Being a time of imitation in every faction of music, it’s pretty rare for a band that are innovators in their respective genre and are still prominent in today’s music scene. Most of the time you can expect that they’re an aging rock band that think their wallets have become a little too light for their liking and have that smart idea of “Hey, dudes. Let’s get the guys back together, reform the band and play loads of over-priced shows.”, that’s why you can always trust Poison the Well to have just as much integrity in their music and ethos as they did when they formed 15 years ago. Luckily, I got to catch up with founding member Ryan Primack to chat about the past, present and a very, very bright future.

After numerous releases ranging from full lengths to even 7” vinyl records, there is no stopping this band, even if it seems they are not getting quite the recognition for all the good work they’ve done within the punk/metal scene. Last year saw them play a huge tour with London hardcore heavy weights Gallows. After Frank Carter (Gallows) was injured mid tour, a few dates were cancelled but this didn’t stop Poison the Well playing a show every night to packed out audiences, including now defunct music venue The Minerva in Southend, which resulted in a broken stage (note to venue: reinforce those stages for stage invasions).

“We played two shows when Frank hurt himself. We could have taken time off, but we were just like let’s book shows for fun. So, we ended up playing The Minerva and the Barfly in Glasgow. It was awesome. But we do that a lot at home too. The last two shows we played at home were at this tiny venue in California and we always try and make those as personal as possible. The venue holds about 300 people at a push. We always have fun playing no matter what; it’s the only thing we really care about doing.”

Not only did they play a string of live events, they also released their ambitious forth full length record, out on Ferret records and entitled ‘Versions’. Poison the Well have always been known for pushing away from the rest of the pack after each record, leaving copy cats trailing behind them and this year will see another new release. “We just wrapped up a new full length this year. It’s called The Tropic Rot and has eleven tracks on it in the States, but there will be twelve over here.”

After hearing a preview of one of their new songs tonight, it’s safe to say PTW are still sticking by their plan to make every record a new adventure. This can only be backed up by their E.P that was released after their most recent record. “The E.P was some songs that we had left from ‘Versions’. We named two of the tracks after bands that we thought had influenced the songs. Like, ‘Bowie’ because it reminded us of David Bowie and ‘Purple Sabbath’ because the middle part reminded me of Sabbath, but it wasn’t quite heavy enough to be black, so it was purple.”

The band has been through a constant change of members, including burning through 11 different bassists. Normally this would cripple other bands. “We’ve been through so many really early on that we sort of just became used to it. The only one that was ever really strange was when Derek (Miller, guitar) left. We’ve had so many bass players that it’s automatically become a “you know, whatever” sort of thing.” And you can feel reassured that this current line up is the strongest in a long time.

After the release of their second record “Tear from the Red” PTW hit success being signed to Atlantic Records, home to Led Zepplin! After releasing their third LP “You Come Before You” on Atlantic the band had what it stated as “artistic differences” with label and eventually left before releasing ‘Versions’. “We had a bit of falling out with Atlantic records. It’s so different being signed to a major label than an independent one. They said they wanted us to be more “marketable”. They sat us down and I didn’t know what they wanted. It was like a foreign language I had never heard before. Whereas Ferret let us do whatever the hell we want.” with this in mind we know that there won’t be anyone pulling the strings on their next record.  

Words > Matthew 'Dungeon' Bunkell