Their monolithic riffs summoning images of woolly mammoths falling out of Skylab, Secret Birds are an ever-modifying band. One person, however, has remained constantly present throughout the combo’s various incarnations – the man of a thousand caps, guitarist/chief songwriter Damon Black.

"Secret Birds started as something I did by myself, just as a solo thing; a few years ago, I was in a band called On/Oxx, and that kind of fell apart – after doing that, I started doing something I was in control of," he says. "I started doing gigs by myself, with just an acoustic guitar, and then I did another gig with a synthesiser, and at that point friends of mine started asking if they could join in; the first person to join was Ross [Chandler], who now plays drums in the John Steel Singers, and from then on we got people who were already playing in other bands, so we had to work around people’s commitments."

Having seen Secret Birds live twice – both times in completely different versions – I note that the band’s impact hasn’t diminished on either occasion.

"It pretty quickly turned into a situation where there was going to be no fixed line-up apart from myself, so basically ever since it’s been the case of having people for fairly lengthy periods, but the only person who’s been in it for the whole time is myself, " Damon admits. "At this point, it’s sort of like that again – I guess I am… Secret Birds, for the lack of a better description."

Primarily known for early Black Sabbath-channelling doom rock workouts, Damon and co have also patented a striking live gimmick – a multi-limbed "billion-drummer" attack.

"Depending on the gig and the size of the actual venue, we vary the amount of drummers – most times, we have one, but a couple months ago we did a gig where we had five drummers play, so it depends on what we can get away with at the time and how much time we’ve got to do things," he states. "Obviously, you have to tailor the music of the gig to the situation – if you’ve got five drummers, you’re not going to play the same set when you’ve got one."

So what has prompted Damon to start unleashing these visceral percussive assaults onstage?

"I like the idea of having multiple drummers and you can make them interlock and create really interesting rhythmic effects," he offers. "Also, in a live context, it’s such an unusual thing, especially if you’re playing rock music – it makes for a show in itself, and the idea of seeing a band with five drummers is quite interesting: you don’t see that often and you’re intrigued what they’re going to come up with. The downside of it is that it’s so difficult to organise – you have no idea how it is to get five drummers together!"

Masters of the heavy droning riff, Secret Birds also have space for unexpected melodic moments like the plaintive Lame Child.

"A lot of the idea of Secret Birds is based in classic rock – there’s a ‘60s/’70s feel to what we do," Damon claims. "In a way, Lame Child is a classic English folk song and if you listen to Led Zeppelin, they have folk songs, so to me, it’s kind of like a continuation of that heavy, psychedelic sound."

4ZzZ’s These Are Not Birds featuring SECRET BIRDS, To The North, Feathers and more kicks off at 3pm on Saturday Sep 19 at West End’s Boundary Hotel. The DOUBLE SNAKE HOLLOW EP is out now through Weird Appendage, with a debut album due shortly.

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