Somewhere between the full length interviews in our print mag, you’ll find a section called ‘Who Are You?’. It’s our place to introduce brand new bands who we feel should be on your radar. They’re currently playing tiny rooms but we don’t think that’ll be the case for long. Who Are You? has been home to the likes of Shame, Dream Wife, Sorry, IDLES, Our Girl and many more. Whilst the print edition only has room for a few questions, we like to post the full interview online alongside their latest releases for you to dig in to.
In Issue Nineteen we sent over the basics to Bristol’s Cruelty ahead of their show at The Social with wych elm on March 22nd. Find the key details below.
Can you tell us who you are, where you’re from and about the music you make?
We are Cruelty, From Bristol.
What’s special about where you’re from? Has it inspired your music?
Cruelty was born in Bristol’s DIY Punk scene. We feel we are both a part of it and a reaction to it. There is some incredibly exciting music happening in and around Bristol right now and we feel so honoured to be in such a supportive and creative environment. Bristol’s location is amazing as well, Cardiff has such a unique and exciting scene, and being so close we really try to be involved with that.
How did you find each other?
Liam, Kieran and myself met through college back in 2012, we met Ben and Kyle soon after we moved to Bristol, we were all playing in different bands at the time, and came to know each other through attending each other’s shows and through mutual friends.
Who Are You? spread in Issue Nineteen
What led you to form a band? A particular happening or mutual love for a record or sound?
Cruelty was formed out of a shared frustration, a reaction to the environment we were in at the time. We were already playing in bands, but we wanted to create music that had an intention and purpose behind it. Cruelty’s sound came together really naturally, we knew we wanted our sound to be passionate and honest, but we never said we want Cruelty to sound like one particular thing or be one specific genre. We’ve all been into the 70s and 80s Post Punk scene and we were listening to a lot of Killing Joke around the time we started talking about starting it. This obviously influenced the sound we have, but everyone in the band took that taste into different areas; Some of us are really into heavier stuff, whilst others are more into electronic and experimental music. We try to use Post Punk as more of a guide rather than a genre we stick to rigidly.
Can you tell us something that you collectively really love?
Collectively Cruelty loves each other. We try to explore some pretty intense places within ourselves, because of this we need to feel one hundred percent comfortable with each other and try to be as open and honest with each other as we can.
Can you tell us the story behind one of your songs?
The lyrics for our single ‘Disgraced’ were written in one sitting and not really edited much afterwards. It was during quite a distressing time and was a cathartic outpouring of bottled up emotion. The words don’t really exist there to tell a strict narrative (although I’m sure a narrative could be applied), instead they were purely a reaction to mental health issues.
What can we be excited for over the next 12 months?
We have a new single coming early next year as well as some other exciting things we are yet to announce.
