A solid lump of midweek rock for you, courtesy of Yorkshire-based Fear Lies…
Simple things first – where are you guys from?
We are three quarters Sheffield and one quarter Hull. As a band though we formed in Sheffield.
How did you meet?
Ben Orrah (singer) and Dan Eades (Bass) met back in 2012 when Ben was looking for a new bass player for a reformation of an old band he was in. Things didn’t work out with that project. As Ben and Dan hit it they went and formed a new band. After being let down by a few drummers and guitarists, Tim McNeill (Dan’s best mate) ed in 2013. After many drummers coming and going we finally found Jim Hockney towards the end of that year and we just all clicked and finally named ourselves Fear Lies. We debuted in February 2014 at West Street Live and that was that.
How long have you been playing as a band?
We formed as Fear Lies in 2013 after Jim Hockney completed our line up.
Before you get sick of being asked… where does the band name come from?
We had all been in bands before when younger then just stopped as we got older and started careers, had kids etc. Ben always had an itch to reform his old band now older, wiser and more laid back, but I guess you develop a fear over time of not being able to do it anymore. Song writing is quite a personal intimate thing, in a way you put your soul into your music and finding musicians to share that with is not easy. You have to put yourself out there with fear of rejection. It held Ben back for years and it also held back Dan Tim and even Jim. But we all took a chance again after years out of the music scene and after a couple of knock backs we never looked back. Ben saw a picture doing the rounds of an under with “Fear is a liar” sprayed onto one of the walls. The name Fear Lies just felt right. The name Fear Lies is about how the fear lies to us and that we shouldn’t not try just because we might be afraid of something. It’s something that seems so child like but yet it affects adults way more than we like to it.
What are your influences?
The great thing as a band is we love all kinds of music and we can argue about what we like or don’t like. But we do share a collective love of 90’s grunge, punk, rock and classic rock. Bands like Nirvana, Foo Fighters, Soundgarden, Offspring, Green Day to name a few. We all really love Therapy?, we really like simple songs with hooks and power. We have been branded as thunderous anthemic rock in a few reviews now which is cool. We’ve also been told our sound is stadium rock too so a main influence of ours is obviously Foo Fighters and Green Day. Though we have been told we also sound a little bit like Therapy and Godsmack too and they are all really big influences of ours so that’s cool.
Describe your music. What makes you unique?
Well put together, well played simple rock that you can get behind, jump, shout, dance and wave your hands to. We don’t overthink when we write for the sake of making a song more complex. If three chords is all we need and it feels right then that will be the song and the guys musicianship will then add the layers to make it interesting. If it doesn’t feel right it doesn’t get written. There are not so many local bands playing stadium rock in small venues with the huge powerful simple sound that we create I think and we have a lot of fun doing it too.
Do you have any particular lyrical themes?
Ben does most of the lyric writing and a lot of the themes seem to be around pain and then triumphing over it. A lot are about dealing with mental health too. Seeing people sing some of our songs back at us with all they have shows that we must be connecting with people who understand what the lyrics are and in turn that we understand them too which is something that means a lot to us.
What’s your live show like? How many shows have you played?
We started out playing local venues pretty much on a week to week basis just for fun and to meet the other musicians that are part of the awesome Sheffield music scene. We then started to think how can we make this huge sound we have developed into a powerful visual show. Then one day we turned up at Dove and Rainbow in Sheffield to play a show and we paid someone £100 to bring his lighting rig and put on a light show like we haven’t ever seen before at a local gig especially not in a small pub. The show was a hit, it blew people’s minds and it really worked with our songs. We started using samples to cover tunings to make the gigs more streamlined and professional looking and it all just worked really well. From there we have become known for putting on a show just like you would expect from a band like Foo Fighters only on a smaller scale.
We have since moved away from gigging so much but putting on a few big ticketed events at venues like O2 Academy and Corporation in Sheffield. Our first big show we self funded was at O2 Academy in Sheffield and we came shy of selling the 300 cap venue by about 36 people. That was amazing. Then we followed it up by putting on a show in the big room at Corporation Sheffield and selling nearly 500 tickets. We then donated all the proceeds to the special care baby unit at Jessops Hospital in Sheffield. We haven’t done many shows these last few years as we have been working on our new music, but we have recently booked O2 Academy in Sheffield on the 6th September for our single release which we can’t wait for.
What’s the wildest thing you’ve seen or done at a live show?
Climbing on bars, climbing on speakers, Ben always tries to engineer a way off stage into the crowd with the mic stand for an audience sing along. To be fair these days we are all family men so “wild” for us is being allowed out in the first place. We get laughed at as we aren’t big drinkers so when venues give us beer tokens and we ask for a cup of tea it raises eyebrows.
What kit do you use / guitars do you play / etc.?
Ben uses Gibson guitars mainly Les Paul’s though he has a black Explorer and a white Firebird Studio T which he loves. We are really proud of Tim because he’s now endorsed by Duesenberg guitars and has two of them. It’s awesome a musician is getting the recognition he deserves. Dan uses Fender bass guitars but he actually owns more guitars than Ben and Tim combined. He has about 50 really rare Gibsons. He’s a bit of a collector but he let us use one or two occasionally in the studio. Strictly not for gigging though.
What, if anything, are you plugging/promoting at the moment?
We have a new single for release which will be part of an EP that is scheduled for release sometime next year. The single is called “Rain” and we are really excited about it as it’s a new sound for us and has already been a hit with folks who have heard it. Its had two awesome reviews already which is great. The single will be released on all digital platforms on the 6th of September and we will be gigging that night to celebrate at O2 Academy in Sheffield. Tickets are £7 and we currently are in the process of creating what we hope will be something that will be visually stunning too.
What are your plans for 2019?
We have a follow up single to “Rain” scheduled for around November time. Then we also have a few big slots with Joanovarc in November and then a huge show at Corporation for Winter Rocks where we will be ing the Quireboys and Skid Row.
If you were second on a three-band bill, which band would you love to be ing and which band would you choose to open for you? A chance to plug someone you’ve toured with, or a mate’s band we’ve not heard of before!
Foo Fighters headlining just so we would get chance to play in a stadium, us in the middle and local boys Steal The City opening the show just because they are amazing and have been huge help and for us over the years. Plus they always bring the party and are great guys to be around.
Fear Lies: official | facebook | twitter | bandcamp | soundcloud | youtube
