Architects - Interview - 2009

Building The Perfect Beast

ARCHITECTS may be young, but they have the common sense, suss and realism of a band with twice their years and road miles under their belts. And they’re paving the way to stardom.

“We all live with our parents so that we can put all of our money into the band,” says Architects guitarist Tom Searle, sitting up straight with arms folded across his chest somewhat defensively. “When we /do/ get home from touring we just start writing.”

“We don’t really have enough time to get jobs,” adds frontman Sam Carter, swishing the ice in an empty glass of coke. “We pretty much do this for a living.”

Hang on a minute, surely most people get out of their parents’ houses as soon as they turn 18, keen to cut the proverbial umbilical cord, to prove they can go it alone away from parental shackles. But for Brighton’s Architects it’s a means to an end, for the sacrifices this band makes go beyond what so many insta-bands and US rockers on big labels have ever had to give up. There’s poverty, personal relationships suffer, and there’s no long-term security. But for Architects, there is no other way. This band is their life.

Tom and Sam – along with drummer Dan Searle, bassist Alex Dean and guitarist Tim Hillier-Brook – are just keeping their noses above the water, which for a bunch of 20-21-year-olds in a progressive minded technical metal band from the UK, is quite a feat.

“By touring we make just enough money to keep the band going,” claims Tom matter-of-factly. “We don’t make any money from record sales and we probably never will.”

It seems so strange to meet a talented band who make great records and are clearly on an upward trajectory, and hear them say they don’t expect to ever sell significant amounts of records.

“It’s normal for bands to be huge and not have gigantic record sales nowadays,” says Sam. “Everyone downloads records for free. Kids just don’t have enough money to spend 13 pounds on a CD.”

But they buy shirts hand over fist.

“Yes, because they can wear a t-shirt; they can walk around like, ‘I like this band’, whereas a CD is more personal. It’s about what they’re prepared to spend their money on.”

“You can’t download a t-shirt,” adds Tom. “It’s not that NO ONE will buy it, it’s just that our record sales would be significantly better if downloading didn’t exist. But we can’t do anything about that so… at least people will listen to it, whether they buy it or not. Hopefully they’ll come to a show – and that’s what makes it fun for us.”

“We’re never going to sell shitloads of records,” says Sam. “But hopefully we can continue if people buy a shirt or ticket.”

So are you in a better position than more established bands, being younger: you’re on the ground and know how a band works nowadays. Older managers/bands/labels are still trying to work things as if it’s 1988.

“We have a lot of control,” says Tom in his plain speaking manner. “We know what’s going on all the time. Our drummer, Dan, does our accounts. We have mates that do our designs for t-shirts and our merch store is run at Tom and Dan’s house; their mum helps out so much.”

Sam spins the remaining ice cube around the glass. Not only do they not hold back with their opinions, they show a scary maturity that belies their tender years.

“Why would we bother about how big we could be when really we have no control over it,” says Sam, who – contrasting Tom’s easy manner – seems to bristle slightly. “We just worry about what we can effect, what we can control.”

“We don’t make any money from record sales and we probably never will”

Tom Searle

Luckily, what they can control includes their live shows and their albums, which, including new, tied album Hollow Crown, have impressed not only the UK’s metal press, but also that on the other side of the Atlantic. So what’s made this gang of well-spoken metallic iconoclasts grow up so fast? And where does their quiet confidence come from in a world of downloading, glutted formulaic metal and metal heads who rarely part with pounds for plastic?

“The US is hard work,” says Sam in a blink of affable honesty.

“We’re used to being in vans, but we’re not used to driving for 14 hours to get to a show and play while people are still walking in,” Tom admits. “It’s a bit of a battle to get people to pay attention. It can be slightly demoralising, especially when things are picking up over here.”

“That's not to say we won’t keep going back and going back until people /do/ give a shit. It’s never been our attitude to think, ‘Oh, people didn’t like us, we won’t come back.’ No one gave a shit four our first 10 tours anyway. We’ve been through it before and we’ll do it again.”

/There’s/ the fighting spirit. It’s wrapped up in a realism that must sometimes say, ‘This is more hassle than it’s worth.’ Which was the case for ex-bassist Tim Lucas, who didn’t want to tour, so quit the band.

To see new bands become the talk of the www.town.com must be frustrating for a band who ooze credibility and integrity. But a band with deep grass roots will always out-live the ephemeral hipsters. Architects have released three albums in as many years, and not at the expense of touring.

“It’s not that I’m in any position to tell other bands what to do,” says Tom, knowing how his words may sound, but not holding back nonetheless. “But I feel that metal bands in particular, don’t have enough drive to release new music. We’ve released a record a year so far, and people think /that’s/ weird, that /we’re/ weird, that we’re rushing it.”

“That’s the point of being in a band,” adds Sam. “To write music together. We're not rushing it, this pace is just normal to us. If we waited two years we’d only have to do a double disc with 35 tunes on. And no one wants that.”