ES: Yes, we released our first album about 5 years ago now, and it’s over 2 years since the Helldog EP, so it’s been a long time coming but we wanted to make sure we got something new out that we could be promoting throughout 2009. We’ve worked very hard on all of the new material, and we like to think it shows a real step forward in song-writing and technical ability, whilst maintaining the sense of humour and fun that characterises what we have always done. The new album is, we think, a good representation of where the band is now, and we’ve tried to write songs that, musically, stand up to judgement by real metal fans and have that unique Scarecrow element to them.

LH: The album was self-produced. Looking on MySpace, I notice Brother Pain is also a sound engineer, so I guess it made sense to produce the album yourselves with no need to really bring in a producer. Are you happy with the results? How was your experience in the studio?

ES: Everything we’ve done so far has been self-produced. For ‘Sixty-Six Minutes Past Six’ we enlisted the help of some good friends who are in the engineering/recording/producing business, so they knew what they were doing and we think that, amongst us all, we’ve done a good job. Ultimately, at the moment we aren’t in a position to spend huge amounts of time and money in a studio, so we took the executive decision that what resources we have would be best spent on recording the album ourselves and then promoting it through media and by booking as many shows as possible. Obviously, as we get bigger and with the right backing we’d love to take the time to do any future recordings in a proper studio with some top-notch producers on board to help us make something really special, but we feel that the end product we’ve managed to come out with at this stage is more than acceptable and a good showcase for what we are trying to achieve.

LH: You seem put a lot of effort into the lyrics, and perhaps they are of equal importance as the music. I get the impression that you take quite a bit of inspiration from horror and sci-fi movies; with some of the songs coming off rather like stories, such as ‘Godzilla’s Lament’ and ‘March Of The Spider God,’ and of course ‘Robototron.’ Would this be accurate?

ES: I think so. The lyrics are to a large degree the more tongue-in-cheek elements of Evil Scarecrow and have always been very important, and we certainly try to tell a story with every song we’ve written: Robototron, for example, is a futuristic re-telling of the film ‘Gladiator’. In a way we try to separate the two song-writing elements, so the music is intended to be as good as we can make it, with interesting riffs, time signatures, tempos changes, etc, and the real ‘parody’ aspect of what we do comes out in the lyrics and story, as you say, and of course the on-stage element, which is the most important aspect of evil Scarecrow. The songs really come to life when we can perform them live and add all of the little visual and dynamic nuances to them. Robototron, musically, is fairly simple, but when you add the robot dancing it becomes something else, likewise with a lot of the synchronised stage movements that we put a lot of time into writing and getting right.

LH: Musically speaking, Dimmu Borgir are the obvious reference point, and I’ve noticed an increased classic metal influence on the album particularly on title track ‘66 Minutes Past 6’ which has a very Iron Maiden-esque feel to it. Are there any less obvious influences, and how would you describe your own sound?

ES: It’s a tough question to answer. We’ve always just described ourselves as ’heavy metal’, and with a lot of our songs dipping into different sub-genres that’s about as specific as we ever like to be. We all have fairly diverse musical tastes, so we bring a nice variety to the song-writing table which helps us to write songs in different styles. The Maiden influence is, obviously, a fairly consistent one, and in some of the new stuff – most notably ‘Horatius’ – the influence is musical and structural, as we wanted to present our own epic poem in the style of ‘Rime of The Ancient Mariner’. Another influence would be Opeth, and we’ve tried to include some more prog-metal elements in some of our new songs. There’s so much that influences what we do because we’re all big metal fans, so, at least subconsciously, we’re drawing on a wealth of great material out there to help us to shape our sound in general and individual songs in particular.

LH: I’ve noticed obviously you have built up quite a strong following with your live shows – you had a good response from your performance at BOA and also you played with Soulfly earlier this year. I was wondering if you have had any label interest yet?

ES: Yes, our live show is where we are at our best and we have been lucky enough to develop a pretty healthy fan-base as a result of all the shows we’ve played across the country. BOA last year was awesome, and the response was astounding – we get at least a handful of people at every show now who saw us at BOA and have come to check us out as a result which is great. Label interest is something we are going to be looking at seriously in the near future, now that we have a new album to showcase and a good portfolio of live reviews, etc. We’re going to be looking for representation/management/label backing to help us make the step up to bigger and better things, so watch this space.

LH: Obviously some bands, particularly inexperienced ones jump at the first deal that comes along, and end up getting a raw deal because they haven’t read the fine print and are so overwhelmed by the thought of getting signed. Sometimes it can be far better for a band to release an album independently, as you have done, and hold out for a deal that is really going to be worth it. Is this something you’ve really thought about when choosing to bring out a self-financed album?

ES: Partly. We wanted to get our new album ready to have something to take to labels to present ourselves in the best possible light, but I think we have always been aware of the potential perils of getting carried away just because someone dangles a contract in front of us. We’ve done a good job and gotten to a good level by promoting and representing ourselves, with the help of friends who know the industry and have steered us right, given us advice along the way, etc, so we’re not about to sign up to the first label that expresses an interest unless the deal is right. We know that, on top of the effort we put into our song-writing and the strong material we produce, our live show is always going to be our biggest asset, and we would love someone to take us on and try to promote us on the back of that.

LH: On a similar note, do you have any distribution deal in place? Where will the album be available to purchase?

ES: We do have distribution for the new album in place through the kind people at Code 7 Distribution. Thanks to them, you can get hold of our new album through all of the major online retailers, including Amazon, Play.com and HMV.com. You can also order it from our website, through the Code 7 website or you can head on into the digital age and buy it from iTunes, Napster etc., via the good people at CD baby.

LH: Obviously you guys are a novelty act, and you don’t take yourselves too seriously. The usual clichéd response to why a band forms is that they all got together to play music similar to the bands they like, which I’m sure in part was why you formed as well. Though, I imagine it was slightly different as with you it isn’t only about the music; there’s the stage show, image and the rest that seems equally a part of your output. What were your motives and inspiration for wanting to form a “parody” metal band, rather than a straight forward metal band?

ES: We really wanted to do something that was a bit different. There are so many really good bands out there, so doing something a little out of the ordinary seemed a good way to go. The band was actually formed by former members of a Viking metal band called Thor’s Children which was out and out comedy. Evil Scarecrow looked to take the comedy and light-hearted aspects of Thor’s Children and try to move it into a more metal sphere, with a more heavy metal look and sound, and definitely a lot more emphasis on good songs and ability to back up the entertainment value. Ultimately, everyone in the band, current and former members, loves heavy metal and enjoys having a laugh, and I think we share a style of humour that lends itself to what we do. It made sense, and still does, for us to be out there and dong something that we love, and hopefully that enjoyment gets transmitted to the crowd very easily, and everyone can have a laugh whilst appreciating good music at the same time.

LH: I notice a lot of bands in metal take themselves quite seriously and you are, in that respect, quite unique, certainly in the UK scene. Do you think part of the reason you maybe went this route was because you saw a gap in the market, and that there was something you yourselves wanted from the scene that just wasn’t being catered for?

ES: Yes, to a degree. In general heavy metal fans – ourselves included – seem to be quite open minded and enjoy a good laugh, so it just made sense to combine music and comedy and really maximise the entertainment value of the band. There are people out there doing a similar thing, either very explicitly – Gwar being the obvious example – or maybe a more subtly. Looking at the lyrics some bands write, you’ve got to think that not all metal bands are 100% serious, and often bands present a less than serious side on stage, Dragonforce, for example, or even Opeth, if you’ve heard some of the banter that Mikael Åkerfeldt comes out with during their shows. The big difference is that we wear our hearts on our sleeves: we always aim to impress, entertain and make people laugh, and when you have the stage show and comedy elements to back up the music it just means that people are likely to respond to different aspects of the band, which is great.

LH: I know at one point Nottingham had quite a healthy metal scene and you have a few decent venues, lots of gigs and some really good bands. I’m not sure if it still the same as scenes have the tendency to change quite rapidly, and of course the demise of Junktion7 must have been a pretty sad day for you. Would you say the local scene has changed a lot over the years since you first started out?

ES: The scene is certainly still thriving in Nottingham, and there’s no shortage of excellent bands around. Seven has now reopened, which is great, and of course Rock City is still going strong and it’s always a pleasure for us to play there. Obviously we’ve grown up as a band in our local scene, so our experiences have changed a lot, but we always love playing Nottingham and get a fantastic reception, so from our point of view it’s as good as it’s ever been. There’s a huge market for heavy metal here, and the RockSocs are always very supportive, so it’s good to have that element thriving in Nottingham.

LH: You have recorded a video to Robototron! Could you talk a bit about this, I imagine you had a good laugh filming it?

ES: The video was great fun. We’d wanted to do it for a while, and it was a bit of a logistical nightmare to get the band, the crew and the 20 or so robot extras together at the same time, but we managed it and we’re thrilled with the end product. It was great that so many of our friends and fans were willing to help out and make their own cardboard/tinfoil/dustbin robot costumes, and we got some very interesting looks from passers-by, but it was a fun day. We wanted to make a video that reflects Evil Scarecrow, so it’s hopefully fairly obvious that it’s meant to be a bit silly. The video is set in the future and tells the story of Robogirl, a secret Evil Scarecrow fan who sneaks out to meet her friend and make her way to the ‘Forbidden Forest’ for an illegal gig. There, she meets a host of other droids who dance the night away, but tragically all end up dying in some unspecified way. It’s available to watch through Youtube, Myspace and the usual channels, so anyone who hasn’t seen it should take a look and let us know what you think.

LH: Finally, what are your plans for the remainder of 2009? Do you intend to get on any more festival bills or major support slots, or hitting the road to support your new album?

ES: We’re always after new gigs, so any festival slots or support slots would be great, but we’ll have to see what comes along. We have plenty more gigs planned to promote the new album so check our Myspace page for details. We have our first international gig coming up when we go to play in Hamburg at the end of May which should be great. We’ll be working on a new video for ‘Blacken The Everything’ (from the new album) in the near future so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise we’re just looking to promote ourselves and what we do and see what interest we can get, both from the industry and from the fans out there who are always great and who generally have very positive things to say to us. Sounds clichéd, but we couldn’t do it without them, so we’ll look forward to playing to plenty of new fans over the coming months.

LH: Thanks for the interview! Feel free to leave any final message to our readers.

ES: Thankyou. It really only remains to say, if you haven’t seen Evil Scarecrow, please come along and take a look. We put our hearts and souls into what we do onstage, and we love playing to new fans, so give us a try and see what you think. We know that what we do isn’t for everyone, but hopefully most metal fans out there appreciate the energy and work that goes into a good stage show and will go away smiling. We’ll enjoy playing for you, anyway. Cheers.

For more on the band check out http://www.evilscarecrow.co.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/evilscarecrowhome

Interviewed by Luci Herbert

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