Fantasy And Reality: An Interview with Tim Neale

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Emerging in 2007, Pythia are a symphonic power metal band hailing from the London area. Formed from members of Descent, Abgott and led by acclaimed singer Emily Alice Ovenden of Mediæval Bæbes fame, the band became notorious around the London area for their charismatic live shows and their fanatic, devoted fanbase – often dubbed the Pythian Army. The band made a name for themselves supporting the likes of Tarja Turunen, Ministry, Fields of the Nephilim and Amberian Dawn before releasing their debut Beneath The Veiled Embrace. Since then they’ve become a headlining band in their own right – one of the few who can do so within the current wave of ‘female-fronted metal’ bands in the UK. Talking from a Wetherspoons in South Croydon, lead guitarist Tim Neale reckons it is the band’s very British take on power metal that has let them establish the firm fanbase that they have now.

“We’ve organically become one of the most quintessentially British bands that you can think of in terms of us being working class guys just working our way through – Emily included.â€� he explains; “Everything we do is big and dramatic, but done firmly with our tongue in the cheek still, so very Monty Python if you like. We take everything we do very, very seriously, even when we’re dicking around, and I think that struck a chord with a lot of people. We’ve seen so many bands, great bands, taking themselves very seriously and doing it with such professional aplomb, which we still employ as well. But everything is done to the letter and very matter of fact, and not very… British. None of the inherent humour, nothing Benny Hill about it.â€�

Still, that isn’t the only reason he thinks the band have struck a chord with their audience; “We weren’t afraid to really engage the fans from the start. When we first started picking people up, we made sure the internet forum was already up and running, and there was always a band member around to answer people. We’ve got a real hardcore mini-Kiss army, the Pythian army, and those guys have been on tour-buses with us and everything else. We treat them like we would have liked to have been treated, whether they are 13, 30 or in their 50s. They are all our friends, and we don’t ever draw the line and say you can’t come in here or whatever, we’re more ‘Hey come and see what we’re doing!’.â€�

“ When you’re playing Blood Bowl or Warhammer Fantasy Role Play, you can’t really listen to Madonna ”
- Tim Neale

So what are the band doing behind the scenes? Talk to Tim – or any member of the band most likely – and their extra-curricular interests become apparent. The band’s stage set, which includes among other things fake flaming pillars by the band’s drumkit, suits of armour for the band and (of course) Emily’s infamous wine goblet certainly reflect a band with a keen interest in history, mythology and fantasy. For some bands this would just be appearance to suit the music, but for Pythia, the band walk the walk as well as talk the talk.

“I was a child of Games Workshop growing up.â€� he explains, going back to his childhood; “Casting my mind back, I can remember going to Games Workshop Hammersmith, and hearing Def Leppard for the first time, hearing Gods of War, when Games Workshop wasn’t the animal you know it is today. It was a scary place to go into, people smoking cigars and all kinds of stuff in there. Back then I was about 9, hearing Iron Maiden and stuff, and just marrying the two together. When you’re playing ‘Blood Bowl’ or ‘Warhammer Fantasy Role Play’, you can’t really listen to Madonna. You need something with a bit of balls and a bit of aggression in it.â€�

He suspects that the interest in bands such as his own – including some of the big league bands making a name for themselves in in the UK – owe a lot to the increased interest in fantastic fiction; “I put a lot of the interest in ‘female-fronted metal’ pretty much down to ‘Lord of The Rings’ and ‘World of Warcraft’ and things like that… not the only reason, but it is a big part of it. In the last ten years there has been such a resurgence in the fantastic, from cyberpunk to medieval. You’ve only got to look at the success of ‘Game of Thrones’ and HBO, things like that, people are dying for it. The ‘Camelot’ series just gone, even ‘Merlin’ on BBC1, everyone wants a bit of the unusual and you tend to find that bands like Within Temptation, Nightwish and everyone else have songs that can be interpreted as being more about the fantastic. Same with black metal having a bit of a resurgence, everyone has gotten more into it.â€�

Well, surely that doesn’t mean everyone who listens to metal likes fantasy books and games, and vice versa, right? The band certainly have found the answer to that the hard way; “I think there’s a correlation but it isn’t necessarily always there, as we found out when we were meant to play a LARP event, last year.â€�

The event he talks about is The Gathering, not to be mistaken for the band of the same name. Chances are if you’re interested in a band like Pythia the term LARPing won’t be too unfamiliar – if it isn’t, wikipedia will be able to explain the concept better than this article. Either way, whilst the band’s music might appeal strongly to fans of fantastic literature, one has to remember how incredibly serious people into the hobby take it. That means not breaking character, acting in character at all times, and above all else – do not break immersion. That means no modern technology, no modern terminology, and certainly no heavy metal. Even if the band are clad in clothing fit for the part.

“We were expecting it to go down a storm…â€� Tim sighs, taking another swig from his cider; “But we had to pull out of it because it was going to upset people. The amount of messages we got from people saying ‘We would come to see you, at any venue, but this weekend I’m no longer Phil Previn from IT, I’m Zagar the Mighty’, it was too much. Apparently people plugging amps in would ruin their weekend, and the last thing we want to do is ruin anyone’s fun.â€�

“ …it just turned out we were a little bit gay for Mark ”
- Tim Neale

In the meantime, life moves on for the band. The last year has seen a quiet patch in the band’s life cycle, with Emily becoming a mother, Tim recovering from serious illness, and work commencing on the band’s second album, The Serpent’s Curse. During this period the band said good bye to original bassist Andy Nixon-Corfield, who couldn’t continue with the band due to scheduling conflicts; “We had talked about it, it was during the writing/recording process of the new album that we spoke about workloads and touring schedules and everything else. It didn’t really marry up, so again without prejudice we parted company.â€�

Whilst for the album Tim – who played bass for Abgott prior to Pythia – recorded all the bass parts, the band clearly wanted a new permanent member on bass. Followers of the female-fronted metal scene in the UK would be no stranger to Andy’s replacement, Mark Harrington of prog-metallers To-Mera; “We played with To-Mera a few times, and we knew Mark’s technical capability. We knew he could be technical and very prog rock and jazz, but you don’t know a guy personality wise. So when it came round to his turn out of all the bassists we went through the process with, we met up at a pub in Camden, and so many things just fit.â€�

That sounds great – at least, it would, if the things the bassist would have in common were so numerous it would become scary; “Dyos has a Transformers fixation, and turned up in his Optimus Prime t-shirt, and immediately Mark started conversing with him about Transformers. He came round to my house for the audition, and I’m really into kung fu, and it turned out he did the same style that I did, and idolizes Jackie Chan as much as I do. When he came to our rehearsal studios he met George, our tour manager who is a massive wrestling fan no matter what federation it is, and he turned up in some obscure wrestling federation t-shirt! Then when we went to Emily’s house to meet the singer of the band, he managed to converse on her level for hours about gothic literature.â€�

The guitarist chuckles; “We did check how much stuff we had been shredding, whether our bins had been disturbed, but it just turned out we were a little bit gay for Mark. He just fit in.�

“ The problems that we’re going through today are no different from the problems you read about in fantastic fiction ”
- Tim Neale

With Mark on board, the band could focus on what comes next – the impending release of their sophomore effort. Having already recorded a music video on location (at a church… in Hackney. Ah the glamorous life of a London metal band), the band hope to have the album out in the new year. In the meantime, Tim seems eager to talk about the changes with the new record.

“There’s a lot more heavier stuff on it, a lot more lead work, which was nice.â€� he elaborates; “It’s a lot more comfortable, its hard when you got a lot of musicians who’ve come from different genres and backgrounds. As much as you’re creating music yourself, and starting it from scratch, you’re still going ‘Can I do that? Can’t I do that? Is that too much? Is that too little?’. Generally with power metal too much is generally how it goes, but you’re still conscious of that. For me personally I was like ‘What would a power metal guitarist do there?’, now I am a power metal guitarist, I’ve had two years of it. So I think it sounds more confident as a whole. â€�

It isn’t just the guitar parts that are more confident, in Tim’s opinion; “I think Emily’s vocal work, not to slag off the first album, but they’ve really improved, its just knowing your genre a bit more.â€�

“What was in the first album has continued on in terms of the way song structures can be read into and applied to what you like.â€� he continues, talking about the lyrical content; “There’s also different interpretations as to what the vocals are about between band members. Taking one song on the album, My Perfect Enemy, to me it is about one thing… Emily told me what she wrote about, but to me it is about what I think it’s about. As much as fans do that, we still do that between the band. But even that aspect, just Emily’s pure poetry has matured a little bit as well. The subjects and the way the lyrics work are a lot more intriguing, challenging in that you want to find out what she’s talking about.â€�

Duel meanings in the band’s lyrics seems to be a constant, and this continues with the new album; “I think a lot of it is saying there’s no difference from the stories you read about, whether you’re reading Warhammer Fantasy, whether you’re reading Keats or whatever, the problems that we’re going through today are no different from the problems you read about in fantastic fiction. Even like Bernard Cornwell, authors like that, you get the same troubles and strifes within the tribal network that everyone looks at as being fantastic today. You only got to look at the riots that happened in the streets we’re sat on right now to realise we’re no different. So when Emily writes a set of lyrics, or channels them as she does, they could be and generally are about the fantastic element, but they have a basis in her own experiences or maybe one of our experiences. Cry Of Our Nation, the opening track is basically about taking a country back, whether you are talking about a country like a nation, or talking about a country in terms of Wessex or Mercy used to be in 576AD or whatever. What the song is actually about, the crux of it, is us moaning about the British music industry, saying ‘Why can’t we support British bands playing metal’, we haven’t got any ambassadors in Metal Hammer or Kerrang anymore, and never really have.â€�

At least one thing is for certain – whilst the mainstream music press are not paying attention to the band, the band can still rely on their loyal fanbase. With a single Betray My Heart being released on December 19th ahead of the album in February, one suspects we will see the Pythian Army grow even stronger.

Photo(s): Scott Chalmers

Written by James Donovan
More: Interviews, Pythia