Designs Of Chaos formed in 2010 in London. In 2015 they attack with The Darkest Storm EP, which was written and partially recorded in early 2014. In June of that year the band were stopped in their tracks by the devastating loss of their drummer, Chris Crammond, after an accident at work. The band shocked, broken and unsure how to carry on.
After all his involvement in the band was more than merely bashing up skins. “The name of the band was actually the brain-child of our drummer, Chris!” exclaims singer Jay Shields. It turns out that, for Designs Of Chaos, the people in the band is the very nature of the band. When asked where they draw inspiration from, Jay’s answer is somewhat surprising “We get our inspiration from each other, we’re always sharing music and we really try to bring a bit of our lives into what we do. Dean often brings in a riff and if Chris found a beat which worked we’d mould if from there. Since Chris’ death we draw inspiration from him, often our saying is ‘What would Chris do’, or ‘What would Chris say’. The guy was a true foundation of this band and losing him put us all on very shaky ground, but we have learnt to use it, to draw from his loss as a sense of purpose and a genuine reason to carry on.”
But let us explore where the band stands now! With a new drummer, Andy Bramley in the fold and shows lined-up for 2015, however, things are looking up for the band. “We want to say thanks to Andy our new drummer for helping us get back on our feet, he was a good friend of Chris’ and he’s been a huge part of the healing process. We couldn’t be doing the shows without him and I for one am really thankful we’ve got him in the band.”
Asked to put a label on it is easier for the singer once he gets past the comparisons to other bands: “It’s hard to really put a name to what we do, we’ve got a bit of everything, we get new wave modern thrash thrown at us a lot, but to be honest we just feel like we’re a modern metal band. We don’t really set out to do anything other than play metal. We get likened to Lamb of God as well which is not a bad thing as we all really dig what they’re putting out. I guess we’re just a fast paced modern metal band.”
The lyrical side of the songs seems to be of paramount importance to the outcome and Jay certainly seems to bring a unique perspective on the case: “I write all the lyrics, and often songs start out as poetry. Darkest Storm is about being there for someone, when everything seems to be going at its worst and you feel like the tiny boat you’re in is about to sink, I’ll be there for you. I wrote it during a particularly difficult time in my life, but it became all the more meaningful when Chris died as it brought the meaning home all the more and we really were there for each other. Social Phantom came to me on the tube one day, I realised that with hundreds of people around me all the time sometimes I just feel like a ghost, I see friends on Facebook going to parties and having fun and I’m here just watching it all, I’m always here but no one sees me. It’s really a commentary on how we are all voyeurs now, watching each other through Facebook being more connected online and yet becoming more disconnected from everyone.” Don’t get him wrong, however- Jay is not a technophobe! “I love modern technology as I’ve always got my phone with me so if the inspiration for a song hits I just write it down.”
Designs Of Chaos have been around for a while. Yet, their first offering is a mere three-track EP. I ask Jay why they went for that. Is it because they enjoy that format more than anything else? “We had initially planned to write and record an album, but were putting ourselves under a lot of pressure to write the best songs for it. We all have demanding jobs, so we don’t get more than one rehearsal a week and often very little time to write outside of rehearsal. We decided to relieve the pressure by putting out a 5 track EP. Devastatingly Chris died when we only had 3 songs with his drums ready. We didn’t want to finish the other tracks without him so we finished what we had with him. EPs are great for being able to get new music to people quickly, we just never anticipated losing Chris which is why it’s taken us a year to pick ourselves back up and put out the EP.”
Deadlines, day-jobs and other tragedies… How did these influence the recordings? “It was all recorded by our guitarist JD who’s a brilliant music tech. We didn’t really get into the studio together so there aren’t any funny stories as such, although it was pretty weird when I had to record the vocals after work, turning up in a suit and screaming down a microphone felt pretty funny, probably looked that way too.”
-Future plans?
“We’re focused on the EP launch and memorial show for Chris right now, we’ve spent the last year with that goal in mind. We’re also playing Beermageddon Festival in August and we’re looking to play more shows in general. Then I’m sure we’ll start to look at writing new material and getting back out there on the scene, we’ve got a lot of backed up rage and emotion in us that I’m sure will come through in the next EP and will be a new evolution of DoC”.
