I had the pleasure of interviewing Guy and Sergio from Primitai at their gig with Cauldron at the Black Heart in Camden on Thursday:
1. Your new album The Calling came out in May, what’s it been like playing the album live, and have you had to make many changes to how to perform the songs?
Guy: “Playing live is always a different challenge to playing in the studio. For the new album especially because there’s a few more challenging parts on some of these songs, so figuring out how to play them live has been fun. We’ve gotten great feedback from the audience on the gigs so far.”
2. How do you choose a set list for your shows, and what are your favourite songs from the new album to play?
Guy: “We’ve got quite an extensive back catalogue, so that makes it both very interesting and difficult to choose songs to play. But we could if we wanted to play songs from an entire album and that would make an entire set list. As to songs from the new album? Oh, that’s a difficult one. I would have to say “No Survivors,” and “The Calling,” because of how anthemic they both are. Overdrive also.”
Sergio: “I agree with Guy, it’s quite difficult to choose a favourite song from the new album. They’re all really good. But “Overdrive,” and “The Calling,” definitely stand out to me.”
3. Do you have plans for a longer tour after this show?
Guy: “We’ve got plans for a longer tour in early 2019, probably starting around January. Before then we’ll be playing a fair few shows here and there in 2018.”
4. How have things changed on this album compared to previous albums? Are there any specific themes that were explored throughout the album or on individual songs?
Guy: “The new album is quite different to previous albums due to the fact that the line up is much more settled and stable now, meaning that we know one another and how we all work together. For this album we would all come up with different parts for different songs and then send them through to one another and go from there. It sounds quite scattered, but it is a process that greatly works for us. As for specific themes, individual songs had some concepts; “Curse of Olympus,” being one such song. A few songs took the standard mythological concept to its natural state.”