Climates – The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Climates: A Matter Of Time And Bodyclocks

The Highwire Daze Legacy Interviews

Originally Published: December 1, 2o14

From the press release: Climates, an idea forged by vocalist Wes Thompson out of a bedroom in Wrexham, Wales, formed in early 2012 was set upon to be a cleverly executed plan from the start and after months of solidifying the line up, the first EP ‘What Means The Most‘ self recorded and released by the band was met with an overwhelming and unforeseen extent of listeners. To follow up such a swift birth into the world of melodic hardcore, Climates were then thrown in at the deep end to embark on their first ever European tour with Canadian Heavyweights ‘Counterparts’, playing with While She Sleeps, Architects and Bury Tomorrow along the way.

Soon after the band wasted no time in following up ‘What Means the Most’ with a two track EP named ‘Reconcile’.  The introduction of clean singing and more notably a higher quality sound, the band again began to turn more heads and with the release of the single & video ‘Three years’ the band began to set their sights on the road once again in 2013.

2013 saw the band tour relentlessly throughout the UK and Europe with the likes of: Being As An Ocean, Dance Gavin Dance, Last Witness and Chunk No Captain Chunk. Whilst making festival appearances alongside Parkway Drive, A Day To Remember and the The Ghost Inside to name a few. To the result of this the band have cemented themselves as a huge force in the live European hardcore scene and several sold out headline shows serves as a great testament to the bands rapid success.

In mid 2013 the band were taken on by the American artist management company The Artery Foundation and with a now even bigger driving force behind the band, a debut album was thrown into the pipeline and the last few months of 2013 saw the finishing touches to writing and recording what hopes to be one of the most promising releases of 2014.

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Climates, and how long the band has been together.
Hey, I’m Sam Bowden and I play guitar in Climates. We have been a band for the past 2 and a half years.

Where is the band based out of and what is your local music scene like there? Are there any local bands you could recommend?
We are currently based in Lincoln, UK, however the members are pretty spread out. It’s mainly just me and Matt (Drums) that are Lincoln based. The music scene has always been pretty poor on a whole. There really aren’t a whole lot of things going on and most bands don’t get over this way. The closet place to a music scene is probably Nottingham. I mean Fil from Neck Deep is from Lincoln so if that counts for anything.

How did you wind up signing to Artery?
We were originally under management by The Artery Foundation and that’s where the relationship with Mike (Artery Recordings) initially started.

Is there any story or concept behind the album title Bodyclocks?
It has this whole idea of time and a personal body clock. Motivation to get up and do the things you want to do. Time keeps ticking on your body clock so get up and do those things while you can.

Who did the artwork on Bodyclocks and how much input did you have on it?
We had Paul Jackson do the artwork, which he did a killer job. We wanted him to do his thing as we all love his work but we did give a few images and ideas but ultimately he went wild with it and thats what we got!

What could one expect from a live Climates show?
26 minutes of spins and jumps.. Our shows so far have all been real intimate ones which have been great! They’re pretty close with all the fans and the energy is always high.

Have you ever played here in the States or plan to do so in future days?
Not yet, we almost did, we just didn’t get our visas sorted in time. Playing the States if all of our dreams from being kids and still is, it would be a major personal milestone for all of us to get the opportunity tour that part of the world as well as the band’s.

Any strange or scary happenings on the road or at a Climates show?
We’ve definitely had our share of strange/weird shows. I think anytime you play Eastern Europe you know something weird is going to happen. One time we drove through the night, pulled up to a car park in Czech Republic to sleep and in the middle of the night some dude tried to break into the van. No idea of his intentions as there were 8 of us and 1 of him but it was pretty scary at the time.

If Climates could open up for any band either now or from the past, who would it be and why?
Each of us has probably got a different answer so I will try and answer for the other guys and get it right. Mine would probably be Papa Roach or Katy Perry. Papa Roach cause they’re just full of riffs and it would be sick, and Katy Perry because it would be wrong if my Itunes top played artist wasn’t mentioned. I know for a fact Chris’s would be HIM or Terror, but probably HIM, he has some weird obsession. Matt’s would be Slipknot for sure. Max’s would probably be Fightstar and for Wes, I’d say Pantera.

Climates is invited to play one song for the Queen at a Royal Command Performance. What song would you do for the Queen and her guests and why?
Well the Queen would probably have a shit day whatever we do, I can’t see her and the guests stage diving or being fond of a circle pit. I think the one that would suit most would be In The Heart Of Man as it only has singing but fuck that, if we’re gonna play in front of the Queen then we’re gonna give her the roughest day. Serpents it starts with a riff so she can deal with that.

What would you like a listener to remember the most after hearing Bodyclocks for the first time?
I think the diversity in the songs and the amount of musicianship. We are all into a whole bunch of music and they really influence our lives. We don’t ever want to just release something that song to song just sound the same.

What’s up next for Climates?
Touring. We just released an album so 2015 is about getting it out there and making new fans!

Any final words of wisdom?
“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take” – Michael Scott

(Interview by Ken Morton)

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