The band has an unusual name, what are the origins?
We were thinking about what name we could have for the band and our Bass player, Phil, was reading this book where there was something called "The Culture" and he really liked the concept of what "The Culture" were about. I always liked the name "Jigsaw", but there was already a band called Jigsaw so we decided to put it together. We thought it sounded a strange but strangely compelling - so we decided to go with.
You've only been together as a band since 2003, but where do your roots go back to?
We started in October 2003. A friend of mine told me about Chris (drums) so I got together with him and then we got in touch with another lad I knew and jammed for a bit. After one or two rehearsals, it wasn't for him.
I got in touch with my friend Phil who used to be in Bloodstream, and we just clicked straight away. After a while we were looking for a keyboard player and a vocalist and it took us the best part of a year to find one. That's where we are now really. This is our first gig with our keyboard player and our first gig with the vocalist is going to be in March, we are still under construction really, well over a year after we first formed.
How much material do you have so far then? Which is your favourite?
We only have 4 songs at the moment, they are the ones you heard today. They are all quite long really, they are all about 7 and a half minutes to 15 minutes long which is part of the nature of the type of music we are doing.
I like them all equally, but I think my favourite has got to be the last one we've done, Claw.
What do you feel influences your music?
Well my biggest influence is early Genesis and I love all the 70's progressive rock stuff. A lot of the music that I have done previously has been of a metal background which is why I know a lot of the people that are organising [Black Winters Day] and that's how we got the gig really. Phil DJ's in a club so gets a lot of exposure to different stuff - and he's currently into HIM.
You said that this was your first gig with your keyboard player, how active have you been gigging before today?
We have done 2 gigs before this, both were instrumentals only. The Market Tavern in Bradford, which is a lot smaller venue than this, was an all dayer and the other was also in Bradford with a couple of bands we know.
If you had to compare yourselves to another band in the industry who would it be?
It's a difficult question really because what we are trying to do is be an original. The closest bands I can think of are Porcupine Tree and Sikth they are quite good and kind of experimental as well.
Where do you see yourselves going from here?
Well primarily we are in this because we love playing the music so we don't have big wild aspirations of getting anywhere. We don't see ourselves as big stars or anything, although that would be nice. I suppose what we would like to do is make albums and get ourselves heard.
Would you like to make a full time career out of it?
Obviously we want to become more well known, what band doesn't. We have all been in bands for many years and we know that making it [to the big-time] very rarely happens - we just enjoy it and have a good time.
A lot of bands, especially in the metal scene, want to make it big and forget what it's all about - making music and enjoying it. They seem to miss the point. It's a kind of scene that's quite exclusive and [bands] only seem to be happy being exclusive.
Maybe it's just me, I am quite cynical about all this. I have been part of it for some time and have seen it going down this route for the last 10 years. It's sad really.
If you could go with any band on tour, who would it be?
Me personally? I don't know. I think King Chrimson or Tool.