“The whole reason you’re on tour is for the 30 minutes you spend on stage, so if you don’t give every single ounce of your fucking energy for those 30 minutes then you’re a fucking liar and you don’t deserve to be there.”
Nearly a year to the day after The Rattlesnakes got together, they’re preparing to bring their explosive brand of punk to their largest shows to date as they support Sum 41 on the Kerrang! tour this February. The band is hoping to use the vitriolic aggression that they specialise in to earn the love of those attending for the headliners, and clearly, now they’ve thoroughly road tested their riotous debut LP ‘Blossom’, they are an act that just cannot be ignored.
Not content with an eight-day jaunt around the country, The Rattlesnakes have announced three headline shows taking place alongside the Kerrang! gigs, including Brighton (February 20th) which Frank describes as “one of my favourite cities, I love going to Brighton” and the infamous Sugarmill in Stoke. Back in September 2007, a fresh-faced Frank rolled into the Sugarmill with Gallows, and left with some unfinished business that he is determined to rectify.
“Some kid got on stage and put me in a headlock, so I grabbed him and threw him over my shoulder, but fell off the stage and split my head open on a speaker. That’s why we’re going back to the Sugarmill, I feel like I owe it some blood.”
The strong DIY ethic that The Rattlesnakes promote, including Frank designing and painting the album artwork, has endeared them to the fans that want to feel loved by the artists they follow. The hyper deluxe edition of the album, featuring unique hand-painted artwork, not only gave the fans something special to take home, but also “paid for the band. All our tours lost money, and those box sets made up the difference.”
Despite only releasing ‘Blossom’ in August, the band are already writing a follow-up record, though nothing much can be revealed at the moment. The huge excitement surrounding any new music that they produce is down to their unpredictability, Frank explains, “Blossom was really explosive, like letting a wild animal out of a cage and into the room. You don’t know which way the animal will go, it could fucking kill us all.”
As unpredictable a beast as it may be, The Rattlesnakes juggernaut shows no signs of being tamed as the band roar into the new year at full speed. With their thrillingly brutal live shows and a new album still to come, it looks like 2016 could already be shaping up to be the year of the rattlesnake.
Frank Carter & The Rattlesnakes play The Haunt, Brighton on February 20th. Buy tickets here.
Interview by Lennon Craig
