An Interview with The Pagans S.O.H…
NSG’s David Lancaster spoke to Marcus, Connor, and Daragh of Black Country rockers The Pagans S.O.H. along with the band’s manager Kirk, to chat about playing live at Butlin’s, filming with Shaun Ryder, and overcoming a worrying waffle habit!
DL: The Pagans S.O.H. were formed about 4 years ago in the Black Country. You’ve put out a few singles in that time and you guys are an established, exciting, energetic live act, how did it all come together for you as a band?
C: I was actually drumming for another band and The Pagans came to support us at a gig in Wolverhampton, I was blown away by them and it was their first gig and they absolutely tore it apart, smashed it. Their drummer ended up leaving shortly after that, so I jumped in and offered them any help I could offer them, for free. Then I had a bit of a fallout with my old band, so fate played its part and I became a full time Pagan and we progressed from playing working men’s clubs to pub gigs, where we met Kirk our manager. After that, we branched out to festivals and stuff and now we’re one big happy family.
DL: As I say you guys played so many shows in 2019 going into 2020, when the lockdowns hit it must have been really strange for you to have that sudden stop. I know sometimes you played 2 gigs a day, how did the shutdowns impact you? Did you learn any new skills??
D: I started to learn how to make beats properly and I’m going to collaborate with a friend of mine soon, so it opened a lot of doors for me, but having that time with lockdown gave me that opportunity.
M: It impacted me massively to be fair, coz at the start of it all I lost my job, so I went from seeing hundreds of people every week, to seeing zero people. It was hard having so much time, time to do anything I wanted to. I tried to learn guitar, but that only went on for about a month as I’m a bit of a tight arse and I didn’t want to pay £120 for years of online tutoring, but similar to Daragh, I did teach myself how to make beats using Garageband, I tried loadsa different genres like RnB and drum and bass, I even made a dance tune.
C: I’ve been gigging since I was 15 nonstop, so it was kinda nice for the first 3 or 4 months of the lockdowns to get that break and clear my head. In 2019 we did over 50 gigs, manic! When I wasn’t gigging and I had that time off I went exploring a bit, walking in the countryside.
DL: So how do you guys manage to hold down full time jobs and also keep that level of commitment required to be part of a busy touring band, it must be exhausting at times?
D: We only just about manage to do it really and it is hard, and it’s a struggle. What keeps us all going is the music and our enthusiasm for it. We all need to keep this in our lives and keep performing, we’re musicians and if we didn’t do this we’d lose our heads.
The Pagans: Credit Debbie Ellis
DL: I know you lads are very vocal about mental health issues and Marcus, I saw that you took part in a BBC experiment to monitor stress levels before, during, and after playing a live show. As a band consisting of 3 young men, do you feel it’s important to speak out about mental health, and what did you find out from those tests mate?
M: I feel it’s definitely good to speak about mental health as it’s not good to keep the stuff inside. That’s the worst thing people can do with their emotions. It’s like holding out a cup of tea at arm’s length, at the start, the cup is easy to hold, but the longer you hold it for, the heavier it will get. From the documentary I did with the BBC, we learned that whenever I’m on stage performing, I have the same energy release as a skydiver. So going back to your lockdown question earlier, I went from doing 1 or 2 “skydives” or 1 or 2 shows every week in 2019, to doing nothing at all during the lockdowns, It was so difficult for about 8 or 9 months, I just didn’t know what I was doin’ with myself. But during those lockdowns, I managed to find myself, and I actually know who the hell I am now. I lost my purpose but now I’ve found it again.
DL: You guys have a unique sound, and you don’t really fit into any genre. I’d say you sound a bit like Red Hot Chili Peppers with Dizzee Rascal guesting on vocals, covering a Black Sabbath song. What other bands have you heard yourselves being compared with?
D: We get compared with Rage Against the Machine a lot too and when we first started out people said we sounded like Skindred, the Welsh punk/metal band. They’re the main ones I’ve heard people say, but a lot of people just say we sound like a real rock band, gritty and edgy. We just try to play hard!
DL: There’s a great history of bands coming out of the midlands, bands like Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath, and Dexy’s Midnight Runners, to name just a few, do you guys feel any pressure to match their successes and what local artists have influenced you guys?
M: I didn’t feel any pressure at first coz I never used to listen to any of them before we started the band, but as time moved on I did feel a bit more pressure and I was comparing myself to other bands, but that’s the wrong thing to do coz as you mentioned, we are very much our own sound, our own genre, and I think that’s what people like about us.
D: I’m a big fan of Sabbath and Led Zep, but I don’t feel any serious pressure to match them. Ozzy comes from Aston, just down the road from here, so he’s like an inspiration, like if he can do it, then we all can. There’s an ’80’s band, Charged GBH…one of their gigs was the first gig I ever saw and their guitarist was friends with my mum, so he was a family friend and he had a big influence on me as I was really into my punk growing up.
C: I don’t think we feel any pressure to get to their levels, the main thing for our band is to have fun and let the audience see that. We put on the shows with a positive attitude and if it happens it happens, if not, then we did our best and we had fun while doing it. Deep Purple were a bit of an influence for me growing up.
The Pagans: Credit Trust a Fox
DL: How did you guys come up with your name then? And if you fellas are the shepherds, then where are you herding us all to??
M: Daragh came up with “The Pagans,” coz we’re a bit unusual and a bit like outcasts. Originally we were gonna be “The Wastemen,” but we thought The Pagans sounded better, then we saw this band from the ’80s, a punk band called Pagans, so I added S.O.H. onto it. “Shepherds of Humanity.”I’d like to think we’re herding people to a place where they can think for themselves, a place where you don’t have to look for your neighbour’s approval in what you do. A place with more smiles and less frowns.
DL: So, as mentioned previously, you have released 3 great singles, the videos are all amazing, Banananah, shot down in Portmerion, Pagan Pilgrimage which has cameos from Shaun Ryder and Pete Turner, and then Pagans are Alive a wacky, comedy horror movie. Can you tell us a bit about those shoots, who you worked with, and how you pulled in some major guest stars?
K: ‘Banananah’ was our debut and we guessed that it really would need to be a performance type video. People need to see what you look like don’t they, that’s just human nature if your gonna have any kind of relationship with your audience. We also wanted to make sure that the video had loads of visual interest and what better place than Portmeirion, a Mediterranean village on the north coast of Wales. We asked Sam Carson if he’d film and direct after we’d seen the ace stuff that he’d done with The Blinders’ videos. So, that’s what we did, one gloriously sunny November day and we introduced ourselves to everyone. The follow up single was ‘Pagan Pilgrimage’ and we asked Paul Husband to direct for us. He wasn’t keen at first, as he’s a photographer, not a film director, but we managed to persuade him. We just knew he would create a video as beautiful as his photographs. Once we had the storyboard nailed down, Paul went off and managed to get Shaun Ryder to agree to a cameo, along with Karl Power (Fatneck), Pete Turner from Elbow, and loads of other friends got involved too.
It was a pretty surreal few days shooting and we have to say that Shaun was an absolute diamond with us. We can’t thank him enough and it really helped us getting publicity for the track in the national press. The video itself was shot over 3 locations, Digbeth, Salford, and Cannock Chase, and it really does take you on a journey, a pilgrimage from a dark place to a much brighter one, which was exactly what we wanted.‘The Pagans are Alive’ was a lockdown video, but not one of those videos where everyone had fans sending clips of themselves singing into a hairbrush, that was done to death during the lockdowns, so we avoided that. We managed to get Karis Crimson to film and direct in a very small window of opportunity, between lockdowns. We’re big fans of Karis’ creative work but she hadn’t filmed a music video before, so again, we had to convince her that it was a good idea. Knowing how much she loves classic horror, we wanted her to replicate that style in the video, as the track itself has that heavy, dramatic type of vibe going on. We also wanted to make sure that it wasn’t too serious and it had to be firmly “tongue in cheek,” coz that’s the Pagan way. We reckon she got that balance spot on. We’ve almost finished our 4th video, which is the lead track of our debut E.P. – ‘The Emergence of Forgotten Power.’ We’ve roped Paul in once again and it’s going to be incredible. We spent the day filming it at a hermit’s cave in Derbyshire. We honestly can’t wait for everyone to see it.
DL: So what are your favourite horror movies then guys?
D: When I tend to watch movies I’m not usually sober, so I don’t remember a lot of the movie titles but ‘The Conjuring’ is one that I’ve liked recently. I watched ‘The Shining’ at the cinema recently, and my girlfriend and I were the only ones in there, so that was amazing, it made it more intense.
C: Yer, ‘The Conjuring’ is pretty jumpy and ‘Shutter Island’, that has an amazing twist at the end. If that is horror, it might be a thriller.
M: The two that got me into “Horror”, when I was about 16, were The Quarentine and Grave Encounters. From enjoying all these horror movies over the years, I’d now like to start my own ghost investigation team one day, get a channel on YouTube and stuff.
The Pagans
DL: What’s the best gig you have played so far and where would you really like to play, what’s your dream venue?
D: We’ve done so many gigs and it’d be unfair to rank them, but we played Butlins and that was really fucking good, we played in the morning, so we had to stay there the night before when we woke up and got to the stage, no one was there, just the stage crew, so we went backstage to our dressing room area for a bit, then when we went back out to the stage there was about 500 people there, so that was really sick. If I could go back in time, I’d have liked to have played at the original Woodstock, the first one, It’s the bollocks.
C: Yer, I’d say Rockaway Beach, The Butlins gig, which was down Torquay way, but also M.I.A., Manchester International Festival. We also did a gig with The Moods and another artist called Seikou Susso, a Gambian musician, he played this African instrument, the kora, at The Actress and Bishop in Birmingham, that was sold out and the atmosphere was amazing. Metallica did a gig at Monsters of Rock in Russia, 1.6 million fans at an airfield, anything like that for me would be my dream gig, a huge sea of people!
M: Yer, same, my dream gig would be any stage where I could play in front of a huge crowd, tens of thousands of people. Kendall Calling was my favourite so far, we played to 2000 people that day, probably the most we’ve played to so far. It was amazing, I really loved it and our bass player fell off the stage and cut his elbow mid-song. We did another gig one time where we got paid in mushrooms too!
DL: So you’ve just finished that dream gig than at Wembley, your manager here treats you all to a chippy tea when you get home.. what are you all ordering and who has the worst diet in the band?
C: I’d have a big fat donner with mint sauce all over it, all the meats, and a potato fritter with a can of ”Dr. P” to swill it all down with.
D: Chips, curry sauce, and a can of Dandelion & Burdock, that’s me sorted, as I’m experimenting with a veggie diet.
M: I’m ordering an extra large mixed meat kebab, 3 different types of chicken with chips, and a couple of southern fried potatoes.I’ll have a can of Rio too, I like fizzy drinks.
D&C: Marcus probably has, the worst diet.. yer, he just can’t stop eating waffles…potato waffles.
M: It’s true, I did eat waffles every day for week, those big 24 packs, I’d eat a box every day, but it was just a phase, I’ve weened myself off the waffles now. I was vegan for a few years and I was just eating pasta and bread and stuff, so I’ve started eating meat again to get some more vitamins inside me.
The Pagans: Credit Paul Evans
DL: Tell us about your new EP then, it’s arriving next month, right? also, what else is on the horizon for The Pagans? where can we see you lads live?
C: It’s out in July, yes, and as Kirk mentioned earlier, it’s called ‘The Emergence of Forgotten Power.’ It’s a big journey, it’s about going on a trip where we meet an ancient “guy of wisdom” in a cave. He’s like a “master of mushrooms” and we all eat some, then Marcus finds his true power inside himself, and in his trip, he becomes “Black Jesus” and has lots of disciples and followers. The 4 songs on The E.P. all run into each other, so it’s a “concept EP,”… a story. We’re in the process of mastering the songs and getting the videos done, then we’re booking gigs and getting ready for the road. We have some really big exciting shows lined up. We’ll have more news on that soon, so keep checking our pages.
DL: Once again thank-you for giving us the chance to interview you guys, anything else you’d like to add?
M: Thanks so much for interviewing us, and yer, keep an eye open and check our social media for all of our upcoming dates.
D: Yer, We’ve got some exciting headliners coming up including Night & Day in Manchester in July and we also have some amazing support slots, playing Moseley park with The Charlatans headlining and in September, we’re supporting Black Grape. We’re very proud to be rubbing shoulders with those guys. So definitely check our socials for dates and times.
M: See you all soon with a drink in your hands hopefully. Cheers !!!
To follow the band on social media click on the links in pink below.
Listen To The Pagans S.O.H on Spotify.
