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Every Monday we will be bringing you interviews with unsigned UK or Ireland artists for Independent Music Monday. Recently we caught up with unsigned Salisbury band Next Stop Olympus to find out more…

Who is in the band, how did you meet, where are you from and how did you come up with the name?
Next Stop Olympus is a Conor McEniry (vocals), Harry Ellis (guitar and vocals), Matt Gray (bass and vocals), Jeremy ‘Skips’ Scheepers (Guitar) and Josh Williams (Drums). Matt was friends with all the guys first or had met them through friends other then Skips who we found online on a musician website so we all just got together to meet once we started putting the band together. We’re all from around the Wiltshire area, again other than Skips who is from South Africa originally but now we all live in the Salisbury / Southampton area. We got the name from Disney’s Hercules, we’d been throwing names around for a little while and couldn’t decide on one and Conor was watching the film, heard the line and thought it sounded cool and stood out so messaged all the guys and we all agreed because it would be really search engine friendly too as well as being a bit different.

Who were your musical influences when you were growing up and who are your influences now?
Conor: Growing up it would have to be Fall Out Boy just because they were my favourite band at the time and my influences now would have to be The Amity Affliction because they are just the greatest band ever.
Matt: I didn’t really have any musical influences when I was growing up, I listened to a lot of music but never really influenced by anything until I was 17-18 when I went to my first live show which was Asking Alexandria who became my favourite band after that for many years but my influences now would have to be a combination of my favourite bands being Asking Alexandria, Bury Tomorrow, The Amity Affliction and Atreyu.
Harry: Growing up it was people like Jonsi and Bjork and now it’s people like Bon Iver and Benee.
Skips: Growing up it was Dimmu Borgir, Pantera and bands like that and now a wide range of stuff anything from metal to K-pop.
Josh: Bands like Green Day, Franz Ferdinand and Breaking Benjamin when I was younger and now it would have to be Fit For A King, Bring Me The Horizon and Mayday Parade.

How would you describe your sound?
We describe ourselves as a Post-hardcore/Metalcore band with a rock ‘n’ roll twist so we have the breakdowns and vocals from the Post-hardcore/Metalcore and the big chorus’ and catchy riffs from rock ‘n’ roll.

What is your latest release called and what was the influence behind it?
Our latest release is our new EP ‘Heart, Mind & Hell’ which we released in April, the influence behind it is a very personal one, the whole EP is about stuff we have been through in our lives or stuff we deal with every day, it tells the story on someone’s downfall, the first song being about betrayal, second about anger, third dealing with problems with alcohol etc, fourth is almost about reflection to a degree and the last track is about when you’re at the lowest point and giving up.

What’s your local music scene like?
It’s getting better but I think that’s the case for everywhere now, there’s a lot of incredible bands coming up, Salisbury has some bands coming through but not too many however there is always something happening in Southampton.

What do you have planned for the next 12 months?
We’re just hoping that we can start playing as many shows as possible to get this new music out there to as many new people as possible while we start to figure out what’s next for NSO and start writing new music.

Is there anyone you’d love to collaborate with?
Conor: The Maine because I really like them.
Skips: Agust D because it’s a really cool unique musician and producer.
Harry: Little Big, I think their art fits my visions because it’s really weird.
Josh: Danny Worsnop the way he is now, I think his vocals would go very well with our style.
Matt: I think I’d have to go for Hot Milk recently, they’re doing some really cool stuff at the moment.

Any funny stories surrounding your live performances?
We played a show in London once which was basically just a mess other than our set, the first band on took their sweet time in setting up and packing down and not having the correct cable for something they needed and went over their slot so once the headline band got on stage they only had about 10 minutes and their tour manager was going nuts, we thought he was about to beat the sh*t out of the promotor but he’d realised what was happening and disappeared for the rest of the night and then a full blown fight started in the middle of the pit so Conor went out to try find the promotor to sort out the issue with the tour manager and wasn’t allowed back in the venue because of the fight even though he was in a band.

What is the one thing that you want readers to know about you?
That we always want everyone to have a great time and enjoy themselves at shows whether they want to get into the pit or stand at the back with a pint. That and to go check out our new EP, we’re extremely proud of it so we’d love to get it out there to as many people as possible.

You can find out more about Next Stop Olympus on their website or via Apple Music, Bandcamp, Facebook, Instagram, SoundCloud, Spotify, Twitter or YouTube.