You get those acts that are thought of as not just playing good music, not just having a message, they are known also for being consummate professionals that you know will produce a memorable live show. The Empty Page fall into this category. They are as reliable as a Swiss watch but infinitely more exciting. They chatted to Gary Trueman while at Rebellion Festival. Up for discussion was their now album and the concept of singles, albums and Eps.
Often when your band is mentioned it’s ‘are you seeing Empty Page tonight’ but that’s not right is it?
“Every time people miss the ‘The’ off a fairy dies.”
So ‘The’ is important? Is it a grammatical thing?
“It’s very important. Yes, well it’s a philosophical thing.”
That’s true. Let’s talk about your wonderful new album ‘Imploding’. It came out in May, so what’s the reaction to it been like?
“Really well. People are really getting stuck into it. They’re really loving the songs. We released quite a lot of singles when it came out and we had people say they thought, like they do, that the rest of the album might just be padding, but the songs they hadn’t heard before were really good as well. We would like to say every song is there for a reason.”
The running order makes sense too. It ebbs and flows. It’s not all and nothing and flows well.
“We’re glad you think so.”
It’s interesting what you said about no padding because you can’t do that anymore can you? The way music is put out means the days of filler has gone.
“Yes, it’s interesting. We’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of the album. Originally in the 50s and 60s they were quite short, they weren’t even albums. The album was invented as a thing you could pad out and charge more money for. We’ve all got this nostalgic love of the album as a concept but at one point it did lose its way and become just a vehicle for three or four good singles and then just a load of bollocks. But like you said you can’t really do that any more. It took us a while to get this album out but the good thing is we didn’t just whack out a load of crap.”
You see a lot of bands putting out EPs. We know where albums and singles fit in but what is the EP’s place and where does one finish and an album start?
“It’s like they’ve not thought of enough good songs yet so they just put four or six out, haha. Or the cost of recording, it can be quite a lot all in one big chunk for bands. Sometimes just putting out one song is not enough. People might want to buy a physical product at a gig, they might want three, four, five songs.”
Do you think sometimes you’ll get an EP when there are songs that didn’t quite make it onto an album for some reason, like they’re good but don’t fit the theme?
“Could be. We were an albums thing as an industry and then we became a singles thing, especially with streaming. One song is all people need to love a band these days. So it became more important you had a few bangers rather than a load of stuff. It’s the skip generation, or the shuffle generation where they’ll put a load of songs on a playlist rather than listen to an album all the way through. Eps are a sort of middle ground. Cost is a thing because bands like us are funding ourselves and there’s not a lot of money coming back to us. The cost of recording and doing a good job of it is very relevant.”
Did your writing process change at all for this album?
“Yes it did. There’s a few different things that happened because it was a long time frame from starting it, then creating the record and completion, we had a lot of things that changed. Jim our old drummer unfortunately could no longer be in a band and so we had to approach some of the songs in a slightly different way. We had a friend step in to record although Jim is on two tracks. We guess it put us in a place to be more creative because it was a transitional point for the band. We looked at what we wanted to do with the record. We wanted to think more outside of the box. Maybe that’s why the album is quite eclectic, it’s all The Empty Page but with different vibes.”
You must have been thrilled to get the call to play Rebellion?
“It’s one of those emails you’re always very happy to receive. We played with our old band Obsessive Compulsive years ago. We always wanted to come back. Props to Cassie Fox of Loud Women who got us on this year. She’s brilliant and champions loads of bands with women in. It was so good to play. We haven’t really thought about it because we’ve been running around and selling merch. But it was so good to play that really big room with loads of people in it.”
The Loud Women stage is great at Rebellion, it’s a great platform, but the festival books loads of women naturally too doesn’t it? It’s at nearly 50% which is where it needs to be doesn’t it?
“Yes exactly, women are 50% of the population so why not? Punk has always championed women and been welcoming in general. Obviously there are exceptions. We’d say more so than the metal scene punk just lets women be themselves and be the variety of different people that they are.”
What have you got coming up in the near future?
“We’ve got a few things coming up in the rest of the year including a conference type event called Beyond The Music in Manchester in October. We’re constantly booking gigs. We did look to book a tour in a chunk but we’d rather just keep playing and saying yes as we’re asked and figure out the logistics afterwards. So if anyone wants to book us, we’re available.”
You pulled an amazing crowd at Rebellion, and you’ve built a very loyal fan base too. So is there anything you’d like to say to those fans both old and new?
“Just thank you. It’s amazing that we get to do what we do. It’s makes it special that people enjoy it and that people are talking about us. We really appreciate it. Music is a very communicative art form. When you’re a painter you don’t necessarily get to communicate your art live and experience it with other people. So with music you have the solitary writing and then the sharing it with people. If people aren’t receiving music, hearing it, it’s not really doing its job. For people to be engaging with it, getting it, singing the words and getting something out of it, that’s super important to us.”
Interview And Photos By Gary Trueman