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

Kids In Glass Houses Exclusive Interview

Welsh pop-punks Kids In Glass houses enjoyed a fairly meteoric rise to prominence culminating in the release of debut album Smart Casual.

However aside from a spot supporting Fall Out Boy on their arena tour in March, KIGH have enjoyed an unusually quiet 2009.

The band took some time out from working on new material to play at the Slam Dunk Festival at Leeds University.

I spotted guitarist Ian Mahanty enjoying the sunshine and took the opportunity to get an update on all things KIGH as the band prepare to record their second album.

Hi Ian, what have you made of the Slam Dunk experience so far?

“It’s been awesome. We turned up earlier and just saw loads of people we haven’t seen in ages. It’s going to be a good time; there are loads of good bands playing. So yeah, just good vibes.”

Are there any other bands that you’re friends with here?

“Yeah, The Blackout, Attack Attack, Save Your Breath, they are all like home town boys. It should be good, it should be good.”

How is life for Kids In Glass Houses at present?

“It’s good man. We are just writing for the second record and chilling out at home. It’s a bit strange because we are kind of used to being away but it’s nice I guess. We’re just ploughing through the second record banging out the tunes.”

Do you think the new record will see Kids In Glass Houses grow even bigger?

“That’s always the want of any band, and we want to become as big as possible. Hopefully with this new material we shall succeed.”

How is the new material for the record coming along?

“Yeah it’s sounding good man. I don’t want to say it’s more grown up because that’s such a cliché thing to say. It sounds like us but it is definitely a progression.”

Are there any particular issues you’re looking to cover on the new record?

“Aled dealt with a lot of mutual personal issues on the first record. I think lyrically he’s definitely looking to step it up a notch and attack a lot more different things. We have had a good year so it is kind of hard to write about personal issues. I think now it’s time to start thinking outside of the box and take in what is around us.”

A lot has happened for Kids In Glass Houses in the last couple of years, what has been your highlight?

“My personal highlight, I can’t speak for the others, but it was definitely headlining the Astoria and selling it out. Growing up playing guitar that was always the one venue that you were like ‘oh I want to play there’. We got to headline it before they knocked it down so I was chuffed.”

Having said that what’s left for your band to achieve?

“Arena’s I guess, stadiums, we want to do it all man. We are not one of those bands that are content with being in the midst of some cult. We love that obviously and it will always be a part of us but we want to become as big as we possibly can.”

What do you thing it is that has made Welsh bands so successful in recent years, is there something in the water there?

“I think it’s a combination of having such good bands around you and there being nothing to do in Wales. You can play rugby or pick up a guitar pretty much. I know that sounds really moronic but it is pretty much like that in all of the towns that we grew up in. Obviously then seeing Prophets and Funeral doing so well and them living only twenty minutes down the road it was like, well why can’t we do that.

And because every band that comes out of Wales is always so good there is that healthy competition. There is an awesome sense of community as well.”

Has coming out of that music scene which has produced such successful bands put extra pressure on you?

“Not really because there is only as much pressure as you put on yourself, everyone is self driven. It’s not a competition in a sort of malicious way. Is healthy and everyone helps each other out. We are all friends regardless of whether we are in a band or not. Just from going to shows and living in the same area.”

Did how quickly KIGH and your success grew made it hard to adjust?

“You just take it in your stride. I love playing small shows and I love playing big shows. For me it’s like whatever, but when we did the Fall Out Boy tour, like the O2 arena I was like fucking hell this is a bit big. You don’t really get time to think.

Last year happened so quickly for us. We went from doing tours that we were booking ourselves to doing bigger venues with bigger bands. Gradually we stepped up our own shows as well. I think we were lucky that we started off quite DIY and now it’s like a gradual thing for us.”

Is that DIY attitude something you’re looking to maintain in the future?

“Always, it’s something that is just instilled in us. It’s from growing up going to shows where, if you wanted to play a show, you put it on yourself. It’s something that is always going to be with us, we’ll never come with an ego so to speak. We’ll always just be how we are.”

When will fans get to hear some of the new songs?

“We’re playing two new tunes tonight but release wise we’re not sure. We are going to start recording it soon, get our arses into gear and just bash it out. Hopefully people will enjoy it as much as they did the first.”

What can we expect from your set tonight?

“Good times, we are not playing many shows this year because we are quite busy writing and sorting out recording and stuff like that. Every show we are playing we make an effort to make it the best it could possibly be because we want people to remember why they are into us while we are away writing.

We still want to be in people’s minds even though we’re not touring.”

Finally, why should anyone who isn’t already a fan of Kids In Glass Houses take an interest in you?

“Because we’re fucking rad.”

The Blackout Exclusive Interview

As ridiculously cheerful Welsh emo rockers The Blackout prepared to release their new album ‘The Best In Town’, I headed backstage to meet them at Leeds University’s Slam Dunk Festival. There I found Gavin Butler (vocals) and Gareth Lawrence (drums) on top form and talked about being the best in town, why killing cows and making babies wasn’t an appealing life path and writing songs about zombies. All in a days work…

We’re less then twenty four hours from the release of your new album, how are you feeling?

Gareth: “Nervous”

Gavin: “We’re looking forward to people just hearing it to be honest. Its been up on Myspace for a couple of days.”

Gareth: “Some kids have been like oh this is the best album I’ve heard in a long time.”

Gavin: “They seem to like it as much as we do which is a lot.”

Gareth: “But other people were like I don’t know where you’ve gone with this, this album has melted my head, you’ve changed.”

Gavin: “Have we though?”

Gareth: “Have we really? There is no pleasing everyone. Some people love your band from the word go, like the early albums. With the last album people were saying you’ve changed from the EP. You’re not as heavy or you’re not as this. The lyrics are not as meaningful. It’s a bit streaky. We always anticipate not being able to keep everyone happy with every album.”

Gavin: “I think every band looses fans with every record they bring out, but it’s whether or not they gain more fans. That’s how they survive. Like Gareth said you’re not going to please everyone and you shouldn’t have to. At the end of the day we write music for us.”

Gareth: “There’s been more of a good reaction I guess. Eighty eight percent has been the good reaction and twelve percent has been people who were just like oh. Its just taken people by surprise I think.”

Gavin: “That’s a very specific amount.”

Gareth: “Yes I counted and then divided it by a hundred and eighty eight percent was what I found”

You gave the album a very, shall we say confident title, where did it come from?

Gavin: “It’s in a lyric, a lyric from the first song Shut The Fuck Uppercut. The song deals with small minded people from small towns. As soon as they saw us doing well or achieving what we wanted to achieve, doing what we love doing, they grab on to it and try and drag you down and destroy it any way they can.”

Gareth: “It’s not only us its other local bands that we’ve seen over the years bands like Lostprophets and Funeral For A Friend. Other bands that played with them a lot, as soon as they got successful they tried pulling on the coat tails.

“It’s not just like us saying we are the best in town it’s a message for everybody, for kids as well. Don’t let anybody bring you down in anything that you do. Not just band wise but in any walk of life.”

Gavin: “It’s not solely about music.”

Gareth: “And it’s not solely about us either.”

Gavin: “You can achieve anything in any field but there are always people who don’t like to see you achieve.”

Gareth: “As long as you’re doing your best and you’re meeting your full potential it’s the only thing that matters. Its not us being big headed and saying look at me I’m the best. It’s not that at all.”

Gavin: “But it is that”

Lyrically you are a lot more positive then many of your emo counterparts, why is that?

Gavin: “I think it’s just inherent in us that we love what we do and we’ve always had a positive outlook on life. We’ve seen local bands like Lostprophets and Funeral For A Friend do well and its given us the drive to say fuck it we can do the best we can.”

Gareth: “I think it’s where we come from as well. I’m not saying that it’s really bleak but for us six idiots, well me one idiot and the five other boys, it’s a dream come true. We’ve got everything to be positive for.

“I was walking around earlier on and there were kids coming up to me and saying you’re my favourite band, Really? Metallica are out there, you know what I mean, Aerosmith, Faith No More.”

Gavin: “Oh god.”

Gareth: “To me just to have kids come to me and say I love your band, if we walked on stage tonight and only four people were there that would make my night. For us to be doing what we’re doing I think we’re just grateful. Where we’re from stuff like this never happens to people like us. We’re just grateful.”

Alpha hears (from Kids In Glass Houses) that the reason Welsh bands are so successful is because the only things to do in Wales are play rugby or play guitar, is this true?

Gavin: “Yeah play guitar, play rugby or work in a factory.”

Gareth: “I don’t fancy doing two of them. You can go either way in the areas we come from. You can go the kind of chavsville I guess, or you can try and do something with yourself and apply yourself in certain things.

Like you said ‘Kids’ they’re from the same kind of towns we’re from. I think that’s why Welsh bands get as far as they do, everybody works hard because nobody wants to stay in the places where they live.”

Gavin: “As nice as they are, it’s good to leave.”

Gareth: “It’s good to leave and see other things. But we also get a lot of resentment when we go back. We toured in America last year, toured in America for a week and then we came back. I went into a pub with my brother to watch some football and one of my old friends from school went what are you doing now. I’m in a band I said, we’ve just been to America.

‘Oh wicked, you getting paid much for that’. I was like well no not really because back the all our money came back to us and we were pushing it back in so that we could go to places like that. He said ‘I couldn’t do that, if I’m not getting paid enough money I couldn’t do that’.

I was like well what are you dong now? He went ‘I work in a meat factory and I just had my fourth kid’. I was like oh right wicked. Nothing against that but he looked down on me because I wasn’t getting any money.”

Gavin: “Because you were doing something you loved.”

Gareth: “And I was going round the world playing shows to people. He looked down on me because he thought I should have been at home making babies and killing cows. No, no thanks.”

What sort of stuff have you written about on the new record?

Gavin: “Most of it is personal stuff. I think that is the best thing to write about is what you know. There are a couple of songs that deal with relationships, like what we touched on earlier like the resentment and stuff. And then there are songs on there about”

Gareth: “Zombies!”

Gavin: “Yeah zombies and vampires and stuff. So there’s a good mix of a lot of things.”

Gareth: “‘Children of The Night’ is lyrically based on when this time last year we were on tour with Story Of The Year and we just watched Lost Boys. We thought how good would it be to be a vampire. So technically its Lost Boys in musical form.”

Gavin: “Yeah”

Gareth: “So that’s what we did with that.”

As a band you seem to have gained a reputation for partying hard and generally being a bit crazy, is this deserved?

Gavin: “Yes, I like to party. No, we all like having fun but three of us don’t even drink.”

Gareth: “Yeah half the band don’t even drink. When we go out we party hard even though I’m on coke all night.”

Gavin: “Not the white stuff!”

Gareth: “No the red stuff.”

Alpha: “We weren’t told about that”

Gareth: “They wouldn’t because they don’t like being out done by some sober lads.”

Gavin: “We party harder and we don’t even drink.”

Gareth: “We were out last night because it was our sound guy’s birthday and we went to the Cockpit to the pre show thing for this and we just danced for hours. New metal, old metal, scary metal, I don’t really know what it was, all types of metal but we danced constantly.”

Gavin: “I got thrown in the air.”

Gareth: “Nothing really crazy has happened yet.”

Gavin: “We’ve only just started to get into it because we’ve been away for like three months.”

Gareth: “So after every show were like…”

Gavin: “Dead”

Gareth: “Ready to go to bed.”

Gavin: “Last night was pretty good, Manchester was pretty good. We went to Satan’s Hollow it was called and it was just made up like hell with demons and stuff.”

Gareth: “The thing is we don’t do any mad crazy stuff,  but if something crazy happens we seem to latch on to it and try and keep it going for as long as possible.”

How have the songs from the new record gone down when you play them live?

Gavin: “Pretty good. But we’re only playing like five new songs and most of those people have already heard, because Shut The Fuck Uppercut went up on I-tunes way back in April to give people a teaser of the album. Then there’s the single Children Of The Night.”

Gareth: “Top Of The World We Played on the Christmas tour that we did and that’s been up on Youtube so a lot of the kids seem to know that already.”

Does stuff like kids putting videos of your new songs up on Youtube bother you?

Gavin: “With the invention of Youtube and the internet as soon as you play a new song it’s up on the internet for everyone to see the next day. So kids are always online checking all the new stuff anyway.”

Gavin: “Any way people can get to hear our music, learn the words and sing along and stuff is great.”

Gareth: “I’ve had loads of kids coming up to me and saying, because we put the album up for streaming on Thursday, ‘you know you did that’, and I’m like yeah, ‘well I downloaded it already, I ripped it is that alright?’ I was like well no but you’ve done it now so there’s nothing I can do. They were like ‘but we’re going to buy the album tomorrow’. I was like yeah alright, bullshit.”

Finally, why should Alpha readers buy ‘The Best In Town’?

Gavin: “Because it will be the best album they buy in 2009.”

Gareth: “Its fucking bril.”

Gavin: “It is bril”

Gareth: “I’m not lying to you, I’ll look you in the eye and tell you it is bril. No, if people have heard of us before and they’ve like what they’ve heard before then get this album because it’s better and more diverse.”

The Blackout’s new album ‘The Best In Town’ is available now.

You Me At Six Interview

Ask any music fan, or journalist for that matter, who are the hottest property in today’s British rock scene and they’ll likely all give you the same answer. You Me At Six.

The five piece from Surrey have sold out venues throughout the country, released their debut album ‘Take Off Your Colours’ to impressive reviews and sales figures and graced the covers of almost every major music magazine you could care to name.

Now it was my turn to enter the mad world of rock’s young upstarts. Read on to find out more about writing songs on the toilet, pretending to be the Gallows, how arguing with bus drivers can be a valuable learning experience and Josh Franceschi attempts to answer the burning question, how do people from Bristol speak?

“It has been a pretty intense year” reflects YMA6 bass player Matt Barnes “everything has kind of hit the fan”. Barnes is seated in the band’s dressing room backstage at Manchester’s Academy along with drummer Dan Flint and front man Josh Franceschi as all three look back on their band’s rapid rise to fame.

“We started of this year supporting bands like the audition in 300 capacity venues” continues Barnes, “Then last night we played out biggest headline show to date which was 3,000 people in Birmingham. So it has been an absolutely mental year.”

Probably as a result of playing their biggest ever show the night before all three members of the band look a tad on the exhausted side. Despite this Francheschi doesn’t miss the opportunity to try and wind up a Kerrang reporter, shadowing the band on their tour, who happens to be sitting on the other side of the room.

“The Kerrang cover wasn’t that great” he states with a smirk, prompting laughter from Flint and Barnes. Joking aside Franceschi expresses the fear that despite his bands success they are almost waiting for something to go wrong. “We’ve had a lot of highs and I think we’ve been very lucky. Now we’re just kind of waiting for a few lows” he said.

“We hope there are no lows” adds Barnes quickly.

It shows just how good a year or so it has been for YMA6 as Franceschi quickly reels off a list of his highlights. Among them supporting Fall Out Boy on an arena tour and appearing at the Give It A Name festival. But it is what his band have achieved on their own that seems to mean the most to the young front man, particularly the growth of the band’s solo shows and the success of their album.

Although the band admitted that the sold out tour which they were in the middle of at the time of the interview was taking its toll on them.

“I think we’ve all taken it a bit kind of heavily haven’t we” observes Franceschi, “It’s taken a lot out of us”.

“We’ve gone mental every single show” says Barnes complaining, “I’ve got the worst gig neck of my life”.

As a result of their obvious tiredness the band are trying to change the way they handle their press, as Franceschi explains. “We’ve just had an argument now with our tour manager telling him we want to do our press now in shifts because some of us need to go lie down” he said.

Adding “We’re so tired its ridiculous. But it’s all good. It’s all part of the fun.”

However despite their youth its not excessive drinking or partying that have left their band in their exhausted state.

“The bus calls aren’t until like four in the morning. So even if you’re not partying and you’re just sitting around chatting there is no point going to bed at ten or twelve or whatever. When there is 15 are 16 people on our bus not everyone is going to be going to bed at the same time” says Francheschi.

“It’s hard to sleep when you have got people talking and stuff and music playing. When the bus starts moving everyone goes to bed really” continued Dan Flint.

Even having bus calls, or tour buses, are a far cry from YMA6’s early days as a band when using public transport to get to shows was the order of the day.

“Megabus.com saved our lives”, states Franceschi “and trains, south west trains”.

This drive and determination to just play gigs in the first place is arguably the best example of the qualities which have got YMA6 so far. Something Franceschi sums up with typical eloquence.

“When you start out in a band and your 16 or 17 and none of you can drive, but you still want to play shows, you just have to do what you have to do to get there. It’s all about seizing the moment” he said.

And it was the far from cooperative nature of some the bus drivers which the band encountered which taught them a valuable lesson about fighting their corner.

“We were having arguments with the bus driver of Megabus because he wouldn’t let us put the drum kit on board” says Barnes.

“Yeah I remember that” agrees Franceschi. “We were like yeah we’ve got some guitars and he was like (puts on sarcastic middle aged man voice) well where are they going to go? I was like I’m sure you’ve got a luggage compartment somewhere, but he was having none of it” he said.

Logic suggests that going through this procedure regularly must have made the band pretty skilled at sweet talking bus drivers. A suggestion which Franceschi readily confirms, “Actually yeah” he says, “That’s where we started to learn how to compromise and argue certain situations, with bus drivers.”

I suggest that having experienced this, the band must surely find touring with such luxuries as their own bus driver boring, something which two of the assembled members of YMA6 agree with grinning.

“Yeah it’s terrible” says flint, “Absolutely awful” chips in Barnes.

For Francheschi however, although touring with their crew may make life easier, it still has its own bugs to bare.

“All of the people that are on tour with us have little radios” he explains.

“So I’ll be sitting somewhere, like on the bus, and I’ll just hear (mimicks tour crew) ‘can you get Josh its time for him to sound check’ I’ll be like right ok, then  its like ‘can you get Josh to go this way can you get Josh to go that way’. I just get like chill”, he said in what Alpha is informed is an accurate impression of the bands tour crew.

“It is in that voice as well” observes Barnes.

Next talk turns to what I imagined maybe the slightly touchy topic of how YMA6 have managed to avoid the Busted and McFly type boy band label. What followed set the tone for what would characterise most of the next five or ten minutes, me being reduced to an interested bystander to a series of animated discussions between the three band members.

Franceschi got the ball rolling on this particular issue.

“I don’t know. We have been pigeon holed in different ways I guess, but not so much the McFly thing. I see no kind of correlation between us and McFly other then that we’re boys and we’re in a band.”

“We’re probably about the same age” suggests Flint. “No they’re a bit older” replies Franceschi. Next it was Barnes’ to propose another similarity between the two.

“I don’t know we like to party, they like to party, we like to tour they like to tour” he says. This merely provoked further questioning from Flint. “How do we know they like to party”, he asks.

“Of course they like to party” retorts Barnes before Franceschi effectively ends the debate.

“Mate, have you seen one of them is going out with Frankie from the Saturdays, they like to party. I’m telling you that.” He says with such conviction that neither of his band mates even considers arguing.

From here talk turns to unwanted attention to female fans. “It does happen” concedes Franceschi, “But they don’t normally go to over the top” says Flint.

However YMA6 here to have adapted a less then orthodox approach to dealing with any unwanted attention. Simply pretend to be someone else.

“Some girls we walked past in Bristol, started screaming and running towards us” recalls Barnes. “Then went are you You Me At Six? We went no we’re the Gallows and walked off” he says laughing.

This anecdote provoked a further impersonation from Franceschi, one which showed a slightly bizarre level of attention to detail which has surely helped contribute to the band’s success.

“They were like (imitates what he imagines a Bristol accent to sound like) No I know you are. Hang on that’s not how they speak in Bristol. What’s the accent in Bristol?” he says, pausing to consider the answer to his own question.

“Pretty normal isn’t it” replies Flint.

“No its not its like proper Somerset” says Franceschi having to second to ponder his dialectual conundrum. He then makes a second, more accurate attempt at a Bristol accent saying “Are you in You Me At Six?”

“It’s definitely not that” scoffs Barnes prompting Franceschi to turn to Alpha for a second opinion. “Mate it definitely was something like that, Bristolian would it be?” he asks.

Regional dialects isn’t one of my stronger areas of knowledge and I suggest that Franceschi’s effort was pretty close. Consequently YMA6 appear to have forgotten about their original anecdote and talk moves on.

Did you have a backup plan for if the band hadn’t become successful as quickly as you wanted I ask.

“Yeah start another one” states Franceschi without a moment’s hesitation.

“Sign to a major label and sell out” proposes Barnes to the amusement of his band mates.

“I think what it is, when you try and plan life and try and plan stuff too much that’s when it doesn’t go to plan. You have to kind of go along with stuff and make good decisions quickly, then it rolls along quite nicely.”

“If you sit and ponder on things for too long that’s when you start pranging out as it were and start looking into stuff too much. We just go along with it. I haven’t even finished my college stuff” he adds.

The only member of You Me At Six present to have even considered continuing there education was drummer Flint. Who at the mention of college suddenly remembers something which gets Franceschi oddly excited.

“Do you know that at the ACM in Guilford they have a class where they teach music business, and they are studying about how we rose to the success that we have?” he asks his band mates.

The expression on Franceschi’s face suggests that this is news to him. “Really?” he asks, “That’s mental.”

Flint confirms that this is indeed the case and that he was told by someone attending the college. “That’s made my day” responds Francheschi, apparently stunned that people they grew up with are now studying his band.

I can’t tell if Flint is impressed by this or not, “this is a college that I paid five hundred pounds to go to and then didn’t go because I wanted to be in the band instead. I was meant to there” he says.

Barnes quickly spots the opportunity for further financial gain for the band, “they should fucking pay us for that” he states.

Meanwhile in his excitement Franceschi has spotted a potential, if unlikely to be needed backup plan. “You know what would be cool now? If our band does go to shit we can say can we come to ACM for free please, sure” he says.

I suggest that maybe there is the opportunity to sideline as guest tutors, which seems to appeal to all three. “We should definitely go and do some tutorial that would be so funny”, says Franceschi.

“We should definitely sit there like let’s just play some fucking music” adds Flint, followed by “We can’t really play well but we blagged it”, from Barnes.

“You Me At Six the biggest blagging band ever” exclaims a laughing Franceschi.

Prompting what a tongue in cheek confession from Barnes, “We can’t even play our instruments. It’s all pre-recorded, we’re like Britney Spears we just mouth along to everything” he jokes.

Composed and relatively articulate they maybe in press interviews, but the band admit they are no stranger to the odd verbal gaffe on stage. Most prone to this they say is guitarist Max Heyler, one of the members of YMA6 not present. So much so, that they appear to have christened just such an incident “A Max moment”.

Barnes recounts the most recent example. “We were in like Bristol or somewhere so far away And Max was literally like hello Glasgow. We were like oh my god we are so far away from that place. Everyone was just like what?” he says.

“We were like what the fuck are you talking about?” adds Flint.

However Franceschi admits that he himself had a moment on stage he would prefer to forget.

“The other night in Bristol I was feeling really sick on stage for some reason. You know when you’re really drunk and you get really hazy and don’t know what you’re doing. Well I felt like that but I hadn’t been drinking. I just felt that sick and nauseous” he explains.

For reasons he doesn’t recall Franceschi felt the need to share his illness with the crowd. “I was like I’m feeling really sick right now so what I want you to do is stand to the person next to you, look them in the eye and tell them you’re going to throw up on them. I looked at Matt and went Matt, on the count of three I’m going to throw up on you. They did a countdown. I was like what is going on.”

If the incident confused Franceschi it was nothing compared to the reaction of his band mates. “In my head I was like what are you doing?” says Barnes, “It was like he’s got a shovel and he’s just digging a hole, getting faster.”

“It was a Max moment” he concludes.

“Yeah” agrees Franceschi, “I had a Max moment.”

The limited edition release of You Me At Six’s album ‘Take Off Your Colours’ is available now.

Finally, it’s here, Alpha online is go!!!!!

At long last Alpha has published content on it’s website www.alphamag.co.uk.

And the very first article to appear on the site is my exclusive interview with Fightstar’s Charlie Simpson so if you could head over there and take a look it would be much appreciated.

In Another update I carried out an interview with Dan O’Conner from hardcore pop-punkers Four Year Strong at Rock City on Saturday. That interview is almost written up and I will post it exclusively here sometime this week as I realise that this page has been short of actual meaningful content recently.

Today I was also due to carry out an interview with Leed’s indie rockers The Pigeon Detectives. Unfourtunately the interview and the band’s gig at Rock City tonight had to be cancelled due to singer Matt being unwell.

Hopefully that interview should be rescheduled for some time in the not too distant future so watch this space for that.

More Fightstar stuff.

To add to my earlier post here is a photo of me with Fightstar bass player Dan Haigh taken after the band’s support set with Feeder at Lincoln’s Engine Shed.

The band played a blinding set even if it did go completely over the heads of most of the crowd. The set was really like a collection of Fightstar’s ‘greatest hits’ to date with Paint Your Target, Floods, first single Palanuiks Laughter and fan favourite Mono all present.

The band also played their epically good new single The English Way and another track from their forthcoming new album. Both tracks sounded great live and bode well for the new release. All three of the band members I met were very polite and friendly ( I didn’t meet Al Westaway but I’m sure he’s nice too) and it was a great night all round, even if I never actually saw any of headline act Feeder’s set.