TRACK PREMIERE: Newcastle rock collective CRUX return with ‘Living in Dystopia’

TRACK PREMIERE: Newcastle rock collective CRUX return with 'Living in Dystopia'

Having had support from Tom Robinson’s BBC 6 show, played sets at Canny Fringe Festival, Scoop Festival and supported Sam Fender, Newcastle rock collective Crux makes their return with Living in Dystopia. The band feel passionate about inspiring change through their music so decided to collaborate with producer Max Heyes, to reflect this dystopian mood into the music.

Crux was born many years ago when Max Houghton (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, and keyboards) and Jake Waldock (lead guitar) were studying at the same college together. After years of experimenting with music and finding their sound, they wanted to keep the band going but they were in need of some assistance. After scouring musician forums and holding auditions, they soon recruited Hallam Press (bass) and drummer Joe Reid, completing the Crux line up.

Since then, Crux have regularly gigged in and around Newcastle, headlining the O2 Academy, playing at Scoop Festival, Canny Fringe Festival, and releasing the single ‘Bigg Market’ to local success. The song then featured in a documentary about the infamous party street in Newcastle and then became Crux’s first music video attracting nearly 25k views on YouTube. Their previous single, Slaving Away, was played on Tom Robinson’s show on BBC R6 and attracted 11k views on YouTube.

Listening to Crux, you can hear their deep but varied influences. Max’s vocal style draws heavily on a Matt Bellamy/Thom Yorke/Jeff Buckley synthesis. Jake’s rapid fingerstyle playing is straight out of Dire Straits, Hallam’s bass chops trace back to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Joe’s obsession with Progressive Rock is always creeping into his drumming. Massive riffs, classical piano, slap bass, and political rhetoric all come together in Crux’s sound.

Speaking more on ‘Living in Dystopia’, Crux’s lead vocalist Max explained:

In my second year at the University of York, I was in a seminar on surveillance as part of my Crime and Criminal Justice Studies course. At the time, I was reading the dystopian novels, Brave New World and 1984. I thought our world was far from the dystopian levels in the stories I was reading and used this as an argument to justify surveillance. The seminar leader quickly shot my view down, opening my eyes to the similarities the world currently is to both of these novels, almost a cocktail of dystopia. This was back in 2017, and it’s only got worse since then. I wrote the lyrics in late 2018/early 2019 and think they reflect on the world’s troubles now more than ever. One hundred and seven thousand deaths is not just a number. Each one is a person with a family.

Listen to ‘Living in Dystopia’ – BELOW:

 

Using their music to stimulate change, we’re expecting big things from Crux this year. ‘Living in Dystopia’ will be available to stream on February 23rd on all streaming platforms.

Xsnoize Author
Mark Millar is the founder of XS Noize and looks after the daily running of the website as well as hosting interviews for the weekly XS Noize Podcast. Mark's favourite album is Achtung Baby by U2.

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