Scottish pirate metal band Alestorm have been sailing the seas and bringing drunken ballads with them for 15 years (originally under the moniker of Battleheart). While the band has aged like a fine beer, they are, at heart, still singing the same classic songs of the sea their fans have always loved. As vocalist/keyboardist Christopher Bowes says, they’ll never run out of material.
“You’d be surprised at how many things you can say about pirates,” says Bowes. “There’s an endless sea of nonsense we can always write about. It’s like, people have been saying that for so long: ‘How are you going to manage to do it?’ But, you know, there’s always something new to write about. I keep meaning to write a song about Batman, but I never have. Like, Batman could fight pirates. You could write about pirates drinking bleach… Have a stupid idea? It usually works. All the best songs are the most idiotic ones.”
As a band with lyrics based entirely around the concept of pirates getting drunk, there are, of course, the uncomplicated nuances of beer involved with the band’s aesthetic. Mainly, drinking should be for drinking’s sake.
“I just like cheap lager; that’s the only thing I like,” says Bowes. “I’m not into pretentious beers. Especially for a band that’s all themed on drinking and pirates, people always ask us, ‘What’s your favourite beer?’ I guess I like Budweiser. I don’t even think fancy beer tastes that good.”
It’s rare for a band to come from overseas and do a Canada-only tour; Alestorm decided to do their upcoming Canadian tour for this exact reason.
“We do North American tours a lot. We do the USA and Canada, and just the way it works out, due to bullshit and geography, is that all we can do is hop into Canada for two days, we do a show in Montreal, Toronto, then we piss off again and never come back,” says Bowes. “We’ve never really done just this.”
Bowes is an original founding member of Alestorm and Gloryhammer, an intergalactic-space-inspired power metal band, but is now steering his focus to just one band.
“Gloryhammer sort of took off too much. I didn’t really have time for both bands,” explains Bowes. “I sort of stopped doing Gloryhammer. I still write all the songs for Gloryhammer, but I don’t play with them anymore live, because there was never the time. So I’ve got a body double to do Gloryhammer while I go off [and] do Alestorm things. It was getting too much; I can’t do everything at the same time.”
Alestorm released their latest album, No Grave But the Sea, in 2017. They are hard at work on their next album, but to Bowes, there is really no need to improve on the classic metal shanties Alestorm have already explored on their five full-lengths.
“We’ve been writing the new album quite a lot. It’s nearly finished; we’re gonna go to the studio in January and record all that stuff. I don’t want to say it’s more of the same, but it is more of the same. It’s just stuff people like—good old pirates say ‘Ahoy.’ It’s gonna be good, I think.” He laughs and adds, “What if it isn’t? What if no one likes it?”
At heart, the band just want a good time, and Bowes knows this. After all, a group of pirates sailing the seas, getting drunk, and playing hardcore folk metal are going to have some wicked stories to tell.
“When the crowd goes absolutely batshit crazy—people just flying through the air, singing along—that’s just the bit I love the most,” says Bowes. “Stupid stuff happens—countless stupid things have happened. I got trapped in a casino naked, our guitar player had sex with a cake, all these awful things happen, but at the end of the day it’s just fun getting on stage and having a stupid show and having a great time, really.”
Alestorm
8 pm Sunday, November 17
$25, Upstairs Cabaret
upstairscabaret.ca