Hard Rockers 'Driller' Far From Boring.

Driller are well known heavy rock band in the pubs and clubs around Edinburgh and have released music before but this is something a little different. Having listened to the recording a lot in the last few weeks I can say it works well, with the connectivity between the tracks you do get that feel of well thought out concepts.

In my day to day work I cover a lot of driving miles,so a playlist is important to me and new albums get priority placing to get "the road test".It is not uncommon to listen back to back to an album but to do that it needs to have a vibe which makes the miles fly by. Bands like Motorhead, Metallica, Quo can eat motorway miles and the new boys on the highway Driller have that quality. This is not a simple 12 bar rock and metal outing, it is a riff packed adventure which is laid on heavy, you really have to get the volume cranked up to get the full picture and you will hear a track differently each time, as you concentrate on different aspects. I found myself tapping along with the drummer then following the bass line and trying to catch the lead in turn. It took a lot of run throughs to get the full benefit of a very complicated album. Getting out of the motor and back into the studio it seems to have changed character again . There is a common theme running through of the individual against the machine which will strike home to working men(and women). I confess I was a little confused as I have had a few concept albums running through the audio players recently and I was trying to follow a "concept" style storyline which of course I found was not the case. Getting away from that idea there is a lot of variation in the track list on the first hearing I would probably skip the first track "Heavens Far" this was released as a single and stands alone quite well or maybe listen to it several times in isolation. Starting at the second track Mad Science is more classic metal you are driven onto the title track "The Final Deal" which is a stand out song and leads nicely into the subsequent tracks, you get 'Raise The Cape' a superhero story like 'Arrow' there is undoubtedly a flow running through as the music pulls you along. There is not a great deal of soloing in the songs and one or two intros are a little short other than we have a very engaging collection of songs. The guitar work is impressive the drumming the icing on the cake. There is enough content in the album to fill a second disc, showing the band have made great efforts to showpiece an array of techniques and abilities. They can take this on to future recordings and not try too hard to impress, the benchmarks have been set, they have all the package they need to move an audience. More important with "The Final Deal" a sampler they can take to a publisher and say this is what we can do! and a work that in future years fans and smart arse reviewers can say "yeah that song reminds me of that one off "The Final Deal" awesome!"

Kk you guys come from and play in Edinburgh but I understand you weren't from the Empress of the North originally?
You are right Derek! Alex and I are originally from Brazil! Tom Silk, our bassist, is a Londoner that grew up in Scotland. I’ve been in the UK for more than 8 years now and Driller is a Brazilian-British that was formed here in the UK in 2009.

So with that background what were your early musical influences?
Kk: Alex and I grew up with all sorts of music playing in the house, Heavy Metal and Hard Rock were, of course, part of it. I still remember spending my days listening to the classics: Led Zeppelin, Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Black Sabbath etc.
Alex: My musical influences have always been heavy metal and hard rock. I casually listen to other types of music like Blues, Jazz and Pop which influences me more as a guitarist. I like to think that I am an open minded musician.
Tom: My early musical influences were The Who, Rolling Stones, Kinks, Shadows and main influence Dire Straits (Mark Knopfler).

Was it you or your brother Alex that first thought of forming a band?
Kk: It all happened very naturally. We were playing Alex’s solo material (which had been originally recorded in Portuguese in Brazil) for around 2 years in Edinburgh and when we decided to get in the studio to write new music we realised we were coming up with heavier stuff than his solo music actually was. We were all contributing so much for the overall sound and arrangements of the songs that we thought would be best to start a band together.
Did you decide right away that you wanted to play heavy metal or was it the lure of rock n roll that got you fired up?
Alex: My big music passion in life has always been Heavy Metal. As a musician, I’ve also learnt other genres of music as well but Heavy Rock is what really stuck with me.
Tom: At an early age (because of my dad) I got heavily into Punk Rock primarily the Offspring. At that point (10years old) I knew I loved heavier music than all my friends. When I was about 13 my mate from swimming gave me a mix cd of Def Lep, Guns and Roses, Rob Halford, Alice Cooper and Monster Magnet. That’s how I got into it!
Kk: This is the way it’s gotta be! I mean, our early music was not as heavy as The Final Deal. I’d say it was more hard rock, people usually say it sounded a bit 80’s, but with The Final Deal we have found our sound: Heavy Metal, Hard Rock, Classic Rock, still Melodic and Technical: this is Driller’s powerful music!


When did you do your first professional gig?
Alex: Our first gig as Driller was in Edinburgh at a place that doesn’t exist anymore - The Ark - and it was in Dec/2009.
Kk: I’m glad Alex remembers it,hahaha!

You have spent a lot of time on "The Final Deal"  was it  February when you started recording?
Alex: We actually started recording The Final Deal at the end of 2012 and because the production of the album is 100% independent and DIY, it actually took us a little while to get it done to the standards that we set it out to be.
Kk: We rented a studio and recorded the drums in 3 days. All of the other instruments (including vocals), mixing and mastering were done at Alex’s studio (Drilling Hard Studio).

Am I right in thinking "The Final Deal" will be your third release?
Alex: Yes, It is our third release. We put out our first EP - Alchemy of Love- in 2010 and a single - Live On - in 2011. The Final Deal is our first full length album.

Would you describe The Final Deal as a concept album? what was the inspiration behind it?
Alex: It is not a concept album although we wanted the songs to have a close connection with each other in terms of lyrics and sound. It’s a very upbeat album with lyric subjects as politics, war, loss, hope and love and the sole inspiration to make it was to write and record a Heavy Rock album that had the best music we could possibly write for Rock fans out there.

It is a very complicated work will you be able to perform the whole thing live or are you more likely to weave it into your regular playlist on stage?
Alex: We will be performing the album in its entirety because we consider this release to be the best music we have written so far. We might include a couple of songs from our previous releases if that is what the fans want, but we want to concentrate on our new stuff right now. We believe we have great tunes and that coupled with our musicianship, motivates us to bring every single bit of what we recorded in the studio onto the stage to our fans!
Kk: We believe that The Final Deal is Driller so we want to play the new tunes live, possibly all of them! The only song from The Final Deal that we have played live is Heaven’s Far. I still remember being behind the drum kit and thinking: “look at those faces in the audience! They seem to be really digging this new tune!” so I think our new songs will have a massive impact on old fans, but also on folk that have never heard Driller before.

Thank you Driller for taking the time to chat.

Driller Facebook page
at You can preview and download the album