Caught in the Carousel

Terra Diablo

Deluge Songs
Nocturnal

Terra Diablo

Glasgow-born Terra Diablo wants to make it in the U.S. They want it so bad their bio on their website specifically addresses all of us here, wondering why we haven’t jumped on the bandwagon of this alt-rock force. It’s a good question. One listen to their hard-pounding second album, Deluge Songs, will have you wondering the same thing. The album starts off with “Captain of the Simpletons,” which is the perfect opener with its grinding guitars. In the catchy “Disappearing Act” and banging “Impossible,” the pace of singer/guitarist Ian Fairclough’s vocals flows perfectly with the driving guitars behind him. Songs such as the loud and ironically titled “Quiet” and the intense “Setting Sun” are best listened to at full volume. The band show their softer side on the unexpectedly calm “Stay Inside the Circle” and the dark “Walked Away.” Both songs stand out among the roar of the rest of the record. The bizarre title track “Deluge Song” starts off with an ethereal-sounding piano before launching into harsh vocals and raunchy guitars for the climax of the album. With brilliant songs like these, we should all jump on and welcome Terra Diablo with open arms.

Terra Diablo bassist Stu Mileham talks to Caught In The Carousel:

CITC: I have to say that I can’t stop listening to “Disappearing Act” and “Stay Inside the Circle.” What are your favorite songs off of Deluge Songs?

Stu Mileham: It can be hard to pick favorites from your own songs when you've played them so many times. I loved "Disappearing Act" when we first wrote it but that was two years ago. Personally I love playing "Quiet" because it's just a sheer adrenaline rush from start to finish. The songs that were written more recently like "Deluge Song" and "Stay Inside The Circle" are probably my favourites to listen to right now but I'd mention a different couple of songs if you were to ask me the same question two months down the line! We are immensely proud of every song on the album though.

CITC: I’ve been reading about some of the bands that influenced you like Swervedriver, but what are some of your non-musical influences?

SM: Well we all like to get under the influence on occasion if that's what you mean!

Ian, as the main lyricist, probably brings the most non-musical influence to our songs. He reads a lot of books about ancient Egypt and is fascinated by a lot of the stuff that went on in biblical times. He could talk for hours on the subject and will if you give him a bottle of whisky and a patient ear. Recording the album in New Orleans certainly must have influenced how the album sounds although its one of these things that is pretty hard to pinpoint. Growing up in and around Glasgow has certainly had an effect on us all, but

I'm sure anyone would say that about where they were raised.

CITC: I was excited to hear you were going to tour the U.S. in August. How do you think touring America will differ from touring the UK? Are you expecting culture shock?

SM: We got a culture shock last year when we recorded in New Orleans: portion sizes in restaurants are about double what we were used to, cars can turn right on a red light, everyone loves our accent but struggles to understand our Scots dialect and the weather was just unbelievable. Everyone warned us to expect heat and humidity the likes of which we had never seen, but WOW nothing could have prepared us for the furnace that we walked off the plane into. Touring involves long periods of sitting in vans, followed by long periods of sitting in venues, followed by a short period playing a show, followed by another long period in a van again! It will be great to see new scenery from the windows and have days off in New York and some other great cities. I think people in America are more willing to head out to see a new band than they are in Britain--at least I hope they are, so we should meet some great new people and play some busy shows. We're all getting pretty excited about it as well though.

CITC: What can we expect at your shows?

SM: Four guys who are experiencing a major culture shock. We don't even know what to expect at the shows so expect the unexpected!!

—Jessica Simons