What would you consider to be your ‘big break’?
Well, it’s tough to choose when we’ve been so lucky this year but to me the highlights have to be playing the main-stage Reading and Leeds O2 with Bon Jovi, and releasing our debut record in July. Those and our biggest headline show to date (The Highbury Garage in July and the upcoming Electric Ballroom show in December). Also getting to travel more has been amazing. The whole year has been amazing really. It’s tough to pick a best moment.
Do you tend to stray away from reading press or is it still happy days as of yet?
It’s hard not to listen to what other people have to say about you or your band. We’re only human and like most people in the world, obviously to a degree we care what people think. The famous saying ‘opinions are like ass holes…everyone’s got them’ is definitely true, and I/we try to remember that no matter what you do, people are always going to have their own idea about it, for good or bad. We are all just acutely aware that the world and this industry in particular is a fickle place and tastes can change in a heart beat. We are hyped and things are going great right now but we try not to be complacent or let it go to our heads ‘cos quite simply it could all end in a minute. We’re just trying to take every chance we get. Plus, I still think of us as just the five idiots that we’ve always been, sometimes seeing all the hyperbole and hype seems a little hard to relay back to being about us, but we’re definitely happy and honoured to be in the place we’re in right now.
The genre debate is more than noticeable with you lot. What is your opinion on your sound?
I think that we’re quite hard to pigeon hole. I don’t think we really sound like that many bands around right now. We’re just basically a melodic heavy rock band. I think there’s ambition to our sound but I wouldn’t say we sound like that many other bands – certainly on our level. It’s always interesting to hear what other peoples opinions are on it though.
What’s your stance on the labelling situation that so many bands have to face?
I think it’s lazy, but then a lot of bands seem willing to adhere very closely to certain visual or sonic rules that lump them in with a whole glut of other bands doing the same things. There’s more bands than ever before which is amazing but it also means that there is more generic music ever than before as well. At the end of the day, good music is good music regardless of genre or style, and if it’s good enough it’ll shine through. It’s a bit naive, but I like to think that this is the case.
Ok, it has to be done, the Bon Jovi Mention. How the hell did that come around?
Surreal doesn’t even cover it. It was mad playing to that many people in a big darkened arena. Felt like we were playing in space, and definitely looking through someone else’s eyes/walking in someone else’s shoes for the day. We entered a competition and were lucky enough to win it. It didn’t really sink in until we were watching Bon Jovi play from the crowd afterwards. I will never forget that.
What home comforts do you miss whilst away?
The thing I miss is the ability to cook food. Eating service station food all the time is a real bummer. There’s only so many sandwiches you can eat before you start to go a bit mental. That and the ability to wash your clothes when you need to. For the most part being on tour is wicked fun, but lack of sleep/food/clean clothes does get frustrating. That’s it though.
Who has the most annoying habits on tour?
Can of worms! We’re all annoying in different ways, being in a confined space constantly for 12 weeks in a row really means that you have to learn to cope with the people you are surrounded by. We are all different personalities and sometimes there are clashes, but mostly we’re pretty fortunate. We’re all good friends and don’t really argue that much. If I HAD to pick someone, it’d be Ben is probably the loudest person I’ve ever met, and I’m quite introverted a lot of the time, but he’s also really good fun to be around and one of my best friends.
Do you get to spend much time with fans?
We try to hang out as much as we can with people that want to meet or talk to us. It’s important to us, and we want people that listen to our music and spend time and money on us to know that we care and are appreciative. We usually hang by the merch after we play so that’s the best way to come and say hey. We’re lucky – all of our fans are really cool.
When I was first sent your demo a couple of years back it was near impossible to find information about you. Comparing then to now is insane. When did you realise things were changing for the better?
Tough to say… We operate in such a bubble most of the time that things tend to go by in a blur. I still remember freaking out about our first gig listing in Kerrang! Magazine and what that was like… 2 and a half years ago? To go from that to the cover was pretty mad, same with Rock Sound. I would say though, that for me a real turning point was the April headline tour that we did this year. Selling out shows and having so many people there each night singing back to us was a real period of realisation for us. Seeing that things were progressing and people were actually responding to our music was the best feeling ever. I always think that things are about to fall apart at any minute though, so who knows what’s round the corner.
Around that time, there were various bands that were ranked similar to you, but seemed to be getting incredibly popular back then. Most of which have either broken up or not progressed any further in 2010, what do you think you did differently?
I think that we basically don’t concern ourselves with what anyone else is up to around us. We just try to focus on writing strong accessible music that has some integrity and heart to it. We don’t care about being cool or playing whatever kind of music is in vogue right now, we just want to be proud of what we do and try to work as hard as we can. We’re still evolving and finding out who we are as a band. I think we’ve also (if there is such a thing) operated so far in a way that people seem to respond to. We’ve worked from the ground up in a DIY manner and people seem to want to get behind that. I’m really proud of what we’ve achieved so far.
What can we expect from future material? Is there anything you’d specifically like to delve into but haven’t had the chance?
We don’t like the idea of limiting ourselves or putting constraints on ourselves. Obviously we aren’t going to turn into The Dillinger Escape Plan but our goal is always to keep ourselves interested and we like to experiment and try new things. I imagine the 2nd record will probably be a bit more diverse sonically, but hopefully ruthlessly direct. That’s kind of my goal, right now anyway.
We’ll be catching you at your Cardiff show in December and we’re pretty stoked for that. What can we expect having never seen you live before?
We just try to put as much energy into playing live as we can. We all grew up going to small sweaty hardcore and metal shows and that’s the kind of vibe we try to generate at our shows. Intimacy and excitement, sing alongs and lots of heat. Cardiff has always been good to us, that’s one of the shows I can’t wait for most.
What other cities are you looking forward to?
Glasgow, London, Dublin, Belfast, Manchester, Birmingham….really all of them though. We are so excited for the UK run we can’t even put it into words.
Describe your band mates in one word?
Hahah..oh god. ok..John – Quiet, Fraser – always right, Simon – lightweight, Ben – comical, me – moody.
Any guilty pleasures?
I really like pop and we listen to a lot of stuff like The Saturdays.
Moments of 2010
I’d like to relive:
Reading and Leeds, and our April headline tour was great fun as I’ve said, but I’m hoping out best moments of the year are still to come on this tour.
Stand out shows:
The show at the Highbury Garage is my favourite show ever, to date. Our biggest headline show in my home town, at a venue I grew up going to see bands play in. The show was perfect and the crowd were amazing. Reading and Leeds were pretty crazy aswell, so many people. Garage is my choice though.
Starstruck moments:
Seeing so many people there for us at Reading festival stopped me dead in my tracks. It was pretty awesome having our little dressing room surrounded by Biffy Clyro, Queens of The Stone Age, Lostprophets, NOFX, Billy Talent, G’N’R etc. At Download seeing Slash walking around all day was awesome too.
The plug:
We have our new single Weight of The World doing the rounds at the moment so check that out on iTunes etc, our debut album All our Kings are Dead too. Also we are growing terrible moustaches for charity this month, so go to uk.movember.com and search for ‘Young Guns UK’. Laugh at our faces then donate whatever you can in aid of prostate cancer.
