PipemanRadio Interviews PREYRS at Bloodstock Open Air 2025

0:04 Hi, you love one too, Yes, that's true. See why pray you? This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm here. With You're here with prayers. Nice. Are you going to say a prayer for me because I need one? Yes? Absolutely, we'll say i'll. After we saw your jacket. You definitely need some prayers. I need some prayers for when I go into the go Jira pit tonight. Oh yeah, US two, US two. But I must say that our prayers is not spelled p R A y Our prayers are spelled p r E y r s.

0:44 Oh. So oh so you're gonna pray on me in the pit. Yeah, I'm gonna pray on you. And I'm going to pray for you. That's basically what our band is all about. I love that. Oh there it is. And see it's so hard to come up with a band name nowadays. Like that, everything's taken. So I love you. You have the backwards are because otherwise it's probably taken already. Yeah, you gotta do something weird like that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely, But I'm glad that I said what I did is because it allowed you to spell it for the listeners so they don't start looking up p R A Y. Yeah exactly, and you will probably find a prayers if.

1:25 You do that. It won't be a metal one though, la. So yeah, you got totally. So how would you guys describe your music not a genre but basically us the artists, not being boxed into some stupid label. Yeah, yeah, I love that because I hite answering these questions in that way, right. I would describe our music as a physical representation of shadow work. I would say we very much take themes from our own lives, from grief, loss, and use the music to transform those into power and wisdom.

2:07 I love that because music is the best therapy. It absolutely is. Like every time I have a loss, I jump in a pit. Yeah, let it out. Yeah, screwed the whole. Well, you talk about what you realized last night about the people picking each other up? Yeah, I had. Maybe this is a revelution that people realize this all the time and meddle, right, But it's just it became so potent last night for me, so present. When I was looking at the pit, I was looking at people picking each other up, and I thought, I actually thought of particular therapy I don't know the name of it, but a role playing therapy where you would play out your most traumatic experiences that you've had in your life right and through the role play and through rewriting that situation through physical through physicality, then you begin to change what you make that situation mean. And I was looking at the pit and people picking each other up. How this epiphany like, oh, this is like rule pland therapy, Like this is exactly what it is, you know, and it's just helping everybody all the time. It's and I completely understand why the community is there and they're there to pick each other up and to rewrite, to rewrite possible traumatic experiences that they had in their past.

3:23 I love that. That is so cool because I'm also a momivacial speaker. Oh no, all that you're saying, and people say, well, how can you be in too middle and a speaker, I'm like, well, why don't you come to a show and you'll see why exactly. No, it is very empowering and the best therapy there is. Like people think we're just going into the pit to mame and hurt people. It's not even like that at all. No, it's the opposite. Yeah, so you don't go out there in the streets and hurt and main people. Absolutely absolutely, And so I love the whole concept of your band because to me, it's very motivational and empowering and that's what music is, and especially what we have.

4:07 Here at Bloodstock. YEP. Because I do a lot of festivals, I would say this is the most family oriented, motivational, empowering festival there is on the planet. Yeah. I love seeing the babies and elderly people in the same space watching metal music. It's like right when you know you're in the right place, exactly right. And the smiles, okay, like people. I have somebody that never saw me in the pit like at Hellfest and she said, oh my god, you just were a smile from ear to ear the whole set. Yeah, that's what it's about. They think we're all angry and loah blah negative. No, it's the exact opposite. Read the lyrics too, Absolutely, people never read the lyrics. They just make this assumption, oh, you dressed in black, you're evil and dark and negative, and no, it's the exact opposite. Yeah.

5:09 And you know what, I really believe that you can never know the light without knowing the dark as well. It's so important. And if you look at everything in the world as we know it, you can never have one without the other. The flowers don't grow without the rain. You need to explore that place in order to know your lightness and at greater depth. And this is what this community does. And to appreciate the light because if you all have light, people are complaining because they don't know the darkness. Yeah, but if you have the darkness, then any little bit of light you will appreciate absolutely. So when did this all start for you, guys? Like, what was that epiphany that made you go on this musical journey?

5:55 The epiphany? Oh my god, I don't think there was one single epiphany. I started when I was about seven years old. I was on stage with a mic, performing seven or eight and that was the start of my performing career in music and singing competitions with. My shaking hand. My hands were shaken and the microphone was like the size of my head, right, And so that's where I started. And for me, I just remember having a complete outlet for expressing myself on stage, and so I just continued to do it. Started to write music when I was around thirteen. I started off as a busker. I started off with an acoustic guitar, going busking in the streets in Belfast. We come from Belfast, and yeah, just evolved from there, started to write songs. Then me and Michael met each other. Michael's a producer and drummer of Prayers.

6:47 We started to work together about I don't know, eight years ago now, I started to write together. In twenty nineteen. We were playing folk festivals with Amy's early music. And then but the world pandemic in the middle of all this journey, and then we've come out to the other end playing Bloodstock. So it's a really interesting evolution of where we're going with this journey in music. And do you know what vibe I'm game that you should tour with like just came in my head when you were talking. I think you should go on tour with high long Hi Long. Yeah, Oh my god, I think that would be like, I don't know, for some reason, my energy it's picking up the vibe that that would be such a cool tour.

7:27 It's really interesting you said that because I've just finished a book all about the Mongolian Empire, Genghist Khan and what an influence that was on Europe and the rest of the world after one thousand BC. So it's really interesting that you just say that we love their music and we love getting inspired from music and GERI inter some music and a lot of Eastern melodic and stuff, trying to pull that into our own music and pair that with the sort of the heavy drop tune guitars as well and part of what we do. And if you're not Bill, then physically, like if you can't hear those influences, you'll feel those influences more importantly. I think with how Long, especially like I love How Long?

8:10 Does our music sound like how Long? No, absolutely not. It doesn't have to. But does it feel like is there a similar feeling? Which is interesting? Why up on that? Like, I didn't do it based on sound. Yeah, it was based on feeling. Yeah, vibe because I just see it going together and it doesn't have to go together as far as the type of music or what, you know, what the genre is, it's just how you vibe together. Yeah, absolutely what the audience gets. From yeah, absolutely nice. So how you get outdo Bloodstock? What's next? The dreaded question right next? Well, this year is exciting for us. We've just signed with Pelegic Records. They're a fantastic Berlin based label. Robin the own of the label.

9:00 It also has his Banded the Ocean, so we're super stoked to start working with those guys. We've got a bunch of new music coming out. There's music being released from now till the debut album release in November, so we're just gonna rock with that. And this November and December we're heading on too with New Model Army around Europe, and then next year is just our debut album Turin I suppose. And of course in. The middle of that, trying to find some space to get back into the studio and right the next very cool. When you got to come to the States, you gotta come playing this, Oh. I would love to. Well, we were there last summer, not with Prayers, but we enjoyed Carnegie Hall for the first time. Right, so we got to see back play with an orchestra. That was beautiful. But we'll we think we will. Prayers will take us to the States next year.

9:49 Yeah, I would be quite quite confident in that. There we go, let's put that out in the universe. Yeah, out there now, prayers United States of America planted. As well as there's still a country next year. It's strange times, mister Bond. Right, so as everybody reach out to you on socials on the web, do you have cool merch too? Oh yeah, we could say. I have to buy your merch to listen to my show. Absolutely, we've got loads oficle merch. We've got like bottles like this. We've got black soap branded Prayers black soap. Wow, that's cool. Yeah, that's unique.

10:30 Yeah, how many bands have soap? Oh no, we got a crazy German friend and he started printing like a whiskey, hip flasks and soap and you name it, the toothbrush, the hair brush, he's got it. So there's there's prayers everything. Just a few days ago he showed me his branded Prayers wellie boots. Like there's a lot of things available. But anyway, there's a lot of merchandise and that will be online soon. But you can find our website prayers dot com and you can find the instagram is prayers official and that's it. And remember it's with E people. Yeah, p R E y R S. And that R is backwards.

11:12 They are is backwards. It'll alt type it backwards though in social no, but you can feel it there, you go feel the backwards are Is there anything else you want to share with the listeners that we haven't covered already. That's so good yourself. That's the best last words ever, because that's what bloodstops all about, isn't it. And there's too many people in the world, especially with social media, that are not being themselves. We need to go back to getting rid of filters, getting rid of all that stuff and just be you. Yep, and that's it and be a fan of prayers. Absolutely well.

11:53 Thanks for being here at Bloodstock and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you so much. Michelle Kerr was my press officer for my entire fucking career here in the UK, my entire career with Machinet. She recently passed away and it was a very, very sad day. And I can tell you the reason that I'm gonna tell this story is because she was family. She was Bloodstock family, she was heavy metal UK family. Most of the bass that you know and love you probably heard of because of that woman right there, Slive Knots, Slayer, Machinehead, Trivium, kills which engage hey breed, you name it. She helped lift everybody up man. She helped lift everybody up, and in so many ways, she helped make this entire music scene, this incredible, beautiful community that lives here at bloodstock Man.

12:58 She helped make it so. Ladies and gentlemen, please make some noise from Michelle curR. Thank you for listening to the adventures of Tatement. I'm w for c u I Radio.