The Warzone Centre in Belfast is home to The Warzone Collective. The non-profit gig group has been active since the early ‘80s, nurturing music, art and activism in Belfast. The latest incarnation is hard at work promoting shows for local and touring acts of all genres from their new building in Belfast city centre. The centre also houses Giro’s Café which was the first vegan restaurant in the city.

The Warzone Collective began in 1983 when a few Belfast DIY punks, inspired by the Crass peace-punk era and anarchist tradition, decided to pool their efforts and get their own venue, practice rooms and social space. Towards the end of 2003 the original Warzone Centre closed but it left a gap in radical Belfast culture. In 2007 discussions began and eventually in 2009 the Collective reformed and by 2011 a new centre was opened once again.

Musos’ Guide spoke with Josh Thackaberry, one of the Warzone volunteers about the centre and its activities.

MG: I was surprised when we got there by the amount of people involved in the collective.

JT: There’s over 200, possibly 300 people from what I can gather, across the country and in other countries. They come and go. But we have a regular volunteer group of 30 to 40 people. We try to get ourselves out there and try to get people in through the door. You wouldn’t usually find it. I found when I first went, it’s the kind of place where you have to know people to find it.

It’s a big family. We all know each other. We all love going down and helping out. And providing a centre which provides bands with a means to get themselves out there into the music scene, and into the music industry as a whole. Bands that play Warzone have gone on to play Voodoo and Limelight, and go across different countries with their music.

MG: It amazing to see Giro’s Café back there.

JT: It runs every Wednesday, and sometimes full weeks, as an exception. I’m not personally involved with Giros Café, I primarily volunteer at the weekends because I’m free then, but it runs as a vegan café. It’s all homemade food.

MG: This is the second iteration of Warzone. The first was going back in the ‘80s and this one has been going for five years now.

JT: It started in 1983, the collective. I don’t think they were putting on gigs until ’85. It stems from anarchism. It’s an anarchist centre. It’s not like we won’t let certain people in. Everybody is welcome. But it’s a safe space where you can come and have like-minded people, and the bottom line is it’s all about music. You come for the music and to have a laugh with your mates. It’s an open space. If you come down you will get to know all the different people who regularly attend, volunteer, or go to gigs. You build up connections. You become part of the family.

MG: It has a community feel and there are so few places to go where you get that.

JT: There are so few places. Especially with me. When I first went down to the centre, I think it was a year and a half ago, the minute I walked in it wasn’t like anything I’d seen before. I lived in the countryside In Wicklow for a good few years. I was always into hard rock and punk. I never had any mates I could relate to. When I moved up here I was going to different venues like Blackstaff Mill. Trying to get into Voodoo. Being fifteen and trying to sneak my way in. It didn’t always work out. The venues I was going to, it was less about the music and more about the money the venue was making. And about how much drink everybody could get into themselves before they got kicked out. It wasn’t my place. I didn’t like that idea. I’ve never been at home with the idea of going out and getting plastered.

So when I met the guys in Warzone, the first night I went down the first thing I realised was that these guys are here for music. It was so friendly. That night I went to one of the volunteers, Matt, and got talking to him. At the end of the gig I asked him if I could volunteer. I’ve been there ever since. Every week. It’s just become natural for me now. I help out and I do the door. I do little things around the centre. I help keep it running. I believe now that because the other volunteers are getting older, they’re not going to be there forever. Someone’s going to have to take the reins. I’m the youngest person in the centre, the youngest volunteer. It means it’s a big responsibility for me within the coming years to try to get some of my mates down who are willing to volunteer. Hopefully within the next 10-15 years I’ll be running all the gigs and stuff.

MG: There’s a lot going on there besides the music. It’s a centre for people who wouldn’t normally have an outlet.

JT: These places within the punk scene and the metal scene and all the alternative groups are important as a whole in the UK and Ireland, like Tenterhooks in Dublin which sadly closed down about two or three months ago. The reason they are so important is because these genres of music are very community orientated. If you have a centre that takes in all the metalheads from the surrounding area, who get together once a month or every week, it creates a good community spirit.

Going back to the anarchist roots it also allows for the people who are politically left wing, like myself, we can arrange stuff. A good few of us are with the Solidarity collective and we would go out to the demonstrations. For example, women’s rights on abortion, and those kind of things. We all know each other and go to these demonstrations. It’s a great collective of great people. The Anarchist Party are lining up with Haven, the homeless outreach programme. We are putting up stalls outside City Hall.

MG: Having a place in Belfast that welcomes everybody, it’s even more important there than anywhere else in Ireland or the UK.

JT: Especially If you live in one of the areas on the rough end of the spectrum, and particularly in Belfast. You’ve got West Belfast, you’ve got East Belfast, some of us are from one or the other. And if you’re from that left/anarchist state of mind and you’re living within that system in East Belfast, or a system in West Belfast, you’ve got all this hatred towards each side; that tension.

I’ve lived here in East Belfast for about two years. I got to know the place by going around the parks. I befriended people doing my GCSEs up here. I saw the attitude that some people had towards people from West Belfast. I didn’t believe in that segregation. Whether it’s “we want to belong to Britain” or “we want to belong to Ireland”, my stance is that I would rather have no nation at all, then you wouldn’t have any of that; that hate, that violence, that general nastiness.

The Warzone Centre is a safe place and you can openly talk about these different things. But funnily enough it rarely comes up. Usually, when we are together having a drink, it’s all about the music. It’s not just punk and metal. We’ve had techno nights. We’re looking at a hip-hop night. We’ve had traditional music from different countries. There’s a wide range of things in the centre.

We have bands coming form other countries. We had two metal bands come from the Basque country. They befriended some mates of ours, Deathbus, who ended up going over to the Basque country and touring with them for a month. The volunteers we have in the centre, some of them come from America, some of them come from Australia, and it’s a big multicultural centre.

MG: Is there anything coming up to plug? 

JT: The next gig is the tenth of December. It’s called Season’s Beatings. It’s bunch of metal bands. It’s BYOB, no glass as ever.

Dani Filth is the lead singer of Devilment (Facebook). Their second album, II: The Mephisto Waltzes is out on Friday November 18 but you might know him better from Cradle Of Filth. Cradle have been leading lights of black metal for over 20 years, touring the world and inspiring a generation of metal bands. Musos' Guide spoke to Dani about Halloween, the new album, and vampiric tendencies.

MG: Did you dress up for Halloween?

DF: I didn’t. You know why? Halloween is for normal people. It’s the one day that I don’t dress up. I went for one of those walks through the grounds of an ancestral home. I thought it was going to be ok but it was actually brilliant. Out in the woods, through animal enclosures, with lots of weird people dressed up. Mazes and things going on. It was excellent. It was one of those crystal-clear nights in the middle of the countryside. Freaky.

MG: I remember seeing you in a BBC documentary called Living With The Enemy about 10 or 15 years ago.

DF: Oh god, twenty years ago I think! Personally, I’ve never seen it. This was back when we only had five channels. It was on prime-time TV. I didn’t even watch it. Whilst it was on I was in the other room. My family were gathered around the set watching it. I couldn’t bear to watch it. Anytime I’m on TV I haven’t really seen it. I never saw Nevermind The Buzzcocks or anything like that.

MG: The live show with Cradle is famous. What can we expect with Devilment when you’re on the road?

DF: It’s going to be really energetic. We’re going to be playing stuff, half from the first album, half from the new album. We’re limited by the size of the venues. We’re not Cradle Of Filth, so we’re playing 200- to 400 capacity venues. The stages won’t be massive so we'll do as much as we can get away with. I doubt we'll have the flamethrowers and whatnot because of the restrictions, but we'll make it celebratory. We'll make it an event. We’re very much looking forward to it because it’s our first proper headline run.

MG: You have new people in the band.

DF: We had one person come in and that was the new drummer. That was an amicable thing because our old drummer couldn’t carry on. He had other commitments with work and family, moving home etc. He was the instigator in finding us a new drummer. I still play football with him every Wednesday and see him out and about in my hometown of a weekend. It was a smooth transition. And then we lost our young guitarist but that was for the best. That got a bit weird. We're a one guitar band but we do have someone stepping in for the tour.

MG: Who are the main songwriters for Devilment?

DF: Everyone contributes quite equally. Lauren (Francis; keyboards, piano, vocals) does quite a bit because she not only does the keyboards, she writes a lot of her own melodies etc. Everybody has contributed a lot to this record. And I guess that’s because Colin (Parks; guitar) and Lauren in particular, joined the band halfway through writing the first record and so on this record they feel less like passengers. They were musicians from the off. Even when we got into the studio we worked very closely with the producer and dissected songs to make sure they were as good as they could be. There was a lot of hard work.

Everybody rallied around. I think it comes out on the record, there’s a lot of different material. It has an overall feel. It works within the concept, within the confines of the record. That’s just part and parcel of everybody being into different things. It’s a little bit wierd like that. I’m not saying we've redefined music, everything has been done, but it’s original in the way it’s put together.

MG: Devilment are not a million miles away from what Bring Me The Horizon were doing a few years ago …

DF: Don’t say that! For crying out loud! My daughter went to see them in the 02 on Saturday. I’ve met the guys from the band, they’re cool but it’s not my cup of tea.

MG: I hear you doing things on the Devilment album that I would never hear on a Cradle album. How is it different for you?

DF: How is it different? The tuning is different. If I sing as high as I do in Cradle, I have to sing higher, if that makes sense. There’s an extra track called ‘Father Dali’, about Salvador Dali, some of the notes on there were fucking hard. Literally when you play the record dogs will attack you.

It’s a different band obviously. It’s a bit more melodic. I wouldn’t say more mainstream. It has pop sensibilities but it’s fucking heavy. It has the heaviest vocals I’ve ever done but also the most melodic vocals that I’ve ever done. The band is a marriage of extremes. There are light shades to it. Very prevalent in songs that feature Lauren. She takes centre stage. There’s a beauty and the beast antagonism going on, light and shade etc.

There’s a lot of different material from ‘Shine On, Sophie Moone’ which is very aggressive, punk like Agnostic Front or Bad Religion. It melts into a weird structure in the middle which is very transient. There’s some more traditional metal, some deathcore, some eurogoth going on in places. We don’t label it as such when we do it. We just build songs, write them. They just get born as they are with a taste of everybody’s input.

MG: This is as close to pop music as black metal has ever gone. I like what you said about Cradle being old literature and Devilment being Roald Dahl mixed with Sylvia Plath.

DF: It’s more current, more surreal. Put it this way, I think Devilment could definitely get away with writing an album about alien invasion. Whereas if you put that to a Cradle fan on a cradle album; an album about H.G. Wells War Of The Worlds, they’d say “Yeah, we get the Victorian angle but I’m not buying it, it’s just not right”. The longevity and the history of the band has put me in that corner.

You can surprise people. The new Cradle album is being worked on at the moment. We’re in the studio very soon to start work on the new record. It’s all written. Well, I’m not finished everything. I’m about two thirds of the way through. Our new stuff is very Victorian gothic horror with a bit of a slant, a bit of a twist. With Cradle, you can’t go too far out of the way. We tried it a bit with Thornography. There were a lot a people that were very funny with us about that particular venture. It has got some of our better songs on it but you can’t please everybody. But with Devilment, because it hasn’t got the history and there isn’t the high expectation, we can get away with doing a song about Alfred Hitchcock. You mentioned pop music but it’s not the Backstreet Boys. It has got that gothic sensibility that Cradle Of Filth has but in a more modern context. Someone like Robert Aickman or Neil Gaiman and Tim Burton as opposed to H.P. Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe.

MG: Probably a long shot but is there any chance of an Irish gig?

DF: Well, we’d love too but we have to be invited. We’re like vampires. We can’t cross the threshold that is the Irish Sea without an invitation. And unfortunately, there was no invitation for these dates. Cradle did a couple of Irish shows earlier in the year and loved it. We had a fucking brilliant time in Dublin and Belfast. They were the last shows at the end of eight weeks of being on the road in the States. They were elevated to that status just for being the end shows but they were also brilliant.

So, Cradle are definitely coming back. We’ve another album coming out. We do one every two years. Because I’ve another band in between it looks like it’s happening in quick succession. We need to have the new Cradle album by the second week of May because we’re embarking on a full world tour as of September next year. And we will be taking in everywhere so there will definitely be more Irish shows. We’d be quite willing to come for a long weekend and do three or four shows in the meantime. We’re going to be in the studio for five months so I’m sure they could spare me for a few days.

Devilment will be touring the UK in December:

Dec 6th - Colchester, Arts Centre

Dec 7th - Nottingham, Rock City Basement

Dec 9th - Stoke, Sugarmill

Dec 10th - London, Boston Music Room

Dec 11th - Norwich, Waterfront

Dec 13th - Glasgow, Stereo

Dec 14th - Newcastle, Think Tank

Dec 15th - Wolverhampton, Slade Rooms

Dec 16th - Leeds, Key Club

Dec 18th - Reading, Sub 89

Dec 19th - Southampton, Engine Room

Uncle Lucius started 2016 on a strong footing with the release of the awesome The Light, their fourth studio album. We're firm fans of their rock driven sound that has Americana and lo-fi indie edges and were excited indeed when then they announced a run of UK dates, starting at the end of October and running into November.   As a follow up to our conversation with them earlier this year, we got back in touch to find out about how life has been treating them and to celebrate their upcoming UK dates by asking a few questions. 

Musos' Guide: Hey guys! You're currently on the road. What's the funniest moment of the European trip so far?

Uncle Lucius: There have been a lot of funny moments so far. Just tonight we spent fifteen minutes in the entryway of the hotel trying out all our keys before we realized that the door was unlocked. We tried some surströmming in Sweden the other night. It’s fermented herring and is known as ‘shitfish’ for its, er, distinctive smell. More like rotten eggs, really. Our guts were equal to the task, no returns on the merchandise. Pretty hilarious watching each other’s faces as we tried to get it down!

MG: How do European audiences differ from those Stateside?

UL: Generally speaking, European audiences are more focused on the music than the party. Though we do play listening rooms in the States, a lot of the taverns and halls tend to be split between drinkers and dancers. Our first few overseas gigs caught us off guard because people were listening so intently. Sweden is particularly attentive, almost severe in comparison to their rowdy counterparts back home. They call the gigs ‘concerts’, not ‘shows’ — an appropriate distinction.

MG: What is the biggest mistake you have ever made during a show?

UL: There are so many to choose from! I’ve started the wrong song a few times, I’ve hit the transpose button on my keyboard accidentally, rendering every note a 1/2 step sharp or flat. I’ve handed a tambourine out into the audience; inevitably it winds up in the hands of a drunken star-in-their-own-minds. Mispronounced the name of the town we’re in, given a shout out to the owner or soundman and gotten their name wrong. If I had to pick the biggest mistake, it’d be sleeping through the first part of a gig - a gig that started @ 11 PM mind you - and trying to sneak my way onstage without anyone noticing. Not being there at all might qualify for the worst among equals.

MG: What is the best performance you have ever done?

UL: Personally there was an open mic one Valentine’s Day about 15 years ago that sticks out. I was in my work uniform and on my way to my third shift gas station job, and there were a few couples in the audience, and something about the moment inspired me. That’s the only gig when I can remember every single thing that could have gone right going right, one after the other. A few Uncle Lucius gigs stand above the rest but if I had to choose one, it’d be the American Music Fest in Berwyn, Illinois, outside Chicago. The band was hot, the crowd was locked in, it was like every heart in the room beat together.

MG: Complete this sentence, being on stage is....

UL: Being truly alive. When the song grabs you, and your bandmates are acting as one, and the crowd is right there with you, there’s no fuller feeling. That rare moment of true synchronicity - when the universe seems to exist entirely for that show, that song, that note even - reminds me why pursuing music is such a lucky life to lead.

MG: You're about to start your UK dates. What can we expect from the tour?

UL: A great show every night, and a different show. We like to mix up the setlist, cater our program to the contours of each room and each crowd. Getting to travel like this is such a privilege that you can bet we will do our utmost to make each set special and a little better than the night before.

MG: You have a double A-side coming out. Is that because you couldn't decide which song you preferred..?

UL: While they’re not companion pieces, we thought that the two songs showcased our range well when heard together. 'Don’t Own the Right' is the nearest to a straight country song on the LP, while 'Flood Then Fade Away' gives a nod to more contemporary sounds.

MG: How do you select a single?

UL: We have a roundabout, somewhat convoluted democratic process in the band. Everyone has an equal vote, and sometimes that makes decision making slow and cumbersome. Choosing a single was relatively easy though, there were a handful that obviously made more sense in radio land, songs that were compact and catchy. We’d love nothing more than to put out 6 minute singles and hopefully with time we’ll have some leeway to push the boundaries a bit!

MG: Tell us about the meaning behind both the songs.

UL: 'Flood Then Fade' has to do with confrontation, specifically confronting your own preconceptions and defense mechanisms, and seeing these shadowy figures in the light of day. A lot of our egotism is tied to the past, the beliefs we’ve held, the identity we believe is ours. Letting go of these comforts is very challenging, but doing so can help you be more present, and confront each moment honestly. 'Don’t Own the Right' is a ‘getting stoned in glass houses’, er, ‘don’t throw stones from glass houses’ kind of idea. It’s easy to condemn someone for habits you don’t have, but a little more difficult to get beyond being judgmental in general.

MG: Lastly, if you could support any artist in the world, who would it be

UL: Tom Petty, Tedeschi Trucks Band, Willie Nelson, Jason Isbell, Sturgill Simpson, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine (if they reunite). If I have to pick one, Tedeschi Trucks, because life would be very good indeed just hearing them night after night. What a great band.

** 

Uncle Lucius take to the road in the UK from today, the 31st October, with a first gig in Sheffield and they play their final UK date on the 7th November in Leicester. For more information about their upcoming UK shows, check out the band's Facebook. You can also keep up with them on Twitter and Instagram. 

Kar Stanton is a multi-instrumentalist songwriter based in Bournemouth. She released her debut single, ‘The Body Count’, under the moniker Red Stencil in 2015. Protagonist is the name of her first album, which was released under her own name just last week on October 8. After interviewing her last year to find out about the process of recording the album, Musos’ Guide decided to get back in touch to find out more about the finished article. Here, Kar takes us through the album track by track, giving us insights into the songs, what inspired them and the recording of the album. 

Track 1: 'She Can'.

This song is about a teenage girl who’s making art and music and using technology. I sing in the first person at the end but that’s just a device to get the listener into that position of empowerment and fearlessness. 

I am part of an online community that sets musical challenges for its members and we were going to each make an experimental track. I had bought a recorder because I was working on some songs for kids so I decided to open the track with distorted recorders. I stripped a lot of the experimental elements out of the final track because I didn't want it to be too much of a challenge to listen to. I really wanted this album to be one you could connect with on the first listen.

Track 2. 'New Year'.

Most of the acoustic tracks on 'Protagonist' were written in 2014 and by the end of that year I felt my writing was starting to reinforce my negative emotions, because even if I was having a good day I would keep on writing a difficult song which would drag me down again! I wanted to make a conscious effort to write something positive. My New Year’s resolution was ‘write some happier songs’, so I started writing the song 'New Year' on 1st Jan 2015. This is one of the most hopeful tracks on the album and a lot of friends have told me that it’s their favourite. I started exploring more synth- and beats-based instrumentation when writing this track, and my electric guitar even makes a rare appearance.  

Track 3: 'The Loon'. 

Years ago when I was in Aberdeen, my now husband and I passed a very frail elderly man who was really struggling with all his shopping and we offered to help him with his bags. We took them up to his flat which was pretty high up in this huge block and we ended up having a cup of tea with him while he told us about his life. It turns out that he had been a musician and had played in the dance halls, which was a big thing in young people’s lives in the 50s and 60s in Scottish cities. I asked if he still played at all and he showed me he had arthritis and couldn't play anymore. Lots of the things he said stuck with me for a long time and the song is me attempting to tell his story. ‘Loon’ means ‘boy’ in Doric (the Aberdeen dialect).

Track 4: 'The Body Count'.

This track is me giving myself a telling-off for my social, political and spiritual apathy. The song's roots are actually in a whole lot of lyrics that I wrote just after the London bombings in 2005. I was up in Aberdeen at the time and I felt so close to it, but so far away at the same time. Every day there is something horrific happening somewhere in the world: you see humanitarian disasters, wars and scandals on the TV or the internet and there is a sense of helplessness at the enormity of them. We’re also becoming so used to it. I get upset and am moved emotionally, but I do nothing to help. I often want to close the curtains, disappear under the covers and not see any of it.

This track was mixed by Lola Demo, who’s this incredible one-woman band with a huge following on Soundcloud. Her album Morphine Crush is my favourite album of the year, so it was a privilege to work with her. 

Track 5: 'Overcome the Monster'.

Writing positive tracks while not feeling positive was a huge challenge for me. I started by listening to songs I had on a playlist called ‘Joy’ that I’d been adding tracks to for years on Spotify. I tried to analyse a song, work out what it was that lifted me up and then tried to emulate it. No matter where I start with my own writing, though, the lyrics always end up being from my reality and view point. This song actually came out of me looking at the song structure of ‘Angel Interceptor’ by Ash.

My husband was very unwell at the time and at that point I didn’t know if he would get better. I wrote the lyrics as if a full recovery was definitely going to happen: “You will overcome the monster, you’re gonna get better”. This is not me saying ‘just think positively’, as I don’t believe that works, but I had written too many nuanced songs and so, for this one, I gave myself permission to write one where I imagined a positive outcome.

Track 6: 'A Simple Life'.

This song is one that I start singing to myself in my head quite a lot, usually when I’m starting to get overwhelmed. I think its a pretty universal desire to want to have a simple life, but perhaps especially for those of us who are prone to worry and anxiety.   

Track 7: 'In Sickness'.

This is probably the most personal song on the album. When I write I don't usually have a set idea of what a song should say. It’s more that I start writing because I’m either struggling with something or confused about something, and writing the song helps me work through what I’m feeling and make some sense of it. I write a song for myself, first and foremost. When I looked back on this song after writing it, I hoped that someone in a similar situation to me, trying to work through a relationship where their partner was in a very difficult place, would take some comfort in it. Otherwise the song would not have made it out of our flat because it was so personal.  

Track 8: 'Youth in Bloom'.

This started life as a poem about a young girl being used for a few years by the music industry. In the poem, she was used to make them money and then dropped. The content got more and more serious as I developed it, as everywhere I’ve turned in these last few years there is another story about girls, boys and all the forms of abuse and exploitation they’re subjected to both here and round the world. It became so colossal for me to work through personally and I just tried to do my best with the song. I wasn't sure I could manage such a challenging subject matter. I think the crucial moment with the development of this song was when I decided that the responsible parties should be ‘we’ rather than ‘they’. I feel like we all have some responsibility for the horrific things that happen in our world because they are happening on our watch.

Track 9: 'Back to Reality'.

I used to be a big daydreamer. It’s not a bad thing in itself, of course, but I started to feel that it was becoming a problem for me. I felt that I was spending too much time in other imaginary lives and situations, rather than living my own. As with any problem or anything that’s nagging at me, it ends up turning into a song, as songwriting is the way that I work through my thoughts. 

Track 10: 'In the Darkness'.

As with many of the tracks that made it onto the album, I did a full demo on my iPad first and then went to The Burrow Bournemouth [a studio space with its own record label] and recorded everything again from scratch - vocals, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, cornet, piano and organ. I go into the studio with all the parts written out and all the instruments tracked out in different colours on a master sheet with lyrics. I think the details are really important and I’m a bit of a perfectionist, but the aim is that ultimately the music gets out of the way of the song. I’d prefer it that listeners are completely immersed in the story and emotion of each song. The details need to be perfect so that they are supporting the flow of the song rather than distracting from it. This one very much recreates a certain feeling for me at a really difficult time in my life. I have to try and enter that space again when I perform it otherwise I don't do it justice and it feels like karaoke.

Track 11: 'Kids'.

This is my Mum’s favourite! I’m the one who was ‘singing splendid nonsense in the backseat of the car’ - she can probably remember that better than I can! I guess the song explores nostalgia, wanting to get back to when we were kids and teenagers, and feeling like the potential you once had has not amounted to anything. By the end it reaches a place of acceptance and even celebration of my life now, which felt like a good place to finish the album.

***** 

Kar's debut album, 'Protagonist', is out now. You can give it a spin on Soundcloud and Spotify, and it's available for purchase via iTunes and Amazon. Physical copies of the album can be ordered through Bandcamp. To keep up to date with Kar's releases and live-dates, keep an eye on her website.