Interview: Split Chain @ Misery Loves Company

Interview

30 Oct

Split Chain are a 5-piece nu-metal band from Bristol who, despite only having performed 6 shows and released 4 singles, have over 2000 followers on TikTok with some video’s reaching over 140,000 views. Their clever use of media trends and algorithms to promote their music has flooded them with the attention of the grassroot rock scene all across the UK. They have already landed a space at their first festival (Misery Loves Company) as an opening act, and filled the room doing so.

With so many eyes on a band only just beginning their music journey, everyone’s keen to know what the boys have next in store and just how far they can go with such strong potential and reception in these very early days.

First off, fabulous set! It was an awesome show, and I really enjoyed it. I noticed you said this is your fifth gig ever. I've seen a lot of bands in their early stages, but I've never seen the kind of popularity for an opening set that you managed to generate on only your fifth show. Were you expecting something like that?

Jake: I was setting up and looked up, and there was just a wave of people there. We've had a good reception since we started. Keeping the branding and the social media presence up. It was great. It's always nice to have a room full of people.

Since you're a band from Bristol and MLC is a hometown show, I noticed you had a lot of friends and fans who seem to have been around since day one. Would you say Bristol has a tight community in the music scene?

Tom: There’s a lot of mates that we've had from the beginning that you managed to stick around and carried on supporting us, because Bristol is quite a small city the scene has always been close-knit. It had a bit of a wave where it died down a little bit but there's a bit of resurgence coming on.

How would you describe your band's image and what you're trying to convey to your audience? What are you about, and what do you want your music to say?

Tom: We’ve been asked a similar question before and we said it was taking what we liked and grew up on as kids, the dirty kind of CKY skate vibe, and replicate it but make it a bit fresher. So it's familiar, but it's also freshened up.

Jake: Like what Tom said, we grew up skating, playing PS2 games, watching wrestling and listening to Nu metal. It’s good to incorporate all of that and have a bit of fun with it.

How did it all start for Split Chain; coming together and your history?

Tom: It's a bit of a weird one. We've only been a band officially since April but back in August/September last year me and our vocalist Bert were hanging out, just writing music that we liked the sound of and it just kind of exploded. From there, we wrote a couple of demos that we really liked and we decided straight off the bat to go to the studio with them. We decided if we’re going to have a bash at this we want to do it properly. Then we recruited everyone more or less in one at a time. I think Jake was the first one. He's an amazing guitar player and has been my best mate for years so that was an easy one. Then Ollie who we showed the demos at the pub and were straight in. And then Aaron.

Jake: Aaron filled in on a session and then the rest is history. I think this is Tom's first band.

Tom: Yes so it's both the bands and my fifth show. I've never played live before either.

Jake: The rest of us had done it before doing a heavier sort of vibe.

Aaron: We used to play on the scene all the time with our local little shitty deathcore bands back into skinny jeans days. Me and Jake have always been around, playing pubs and all that kind of stuff.

One thing I want to know is where did you get those old TVs from?

Tom: Facebook marketplace, Ollie’s probably got the most.

Ollie: One of the TVs is my actual childhood TV that I used to play PlayStation One on. So it's nice and authentic. The other ones, it's mostly Facebook marketplace. But people started messaging us because they know that we are after them now.

Aaron: There is a Lightning McQueen one on Marketplace. If anyone reading this wants to get it for us that would be great.

I noticed some unreleased songs in your set, so can we ask, when is the EP/album coming?

Tom: To be honest, we're just taking it easy for the time being. We're actually going back in to the studio tomorrow for a few days. But we’ve got a new track coming out on October 20. That will be our fourth one, it was the third track in our set today. But as it stands, there aren't any concrete plans for EPs or anything like that. It's just keep dropping singles until it feels right for us.

Jake: It feels right to just do singles at the moment anyway, as a band just starting up its best to drip feed of music as it keeps people wanting more. Also we're still fleshing out our sound. So instead of doing a big body of work, while we're still kind of figuring things out, it's good to make sure we're happy with our sound and where we are going and then do the big body of work with it.

Given your impressive TikTok and wider social media presence, especially considering this is only your fifth show, I'm curious if any of you have experience in social media management, and how you handle audience expectations to produce more?

Tom: Burt works in social media marketing. So he's always had an eye for it. He's really good at noticing trends. Cracking on making things and making sure the details are all correct. We just keep an eye out for what else is going on and we just try and do what we can to fit that.

Jake: Consistency is key keeping on top of regular uploads. With current trends on TikTok, if you notice people are engaging with it, then it's a no brainer to kind of act upon that. TikTok has been a platform that has done really well for us in terms of streams and people finding our music. I couldn’t recommend that more to anybody that’s in a band because it's a treat.

Tom: There's a lot of people out there that won’t want to do it for whatever reason, which is fine. But people said the same about Facebook and Instagram when that was all launched. And look what that did for everything. Social media has always been a crucial part of music. It's just completely different now in terms of what social media is available. Just try and take advantage of that as much as possible.

Ollie: In terms of expectations, like Jake was saying earlier it's just taking it one song at a time. Each time we release songs it’s really interesting to see how people react to it. It’s going to be interesting with the new ones that we are doing tomorrow, because each time we go into the studio we feel like it’s so much better than before. So if we're feeling good about it, then hopefully that translates to our audience as well.

Where do you see yourselves being you know, a year from now?

Tom: It's a bit of a difficult one to answer.

Jake: It's hard to navigate. The aim is like, you know, obviously, just keep up the quality. Try to gig more consistently next year and get to as many festivals as possible. We went to Outbreak as fans this year, that was a great experience. We'd love to get on that bill. We just want to play to people, and just get our music out there and see where it takes us. Musically, I can't see us shying away too much from what we're doing already. I think we're all happy with the sound that we're getting, and if anything I might try and make it a touch heavier.

Tom: Yeah, just see what we can get on and just take it show by show is the plan. Just deliver on that expectation and just get to as many people in as many places as possible.

Last question I've got for you is, if you could hear any song again for the first time, what would that song be?

Jake: “Digital Bath” by Deftones. That song has an unreal absolute vibe. The Deftones are a massive influence on us. So if I had my memory wiped, I'd like to just go back and listen to that again, for sure.

Aaron: This is deadly serious, “With Arms Wide Open” by Creed. If that's the only song I can ever hear for the rest of my life, I'll be happy. Desert island with just that on an iPod I'll take it.

Ollie: My one is going to be a toss up between two. I kind of want to go back to my childhood and listen to Linkin Park for the first time again just by putting on “Hybrid Theory” and hearing “Papercut”. But I think my actual answer would probably be listening to anything by Brutus for the first time. Every time I hear them it feels like the first time, it's just constant goosebumps and I just keep chasing that feeling.

Tom: I've been thinking about this and my mind keeps going back to one and it's “All the Things She Said” by t.A.T.u. It’s a slapper of a tune and I wish they release more like it because it's huge.

Split Chain is comprised of Jake Reid (guitar), Ollie Bowles (guitar), Tom Davies (bass) and Aaron Black (drums).

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