Interview: Pupil Slicer (Written)

On Sunday 21st of April 2024, London got sliced. Pupil Slicer played the last show of their first headline UK tour at The Grace in London, performing their latest album, ‘Blossom’ in full.

We were there and had the best time.

Pupil Slicer never disappoint, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the level they have reached. Even making the kind of noise they do, there seems to be no limit on what this band can achieve. The future isn’t just bright for Pupil Slicer, it’s downright blinding, and we’re here for it.

You can read our full review of that show here.

Before they took to the stage though, we sat down with the band (vocalist/guitarist Kate Davis, drummer Josh Andrews, and bassist Luke Booth) to talk some s**t. Focusing on the tour, playing Blossom in full, the reaction to the record ten months on, and so much more. As well as randomised question cards pulled from our resident randomiser, Ozzy Osbone.

First things first, how are you all feeling and how’s the tour been?

Kate – Pretty good. This has been the best tour we’ve done yet; I think. It’s been amazing. Everyone’s telling us it’s the best they’ve ever seen us live. We couldn’t wish for it to be better. The vibes are immaculate. It’s pretty great. Bit tired, though, last day.

It’s been a hell of a run. First headline tour, and you’ve played all over the UK. Has any particular show stood out more than any other?

Kate – Plymouth was actually pretty amazing. It feels like bands don’t play there very often, so when they do, everyone comes out, and it was mental. It was such a diverse crowd. You had 17-year-old people two stepping down the front, and then you had the more seasoned pit veterans a bit further back, and the crowd got older as it went back. I was like, everyone in Plymouth is here for this one show. It was crazy.

What do you want from London tonight?

Josh – We need energy. Energy, because we’re getting to that point in the tour, we’re a bit tired. We’re hoping that London bring the energy to us, and we can reciprocate it back a little bit. Lots of movement, hopefully a couple of pits, just not in the quiet interlude this time.

Kate – Yeah, one of the other nights during in one of the quiet interludes, people tried to start a pit. I was like, okay… interesting.

It’s going to be nice to have a bit of a break, but you’re not quite done yet. Dublin on the 26th of April.

Josh – Yeah. Looking forward to that.
Kate – Yeah, it should be good. It’s going to be a long day. We’re going to fly out in the morning, so it’s going to be a pretty intensive day. If they bring the energy there, we’ll be fine.

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Who is a vocalist you simply love listening to?

Luke – I’m a big Peter Gabriel fan.
Kate – David Bowie, always. Fucking amazing.
Josh – I really like the Knocked Loose vocalist, Bryan Garris. We saw them live recently and it’s just different. I like things that are just a bit against the grain. Deafheaven’s George Clark is another one actually, sick vocalist, very charismatic on stage.

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Where do you see yourself in 10 years’ time?

Kate – Headlining Download main stage. Why not? Why not set your sights high? You can only be disappointed.

Particularly as we all know, we are well and truly running out of the established headliners.

Kate – It’s about bloody time.

Josh – Still touring, hopefully. Still making music we love. Who knows where the band will be in that time, to be honest. But, yeah, we’ll probably have kids by then as well.

Kate – No. You’ll be rocking out for life!

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Tell me something great about your hometown.

Luke – I don’t really have a hometown.
Josh – I’m from South Norwood in London, and the only celebrity I know that comes from there was Led Zeppelin’s manager, which I think is pretty fucking cool. If you see documentaries about him, he’s just a right bossy bastard. I thought that was quite a cool fact.

Kate – I think Electric Wizard come from Bournemouth. That’s where I’m from.

Talk me through a day in life of Pupil Slicer on tour. How structured is it?

Kate – Very structured. Thanks to our tour manager, Brady. Wagons at 11-ish. So everyone gets up like half 9, 10. We all get showering. Very boring. We get in the van, drive, stop at the services, get a Greggs or something. Arrive, load in, carry things upstairs, have a 15-minute period of wanting to kill ourselves, and then we’re fine after that.

Then we all get set up, sound check, and then usually we’ve got an hour or two break from that point where I might get my makeup done, I’ve got to change, people might go grab some food from somewhere nearby. That’s the only time you really get to eat. Then watch the support, play the set, chat to fans after, and then pack everything down and take it down those same stairs again. Then we just get in the van and go to bed because we’re incredibly boring.

No doubt you’ll have had many times where it’s just been chaos overall, what do you prefer?

Kate – Structure, everything flows so much better. There’s so much less stress in the day. I’d rather be a boring band not going out drinking or anything like that and just have a fun show every night. You don’t wake up being hungover, anything like that. I think it lends itself to a better performance and for our mental state, we’re a lot happier on tour doing that.

That moment before you walk out of stage, what are you feeling?

Kate – I don’t know. We just end up chatting just before we go on.

Is it fair to say you feel fairly relaxed?

Luke – Yeah. The only thing that’s running through my head, really, is typical stuff. Just thinking about what I need to do before I get on stage.

Kate – I try to remember the name of the city we’re im because I’ve gotten it wrong before.

Have you really?

Kate – Yeah, we played in… Was it in Cork or Dublin? I just went, Hello, Glasgow. I was like, well, it’s far away from home and they all speak with a funny accent.

Did the crowd cheer regardless?

Kate – Yeah, they thought it was a joke. I played it off.

This tour you’re playing Blossom in full, big bloody deal, but what prompted this decision?

Kate – We said to our agent, maybe at some point next year we should play Blossom in full. Then we got sent the poster for Takedown Festival and it said – playing Blossom in full. We were like, oh, we didn’t know that was happening, and they said, oh, we’ve have pitched the entire tour as that. So we were like, oh, okay, better learn this!

Josh – We did originally plan to do it for Takedown. It’s a shame it’s been postponed, but I think they’re going to try and do it next year. Then we’ll have to break out our Blossom chops again for that. It’s been good. I think we had three or four months to repolish the stuff since we got out of the studio and obviously break in the new members as well. They’ve done a fantastic job getting up to speed on it. We already knew the material quite well, but we had to polish it up for live.

I think it’s been really fun, and it feels like a good production. We’ve got guitars and keys, so you can bring some more elements of the album to life. I think it’s a really good show. It seems like the feedback from it has been really good as well.

Regardless of the scenario that got you into it, you’re more than glad you’re doing this?

Kate – Yeah, it’s been a lot of fun doing it, for sure. I think it’s a really good album, so why not? I’m very proud of what we achieved on it. It’s really cool for people to get that full album experience in a live state because you don’t get it that often. It’s a nice way to celebrate the album, I think.

The dust is settling on the album now. It’s been out for around 10 months. Are you satisfied with how it has generally been received?

Kate – I think so. Most people seem to think it was a step up. They seem to appreciate the more diverse mix of genres going on. Our song writing, I think, was a lot better. It was more of a Pupil Slicer record than our first one, which was, I think, executed with a bit less confidence going into it. Whereas this album, it was more like, Oh, this is what we want to do with this. The first one was more, here are some songs we’ve written. There you go.

It got people’s attention. It got my attention. Then, as you said, this is the step up. This is who you are now. Is there a particular track from Blossom that you didn’t expect to resonate as heavily as it has?

Josh – Terminal is a bit of fun.

Kate – We’ve been getting a lot of people really enjoying that live, it’s just another Pupil Slicer track on the album. It’s still cool, but it’s not… I mean, it’s pretty mad. So yeah, understandably people like it live. They come up to me and ask what was that fast one you played at the end? I’m like, wait, it’s this one. Listen to the album. Come over to the merch stand. Let me escort you. You can purchase the album and help us out not losing money.

That would be ideal. When you look at what you’ve accomplished with Blossom, what you’ve accomplished since it was released, what the future looks like for Pupil Slicer. How do you stay grounded in the face of so much adulation?

Kate – It seems like more success from the outside, but it wasn’t a huge jump up. Not the way that Mirrors was. There, we went from being on no one’s radar to being the new hot band for a bit. Whereas Blossom was just like, here’s a band that already exists doing another album. It didn’t really explode in the same way, but that wasn’t a bad thing. People all seemed to love it more than the first one, and I think that’s cool that we have that.

At first, it was a very intensive thing. We were getting all these new offers and bigger and bigger things kept coming. Now it’s like, well, do we want bigger things or do we want to just keep making music we like and playing live?

I look at playing with ETS (Employed to Serve) and stuff, I’d be perfectly happy to remain doing that. The fact that we can go and play ArcTanGent or Download and stuff, that’s already good enough for me. Whatever happens is we’re lucky and really happy for any opportunities we get. I think we’ve done really well for ourselves, and we can’t really complain. We’re not really expecting the world from this band. With this genre of music you just can’t really.

Josh – I’m just so surprised at the turnout for the tour. I think it’s been amazing, especially… Plymouth’s already been mentioned. We’re playing London on a Sunday night and a lot of people have bought tickets for it. You just think there’s a million things you could be doing in London on a Sunday and people have paid to come and see us. So, it’s just little things like that. I think keep me grounded in particular. It’s just how cool people are. You’ve got to really just appreciate that side of it more than anything.

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Lee Martin, the guitarist and vocalist of Blue Strugglers asks, If you could live forever, would you choose to?

Kate – No. You’d be past the death of the universe and just be sitting there like a lemon.

Interesting to see what that is, though, right?

Kate – Probably not after an eternity.
Josh – No, probably not. Yeah. No further elaboration.
Luke – Yeah, sure. Why not?

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Do you think any aspect of social media can be good?

Kate – I mean, the only the good thing is being able to share things with people, being able to let people know when shows are and stuff. I don’t really use personal social media. It’s more just a tool for getting the band out there. I suppose it’s good to have an easy way to text your friends, set up group conversations. At the very core of it is like, yeah, that can be good. It’s just everything else about it…

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: What’s the name of the last book you read?

Kate – Josh can get in on this.

Josh – I’m reading Less than Zero at the moment, which is a Brett Easton Ellis novel. He’s the guy who did American Psycho, it’s his first book. It’s just about some really, really jaded American college student that’s gone home basically for Christmas. And they’re all very, very terrible, terrible children, basically.

Then before that, the last one I finished was Casino Royale. I’ve not actually read any James Bond books before, but God, he’s sexist in that book. I know in the films, he’s a bit of a chauvinist, but Jesus Christ. Yeah, it was on my shelf. I was like, I could give it a go, but it wasn’t the best read. It had really cool bits in it, like the gambling, and you can see where the stuff in the film comes from.

Kate – Then the last thing I finished was Chainsaw Man, the manga. That was pretty sick. I really enjoyed it. I watched the show and then was like, Oh, I got to see where this goes. It’s not that long, so I finished it like a week. There’s only 11 volumes that take like 2 hours each to read. So, I smashed through that.

Why do you think so many different people from so many different walks of life are drawn to Pupil Slicer?

Kate – I think we’ve got a very welcoming atmosphere about us. It’s a very fun live show, but also very welcoming. We get a lot of queer people, autistic people, and just people who feel like outsiders in other places, feeling comfortable to come and see us, which is really nice. I think that draws a lot of people in.

I think you’re right. I think that’s what I often hear, even if people’s initial, say, feelings on hearing the music is like, Oh, my God, that sounds crazy and intense and stuff like that. Come and see, it’s a totally different vibe, and it is that welcoming thing. It’s a smile-inducing experience more than anything else.

Kate – Yeah, we’re all smiling on stage, having a good time and hoping the crowd does as well. We enjoy playing the music, I think. That’s enough for us. That’s why we started the band. We didn’t expect anyone to listen to it. The fact that other people would smile as well. When you see someone in the crowd just smiling through the whole set, it really makes you remember why you’re doing it because it’s like, oh, great. They’re having a great time and I’m having a great time.

Pupil Slicer means so much to a lot of people, but what does Pupil Slicer mean to you?

Josh – For me, it’s my only creative expression. I really enjoy doing it, the social side of it as well. We’ve had quite a good laugh on tour. The UK metal scene is just fucking awesome as well. Even going beyond that, when we got to visit places in Europe as well, places that I just would never have thought I’d get to go to.

Then you just meet all these people who have the same passion as you. You get dribs and drabs of it online where you might connect with people in other ways. But when you’re actually there in person and you speak to people who are really passionate about putting on shows and welcoming you and meeting fans as well, it’s super cool. For me, it’s just a way to socialise, a way to create an outlet, cathartic. It’s a massive, massive part of my life and I do really enjoy it.

Kate – I think for me, I really like creating music and working with people like Josh. Just getting to go back and forth on stuff and have a result where you’re really proud of it. That is just phenomenal. It’s the best feeling. So, the creative side of and then meeting fans, people and being passionate about the same stuff we’re passionate about. It’s really cool.

Luke – For me, as a new member, it’s a great way to become a better bass player because… god, it’s hard. I was welcomed nicely, and it is a great group of people. I love the music. I loved it before I joined. It’s a dream of me. It’s great. I’ve been made to feel welcome very quickly and it has been a great experience. Same thing with the fans, it’s great to have such a cool niche fan base who are so passionate about the music.

Within the scene, things are changing bit by bit, getting better in certain places, better representation, more acceptance, safer spaces, and stuff like that. Do you feel like you’re part of that and that it’s an important aspect of who you are?

Kate – Yeah, I suppose those changes are happening. We’re part of it, but it’s like we’re trying to do anything. We’re just making music, and we want people to be welcomed. I don’t know, but we weren’t part of the scene when that wasn’t the case. That’s always been it for us.

We started as a DIY band with other DIY bands like Death Goals, with Ithaca, Going to ETS shows, Svalbard. Loads of other bands in the scene have always had that same attitude as us. It just feels like we as a collective in the UK metal scene are all growing together and that’s becoming more prominent, which is really good. But that seems to just be what this niche subgenre of music is all about. It’s just people having a good time and everyone being really nice people.

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: What is the one thing about the music industry that you’d change if you could make it better for everyone?

Kate – Make streaming services give money to artists so the artist can create music and get paid to do it. Like 20 years ago, you could be a band and be in a band. That was what you did. Now you can’t. Everyone has a full-time job. Everyone’s working nonstop because no one’s buying music. Streaming has ruined us.

Not that streaming is a bad invention. It’s a fantastic invention. It allows so many more people to get into music. But as a whole, it has basically taken the majority of every musician’s income. We have never made a penny in this band, taken any money for ourselves from any of the merch or anything. It all goes straight back into printing more merch for people, paying for van hire, paying for accommodation. We’re still paying for our own guitars, paying for our own pedals, stuff like that. We’re putting money in and not getting anything out, but we do it because we love it, and I think streaming is a large factor in that.

It’s became a hobby-ish thing, which is crazy when you think about so many people who listen to and enjoy music in their daily lives, yet all that stuff is basically free because you’re not giving the artists anything in return.

Even if it’s a little bit like, say, if 30,000 listeners on Spotify all bought a CD for eight quid, that’s us paid for six years. It’s crazy. That just doesn’t happen.

It’s not going to change though, is it?

Kate – It’s not going to change. No. Not how Spotify handle their stuff. Ten when you put label cuts in it because you get whatever tiny amount of money you get, and then you get 19% of that because of labels taking their own. That’s not a problem with any specific label. Every label does it because that’s just what the industry is.

Every time this card comes out, I don’t think there’s a band or an artist who has not said exactly the same thing. The only other one that tends to come up now is venue merch cuts.

Kate – We’re not big enough to play venues that take merch cuts.

Ozzy Osbone – Random Card: Do you enjoy sports, taking part or as a spectator?

Kate – No.

Josh – I like sports. I went to the Snooker earlier in the year for the Masters. I enjoyed that. Back on the telly, I watch a little bit of football as well. Crystal Palace fan.

Luke – Ice hockey. I used to live in Vancouver, Canada, so it’s all about the Vancouver Canucks. I’m wearing their hat right now.

Kate – We were watching football in the green room yesterday, Josh and Luke, and Luke was like, you know this pitch would be a lot better if it was a bit smaller, and they all had sticks and the grass was replaced with ice.

Luke – It’s one of those sports that I don’t think enough people watch. I went into an ice hockey game not being a fan and walked out the biggest fan. It was just amazing.

Was it the vibe? What attracted you to it?

Luke – Everything. Yeah, just everything. It’s just so fast and fluid.

Are you excited about the future of Pupil Slicer and what comes next?

Kate – Yeah. It means making more music. It means playing more shows. It means meeting more fans. What more could you want?

Josh – Well summed up, I can’t really add more than that.

Kate – It means hanging out with good friends.