First off, we at Artbeat would like to congratulate the band on your new music video, “This Town Will Drag You Down,” for it looks and sounds absolutely fantastic and moreover, it has received a sensational response, how has the experience been so far? Thank you very much! Absolutely awesome, but incredibly tiring. It was cool being able to shoot it on the big stage at 53 degrees, and the guys from Mycho (who filmed it) were really professional and made it easy for us to just get on with it. It’s kind of weird having to listen to your own song so much, but it’s ended up worth it. The final result was everything we’d hoped for and we’re really happy with it. 2. Already a month into the New Year and you’ve already had two gigs on your list (The Abbey Inn, Oldham on 21st Jan and The Soundhouse, Bolton on 22nd Jan) do you have any band rituals before going on stage? We don’t really have any rituals but we’ve invented some pretty odd games to kill time between sound-checks. Also, we like to hunt out any nearby fried chicken restaurants for pregig snacks. 3. What is your favourite song to perform live? Probably one of our newer songs, called ‘You Can’t Take Us Anywhere’. It’s easy to rock out to and the lyrics basically sum up what we are. 4. What/Who inspires you as a band? Does it influence your music? A fear of apathy. We see a lot of people who don’t really try, and who moan about not going anywhere. We understand how hard you have to work to get anywhere, and we don’t want to fall into a routine of not doing anything and becoming a band that goes nowhere. We’d like to look back in 5 years and say “at least we tried”. 5. If you could work or collaborate with anyone in the music industry who would it be? John Williams. A rock opera of Jurassic Park is exactly what the world needs, it just doesn’t know it. 6. What do you reckon has been your best gig? We haven’t done it yet! We always look to improve. That’s not to say we haven’t had some really fun shows and met tonnes of cool people along the way though. 7. And your worst? One of the problems with being an unsigned band is that you’ve no choice but to occasionally play bad gigs. But you’ve got to take the bad with the good. Give us a room to play in with only five people watching and we’ll still give it our all. Sometimes good things can come from what seemed to be a bad gig; you never know who could be watching!
8. One thing your fans don’t know about you but you want them to know? We’d like to bring to the attention of the public that our guitarist Dave is a real life werewolf. So if we ever have to pull out of a gig, it’s probably because it’s a full moon. 9. As a band, do you reckon it to be about playing for the music, or does fame and fortune play a part? Being in a band for the fame and fortune is a big statement to make. We’d love to be able to make a comfortable living out of what we do, and hopefully our music can take us there. It’s hard work having to work a day job and be in a band trying to make it. 10. If you where to give our readers advice about starting a band what would it be? If you’re going to start a serious band, be prepared to put a lot of time and money into it. There’s a lot of fun to be had though, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. 11. What are your plans for the rest of the year? Any new releases? In other words, what should Population fans look forward to this year? Currently doing some demos for a new album which we plan on releasing this year. After that, loads more gigs and hopefully just to keep the ball rolling on to bigger and better things.
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Give us a room to play in with only five people watching and we’ll still give it our all.” 27