Neu God Damn: “We’re Like The Band That Never Dies”

The Black Country is full of hidden gems - the traditional pub tucked below Wolverhampton train station and God Damn, who are enjoying its finest cheese and onion cobs followed by bread pudding, to name just a couple.

This two-piece may not yet have reached the levels of fame some of their Midlands counterparts have, but they’ve deservedly been a local favourite for a long time.

“We’re like the band that never dies,” says guitarist and vocalist, Thom Edward. God Damn have more reason than most to have evaporated into nothing, after they unexpectedly found themselves a member down last year. They made the decision to continue as a two-piece whilst guitarist, Dave Copson, recuperated from an accident. “To me it feels pretty natural playing as a two-piece”, says drummer, Ash Weaver. “It’s easy because we know each other inside out anyway.” Thom agrees, “It’s all just nods and winks really, isn’t it? We’ve been playing in bands together for a long time so it does feel natural but it was weird at the start because of the conditions obviously.”

The friendship that would eventually blossom into God Damn began where all brilliant things do - a house party. Strangely enough, Thom and Ash originally discussed starting a two-piece, although it never intentionally happened. When their bassist “fucked off to find oil in Australia” (“No, it was gold!”, Ash interjects), they joined forces with Dave and God Damn was born. “It basically started off as being a side project to piss everybody off. We wanted to play like guerrilla shows wearing masks. We just wanted to piss everybody off… which we’ve kinda done.” God Damn are just that bit too heavy and raucous for some, including daytime radio. “They won’t play us because we’re too heavy. And because of our name.”

Aside from the apparently offensive name holding them back, Thom admits they may have had more success if they were a bit more ruthless.“We’re too nice, that’s our problem. We should be a bit more cut throat.” Ash continues, “Everything’s the opposite way to how it should be with God Damn but that’s what’s different about us.”

They might be too nice but brown-nosing their way to the top is not their style. “We’re really crap at sucking dick. Some people are really good at going around and doing that. We’re really nice to people. We don’t suck the dick of bands that we maybe should be hanging around with,” says Thom.

“We’re the most down to earth people in the world”, Ash adds.”‘Alright, mate!”, Thom interrupts, even though it’s true. There’s nothing pretentious about them, just hugs and “I like your shoes”.

With an album in the final stages and due for release “November or maybe January”, God Damn should prepare for that success to spiral. Especially since Thom declares it’s “going to be a masterpiece”. Despite still recovering, Dave will feature on the album. “I’ve been teaching him some things and he’d already learnt it by the time I’d half-finished teaching him, and he could already play it better than me so he’s an incredible guitarist and he’s got amazing production skills. He’s on the album and he will have more involvement as time goes on. I think this album is a two piece album but it can be played as a three piece or a ten piece album.”

God Damn play this year’s Camden Crawl, CC14.