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Howards Alias are:
Matt: Guitar and Vocals
Steve: Bass
Nick: Trombone and Vocals
John: Drums
TS-
Could you say your names, where your from, how long you've been
together etc.?
Matt-we started about five years ago at
the end of 1999 and we're from Southampton. We're vastly different
now from when we started, we had about 8 or 9 members but they
left and went off to uni and stuff. We've been the same for about
three years.
Steve- I've been in the band 2 years
Matt- Ah 2 years then, but since about 2 weeks ago we've had a
new drummer who's names John.
John- haha
TS - What're your impressions of Bridgwater
so far?
Matt- We haven't seen anything
Nick- People drive like crazy. Alan Manpiece!
Matt- If you see Alan Manpiece around tell him to watch out!
Nick- (laughs) He's an electrician, he has his name on the side
of his van.
Will do. How's the tour been so far?
Matt- We're not actually on tour as such yet. These are just a
few shows we're doing. We don't officially start the tour until
the end of next week.
Nick- What date? I've got the dentist on the 1st !
Matt-We're in the sort of situation where we're touring all the
time, it's what we're all about really
Do you have day jobs as well?
Matt- Not really Nick does but the rest of us don't.
Nick- yes cos I have to pay rent and everyone else just manages
to blag free board.
TS - What's the response been to your new album since it came out?
Matt - Um Good. It's been a bit of a mixed bag. It came out last June but it wasn't really until September or October that we started noticing that people knew the material and we got a reaction. All the reviews that we read were really positive and we were just stoked that we'd got such good reviews. I think in terms of people that like our band it's been a mix because some people hadn't accepted it because it doesn't sound like our first album. But a lot of people have seen it as a natural progression from out first album.
TS - You have quite an eclectic sound, what
would you cite as your main influences?
Matt- Well we all listen to different stuff. I mean I write the
basis of the songs but when we actually arrange them as a band
they sound so much different. But we all listen to sort of rock,
punk, ska and metal.
What do you think makes a good punk show?
Nick: A good show?
TS:Yeh
Nick - One word. Open mindedness.
Matt - Most of the time at punk shows if you don't look and sound
particularly punk then you aren't considered cool or whatever.
Most of the time though people are generally really cool and open
minded and that's what makes for a good show.
TS - What do you think of the UK punk and
ska scene at the moment.
John - It's not going nearly as strong as it should be. It's hit
a bit of a slump at the moment. I haven't really heard that much
great new material coming out of the UK. It's a shame really.
There's loads of bands which are institutionalized and people
expect to see but I haven't heard anything new for ages that's
taken it to the next level.
TS - Do think there a lot of local bands who don't get noticed?
Matt - I think that one of the problems with the punk and ska
scene is that there was a massive influx of bands who started
all around the same time. So, now in every single village in Britain
there's 20 something ska and punk bands. I think there's a bit
of an overkill because there's too many bands playing a similar
style of music.
Are there any bands you'd recommend at the
moment?
Matt - There's a band that we took on tour with us from Newbury
called the left behinds, and they are one of the best punk rock
bands from Britain I've ever heard. But they're just breaking
upsooo(laughs)
TS -You're doing a benefit for the Tsunami
victims at the beginning of February in London, who's idea was
that?
Matt Well, that was Adequate Seven's idea. Gavin from Adequate
Seven called me up and asked if we could do it. We're playing
another one next week in Kent as well. It's just a cause that
we all need to get behind and chip in for. Where we don't really
earn any money, none of us can afford to give anything that way,
so we thought well if we can play for free then that's giving
something.
Do you think that bands play a big enough
role in politics and social issues?
Matt - I think that if they're in a band that doesn't play that
sort of music then saying that they don't talk about it enough
is wrong and also saying that they talk about it too much is also
wrong. I think it depends on the band. If you want do that then
do it, if you don't, don't. I don't see the point in being political
just for the sake of being punk rock or something. If you don't
feel strongly enough to write about something then it's not gonna
be full of passion. Music is about emotion and if you can't convey
that cause you're talking about something that you don't know
the first thing about or whatever then what's the point? Personally
I don't write very political lyrics because. I wouldn't really
like anyone to read my lyrics and base their ideas on them just
because they really like our band. I wouldn't want someone to
read my lyrics and go "oh yeah, I'm gonna agree with him".
That sort of shit does happen you know. Young kids will just say
that they agree with someone just because they like their band.
I think that's kind of unfair. People should make their own mind
up.
Do you think that "pop-punk" has
taken anything away from the underground scene or has it made
it stronger?
Nick - What do you mean by pop-punk? McFly!?
TS - Actually yeah! What do you think about Busted breaking up?
Haha
John - Tragic, but Charlie's new band, they rock (laughs)
Nick John actually knows Charlie
John Don't start this! Yeh Charlie, him and mewe're mates.
Well I was at a gig and I was standing next to him. Arranged to
meet the next day, he didn't show up.
TS I heard Matt got chased out of a gig in London somewhere.
I can't remember who it was now I think it was an emo band ( it
wasn't it Million Dead. Anyway)
Nick I heard that too
Matt It was Dashboard Confessional
John Well I saw them at Dashboard Confessional, two of them.
They all wear their blazers and stuff out ! They actually wear
what they wear in Busted out! And they're like, nooo we're not
in Busted. (laughs)
Matt Anyway "pop-punk" is
too broader term nowadays, people say Busted is pop-punk and it's
not. It's pop-rock. I'm not trying to say that I can define what
punk is but they're not a band with what you'd call a punk rock
ethic.
Nick but they have a pop-punk sound. You could say that
Propaghandi is pop-punk.
John I'd never say that it would take anything away from
the underground. I think when music like that is commercialized
it's brilliant because it means the underground is challenged.
I really do.
Matt Even Busted, their singer wears Sonic Youth t-shirts
all the time and they're playing in front of thousands and thousands
of kids. Now some of those kids are gonna go "who are Sonic
Youth?" and go and buy a Sonic Youth album. They might go
wow what's this? This is the best music I've ever heard and get
into all these underground bands.
TS - Would you say that you would follow
the whole D.I.Y ethic?
Matt It depends, there are different standpoints as to what
that actually is we just follow our own ethic, what we feel is
right. I think trying to follow a bunch of rules is stupid. We're
all about doing what you wanna do and being happy.
TS What tips would you give to smaller
bands that want to do a tour and don't know how to go about it
?
John The internet, the king of all things. The band I was
in before were pretty small and they still are really. Basically,
one of our friends took us under their wing and we just did it
over the internet. You know sites like Punktastic? went from there,
we just said we're trying to book a tour. If you've got enough
sway to offer other bands a gig then they're happy to put you
on. We just went out there for like two weeks. We didn't have
anywhere to stay we didn't have a van, we just had cars. So at
every gig we were like "yeah can we stay somewhere".
People were so kind they just put us up for the night. It's pretty
easy to do, but I think people think it's really tuff. It's just
getting dates close together.
Matt We were quite lucky (H.A) because our first tour was
booked through a booking agency supporting Link 80 so we were
pretty lucky. You've just gotta have the wherewithal actually
go out and do it and keep at it. Basically just gotta do it yourself.
We were the same when we first started touring, we lost a shit
load of money.
Nick bought a van.
Matt Yeah we all saved up and got our Christmas money from
that year and chipped in together and bought a shit van and drove
around in that, slept on floors and in the van a load.
John Most promoters are just kids basically, well not kids
but the same age as all of us. So they're all willing to hear
new music and put on bands.
TS - Have you ever been messed around by
many promoters?
Nick- Several hundred times.
Matt - Well, a lot of promoters. We just kina see it that we're
traveling around the country to play gigs the least they can do
is give us a little bit of food and a bottle of water you know?
Some promoters are like, "no that's not gonna happen"
and they try and underpay you or whatever. Once in Birmingham,
we were on tour with Mustard Plug at the time, there was a guy
who was supposed to pay us and at the end of the gig we were packing
up our equipment and I went up to the singer in Mustard Plug,
Dave and was like "dude what's going on with pay tonight"
he was like, "oh we've already been paid at the beginning
of the night and we were like 150 short.
Nick Yeh that guy ran away!
Matt - And we saw him running out of the building and we never
got paid that night. When promoters do that they don't realize
that if we hadn't sold the cd's we had sold that night we wouldn't
have been able to get to the next gig. I just think that's really
out of order when promoters do that. If they're gonna book a band
they could at least treat them like people. Touring's so hard
and in punk rock circles it's on such a D.I.Y level that it can
be hit and miss. Like tonight they've given us loads of beer,
hot food a backstage room and we feel like rock stars( laughs)
But, some nights we won't get a back stage room or any food. I
just feel it works both ways, you know what I mean? We're not
gonna be arse holes to a promoter because they're putting us on.
I don't want to make it sound like all promoters are arse holes,
it's just a handful.
What crazy stuff have you got up to on tour?
Nick well we'll think of something and it won't sound that
crazy.
John - John Last night we watched The Office that was crazy
Nick We went to Dominoes!
John Yeah we had pizza.
Matt It's weird talking about crazy stuff or whatever, I
guess there's loads of stuff that we've done that's crazy but
unless you were there it wouldn't be funny. The whole idea of
being on tour is fun.
Nick Last week we had some fun drinking spirits through
the eye.
Matt That was quite fun.
TS So you did actually do that!
Matt Tequilla in the eye, see if you were tour enough, oh
salad cream in your eye.
TS- My mates got me to snort salt on my birthday, that fucking
sucked.
Nick - Yeh we did that too. Salt and pepper
TS How do you think fan-zines can help keep a scene together?
Matt- I think fan-zines are really really
good provided, that the people that do them make an effort. A
lot of people think it would be really cool to say yeh I'm gonna
start a fan-zine then don't really do anything about it. But if
you ge a strong fan-zine it can be really good. Rancid-News for
instance. I remember the first issue, the guy Edd that does it
is a friend of ours and its just one guy and now he's known across
the whole country. If you have the wherewithal to really get on
with it and interview bands, review cds and bands a try and sell
your fan-zine at gigs it can be great. It should be there just
to support music in general, not just punk.
John I think it can keep the whole music community together.
People that don't play instruments or whatever but are into the
whole scene, a write for instance, can give something too.
TS I've pretty much run out of questions now is there anything else to add?
Matt Buy our cd ! It's the best mother fucking rock cd you will ever buy.
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