OTR

Primitai Interview

  • Jennifer Palmer-Violet
  • 18-Jan-2025
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They keep winning the battle of the bands, but will they win the war? Fresh from a storming set at High Voltage festival in London, Music-News.com meets guitarist Nick Saxby, a founder member of British metallers Primitai, to find out their secret weapon

Primitai confess to being a laid-back band, taking each new experience as it comes. But after a few years of playing it cool and recording their debut album, Through the Gates of Hell, the five-piece got their act together. In 2009, they ultimately beat 20,000 – yes, 20,000 – groups of all genres to claim Surface Unsigned battle of the bands. So what gave them the edge?

“The thing that made us different was that we were a rock band: we had a vocalist as opposed to a screamer, because we like classic metal,” says guitarist Nick Saxby, pictured. “If you have an incredibly energetic set and you have a screaming frontman, that immediately alienates so many people. We sang and spoke to the crowd, and that's what gave us such a brilliant reaction.

“We try to connect with everyone in the audience. Our songs are really catchy, they're real fun, and they're real heavy at the same time. The pop lot liked the catchy part of it, the metal lot liked all the metal half. So that's what wiggled us all the way through.”

And winning this coveted competition, which saw them play their final set at the O2 in London, was not only a victory for them, but one for their genre.

“The only bit that was disappointing was all the metal bands were ranked in the bottom half, so [the competition] was favoured towards those bands that were much poppier and mainstream,” says Saxby. “It always felt like you're on a bit of an uphill struggle, but it gave us that extra oomph: 'no, you're not going to get rid of us, we'll keep going'.”

Determination and hard work is paying off for the five-piece – completed by Guy Miller on vocals, Srdjan Bilic on second lead guitar, Jamie Lordcastle on bass and drummer Chris Chilcott – and key to their late success was finally bagging someone to properly front the band. “All the real kick-offs have come since Srdjan and Guy joined,” says Saxby. “[Guy] was the missing element we needed to make it into a circle. We always wanted that frontman running around. It's always good to have that extra nutcase bouncing off the walls and that's exactly what Guy is.

“One of the prizes we won from Surface was a wireless microphone – and the wet dreams he's been having over that ever since, because he can go anywhere. He can go the length of a club and people respond so well to that. It was nothing we prompted him into. He's been in bands since he was 14, so he's well-rehearsed at what he does and he loves it. The energy we all create, it gives us a figurehead for that.”

With the line-up sorted and £10,000 of winnings in the bank, Primitai headed to the studio to make album number two, The Line of Fire.

“We didn't know what we were going for when we started with two new members,” says Saxby. “The first six months they were in the band we were just practising for Surface Unsigned and I was writing stuff in between. When we got to the studio, we thought: 'let's experiment'. A lot of the lyrics weren't done until they came out of Guy's mouth while he was singing them. I was working at the time and I was texting lyrics to Jamie to try out with what they were doing. It was a nice, laid-back, easy thing to do and we're all happy as fuck with it.”

The eight-track result is heavy and packed with riffs but carries the appeal that flattened the competition in 2009. They’re avoiding a niche sub-genre and flying the flag for British metal. Saxby says: “You don't want to cross that line too far. You like writing your catchy stuff and the heavy stuff at the same time, but you don't want to sell out.

“What I don't want when we do an album is for people to go: 'that's a single, that's a single, that's a single', and then those three singles come out one after another. We always try real hard to make all the tracks as good as each other; of course some tracks come out better than others because some songs just are.”

Touring as support for White Wizzard and Firewind has helped to tighten their set, and with High Voltage festival under their belts, plus Hard Rock Hell in December, the band are “gagging” to properly get out on the road again – and record album number three later in the year.

But first there's another prize to claim. Primitai recently whipped yet more rivals in a second battle of the bands, which honours them with a set at Bloodstock Open Air festival in August. A band this relaxed – and clearly talented – obviously don't feel any pressure then?

“By the time we got to the final [of Surface Unsigned], it was a bit like, if we win, amazing, if we don't, it's been a fucking incredible ride, so we just enjoyed it,” says Saxby. “It was just fun to do the last one, but running up to that, we were playing with bands that ended up in the final, so that added the pressure.

“The one we probably most enjoyed was the semi-final because we hired a confetti cannon at the end of our set. We went out all guns blazing: you will not forget Primitai! That was the one where we felt the most pressure as we knew we were ending with a bang.

"If you're involved in this year's Surface Unsigned, that's the only advice we can give: just make sure when everyone leaves they remember your set."

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