Trigger caught up with Pure Love at Bath Moles to talk about how the band came together, their forthcoming album 'Anthems', plans for the future and much more.

Pure Love was announced to the world back in July 2011 but how did you first come together as a band and come up with the name Pure Love?
Jim Carroll: We both live in Brooklyn and we met a few years prior to us living there just briefly when an old band of mine played with the Gallows and we just reconnected in Brooklyn through mutual friends and started talking about doing a band and that’s when it all came about.

Frank Carter: We had ten songs and we were both saying at some point we need a name so we stopped talking and just had a text conversation and each day it would just be huge I phone conversations of weird band names and it went on for weeks but finally Jimmy was watching a video of Mahavishnu orchestra online who have a song called ‘Sapphire Bullets Of Pure Love’ and texted through Pure Love and I was like that’s it and made a thousand stickers that night and we was committed to the name.

From the moment Pure Love formed back last summer right up until your debut show on Valentine ’s Day there was a lot of secrecy on what musical direction the band were taking, did this make you slightly nervous or super excited before your first show?
Frank Carter: It was our decision to keep things secret so all the way along I wasn’t nervous or scared but right before the show I was like fuck.

(Laughter)

Frank Carter: And right at that minute I didn’t know what to expect and I realised that I had to go on stage and sing so I did and it was fine, maybe a few people left but the majority stuck around and it was still pretty busy when I walked off stage which was a good sign. From then it has been going from strength to strength, and it’s weird how the internet has changed things in music as people are less likely to take a chance with music now and like to see and hear as much as possible before they go and see a band so it is very strange because then it’s like they just go to the gigs to video it and put it online. I do feel that the mystery was a nod to our youth growing up who really struggled to find a new band and when you did find one the satisfaction was very rewarding as you stuck with them forever but I feel people are less inclined to do that now. We loved our songs and we are aware of our past and where we came from but we didn’t really want that to have too much of an influence on people’s opinion of the band before we started and that’s kind of why we gave everyone the one show, and the show was great it sold out the feedback has been amazing and I feel the whole mystery thing was a success and it is still a bit of mystery now but more videos are popping up online all the time.

Jim Carroll: I try to never read comments on you tube and things like that but sometimes you happen to stumble across something but from what I can see most people seem to be positive but there is still the occasional comment where people think we are playing a joke on them.

Your latest single ‘Handsome Devils Club’ was released today, what’s the response to the song been like since you premiered the video for it back in June?
Frank Carter: I think it has been alright but like I said I try and stay out of all that shit because with any kind of art you spend so long crafting it and making it that you obviously want it to do well but really you do it for yourself and that’s only who it is ever for and as long as you can say you are proud when you finish it then it doesn’t really matter what anyone else thinks.

The response has been amazing but I’m talking about myself as every night we play I get more excited about the song coming up in the set which is great that we have managed to create something that I enjoy playing more and more which is very rare as with anything I do such as my tattoos it’s very hard to find something that you like doing repeatedly but that song specifically when it kicks in I get so psyched as I really like it.

When we went to record the album Jim and I had 30 something songs together and ‘Handsome Devils Club’ came when we did a bit of writing in Brooklyn just before pre production just to give more songs to Gil and he was like I found another song you might want to check it out and he gave it to me and I was like where the fuck have you been hiding this shit and then I wrote lyrics to it that night and put them to it and it sounded perfect, I sent him my idea back and he loved it. We did the same thing when we went into the studio we went in there we thirty something songs trying to cut them down to ten and we ended up writing two brand new songs and we ended up on eleven for the album and have plenty of songs left which we haven’t fully gotten into yet and we don’t know if we ever will but it’s just nice to know they are there

Vocally Pure Love is vocally a massive change from what you have been doing in the past did you find this change easy or something that got better over time?
Frank Carter: Musically I think this is the most accomplished I have ever been, it’s been a massive learning curve for me but right from the beginning Jimmy has been so supportive then I met my fiancé and she had a singing instructor in New York who I went to see just a handful of times and that changed everything and really pushed me to feel comfortable about what I was doing, so yeah it was a big change and I am still getting used to it now but its fucking fun, I don’t want to shit on my past entirely but I always thought with Gallows that I was a little undeserving of what I had in that bad because I was literally talking aggressively and spitting at people, I sung when I was a young kid but I never sung like this and to start with I was like I can do this but when we went into pre production I was like I can’t do this and then two days in I calmed myself down and really felt at home with it and I feel really good and strong and like I can do anything now. Singing in public is a big thing and when we went out for that first show I was shitting it.

I bet it was rewarding in the end?
Frank Carter: Yeah it was so rewarding and now every night it is like my playground I love to sound check now and I never used to sound check I can count the amount of times I sound checked in the people on two hands collectively over six years I just didn’t do it there was no point as it wouldn’t make any difference to me it would sound how it would sound but this time I want to sound check because it is fun to sing the songs.

You have been busy working alongside Gil Norton on your debut album ‘Anthems’ how have you found this experience?
Frank Carter: Brillaint

Jim Carroll: It’s been amazing, we met Gil the night we signed our record deal and he was just at Vertigo having a meeting and when we showed up that night he already had notes in his not book of the demo’s he had heard already which was about five songs and we went out for dinner that night and from the get go it just felt like the right vibe as everyone got along really well and he knew what we wanted to do so we met up with a couple more people but it was just sticking out in the back of our mind that Gil knew what we wanted to do so we just went with him and it worked out great, we went in for a month of pre production and then a month of recording the record and we have been together every day and he made some great suggestions.

We heard so many stories on how Gil was some kind of ball buster about getting bands and people quitting because of him being the producer and at the time we was talking about how he doesn’t seem that way and we were slightly nervous about it and then we went in with him and it was virtually painless apart from the long days and nights and he was so supportive of what we wanted to try and was totally up for anything so it was a great two months and we have came out with an awesome final product.

‘Anthems’ is due for release in October what can we expect from it?
Frank Carter: Some big classic rock songs, we just wanted to write songs that we enjoyed and we took inspiration from everything that we have loved growing up and it’s a collective mix that has a really good flow to it and it is defiantly not boring, but in generally it is just big fun rock and roll songs that have plenty of parts for people to sing along to.

Jim Carroll: One of the things that I am most proud of is that it is not the same song over and over as each and every song has its own flavour and you can defiantly see the influences that came in and I just love how it came together.

What inspired you whilst writing the lyrics for the album?
Frank Carter: The lyrics are a strange thing as a lot of stuff in there is from years ago like four or five years ago because I write lyrics all the time and they never really found a home but when Jimmy started sending me songs I had instant melodies in my head and then I would go through this whole archive of lyrics and see what worked and what didn’t so sometimes I would try two or three different sets of lyrics before I found a really good fit. But with ‘Anthem’s every single song I tried just worked and it came together so well and it was good to work through all this shit that had been sitting here for years because it suddenly wasn’t shit any more, I have obviously changed the lyrics around slightly but there are songs on there that I wrote when I was really miserable and there are songs on their which I wrote when I was in the studio and when I was really happy and full of life so there are songs on there that I wrote at all different times of my life and overall it is a great listen.

I never sat down and wrote eleven songs it was more like sitting down and editing eleven songs which was brilliant as it was all there ready for me and even now I’m writing again already and we have started working on some new songs already but I know for a fact that when we get into the studio again I will still go through that old pile as it works as this band is about us and our lives and before the material wasn’t appropriate but now it is totally appropriate and a lot of the songs Jimmy had written years before.

Jim Carroll: The first night we sat down and talked about it I went home and I was going through memos and any old demo recordings and I was just sending them off to Frank and one of the song’s I actually wrote that night was the first one that Frank came back with lyrics, but a bunch of those older ones just made their way. The way I write I just come up with something and ill either make two or three solid parts to go around it or I will leave a riff and put it away.

Frank Carter: Which is amazing for a vocalist because when I want a new song he sends ten to fifteen different ideas and I run with that.

Jim Carroll: We have a good partnership running.

You are currently half way through a mini headline tour across the UK, how have the shows been so far?
Frank Carter And Jim Carroll: It’s been amazing.

Have you had any favourite shows from the tour?
Frank Carter: Every show has been really good like Birmingham on the first night of the tour the whole place just exploded with people singing every word, and fro a band which has two singles out and no other record out, it’s great and really makes you think you are doing something good. The shows have had a mixed crowd in the way that it is not always the people I would expect and the kids have been really getting behind it and it couldn’t be any better.

Can we say thanks to everyone that has come out?
Yeah sure!
Frank Carter: Everyone has been coming out with a good open minded mind set and everyone just wants’ to have fun.

You are set to play the Reading and Leeds festival this August, are you looking forward to showing the festival crowd what Pure Love are all about?
Both: Can’t wait

Frank Carter: I have played the festival a few times but it is Jimmy’s first time, I totally love that festival but I have always played in a hardcore band and it is always difficult to make that transition to the bigger stage because that’s not what the music is about, but with this band we specifically wrote big songs that the crowd would want to sing and I can’t wait to get there because we are playing a big tent early in the morning so either everyone is going to be hung over and not turn up or they will all be there bright bushy tailed.

It will be a good experience for you.
Frank Carter: Yeah either way it will be a good experience where we will play an empty tent or a full tent, or even a middle of the road tent.

Can we expect a full length tour towards the end of the year to coincide with the release of ‘Anthems’?
Frank Carter: You can defiantly expect a full length tour to coincide with the album but I just don’t know when the album is going to come out but we will be touring as soon as the album is out.

Where do you hope to see Pure Love in a year’s time?
Frank Carter: Together still

(Laughter)

Frank Carter: Just going from strength to strength really and I just hope that people really get behind it and enjoy it as much as we do and that is all I can really ask for.

One last random question that we ask every band, if you could be an animal out of a zebra or Giraffe which one would you be and why?
Frank Carter: Zebras or a Giraffe that’s a weird choice.

(Laughter)

Frank Carter: How often do you see a giraffe being taken down by Lions?

Jim Carroll: Not often it’s a rare one, zeebras look cooler.

Frank Carter: I would debate that, a giraffe has a natural camo look at a zebra, a Zeeebra listen to you it’s a zebra, look at a zebra it’s black and white and lives in a fucking desert he’s fucked.

Jim Carroll: It doesn’t live in a desert.

Frank Carter: Ok they plains of Africa, either way he’s fucked who would want to be a zebra, you may look pretty in a zoo but that’s it, so im a giraffe.

Jim Carroll: I’d say a giraffe as well.

Thanks for your time is there a message for your fans reading this?
Jim Carroll: Thank you.

Frank Carter: Thanks for sticking by us and having faith and coming out to the shows and here’s to many more good times.

Interview by Trigger