Different Times For OHHMS - An Interview With Paul Waller

UK Prog Rockers OHHMS have had a steady rise to fame and prominence since they released their debut EP – BLOOM – back in 2014. BLOOM showed OHHMS were a band that are hard to define. As the band include elements of Prog, Sludge. Doom, Stoner, Psych and Post-Rock interludes.

They released their debut album – The Fool – to major critical acclaim last year. Never known to take a long break between new records and albums. OHHMS will be releasing their eagerly awaited new album tentatively titled “Exist” later this year in November 2018. However the band experienced a testing time when recording their new album.

With this in mind I interviewed Paul from OHHMS to see where the band currently is and what people can expect from the new album. 

What’s been happening with the band recently? There seems to be a lot of activity especially with the forthcoming tour later this year with Boss Keloid and the new album.

We’ve been working behind the scenes. We’ve never done that before, never taken a period of time off away from Social Media and stuff like that. We’ve taken a few months to bury our heads in a practice room and get our act together. We’d already completed recording the album. However, then what happened was that Daniel wasn’t into the album. He loved his stuff but didn’t love the other guy’s contributions. Thing is the rest of the band were really passionate about all of it as was I.

It caught us off guard. This was the first major problem that OHHMS ever had and we had to make a decision. Daniel has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. It was awful when I did the deed and said - “We think it’s best to move on without you.”

Surprisingly, Daniel said he was almost relieved and that he could concentrate on future stuff. But it was a real awkward time. I won’t lie about it but I think our friendship has survived really well and that’s perhaps down to this Podcast that we recently started together.

So OHHMS is now in full swing without Daniel. It feels really weird but it gave the band the spark it needed to get the album fully recorded and released upon to the world. Also we can play songs that we’ve never played before because his replacement Stuart is a great singer. Proper exciting. I’m raring to go.

Did Daniel leave because the sound of the new album is different to your previous releases and wasn’t happy with the new direction? 

No. There’s always been a push and pull. I thought that what made us so good. Daniel in my opinion and for my taste was the best songwriter in the band and so I thought whoever we replace him with needs to have the same “Classic Rock” leanings that Daniel brought to the band. He was the only person that brought that to the band and I think that allows OHHMS to be that little bit more unique.

So we found Stu, the new guy. He can pull that stuff off with ease but he’s also throwing a lot of other different things in, he has Prog Rock and Post-Rock in his arsenal. So we will see how that will integrate. The other band members bring their own individual talents to the band, none of that has changed. I must admit I was a little bit worried but the other guys are saying it’s going to work out great. We will find out soon enough.

Stu has re-recorded a lot of different stuff that Daniel originally recorded and we’ve even rewrote a whole song and started from scratch with some others. One track on the new album called ‘Shambles’ still features Dan playing; it’s an awesome farewell. But what Stuart has brought to the table just floors me. We really have landed on our feet.

When is the album being released? 

This album is being released November 2018 via Holy Roar Records and we are dong a tour with Boss Keloid in October. We are also doing two dates in November and those two dates coincide with the release of the album.

I can’t wait to get back on the road and play these new songs live.

Wait till you see what we have planned for the next album.

I’m surprised you said “next album” and this upcoming album. Does that mean you have the next album in place. Or plans in place? 

I think so. The thing is this album wasn’t meant to exist. The original plan was to release ‘The Fool’ and then we start recording next year for a 2020 release, which was going to be the next record. However, I got all my “poetry” altogether, all my notes which are about Animal Rights and Animal Conservation and things like that.

I didn’t want to wait. Sometimes with something that you’re truly passionate about, you have to do it right there and then. So we did it. We put all the money that we made off of ‘The Fool’ into the studio. We knocked it out right away. Chainy had been writing a massive song for several years before we started OHHMS. It was a song that Daniel particularly hated just because it was so long and complex. Before my vocals went on this song, even we didn’t know if it made sense. But it really does, it’s perfect.

Normally with our long songs, it’s a journey that has a beginning, middle and end. I really enjoyed doing stuff like that but last year I got proper bored with. So I asked Chainy could we use that track you did years ago and he said – “Yeah, I’ve finished it.”

We brought that song back into play and that has filled up the whole of side one. It’s 22 minutes and it’s in a style done by bands such as Pink Floyd, Genesis and Rush but a lot heavier. It’s one song but split into several parts, a suite. We couldn’t be more pompous if we wanted to. The song is about a life-cycle of an animal that’s born into Animal Testing.

I spoke to the guys, oddly with OHHMS we have regular meetings where we discuss the music and I presented them with all this stuff, all the words on paper. I asked could we write and make an album about this. The rest of the band said - “Yeah. Here’s all the music that we’ve done”. We just ran with it.

So we went for it and I’m so glad that we did. It’s weird back in the 60s/70s when bands released 2 or 3 albums a year. I want OHHMS to continue on and try release an album every year. As long as we are this inspired.

You may have noticed that bigger bands have announced their new albums to be released between Oct and Dec. Then they decide to postpone the release to the New Year. Was that ever a plan? Release it in the New Year? Or do you want the album released now? 

Holy Roar Records have had such an insane year. I don’t know if you know of websites such as RateYourMusic and similar brands. Usually you get a Hip-Hop album, a pop album or really weird underground indie rock album being voted top by critics and picking up points normally ending up as “Album Of The Year”.

At the moment Rolo Tomassi are doing it on the critic aggregation and that’s insane. Behind them you have Boss Keloid and Conjurer. It’s mad what’s currently going on over there at our label. I love Holy Roar and I want to be a part of this successful year.

I told Holy Roar that I want the album out this year as I want to start recording the new album next year. So lets get this album out now. They were unsure at first. Their release schedule was full. They are so busy at the moment. I noticed a gap right at the end of the year and I asked could we fill that. Holy Roar said no because there is no contention for when critics will put you in that “End Of Year” list sort of thing and Christmas time is notoriously bad selling time for new music by underground acts. Purely from a record label perspective of course if you get into the Top 50 Albums Of The Year things, that guarantees the band more sales.

There was another final spot in November. So I took that and they agreed. It was a relief.

Holy Roar Records have had a great year with albums this year. Such as Conjurer and Boss Keloid. Which is one of my favourite albums this year. 

It is my favourite album this year, Steve. It’s my number one choice this year so far.

Not many bands release a studio live album that Boss Keloid did earlier this year and still receive praise for the album. Is that why they are going on tour with you on your forthcoming UK Tour. 

I only had one choice with the band that I wanted to support OHHMS on the UK Tour and that was Boss Keloid. I asked them and they said yes. I was thinking – Yes! That was so easy. That’s amazing.

I’m in an envious position seeing Boss Keloid perform every night for 8 nights. That will be fantastic.

Will this be a joint tour or is OHHMS headlining. 

We are headlining but I would hope a ton of tickets are going to be sold because of Boss Keloid’s involvement as well. Our album doesn’t come out until a month after the tour. Our manager thinks were dicks for doing that. As you normally do a tour when the album is already out.

The thing is Boss Keloid haven’t really toured. They’ve done one or two gigs but they haven’t done a proper tour. So this will be people’s first exposure to the new Boss Keloid album. I’m proper excited, as I’m a proper fanboy.

Away from OHHMS, you’ve just started a Podcast called Different Times with Daniel. What is the podcast about and how did it come together. 

Yeah, Different Times Podcast. I was heartbroken with the whole issue with Daniel when he left OHHMS. He’s my best friend and it’s been like that for years. This is more than friendship. He’s more like a brother and within a week I was missing him. Within a couple of weeks we were talking again and a week after that we were planning this podcast.

You know the Podcast- That’s Not Metal, one of the biggest music podcasts. They put the feelers out by asking people to get involved. So we put together this pilot that we never sent where I love interviewing bands and Daniel loves talking “SHIT” about bands. It seemed like a perfect thing. It didn’t work out with That’s not Metal though when they changed their format. However we were left with this pilot and we asked ourselves – “Did We Want To Continue”?

And we did want to continue.

We are having real fun with this. All it’s about is looking at old Rock and Metal magazines. I love to put POP stuff in there as well just to wind Daniel up. We talk about the articles that were published at the time. It’s really weird and odd looking back at these magazines and articles. There is so much filler in those old magazines compared to the new ones.

The filler was so trite and mind-boggling at the time. It’s like from 1985 and up to the early 90s it was so sexist and casually racist and then Grunge arrived and changed attitudes. We just love reading the magazines and talking shit about them.

The great end to that story is that Daniel and myself are stronger friends that we have been for years. So I’m really thankful for that.

Where did you get these old magazines from? Do you have an old collection of magazines? Or do you buy stuff from Charity Shops or eBay? 

I have tons of magazines from my youth. The golden egg is KERRANG No 1. I’ve got it but I can’t bloody find it. I’ve got a spare room that’s full of tapes, old CD’s and magazines. I don’t want to go through all that stuff though as it will take forever.

Daniel is a bit different. When he wants something he goes on eBay. He’s on eBay all the time looking at different magazines. So that helps with the Podcast as well.

What else do you do on the Different Times Podcast.

We like to delve into music that I don’t know or Daniel doesn’t know or that we both don’t know. I love Daniel’s reaction when I dare to talk about Indie Rock. He’s so immature and he acts like a kid. I find that hilarious to do.

For something different we just recently did an episode on Cancer Bats. Where we discovered that Cancer Bats new album was released on 20th April 2018, which was when SLEEP released their new album – THE SCIENCES. It got buried underneath the SLEEP hype and I didn’t listen to the new Cancer Bats until a few months later.

It was such a mistake to make releasing an album the same day as SLEEP. HA HA.

Well Paul, thanks for doing this interview. Can’t wait to hear the album. Best of luck with everything. New album, forthcoming UK tour and the Different Times Podcast. 

Anytime my friend. Thanks again. Catch you later.

Words by Steve Howe and Paul Waller. 

Thanks to Paul for doing this interview. Thanks to Claire at Purple Sage PR for arranging this interview.

OHHMS Links:

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Different Times Podcast Links:

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No Fooling Around - An Interview with Paul Waller from OHHMS

OHHMS have become one of my fave bands from the UK scene since their inception in 2014. OHHMS blend elements of Noise, Post-Rock, Doom, Drone, Sludge and Stoner sound and create something original. Since then they have released two acclaimed EP's with Bloom and Cold.

OHHMS have became one of the must see acts on the live arena with their uncompromising performances that's earned then plaudits from fans and critics alike.

OHHMS are about to release their epic new album – The Fool. A politically charged and emotionally involving album that sees OHHMS at their most creative and most passionate. I caught up with lead vocalist – Paul – recently to discuss the making of the album.

Hi Paul. Thanks for doing this interview. How things with you. Congrats on the new album.

It's one of those things that everyone has spoken to us about the album has been really positive. We haven't had any negatives. Apart from the initial findings from our management. Journalists and fans have been very excited about it. The management were the first people that said - “We've haven't heard it yet but someone said it's very underwhelming”.

That was just when Radio 1 put out the “The World”. A promoter in Leeds said it was very underwhelming. That was our very first bit of feedback. We were thinking “SHIT”.

The album is getting a lot of buzz from the Doom Community. Have you heard this yourselves.

Yeah we've heard. It's the first time we have interest from places like America and a few different promoters and magazines asking about it. I don't know if that's down to ourselves stepping up the promotion or people are genuinely interested in the album. We just don't know.

The sound and tone of the album varies from song to song..As it's quite different to your previous EP's.

We started to go off on a tangent at the song “Dawn Of The Swarm” that was on COLD. Flip-side to The Anchor. We loved doing that. We loved performing that. We went mad in the studio. So many overdubs and soon we started playing again in the rehearsal room. It sounded shit compared what we released on record. We decided to continue this sort of thing but so we can perform this stuff live. That was the trick.

You're quite right. If you hadn't listened to those EP's or seen us perform live. This will be a shock as two of the tracks are around the 20 minute mark. The lengthy stuff is not like the forefront now. We did write our longest ever song but it's a world apart from our earlier sounds on Anchor And Bloom which are firmly in the Doom Metal camp.

Was that the intention to do something different for for this album. Did you have a plan of some kind.

It's never the intention to do something different or to go into recording something with a plan. We stockpile riffs up and we go through them. Some of them we love and others we just bin. We go into the studio work on those ideas and insert the riffs into the right songs. I know other bands from our genre write the same way. What I found interesting that it was completely natural as we wrote The Magician. We wrote that song before we wrote Dawn Of The Swarm that appears on Cold.

That song was always there but we were always concerned about it. On one of the tours we had Jon from CONAN driving us around. He played “Reveangence” before it came out with the demos. Of course that album is not quite blast based riffs but actually thunderous beats. We played our song “The Magician” and we've been playing that 6 months by then. We just thought then “Fuck's Sake”

So yeah, it's that old but at the same time we've written newer songs on this album. The songs are Doom/Stoner-ish sounds and so much more as well. I hate that Post-Metal tag even though we have similar sounds to bands from that genre.

It's strange. I don't know what people will make of it. I hope they don't think it's too much of a leap. It will take a few listens. If you stream a track here and there I don't know if you will get it right away. You will need to listen to the album to appreciate it more. Give it a few listens.

The Hanged Man can be very bleak and political at times. What influenced you when writing that track.

The songwriting came first with that track. It was really strange as it's an angry track but I wasn't angry when writing the song. I was at work and I walked past a copy of one of the British Daily Newspapers. and I read the headline. I know these newspapers can be shit and god-damn awful. Though I never knew how awful and shit they actually are. They're very sneaky with this horrible headline. It was scaremongering about Immigration and Borders.

So I read through this article and I researched further. This wasn't the only newspaper doing this and I was amazed that this was legal the stuff they were printing. I got furious with this newspaper headline and people buy this stuff day in and day out. It shocked me that people read and believe this stuff.

That night there was a Documentary on TV that night about the Hillsborough Tragedy. Again it showed the headlines that The Sun came out with at the time. It was shocking and disturbing yet again. I thought that's it. That's what the song was going to be about. I made a phone call to the guys, arranged a quick rehearsal the next day. That was it. It was done.

It was really exciting as that was the first time I've written when I was angry. It all worked out on the end and it sounded great.

It was also the first time that Max (Drums) brought in some electronic weirdness. He manipulated bass and drums sounds electronically. He sampled other things as well. It was a true collaborative effort from everyone.

One of my favourite parts of that song is when the mood becomes quiet and you perform very loud pissed off vocals.

When they wrote that in the studio it was one of those moments when you say – WOW. You get so excited and it's one of those moments that opened upto a world for me that challenges me. I know where to ROAR and where to sing. The band make my life so easy.

You spent a hell of a long time recording this album. Over a year and a half I believe. How did it take that long. Did you every think it would ever get finished.

No not at all. We had the plan from the start. The album took 18 months to record. The artwork we've been working on for two years.. Those Tarot Cards we were getting one a month. That was the plan to begin with. We are basing the album around the Tarot. We had 22 song titles to choose from.

The reason why it took so long to record was because of finances. We didn't have the money and we knew it would cost a few grand.. Holy Roar isn't the type of label that will upfront money to record the album. The way they work is totally DIY. We get paid from the records and merch we sell at shows. We don't lose any money which is great.

Every time we written two songs we would go back into the studio and record. We would then do the same for the next two songs until the album was fully recorded. It also allows us to revisit what we record six months down the line and we can say – Lets Change That. Even on the last day of recording – we had to overdub some vocals. We changed the way I sing a line on The Magician as Max said I sounded like Bruce Dickinson.

You've gone a too bit “IRON MAIDEN” - Paul. So I overdubbed half of a line that I recorded six months earlier. So it didn't' warble like Bruce Dickinson like he does. I did it in one take and Max said – Done. That's it.

It had bugged him for that amount of time and he didn't tell me. It's a mad way to do it but I think it works. It was a big long project. It's a weird way to run a band with everyone having all these plans. It's the way we work.

Your vocals very different on this album. More mature and more confident if you don't mind me saying. How did you prepare for your vocals for this album.

This is so embarrassing. I had to take vocal lessons. I found it excruciating singing in front of an old lady on a piano. I was fine touring for four days but on the fifth day I was struggling and by the sixth day I was wrecked. I needed to learn control. By learning to control my voice I can hear notes that I couldn't hear before.

During this process I also learned to harmonize. I never even thought about that. Now it comes naturally. Not many other bands are doing. Thanks for pointing that out and noticing as I've put a lot of hard work and effort into this. Funny story is I now do vocal warm-ups and the only chance I get to do it is in the van. The guys hate it. I'm doing my vocal exercises for a good fifteen minutes but the whole band are begging me to stop.

As a vocalist. It's good fun. It's exciting as I'm learning some pretty cool and exciting techniques.

We have to talk about the song that will surprise people the most on the album. The Lovers. Who is the superb female vocalist that appears on it.

I written a song from an article I read in the article in The Independent. It was the most twisted and fucked up love story. I don't know about love. It was all about arranged marriage in Africa. This woman was meant to marry this gentlemen. He was quite controlling and she wasn't in love with him. So it was always going to end badly. The reason why it ended up in the newspaper is because the gentlemen's brother was the lady's confidante and close friend. They weren't in love or anything. Just good friends.

This made the husband very jealous. He went to see the village elders and convinced them she was a witch. Long story cut short – She got stoned to death. It was such a freaky story and the husband admitted afterwards it was all down to jealousy.

Daniel had this little loop that was originally going to be the intro to Dawn Of The Swarm. He binned it as we had a better intro to it.

The vocalist is called Sienna Holihan. She's a folk artist and I first heard her supporting some band at an indie gig. I was blown away and I asked Sienna after the gig would she be interested and she was.

When Sienna was in the studio, she sang it in a different way that I envisioned it. Turns out I was singing it on the off and Sienna was singing it properly. It works.

You're going on tour soon in with HARK and BOSSK separately. You looking forward to that tour. What can people expect.

We've been trying to do some shows with HARK for a very long time. I'm a big fan of TAINT. His voice and his roaring is incredible. That was a no-brainer. We try to arrange a European Tour but it didn't' work out. Finally Jimbob came up and said we have 4 days that the guys can get off work. Do you want in.

We immediately say YES.

The same thing happened with BOSSK. Even though they've done a few shows here and there. They don't tour very often. They've done one proper tour since they reformed in two years. We still feel we're the new kids on the block. Both of these tours are built at joint headline tours. It's weird as we don't think deserve this as we don't have an album out yet. HARK and BOSSK have great albums out. It's nice to be asked in that context.

I know people come upto us after gigs and chat to us. Though people do that with every band. It's a weird and good feeling at the same time.

Well Paul thanks for doing this interview. All the best with the new album. It's a killer record.

Cheers and Thank You.

Words by Steve Howe and Paul Waller

Thanks to Claire at Purple Sage PR for arranging this interview. Thanks to Paul from OHHMS for doing this interview. The Fool will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl via Holy Roar Records from March 31^st 2017.

Links

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Interview with Paul Waller from OHHMS

OHHMS have became one of my fave UK Sludge/Doom/Stoner Bands from the UK Scene over the last 18 month or so. They've released two acclaimed EP's over the last 12 months with BLOOM and COLD.

OHHMS adventurous style of Sludge, Doom, Noise, Stoner, Post-Rock and anything else they throw into the ring make them an exciting band to check out. 2015 has been a fantastic year for them. Countless gigs and stunning reviews for their music given the band a much broader fan-base.

If you haven't discovered OHHMS yet now here's your chance as I recently caught up with Lead Singer – Paul – to see how things have been in the OHHMS camp and what the future holds for them. So lets get started....

It’s been an exciting time for OHHMS since we last spoke, a New EP, countless tours and gigs. How would you describe the last 18 months or so for you as a band?

I think we last spoke just before our first EP, ‘Bloom’ came out, then 8 months later, this June I think it was we put out our second EP, ‘Cold’. Both records have now pretty much sold out of their initial pressings, I know we have a few left and the label has been recalling back the final copies back from the distributors so they can sell some themselves.  

But that’s just statistics, on a personal note when we began all I wanted was to document one more recording with my friends before I packed in playing music and become a journalist properly. I had no idea how good those demo recordings would be and how incredible it would feel to be on stage as some of those riffs and solos flowed over me from those guitar and bass rigs. It’s been life changing. 

I’ve seen a handful of bands before where I get chills when they hit certain notes or passages and it’s always so intense a feeling I can’t quantify it. I get that all the time with OHHMS, in the practice room, on stage, listening back to our recordings and demos. It’s truly exciting for me day in day out. 

Plus, every week for the past few months now there has been a ton of admin to deal with for the band that has meant I can no longer write for the magazines and websites like I was. When we are not in the practice room, I spend my spare time managing OHHMS, liaising with the label, promoters, festivals, artists and other bands, all those things I used to dream of doing as a kid. 

It’s not like we are selling hundreds of copies of records a week or selling out venue after venue, word is spreading sure but it’s at a level in which we can deal with most of the stuff ourselves. Over the past year I’ve been doing the band accounts as well and we have just started to turn a profit, so we hired a decent PR for our future European endeavours and we bought a van too. We still don’t see any cash; we put it all back into the band. 

Saying that, our financial projections for next year’s European Tours see us running at a massive loss but we work shitty jobs just like everyone else to make these things happen.

What has been the highlight of the last 18 months for you so far?

My personal highlight if I had to choose just one would be ArcTanGent Festival, which we recently played in Bristol. I had an absolutely incredible time. 

A few weeks before we played we were informed that we had been bumped up the bill to the main stage from the 4^th stage, I mean, no pressure or nothin’, it were mad. 

I wanted to play our first EP in full for the set and I remember our drummer wanting to change it at the last minute but I was having none of it. So we played ‘Bloom’ and when I was half way through the first verse of ‘Rise of the Herbivore’ I opened my eyes and looked up and the place was packed, so many people it was crazy. What’s more there were a group of them singing back the words in the front couple of rows and I was just so utterly impressed by this you wouldn’t believe it. 

The best part though was a few hours later we went to the office to collect our food tokens and I see the organizer James make a beeline for us. He’s holding something close to his chest with a massive smile on his face. As he approached I could see it was both our records in his arms. He asked us there and then to come back and play again. We just stood there like plums you know… “Er yeah, okay”

Sometimes I have to pinch myself Steve. Those moments are the ones that stick for life I reckon. What a guy eh? 

Now let’s talk about COLD. WOW. What an EP that is. One I rate more highly than your debut EP – Bloom. How has the record been received by fans and critics alike as COLD has a different sound to Bloom?

The EP has gone down well all over the UK and Europe with critics; I was pretty gutted when I got sent a review in an Australian magazine that was pretty negative and couldn’t tell us from Clutch and Orange Goblin, which was weird. I was gutted because I was born in Australia and was well impressed that the album had reached as far as my homeland.

There was another bad one in Power Play magazine that said we were derivative of the doom/stoner scene as a whole and I liked that one much better. I don’t agree at all and one could argue back of course that Power Play magazine itself is derivative of all rock/metal magazines as a whole but at least they had the balls to give something a slagging.

Magazines are so afraid to be honest in reviews these days; no one wants to rock the boat that might mean they receive a diminished advertising load from labels they have upset. I remember when Conan’s ‘Blood Eagle’ came out and Zero Tolerance gave the thing 0/10 and ripped them apart in 120 brutal words. Now for me that was the album of 2014. My very favourite, I didn’t care that the reviewer thought the band sucked. At least he was being honest in his thoughts plus it made me chuckle. Job done mate…

Does it bother you what people say in reviews then?

Yeah of course, I want everyone that likes heavy music to love OHHMS, but I know that can’t happen. We have released 65 minutes of music so far and with only 4 songs. We are not an easy sell and that’s our own fault but we just play what comes naturally in our practice space.  

We had an email recently from our PR that showed us tons and tons of reviews that ‘Cold’ has had from massive magazines to tiny blogs and only a couple received average scores. The negative ones are usually what you remember but it’s not enough to make me lose sleep that’s for sure.

COLD is more progressive, experimental and contemporary to Bloom. Was that the plan to release something different?

I guess you could say that although we had written ‘Dawn of The Swarm’ before the songs that were on ‘Bloom’. I just wasn’t fully happy with the vocal melodies at the time so we put ‘Bad Seeds’ on ‘Bloom’ instead. We went a bit too crazy in the studio with it I think too. To the point where we still haven’t played ‘Dawn…’ live yet as vocally the harmonies are really tricky when we can barely hear the vocals most of the time when we play live. 

But yes, OHHMS is a band determined to experiment with different sounds and textures and structures from the norm. Sometimes it works and sometimes it sucks. When an idea stinks we bin it and when one feels right we bed it in for what seems like months before we put it in a song. 

I’ll give you an example; listen to Max’s drumming on any song. Its nuts, what’s wrong with him? It shouldn’t work, what he’s doing… it’s jazzy, it’s not rigid yet it’s fluid and remarkably heavy. Every now and again it’s only a guitar or a vocal line that keeps an actual rhythm going. I don’t understand it myself and I don’t want to for fear it might ruin the joy I get from hearing it.

Seriously though I’m on holiday right now writing this and I’m genuinely excited about what the guys are going to come up with whilst I am away. It could be anything.

Did you guys do anything differently when recording COLD compared to BLOOM?

Nothing at all, when we completed 2 songs we took them to the studio to record them.

Your vocals are very different as well. I think you were influenced by artists from 70s Hard Rock especially on Dawn of the Swarm. What did you do different with your vocals when recording COLD?

Yeah, it’s fair to say that the vocals sound clearer and more powerful on this record than they did on ‘Bloom’. But all I did was watch couple of YouTube clips and learned how to control my voice a little better and how to warm it up properly. Also, for the first record I was still not quite ready to leave the hardcore, gruff style that I was used to completely, but it’s not like they are guttural Cattle Decapitation style or anything, the diction was still clear.

What I was most proud of was those harmonies on ‘Dawn of the Swarm’ though. We tried out a couple during the ‘Bloom’ sessions as well of course but nothing as intricate as we laid down on ‘Cold’. It was so much fun but holy shit I hope those out-takes got deleted. 

It took a lot of practice… let’s put it that way.

You’ve been involved with a few tours and gigs in 2015. And you’ve been winning a lot of praise for your live performances. What have been your fave gigs so far this year? Obviously touring with Slabdragger must have been great fun?

The tour with Slabdragger was killer. Of course it was, I knew it would be, so much so that we are doing another 3 dates with them at the end of February 2016 to be able to go to the towns we missed the first time round. The highlight for me would have to be the final date, a sold out London show at the Black Heart. I don’t know if you know the venue but it gets really hot when the room gets half full. For a sold out show it’s just nuts. The first few rows of the crowd that I could see just looked crazed, delirious in the heat. We played for what, maybe 25 minutes and I probably lost half a stone. I could barely move at the end of it. Plus I broke my toe. I have no idea how that happened but I know I’d do it all again.

Over the past 18 months we have made a point of playing every town up and down the UK that we can. If there is a venue and someone wanted to promote us then we would play it. Sometimes we got paid and sometimes we didn’t but you know I think that it’s essential that if you are starting out you do what we did. 

Since we started we have played to rooms which contained 9 paying customers in them and rooms with over 1500 punters in them as well. Our first show was in in April 2014 and now 78 shows later it’s nuts to see that come the 5^th of December we will have almost 2 months free from playing live gigs. We finally will have a break.

I’m busting to get some new songs written.

I’ve heard you’re recording your debut full length record soon and that it will have a different sound. When can we expect to hear that and is it going to be a different sound for OHHMS?

We begin recording at Christmas and will be continuing to record throughout 2016. We should be able to do it in 4 different sessions of 4 or 5 days each. It's going to be a massive project and we can’t wait to get started.

Holy Roar have let us know we can do exactly what we need to do artwork wise and also I can let you know it'll be a double LP which some might think will be a risk for a debut album with people having limited attention spans these days for such vast records but we have all this music in us and it's all good. No filler, I'm not kiddin'. I would say that though wouldn’t I?

It’s a concept album of sorts but musically it shouldn’t be too much of a departure. Some of the songs will be under 10 minutes and there will be some instrumentation we haven’t used before but we are still going to be sticking to the musical pallet of those first 6 Black Sabbath albums. For me that's the safety net. Stick within those boundaries of instrumentation and you won’t go too far wrong. 

There’s also talk of you guys touring Europe more extensively over the next 12 months or so. You guys looking forward into travelling further afield? Any festival appearances you like to confirm?

Yeah, we noticed on our FB page that roughly 30-40% of our likes are from people that live in mainland Europe so we are doing a little 4 dayer over there at the end of October this year and then thanks to those amazing people at Dead Pig bookings we are going to be dedicating 2016 to Europe, playing just a handful of UK shows.

We have played so many English shows over the past 18 months in support of our 2 EPs that there are very few new towns for us to hit. Although, we have yet to step foot in Wales which is very disappointing. Sorry Wales.

As for festival appearances in 2016 I can tell you we have 4 booked so far and a few more on the cards. I remember when we were starting out and I would email these festival promoters and just get no reply... It was always disheartening and let’s face it to be expected when you are just starting out. These days the promoters are contacting us and all we do is turn up and play, eat and drink beer and leave. We're living the dream mate.

All we can confirm at the moment though is that we are playing Sound Bay Festival in Lisbon, Portugal in April. We get to play with Elder as well - a band that I love so I am really looking forward to it…

People have been saying that the UK Doom/Sludge/Stoner Scene has reached its peak and the only way from there is down. Do you agree with statement? If you do, how can the UK Doom/Sludge/Stoner scene improve?

It was on its way out before we formed. A year and a half later the UK is utterly saturated with sound-a-like bands and watered down bullshit. We get put on bills with so many shitty bands it’s unreal. But every now and again a shining light appears and they transcend the ‘scene’.

On personal note I tend to check out every single band I hear about, I am still obsessed with a good fat riff, I still want to bang my head and I still want to have heavy music wash over me on a daily basis. I am in no way jaded but there is so much crappy music out there it’s hard to pick out those gems when they come about. 

Saying all that I cannot think of one band in the UK underground scene has broken through, Uncle Acid and The Deadbeats are the closest to do so, Orange Goblin and Electric Wizard sell more records than even they but you wouldn’t count them as having broken big…

Until someone breaks through in a massive way I don’t think that the scene will die off, the doom and stoner scene has tended to flourish and then back off in waves since I got into Candlemass in the late 80s as a kid. I think about it a lot but I don’t have an answer. OHHMS have one foot in this scene for sure but I hope that people find a lot more in us than just the generic stoner sound. That would be horrible.

We have to talk about the gear that you use when performing live. What gear do you use when performing live? Is it an advanced setup or just a basic rig?

Um… as a singer all I can say that it’s loud and is constantly growing to the point where we can no longer fit on smaller stages. So many cabs and FX pedals and god knows what. It’s bloody stupid and bloody deafening. 

What tips can you give the budding musicians out there to get that distinctive sound?

All I would say is that if your music can’t hold your own interest then don’t inflict it onto the public. A sound, a look, a feel, whatever, if it burns like a fire inside you then just do it.

With 2015 drawing to a close. What have been your favourite albums you’ve listened to this year?

Wow, I haven’t thought in too much detail yet but I have loved records by Rolo Tomassi, Old Man Lizard, Death Grips, Gruesome, Tame Impala, Black Rainbows, Chelsea Wolfe, The Moth, Disasterpiece, Marriages and Rose Windows. There is probably a ton more….

Well, thanks for doing this interview. Before you go do you have any infinite words of wisdom for your fans out there?

Words of wisdom? OHHMS? You must be joking.

Words by Steve Howe and Paul Waller

Thanks to Paul for taking the time out to talking to me. I can't wait to hear the debut album when it's released in 2016.

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