- 2 days ago
"Agankast was a heavy metal band formed in the Scottish Borders of Great Britain between 2005 and 2007. The band was founded by Rob Redhead, former guitarist of Atomkraft, and included Alan Scott on vocals and bass, Ciaran Wright on guitar, and Drew Gill on drums.
#agankast #heavymetal #atomkraft #venom #ukmetal
#agankast #heavymetal #atomkraft #venom #ukmetal
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MusicTranscript
00:00My Argoncast project started in two, well, project and band.
00:05It was basically a band on it.
00:07It was a band sort of project.
00:10Started in 2005 and ran through it until 2007.
00:15I had been doing my Geffen Music project, which was a solo work,
00:20which was the first time I cracked open my newly bought multi-track recorder
00:25at the year 2000, and that lasted for three years,
00:28and then I had it basically a year and a half off from music.
00:31It just raced with years a bit.
00:33And then I wanted to get back into the heavy metal, really.
00:39I felt like I needed to get some heavy metal down
00:44because the last, you know, it'd been Atomcraft years earlier
00:47and I felt that I could write and produce actually a lot better
00:52than what was done, although there was a guy called Kevin Ridley
00:56who was a producer of some of the Atomcraft stuff
00:58who'd done a really good job, but I wanted to try and improve.
01:04I didn't want my legacy in heavy metal to be Atomcraft.
01:08Nothing against Atomcraft.
01:10Proud of what Atomcraft did.
01:11Proud of the whole thing.
01:13Proud of the band and all the effort and everything we put in.
01:18But I wanted to, I wanted to, I just felt I could get the songs back on that as well
01:24and the challenge of the production.
01:27So that was what I wanted to do.
01:31So I didn't, I'd never actually tried to sing heavy rock or heavy metal myself,
01:37so I just assumed really I couldn't do it.
01:41Well, it turned out I could because I started the Red Edward Horns stuff a few years,
01:46you know, in sort of 2010, you know, and I'd done some stuff with the Red Edward Horns
01:52when I first started doing that.
01:53I thought, oh, that sounds all right, that.
01:54And that works.
01:57So I just assumed I couldn't really do the heavy rock or heavy metal.
02:02But, you know, it's good that I didn't, though, because, you know,
02:06the singer that I got in for the project was a guy called Alan Scott.
02:12And Alan was a growler.
02:15He was a singer, but, you know, he was growling.
02:18He's doing the growling metal thing.
02:19And he wanted, at times, he wanted to sing with his clean vocal,
02:23but I said, no, you've got to keep it, you sort of,
02:27you've got to keep the gravelly sort of thing for the Argoncast.
02:30That's the sound of Argoncast.
02:32So Argoncast was basically started off as me and Alan got introduced to each other.
02:41I started recording songs.
02:43Alan came and started doing vocals.
02:46So we're putting together our first album.
02:49As we're sitting, doing this, talking, Alan was from the Scottish border.
02:53I was from North Northumberland.
02:56And as we're doing this, you know, I'm sort of explaining to Alan the concept of the band Argoncast,
03:05which is like, basically, it's more of a sort of Scottish Braveheart sort of thing.
03:12You know, that was the idea.
03:14I'm not Scottish, I'm Northern English, you know, Northeast English,
03:19but with a name like Redhead, I've probably got, you know, some Scottish ancestry,
03:25but I've got Irish ancestry as well.
03:27So, well, everybody has, like, everybody's got Irish ancestry.
03:32But that was the concept.
03:34So as I'm recording and, you know, writing the songs, Alan's coming to my house and we're, he's putting the vocals down.
03:44And it's Alan's job.
03:46He's been designated.
03:48He's got to go out and get the other two members of this band.
03:51Because it's not just a music project sat in a home recording studio.
03:54So it's going to be a band that would take out and start gigging and doing gigs and we'll see how far it can go, you know.
04:02And that's what he did.
04:05You know, we recruited two young lads in, Drew Gill, drums, Kieran Wright, guitar.
04:10And these lads were 17 years old.
04:14I think Alan was maybe 23, you know.
04:22I'm sure he said he was older, like, but I was thinking back, I think he was, like, 22 or 23.
04:29And at that time, I was 36 going on 37.
04:35So I was the bus driver, I mean, like, well, that's what I certainly felt like.
04:39No fault of the lads, like, well, I just, you know, if you're starting to feel the age, the worst thing you can do, really, is getting a band.
04:46Or put a band together with young lads, like, because you just, even though the lads were immature for their age, you know, a lot more immature than I was at that age.
04:55You know.
04:56But, so, there was, there was, that's the four foot.
05:02Recording an album, great.
05:03Started doing gigs in the Scottish Borders and a couple of other places, Edinburgh and that.
05:11You know, there was a buzz around the band and the local area.
05:15You know, things, you know, things, things were on the up.
05:22There was a resurgence in all things heavy metal in the mid, in the mid-noughties, the 2005.
05:30Because there was all these, basically, it always comes around, you know, you've got your sons and your daughters, who are like the sons and daughters of my generation.
05:41You know, the 1980s crowd.
05:44So you've got a lot of, your sons and your daughters are tend to be influenced by what their parents would listen to.
05:49Because the, the CDs and the albums and stuff would be around the house.
05:54In my case, it was like the 60s stuff, you know, because it was the Beatles, you know, those Beatles albums.
05:59So there was a resurgence of heavy rock and heavy metal in the noughties.
06:04So it was all a big buzz.
06:06There's a lot of bands about.
06:07And the internet was kicking in and anybody sort of, it was all still a bit up in the air whether the internet was going to be a good or bad thing for, for bands.
06:15Obviously it turned out to be a bad thing, but that's not what the feeling was in 2005.
06:21So, you know, we're doing, we're doing that.
06:25I think we're done, we're done like a, a, a battle of the bands sort of thing up in Edinburgh.
06:29I think we won that.
06:30That was, that was the thing, that was just a one night thing.
06:36That was just a one night gig.
06:38And, you know, we've done videos as well.
06:41It was, I always thought it was very important that we do music videos.
06:45And because, you know, we're living out in the countryside, you know, there's, there's castles everywhere, ruins of castles.
06:52So, you know, this is a great backdrop for the band, you know, you know, you don't need Hollywood backdrops
07:00because you just walk out of your house and there they are, these monuments and, and castles.
07:05So that was, that was, that was, that was putting two and two together really with the Argencast imagery with the scenery.
07:14I sort of done the same, same thing with my Geffern project as well.
07:17Like, you know, you use, you've got all this fantastic, you know, scenery out there and, you know, ruins of stuff.
07:27You use it, you know.
07:27So that was, that was happening there.
07:32There was, the drummer was replaced.
07:36Another drummer was, came in, went through a couple of drummers.
07:41And James Savage was the second drummer that came in.
07:47And James basically timed it right because I got offered to do, we got offered to do the, the Bloodstock Heavy Metal Music Festival in Derby.
08:01And this was to be in 2000, in 2006.
08:06So we got offered it, it was like about seven months or something or eight months before it was due to happen.
08:12So I had lots of time to, to just continue.
08:16I kept on recording new, new songs.
08:18And, you know, in total, I think there was about, I think I recorded, wrote and we recorded about four albums or maybe it was five.
08:30You know, the last one was a double album.
08:32And, you know, I was full on creative mind.
08:36Yeah, let's do it.
08:37So, and really, really proud of the songs.
08:41Just, just, just a stack of great songs.
08:44Songs like Butcher in the Carown, Suffocator, Reign of Terror.
08:48I mean, all really good stuff.
08:50The only thing that would let these songs down really is that my production skills got a lot better when I was doing the Red Edward Horn stuff.
08:57And, because even using the little Boss BR-80 that I was using, that little piece of genius work.
09:06So I was, it was a big learning curve with the Roland VS-1680.
09:10But, you know, I've done a, I've done a, I've done a good job of the production.
09:15Obviously, with the help of VI in the future that, you know, I can really, you know, the Argencast stuff can go to the next level with the production on it.
09:23Which I'm looking forward to, because I think, you know, with the right production, some of them songs would just be, like, ridiculous.
09:33So, you know, I mean, there's a lot of them songs are top draw, like, top draw heavy metal.
09:38And Alan's vocal really suits it.
09:42With Alan's vocal and my sort of songwriting is always, there's always a poppiness, a popness to me songwriting.
09:52So, if there's, if there's heavy guitars in, it's not, it's, it's, there's still a poppiness.
09:58You can hear that poppiness in the Red Edward Horn stuff.
10:01But with Alan's vocal on top and Alan's vibe, sort of, it gives the Argencast more of a dark, I feel, which, which, which is exactly what I was wanting.
10:15And, you know, that sort of mystery, you know, the Led Zeppelin sort of mystery thing.
10:21I always thought Argencast could be like a, I was, was sort of pushing it in a, in a sort of, you know, the movie, the song remains the same, Led Zeppelin.
10:30And, you know, that sort of, you know, the imagery, the, the darkness of the Zeppelin, you know, the vibe takes you to another place.
10:40Well, that's what I was wanting Argencast to be.
10:42And it did.
10:43Takes you to another place.
10:45You can hear it in the music, hear it in the vibe.
10:47And a lot, a lot of that's to do with Alan's vocal.
10:49And the chemistry between me and Alan, working on these songs together.
10:57So, we did the Bloodstock.
11:00We continued doing gigs.
11:02We did the Bloodstock thing.
11:05And it was okay, you know, it was good.
11:07It was a, it was a, you know, there's a, for me it was a, a medium-sized show.
11:12But for the other lads, it was like a big, big gig, big show.
11:16So, you know, we've got my name in the papers, in the Kerrang thing.
11:24We're what in the list of bands to play.
11:28You know, I'm not a man, I have no management skills in band management or anything.
11:32I can just go by my reputation of being a musician from the past, you know.
11:37And, you know, I mean, I, I could get, you know, I could push that a lot more.
11:40But, you know, that's not really me, not really me thing, you know.
11:43But, you know, the metal, like, you know.
11:47So, I was quite happy with how things went.
11:52There's other things happened around Argencast, you know.
11:54There was, there was, we had some, some, we'll try, you know,
12:00there was negative press towards, of some, of some people.
12:05So, you know, nice try, but it didn't quite work for you.
12:11And, you know, but all these things were just, you know, it just creates the sort of,
12:16it's the punk thing, you know, it's the, you know, there's no such thing as bad press.
12:23So, that was good.
12:24And, what else happened, and that was it.
12:28We just gigged, we recorded albums, we've done videos, we've got a reputation around the local area.
12:35And, sort of, people, obviously, were being online and me, people knew the name Argencast.
12:41After the blood stock, I decided to basically knock it on the head.
12:46I encouraged the other lads to continue, which they did.
12:50But, you know, things, college and things changed for the band,
12:54and eventually the band went to separate ways.
12:57You know, I could see the writing on the wall, you know.
13:00My ethos is, you know, you give it a couple of years and you see how things go.
13:05I think the band, I think it was great for the young lads, you know.
13:08They got to do some great things.
13:10And, you know, great memories.
13:13And, for me, it was just a nice little return to heavy metal.
13:19And, I ticked a lot of boxes, you know, creatively.
13:23And, you know, Argencast, well, it's there.
13:27It's there online forever.
13:29And, it's going to get a lot of improvement with the help of the eye.
13:34And, you know, I'm very proud of the lads.
13:39And, I'm very proud of that band.
13:41And, I'm very proud of the songwriting that I did for it.
13:43And, I love you.
13:44And, I love you.
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