Interview: Our Time Down Here

October 9, 2010

Before playing to Newcastle for the first time, Faye recently caught up with Will Gould, frontman of Our Time Down Here for a chat about their new record and direction, becoming a full-time touring band, the UK punk scene and wrestling.

Faye: Can you tell me a bit of history about Our Time Down Here?
Will: Our Time Down Here started about four years ago and I was singing in another local band, and they had another singer, then they kicked the singer out for some reason at the last minute. I think his voice was fucking up every time they played, so they asked me to fill in and it kind of went from there. Then we did an EP, we put that out ourselves and then we were on Punktastic Records, but that fell apart, then Jon Tolley from Banquet was really interested in us and re-released our EP, so we did a couple more tracks, repackaged it and did a video. Then we did an album last year and that’s probably the best thing we’ve done.

Faye: Weren’t you originally a four-piece, and now you’re a five-piece?
Will: Yeah, we’ve been trying to do different things recently, like try to expand on our sound a little bit more and do different stuff. Ian’s one of our best friends, he’s playing bass tonight, because our actual bassist is away on holiday, so we’re a four piece tonight. It’s been great being a five-piece and having someone else to work with, and he’s actually really good at music, the rest of us are really shit at music. [laughs]

Faye: I’ve seen you a couple of times before, supporting H2O in Kingston, what is it that makes Kingston so special for shows?
Will: That H2O show at the Fighting Cocks was so hot! It was so horrible, I didn’t want to move. It’s weird, because in other cities like Southampton, metalcore bands outnumber the punk bands like 10-1, and in Kingston, it’s the opposite. They’ve got like ten punk bands for every one metalcore band, it’s awesome.

Faye: You weren’t originally supposed to be on this tour with A Loss For Words and LYU,  how’s it been going?
Will: Yeah, we were just on tour with an American band called Hit The Switch in Europe and we got an email asking if we wanted to jump on it, and we jumped on because we had a gap. It’s been really cool, A Loss For Words are really good, it’s not normally the crowd we’d play to, but it’s been really good, there’s so much variation. Every band on this tour like LYU, us and A Loss For Words all sound completely different. It’s cool, but there’s some nights you play to really young kids because they’re a pop-punk band and they look at you kind of strangely.

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Interview: Cancer Bats

September 26, 2010
On the most local of the Bring Me The Horizon club tour gigs, George catches up with delightfully cheery Cancer Bats frontman Liam Cormier as he aims for a wall in a car park to sit on for the interview (his words). They talk about the new record, bettering Hail Destroyer, and how almost everything is “super nice!”

George: How’s the tour been so far?
Liam: It’s been good, yeah, stoked! This is like, day five, day four, so I guess we’re halfway through. But I’m stoked, we were up in Glasgow last night which is always crazy, the kids there are fucking nuts and they go for it, so it’s cool to do a crazy show like that then come to Leeds, and Leeds is like our home away from home, we spend more time here than anyone else in England. So yeah, we definitely make Leeds our stomping grounds. The shows are really good here, we have a lot of friends here, so it’s kind of like a bit of a homecoming today. I’m stoked!

George: Have Bring Me The Horizon’s fans received you well, and have your own fans been coming out to these shows?
Liam: Yeah definitely, we’ve had more fans of our own at these shows than we expected, ‘cause the whole thing sold out so fast. I kinda thought it’d just be die-hard Horizon fans, which is cool ‘cause we wanted to play in front of new kids, that’s the reason why we’re here, but to know that many of our own fans were coming, or that there’s kids that are into both bands, which is cool because we think us, and Horizon are very separate, but just to know that there’s people that dig both of us, it’s kinda cool that way.

George: You guys have toured with Bring Me The Horizon on Taste of Chaos in the US before, and just completed a tour down under with them and Bullet For My Valentine – are you guys pretty close now?
Liam: Yeah, we did the US and Canada on Taste Of Chaos, and Japan and Australia with Bullet, we did that with Horizon last year as well. We’ve toured with Bullet a lot too, so it was cool to kinda hang out with both those bands again. Those Bullet shows were insane, they were really cool. 5 and a half thousand was the biggest, so pretty crazy…

[Liam at this point notices a bunch of girls walking past him in the distance...]

Liam: Woah, those girls are done up! Where are they going? It’s a Saturday afternoon and those girls are dressed up to the nines, where I would be wearing jogging pants. [laughs]


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Interview: Cruel Hand

August 20, 2010

Nearing the end of their summer in Europe, Faye was able to chat with Chris Linkovich, vocalist of Cruel Hand, about the release of Lock & Key and their new direction, living in a hardcore bubble, mosh injuries, and lots more, before their headline show in London.

Faye: You’ve been over in Europe for a few weeks now playing a bunch of shows and fests, how’s that been?
Chris: It’s running smooth, I can’t complain. We started off with Fluff Fest, which was pretty fucking big and we ended up headlining the whole thing, it was unreal. Then Into The Pit in Italy, Fredericia Fest in Denmark and then we have Ieperfest in Belgium coming up. It’s been cool, we’ve had to miss a bunch of stuff to come to Europe, like the fucking amazing weather we’re having in Maine, we could be at the beach, but no, we’re here in the rain, but it’s all good.

Faye: I last interviewed you at Have Heart’s second last show, then you played their final show the following day, what are your memories of that show?
Chris: It was awesome, I felt like that was probably our best show. It was the perfect show for us reaction-wise, it sucked that everything was kind of running late, we didn’t really play a full set, but it was Have Heart’s last show, so they had to do their thing too.

Faye: Since then, a couple of other Bridge Nine bands have announced that they’re calling it a day, like Ruiner and Crime in Stereo, what’s happening?
Chris: I don’t know, but someone informed us the other day that they read online that we had got into a fight on stage with each other and we broke up. Apparently, I got into an argument with Cam and then we got into a fight and broke up.
Seger [bass]: We’ve found out a lot of rumours about us on this tour, like someone said Nate was married and is now divorced, and someone else said we all had girlfriends – only one of us has a girlfriend. People are just starting rumours about us.
Chris: People will talk, they can say what they want. It’s funny, though. [laughs] People are out to get us, I guess.

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Interview: Agnostic Front

August 19, 2010

Ahead of their recent headline show in London, Faye sat down with Roger Miret, frontman of New York hardcore kings Agnostic Front, where they talked about misconceptions about the band, trends in the hardcore scene, the secret behind their longevity, and so much more!

Faye: How are you today? Do you know that Cruel Hand are playing down the road?
Roger: I’m doing good, thank you, and no, I didn’t know that. Why would they do that? That’s retarded. I’m not worried, though, we’ve still got about 350 pre-sales, that’s pretty damn good. It’s a shame there’s two shows at the same time, though.

Faye: There’s so many misconceptions about Agnostic Front, I’ve read a lot of accusations on the Internet relating you to racism, is it frustrating that people still try to associate you with that?
Roger: Tell them to dig up some new news, it’s just retarded. It’s nothing we’ve ever been about, if you read the lyrics from all our albums it’s self-explanatory – some people don’t want to, they just want to be ignorant. It probably comes from the fact that we were a working class band when we first started, which we still are working class. We all shaved our heads, we were American skinheads and everybody wants to judge a book by its cover. I mean, is every skinhead you know racist?

Faye: I read that Agnostic Front released a split with a band called White Power back in 1980, what’s the story behind that?
Roger: Somebody did this bootleg split – I actually have a copy of it – but we never did that. It’s people doing bootlegs, why would we do that? It does exist, but we didn’t have anything to do it. We have no control over bootlegs.

Faye: How do you feel about the macho, tough guy image you and fellow New York hardcore bands have?
Roger: Hardcore’s an aggressive thing, it’s a very masculine, very aggressive, sweaty style of music and most of the people who live this lifestyle are kind of edgier. We were the first bands doing all the tattoos and grungier look, so I guess it just stuck to it. It’s not pretty music, it never was pretty guys doing it. It was always harder guys doing it. It got prettier later. [laughs]

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Interview: 7Seconds

August 18, 2010

Sitting on a path outside Trillians, Faye caught up with frontman Kevin Seconds of the legendary 7Seconds, following their show in Newcastle. They got talking about still going at it 30-years later, his issues with the hardcore scene, going acoustic, and a lot more!

Faye: How did you find the show tonight?
Kevin: The show was wonderful. I think it’s our third show here and they’ve always been really fun. I just love Newcastle, I love the city and have friends here, so it was great. I’m not feeling that great though, so I was really struggling to try find the energy, but it was great. We ate some weird pasta stuff and it was really spicy, I think it just hit me the wrong way, and the travelling, sleeping up in the van, I think it all just caught up today, it surprised me.

Faye: How come 7Seconds is playing these shows and fests this summer? Is it a 30th anniversary thing?
Kevin: Yeah, this whole year we’ve been playing quite a bit because of the 30th anniversary thing, and we’ve got a few releases, which were scheduled to come out, but we’ve pushed them back just because we want to do more touring and not put anything out until we know we’re going to go out to play. We had hoped to come over sometime this summer and do as many shows as we can. The other guys have some kids and stuff, so it’s really hard for them to just take off and my brother, the bass player, Steve Youth, he’s doing a bunch of stuff with his family, so he couldn’t come and we couldn’t cancel, so we got our friend to fill in and he actually played with us in Europe with Sick of It All.

Faye: Do you listen to much hardcore nowadays?
Kevin: I find myself going back to a lot of the early records because I love the production of it and I’m all about what’s new and freshness, I’m not one of those old guys who are like, “Keep it old school, it’s got to sound like a crappy record!” There’s a lot of stuff that’s considered ‘hardcore’ now and it’s like, I don’t mind, call it whatever you want, but I think there has to be at least some connection to at least what it once was. If there’s not, then it’s sort of not genuine and it doesn’t feel right, and that’s just my take, I don’t think that everyone else should feel like that. I’m always looking out for new stuff and I get excited when I hear a new band that kicks my ass, that makes me happy, because that’s the way it’s supposed to be. Unfortunately, not many new bands kick my ass, but I do like hardcore. I didn’t like when people started bringing metal into it, it wasn’t my cup of tea, but at least it’s still aggressive and fun. Now everyone applies the word ‘core’ to everything and it doesn’t have any real meaning.

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Interview: Not Advised

August 18, 2010

Not Advised are currently undergoing their tour around the UK after releasing their new album After the Fight. Compared to the likes of Funeral For A Friend, they’re setting out to establish themselves amongst the big bands and hopefully it’ll be on this tour they manage to achieve their goals. Katie meets the quintet to discover how things are going so far.

Katie: So, you’ve just started your tour, how’s it going so far?
Andy [drums]: Amazing, we’ve done Bristol and Birmingham so far and we’ve never headlined in Bristol before, so that was really good to do and Birmingham last night was really good too. This is the first time we’ve done the major cities.
Jack [guitar]: When we started the band all we wanted to do was get out and play shows, so that’s what we’ve done and it’s going really well.

Katie: Which gig are you looking forward to playing the most?
Ash [guitar]: One of them was tonight, I’ve been really looking forward to playing here and I think tomorrow in Glasgow will be another good show.
Greg [bass]: I’m looking forward to all of them.
Jack: We’ve sound a lot of tickets tonight with out any support from local bands, so I’m really proud of tonight’s gig but I think we’re all excited to get out there and play all the shows.
Ash: You tend to get expectations before you leave and in the back of your mind you’re hoping it’s all going to be well good, but then like you don’t want to get your hopes up in case you get disappointed but we look forward to every gig and so far every gig we’ve done has lived up to our expectations.
Jack: Last night was pretty good, people had been waiting for us for hours.

Katie: On your new album, you’re putting tracks from your old album, why is that?
Jack: When we made our first EP we had like five tracks, and then LAB records came to us and said they wanted to put our CD out again and re-release it and add more tracks and do a video and make it the bigger release it should have been in the first place really, so we thought that was a cool idea. We’ve done it properly this time, we’re writing an album now which is all new, we’re not going to be a band which keeps putting out the same songs it just happened that way coincidentally.
Andy: We thought we didn’t release the first CD to it’s full potential.
Ash: We can do that now we’ve got the help of LAB records.

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Interview: Vanna

July 8, 2010

On tour in the UK for the first time, Faye sat down with Boston’s Vanna at their sold out show in Newcastle. They talked about member changes, the curses that Curses brought them, and their frustration about reviewers, as well as a ton more!

Faye: Can you say your name and what you do?
Evan: We’re Vanna. I’m Evan, and I play guitar and sing.
Davey: I’m Davey and I do vocals.
Chris: I’m Chris and I play the drums.
Nick: I’m Nick and I play guitar.
Shawn: I’m Shawn and I play bass.

Faye: For those who are unfamiliar, can you tell me a bit of history?
Nick: We started the band in December 2004 and we really started playing shows in the summer of 2005. A couple of us were at school at the time, so we were taking it easy, just doing local shows and stuff. Epitaph Records got in contact with us and we ended up signing with them. We’ve put out three records, we put out an EP first called The Search Party Never Came and then our first full-length was called Curses and our second full-length is called A New Hope, and that’s where we’re at right now.

Faye: You replaced Chris, your vocalist, with Davey last year, didn’t you?
Evan: Yeah, we’ve had a couple of replacements. We replaced Chris Preece with Davey about a year ago.
Nick: Nearly a year, Davey’s first show was July 25th, but he was on tour with us before that.
Davey: Right, I had been on tour with you guys since June, so, yeah, this month is like my first year, and then you guys replaced Brandon our old drummer, who was on the first couple of records, with Chris ‘Rutland Badboy’ Campell.

Faye: Was there ever any uncertainty about the band’s future when Chris left?
Evan: He just had a different idea of where he wanted to go with his life and we’re friends still, and we supported him. It was kind of better for the band to move on and Davey’s filled that space better, he’s been the best singer we’ve ever had.
Davey: I came on Chris’s last tour and did songs with Chris, so I think it was an easy transition. They didn’t have to lose a singer, then search for a singer for months and months, it was just like a thing that fit.

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Interview: The Flatliners

July 4, 2010

Straight off the stage, after playing Middlesbrough Music Live, Faye managed to grab Canadian punks The Flatliners for a catch up. They got talking all about the release of the critically acclaimed Cavalcade, Fat Mike taking them under his wing, their customs drama, and a lot more!

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Faye: Can you introduce yourselves?
Chris: My name’s Chris, I play guitar and sing in The Flatliners.
Paul: I’m Paul, and I play drums.

Faye: How are you today on this rainy, dismal afternoon in Middlesbrough?
Paul: It’s a downer today with the rain.
Chris: Yeah, the show was still fun, though. We just ate dinner and it was really good. We showed up and we were playing the only outdoor stage, or one of only the outdoor stages, and it’s raining, but it worked out great. I didn’t get rained on at all. I feel good.

Faye: How did you find your set?
Chris: It was fun. Honestly, whenever we come to the UK and Europe and stuff, we usually headline, so we play for a long time, like an hour plus, but today we played like 35-minutes, it was awesome. We started a bit early, so we played for like 40-mins, but it’s so fun just to get up there and play, play, play. Like when we’re headlining we have to kill more time – like you saw the other night in Bristol, we were talking our heads off. So, yeah, I had a blast today. It was a good time. Other than the police beating up kids in the crowd.
Paul: The police wear stupid hats, too. Cops at home don’t wear stupid hats.

Faye: You were last over in September, can you give me a rundown of what you’ve been up to since then?
Chris: Tons. We finished recording Cavalcade, because at that point, last August/September, we had recorded 14-songs and when we got home, we jammed a bit. Then we went out on tour again with Strung Out and Dropkick Murphy’s for like two months, and then we came home in November, and Fat Mike came up to Toronto to work on songs with us for three days, and then we recorded four brand new songs after we did that with him for the record. The record took a while all-in-all to put together, but we’re really proud of how it turned out. I don’t think we’d ever do a record again the same way, in between tours, it’s kind of stressful. You kind of have two heads on all the time, like tour mode, and not even home mode, just like recording mode, it’s weird. We did it the way we had to do it with all the touring we’re doing, and it worked out great, we’re really happy with it.

Faye: You’ve been Europe for a few weeks now, haven’t you?
Chris: We’ve been here for almost a most. We have three shows left and we fly home on Thursday. It’s been really good.
Paul: The UK shows have been really good.
Chris: The funny thing for me about the UK, which is cool – well, for me – is that kids don’t want encores. It’s kind of cool, though, because I’ll play another song if kids want us to play another song, but there’s bands where no-one’s really asking for an encore and they’re like, “Alright, we’ll play one more song!” It’s just like, why? Only do it if your fans want you to do it.
Paul: Yeah, in Bristol everyone seemed satisfied, I was pretty cool with that. That was a hot show and now nobody can smoke inside, everyone just wants to go. [laughs]
Chris: The whole tour’s been cool, though. I don’t think we went anywhere new, so all the shows, we’ve been visiting places again for the second or third time, and the shows are getting better.
Paul: The shows in Germany were really good as well.

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Interview: Four Year Strong

July 2, 2010

Back in the UK, Faye catches up with Four Year Strong, before their sold out show at the Islington Academy, and once again, it turns into a derailed conversation about dildos and such. Oh, and find out why they back Millionaires!

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Faye: Can you introduce yourselves?
Joe: I’m Joe, I play bass.
Josh: What else do you do?
Joe: I don’t know, I like puppies.
Josh: Do you like adult dogs?
Joe: Yes, I also like adult dogs, I like woodworking, what do you like? And who are you?
Josh: I’m Josh, I play the keyboard and the human organ. I heart nothing, except I also like adult dogs and puppies, I like kittens. Oh, and I like writing and reading, but that makes me sound too intellectual. I also like really dumb things. How about you? Who the hell are you?
Jake: I’m Jake, I play drums and I like weed. I also like puppies, kittens and adult dogs, except for mine, it smells. His tail is always up and his butthole is always exposed – he’s old and decrepit – and whenever he barks, it kind of pushes out. His bark is the most horrible thing, if you’ve ever heard a Beagle bark, it’s the most obnoxious thing ever. His hips are bad, he can’t stand up very well and whenever he jumps up on you in the kitchen, he just falls down.
Josh: This is turning into the saddest interview ever. [laughs]

Faye: Didn’t Alan and Dan [vocals and guitars] play an acoustic show at Banquet Records in Kingston earlier today?
Jake: Yeah, the place was rad, I bought a Matt Pryor vinyl, I’m fucking stoked. I’m going to listen the shit out of that when I get home. I wish I bought more vinyl, but I didn’t look hard enough and we had to leave.
Joe: I don’t even collect vinyl, except for Alkaline Trio vinyl.

Faye: You have to play a show in Kingston at The Peel or Fighting Cocks at some point.
Josh: We’ve been trying to do that for a long time. I’ve brought it up on every tour and somehow it just falls through the cracks, but don’t worry, it will happen.

Faye: You were last over in October on the Eastpak Tour, what have you been up to since then?
Josh: Everything.
Joe: And nothing.
Jake: Touring and touring, then we went on tour again. Then I think I slept in my bed once or twice then we went on tour again, and now we’re here on tour.
Josh: And then after this we’re on tour.
Jake: Then go on tour after that.
Josh: So, touring mostly, and we put out a new record.

Faye: You recently played Slam Dunk, it seemed like everyone in your circle of friends also played it, how was that?
Josh: It was so good.
Jake: It was great, we got to see all of our buddies and got wasted. We’ve been drinking cider heavily since we’ve been here, and we got Magners tonight, which is the best kind. You guys don’t believe in ice, though, and that shit’s supposed to be on ice. It’s so much better on ice.
Josh: There is a lack of ice.
Jake: It says “serve with ice” on the can and I’ve still got no ice, so I’m drinking mildly warm cider.
Joe: I’m not a big cider guy. I can drink a cider on ice, though.
Josh: I would drink cider over beer, I think.

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Interview: Millionaires

July 1, 2010

Following their wild Slam Dunk performances, Faye recently had the opportunity to chat with the controversial Millionaires ahead of their headline show in Bristol. They got talking about haters, being compared to Ke$ha, their DIY ethic and, of course, Chipotle!

Faye: You seem to come to the UK a lot now, is that because you’re on a UK label?
Melissa Green: Yeah, we just signed to B-Unique, so we’re just coming out here to do press, because we don’t really have a fanbase out here, like we do in the US.

Faye: I was supposed to interview you at your Leeds show in December, but you had to cancel because Allison had to have surgery to remove a huge cyst.
Allison Green: Yeah, I’m sorry.
Melissa: Yeah, Allison had to have surgery so, it was a little stressful. It put us back a little bit, so we had to reschedule, so now we’re pretty much making up all the lost time. Everyone thought she was exaggerating. [laughs]
Allison: Yeah, it was large. Everyone was like, “Oh, she’ll be fine!” I don’t think so!
Melissa: She was in bed for 8-weeks, she had a walker.
Allison: [laughs] I looked like an old woman, I looked really sick

Faye: I finally saw you at Slam Dunk Festival in Leeds, it was wild! How did you find that?
Melissa: That was fun, I threw up on stage the day before, though. I had some sort of alcohol or food poisoning, something like that, we didn’t know what was going on. I was so ill the whole day, I couldn’t even get up and then after the first song, I just puked.
Dani Artaud: Then the sound engineer didn’t show up, so our sound messed up.
Melissa: Oh yeah, because we ended up not using any microphones, just screaming and the whole crowd was singing.
Allison: [laughs] Yeah, the crowd was our voice, basically.
Melissa: That’s what made it fun! It was like some sketchy house party.

Faye: What happened at the after party? I heard it was a bit chaotic.
Melissa: It was a little intense, like we performed for everyone, so it was sketchy, then at the end, every single guy from like every guy came on stage and was a fucking nut case on the stage. I started stage diving on stage. [laughs]
Allison: Like everyone was naked on stage and dancing around, it was ridiculous.
Melissa: We finished our whole set.
Dani: We don’t quit, fuck that.

Faye: Are most of your shows as crazy as those?
Melissa: Yeah, I mean, it’s a little sketchier out here, because we didn’t know what to expect coming out here. We know how we are in the States and we know how the responses are, but out here, it could be amazing, it could be dangerous, it could be just general. It’s always good to have controversy – good or bad, than to have like a boring set.
Allison: I’m sure everybody is going to be talking about that for a while, so it’s life.

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