Interview with The Blackout’s Gavin Butler

The Blackout's Gavin Butler (Photo by Kev Grange)

It has to be accepted that some things in life don’t seem fair. One of those things was the ability of the unspeakably cool Gavin Butler to take a break from writing new material with ‘The Blackout’, to seemingly effortlessly belt out a set of poignantly simple acoustic songs in only his third ever solo gig. The saner half of The Blackout front pairing played the Macbeth Acoustic Stage at the Slam Dunk Festival; and despite being a world away (that awful pun will make more sense in a few seconds) from the live performance of his band, the quality of Gavin’s songwriting and the emotion it captured easily made up for the less energetic setting.

Noise News sat down for a chat with Gavin just moments after he walked off stage at Slam Dunk North at Leeds University.

You’ve just come off stage from playing the Macbeth Acoustic stage here at Slam Dunk North, is it right that was actually one of the first times you’ve on your own?

“Actually it was my third ever show, but the first that I actually enjoyed. The first two I was so nervous. It was strange, when your in a band and if I make a mistake with The Blackout, then there are five other people there who can pick up the slack or iron over the creases that I make. Which I do on a regular basis I’ll put out there. When you’re on your own it’s just you and your guitar and if you make a mistake singing you pick it up like that. The first two shows were so nerve wracking, I made so many mistakes. Today was the first time that I really got into my flow and really started enjoying it. I think hopefully whenever The Blackout has down time I’ll be doing something like this.”

You said that was the first time you felt comfortable playing on your own, do you see the irony in the fact that you did that playing on a stage surrounded by England flags?

(Laughs) “Maybe that’s what it was. Well the first show was at the Barfly on Friday. A friend of mine books shows in Cardiff and I was like have you got any shows I can jump on? I don’t want to do a massive show I just want to do twenty minutes and kind of find my feet. She put me on a show with Every Avenue and Me vs Hero so there were a few kids down there anyway. I put it up on Twitter that I was going to be down there. The people that I don’t know I can deal with I think because you can get away with like a stage persona kind of thing, but then most of Lostprophets came down because they were in town. My parents came down, my girlfriend came down with all her work colleagues and I was like fucking hell there’s a lot of people here who I know and respect and love, this is going to be hard. I always find hometown shows, even with The Blackout, the hardest because you’ve got people there who you know and whose opinions you really take to heart. Today because there were the two shows I’ve already done I got into it a bit more. There was only Sean and a couple of the We Are The Ocean boys there so I really enjoyed it.”

You just broke out a rather good cover of Oasis’ ‘Half the World Away’, do you think there’s marketing room for ‘the welsh Noel Gallagher’?

(Laughs) “If I ever become as good at guitar and vocals and general wit as Noel Gallagher, if I was half as good as that, I’d be a happy man. The guy’s a genius. I love him and I love Oasis. It was a song I’ve always loved and I thought I may as well cover it badly and enjoy playing it live.”

Your acoustic songs are sounding really impressive. Do you have any plans to release an E.P.?

“Hopefully, I was talking to Epitaph ages ago about maybe releasing some solo stuff, if not through Epitaph then through, oh Christ what’s there other label called? They do like pop and electric stuff. They said just send us some stuff over, but I think for now I’m just going to do some demos back home and maybe shove them on the web for now. Maybe down the line if it goes well I’ll do an EP and a little tour, like a pub tour or whatever.”

During your set you revealed you’ve been working on a new Blackout album, how’s that going?

Really well. We’ve all been writing stuff personally on our laptops, so when we went into the studio to start jamming together we all had a good four or five songs each anyway. That’s 25 potential songs just there already and we jammed out pretty much five songs in a week. So it’s going at a good pace. We’re all really enjoying being back in the studio to be honest. As much as I love touring I love writing as well. I really like creating something and everyone coming together. You think oh that’s wicked, then someone else comes up with another idea and you’ll be like that’s ten times better then what I thought was wicked. I just love that organic process that we have as a band when it comes to writing. A lot of bands have their main focus, say two writers or one writer or whatever, and no-one else has a say. What I love about The Blackout is we all have input and song ideas are split down the middle. It’s cool.

The last record had a good balance between darker songs like ‘Children of the Night’ and the more angsty relationship songs like ‘Silent’. What direction is the new material heading in?

“So far it’s not too dissimilar from ‘The Best In Town’. It’s a bit early to tell what we’re going to go for because we have so many different types of songs in the mix at the moment. It’s going to be a case of sitting down and picking the best ones. Whether they be a darker song like ‘Children’ or a lighter song like ‘Silent’ or something like that. Whatever the best songs are will go on, not the heaviest songs are or whatever.”

On ‘The Best In Town’ and in interviews after it’s release you were quite outspoken in criticising the attitudes of people in your home town (Merthyr Tydfil). Have those attitudes and the way people react to you changed since the album came out?

“I don’t know because the people who used to say that sort of stuff I don’t really see that often. Although there is a lot of the small town mentality thing going on, there are still a lot of friends back home who are proud of what we do and love the fact that we’ve got out of Merthyr and tried to do something, rather then saying oh whatever we’ll never make it there’s no point trying. A lot of the younger kids there, it’s cool for them to see that you don’t have to like coast along. If you want to pick your head up and have a go at something just do it. It’s not even just music, its anything. But like I said I don’t really see the people who are negative towards us. If we do see them they never say anything to your face anyway.”

Things have been fairly quiet from The Blackout camp in the last few months, were you at home taking stock of everything or have you been busy with other things?

“We’ve been touring with Lostprophets for the last month basically, in Australia and Japan and then we did mainland Europe. That was awesome, that was just like twelve friends out on tour. It felt like a holiday more then anything else; more so then any other tour we’d been on because we went to places that we’d never been to before. In Australia we went surfing every day and it was amazing. When we came back we went into the studio because we had so many ideas and we were all dying to start putting stuff down.”

Do you have any particularly memorable experiences from the tour?

“Australia was just awesome. I’d only been surfing once, in Newquay at Boardmasters, and I loved it then. I was like this oh this is awesome. We got up at seven o’clock in the morning one day to go. We were in Melbourne, I think it was Melbourne, and we had to drive for an hour to get to somewhere where it was decent surf. It was me, Jamie, our TM at the time Rich and Matthew came out. A bunch of us went up and spent the morning in the gorgeous weather surfing. It was the best surf. Jamie’s been surfing for years and years and he said it was the best surf he’s ever had. It was amazing being there, in the sea, on the other side of the world with your best friends.”

What do the next few months hold for The Blackout and can we expect to hear any of the new material anytime soon?

“We maybe, we maybe, doing, and this is a first, a tour towards the end of the year. But at the moment the plan at the moment is just writing, all the festivals, Download and then into the studio around September time. Then the album out in the New Year, January or February.”

Keep an eye on The Blackout’s Myspace and on Twitter for news of the bands tour dates later in the year. Also lookout for the posting of demos of Gavin’s solo work, which if Slam Dunk is anything to go by should be well worth the wait.

InMe exclusive interview

InMe outside York Fibbers

If ever there was a band whose circumstances and attitude some up the times that band may well be InMe. After enjoying considerable mainstream success in the years surrounding the release of debut album ‘Overgrown Eden’, the following decade has seen the band become a very different, much more economically challenged beast. However line-up changes and an ever developing sound has the InMe of 2010 in positive, if realistic mood. Noise News found this out first hand when we met Dave, Greg and Si on the band’s tour bus before their show at York Fibbers last week.

How is life in general for InMe at the moment?

Dave: “It’s good. We’re a happy band and we finally have a line up that we’re happy with. Things are on the up, we could be doing pretty good next year, financially. I’m hoping so. We’re surviving and I think a lot of bands that were out when me and Simon first broke onto the scene in 2001-2002, all those bands are gone except us. Apart from Lostprophets but they made it in the States.”

How has the current run of shows gone so far?

Dave: “Every show so far we’ve had a great time. It’s just been hot with the heat wave.”

Greg: “Luckily that seems to have ended today.”

Dave: “I think we might be alright today.”

Dave: “It’s nice to watch Gaz as well because he’s new. He’s just done one tour before with us so it’s still new experiences for him. If we have bread and cheese he’ll take a photo of it, he’s amazed at the rider, people coming up to him and being told to go wander off, have a beer in the sunshine then come rock out for the evening. For someone who has just done a day job like he has it’s a completely different way of life. It’s nice to see someone else experience it.”

Gary and Dave on stage

It’s about a year since ‘Herald Moth’ was released now, how do you think it’s been received?

Dave: “It’s done really well all round really, there are some critics out there that aren’t going to like it and some that do. But that never really bothered us. It’s nice to hear nice words about it where credit is due. Same as anything you can criticise it in some ways.”

Si: “To be fair all of the critics liked it didn’t they?”

Dave: “Pretty much, the ones that we care about did.”

Greg: “A couple of little internet people, little kiddies, gave it zero out of ten. But I never trust a zero out of ten review personally. That’s just not accurate is it, if you can play your instruments in tune that’s one out of ten at least.”

Si: “Zero is just holding a grudge isn’t it?”

Greg: “Yeah against the band.”

Dave: “We must have given them glandular fever or something. Sales wise I think it’s done better then the previous album which is always what a band wants to hear.”

Greg: “We’ve turned a corner to an extent.”

Dave: “We can see what other bands have sold and we think it’s done alright. It’s been nice. We’ve not had much promotion.”

How did the more technical sound go down with fans?

Dave: “I think we started to introduce elements of that on ‘Daydream Anonymous’. The shock of the change of sound kind of died down a bit. It was quite a bold album in the respect that we wanted to do something for ourselves, something dark, a bit more metal and a bit progressive with the riffs and challenge ourselves as musicians. I think at first people were a bit like I’m not too sure about this because they were worried that we were compromising the actual songs. The songs are still there we just wanted to build lots of interesting stuff around it.”

Greg: “We like to have fun as much as possible.”

Dave: “I think now they’ve seen it live they see where ‘Herald Moth’ stands, that it’s a live album essentially.”

How well do the songs off the new album fit into your live set with your older songs?

Dave: “I think it feels more natural to us to play the new stuff as it does the old stuff. We’ve had to change the old stuff to make it up to date with where InMe is at now. We like to push ourselves.”

Greg: “We don’t like half the old stuff and the half we do we find a bit boring to play. So we jazz it up and give it a new edge so that we enjoy it in the set and don’t find it tedious.”

Dave: “It’s important for us to fulfil what the fans want to hear which is the old stuff. You’ve got your ‘Crushed Like Fruit’, your ‘Underdoses’ and your ‘Faster the Chases’.”

Greg: “But at the same time it’s also really important for us to enjoy it. We try to find a way of doing both at the same time.”

Si: “There isn’t much point otherwise.”

Greg: “We’re not going to play songs that we don’t enjoy just to go through the motions. We don’t do that.”

Dave: “I think you can tell when a band is just doing it for the sake of it. Except for later in the year when we’re doing a best of album. In conjunction with that we’ll be doing four nights at the garage where we do each album front to back. I’m not quite sure what we’re going to do about the songs that we don’t like but we’ll see.”

Dave goes acoustic

Was the change in sound on ‘Herald Moth’ a natural progression from the line-up changes?

Greg: “Ben was just a straight rocker; it was us three, that was the direction that we wanted to go in.”

Dave: “Gaz compliments that.”

Greg: “Obviously we’ve got rid of Ben now and got Gaz in which is a lot better, he fits in with what we want to do a lot more.”

Dave: “I just think we want to do something different with every album and I think people are starting to realise that. The second album people were like I don’t like it, it’s not the same as ‘Overgrown Eden’, third album, fourth album you still get a minority of people saying I want them to do ‘Overgrown Eden’ again. We’re never going to do that again. The fifth album’s not going to be anything like ‘Herald Moth’, its going to be something completely different.”

Greg: “We’re going to make a different album every time, we always will do.”

Do you feel you’ve had to adapt your lyric writing at all to fit with the new sound?

Dave: “Well I don’t like my old lyrics. I’ve never really liked my work to be honest. I think that’s a good thing to never be satisfied.”

Greg: “You’ve got different life experiences to write about then whatever you were writing about when you were sixteen.”

Dave: “I think it was fantastical escapism. I’m very into poetry, I’m into a lot of American poets actually, Ted Kooser who was the poet laureate for a few years I got into his stuff. Then I dug out all the stuff I studied at college like Sylvia Plath. I think now I’m writing like poems and trying to syllable-istically trying to put them into the songs, which is interesting and challenging. With my I-phone it’s great because I’ve always got gadgets to hand to put stuff down. I’m constantly working on things until they become a finished product. People probably listen to it and it’s gone in a second but there is a lot of work that goes into every little detail.”

Si from InMe

How has technology changed the way you work as a writer?

Dave: “It helps me as a writer, it’s completely different. Me Si, and Joe used to go up to London and spend two months wasting money on very expensive rehearsal studios to write together. Now we can’t afford that.”

Greg: “Now we find other ways to write music.”

Dave: “It doesn’t work that way anyway because you’re forcing it every day, maybe you don’t feel creative every day. Now if I have an idea you’ve got Macbooks everywhere, your I-phone for writing lyrics and voice memos. You can always get your ideas down whenever you feel you want to put it down. It helps as long as you use the tools to your advantage.”

Where can you see things going on the next record?

Dave: “At the moment it’s bold, very epic.”

Greg: “It’s too early to tell. We are writing it but we’ve only just started.”

Dave: “It’s still going to have very much a technical feel to it. I’d say it’s going to be probably the most uplifting melodic album we’ve done. Not uplifting as in happy happy, joy joy, but melody wise there’s a lot going on and a lot of hooks.”

Greg: “We’ve done the dark album. Let’s do something else this time.”

Dave: “We’ve never done an album that makes the listener feel better about themselves after listening to it. So we want to do that.”

Greg: “Especially when your first album is all misery, misery suicide.”

Dave: “Yeah so we’re going to do something different in that respect.”

How much different is it being on tour with the economy the way it is?

Greg: “You get fewer people in the venue unfortunately.”

Dave: “The music industry has been suffering.”

Greg: “For longer then the actual recession.”

Dave: “Because of downloading. Musicians, record labels, people within the industry used to rely on record sales and record sales have been hit by hard because of downloading. I think they are all still trying to figure out ways to earn. I think we have though. Merchandise, you can’t download a t-shirt, you can’t download a gig ticket. You can watch a gig online but it’s never going to going out with your mates and getting pissed.”

Greg: “A band of our size ten years ago would be earning a living. A band of our size now has to have day jobs and juggle it with the band because you don’t earn the money anymore.”

Dave McPherson

What kind of balance do you have between the day jobs and the band?

Greg: “Too much time dedicated to the day job I think.”

Dave: “Luckily for me being the writer”

Greg: “His day job is professional musician.”

Dave: “My day job is pub gigs and selling my own stuff so that helps. If I was out of action doing a crappy job that made me miserable then I wouldn’t be able to write as much and the band would suffer. So luckily in the daytime I can still work on the music.”

How does writing solo material compare to writing songs for the band?

Dave: “It’s a lot easier. In like half an hour I can write a song and write the lyrics, whereas with InMe it’s a long process.”

Greg: “The lyrics can be a lot more in your face and obvious with the acoustic songs.”

Dave: “It comes a lot more naturally and easily whereas InMe is, and I think it should be, more hard work. It takes a good couple of years to get an album going and you should be working your arse off to make it the best it can be. With the solo stuff I can work on a song and play it that evening.”

How do you feel about being an influence on other younger bands?

Dave: “That’s nice, that’s nice to be part of the establishment of the British rock scene. To be influential is an honour really. It’s humbling; I’m not very good at compliments. When people come up to you and are like its amazing to meet you, you are like a god and stuff, that’s a bit too much and you don’t know how to take it. Someone came up to me the other day and said I’d just like to thank you because you’re the first band to make progressive metal music sound like it has emotional meaning. That to me is like a really nice compliment because it is kind of what we’re trying to achieve.”

Greg: “You get all the crazy compliments which put you on a pedestal, I think you take those with a pinch of salt or you don’t know how to take them at all. I had one guy say to me that I’m the reason he picked up a bass guitar. That is the sort of compliment I think is really nice.”

The Brothers McPherson rock Fibbers

Festival season is upon us, will you be hitting the festival circuit this year?

Dave: “Sonisphere, we’ll be headlining the Strongbow stage which is an honour. I remember last year seeing it going off. I thought that’s a festival I want to be part of, like Download. I’ll probably be going to Download but just as a punter. I’ve got a new agent guy working for me. He’s trying to get me some mini tour dates through July and August. I’ll take whatever I can. If someone offers me something and I can make it work financially so I’m not making a loss then I’ll play anywhere. The same with InMe really.”

Finally what can we expect from the gig tonight?

Dave: “Loads of new stuff, some secret stuff that we haven’t played in five years.”

Greg: “Secret stuff? Well it won’t be when this comes out will it, so you might as well just say what it is.”

Dave: “We’re going to play ‘Crushed Like Fruit’, we’ve reinvented that and put like an evil metal breakdown in the middle, we’re going to play a couple of songs that we haven’t played before, ‘Captain Killjoy’, ‘In Loving Memory’, something from every album but predominantly ‘Herald Moth’.”

InMe headline the Strongbow stage at the Sonisphere festival at the end of July and have a best of album coming out later in the year.

More from MC Lars

MC Lars makes his entrance

There were some questions from my interview with MC Lars which didn’t get used in the main article. I thought he gave some really interesting responses and felt they deserved to be read as well.

You’ve written songs based on classic literature like Hamlet and Moby Dick, what is it that inspires you to turn literature into music?

“My first song was ‘Rapbeth’ and it was a hip-hop version of Macbeth. I did that in 98 actually, dang that’s a long time ago. Its just fun, I love to find a new way of telling a story and make it fun again. For those songs I like to sample other songs which tell the story and that’s really exciting.

I guess I get that from Weird Al who is a big influence on me. I love how he takes other songs as a way to reference other stories. He’s a really nice guy and he’s been totally supportive for three years.”

What makes a story suitable to turn into a song?

“I think it has to be well known enough for people to get the story. All the literature songs I’ve done have been pretty mainstream. It has to be a good story that still applies today.

I want to do a song about Oedipus done from the perspective of a day time talk show, you know where they have people come on like ‘he’s your father’ and then they do a DNA test. Something like that, take Oedipus and put it in the context of a modern talk show.

That’s funny, to take stories that are timeless and put them in a modern setting. Shakespeare, Melville and Poe they all told timeless stories that reflect how we are today.”

What is the meaning behind the song title ‘White Kids Aren’t Hyphy’?

“Hyphy music is a bay area sub-genre of hip-hop started by this guy Mac Dre in the nineties. It’s hip-hop music that is really electronic and fun and has this hippie vibe of high hyped up energy.

It kind of captures the energy of San Francisco. It’s a genre of music where they do a lot of ecstasy; it’s a genre of hip-hop that is very influenced by that. They call it Zithen. They do ‘Ghost Riding’, people dance along side their cars. It’s just this interesting varied subculture. It’s basically the San Francisco bay area of Crunk.

‘White Kids Aren’t Hyphy’ is like how kids in suburbia try to express their love for that culture. There’s this funny YouTube video of these guys ghost riding their Volvo. That was a hit in the bay area. Hyphy is like the black culture of the bay area so White Kids Aren’t Hyphy is like kids trying to be black.”

You released the song under a creative commons licence, what made you want to do that?

“We wanted people to remix it so we had to have the acapella legally released, creative commons is cool. I’m with Jaret Reddick from Bowling For Soup’s new label Crappy Records now so there are more restrictions on what I can do in terms of that, but creative commons is cool. I have acapellas on my site for people to remix and there are lots of cool remixes on there.

‘Robot Kills’ has an impressive number of guest stars on it, how did some of those collaborations come about? That’s funny. ‘Robot Kills’ has like 30 musicians on it; it was really a big project. The Graduate was more samples, like I would just sample bands.

When I did ‘Robot Kills’ I realised I could have people play the parts, teach people the parts and collaborate. Like Pierre from Simple Plan happened because we toured with them in 2006 here, Weird Al got in touch with me in 2006 because he liked my music so I asked him to play the part. All the rappers are people I’ve worked with and toured with. Paul Gilbert was a friend of Linus Dotson, who’s the engineer for Crappy Records so he did it as a favour to him. Gabe from Cobra Starship I met at Give It A Name.

Every time I meet someone who’s cool and who’s talented I really work the network thing. What I do is so none genre specific that everyone who is good I want to be involved in my project. The new record is going to be more hip hop stuff, with guitars but more with guest rappers in place of guest bands.”

Finally does your drummer still have the messiest house in New Jersey?

“Well he cleaned it up and then sold it, now he lives with his parents. It was messy man. Now every time I introduce him at the merch stand people are like oh did you clean up your house? It’s funny man. He is a great drummer though.

That phone call on the album is real; I called him and taped it so I have him saying its ok, its funny. He doesn’t like us playing the song when he’s not playing drums because it’s mean.”

Kerrang Relentless Tour 2010, Leeds Academy (31/1/10) review:

It’s odd that following a gig featuring such blisteringly impressive performances the first things that come to mind aren’t the music.

The first is just how much mileage can be got out of one misheard crowd chant, and the ensuing variations on the one joke relating to said chant.

The second being how deafeningly loud a reaction uttering three simple words can get from a highly, highly excitable crowd. Those three words being ‘All Time Low’ to be precise. This reaction plainly isn’t lost on any of the tour’s first three bands who take every available opportunity to mention the headliners.

There is a genuine buzz in the air inside the academy as the lights eventually go out signalling the arrival of openers ‘My Passion’. Despite the screams which great their arrival, the four-piece from Hertfordshire overly milk their entrance taking what seems like a lifetime to take to the stage.

First impressions are that someone took My Chemical Romance, Panic At The Disco and a side of extra eyeliner and lobbed the whole lot into a blender. Still, the kids in attendance seem to approve. Musically the effect is sort of similar as well. Think a more ‘screamo’ version of the former draped over a mildly annoying electro dance backing track. To be fair it is solid if pretty uninspiring stuff.

Business picks up considerably as second act ‘Young Guns’ stride confidently on to the stage. As the band launch into set opener and current single ‘Winter Kiss’, there is every sense that Young Guns are very much on the up. They exude poise and self assurance as they belt out anthem after anthem of pure punk edged rock, with ‘Weight of The World’ and ‘In The Night’ definitely amongst the sets highlights. Midway through the set singer Gustav hurls himself headlong into the crowd. He takes quite some time to emerge prompting one of his concerned band mates to request “can we have our singer back please?”

‘The Blackout’ are (comparatively) old hands at performing on tours such as this, and it showed in almost every possible way. Be it the genuinely funny banter between Gavin and Sean, the mental stage antics (Sean sang most of first song ‘Children of The Night’ dangling from the top of the lighting rig) or simply how tight their musical performance was, it felt like everything had been turned up a notch.

The band were happy to play the part of tongue in cheek pantomime villains, regularly stirring the crowd into mock boos with playful ribbing of their northern crowd. “That was rubbish you lazy northern bastards, come to Wales we’ll kill you all”, exclaims a grinning Sean after the crowd fail to meet a question with the desired level of noise.

At about this point the crowd, as is the want of crowds at most of Leeds’ music venues, break into a loud and prolonged chant of “Yorkshire, Yorkshire”; Much to the confusion of the stage’s Welsh residents. “Are you chanting ‘you’re shit’?” asks Gav pausing to listen. “Oh, Yorkshire, I see”, he continues adding “You’re right though we are shit” before prompting to the crowd to chant this instead.

Next the band launch into a rousing rendition of ‘High Tide Baby’. The song soars around the venue and provokes the first real sing along of the evening.  This, followed seamlessly by a ferocious airing of ‘The Fire’, and the crowd belting out every word of both ‘Top Of The World’ and ‘This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things’ sets a very tough act for ‘All Time Low’ to follow.

A little surprisingly the initial response to ‘All Time Low’ taking to the stage is more muted then the build up had led to expect.

The crowd, so noisy and energetic previously that it could be suspected most had been indulging in the products of tour sponsor ‘Relentless’ on the way in, had gone rather flat.

But the relentlessly cheerful and bouncy headliners storm through first three songs ‘Lost in Stereo’, ‘Stella’ and ‘Break Your Little Heart’, barely pausing for breath. Consequently the ear-splitting, chaotic order of the previous few hours is swiftly resumed.

That ‘ATL’ are big fans of big Blink 182 is hardly a secret and this shows in their stage show. Not to suggest that they’re a rip off or tribute band in anyway, this is far from the case. But it’s inescapable how reminiscent the bands stage demeanour, and interaction with each other and the crowd, are of Blink, pre Tom DeLonge wanting to save the world.

Alex and Jack take obvious delight in their profanity, to be fair to pretty amusing effect, and the sorts of knob jokes so loved by their idols receive liberal use. “Why does she look so happy?” enquires Jack, “Because she found out she’s not pregnant. They’re the kinds of tests you want to fail, that and Chlamydia” retorts Alex. Not long afterwards the ‘Yorkshire’ chant rears its head again, and as before, is essentially lost in translation. “See Jack, they want you to stop talking” assumes Alex, using the misunderstanding as a chance to take the piss out of his band mate. Inevitably another band led ‘You’re Shit’ chant ensues.

As the rest of the band temporarily leave the stage Alex jokes “I’m going to seduce you all now with my sexy voice”, treating the crowd to a solo acoustic performance of ‘Remembering Sunday’. In the process he shows his live vocal performance can more then match the recordings.

Probably ATL’s biggest hit to date ‘Weightless’ goes down a storm keeping those in attendance more then happy during the short break before the encore.

The band returns to a noticeably bigger reaction then their first appearance. These cheers continue throughout last two songs ‘Dammed If I Do Ya’ and ‘Dear Maria’, with the Leeds crowd not missing a line of either sing along.

If All Time Low manages to put in performances like this on every night of the tour surely arenas await on their next trip across the Atlantic.

Offering great value for money, and some stunning live performances, the Kerrang Relentless Tour already looks to be an early frontrunner for tour of 2010.

MC Lars Exclusive Interview

“If I wasn’t rapping I’d be a professor or finishing my PhD” states MC Lars. An unusual career evaluation and proof, not that much is needed, that Lars is far from you average rapper.

Truth be told Lars is far from you average musician of any kind. As he sits wringing his hands and thoughtfully considering his responses to each question there is something desperately endearing about the native of Berkley, California.

“I had this whole me against the world attitude” he reveals, taking stock of his simple beginnings touring the world, just a man and his laptop. Hardly a surprising attitude to take given the lonely experience that must have been, but one eradicated by success.

“I’ve been able to get more stable with my music career and make it a full time thing. Learn more about why I do what I do and push boundaries creatively,” he says.

Typical of Lars, the man of contradictions, this increased fame and success has brought greater self awareness.  “I’ve been able to find a balance between who I am as Andrew Nielson and who I am as MC Lars” he explains, “it’s cool to find that balance” he adds laughing.

Just as his attitude towards life has changed, so has his approach to making music.

“I started out as the like steal music guy, do it yourself” Lars reflects. “I still think that doing it yourself is good but I’m growing artistically.” And this growth is being reflected in Lars’ audience.

“I think more people are hearing what I’m doing” he says, a little hesitantly at first but growing in confidence as he explains himself. “I think that the response to Robot Kills has been good and more people are getting what I’m saying” he continued.

“But I think what I’m saying is different. Being in the industry now is more about survival and helping your friends” Lars concludes.

In the current economic climate survival is one thing which Lars is better prepared for then most. “Being by myself and just having my computer has allowed me to make good business decisions” he observes, but he learnt the importance of saving money on tour the hard way.

“When we did The Graduate in 06, my first three UK headlining tours, I had a band from New York that I flew out. We rehearsed, hired a van and I lost money on all those tours but they were sold out” he explains.

Having learnt his financial lessons the hard way, Lars now has several different backing bands in different areas, and the UK is no exception.

“Now I have Failsafe, who are a melodic hardcore band from Preston, who learned all my songs and are so fantastic on stage.

We fly over here then pay them to play with us and pay their gas which is so much cheaper then flying bands over” he says.

It’s not just the books which Lars struggles to balance on the road. He also finds it hard to make touring fit with his views on the environment and his attempts to conserve energy.

“Touring is not environmentally friendly at all” he admits with a wry smile. “We do try to be smart. When I’m at home I drive a hybrid car (laughs) but it is terrible for the environment” Lars continued.

“In England there are so many diesel fuels which are worse. It’s hard. We could take trains which are expensive. But they’re not very reliable and you can’t really bring boxes of merch to sell on the train”, he adds.

MC Lars and DJ backstage after the show

Aside from his views on British fuels Lars has also had previous issues with certain sections of the UK music press. Well, more one publication in particular.

“They (NME) said ‘Download This Song’ sounded like a bag of steaming dog poo” he states, visibly more amused then offended by the slight. “But I don’t really know what that would sound like. I think it would be kind of quiet” he mused.

In response to the magazine’s criticism Lars had some observations of his own. “They love to use sensationalist language and slag off things that are different” he said, adding “they’re probably all in failed post punk bands from the 70s.”

“It’s weird because you get different people, they’ll have a band on the cover then in the back you’ll have a bad review of their album. The UK press is weird like that sometimes they say something is the best thing ever then other times they say it’s the worst thing ever. It’s hyperbole, extremes, you know what I mean?” he said.

After the mention of ‘Download This Song’, talk turns to Lars’ views on downloading. Unsurprisingly his approach to this has been considerably different to much of the music industry, even going as far as releasing free acapellas of his tracks for fans to download and remix. However he still feels fans need to do what they can to support musicians.

“If you like a band you should support them. Like buy their album or buy a shirt” he says.

“But downloading now isn’t really an issue because it’s so easy to get anything. Like you type Kanye West torrent in to Google and you can get his album from Google in like two seconds. It’s not as big of an issue anymore because it’s so available there is no way to stop it.”

For Lars downloading allows his name and music to reach areas not previously accessible.

“For me it helps with that in England my album isn’t distributed in stores, so kids can get it on I-tunes or wherever else they want to get it. That means that people know my songs where I don’t have distribution, like in small towns in Australia, or small towns in America” he said.

“I prefer people to support me but things have changed, and it is easy to support in other ways. As long as people are hearing my music I’m happy”, Lars concludes.

Lars with UK backing band Failsafe

To release ‘This Gigantic Robot’ Lars signed to ‘Crappy Records’, a label belonging to long time friend, and Bowling For Soup front man Jaret Reddick. This prompts the question is it not strange having your friend be your boss?

Lars is typically thoughtful in his response. “We’re learning to communicate and work together” he says, “we’re taking our friendship but developing it in a more business way.”

“He really believes in me more then anyone else in the music scene. He’s such a good friend and he has so many good ideas. I’m honoured to be part of his team. I’m learning to listen to him more. He was my friend and now he’s putting his money into supporting me so I have to listen to him” Lars added.

Lars is already hard at work on a follow up to ‘This Gigantic Robot’. But he admits his next release will probably sound a little different.

“The new record is going to be more hip hop stuff, with guitars but more with guest rappers in place of guest bands” he said.

Now, back to that opening quote, it’s probably best to let Lars himself explain it.

“I really love to talk about hip hop, the history of hip hop as post-modern culture. My degree was in literature, nineteenth century American literature. There is this connection where like the poetry fits with the poetry of the streets, hip hop.

Schools have hired me to come and talk about that and it’s been fun. I think in like 10 years I’ll probably be finishing my PhD and teaching hip-hop history in schools. That is eventually what I want to do”, he said.

MC Lars returns to the UK next month on tour with Zebrahead. For tour dates and ticket information visit www.mclars.com.

‘This Gigantic Robot Kills’ is available now on Crappy Records.

Noise News goes ‘Crappy’- Jaret Reddick exclusive interview

Jaret Reddick answers my questions.

“It’s so funny to have this little label, started in a little car, lost in a really huge city” muses Bowling For Soup frontman Jaret Reddick. He is describing the unexpected turn of events which saw the birth of ‘Crappy Records’, his new record label.

Reddick was on his way back from a writing session at the beach with producer Linus of Hollywood when the two men became lost.

“He was talking about things he was working on, I was talking about things that I was working on, and one of the big things he was working on was the record for The Leftovers” explained Reddick.

“I was like well I’m doing this record, and I’m thinking about doing this other record blah blah blah. Linus was like ‘well let’s start a label’” he said.

Initially however he was far from convinced. “I was like oh man I don’t want to be in the label game” Reddick recalled. “I had done it before and it didn’t sound fun” he added.

But it didn’t take long for Reddick’s mind to be swayed. “I heard The Leftovers and was like holy shit this is fucking amazing, let’s do this”, he said.

Coincidentally shortly afterwards Reddick met up with long time friend Andrew ‘MC Lars’ Nielson, a meeting which further cemented the birth of the label.

“That same trip MC Lars was in town”, he said, continuing “I invited him out and we went and saw Steel Panther and went to dinner”.

“A label happened basically by accident” concludes Reddick.

Already a family man Reddick appears every inch the proud father as he discusses the growth of his ‘accidental label’. “All three of our bands are amazing” he boasts revealing that Crappy Records family has grown further still. “Our latest signing is this little baby band from Denver called Skyfox. They’re so great and so young it’s awesome, it’s fun”, he said.

On Bowling Four Soup’s current UK tour Reddick has been able to spend time on the road with two of his charges, an opportunity which he is evidently enjoying. He said

“It’s cool to have two of your bands on tour with you, so that you can just be there for them and watch them grow each night.”

And it becomes clear that he isn’t just saying this, he means it. As we talk in a corridor backstage at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall, Reddick can see several members of the Leftovers through their dressing room mirror.

“Are you crying?” he exclaims mid sentence, genuinely concerned for the well being of drummer Adam. “Jesus Christ I’m out here talking about you, I’m looking in the mirror and it looks like you’re crying. It’s really sad dude.”

This draws the other members the band’s attention to our interview and the opportunity to loudly heckle the boss. Happy all is well and no tears are being shed a tongue in cheek Reddick lays down the law.

“Suck it” he shouts, “Be quiet I’m out here trying to talk about you”. This provokes only laughter from the Leftovers. “I will come in there, slap you, then run” he adds to further laughter.

Reflecting on watching his acts on the tour Reddick observes, “MC Lars has already done so many things it’s cool to see how he adapts. The Leftovers are so stoked about just getting crackers on their rider. They’re like oh shit we got biscuits, oh fuck this is awesome.”

Close though they may be now Reddick admits that at first he knew very little about The Leftovers. “I hadn’t actually even heard them until I walked into their pre-production studio to watch them do three live songs as they were doing pre-production with Linus” he said.

Reddick was instantly impressed. He said, “I couldn’t believe the talent of this band and they’re from Portland, Maine. Who’s from Portland Maine?”

“They’re such smart kids and they rock. They have this thing about them where you see them and just want to know them and love them” he added.

Conversely Reddick has known his other signing for a number of years.

“I discovered Lars in 2005. I got sent a CD by the guy who actually signed us to our deal in 1999. I thought this guy’s a genius, we’re taking him on the road I don’t give one single shit” he explained.

“We basically kidnapped him for a year and took him on the road. It was him and a laptop, no backing band and it was great” Reddick said.

The respect that Reddick has for Lars is evident and he continues to be excited by the growth of Lars’ success.

“I think he progresses each and every album and each and every year and just becomes more great” he said.

And the praise kept coming. “He’s a really smart kid. He created a genre, that’s insane. That’s really impressive. He created a genre when he was like 20 years old. He just has it all figured out” Reddick gushed.

With the respect and belief Reddick has in his acts and the exceptional talent and potential they already possess, the success of Crappy Records can surely only continue to grow. Not bad for a label that started by accident lost in a car.

Bowling For Soup’s UK tour continues and the band’s new album ‘Sorry For Partyin’ is available now.



Party In Your Pants Tour Photos

I was lucky enough to be backstage at Bowling For Soup’s ‘Party In Your Pants’ tour date in Leicester last night.

While I was there I chatted with MC Lars about his new album, his views on balancing touring with saving the environment and much much more; The Leftovers discussed having Jaret Reddick as a boss, how they ate good food and happened to make an album and Zebrahead’s Matty Lewis gave me an update on the bands forthcoming covers album ‘Panty Raid’. Finally I talked with BFS frontman Jaret Reddick about founding his own label and why he is so happy to have both Lars and The Leftovers signed to it.

The show itself was great with all four acts putting in truely awesome performances, particularly Lars whose mix of video, samples and his live band impressively displayed the talent and innovation he has become known for.

I also listened to The Leftovers new album ‘Eager To Please’ today. The record is a cool mix of BFS style punk pop combined with the sounds of bands like the Beach Boys. ‘Eager To Please’ is absolutely rammed full of effortlessly simple yet catchy melodies which will hammer their way into your brain and stay there for an annoyingly long time.

I’ll do my best to get the above interviews up as possible but in the mean time here are some of my pictures from last night’s show.

Finally many thanks to Jaret for sharing his ‘Delicous Gary’ cocktail after the show. As the name suggests it was indeed delicous even if Jaret wouldn’t tell me what was in it.

Kurt from The Leftovers

Andrew from The Leftovers

MC Lars- Knows how to make an entrance

MC Lars- True Player For Real

Zebrahead's Matty Lewis

Matty and Greg rock De Montfort Hall

Greg puts his JD to use

Erik from BFS spots a photo oportunity with Lars and DJ

Me with Erik, Lars and Jaret

Charlie Simpson Fightstar Interview

Here’s another oldie, an interview with Charlie Simpson and Omar Abidi from Fightstar carried out during their tour with Feeder late last year. Enjoy.

It’s fair to say Charlie Simpson divides musical opinion more then most in today’s British rock scene. Despite his best efforts to many he remains ‘just that guy who used to be in Busted’ but to others, Fightstar fans in particular, he is a hero again.

I meet Simpson seated at a table at the back of a tiny, strangely newspaper strewn tour bus. A bus dwarfed even by the one currently acting as home to Feeder’s tour crew next door.

Despite his cramped surroundings Simpson cuts a contented figure. As front man of one of the best, and most productive British hard rock bands around he is finally making headway in his bid to be recognised as a serious musician.

“We’ve been around for four years and we’ve proved ourselves to be what we are” he states reflecting on the progress his band has made, “I think everyone knows what Fightstar do now. When we first came out there was a lot of curiosity going around and people hadn’t heard us. We’re three albums in now and we’ve achieved a lot in that time.”

One of the biggest moments in Fightstar’s career to date was a prominent spot at this years Download festival. The band played on the main stage on the final day, and Simpson feels that the moderate success his band has achieved has at last got them on an equal footing with other acts.

He said “I think now we’re on the same level as everyone else, you either like us or you don’t. But I think no one can say to us, or say to me, that we don’t mean what we do because I think people see that now.”

Judging by Fightstar’s new single ‘The English Way’, one of the bands most upbeat and accessible releases to date, Simpson is now comfortable enough to return to his pop roots a little.

“It’s definitely, as far as the general sound of the song goes more commercially viable” he said, “but to me I just wanted to write some big choruses and if it’s catchy, and if it’s more kind of pop orientated ,then I don’t necessarily think that’s a bad thing.” In fact Simpson even went on to say “I think it’s one of the best songs we’ve done so far.”

This said fans don’t need to worry; Fightstar aren’t turning into a pop band. “We’ve kept the heavier side on the album. It’s not as if it’s all going to be like that. I just think it’s a progression from the last record” said Simpson.

The new album, which is set to be released next year, will be a new experience for Fightstar. For the first time the band are playing a major role in its production.

“We’re co producing it ourselves with a guy called Carl Bown who’s in a band called Laruso” explained Simpson.

“He basically as a favour to us produced our Deftones cover we did for Kerrang. We really enjoyed working with him and thought it was a chance to really get involved on the production side”, he said.

Drummer Omar Abidi feels that the decision to co-produce the record themselves will allow Fightstar to take stock of what they have learnt from the recording of their first two albums. He said “We learnt so much on the previous two albums working with totally immaculate professionals and we absorbed so much from them.”

“I don’t think we’re getting to the point where we’re like from now on we’re never working with another producer again as I think that would be really big headed. But I think we just wanted to see if we have actually learnt what we thought we had learnt and try and put it into action.”

Talk then turned to the subject matter the band wanted to cover on the new record. At this point Simpson said something which may come as a surprise to those only familiar with his pop past.

“What’s really got to me recently is all the stuff about knife crime,” he stated.

“You know it has really angered me reading all of the stuff in the press about kids in London. Most of the media is hyping it up so it’s much more in the public eye at the moment. There is such senseless violence and it makes me so angry” continued Simpson.

Although this would not be the first time that Fightstar had covered such a major topical issue in their song writing. The single ‘Floods’ was a nod to the film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ and the effects of global warming.

An acoustic version of ‘Floods’ was among the tracks on Fightstar’s B- sides and rarities collection, ‘Alternate Endings’, which was released over the summer. Simpson revealed that the release of ‘Alternate Endings’ caused tension between the band and their record label.

“I think in hindsight we would have chosen not to release that at this time. Our record company basically pushed us into doing it” he said.

“They would have done it with or without us and I think if they’d done it without us they would have just put out any old shit because they had the rights to. We kind of fell out with them about it and I thought I’d rather work with them and make something cool. You know with the artwork and pick the track listings ourselves.”

Fightstar appeared at the Engine Shed as support to Feeder and, although the two bands sounds have a considerably different feel, Simpson immediately saw the benefits of touring with the icons behind such tracks as ‘Buck Rogers’ and ‘Just a Day’.

He said “Feeder definitely have a different kind of audience to us and so it was a chance to get in front of some people who might not necessarily of heard of us before.”

Seemingly this plan was already working just four dates into the tour as Simpson discovered while waiting for a train. “I was standing on Manchester station the other day and this forty year old guy comes up to me and goes he really enjoyed the set last night. I thought that was pretty cool. He probably wouldn’t have seen us unless we toured with Feeder” he said.

However he admits that the band has had to tone down their live show a little to fit with the new crowd.

“We’ve stayed away from the kind of really brutal stuff. You know your Deathcars and your Tamnhauser Gates just because, bearing in mind the different audience, they might go over people’s heads” Simpson explained.

Productive as they maybe when it comes to working on new material in the studio Fightstar aren’t above pulling the odd prank and generally taking the piss out of each other whenever the opportunity arises. Particularly when on tour. As Simpson quite simply explained, “You have to have some fun on the road”.

On this tour it was a sleeping Dan Haigh that was on the receiving end courtesy of Simpson and a lit banger in a cup.

“I put it right by his head. He was very angry about that” he mused to the amusement of drummer Omar Abidi who observed “It was a good alarm call”.

And it isn’t just the band getting involved in the madness on the road. Fightstar’s new merchandise seller, a cousin of Guitarist Al Westaway, got a little too friendly with a member of the venue staff on the tour’s very first night. Abidi gleefully recalled the incident.

He said “Basically he was pulling some staff from Stoke and she, all respect, but she wasn’t exactly the healthiest fruit in the basket. He kind of led her on, and led her on, and then when she was like oh I’m going to come and meet you, he just switched off his phone. He was like I don’t even want to. She tracked us down to the travel lodge and was like stalking the tour bus outside until four in the morning.”

A laughing Abidi clearly felt that the experience was a suitable introduction to life on tour for the newest member of their crew. “It was a good initiation. I told him he’d learn quickly and he did” he said.

As for the bands philosophy on the tour pranks it’s very simple as Abidi explained, “If you can’t take it don’t dish it out. That’s the way we deal with it” he said with a grin.

Fightstar’s new album ‘Be Human’ is available now.

Pigeon Detectives Interview

Breaking open the vault of my articles that originally appeared on Alpha here is my interview with The Pigeon Detectives from December of last year.

Leeds indie boys The Pigeon Detectives ended 2008 with a largely sold out UK tour.

I headed backstage at Nottingham’s Rock City to have a chat with Jimmi and Dave; and look back at a year which saw The Pigeon Detectives release their second album, appear at Glastonbury and tour the world.

That said after such a productive year 2008 didn’t draw to the ideal close for the band. As the UK tour neared its end the band were forced to reschedule a gig in Glasgow and the original sold out show in Nottingham. “Literally three or four of us had illnesses and Matt couldn’t talk so we had to reschedule. We prefer to reschedule then to actually cancel altogether” explained Jimmi.

Before the UK tour the Pigeon Detectives got the chance to enjoy what they feel is one of the highlights of being in a band. Dave said “one of the best things about doing this job is that you get to travel. We had never been to America and Canada and Japan before so we really enjoyed it.” Although Dave admits the travel took its toll at times the Leeds lads are still grateful to be in the position to do so. “It does get tiring at times. But when it does get tiring you just have to sort of tell yourself where you are” he said.

I enquire if the lads encountered any language difficulties on their travels. It seems the band took a simple approach to communicating with the locals. “You learn the words for hello and thank you pretty much in every country. And then how to order a beer. The rest of it we just kind of pointed” admits Dave.

“I think the most trouble we came across was Japan but we had an interpreter to help us” adds Jimmi.

Adding to their fist attempts to crack America the Pigeon Detectives also released an E.P. while they were on the other side of the Atlantic. Although the release has been hampered by the band not having a label in the U.S. the early response has been positive. “We released a downloadable EP just to try and arouse interest and get the ball rolling over there. It’s done really well. The reception to it has gone well. I think it has got on college radio and some stuff like that. So yeah it’s been doing alright. A good start” said Dave.

The band are all Leeds United fans and have even gone as far as selling Leeds United themed Pigeon Detectives merchandise at gigs. I ask if they have managed to keep in touch with their teams results during their travels. “Yeah we have” responds Jimmi, while they both laugh, “Well we thought we were kind of on the up and now we’re like eighth or something. We were second before and now we’ve fallen” he continued.

Recent years have seen bands from the West Yorkshire area leading the Indie scene, with bands such as the Kaiser Chiefs and The Cribs sharing the Pigeon Detectives chart success. So what is it that’s made these bands successful?

“It’s just because, like, us and the Kaiser Chiefs are good at writing pop songs. Everyone listens to pop songs and they are catchy. I think that’s why we’ve been successful and the Kaiser Chiefs have been successful” said Jimmi.

The band haven’t ruled out the possibility of following the Kaiser Chiefs lead and playing a gig at Leeds United’s Elland Road Stadium. Dave said “to play in front of that many people sounds great. The Kaisers did it and it was their thing but I’m sure if we got the chance to do it in the future then we’d do it.”

“We want to play in front of the biggest crowds possible and we’re all Leeds fans so it would be good” he added.

Rather then sitting back to enjoy the success of debut album ‘Wait For Me’ the Pigeon Detectives made the bold move of recording and releasing their second album ‘Emergency’ less then a year later. The band had a few reasons behind this move as Jimmi explained. “We are big fans of the Beatles and Bob Dylan, artists who released at least one album a year. Sometimes they squeezed two in somehow. So that was one reason.

The other was because we had been playing the songs off the first album for quite a while, almost a couple of years some of them, so we were kind of itching to get into the studio” he said.

Rumours abound on the internet about the origins of the name the Pigeon Detectives. These include that the name was suggested by an Australian at the Leeds festival and that the name relates to a pigeon owned by one of the band members. Dave quite bluntly quashed these rumours. “The Australian at Leeds fest is the correct one. We just met him randomly around the tents getting drunk and we needed a band name. We needed a band name and he suggested that. That’s where it comes from and we decided it would be funny to have that name. We never managed to get rid of it. That’s the truth.”

Looking back at 2008 both Jimmi and Dave feel that there were two high points that the band will remember. “I think Glastonbury is probably going to be the big thing” says Jimmi after a moments thought. “We did it last year but this year there was just a massive sea of people, there must have been about forty or fifty thousand people.”

Dave immediately agrees with his band mate adding “Millennium square we did this year as well. Two days, which was absolutely brilliant to play in front of 14, 000 people in Leeds in the middle of summer. It was a really good gig for us.”

But it wasn’t just the size of the crowd that made the Millennium Square gigs memorable for the band. “We had friends and family down and because it was big we could all enjoy it. They are the two highlights for me Glastonbury and Millennium square” Dave added.

As for the Pigeon Detectives plans for this year one thing seems to be on the agenda. “A lot of sleep” states Dave. However the band won’t be stepping completely out of the spotlight, “we will be writing next year but we’re having a lot of rest. We will be doing some gigs, turning up at some of the festivals, but we’re going to be doing a lot of resting and a lot of writing next year.”

Update

Hi,

You’ve probably noticed that posts here have been a little sparsein recent months. This is largely due to the unavoidable and quite time consuming process of finding and now working a full time job.

Right, boring excuse making section of the post over.

I have recently discovered that the website I previously wrote for/ helped to edit no longer seems to be operating. Alpha was, in its brief life, a great site and was a very rewarding project to be involved with. There were several articles which I produced for the site which I am very proud of, so I will be re-publishing some of them, and giving others their first public appearences here.

Admittedly one or two aren’t all that current (up to about a year old) but I would like to think there is still some interesting and entertaining stuff there.

All the best and thanks for reading,

Dane