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It was nearing the end of day one at 2000 Trees Festival 2023, but the Mutt gang hadn’t packed up for the evening yet. That’s because we were waiting to interview Pigs x7, and to say the Mutt camp were excited would be an understatement.  

The Newcastle metal band were in the midst of a festival tour - Once they were done with us in Cheltenham they were jumping back in the van for a four hour drive, before a 6am flight to Slovakia to play Pohoda Festival. Thankfully we managed to wrangle two of the Pigs, singer Matthew and lead guitarist Adam, long enough for a chinwag. 

“We’re just doing festivals this year which has all been very pleasant,” said Adam. Following on from Pigs’ previous tour which came at the tail-end (no pun intended) of 2021 when Covid was still rife, the lads seemed to enjoy the more laidback nature of their shows at the time.

“Doing the tour towards the end of last year (2022), there was obviously a lot of covid flying around and we were very aware of the implications of what would happen if covid started ripping through the touring party,” explained lead singer Matthew.
“For a tour that had been rescheduled two years over, it was quite stressful in many ways. Also part of touring that we like doing is meeting up and speaking with interesting people, but we couldn’t do any of that. We had to keep our distance from people, we couldn’t even converse with the support acts. Whereas the festivals which we’ve been doing so far we’ve got all of that back so it’s been good.”

Pigs obviously loved being back on the road in more normal circumstances and admitted to being spoiled in terms of venues they get to play at. When we asked them to list their highlights, Matthew couldn’t help but give a special shout out to their hometown.
“We played at the Cluny in Newcastle last Saturday, that’s a really good venue. It was the first time we had played in Newcastle for probably about three years. Every attempt to do a show since the pandemic has just been cancelled or postponed. It’s taken three years to play in our hometown so that was a really special atmosphere.” 

Speaking of ‘hometowns’, what about Birmingham? Not always the easiest question, but on this occasion Matthew’s eyes lit up: “There’s a really good festival in Birmingham called Supersonic which is kind of more left field music, more experimental stuff with idiots like us thrown in there as well. When I started playing in bands that was a festival I really liked. Every year the line up is incredible and I just thought it was such a bold programme of artists and musicians. And then after so many years of Pigs existing we finally got to play there so it was kind of a dream come true. A few years later we got asked again for their 15th anniversary. We headlined one of the stages and that for me was like completion of a really strange and surreal journey we’d been on, it felt very special.”

We didn't need confirmation - we already knew Birmingham really is the best. Whilst Pigs may have already known about the city’s booming music scene, we fear they were less versed in its history with motorbikes.
“The only time I sat on a motorbike,” Matthew began worryingly, “was when I was about fourteen years old and my mate got one. I sat on that in his garden and he revved it up and I just went full throttle on the accelerator. The back wheel shot up, but I carried on holding on to the bike because it was going towards a green house. I let go at the last minute and luckily it spun off and just missed the green house… So that put me off.”

We might have to wrap him in cotton wool when Pigs come to visit us at the House of Mutt, but they did promise to play a gig for us. In exchange, we said we’d name a bike after them, but what would it be called?
Adam suggests 'The Snout' and Matthew nods in agreement.
“I like The Snout, it’s got an edge to it. Sounds a bit dangerous.”   

So that’s agreed, we still look forward to seeing you both in Birmingham. Time for our team to get working on The Snout?