Tag: Fest

Article by Sarah Williams. Photos by Bev/Hold My Pint.

Check out Part One here.

Aerial Salad have been playing together since high school, although they’ve only really been a proper band for two years. They’ve done a lot in that time: releasing their first album, getting added to the Plasterer Records roster and playing increasingly large shows, including Florida’s infamous annual punk rock event: Fest.

Roach, released last week, is a raw, angsty record, that takes cues from bands like Jawbreaker, Greenday and Gnarwolves. Misery, mundanity and self-loathing are the most prescient themes on the album, although musically it’s very upbeat. Chatting to singer/guitarist, Jamie Munro, it’s clear that his life if underlined by a negative outlook that many of us can relate to, with his passion for music driving him forward through is shitty day job and crippling self-doubt.

Jamie and I covered a lot of ground in Part One, but early in the conversation he told me a story that deserved an article in its own right.  We got chatting about the perils of drinking wine that you’ve found open in a roadside in London. We determined pretty quickly that although Jamie’s got some punk sensibilities, he draws the line at street wine (quite rightly so).

I asked him what the most punk thing he’s ever done is, and he suddenly comes out with this corker:

“The most punk thing we’ve ever done was to play Fest, and then get banned from ever playing again.”

It turns out that this unexpected gem is also the origin story of Aerial Salad.

You got banned from Fest? Tell me about that!

Fest is the main reason Aerial Salad all happened. This was only two years ago; but I was a miserable piece of shit, I was well depressed.

When you’re properly depressed it makes you into a cunt: once you have no regard for your own well-being, it makes it really difficult to have regard for other people’s well-being. If your own emotions are so bleak, you don’t care about upsetting other people, so you can become a narcissistic arsehole. Not everyone does! Positive people who deal with depression are incredible, because it’s a very selfish illness, and it can turn you into a piece of shit. It took me a really long time to realise that’s what I was doing. Continue reading “An Interview with Aerial Salad’s Jamie Munro [Part 2 of 2]”

Article by Sarah Williams. Photos by Bev/Hold My Pint.

I manage to catch up with Aerial Salad’s Jamie Munro on a wet Tuesday evening in October, on the eve of the release of their first album, Roach. Jamie has spent the last hour or so stuck on one of Manchester’s buses, and curses the heavens for deciding to open just as he’s lit a cigarette. I wouldn’t call Jamie a tortured genius, but he’s got an uncanny knack for channelling life’s little day-to-day tragedies into something creative.

He has plenty to be excited about, though; 2017 has been a big year for Aerial Salad. The young trio from Manchester have been playing increasingly bigger shows with the likes of The Bouncing Souls and PEARS, plus big festivals like Rebellion. Roach has just been launched on Alex Brindle-Johnson’s label Plasterer Records, and they’re embarking on a full-on three week tour with Wonk Unit this week. Jamie sings and plays guitar, with Mike Wimbleton on bass and Jack Appleby on drums completing the trio.

I could chat to Jamie for hours; he’s funny, self-deprecating and bubbling with youthful exuberance. Mid-interview, he asks me, “Can you say I was ‘the voice of a generation yet to be heard’? Because then it can say that on my gravestone. It’s very arrogant.” We had so much to discuss that I’ve split this interview into two shorter parts.

Read on to learn about Aerial Salad’s touring successes and failures, plus Jamie’s take on songwriting and musical influences. In tomorrow’s instalment, we find out the origin story of Aerial Salad, how they got banned from playing Fest and why Jamie hates himself with a burning passion.

For a fairly new band, you’ve managed to get onto some big gigs like Fest and Rebellion. How have you managed that?

This band is based on two things: naiveté and luck. That’s what’s beautiful about the DIY scene: you’re only ever four gigs away from playing with one of your favourite bands. The only difference with us is that we’ve had loads of time to gig, because we allowed ourselves to get shit jobs so we can afford to play in a band all the time.

What are the biggest gigs you’ve played recently?

The biggest one we’ve done was Rebellion, but I think Wonk Fest was the best show we’ve played. The first gig we did with Beach Slang at Brudenell Social Club was fucking ridiculous. That was the first good set we ever played. That was just after Alex [Brindle Johnson, of Wonk Unit] had started managing us. He had seen how shit we were, and he told us we needed to be better. He taught us how to be good.

Didn’t you have a support slot with The Bouncing Souls that went a bit awry?

Yeah, there was a miscommunication between the promoter and the tour manager. We turned up after a five and a half hour drive to Norwich all excited for our first proper tour, ready to get stuck in and play with The Bouncing Souls. Their tour manager was like, “Who are you? There’s only three bands playing tonight and you’re not one of them.”

God bless him, Dan, who was putting on the gig, was like, “Please can you just let these children play this show?” We went on 10 minutes before doors opened and played a 20 minute set. Our friend walked in halfway through Dunhills and just thought we were sound-checking. Before you knew it, Great Cynics were on.

So, we did play with The Bouncing Souls and no one can take that away from us, even though we did play before doors opened and no one saw us. It’s alright.

Continue reading “An Interview with Aerial Salad’s Jamie Munro [Part 1 of 2]”