Moral Dilemma is a great punk band from the UK. They have played a ton of shows and I mean a ton. They have also toured Europe extensively and released two albums and an EP. The band has one of the best live shows in the UK and it is something you will really enjoy. I got Craig to tell their story...
Introduce yourself…
I'm craig, I play guitar and sing in Moral Dilemma
How did the band start?
I met pasty from going to shows, we initially had a different bass player for a few months and played our first show when chloe played her last show with her old band ST/DC when our old bassist left we decided chloe was teh only person for the job and asked her to join.
We then played pretty much anywhere with electricity, a lot of squat shows which where happening a lot at the time and any venue that would take us. We recorded our first album "right to remain silent" in 2009, released it ourself, hit the road and have been touring and playing ever since
How did you come up with the name?
It was a long list of band name ideas, all the others where pretty horendous
I was reading a lot of philosophy at the time, and It just seemed to fit that every persons actions are determined by their own morality, by what they define as right and wrong, wether to accept everything or ask questions.
Who would you say are your influences?
Me personally, from the punk world I love pretty much all of it. From early 77 bands like the clash, the ruts, jonny thunders dead boys. Uk street punk bands like gbh and attack, and in particular a lot of old hardcore like black flag, the adolesscents, 'x', fear, circle jerks etc
Outside of that I listen to a lot of all kinds of music I've been a blues fanatic from an early age and worship anything that was put out on chess records, early delta stuff like son house, robert johnson and skip james which tends to subtly sink through into our songs
I'd say the gun club for me personally are also a big influence on the songwriting.
People are usually pretty surprised when they get in a van with us, we will go from muddy waters and james brown, to the swingin utters, to wolfbrigade to nwa to french hip hop to eek a mouse.
Our only goal was to just play what comes naturally in order to sound honest and not contrived and allowing all the music you listen too to seep through into your sound, there has never been a conscious effort to sound like anyone else.
What is the punk scene like in the UK?
Its ok, people are quite passionate, but I feel their not as active as they could be, but quite happy to complain that "the scene here is dead" which is a phrase we hear all too often on tour in certain towns.
Its a lot harder to do things over here than in europe, But there are quite a lot of bands forming and doing things off their own back which is a constant inspiration.
Describe the song writing process...
For the most part I've come up with the initial wireframe of the song ( ie a riff, lyrics, or a verse and chorus) then we work on the song until it works and we're happy with it, jamming different things, adding bits etc... usually it ends up sounding totally different to what i brought to the table.
Theres been a few tunes that pasty or chloe has written on a bass, which i've taken as a guitar part, then we've built the song around that and collaborated on the lyrics....
Its very different from song to song, the only thing that remains constant is that we don't commit to playing a song live until we are all collectively happy with it
In 2009, you released the 'Agree to Disagree' album, tell us about the album...
Its 10 tracks long, we recorded it in 3 days. with peter miles in devon who apart from recording both of our albums has worked with artists such as the king blues, sonic boom six, fall of efrafa, crazy arm and the skints. Its loud, its fast, its pissed off
Unlike most other bands we recorded the backline live all in the same room, which gives it a nice raw oldschool feel yet still sounds very clean
In 2010, you released the 'Under Surveillance' 7", tell us about the 7"...
Its a round clear piece of plastic, hand numbered limited to only 500 copies, and comes with a download code we've very nearly sold out of them.
The a side features under surveillance, and nowhere else to go.
The b-side features "cayenne" which is our version of a french folk song that chloe sings in her native tongue, and "Your decadence will be our descent"
What else have you released?
We released our debut album right to remain silent ourselves in 2009, which has recently been re released through active distribution.
It was recorded in 19 hours flat and was produced by Itch from the king blues and Peter miles
Who are some of the bands you have done shows with?
Fuck i dunno theres a SHIT LOAD
off the top of my head, trash talk star fucking hipsters, the casualties, leftover crack, random hand, the skints, the king blues, mouthwash, the restarts, defcon zero, the autonomads, Into5pect, static thought, bad religion, Jello biafra and the Guantanamo school of medicine, the subhumans and like a billion others
Have you toured?
Yes... A SHIT LOAD
in the UK and Europe
Do you prefer small clubs or large venues?
The venue doesn't concern me too much, its all about the atmosphere, the crowed and ultimately the gig.
We like to play in places where the people running the place know what they're doing and arn't dicks, and the crowd are up for it, which has nothing to do with the size of the place
Is there a favorite band you like to do shows with?
we're fans of and are friends with a lot of bands who we've toured with a few names would be:
The star fucking hipsters , the autonomads , the skints, the king blues amongst loads of others... impossible to pick favourites, they're all great people and great bands for totally different reasons
Is there a favorite place you like to do shows at?
Always good to play the camden underworld, the adelphi in hull is cool, 13th note in glasgow, trillians in newcastle is great too
What do you see is the future of Moral Dilemma?
We're touring the uk with the swingin utters and the exposed in early september
Beyond that we're writing our 3rd album, which we hope to give a strong release, we're 2 thirds through the writing process so can't make many long term plans until thats completed.
The only thing that concerns me in terms of long distant future is that we continue to write great songs and put on a great live show. If people who like us enjoy it, and that number of people increases each time we return then i couldn't be happier
How can people contact the band?
facebook.com/moraldilemma
twitter.com/moraldilemma
moraldilemma_Cbr@hotmail.com
you can order merch from moraldilemma.bigcartel.com
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