Crux
... have established themselves in the local music scene in Newcastle headlining the Engine Room, The Globe, Little Buildings, and o2 Academy2 Newcastle, playing in local festivals such as Scoop Festival, Afterlight Music Festival, and the Canny Fringe Festival, and have played gigs with upcoming artists such as India Arkin, Keiran Bowe, and Lizzie Esau. Crux have also received support from Tom Robinson at BBC Radio 6 and Nick Roberts from BBC Newcastle.
Crux mixes prog-rock with punk to create a unique sound which keeps the listener on their toes. In their songs they explore real life global and local issues which as Scope Magazine stated, 'makes them all the more appealing in an industry where songs can often be very superficial.'
Who is Crux and how would you describe your sound?
We're a four piece rock band from Newcastle upon Tyne in the North East of England. Joe Reid is the drummer; Hallam Press plays bass and backing vocals, Jake Waldock is the lead guitarist, and I'm (Max Houghton) the rhythm guitarist/keyboardist/lead singer.
I'd describe our sound as a mixture of prog-rock with grunge or punk, and a dash of chamber psych. With lyrics angrily narrating on local and global social problems.
What were your first steps in music?
I remember being a massive AC/DC fan when I was younger, and I saw them play in Tampa, Florida as part of their Black Ice tour and I was just amazed at Angus Young's guitar work. My parents got me a Gibson SG replica for my birthday that year and I just fell in love with making music. Jake and I were in a couple of bands at school, but we became more serious when Hallam and Joe joined whilst we were at university and we've been playing gigs and recording songs ever since.
"Radgie Gadgie" sounds great and unique as well, the energy of the song is impressive, what's the story behind the song?
It's definitely one of our more crazy songs. I always liked the idea of writing a song called 'Radgie Gadgie' which would dissect toxic masculinity and the resultant trauma. I knew the accompanying music would have to be fast paced and a bit mad. One day I was trying to teach myself 'I See Your Ghost' by The Lathums on the guitar, and I just started accidentally playing the riff you can hear at the start of the song. I instantly liked the riff, and wanted to expand on it straight away, I knew already it was going to be the 'Radgie Gadgie' song I always wanted to write. So I played around with the riff and a couple of chord sequences on garage band and voila, 'Radgie Gadgie' was born.
The lyrics in the verses explore three stories of exploitation, cuckooing, adultery, and domestic violence, whilst the chorus' tie these stories together with a sort of criminal profile about how these people became the people they are. One of the verses is actually based on a true story I know of from working in social housing. But the less I say on the matter the better due to GDPR.
What three songs of yours would you recommend to a listener first?
Ooo it would depend on the listeners preferred taste in music as we are quite diverse in our song writing, but I think the most consumable songs are probably 'Living in Dystopia', 'Slaving Away', and of course 'Radgie Gadgie'.
How do you decide that a song is ready for a release?
We always jam plenty of songs at practice, but there are sometime songs that you write or jam that capture your attention immediately. We'll always expand on these ones, either by collaboration or by creating demo's of the tracks and it's normally at this point where we decide if it's ready to record. And we'll only record songs that we think would be good to release.
What was in your opinion the last turning point in music history/industry?
I'd say it was the introduction of Spotify, resulting in the decommodification of music. So there's now a lot less money to be made in the music industry, especially with minimal state support for upcoming musicians. This has resulted in a massive monopolisation in music, where the biggest names/artists/bands get nearly all of the metaphorical pie, and this means labels will invest more in these big names rather than new musicians, that would be seen as too much of a risk. And in my opinion, this has massively reduced the progress in music, there's still great music out there, but the last ten years has been so poor compared to prior decades. Spotify has also started a playlist culture where you can find any genre of music within a click away, where singles have become more important than albums. And, anyone can put music on Spotify meaning there's massive saturation, making it so much harder to find new exciting music. I could go on and on, but I think most people with experience in the industry know the score.
What do you think about Social media ... necessary "evil" or a great tool to promote yourself a bit?
As you can imagine from our music, I'm a grumpy cynic. I would much prefer to focus on music, but the modern day musicians have to be social media influencers, promoters, managers, etc. It's a lot to juggle if you also have a full time job. So I would definitely say necessary evil.
How would you describe the music scene in Newcastle?
It's fantastic, there's such a diversity of sounds, backgrounds and some unbelievable local venues. I've been blown away by some of the local bands/artists I've seen. There's not enough of support of music in Newcastle though, as it's so far from London, it just doesn't seem to get the attention it deserves.
We're seen the likes of Sam Fender go massive, and that's great for the scene, but there's so many other bands/musicians that deserve just as much attention as Sam.
Any chance to see you somewhere live on stage?
We haven't announced any gigs officially yet for the new year but all I'll say is get yourselves along to The Venue, NUSU, Newcastle on January 23rd evening and The Central Bar in Gateshead on the evening of February 18th.
...and last but not least what's next for you?
We've recently recorded four new singles, and we think they're our best songs to date. We recorded them with Sam Grant from Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs, Pigs at Blank Studios. We're going to approach a couple of independent labels, and see if they would like to help us with the releases, so keep your ears peeled!
Photo credits: Chris Ord and Krzysztof Furgała
