FREAKOUTS formed to inspire carnage…
That’s according to the band’s bio anyway and we reckon the punk four piece are well on the way to achieving that goal. We caught up with Charlie Hinton from band, who is currently studying on the Creative Artist Route, to see what it’s really like to freakout…
**fruity language warning**
Introduce FREAKOUTS. How did you guys meet?
“It’s a funny story actually. After having met each other individually on nights out and the occasional lecture, we all ended up joining an alt rock band. Just before our first show we realised that we didn’t like the way the band was going, and none of us actually enjoyed it. So we decided to leave and start a new band as just Charlie, Jack, Kyle and Otto with the mentality of just “lets see what happens”. We got into practise and FREAKOUTS happened.”
Which bands are your biggest influences? Who should we be listening to right now?
“We all have a super wide range of bands we’re into, I actually don’t think any of us share a same “favourite band”, but between us to list a few there’s System of a Down, FIDLAR, Black Flag, Nirvana, Sex Pistols, and we could go on. In terms of music you should check out at the moment, we’ve been jamming a lot to Strange Bones who are just insanity and do a banging cover of “Spitfire” by The Prodigy. Hiatus Kaiyote are pure groove so if you like to get funky check them out. Then guys like Pussy Liquor, The Blinders, Ho99o9 and IDLES are really holding it down for punk at the moment so if you gotta smash some stuff up we highly recommend them.”
What’s the creative process behind writing your songs? How do they go from an idea to a body of work?
“Usually it’ll just be one of us playing a voice recording of a riff at practise and then everyone locks in around that. We’ll come up with different instrumental variations around the one idea and then generally end up choosing the one that we enjoy playing the most, and that we think’ll go down the gnarliest live. Then we’ll decide on the structure of the track, we just go with what fits and what we’re feeling. If we only want one chorus then we’ll only have one chorus, if we want a 3 minute breakdown, bang you got it, theres no need to try and restrict your music to popular modern day expectations and templates. Melodies come and go along the way but vocals usually end up coming after the instrumental is finished. Lyrics is something we all pitch in on. For example, Kyle came up with an idea in Amsterdam when he was broke and replying to his mate who was asking about money… Theres a track on our debut EP too (which’ll be out soon) which lyrically was pretty much completely written by Jack. But yeah in this band everyone writes everything.”
What’s next for FREAKOUTS?
“As just mentioned we’ve got our debut EP coming out within the next couple of months, but aside from that we’re just trying to play as many shows as possible in as many towns as possible. Get in as many peoples faces as possible and give them a show where they can just get mad. Anyone looking for a rowdy punk show shoot us a message!”
Catch FREAKOUTS on Spotify / YouTube / Facebook / Instagram
If you’d like to study at ACM and follow in the footsteps of our students like Freakouts, please call our Admissions Team on 01483 500 841 or visit www.acm.ac.uk/open-days to book a place on an ACM Open Day today.
