Enjoy Destroy 'Enjoy Destroy' album

Mixing hazey summer sounds with a hard edge swagger Enjoy Destroy present ‘Mactier’. Having proved with their debut single that melody enriched guitar based soul is a style firmly under their belt, Enjoy Destroy show the rawkus flip side to their sound. ‘Mactier’ is filled with QotSA style, retro rock riffage, which blows the droning offerings of so many identi-kit indie bands out of the water with its rolling groove bass line.

For ones so young such an ear for a hook is a precious commodity that has been skilfully guided by the co-production talents of Feeder’s Grant Nicholas. Enjoy Destroy release ‘Mactier’, the second single from their eagerly anticipated debut album on 16 July 2007 through Fire One Records, another gem of infectiously top quality tunemanship soon to be impressed upon ears and minds across the music world.

biography
They say that fortune favours the brave. The success stories of bands like Muse, Radiohead, Pearl Jam, Queens Of The Stone Age and more would bear that out. And it’s into this illustrious category of visionary, widescreen rock music that Hampshire teenagers Enjoy Destroy are wholeheartedly launching themselves. Cocky? Over-ambitious? Only if you’ve never experienced their jaw-droppingly emotional, organic rock ‘n’ roll music and frontman Freddie’s heartbreakingly soulful voice for yourself. This is music for thinkers, dreamers and lovers of those chord changes and melodies that can rock your world and break your heart at the very same time. Post-grunge, groove-driven indie rock that transcends stereotypes and looks set to send this foursome to the very top of UK rock and beyond.

Working out of their hideaway somewhere in rural Hampshire, Enjoy Destroy are building something truly unique and astonishing in its maturity and originality. To hear them stitch angular, infectious rhythms together with the kind of soaring vocals and gutsy guitars that seemed to have become extinct by the time the glory days of ‘90s grunge had faded to black, you’d be hard pushed to find a single scrap of musical evidence to prove that they’re only 18 years of age. Indeed, a question about their influences is just as likely to throw up references to Ryan Adams, Elvis Costello and Supertramp as it is Nirvana, Incubus, and Smashing Pumpkins. These are no straightforward teen rockers, this is musical alchemy of the most inspired kind. “Our music comes from four completely different pools of inspiration,” says guitarist/vocalist Tabs. “The output is diverse as a result. There’s no formula.”

The origins of the band lie four years ago in a Hampshire school. Frontman Freddie and original drummer Matt had grown tired of playing covers with their first band and wanted to do something with more substance. Bassist Ed was next to enter the fold. “He just sort of walked in with his Yamaha battery-powered bass and started teaching everyone how to play,” says Freddie. But Tabs’ entry into the band was a little more complex. “One day I had a fortune cookie which said something like ‘someone you mock will take you far’ or words to that effect. So we got him in.”

Originally, Chris was nominated as the singer, but eventually found his way into the lead guitarist slot (learning to actually play the instrument along the way). This was the line-up for the next few years, with band writing all their own material and developing their graceful-yet-thunderous sound as they went. They gigged hard on their local scene, and at festivals like Blissfields, playing alongside the likes of Reuben, Colour Of Fire and the Mystery Jets. And they recorded an EP – a barnstorming statement of intent called ‘The Mayfair Studio Promo’ featuring fan favourites ‘And For What’, ‘City On Lockdown’ and ‘Glad We Met You’. It shifted an impressive 1500 copies. But at the start of summer 2006, they hit a turning point when drummer Matt announced he was leaving for India, rather than joining them in their post A-levels quest for world domination. “It was a shock, but I think with hindsight it might just have kept the band together,” says Tabs.

Enter stage left, drumming enigma Tommy. He’s either a Polish farmboy that the band discovered ‘milking a cow’ and ‘hitting pans with sticks’ by the roadside on an Eastern European road trip, or an R&B-loving mate of Tabs who’d always been a fan of the band and jumped at the chance to become their new drummer, depending on which story you believe. Either way, he’s definitely called Tommy, he’s a powerhouse of a sticksman.

Enjoy Destroy are determined to do things their own way. Unlike most bands making their debut album, they’ve taken the bold step of scrapping most of their older songs in favour of writing it all from scratch, saying they want to make a record which is coherent and where each song is like a chapter of a book. In keeping with this break from the norm they’ve shunned the traditional search for a major label to bankroll their endeavours and formed their own label – Fire One Records – with help from their families in order to keep full control of their band’s music and not suffer the sort of fates that the fickle music industry can easily throw at British rock bands.

But while there is a spirit of independence about the way they run the business end of their band, there is nothing lo-fi and patchwork about the resulting music, and with the foursome considering a number of top drawer producers to helm the album sessions, all the signs say that something truly mindblowing this way comes. “I think we’d all like to be a band that exists outside of the limitations of the indie scene or the rock scene,” says Tabs. “Yeah, you get these big waves of things like nu-metal or indie pop, but the best bands are always running alongside making consistently interesting music,” adds Freddie. “Like Muse, Feeder or the Foo Fighters – that’s the best way to be.”

So, armed with monstrously moving songs by the truckload, a courageously independent attitude and, Enjoy Destroy have lift off. If fortune really does favour the brave, things are about to get very, very exciting around here...

By Ashley Bird, 2007

press
“A sound that blends the panoramic vision of latter day Green Day, the bombast of My Chemical Romance and new found grandiosity of the Foo Fighters” - Kelvin Goodson, Disorder Magazine.

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