Brutally heavy, Bristol-based bruisers TORPOR have been destroying stages in the UK and Europe for 12 years while also leaving three critically-acclaimed albums in their wake. Rather strangely, this is the band’s first appearance at ArcTanGent festival and John Taylor (vocals/guitars), Lauren Mason (bass/keyboards/spoken word) and Simon Mason (drums/synths/vocals) are somewhat excited to say the least. The band were on site early to soak up the vibes, so The Midlands Rocks had to corner the band to speak all things TORPOR and gauge their feelings ahead of their ATG debut.
You hail from Bristol which has a rich and varied musical history. Do You feel the weight of those who have come before?
Lauren: We’re not from Bristol originally. We met in London, and we’ve probably spent most time together in London; Simon and I were there for 15 years and then we moved to Bristol 5 years ago.
Simon: We’ve visited Bristol and have hung out in Bristol for a long time because Lauren’s mum lived here for 20 years, so we visited for that period before actually moving here. There’s all the greats like Massive Attack and Portishead; all the greats who have come from Bristol. We are influenced by them certainly, but feeling the weight of that? Not at all. I just feel that lineage is part of us.
John: It’s a good place to come to from London. You feel like you are leaving a metropolis…
Simon: …but in fact you are not; you’ve got this depth of culture in Bristol which we draw upon. Since we’ve moved to Bristol we’ve had a much deeper connection with what we are doing and we’ve met so many fantastic people, especially Sam who does our sound for us. A lot of people have moved from London to Bristol and are filling up the scene.
John: And you can’t forget RS Studios.
Simon: Of course, Steve who runs it is a great guy and he’s made it very easy. I love him, and he’s helped us out so much. He’s made our lives so much easier.
Bristol has a vibrant scene. There’s something going on every night.
Lauren: It’s awesome. For me, London had too much going on; there was always lots of clashes.
Simon: Although there was a community in London, we made so many connections there, but obviously a smaller city, a smaller crowd, you learn who is around and everybody is super friendly and has been very welcoming.
You are here early, soaking up the ArcTanGent vibes. How do you feel you slot into the festival as a band?
Lauren: We are here early because the sound guy we mentioned earlier plays in Host Body (Reviewed here) who are opening the festival, so we could not have been here. We wanted to be here and support them. Musically, ATG has changed over the years, I don’t think we would have fitted in 8 or 9 years ago, but over the years it has really diversified and I think we really fit into that horrible, doomy end!
John: It’s good to have that variety. There’s a lot of what I saw the festival as; on Friday there’s a lot of techy, proggy stuff, which I actually quite like, but in my mind if I was a talented guitarist (!), I’d actually enjoy playing stuff like that.
You’ll be hitting the PX3 Stage at 11am on Saturday morning, which is a strange time to be getting active. How will you gear yourself up for that?
Simon: Plenty of coffee, and I think I’ll have a cider on the go.
Lauren: We had a really good write-up from Noizze who listed us as one of their 10 bands to see as said we’ll “Either save or destroy everybody in attendance”. It’ll either rescue you or give you the worst hangover you’ve ever had.
Simon: What was the other thing they said? “A bastard, miserable band”, so we were like, that’s what we’re going to do at 11 o’clock; be a bastard, miserable band! We’re quite happy with that.
John: I’ve seen a lot of things recently where people have said they like to fall asleep to metal. On the flip side, I used to like waking up and putting Meshuggah on my headphones. It’s quite a nice way to start the day.
Simon: I think the way we are going to approach it is the same way we always do; turn up, switch everything on, make sure it’s as loud as can be, then play hard for thirty minutes.
And how will you burn off all that adrenaline?
Simon: I think I’ll probably go for a run.
Lauren: That’s interesting because we’ve never played that early in the day before. I’m really looking forward to it, I think that it’s just going to give a nice adrenaline kick to the whole day.
John: Normally, I just burn off my energy by playing, and then I just want to chill.
Simon: I can hardly think about what we are going to do afterwards. I remember when we played Roadburn I was literally vibrating off stage. God knows what’s going to happen, but I’ll probably drink a bunch of beer and be a nightmare for the rest of the day.
As a band, I was really enamoured by your big sound. How can three people get so heavy?
Simon: I think as we’ve gotten older and deafer, we’ve just got louder!
John: I think it just happened naturally. In the beginning when we first started to play together it was second nature to turn up, tune down and play as hard as possible, and the more confident we’ve got we increased the volume incrementally.
Lauren: A lot of it is to do with the instruments and amps that we use along with a minimal pedal set up, and it is just letting the natural resonance come through, it is not over complicating things.
Simon: I think we’ve more concentrated now on the vibe of our music and the way that comes across, rather that being overtly technical and not paying too much attention to that side of things creates ambience and atmosphere.
Lauren: Personally, I really enjoy the volume and the physicality of loud music and that’s the whole thing for me; playing live and it being really loud and losing myself in that ball of sound. We’ve always tried to create that feeling.
So, do you pick up on the vibrations of the music?
Simon: Exactly. When we feel it on stage and all look at each other; there are certain notes we hit and we get, what do you call it? Stank Face.
Wonderbox described your sound as a “Journey into bleak, aural horror”. What is it like inhabiting that sonic space?
John: It’s strange, because I was listening to the playlist for ArcTanGent and it was only when our song appeared in the middle of the others that it put it into context, how dark it sounded. Sometimes I forget, because it is what we do, so in some ways it comes naturally, so I don’t know what that says about us as people [laughs], but that space is home to us.
Simon: It is contemplation and catharsis. I think we all dwell in that space quite easily, it’s quite close to the surface for us. That’s the only explanation really.
Lauren: For me the music is quite transformational. It is not a depressive thing, I wouldn’t say any of us are afraid to look into the dark heart of suffering…I hope that doesn’t sound too pretentious! John’s a counsellor, I’m a Buddhist and a meditation teacher, we’ve all had depressive episodes and we are not afraid of looking at that, but we bring it to the music and then we work through it, so we don’t dwell in those depressive states, for us it is an expression. For those who don’t really understand it, maybe it does sound bleak, but that’s not the whole story. There’s transcendence moments, there’s transformation, there’s exploration; we don’t keep the listener in that despair, we hope we move you beyond that and that’s what we are interested in.
John: When you share moments with people that you are close with that can be intense and important moments of your life, it is more about the intimacy of it. If people say to me our music sounds aggressive, that’s strange because I don’t feel aggressive playing it. When people ask me how I perform my vocals, it feels more like I am projecting the force of the air and it’s the thing behind it which is important, rather than trying to sound aggressive.
Lauren: Exactly, we are trying to connect with people, rather than being confrontational. We want to be open and we want to bring people along with us.
Simon: It is ego-less as well. Some bands have got an ego and they want to smash you in the face, we don’t have that.
How do you feel your music connects with people? What’s the reaction when you look out at an audience?
Simon: There’s been a lot of crying, that’s for sure. That’s one thing I’ve noticed and people telling us about.
John: I guess there’s a counter-intuitive compliment in how still people are. At your typical metal show you think of people moshing or whatever, but when I look out at our show people are really in the moment and to me, that’s the biggest compliment you can get.
Simon: I think that when we have our quieter moments there’s no chatter when we play, which is also an indication that we’ve captured people’s attention and that really resonates with us because that’s something we are really aiming for.
That’s great because a lot of bands would be flummoxed by silence.
Lauren: No, I love silence, bring it on. I think the most beautiful thing is when we get messages from people and they don’t know what we’ve been through as individuals and it doesn’t really matter, they listen to our music and they connect with something in that and people tell us that we soundtracked a really difficult time or that the music really helped them get through a tough period, but the thing is that there’s a human connection and that’s really, really important.
Simon: I think what we’ve always strived for is human connection. Always.
What’s next for you as a band? Have you started working on a new album?
Simon: New music, no. But we do have a tour coming up in November which we are going to be sharing with our good friends Host Body. November 7th to the 16th and we are trying to get around the whole of the UK.
Finally, it is magic wand time. What one wish can I make come true for the band?
Lauren: To have loads of people there on Saturday at 11am! Can you make that happen?!
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