Interview with:Chris Turner, James Kennedy & Mike Stanton – Oceans Ate Alaska
Date:21/09/2022
Venue:The Joiners, Southampton.
Interviewer:Ryan Payne
How has the tour been so far?
Tour has been really good and really fun so far. All the bands we’re currently on tour with have been really friendly and really nice for us. We’ve had a couple of issues, but that’s just life. Nothing ever goes perfect but so far, it’s been absolutely brilliant.
Since the last time you toured, back in 2018, what have you added or improved to the stage show?
We’ve bought with us a lot of new gear and all of us are now on in-ear monitors which has completely changed our dynamic as we can now hear each other a lot better, making us play more in sync with each other. The set list is also filled with a lot of new tracks, which is definitely a more exciting aspect for when we go on stage, especially after releasing the album.
What are your highlights of the year so far?
We played some shows with A Day To Remember and that was pretty sick. We also played a couple of festivals in Europe, and they were amazing. One of the festivals was Jera On Air, which we were fortunate enough to come back to and the reception was amazing. Another festival we played was Rock The People Festival in the Czech Republic, and that was sick as well. We were on at 11:20 in the morning and 5 minutes before we were on stage, we looked out and saw a close to empty arena, but when we got on stage, we were greeted with a flood of people, and it was definitely an incredible show for us. All those people going nuts in the morning was great to see.
The new album “Disparity” has been out for a couple of months now, how has the release been compared to past releases?
This release has been insane. The reception has been absolutely incredible in such a short amount of time, and we are blown away that fans are already screaming the words back to us at live shows.
Your first single was released before the pandemic, and the subsequent singles were released within the last couple of months. How was the overall writing experience and did covid have an impact on the album itself?
All instrumentals for the album were recorded back in 2019, and then we had Jake (vocalist) leave, and then we reconciled later on, as well as James joining the band. It wasn’t something we could just jump into, so before we could get the input from the other guys. We then released “Metamorph” and then lockdown hit. With each of us having our own families, some of them being in vulnerable situations, we didn’t meet up or see each other, which made the writing process a lot harder. But eventually we got through the other end and managed to put this record together.
What does the future hold for Oceans Ate Alaska?
The future is bright. We want to hit the ground running with writing new material and take any shows we can. 2018 was a huge year for us touring, and we’d like to pick up back from that. We’re very excited to see what happens in the future to this little band for us.
Check out the bands new album, Disparity, now!
