Eat Defeat Interview [February 2018]

We recently caught up with Eat Defeat frontman Summers to chat about some of the awesome shows the band have played recently, who would star in Eat Defeat: The Movie and their upcoming appearance at Manchester Punk Festival…

Hello! Let’s start with an introduction, who are you and what do you do in Eat Defeat?

Hi! I’m Summers, I sing, play bass, drive, sew and last month I won a Pokémon Trading Card Game league challenge in Wakefield.

If there’s anyone reading this that isn’t yet familiar with Eat Defeat, could you give a little overview of what it’s all about?

I mean, it’s always a tricky one to pin down but long story short we like making music that’s fun, catchy and energetic. I write most of our songs and generally all I listen to is Carly Rae Jepsen and New Found Glory, so I guess it’s a nice middle ground between them with maybe some 90s skate punk thrown in for good measure.

We’d prepped a question that said something like “You guys just played with The Ataris in Huddersfield, how was it?” but it seems a bit of a funny one to ask now. So, how was your headline show at The Parish on 8th February?

Haha, yeah, it was a pretty strange evening! Anytime we get to play at The Parish we know we’re going to have a great time, it’s probably in my top 5 favourite venues in the world, really. So for anyone who might not be aware, we were asked to open for The Ataris in Huddersfield, but due to a litany of different issues both they and their tour support Slimboy were forced to pull out of the show, so we ended up going from opening to headlining. We always try and make the most of any situation, so we just had a ton of fun and got to play to a packed room, so can’t really complain! They’ve rescheduled the show to February 14th which we’ll also be playing, and looks like we’ll be playing their Leeds date at The Brudenell on February 27th too.

Another specific, recent(ish) show we want to talk about is from last year when you played at the Academy in Leeds with Reel Big Fish, Anti-Flag and Mad Caddies. How did that show come about, and what are your memories of it?

We ended up winning the slot via the Fireball Fuelling The Fire competition, it’s something they’ve done the past couple of years where they welcome submissions from bands to open their local date of the Fireball tour. We entered, not holding out much hope after narrowly missing out on a similar thing to be able to play Slam Dunk festival earlier in the year. I remember totally forgetting about it, and then being sat in the van somewhere in Austria and getting the email through telling us we’d been chosen to play and freaking out a bit. The night itself was just crazy really, even playing super early didn’t stop us playing to a good few hundred people and just having the time of our lives opening for a bunch of bands who we’d been listening to since we were kids!

You’re also playing at Manchester Punk Festival soon. What are you expecting from that show and who are you looking forward to checking out?

I was lucky enough to be there for a day last year and the overall vibe was just incredible, the team go above and beyond to put together such a solid lineup of pretty much everything that falls under the ‘punk’ spectrum. I’ll personally be joining our friends The Bennies on their UK/EU tour so I’ll only be able to catch the bands playing on the Friday with us, but I’m super excited to check out Waterweed for the first time and then obviously Lightyear and The Bennies as well as Stand Out Riot and Start At Zero. Milloy as well are a band I used to love listening to that i’m pretty psyched to see.

What else can we expect to see from the band in 2018?

It’s probably a pretty badly kept secret at this point but we’re planning to record and release a new album, and there are fairly loose plans to tour some more of the world after we release it. Some super exciting things potentially, but we’re not quite at the stage where we can start making announcements. We’ve got a lot of fun stuff planned still for the first half of 2018 before any of that happens, and we’re playing at least one more awesome festival before summer that’s yet to be announced.

As a DIY band you play up and down the country in small venues alongside some of the best undiscovered talent – who should we be checking out?

I mean, undiscovered is a tricky one to define, but as far as UK bands that you should be checking out then The Human Project and Havelocke are top of our list, Cast Ashore are amazing, Weatherstate, Lost In Stereo, Nervus, The Run Up… That’s a pretty good start.

Hollywood calls, they’re making Eat Defeat: The Movie and you’re in charge of casting. Who plays the band?

Well for me, Ryan Gosling. Gosling has got to be the one because he’s the only one that can handle my intensity. If we hadn’t lost him, I’d say Michael Clarke Duncan for Rich, a gentle giant but also a bit terrifying. Maybe since he was Kingpin in the Daredevil movie and Vincent D’Onofrio was Kingpin in the Daredevil TV show then he could do it instead. Jimmy is Charlie Day, not really much explanation needed there. As for Steve, whoever the guy was that played Compo in Last of the Summer Wine. I know he’s dead as well, I just wanted to take a shot at his age.

Finally, is there anything else you’d like to add?

I’ve been staring at this question for like an hour deciding if I go serious or stupid, so let’s do both. If you’re suffering with mental health issues, don’t suffer alone, speak to people, no matter what you might think there’s always someone there to listen to you and to help out. It’s coming to the forefront of a lot of music recently which can only be a good thing, and it’s doing a lot to take the stigma away from mental health. Also, Binding of Isaac is the greatest game I’ve ever played and the Nintendo Switch is the most incredible console. 2018, you’re doing alright so far.