The critically acclaimed and highly accomplished British melodic rock band ICONIC EYE will release their new EP “Back From Behind The Sun” due to be delivered this Friday 4th December 2020 in time for Christmas.
They also confirm that Janey Smith, previously known as Janey Bombshell (the former cat-suited wondergirl from the Supersonic70s show) is their new lead singer and will make her debut with they present their EP release show in January (details at end of report.)
Meanwhile, we had a chance to chat with the band:
RAW RAMP: Tell us what has changed in the band since “Into The Light”
Greg: Quite a lot! Adrian the drummer on the album, who stepped in at the last minute for that recording moved on quickly but he was doing us a favour in doing the album. He was replaced by Jon Cooksey just in time for our Magnum Scandinavian tour. Robin was the lead guitarist on that album, fantastic talent has moved on.
Neil Fraser was our live lead guitarist for a while and then Neil Hackett, our current lead guitarist joined. Janey Smith took over early in 2020, following Jane Gould’s departure in December 2019. Mike is the only other member remaining and again he just joined in time to complete the album recording.
RAW RAMP: Tell us about your writing method
Greg: Historically I’ve written the music and lyrics. Jane Gould started to add lyrics on the last album and on this EP, I did words and music on 1, further music on 2, Neil Hackett did music on his first song and 1 was a cover. I tend to wake up with a chorus in my head. I then sit down and work out how to play what I’m singing. Then comes the beat. I use my Mac to layout the song and do a demo of the chorus and any dual guitar bits.
Then comes the verses and middle 8’s, I tend to just play the chorus for a while until my playing takes me away to a different piece of music and that’s where the verses and M8’s come from. The energy comes from the beat. The aim of this EP was deliberately to increase the beats per minute to add more energy to our live setlists.
Who are your biggest influences?
Greg: There are lots. Historically, it has to be Journey, but I grew up with Foreigner, ACDC, Rainbow, Dio, Whitesnake… and I guess it’s all in there.
RAW RAMP: Why did you cover Jefferson Starship’s “Jane”?
Greg: When Jane Gould joined it wasn’t just a new singer joining; we were changing from being male fronted to female fronted. So, to get the crowds used to this and her name we knocked the cover around at rehearsals. It sounded pretty good, so we learned the song and it became a live favourite. So, we recorded it for the EP and luckily Janey Smith came along which meant the song still had credibility as a choice and Janey sings it magnificently, so it was a go-er.
RAW RAMP: How will you spread your message in a post Covid world?
Greg: In two ways, firstly, by being out and about live on as many festivals and major supports as we can secure and secondly by pestering the hell out of radio stations, rock and commercial to play us on their shows.
RAW RAMP: Tell us about lead guitarist Neil Hackett’s contribution to the songwriting process…
Neil: Traditionally, my approach to songwriting has always been, come up with a cool riff and just build on that until the basic structure of a song is there. My background has always been metal/hard rock so I have to be conscious not to bring the metal too much, Jon (Drummer) likes to remind me! Haha.
In previous bands we would jam on this and evolve the sound and structure, I guess that is the tried and tested old fashioned method! The process for this EP was a bit different and new, to me at least. I basically recorded a very rough version of what would eventually be ‘Have My Day’… (extra iconic trivia, Have My Day originally started as a nice acoustic number, based on the chord structure of the chorus!) along with a couple of other demo’s that didn’t make the cut. I was pleased that ‘Have My Day’ made the cut, I think it is a great song and once Janey added her vocals, it really took off into the hard rockin’ anthemic belter you can hear today. Can’t wait to play it live, whenever that will be!
RAW RAMP: Do you feel you get stronger every day?
Greg: I feel at the moment we have a pent up desire to play live, the longer it goes on that we can’t the more the desire increases. Hopefully 2021 and 2022 are going to be very busy for us.
RAW RAMP: Congratulations on “Back From Behind The Sun” and wishing you a lot of success with the EP and your release show
Greg: Thank you. We were gutted that the December 3rd release party had to be postponed to January 16th but at least it gives folk the opportunity to buy tickets for the show as Xmas presents 😊
The EP Launch Party (socially distanced) and live stream is now scheduled for SATURDAY, 16 JANUARY 2021
Link: https://www.facebook.com/iconic.eye.music/
RAW RAMP 