1. Please tell us about the history of your band and its members. We’ve been around for almost 30 years in one form or another, so our history could fill a book. We started with an incarnation called Morbid Streak and released our first demo in 1989. Miko (vocals) and Glenn (drums) were both members of that band and Graham (bass) was a producer or co-producer on all of those early cassette demos. The band renamed to Absolute Zero in 1993 and released our first full-length CD in 1994. We were in a two-singer format for most of that time and Danny (now lead guitar) was the second vocalist during a chunk of that period. After a few distribution deals, videos and tours, everyone went their separate ways for a few years until Miko had the idea that we should get together to mark June 6th, 2006 for a special 666 show. We had so much fun that we decided to keep it going and renamed to The Blackcloud Syndicate. We went through some line-up changes finishing up with Blair coming in on rhythm guitar last year.
2. What’s the origin of the band’s name? All through our history, whenever we had a run of bad luck (and we’ve had a few, like buying a van to leave on tour and having it not even make it to downtown Toronto before breaking down) we’ve always joked about being followed around by “the black cloud”. It’s to the point where our fans actively expect it to rain anytime we play (and it usually does) and we have friends all over Canada who are all part of the Blackcloud Posse. The name just seemed to make sense when we decided to rebrand.
3. Where is the band based out of and what is your music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend? We’re in the Toronto, Canada area and the local music and metal scenes are pretty strong here. Wouldn’t say metal is the powerhouse genre in Toronto that it is in a city like Montreal, but lots of bands and more than a few good venues to play. Some of the bands we really like and respect locally are Spewgore, Phantom and Crawl. Miko also sings in a local grindcore band called Burdizzo that put out a release last year and have been doing quite a few shows.
4. How would you describe your style? We feel like we incorporate a lot of diverse influences, because everyone has their different favorite styles that they bring to the table. The main building blocks are thrash and hardcore, but you can find elements of death, traditional metal, punk, alternative rock and even a touch of hip-hop now and again. So far, we’ve managed to resist any black metal or grindcore creeping in, despite Blair’s best efforts J.
5. What have you released so far and what can someone expect from your works? Since we’ve been operating under this name, we’ve put out two EPs. In 2013 we released “Rage in Common” followed by a video for the single “Protest the Riot”. Late last year, we did the first material with the current line-up. We decided we wanted to give our fans a gift for sticking with us through the line-up changes, so we recorded another quick and dirty EP called “Something New, Something Old, Something Borrowed, Zero Sold” and the title pretty much sums it up. One new track, one old track re-recorded, and one cover song. Then we padded it out with 4 bonus tracks revisiting and re-working older songs from the Absolute Zero days. It helped us to get a recording project under our belts and then we made it available for free download on our Bandcamp site. You can find all the usual places too, like iTunes and Amazon and Spotify.
6. Do you have any new music in the works? Our primary focus right now is writing a full-length album because we really want people to hear a finished product from this line-up. The one new track on the EP was just a hint of what’s to come. We have about six new ones fully written and good portions of two or three others. At this point, we’re hoping to start recording in the fall.
7. How about playing shows and touring, have anything planned out? Because we’re so focused on writing at the moment, we’re not actively pursuing live gigs right now. If the right opportunity gets offered, we’ll definitely jump on it because we want to get some more live experience under our belts with this group.
8. What plans do you have for the future as a band? We want to just keep making the music we like to hear and we’re not really the kind of band that’s going to change what they do based on what’s popular right now or anything like that. That being said, we want to push it out to as many people as possible, because being in a band is a lot more fun if you are crushing tons of skulls and people are digging it as you go along.
9. Where can we listen to your band and where can we buy your stuff? Free download and streaming of the new EP on our bandcamp site (theblackcloudsyndicate.bandcamp.com). You can also buy our t-shirts and our first EP on CD or digital there. Both EPs available on iTunes and Apple Music, Spotify, Amazon, CDBaby and a bunch of other digital music services.
10. What is it you’d like a listener to remember the most when hearing your music for the first time? I think we’d like people to walk away saying “That kicked my ass, made me think and they sure don’t sound quite like any other metal band I’ve ever heard.” If we get that reaction, we’ve accomplished what we set out to do. Thanks, Glenn The Blackcloud Syndicate
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