Photo: Daniel Quesada
It's been a long and winding path for God Damn. Since first grabbing the rock world's attention, they've lost a member, toured the world a few times over, released a debut album to universal acclaim and find themselves about to support Foo Fighters with a huge festival summer ahead of them. Not bad for a couple of lads from Wolverhampton.
"It's a crazy honour, it's going to be huge," drummer Ash Weaver tells Gigwise ahead of their Foos opening slot at Manchester's monumental Old Trafford. The days of playing tiny venues before former guitarist Dave Copson was forced to leave after suffering a life-threatening car accident must seem a long way behind them.
With an epic packed summer off the back of their stellar debut album Vultures ahead of them, 2015 could still belong to God Damn - but on their own terms. There's no other two-piece quite like them.
Gigwise: Do you think there's anything about the album that might surprise people who have been fans from the early days?
Ash Weaver: It's hard as well as delicate, there's massive range for people - but we're still sticking to what we're good at. People know us as a live band, but the side of us that wanted to write a fully-formed album has developed over the past 12 months, really. Hopefully people get it as a recording as well.
How would you say that coming from Wolverhampton helped form your sound? Was there a healthy scene there or did it give you something to kick against?
I think a lot of the scene there has moved to Birmingham. For me being from Wolverhampton, it would be great to get some of the scene and the attention back there. Some of the best smaller venues have closed down over the last couple of years so it would be nice for someone to break through from the area.
What does it mean to be on the roster for a label as awesome as One Little Indian?
Oh, it's great man. They've put out some really cool albums and we really love their ethics and attitude. They leave it more in our hands and it's more down to what we want to do and what we want to create.
Would you not be up for a major label getting on board and laying down the law?
We're more of a band that are not necessarily the most commercially savvy, but you've got to adapt to what's going on. For us, it's more about what we want to do and what our fans and audience like.
What do you think a typical God Damn fan expects of you?
We have a massive range of fans. You'll have people turning up in Peace t-shirts, and I think we do crossover in a lot of ways with the indie and pop scene, but we're more of a heavy band and people tend to see that.
How was SXSW and how do you guys go down in the US?
Really well, actually. We're hoping to go back soon. They took to us really well at SXSW and New York, Los Angeles. It will be interesting to see what the wider US thinks of us.
There seems to be a lot of good will for UK rock over there right now. Why do you think that is?
I'm not sure really. I guess that's where a lot of the roots come from, they're probably British influenced if you go back to Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath.
Do you ever get frustrated at people using the phrase 'British rock duo' and placing you somewhere you don't deserve to be?
That can be a bit annoying, but I suppose we never became a two-piece just because it's the trendy thing to do. It was down to circumstances, we started out as a three-piece and we're not against getting people in if it improves us as a band. If it works out best for us being a two-piece then so be it, but we don't want to be pigeonholed by how many people are in the group - we just want to be known for what we play.
Bands often say that losing a member severely effects or improves their chemistry. Do you think that losing Dave had a severe impact on the way your sound or play?
Well, we'd already played together since we were about 18 or 19 so we know each other inside out, really. There's no real doubt that we were going to carry on making music together, and still have our own stamp on it.
When you see the success of Royal Blood, Muse and Biffy Clyro proving that the weirder strands of rock can go on to sell out arenas and stadiums, do you feel that those kind of doors are more open to you now than ever?
Yeah, what you feel is right and what you like is what matters, but it's great to see that working out on such a massive scale. It would be great to be selling out those massive venues.
Now that the album is out, do you have any ideas or ambitions on where you want to take your sound from here or what you want to do?
We'll just keep experimenting with sound, that's what we've always done. We'll keep on tinkering around with ideas, but the main thing is concentrating on this album. Moving forwards, we'll be evolving.
Vultures by God Damn is out now. This summer sees them play at Reading & Leeds festival, Camden Rocks, Download, Boardmasters and many more.
