Louder Than The Music

On Saturday, popular British band Quench performed their last gig at the Greenbelt Festival. In order to celebrate their career, Louder Than The Music caught up with singer Jamie Hill, guitarist Mark Hamilton, bassist Ed Powell and drummer Andy Davis for an epic interview, charting the history of the band from their formation to the present day.

So after eight years, Quench is coming to an end. Why have you chosen to bow out now?
 
Quench: Quench has always been about two things - The hope of Jesus in the reality of life, and making great rock music. Great rock music that is a credible alternative to other similar genre bands in the mainstream - an alternative that speaks hope into life, light into darkness and joy into pain. We feel that we have been faithful to that vision in every stage of the band's life and we are so thankful for all that God has done with us and through us. We have always held out very clearly that while God has stuff for us to do, we'll do it, and at every stage of our life we have sought God on this and asked the question "Is there more for us to do with Quench?" It is with all this in mind that we came to the conclusion that Quench's time has come to an end. This is a really sad thing for us but we are peaceful about the decision. God has always been faithful to us and we must also be faithful enough to call it a day now we feel He is asking us to close this chapter of our lives. We all love each other very much, we haven't had 'musical differences', no one has fallen from grace or lost the plot, we just feel that God has new things for us to invest in and the season of Quench is over. "I tell you the truth, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds." John 12:24

Is this the last we'll ever hear of Quench? Could a reunion ever be on the cards?

Mark Hamilton: I'm sure we will all be involved in musical projects in the future and we may even all be involved together again - who knows? A reunion will always be on the cards as we still love each other and we still love this band and all we stood for. A reunion gig would no doubt be a lot of fun so I guess it would all be about whether the time and the reason was right. Take That have always been our inspiration (!) and it worked out alright for them!

You've chosen make your set at this year's Greenbelt festival your farewell gig. What is it about Greenbelt that is so special for Quench?
 
Quench: Greenbelt has always been a special place for us. We've had some of the best gigs of our career there and made a lot of friends and supporters there and it was one of the things that really launched us in the UK. We've had the privilege of playing Main Stage a few times as well as Stage 2, The Mix and the Performance Cafe. One of our fondest memories was in 2002 when as a result of absolutely rocking stage 2 and creating a huge buzz, we were asked to play the main stage the following day filling in for pop band Oxygen, who had pulled out due to illness. As we took to the stage, a father was heard telling his young children "You'll love this next band, they're just like S Club 7." Apparently the look of shock and horror on the kids' faces as we unleashed the rock was something to behold! We've played most years since then and it has always been a blast. We've also got happy memories of queues around the block for our signing sessions. To have such dedicated fans who genuinely love our music and what we stand for, to the extent that they'd queue up to meet us is amazing and really humbling.

Let's talk about the history of the band. You started life as the final line-up of 'Why?' - a popular folk rock band. What made you decide to pursue a purely rock project, and how did the other members get involved?

Andy Davis: In '96, "Why?" had an honest, folk style. From the moment I joined, it started to gain more of a rock feel, slowly to start with and then more so towards the end of its existence. Once Ant Parker, the lead singer and founder of the band had decided to call it a day, it never had a 'Why?' feel about it. It was always going to be easier to be honest to our own playing styles and preferences and so we melded into a new band. We had been playing music in a style none of us really listened to! The first line up of Quench kept developing towards a rockier feel from latter Why? days. Kevin Sefton, the original Quench guitarist, was more of a singer/songwriter balladeer, whereas Mark had the Rock guitarist influences and style we needed to create the sound we were after. Jamie knew him from TVB days and so the change happened after the E.P. was recorded. Ron Knights, our 1st bassist could rock big time and auditioned on the recommendation of a music colleague. Ron's musical style was always a little more funky than where Quench were heading and so Ed's 'no nonsense' rock playing completed the line-up when Ron left.

One of the most exciting times for the band was in 2003. You'd just released 'Afterglow', which was getting loads of critical praise, awards and mainstream attention. How do you feel about the album looking back on it?

Mark: Afterglow is something we're all very proud of and it was a great album to launch ourselves onto the scene. Lyrically, the songs totally sum up what we stand for and connected with so many people. Musically, we were breaking new ground as the punk/pop scene and the nu-metal scene were fading away and we were one of the first 'emo' bands on the scene, alongside bands like Jimmy Eat World. Looking back, my only regret is that I feel that the final mix never truly captured the energy of our live sound and it lacked that vital spark of energy. I've always hoped that one day we could remix it, but sadly the masters no longer exist.

Andy: I'm still proud of the band's efforts and immensely thankful to those who had the faith in us at the time to allow us to record it. For me, it was certainly the first time a band had truly worn their hearts on their sleeves in a way that your average listener could relate. Stylistically, parts of it were a little ahead of its time and I think that's how we survived not releasing anything else for so long afterwards.

Ed Powell: I remember seeing you guy's rock up in your tour van at spring harvest - I had known Jamie and Andy from previous Spring Harvest years, so I was keen to see the new look band. I was a fan after the EP as I had seen the band pre-Afterglow and had always admired the craftsmanship of the music. When the guys came on (with Mark on guitar) I was blown away by the songs and how different they sounded from other bands on the scene like WWMT, Kato and Steve.

It took you about five years to release the follow up, Reality Radio. Why did things go quiet in the Quench camp for so long?
 
Quench: There are a variety of reasons. The main reason is that we wanted to release something that was on a whole higher level, sonically, and not just make Afterglow part 2. We chose to record it ourselves so that we could have complete creative control including our own choice of producers. We chose Joe Gibb who had worked on records by Funeral For A Friend, Jane's Addiction and 3 Colours Red. We're disappointed that it took us so long, but the reality was that the four of us had such busy lives and we didn't live in the same town, so everything from writing to rehearsing to planning took such a long time. Jamie also took some time out to write and record a worship album and Mark went to work in the USA for Josh Doyle, which slowed things down a little, but the truth is that we were suffering from the 'where do we go from here?' question. We'd released an album, toured the UK, played all the festivals, but when we asked what the next step was (Europe? USA? Secular scene?) there was no answer from anyone other than 'there IS no next step, you guys are in the small UK scene so all you can do is repeat what you've already done and then fade away politely!' We fought this as we were hungry for more, but the reality was that without the big budget and support of a major record company, this was impossible. We floundered for a while as we were a little dejected. However, we fought on and decided to go for it and put all our band cash into releasing a recording that was the best that we could do. The result was "Reality Radio" and we feel it captures our live sound and competes favourably with our secular counterparts. Hopefully our fans will agree that it was worth the wait and they are proud of us for taking the more difficult path of shooting for the higher level. We made Reality Radio for them as much as for ourselves, and for everyone who doubts Christians can make rock that cuts it! We had a point to prove and I think we surprised a lot of people.

You've recently announced that you hope to record and release some of your previously unreleased material. What are your plans for that? Can we look forward to another EP sometime soon?
 
Quench: Hopefully, yes! It will be great to release some of the new songs we've been working on. There are some killer options here including "Change" and "Welcome To Life" which we've been playing at recent live shows, as well as older songs like "Who Do you Say I Am?". We've also got a lot of high quality live recordings from the Afterglow Tour which it would be good to release, as well as a live DVD recording which sadly never got edited or released, again due to budget restrictions.

Do you regret never having the opportunity to make that full-length, out and out rock album you always talked about recording?
 
Mark: Yes! I feel that we've only scratched the surface of what Quench could have been, but that's life! That is still my ambition and hopefully I'll make 'that album' with a new band in the future, if not with Quench. You never know!

Jamie Hill: I'm really proud of all that we have done, I think we have improved at every stage and I can retire from Quench confident that we have been faithful stewards of the band. There's always a bit of a 'oh I wish we had done more' feeling, but I honestly feel that we have achieved all that God wanted us to. If someone came to us and said 'here's some money, record a last album', I'm sure we wouldn't say no!

Ed: Yes and No. The EP was probably the hardest thing that I have had to record. When you have four egos camped out in a little cottage in deepest darkest Wales for a week seeking musical perfection in the finest detail you suffer a little. However, I think that suffering brings something to the record and l remember listening back to the songs after we had finished thinking, my gosh, this is epic - if only this was an album with 6 other tracks. I am so proud of the EP that I actually listen to it thinking there is more energy and truth in these 4 tracks than in a lot of albums you see on the shelves, so it doesn't really matter if we recorded an album or not.

Andy: In many ways, 'Afterglow' was that album. The band was at a real peak in its songwriting and although the final mix may sound less 'edgy' than we'd hoped, the playing and performing on the album had a real rock feel about it.

All of the band members have been involved in side projects during their time in the band; Jamie released a solo project and some of you play with other musicians. What projects will you be pursuing after the band has finished?
 
Mark: I'm not sure at this stage. I'd like to continue playing with Josh Doyle (joshdoyle.com) and my comedy side project, The Mojo Collective (myspace.com/mojocollective), but my heart is set on joining a full-on UK rock band a little heavier than Quench (Killswitch Engage?) and seeing what happens. Ideally I'd love the chance to join an established American band so that I can make a real career out of music: a band like Pillar, This Beautiful Republic, Switchfoot, Blindside (yes I know they're from Scandinavia!) or Family Force 5.

Jamie: I'll be pursuing a new project, the Jamie Hill Worship Project; it is kind of a next stage to the album One Day, but seeking to push the envelope a little more and develop some creative new worship journeys, kind of One Day meets Dave Crowder Band. So I'm excited about that and the writing is going well. I'm also part of some cover bands which is great fun. Playing with the fantastic Andy Flannagan again is great and as for anything else, we'll see. There is part of me that wonders if something will bring Quench back for a season, but as always, we'll se what God puts together for us.

Ed: I'll attach my P45 with this article. In all seriousness, every time I try to step away from music, something else crops up. I'll always play in some shape or form, what that will be is up to the Big Man.

Andy: I will continue to play on session recordings as I have always done. I am half way through recording an album with a new singer/songwriter hopefully for release next year. There will always be the desire to play in a rock band and if the right opportunity arises at the right time, then who knows!

You aren't the only popular British Christian band bowing out this year, Delirious? will also cease to function as a band by the end of 2009. What are your thoughts on the British Christian rock scene at the moment?
 
Mark: There isn't really a scene anymore and that is definitely a contributing factor to the demise of many established bands recently. The good news is that this means that many Christian rock bands are just sticking to the secular scene and maybe this is ultimately a better witness. The Christian scene is almost entirely devoted to developing worship music right now, which is a real shame because there is still a need for bands who speak into culture and sing about issues - bands like Quench. It's sad when a scene becomes one-dimensional.

Jamie: I think that it's people who make a scene at the end of the day. We simply need more Christians! We need a revival so that there are enough people to support a fringe rather than just a mainstream. That's what I'm praying for and the rest will follow when that falls into place. It is sad when bands finish due to having no other way to develop, but it is inevitable until we really see the kingdom grow in this country.

Ed: I think because the Christian scene is so small and limited, we won't really see a rock band come through on the same scale as Delirious did with worship. Being honest, the Christian scene in this country have never had a rock band on a large scale as they cannot sustain themselves - that's not to say there has not been any great rock bands, there has, but they have not been able to sustain themselves like Delirious did with the worship scene.

Andy: I think it's better now in some ways as the retail outlets have less of a hold on your exposure now that the Internet has become the avenue for that. In the past the Christian music bookshops were the only places you could discover the music outside the gig venue, as this was where the Christian record labels would put their stock. These shops are generally quite MOR and so anything edgy would get mediocre exposure. At least now, bands can generate their own publicity.

One question we ask all our interviewees is this: if you were stuck on a desert island, and you only had enough battery life left on your MP3 to listen to one track, what track would it be?
 
Mark: "Master Of Puppets" by Metallica - 8 minutes 38 seconds of quintessential speed metal with powerful lyrics and interesting progressive musical movements. What more could a man ask for?

Jamie: This is a difficult one - probably 'You are I am' by Darrell Evans or any number of the songs off of his Freedom album - if you haven't heard the freedom album, get it I think its incredible! Or 'You are my joy' by David Crowder would also be a strong contender.

Ed: Tough one, probably Claire de Lune - Debussy. Amazing piece of music that sounds incredible whether played on a Spanish guitar, piano or full-blown orchestra.

Andy: "To Him" by Nicki Rogers. It's from her 1st solo album. I was at Spring Harvest one year on team and at a bit of a low point. I heard Nicki sing it live and apart from it being a great song, it brought me back in touch with everything. I don't think there would be a better thing to be the last thing going round your head. She gave me the chords for it once when I told her I liked it as she hadn't had it published as sheet music. I still have it!

Which is your favourite Quench song, and why?
 
Mark: "Gollum" from Afterglow. This song lyrically goes right to the core of who I am and my love/hate relationship with the music industry. I'm also really proud of the guitar riff - who says you can't make an E major 9 chord rock?! It blows me away that it became a fan favourite and that I've heard hundreds of people singing their hearts out to a song that I wrote in my bedroom. The chorus hook "Kill Your Idols" was inspired by a T-shirt worn by Axl Rose when I saw Guns N Roses at Wembley back in the day - lesser-known fact!

Jamie: 'No more pretending' from Reality Radio. For me this song challenged one of the biggest concerns that I so often see in the church, the lack of honesty. Casting Crowns summed this is fantastically in their song 'Stained Glass Masquerade' and we found our voice for this in No More Pretending. It is a challenge to those of us that follow Jesus to stop pretending we can do it on our own, to walk into the freedom that comes from full reliance on Him and walking the journey with our brothers and sisters, in honesty, submission and faith.

Ed: I think No More Pretending - this song marks the pinnacle of the set and I think musically the finest crafted song we have ever done - for me it is the One/Where The Streets Have No Name of the set.

Andy: "I Can't Hear You" from Afterglow. The song resonated with comments I'd heard from friends at the time as well as my own. It gave me the opportunity to really put emotion in the drum part and Mark's playing gave it the angst I felt it needed. I'm also chuffed that we kept one of the guitar riffs which I wrote - not bad for a drummer!

One of the favourite songs with the fans is 'Who Do You Say I Am?'. How did that never make it onto a Quench release?!

Mark: This was the first new song that I worked on with Quench when I first joined in 2002, so it will always be a special song for me. It's also one of my favourite guitar riffs. It was really sad that it never made it onto Afterglow. I think the main reason was that was felt by some that it didn't sit well with the other songs on the record. The rest of the album was somewhere between Jimmy Eat World and Foo Fighters, whereas 'Who Do You Say I Am?' was a little too Incubus meets POD. I'm hoping this will be one of the unreleased songs that we'll finally record when we do our final recording. The live version of the song is also out there on YouTube somewhere if you search for it.

Ed: There are some songs that work live and that don't make it on to tape - this was one of those songs. We thought about it recording it for the EP but in the end decided that the 4 tracks on the EP were the strongest to record given our time constraints.

Andy: It was always a great song live as the riff and drums just demand that you jump! I've been asked about the drum part many times and I'm really pleased with it. The feeling was definitely that it wouldn't translate as well to a studio vibe as other tracks we'd written.
 
Looking back on your time in the band, what would you say have been your personal highlights?

Mark: Wow, there have been too many to name. I'm going to miss this band! I think for me my favourite gig of all time was New Wine 2005. It was a huge venue, we were top of our game performance wise, it was rammed full of fans who were all singing along and the mosh pit was insane. Other highlights include the first time we played Main Stage at Greenbelt, Christmas Rock Night where we played with Skillet and won the Best Christian Album of 2003 award and Owener Rocknacht in Germany which was a massive gig supporting Swedish prog metallers Narnia. On a more personal note, the biggest highlights have been when a girl came up to me at the end of one of our early Soul Survivor shows and thanked us saying "Thank you for playing our kind of music, you're the only Christian band who does this" and obviously when we've heard of kids becoming Christians through our gigs. There's no higher joy than doing the thing you love to do the most whilst being used by God to bring about His purposes in the lives of young people.

Jamie: I think I'll never forget one of the early Soul Survivor gigs. I've never seen a venue so full and there was such a buzz about this new band that people were hearing whispers about - it was an amazing gig! But for me being able to talk about Jesus in every venue we've ever played has been amazing. I think people have limited our exposure at times because of this and I really don't care. It is all about Him, we've tried to do it all for Him, and whatever comes next will be because of Him.

Ed: We did a gig in Germany a couple of years ago in Kiel. I remember we flew out on the Saturday morning, performed in the evening and flew back on the Sunday afternoon - what made it so memorable was that the headline band were not happy with us because we had knackered the crowd by the time they come on - we flew home with a smug smile on our faces.

Andy: This band has generated loads of personal highlights. GB2003 will always be memorable for the mainstage crowd and my 6th month old daughter 'Sophie' wearing her 1st Quench shirt on stage with me! The big gigs are always moments I'll remember, particularly Owener Rocknacht in Germany, but the smaller ones like St.John's Ipswich, where despite few turning out, we played a blinder. I remember 2 people coming up afterwards saying not only had one of their friends decided to follow Jesus on the back of hearing Jamie talk during the evening, another friend had felt lifted from a lengthy time of depression and our gig was the first time they'd been out of the house for ages. It's always been a privilege and often humbling experience to be used in this way.

Interview by J Alexander