Nuclear Blast Internship Diary - Day 8

Thursday 5 November 2015

The usual workload greeted me as I arrived which didn’t take too long to tackle.

What stood out most, work wise, was Lisa asking me to update the label’s Pinterest page. I’d never used that site before, but have been aware of it for a long time. It seemed quite self-explanatory and I eventually started updating the band page with newly signed artists.

Then at lunchtime, the hard rock band Crobot arrived at the office. They were here to play several shows across the country. Their vocalist, Brandon told me he loved sci-fi and we chatted about Douglas Adams.

Lisa then showed the group the Jagermeister machine in the back office which is endorsed by Slayer. It’s the only one of its kind and they offered me a shot. I then sat down for a while with Crobot and they chatted about all kinds of things from the new Kadavar album to airport security and the uselessness of the TSP.

Once again these guys were some of the friendliest people I’ve ever met. Americans always come across as nice, well-mannered and don’t use as much bravado and make stupid thuggish sounds like most Brits. Another band I’ll listen to as I now regard them as good people.

They certainly knew how to have fun – one of them has Happy Birthday tattooed on his backside, which one of the others photographed as a well wishing for one of their friends back home.

We kept supplying them with free beer as someone had left a crate full of Fosters in the kitchen. They were quite surprised when I told them it isn’t Australian.

In the afternoon, Lisa introduced me to how the label’s Facebook page is run and said she’d go over more social media things in the coming days. From what we discussed, she and Mark the boss used to work for Roadrunner Records and they both signed over to Nuclear Blast when the UK office was founded because working for major labels didn’t feel like a worthwhile job. Apparently at places like Warner, you’re quite likely to find people getting drunk in the office around 4pm on a Friday. Somewhere where working in the music business has been consumed by the rock n roll lifestyle. Not the kind of thing I could ever do.

Next week is my last at the label and I know I’ll certainly miss this place once I’m gone. But for now it’s time to head on up to the North of England for the Damnation Festival. Another weekend of metal, friends and adventure.