From: Southampton
Sounds Like: Once Converge’s noise war finally tears the Earth’s crust wide open, the magma that pours out will sound like Kerouac.
Website: MySpace.com/KerouacUK

Thrash Hits verdict: We got pointed in the direction of Kerouac by Bastions, and when one of our favourite discoveries of the last 12 months says you ought to listen to a band, well, you pay attention. They’ve also just signed to what is fast becoming one of our favourite independent labels, Tangled Talk Records, as if we needed any further excuses to check them out. We caught up with bassist Jon Gareze to find out what’s going on down south.

Describe your sound in three words.
Heavy, fast & loose

How did you meet?
We were in a couple of bands together before and have always been friends.

What made you want to start a band?
After stagnating in a band for pretty much a year we all split up to pursue different musical interests, and a summer later we decided to come back with a different sound and a hell of a lot more enthusiasm.

Why did you name yourselves after one of the beat writers? Sorry, bet you probably get asked that loads.
We chucked a few names around at the time and “Kerouac” was Thom’s idea, He’s always been into Charles Bukowski and around the time we were starting the band had been getting into the earlier beat writers. Also the way in which Kerouac wrote On The Road on one continuous scroll was something we all wanted to convey within the band. As I said before, we’d previously been in a band where we’d stagnated for a year endlessly editing songs and trying to bring them up to date until eventually they lost all meaning. With this band we wanted to write songs that were fluent and coherent – we chose the name Kerouac to illustrate this.

Watch Kerouac play ‘Lay Of The Landfill’ live @ Weymouth Finns:

Where did you grow up? How do you think it’s affected your music?
We all grew up in roughly the same area of Southampton/Bournemouth, to be honest I don’t think the area has affected our music greatly, although I definitely can’t speak for everyone in the band. We’ve got a pretty good scene going in Southampton which I think has definitely helped us develop as a band, I know some bands from places where there is no scene at all, so I guess were pretty lucky that there’s a lot of good people putting on a lot of good shows.

So far, what has been the best thing about being in a band?
Getting to play a load of shows with other awesome bands and making new friends.

With which band would your dream support slot/tour be?
Errrm probably Converge or The Chariot, Both bands that I’ve really loved for a long time. We were lucky enough to support The Chariot back in May which was a ridiculously awesome night.

What marks you out as different to other bands around at the moment?
I’d like to think it’s the variety in our music. When writing for [our EP] Cold and Distant, Not Loving, we didn’t want any song to sound the same, which I think is particularly dangerous in this genre and a trap that a lot of hardcore bands fall into.

A Sheep. A Well by Kerouac

What’s the best and funniest shows you’ve played?
For me personally it was a headline show at The Joiners in our hometown of Southampton shortly after we had released our E.P. Everyone knew the words and after playing these songs live for about a year everyone finally got it, it was fucking awesome.

As for the funniest, I think it was our third show. We were playing a pub down in Weymouth, and there was a completely hammered middle aged woman falling about the stage whilst we were playing, and then decided to sit on the stage staring at us for half the set. If that wasn’t bad enough between change over an elderly local gave us a beautiful rendition of a Frank Sinatra song.…we were glad to get shot of that place.

What have you got planned for the future?
Play as many shows as we can, tour in December with Bastions, Recording a split with The Long Haul which will hopefully be out November time on Tangled Talk Records. And after that get working on the next release.

Danny from Bastions pointed us in your direction – what other band would you recommend everyone find out about?
The Long Haul – really awesome band from Southampton.

Tell us a joke.
Bring me the horizon?

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Ouch – even we felt that last one. Anyway, because some no-mark prick started torrenting Kerouac’s latest EP, the band have decided they might as well give Cold and Distant, Not Loving away for free. But for the love of all that’s heavy, show your appreciation by picking up some merch or going along to throw down at a show.

Kerouac 2010 tourdates
October
17 Portsmouth Edge Of The Wedge (with Our Time Down Here)
23 Southampton Joiners (with Burn The Fleet, Drawings and The Long Haul)
November
19 TBC (with Kasa and Goodtime Boys)
20 TBC (with Kasa and Goodtime Boys)
21 TBC (with Kasa and Goodtime Boys)
December
09 Southampton Unit (Tangled Talk takeover)
19 Amlwch Port Liverpool Arms (with Bastions)
20 Colwyn Bay Speaker’s Corner (with Bastions)