Interview: Circus

I think that the baseline ethos from the beginning was to create music that we really liked, and that was inspired by things we enjoyed. I don’t think we really realised in that moment the ultimate direction that we would take, especially regarding how proggy it would be, but I know that we wanted to make an impact, to really leave a heavy impression on an audience with the way we looked, the things we played, and what we ultimately were saying.

You describe yourselves as theatrical, historically minded and politically charged. How has that identity evolved since forming?
I would definitely say that that identity has refined since we began. We would have described ourselves that way to begin with, but a direction has definitely formed in the years since. The best way to describe this is to look at the song ‘Hearts on the Wire’, it was that aforementioned first song that we wrote together and was really just a stand-alone statement like a lot of our songs were, but the sentiment and story that the song was saying really left an impression on us, so much so that we decided to explore it further in an entire album. 

I feel like we had to get a lot out in the beginning, a lot to say, and a lot of thoughts, whereas we like to explore fully one idea now more than we did before. There is still so much historicism and politics in ‘A Kiss Before Dying’, and it is definitely in the next stuff to come, but we are just clearer now.

What’s been your biggest achievement to date?
I would say that it was the combination of the release of our album, and the sold out gig we did to celebrate it. It was a time of such intense work, finishing the album, selling tickets, the promotional material, merch, and preparing the live set for the gig, to finally see it all come together and then for us all to go out and really let loose afterwards was just such an amazing moment. Releasing an album that you have really put yourself into is amazing itself, but then seeing the crowds reaction to you, as you are on stage playing said music, is just un-paralleled. I would do it everyday if I could.

You pull from punk, glam, classic metal and cinematic rock. How do those influences feed into the sound you’re carving out?  
I think that we all bring our own influences into the music. On a personal level, I can say that I have loved the glam aesthetic for years, especially Bowie, and that is where we get a lot of our aesthetics from; we are always jumping from wanting to be more Thin White Duke to more Aladdin Sane. But more so than that, I really love the cinematic rock, and post-punk music of the 70’s and I think that comes out in our song structure and overarching narrative themes. I adore things like leitmotifs and odd time signatures and I think that love really comes through in our music. We are such a melting-pot of musical ideas and I think that the best of our music is the songs where you can hear each of us pulling in something that we love, my favourite example of this being that the ending drum part to ‘The Fall of Atom’ is based around a drum pattern from Shostakovich’s 10th symphony.

Briefly describe your songwriting process
Oftentimes our songwriting process involves me presenting Will with an idea or theme that has either recently occurred to me or has been driving me mad for 10 years. Then, Will goes away and writes the bulk of the melodic and rhythmic guitar, often with lyrics written too, which he then presents to us and we begin to break it apart and rebuild it, lengthening sections and moving sections around until we end up with our mostly final piece. I think that a song is never finished though, so it is very common for us to add to songs way after they were supposedly finished. The version you have released is just a snapshot of a song that in my eyes will never be quite done.

Your debut unfolds as a narrative about humanity spiralling from denial to destruction. What made you want to build a full concept album around that idea?
The world is fragile, and politics even more so. I read an article the other day about warfare finally being out of the nuclear age and reaching the AI age but to me both are as terrifying. We ultimately live in a scary time where experts put the Doomsday Clock at 85 seconds to midnight, and politicians enact wars that defy all logical political predictions. The 1940’s and 50’s saw a fascination with nuclear themes that we are similarly enthralled with, but I believe that ours is less nuclear specific and more using nukes as a theme to express our overall fear and disdain with the potential destruction that feels so imminent and unpredictable.

The record references Oppenheimer, the Bhagavad Gita and Ozymandias. How does history shape the way you write about the present?
History is the way in which we can both learn from the past and can better assess our own actions. Oppenheimer, for example, is so important when talking, or singing, about the nuclear holocaust. He is not only the progenitor but also expresses the greatest emotional regret over his actions because of what he has brought to the world. Oppenheimer provides us a lense to see what someone’s life is like after terrible actions and I think that it is, not only, these characters that are the most interesting, but that they also provide the listener the greatest space to ruminate on what is good or bad.

What do you hope listeners take from the album?
I think that music is really defined by the listener, and I hope that this album just makes them think. I know what we set out to say with the album, and as much as I would like to believe that each listener would come away as an ardent supporter of nuclear non-proliferationist, I would rather at least cause conversation about the topics than to create no discussion at all.

What’s next for you?
What’s next for us is gigging and writing many, many, more songs. We want to get started on album 2 (whatever that may be!) and to keep providing our best to everyone out there. As long as people are interested and we keep giving them something to think about, then that is all we have ever set out to do!