Abandcalledboy

It's all change for Northern Ireland rockers Abandcalledboy. Not ones to rest on their laurels or remain stagnant, they've taken the brave move to modify their line up. For most bands that means simply adding a new member, but for Abandcalledboy that mean't singer Ryan Burrows moving away from his drum kit and slinging on his guitar. On top of that, they've decided that the sound they explored in last year's acclaimed self titled EP needed freshening up.

This new dynamic has invigorated Abandcalledboy and the fruits of this new approach has resulted in a double A side single George Best In Shows/ Paul Simon's Daily Routine. GoldenPlec are delighted to be able to exclusively premiere the new single for Abandcalledboy and Ryan Burrows took the time to speak to us about how they've progressed as a band and what's in store for them in 2015.

Once a bands fans get used to a familiar sound or line up it can be a bit jarring  for them to adjust to change. Particularly if a drummer is moving to guitar. It can take a while for it to sink in and fans accept it. Burrows agreed with this saying "I guess people who had known the band personally probably knew I wrote a lot of the old songs on guitar anyway. I’m sure it’s a bit surprising for people who’ve maybe only seen us as a trio, it would be quite hard to imagine how the songs could work with a totally different drummer. But the reaction has been excellent, in general it allows us to cover a lot more ground in terms of musical elements than we ever could as a trio." 


The early EP's Abcandcalledboy's created generated a rousing raucous racket which was something they were comfortable with and could pull off with aplomb. But as a band you can't continue doing that forever. Given where Abandcalledboy are in their lives, Burrows agreed that their current approach is reflective of that. He also admitted there was some nervousness too about the new change in style "There maybe was at the beginning, but not so much now. We really enjoy the music we’re making now and don’t feel like the older material is very representative of the people we are anymore. It also doesn’t really fit in our live set. I guess if you hate us now, you could always pretend Abamdcalledboy split up and we’re just impostors. RIP."

A new line up means a new dynamic. Having an extra opinion in the band can also mean a new set of influences to help with song writing. On the flip side  it can make agreeing on the creative process ticker. Not so the case for Abandcalledboy "With Chris (Ryan) in the band everything is a breeze. We’re all into quite different things musically but we’re pretty open minded towards bringing all those influences in. When Chris joined, we made the decision to write music with him, as getting a new drummer was just one part of a big change we had in mind for the band. The writing dynamic the band has now is great, all 4 of us have to like an idea before it goes anywhere. We’ve only argued once…so far."

The songwriting process still boils down to jamming and seeing that they like. In terms of what they were looking to achieve for George Best In Show Burrows said they "wanted it to feel very claustrophobic and quite intense in terms of how much happens in a short space of time. So we wrote with that in mind, we’re influenced by noise music and a love for old funk/soul breakbeats on that one". You couldn't exactly accuse Abandcalledboy of ever going soft and playing something that won't give you tinnitus. future tracks won't compromise in that department but Burrows said they will show a greater variety than anything they've done presently "all the music is generally noisier than things we have done previously but to be honest all the new material is quite varied in terms of style. We’ll have a bunch of singles out this year, so it’ll definitely be interesting hearing what people think each time."

With so much going on for ABCB it promises to be a big year for them and Burrows promises "a lot of songs and videos being released, Irish tour dates and UK tour dates. Hopefully playing a few festivals this year as well. We’ll also probably be recording again in not too long."

You can catch Abandcalledboy live during March and April :

12th March - BELFAST, The Menagerie w/ The Continuous Battle of Order & Hot Cops

14th March - DUNDALK, Spirit Store

10th April - BELFAST, Oh Yeah Centre

25th April - PORTRUSH - Atlantic Lounge