Manchester alternative rock outfit Rocketship Forest have released a new single and music video, which are available on their bandcamp page and Youtube, respectively. The band have progressed from the folk rock stylings of their earlier work and Time Slips Like a Disc showcases a much more aggressive and caustic sound, influenced by artists such as Future of the Left, The Fall, Sleaford Mods, Pixies and Idles. Lyrically, the song covers a variety of subjects including the frustration of being stuck in traffic on a bus full of idiots, a tribute to Harold Pinter’s play The Birthday Party, and the time an inebriated man ranted at the band about John Peel and black metal in a nightclub toilet.
Rocketship Forest’s follow up single, Lizard Man, will be released in February and is about the rise of far-right politicians and hatemongers. The band are currently finalising material for their first album, planned for release at the end of the year. The album, titled Megafauna, will feature ten furious, idiosyncratic songs, each under two and a half minutes long.
Rocketship Forest were formed in 2014 and are made up of vocalist/guitarist Thom Hammersley, bassist/vocalist Rick Hartley and drummer Ian Collins. The band formed over a mutual love of alternative music in all its forms, and a desire to experiment with their songwriting. Check out Time Slips Like a Disc below!
We managed to catch up with the band as they talk aboout their latest single and more!
So how has the release of Time Slips Like a Disc gone so far?
The response has been great. Much better than we expected, even. I think we took a bit of a risk releasing it a single, it’s not our most accessible tune and I think it takes some people a couple of listens to get their head around it, but it’s always been a favourite of ours and we’d been itching to get it recorded for ages. We’re very proud of both the song and video.
What inspired you to write this track?
It’s a bit all over the place, lyrically. The first verse was inspired by a time when I was stuck in traffic on a bus full of obnoxious idiots, sat with my head in my hands praying for death. All the lines in the second verse are things some coked-up guy said to me in a nightclub toilet apropos of nothing and the refrain at the end is a line from Harold Pinter’s The Birthday Party that stuck with me. The song is three different ideas we’d been kicking around in the rehearsal room that we decided to stick together, so I thought the lyrics should reflect that mishmash nature.
Can you tell us anything about the single that nobody knows?
Our drummer Ian is joining in on the backing vocals at the end. It’s the second track of ours that features his vocals. I’m not going to say what the first is, I’ll post a free EP to anybody who can figure it out (and that includes Ian because I’m not sure he remembers).
Can you tell us anything about your debut album?
It’ll be called Megafauna, we’ve been working on the material for a few months now and we’re really hoping to release it by the end of 2018. It will feature ten, punk-influenced tracks all under two and a half minutes long. We’ve played a few of the songs at our gigs, and the response from the crowd has been very positive. We’ve been toying with the idea of it having very raw, lo-fi production values, kind of like early Black Flag stuff, but we might change our minds about that. It’s still early days.
If you could work with any band on a new song, who would it be and why?
Björk. Our bass player Rick is a massive fan, which you can hear in his solo work which he performs under the name Rickerly, so that’d be would be the dream for him. Also, I think she could help us take our music in weird new directions and we’d be well up for that.
Will you be touring at all in 2018?
We’d certainly like to. We’re working on doing some more gigs outside of the Greater Manchester area, so if any promoters are reading this do drop us a line.
What was the first gig you went to as a kid?
I saw Slipknot at the Birmingham NEC when I was 13 with my mate Dave. His Dad took us, who was a headmaster at the time and an all-round respectful member of society. In retrospect, tt was very cool of him to take us because it really wasn’t his scene. It was great fun though. Everybody tore up the seats and chucked them around the arena at the end of their set and I got one square in the mouth.
What’s the alternative scene like in Manchester at the moment?
It’s frankly overwhelming because there’s so many great local bands and venues here. It’s a great place to live if you’re an aspiring musician as long as you’re not afraid of a bit of competition. We’ve seen and shared the stage with some really talented Manchester people over the years. Some favourites that come to mind are the math-rock outfit Pfaff, the indie band Brosnan, the experimental electronic artist Cynthia’s Periscope (aka Paul Morrice) and the atmospheric rock duo Edits. Check them all out. Also, us.
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