After listening to their new EP  Forced Hand, available for pre-order now via Farewell Records, it was without a doubt that I was gonna introduce you all to The River Card. That is, if you’re not familiar with the Stoke-on-Trent band yet, like I was. They’ve actually been around since 2005 and put out six blasting releases to date, so you better get to know these guys. Here we go:

Please introduce yourself and your band.

“I’m David Buck and I play guitar in The River Card. The rest of the band is made up of Chris Buck (drums), Matt Weston (guitar), Calum Corser (bass), Chris Smith (vocals).”

How did you come up with the band name, The River Card?

“The River Card is the last card that is drawn in a game of poker. Winning or losing pretty much comes down to the river card and that fine line between success and failure seemed a good metaphor for a lot of things in life. Plus a few of us were playing a lot of poker when we formed this band!!”

Define your sound in three words and elaborate on that.

“Hard Hitting Hardcore. I think our sound has evolved over time but from our first record to the new one I think this is pretty much the theme.”

Your new 7″ Forced Hand is available for pre-order via Farewell Records. Can you tell us a little bit more about this release?

“This record has been a fairly long time in the works. We recorded it in March at The Ranch Production House in Southampton, UK with Neil Kennedy. He has done records recently with the likes of More Than Life, Landscapes, Polar etc… that we really liked the production on. He was amazing to work with and personally our favourite recording experience so far. I think in terms of the songs it’s just a continuation of what we’ve always tried to do, groovy riffs and lyrics about the struggles of life.”

Unfortunately you guys had to pull out of the Downpresser tour in January. What happened?

“Well, we didn’t pull out of the tour. It was unfortunately Downpresser who did. We don’t know a lot about the situation but it seems that they have had some member issues.”

Whoops! Misread that on your Facebook-page. My bad… So what’s next for The River Card?

“We are playing five UK release shows in December and we’re currently working on whether we can still come and play some of the shows ourselves in January even though Downpresser aren’t coming over anymore. In the worst case we are still coming out for the two No Turning Back release shows in Essen and Antwerp. The main theme of 2015 is going to be playing live as much as possible. We’ve spent this last year working on the record and dealing with real life things like members getting married and having children so the band was put on a little bit of a back burner. Now we are looking forward again to hitting the road again and seeing a lot of friends.”

The River Card: Facebook / Bandcamp / Order Forced Hand