Review Fix chats with Octopus Montage vocalist and guitarist Alex Jennings to find out all about the band’s creative process and goals for the rest of 2019.
Review Fix: How did the project start?
Alex Jennings: The project began in 2016 as 4 mates playing a bunch of covers in a garage, mainly from bands like The Sex Pistols and blink-182. From here we’ve had a few line up changes and to date we’ve released 1 Ep and a bunch of singles.
Review Fix: What’s your creative process like?
Jennings: The creative process differs every time. Me and Dec are the main ‘writers’ for the band. I tend to write the spine of a song on my own and record a quick demo before showing the guy. From here we sit down and talk about what works, and what doesn’t. The most important part of this process is that no-one holds back with what they think, if something sucks then I get told! This is truly important though as it allows our music to sound as good as possible. This also makes it easier for us to speak to each other both musically and personally as we are so open about our projects, we have reached the point that we can be open about anything and this helps us work together not only as a machine but as a family.
Other processes we have used is group writing,e.g set time in rehearsal for us to try out new things. This allows us to bring new ideas into rehearsal and also allows us to come up with ideas in the rehearsal.
Review Fix: What’s your standout song? How was it written?
Jennings: I’d personally say that ‘Now I’m Gone’ is our standout song. The song is the first single we released with the current lineup of the band and I personally feel as if we have found our best form in terms of how we work together (with all due respect to the previous members.) ‘Now I’m gone began as a bunch of riffs and a chorus written by Dec. From here, Dec sent me over the file and just said ‘show me what you can do’ and 90% of what you hear in the final recording is what happened as a result of that conversation.
Review Fix: What are your goals for 2019?
Jennings: We’ve already embarked on multiple things this year that are contributing to our goals. This includes writing and releasing new music – Our Ep ‘Reborn (…Again’) and single ‘Now I’m Gone’ were released this year and we don’t plan on stopping there.
We’ve been travelling a lot this year to play across the country. The highlight of this was a 16 hour round trip to Forres, Scotland for a show! We are currently preparing for shows in Liverpool,Wigan and Burnley along with multiple in our home town before heading back to Scotland in October!
Review Fix: How do you want your music to affect people?
Jennings: Personally I’d like people to be able to appreciate our music whether it is ‘their style’ or not. We all put so much effort into our music, both in and out of the studio, to the point that we have quit our jobs in the past to focus on the band. At the end of the day we are 4 kids that are doing there best to achieve their wildest dreams and so far we’d like to think it’s going pretty well!
Review Fix: What’s next?
Jennings: Expect lots of shows and new music, thats all I can really say right now! We actively update our social medias so you can see what we’re up to in the links below and if you follow us you will be the first to find out what things we have planned when we’re allowed to announce them!
Spotify – https://open.spotify.com/artist/1fTRB21pCaxDms0xwplYiG?autoplay=true&v=A
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/octopusmontage/
Instagram –https://www.instagram.com/octopusmontage/
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHoJsoQOvpNq_7A-DUDkx4w
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