If anything good came from the global pandemic®, then it was surely the emergence of a plethora of angry young bands, and one such act is the UK’s very own Defects. Having cut their spurs in various groups, Defects pool their considerable talents to create a unit that’s fit to take on the world. Comprising of vocalist Tony Maue, drummer Harry Jennings, bassist David Silver and guitarists Luke Genders and James Threadwell, 2024 is proving to be a bumper year for the lads with their debut album Modern Error garnering rave reviews and a summer full of club dates and festival appearances, we spoke to the band just before their set at this year’s Download (reviewed here).

How has your Download experience been thus far?

It has been great. We’ve only been here for a few hours, but Download’s always amazing. It’s a different world.

So you’ve been here as punters before?

When we played back in 2022, I extended my stay so when we appeared on the Thursday I set up camp and decided to stay the whole weekend as a punter and it was a really, really good experience.

Will you have a chance to check out any other bands while you’re here?

There’s plenty of bands I want to check out after us, Biohazard, Funeral for a Friend…we can’t wait.

Your latest album has been out in the world for a few weeks. How do you feel about it now that it’s been reviewed and heard by the general public.

It’s overwhelming, because when we were writing it we were mainly writing it for ourselves and when it came out and seeing the reaction it got is amazing. It feels good to finally have it out after four and a half years of writing and you do feel like you are moving on from a life chapter, because a lot has changed in those years, we had Covid and all of that to go through, so it feels sweet letting it go out in the world.

It’s a very personal album and vocalist Tony has really put himself out there.

He really has and we are really proud of him, not only in putting the lyrics together but also bearing his soul to people about his back story and where these songs come from and how his inspiration came from that. I think it really relates to a lot of people in different situations and subsequently that makes the music relatable as well.

Given this personal lyricism, how has it been inhabiting these songs when you play them?

When I write stuff, obviously it comes from a personal place, but I always try to base it on subject matter so that people can relate to it in their own way. People can always take something from the lyrics if they are going through a similar experience and it can help people get through things. That’s exactly what happened to me when I was listening to bands such as Linkin Park; the lyrics were personal to Chester Bennington but I took meaning from it and it helped me, so I hope our songs will do the same for other people.

The songs on Modern Error bleed emotion, so how has it been inhabiting these songs on stage, can you leave them on stage or do they haunt you?

For me it is something I relive over and over again, ‘Echo Chamber’ is such a personal song that when we first played it live it was very hard for me to get through, because music can transport me back to the time it was written. There is an element of it can follow you; some shows will be fine, you can cope and it doesn’t bother you at all, at other times, if something is going on in your present, you can get affected by these songs. 100%.

The album has a very bold, in-you-face production. How did you achieve that, what was the recording process?

We’ve always wanted to have a full-on aggressive sound and thankfully we know a producer who brought a real clarity to the mix. We had the best guy for the job. In terms of recording, we didn’t go to a studio, I had some software at home, Luke had some at his, we’d record everything remotely, then we’d send it to Merrick to mix, so it was all done remotely.

So, how has then been replicating those songs live on stage?

To be honest, I think it is more aggressive than it is on record. Speaking for myself, I really tend to lose myself on stage, it’s like I’m a different person, those songs elevate me. They are so aggressive that they really get you in that mood to want to expel aggression, grief and everything. It is therapeutic for me, for sure.

If anything it adds energy, because the energy that we bring to these songs on stage just opens it all out and we love playing these songs.

It is an album that ebbs and flows very well. Was that in your thinking when writing it?

Absolutely. We had ‘Scapegoat’, ‘End Of Days’, and then we naturally drifted into ‘Dream Awake’. Luckily, they resonated so well and they created a theme for the whole album and we always knew that when ‘Gone To Waste’ was written that it would always be such an epic album closer. So there was always a storytelling going on through the album and we always had an idea where it would go, but the album’s midsection was always the most vital part. We added ‘Echo Chamber’ which came in later and ‘Broken Bloodlines’ we were always trying to create a vibe where we wanted to add certain breaks, an ‘Echo Chamber’ certainly delivered on that, so it wasn’t just full-on aggression through the later part of the album. We always aimed for an even listen.

Do you think that the album is making a comeback as an art form?

I think it is, but it is more to do with supporting the band directly. Spotify, as we know, has benefits, such as a level of exposure, but buying an album goes straight into the artists pocket and we need to stay true to that to keep the music alive and young bands coming through.

I’ve always liked discovering music through any means; I’d search out the top ten breakdowns on YouTube to discover what new music was out there, but I hope that people can do the same through the different platforms that are available.

It’s a nice problem to have, and I don’t know if you’ve even considered it yet, but how do you hope to top Modern Error?

When we wrote the album we didn’t know what kind of a bar we were setting for ourselves, but when we got the reviews back, it really put things in motion and showed us what we have achieved here. We’ve got to keep focused, keep the drive and hunger and never taking “no” for an answer in terms of where we want to go and never setting the bar lower. We want to make sure that all five of us can listen to one of our songs and think that there’s nothing we want to change about it. Music is subjective, so that’s very hard to achieve, but we all want to sit in a room and to listen to our next album and be equally happy.

As a band do you all have similar taste in music? Is there one band who unites you all?

We’ve all got similar tastes, a few of us like classic rock, some of the glam stuff, I like a bit of hip hop, so I think there’s a good mixture in there and we all like each others musical tastes so there’s a real unity in that and I think that shines through in the writing process.

No one has pigeonholed themselves, even though everyone’s got their own genres they like, everyone is open to music and it’s created a nice balance in the group and we’ve got a bit of everything on the album and we’re going to explore that on the next one.

You’ve recently blazed a trail across Europe with Orbit Culture. How was that as an experience and what did you learn from it as a band?

That tour was quite a brutal one, there was maybe three or four days off on the whole tour. We learned that you really have to ration your energy and technique really has to take front and centre, and Orbit Culture set the standard, they are such a professional band and I’d advise everyone to go and see them live because they are flawless.

After Download you’re back out in Europe. How do you feel about that?

We’re out on the road with Of Mice And Men for a couple of dates in the UK and then back into Europe and we’re mega excited for Graspop, that is going to be massive. Doing Download and Graspop pretty much in the same week is very exciting times and we really can’t wait for it.

If I could grant one wish for Defects what would it be?

Longevity. This is the patch we’ve chosen, we want to do this as a career. We want to bring the music we are passionate about to the fans and hopefully they’ll reciprocate it.

For me it’s not just about building a fanbase, but building a family; people who can relate to the music, but also that we can relate to them. This world can be a brutal place at times and what we try to do is add a bit of light.

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