Live Review: Rock Sound Exposure Tour @ Bournemouth iBar

All good things come in threes. three Toy Story films, three musketeers, three Jonas Brothers…ok maybe not. But in the case of the Rock Sound Exposure Tour, three really is the magic number. Rock Sound magazine has picked three of the best bands from across the UK at the moment, and it seems that even the venue roof couldn’t contain its excitement that they were stopping off in Bournemouth. You see, the event was supposed to be held at Champions, but due to a minor roof collapse a last minute relocation to iBar was arranged. And you can’t get more intimate than iBar.

Before the main acts, local band The Blackwater Caravan have been given the task of warming up the crowd. The three lads give a decent performance but seem to be trying too hard to give off an indifferent and sulky vibe. They appear to have just stepped out of their parent’s garage and onto the stage and, whether it’s just nerves or a desperate attempt to appear ‘cool’, the crowd don’t seem convinced.

An entirely different reaction meets Japanese Voyeurs however, as the London five-piece launch into their uniquely hypnotic blend of grunge and metal. Unfortunately due to a few technical issues, front woman Romily Alice’s vocals are inaudible at times. But when she can be heard the crowd are treated to her truly mesmerizing voice. Think a 12-year-old girl trapped in an angry eye-liner clad woman’s body and you wouldn’t be far off. And boy, can that girl head bang. Hauntingly hypnotic, their slightly schizophrenic rock is weird, but in a good way.

Next up is Leeds trio, Dinosaur Pile-Up who also appear to be experiencing some microphone issues. But as soon as they launch into ‘Birds & Planes’, it’s like hearing a long lost friend. Heavily influenced by Foo Fighters and Weezer, DPU are reviving 90s grunge with all its huge riffs and faultless vocals and bringing it to a basement near you. The band appear to be right at home in tonight’s dingy setting which bassist Harry Johns perfectly describes as ‘like playing Lazer Quest’. After the huge teenage anthem that is ‘My Rock N Roll’, Johns launches into the crowd, soon to be followed by front man Matt Bigland, and the pair engage in what can only be described as ‘guitar wrestling’. The fact that they almost knock half the crowd unconscious with the mic stand is irrelevant. Health and safety just ain’t rock n roll dude.

The headliners for tonight have two tough acts to follow, but The Xcerts are more than capable of this challenge. As soon as they begin to make their spectacular noise, they have the crowd firmly in their grasp. Nobody hesitates to take a stride forward on guitarist Murray’s orders, causing everyone in the room to be practically on the stage. Considering that when the Scottish three piece last played iBar there were seven people in the room, three of whom were in the band, then it’s clear the lads have already come a long way. Their set of vibrating distorted pop is scattered with sing-a-long moments that most of the crowd seem to already know, particularly for the superb ‘Slackerpop’, tonight’s true masterpiece.

It’s highly likely that tonight show left everyone present with three new favourite bands. And providing they didn’t do too much damage to their eardrums by being in such close proximity to iBar’s speakers, then hopefully they will be blasting them from their bedroom speakers for years to come.  

Interview: Everything Everything - so good they named them twice

Rising stars Everything Everything have been travelling across the UK with The Vaccines, Magnetic Man and Crystal Castles as part of the NME Awards Tour 2011. I briefly infiltrated their weird and wonderful world at Bournemouth’s O2 Academy to talk ‘Bizarre ‘n’ B’, sand sculptures and Dave Grohl.


How has the NME Awards Tour been going so far?

Jeremy Pritchard (bass, vocals): We’re on the homeward stretch now.
Jonathan Higgs (vocals, keyboards): It’s been really good. As far as I know, they’ve all been sold out. Except for maybe tonight actually. But it probably will be later, it’s very cold so people will come here for shelter. But it’s been amazing. There have been big venues and big crowds. They’ve been up-for-it young crowds as well so they keep you on your toes. You’ve got to keep them happy.
JP: All the bands are learning from each other as well. Nobody is really doing the same thing as everybody else, everybody occupies their own area.

Have you had much chance for any fun and games with the other bands on the tour?


JP: We have played pool with most of them. We went out with Magnetic Man a couple of times. Jon was out with The Vaccines last night. We’re only ever within 40 yards of each other at any one point. We all travel in convoy.
JH: The buses are all in a line so we sleep right next to each other as well.
JP: You can’t help but exchange information in such close quarters.

Any gossip to share then?

JP: Erm well… all of The Vaccines are women it turns out. Nah not really.
JH: We can’t really think of any.
JP: Because there isn’t any.

You guys are from all over the UK - Manchester, Newcastle and Kent - so where do you consider to be home?

JP: Well the band is from Manchester and then we’re all kind of spread around the country in terms of origin. But we met there and formed there and we live there now.
JH: It’s definitely home for the band, I don’t know if its home for each of us individually. But certainly it’s our musical base.
JP: It’s home for everyone except for Alex (Robertshaw – guitar) I suppose. Alex lives in London and the rest of us are in Manchester.

Where is your favourite place to play out of the three?

JH: Manchester probably. Kent is sadly bereft of any good venues.
JP: We have played my little home town venue a few times now and that’s been great but playing in Manchester is really good for us now. When you play in London there is an inevitable sort of media spotlight. And when your label’s there and your management’s there and everyone is going ‘this is gonna be good’, even if it is good then its slightly tainted.
JH: Newcastle is sort of up and down. It hasn’t really got that many great venues. It needs some better ones.
JP: It needs some good midsized venues and a stronger musical allegiance
JH: It needs a football-music crossover at some point

The band is notoriously hard to pin to any particular genre. So if you could invent a new genre to label yourselves with, what would you call it?

JH: We’ve come up with a couple before. We’ve had ‘Bizarre ‘n’ B’ and ‘Haunted House’.
JP: ‘Haunted House’ is particularly irrelevant.
JH: ‘Bizarre ‘n’ B’ is the best we’ve come up with. The funniest anyway.
JP: It’s not very accurate, like any tags really. People see us as an indie band and that’s fine. We call ourselves a pop band in the broadest possible sense because we’re somewhere in the cannon of popular music of the last 60 years I think.
JH: We’re in there somewhere.

What are your main influences as a band?

JP: There’s all the sort of ‘heart bands’ that you’ll never let go of from your teenage years, like The Beatles.
JH: ‘Heart bands’?
JP: That didn’t come out very well did it?
JH: Bands you love?
JP: Bands you love! Exactly. In an irrational way. Which is a good thing I think. Like Radiohead for all of us. And Michael Jackson and stuff that comes from before a time that you understood what music was or how it was made. It has a sort of magic to it.
JH: Magic music.
JP: Exaclty. So there is all those and then there is lots of other artists that we listened too whilst we were growing up. Post-rock and post-hardcore stuff, math-rock and then all the American R’n’B stuff and jazz and hip hop. We like music!
JH: But at the end of the day, it’s probably Radiohead that we’re always coming back to.
JP: And The Beatles as well.

You write and choreograph your own music videos. Where do you get your inspiration from?

JH: Well we always start with the song. We listen to it and think, visually, what would it need? What could you bring to it that’s not there, or how could you accentuate something that is there. But we’ve actually been lucky with the first two or three videos. For one of them there was certainly a very strong visual idea within the song already so it was just a question of trying to make that happen on the page. The other ones, it just really depends on what it needs. The Schoolin’ video wasn’t quite ready for the public.
JP: HA! This is a good one. We spent quite a lot of money on blowing up a sand sculpture on a beach somewhere around here actually, while we were touring in Europe.
JH: It was a sculpture of a big mammoth in the sand and we blew it up with dynamite. But they only blew its head off because they didn’t put enough dynamite in it.
JP: So they had to build it again and then blew it up more successfully. But then the results were actually incredibly boring. And I’ve never seen the video.
JH: Yea we had to make an animation for that as quickly as we could which was a bit of a close one.
JP: A guy called Nicolas made this really amazing animation for it, which is good because we quite often end up at certain places by accident and we would never normally have commissioned an animator to animate abstract images for a video. But because we ended up in the awkward corner we got a video that we would never normally have commissioned or tried to make ourselves. We’re glad to have our hand forced occasionally, all be it in an expensive way.

You were shortlisted for the BBC Sound of 2010 last year. Do you think it has helped to get your music noticed?

JH: Absolutely. We noticed it the most when we went abroad. Certainly to Europe and even further afield. We didn’t expect that. We didn’t get that with any other accolade. People might know some of our songs but they all know about the BBC list, which is amazing really. It just shows you how far it spreads and really gets your name out there. People respect the BBC a lot and so they see this list every year and track down the people on it, which is great.
JP: We couldn’t believe the clout it holds when you go abroad. We treat it with a bit of healthy cynicism in England. Sort of pretend that you’re not really please about it but then we went abroad and everyone wanted to talk about it.

The Brit Awards took place recently, have you got any favourite British acts out there at the moment?

JP: In the Brit world, not a great deal. It’s not what we involve ourselves with. But we like Take That and we like Muse a bit. We like a lot of pop music but I think it’s unlikely that we’ll ever be welcomed into that world. That’s the true unit shifting pop stars area, and we’re not like that. We’re not good looking enough. Take That are very handsome.

You are nominated for Best New Band at the NME Awards, are you excited for the ceremony?

JP: No, because we’re not going to win. We’re gonna go along and not win. Just drink the free booze and have a nice time and see some people we know and meet some people we don’t know yet. It’s a night out.

Anyone in particular that you’re looking forward to meeting?

JP: Dave Grohl maybe? I think he might be on the list of people that you can’t meet because it would just ruin it. We have a list of people that we really want to meet and a list of people that we really want to meet but can’t. And I think Dave Grohl might be on it.

You played Reading & Leeds Festival last year, have you got any more festivals lined up for this year?

JP: They’re starting to come through now but we can’t really say anything about it yet.
JH: But we will be playing lots and lots of festivals in the sunshine across Europe and the UK.

And have you got any other plans for 2011?

JH: We’re going to Europe almost immediately and then we’re working on new material. And we’re probably going to do some surprise things later in the year that we’re not allowed to say. But our focus is on new material.
JP: …and more touring and festivals. So we’re going to be doing both of those things at once. Which is always a challenge.

Live Review: An electric and eclectic evening at the NME Awards Tour 2011

The indie kids gather with their thick rimmed lenseless glasses and perfectly quaffed hair. The middle aged men showing an interest in ‘what the kids are listening to these days’ sip their pints by the bar. The teenage girls weld their lips to the face of the nearest boy, never coming up for air. It’s time for the Bournemouth leg of the NME Awards Tour 2011.

To kick off the night, The Vaccines supply some standard indie that gets the crowd bouncing. Their set is distinctly lacking in originality and interaction with the crowd. Front man Justin Young also appears to have come dressed as a maths teacher and belts out tunes that are about as interesting as algebra homework. Although they appear to have saved the best songs for last, it is still a rather disappointing start to the evening.

Jump suit clad Everything Everything really get things started with a spellbinding set in glorious technicolour. The band, who come from all over the UK, jokingly label their sound as ‘Bizzare n’ B’, combining glorious synth, haunting melodies and ludicrous lyrics to form music like no other. Closing the set with the superb ‘Photoshop Handsome’, the lads prove just why they deserved their Best New Band nomination.

There is a sudden dramatic shift as the second half of the night begins. The timid or older members of the crowd take a couple of steps back as Magnetic Man, consisting of producers and DJ’s Benga, Skream and Artwork, launch into some filthy dubstep. The entire room vibrates from the floor upwards as the humungous breakdowns take control of the O2 Academy and things start to get seriously sweaty just in time for headline act, Crystal Castles.

With Alice on crutches because of a broken ankle, her performance is much more subdued than usual, but the same cannot be said for the music. The Canadian electro duo take dance music to a whole new level with perfectly crafted tracks that pulse though every cell in your body. Towards the end of the set it becomes difficult to remember just how then evening started and, after a stomping encore, Alice leaves the stage not only clutching a bottle of whisky, but also the admiration of the crowd.

Click For Free Download

Pasta for dinner every day, only using one sheet of toilet paper at a time, wearing three hoddies at once to save you having to put the heating on. We all know that budget is tight. So when bands offer us music for the price of a glass of tap water – that’s ‘free’ for those of you who only drink the stronger stuff – it’s time to rejoice!

The free download offer is becoming increasingly common of late, particularly with those up-and-coming bands. Many simply require you to give them your email address or ‘Like’ their Facebook page in return for a track, but of course you can always send the emails to your junk mail folder or unfriend them once you’ve bagged the freebies. Best of all, it’s legal. So no guilty conscious.

Here are some recent gems you can get your hands on for nothing…

Funeral For A Friend – Front Row Seats To The End Of The World

These Welsh rockers are in fact, not exactly an up-and-coming band, with five successful albums and some pretty impressive festival slots under their belts. Nevertheless, they have still decided to give the fans this track, taken from their next album 'Welcome Home Armageddon' which is due for release on March 14^th.

Ambition Is Critical – The Blackout

Here is another generous Welsh wonder. These six lads from Merthyr Tydfil deliver stomping hardcore anthems, and this one is absolutely free. Their live shows are always fantastic too, filled with tremendous energy and lots of comedy banter between the two front men, Gavin Butler and Sean Smith. 

Lower Than Atlantis – Punk On The Covers

Grunge punk band Lower Than Atlantis’ debut album ‘Far Q’ has received great reviews for its angst and lyrical genius. But the band also decided to release an EP of cover songs, and give it away for free. The EP includes their own take on classics such as The Police's 'Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic', Foo Fighter's 'Everlong’ and Paramore's 'That's What You Get'.

 

The King Blues – We Are Fucking Angry

Opinionated ska punk band, The King Blues, have released an anthem for all those student protesters and government haters out there, and the message is pretty clear. Definitely ‘throw your fist in the air and kick a bin’ music.  

Canterbury – Thank You

The lovely lads in Canterbury are probably the most generous of all. They made their entire debut album available for free online. Every song on the record is brilliantly catchy and the band have achieved huge success from it. Support slots with the likes of You Me At Six have proved that.

Interview: You Me At Six

2010 was the year of You Me At Six after the band scored a Top 10 album. I caught up with them before their sold out show at the B.I.C to talk about their successes… as well as Dragons Den, Fifa and ‘curry-gate’.

2010 has been a huge year for you, but if you could have done anything differently what would it be?

Matt (bass): I think everything has shaped up the way we wanted it to be.

Dan (drums) - now with bleached blonde hair: I would have dyed my hair earlier on in the year. I should have thought about it earlier because I’m quite fond of it.

You went to America this summer for Vans Warped Tour, how do American tours differ to here in Britain?

Matt: There’s a lot more driving. Everyday you’re driving for like 8 to 10 hours. There are always travel days where you’re literally driving all day long. Whereas in the UK you travel for four hours and that’s long. You’re like ‘Oh four hours? Really?!’ Then we went over there and its 10 hours every day. That sucks. But there isn’t really that much difference. I guess the fans are different because maybe we’re not as well known over in America.

Dan: We’ve been touring the UK for like the last three or four years whereas in America we’re just kind of starting out again. That’s really fun though.

How was getting to play with Paramore on their recent tour?

Matt: Paramore were really good dudes… and girl. They were really fun to go on tour with. The shows were always massive with them as well because they’re like the biggest band in the world at the moment.

Dan: Yea it was fun that we got to go out to Europe. We’ve only headlined out there and it’s always been really small. So the chance to support someone like Paramore in Sweden where I think we played to like six or seven thousand people, that was incredible. It was a really good opportunity for our band and hopefully it paid off. I think it did.

You guys are going to be supporting Blink 182 on their European Tour in the summer, how does that feel?

Matt: It’s like a dream come true. My two favourite bands when I grew up were New Found Glory and Blink 182. We did a tour with New Found Glory about two years ago and were doing a tour with Blink next year so I’m losing my mind basically. It’s like the best Christmas present ever!

Dan: At Reading Festival I actually got to meet Travis Barker and I was freaking out. I was full on shaking and I couldn’t speak properly. And then I got invited on stage and was sitting about two feet behind him when they were playing. It was the best day of my life. And now we get to play with them every day!

Is there anyone else that you’ve ever been star struck over?

Matt: I don’t think we’ve properly been star struck.

Dan: Yea with Travis Barker I think that’s the only time in my whole life that I’ve ever been star struck or seen someone and just been shaking. Because he’s like a hero to me. When I was younger, he was one of those people I always looked up to.

Matt: I’d probably be star struck if I met Will Smith or Brendon from Coach Trip. I think he’s awesome.

Dan: Brendon from Coach Trip?

Matt: Have you not watched Coach Trip before?!

Dan: No, what’s that?

Matt: It’s the best thing ever!

Dan: I’d be star struck if I met Eminem. Or Jay Z. That’d be sick.

Matt: Basically A List celebrities.

Dan: If Notorious B.I.G. was resurrected. That’d be sweet.

Clearly you have done pretty well at getting high profile support slots but is there anyone you would love to support that you haven’t had the chance to yet?

Matt: Well my number one in the world was Blink 182 to be honest.

Dan: I reckon it’d be sick to support someone like Green Day or Linkin Park. Just because we like Linkin Park. The other day we put the old album on and were just rocking out.

Matt: We still know all the words to Hybrid Theory.

Dan: Every single word.

Matt: From being 12 years old listening to it in our bedrooms.

How are you going to cope with nerves before supporting Blink 182?

Dan: I think it will probably just be the first show we’ll be a bit nervous. We’ve done arenas before so it should be alright.

Matt: Yea we played Wembley with Fall Out Boy so we’ve played big venues but we haven’t played anywhere as big as The O2. So it’s gonna be scary. But it’s even more scary when your parents are watching you. When you’re playing to a load of random people it’s not actually that bad but when you’ve got all your family down, you feel like you have to be good.

Dan: Yea, like Leeds Festival, I just had a great time and didn’t even think about it when there was like 30,000 people there. But then at Reading Festival, because my mum and my sister were there and my auntie and my cousin, I was pooing myself.

You guys are with a major record label, but some bands, such as Enter Shikari, are now going back to independent labels. Do you think bands do better with a major label?

Dan: I think there are pros and cons. We were on an independent for quite a while, Slam Dunk Records. We sort of made it up with our manager. That didn’t quite work out so right not we’re trying a major label and its going quite well. I think they have the financial backing and they also know people in the industry so they can open up doors for you.

Do you think the business side of the music industry has a negative effect on music?

Matt: Well the business side of the industry is full of arseholes.

Dan: There are always problems with everything. Like if you’re on an independent you’re gonna find problems and if you’re on a major label you’re gonna find problems. That’s something you have to realise quite early on otherwise you’ll kill yourself.

Matt: Yea stuff is always going wrong. Stuff is going wrong the whole time.

Dan: I’m sure even in Paramore’s world there’s times when they’re pissed off about something or something is going wrong.

Matt: Yea and when stuff is going wrong, people don’t know it’s going wrong. Like on out first album, the first 5000 copies that went out were missing a page. You open it up and it was white behind the CD.

Dan: Yea we were going crazy about that.

Matt: We were going mental but everyone was like ‘Oh it’s probably supposed to be like that’. And we’re just like ‘Nope’. So if you do have ‘Take Off Your Colours’ with a white bit behind the CD, that one went wrong.

Dan: You could almost say its limited edition.

What is your favourite song to perform live?

Dan: I think mine has been ‘Stay With Me’.

Matt: Yea same. We go off and then come back on for our encore. We don’t say anything and then there’s the first note and the lights and stuff. It looks pretty cool.

You’ve spent a lot of time travelling all over the world together, how do you usually pass the time when travelling on the tour bus?

Dan: People have been playing Fifa for money the past two days. Josh is up like £400.

Matt: Yea one of our friends from America came over and he and Josh were playing £100 games. Josh beat him basically every time. Then he went to the casino and won again.

Dan: And then everyone was like ‘Matt, Dan, why don’t you join in?’ and it’s like ‘Because I don’t want to just give you my money because you’ll clearly beat me’.

Matt: Yea we suck at Fifa.

Dan: I’m alright but I probably wouldn’t win. We’re fans of Call of Duty more than Fifa. Chris is wicked at Call of Duty.

Matt: Chris is already level 50

Dan: And Max is good

What could you not live without on tour?

Matt: A fridge to put the beers in.

Dan: A bed.

Matt: No the fridge, I could deal with sleeping on the floor if I’ve had too many beers.

Any particular food you can’t live without?

Matt: Well I always have curry but someone ate my curry last night. It’s stressed me out basically.

Dan: He’s been going mental for the past three days because someone stole his curry.

Matt: Twitter is going crazy. If anyone knows where my curry is by the way let me know. There’s a cash prize.

Dan: Yea £5000. We think it’s Max though.

Matt: Last night we got really drunk and I was like ‘Max, did you eat it?’ and he said ‘Actually, I might’ve eaten it’. And I was like ‘Well did you?’ and he said ‘I dunno’

Dan: Basically, he admitted to eating it

Matt: He’s the curry thief.

Dan: He keeps talking about it so I think he’s guilty.

If you ever have any major arguments, what or who is usually the cause?

Dan: It’s usually really little things.

Matt: I get stress out when I’m like ‘Are you ready to go out now?’ and everyone’s like ‘Yea yea yea’ And then we’re just about to go out and someone goes ‘Oh will you just wait for me for five minutes?’ and 15 minutes later they come and them someone else goes ‘No wait for me I’ll be like two minutes’ and then another 15 minutes later someone goes ‘Wait for me!’ and I’m just like ‘No. I’m done’ and they start stressing out that I’m not gonna wait for them. And I’ve been waiting for like two hours. You can’t get everyone together. There’s 24 people on this tour travelling with us and so getting them all together is probably the hardest thing in the world. That stresses me out.

Dan: I don’t get that stressed I don’t think. I like to wind Matt up quite a lot

Matt: Dan stresses me out a lot actually.

Dan: I do it on purpose though because I know exactly how to do it. Like yesterday he was like ‘Are you gonna come to the room’ and I’m like ‘Yea I’m gonna go in about 10 minutes’, and he’s like ‘Well why don’t you come now?’ and I’m like ‘I’m just gonna come in 10 minutes’. And then I turn round to him and I’m like ‘Do you need me to hold your hand?’ and all this stuff. And he’s like ‘Fuck you man, fuck you’ and walks off and gets so stressed out

Matt: The only reason I wanted him to come was because I was gonna go swimming so I was gonna wait for him in the room. Then I waited for like 15 minutes just sat there and he just weren’t coming.

Dan: I think he needs anger management.

Did you get to go swimming in the end?

Matt: I did actually but the jacuzzi was broken

Dan: And then you probably got more stressed out about that because it was broken right?

Matt: Yes

Dan: There you go.

You must do a lot of press, is there a particular question that you never get asked but wish you would?

Matt: You’ve put us on the spot now. Now I feel like we’re interviewing you!

Dan: I would love to be asked the question ‘My best friend is Zooey Deschanel, would you like to go on a date with her?’ That would probably be my favorite question.

As five guys in a rock band, how do you cope with all the female attention?

Dan: We don’t get any because we’re losers

Max (from across the room): The only female we have in the band is a curry!

Matt: Max, shut up. This is our interview alright?

Max: Sorry, I’ve got curry on my mind

Dan: We don’t get much female attention.

So you don’t get any knickers thrown at you or anything?

Matt: Well we do but Dan doesn’t see them because he’s at the back and they can’t throw that far. No, there’s not that much female attention. It depends. If we were to go out to a rock bar after the show then there are people who know who we are. So we tend to go to dance clubs and dance like idiots.

Dan: The other day there was 30 of us from the tour, everyone was out going crazy and dancing like fools.

Matt: Yea, Max fell over. He got so drunk.

Dan: He not only fell over but he face planted as well.

Matt: Yea I’ve got a feeling he was two-stepping to JLS or something and he slipped and face planted to the floor. And Bob from The Blackout was stomping around past all these 30 year old chavs. It was pretty funny actually.

Dan: Yea, if there was a small group of us they probably would have just beaten us up but because there was 30 of us they were all just looking over like ‘Who are these guys? And why are they in a massive circle having a dance off?’ It was brilliant.

This year was obviously huge for you but which bands would you like to see have the same type of success in 2011?

Dan: Canterbury

Matt: Yea they are the best dudes ever.

Dan: Their songs are amazing and they deserve it. And they’re amazing live. I’d love to see them get massive.

Matt: And a band called Not Advised, I really like them as well. They’re from Southampton. They’re really good, you should check them out.

Dan: And Tibbin as well.

Matt: Oh yea, DJ Tibbin. He’s DJing inbetween the bands tonight and he’s sick. He plays drum n’ bass and dubstep. He mixes pop with dubstep.

Dan: His Twitter is @TibbinAKATibbin

Matt: Tweet him

You are already writing the third album and I’ve heard there will be some exciting collaborations. Can you divulge any now?

Dan: Oh really? I don’t know.

Matt: Well, we’re doing one song with Eminem.

Dan: And another song with Rhianna

Matt: And Britney Spears was begging us to do a song with her but we said no.

Dan: We said ‘Do one! You used to be bald’.

Matt: And Dr Dre also was like ‘I want you to come round my house’ but we were just like ‘Sorry Dre’.

Dan: No, Dre is gonna produce it now I think.

Matt: I don’t know if I want him to. I don’t know if he’s good enough.

Dan: No, but seriously though, we have no clue.

Matt: We’ve demoed 4 songs.

Dan: It’s probably just Josh chatting rubbish on Twitter.

Matt: Yea, he likes to cause a kerfuffle.

A few of you are quite entrepreneurial as you run various clothing labels. But if you were auditioning for The Apprentice, how would you try to impress Lord Sugar?

Matt: God I don’t know.

Dan: I’d just say ‘Alright mate? Like this T-Shirt?’ Wanna buy it?’

Matt: If it was Dragons Den, because they’ve got all the money in front of them already, surely if anyone is clever enough when they go for their interview they’d just take a gun and say ‘Give me your money’. And then everyone gives you their money and then you win. You don’t even have to give away a percentage.

Dan: Yes you just walk in and hold the gun at them and they’ll be like ‘Oh so what’s the business?

Matt: ‘My gun to your face’

Dan: ‘Give me your money. Now’

Matt: Yea I don’t know what I’d do on The Apprentice but I know what I’d do on Dragons Den.

If you were freshers, what would your ideal student night out involve?

Matt: We go on freshers nights out all the time! Well, not freshers nights out but we go to student nights at clubs, because we basically are students. We’re the same age as everyone else.

Dan: We just don’t go to uni. We blag ourselves in there.

If it was a fancy dress night, what would you wear?

Matt: The last fancy dress night we did was Halloween and I had a full chimp suit. It was literally Thorpe Park material.

Dan: I was a bear and I looked like a gay bear

Matt: I’ve been dressed up as a fairy before. That was funny, and a bit gay.

Dan: My mum says we’ve got a full Superman outfit in the attic so I’m gonna wear that next time I dress up.

A quick chat with Enter Shikari…

How did the American tour go this summer?

Rory (guitar): It was really successful in terms of sales and stuff. Probably about half of it sold out. So all that hard work with Warped Tour and the A Day To Remember and August Burns Red tours payed off really well.

How does touring America differ from Britain?

Rob (drums): It’s more difficult, a hell of a lot more difficult. The drives are the main thing, because it’s such a big country, the drives are so far apart. It takes about 10 to 12 hours to get from one city to another instead of two to three hour drives. And it starts to grind after a little bit, but it’s always fun. The audiences are just as good.

Do you think you’re getting more successful in America now?

Rob: It seems to be picking up certainly. Same with everywhere you go, you go to play to 200 people then next time you go back you’ll be in front of 400. Word of mouth is the best way forward really.

You recently left Atlantic Records, what made you decide to go back to your independent label?

Rory: We’re moving back to the distribution company we were with for Take To The Skies, and we left them because we thought maybe Atlantic might be able to offer something a bit more. But what actually happened was we kind of weren’t big enough for them to pay enough attention to us but we weren’t small enough for them to not bother with us at all so it was kind of like a half arsed effort really. And the distribution company that we were with PS have changed around their whole system. It’s all really modern there, they are very open to changing with the times and stuff. Whereas big record labels are stuck in their ways a lot more.

Rob: They can be quite difficult to work with in that way. Because of the age of internet, they don’t really know how to deal with it and they haven’t changed anything about their deals to tackle that problem. Whereas, PS, the guys that are distributing us now and did with our first album are really forward thinking and always coming out with new ideas. It’s very exciting to work with them really.

Do you think big labels have a bad effect on the music industry?

Rory: I think big labels can destroy a band, they can take a band that is just up-and-coming and sign them into a binding deal where they can’t do anything. Unless you’re just doing it purely for fun which is what we were doing back in the day. We did 400 shows before anything really happened for us or anyone tried to help us. So if you’re trying to get big then signing to a smaller label would probably be better than signing to a big record label.

The new single ‘Destabilise’ sounds a little different to your previous work, will the next album be going in the same direction?

Rob: To be honest it’s kind of all spreading out. No one song is going in any particular direction. It’s the same as we’ve always done, we don’t know what’s going to happen when we go into the studio and when we come out the other end. So it’s gonna be very extreme in every direction. We’re not gonna be able to say we’re going down any particular path.

What made you decide to release ‘Destabilise’ on limited edition vinyl.

Rory: Just to keep it kind of low key and one for the fans really, to make it more of a collector’s edition. Rather than spending loads of money printing CDs, we just thought like it’s not gonna be in the charts so we might as well. Also to give a little bit of promotion to the independent stores that don’t get as many sales these days. With all the CDs being sold in Tesco or whatever, the independent places are missing out on a hell of a lot, so it’s just to give a little nudge to them.

Fall Out Boy: Where Are They Now?

After going on an ‘indefinate hiatus’ last year, what have the members of Fall Out Boy been up to?

Some call them emo, some call them pop-punk, some call them plain old rock. But what does it matter? Fall Out Boy are on an ‘indefinite hiatus’ as of their announcement in November 2009. But like a phoenix from the ashes, we can now expect some exciting side projects from the four boys from Chicago. Here is what they have in store…

Patrick Stump

Position in Fall Out Boy: lead vocals & guitar

Where is he now?

The now, much slimmer, Patrick is working on a solo album which is due to be released in February 2011. Earlier this year he posted a video on YouTube of himself playing an impressive range of instruments to promote his solo project. Stump has now revealed the record will be called ‘Soul Punk’ and that he will be writing, producing and performing the whole thing himself. It has been revealed that we will get to hear new track ‘Spotlight’ very soon, the lyrics of which have been posted on Patrick’s website.

Joe Trohman & Andy Hurley

Position in Fall Out Boy: Joe - lead guitar, Andy – drums

Where are they now?

The two arguably less ‘high profile’ members of the band have now joined a supergroup. The Damned Things also features Scott Ian and Rob Caggiano of Anthrax and Keith Buckley of Every Time I Die. After playing a selection of shows earlier this year - including a set at Download Festival – the band are ready to release their debut album. The record, ‘Ironiclast’, is due to hit real and virtual stores on December 14^th but in the meantime, you can buy debut single ‘We’ve Got A Situation Hear’ now.

Pete Wentz

Position in Fall Out Boy: bass & lyrics

Where is he now?

After taking a year out to spend time with his son - named Bronx Mowgli in true rock star fashion – and wife Ashlee Simpson, Pete has now formed an experimental electropop band, which is heavily influenced by reggae, called Black Cards. With Pete on bass and backup vocals, Spencer Peterson on drums, Nate Patterson on lead guitar and amateur singer Bebe Rexha on lead vocals, the group completed a short European tour in October. Debut single ‘Club Called Heaven’, featuring hip hop group Chiddy Bang, has been released online but there is no news of an album just yet. Pete also likes to keep his dedicated fans up to date via his blog ‘A Homeboy’s Life’.