Gareth O’Malley vs. Whiskas Nicholls

During the week, we had a word with the ex-¡Forward, Russia! man about his new projects. Yes, plural. He’s been keeping busy since his old band went on hiatus in 2008, that’s for certain.

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MFM: You’ve been recording songs with Johnny Foreigner recently - do you think any of your production work has influenced your solo project?

Whiskas: I think it’s a two way street, and I think it more influences the production of my solo stuff than a writing styles or anthing - producing other bands can open my eyes to certain possibilities with my own music… if that makes sense. Producing my own stuff gives me more room to explore different things/ideas, that then more often than not have an influence on how I approach working with other bands.

MFM: You say a few of these songs were around during the íForward, Russia! days: just how many? Did you always plan to use them somehow? Was it that they didn’t fit, or was it something else?

Ha, I couldn’t give you an exact number and it would probably involve a decimal place! It’s just ideas I’ve had knocking around, some very unsuitable to FR, a couple I think we tried but couldn’t get a feel for - you’re less inhibited by that stuff working on stuff yourself. If you’ve got an idea about how something might work, you can persevere no matter how frustrating it is. I think it’s harder to do that in a band because the frustration is manifested in a different and un-sociable way.
I realised a while ago that there was a strand of things I was doing that were more suited to me exploring on my own. It came out a lot while recording the 2nd album in Seattle mainly. Mostly the songs didn’t fit. Infact, entirely at the time. I dare say there’s a couple of tracks that I’ve just finished that could [be] / could’ve been FR songs, but all the HBG [ones] are heavily crafted by utilising studio techniques without any forethought into how they come across live - which, despite all the tracks and loops we utilised on the second FR record - is a very different approach to how we ever wrote. So, I dunno really.

MFM: Is Honour Before Glory simply an outlet for creativity, or is it your main focus at this stage? Aren’t you still involved in Duels to a certain extent?

Whiskas: Musical output-wise, it’s my complete focus, and has been for a long time. I’m involved in a few things but I think when you’re being creative, it’s very easy to get the ideas flowing. You know I wrote songs the quickest I ever have while recording other things - it’s infectious. 
As regards to playing with other people, I have to be careful here not to forget anything. 
The Mi Mye album is coming out in the next month, and I played guitar all over that. That was recorded at the end of last year though, and we’ve just done what is supposedly the last gig with [the] band from that album due to most of the other guys (the guys from Middleman basically) becoming far too busy as they move to release their own album. But Jamie is going to record another album before the end of the year, probably solo.
I’ve joined Duels to work on the 3rd album, but after a bit of movement at the start of last year, things [have] slowed down a bit. We took a break that became longer as Jim and me both became dads, and people were settling down. I think Jon (Foulger) is writing a lot now, but similarly maybe not all for Duels, and maybe not all that will make it to the public domain. We’re back at the stage now of demos being passed around before we get back in to a room together again. It was sounding fun before the break though.
I’m sure I’ve done more stuff with other people, but I can’t quite think of anything at the minute. Most stuff I just feed off what else is going on, while [with] Honour Before Glory I’m the main (or only) protagonist.

MFM: What’s been your favourite part of the Honour Before Glory experience thus far?

Whiskas: Ahh, we really haven’t done much so far. I’m lucky as hanging out with the band is just real fun, I think cos it’s still special. But I mean, part of the catalyst was doing getting to mince around Germany for 2 weeks with one of my favourite bands (Sometree). And just being in the studio ‘realising’ stuff. It’s all good. Hopefully more to come.

MFM: How do you feel the band’s sound comes across in a live setting? Is it a much different setup, or largely the same?

Whiskas: The live v studio thing is an odd one. I think, from what I can tell, it comes across well live. In terms of different set-up, in one respect it’s completely different, in that on record it’s pretty much all me, and live there’s different people doing different things. Some things we replicate very similarly. In an ideal world, there’s maybe a few things I would [do] differently, regard[ing] equipment and so on, but I think we do a good job of kicking the songs live, and that’s the main thing.
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Breaker by Honour Before Glory

Forever by Honour Before Glory

[mpfree: Lions]