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Brighton based 5-piece Phoria have been on the grind. Featuring chill vocals with intoxicating beats, their ‘Display’ EP just dropped on X Novo Records and it doesn’t disappoint.
GroundSounds recently caught up with the guys to talk about their latest music and more check out our exclusive interview below.
For those just discovering Phoria, can you tell us about the formation of the band and how you guys initially started making music together?
Trewin, Jeb, and Ed have known each other for a very long time. They went to primary school together. I assume they knew even then that they’d end up living in a tumble-down place in the middle of Brighton, scraping the inside of the neighbours bin for food and plying their humble trade to the world. I must say, their insight was quite good for a bunch of four year olds.
They just stuck together. They played classical music in orchestras and the like, remaining friends through secondary school – going out into the woods and getting up to all sorts of nefarious activities.
They stayed in touch at Uni, which is how I got to know them. I got to know Jeb and Ed through a mutual friend, and we used to stay up late playing guitar and just talking, endlessly, about music. They played me some some of the stuff Trewin was making at the time and I remember thinking it was pretty clever for one guy in his room.
I moved back to the South West after Uni, but stayed in touch. There was talk of them moving just down the road to Totnes at one point, as Trewin was based in Dartington. This pleased me, though it never happened.
It’s quite odd how we just seemed musically entwined, as if whatever anyone had done we’d have ended up playing music together.
The three of them started Phoria with some of Trewin’s songs and moved to Brighton. I was looking for a way out of Torquay and they said I should visit. I came up the same day they told me they’d moved! We got hammered and Trewin played some of his stuff to me. He says he still remembers when I was sat on his mattress (which had been tossed on the floor in the corner of a room), narrowed my eyes, and called him a ‘bastard’ because I like the tunes so much.
I like that I did that. Hell, it got me in the band.
Seryn was installed their dry wall in 1998 but his presence only became apparent when they knocked through to open the place up a little. You know, give it a ‘modern studio’ vibe. He turned out to be good at drums.
That’s my version of events, anyway.
How did you guys decide on the name Phoria?
Like most things in life, it was a bit of an accident. It kind of works with the vibe, and it looked good written down. It’s also fun to hear everyone getting it wrong. Phobia? Euphoria? Foamier? I mean, that’s not great if someone wants to look you up on Google, but if you’re in any way a sado-masochist it’s quite pleasing, which, ironically, is a bad thing. But never mind.
What do you guys enjoy most about Brighton?
I think the scene that’s biggest here compared to anywhere else is the ‘welcoming’ scene. Obviously as cliques develop and trends get set across cities it’s easy for them to become isolated and a little insular. That happens here as much as anywhere else, but there’s a large undercurrent of non-judgemental, well intentioned, and enthusiastic people here who will just let you get on with life and give you a smile as you do it. You don’t get that everywhere. Also there’s this massive ‘beach’ thing which is good. And the booze costs £6 a can so you know you’re not getting ripped off on quality.
Can you tell us about working on your latest EP Display and bringing it to fruition?
Man. It was like being a bunch of prospectors, sifting for hours and hours and hours. Some aspects of Bloodworks played on us. Red really launched us as a band, and while it didn’t loom over us like a Kubrikian obelisk, it did interrupt us in the middle of conversations like a pissed up friend-of-a-friend, every now and then.
Yeah, we just sat in and ground it out, knowing it had to be good. It’s always a pleasure, but there’s not much more to say than we sat in a room with tea, beer, and tobacco, and shouted at a computer until our throats were hoarse.
Your UK tour just started, what do you guys enjoy most about being on the road?
New things! It’s not like a holiday, and it’s not like work, it’s somewhere in between where you’re hanging out with your best friends doing the work you most love doing – and there’s no going back. Once you’re out, you move forward – you Can. Not. Stop. Go, go, go. You get this energy and you get in these nitty gritty discussions after being in a stinky van for three-thousand hours that let everyone dive a little deeper into themselves and your relationship with each other and with life and…
OK, that’s a little deep. It’s the most fun valuable experience possible – put it that way. That’s how I feel about it. I don’t get homesick, because my home smells of sick anyway. It’s my fault.
Oh yeah and you play music to people.
Can you tell us about the creative and writing process for the track “Efforttobreathe?”
Honestly, that’s one of the secret songs. I can tell you it was the last one we wrote (…days before we sent off the finished thing, in fact.) I can also tell you that we made it and we all went ‘Yes.’
That’s all though, I’m afraid.
What do you guys enjoy most about performing live?
What’s the musical equivalent of someone being smashed in the face with a frying pan? That. That’s what we like to do. The idea that we could possibly entertain someone in a way they haven’t been entertained before – that’s good. For me, playing live is the best thing. I don’t care what anyone says: there aren’t any rules. I intend to stick by that. Except maybe turn up on time. That’s a rule. It’s quite a boring rule, though. Then again, I’m quite a boring man.
What was the inspiration for the track “Undone?”
I’m quite confident Trewin went out into the garden one day and thought it had gotten a bit much. He hadn’t done any gardening before. It’s about the fear of gardening.
What are you guys currently working on? What’s next for Phoria?
Well it’s the July tour, next. We’re going to spend the next few months working with some interesting people, then, as we move forward on this colourful carousel of life, give everyone something bigger to sink their teeth into. If everyone is as friendly and supportive as they have been so far, it’s going to be great. We cannot wait.
http://www.phoriamusic.com
http://www.youtube.com/user/phoriamusic
http://twitter.com/phoria
http://soundcloud.com/phoriamusic
