posted by Staff
September 2013

It's hard to explain just how much momentum Battle Lines have built up over the past few months. The Leeds based quartet consisting of Luke, Ralph, Carly and Matty have to be pretty stoked with everything they've managed to achieve. Bursting out of nowhere with their debut 7" single release Hearts and riding nothing short of an astounding upward curve with slots at Leeds, Beacons and Galtres festivals, as well as upcoming support slots with Coheed & Cambria on their UK tour. Phew, talk about a busy Summer.

 Luckily for us, the guys managed to take some time out of their busy schedule to discuss festivals duck-horse hybrids and zombie plans.

Mark: Hi guys, thanks for taking the time to answer some questions! Give us a brief history of Battle Lines, what's the journey been like to this point?

Battle Lines: We formed just over a year ago, we were pretty quiet up until the start of this year when we released ‘Hearts’ on 7” vinyl and played at Live at Leeds. We’ve just played a run of festivals, finishing off with Reading and Leeds.

So opening Leeds on the Festival Republic stage, was it nerve racking to be playing to your home crowd in such a big way?

It felt a bit surreal, but once we were there, it was all very calm. It helped being on first and being able to soundcheck. There’s that moment a few minutes before you go on stage where the nerves kick in, but you kind of go into autopilot mode and just get on with it.

Did you get a chance to shmooze with any of your idols? There must have been a lot of big bands hanging around backstage

Not so much at Leeds, it was more a case of talking to a lot of friends and the bands we know. We spotted a few bands from a distance and we met Haim and Phoenix at Reading who were all really nice. Oh, and we mistook the guy from The 1975 for Skrillex which was pretty embarrassing.

Any stories of shenanigans?

Erm, the rider ran dry pretty quickly at Leeds. We managed to sneak our way onto the main stage balcony at Reading which was cool.

If you could team up for a collaboration with anybody right now, who would it be and why?

We’ve been asked this a few times recently; none of us could really see us doing a standard collaboration at the moment. We’d quite like to be remixed by Flying Lotus though.

battle lines

OK, time for some random questions. Earth has just been contacted by aliens. They are not friendly. NASA has asked Battle Lines to send 1 song as a declaration of war. What do you choose?

The tour van we were using at the weekend’s CD player broke with Fleetwood Mac - Tango in the Night stuck in it. Every time that we turned the ignition; ‘Big Love’ blared out on the stereo.

 Listen to that a few 100 times in a weekend and you’ll be ready to kill someone.

Tell us 4 random facts that your parents don't know about you, 1 each!

Ralph: I can lick my elbows.

Luke: I can twerk.

Matty: That I went on a trip to Bosnia.

Carly: I’m perfect and have no secrets.

Would you rather fight a horse-sized duck or 100 duck- sized horses? Why

?

We’ll take the horses; apparently Carly was scared of ducks as child.

The world has crumbled under a zombie apocalypse, which of you gets bitten first and what do the rest of you do?!

Probably Luke, he’d be the first to try and talk to them. Chain him up, go to the pub.

On the matter of a zombie apocalypse, do you have a zombie plan?

Head to the Brudenell until it all blows over?

You're at Disneyland. Jafar, Captain Hook and Scar start coming at you. You have to kick one in the balls, team up to rule the world with one and open a small suburban bistro with one. Who do you choose for each option?

Scar, we’d kick in the balls. Captain Hook, to take over the world with. Jafar, we’d open a small suburban bistro with.

Thanks for answering these questions guys, one last thing, what does the rest of 2013 and 2014 have in store for Battle Lines?

 A lot of gigging and more releases.

 Keep track of Battle Lines' latest updates on Facebook & Twitter. I hope you enjoyed the interview!

Stay up to date.

New music and exclusive updates in your inbox weekly.

Yes, I agree to the Privacy Policy and storing my email for marketing purposes

Mugs, t-shirts,
hoodies, vinyls & more.

TO THE SHOP