Oceanis will be hitting the stage on Saturday 25th May at Southport Metal Fest and with a calendar booking up fast, we ask an important question. Who is harder Gandolf or Vader?
WHATS THE NAME OF YOUR BAND, AND WHAT ARE YOUR NAMES AND JOBS IN THE BAND?
OceanisJoe Maryanji - vocals
Stu Donachie - Guitars & backing vocals
Phil Dyer - Guitars Craig Miles -
Bass Dave Waite - Drums
HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN TOGETHER, AND HOW DID YOU START?
This current line up has been together since 2011 but Dave & Stu have been jamming together for years. They finally got settled in 2010 with the addition of Craig, Joe and JP. Other than a guitarist change (Phil for JP) we've been going strong since then.
WHAT SETS YOU APART FROM THE REST?
We try not to be as straight forward as most metal bands. We put hours, weeks in fact, into writing songs. We never settle on a song for the sake of it. Unless it gets to a point where we feel it can't be improved, then its not finished.
WHO ARE YOUR MAIN INFLUENCES MUSICALLY?
Vast and varied to be honest. Individually we all listen to different genres of metal from death and thrash to progressive. Bands like Gojira, Textures, Opeth, Lamb of God and Deftones are big influences on us.
WHAT ARE YOUR SONGS MOSTLY ABOUT?
A post apocalyptic view of the world!
WHATS YOUR FAVOURITE SONG THAT YOU HAVE WRITTEN?
We all have different opinions on that one, it'd be far too difficult to pin it to one for everyone in the band.
IF YOU COULD DESCRIBE YOURSELF IN ONE WORD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?
Fussy!
WHAT HAS BEEN YOUR BEST MOMENT / GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT AS A BAND SO FAR? Probably being asked to step in as a last minute substitute to fill a gap in the Liverpool Tattoo convention battle of the bands and going onto win it! Supporting Silent Screams and Malefice was also pretty cool.
WHATS NEXT FOR YOU GUYS? WHERE CAN PEOPLE FIND YOU TO HEAR MORE? FACEBOOK YOUTUBE WEBSITE ETC.
Next for us is a busy April and May and trying our best to win the Metal to the Masses battle of the bands so we can play Bloodstock. We have a couple of other gigs lined up as well, obviously the Southport metal Festival, Out of the Ashes festival and Khaos Fest. We're also booked into the studio to start recording our 2nd EP as well writing lots of new material. Our other EP is available on www.soundcloud.com/oceanisuk and we can be followed on www.facebook.com/oceanisuk and www.youtube.com/ukoceanis
HOW DO YOU RATE YOUR LOCAL SCENE AT THE MOMENT?
Its ok. There's so many metal bands in Liverpool/Merseyside but bands still end up doing show after show together. It'd be nice to mix it up a bit. Promoters from different cities should get together and sort gig swaps and not be fearful of putting an out of town band on. It's difficult to get a following in a different city if nobody is prepared to take a punt on you. Especially if you're a band that is best appreciated live.
WHAT WOULD YOU DO TO CHANGE/ IMPROVE IT?
Get together with promoters from different cities, say 4 cities, a band from each and then you all play each others city. Like a mini tour.
WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON EVENTS LIKE THESE- WOULD YOU LIKE TO SEE MORE? We would like to see more metal gigs in decent venues of course. Metal is a genre appreciated by so many people. We'd love to see more of the bigger, more popular signed metal bands come through Liverpool and give the unsigned lot a go at supporting.
DO YOU THINK THAT THERE IS A LACK OF ORIGINALITY OR A WILLINGNESS TO PUSH BOUNDARIES IN METAL AS A GENRE?
The biggest problem with metal music is the constant need to label everything and pigeon hole it into its specific sub genre so one sub genres fans can try and out do another sub genres fan. Too many unsigned bands will write music and adopt images to fit into these sub genres and then change themselves when the genre changes or disappears. Boundaries are there to be pushed. Don't be a sheep, be a shepherd, because it only takes one boundary to be pushed to create something new.
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST WORRY YOU GUYS FACE AS A BAND?
Not getting out of Liverpool. As much as we love playing our hometown and we're grateful to places like the Lomax and the zanzibar, we need to branch out. More people need to hear our noise and unless promoters from elsewhere are willing to take a chance on us then its going to get stale.
IF YOU COULD SUPPORT ANY BAND, WHO WOULD IT BE?
Opening up for Opeth, Textures, Gojira, Tesseract, Chimaira, Slayer & Cannibal Corpse would probably be the most epic thing we could ever do and it would appease every member of Oceanis as well! Haha! WHO
WOULD WIN- GANDALF OR DARTH VADER?
Tough question. Probably the toughest you've asked, but I'd probably have to say Gandalf. That dude has been through some serious shit and has probably seen it all. As cool as Vader is, it has to be Gandalf. However Batman would twat both of them.
FINALLY- WHY SHOULD PEOPLE COME AND SEE YOU PLAY?
Because we're heavy, melodic, explosive and calming all at the same time!
