We sat down with George Harris of The Raven Age to discuss what Download means to him, and the weirdest thing he’s ever seen in the fields of Donnington.
Taking a seat in the dry grass of Download’s press area, George screws his face up and apologises, spitting out a sour apple gumball he has misguidedly accepted from a bandmate. Chasing the sour experience with a swig of beer, George is affable and relaxed, almost unexpectedly so considering the intensity of the set played just an hour earlier.
This isn’t The Raven Age’s first time at Download, having played in a tent in 2016, the jump up to the Zippo Encore Stage has been quite the growth spurt.
“We jumped up from the third stage last year to the second stage, and it’s just huge, the amount of people there and stuff, there’s a nice sort of hill so you could actually see the whole crowd, it was really unbelievable, quite nerve-wracking as well actually, the whole thing was filmed as well by Sky Arts so it puts more pressure on,“ he says.
“It’s nice to see us kind of climbing the Download ladder, can’t see it jumping up to main stage next year, but hopefully in a few years’ time maybe! You never know!”
Download feels like home to many of the heavy community, and it’s no different for lifetime heavy music members like George. “I’ve been to Download every year since 2007, that was the first time I came as a punter, like with a group of mates and camped, and since then I’ve camped every year except for the last few because we’ve played and had to go off and do other stuff. I’ve been coming every single year since then, and I came as a kid a few times as well. I absolutely love it.”
Most people find metal and alternative scenes through their own path, but George ended up at Download through a slightly different route. You could say he was raised into it. He attended Download as a kid, because he is the son of Iron Maiden’s Steve Harris. But we’re here to talk about him, and his band, not about his Dad. George explains Download is a huge part of his year, and not just because they’re playing, but because it’s more than just a show for him.
“There have been some pretty influential sets I’ve seen at Download, especially the first couple of years I went as I was younger. But my favourite I think it was the third stage; it was one of the tents, me and my mate wiggled our way right to the front and we caught the end of Bring Me The Horizon’s set, but we were there to see As I Lay Dying. I’d just gotten into them at the point, and I was standing right in front of Nick the guitarist, and obviously being a guitar player I was just wowed. That set just absolutely blew me away, and they quickly became one of my favourite bands. That’s probably one of the most influential sets I’ve ever seen.”
“It’s just a great sense of community here, it’s almost like I really wouldn’t want to miss it. If we’d have to be on tour or something and ended up missing Download I’d be absolutely gutted. There’s sort of a sense of family here, you see so many people who you know, it’s just such a cool vibe. Even in the mud everyone turns up and the crowds are always crazy, and I love being in the crowd as well – having a few beers with the boys. I just love Download.”
So how would George want a new fan to find The Raven Age? What is the dream discovery track? “To represent us, I kind of think our song ‘Salem’s Fate’, which is the single we released first would be a good one. Purely because it’s not a short, snappy song, it’s a 7-minute epic, but because of that it’s got a lot of dynamic to it, it’s got a bit of everything we offer as a band in that song. There’s a lot of dipping and diving and I think you can kind of get an idea of what we’re going to be like through that song.”
And the dream tour lineup?
“So, I’d put us on obviously, we’d be opening…” wait – what? George laughs and corrects himself, “oh yeah, actually no, we’d be headlining! Then underneath us, out of all the bands I’d love to tour with, it would be Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage and Trivium. I just love those three bands and I’d love to play with them.”
Everyone seems to have a story about Download, something serendipitous or strange, something that perfectly captures Download for them, so what is it for George Harris? “My very first year we were camping and we turned up quite late to this campsite and it was rammed. There was this tiny little slot right next to the toilets, it was like ‘oh whatever I’m done walking let’s go there’ and anyway, next to us, there was this tent that was laid out, but this guy in kind of leather gear with a leather kind of skirt, almost like an armour kind of thing, was flat out laid on top of his tent. Face down, not in it, on top of it. It rained a few times, and it was cold and he was there, laid down on this thing all weekend. He must not have moved even once, we kind of thought he might be dead, it was like do we check? Do we call anyone? And we went and spoke to this guy and he was like yeah he’s alive, someone has reported him, he’s just chilling. I’ve got no idea what was in his system or whatever, but I couldn’t believe it. Go to Download and sleep, why not!”
Why not indeed.