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We caught up with I Am Ghost drummer Justin and guitarists Chad and Timmy as they prepared to play the last show of their European tour.
 How has the UK been treating you so far?
J: The UK has been pretty good, it was a little different to what we expected. We heard that all the venues would feed us, but that hasn’t always been the case but its been good. The last couple of shows have been sold out and totally packed.
C: It’s weird some of the venues have held about 1,000 people and others will hold about 250, so every night has been different.
J: The small shows are really fun because they get filled up to capacity. So far I’ve really enjoyed it, we’ve had great fun. Tonight is the last night of the tour, we’re in Southampton, it should be fun.
C: I don’t want to go home.
What can we expect to see from you at a live show?
C: We kick ass. We play for the fans so, we’re not happy unless we’re going fucking crazy and playing really well. That’s what we try to do every night.
J: Our singer, Steve, will run around on stage and try to interact with the audience as much as possible. These two guitars players here, somehow perfectly play guitar and run around at the same time. We put all our energy into the show.
You toured Europe recently, how did it go?
J: The Europe part of the tour was really fun, we spent over half of it in Germany.
T: I think we had too many dates in Germany.
J: It was really cool, you’d go to different places and the currency would change. We had a problem in the UK because some people were given change in Scotland, then when we got to England, they wouldn’t take the Scottish change. So, in our pockets we have a whole mixture of money. I’m going to take it home and show my mum.
‘Those We Leave Behind’ was released a couple of months ago, have you been please with the response to it?
J: So far, we still have yet to tour in the US with it, but the response we’ve had from the kids has been overwhelming. On the last album we were finding that kids really liked a handful of songs. On this album, we’re finding that the whole album is getting requested.
C: They’ve learned the lyrics so fast, the CD had only been out for about two weeks when we came over here, but they already knew the words and would sing along. It was really neat to have kids telling us their favourite songs.
J: For me, being in I Am Ghost for such a short amount of time, and getting to put my input on the record, was amazing, and to have such a positive response to that is just mind-blowing, and very exciting, I’m very proud of it.
Why did you choose ‘Those We Leave Behind’ as the title track?
J: I think it summed up what it was like for Steve, Tim, Ron and myself writing the album. The whole narrative of the CD was summed up what that song meant. We scratched our heads for a while trying to make a choice, but when Steve said ‘Those We Leave Behind’ and what his ideas were for that, it came together really quickly. Steve said with this album he was able to say what he wanted to say, instead of being held back by old members. This reflects on that.
Do you enjoy the writing and recording experience?
T: It was fun, apart from Baltimore was really ghetto.
J: (Laughs) We recorded in Baltimore, and it was really cool but sketchy but we had a good time.
C: Ron got jumped!
J: Yeah, our bass player got jumped. Tim and I would record and then go out and enjoy the night life. There were some great people out there who really showed us around. The sketchy part was walking back at night. You’d have a really good time but on the way home you’d always feel uneasy especially if there was just a few of you. It was a bad neighbourhood. Writing the album was really relaxed, we went into the studio with ideas for every song, so when got there no-one was too stressed out. Tim spent a long time working on leads, but it was very relaxed and very enjoyable recording experience. Our producer was very relaxed and just let us do our vision, we focused on the music and had a good time.
What’s your overall view of the music industry at the moment?
C: It’s fucked!
J: It’s terrible. Our economy is pretty low right now, there’s a ton of bands, anyone can record and put music out there. It’s hard these days to be original and it’s hard to get kids to latch on and buy your album because they can just download it off of the internet. Record companies seem like they don’t want to invest a lot of time or money into bands that they don’t know for sure will be a success.
C: One good thing that has come out of it, is now there is a do it yourself mentality. All the bands that want to make it are just doing it because they love it. People know they’re not going to make millions, and back in the day the music industry was full of people who were starry eyed, and wanting to get that million dollar record contract. Now, there are a million bands across Myspace who are all trying to do the same thing as us, all trying to get tours, it is every man for himself.
J: I think in the next few years we will really see some amazing musicianship. Some of the kids that can play music today are insanely talented, it’s nuts! Seven year olds can play drums better than I can. There are all these reality shows for all these artists, music is a focal point in the entertainment industry but it is a very tough industry to crack.
How do feel about shows like American Idol? You guys have all worked hard to get where you are and then these kids get it handed to them on a plate.
C: I don’t think a lot of people on American Idol just hopped up on a microphone and landed something huge, apart from this one Asian dude whose voice sucks ass but has had success.
J: William Hung?
C: Yeah, that’s the guy, William Hung, he got lucky.
J: If you look at the artists background you find that most of them have been around for a while doing similar stuff to what we’re doing, and took a gamble by going on there. I think it is a good show, people can get lucky that way. I’m from LA, and there’s a lot of musicians there and I remember watching American Idol and trying to get hold of them but I was always way too late.
C: It’s not a hand me down or a gimmick, those people can really sing.
J: I like those shows a lot better than watching reality shows on MTV. You hardly see music on MTV anymore, it’s all full of drama.
How do you feel about artists releasing download only material?
J: That’s a good question.
C: Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails released their last album as downloads and asked fans to donate as much as they wanted to pay for it as they knew people could just steal it anyway, and they made more money then if they would have sold the record in stores. Everyone knows that if you want a record, you can get if for free.
J: It shows that record companies and bands themselves are trying to do whatever they can to make it work, and there are always new ideas. I’ve heard of bands that have spent huge amounts of money recording, but instead of selling it they give it away, to get as many fans as possible to shows to buy merchandise, and sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn’t. We’ve done iTunes exclusives, or we’ll give you a extra B-side if you by from iTunes that wont be found on the CD. I think that is a good way to attract attention to you band.
C: I think there is always going to be a group of people who want to physically own a record, they want that artwork, or they want to take something home with them after a show. People will always buy CDs even though the numbers may not be as high as they used to be.
What about when it comes to buying music, do you prefer to download or get the hardcopy?
T: I like to test out the band first, maybe download some songs before buying the CD.
J: I like to own the physical copy but I definitely check things out online first. One thing I really like about iTunes is the previews you get, you can hear about 30 seconds from every song on an album. I have an iPhone too now, so if I hear a song on the radio that I like I can buy the track right there and then. We have some very cool technology now.
C: I think we’d all have to admit that we buy a lot less records now then when we were younger. I love going to the Epitaph office where you can just grab a load of CDs, that’s nice.
How important is I Am Ghost to you?
C: It’s my life, I’m the newest member but I’d kill for this band.
J: We’ve all given up a lot for this band, this is our career and we invest all day long. Before and after shows we’re doing something related to the band. Practising, sharing video ideas, trying new ideas that will make us stand out, we really do invest a lot of time into this band. When we go home we’ll have some downtime, but we’ll meet up work on new material, record some stuff. Tim and Steve will be working on ideas for our merch. We literally put 90%, if not more, of our lives into I Am Ghost.
C: A lot of us spent our time growing up looking for something like this so now that we’re here, it’s all about making the machine grow and fine tuning it and making it the best we can make it.
J: Some people can be in bands and they see it as a career and they separate it, but all five of us has one vision of making this work, and doing this full time. We’re talking about the industry being so tough, but if you want it you have to go and get it yourself and that’s the mentality we have in this band and that’s what we intend to do.
How important are you to I Am Ghost?
J: That’s a good question! I think we’re all important to I Am Ghost, everyone has their strengths.
C: I can’t picture anyone not being in this band, I can’t imagine anyone being replaced.
J: We take this as a big group effort, we all get together before we perform and say encouraging words. The show is all about the five of us collectively, and it’s just an awesome experience.
C: It’s like a family and you could never say “I like my brother, but my sister can go.” At the end of the day your family is your family.
J: We’ll all grow old and look back on these days, and have loads of pictures and stories to go along with it.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
C: Ohh.. I’ve never heard of groupies being called scene sluts before, that’s awesome!
J: We’ve never really had groupies, our fans are probably too young, by US standards. We have some really cool fans who have come to nine or ten shows over here.
C: Our fans aren’t sluts so fuck off! (Laughs). Some bands want to get down like they’re living in the 70’s and want that rock ‘n’ roll life style, a lot of bands are a lot more low key. When we get done playing, we all party with each other a bit, but then we all get on that bus and we’re heading to the next spot. It is a different life to what people perceive it to be.
J: Sometimes we’re lucky enough to be in a city past 2am, and we’ll have a good time, meet some girls and hang out with the other bands, which is cool, but we’re always on the move so we don’t really get to meet a lot of people.
T: Scene sluts are always going to be there, this is rock ‘n’ roll and that’s how it’s going to be.
C: I think it is fucking cool, if that’s what you wanna do, then go for it. That’s a slut with an image, a slut with a goal, she goes to a show because she wants to fuck the singer or the drummer, that’s cool… I guess. I don’t run in to it much, it’s more on the rock star movies that I see them.
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
J: That’s a good question…
C: Owen! Owen Wilson is the guy with the crazy nose. It’s a crazy story with him, he tried to commit suicide but in his movies he looks like the happiest guy you’ve ever seen.
T: I would say Owen Wilson too, he’s hilarious in Meet The Fockers and Meet The Parents.
J: I’m saying Owen too, he’s in some good movies.
What is your proudest career moment to date?
C: Playing flawlessly every night, playing with Rancid was very cool, we all grew up enjoying them.
J: Being a drummer and getting companies endorsing me is awesome.
C: Also, I grew up listening to bands on Epitaph Records and now we’re an Epitaph Records band, to be a part of that family is huge for me.
J: It’s just great to say that this is your job and playing music is your career.
C: I just like sleeping with Tim every night.
What do you still have left to achieve?
T: Everything. Play some bigger tours.
C: Just fine tuning the machine, getting better, bigger, stronger.
J: Get our music more out there, more main stream, getting out merch into Hot Topic.
C: Writing a better, bigger record. We love writing music.
J: I’d like to start producing, I’d like to work with other bands, in the sense of starting our own label.
What can we expect to see from you over the next year?
C: Hopefully non stop touring.
J: In 2009 we hope to do more than 300 and really get our name out there.
T: More music, another video.
C: You will see the ‘Saddest Story Ever Told’ in 2009.
Sounds great, thanks very much guys. I’ll see you at the show tonight.
We caught up with the Cancer Bats’ lovely frontman, Liam, when they rolled into Portsmouth on the FFAF tour.
 How has the UK been treating you so far?
Amazing, it has been awesome. The tour has been going way better than we expected, not to say that we expected it to be bad but we weren’t sure how we’d go down on a Funeral For A Friend tour because we’re a really heavy band. That being said the kids have been going off every single night, but in a cool way where we kind of have to work for it, we don’t just come on stage to everyone being like “Cancer Bats!” there are definitely kids who don’t know who we are, or what we’re about. We have to work to get that party going, it doesn’t feel like a struggle but by the end of the night when everyone is sweating and having fun it is cool to think that they didn’t know what to expect when we got on stage.
I guess it’s nice for you to see the way the crowd reacts to you change throughout your set.
For sure, it’s like it is completely stagnant when we first come out, if there are kids that know us, they’ll start up a pit but by the end of the first or second song we’re calling kids out and getting people to move and by the end of the night you can see people smiling and jumping up and down, everyone’s having fun. It’s very cool.
How did you get involved with the tour?
We recently joined the same management company as Funeral For A Friend, I think they thought it would be a good way to expose us to other audiences. We play a lot in front of punk rock or hardcore crowds and sometimes it is too much of a stretch for a booking agent to put us on with a melodic rock band because we’re too heavy, but in this case they really pushed that forward.
What can we expect to see from you at a live show?
We try to keep it as energetic as possible, we only have 30 minutes so we go for it, we try to rip it us and have as much fun as we can, we just have a blast. That’s the thing about us, regardless of the thousand kids that showed up to see Funeral, we’re still having fun just doing what we do. I think kids pick up on that energy.
Have you got any special tricks up your sleeve for Halloween?
This is the thing…
That means no.
No, we’re definitely going to dress up because we have to, I’ve heard Halloween isn’t a big thing over here.
It’s not at all, last year I was in the States and it was amazing, this year I’ve got the other extreme, where nothing happens and nobody does anything.
Yeah, it is huge in Canada too, our driver is going to get costumes and make-up although it is going to be a little less elaborate than we had intended just because we were so delayed getting here. I was originally going to dress as an old skool punk rocker and put up my Mohawk, which I never do but I realised that my hair is super long now, so I don’t even know how I’d get it to stand up. Actual punks use wood glue, but I don’t want to be an actual punk for more than a day, so I think I’ll be a vampire instead and spray fake blood all over myself.
You should have got into your costumes while you were stuck in traffic, and you would have had hours to make yourselves look amazing.
That would have been a good idea, but we still need to buy them. We should have thought about this a couple of days ago, we’ve been late a lot, we’re very laid back. We’ve had legitimate reasons for being late; traffic, one time a lorry had caught on fire and it was full of aerosol cans so people thought it was going to blow up, so they shut down the entire highway, so we literally didn’t move for three hours while we waited for the truck to get sorted out. It’s always due to traffic.
It would appear you attract it.
I think we do but it would be better if we stayed at hotels instead of with friends, but that’s no fun, but we’d rather drive an hour in the wrong direction to hang out with our amazing friends and have the best night every. Do you guys go trick or treating here?
It’s becoming more popular, but I never went as a child.
Really?
The first time I went trick or treating was last year at SeaWorld, I was very excited.
That’s cool.
It wasn’t proper trick or treating, they just had loads of stands with different types of candy and I wasn’t even dressed up.
Oh really? I wouldn’t have given you any candy! That’s the thing, when your older you just stay in and hand out candy to the kids but you still dress up. So, when you get those teenagers who aren’t really dressed up it’s just like “No dog, you’ve got to earn that candy!”
If you did that here your house would get egged.
Well there is that, but in my neighbourhood those guys wouldn’t fuck with me. If some dude is trying to get candy off of me in my parents house I would fucking kill them, I think I just put out that vibe… actually, I’m not a very intimidating guy.
What’s all this we hear about you playing at a house party in Leeds?
Oh, that was amazing! We played Leeds with Funeral, we have a lot of friends in Leeds, it’s like our hometown in England. Our good friends The Plight have a house where they practice in the basement, so last time we were over we mentioned playing a house party at their house the next time we were in Leeds. One of their roadies is touring with us right now and he lives in that house and he told us we were going to be playing. We didn’t really think anything was going to happen then a couple of days before we started getting all these phone calls about playing the house party. We thought we’d just go and play a few songs through their gear thinking it would just be for a couple of friends but the house was totally rammed with people, fans of bands, kids from Leeds, people that no-one even knew. It was packed, we finished our show, loaded up and went and got to the house as The Plight was playing and it was already packed and sweaty. We were rocking out listening to The Plight, completely stoked, then it was time for us to play. Mike and Jaye were totally drunk, we had none of our own gear, it was going to kick off. Jaye comes walking in with his bass and has no shirt on and he was like “It’s going to be a shirts off party!” so I was like “Yeah!” pulled my shirt off and we went into a Murder City Devils cover, which nobody knew, but everybody was getting excited and starting to sweat so I started pulling kids shirts off. We were supposed to play three songs and ended up playing for 40 minutes, by the end of it there was about 20 dudes all topless, sweating on each other and having the best time.
Sounds like fun.
It was a lot of fun, again you have to have fun, that is the whole reason we’re alive. I’d love to go to a dance party tonight. If you go to a club in North America, regardless of what subculture you’re into, there’ll still be the idea of dancing, having fun and hanging out and a lot of times we’re come here and we’ll hear Killswitch Engage or Lamb Of God in a bar and it seems like people are stoked but they don’t dance. Don’t people like dancing here?
Not until they’re wasted.
Yeah, I’d rather listen to Justin Timberlake and get down… maybe that’s just me.
Your new single, ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ is out on Monday, how are you feeling?
Very excited, I love that song, we shot a video for it and it is awesome. Apparently Zane Lowe played it on his show which is a pretty big deal. Somebody told us they heard it in a supermarket which I think is cool. When we wrote that song we didn’t think anything of it, it was just a fun, stoner song and we’d had songs before which had sincere stoner parts, so we decided to write a full on stoner song that doesn’t speed up, just grooves, and right of the bat, kids really started to respond to it. It wasn’t on our Myspace or anything that was just the song they were vibing to which ruled. When you see the video you will also laugh, it is very funny.
Your album ‘Hail Destroyer’ was released earlier this year, have you been pleased with the response to it?
I’m super stocked, I’m going to sound really pessimistic, but I really didn’t think it would go as well as it did. We get excited for ourselves about what we have created as a band but you don’t get huge goals in mind, huge record sales are not even on our radar. We just put out a record that we’re proud of and hoped that people would like it. We were worried it was too heavy and that people wouldn’t like it, but it was the complete opposite, people loved the fact that it was heavy and are getting really into it. ‘Lucifer’s Rocking Chair’ was really different for us so it was great that they picked up on that but ‘Sorceress’ is probably the heaviest song we’ve ever done and that has also been picked up on. It is cool to have people telling us that they didn’t like our first record or the didn’t like our band before, which we are getting and I respect that more so then someone being like “I’ve been there since day one!”, if they have then I love that but it’s not always true. We just went with our gut on this album, I think people thought we’d release something lighter so it would be picked up by radio or TV because we’ve already got some support in those areas. We wrote a gnarly record instead and its worked out.
Did you feel more pressure with this album with it being your sophomore release?
Yes and no, I think we put more pressure on ourselves because we wanted to improve on the last album. We’re all still really proud of the debut but we all knew that we’d come a long way as musicians since then. When we started we never had any expectations to put out a full length and tour the world, so, this album was a way for us to prove that we do deserve to be touring like this. When we were writing it we only had X amount of time, so we knew we needed to work hard, so we were jamming for 10 or 12 hours a day, seven days a week. As we started getting songs we started to tone down our hours but the first month was hectic. Our record label was supportive so the only pressure put on us was from ourselves, as long as we were happy with it they were happy to put it out. Greg who runs Distort in Canada loved how heavy it was, and loves the fact that we are a heavy band.
Do you enjoy the writing and recording process?
I do and I don’t, I like the writing part more than I do recording. I do vocals, so recording is definitely more of a guitar guy thing, you can change tones and stuff, but I find it very repetitious, any guitarist will tell you they love the studio, there’s always something you could do better, there’s all this meticulous knob twisting to tweak things. I had a lot more fun recording this record than the last one because we were all a lot more involved, we ended up producing it ourselves with the two engineers who worked on the first record, so everybody had their say in what was going on. The other reason I don’t like recording is that for vocals it very day of, you do your performance but if you did it a month later it would be different. If I re-sang the record now, it would sound completely different, so it is very in the now, so the songs you sing first are always going to be different to the songs you sing last. I find it really stressful, but this time round was cool, we did vocals and guitars at the same time as we were pushed for time, so I was in separate studio downtown and the other guys were up in north Toronto. It was cool to do it that way, it meant I wasn’t under a microscope, I was more like “Here’s the song, call me when you hear it”.
What’s your overall view of the music industry at the moment?
I think it is going good, there is a lot of stuff people are trying to figure out in terms of downloading and digital sales. I think it is really interesting, it is neat to see how people are reacting to it. We pressed our record on vinyl because there are still people that care about the art. It’s shifting around budgets a lot too, the price of recoding a record is coming down because record labels don’t have the money to spend, which is cool because you don’t have to spend $300,000 to make a really good record you could just spend $20,000, people have realised that they have to be more creative with the way they spend money. The upside is while CDs sales are going down live music is still doing great and that is never going to change, I hope. CDs are strictly promotion, you will not see any money from a CD, even when you sell them from the stage. I have no real problem with downloading, but it’s great people still want the CD or vinyl to collect.
How important is Cancer Bats to you?
Oh, it is my entire life. On my 25th birthday my girlfriend at the time broke up with me, the band had been around for about six months, I was living in Montreal and I moved to Toronto where the band was based. I had no job, no apartment, no money, I was living on our bass player’s kitchen floor, I was 25 years old and realised that I needed to make the band work, so that was my goal, the only thing I had was this band. I still have no job, but this is kind of like my job which is very cool, I don’t really have any money, but I have a girlfriend now and she is amazing. I take this incredibly seriously because of that time, and still now it is the only thing I have in my life. This is me and three of my best friends and we’re all serious about doing this, we do stupid things like booking shows on our days off just because we love playing and don’t like sleep.
How important are you to Cancer Bats?
Weird, I’ve never been asked that before. I guess all of us are important. Scott and I started the band, we’re the two original members, Mike is pretty much an original member we had another drummer for about six months. I think if anyone left the band it would stop. Scott and I drew up a contract at one point that states if either of us left the band that is it.
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
Oh shit, I can’t decide, I like them both, can I say Mrs Wilson for creating the two? They’re both good actors in good films, there’s a lot of hilarity between those two. I like comedies a lot, good times.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
The site name totally bummed me out, but you’re very nice and I’m stoked that you’re a woman and not a man because if it was a guy’s zine called Scene Slut, I think I would be extra bummed. My initial take was that the name was really demeaning, I get bummed out a lot, hardcore is such a boys club and there are so many times when girls will try and hang out and be a part of that but they get shut down because she’s seen as a ‘scene slut’. There are so many guys in the same scene that sleep around, I don’t get why these women are being put down and ostracised just because they have sex frequently.
I like your zine though, and I like the questions you’ve been asking, so Scene Slut in a literary term is great. Scene sluts in the female term are just bogus. We’re not really a groupie band, we like to hang out with people but we’re not drawn to party girls. We did a tour with Bullet For My Valentine and they’re huge, and on that tour in the US there were girls hanging out at the side, dressed to the nines, looking to party with THE band, and asking us what band we’re in. It was weird, I never experienced that before, those girls must have some former issues, not enough love from their parents or something. It’s weird how they’re so stoked to sleep with someone. The fact that someone plays an instrument shouldn’t make someone attractive. I know that girls are obsessed with Lucero and Ben Nichols the singer is a good looking guy, I’d sleep with Ben Nichols but the rest of the guys in his band are big, sweaty, alcoholic dudes, obviously girls can’t sleep with Ben Nichols because he is married so they’ll sleep with the bass player, who in their minds that gets them closer to Ben, or that satisfies something, I don’t understand. I was thinking about it while the band played, and it is so gross to me. It is so retardly gross, I don’t get it.
I don’t get it either, people sleep with the whole band, but if one of my friends had slept with someone, I wouldn’t want to sleep with them.
Yeah, that’s the other thing too, I guess at some point that will happen, you can’t know everyone’s past, but I don’t think I would knowingly sleep with someone my friend has. For me, I think I must have got scared in gym class about STDs, there are so many out there, fuck that shit!
What’s your proudest career moment to date?
This is going to sound cheesy, but the thing that makes me proudest is how stoked my parents are about what I’m doing and how supportive they are. We don’t really care about winning awards but if that happens you can see how stoked and proud your parents are, to me that is so amazing. If my parents were bummed that I’m doing this I don’t know if I could tour as much as we do. My mum comes to so many shows, and she has a big scrap book of newspaper articles.
What can we expect to see from you over the next year?
More touring, we’re going to write another record to keep the ball rolling. We’re going to come back to England once more, and then we’ll do festivals, and hopefully we’ll have a record by the end of next year or early 2010. That’s the weird thing about having management and stepping up the business end, we’re booked now until May, and then they’re looking into our schedule June, July, August. It is cool and exciting, and it means I don’t have to work.
That’s great, thanks for your time and it has been a pleasure speaking to you.
As Attack! Attack! rolled into Portsmouth, we caught up with frontman Neil and drummer Mike for a chat.
 How has the tour been treating you so far?
M: Very, very well, its been very good to come out. I didn’t know the Funeral guys that well but Neil had toured with them with previous bands, with them all being from such a local area to us back home we all get on really well. Its got to the point now on the tour where it’s like a travelling family, it’s really good fun and everyone just hangs out.
How did you get involved with the tour?
N: I speak to Funeral’s drummer, Ryan, quite a bit and he knew about our band, and sent an email inviting us on the tour, so it was no more complex then that really.
What can we expect to see from you at a live show?
M: It’s hard to say really, we’re just up there having as much fun as we can because we never expected these opportunities to happen so quickly, if at all. We try to get people watching us to enjoy it as much as they can too, so it is just a good laugh really.
N: We try to get them to interact with us if we can. Some nights we go down better than others, people don’t really no who we are yet, so people can be a bit standoffish, but most nights we get the crowd going and get them to jump around and sing along. Last night was awesome, everyone was really up for it, and opening band syndrome didn’t kick in. We give as much energy as we can and get people to have a good time. You do know within the first couple of songs if people aren’t going to respond, but we haven’t had a bad crowd on this tour. We haven’t been abused, you might not get as many people chanting or singing on some nights but on the whole it has been awesome.
M: I really like it because we like to say that we are a rock band but a lot of people in the crowd like Cancer Bats who are more of a hardcore band, I would never expect fans of theirs to appreciate our band. Every time we go on stage it is a challenge, but people always come up to us after and they really appreciate it and enjoy it. It’s good to be on a bill with a band like Cancer Bats and then a band like Funeral For A Friend, who are your run of the mill melodic rock band.
Have you got any special tricks up your sleeve for Halloween?
M: I would have loved to dressed up but basically we got down here a bit too late to buy anything. Our driver has a costume tucked away in the van which he will be pulling out later.
N: It is more a case of not being prepared than not being willing, we’re up for anything but time has got the better off us today, but that’s what happens when you’ve been drinking the night before – you get up late.
M: We met up with our friends, YouMeAtSix last night, it was their last night on their tour, we were both in Exeter, we were drinking for a lot longer than we’d planned to.
N: We’ll make up for it at Christmas, we’ll all dress up as Father Christmas.
M: Do you have any tricks up your sleeve?
No, actually.
M: I don’t feel so bad then.
I wasn’t sure what kind of reception I’d get if I turned up to interviews dressed up.
N: It would have been different, we would have appreciated it.
M: I think the Cancer Bats might do something.
Your debut album was released a few weeks ago, have you been pleased with the reaction to it?
M: Yeah definitely, it’s been flying out on the tour. It’s going really well, we’re really happy, this is the first time that people are coming to the show and waiting to hear a song.
N: People are asking us if we’ll be playing certain songs which is really cool because we haven’t had that before, this is our first ever release. People have been buying them at the live shows, so we’re excited now to see what percentage of those people will come back to the headline shows later in the year. That’s what we’re looking forward to most, ending the year on a big high.
The album was released through Rock Ridge Music, how did you become involved with them?
N: I’ve known someone called Marcia that works there for a little while and she got hold of the album through the producer, she took it to the rest of the label guys, and they were super enthusiastic about it. Rather than just putting it out to make some money Rock Ridge had the same sort of ideas as us, so even though we had other offers to consider, going with them seemed like the right thing to do. They’ve done really well for us so far, they’re forward thinking and have different ideas to the old school label ideas. People always seem to think getting on a label is hard, and maybe it is, but for us it wasn’t.
You mentioned that you’ve got your headlining tour coming up, are you looking forward to heading out on your own?
M: I’m nervous, this will be my first ever headline tour. This tour is super exciting because although you know some people will come to see us, people are here to see Funeral For A Friend and we’re here to steal their fans. There’s not much responsibility on your shoulders, whereas when you’re the headlining band it is a totally different thing, it is new territory to me so that makes it nerve-wracking but really exciting. Everything we do now seems to be more of a challenge, but we do it the best we can and just have as much fun and possible.
You have different bands supporting you at ever venue, did you have much input in regards to the support acts?
N: The tour was originally scheduled for September but then the album was put back to October, we decided at that point to have local bands on the bill so we get to see new bands every night which is cool. We pretty much chose all the bands on the tour, the promoters wanted local bands at their shows, so for Southampton we’ve got Not Advised, which is cool. In some places we didn’t have any idea who was best to go with so we left it down to the promoter to send us music from bands they recommend, then we chose from there.
What’s your overall view of the music industry at the moment?
M: For all of us, the last year has been a crash course to the music industry because they are so many different routes you can take. There are so many different types of people out there, there is a real hierarchy, there are all the top dogs, then all the other people who are struggle but try to help you the best they can. We’re still newcomers to it all and for me to say I have an understanding of it is a total lie, because we’re just winging it at the moment. If we’re faced with a decision we do whatever we feel is best at the time, there is so much to learn and it is impossible to do that in a short space of time.
N: It is hard to adapt to the changes as well, there are bands that are used to making X amount of money from selling albums and now people aren’t buying albums as much because they’re downloading. There has to be a breaking point at some point, because people aren’t buying music and bands can’t afford to record. We know that we’re not going to make money from CDs, what we need to do as a band is get a good live following, a good fanbase, where people will come out and buy tickets because you can make money that way and you can make money from selling merch. It is difficult for older bands who have to adapt to the new way of doing things.
How do you feel about artists releasing download only material?
N: I’m totally down with people downloading, I’ll get shot by the label people for saying this, but as a band you want as many people as possible to listen to your music, otherwise there is no point in writing it. We have tracks to download from our page, so we’re down with it. Anything that is going to help your band get a bigger profile is a good thing.
M: I think what Radiohead did was genius, but you need to be in a great position to be able to do that. If they were starting out I’d love to see whether they’d still give their music away for free. Kids can get anything they want for free from the internet, you can try your best to stop them but I think it is impossible. If you can give your music away for free, brilliant, definitely do it, if not, you’re not going to be able to stop kids downloading it, that is why we sell our CD for as cheap as possible. I’m a massive music fan but I love collecting CDs, I have a small vinyl collection, massive CD collection and I just love looking at the artwork so I’ve never got into the whole download thing, that said I have downloaded and copied CDs.
N: I have never downloaded because my knowledge of the internet is so bad, but I haven’t bought a CD for ages either, I’ve just stopped listening to music, I need to get back into it! People downloading music can only help your band because it will spread the word to more people.
M: I think the music industry is struggling as much as any other industry at the moment purely because of the way the economy is, it is really hard for kids to get out to shows because families are struggling.
N: People are coming out big time for this tour which is really cool.
How important is Attack! Attack! to you?
M: For me it is very important, I’ve played in bands for years and I’ve always had the dream of being able to make a living off of it, and we have kind of got to that point now. None of us can do anything else because this takes up so much time. Up until a month or two ago, we’d go on tour and then come back and have to get a part time job to get some money to buy equipment so that we could go back on tour and now we’ve got to the next step up. We have a lot riding on this, we are having great fun, we’re up to the challenge and willing to put in the effort and work really hard.
How important are you to Attack! Attack!?
N: I think Attack! Attack! is a band, it is not about an individual, we all chip in with song writing. I think if somebody left or if somebody was killed in a car crash, it would change the way this band works, big time. If you see us live you’ll see that there is something for everyone to watch from the audience perspective, so if you took that away and replaced someone with a different person, it would impact on our live shows. Obviously, writing songs as a band, if you take somebody out of that you are going to get different songs. I’m probably the most important because I sing, and if I went they wouldn’t have that voice anymore. You can get drum boxes, so you don’t really need a drummer, so Mike could be easily replaced.
M: There are plenty of singers out there.
N: Yeah, there are plenty of singers, I’m not saying that, I’m talking about the style of voice.
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
N: I don’t know who either of them are.
M: Owen Wilson is an actor…
Luke Wilson is his brother who is also an actor.
M: I’m going to go with Owen because I don’t know who Luke is.
N: What did Owen Wilson do?
He is in Zoolander as Hansel.
M: He’s so hot right now!
N: I’m not very good with films.
M: He has been in lots of films, and obviously I can’t name one that his brother has been in because I didn’t even know he had a brother, so I’m going with Owen! What films has his brother been in?
Royal Tenenbaums, My Super Ex-Girlfriend which is rubbish.
M: Owen was in Starsky and Hutch, Wedding Crashers.
N: I’ve probably only seen about 20 films.
M: He hasn’t even seen Jurassic Park.
Wow, really? Have you seen the Labyrinth?
M: Labyrinth is amazing.
N: I’ve seen Labyrinth, I’m a massive Star Wars fans, and I’ve seen Lord Of The Rings and that’s about it.
M: Labyrinth is an awesome film, my girlfriend bought a hamster and called it Hoggle after the little dwarf thing in it, she’s obsessed with that film.
That makes two of us.
M: David Bowie is great in it. I knew David Bowie from Labyrinth before I knew him as a musician. A lot of films and programmes you get into as a kid are a bit fucked up. I watch the original Tranformers movie not so long ago and I used to watch it so much as a kid, I couldn’t have had a clue what was going on. I watched it the other day and it was so intense. When I watched it as a kid I must have just been fascinated by the colours and characters but had no idea about the story whatsoever. Hod Rod is the man.
N: I have seen a few films, just not Owen Wilson ones.
I think you need to educate him.
M: I know, I’m not very up on films at the moment.
Me either, I think the last film I saw at the cinema was Batman, I couldn’t tell you what was out at the moment.
M: I saw Batman at the cinema, it was awesome. I saw Forgetting Sarah Marshall the other night, that was awesome, Russell Brand is great in it. Crank was really good too, it has to be the ultimate boy film, loads of action.
I’ve never even heard of it!
N: Crank, check it out, it is really good.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
M: I haven’t had any experience with them and I’m glad. There are a lot of crazy kids out there, and when we did the YouMeAtSix tour there was a lot of crazy, crazy young kids who’d turn up at the show at about 12 o’clock just to see them load in. When I was young I obsessed over bands but not to that level. Stuff like that comes with the territory.
N: I think we’re quite a naive band when it comes to people like that, we just think they’re friendly. We don’t have any crazy stories to tell… yet. Somebody did bring us a massive bar of chocolate once.
M: Oh, that was great!
What’s your proudest career moment to date?
M: Recording the album was massive thing for me.
N: Reading Festival, our first ever festival.
M: I’ve been going to Reading Festival for years and years and it was a real honour to play, I always wanted to play, never thought I’d get a chance to. I thought Neil was lying to me when he told me we were playing.
N: On the day we were worried no one would turn up, but there was loads of people there. It was mind-blowing.
M: I was so excited to see our picture in the programme, I was a complete geek about it.
What do you still have left to achieve?
N: There is so much, we see this as a career, we want to do this for a long time. We want to have loads of albums, headline shows, sell out shows, play bigger shows, get on other festivals, get on the main stages, see other countries. We went to Europe with The Blackout, that was brilliant. There is so much more of the world to see, Japan would be awesome.
M: As much as it is cool being in a band being able to travel and make records, for me, at the moment this is the best opportunity I have as a career, if this didn’t happen I don’t think I’d be able to have an opportunity as good as this. If I weighed up all my skills, this is where I see myself excelling, so to be able to do that and have fun at the same time is just amazing. We are all just all just willing to work and work and work to make this last as long as we possibly can.
What can we expect to see from you over the next year?
N: You will be sick of us. We just want to keep gigging, we’re making a video in a couple of weeks, so we’ll have our first video on TV next year when the single comes out. We’re just going to get in peoples faces as much as we can, it’s all about building a fanbase right now because we haven’t really had the opportunity to do that yet. We’ll probably write another bunch of songs and start recording again.
Thank you very much guys, it was lovely speaking to you.
In Case Of Fire are one of 2008’s hottest young bands and we were luckily enough to catch up with Mark and Colin when they supported Funeral For A Friend.
 How has the tour been treating you so far?
C: Really, really well, its been great so far.
M: We’ve got four shows left, its gone really quickly, I can’t believe we finish on Tuesday. We’ve been getting really good reactions.
C: Obviously, in certain cities you all ready have fans, but in the bigger cities bands roll in and out every other day and the kids are just there to see the headline band, they’re not interested in the support bands, but sometimes they take you by surprise and give you a really warm reception.
M: You can’t ever judge if it is going to be a good crowd or not.
C: We like tough crowds, you’ve got about twenty minutes to prove yourselves, and make them realise they should be listening.
I guess it must be satisfying to you to see them turn from being hostile to being really into the set.
C: Absolutely, it definitely is. You get kids with nasty looks on their faces at the start and at the end they’re jumping up and down and the three of us are just like “Haha, told ya!”.
How did you get involved with the tour?
C: We toured with Funeral on a little warm up tour in the summer and then they asked us back to do the full tour. It ties in nicely with the release of our single, and it was a good tour to be involved with, then when this on finishes on Tuesday we head out on our headline tour.
That must be exciting.
C: It really is, so we have another few weeks of touring ahead of us yet before we get to go home. I’ve forgotten what my family looks like. We’ve got Christmas off though, then in the middle of January we’re off on the Kerrang! tour, which is exciting but the line-up is not really our cup of tea. I don’t think we’ll be watching the rest of the bands when we finish every night.
How did it feel to be invited on the Kerrang tour?
C: Awesome, Kerrang! have really supported us a lot this year, and some of our favourite bands have previously played on the Kerrang! tour. It is a big deal for us, we’re opening it as well so it gives us a big challenge.
Your debut single is being released in a couple of weeks, it has been named one of the most anticipated singles of 2008…
C: I want to know who is saying this!
M: People are only saying it’s anticipated because its been put back so many times!
C: It’s nice to hear that, I just hope that when it comes out that some people will actually go out and buy it. It works as a taster as what is to come on the album in February.
Has that ‘most anticipated’ tag added pressure?
M: We don’t think of it like that, if people are saying that then great, but it is up to us to keep touring, working hard, and getting the word out there.
M: You can’t really pay too much attention to reviews because if you took every review to heart you wouldn’t even be able to find the middle ground between the good and bad ones.
C: You read two reviews of the same gig and one will be positive and the other won’t, it just depends on who is there and what kind of music they’re into. If you get someone from a hardcore magazine turn up they’re hardly going to write a good review about us, they’ll just label us as Emo even though we’re not. We’re a progressive rock band, but younger writers who write for magazines just see it as “well, they’re not screaming so they must be pansy boys”. We’ve read so many reviews this year that now we don’t even worry about them. We just concentrate on making music.
M: Reviews don’t effect us at all with our writing process, because you can’t please everybody, we just worry about ourselves, write what we want to write and play what we want to play.
Do you enjoy the writing and recording process?
M: Yeah, we love it. I think out of the three of us Steve enjoys it most.
C: He has a really studio head on him and really gets into it, he is such a perfectionist, to the point where our heads are exploding. We were in the studio with Gil Norton who is also a perfectionist, and him with Steve in one room was a bit of a nightmare, but they were always right at the end of the day. The studio is great, but I prefer playing live.
M: I love song writing, all three of us love that aspect. We’ll come up with an idea and jam it out for ages. It’s great, it’s like having a blank canvas every time. We have to start writing our second album pretty soon, well, fingers crossed we’ll get the chance to make a second album. We’re not counting our chickens as far as that is concerned, but we hope we get the chance to do it.
We hear you had to pull the show last night, how’s Steve feeling now?
C: Steve went to London yesterday to see the doctor that our management use, he has got penicillin and stuff and he has caught the train down today. He has only just arrived so he has taken his iPod off to a quiet room. He’ll run through some songs to see how his voice is, it is up to him whether he sings tonight or not, the doctor has said that he is not in any danger of doing permanent damage.
M: His throat and glands are all swollen.
C: These shows are important but the headline tour is our priority and we don’t want to jeopardise it.
M: I hope we get to play, we had a great show in Portsmouth with The Subways at the Wedgewood Rooms. It was awesome, so we’ve been looking forward to revisiting Portsmouth.
Have you got any special tricks up your sleeve for Halloween?
Both: No! (Laughs)
C: We don’t do Halloween, we already wear band uniforms, what more do you want?
M: We should go out not in our uniform, just t-shirt and jeans. We haven’t really had a chance to go and buy anything special for tonight to be honest.
C: We’ll just leave it up to one of the other bands.
I bet they’re not doing any either!
Both: Probably not!
M: Everyone was full of big ideas yesterday, but I doubt anything will happen.
C: Cancer Bats are scary enough anyway, they don’t need to do anything.
What’s your overall view of the music industry at the moment?
C: I think if you sat down and thought about certain aspects of it, you could become very cynical very quickly, but I think it just depends on what side you’re coming from and who you have surrounding you. Luckily this year we have had nothing but positive experiences which is great, but we’ve been kicking around for long enough to know that it is not always positive and it doesn’t last forever. We’re just taking every day as it comes and enjoying it. We just work hard and hope that it will be positive all the time. If you look at the charts or watch MTV for more than twenty minutes you could get depressed. All you see is new bands coming out that are just copying other bands, they need to grow a brain and get some initiative, try writing something fresh instead of just copying Fall Out Boy. We’re pragmatic enough to know that whenever bands come out like that and explode we know that they’re not really going to have long term success and their fans will move on and start listening to proper music, as nasty as that sounds. Bands like Enter Shikari is not really music, it is just noise.
That is a band I can’t stand.
C: Tell me about it, we’ve played with them a couple of times and we were looking around at each other while they were on stage going “Really, is that it?” and the crowd were going mental. Those kids will one day discover Led Zeppelin and realise what melody is, and those are the type of bands that stay around forever. You won’t find anything finger lights, glow in the dark face paint at our show, no gimmicks… just a black uniform with an armband.
How do you feel about artists releasing download only material?
C: I think that is the way the industry is going, it doesn’t worry me either way. There are always going to be people out there who like the physical copy and the artwork, I would be one of those people. If I like a band I don’t just like them for their music, I would be disappointed if they hadn’t put any effort into their artwork, I like them to have the whole package, it feels like you’re buying into something then.
M: Saying that most of the time I get a CD now, I put it in my laptop and onto the iPod, the CD goes on to the shelf and I never see it again.
C: They’re still bringing out vinyl and everyone said that would disappear, it is one of those things that goes in cycles, but at the end of the day there will always be people that want a physical copy. If you listen to music properly an MP3 is never going to cut it next to an actual CD, but then again people say “Not CDs, I love the crackle of the vinyl.” Why would you like crackle on your record? Next time we record we’ll put some crackle on the CD for you.
How important is In Case Of Fire to you?
C: It is very important, for me personally, it would be family first, then the band, then everything else.
M: We’ve been 100% focused on the band now for years now, we’ve had part time jobs to keep it going, but years ago we sat down and decided that we would do the band full time and that was our priority.
C: It means sacrificing your proper professional career, I have a degree and quit my job with computers, worked in Game for two and a half years just so that I could have time off to do the band. It was getting to the point last year where we were wondering if it was actually going to happen but we have always put the band first.
How important are you to In Case Of Fire?
C: I think it is just the three of us, and if someone were to quit and we tried to replace them it would go downhill pretty quick. It has always been just the three of us in this band and I think it is always going to be that way.
M: We thought about getting a fourth member for a while but I think it would take away what we are, plus, with only three of us it means we can support anyone because we don’t need much room. It doesn’t matter how small a stage is we fit on it and fit on it well.
C: It also means we can fit into one Travelodge room as well, so we’re cheap.
Family Room?
C: Yep, all the way.
You’re not all nice and cosy in a double bed then?
C: No, we draw the line a double beds, even though me and Steve are brothers it is just not going to happen!
Luke Wilson or Owen Wilson?
C: Luke Wilson for me, he is brilliant in Royal Tenebaums, it is genius, it cracks me up ever time. Plus, Owen Wilson is a bit too smug and he was in Cars which is my least favourite Pixar film ever.
Never seen it, never felt the need to.
C: Exactly, Owen Wilson is in it that’s why!
M: I have no real preference, I’ll just go with Luke.
What’s your view on scene sluts?
C: We stay away from them completely. Steve is married, Mark and I are both engaged, I’m getting married in December. We’re not a group of 19 year olds who are in this for fame, glory and girls. It is nice to have fans, and we have no problem speaking to people after the show but some of the kids take it a little bit too far and there are times when you need to step back and hide behind a big security guard. We haven’t really experienced a lot of that kind of stuff so far, but we do try to steer well clear of it.
What’s your proudest career moment to date?
M: We supported Queens Of The Stone Age in Belfast in front of 6,000 people. It was an awesome night, and only two minutes away from my house.
C: Working with Gil Norton is one of my highlights because that man record ‘The Colour And The Shape’ by the Foo Fighters. He is extremely professional, we walked away with a record that we’re happy with and he is happy with. If I had been told last year that I would work with Gil Norton I would never have believed it.
M: We went from recording in the bedroom to recording with Gil Norton, so that is quite a jump.
What do you still have left to achieve?
Both: Loads!
C: A fanbase for one! I think it is just one of those things where we just need to keep pushing, we are just at the start, we just want to do as much as we can possibly do. We want to keep learning and always be hungry or there would be no point in doing it, it would just be bland.
M: You just have to keep pushing yourself everyday, by working hard and if you don’t want to do that you may as well just get a day job.
C: You’re in the business and making music day in day out because it is something you love to do, so the minute it starts to feel like 9-5 you know it is not working anymore.
What can we expect to see from you over the next year?
C: I’d say you’ll be pretty sick of us by the time the next year is out. The album comes out in February, then we’ll be touring. We’ll be concentrating on the UK until September/October then we’re hoping to get to the States after that because our label, Zomba, is in the States. Hopefully you’ll see a lot more of us when the album comes out… and hopefully we’ll get some nice reviews!
That’s great thank you very much for you time boys, enjoy the show tonight.
Army Of Freshmen are busy preparing for their second headlining UK tour, but frontman Chris Jay still found the time to speak to Scene Slut.
How are you, Chris?
I’m doing great, I’m actually starting work today with a band from the UK called Lost? They’re from the Norwich area, but they’ve come out here and Aaron and I are doing a demo with them.
I heard you were doing some more producing.
Yeah, we’ve been getting into that a bit more and it’s a lot of fun. We’re having a good time with it. We picked the guys up from the airport last night and we’re starting work today. It is always fun hang out with people from the UK when they’re here, they’re always so excited by the culture difference.
So, you’re heading back to the UK in few weeks.
Yeah, we’re heading over in about three weeks, and we’re very, very excited. I’m in promotion mode right now which is somewhat difficult when you’re on the other side of the world, so there has been a lot of Myspacing. We’ve been working with a lot of the opening acts and some of those guys are doing a wonderful job of flyering and stuff, so it’s going very well. I’m such a hands on person, it’s very frustrating for me not to be there. It’s getting to the point where I’m thinking that when we tour internationally I need to go over to that country a couple of weeks early so I can flyer at shows myself.
Any excuse for a holiday, eh?
That’s true. The band may sound terrible because we wouldn’t have practice because I’ve been handing out flyers in England but at least the shows would be good.
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