#iwoad

Mega Apple vs. Giant Dinosaur Album Review by John Rogers of the Rad Times review team.

http://thebadapples.bandcamp.com/album/mega-apple-vs-giant-dinosaur

Hey! Hello! I’m John the Rad Times Promotions reviewer of all things metal and this is my first review for the fine folk at Rad Times. But strangely my first review is to be of a split ep of comedy folk and blues rock. The release features both bands doing solely covers of each others music.

There are two artists featured here- Firstly ‘The Bad Apples’ which are a dynamic rock duo blasting straight of North Walsham with riffs the size of King Kong and have a fine ep under their belts available here: https://thebadapples.bandcamp.com/.

Second band featured here are ‘I Was Once A Dinosaur’ or 'IWOAD', another twosome specialising in hilarious comic folk music! Also based in the Norfolk area the guys in IWOAD have already two rip rollicking albums under their belt available here: http://iwasonceadinosaur.bandcamp.com/.

Side A of the split kicks off with the bad apples contributions. Though unexpectedly for the band things start pretty docile with a classy cover of IWOAD’s ‘White Van Man’. Next up is the awesomely titled ‘Cousin Lovin’! I Enjoyed the rendition of the IWOAD classic but couldn’t help feeling Tom Gray the drummers beats in the chorus were a little unsuitable and slower than I would of liked for the fast paced riff. ‘I Wish I Were A Woman’ next is probably my favourite from the Bad Apple side, Matt the singer is on form with a vocal performance to shame a grizzly bear! And ending the side is a song in ballad territory. ‘Unicorns’ is covered in brilliant fashion and defiantly equals if not outdoes the IWOAD original! Overall a most satisfactory collection of rock covers by The Bad Apples. Good stuff!

Onto the I Was Once A Dinosaur side. Which starts proceedings with ‘Whiskey Hill’, which much to my annoyance doesn’t have that fantastic opening riff of the original! Oh well. Still very enjoyable stuff, shout out to IWOAD for a lovely vocal production too. ‘Space Monkeys’ appears and in much stronger fashion as IWOAD make this song their own, very suitable for the electric to acoustic transition. ‘The Sunshine Blues’ starts off in faithful to the original but IWOAD mix it up with their own touches- most notably some comic backing vocals. Which whilst they work well in IWOAD’s own stuff, i feel they didn’t here. I loved the recorder solo though. Ending things is ‘Dunebugs’, with some strong guitar playing and a heartfelt performance it's easily the strongest song on offer here by IWOAD.

In summary I did enjoy this split ep but I do feel neither band truly bettered the originals. But did do damn fine jobs trying! A lot of good moments still make it a worthwhile listen. Two great local bands that you should defo check and see live!

Interview with Matt Beauchamp; CEO & Founder of Rad Times Promotions and Guitar & Vocals in I Was Once a Dinosaur. 

Name / what you do involving music? Matt Beauchamp. I run Rad Times Promotions and play guitar and sing in acoustic comedy duo, I Was Once a Dinosaur.

Where are you from? I've been in North Walsham pretty much all my life until recently. I'm now living in Long Stratton. Looking to move into the city though, September time this year hopefully!

What is 'Rad Times Promotions'? Rad Times was originally just a blog I set up to help promote bands and gigs in Norwich. I still do this but I now put on my own shows under the name as well. I also interview local musicians and promoters. I think the idea is just to make the local scene more accessible and to get more people involved.

How would you describe your music? I guess if you took the basic concept of Tenacious D, mixed that with the surreal humour of The Mighty Boosh, and then got two immature teenagers with acoustic guitars to find as many ways as possible to recycle the same three chords and make them into songs… maybe something like that? 

Who are your main influences, musically? I like to think I listen to a wide variety, which helps when it comes to writing music. Mainly, I'm into the punk rock side of things. You know all the bands you loved when you were say, 12? Most of them are still my favourites. Blink 182, The Offspring, Sum 41, etc. I'm also very heavily into the whole folk / roots / punk crossover thing, Dave Hause and Chuck Ragan are a huge inspiration to me. But specifically, my MAIN influences are all local. The people that make me want to go out and play music / put shows on are the people who are already doing so and getting amazing results! A big one for the Norwich scene recently has been Dan Allen with Ducking Punches, who has just came back from touring in Europe with Frank Turner and Andrew Jackson Jihad. Also, I can't go without mentioning Dying Breeds. They've been a huge influence and have helped me out no end of times with opportunities in the local scene, so thanking them guys! OH, and my dad! My dad is responsible for me picking up a guitar in the first place as well as giving me the opportunity to get into playing live music. Love that man.

What do you hope to achieve in music? Just to continue writing, recording and performing music until the day I die. Ideally, I'd love to be able to make it my job, but doesn't everyone? Until then, my main aim is to go tour! It's been my dream for god knows how many years now so I'm determined to eventually make it happen.

What is your opinion on the Norwich music scene? I bloody love the local scene and it genuinely offends me when I see people online bitching about it. We have an insane amount of great and talented acts in Norwich, from a diverse selection of genres as well. This is actually the reason I created the page on the Rad Times blog, building up an archive of all our local music. Just to prove a point. We also have a fair amount of hard working promoters (Dan Hawcroft, Mike Cockerill, the guys at One For The Road) and a good selection of venues too! What I love most though, is what a friendly bunch of people we have in Norwich. It's incredible how many cool people I've got to know through our local scene and we all support each other so much as well, which is amazing. There isn't a scene in the world I'd rather be involved in.

What has been the highlight of your musical career so far, and why? That's a tough one. Performing wise, it was probably back in 2012 when we (I Was Once a Dinosaur) went to play a Battle of the Bands in Gamlingay (just outside of Cambridge) and couldn't hear a thing on stage and it turns out, my guitar was completely out of tune for the whole thing. We were playing to a room full of people that had never heard of us before as well and yet, we somehow got one of the best crowd reactions we've ever had and managed to come 3rd place out of about 15 acts! It was a great feeling. Promoting wise, the highlight for me was the Hello Bear show I put on at Olives in November last year. When I booked it, I had a job and was doing well for money. I put down a £120 deposit for the show but before it came around, I no longer had work and was struggling for money. For some reason, I'd convinced myself that I wasn't gonna get in enough people for the show to hit my target and get my money back but as it goes, I did! It was a huge turn out and a bloody great night and I think it was probably obvious to everyone who saw me at the end of that night, how overwhelmed with joy I was. The other highlight was getting to open the Dying Breeds 'Farewell for Now' show. Being a huge influence to me, I was absolutely gutted when I heard they were having to take a break from music and when the concept of a farewell show started forming, I was determined to somehow get involved. Huge thanks to Andrew Jeckell on that one for getting me a slot, it was an honour!

Is there a moment you'd rather forget and if so, what? The first ever IWOAD show was an acoustic evening at Paston College. We played three covers, very badly, and it was horrible. However, I wouldn't say I necessarily want to forget it as we took it in and learnt from it. I think everyone needs a certain amount of bad experiences in whatever they're doing so they can occasionally stop and ask themselves "Ok, so how can I improve?".

Where can we find out more about what you do / listen to your music? The Rad Times Promotions blog is up at: http://radtimesuk.tumblr.com and can also be found on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/radtimesuk) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/radtimesuk). As for IWOAD, we're on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/iwoad), Twitter (https://twitter.com/iwasonceadinosa) and all of our music is up for FREE download on our Bandcamp at: http://iwasonceadinosaur.bandcamp.com.