Headliners, The Virginmarys sat down with us backstage for a chat with us at the newest independent festival in London. Shindignation Festival was a fantastic day out watching local and other UK talent, the new and improved Ally and Danny sit with us to discuss what’s next.
So We’re here at The Engine Rooms for new day festival Shindignation, what does it mean to the music scene now there are more and more independent festivals and promotion companies hosting their own gigs and club nights?
Ally “I think it’s going to go more that way, I think that it has to because the more that it’s getting corporate is the more substance is getting lost. The more bands are having to do and the promoters having to do by themselves and I think it’s going to grow like that and become something special.”
Have you got any surprises in store for your set?
Ally “We got clown and jugglers after the third song (chuckles)”
Danny “Not had them for ages. It’s only 45 minutes so we got to kinda play like our first album, second album stuff but I dunno we’re going to play one at the end that we’ve not played for absolutely ages.”
Ally “Yeah it’s kinda like… [soundproof door opens] It’s always an intense set but then we’ve included some of the old stuff that like we’ve had fans that have followed us around since day one so it’s good to do something for them as well.”
What other bands should people watch out for at Shindignation?
Danny “Yeah man I really wanted to check out this band [Sisteray] yeah man. They were really cool from what I’ve listened to and I caught Lock. They were wicked.”
You have the EP coming out soon but will there be any more new music?
Hayden Ho
Ally “Yeah I think it’s gonna be that we keep pressing on with the Eps I mean this is the first time we’re produced and self-released so it’s probably been a slower process than what we wanted it, but yeah Just more of the same I guess.”
You’ve been promoting the EP by releasing some videos, how well has that gone down with fans and media?
Danny “Yeah I mean I think to be honest with you I think that’s the way it seems to be going for me, where depending on what side of the boat you’re on with the music industry if you’re more independent or more into the pop corporate bullshit. It seems to be working a lot better doing your own stuff, doing your own videos independently for us anyway so I think that’s what we gotta keep doing. It always seem to fuck up for us when we did stuff that was corporate.” They have their own motivations as well as trying to promote yours. Yeah it just didn’t seem to fit.
Are you a duo or still a trio?
Ally “Well we are still kinda a trio still. This is Matt playing bass [sat to my left].”
Matt “Just a session guy now.”
Ally “Yeah, Matt went in November last year.”
Danny “Because he had triplets.”
Read our review of The Virginmarys set here!
