to have you
sharing your dark insight with us!
Firstly, we need to know: Will South Africa
be on your international tour schedule in the near future?

Luke – As soon as we can make it we will be there, we go where the fans are!

Ed – Send plane tickets, we’ll be there tomorrow!

Mike – I’d like to see our music everywhere. So yeah, no question.

Headbang Today: You are soon to release your self-produced debut album
“Afterlife”. Tell us a bit more about the new album?

Luke – Well it’s been over a year in the making, we have recorded 90% of it at my home studio so I’ve spent a lot of time refining the sound to where it is now.

On this album we’ve tried to be as experimental as we can without compromising writing a good song. Over 30 songs were written and it’s been hard choosing, but we believe we’ve picked the best for this album. The album as a whole is very eclectic. Songs like “Gone Away” and “Heart Attack” really shouldn’t and don’t really mix when put next to each other without a reference to draw from, but if you listen to the album as a whole it keeps a very distinct and unique feel through out.

even the songs themselves are very eclectic metal tracks like “Killing Time” suddenly bursting into a drum and bass/slap funk bass solo in the middle 8, I’ve never heard it done before, but somehow it works.

Ed – Many words could be used to describe this collection of songs, to summarise though; powerful, melodic and the main one – hooky. As far as I’m concerned, in terms of quality of song writing, it could be compared to Dep Leppard’s Hysteria or Metallica’s Black. Every song is a hit single in its own right. It’s definitely ‘metal’, a metal feast, but at the same time doesn’t alienate a potential audience because of the genre, or as Paul (Gooding, bass) would say “Something for everyone”.

Mike – I can’t really elaborate much more on what Ed & Luke have already said. The main point being that there really are so many different ideas that somehow combine to form a unique and instantly recognizable sound which is heavy yet melodic and insanely catchy.

Headbang Today: How will ‘Afterlife’ compare to your debut album musically?
Have you perhaps made any slight modifications in your style and heaviness?

Luke – If you mean how does “Afterlife” compare to Soul Sanctuary’s first EP release, It’s changed beyond recognition .The band had a completely different line up barring our bassist (The bands founder) and rhythm guitarist (Monty) Soul Sanctuary was more of a rock based, funk and soul band. Hence the name “Soul Sanctuary”. It’s about the only thing we actually kept in terms of the music.

Ed – From funk to spunk, ‘Afterlife’ is like a MILF being fucked, mature and experienced, yet beautiful and never lets you down.

Luke – haha that’s a bit extreme Edwin, but ok!

Mike – To be honest i don’t really think they can be compared. From the off there was a fair amount of talent in the band but its escalated so far beyond what it once was. I personally have never played with such a talented set of people before. Everyone is fantastic at what they do – and even some things they don’t! Each member brings something different to the band and the greatest achievement is that we’re all like brothers, on stage, and off. Imagine the original Soul Sanctuary as an amoeba – sliding around, but never really going to get anywhere. The current Soul Sanctuary has sprouted wings and left the planet! That’s really the best way i can put it!

Headbang Today: I gave a couple of your songs a listen and ‘Heart Attack’ made
me an instant fan. You guys are keeping it heavy metal man! Who are your
musical influences and what inspires you to do what you do?

Luke – As far as lyrics go I guess my biggest influence is life itself, i try to draw from my own personal experience as much as I can, but i also like to take famous phases and twist them or write lyrics that have a sense of irony and contradiction, there is certainly a lot of that in the song “Heart Attack”.

But I take influences from a lot of places musically, some bands that come to mind are people like Threat Signal, Zero System, System Of A Down, Staind, Static X, Killswitch, Crossfade, Breaking Benjamin and Deftones, but also other kinds of music like Prodigy, Pendulum, Harry Nilsson, Eagles, Black Sabbath, White Snake, Adam F, Cypress hill, NWA, Green Day, Offspring, NOFX, Pennywise the list goes on.

I’ve never been anti commercial or an elitist in any way, I don’t care if the songs by Britney Spears or Cradle of filth, If it’s a good song, it’s a good song. OK Britney will never write a good song, but you get my point.

Ed – Like Luke says, it’s all about the songs, I just prefer to dress it in ripping metal rather than with pop music arrangements. Soul Sanctuary is the molten blood that runs through our veins.

Mike – Unlike most of the band who have core roots in metal music, i grew up listening to much softer music and actually disliking any sort of music containing scream vocals. I even used to wonder why Linkin Park ruined there awesome tracks with the screams! ( I grew to appreciate) Then something happened when Jay (Drums) started giving me compilations to listen to. Then Ed started throwing musical education my way also.

I moved on from Muse, Hoobastank, Creed, Nickelback, H.I.M and and the likes and started getting more into Godsmack, Metallica, Disturbed, Pantera, Bullet, Sonic Syndicate etc.
All of a sudden music was more complex, technical, and loud! And even I was sticking in the occasional scream vocal! Seeing the effect our music has on people, and all the encouragement i receive from fans, family, friends and most importantly my band brothers, really drives me to keep at it.

Headbang Today: Who writes your lyrics and what are they about in general?

Luke – I write a lot of the lyrics, but I always take on board anything the guys put to me, Mike also co-wrote the lyrics on “Zeitgeist” and “Afterlife”. I don’t think there can be any generalisation of our lyrics they cover too many subjects. Songs like “Packaged To Sell” and “Destiny” deal with the personal aspects of life, betrayal, loss, defeat, or taking an inward look at the person you have become and those around you. Destiny was actually written from a third person perspective of myself and what I was going thought at the time, it was how I believed people saw me.

Where as songs like “Heart attack” and “Zeitgeist” are to do with the anger I feel towards the ignorance of the human condition, so many people just don’t care about what is going on in the world around them. They run the rat race and just accept the knowledge of authority. As the famous quote by G. Massey goes “They must find it difficult… Those who have taken authority as the truth, Rather than truth as the authority.”

Ed – Well, you can’t have ‘nice’ lyrics in metal really can you? However we’ve managed to avoid the whole dungeons and dragons thing so far, best to keep it real and make the songs about issues real people can relate to.

Mike- Luke is responsible for the vast majority of the lyrics, but as we progress as a band, other people are starting to suggest ideas that have been floating around in their heads. I have certainly started to grow as a writer, and Luke and myself work very well together to make sure the lyrics give out the messages that they’re supposed to. I expect as more time is spent together and we develop and evolve, everyone will have a part in all aspects of song creation.

Headbang Today: You guys are trying to get signed by the worlds best known
Heavy metal record label, Road Runner Records. Has it always been a dream as a
band to get signed by them? (VOTE HERE)

Luke – Honestly no record deal is ever a dream, It’s ignorant to think so. A record deal is only an opportunity, and the bigger the label the bigger the opportunities, at least in most cases. A deal has been and always will be is the first stepping stone in gaining a larger appeal, but by no means is it a guarantee of success or fame. We have had bands we know from our home town signed to labels as big as Sony BMG who released their first album and flopped big time. Even after Nirvana was signed to Geffen Records (A multi-million dollar corporation) for the first 6 months they were so poor they were living in a house with no heating or Windows and had to sell their amps for food. But becoming signed is one of the band’s bigger goals, simply because it opens doors and the chance to move into bigger areas.

Headbang Today: Tell us about some of your other dreams and goals of Soul Sanctuary.

Luke – My only goal in Soul Sanctuary is to become a band that may inspire other people the way my favourite bands inspired me. If that fails i guess i could always run away with the circus! =]

Mike – World domination of course!

Ed – Sex, drugs and heavy metal!

Headbang Today: Here’s the plot. The band is surrounded by a horde of fresh
flesh craving zombies and only Luke has a shotgun with 5 shells in it. What
would you do to get out of the situation?

Luke – hahaha, well depends on what the chance’s of escape are? I think i would go seriously medieval on their asses, fuck the shot gun I’ll beat those bastards to death with their own broken limbs. I mean what’s the worst that could happen? You’re gonna die anyway and I’ve never seen a problem with becoming a zombie myself as a last resort, it would be better then becoming a fan of Cliff Richard! (My idea of what hell is like!)

Ed – I’d throw a can of lager as far as I could outside the ring of Zombies…… NOTHING comes between Luke and a cold one.

Mike – I’m with Luke and Ed on this one. Ed’s cold beer idea would certainly work, and i think i would also aim to go melee using anything that was around. There have been plenty of times where Luke and I have been surrounded by people, albeit they weren’t zombies too my knowledge, but we have punched our way out of dangerous situations more than a few times.
I’d say with Gooding (Bass) to stare them down and tell them “look mate, its not happening” we’d have a pretty decent chance.

Headbang Today: Tell us about some of the weirdest, craziest and most
embarrassing things that happened to you while playing live.

Luke – hahaha, for me there is a lot of them.

Ed – We have had a fair few punch ups at our gigs, people have actually come flying onto the stage in a full blown fist fight. strangely it seems to be girls a lot of the time. A girl that was filming us play, bottled a guy over the head for spitting in her face! Something to do with an argument that he was in her way.

Luke – Definitely one of the most embarrassing moments for me was quite recently. We were playing an open air festival, I had jumped off the stage during the second verse of heart attack and started walking backwards to get back up on the stage, I failed to notice a platform that was sticking out at the bottom, which took my feet out from under me. I went flying backwards and smashed my head against the edge of the stage. I bounced back up and carried on going but the rest of the verse was intermingled with bouts of laughter at what had just happened.

Mike – I was pretty embarrassed when Luke fell over! The only thing i can really recall other than that was when i was about 10 years old. Nothing to do with Soul Sanctuary obviously but embarrassing nevertheless. I was at a karaoke and decided to attempt “Always” by Bon Jovi. After the High chorus i forgot to come back down for the second verse and ended up singing it about an octave higher! Lets just say that a very humiliating falsetto display was on offer when i got to the already ridiculously high chorus. Not good.

Luke – If you count playing in rehearsal live I did break my front tooth on my microphone during one practise, that was a real bitch!

Ed – haha, yeah but 5 minutes later you still went on with the rehearsal!

Luke – Although it’s not related to live playing i feel it was so strange it’s worth mentioning. A while back, I was on route back from a personal visit to Australia. A fan of our music from Bangkok found out i was stopping at Bangkok airport on the way through to the UK and came and met me at the gate. gave me a free T-shirt and bought me a meal. Fun times lol.

Headbang Today: Give us your views on the metal industry today and how it is

affected by illegal downloads. Are you for it or against it?

Ed – Times have certainly changed, it’s now a lot easier to for band’s music to reach people, we just have to be more inventive with how we make it profitable. This isn’t for personal greed reasons, the music industry is a business just like any other, and consequently a profit is required to fund the the next project. If I was in it for the money, I’d have given up years ago, like many people I know have.

Mike – The Internet is here to stay. Piracy will only get worse. To be honest I’m a fan of free information and music. I think that its hugely beneficial as a much bigger audience is reached. There are still people who will buy a CD just to own it, even if they have downloaded it already. Decent bands will make more than enough money through live performances and TV/Radio.

Luke – I haven’t got a problem with it. Hell, it would be hypocritical of me to do so. There are tons of bands out there I would of never have heard of if i didn’t have access to the Internet and been able to download their music. One band I now listen to on a regular basis, along with other members of our band and I have even talked to online, was only discovered by complete accident when downloading another bands album discography. Their album had been thrown in randomly amongst the other songs. but once I know about a band and enjoy their music, I can help support them by going to see them live, buying their merchandise and telling other people about their music.

It’s a fact of the Internet and the world we live in now that album sales are never going to be the main source of income for a band anymore. The main market that any band needs to break into these days to earn money is game and film. mainly gaming because no matter what gaming is never going to suffer the same amount of piracy music and film does because it’s much harder to do, for instance games like World Of WarCraft are next to impossible to pirate because you need a monthly subscription to play them. I know our music isn’t the kind of thing you are likely to hear on that kind of game but you get the idea.

Headbang Today: Do you prefer mailing free merchandise to Headbang Today or
would you rather like us to fly over there and go fetch it ourselves?

Luke – We can send some stuff to you I guess, what’s the address? haha

Ed – Or come over and get it…..if you think you can handle a night out down the pub with Soul Sanctuary.

Headbang Today: Tell us about you best and worst gigs so far… What happened?

Luke – The worst gig we ever had, was probably our very first with our latest line up. Jamie our drummer and Ed had only just joined the band 2 months before hand and we were still in the process of debating mike’s (the second vocalist) introduction into the band. Jamie announced during the rehearsal leading up to the gig he didn’t feel ready and pulled out, unfortunately this rehearsal was only 2 hours before the show was about to start.

But I felt it was in the best interest of the bands reputation not to cancel a show at the last minute and told him “we’re going to do it with or without you, even if i have to play the drums and sing” which actually turned out to be what happened.

Also being new to the band and close friends with Jamie decided to abandon this sinking ship, leaving Me, Paul the bassist and Monty our Rhythm Guitarist to go it alone. We arrived at the venue with no drum kit and no lead guitar and only half a band. We had to borrow everything from the band we were supporting. We still went on the play as a 3 piece and everyone loved it, but still it’s not something we want to try again in a hurry. Playing Drums and doing vocals is very tricky business.

Ed – Ha ha, I remember that….. It wasn’t any loyalty to J that made me bum out….. First gig with a new band and the vocalist is going to play drums and sing unrehearsed…. Who can blame me?!

Mike – I’ve enjoyed every gig we’ve played. One of my best experiences was at a fairly small scale local festival. The sound was set up really well which is very important to our overall performance, especially vocals, and it was outdoor in the sun! Oh and Luke fell over! Other than the gig the other guys are talking about i can’t think of a bad experience – and i wasn’t even a member of the band at that point!

Luke – Obviously you’ve been a good influence on the band Mike. haha

Headbang Today: What’s the response been like from fans since you launched your debut album? Do you think there’s still room for improvement or are you
definitely heading on the right track with what you are currently doing?

Luke – I guess we can only get better, I think the album we have is a piece of work I’m finally happy with, as a perfectionist i find that very hard to do at times.
The reaction from fans has been fantastic, After the first hour of our album being up for pre-order ( I was still testing the website making sure everything worked correctly) someone from Canada bought a copy, so far we have already made sales in several US states and across Europe. Album isn’t actually out until 30th of September and being as underground as we are, receiving so many sales, so far in advance of the actual launch date has been really motivating for the band. As mentioned before, in a world were illegal downloading is the norm, It’s nice to know that people from all over the world enjoy our music enough to pay for it.

Mike – There is ALWAYS room for improvement. I’m really curious to see where we’ll be and how we will have changed in say 3 years time. The direction of the music is constantly evolving with the times and our true fans are loving every minute of the ride we’re taking them on.

Headbang Today: How many hours a week do you guys roughly put into rehearsing and practicing?

Luke – At the moment we only rehearse about 3 hours or so a week, we would like to do more but our financial situation with having to fund the production of the album has put some restraint on that. although in our own time me and the guys are always practising the parts in small groups or on our own.

Headbang Today: Tell us a bit about the processes involved in coming up with new material?

Luke – Having our own studio is a great benefit to writing new material, It’s gives us a great deal of room for experimentation. The first steps usually Involve us laying down some guitar riffs to a click and use sampled and midi drums to work out rhythms and changes which helps see which direction to take to song in. Once the general structure of the song has been completed I will start to come up with vocal melody ideas and lyrics. once we have a rough version of the song completed with vocals, the guys come in one by one a do finalized recordings of their parts and then Ed comes into lay down one of his crazy ass guitar solo’s. But things always change here and there even months after the first recording, if we feel the need that something needs improvement. I guess we are unusual in the way we go about things, because we record the track and then learn how to play it live.

Ed – I suppose it must sound strange to some people, but we do have to go back and re-cut tracks because once we’ve played them live and lived with them for a while, they do start to evolve. Usually the basis of the song remains, but the band all puts their ideas in as we rehearse. If the song doesn’t get to where we want it to be then it goes into the trash, In that way, music is like wearing clothes, you can wear as many different styles of trousers as you like, but it doesn’t make your dick any bigger. Basically, you can dress up a crap song to make it sound better, but no matter how you arrange it, it will always be shite, if it’s a good song it will always shine. “You can’t polish a turd!” as they say.

Mike – Sometimes i just sit on my own for days at a time with no food or water. Eventually with major hallucinations, ideas come flowing. Erm. No. That’s not right. Currently i see myself as more of an “edit” man. I have difficulty starting up my ideas as i have no recording equipment or knowledge of the applications I’d need. So i tend to just suggest changes to existing tracks. One day i will get Luke to show me around a mixing desk and have a little look as I’m busting with ideas. Currently i like to share any ideas to Luke and see what he can do about making them real.

Luke – Even though mike was joking about major hallucinations, I guess you could say I’ve been to places a lot of people haven’t.

Headbang Today: Have you met any rock stars from famous bands in person and if so, who?

Luke – I’ve met a few not many though, I guess my greatest claim is I met Joe Strummer from The Clash one week before he died. Really nice guy!

Mike – I saw the Cheeky Girls in Rye once! Don Powell (Slade) lives around the corner from my parents, and about 4 years ago we knocked at his door at Christmas and sung him his own song. That was quite amusing to say the least. Nice man, gave us beer and crisps!

Ed – I’ve met Soul Sanctuary, Does that count?

Headbang Today: I suppose that does, yes. Do any of you Headbang during live your performances?

Luke – I guess I must headbang, I always wake up with a sore neck! But I’m not sure what I’m doing live, I go a bit fruit loop, always jumping on tables running around and smashing things (mainly microphones, I’ve broken a lot of them) The crowd usually find me very entertaining even if it’s them laughing at my ass falling off something and smashing my head lol. I think it’s the only reason these guys keep me in the band, I’m a pain in the ass otherwise haha.

Mike – Headbanging is automated when listening to most of our tracks. Even if it feels like a bad idea the next day, you’ll do it anyway.

Headbang Today: I’ve Headbanged to Heart Attack, I can tell you that much. Do you have any music videos and if so, where can fans find
them?

Ed – We have a couple of home made video’s up on Youtube on our official Youtube channel http://www.youtube.com/soulsanctuarymusic1 but we have a friend from the BBC who is currently working with us on producing our first full on video. There is no set date for it’s release as of yet, but again it’s down to finances. Hopefully the latest we want to get it filmed by is the beginning of next year, but we will see what happens.

Headbang Today: Is Soul Sanctuary a full time job or do you guys have day jobs
to support your every day needs? How do you get about?

Ed – Well, we’ve all got to eat! Funnily enough, I’ve just heard someone on the television say that having a job is good for you, what shite are the British government going to try and poison us with next?!

Mike – 1 out of 6 of us are unemployed. That’s not too bad by today’s standards.

Luke – Lately for me Soul Sanctuary has been a full time job with over hours, unpaid. Sometime I spend more than 15 hours a day with online promotion on top of writing, mixing, mastering, production, recording, plus gig and tour arrangements. That’s plus my job working in a local recording studio and doing web design on a part time basis.

Headbang Today: Being in such a tough industry as is, what advice would you give to fellow bands that just started?

Luke – Never give up, I was born tone deaf and to some extent I believe i still am lol, Not everyone is born with the gift of music, you can learn it. My friend’s used to laugh at my singing and rightly so, I sucked ass big time. but it only made more more determined to prove them wrong and so far i think I’ve done a good job. Deftones got their name from the fact that everyone said they sucked and were “tone deaf” they went on to become one of the most influential bands in metal.

As far as building your band the people in your band should be people you love and trust or should be people that you become to love and trust, communication is so important to the working of a band. A band needs a leader and ego’s need to be squashed as much as possible when it comes to song writing and making decisions about the music. I do a lot of writing for the band and act as the bands main producer, but I never dismiss the opinions of the other band members, ever. even if i wrote what i believed to be a masterpiece. if one or more of the guys had issues with it, it would get scrapped.

But a band that wants to be successful should be treated like a business, you can’t make compromises. You need to give people a chance, but if a band member isn’t doing their job they have to go. The drummer before Jamie had issues with a lot of the bands double pedal work and in the end he had to be replaced. Even one of the founding members of the band and very good friend of ours, the lead guitarist before Ed was replaced. although he left of his own accord it was getting to the point were he was becoming a hindrance on the musical growth of the band and would of been replaced sooner or later anyway. If it meant the success of the band I would happily give up my place to see Soul Sanctuary succeed.

Ed – Everyone’s got to be up to the job, NO weak links. If someone isn’t cutting the mustard, get rid, don’t wimp out because of any friendship loyalties – If you were on a train, would you rather see a pregnant woman was left standing up or a fat woman sitting down crying?

Mike – Its all about team work. As the guys have said if it doesn’t work, get it the hell out. I would suggest that people work as hard as hey can to ensure the band is as flawless as possible in terms of ability and commitment.

Headbang Today: Give us your thoughts on the following:

What fans and potential fans can expect from your new up coming album?

Ed – The dog’s testes

Mike – Something new, something unique, something totally fucking awesome.

Luke – Lots of flying monkeys haha, I guess the only thing i can say is we’ve visited people’s myspace’s and they already have our song lyrics as their “about me:” sections, have quoted us amongst their favourite bands and have us first on their play lists along with big names like Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne and Bullet For My Valentine. We only hope that it lives up to their expectations.

R & B?

Luke – Just about the only style of music I fucking despise with every ounce of my being.

Mike – Re-e-wind.

Ed – Meh!

Cat litter?

Luke – It’s what cat’s shit in, and it smells fucking horrible straight out of the bag, even more so after it’s been used!

Mike – Is it illegal for cats to flytip?

Ed – I think they covered it!

Headbang Today…?

Luke – Fucking cool site and give major respect for having us on here!

Mike – ‘Fucking cool site and give major respect for having us on here!’ – Luke Gibson, Soul Sanctuary.

Ed – Woop Woop!

Headbang Today: Any last words?

Ed – I did this interview while under the influence of Stella!

Luke – Me and Ed Need Soul Sanctuary to get Sponsored by Stella, between the two of us we must drink 100 cans a week.

Mike – Hmm well i sure do hope they aren’t my last but what the hell; Watch this space.

Luke – If anyone’s read this far, I’m Impressed! I know I would of gotten bored of our bullshit by now. lol, but on a serious note I would like to thank you for having us on the site I really hope you enjoyed our interview. I wish you guys best of luck with the site, A big shout out to everyone in South Africa “KEEP IT FUCKIN’ METAL!” hopefully we will be along soon to play live. Peace!

Buy Soul Sanctuary’s Album: http://www.soulsanctuarymusic.com/buy-now.html

Vote for Soul Sanctuary on Road Runner Records HERE

Watch Soul Sanctuary’s Vids here: http://www.youtube.com/soulsanctuarymusic1

Visit Their Myspace Page! : http://www.myspace.com/soulsanctuarymusic

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