Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 2: I just wanted to let it fade out at the end.
There that little effect that is everybody's on drugs. The
band is the Puncturess and we have entered our number
three Newmarrow trace of Matt Connorton Unleashed and we are
live from the studios of wm NH ninety five point
three FM, inglorious but very very cold, Manchester, New Hampshire.
Of course you can stream the show from anywhere, go
to Matt connorton dot com, slash live and today is
for you live listeners. January twenty four, twenty twenty six,
and we have joining us from the Puncturists.
Speaker 1: Let me get that volume up here.
Speaker 2: We've got Dale Farrow, who is the the bass player
in the band.
Speaker 1: Hello, Dale, Hi, Matt, can you hear me? Okay? Absolutely?
Speaker 2: You sound great? Yeah, absolutely, welcome, Welcome to the show.
I'm excited to talk to you. By the way, you
know you are a fellow bass player, so I was
like talking to another bass player and I love I
love the album. I'm not all right, thank you? Yeah,
really really good. I listened to the whole thing. That's
that's probably my favorite track, which is why I chose
it to open the segment. But yeah, great, great stuff.
Now where are you from, Dale? Where's the band from?
Speaker 3: We're based in northern England. Pat and Gale Pats, the
guitarist Gales a singer, live in a place called Barnsley,
which is just south of Leeds in West Yorkshire. I
live in East Yorkshire and the drummer Martin lives on
the east coast a place called Grimsby. We're all sort
of within an hour and a half of each other,
so yeah, Nordon, England.
Speaker 2: Really so you're a little bit scattered, but not too much.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, poor old Martin as a longer drive
to rehearsal than the rest of us. But yeah, but yeah, yeah,
we're not all in one town or anything like that.
Speaker 1: But but yeah, gotcha, gotcha.
Speaker 2: Now, The Puncturists has been around, what does it since
twenty two?
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Yeah?
Speaker 3: I think yes, it's just sort of post COVID. The
Pat was previously in a ban call System of Hate
and a couple of the members, him and the drummer
decided they were going to do something slightly different and
formed The Puncturists, and the drummer, Karl was also the singer,
but he left and Pat persuaded Gail to come in
and sing as lead singer. And this was the first
band she'd ever played in and never sang with, so
that was quite quite something for her. And I joined
where I mean now, I joined in twenty three on
the bass, and Martin joined us nearly two years ago,
so we in the current format, we've been going nearly
two years.
Speaker 2: So yeah, okay, So it sounds like there's been some
some lineup changes over the you know, over a relatively
short period of time. Like I said, of the bands
I have been around for a few years, but it
sounds like it took a while for this current lineup
to sort of coalesce.
Speaker 1: Is that correct?
Speaker 3: That's right? Yeah, I mean it with a lot of bands,
you get that when they first start, you sort of
have to settling and everyone sort of gets to know
what's what. But we we had issues. We were a
little bit spinal tapped with drummers for a while. Not
we didn't actually kill any.
Speaker 1: Or I was gonna say, I hope nobody blew up
or anything.
Speaker 3: But but we we went through a few until we've
we've we think we've got the right guy on the
drum stool now, so, and like I say, we've been
nearly two years we've been in this format, and the
album that you've got there, I'm not all right, is
the the sort of the the outcome of our first
sort of period together as a band.
Speaker 1: So yeah, and.
Speaker 3: We're we're all very proud of it as well.
Speaker 2: In terms of finding Martin to play drums, I'm just
curious because this is a subject that comes up a
lot on the show, at least with the guests that
we have here in America. It seems like, I don't
know if it's the same there, but it seems like
here every drummer is in like ten different bands because
it's so hard to find an actual drummer. And I
have theories about why that is. My theory is that
you know, when you're growing up and you decide you
want to play a musical instrument, we have to have
the conversation with your parents about, well, I think I
want to play drums, you know that, and maybe the
tuba or the two that they're going to try to
talk you out of because they don't want all that
noise in their house. But I mean, is that is
that a challenge there too. Is it hard to find
a drummer?
Speaker 3: It is, yes, to find that the right drummer has
been quite difficult. I mean drummers, Like you say, drummers
are a rare breed and they're an older to breed
as well. You have to have one or two screws
slightly loose to one to do it. And I think,
and but yeah, it's it's difficult to get the right
person at the right time because, like you say, so
many people when we were looking and we got marked,
had so many people applying and they say, well, I
also play in you know, X y z B, and
you know, you know, I might not necessarily be available
all the time. But fortunately for us, Martin was coming
back from a break from drumming. He played for a
long time. He's very experienced drummer, but hadn't actually played
for sort of seven or eight years, maybe a little
bit longer, and had been sort of concentrating on sort
of work and real life and things like that that
do get in the way, and he decided that he
was going to give it one more go. He'd previously
been playing oddly in a discos covers band, you know,
like a party band, and the clips that he sent
us were stuff, you know, sort of from that band,
but actually the skills and chopsy you need to play
that sort of stuff, you know, you know, are quite something.
And he, you know, he impressed us. And you know,
as soon as I saw what he'd sent us stuff
on YouTube, I said to Pat, We've got to get
this guy and have a you know, get him in
and have a proper rehearsal with him. See how we
get on and we click straight away, and he, you know,
he's he That wasn't his type of music he's in.
He's a lot more sort of rock and sort of
punky type background, even though he hadn't played in a
band like hours before or not for Donkeys years. But
but you know, he really has fitted in well and
it helps particularly. I mean, you as a bass player
will know that. You know, we we have to keep
our ears and eyes on the drummer at all times.
Were the people who hold it all together. Not obviously
not trying to sound like you know that with the backbone.
Speaker 1: But we are we are bass players are tarists and singers.
Speaker 3: You know, we'd be lost without us. But but yeah,
it's nice to actually be on stage without having to
worry about what's going on behind me, and he enables,
you know, he enables you to sort of relax into
a gig and you know, feel confident that everything's going
to be okay, whereas occasionally before that wasn't the case.
Speaker 2: Right right now, I'm not alright. The album on dad
Swan Records, which is is this a label that the
puncturists created specifically for other puncturists, Dad Swine Records, It.
Speaker 3: Is, yes, Yeah, it's not the first. We got a
few releases. We've got a live album and that was
a Yeah, there's a live album that came out just
about fifteen months ago, which is called Fox. There's a
newt which was recorded a pub in Leeds called The
Fox and Newt. And there's also an EP with about
six or seven songs which the original lineup did. So
that was before Gail started to sing, and I still
want to one or two of the songs on that
that we still do, although differently. But so, yeah, there's
there's a there's a few things on Dead Swan Records.
If people want to look up Dead swe records on
bang camp, they can, but yeah, that's our that's our label.
Speaker 2: So yeah, Now the songs that you did before a
Gale was was the lead singer, do those songs continue
like does Gale sing them in the new or did
you leave those songs behind.
Speaker 3: Or mostly but there's there are a couple that we do,
two or three that we've adapted for for Gale and
and she's put her own stamp on them.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that's really so yeah.
Speaker 3: So you know, but we are increasingly going forward with
the songs like you've heard on the album, like you've
just heard with Everybody's on drugs, and we're currently in
in a writing phase of for for new songs going
forward as well.
Speaker 1: Do the songs come quickly?
Speaker 2: I'm curious because there's there's kind of an immediate see
to the songs, and maybe it's because it's got that
sort of the DIY garage band vibe, but I mean,
do the do the songs come together pretty quickly?
Speaker 1: Do you all do you all kind of write together?
Speaker 2: Do you all gem and stuff together and see what happens?
Or what's the songwriting process like in the band?
Speaker 3: Mostly it's part that comes up with the original ideas
and he quite often well sort of he's quite prolific
in what he brings, you know, brings to the table.
And I'll get sometimes I'll have two or three things
up here in my in books in a week, and
he says, oh, what do you think to this? And
what do you think to that? And and then I'll
have a listen and sort of suggest, you know, different
arrangements or maybe stick a different you know, put a
middle eight in here, or we'll change the the intro,
or we'll we'll you know, do something about it. I mean,
others we just sit there and say, naw, that ain't
gonna work for us. But but but because he comes, Yeah,
there's so many ideas we work with that. And then
once the two of us have sort of come up
with you know, we've okay those sorts of things, we'll
then take them, you know, to rehearsal and get them going.
I've written a couple that were just me on the album,
but he's mainly part okay, okay.
Speaker 2: And then I'm curious too about you know, the songs
are kind of funny, as some of them are. I mean,
is that is that an important element to you to
have in the band, Like you know, everybody's on drugs
or There's another song that I'm gonna play at the
end of the segment that is my personal favorite from
the album because it's as a musician.
Speaker 1: It's very relatable.
Speaker 2: They don't pay support bands, which I absolutely love that song,
you know, and I'm listening to I don't play anymore,
but I used to play in a lot of bands,
and it's like, yep, I get it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that that that you know, that that the lyrics
to that do come from you know, hard experience.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, is that it an important element to you
guys to have, you know, to have some humor, and
there's you know, there's sort of that right humor in
a lot of these songs. Is that something you do
consciously in terms of how you approach it or does
that just come out organically.
Speaker 3: I think it comes out organically because because that's just
what we are. But you know, particularly you know, they
say Pat sort of writes a lot of the lyrics
and the things that I think it helps to get
your message across, or even just the the meaning of
the song across if you can also make people smile,
because that's one of the things that makes things memorable
apart from just a catchy chorus is actually something that
makes you chuckle or makes you think, oh, I wasn't
expecting that, you know then, And I think that's one
of the things that gives us a little bit of
an edge and why people have liked a lot of
the material. A lot of the songs on the album,
like you say, have got that little bit of sort
of sideways look or a little wink to camera type thing,
isn't it. So so yeah, we do that, but I
mean there are others that are out and out, you know,
not fun not laughs, but you know, we want to
try and get across, but hopefully it's still enjoyable.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3: But it's not you know, we don't deliberately go out
of our way to make things sort of comedic, ye,
but there's no harm in there being a little bit
of humor and a little bit of a rhinous to it.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I like to use the sex Pistols and
as an example of doing that really well, you know, like,
you know, here's this band who you know, they weren't
necessarily trying to be funny, but you listen to a
song like God Save the Queen and you can't help
but laugh.
Speaker 3: You know what I mean, well, yeah, because there are
there are you know two there are more than one
meaning to elements of the lyrics in that, so that, yeah,
it makes it memorable because at.
Speaker 1: That right right exactly exactly.
Speaker 3: So you're taking you're taking that well known phrase God
Save the Queen and or giving it a twist mm hm.
And you know that that's always a good thing because
somebody's already come up with that idea and it's already
in people's heads, right if you're then using it yourself
or you're doing like everybody's on drugs, you know, that's
something that when you all automatically think about it, well
everybody's on drugs, must mean everyone's on illegal drugs and
they're shooting up. Well that where it actually means is
people are living a life where just to keep them
going there that you know, they're being supported by what
they're getting from their doctors or what they're getting over
the counter of the chemist or it could be you
know as well as you know what they're getting from
their dealers on the corner. So there's more to the
one phrase than just the one element.
Speaker 2: Right right, absolutely, And then so what's the touring situation,
Like you guys playing a lot of shows.
Speaker 3: At the moment, we're not we're currently on a bit
of a break gale. Just before Christmas underwent a knee
replacement operation, so she's currently just get sort of starting
to properly get out on the feet again. So we
took we're taking some time out and we don't start
gigging again until April, but we need she needs to,
you know, make sure that she gets sort of fitting
well and is able to bounce around on stage again
like a good'n so that in that time we are
sort of writing some new songs. We will be starting
to rehearse those sort of in the next month or so.
We you know, depending on how she is, we may
start to gig earlier than that. But we've got quite
a good calendar of you know, diary for the year.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 3: We're playing the thirtieth anniversary Rebellion Festival in Blackpool, which
is the big punk festival in the UK. Wow, there's
an awful there's a lot of sort of bands. They've
got a lot of bands from the States coming over there.
There's all sorts of people that from all over the
world coming to that. That is a big, big festival.
That's over three four days in August. We've got a
festival in Scotland in May called Punk on the Peninsula,
which is just outside Glasgow, and we've got, you know,
a nice healthy sort of diary of gigs once we
do start going again, and we hope during all that
we will get a good another selection of songs that
we will have another album maybe before the end of
the year. You never know, depends on I mean, we
don't know. A lot of them haven't been road tested yet,
and sure what we think might work. When you then
play them in front of people, they're sitting there scratching
their heads and what's going on all they go absolutely
bonkers and love it so right right, Yeah, you have
to you know, you have to you know, trust the
audience and see what's gonna what's gonna work.
Speaker 2: It's great too that you're doing festivals because you know,
this comes up a lot on the show. I really
think that's that's the most valuable thing you can do
in terms of playing live, because you know, festivals not
only do you get do you get exposed to an
audience that might not otherwise see you, but also the
you know, backstage, just the connections that you can make
in terms of meeting other industry people, whether it's just
other bands or or or people who you know, you really,
I mean, the networking opportunity that comes with playing a
festival is unparalleled, you know what I mean. So that's great, Yeah.
Speaker 3: Very much so.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And not only do you make sort of connections that
are good for the band, you also you know, you
do make good friends from these because you know, you're
all in it together. Yeah, And you you realize is
that you know, lots and lots of people are you know,
they're all good people, and you've sort of got a
lot of shared experience and you will automatically get on
with a lot of people, right, which is very you know,
which is which is a nice part of doing this
sort of thing, whereas you know, it's it's not just
turn up, play, pack up, go. You know, you're turning
up meeting people that you have a good time with
and they're but the festival's definitely the big festivals like
Rebellion are very good for bands like ourselves for the
exposure you might be sort of playing the rest of
the year to you know, much much smaller venues, much
much smaller crowds, but you're suddenly playing in front of
ten twenty times the amount of people you normally would,
and yet you know that can't be bad.
Speaker 1: No, not at all, not at all.
Speaker 2: So I have saved the Sometimes I go for the
most obvious question right up front, but I kind of
saved at this time. The name the Puncturists. Where does
that come from? What is the meaning of the name.
Speaker 3: I'm not sure how they came up with it, because
they got the back the name before I actually started,
but the Puncturists. The first EP that I mentioned earlier
was actually called the punk Tourists. So, you know, so
the punk tourists or puncturists. You know, I'm not sure
which came first, punk tourists or puncturists, and they decided
to to to put you know, decided to use that,
but puncturists and also something where you're sort of going
along and you're sort of puncturing people's you know, ideas,
you know, coming along and sort of jabbing your needle
into their balloon.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: It's one of those names that's got lots of potential meanings,
have different meanings for different people, but it's also quite
memorable and you know it's quite you know, that's a
nice name.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: One of the hardest I mean you said you've been
in bands. One of the hardest things being in a
band when you first start is what do you call yourself?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 3: Yeah, because you'll come up and there'll be some absolutely
terrible things that people come up with, and and you think, oh,
that's a good idea until you see it either written
down or someone else says it, and you think, nah,
that ain't gonna work.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: Well, not only that, the other challenge is finding something
that that somebody isn't already using.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, and you don't.
Speaker 2: You don't want to find yourself in a position where
you know, you establish a name and you're you know,
you're you're doing it, and you're you're getting somewhere with it,
and then all of a sudden you find out, you know,
somebody else already has the name.
Speaker 1: I've I've told this story on the show.
Speaker 2: I have a friend, Uh the friend some people will
know him, but I'll leave I'll leave his name out
of it.
Speaker 1: I don't want to embarrass him.
Speaker 2: But years ago, uh, this individual wasn't a band called
I ran into him after not seeing him for a while,
and he told me about a new band that he
was in called Intuition. And he said the name to me,
and I'm thinking, oh, my god, Intuition, how many other
bands are already using or have used that name? And
then swear to God true story. I ran into him again,
like a month later or two months later, and I
asked him, you know, how's the band and he said, oh, good,
but we had to change our name. We got to
see some assist letter from a band already using the
name Intuition, and I was like, oh, that's too bad.
And you know, but in my mind, you know, and
I'm too polite to say it, but in my mind,
I'm thinking, well, yeah, of course you did. You know.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean it's like the first bands I was in
when we were at school. We were sort of like
really enthusiastic sixteen year olds and we said, right, we're
going to call ourselves reflex and like the one hundred
thousand other bands called Reflekes.
Speaker 1: No, yeah, but you don't know that.
Speaker 3: When you know, you the enthusiasm takes over and you
think it's a good idea. Oh yeah, I don't think
there's any other puncturists.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there you go, there you go. Yeah.
Speaker 2: For a second there, I was worried you are going
to tell me I was saying it wrong and that
it actually is punk tourists and I've been pronouncing it
wrong this whole time.
Speaker 3: I was like, oh, oh, say it however you like.
But no, puncturists is how we how we say it? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I've been learning a lot, uh, you know,
talking to people from from your part of the world.
You know, we have we have a lot of guests
from there on the show, and I love the music
that comes out of there. But I just learned I
just learned yesterday from a friend of mine who's British.
Speaker 1: You know, pants that.
Speaker 2: I guess over there, Like if you want to express
this approval for something but you don't want to swear,
you say pants.
Speaker 1: Is that correct? Or if she's just messing with me,
you can no, no, you can do.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's that's complete. Usually it's when something is complete pants,
so that you complete rubbish or garbage or whatever. Oh,
that's that's that's total pants.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 3: Okay, yeah, pants, Pants to us aren't trousers. Pants are
the underwear.
Speaker 1: So oh okay, right, right, Yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so it's yeah, it's like and I mean
people also say nickers in in the in the UK,
which again is another word for underwear that I've heard
that pants. Yeah, something's a bit pants. It's not a
very strong. It's something that's a little bit not very good.
If it was really bad, then it would be worse
than pants. There's just a little bit rubbish. She's a
bit patterned.
Speaker 1: I've been learning a lot. Yeah, uh, now this is great. Yeah.
Speaker 2: In the first hour, we had a guest. Uh see,
now I'm gonna say his name wrong. Uh, Ca Hall fits.
It's an Irish name, and I and I but I
had to look up how to say it. And then
he told me I was saying it correctly, although he
might have just been being nice, but you know, because
it's c A T H A L and you know,
and I'm of Irish descent so I should know, but
I didn't know. And he said I was saying it right.
That I guess the tea is silent and it's Ca Hall.
But you know, being a being a dude from America,
you know, I'm learning a lot. Yeah, but so what
so Gail, so Gail's obviously out of commission temporarily, but
you said April you're going to get back to playing.
Speaker 3: Yeah, uh yeah, we're first one needs towards the end
of April. Then we're sort of failing NonStop to the
end of the year. But like I say, if if
Gail sort of stuff to feel a little bit more
able to sort of stand for, you know, while we
might fix something else in before then so we may
be end of March, but you know, we've got to
make sure that she gets properly better. I mean, it's
having a knee replacement, isn't isn't a small operation?
Speaker 1: So no, no, jeez, I can imagine. Wow.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Dale, So where's the best place for people
to go to keep up with everything that the puncture is,
everything that you're doing and as far as getting your
music and everything you know, you did mention band camp
and and uh, by the way, I encourage I love
band camp because that's what a lot of people don't
realize about band camp is if you get if you
get your music from there, you're getting a higher quality file.
Then say, if you're just streaming it on YouTube or
you know, and in some cases even Spotify, Like with
band Camp, you're getting really the highest quality file you
can get.
Speaker 3: It's the it is the best quality that you can
get from a sort of a a streaming all down
load service. Yeah, because you sort of tend to you
upload sort of WAB files and things like that, where
as you get a more compressed, smaller file on a
lot of other services, and that you know, it's it
just is that little bit better. But actually to find
us sort of keeping up with sort of the new,
I mean, there is a we do have a website,
and I shall have to make sure it's I'll tell
you the right address for that in a minute. But
but yeah, I mean on Facebook is where you mostly
find our sort of up to date and where things
are changing and happening and what's going on. Yeah, website
is w w W puncturists dot com. Not to the puncturists,
so it's just puncturists dot com and yeah Facebook, if
you look at look for the Puncturists, you'll find us.
Band Camp were dead on records, and you can find
us streaming. We are on Spotify and Apple Music and
all those sorts of things YouTube music and that. So
it's just so you know, people can find us all
over the place whatever they particularly use nowadays, and of
course with on bank camp you can find our you
can order the hard copies of things. So we do
have CDs and whenever we gig then we have a
merch store where you can buy CDs, t shirts and
all sorts of little bits of paraphernalia.
Speaker 2: So yeah, yeah, absolutely, And the website's good too. I'm
a website nerd and I do like the website puncturists
dot com. I see, I see a lot of bad websites,
but this is a good, good site. It's well organized,
the layouts nice. Yeah, that's it's It's so important. I
don't think people, not everyone realize how important it is
to have a really you know, easy to have gate
you know, visually attractive but not overwhelming website. You know,
there's a lot of nuance to it. But no, this
is a this is a good site. So puncturists dot com, yep, Dale,
this has been wonderful. I really appreciate you joining us,
and you know, we'll certainly have you back on as
you release new music. It sounds like you've got some
new stuff coming. Yeah, in a moment, we're gonna end
the conversation with this track. This is my one of
my favorites from the album They Don't Pay Support Bands.
I love this song. Anything we should know about it
before we play it, I mean we kind of touched
on it already. But maybe it's self explanatory, I don't know.
But anything we should know about this song, I don't
know if maybe it's maybe it relates to a specific
experience that you had as a band, or.
Speaker 3: It's well it's not one specific experience, but all of
the different elements that you can hear that where have
all happened in one place or another. We know where
it talks about. You know, the support band has to
sort of turn up hurts, you know, hours before the event,
provide the back line, and you know, the main band
are sort of sort of stroll into town. They're getting paid,
you know, silly amount of money, and the drummer says,
and I haven't got me kick, can I use yours?
And yeah, all that sort of thing, you know, And
then you know others where you've got promoters who will
sort of put you on that right, you've got to
be here and you've got to be off in two seconds,
you know, otherwise the you know you won't you know,
never see you ever again. I'll make sure you never
work in this town sort of thing, you know. You know,
it's just, you know, we're fortunate now that a lot
of the places we play, the promoters are actually sort
of considerate and they know that the effort that people
go to and they do look after you. I mean,
we don't you know, massive amounts of money from it
or anything like that. You don't. Yeah, we don't expect too.
If you are the support band, however, support bands who
get looked half, I'm more likely to say that was
a good experience. You know, if you get the chance
to play for this particular promoter or that particular venue,
then do it. Likewise, if you have a really bad experience,
that gets around very quickly to bands, and you'll have
places wondering why they can't attract bands, right, well, we
know why they can't. Then here's a song all about it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly exactly, So we'll hit that track in a moment,
So we'll let you go. Dale Pharaoh from the Puncturists,
thank you so much for joining us today, and I
look forward to hearing new music from you and and
we'll talk again in the future for sure.
Speaker 3: So thank you so much, Thank you, Matt. It's lovely
to chat speak to you again. Seeing hey bye sounds,
good bye bye all right.
Speaker 2: That is Dale Pharaoh, bass player from the band The Puncturists, And.
Speaker 1: Yeah, this is a great track.
Speaker 2: And you know, a lot of a lot of people
in the music industry and a lot of bands, a
lot of and soul artists too, listen to the show.
I'm well aware of what our sort of core audience
is with this program, so this will be highly relatable
for many of you. But this is such a great song.
This is called they don't pay support bands, and the
band is The Puncturists.