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The Glitterati interviewed are:
Paul-Vocals
Jamie-Bass
DT
- Hi guys nice to meet you, who have we got here and what do you
do in the band?
Paul - My name is Paul and I sing
Jamie I'm Jamie I play bass
DT - When did you get together and who started the band?
Paul We've been going now for just over two years. We started in Leeds. Jamie was already living in London, so the rest of us decided to move down to London to join him and we kind of took it from there.
DT You're on Atlantic records, a major label, how are you finding that?
Paul They treat us like any other
major label
Jamie They've put a lot into us, I mean there's a lot of
situations where you get less control of certain things, but we've
been given a lot of creative control. They were originally an
Indie label, so they've got that behind them
Paul People who work there came from Mushroom records. We
always try to keep as much in control of our band as we can, but
we're not adverse to people's opinions. We always wanted to be
on a major label because we thought that way as many people as
possible could hear our band. Our first single came out on Alan
Magee's Pop Tart records label, but we always intended to get
on a big label.
DT Do they sort out a lot of things i.e. tours for you?
Paul Helter-skelter is our booking agent who sort out the tours for us, but they do have a lot of input with who you tour with.
DT Did they choose Avril Lavigne?
(Laughs)
Jamie Well that was strange because
that was offered to us
Paul Yeah, her people wanted us to do it which was quite
strange, but we've just always been a band that's wanted to play
in front of as many people as possible and it doesn't really bother
us who's playing before or after us
DT So you're saying you're not particular fans of her type of music then?
Paul Well it's never been something
we've listened to but we just treat it as you would a festival
where you treat it as it doesn't matter who's on before or after
us we just go on stage and do our thing and I think it will be
a good tour
Jamie We'll play on any stage, big or small
DT You're playing Download Festival this year
Paul Yeah we played that last year as well, last year was the first festival we ever did so we're really looking forward to it this year
DT Are there any bands there that you're particularly looking forward to seeing?
Paul Definitely wanna see Velvet Revolver, Billy Idol, dunno really, not too sure who's playing. Usually I prefer to see the bands who are playing in the tents
DT You're playing Saturday or Sunday right?
Jamie We're playing Sunday
DT Oh so that's like Slipknot and Slayer
(Laughs)
Paul Yeah that's what we're thinking, hopefully we'll get to go for the whole weekend though
DT Slash is a fan of you guys I've heard?
Paul Yeah because we did our album with Mike Clink and they're really good friends so we got to meet them and things like that, while we were doing it. Yeah and when we met him he was like into us, dunno if he was a fan but he was very much supportive saying he liked it and things like that
DT I wanted to ask you about Mike Clink actually, what sort of recording process did you go through for the album?
Paul Just a very live one really,
it's about capturing really we knew this about him before
we went in, he was more like, it was more important for him to
capture performance than to make you go over and over things,
it was very much a live performance
Jamie We just tried to keep it as real as possible. We didn't
over-dub loads of guitars to try and make it sound good we just
kept the image of the band and the vibe and created the best performance
from all of us
Paul He also had shed loadsa ideas as well which we wanted,
I think like a lot of bands if we're gunna work with a producer
we wanted to let him have ideas. We were there for like 12 weeks,
he was like another member of the band, like if you're not gunna
listen to Mike Clink's ideas on a rock record then I think there's
something wrong with you
DT What kinda things do you guys get up to on tour? I imagine you have a lot of good stories to tell
(Laughs)
Paul We get up to anything
Jamie We just have a good time
Paul Yeah, there's no major stories
Jamie We just do what any other bunch of 5 guys would do
if they didn't have to work 9-5 a day
DT Just we had No Comply here a couple of weeks back and they went vegan for their tour (laughs) I just thought it would be a little bit different for you guys
Paul We're just up for a good time, and I think it's pretty impossible not to have a good time being in a band. We've never been a type of band to complain about the hardness of being in a band because we've all had shitty jobs and we know how much better this is
DT I'd love to hear about these shitty jobs!
Paul Well I've only ever had one job before this band and that was carrying carpets
(Laughs)
Paul Actually I ran a recording studio
for a bit which was fun, but we also went into huge debt so we
the worse people in Britain. Jamie's had some killers
Jamie Hospital porter, HMV security guard
(Laughs)
Jamie Billy's had the worst, what
did he fucking do?
Paul He worked for one hour at some kinda waste disposal
type thing. One job he had, he had some huge pot of some like
chemical or cream type thing and had to stir it until it became
so hard that the spoon didn't fall over. That's why we really
need to succeed as a band so we don't have to go back to those
types of things
DT Well you've been tipped to be quite big this year so there's not much worry about that
Jamie Well there's a lot, like tips don't mean anything
DT Yeah like the big Kerrang spreads
(Laughs)
Paul Well Kerrang basically will one
week like us one week hate us we just take it with a pinch of
salt you know. If there's people saying you're the next big thing
there's just as many people saying you're a bunch of shit
Jamie We know what we're doing so we just hope to be successful
in what we do
Paul It's always nice to get the good press but on the flipside
of that there's always bad press about you. If you're gunna go
out there and read all you're good press and believe that then
you know, we don't believe that, we don't believe all the ones
saying all the good stuff and we don't believe the ones saying
the bad stuff we just try and keep in our own little world and
do what we need to do
DT Actually one of my mates who usually does these interviews, well he isn't a big fan of this type of music. He said he didn't wanna do this interview and that you wear really tight jeans that must hurt you're bollocks and you all have toni & guy haircuts
(Laughs)
Paul Oh really, well at the end of the day I tend to think we also get more girls than your friend and we get to go to LA and tour the world and meet all our heroes so if that's what tight jeans does then maybe he ought to get a new tailor
(Laughs)
Paul What does he look like?
DT Umm he's quite tall, likes his hoodies and jeans
Paul Well c'mon then, he can't criticise
our clothes if he's hanging around in a slipknot hoodie all day
Jamie Maybe he hasn't got the body to wear tight jeans
Paul He shudda come and done it I think it wudda been an
interesting interview
(Laughs)
DT You mentioned bad press earlier, some of them have lumped you into the same genre as the Darkness and said you're just living off the success of their platinum album
Jamie It's weird cus we're not even
anything like the darkness, we've not got anything against them
but we're about as similar to them as fucking Korn are to System
Of A Down if you're mate looks at it that way. We both play through
Marshalls that's about as close as it gets.
Paul - We've got classical influences but there are plenty of
bands with those influences
Jamie We're doing our own thing, we were around before the
Darkness were taken seriously. I remember thinking if this band
get big then it's going to make us look like we areWe've been
around as long as they have, they've made it first it doesn't
mean we're following them. If they've opened doors and made it
more acceptable for people to listen to our music then fine
Paul We're on the same label so we know we're gunna get
it, like you say maybe that opened it for us and our label wouldn't
have been interested in us but I doubt it cus we already had singles
out on Pop Tarts and stuff when they weren't there. We've been
in other bands and they've all been classic rock influenced and
if you've heard them you'd know it's not a massive departure from
what we were doing then to know. It's not like we've suddenly
gone from sounding shit to sounding like fucking guns n' roses
it's always been the music we've been into
Jamie I've gotta go, thanks (sound check)
Paul We're not like huge fans of them, there's nothing wrong with what they do but they've never had a musical influence on us so it's just lazy to say any band playing with classical rock influences are like the Darkness. I don't see any influence from the bands I like to what the Darkness are doing, I mean they might be on a major Queen trip but it's nothing, we're not theatrical or stuff. We knew we were gunna get it when we signed to Atlantic but we thought they were the best label for us. Same as when we got Mike Clink we knew people were gunna say we are just doing it to buy into the Guns n' Roses thing, but at the end of the day how many bands get to do a record with the guy who produced their favourite ever record that's all we ever considered. It was like do we wanna work with the guy who's supposedly hot at the moment cus he's done this new band this new band, or do we wanna work with the guy who did our favourite record that's all it came down to really. It's easy to tag a lot of bands in with any one band that's been successful
DT What bands then would you say do influence you
Paul Just classic bands that have had a career and made lots of albums, not the fashion bands of the moment. You know, bands like Rolling Stones, David Bowie, obviously Guns n' Roses, early Aerosmith things like that. Just classic bands that stood the test
DT Just on the album again, I imagine after the Avril Lavigne tour it will probably sell a few
Paul I hope so
DT - I just wandered what the first thing you buy will be?
Paul Ohhhhh fuck. I don't know, there's so many things right now. I just wanna get myself some new clothes, some stuff for the house, it's falling apart. There was four of us, but one of us has just moved out, but four of us have lived there since we moved to London and got the deal so I think the first thing we need to do is get a washing machine and some new windows
(Laughs)
Paul We broke the windows in our kitchen so they're like taped up at the moment. A while ago a pigeon flew into our kitchen and back out so we've just got huge holes. So I guess a few household items, and some prostitutes I imagine
(Laughs)
DT You must get the fair few girls following you round though
Paul Yeah we get shit loads, but you know anyone in a band does. You can get the ugliest guy in the world that then becomes 50 times more attractive to females. It's kinda good as well cus Jon and Nick our guitarists probably get the little boys wanting to know about scales and shit
(Laughs)
Paul We'll have to I.D them at the Avril gigs before we let them on the bus I'm pretty worried about that
(Laughs)
DT All the songs on the album are really good, so is it hard task choosing singles from it?
Paul Yeah we always wanted to do that, that's one thing we talked about with Mike. We didn't wanna make a record that has two singles and the rest a bit of a letdown. We just wanted a really strong album from start to finish, we weren't thinking about oh we need this single and that single or we'll pack all the singles at the beginning of the album so yeah. What tends to happen that the label will suggest what they think should be the next single and we'll disagree and argue about it for months on end. We're kinda of the opinion now that it doesn't matter what the single is we're proud of all the songs on there so if they think strongly about the next single or whatever then yeah. We don't pick the singles, for me you could pick anyone of those and put it out there and I would'nt be able to say whether it would do well or not. So I guess that's why people get paid fortunes to make those decisions
(Laughs)
DT The UK music scene has always been a strong one, yet there are so many great bands that never quite get that chance. A lot of it is to do with the majors not taking that chance on them, yet your first album came out on a major label
Paul The British press have kinda, well we were NME band of the moment when we were on Pop Tarts, then we went we went onto a major and they were more you know. There's always shit loadsa great bands that never do anything, get anywhere, but I also think usually the good will come through. Whether that's, there's a lot of strong indie labels as well and there's a lot of big bands on those labels. I mean you don't have to be on a major label and a lot of the major labels are looking for stuff not quite as commercial now as well. I think there are bands that get missed but I think usually in general if you are a really good band someone will take a chance on you and you will get discovered, sometimes it takes a while. I think a lot of bands give up too soon. I've been in different bands with our drummer and our guitarist for 7 years now and this is like the only band that's ever gone on to get signed. I think if you believe in your own band put it out yourself. There are bands that are dong well now on the tiniest little labels and bands on majors that are selling nothing, so it doesn't necessarily mean if you get on a major you're going to become huge. Yeah there's a lot of shit record company people that don't know their arse from their elbow half the time.
DT What's the music scene like up in Leeds?
Paul Well we're not really a part of that scene anymore and we're not really part of the London scene. While we were there it wasn't too great and not very much was happening but since then it took off, it was like get them fuckers outta there and get Leeds ready. Not a lot of it is what I'm into but a lot of bands are doing well which is a good thing. When we were there no bands were coming out of Leeds since the 80's so I think it's good and they all seem to be friendly and that with each other. A band like Kaiser Chiefs who are doing well, we've seen them play in Leeds years ago. This is like their third attempt, they've been signed before and then dropped but it's always been the same guys in the band. Like I was saying I think a lot of bands give up too soon if it's not working straight away. It takes time to get everything sorted in a band
DT Would that be the advice you'd give to smaller bands, just jeep on going?
Paul If you believe in it then don't give up on it cus it is the best thing in the world. If you can get somewhere and get outta those jobs it is the best thing in the world there's nothing better than being in a band we don't think. So if you think you've really got what it takes and you believe in it then don't give up on it cus it's so easy. Like we used to be in Leeds, and it seemed like there was no way you were ever gunna make it, it would have been so easy just to pack it in but you just gotta keep doing it. If you're good enough then it will come
DT Just to end I have a few yes/no questions for you..
Paul OK
DT Do you like it here in Bridgwater?
Paul I love it what I've seen of it, just the inside of the venue really. But it looks quite nice, quite scenic. What's good round here?
DT Well, this place, umm the college is good, umm well the cellophane factory is smelling today so
(Laughs)
Paul Well this place fuckin rocks
DT I do music technology at college, can I produce your next album?
Paul Can you produce it? Of course you can, you and Mike Clink together. You're gunna give it the modern touch and he's gunna go for the classic
(Laughs)
DT I will actually hold you to that. Will you remember me when you're famous?
Paul We'll always remember you, I'll remember you're friend as well that hates us.
(Laughs)
DT Do I have potential for a career in journalism when I'm older?
Paul Oh definitely man, this has been a good interview usually we get some, you know, dull...but you've definitely got it going on
DT Have you enjoyed this interview?
Paul I've loved this interview
DT Ok and what would you like to say to all the people that are gunna come see you tonight?
Paul Is there gunna be a lot I dunno?
DT Yeah of course I hear the tickets have been selling way better than usual
Paul That's cool yeah, umm I mean we always appreciate, we're a band that really appreciates people who come and see us. It's kinda daunting for us now, but for a while now we've always had a real hardcore following. Like the dates now are in places we've never played before. If we play London, Glasgow or Manchester we know we're gunna get a big crowd. Last night we played Swansea, never played there before so it wasn't as busy as we're used to but it's cool playing in those different venues.
DT Do you like smaller venues?
Paul Weeell we love all of it, to us it doesn't make a difference if there's like 20 people we're still gunna go out there and do our thing and we just love playing. That's the one thing about out band we didn't start a band to make videos we started a band to play live. We still have that philosophy; all the other stuff is great it can be good fun and shit like that but the main thing is playing live and yeah we just can't wait to play.
DT Cheers, thanks a lot for that
Paul Cheers man it's been wicked talking to you, sorry about the other guy having to leave!
(Laughs)
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The Glitterati (Atlantic Records)
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