Too Old For This Pit

On this episode we welcome Sammy Urwin - guitarist, owner of beautiful hair and all-round pleasant chap. As well as laying down the heaviest riffs in Employed To Serve, he also co-runs the exceptional Church Road Records. He's eaten dog chocolate too.

Join  us as we chat with him about Justin Timberlake, the dynamics of being in a band with your spouse,  pyramid schemes and the Titanic. We even ask him your burning questions, 86% of which comprise of "WHEN IS THE NEW RECORD OUT?!"

While Sammy psyches himself up for his appearance on the podcast several people have described as "alright", we share the worst jobs you, our wonderful listeners, have ever had - from grave digging to lion shipping. Truly, we are all employed to serve.

One of Dane Campbell's bandmates is his dad. His dad's better than yours though, mainly because he played guitar in Motorhead and your dad didn't. With rock and roll coursing through his blood, when Dane isn't behind the kit getting heavy with Phil Campbell and the Bastard Sons, he's hosting his excellent podcast, Drum for the Song. A man of many talents, he’s also absolutely bloody lovely to talk with. 

Dane joins us from beautiful South Wales to shoot the breeze on many interesting topics, such as the dynamics of mixing music and family, working in a cheese-packing factory to make ends meet during the pandemic and the differences between Marmite and Vegemite. 

Before Dane enters our Zoom call and makes our houses look shite with his collection of wall-hung instruments, we gift your our silliest intro yet as we cover 'penny licks' (not an adult entertainment star), daytime TV and Victorian open-air museum confectionary. We've peaked.

Everyone knows that Bert from Mary Poppins is the earliest example of a one-man band - but that doesn’t mean he’s the best.  Imagine if he was cranking out blackened, doomgazey post-metal, had a less confusing accent and didn't force innocents to dive into his chalk-based nightmarescapes. That's essentially Jason Roberts - multi-instrumentalist and sole member of Breaths. 

Jason joins us from Richmond, Virginia to chat about Breaths’ incredibly good debut album, Lined in Silver. We talk about influences, juggling music with a full time job and family life, and Jason informs us, in the most relaxed manner, that he once opened for a band so famous even your gran knows them. No big deal.

Before Jason ushers the kids out of the house and psyches himself up for being on the world’s greatest podcast*, Graham and Kieran broach a broad range of  enthralling topics - gardening, painting, cleaning and securing the future of this humble show by having babies within ten days of each other. Sometimes we wish we were listeners rather than hosts, so we could ride this audio rollercoaster unaware of the thrills that await us. 

*subject to opinion

Too Old For This Pit turns one! To celebrate Graham and Kieran have pulled together loads of tasty highlights to laugh at and discuss. Whether you're a veteran listener or a total noob (do kids still say that?) you're in for a treat. 

Grab yourself a drink, sit back and relax as your ears are enveloped with 'top bants' (they definitely don't say that) and clips from interviews with all the bands and guests that have graced us with their presence over the last 12 months. 

• Find out what Craig from Sick Of It All is growing in his garden
• Discover Four Year Strong's plan for 'intimate' gigs
• Hear Serena from Svalbard chatting about being buried alive
• Revel at Raging Speedhorn telling Slipknot to "f*ck off" 
• Laugh at a toddler asking Luke from The Dirty Nil about bagels and pancakes

We're even treated to a personalised metal rendition of 'happy birthday' courtesy of Ste Bauman, and we take some time to thank those who have supported our first year.

Honestly, what more could you want?!

Our mental health is incredibly important, especially in these unusual and stressful times. On this episode we're honoured to be joined by Dr Kate Quinn,  a clinical psychologist working in our amazing NHS. Kate is also the founder of Heavy Metal Therapy, an online community and resource for those who find metal a benefit for their mental wellbeing. 

Kate talks about some of the inspirational stories from the Heavy Metal Therapy community, the vital role alternative music can play as a release for stress and anxiety, and the positivity around the return of live music. 

Before Kate dons her headset, we chat about Irish curry sauce, Davey Havok, WiFi washing machines and Robin Williams.  Kieran decides to use the podcast intro as the vehicle for  sharing a huuuuuuuge announcement with Graham and takes him by total surprise, but in a good way!

Oven chips. 
Cruises. 
Online gaming. 

We talk about all of these things with Archie Hatfield, vocalist of Bristol-based Immerse. Don't fret, heavy music lover - we also chat about the dynamics of the band, their upcoming second album and their touring plans now that there is a potential return to normality for live music. 

Archie tells us about his favourite places to play in Bristol, opening for Bam Margera and why they have songs named after Peep Show and Monsters Inc. He also responds very well to a child asking him why his music is so angry. 

Before Archie fires up his PC and RGB lights, Kieran and Graham discuss gas boiler maintenance, hair length and the new single from The Offspring. They also speculate whether summer festivals will go ahead (spoiler alert: probably not).

All aboard the good ship Too Old For This Pit, toot tooooooot! Do ships toot? We clearly haven't thought this through.

Punk rock elitism. CrossFit classes with yoga mums. Exploding dogs. We discuss all of these things with our favourite Canadian, Luke Bentham - singer and guitarist of the mind-blowingly amazing band The Dirty Nil. We even manage to spend a little time discussing their incredible new record, Fuck Art. Imagine that. 

Luke gets into why the band refuses to shackle themselves to a genre, their varied influences and bassist Ross's history in doom metal, country and, now, rap. We all laugh heartily about the upcoming community-sourced music video for new single Elvis '77 and go off on a tangent about IKEA furniture. For the first time ever, we let a three-year-old ask a couple of questions too. What could go wrong?

Before Luke defrosts his microphone, we get into Kieran's snoring, Graham's hot stomach and an epic tale of potato-based consumer fury which will scupper any chance of Domino's sponsoring this podcast. Pizza Hut, let's chat.

It's no big deal at all, but this time we're joined through the wonder of the internet by one of the best drummers in rock and metal - Martin Lopez. Currently sitting behind the kit in prog-metal supergroup Soen, he's also well-known for playing previously in Opeth and Amon Amarth. You knew that though. 

With new album Imperial freshly released, Martin spills the details on the background of how the record came to be and also informs us how to play an exceptionally messed-up prank with your band mate using an Albino Python. He talks about growing up in Sweden with Uruguayan parents and how his South American heritage led to him sometimes feeling like an outsider in his country of birth and, in turn, forged  Soen's lyrical focus on inclusivity and acceptance.

Before Martin boots up Zoom, we talk amongst ourselves about Kieran's M&S-based moral dilemma, extreme couponing, doomsday preppers and starting a Patreon account that lets you remove the audio of whichever co-host you like the least. Or maybe both of us.
 

Sonny Vega was getting ready to fly to South America for another overseas tour when he received some news that would change his life. After a frank discussion with his band mates, he left behind a decade of travelling the world with melodic hardcore legends Close Your Eyes and returned home to Texas to prepare for the birth of his daughter and a different life.

We sit down with Sonny from a covid-secure social distance of 4,733 miles and discuss his childhood dreams of being a professional musician and how Close Your Eyes cleverly ignited their small town with live music to ink a deal with Victory Records. He also talks about the challenging transition from being a touring musician sleeping in a van with sweaty fellas, to being home with a steady job and sleeping in a nice bed with his wife. 

We talk podcasts too, as Sonny hosts the immensely witty (and often drunken) Always Sonny Podcast. Don't listen to it though, you might like it more than ours.

Before Sonny joins us we get into Kieran's dreams of being a lumberjack, Graham's fancy new microphone, and whether 'crap' and 'bloody' are swear words. 

In our final episode of 2020 we're joined by Rachel, a keen Kerrang! magazine preservationist who set up the incredible Instagram account @moshermags to remind us all of just how good the early 2000s were. We don our baggy jeans and Papa Roach t-shirts and travel back in time to reminisce about nu-metal, sweaty alternative nightclubs and how downloading a Korn song on Limewire took around a month, give or take. 

Before we open the treasure trove of our teenage past,  we have a chat about our grown-up Christmas gifts, Kieran's snugly-fitting elf costume and we get all misty-eyed thinking about our first year in the podcast business and the amazing guests we've had on. We're probably only a few months away from being multi-millionaires so that's nice. 

We'll catch you next year and wish you all the best for a healthy and happy 2021 x