Relentless Energy: The Dead Formats

It's only a matter of days now before the next Relentless Energy Session kicks off in North London's iconic Relentless Garage venue. Four hot new things are all poised and ready to tear the place up with their some full throttle rock and roll antics and we just can't wait to join them. Clash caught up with headline act The Dead Formats for the lowdown on what to expect on Thursday night..

Well-dressed Essex six-piece The Dead Formats are small town boys with big ideas. Recognising the need for guerilla gigs, on account of their size and the size of the venues they are used to playing, guitarist Glenn Wizik admits that the logistics of the gigging can sometimes be quite problematic. “Getting six people on stage is a bit of a nightmare but we're used to playing smaller venues and accept that most places we play at we can't always fit on the stage.” he says. Is it a case of two many cooks...? “It can be difficult at practise as there are a lot of us trying to push our own opinions but when it comes to writing it's easier as there are certain members who always have more input: most of the initial ideas come from one place.”

Alas, there is no romanticised story behind how the band first met: they haven't been friends since nursery school or anything like. They all hail from Essex, but from neighbouring towns, brought together by a mutual desire to form a band, in order to escape the mundane realities of life. Having already played a smattering of gigs in London's indie hotspot?Camden--including the infamous Camden Crawl last year, Glenn says the band are really looking forward to raising the roof at their Relentless Garage debut.

So what's their vibe? Imagine Brit greats like The Clash and The Jam with post-rock guitars, a darker post-punk edge and vocals like Tim Kasher. Dressed like The Kinks, with tattoos. Confused? That's the beauty of these boys. “Our EP definitely has an overriding punk sound to it but we wrote the tracks about two or three years ago so our sound has changed quite a bit since then: it's less aggressive now and more chilled out,” says Glenn. But lovers of rock fear not, The Dead Formats hardly make chillout tunes: this is engaging, fierce British garage-punk, with an American twist. “Since we wrote the EP our musical tastes have developed and we've started listening to different bands now that are a million miles away from things like Refused which is the kind of thing we were listening to at the beginning,” says Glenn. “Acts like The Jam and The Clash have always been a big influence on our work but it is only now that those influences are becoming more noticeable. With the new stuff, no two songs sound the same. Diversity is definitely the name of the game with us.”

The Dead Formats' debut mini-album/EP is currently out on Visible Noise. Listen to the band HERE.