WILL HOMER - still rocks

Justin: Can you juggle?

Will: No. Unfortunately, I can barely take the stairs. It's true. 

 Justin: Why London? 

 Will: It's where I was born mate. So I was born in Archway at the Whittington. My parents dragged me back to Muswell Hill crying and screaming because… I was just born. And, I've lived there ever since. And it's kind of funny, 20 years ago, you'd sort of get laughed at like, oh, what? You're gonna be 30 living in your parents basement and now it's just like smart economic living.

 Justin: Oh, yeah. Literally, the charm of London. Do you reckon you will ever leave?

 Will: I've considered it. Yeah. Like I've seen a lot of places around the world but at the same time I just find myself. I'll come back to London. Like, I'll be away from it, bitch about it, but at the same time I crave it. It's like you get so conditioned to the carnage that is London. Like sensory overload at all times. Not being friendly with any single other human on the streets. Yeah. And even though it's completely cold and heartless, you kind of just get used to it, and then It makes those nice little moments where you do have a laugh a lot better.

Justin: Oh, I hear that. Has there been anywhere you've gone in the world in your life that's close to competing with it? 

Will: Melbourne was nice. That was vibes. There's like a few different little, not anywhere specific in America, but just staying away from the coasts, because they're basically just London 2.0 except a lot more fake. Like LA irritated me, I was there for 2 weeks in an Airbnb and by the end of those 2 weeks I was so happy to bolt. It's  just like even just going to the supermarket. Like it's fine for the most part. You realize that even though it's like oh you got Hollywood there, you got all these famous actors and stuff like that. Yeah. Yeah. In the actual heart like where people will actually be. It's so run down. No one's taking care of it. At the same time everything's overpriced. Like in amongst a really dodgy neighbourhood we're in an apartment complex right next to a Whole Foods. 

Justin: How'd you get into coffee? 

Will: So my first job was just for money so I could do music. Planet Organic in 2008. They’d just opened a branch on Essex Road. Me and my guitar player at the time, we applied for the Muswell Hill one because it's near where we lived. Naturally, got interviewed for the one in Islington. He ended up on tills. I ended up on Food To Go.

Back then, I had dreadlocks. So I'm there serving salads and coffees. Like having a panic attack on my first day trying to find a hairnet in Angel and, like it was a wild first ever job experience. My manager was like, ‘right you need to go into Angel and buy a hairnet, if you don't, we can't hire you.’ 18 year old me sobbing on the phone to my mum ‘where do I buy a hairnet? I've heard about them in principle but what?  I've seen them on TV but how do I find one that fits my barnet?’ My dreads were like down to the bottom of my back at that point. 

Justin: Unbelievable. When did they go? 

Will: 2010. 

Justin: Oh, Wow

Will: Because we were gonna go on a tour with 3 other bands and every single band it was like, I can't remember the opening band but it was a band called Shadow To Fall and a band called 5 Finger Death Punch. And in each band there was one guy with dreadlocks. And I hadn't noticed this until about 2 weeks before the tour. And I was like, I am not that guy, no. no. So I didn't tell the rest of the band. 

Justin: Was it like a mirror held up to you?

Will: I was just like, oh God. I'm that guy. This just feels silly. So I shaved my head.

Justin: Tell me about the music.

Will: Do you guys know much about metal or anything like that?

Justin: Cool. He (Hayden) does, and I'm very good at listening. 

Will:  Fantastic. So I used to be in a metalcore band called Rise to Remain.  

Justin: What were you playing in the band? 

Will: So I was a guitar player. Yeah. In my very, very, very first band in secondary school I played bass, bass players were basically the guitar players that didn't join the band early enough. Then when this opportunity showed up, I was like, yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I get to play guitar now.

Started just jams and then eventually managed to piece together a band. Started doing small local shows. Our first show was in Camden. Loads of little things, mostly Tufnell  Park because the dome there, like the downstairs dome, used to always have, like, local metal shows and stuff. I think it's called the Boston Music Rooms now. 

Justin: Mhmm. I was thinking of places like on the junction. Yeah. It's the upstairs function, yeah. They used to put wrestling on.  

Will: What? 

Justin: Yeah. They put wrestling on. 

Will: Wrestling on at the dome YEEEES. I'll give you the full detailed history, no,  So, we got an opportunity to play Download Festival on the 3rd stage in 2008. We were still in 6th form at this time. 

Justin: Mad. So you guys were like shit hot. 

Will: pfft I don't like speaking highly of myself but people liked us and I will roll with that.

 Justin: Absolutely. 

 Will: They saw the potential in us and that was cool. So we took it with open arms. We impressed, Paul Ryan from the agency group, who does loads of big bands like Killswitch engage, Slayer, and other bands. I can't remember off the top of my head, he himself was in Cradle of Filth, which I find so funny. Like, all wearing the face makeup, The fact he was in it because he's like just like the sharpest beard you've ever seen. Always wearing a flat like a baseball cap. Just looks hard as fuck, And then to know he was once boss beating, wearing the corpse paint on stage, it's like that's sick. That's jokes. But, yeah, went with them, recorded some EPs, did a lot more touring, got to tour with loads of big bands. Yeah. That led to us in 2010, the same time as us getting in the studio with a really big producer called Colin Richardson, and Carl Bowne. In that same year, we also won the Kerrang Award and Metal Hammer Award for best new band. 

 Justin: Sick. 

 Will: From that, that secured us not only a record deal with EMI, but we then went on the, Like sort of part of Asia and the Australia tour with Iron Maiden.

 Justin: Absolutely buried the lead with bloody Planet Organic chat! You went on tour with Iron Maiden?!

 Will: Yeah, mate. Yeah. I've done things and stuff. That's how I got to Melbourne, because while we were there, we got to play loads of cool venues with them because they played like arenas and stadiums and stuff. That was a laugh. Like, I think on that tour alone, we played 3 Olympic arenas. 

Justin: Wait. Wait. Wait. That's a strange use of “stuff”. Ridiculous.

Will: Mate, the funniest one was Russia based on how much of a shit show that night was.
Fast forward to 2018. Basically, with the band we were in, I'll skirt around any issues in case anyone from my label ever does decide to look into me, but the label…. 

Justin: EMI are all over us all the time. 

Will: Oh, no, oh, man. The best part about that. So we left EMI because they basically went bankrupt and had to sell up shop, and in them getting divided, it voided our contract, which was handy as we were definitely in a lot of debt with them. I won't say the number as you have the recordings going...but a lot. 

Hayden: I can pause it.

Will: I'll say it after.  But, because the contract got voided, we got out of that debt scot free. Come on. Big relief for a bunch of idiots in their twenties. Yeah. 

Justin: You're not paying any advances back.

Will: Exactly mate. But recently, in the last couple of months, I've acquired a Mac, from my brother-in-law, And I've started just recording again at home for fun, which is nice. It's nice getting back into it. Reminding myself of why I enjoyed it in the first place.