Only The Righteous Survive
Here’s the concluding part of our interview with Margate’s prophets of doom Unholy Majesty. Many thanks to Duggan for taking the time to answer my stupid questions that I already knew the answers to. Look out for the new LP on A389 records soon.
What can you tell us about the membership of the band? You’ve got some legendary Margate thrashers involved, hows that working out for you? Frza behaving himself?
Aside from myself (Trent Nougat) there’s Daniel Frye (Tog Wayne), Sub (Dane “Subway” Teague), Pat Hassan (Darnell Flame) and Jamie “FRZA” Frye (Ace Anderson). In all seriousness it’s great having so many dudes in the band who’ve cut their teeth on hardcore bands over the past decade, it makes writing so much easier and when we get round to playing a show we don’t have to worry about rehearsing as much because everyone just clicks together on the stage.
A Turk at work.
The alternate names I gave for all of us are the names we go by in the rehearsal room when we’re all together, we were going to use pseudonyms in the record covers that go with the dark imagery of Unholy Majesty but it became sort of a joke when Pat joined and we named him Darnell Flame.
As for FRZA, he’s been alright, still the Sheriff of Garlinge, no more houses have been reported as being egged since you were last round these parts so he’s deterring the criminals. “Nobody throws eggs in my town.”
The name Unholy Majesty evokes images of of brooding wraith lords upon thrones of skulls like something out of a Frank Frazetta masterpiece but where does the name come from and why choose it?
The name comes from the beautiful body of work that is Rose Kemp’s album Unholy Majesty, I actually fell in love with it after you were gushing about her music back in ’10 or ’11. Although unholy Majesty was on the shortlist from the beginning we didn’t settle on that name straight away, my initial suggestion was Blessed Majesty after the Integrity track on To Die For but we didn’t feel it sat right. Another serious suggestion was Negative Outlook, yeah that one actually came up but it got shot down on the grounds that although it’s a Margate band, we’re not 13 years old and The Lido shut down years ago.
It’s funny you should mention wraith lords upon thrones of skulls, the name Unholy Majesty always conjures up images of regal demons half in the mortal plain and half in the warp, almost as if English aristocracy turned to chaos and they’re forever tormented by their decisions but also reveal in the powers it gave them. Bearded demons sitting in their castles on thrones of skulls, that’s a shirt design right there.
You’ve been hanging around the punk scene for a while now and had your hardcore tutelage in the old South East Kent scene…how do the two compare then now?
I look back at shows a decade ago in the south east with rose tinted glasses, even if a show wasn’t packed out you were guaranteed to see at least 10-20 of the same faces every time. Compared to shows in 2013 and people seem to go once a year and even if the show is in their home town just decide to stay in. I sound like a bitter and mean old bastard and you’d be right in thinking I am but I’ve not been handed a flyer other than at a Dan Brennan show for years, a promoter actually told me last summer that flyers don’t work. That’s the kind of mentality we’re dealing with now, if a show isn’t promoted on Facebook then it’s never going to get attendance, people rely on an automatic calendar reminder to remember shows and then blow them off to have sex with themselves. I might just not be going to the right shows or rolling with the wrong people because my perception is pretty negative about the current south east scene, I might be missing out on the best gigs because I’ve got to paint the spare room or whatever, seems to me you have to get up to London to see the traveling or overseas bands no which is a shame. It’ll come back around again, we just need to work on it a bit more.
Ever seen a ghost, tell me about something weird?
Me personally? No. But I just asked FRZA if he’s seen one and I quote: “I thought I saw one when I went for a midnight piss when I was 10 but it was just my Dad naked on the hallway.”
Charles Manson showing off on his bike. Again.
What can you tell us about the new album? I understand all the music has been written and the recording process has commenced, where are you recording it? whens its slated for release? What’s it called? Why the fuck haven’t you said ‘hey man, come down chill and drop some guests’, thought we were friends you lousy fucker.
Music’s written, we’ve got 13 or 14 songs to lay down and as I write this we’re in the middle of Sub’s drum sessions, the studio smells like a teenage bedroom but he’s playing the most solid beats he’s ever done. Jamie’s recording it at Son Of Sun Studios in Margate, we could’ve gone all out and paid to go somewhere more up market but we’re a punk band and doing it yourself give you more control over your art. We’re hoping to get it out by the end of the year depending on how long the recording takes, we’re a bit more fragmented over the south now so we’ve gotta do an evening here and there. I’ve got a few songs to finish lyrics wise so there might be a name that I can take from the unwritten tracks, at the moment I like the name Earthcaller, that could change.
We’ve always said you’re getting an invite to do a guest spot mate, come down one weekend with the missus and the dogs, we’ll break some bread and talk about old times like we always do before pop down the studio to record the vocals, Sub and Jamie are going to do a line like they did on the demo.
Alright that’s all I got, final words?
The usual, thanks for doing this interview with us Nate, hopefully it’s not been too boring. If anyone’s interested we’ve got a couple of split records in the works to come out around the time of our LP so it’s not just the one record and you might get to check out some new music at the same time.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c37vihefY0]