.uk o c . g a m l i c www.sten
www.stencilmag.co.uk
www.twitter.com/stencilmag
www.facebook.com/stencilmagazine
PHOTOGRAPHY Marcus Maschwitz
Did You see?
FEATURED Secondlight Studios Outhouse Studios
Interview with Becca (lead vocals) and Will (bass and screamer)
Interview with Jon Lilygreen
EDITIONS
What do you guys think of the alternative rock music scene in the UK, has it changed much since you first started out? The music scene is strong at the moment in terms of the bands out there, the UK will always continue to make great music, but it can be quite difficult to get people to the gigs these days. When we first started out on the punk scene a few years ago, it was all about playing as many gigs as you could, in as many different places as you could. You built up your fan base by working hard, accepting every gig you were offered and putting on the same show to 2 or 200 people. We live in a more digital age than ever these days which makes the internet so important to bands, but its getting in the back of a van that comes naturally to us! like i say, if you're inventive with the internet, you have a clever idea, then you can have a big fan base before you've even played a gig.
What can you tell us about your 2008 album "The Truth Is..." ? We never really go into writing an album with a theme as such, more with targets, the biggest is to stay honest. We have always written and always will write music that we love to play, we love to listen too music that is 100% genuine. We are all really proud of our first record "What We Are Today" but when writing the "The Truth Is..." we didnt want to be one of those bands that just churned out the same record time and time again, we are constantly aware of making sure there is a progression in our sound. The change in sound is a natural progression though, your music taste can constantly change while youre growing up which will have an impact on the music you write. Jims lyrics never really take on a specific theme, but they are always real and relevant to how he feels on matters of the world around him. We are all of the same view that songs should have a meaning and be of worth, but you have to be careful not to preach to people or ram subjects down their throat, it can only be a good thing to provoke thoughts and opions though.
How has the indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com) campaign been going for your 3rd album? Our indiegogo campaign has been amazing, its really given us a lifeline to get our 3rd album out. The generosity of our fans has really overwhelmed us. I think its a really cool thing that when some people hear the new record, they can know it wouldnt have been possible without their support! We've had alot of new material written for a while, but recording an album doesnt come cheap, the financial side of things was the only thing holding us back. We had seen 1 or 2 bands/artists try a donations scheme with success so thought we would give it a go. Its not everyones favourite way for bands to get their recording budget, but whether you like it or loathe it, im 100% sure you'll see more and more bands using donation sites to get their music heard!
Interview with Rob Catlow
You guys have a lot of material prepped for your 3rd album now, how is it sounding in comparison to "The Truth Is..." I think we've written around 20 songs since "The Truth Is...", we still like around 16 of those and we are just trying to pick the best ones for the record. There is a change in sound again but all our songs have our Failsafe stamp on them. It sounds like its going to be more of a rock record than a punk rock record, we're writing more mature sounding songs. I think we realised parts can still sound great even if it isnt a million miles an hour. We're all so happy with how the songs are sounding and definitely feel like it will be our best record yet, just cant wait to get it out now and play more of the songs live.
So you featured on The Inbetweeners, how was this whole experience, and how did this chance come up? Being apart of the Inbetweeners was amazing! We are all huge fans of the show and were already excited about the 3rd series, we literally couldnt believe it when we found out we were going to be in it! It was an awesome day, we got to see loads of the club scenes being shot which was wicked, but we had to keep it a secret which was really hard! We were made to feel really welcome by everyone and the lads even introduced themselves to us because they recognised us from all the posters plastered everywhere. The story of how we got the opportunity isnt very exciting though im afraid, we're lucky enough to have a good team working with us and out of the blue our manager got a call from production at channel 4, the rest is history.
How excited are you to be playing this years Slam Dunk Festival, and what should we expect from your set? We are really excited about playing at Slam Dunk, its always an honour to share a bill with such awesome bands, especially this years line up, theres so many bands that we all grew up with! We're lucky enough to have played Slam Dunk in the past and it was great and we're really looking forward to making a weekend of it. We'll probably get a 30 min set so we will probably throw a couple of cheeky new tunes in there aswell as our most well known songs. When you play a headline set its always nice to play a mixed bag, but when you only have half an hour, its always more fun for everyone to give it us much energy as possible!!!
So can you tell us a bit about how the band got together? Just kids from different areas sharing the same goals in life wanting to share their music with the whole world!
You recently signed to Rise Records, how are they treating you so far? So far so good! We are still on the first date but the resteraunt is very classy!
How did you come up with the idea to do a covers album? (Motown Classics) We love r& b music! We wanted to try something different then the typical cover record! We had a blast recording these songs!! I don’t know what that's supposed to mean but I'm on the train next to a stinky dude so I'm a little distracted!
For any Set Your Goals fans reading this, why should they come out early and check you guys out? Well that's what this scene is all about, checking out new bands and thinking with an open mind! This community means so much to me! We aren't like the normal people on the outside world, We have something special and I'm just glad to be part of it! We are always looking forward to playing for new kids and making new friends!
What has the feedback been like for that album? All the feedback was super awesome!! And the kids love singing along to the songs when we play them live! Just a fun release for fun people! It’s a bonus that my grandmother loves it!!!
Interview with Matt Arsenault
Also, In what direction is the new album heading?
I'd say it's like godsmack meets kid rock! We figured it was time to sell out! Seriously though I'd say it lays somewhere between saves the day-through being cool and alkaline trio - from here to infirmary with our twist an magical spins! We are super siked on it!
So, How is the work going on your new album? It’s going awesome!!! A lot of work to get done in little time but it's part of the process!!
How did your first UK tour go with one of our favorite up and coming UK pop punk bands 'All Or Nothing' ? That tour was amazing!!! We got to start an amazing relationship with all or nothing as well as our brothers in lyu who helps us out so much!!! We love spending time in the UK!
How stoked are you to be playing Slam Dunk Festival this year? I'm beyond stoked!! We wanted to play so bad last year!!! We were worried we weren't going to get the invite this year.... So thanks to ben and the slam dunk family!! Such a great line up! We are stoked to be a part of it!!
As well as this you are heading out on tour with the guys in Set Your Goals? How excited are you for this tour? I mean set your goals are like our really attractive older brothers who grew facial hair at 13 and were highschool football legends! So we are just glad to be supporting them!
What does the rest of 2011 hold for 'A Loss For Words' ? New record!!! Fun with friends! Touring the world! Eating great food! Cliff jumping! And pool parties!!!
Why did you choose to re-release "We Lived" and how has it gone down with fans? When We Lived came out originally we didn't have the opportunity to sell it through music stores and get it out to more people. Aside from giving it a proper release we wanted to give our fans something back, a sort of thankyou and insight into who we are, hence the DVD. We are really proud of it and I think everyone who bought one has enjoyed it!
How has 2011 been for you so far, and what have you been up to? 2011 has been very good so far. We started it off with our UK headline tour which was amazing for us. It was great to get such a great response in every city we went to. We're also really enjoying being home writing new songs and getting ready for our May tour.
So, how is the new material sounding? We think the new stuff is sounding really good, but it's always difficult to label your own music so we prefer to let people make their own verdict on it when they hear it.
What is the story behind the song "All I Had"? Its quite strange, the chorus of All I Had is about a time when I found myself in a dead end job and my life was going nowhere, so I gave up everything I had in life to play music. I didn't want to wake up every morning being something I hated. The verses are about everything that happened after I gave up my job and my home and how I always had to remind myself that despite how bad things were I always had my family.
Any last words? Thanks for sticking with us whilst we're hidden away writing, we will have music for you soon! Other than that we hope to see you all in May on the Ulive tour!
How excited are you to be playing this years Slam Dunk Festival, and what can attending fans expect? We're really excited to have been invited to play Slam Dunk this year. I guess fans should expect a good show and also some new songs, we will probably try and throw in something special. Maybe we'll ask a friend to come and sing with us.
FRANCESQA Interview with Ben Hordos (Bassist) & Ashley Wilkie (vocals)
Interview with Alex Sears
How did you guys get together? We started playing together in mid 2009 after our previous bands had broken up. After a couple of months of practicing together we had written 5 songs that we then recorded with Jason Wilcock at Stakeout Studios over 8 days - they would become the 'Lost At Sea' EP. After recording the EP, we set about playing anywhere and everywhere we could!
Can you define your sound to an unfamiliar reader?
DECADE
We generally mix elements of pop punk and hardcore, but in a British and original way. We take the mix of heavy riffs and drums but with clean vocals at the same time to create a pretty fresh sound; you can definitely hear it in our new material! The overall sound is aggressive pop punk with riffs, whilst trying to retain the British edge.
How excited are you to be supporting the awesome Set Your Goals? We are so excited to be touring with Set Your Goals! They have been a big influence on our sound over the past couple of years and to say that we love their music is a massive understatement. We've seen them live a bunch of times between us, and to see that every night on a whole UK tour is going to be an incredible experience. It'll be a great opportunity for us to play some cities that we have never been to before as well, and hopefully extend our fan base!
How excited are you to be playing the Slam Dunk Festival, and what can attending fans expect from your slot? Slam Dunk is a massive achievement for us as we have not been a band for that long, and to play a festival like that along side some of our favourite bands is a dream come true! For our genre, Slam Dunk is one of the biggest and best festivals to be involved with so we are so stoked to have the opportunity to play. Fans can expect lots of energy, big singalong choruses, summer anthems, and some new songs too! We have a lot of new material that we are itching to play live and can't wait to show everyone.
What else does 2011 hold for Decade? 2011 for Decade is all about touring as much as we can, seeing new places, and meeting new people! We have the SYG tour to look forward to, and hopefully a few more tours before the year is out. We're also going to be releasing new material, so we'll be hitting the studio later on this year which we are really excited about!
Interview with Aaron Barrett
Since we last spoke you've completed a UK tour with The Skints, New Riot, and Suburban Legends! How did it go, and can you give us some of your highlights from the tour? The whole tour was amazing! Lots of hot an sweaty shows and lots of people dancing and going crazy! Everyone in all the bands got along so well and there was such a friendly vibe between everybody and that just made the whole tour that much better; it was a non-stop party backstage. I think just about every single night of the tour me and Tom from New Riot would get really drunk and have the same conversation about how we couldn't understand why so many bands would stop playing ska or would not want to be called a ska band after they got popular playing ska!
At your live shows in recent years you have been seen doing different versions of the song S.R. as in you will stop the song briefly and play it in a metal/funk style etc! how did this cool idea come about? Like most of the funny stuff we do on stage it just sort of evolved spontaneously. We used to just play the normal version and then one day in, i believe it was Vermont, USA i just randomly said on stage, "we should do a punk rock version of that song" and started playing. The band followed along and we played those two versions back to back for a few years until one day on stage, i was telling the crowd the story of how we had spontaneously come up with the punk rock version during a show and then i said we should try a disco version and the band just followed along! if you listen to our live album, that is pretty much a re-creation of the night we came up with "the many versions of SR". Of course, by the time we made the live album we had been doing it for about 5 years, but we just pretended to do it for the first time!
This is your 20th year as Reel Big Fish, how does it feel to still have such a great and dedicated fan base? We have always felt incredibly lucky and grateful that anyone would take the time to listen to our music or come to a show, the fact that we are still doing this after so many years just blows our mind! We really can't thank our fans enough for all the support they have given us through the past few decades.
If you had the chance to do the last twenty years again and go back to day one, is there anything you would of changed? Oh there's always things that you wish you had done differently when you look back on your life...but since everything worked out so well for us i wouldn't really change much. I think i would have written less songs complaining about being in a band...like "Don't Start a Band", i really don't want to discourage anyone from making music.
For those who may have missed the announcement can you explain why Scott Klopfenstein has left the band? His wife got pregnant and they both decided that if they were going to have a kid, they would want to be be there for it all the time. They didn't want the baby to grow up with a dad who was out of town 200 or more days a year on tour. I think also, he really wanted to start concentrating on his own music because RBF took up ALL of his time...He just wanted to do something different with his life after pretty much growing up being in this band. It was just time for him to follow other dreams.
How is Matt Appleton adapting to the Reel Big Fish lifestyle? He's doing great! From day one it felt like he was one of the guys and had been in the band forever. Also, we had no idea he could sing so well so it was an awesome bonus that he could cover all Scott's high harmony vocal parts. Matt is really enjoying himself and he says this is the best job he's ever had!
In reference to the last question this also marks the first time in over ten years since you have had a saxophone player in the band, how is that going? It's so good to have a saxophone in the band again, we had really been missing that! We just had never found the right person since Adam Polakoff left in 1995.
So this will be your second time at the Slam Dunk Festival, how stoked are you to be playing again, and what can attendees expect? We're excited to play Slam Dunk again because we were there at the beginning and now we get to see how much it's grown over the years. We're also excited to see all our friends in the other bands like Less Than Jake! The people at the show are definitely going to get rocked HARD! They will get their asses kicked and their faces melted off at the very least! haha
This will also mark the first time that Reel Big Fish and Less Than Jake have toured together in the UK, this is a dream tour for a lot of people, why is it that this tour has never happened before? I think it's mostly been that we couldn't get the timing right. we are both such hardworking bands who are constantly on tour that it's hard to make both bands schedules match up! We have been talking about doing a UK tour together since 2007! Hopefully Slam Dunk will go so well that we'll work even harder to make an extensive RBF/LTJ UK tour happen soon!
What was the writing process like for "Skip School, Start Fights" compared to when you wrote "This Is a Stick Up...Don't Make It a Murder" as this was your first release with Nick Thompson on vocals? The writing process was different from the "Stick-Up sessions" mainly because Colin(our old vocalist) wasn't there. In the past Colin, Omar, Dave and I would come up with ideas, Colin would play drums and we would figure out the songs. On the "Skip School" writing process, we had a lot of down time in Ohio while Interview with Nick Thompson searching for a new singer so we came up with much of the record on Garageband programs and such. We would just send ideas back and forth. We have many song writers in the band so as far as writing goes, we basically did the same thing we would have done had Colin been there, he just wasn't. Eventually we made it into the studio and just pushed it all out.
What are the main themes and narratives behind your 2009 EP "Coast To Coast" ? There are six tracks on the "Coast to Coast" EP. Two newer HTL tracks, two cover songs and two acoustic versions of past songs. "Coast to Coast" was recorded with John Feldman and it's basically just about us going through a lot of bullshit to still do this band, but the reason we do it is because of what we get out of BEING in the band. It's a shout out to our fans who have watched us grow. "Pulse" was recorded with Mark Trombino and was a poppier, different song. We did the covers because we thought it would be cool to introduce some of our fans to other bands that had a hand in making Hit The Lights what we are. The Acoustic songs were more or less another thing to give to fans of HTL and it gave me a chance to sing some of the older material, which kids had been asking about. In the end it was just a little something to put out to our fans and it was fun to do. I don't know if someone who didn't know us as well would appreciate the EP as much.
Other than Slam Dunk Festival, What other How is the new material coming together, memories do you have from playing live in we hear you have been demoing new material with "Ryan Key" and "Kenny the UK? Vasoli" amongst many others? We've had some great times coming over to the UK. We've been writing new material for over a year now. The first time we came over I got wasted and lost in Birmingham. I almost got jumped, got punched in the There are songs that sound like Skip School, there are face twice and I'm pretty sure I broke my pinky-knuckle songs that remind me of Stick-Up, but we have some of the newer songs that I think are really special. hitting a guy in the face. I never would have made it We're working hard to make a record that pushes HTL out alive if my boys and our good friend Ollie hadn't further in terms of direction and song writing, but have put out a call to the Police for me. It was a big something that still relates to what we were and where wake-up call for me and definitely made me a better person in the long run. Also, we shared a bus with the we come from. I don't think any of our fans want another "Stick-Up" or "Skip School", they want Dave Melilo band and ended up getting kicked off of something they can grow with. That's the most our bus because someone got wasted and peed all over a bunk mattress. Coincidentally, this happened important thing right now. We got the opportunity to the right after we were in the back of the bus chanting write songs with a LOT of different people and it was "Kill Tony" for five minutes. Tony was the bus driver, fun and a big learning experience as well. Will some of I'm pretty sure he heard all that and got a little freaked. the songs end up on the new record? Not sure yet, I guess we'll see. Seriously though, we were going to kill him.
So, how do festivals here compare to festivals in the USA?
In reference to the last question, You recently released a video of you guys playing a new song "Get To You" what is the story behind this song?
We usually don't play indoor festivals in the states. Normally, if it's something as big as Slam Dunk, it's outside on outside stages. That's ok, but depending "Get To You" was a song Dave was messing around on the weather and the sound, it can be pretty shitty as with. I'm a big fan of it, it's a little different but I think well. We've always been the kind of band that likes to you can see how it still relates to Hit The Lights style of play packed little clubs and get sweaty and dirty. When music. We changed it up a bit and made a really cool, we get on bigger stages where there's tons of room, groovy acoustic jam that brings a whole new face to we tend to work a little harder because there are no the song. People always say if the song is good on an kids to grab on to. It's like a little panic mode where acoustic guitar, you've got a winner. I can't wait to see you're like "Oh, shit, there's no one to grab or high five; how the song pans out in the studio. Exciting stuff, I I BETTER JUST JUMP AND SCREAM A LOT". had a little drop of pee come out. Good thing I'm wearing old underwear.
Can you give us some bands you love touring with, and why you love touring with Why should Stencil Mag readers come and them? check you guys out at your upcoming Slam Dunk Festival shows? Some of our favorites (in no particular order) are New Found Glory, Set Your Goals, Fireworks, Every Avenue, Such Gold, Just Surrender to name a few. We're a pretty easy band to get along with, so usually there are no problems. One of the big things of us not touring much this past year was missing all of our tour friends. You get in such a habit of crossing paths with each other on the road and at festivals and then you take a year off and it's like "Wow, I kind of miss... um... everybody." But seriously, we have many, many good friends; too many to name. It's a beautiful problem to have.
What does the rest of 2011 hold for Hit The Lights? We're going to get this fucking record done and tour our asses off like always. I can't fucking wait for kids to hear the next step of HTL.
If you like bad, off-colour, offensive humor; we'll probably have some of that. Also there will be lots of sweat, snot, spit and maybe a little blood. If you don't like that then why the fuck are you going to shows?! Also, we're into slathering baby oil all over our bodies these days, so we'll probably look pretty good under all those hot lights.
So for those who don't know can you explain why you guys decided to break in 2008? We had reached a point where we just needed to take a big step away from touring, the band, and each other to evaluate things. We toured for the better part of 8 years, and really just needed a break. There were no fights, arguments or anything like that, we just all wanted very different things, and needed to get away from TSL in order to hopefully get back on the same page. After being in a sort of bubble for so long, people tend to lose focus on things, and we needed to figure out what we wanted and needed. I'm thankful we did, stepping back into things after taking such a long break from each other really made us appreciate each other as well as what we were able to accomplish and create as a band.
What was it like playing your last show at the Bamboozle Festival in 2008? It was so incredibly bittersweet. It was one of the biggest shows we've ever played, and to us, it could've very well been the last show we ever played. I felt like that was the right way to end that chapter of TSL. Kids in the crowd were crying, all of our friends and families rushed the stage, it was an amazing moment that we were all humbled by.
How is the energy in the band at the moment, and how is it playing all of The Starting Line songs live once more? It's so incredible, I can honestly say that we're happier and more excited than we've ever been. I feel like we're all a lot closer as well. After taking such a long "hiatus", it's such a crazy thing playing those songs again. It makes me appreciate what we have all that much more.
Interview with Matt Watts You just got back from the legendary Soundwave Festival, how was this whole experience? Soundwave was unreal. Australia was beautiful, and there were some big time rock stars on the tour (Slash, Iron Maiden, Queens of the Stone Age). It was such a blast. Gaslight Anthem were on the tour too, who is one band that I tried my hardest to watch every day.
What can you tell us UK people about the legendary Warped Tour? You guys have done around several tours on this now? Warped Tour is basically Punk Rock Summer Camp. It goes on for about two months, and it's an all day festival in which the bands don't know their set times until early in the morning (day of show), which keeps everyone on their toes! It's hot, incredibly dirty, and the best time ever. Kevin Lyman (the brains behind Warped Tour), is a really great dude and keeps the ticket prices super low, so everyone is able to come out and see some great bands. I highly recommend taking a trip to catch a Warped show or two. Put it on the bucket list.
You've toured the UK before with bands like MxPx, what are your fondest memories from playing here? Touring the UK with MxPx was great, they were one of the first bands that I ever got into, and to tour with them was the coolest thing ever. We also toured the UK with From Autumn to Ashes, which was a rather odd pairing and made for such a fun tour. My liver is still pissed off at me from touring with those guys! New Found Glory took us on our first UK tour, Finch were on the bill as well, and being there for the first time with a band like that would probably go down as one of my fondest UK memories.
You guys have toured so much since your formation, what kind of impact does this have on your personal life? It all depends, it's sometimes hard to maintain "normal" friendships and relationships with touring so much, but the people that will be in your life for the long haul understand it and accept it. It takes a different breed of person to be able to tour all year long, and it takes an even different breed of person to be in a relationship with someone who tours all year long.
How excited are you to be playing this years Slam Dunk Festival, and what can attending fans expect? We're really excited. We haven't been to the UK in forever, it's so long overdue. You can expect an older, fatter, and slower TSL. Joke. Expect a bit of everything from the catalog, as well as a new jam. Kenny has been doing DJ sets too, so if we can find him a few maybe we'll have a dance party after one of the shows?
What can you tell us about your new song "Luck" ? Also when did this song come to formation? TSL + The Pixies + Kings of Leon = "Luck". Kenny had been working on some new TSL songs/ideas and showed us "Luck" when we were rehearsing for our Holiday shows. All of us were super stoked on it. It's the only new song we've worked out thus far, but the direction feels really good for us. Really simple, straightforward.
What does the rest of 2011 hold for The Starting Line? Will there be more shows to come, and maybe another release? We're not 100% sure yet, everything is feeling really good and we don't want to get ahead of ourselves. We've all talked about getting together and writing more and we would love to put out another release, but there's no time frame or anything like that. We're just letting this thing happen as naturally as possible.
So can you explain a bit about how you guys got together? Pete: Brad, Denis, and myself were in a hardcore band called The Starting Point back in 2005-2006. The whole time we had talked about doing a pop-punk band and eventually near the end of 2006 we wrote our demo. We did our first tour in the summer of 2007...and that's that!
Fast forwarding a bit here but what have you been up to so far this year? Brad: To start off the year we recorded a new album in Orange, CA with Chad Gilbert and Paul Minor. We played various one-offs with The Wonder Years and New Found Glory. We just got back from South By South West and a tour with Daytrader and Seahaven. Up next we will be in the UK with our close friends in Set Your Goals and A Loss For Words.
So your name came from "The Movielife" album 'This Time Next Year' can you explain to readers what you love so much about these guys? Pete: For all of us, The Movielife came to be right around the time we were just getting into hardcore and kind of acted as a bridge between our favorite bands at the time. They not only catered to hardcore kids but the pop punk crowd as well. They just had a unique sound that all of us could relate too. They’re really just a nostalgic band that I will always have a place for in my life.
Also in kind of reference to the lasting question you got to work with the mighty producer 'Brian McTernan' on your debut album, so what was this whole experience like? Brad: The experience was great and working with Brian was an honor. It was our first time working with an actual producer. Brian really dug into the songs and helped us out more than any of us expected. The studio was also set up so downstairs was the control and tracking rooms and the upstairs was set up like an apartment where bands could live at the studio. We really couldn't ask for a better scenario.
Can you explain the main themes behind your album "Road Maps and Heart Attacks"? Pete: Road Maps… more or less was a story of the trials and tribulations we had gone through as a band. It chronicled every struggle, heartbreak, and setback we had but also gave us so much perspective on what we were doing as a band. Road Maps… showed us that being in a touring band is not easy and that if you want something bad enough, you have to go out and work for it. Even if it means sacrificing everything you have back home (or in your bank account).
How stoked are you to be playing this years Slam Dunk Festival again? Brad: So stoked! Slam Dunk Leeds last year is one of my favorite sets TTNY has ever played. We’re really looking forward to playing again!
For people attending this show who are probably debating what bands to see, can you tell them why they should come and check you guys out? Pete: We absolutely love playing in England. Kids are so kind to us and show us so much love at our live shows. That being said, we will put every ounce of energy and heart into our set to make sure every person there is having a good time. We also want massive amounts of stage dives too! So let's make our stage the craziest.
So you guys have just wrapped up recording your new album with Chad Gilbert as the producer, how has this whole process been? Brad: The process was fast and fun. Chad and Paul are two of the nicest dudes and we couldn't have asked for anything more out of them. Chad really knows what he’s doing and made our songs the best they could be. With our style of music, he is really the best fit. We walked away from the experience with a great record and two awesome new friends.
Also, in what direction will this new album be heading in? Pete: We honestly simplified our formula when writing the new songs for our full length. We were really inspired by the songwriting of bands from the ‘90s because of how simple but catchy songs used to be. The songs range from sounding like Green Day to Third Eye Blind. I'm really stoked how it turned out! Definitely a departure from our last record...in a great way! I think people will be really into it.
Interview with Justin Sane
So you just got back from Brazil, how was that, this was your first time there right? Yes! First time to South America! Totally amazing! Incredible people. They totally won me over! Our gig in San Pualo was one of my favorite Anti-Flag gigs of all time. There's a good youtube video from when a bouncer tried to stop a kid from getting on stage so we stopped playing to save the kid and then it was ON!!!!!!! The show was out of control!!!! Such a blast!!!
You played the Eastpak tour here with Alexisonfire back in 2009 to promote "The People or the Gun" how was this tour? It was a great tour. We were out with awesome friends... Alexis, 4 Year Strong, Ghost Of A Thousand. Alexis headlined in the UK and we headlined on the mainland. On that tour Anti-Flag did a number of tiny gigs where we played only Clash songs. George from Alexis always tagged along on those and sang “White Riot� with us. The best gig was at the Ramones museum in Berlin. The place was packed - it was mayhem!!!
What are the main themes behind your latest album "The People or the Gun" ? We were possing a question to the incoming Obama administration... Which side are you on? The People or Wall Street, the banks and the corporations? We were never sold on Obama, but it was a welcomed change from War All The Time George Bush. That said, Obama sucked from the start and has just gotten worse. He didn't close Guantanamo Bay, he never held Wall Street or the banks accountable for ripping off the nation and the world, he has escalated America's involvement in militarism around the world, he passed a weak weak health care bill, he has attacked openness and democracy on many levels including the US governments smear campaign against Wiki Leaks, he let BP and the oil companies off the hook, and at a time when the tragedy in Japan highlights the need to move to a green energy policy, Obama continues to endorse nuclear power. Obama, just as much as George Bush, is a corporate whore – plain and simple.
Tim McIlrath from Rise Against and Wade MacNeil from Alexisonfire feature as guests on the album "The People or the Gun" how did these ideas come up? We had a song which we felt represented the diversity in our music community and we wanted to represent that. One way to do so was to involve our friends in the song. In the end it helped accomplish our goal AND made the song better and more fun.
How did you end up working with Greenpeace? Anti-Flag and Greenpeace share many common ideologies and a vision which includes a world free of man made environmental disasters, so it is only logical that we team up and work together to help further that vision. Right now we have a world ruled by governments who are ruled by corporations whose only motivation is greed! All policy, environmental, energy, education, war, economic, etc... The bottom line is always based on greed driven financial profit. If we are going to save our planet, the environment, women, children, men, we have to end corporate rule of our governments and our world. Working with Greenpeace is one more step Anti-Flag can take in order to help accomplish that goal.
Can you tell us about one or two other political organisations that you back (Example would be Amnesty International), and also for fans who are maybe unfamiliar with these organisations can you suggest ways in which they can help support? It isn't exactly a “political organization”... But I believe the most important journalism being done in the western world is done by Democracy Now! It's an independent news program on 5 days a week, broadcast from New York City. They cover the world in a way no other news organization does. The things you hear on that program you will hear no where else and it will inspire you to act. Check them out at www.democracynow.org I always mention Amnesty International to people as a way to get involved and make a tangible immediate impact on the world. Amnesty's letter writing campaigns are easy to get involved with and literally save lives.
What can you tell us about "White Wives" the new side project from Chris Head? Anti-Flag is our main passion but each of us mess around with side projects all the time. White Wives is one. I collaborated with Sam Duckworth from Get Cape Wear cape Fly last summer. He's a close friend and we had a great time together – hanging in the studio, writing songs, recording... We recorded about 5 songs and I expect that we'll record more in good time. Will we ever release them? I don't know? Haha. I have my solo project which is more singer/song writer acoustic guitar based at www.facebook.com/justinsanesolo , www.myspace.com/justinsanesolo , Twitter.com @JustinSaneSolo I played a gig in London last summer for a few hundred people! It was a blast! I couldn't believe how well people knew the songs off of my solo record, "Life Love and the Pursuit of Justice” It was very life affirming to me. That said, it's fun to do other music projects and collaborate with other people and over the years we've all done so but Anti-Flag requires the majority of our time and effort.
You guys have toured so much in the UK, can you give us some of your fondest memories from playing here? Well, in Birmingham I broke my jaw on stage. And in Norwhich I broke my shoulder jumping off stage! Those memories stick with you for better or worse! After breaking my jaw I stumbled half conscience back on stage. Obviously the gig was over. Unbeknownst to me a ton of people who were at the gig hung outside of the club to greet me when I came out to goto hospital. As I walked out the front door they all cheered! That was an amazing feeling and one I will never forget. I can't tell you how much that raised my spirits!
How excited are you for your upcoming Slam Dunk Festival shows, and what can attending fans expect? Also will we be seeing drummer Pat Thetic taking his kit into the crowd once more just like he did on the Eastpak tour in 2009? Pat should be inducted into the rock n roll hall of fame because he INVENTED performing on the drum kit in the mosh pit and it is the most exciting, creative and fun live performance “move” I have ever witnessed!!! I don't give a fuck how cool you look on stage, how many explosions your band has behind you, how many millions of people have played in front of... Pat Thetic invented the coolest rock move ever and that makes him cooler than everyone – period!
What does the rest of 2011 hold for Anti-Flag? Any new material heading our way? We never stop writing! We never stop touring! We never stop fighting the best fight we can for justice and equality. That is just who and what Anti-Flag is. We've got a number of new songs recorded for an upcoming release. I don't have a lot of details to give right now. I do have to say that with the events in the gulf, and in Japan, and the cuts to programs that help to provide economic justice to those who have less (such as the education cuts in the UK) I have a lot on my mind. I think it's very tragic that in countries with so much wealth and potential for good such as the US and UK, our governments don't honestly look out for and take care of their people. It's that simple. We live in countries that don't take care of their people. If our countries can't fulfill that one fundamental task, how can we expect our governments to be good stewards of the Earth?
Interview with John Feldmann
“Anyone remember playing Tony Hawks pro skater 1 with Superman on full blast in the background? We do, and it was amazing. Get ready as Goldfinger are back to rock our socks of once more!” So how excited are you for your upcoming UK shows at the legendary Slam Dunk Festival, and what can attending fans expect? We’re super excited about coming to England. It’s always been a great market for Goldfinger. People are still very excited about live music. I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about the first time he over wen to England and everyone was actually clapping in time to a song and in America it’s sometimes hard to get people to clap to the same tempo of the song. In England people have a sense of rhythm. I love the culture, love the vibe, love the clothes. The soy milk at Starbucks is better in England, it’s just all good. Hobbits and Harry Potter…
>>>
On stage, what is the craziest thing you have ever done as a band? There are so many moments: tearing my ACL, herniated my disk, Twinkies in Darrin’s butt..When we were supporting No Doubt back in the day, Gwen had come up to us and asked us not to do anything the last day of the tour. Typically band’s will mess with each other on the last day…she wasn’t going to mess with us and so she asked us not to mess with her, But when the show actually came, the guys had poured beer all over me and duck taped Darrin to his drum set..took his drums off the stage… so we made a decision that this was war. I was going to leave Gwen out of it but our bass player at the time wasn’t privy to the conversation. We bought all of this food from the store and our bass player got really drunk and I had poured Hershey’s syrup all over the drum set and ruined a bunch of mics. I got a little nutty with drums, but our bass player put a can of tuna fish on Gwen’s head with a couple pieces of salmon, it was so gross. I saw her last night and every time I see her I feel like I have to apologize because it was so inappropriate.
In November of 2010 you played some live shows with Simon Williams, who was in the band over ten years ago, what was it like to be performing live with him again? It was great to play with Simon. Simon was the bass player that did the stuff on Gwen! It was really great to play with him. He is a really, really good dude and is definitely not malicious, so I am not saying that.. he just thought that would be funny.
How did you decide on covering "99 Red Balloons" also did you expect it to get as well-known as it has done? We had no idea “99 Red Balloons” would be as big as it was. I always liked that song in the 80’s but it was one of those moments in my life where I just felt like this would be a good cover song to do.
What is it like to have songs such as "Superman" and "I Want" Feature on classic games such as Tony Hawks and Burnout, and how did these opportunities come about? I love having songs on video games. The first time we came to England was opening for The Bloodhound Gang I think…I didn’t think anyone would know who we were and I was shocked when we played “Superman” and people just went ballistic. They knew it from Tony Hawk and that video game did more for us then any record label did. I think most of the video game opportunities come through the publishing company.
What do you love so much about producing, and what are you working on at the moment? Right now my Panic! at the Disco record just came out and it’s doing killer out here in the states. I’m working with the Used right now. I’m doing Good Charlotte’s next record over the summer, and I’m working this band D.R.U.G.S. I love being able to see songs for what they are when an artist brings them to me rather than judging my own songs when I make my own records…when I produce someone else’s records I think I can see sometimes clearer than I can with my own songs because I am so intimate with my own lyrics and my own content.
You were the man who discovered The Used, what was it like producing work for these guys, and are you still close friends? Yes, I am producing their next record so we’re still super tight. I was just with Bert yesterday. The first time they got off the airplane when I flew them in from Orem Utah was one of the greatest moments of my life. Watching their expression when they saw the ocean for the first time..they were all 17 and 18 year old kids and they had never really left Utah. It was a great experience…really fulfilling to let their dreams come in to fruition by doing what we did.
What can you tell us about your latest album "Hello Destiny" ? We wanted to make a throwback to the first record with having the same artist do the artwork that did the first album. We made a ska/punk record. We just wanted to go for something fun with classic hooks and songs and it wasn’t like we really planned a lot of stuff we just wanted to have the vibe of the first record with the ska/punk thing.
In reference to the last question, Ian Watkins does some guest vocals on this album, how did you end up working with him? I produced a bunch of stuff for the Lostprophets and we did some co-writes together and that’s how Ian ended up singing on the record.
What bands have inspired you along the way, and why? As a kid, Social Distortion. I have a Social Distortion tattoo. A lot of English bands – The Buzzcocks, Generation X. And now as a producer I study The Beatles records for George Martin’s production. The Police are probably my all-time favorite band. American bands, I love The Replacements they’re super influential. Modern day band’s – I love Muse, I love Coldplay, I love the real big bands that write the classic songs. I’ve always been a huge fan of Green Day. I’ve produced so many new bands and I only work with bands that I enjoy their music. I’m actually working with a bunch of English artists. This kid Itch that’s in The King Blues, I’m doing a solo record with him. Going to start a record with The Blitz kids after I do Good Charlotte it looks like and they’re an English band. I’m working with a band called Wall Street Riots, so I’m definitely a fan of English music for sure.
Are you guys working on any new material at the moment? If so how is it coming along? I’ve written a few Goldfinger songs, but we’re not really in the studio or anything like that.
What does the rest of 2011 hold for Goldfinger? We’re touring South America in June, going to Belgium for Groezrock Festival in a few weeks, and then we’re doing England in May. We will probably do the East Coast here in the U.S. at the end of the year.
How has 2011 been for you so far? PRETTY GOOD EXCEPT FOR THIS RASH, BUT THAT'S A TOPIC FOR ANOTHER INTERVIEW.
Since we last spoke you have also completed a UK tour with Zebrahead! How did that go after? WELL, AFTER WE WERE ALL PRETTY DRUNK AND I THINK THEIR TOUR MANAGER BOBBY SHOWED US HIS BALLS ABOUT A DOZEN TIMES. I WAS TOLD IT WAS ALOT OF FUN.
What can you tell us about your latest ep; TV/EP, also how did such a unique concept come about? THE EP IS 11 MINUTES LONG SO IT WON'T TAKE UP TOO MUCH OF YOUR DAY, YOU'LL KNOW AT LEAST 2 SONGS ON IT AND THE CONCEPT CAME FROM TOO MANY WEEKS OF WATCHING TV IN 2010 CAUSE WE HAD TIME OFF.
What was the recording process like for this, as it is a completely different release to any albums/eps you have released before? WE DIDN'T PRACTICE FOR IT. WE JUST WENT INTO ROGER'S HOUSE/STUDIO AND STARTED RECORDING. IT WAS VERY OFF THE CUFF. FUN. LIKE MUSIC IS SUPPOSED TO BE.
So you are in your second decade as a band now, how has the ska/punk scene changed (or stayed the same) since you first started out? ITS CHANGED CAUSE ALL THE BANDS WE STARTED OUT WITH DON'T EXIST AND NOW WE GET LOOKED AT LIKE WE'RE SOMEONE'S COOL OLDER UNCLE...AT LEAST THAT'S HOW I SEE IT IN MY BRAIN.
Interview with JR
Why did you decide to reissue your entire back catalog of material? It seems like it has been going down great with your fan base! BECAUSE PEOPLE WERE ASKING FOR IT. YOU HAVE TO GIVE THE PEOPLE WHAT THEY WANT. THATS WHAT THE ROCK SAYS. HE ALSO SAYS KNOW YOUR ROLE AND SHUT YOUR MOUTH.
How excited are you for your upcoming Slam Dunk Festival shows, and what can attending fans expect? IM NOT AS EXCITED AS WHEN WE PLAYED READING IN 2002 BUT MORE EXCITED THAN WHEN WE PLAYED DOWNLOAD FESTIVAL IN 2003. SO PRETTY EXCITED! You guys are playing the whole warped tour this year, what is it you love so much about this festival? THE SMELL Are you guys working on a new album yet? If so how is it going? WE'RE WRITING SONGS. IF SAID SONGS ARE PUT INTO A COLLECTION THAT WE WERE TO RECORD ON TO A HARD DRIVE OR OTHER INFORMATIONAL SAVING DEVICE AND THEN INDIVIDUALLY MIXED TOGETHER TO FORM SOME SORT OF COHESIVE SOUND WAVE THAT COULD BE PUT TOGETHER IN A CERTAIN ORDER WITH OTH SOUND WAVES AND THEN EVENED OUT SONICALLY TO SOUND LIKE IT WAS CREATED AT THE SAME TIME ON THE SAME DAY TO CO EXIST IN THE SAME COLLECTION, THEN WE WOULD BE WORKING ON AN ALBUM. RIGHT NOW WE' WRITING SONGS.
Interview with James Veck-Gilodi and Chris Pennells
What have you guys been up to at the start of the year (before you hit the studio)? Chris - We started the year believe or not, at the Purple Turtle in Camden, we played a NYE show there, so this kind of got 2011 going the way we want to continue- partying. Otherwise we were just writing and working towards the album. James - Mainly writing, or at least trying to. We also did a couple of dates supporting Feeder which was pretty difficult as the crowds were completely different to what we are used to but also great to play to a new set of people each night. Plus we played almost entirely songs off the new album so that was interesting too.
So how is the recording going for your next album? Chris - Marvellously- we're recording with Matt O Grady for the 3rd time (lucky) and honestly every time we work with him on a record we wonder why anyone would want to work with anyone else! We've been filming alot around the studio so hopefully when we have some time we can show off how odd recording sessions can be; mainly revolving around lager, pizza and top gear! James - Finished! I say finished, there are vocal parts I want to redo and a few extra bits to put in, but other than that it's finished and it has turned out much better than I had anticipated.
In reference to the last question, how has it been recording your first record without Ryan Mellor? Chris - Its been quite alot the same actually, given that we're working with the same producer, but obviously Ryan was a big part of writing the last record- he and James worked on the whole thing out of Ryan's bedroom, whereas this time Tom (drums) and James worked on the basis of the songs at Regal Studios (Wisbech, which belongs to The First).
In what direction is this new album heading? Chris - We're trying to get away from a 'heavy' audience without alienating them too much. There's still alot on the new record that will appeal to them but we just wanted to write a record that we could appreciate playing, with songs that felt alot more honest about where we are now, it's a record that reflects what we are about and where James is I guess.. James - Yeah, Goth Metal.
What's it been like working with producer "Matt O'Grady" ? Chris - Ha! Matt's great, we get on incredibly well with him and he's not a pushy producer; we always feel the best results always come out when there's not alot of pressure. James - Excellent as always. He's one of my dearest friends anyway so it was just like casually recording an album with a mate and getting horrendously drunk in the process. Fun. Stressful at times but fun nevertheless.
So you are back at Slam Dunk Festival again this year, how excited are you to be playing, and what can attending fans expect? Chris - Slam Dunk is a great experience for fans, and the bands that play; its basically a chance for us to see touring buddies of past and present and get blind drunk with them at the fabled Leeds aftershow, which this year happens to be the Saturday and not the Sunday, so sorry in advance if we are terrible in Hatfield!!! James - Slam Dunk is always great, lots of free alcohol and lots of old friends there. We're going to play lots of new songs so if you were expecting a sing along, you'll get a couple but otherwise, beware!
As well as this you guys are doing a massive headline UK tour in July! How stoked are you to get back out on the road for your own headline tour? Chris - It doesn't feel like that long since we did our own headline tour, but i guess its because we've mainly been at home prepping the new record. Its always great to get back to basics and do a run of smaller venueskeeps bands grounded to where they started. We'll never stop playing 200/300 cap clubs, and the day any bands do, British rock is dead. James - pretty excited, I think the other guys enjoy touring more than I do, I love writing and recording but hopefully we can bring some of our friends in bands along as supports. However, by that time you will have had some new music and videos and I think we will all be very into playing these dates, our fans are so nice to us!
What else does 2011 hold for Deaf Havana? Chris - Probably; touring, tour blues, bromancing, sun burn, wasp stings, hypothermia, sleeping on floors, back ache and alcoholism. Oh and a new album of course ;) James - Wembley Stadium!
Interview with Dan
So what have you guys been up to since we last spoke? (September '10)? We did a huge 8 week tour of the UK and Europe, which unfortunately ended in a van crash which resulted in me (Dan) breaking a couple of bones and being out of action for several months. But we did manage to get an album recorded in that time!
How excited are you to be playing Slam Dunk Festival again and what can fans expect? Slam Dunk is going to be awesome, it always is. We begged the promoter to let us play it this year because it would feel weird if we didn’t, its our 4th year on the trot!
How stoked are you to be playing the main stage at Reading Festival/Leeds Festival? I can’t even put it in into words, its going to be insane! When our agent phoned me to tell me it was confirmed i just burst out laughing, i was so happy but at the same time i couldn’t quite believe it was real. It will feel real as soon as we walk out on stage i’m sure...
As you are such an intimate band, are you worried about working with such a huge crowd like Reading Festival/Leeds festival? Pretty worried yes, its definitely a massive step up from anything we’ve played before. Its even more daunting for me because its my job to talk to the crowd and hype them up! I’ll find a way and have fun with it regardless.
What can we expect from your new album 'Go Now And Live'? Well we’ve already released 2 of the tracks from it as singles, so if you listen to those you’ll know what to expect really, its 8 more songs that are in a similar vein to those, but each different and awesome in their own way! Haha.
Also, what are the main subjects behind this album? We wrote a lot about feeling the pressures of being in a band, its not always easy and fun, especially now we’re self-managed, we had to take everything into our own hands and at times its quite depressing when you don’t get a certain tour and stuff like that. The name ‘Go Now And Live’ is basically us saying that none of the bad stuff is going to stop us from trying our hardest and believing in ourselves and getting to where we want to be.
What's it been like to work with producer Pete Miles? Such a pleasure. He’s really easy to work with and we feel comfortable with him from day 1. We’ve admired his work for ages so it was great to finally work with him.
In what way has the band’s sound progressed since the release of 'Cutting Our Teeth'? Quite a lot i think but its been a steady natural progression. It still has the original elements of the WATO sound, but we’ve changed it up a bit and worked a lot more on melody and structures. I think as much as a lot of people will be shocked, the fans that follow us the closest will have expected the change and hopefully enjoy it.
What else does 2011 hold for We Are The Ocean? Well we will be of to Europe to support Funeral For A Friend and The blackout, then we come back to the UK and spend the Summer playing festivals. Then Australia in September!
So how has 2011 been for you so far?
Interview with Matt Wi
There have been a number of new things going on in the SYG camp. We started off the year finishing up in the studio, then we hit the road with Parkway Drive on a U.S. tour and tomorrow we finish up our Canadian tour with August Burns Red. Not the most typical tours for us, but it's been a good time.
Since we last spoke you also supported You Me At Six on their UK tour, how was that? The YMAS tour was incredible. It was great playing in front of so many people every night and we love those guys so we had a blast hanging out with them every night as well.
We also hear you did a couple of surprise guest slots with Young Guns on this tour, due to cancellations on the You Me At Six dates, how did you go about arranging these support slots so fast? and how did the shows go? We've been good friends with The Swellers for a few years now and they hit us up when they heard about the shows falling through and the Young Guns guys were cool with it so we hopped onto their tour for a few dates which was awesome. We were stoked we still got a chance to play shows and it was nice being able to hang out with our friends when we were both so far from home.
So you are back at Slam Dunk Festival this year, how did this opportunity come up, and what is it you love so much about the festival? We had a lot of fun last time so when Ben asked us to come back this year we jumped at the chance. I just love the energy and the vibe of Slam Dunk. Last time the lineup was great and I'm looking forward to doing it again this year too.
As well as your confirmed performances at the Slam Dunk Festival you will also be touring the UK, how stoked are you to be back on the road in the UK once more, and can fans expect some new material to be played live? We're taking out A Loss For Words and This Time Next Year who are both great friends of ours so I'm sure we'll all be getting into all kinds of trouble over there hahaha. We will definitely be previewing some material from the new record as well so if you live in the UK don't miss it and keep an eye out for the dates posted online.
In what direction is the new material h a similar style to "This Will Be The Dea
To be honest, we learned a lot from TWBTDOU a song may sound great recorded and even bec doesn't always imply that it will translate well tried to write some parts with this in mind to material that would be easy to sing-along to setting, as well as continue to progress with songwriting abilities. I feel that as a whole, this "nod your head in time with the beat and sing-alo it.
How did you get to the title "Burning a
It was a lyric I wrote in a song that I titled, "H 2010 and the way it made me feel. The lifesty band has been living takes a lot out of us. There exist within this band that most people outside even become aware of at all, and those who d fully understand.
ilson
How has it been to work with producer "Brian McTernan" ? We've grown to really love Baltimore and have made some great friends there over the years. We were tremendously excited about the opportunity to work with Brian as he's done some incredible records and we formed a very close friendship with him in our time there. The studio is never an uncomplicated or easy time for anyone involved...an experience I wouldn't wish upon any producer as we are quite a handful. All of the struggle always proves to be worth it in the end though. Brian is a very patient and understanding man, without whom completing the record wouldn't have been possible.
Your new song "Start The Reactor" has started to emerge online, eading, will it be in what can you tell us about this song? ath Of Us" ? On this album, we used two demos that were written pre-"Mutiny!", one of which was "Start the Reactor". I think that will be exciting for our listeners to check out, and should give the record the feel that our material had around that era with the benefit of songwriting ability that time has afforded us. It was just a fun song we decided to use for the record and is not necessarily representative of the record's sound as a whole by any means. Hopefully listeners won't assume the whole record sounds like that!
U. We learned that while come a fan favorite, that to a live audience. We o be sure we included and get into in a live our musicianship and record has more of that What does the rest of 2011 hold for the mighty! Set Your Goals? ong" quality to We'll be doing Slam Dunk Fest and a headlining tour in the UK, along with a couple other fests in about a month, then Warped all Summer...the rest depends entirely on our listeners and how far they decide to take this record! at Both Ends" ?
Happy New Year" about le that everyone in this e are elements that the six of us will never do will never be able to
Interview with Nick Reynolds
How has 2011 been for you so far, and what have you been up to? 2011 has been particularly quiet from an outsiders perspective, but behind the scenes we've been real busy locked away in the studio rehearsing and finishing off the writing for our debut album. We're loving the new material, especially writing with Paul (who only joined the band at the tail end of last year), it's a different and much more relaxed vibe and we're all impatient for everyone to hear the new stuff. We've been itching to get back out on the road too so you'll see us again soon enough hopefully.
What can you tell us about your new track "Splash" and what's the response been like from your fan base? Well Splash was one of the first songs we wrote with Paul in the band, we focused mainly on writing a really catchy chorus but didn't want to steer too far away from our old sound - even though that is a natural progression. I think it turned out pretty good for an album demo, and the response was insane - within a few hours of it being available for free on tweet for a track it was number 1 on the most downloaded chart.
Towards the end of 2010 you did a tour with Man Overboard and Transit, how was this whole experience? That tour was so good, and so cold. We hadn't toured for a few months so we were really up for it, and we were all loving both MOB & Transits new records - plus they are all super nice dudes so it was an insane end to our year. We've never toured Europe before either so that was rad, although it was fucking freezing. There was snow every day in every city in every country. That lost it's novelty real quick. But every show, bar maybe one, was practically rammed and people knew who we were even in Switzerland so we couldn't complain.
How excited are you to be playing this years Slam Dunk Festival, and what can attending fans expect from your slot? We are totally stoked to be a part of Slam Dunk again this year, that's like 4 years in a row now so we are very grateful. Plus it's a Birmingham bands get together, there are a bunch of our friends bands playing Maycomb, LYU, Kyoto Drive etc so it will be a massive party. People who come to check us out can expect a mix of both oldies (but goldies) and a good number of new tracks that we've been writing. We're really excited to air a few new ones to show people what we've been working on. It can't come any quicker!
As an upcoming pop punk band, what do you guys think of the pop punk scene in the UK? I think the UK pop punk scene has been growing from strength to strength over the last few years. There are so many great bands out there, and it's pretty humbling to know we are sort of at the forefront of it all. Fests like Slam Dunk really help out and Ben Ray especially is a dude for supporting the UK scene as much as he has. So I'll take this opportunity to thank him and everyone else for listening to us and continuing to spread the word about our band!
What else will you be getting up to in 2011? Well our priority is to get this album recorded and released asap! Unfortunately it's not as easy as it used to be when we were more of a DIY band, we have to deal with the boring manager and label stuff first now and everyone knows that always delays things. So we're concentrating on getting all that together and then we'll just be touring as much as we can / anywhere we can. Hopefully visit a few more new countries and definitely meet a load more new friends. We can't wait - See you at SLAM DUNK!
What has it been like to work with producer Mike Curtis (Fei Comodo) ? It's always an absolute pleasure & never hard. We're both on the same wavelength with InMe & my solo work & the fact that he's one of my greatest friends is just an added bonus! The guy has an amazing disciplined method but never gets stressed during the recording process so I tend to look forward to our sessions. So, How was your UK tour in March? Overwhelming! It was hard work but so worth it. I met so many fantastic souls & really enjoyed the shows, the crowds & the ale! It's really nice to see the audience size getting bigger as for years I've been playing to quite small numbers. Also, I made a great friend in my support act Howard James Kenny who is one to look out for! How are the fans reacting to the new material when you play it live? Really well. I get nervous when I start playing new stuff but they've made me feel very comfortable. I can't wait to write more & give them even more new stuff! Also, what's it like touring without the whole InMe unit? Does it feel slightly more different on stage maybe? Very much so. InMe fulfills my aggressive, energetic side whereas this is more intimate & a bit more jokey. I miss the boys when I'm out there but we still see each other often & big things are on the horizon too. How stoked are you to be playing this years 2000 Trees Festival, and what can attending fans expect? I'm incredibly happy to be playing for a number of reasons. It's my first proper solo festival appearance & I played there a couple years back & had one of the best days of my life. I'll be bringing a strong & upbeat set & a big 'ol smile! Then I'll be sure to hang out with people, drink some ale & watch some quality music like the aforementioned Howard James Kenny! In reference to the last question, how important do you think the smaller festivals are out there like 2000 Trees Festival for the alternative music scene in the UK? For me personally, I'm now playing about 6 or 7 festivals this year so very important! I think the more the merrier really as what is better in life than good music, good people, beer & a burger & (hopefully) good British weather? You get some cowboys out there who go bust before thinking things through but that's a small price to pay for so many good times in fields!
So for fans that may not know can you explain when and why you decided to start writing as a solo musician? It was a natural progression for a number of reasons. Whenever InMe wasn't touring I'd get a bit itchy if I wasn't on the road & on the move for a couple months. This was a way for me to continue touring & playing music frequently whilst also experiencing a totally different type of performance. I like a lot of different styles of music including folk & more ambient stuff & this allowed me to use those influences to create a totally different sound to InMe's. I love connecting with audiences & this allows me to about 300% more shows than I could otherwise.
So you recently decided to work with pledgemusic.com to help fund your next album, what has the response been like from your fans? It's been overwhelmingly amazing. The people that support me take things to the next level & I'm honoured & humbled to have them along for the ride! PledgeMusic itself suits my work ethic & the way I like to connect with people down to a tee. I'll definitely be using them again plus they allow artists to do incredible work for charities all over the world.
What can you tell fans about your album "The Hardship Diaries" ? It's very honest & quite stripped down. I dodn't want bass & drums on the debut as I wanted to establish myself as something different than just 'the InMe singer'. For the follow up I'm going to go all out & play every instrument & get guests but I think the debut needed to be just me. I've lived with the album for nearly 3 years now & I think it's unique & heartfelt. There are things I'd do differently as there always is but that's where the sophomore effort comes in.
What can you tell us about your new single "Summer: She Puts Me In A Good Mood" ? Also, why did you decide to choose this song as the first single? It's about holding on to your lifelong dreams despite struggles of social convention & keeping your passion alive. It's also a love song too about my girl who makes me happy. Simply put, she puts me in a good mood & is the 'summer' in my life. I chose it as I thought it summed up my overall sound for this album plus nobody had heard it as it's relatively new!
It seems like this year you have really been focusing on your solo effort a lot, do you want your solo effort to become as big as say Frank Turner? As he did something similar with Million Dead? I'd love for things to be at that level & I have a massive respect for the way he does things as well as loving his music since the beginning. I act like complete dork when I see Frank as his music has inspired me so much! I don't really have a limit for how far I wish to take this as I've already taken it further than I imagined & that goes for InMe too but I'll keep working my hardest until I'm an old Macca! What does the rest of this year hold for Dave Mcpherson? My calendar is pretty scary & that's the way I like it. Last year I played 189 shows & I'd like to beat that this year. I'm off to quite a few countries around Europe & doing loads of festivals & weddings over the Summer. In Autumn InMe are releasing a live DVD of Overgrown Eden through Sony & we're also dropping a single from the next album. We'll be touring that & then recording the 5th album in October/November, then we're launching a Pledge campaign for that! Phew!
“Crazy arm are another band that have been working on their next album, I am sure we will hear some tracks being played live at 2000 Trees Festival this year! If it's anything as powerful as "Born To Ruin" then I am sure we will be in for another epic release!� So, How did your European tour go at the start of the year? It went really well apart from Brussels, where we had the van broken into and all our passports stolen. Served us right for leaving them all together in the glove compartment. We lost the stereo, satnav and a couple bags of clothes too. And the gig was rubbish. What a night! All the Holland shows, on the other hand, were typically fantastic. It was great fun touring with The Cut Ups for the first time though. A lovely bunch and an awesome band.
You guys are currently in the studio creating album number two! How excited are you to share it with the world? Well, all the music and main vocals are done so it's really taken shape but we're gonna have to wait before unleashing it on the world. We don't want to rush it out there until it's 100% ready. We originally wanted it to come out in early July but time's moving on and Xtra Mile are keen on a later release date. The first single from the album should be out in July though. It'll probably be 'Tribes', which has been going down really well at shows.
Interview with Darren Johns How has the recording process been? We're recording deep in the South Devon countryside with Peter Miles and James Bragg in Pete's new farmhouse studio. It's pretty awesome. We lived in the studio for ten days which was a surreal experience. We'd record all day, eat a big meal and watch movies on the mixing desk computer at night and then sleep in the live room with all the cabs and drums around us. The accommodation suite hadn't been built at this point.
Will we see a similar style of music to the first album? Loosely speaking yes, but this album spins off on more tangents than 'Born To Ruin'. There are stripped down songs, more acoustic guitars, a strong country influence, some raging Hammond organ and fiddle, a lot of punk rock and some great vocals from Victoria Butterfield, who you might have seen singing with us live. It's an album of extremes. Perhaps!
With the amount of great press your first album got, has this created any pressure on crafting the follow up? Not pressure as such but we are always mindful of the inevitable comparisons. We've had a few of these songs on the go for a long time and we think they stand up well. The idea was to avoid creating 'Born To Ruin Part 2' yet to still have the band's identity stamped all over it.
What do you want this album to do for the Crazy Arm status? Everything the first album didn't do – turn us into a household name! Well, not quite. It's distracting to think of ourselves in terms of our status, we just write and play music that we like and we side with grass-roots politics that we agree with. It would be great to get more coverage and more people at shows but those things shouldn't affect our dedication. Having said that, we'd love the opportunity to play around the world and not have to worry about paying the rent. Who wouldn't? Unfortunately, the National Union of Crazy Arm Workers hasn't negotiated a minimum wage yet.
How excited are you to be playing 2000 Trees Festival again, and what can attending fans expect? Well, we've become a bit of a 2000 Trees institution now, haven't we?! I guess people can expect much of the same rootsy, country, punky noise with some topical soundbites and a few additional surprises. We may even have the full entourage with keys, fiddle and Vicky singing. We're doing an acoustic set on the Friday night too which should be a blast.
How important do you think independent festivals like 2000 Trees Festival are to the alternative music scene today? Very important. The corporate saturated festivals are a fucking joke. They have nothing in common with the tradition of music festivals. 2000 Trees, Beautiful Days, Truck Festival, and a lot of DIY city festivals: these are events that sidestep all the sponsorships, ignore the ego-fuelled mainstream and put on a conscious, allinclusive, affordable party with good honest music. We still play a couple of the sponsorship-heavy festivals and I wonder why we're there when some of them have absurd and offensive things like RAF recruitment tents and endless energy and alcohol drinks campaigns. I guess the point is to use your position to say how ridiculous it is, as the King Blues did at Boardmasters a couple years ago.
What else does 2011 hold for Crazy Arm? We're going to be touring, playing festivals, hitting Europe again, writing and releasing records as ever. Hopefully we'll get a Stateside release for both albums and hopefully get to play with some great bands. We're playing with Social Distortion on 7th July at Shepherds Bush Empire, which should be a blast. We intend to release a couple singles before the album comes out. You know, to build the excitement. We're also talking about recording an acoustic EP, seeing as we've started doing more acoustic shows lately. Watch this space.
So what have you guys been up to since we last spoke? i suppose the most notable change is that we have our next record ‘gangs’ released, thats the biggest news. other than that we've been touring europe and russia and we did some cool secret shows over xmas in belfast. its been the most chilled, diary wise, since november than we have been for the past couple of years really, we've got to hang out with our families and and friends which has been a real buzz for us, its been nice to feel grounded for a few months, but i guess thats about to change again tho.
How excited are you to be playing 2000 Trees Festival, and what can attending fans expect? Super stoked, last year was awesome, its just such a nice vibe there, loads of cool bands, no assholes, and we had such a great show last year so its exciting to be going back and headlining a stage. i guess you can expect to hear new songs and see lots of sweat
For those who are attending the festival who may be unfamiliar with the band, can you explain why they should comeand check you out live? We play great music and we mean it. theres no shit, no pretense, no fashion tips, no cunt telling you to dance, i guess its a pretty honest thing and when it all comes together just right it can be pretty special. its loud as fuck and sweaty as fuck, thats all you need really right?
Interview with Rory Friers
So what can you tell us about your new album 'Gangs' ? we sat down when we were writing it and really thought about everything we'd done since the last record, the two things that really filled that time for us was places and people, so we wanted the whole record to mirror that, to have a sense of movement, to not stand still to much, to get from A to B and we wanted it to be a dedication to people and especially to the people who keep us alive and breathing, our fans, our friends, our families, you cant be in a band like ours without that support, it takes belief from so many people to make it all work, so we wanted to make a record for them. we're immensely proud of it, its very different to the first record but its the best music the four of us have ever written together.
What was the recording process like for this album? it was a lot more controlled this time round, we knew what we were doing more i guess. we were in with Rocky O'Reilly again, we're such good friends now and we've a really amazing connection when we're putting music together, it was great. It kind of felt like we'd done the first record together as kids, kind of making it up as we went along and this record was our right of passage, we all knew what we wanted to get and we did it. Its hard to imagine doing a record with anyone else.
How does it compare musically to your last self titled album? its a bit more celebratory i think and it just feels like the songs are better written. theres loads of stuff there, we wanted people to be hearing new bits and sounds on the 10th listen, we put a lot of work into it
What does the rest of 2011 hold for 'And So I Watch You From Afar' ? we just want to stay busy, see more places, meet more people, write more music, and play more shows.
EXIT TEN
How would you describe your sound to an unfamiliar reader? Heavy rock with metal influences covered in silky vocals, ever-so occasionally rugged and manly sounding. I defy my frame by sounding 10 stone heavier.
How excited are you to be playing this years 2000 Trees Festival, and what should attending fans expect? We are thrilled to be getting back out there with the new songs since getting the album recorded. I was excited playing the CD to my mum. 2000 Trees is a fantastic festival with great people involved in organising it. We can't wait to play again!
How important do you think independent festivals like 2000 Trees Festival are to the UK? Independent festivals are fantastic in this country! We've so many these days and 2000 trees has grown in strength without having to sell itself out to big names. Sometimes it feels as though festivals should know when to stop growing.
Back in 2008 you got to tour with the awesome 36 Crazyfists, how was this tour? It was a really exiciting year for us and that tour was really good. 36CF were so good to us and it was pleasing to meet a band who were so down to earth.
Interview with Ryan
Shortly after this you hit Download Festival, what are your memories from this show? I'd have to say that was the most surprising show we've ever played. I'm certainly never going to forget it. From the stage we were given to play on and then the thousands of people singing our songs back at us. I just couldn't believe it. I got a lump in my throat.
What can you tell us about your upcoming album which will be released in September? There are a few relationship, social and band related themes on the album. I would go as far to say that it echoes some of the trouble the band have gone through in the past 2 years. But that isn't the whole vibe of the record, just an element in it.
Musically, how does this album compare to 'Remember The Day', will we Will we see a similar direction in musicianship? I think the album is notably different. It is another side to exit ten that plenty of our fans would have heard on the other CDs. It is less of a metal record and more heavy rock. The band have been able to set me free a little more vocally, as the thrash side of our stuff was a little restrictive.
What was it like to record at the awesome Outhouse Studios (who also feature in this issue of Stencil Mag) ? We would not have made as good a record as we have, if it wasn't for Jon and Ben at Outhouse.
So what does the rest of 2011 hold for Exit Ten We are going to play some gigs over the summer building up to the release of the album. We have some videos to make and there will probably be a single release over the coming months. Once the album is out then it will be all about the touring!
STRAIGHT LINES
How has 2011 been for you guys so far? 2011 has been quite quiet for us so far in terms of touring, especially when we compare it to last year. We have been keeping ourselves busy by recording the new album though.
So you have finished your second album now, how has the recording progress been for this? The album is as good as finished. It has all been recorded and mixed so we are now just finalising some areas of it. It was cool to get back into the studio to record properly again and it all came together quite quickly, considering we did a 10 day tour in the middle of the recording process.
Lyric wise, what have you been writing about for this new album? What's affected you? Lyrically, Tom has stuck to what he knows and does best, writing about situations and people that we know and have grown up with. Each song is like a little story then.
A lot of bands release albums every two or three years, how come you guys have jumped back into the studio so quick? We wanted to keep the momentum going from the great year we had last year aswel as keeping things quite new and fresh, we had songs written and ready to record so the next logical thing to do was to get them recorded and put out for people to hear and enjoy.
Interview with James Pugh
At the end of last year "Persistence In This Game" got voted into BBC's top ten Welsh albums of the year, how cool was this achievement? It was amazing! To get our album voted in amongst the likes of the Manic Street Preachers was brilliant. The fact that so many people had made the effort to go and vote for us meant alot.
Also, Have these kind of achievements added any pressure to recording/writing your new album? We haven't consciously felt pressure when writing or recording this new album to make it match up to "Persistence in this game". We have looked at this album in a different light and I suppose, in a way, have experimented a little with the sound of it when you compare it to the last album.
How stoked are you to be playing the main stage at 2000 Trees Festival? We are all really looking forward to it. We've never been to this festival before so we're exited to be getting involved in the atmosphere of such a small festival with a great line up. Also, it will be one of the first shows of the summer for us so it should be great.
For people attending the festival who may be unfamiliar with you guys, can you tell them why should come out early and check you guys out? If you come out early and check us out I'm positive it'll set you up for the rest of your day full of live music.
1What else does 2011 hold for Straight Lines? A new album, new singles, new videos, a lot more touring, loads and loads of more shows, festivals and hopefully another great year.
Who is answering the questions? I am the component. I came from the beyond. I transfigure within this vile being. You humans are so pathetically puny...
Can you tell us a little bit about how you guys got together? Back in fame academy we were deemed least likely to succeed. We made a little gang - stole ponies, rode heathens, did some time together. It made us tight.
With over ten years in the music world, what do you guys think of the current progressive rock scene within the UK? Pifft - the polygraph is hooked up. We must be very careful, least The Emperor find out that, actually, we think he is a wanker... Voldermort‌.
What bands have inspired your music along the years and why? We have never understood your Earthly obsession with cacophonous vibration. It is some kind of sexual becoming that we cannot comprehend. The only so called musical act that we really understand is AC/DC Everything else is merely a shade of excrement.
How excited are you to be headlining "The Cave" stage at 2000 Trees Festival, and what can attending fans expect from your performance? We are from The Beyond. We do not feel excitement. We will arrive, play and then leave. As a spectator you will be required to arrive, spectate and then leave. It is a simple and eternal relationship.
How come it took you guys four years to release a follow up album to "Insider" ? It was four years for you. It was actually ten years for us. Time is relative. It took a relatively long time. That's because it was a relatively huge undertaking. You don't rush The Future.
We read that your new ep "Fractal" was put together late at night from "The Octopus" recording sessions, how come these musical outputs didn't make it onto the album? Not all my children were born at the exactly the same time either. Infact, I do not have any children. Elements of this sentence are a lie.
Progressive rock is such a stand out genre in a very cool sense, how do you go about putting together a song? I mean who comes up with the ideas first? etc. Imagine existence was a kind of transinfinite song. Now imagine you are a whirring cog in an infinite box of magic.That is how you write a song.
What else does 2011 hold for Amplifier? Probably debt, swiftly followed by a huge tax bill.
- There's a lot of you who want to make it in the graphic designer world, Jon Barmby gives us an insight on how he got into this amazing world, and just how awesome it is to see his designs on tshirts and album covers! When did you decide that graphics design is what you wanted to do with your life? I was always pretty keen on being creative from a young age. I used to love to sit and draw for hours on end, one day my parents came home with a computer for the family and i'd then make the switch to sitting on the old windows program 'Paint' for hours. It was all a case of trial and error when i was younger, i found some areas of art that didn't interest me and ones that did. It was only when i started playing music that i figured it'd be cheaper to learn how to create things like CD packages and websites than it would be to pay someone to do it for us. So i'd sit around trying to figure out these programs and the majority of stuff i created was terrible but lets be honest the first 20 items of work you do don't count! I guess the decision to make a career out of it came when other bands saw work that i'd created for my own band and asked me to do things for them. I loved the idea of my designs being seen by people and that satisfaction of designing something for someone that's exactly what they had in their head, it's a great feeling and i wanted to do that everyday.
In such a competitive world for Graphic Designers, how hard or easy was it to get yourself established in this business? I wouldn't say it was necessarily hard or easy, it was easy in the sense that when starting a business within graphic design there aren't too many overheads, you can work from home on a cheap budget and that's important when starting out. I'd say the hard side of it was purely getting your name out there. Like you said it can be hard in such a competitive industry but work hard, persistence and a little nagging get you a long way! I knew that it'd take time to get the business to a stable career position but i'd say it takes at least 3-4 years to get any business in any industry up and running. I don't really know what job or when things started to click i just suddenly one day realised that i hadn't actually marketed myself in a long time and work was flowing in so i must have been doing something right!
How do you go about choosing who you want to work with, or do bands approach you? When you first start out it's not always the jobs that you want to do, everyone has to start somewhere and you've got to build a portfolio. I did this by offering free or cheap jobs to bands that might help my portfolio, a lot of those bands don't exist anymore! When you get a name behind yourself and people want to work with you you can start to decide if you'd like to do that job etc. I'm not really like that - i like to take on as many projects as possible for as many different types of clients. If you start to become selective you can alienate yourself from different industries and that's only damaging yourself. There have been times where i've approached bands that i'd really like to work with and thats cool because all bands love to hear that someone admires what they do and wants to work with them! Fortunately enough i've been lucky in that the majority of my work has been bands coming to me and asking if i'd be interested in working with them, i'd probably hassle a few bands about working together if i wasn't so busy! Maybe in the future!
For those who don't know can you explain how you ended up working with the awesome Architects? I've known those guys for years, We all grew up in Brighton and it's a pretty small place in retrospect. We shared love of the same music and football so i kind of met Tom and Dan through that and the others through them. I'd always worked in design when i was friends with them, i actually used to live in a house with Tim (Guitar) for a few years while i was working at a design company in Brighton on corporate work for such companies as Nike and o2. I left the company wanting to get more involved with design in the music industry so i went back to being freelance. As i mentioned, me and the guys hung out a lot at mine and Tim's house so when they heard i was working for myself they commissioned me to do a poster for their upcoming home town show, this was actually my first commissioned piece upon becoming a freelancer! The rest is history really!
So, Did Architects come up with the artwork idea for their new album, or did they kind of give you a brief idea and you had to work of that? Tom who plays guitar had a very specific vision for the record and they wanted to work with someone who they where close with so that they could really get their point across and overlook the whole process. Fortunately Tom had a brilliant concept behind the artwork so we ran with it and it came out great. Those guys are always a joy to work with and they've really helped me get my name out there over the years so i'm very grateful for all their support.
How long does artwork of this magnitude actually take to do, can you explain to us a little bit on this process? Usually you'd meet with the band and discuss their ideas and outlines of a concept, i'd then go into the studio and work on a draft - this usually takes a couple of days, i like to sit on the design for a day or two after i feel it's finished before i send it just to see if it wears off on me. If i look at it two days later and feel it's not as strong as it was i'll start again! Once i'm happy i'll send the draft through, they'll either love it and let me move on with the rest of the package which usually takes around a week or we'll go back and forth till their 100% happy with the product. I like to give a month to be safe for everything from ideas and concept to finished print product that way you've got a bit of time to make sure it's all spot on!
What was it like to head out on tour with Architects? Any crazy stories from the road? It's cool to get to do that on the side, aside from certain projects and meetings you don't get much time out and about the office so it's nice to be able to go away for a week or two with your friends and see the world. Crazy stories? I once saw Dan who plays Drums army shuffle himself along a rope over water in Germany to get onto a boat that was in the harbour, Jason Statham style! It was pretty nuts.
What was it like to see your work upscaled on to massive tour posters/banners? It's always amazing to see your art in different media and big backdrops are the best form. To see your artwork blown up to 20 x 20 foot in front of two odd thousand people is insane. It's a good feeling when bands like the artwork enough to portray it at that size to enhance their stage show.
In a kind of reference to the last question, is it weird when you see a fan walking around with a top on, that you did the artwork for? I mean do you just want to stop them and be like hey, I did that dude! Haha, sometimes! Even in hope that the kid will be like 'Oh sick, let me buy you a drink! I love this shirt!'. I think that'd be a little bit embarrassing though to be honest. Designers always proclaim that wearing a shirt you designed is resemblent of someone in a band wearing their own bands shirt! I do like to see my shirts around though it's cool to think that these people like the shirt enough to spend a certain amount of money on it. I have obviously done a fair amount of Architects shirts so sometimes when i'm on tour and have a spare 5 minutes i'll wander over to Max at Merch and see how my shirts are selling!
As well as Architects you have worked with bands like "Your Demise" "Young Guns" so can you give us some other projects that have you have really enjoyed working on and why? Both Your Demise and Young Guns were a lot of fun to work with for different reason, each client has their own vibe when you work with them and that's what keeps it interesting. I really liked working on the We Are The Ocean album package 'Cutting Our Teeth' just because they where so open with what i wanted to do and just let me run with an idea. It's nice when you have a bit of freedom rather than someone who knows exactly what they want even if you know it'll look terrible! I really enjoy working on some big web projects such as my friend Tom Barnes photography portfolio. Websites are a little bit more substantial projects so you get attached to them when working on them for long periods of time so finishing one is almost a milestone itself, it's cool to see it all come to life after months of planning and development.
What else does 2011 hold for you? Hopefully Lady Gaga's album cover? Who knows! I want to get my name out into the mainstream music market as well as the rock / metal industry. I've always been a massive admirer of all types of music and i'd be really interested to give some mainstream pop packages a go so hopefully one day i'll get the chance to do so. Other than that i just want to keep on doing what i'm doing, i love my job and getting up in the morning or working late doesn't seem like a chore but more something i look forward too. I'll have a brand new portfolio up next month including unseen projects from the last 6-12 months so that'll be interesting to see what people think!
Interview with Glen Demuth
So how did this Second Light Productions come together, and what are your aims? Second Light all started while I was at University and had a project to create a promotional video, being a music fan and always attending gigs I thought of creating a video for a music venue. I had a few meetings with the venue pitch the idea and they loved it, I also mentioned to the owner how I'd be interested to start creating music videos/promo videos for bands. The next day I had an email from Sonic Boom Six who we're playing the venue the next day giving us permission to film the band and that was the first band we filmed. We we're pretty stoked as that was the year that they we're on main stage Reading and Leeds Festival and being massive fans of the band we couldn't ask for much more. It was me and a friend with two cameras hired from a college, with no real time to prepare we just shot everything we could. In the end we we're happy with how the video looked for our first band promo, the band loved the video and featured it on their sites which was great. We then had the task of thinking of a name and start marketing ourselves as a media company. After deciding the name Second Light we then created a Youtube account and went from there. Our aims is just to keep making videos that our clients are really happy with, being friends with a lot of people in bands we understand the struggle with trying to get noticed and get your music heard by the right people so we try to make it happen through video.
What was it like to shoot Zebrahead live at the shudder festival? Shudder Festival was incredible! Zebrahead were great the energy that they have while playing live is unreal, all the camera operators had a great time filming them and other great bands like Casio Kid, New Riot and of course MC Lars. I had the task of editing the footage which was crazy, we had 7 people filming the festival from start to finish.
What's easier and why, shooting a music video, or shooting a live video? I don't know about what one is easier, I think as long as you prepare for what you're going to shoot everything will go to plan. I prefer making music videos than shooting live videos for the pure reason that we can really create something special with our own set up and really impress the bands we work with.
What was it like to work with New Riot on their video for 'Sleep.Riot.Repeat.' ? It was crazy! When myself and Andy from New Riot we're talking about the idea that the band had in mind for the video I knew it would be a production that we wanted to be a part of. The guys are cool and real easy to get on with so it was a pleasure to work with them. The video itself is still one of my favourites, to somehow fit wrestling and people going through tables into a music video is something that I'd never thought I'd do. I've never seen people that drunk before, it was true Ska Punk. The house that we shot the video was totally trashed I still think their cleaning the mess. No one parties harder than New Riot.
How do you go about collaborating with a band on a project, do they normally bring the full idea of what they want their video to look like to the table? Or do you guys have to do some improvisation? When we get emails from bands they instantly ask how much we charge etc, as we understand that bands don't have a massive budget we just ask how much the band have for a budget and we then work closely with the band to that budget. Idea wise we always like to see if the band have a video idea in mind for example we shot a video with a great band called Forever Wednesday, they had a storyline that they wanted to feature in the video and also the locations of the shoot. On the other hand we've done videos where we get sent a budget and a track and then start thinking about ideas for the video, then pitch it to the band and then work with the band till everyone is happy with the final idea.
Is there anyone out there that you'd really love to work with, or that you have your eyes on at the moment? Obviously you have a list in your head of all the top bands in the world that you would want to film but I'm just looking for good dudes in bands that want to get somewhere and do everything they can to get noticed. I think that's where a few people that make videos go wrong, thinking that filming the 'bigger bands' is more important than filming unknown bands. It's more rewarding for us getting the more unknown bands more attention rather than working with bands that already have been established as well known acts.
What's it like to see your work come on Scuzz TV or Lava TV, I mean does it just get you excited straight away for your next project? It's great to see them on the TV, obviously it's great for the bands too which is way more rewarding than seeing the video on the TV as at the end of the day we're giving a service to the band so seeing them get excited about being on the TV is rad. I'm not a massive fan of watching my own work and very rarely watch a video i've made all the way through after it's been completed. It definitely excites us, we've had a few months off from doing videos and now we've just got a whole load of new equipment and have just booked 5 music videos over the next couple of months so we're excited about doing them. We're always looking for new projects so if anyone is interested please email secondlight@hotmail.co.uk and someone will get back to you.
As an upcoming productions team, what do you consider has been your best achievement so far, and why? I think the biggest achievement is just looking back and seeing how much progress we've made, we had no money no equipment and have slowly built up to now having a load of the latest equipment, studio space and receiving emails daily asking about our services... all at the same time of studying at uni or working in different jobs at the same time.
What else does 2011 hold for Second Light Productions? 2011 is exciting like I mentioned we've had a few months off doing different things, some of us have been writing short films others have been travelling. We've got a new website coming out soon, we'll be filming some great festivals and some great bands.
What was it like to work with the just as awesome "Architects" ? Well we still have an ongoing relationship with those fellas. We did Ruin, a split EP with Dead Swans and Hollow Crown. More recently we did an epic acoustic song with them which is something I never thought I would be saying about Architects! I put loads of Orchestral stuff on the back end and it sounded like Danny Elfman had jumped on it. What can I say about Architects? Lovely lovely blokes and probably the tightest band in the studio ever! I was very sad to find out recently that Ali had to leave for personal reasons. Chris from YMAS played me their new album in the car recently. It’s a big change but I really really liked it (despite them abandoning us for some bloke in the States haha!!
How important is it to have a healthy relationship/friendship with the band when in the studio? Well some people come from the Ross Robinson school of recording where you frighten the sh*t out of people to get the best results. I personally think that gentle happy encouragement works best (although I have been known to get very grumpy if someone is playing like an absolute competition winner). And good banter is VITAL. I’m pleased to say that I have made a great many friends through owning that knackered old coach house and I’m still friends with a lot of people that I worked with when I was 19 years old!
Can you give us a couple of your greatest memories from working in the Studios? Well I have very fond memories of recording vocals for Matt from FFAF. He worked very quickly indeed and was good fun as they all were. I love having My Passion in the studio and repeatedly whooping Simon on the Call Of Duty snow level. Not so much in the studio, but I have very fond memories of being in a casino in Reading with Josh and the YMAS guys. Max and Josh were about as focussed as any two people can be round a roulette wheel!!
What advice would you give to someone who wishes to start up their own studio? Don’t bother, I don’t like competition and I’ll put a curse on you the moment you open! Seriously though. Don’t think that if you did a short course at some tech college that you’re gonna be ready to make hit albums, it takes years and years to really learn what makes it all tick. The other thing I would say is that mixing is KING. Soooo many people record at home these days that it you want to have a career in 10 years time, you had better get good at mixing. I have polished many turds in my time, believe me.
Is there any upcoming bands out there that you would love to work with at the moment? Not really up and coming or indeed metal, but I would love to work with The Feeling…oh and Pete Gabriel
What do you think it is that has made "Outhouse Studios" so successful? Being very affordable and good I guess. I like to think we’re fairly consistent
What does the rest of 2011 hold for "Outhouse Studios" ? Lots of boat trips, classic car shows and shooting contests hopefully
So when did you decide photography is what you wanted to do with your life? I started skateboarding almost 15 years ago and used my dad’s crappy point-and-shoot to take photos of my friends but they just looked rubbish compared to the stuff we were seeing in mags like Transworld and Thrasher. I began reading up as to what they were doing differently and began investing in any equipment I could afford while pushing myself to think carefully about each shot and what would really make them stand out. I traveled in 2000 to London and San Diego and shot the most photos of that trip ever. The second I got back I told my parents that I wanted to be a photographer and study it. My dad was super supportive but he did have a good laugh and said that he felt I wasn’t a creative person and that photography isn’t really a job. He’s amazing.
Who was the first BIG band you took photos of, and how was this feeling? Well I had worked with quite a few bands before but the first proper shoot where I left thinking “wow this is actually happening” so my first proper shoot was with was with Kris Roe from the band The Ataris. He was out here playing a bunch of solo acoustic shows and we shot quite a few portraits together and then one of his live shows. I had been a big fan of their stuff growing up and looked up to him, as he is also a photographer, so when the time arrived it felt quite surreal. I wasn’t sure what to think beforehand because I never want to be let down but he was amazing and just one of the nicest down to earth people I have ever met. We spent a lot more time together than I thought we would and he liked the results I was getting and really motivated me a lot. It was a big turn for me.
So who have you been working with recently? There is quite a lot going on which I am super grateful about but the ones that have been the most enjoyable recently have been We Are The Ocean, Interpol, Young Guns, The Blackout and Editors ... there are quite a few actually but those have been really good.
+
+
Can you tell us a little bit about the equipment you use? Sure, I use Nikon stuff but I am not really one of those photographers that will fight for hours about why it’s the best brand in the world or anything like that. I personally love the Nikon D3 as a main body and have a few which have all been really good to me but if Canon had to approach me tomorrow I wouldn’t be reluctant to change if it made sense. I combine the bodies with some quality glass and my most used include the 1424mm, 24-70mm, 80-200mm and a prime 50mm. In terms of lighting it all depends on the size of the job, space and time restraints but I work between a light rig made up of Nikon SB-800’s or a heavier rig of Profoto Pro-7b’s along with various light modifiers. I also have a bunch of film cameras (new and vintage) which I use mostly for personal projects. They provide amazing and unique results but time does get in the way most times so digital makes life easier.
With band portrait photos how do you go about finding the location you want to do the shoot in, or do the band pick the places for you? That’s probably the hardest part of the who portrait process because I like the band to give as much input as possible just to make sure that we are on the same lines and that we end up with final results that they are happy with. In quite a few cases though when the band have an idea we end up changing it last minute because of better locations / possibilities we come across on the way. I have a pad now that I basically log possible locations I see as I travel around. Its probably the best way.
How does location affect your work? Location and lighting definitely has the biggest impact on the possibilities of the final shot. I mean if it is completely dark and we are wanting some sky in the shot then there isn’t much we can do. The nice thing about the power of the Profoto setup is that we have a lot more control of light if it is too bright because I can increase the amount of light I am using and then stop down the ambient. I’m pretty much happy to shoot in all situations although my least favourite is outdoor in full-midday-sun mostly because the light is super harsh and the subjects end up squinting and stuff like that. I am also not a big fan of rain and heavy wind because my gear is expensive and I don’t want it to get messed up.
What's easier, live shots, or portrait shots? They are both really different. I’m not sure if one is easier than the other although live shots do require less gear which makes it a lot easier in terms of traveling around and setup. Live stuff is also really unpredictable because obviously the lighting is aimed at making the show look great for the people who have purchased tickets and not for me to get the perfect shot so I guess I like portrait stuff for that reason because I have a lot more control in terms of how the results turn out.
What was it like to work with the awesome "Papa Roach" ? Those guys are amazing. I have to be honest and say that I had never really given their music the time of day before the shoot. It wasn’t anything personal but I grew up in a place where music isn’t as accessible as it is here in the UK so I was just never really exposed to their stuff. I had obviously heard good things so I was quite excited but I did worry that they were going to be intense to work with. I arrived on location and setup on my own testing light with myself just to make sure that I use as little time with the band as I needed. They arrived styled and ready to go and as I got them into position it started raining quite hard and I thought the worst. I told the guys that it looked really good and we could move the setup and shoot somewhere else or I could be quick if they were happy to stay in the rain for a bit and they opted for the rain. We shot a bunch of shots and then quickly retreated and they even helped me pack up and carry gear which was unexpected. We hung out for a while after that and Tony who is also a photographer asked me a bit about my gear and checked the photos out and we chatted a bit more. They asked me if I wanted to stay for the show they were playing that night which I did and I really liked it a lot. They were so passionate on stage and then so down to earth and “cool” backstage which I could really connect with and it really opened my eyes as to how decent they were. I’ve worked with them a few times since then and it’s always a pleasure. I’d support them now and have bought their albums because their stuff is actually really good but also because they deserve the support.
What photographers have inspired you along the way and why? I’ve always been the biggest fan and appreciator of Annie Leibovitz and Platon. They are both have very different shooting styles and setups but are both amazing artists. Growing up I also closely followed Atiba Jefferson who is mostly known for his skateboarding photography but has also shot some amazing portraits.
Photography seems to be flooded with people that think they can learn photography very quickly, as a professional photographer does this frustrate you? It’s weird because it doesn’t really frustrate me but the thing I do get slightly irritated with is when people with a camera feel like that might be a ticket for them to be “cooler” than anybody else because it doesn’t. Competition is always a good thing because it gets people to push themselves but having a camera doesn’t make you a photographer. It’s up to the client really to decide on which photographer to go with and I focus on making sure my portfolio grows and my quality is stepped up each time as I feel that will be enough to keep me getting work.
Can you give us some highlights from your photography career? There have been so many but I think my favourite part is the fact that I get to live and work in my hobby everyday. I’ve traveled quite a bit which has allowed me to see some amazing places and meet great people which I wouldn’t have been able to do without being a photographer. Working in the music scene is quite tough but I do love every single bit about it especially when I get to work with bands that I am actually really passionate about. Getting anything published is also always a great highlight.
What else are you going to be up to this year then? It’s still early days but I have some good portrait shoots coming up with a bunch of amazing shows booked. There are a few trips on the cards which is always exciting. I am just making sure to really push myself this year.
Foo Fighters - Wasting Light Who do you know that doesn't like (the) Foo Fighters? The answer is probably no one. Children, Teenagers, Parents, and Grandparents love Dave Grohl and his rocking stadium-conquering merry men. Although their last few releases have come off as a little weak and single-heavy, Foo Fighters are now back with a force and are back to their best, even Pat Smear has re-joined the Foos. From the opening moments of 'Wasting Light' you're given a stark reminder of what makes this band truly great. 'Bridge Burning' is accessible, broad and has that straight-up, uncomplicated rock sound that they consistently bring to the table. Lead off single 'Rope' follows on nicely, as Grohl and company bring a strong melody and structure that just plain and simply leaves you feeling good and excited about this band. (I'd also recommend checking out the Deadmau5's remix too.) Throughout the bands career they've continuously shown the ability to produce memorable choruses and 'Wasting Light' is no different; 'Dear Rosemary' shines in its simplicity whilst 'A Matter Of Time' is another powerful, feel-good chorus, although it is nothing we haven't heard before. Elsewhere tracks like 'White Limo' and 'Back & Forth' well and truly bring the rock. The former is aggressive, and dominated by its powerful guitars and Grohl's distorted, aggressive vocals. It is also something different for the band as it breaks them away from the slick, neatly-produced sound that we have come accustomed to. Later on 'I Should Have Known' brings a mellow tone to the record (and sees Grohl reuniting with Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic). Its build up is well-rounded, radiant and satisfactory. The concluding 'Walk' sees the band bringing all their best elements together, straight-up, structured and melodic rock that does not stray away from their original sound, and perhaps more importantly does not alienate its listeners. For some 'Wasting Light' might not be anything different then previous releases, others like me sees it as a record from a band that sound refreshed and reinvigorated by what they are doing. (The) Foo Fighters are back, having fun and have once again proven why they are revered worldwide. SR
Silverstein – Rescue Despite leaving Victory Records and opening a new chapter with Hopeless Records, Silverstein blow their chance of progressing with 'Rescue' an album that is fine example of “if it ain't broken don't fix it”. Opening tracks 'Medication' and 'Sacrifice' quickly set the tone and sound all too familiar; hard-hitting, fast-paced “screamo”/hard rock. It doesn't give much hope for the rest, although vocalist Shane Told is consistent and the rest of the band play their parts very well. This lack of creativity continues throughout, 'Intervention' and 'Burning Hearts' follow the usual Silverstein template; an aggressive verse followed by a melodic chorus. Whilst its clear the band consistently produce good rhythms and are structurally strong, its a formula that is now very repetitive. Nevertheless there are promising moments in 'Good Luck With Your Lives'; a powerful track with well-delivered guitar lines and shows Told at his best despite the questionable lyrics. Whilst the addition of Bayside's Anthony Raneri on 'Texas Mickey' is very much welcomed and compliments Told's screams well. However by the later stages of the album, each track seems to fall into one another and lack distinction between each other ultimately leaving you feeling let down. Frankly unless you're a big fan of Silverstein, 'Rescue' will leave you feeling disappointed. As always the band is musically tight and promising but then falter by the lack of creativity and inability to challenge themselves in terms of structure and style. Whilst it may be a new chapter for the band, unfortunately they are stuck using old tricks. SR
Lower Than Atlantis - World Record Who?" I hear you say. Well I'll tell you. "Lower Than Atlantis" are variously described as melodic hardcore, punk/rock/grunge, all of which could be used to define the tracks included in their second full length album, "World Record". The band, based in Watford, which was formed in 2007, is comprised of Mike Duce - Vocals/Guitar, Ben Sansom Guitar, Eddy Thrower - Drums, and Dec Hart - Bass, so if you like heavy drums and strong vocals, then you're in for a treat. Included in their many influences, they name Blink 182, Jimmy Eat World, and the Foo Fighters, all of which are in evident throughout many of these tracks. They claim to play "sad songs fast", and this is plain to see (or hear), but for me "Another Sad Song" - a sad song played slowly, works far better and has the potential to become a memorable single. Things they adhere to, by their own admission on their facebook page, include "fucking up, poverty, binge drinking, and wishing to be 15 again", however, "Deadliest Catch" appears to show a more adult take on 15 year old teenage angst with some beautiful lyrics and symbolism. The album as a whole may not be entirely to your taste but is certainly worth a listen, and one that I will be giving a few more airings before I reach my final verdict. CM
Manchester Orchestra - Simple Math If you were expecting something akin to the CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) then you'll be sadly disappointed; however if you were hoping for something original and contemporary, then listen on. Having said that, we are treated to some of the more traditional orchestral sections in the form of strings and brass, adding a fullness to the overall sound, sometimes at the expense of guitar riffs, the best of these being saved for the last track, "Leaky Breaks". This indie-rock band from Atlanta, Georgia, was formed in 2005 and have labelled this, their fourth offering, a concept album, and it certainly showcases the variety of their musical style. Tracks such as "Simple Math", "Leave It Alone", and "Leaky Breaks" demonstrate the versatility and vocal range of lead singer, Andy Hull, and the brass and strings included in the title track, "Pensacola", "Virgin", and "Leave It Alone", lift this band out of run of the mill indie-rock mediocrity. Lyrically, some tracks on this album such as "Mighty, "Pensacola", and "Apprehension", could be conceived as pure poetry, whilst others appear to reflect a simple stream of consciousness, for example the last verse of the final track, "Leaky Breaks", which reads "I've been drinking carefully, I creep into our bedroom and watch you sleep, My mind it wanders onto things that if I try I can't explain, As if there's something worse, As if there's something worse, to have weaned away your worth, when I was so absurd, Well is there something worse?". Whatever your musical taste, give this album a listen and open your mind to the concept that is "Simple Math". CM
2
So at last I get to sink my teeth into the long awaited sequel to the 2007 game of the year. Portal was ground breaking offering a never before seen angle on the puzzle genre. With a first person view and armed only with what appeared to be some sort of weapon, many were surprised just how engaging and successful the concept would become. I feel I should briefly take the opportunity to explain to anyone that lives under a rock, what a Portal gun is… If you live anywhere other than under my metaphorical rock, skip the following paragraph. Portal technology is actually quite easy to explain: we have a Portal gun that fires two portals an orange and a blue. Once both portals are fired it links those two spaces so if you were to put anything (including yourself) through orange it would come out of blue and visa-versa. You can utilise gravity by falling from great heights and being hurled out of the other portal. The concept is beautifully simple and is pushed to the limit in Aperture labs. The inclusion of two comedy presences holds up the core meaning of the game, (It has to be funny). Despite the comedy element the story is actually surprisingly engaging. Taking us through the history of Aperture Labs expanding the story introducing yet another recognisable voice J.K. Simmons as the old Aperture boss and allowing for a welcome change of scene after the repetition of the first game.
Originally sold as part of Valves Orange box collection which included Half life 2 episode 2, Team fortress 2 and of course Portal. It was fantastic value for money offering such a huge amount of content meant that Portal was never really a full game. Taking around 3-4hours to complete it was still by no means ‘not enough’ in fact I saw it as a good length for a puzzle game, maintaining interest and stemming off the danger of repetition that is the curse of the genre. Portal 2 is shipping as a stand-alone product, gone are the days of the value for money of The Orange box that being said Portal 2 is double the length of its predecessor at around 810hours and includes co-op levels. What worries me coming into this review is; can the original concept of Portal maintain our interest for that long. We’ll see as I ‘Start thinking with portals.’ Portal 2 as expected has more of a narrative than its predecessor, the increased length (if anything) warrants it, I need a reason to go from room to room to room etc… for 10hours, or maybe I am just not a puzzle puritan. Thankfully for me there is a story, we awake back in the facility of the first game. However in GLaDOS’ absence things have become pretty decayed. Awoken by the moronic robot Wheatley voiced by Stephen Merchant (that lanky bloke who hangs out with Ricky Gervais) he sets upon helping you escape once again. Needless to say the game sees the return of Ellen Mclain as GLaDOS the maniacal robot in charge of the facility, who is of course hooked on revenge after you killed her.
Portal 2 is skilfully broken up into chapters taking us through a variety of areas, though you can’t help but feel the narrative is there to allow for these aesthetic changes. The narrative however pleasant is not exactly a complex yarn that needs to be unravelled. Portal 2 is all about Gameplay just as all puzzle games should be. Although I’m sure Valve are aware that 90% of people buying Portal 2 had some experience of the first game. Portal 2 still eases us in, with some quick solve Tests I found myself thinking this was going to be a cake walk (no pun intended). Thankfully I was wrong and Portal 2 certainly offered plenty of head scratching moments. With Bridges, lasers, gravity lifts, jump platforms and various crazy substances not to mention the portal technology. Valve has certainly expanded their toy box for the sequel, which will at times leave you feeling very stupid. That’s really the trick, Pushing frustration to that point where you want to give up, then… ‘wait I haven’t tried that’ and bingo all that confusion is turned into a real feeling of achievement. Portal 2 is problem solving at its best. In terms of an audio/visual experience Valve as always seem to think of everything, the witty banter from the names I have already mentioned to my relief did not feel to obtrusive. Leaving us free to concentrate on the task at hand, with only the occasional snide remark. Sound effects are at times repetitive, but surfaces sound and react accurately. Visually the game won’t win any awards, Valve are still using their Source engine which has been in use since Half Life 2. However the game still looks clean and crisp, proving the longevity and scope of the technology. In fact you get the feeling Valve could push the visuals further, but that isn’t the idea of the
With ‘Kill with skill’ as the tag line, there’s no prize for what guessing what we can expect from EAs latest killfest. I must say in an era of sequels it is nice to see something new. Understandably many gamers have learnt to be cautious of the unknown, Thankfully Bulletstorm stands out. There is something different about it and after being voted one of the top titles at E3 it’s making an impact. So what’s it all about? Bulletstorm is the tale of a group of soldiers lead by Grayson Hunt that have been responsible for many military assassinations, however it transpires that this elite unit have actually been murdering civilians. Someone has to answer for this outrage; it comes in the form of stereotypical (American drill sergeant style) General Serrano. They of course feel betrayed by the General and seek revenge on the armies that made them do such terrible things… Pretty straight forward set-up, but everything takes a swift turn to the insane when Grayson takes the decision to attack Serranos huge battle ship with his small space craft, needless to say it doesn’t end well and both ships end up plummeting into the nearest planet.