‘One of the criticisms we’ve always had,’ explains Sam Turner, ‘was that all our records always sounded completely different; It’s taken us years and years to find out what we want to sound like, to be fair. Because no one knows what they want to sound like when they’re fourteen, it’s impossible to know what sort of music you’re into. See, so no one knows… we did a John Peel session when we were fourteen, and I listened to that about three-months ago and….’
‘Come again? A John Peel session when you were fourteen?’ I ask incredulously.
‘It was amazing,’ explains Sam, but still with an air of modest nonchalance, as if it’s perfectly normal for a fourteen year old given the honour of performing for John Peel, ‘it was crazy. I think at the time we just at the time we just didn’t give a shit; we just played really, really fast and went nuts - we just knew we were into fast punk rock and that’s what we wanted to do.’ He shrugs his shoulders, ‘he came to the show and saw us at a show in London when I was about fourteen and asked us to do a session.’
Perhaps part of the key to the band’s success is the familial connections between three of the four members, ‘yeah, definitely,’ Sam smiles, ‘I think it would have been a lot harder if we weren’t all brothers. Our other guitarist isn’t a brother but… the three of us [Sam, Jim and Ben] are, I mean, you argue with your brothers but you know you don’t really mean it. And I’ve known Kris [Stammer, friend and second guitarist] since we were twelve [laughs] I don’t know why it took so long to get him in the band, he only joined three years ago!’
But even now, over ten years since their formation and with the addition of guitarist Kris Stammer completing a tight-knit musical family, it still seems difficult for Sam to define the nature of their vitriolic sound. ‘I think when we first started we were more fast punk rock and then we went for hardcore and then we sort of changed again,’ he explains tentatively, ‘I don’t think we’ve ever fitted in to a specific genre at all so I don’t know. I’ve always said we’re a punk band, we’re a punk rock band; I don’t think that’s just what you play it’s your attitude towards it so we’ve always said we’re punk; but we’ve got elements of hardcore, elements of metal, other elements in the live stuff.’ And it’s not surprising, considering the broad range of influences, ‘we’re into loads of stuff now,’ he laughs, ‘everyone’s got such a varied musical taste, like, Kris will listen to anything from The Smiths to Converge… you know, we’ll go in our van and listen to AC/DC, Guns n’ Roses, then Johnny Cash, then The Dillinger Escape Plan and then Hot Water Music – you know, a bit of everything really.’
But despite the difficulty of making music that fits neatly into a genre, it’s clear that the Worcester quartet have finally begun to settle into the niche they’ve carved for themselves as the await the release of their new album, ‘How Many Times Did We Live?’. ‘It’s the first one I’ve been properly happy with,’ says Sam of the new album with a smile, ‘I always come away from recording and think, “aww, that’s not quite as good as I wanted,” or, “I could of done that better,” but this is the first one that I’ve been one-hundred per cent happy with… at the moment!’
Until 2002, Tribute To Nothing had supplied a steady stream of releases, but after ‘Act Without Words’ things had gone surprisingly quiet. But as Sam explains, it’s been a busy couple of years for them, hence the delay: ‘We’ve been on tour so much! We went to Europe and started doing pretty well, so we just kept touring over there solid and we never had time to write. We’ve played for so long and we’ve always tried to re-create what we do live on record, but it’s so hard to do. This is the first time we’ve got close because we played the majority of the record live, so that helped. But we’ve always been a live band, that’s what we enjoy doing. We’ve played two hundred shows this year, so we must enjoy it!’
Their travels to Europe have without a doubt been an eye-opener for the band, and certainly seems to be a place where they feel happy. Reluctantly though, Sam admits that they’ve noticed a stark difference between European audiences and those in the UK, ‘I think they’re more… responsive,’ he says, ‘and I think they’re more loyal as well, that’s a horrible thing to say, but I think England can sometimes become so media driven, that if you’re not in the magazines then people don’t give a shit about you, whereas I think over there… I don’t know, people come to our shows and like what we play and keep coming back, and have been for three or four years, so you can build a fan base, which I think in England is a very hard thing to do; very, very hard’ – emphasised by the European success of their recent touring partners Boy Sets Fire ‘we got to be really good friends with them, all of them and all of their crew are such nice blokes. I mean the English dates are good, but in Germany, Austria and Switzerland, that band is so big it’s crazy, there were like two thousand people a night, it was like the London Astoria every night of the week!’ he describes animatedly.
But tonight is something different, as their gig at Esquires this evening marks a return to the headlining spot (and some slightly more modestly sized venues!) as they kick off their UK to promote the release of the new album. ‘We played here in… ’98 I think, when I was eighteen,’ Sam reminisces, ‘I like it. I’m definitely looking forward to playing England again, because we haven’t properly toured in England for about… I don’t know, since we toured with No Use For A Name last August.
So what’s next for Tribute To Nothing?
‘We’ll have a rest! I don’t know; we’ve played two hundred shows this year and then next year… we’re supposed to go to America at the start of next year! Our manager keeps emailing us going, “and here’s your plans…” we’ve already got touring plans until November this year, and now he’s starting to think about next year, so…’
…So in other words, you definitely haven’t seen the last of these guys.
For more information on Tribute to Nothing check out their website www.tributetonothing.com or their MySpace page, www.myspace.com/tributetonothing. The new album ‘How Many Times Did We Live?’ is out on 1st May.