Interview with Charon
In the past year Charon, a melodic hardcore band from Brighton have
gone from playing ‘2 or 3 shows before going to get proper jobs’ to touring
Europe. Battling it out to pay their rent in a genre which in their own words
is ‘just a trend’, I met up with brothers in the band Leon and Luke Buckmaster to
see what sets the band apart from others
at their level.
By Amber Ainsworth
Luke,
vocalist of Charon, is first to greet me in the kitchen of the brother’s family
home, phone in hand frantically making sure everything for tonight’s gig at The
Scream Lounge, in Croydon, is in order due to him being the promoter as well as
playing. After a short wait we are then joined by guitarist Leon, a lot calmer
in contrast to his brother but with the same sense of humour.
Charon,
are vocalist Luke Buckmaster and brother Leon on Guitar, Dominic Bass on
guitar, Rax behéshti on bass and William Lewis on drums.
The band are getting ready for their biggest
musical achievements yet playing a 6 date European tour sponsored by Vans and
Monster, as well as writing the follow
up E.P to their 2011 ‘Migrating North’
and filming their music video. With
their first few shows played with Heart In Hand, Charon are already one step
ahead of anything they have previously achieved. ‘I look back at our first band
(Among Wolves) and it was probably one of the worst things we ever did but we
wouldn’t be where we are now if we didn’t do it’-Luke explains, still tapping
away at his phone. And how have things changed? ‘Well, Leon hasn’t grown but
we’ve got a good manager now’ Luke continues to mention this whilst Leon shares
his view on their developments ‘We’ve all grown up and we know what were doing
now really’.
Things
haven’t always been easy in the past year, they’ve played gigs where toilets
have been blocked, large audiences have been crammed into 20 capacity venues
and PA’s have broken but this band choose to make the best of a bad situation
by throwing their anger into the performance. Luke exclaims, ‘It’s good because
we all get so pissed off and so angry but when that happens we play so well!’
With
individual musical influences in the band such as thrash, death metal and American
hardcore it’s not hard to see what separates them from their peers. Leon explains
their unique take on hardcore by explaining ‘We make songs which mix melodic
hardcore with metal bits and alternative ambient bits, oh and some two-ey
(Two-Step).’
And
as for how they both feel about the current hardcore scene as it is, that’s
where I find my title. Leon passes this question over to his brother due to his
stronger views on the matter ‘We’re not part of it because it’s elitist. In the
past six months it’s come into its own and it seems like everyone is jumping on
the bandwagon. It’s pretty much a bunch
of benders who were listening to heavy metal and now they’re getting on the
hype.’
