Welcome to In Conversation, our interview column where we pick the brains of artists on the cutting edge of music. Joe and Jack chatted to Tazz Edwards of Oversize, after they performed on The Axiom stage at this year’s 2000trees. We chatted about their recent album Vital Signs, Twitter shitposting, and trying to get traded an Oddish in Pokemon Diamond.
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Joe: How are you finding 2000trees so far?
Tazz: It’s incredibly warm, people were lovely and the set was sick. I’m very dusty but everyone is being really nice, very kind and very friendly. I’m gassed and I would love some water.
Joe: The dust is getting everywhere, I was walking back last night and the dust gets everywhere and in your nose.
Tazz: I came off-stage and I hadn’t touched anything, I had touched the floor, when I started washing my hands they were just covered in dirt. I was like, “where did that come from?“, it was all just from where the dust had attached itself to me.
Joe: You’ve done Outbreak and now 2000trees, do you have anything else coming up?
Tazz: We have No Play coming up in Liverpool and then some shows around that with Glare, who are a sick band. We’re going out somewhere in Europe later this year and then Slow Crush back here in November, festival wise that is everything though.
Joe: At Outbreak you had a clash with SPEED, and now at 2000trees you’ve had a clash with Coheed and Cambria. Are you feeling slightly cursed?
Tazz: Right, so genuinely, no shade, it’s just a bit. I’ve realised with Twitter and shitposting, you can put up a poster with your set time and no one really cares. But if you start some fake beef and make it seem like an issue, people take it way more seriously, which is hilarious. Everyone believes what they see online.
As for the clash, yeah, on paper it looked terrible. Honestly, both this set and the one at Outbreak were actually more fun because of it, weirdly. The people who showed up genuinely cared and really wanted to check us out. I was personally gutted because one of my favourite bands was on at the same time. The only reason I was really mad was because I didn’t get to see Coheed and Cambria twice.
Joe: Was there any difference in terms of reception between 2000trees and Outbreak?
Tazz: That one was a weird one, just because it’s traditionally a hardcore fest. And with the clash against SPEED, every hardcore fan under the sun was probably at their set. The cool thing was, everyone who was at ours was really into it. There were people from Europe, not even people I know wearing Oversize shirts and singing along. That still kind of blows my mind. Not in a bad way, it’s just wild to see that happening. So in a way, it filtered the crowd down to just the people who were genuinely into what we do, and the vibe was amazing. You could feel that connection, and that same energy is here today too.
Obviously, we’re up against Coheed’s acoustic set, and they’re headlining so that’s a tricky one. Honestly, I had a great time. I love 2000trees. I’ve been coming here for years, I first came as a teenager, and now I finally get to play. It’s sick. So yeah, I’m stoked.
Joe: I did enjoy it when you described Cheltenham at the “The North”.
Tazz: Right, someone said that, who was it? Isabel, wasn’t it? Yeah, Isabel. She was like, “Cheltenham is not the North.” Well… at least we’re playing the festival, Isabel.
Joe: You dropped Vital Signs in February, so it’s been about five months now, right? I feel like it’s actually a much more Summery record. Like, I liked it when it came out, but I’ve been enjoying it so much more recently, it’s properly slotted into my rotation with you guys, Bleed, a bit of Turnstile. It just really sets the vibe. Since it dropped in Feb, what’s the response been like for you? And how have you perceived it over the last few months, especially now that you’ve been playing it live a lot more?
Tazz: Absolutely. It’s interesting you say that about it feeling Summery, we actually recorded it two years ago now, and we held onto it for a bit until Sharptone picked it up. But yeah, it was tracked in the Summer, in heat like this, over something like ten days. So to me, it always felt like a Summer record, even though it ended up coming out when it was cold, which was kind of weird to sit with.
I probably won’t explain this well, but I feel like the time of year you release a record really does impact how people connect with it. So it was definitely strange writing and recording it in the summer and then having it come out almost in the winter.
That said, the feedback has been so cool. It’s a bit surreal seeing people associate with it now and really engage with it, especially when it’s something we finished two years ago. It still trips me out a bit. To us, it feels old, but for a lot of people, they’re only just now discovering it.
Joe: Two years ago would have been your Church Road Record days?
Tazz: So we released the record in 2022, and then tracked the album in June 2023. We were doing some shows with Boston Manor at the time, and they’re connected with Sharptone and all that. I think someone jokingly said, “Oh, you’d be a good fit for them”.
Then someone handed me the A&R’s email, so I just dropped them a message like, “Hey, you might like this, check it out.” Didn’t expect anything, but they replied saying, “This is sick”. I was like, wait, didn’t think you’d even respond. Then they asked if we wanted to meet up, and yeah, it kind of just went from there. We were honestly a bit like, that’s wild.
Joe: Sharptone/Nuclear Blast more generally, seem to be signing a lot of really sick stuff lately. They’re definitely carving out a great space for themselves. Bands like PSYCHO-FRAME, God Complex, Terminal Sleep, all that stuff is so good.
Tazz: They’re such a sick label, even the stuff they’re doing out in the States, like Excide and Foreign Hands, just a super dynamic roster. I think we fit because we’re more on that weird, old-rocky side, whereas a lot of their roster leans heavier. I kind of like being the little weird one, the fun, odd one out.
Jack: With the Twitter/X account, I was intrigued whether that came about as a conscious effort. I think we’ve sort of touched on it, but did you just sort of fall into that, because it definitely stands out from a lot of other bands’ accounts.
Tazz: Yeah, it was definitely a conscious thing. I joined Oversize when they’d only released one song, a track called “Drive” and they were looking for another guitarist. So at first, I was kind of taking a backseat while we were writing new material. I didn’t want to step on anyone’s toes.
I remember asking, “Do any of you guys use Twitter?” And they were just like, “Eh…” So I checked, and it was all just stuff like “Playing this show”, “Playing that show.” And I realised, nobody cares about that.
Jack: So you transformed the account.
Tazz: I am shitpost aficionado.
Jack: It definitely works, it leads into my next question, the Euro Gabber set.
Tazz: James Trees, where are you? James Trees, you promised us the Euro gabber set. He’s been quiet ever since, man. He’s been quiet. I need to have a word with him.
Jack: I think a fair few people would pay to see that.
Tazz: I’d pay to do it, I’d pay to play. It’d be cool. We love playing rock music but after that, let’s get on some heavy beats.
Jack: So another thing that sort of intrigues me is that banter isn’t the same on stage. Have you considered bringing that into the performances as well?
Tazz: They won’t let me have a mic yet. I think it’d be pretty wild if they gave me a mic, honestly. Me and Danika, I can’t remember what publication she’s with, sorry Danika, we did a little something at the SPEED clash. I was like, let’s make a bit of a thing out of it.
Joe: That was Hive Magazine.
Tazz: She was like, “Should we do an interview?” And I said, “Yeah, but it has to be during the set”. I don’t really know how it turned out, but it was kind of funny, actually pretty good. You’ve got to laugh at it.
The music itself is pretty serious, though. The contrast is insane. Sammy, our vocalist, wrote this really beautiful, personal record about grief and loss, someone close to him in his family. I don’t want to speak for him, but I love the record. So the juxtaposition of something that serious being played live but also turning into a meme is kind of hilarious.
Jack: Not to dwell on the SPEED clash, how do you go about handling that?
Tazz: It definitely made the set weirdly more enjoyable, if that makes sense. We were kind of bracing for the worst, but it turned out way better than expected. The people who showed up were really into it, which gave us a boost.
Honestly, the more bad stuff that happens, the more ammunition I get to just be an idiot on the internet. I kind of thrive on it, it actually works in your favour. Like, yeah, we might lose out on numbers in the room, but that just makes up for it with social media shitposting.
Jack: It was added to it by having Greg shoot your set.
Tazz: People thought that me and him have actual beef. It was brilliant watching people in the replies to that, think we actually hate him. They actually think our beef with him is serious. Like, “Yeah, fuck that rat”. And I’m just like, “Yeah, fuck that guy”. It’s Twitter, it’s all jokes.
Although he did bail today.
Jack: Oh, so what I’m hearing is you’re calling him out for that?
Tazz: Yeah, calling him out right now. Very cool. There we go, no triple A’s for you, baby boy.
Jack: The only other question I had was, did you get the Oddish?
Tazz: Man, no one’s given me an Oddish yet, dude. I fucking love this guy. I love him so much. Still waiting on it, it’s overdue. Someone will come through, I’m sure.
You know what? That offer still stands for any shows we play: if you trade me an Oddish on Pokémon Diamond for DS, I’ll hook you up with a guest list spot for a show you want to come to. Open invitation until someone claims it.
Thanks to Tazz for sitting down with us to have a chat at 2000trees. You can read our review of Oversize‘s record, Vitial Signs, here. Tickets for their upcoming tour with Slow Crush can be found here. You can check out our coverage their 2000trees festival set here.