The Survival Code – Broken Strings

Artist: The Survival Code
EP: Broken Strings
Release Date: 14 November 2016
Single: One
Release Date: 20 January 2017

Jason Hough

As a band entering its sixth year of existence, a feat that becomes more impressive as the music industry continues to crack wide open, and competition stretches to a global scale, how do you reassert your presence on a plain of hard rock heavyweights? In The Survival Code‘s response, it is to pen three songs worth of fiery, near-polyrhythm-pushing guitar stompers and cannon it into any and every spotlight. With such quality oozing from these three tracks alone, that attention certainly seems deserved.

“One” channels the spirit of Fair To Midland, the buzzsaw-like nature of chords jolting about and gaining pace, overlaid by vocals with a small stroke of reverb and an ear-worm that requires a doctor’s note.
Title track “Broken Strings” deceivingly slows the tempo to follow, allowing for a dense attack of guitar fuzz to build up alongside an impactful pounding of drums, before letting the volcanicity of the moment burst forth in an energetic chorus that wouldn’t sit amiss in the Queens of the Stone Age playbook.

Lastly, “Lost Cause” recalls the golden era of grunge in a straight-up rock slammer, with a more melodic-focused vocal delivery that still isn’t afraid to lash out from time to time and gets an adrenaline surge towards its close in compliment.

For all their comparisons and influences, The Survival Code ultimately strike out a formula that’s undoubtedly their own and have laid down foundations for what seems to be a blistering year in their tenure. Long may it continue.

Teri Morris

This week the band kindly took some time out of their busy schedule to be interviewed by us. Here it is:

Hello, The Survival Code! Thank you for accepting our interview. First of all, can you introduce yourselves? Your names and your roles in the band?

Tom: I play drums and do a little singing live.
Gary: I play Guitar and Sing, whether I like it or not!
Tom: He loves the sound of his own voice!
Michael: I play bass and joined the band in August 2016.

Thank you. Could you tell us how you all met up and became a band?

Gary: I moved to the UK in 2012 and set the band up with our original EP as a marketing tool of how we would sound which was called “Everything but today”. Thankfully this helped me to meet Tom, and from there we haven’t really stopped.
Tom: we had the usual line up changes along the way and fair share of dramas too, but we’re in a great place to attack 2017.

Great! Your band has such a cool name. How did you decide on The Survival Code as your band name?

Gary: It made a lot of sense at the time to be honest. In some ways writing songs and performing is vocational, there isn’t a choice at times. It’s just something one has to do to get by and explain the world around you, the band is my religion and my church.

I can feel your love and commitment, Gary.

Tom: On a slightly less serious note haha, we liked the name and it felt like a club that made sense to all of us. Glad you like it, thanks!

You are welcome. Well, who are your influences?

Gary: Tom’s and mine are Alkaline Trio, Deftones, Biffy Clyro, AX7.
Michael: I’ve studied bass for a good few years and enjoy playing all aspects of music. I enjoy adding elements of different styles that almost shouldn’t be in rock band at times, but they definitely work!

Fantastic! How do you go about writing your songs?

Tom: We work a little different to most bands and it has worked well for us over the years. Gary is the main songwriter and he always comes to us with ideas and structures and options for parts and we tends to assemble everything as a band. So we tend to say when asked, songs arranged by TSC, written by Gary.
Gary: I had a backlog of songs and ideas from when I started the band. This was my first “front man” role, I spent over 10 years as a drummer in other bands, so had saved up a lot ideas, some of which we are using on the new album for 2017. One thing is making up the tunes, the most important and enjoyable part is always watching them come to life and the basics turn into brilliance.

Nice. I suppose it’s like watching your baby to grow!
Your new EP “Broken Strings” has just been released. How would you describe this EP?

Tom: This EP is a great reflection of the energy in our music and what we’re about generally. It’s little edgier than our 2015 album release MMXV, but we had originally intended recording a full album last year but we got messed around by a manager that disappeared off the face of the earth with months work, so this was seen as a way to get some music out while starting focus on our album for 2017.

Tough times… And where was the EP title come from?

Gary: The title came from the old poem by Gitanjali Rabindranath Tagore entitled “The song I came to sing” , the main verse in the poem is something I relate to very much, and it made sense for the band with the madness we’d been dealing with the past 18 months. it’s a poignant message we tried to reflect in a different way.

I see. Can you tell us about the lyrics for the second single “One” from the EP “Broken Strings”? Has it been written from your personal experiences?

Gary: Yeah unfortunately. We’ve had a tough 18 months as we said, with a number of personnel and members of our team being less than reliable and ultimately when doing things like this, you must believe there is a chance, always. If you don’t, you may as well quit.
Tom: “Broken strings” and “One” are similar in that sense, quite relatable and frustration songs

Thank you for explaining.
Well I’m so excited about the release! You must have been very excited too!

Michael: We’ve been delighted, we managed to make a good break through with this release on radio and online. So we’re just so happy to keep the momentum going into this year.
Tom: It’s been an exciting time! But we’re planning for this year all the while so not sitting back.

Awesome! I believe “Broken Strings” has been released digitally. Do you have the physical copies too?

Michael: Yeah, we figured that we wouldn’t go to crazy with physical distribution for the EP is a 3 tracker. We get queries online or direct to our associated label, and aside from that a few select record shops in London have them. By all means, get in touch if you’d like one!

Great stuff! Tell us about your coming up gigs?

Gary: Or come to one of our giiiigs! haha! We have loads there. Honestly though, we haven’t many shows in the pipeline for the year for we hit the studio in two weeks for a few to record our new music as yet untitled album due for release in June.
Tom: As yet we’ve only the one show booked on March 16th in Brighton, but more are to follow. Keep an eye on our socials and website.

Is there anything you would like to say?

Tom: Our new album is coming this year and we cannot wait. We bring honesty, passion, sharp melodies all in the background of massive booms and drops. We feel great going into the studio and can’t wait to show everyone how all that sounds together!

Thank you for your time. Good luck!