Hi there, thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Can you introduce yourself and the band? 

 

Hi my name is Joris, I’m the drummer in Steak Number Eight. We started to play together at the age of 12. We all met each other in school and on the skate ramps. It was just messing around till stuff got serious in our country. At the age of 16 we won a big "Battle of the Bands” competition in Belgium and this got us a lot of exposure. We released our first home-recorded demo / EP “When The Candle Dies Out” immediately after that. In 2011 we released our first proper album “All Is Chaos”, and early 2013 “The Hutch”. And now we’re ready for album n° 3 (or 4 … some people count the first EP aswell) : KOSMOKOMA. 
 
You’ve been around for over a decade now, you started out a really young age, did you ever expect it to last this long? 

 

No, but we always dreamed about it! The cool thing is that we’re just four retards who have the same interests and humour! Also our crew are best friends so I think we’ll never quit doing what we do because it’s so much fun! 
  
What’s been the highlight for you? 

 

Wow. Too many highlights. Every show with a good crowd and nice energy is amazing. The enthousiast fans make every single moment a highlight.

But if we had to pick something … the tour we did with Marmozets earlier this year was amazing. They were already good friends so the vibe on that tour was just perfect.
Supporting your heroes is always nice too. We did supports for Deftones and Dillinger Escape Plan. We even once drove all the way to Poland for a single support for Alice Cooper hahahahaha. Like I said…4 retards in a tourvan having lots of fun. 
 
How about any lowlights? 

Driving 8 hours to play a show, and seeing the promotor didn’t even bother to put up the poster we sent him. I mean, why promote a show if you’re too lazy to put up a fucking poster. We always try to give our best, even with 4 people in the crowd, but those nights can really suck. But we use them to try different things in the set, so atleast the few people that made the effort to come get to see something special. 
 
You’ve released three albums and an EP so far, do you have a favourite song from them? 

I don’t really have a favorite song because they all have their own vibe, groove or challenge. 
 
What are the Steak Number Eight plans for the rest of 2015 and into 2016? 

We have our upcoming headline release tour in Europe this November. Then there is the sold out album release-show in Belgium! It’s the first time we sold around 1000 tickets for our own headlining show, so that should be a special one! And for the rest I hope we’re on the road as much as possible and play festivals all summer long! 
 
Have your influences changed over the past decade? Would a future album sound drastically different to your previous outputs? 

I guess everyone discovers new music. And yes you get inspired from things you like, but it doesn’t always have to be a musical influence. Sometimes nature can also be very inspiring or things you’ve been through. But my music influences have always been Deftones, Tool, Mastodon and a bit of The Dillinger Escape Plan.
 
Do you guys get to many gigs these days? If so, what have you been to?

Yeah it depends, I worked in a bar that does live gigs and I play in two other bands besides Steak Number Eight : Vort and Raveyards. Raveyards is also with Brent, our frontman. So most weekends I’m in some venue, but mostly to play with one of the bands I’m in. 
 
Last couple of questions for you, any places/festivals you’re dying to play as a band? 

 

We want to play everywhere, it’s amazing that our music brought us on so much different places! But festivals yeah: Reading, Wacken, Glastonbury, Sziget, too much sick festivals!! 
 
Finally, anything you want to pass on to the MNN readers?

Buy, stream or steal our new album. Let us know what you think! We love getting comments on our facebook page or in the mail. Join our family and meet us on tour so we can have a drink after the show and get to know each other! It’s all about that human connection. And we’re just so grateful this band is taking us places we’d never imagine to go.