Today I am very lucky to have an
interview with The Counteracts who
will release their new album "
Caricature" shortly. Thank you very much that you answer my questions.
For those who don't know you yet,
it would be nice if you could introduce yourself briefly.
The
Counteracts are a Duo of songwriters who are Simon J. Biscoe, Lead Vocals &
Bass, and Doug Smith, Keyboards and Backing Vocals.
How long have you both be on the
music journey and how did it all start? for example, did you play in school or college
band ?
We
both got interested in music at school, and were in Bands while we were there.
Simon remained in his School band on and off through the years, whilst also
playing live with a couple of covers Bands. Doug was a classically trained
pianist whilst at school, but didn’t play an instrument seriously during a 30
year gap until 2010, so our musical journey has been 40+ years, but with many
interruptions.
How did it come about that you
wanted to make music together?
In
2015, Doug joined the Band that Simon was already in, and Simon had some songs
that he had written that the Band didn’t feel were right for them. We both
recorded 2 of these songs, and released them as a side project, named The
Counteracts. The reaction was so good, that we decided to carry on with more
songs, as our original Band started to implode around this time.
When you work on new songs, it is
always harmonious or there are sometimes disagreements?
It
is usually very harmonious, as we bring different strengths to the Band.
Whereas Simon is very good with words and melodies, Doug can hear the
arrangement in his head, so we normally get to a point where we are both happy
with our areas of expertise. We write both separately and together, but we
always collaborate on each other’s songs, so it’s a good Team effort.
What would you say who your music
is influenced by?
Simon
is a huge Beatles fan, and also likes The Kinks, Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly and
the B52s.
Doug’s
favourite bands are Yes, Genesis and Queen, and he also likes1980’s Electronic
music.
You are producing some cover songs
which are without a doubt great, how did you come up with that?
When
we started, we didn’t have a lot of songs, so we decided to release one song a
month, alternating between Originals and Covers. It was a fun thing to do, as
we only chose to cover songs that we both liked, but it was also a good
discipline, as we got to learn how musicians who we greatly admired wrote their
songs, and it was also great practice.
A question that cannot be avoided
in times of social media .... What do you think about it and how active are you
on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms?
This
is Simon’s area, and we have a Counteracts page on both Twitter and Facebook.
We also have a separate fan page on Facebook called The Counterettes, which is
a more fun-based place where we can just chat and have a laugh with our fans
and friends.
Do you think that streaming
services are rather harmful to the music business?
And if you had the chance, what
would you generally want to change in the music industry?
It
depends where you are in the Music hierarchy. Professional artists are
understandably unhappy with streaming services, because they are losing revenue
streams because of them. Thankfully, The Counteracts aren’t in it for the
money, so for us it’s all about getting heard on as many platforms as possible,
so we’re generally in favour.
We
would like to rid the world of Auto-tune, and manufactured Bands and music, and
allow real talent to flourish. There’s a whole host of brilliant Independent
and Unsigned Artists out there, but the General Public are just fed a diet of
processed, formulaic music. (We’ll get down from our soapbox now, lol).
You are independent artists, where do you see the
advantages and what are the disadvantages?
Advantages
- We can work at our own pace, and no one tells us what to do.
Disadvantages
– We do our own networking, marketing, promotion, mixing and mastering, which
are all things that take us away from the main area that make us tick, which is
writing and playing.
Are there certain artists you adore
and would like to be on stage with?
Simon
would like to be the 5th Beatle, and Doug would like to be the 2nd Freddie
Mercury!
What are you doing in your free
time? Do you have hobbies that you pursue and you still have time for leisure
activities?
Simon
collects vintage memorabilia, including radios and record players, and likes to
play Vinyl by stars of the 50s and 60s.
Doug
is currently a presenter on 2 Internet Radio Stations, playing a mix of genres
on one show, and dedicating his other show to Progressive Rock
You will be releasing your new
album shortly, were there any special things while working on it? And how
excited are you about new releases?
The
best thing about the new album is that we actually wrote half of the songs
together, whereas the songs on the first album were mainly songs that Simon had
written with his previous song-writing partner. We’re very excited about the
release, as it’s been over 2 years since the last album, and we can’t wait to
show everyone how much we’ve developed in that time.
The cover art for the new album is
very cool and interesting, who had the idea and why this one?
Doug
was at a wedding last year, and a guy was going round with a sketchpad, doing
doodles of all the guests. When Simon saw the result, he suggested we get in
touch with the artist, and he was really up for it. His name is Rich Nairn, and
he is known online as The Artful Doodler.
And my last question, what's next?
Are you planning the next album, new singles or any appearances as soon as this
is possible again?
We
will be releasing new songs from the album over the coming months. There are no
plans for the next album yet, but I’m sure we’ll start writing a new lot of
songs before too long, as it’s what we enjoy doing.
Thank you very much for the
interview and I wish you much success and luck with everything that may come
and hope that we will hear a lot from you!
It
was our pleasure, Martina, and may we just offer you our sincere thanks for the
interest and support you have shown to The Counteracts, as well as being such a
great ambassador for Independent music in general.
Written by Martina Doerner
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