LOMM: Can you give a little biographical and historical info; who is involved in the band, and how did you guys meet up?
Next Stop Olympus: Conor and Matt had discussed being in a band years before NSO actually came about and nothing ever really came from it, fast forward a few years and Matt first met Josh and learned that he played drums and that’s when Next Stop first really started going, Matt and josh started working on finding new members. Matt had asked Conor to join the band as well and them also finding Skips on an online site for musicians, after them all hitting it off well and still looking for a second guitarist they started working on becoming our debut single ‘Home’ during this time they tried out some people to join the band and nothing seemed to work the way they’d hoped and then Matt had realised Harry was back from university and asked him to come along for a chat, having known Harry could sing as well as play guitar it was a perfect fit so then we had our official line up. We started back at the end of 2017 so roughly 4 years or so.
LOMM: Pandemic has taken an emotional toll on everyone yet the arts have been hit especially hard. The musicians are vulnerable to financial upheaval. How have you guys have been holding up?
Next Stop Olympus: We have the upside because the band isn’t our source of income yet thankfully so we’ve all been working still, furlough dependent.
LOMM: On the other hand you seem to have had a productive time. Is that right?
Next Stop Olympus: Yeah we spend the time getting our new EP release sorted over the lockdown, we had to sit on it for longer then we’d liked to have but we used the time to get all the behind the scenes stuff sorted.
LOMM: Tell us about your genre, what does it means to you, why did you choose this genre?
Next Stop Olympus: we class ourselves as a Metalcore / Post Hardcore band with our own twist of rock ‘n’ roll, it doesn’t mean any specific to us, we just write the style of music we enjoy and it naturally turned out this way.
LOMM: How did the initial musical and thematic elements evolve?
Next Stop Olympus: Like we said in the last question, it’s just a combination of all the styles of music we listen to coming across in the songs.
LOMM: Are you happy with your product? What aspects of it do you think you guys nailed, and what parts do you think you could improve upon?
Next Stop Olympus: We love how our new EP ‘Heart, Mind & Hell’ came out, it was a massive leap from our previous releases, the only thing we’d improve upon in retrospect is the little touches you can add to songs which we’ve never really done before but learn more about or thought about once everything was all done.
LOMM: How has the overall reception been?
Next Stop Olympus: We’ve been lucky and had 99% positive feedback so far apart form a couple of the usual keyboard warriors, we’ve been lucky enough to gain more fans from other countries so far and we’ll just keep pushing it out.
LOMM: Have you ever been on a tour? Given live performances? Is it tough for you not to be able to do so now?
Next Stop Olympus: We’ve been lucky enough to do a couple of tour and a lot of shows over the years and we love being on stage so not being able to play over the lockdown has sucked especially not being able to play any of the new songs yet.
LOMM: What is the next step for you? How is the future looking?
Next Stop Olympus: We only release the new EP in April so that’s our main focus at the moment to push that as much as possible and just to be able to play some shows again.
LOMM: Could you tell us about the lyrics / themes /concepts you focus on or plan to focus on? How did the ideas come about, and how do they influence the writing process? Who is writing the lyrics?
Next Stop Olympus: The lyrics for this EP is the story of someones downfall from betrayal to anger then turning to alcohol to cope to despair, we never intended to write the lyrics this way as a concept but once we had a couple of songs done we realised that it could be done so we put the songs in the order to tell a story. Conor, Matt and Harry are the main ones who write the lyrics and all the lyrics on this EP were written about something that has happened to them or something they’re living through as the time.
LOMM: Who is composing the songs?
Next Stop Olympus: We all write or are involved in the process, normally someone will bring a skeleton of a song, lyrics or even just an idea and then we build it together from there.
LOMM: What bands do you draw your inspiration from?
Next Stop Olympus: We all have our own influences but once we realised our sound we take inspiration from bands such as Atreyu, Escape The Fate and Beartooth because they’ve got that rock ‘n’ roll twist to their sound too.
LOMM: Which is more exciting? Being on the road or studio?
Next Stop Olympus: They both have their own merits, being in the studio is great to watch the songs evolve from the initial ideas but playing shows and being on the road is great because we get to see more of the country and play to new people every show.
LOMM: What first got you into music?
Next Stop Olympus: We’ve always just been into it from a very young age, nothing in particular got us into it.
LOMM: What do you like the best about being a musician? And what is it that you do not like much?
Next Stop Olympus: Just the creative side of life whether it be writing or playing shows its always great fun and the driving home late at night ready for work the next day living off a couple of hours sleep is the worst part really and how clique some bands are.
LOMM: If you weren’t musicians, what would you be doing?
Next Stop Olympus: Most of us already have careers at the moment anyway so we’d just be doing that but with more money.
LOMM: If you could change one thing about the music industry, what would it be?
Next Stop Olympus: The way the streaming platforms pay.
LOMM: What’s more important to you? Catering to the audience or music for its own sake?
Next Stop Olympus: Music for its own sake, we’re big believers that you should write music you enjoy, if you don’t like what you’re writing then how do you expect anyone else too.
LOMM: What is the most memorable gig that you have played to date?
Next Stop Olympus: Our most memorable gig to date would probably the last show we did on a tour with Chuggaboom in Huddersfield, the support band we’re really cool guys and very welcoming and the crowd was incredible and everyone stuck around for all the bands.
LOMM: When you look back your music career, what do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment?
Next Stop Olympus: Hearing the new EP for the first time, we put a lot of time, effort and money into this release so to hear how good it came out was great.
LOMM: Who would you like to collaborate with?
Next Stop Olympus: We’ve spoken about this a few times already but we’d love to collaborate with Bury Tomorrow, The Amity Affliction and just some other bands who have been a big influence for us.
LOMM: Who would you like to go on a tour with?
Next Stop Olympus: If we could go on tour with Atreyu, Escape the Fate or Beartooth that would be great because we’ve got a slightly similar sound.
LOMM: If you could play any festival in the world, which one would you choose? Tell us why.
Next Stop Olympus: Download festival because we’ve all been going there for years and imagined ourselves playing it.
LOMM: Name some of your all-time favourite albums? Include controversial ones.
Conor: The City sleeps in Flames by Scary Kids Scaring Kids, Take This To Your Grave by Fall Out Boy, Youngbloods by The Amity Affliction and The Curse OF The Gifted by Wale
Matt : Reckless And Relentless by Asking Alexandria, Canibals by Bury Tomorrow, Let The Ocean Take Me by The Amity Affliction and Calm by 5 Seconds Of Summer
LOMM: What does your collection look like? Mostly Vinyl, Cassettes, CDs, Digital? A bit of everything? A total mess?
Conor: I was born in the 90’s, it’s all CD’s.
Matt: I’ve got a mix of CD’s, digital and a few vinyls.
LOMM: What Country/Region are you from and what is the Metal/Rock scene like there?
Next Stop Olympus: Uk, Salisbury / Southampton are, the scene in the UK is great right now, there’s some incredible bands on the way up at the moment.
LOMM: You can invite 5 people to a dinner party, from the future, the past, rock stars, a movie characters, you name it. Who are you having dinner with?
Conor: Ahren Stringer, 1981’s Vince Neil, Bill And Ted and Col. Parker just so I can slap him.
Matt: Danny Devito, 80’s Steven Tyler, Ahren Stringer, 2010 era Danny Worsnop and Danny Zuko.
LOMM: What is your weirdest memory in your music career?
Next Stop Olympus: When we were away recording the new EP it started raining really heavily and flooding into the area we were sleeping in so we had to use the back of josh’s van and pallets to get out of the room without walking in huge puddles.
LOMM: What is the weirdest gift you have ever received from a fan?
Next Stop Olympus: We haven’t really had anything strange yet, mainly just drinks.
LOMM: If you had one message to your fans, what would it be?
Next Stop Olympus: Go check out our Merch store and buy something! There’s some awesome bundles on there.
LOMM: Anything else you think your fans should know?
Next Stop Olympus: All of the Merch and EP’s are cheap so go check them out for us!
LOMM: Thank you for taking the time.
https://linktr.ee/NextStopOlympus
Marianne Harris: Credit for photo.
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