She Must Burn are bringing a really cool brand of metal to the masses which is shown perfectly on their debut album Grimoire, released earlier this year. We caught up with guitarist James Threadwell, bassist Frankie Korsair and keyboardist Annina Melissa to chat Download, Grimoire and Beauty and the Beast!
You’re at Download! Are you excited to be here?
All: Yes! Very much!
Annina: It’s surreal!
You’ve played already, how was your set?
James: Fantastic. We had a great crowd. It was the first one of the day this morning and the tent was empty and then when we rocked on stage, all these people who had been partying for two days just rolled in. It was beautiful!
Yeah the queues outside were mental so when they finally get in, everyone just runs to the stages!
James: That’s what we were hoping, that by the time we struck our first chord, people would just gravitate towards the tent, and we could gain some new fans! And before we even struck our first chord there were people waiting for us, it was fantastic!
It’s great, it’s what you want to see! Is there anyone that you’re looking forward to seeing?
Annina: System Of A Down and Mastodon tonight!
James: I’d go with Good Charlotte as well and we got Sum 41.
Frankie: Oh really? There’s so many bands from my youth, like if I see System Of A Down, Good Charlotte and Sum 41 today, it’ll be like I’m 15 again!
The Madden twins walked past me earlier and it was like I’ve listened to them since I was a small child and to see them in person was insane! In March, you released your debut album Grimoire, how have you found the reaction?
James: The reception’s been incredible, we’re very proud, very happy with it. We love touring it.
Frankie: We played two songs from the newest album today and two songs from the EP as well and it went down a treat! The album is fantastic, we released it over in the US and we got our first delivery a week before the release so when we were in the US, people were hearing the songs for the first time because it was the first time we’d played them live and then they were able to pick up the album as well and people were loving it!
That’s great! Can you tell us a bit about your inspirations as a band and as individuals?
Frankie: This band has so many different influences and reasons for doing what we do and things that have inspired us in our lifetimes. James is super into his ‘80s metal stuff.
James: I love my rock ‘n’ roll.
Frankie: I’m into like deathcore, metalcore and stuff.
Annina: I’m more into the classical.
Frankie: We just bring those things together. Jonny is really into his black metal and j-rock. We just bring it all together and try to create something a bit different and I think we’ve achieved it so far!
That’s cool! You’re a bit different to what some of our readers usually listen to so you have six words to convince our readers to see She Must Burn live, what would they be?
Annina: I know! Watch us sweat our paint off!
James: (they check how many words it is, even though it is six) that’s pretty good!!
Do you have any plans for a UK tour soon?
James: We’ve got some stuff in the pipeline we can’t talk about at the minute but as the year goes on we’re definitely going to be covering ground we haven’t covered before.
Frankie: Things are in the works. It’s in early days at the moment but towards the end of the year. The best time to gig for us is in the winter time so we released the album in March, let it roll through the summer then just gig it in the winter as much as we can. We’ve got a few things in the pipeline, we haven’t announced them yet or fully finalised things. So stay tuned!
There’s a new Punk Goes Pop album coming out soon, so if She Must Burn were to cover a current chart pop song, what would it be?
Annina: What is current?
James: You might have to let us do a quick Google! Can we do film songs? Because Betraying The Martyrs did Let It Go, I don’t know if that was on there. For pop songs, I couldn’t tell you any!
Frankie: I think Taylor Swift’s there so whatever she’s got out there, that’d be alright. But I think pop goes punk, they do her to death don’t they?
Taylor Swift and Ed Sheeran are the main ones done. I looked at the track list for the new one and I’d heard of the artists but none of the songs.
James: if we had to pick a song that was in a film as opposed to the charts cause I’m so out of touch with that, we should do a song from Beauty and the Beast!
Annina: Or from Nightmare Before Christmas! Beauty and the Beast is probably a good idea!
They would be good! Especially with the new film out and the new songs! We always end with some random questions; What was the first record you remember buying?
Annina: First record? Oh my god! It would have to come out one day, I think it was some classical music because I was really into classical music but the first non-classical music that I bought was actually Will Smith. I was like nine! It was Big Willie Style.
That’s not bad! Mine was Steps! Marvel or DC?
Frankie: DC!
Yes someone agrees with me!
Frankie: Yeah! I liked Batman v Superman but Batman is my all-time favourite hero.
James: The Joker’s the best villain ever!
The Joker is! What is your favourite Pokemon and why?
James: Oh god, we could be here for a while! I’ve never actually really thought about it! I’m gonna go with Gengar, he pops up everywhere, he’s a ghost, there’s something quite dark about him.
Fair, finally is there anything else you want to say to our readers?
James: Stay tuned on our Facebook.
Frankie: You can listen to our new album on Spotify if you haven’t already and if you have then listen to it again!
James: Or you can buy it on iTunes as well.
Frankie: And Google and Amazon as well! And we should be playing a show in a town near you soon.
That’s great! Thanks for speaking to us today!
All: Thank you!