AN INTERVIEW WITH NEGATIVE FRAME

1. Negative Frame, London, England—welcome to All the Cores and More! Would you be so kind as to introduce yourself and what you do in the band?

Yo it’s Olly Coyne here from Negative Frame, I play guitar in the band. Thanks for having us.

2. Who were the bands who were instrumental in getting you into heavy music? Take us down the iceberg.

Ultimately, Burn the Priest was the band that formed Negative Frame. My intro to guitar started at age 5, sitting in front of MTV, having KISS blow my mind on the screen out of nowhere. I picked up the guitar shortly after and discovered Iron Maiden early on during jams at the local scout hut, followed by Slayer through Guitar Hero.  

Joining college at 16 here in the UK, I started going to London punk and beatdown shows every weekend. 

3. When did the band form and what was the vision for it at the beginning?

We formed in 2017 aged 16/17, after I saw our vocalist Kesari perform with his college band, I knew I was going to be in a band with him. Both of us were skating when we bumped into each other at the St Albans Orchard, we sat down to smoke a joint listening to Acid Bath. The start of Negative Frame was born. 

4. I feel like you guys occupy this cool space where it’s like your heart is hardcore but you’ve also got this kind of 80s thrash/crossover vibe but originating in the current era with a current sound. This Is Colour from the previous generation of metalcore was sort of like that. With your unique style you can pretty much play with any bands from hardcore to deathcore and have it make sense. You remind me a bit of the Acacia Strain in the 2000s in that way. It’s been interesting to hear the sonic progression from where you started to the most current material. Can you describe that sonic evolution from the demo to Mercy Killing for us?

Yes that’s pretty spot on, we’ve always been heavily into death/thrash metal, alongside bands like Disembodied and Martyr AD… We’ve been able to play all types of bills over the years, from Power Trip to Kublai Khan and Thy Art Is Murder shows. 

Our sound has always been a mix of our favourite parts of heavy music. Since the band’s inception, we’ve evolved to include more mosh metal parts, while still referencing our early metallic and stoner influences. With a hardened style, blasts of epic, dark melody - We have our debut record coming out, ‘Break The Ice’ this August. 

5. What can you tell us about Break The Ice? Are you working with Charlie Wilson again? (Side note: I found it interesting that False Reality and Beyond Extinction have also recorded at Monolith Studios; I interviewed both bands when I was doing my previous site. Great bands. Also, I love TRC—you can read my interview with vocalist Chris here). 

The first single ‘New Lows’ just dropped, it’s heavy af and shows a darker melodic side to us. Charlie Wilson is a legend and picked us up early on when we didn't have enough money to record, he just loved the demos and gave us a shot for cheap. Yes he’s worked with a ton of great heavy bands around the UK.

For this record we wanted to get out of London for a month, we slept on mates’ sofas for the whole time haha (thanks Detriment and Public Execution). We went to Outhouse Studios in Reading with John Mitchell, who produced the best scene records during the early 2000’s - Enter Shikari, Architects, FFAF… 

6. Your early tours were strictly DIY—what are some of the highlights (and perhaps lowlights!) of that era of the band?

We’ve always just wanted to play loads of shows and have fun. We booked our first UK tour when I was 18 and slept in the car, right by Brighton Pier once where I used our old banner as a blanket. We’ve slept on airport floors overnight, gotten ditched on the motorway by a broken down coach, bunked trains across the country with our gear… We’ve done all that! And it’s always been great as it’s all about the show. 

7. How about since then—any great touring stories or highlights you’d like to share?

Our favourite thing to do is to visit other countries. Our first time in Portugal was insane, we turned up at the first ‘venue’ - the basement of a pet shop which had a stage built in, it was absolutely packed with about 200 people, and was a wicked show. 

The second night we drove to Porto to find that this venue was an art studio. Drywall surrounding this floor space setup; we started playing, it was rammed and people were being picked up and thrown into these walls, which were collapsing the whole set. Holes in walls all over the place, drywall all over the floor - that was a night to remember. 

The funny thing is that Mark was 17, which meant Kesari had to sign as his legal guardian… We all got tattoos and this was the night we slept on the Lisbon airport floor before coming home. 

8. I was in England for about five months to close out 2009 and I lived in Wales for about three years in the mid-2010s, and I’ve really tried to keep my finger on the pulse of the UK heavy music scene, but that’s not always easy when you live in another country. It seems to be in an extremely good place currently. Do you agree with this assessment, and who are the key bands we should be paying attention to?

Oh hell yeah, the UK scene is ecstatic right now. South coast to up North, any show with a decent bill will have attention. 

Key UK bands would be The Flex, Splitknucle, Despize, Demonstration of Power… - however, check out these newer bands too - Body Bag UK, Agency, Regress, Silence Me.

9. A couple fun questions to close us out: You’ve been granted magical powers to bring five bands or artists past or present, living or deceased, together, at their peak, for a one-night show only. What’s the lineup?

Motorhead, Bad Brains, State Funeral, Arms Race, Inside Out, Randy Roads with Ozzy Osbourne and Black Sabbath. 

10. Ignoring the logistics of how you’d do it, if you were stranded on a desert island and could only bring five records with you, which ones would you bring?

Reign Supreme - Dying Fetus

Heartwork - Carcass

Programmed - Lethal

London Calling - The Clash

Inlet - Hum