Brigade and BFS update

My interview with Brigade is now in the can. It is well on the way to being written up but is taking a while due to finding time around work. The lads were absolutely great, one of the nicest and most well grounded bands I've met and their their will to succed was genuinely inspiring. The band put on another very impressive show despite a dissapointingly empty venue. The night's support act Slaves To Gravity also put on a very, very good show. Their blistering sound brings to mind the raw grunge power of the likes of Soundgarden and Stone Temple Pilots given a new millenium (and British) facelift. Check them out quickly as with a Kerrang award nomination under their belts already they could get big quickly. The interview with Chris from BFS is also near to completion and should be up quite soon as well. P.S. Everyone go out and buy the new Zebrahead album 'Phoenix' which came out this week and is rather brilliant. Again I intend putting up a review here soon.

Happy BFS and Brigade news

I interviewed Chris Burney from Bowling For Soup a few weeks ago before the band's show at Lincoln's Engine Shed. I'm currently in the process of writing up the interview and will post it here soon. It reveals such gems as Chris' new peeing habit and which band will possibly be on the next Get Happy Tour. The show itself was great with BFS at their entertaining best cracking jokes and really getting the crowd itself. Essex punks Koopa also put in a very impressive support slot. I have interview time with Brigade booked at their gig in York this week so should have more on that up shortly.

Fightstar review

After several months without a post here is two in one night. This is a review I wrote of Fightstar and Brigade's gig at Mansfield 's Intake Club in May. In a bid to make to make this seem a little more relevant/ current I hopefully have an interview with Brigade lined up for a weeks time. Anyway here it is:

It’s fair to say they that Mansfield’s Intake club is far from the largest or most glamorous venue Charlie Simpson has graced in his career.

A previously unannounced change to the door time meant that fans arriving at the tiny venue spent almost an hour longer then expected waiting to be let inside. Waiting around for no obvious reason would quickly become a strong theme of the evening and there was an air of expectation to say the least when fans were at last allowed inside.

Should further reminder that this was not at a more established music venue such as Rock City be needed it came in the form of the Intake Club’s DJ.

Clearly unused to such a large and young audience he spent much of the night repeatedly attempting to push upcoming gigs by various tribute bands over the PA.

His penchant for 80’s rock, in particular Def Leopard, didn’t go down all that well either.

The night’s openers We Are The Ocean had to spend several minutes on stage trying to silence the aforementioned DJ before they could start their set.

The very repetitive screamo vocals of the bands frontman quickly became tiresome and his stage presence, similar to that of a hyped up spaniel, was far more annoying then endearing.

By far the best track of We Are The Ocean’s short performance was current single ‘Ready For The Fall’ which saw them hold back the screaming a little allowing their guitarist to show the quality of his vocals.

After another prolonged wait and more endless plugging of tribute bands Brigade arrived on stage to a noticeably bigger reaction then We Are The Ocean had received.

After spending much of the last year or so on the road touring with the likes of Aiden Brigade showed that they are developing an impressive live performance. The live airing of the bands current single ‘Pilot’ gave extra power and presence to what was already a very good track.

Should Brigade continue to put in such strong performances on this tour then it should do the sales of new album Come Morning We Fight no harm whatsoever.

Charlie Simpson strolled on stage with a huge grin on his face clearly, despite the size and location of the venue, happy to just be on the road and revelling in the adoration of the crowd. As soon as Fightstar launched into set opener ‘99’ all of the waiting suddenly became irrelevant, in fact possibly even a blessing in disguise, as the crowd turned into a sea of frenzied movement.

The heavy opening guitar riff of the second song ‘Amaze us’ triggered a fresh wave of headbanging before giving the evening’s first real sing along to the tracks soaring chorus.

Next came only the bands second live performance of Tannhauser Gate with Charlie screaming his lungs out throughout the track.

Shortly afterwards Simpson diced with concussion standing on the barrier to lean out across the crowd, head brushing the ceiling and glancing off a light as he was propelled back onto the stage.

A huge cheer greeted the opening strains of Paint your target which saw the chorus belted out by every person in attendance.

As if the crowd wasn’t excitable enough Simpson had everyone jumping on his command during forthcoming single I am the message as the set headed towards a disappointingly quick close.

As Charlie and co left the stage the crowd collectively caught its breath in anticipation of the further madness that the encore would provoke.

‘Fightstar’ chants filled the air as a keyboard was wheeled to the front of the empty stage giving just a subtle hint as to what would come next.

After pausing to check on the condition of a fan Charlie made his way to the keyboard and began to play the intro to Floods.

From the intricate keyboard to the raw power of the guitars added to Charlie and Al Westaway nailing every note of the vocals, the song was genuinely epic and easily the nights stand out moment.

Simpson took a moment to give heartfelt thanks to the crowd for buying the gig tickets and records that allow his band to do what they love.

With the comment ‘Well this is called the ride the Deathcar tour so this seems like a fitting way to end’, Fightstar launched into the unadulterated fury of ‘Deathcar’; giving one last chance for the audience to throw themselves around and sing their hearts out.

After an all too brief set (lasting only a little over an hour) every single person in the Intake Club was left breathless, bathed in sweat and desperate for more.

But above all that they were left safe in the knowledge that they had just witnessed a scorching gig by one of the greatest British bands to have emerged in recent years.

This review appeared in an edited form at www.bandidge.com.

Zebrahead exclusive interview (For now anyway)

Right admitedly it has been far too long since my last post but hopefully this should make up for it. A (temporarily) exclusive interview the band Zebrahead. I had planned on waiting for www.bandidge.com to publish the interview before posting it here but the site is experiencing on going technical difficulties so here it is. The interview was carried out with Matty Lewis (Guitar/ vocals) and Ali Tabatabaee (vocals) on the band's tourbus before Zebrahead's performance at the Slam Dunk festival at Leeds Universtiy on the 25th of May. Enjoy:

Fresh out of the studio from recording their new album Zebrahead arrived in the UK to headline the Non Stop stage at this year’s Slam Dunk festival at Leeds University. With a UK tour and an appearance at Download to come Bandidge set aside any hopes for serious journalism and climbed aboard the Zebrahead tour bus.

The slightly odd sight of three adult rockstars drinking beer while a Harry Potter film plays silently in the background greets Bandidge’s arrival on the bus and this added to the cheery greeting given by singer/ guitarist Matty Lewis and rapper Ali Tabatabbae set the mood for what was to follow.

It was clear that one thing was on the agenda. To make each other, and stand in drummer Chris Dalley, laugh as much as possible. Occasionally the band would get around to talking about music.

Over the course of the next 15 minutes the banter between the two would confuse and amuse in equal measure in one of the funniest yet strangest interviews of the year so far.

Your new album seems like a good place to start, from the videos you posted on youtube it looks like you had a lot of fun in the studio.

Ali: “Well actually we really don’t like each other very much so to be forced to spend that much time together.”

Matty: “I’m having a hard time right now looking at Ali.”

Ali: “We usually tend not to speak to each other much.”

Matty: Don’t look at me.

Ali: “And also…”

Matty: “Stop looking at me.”

Ali: “You keep saying that so I’ll look at you Matty. See this is why we don’t hang out.”

Matty: “This is why I can’t do it, I can’t do it anymore.”

Ali: “So pretty much the only thing that keeps us together is we’re really all into scat and prostitution and we tend to just hang out because of that.”

Matty: “It must be the prostitution because I don’t know what scat is.”

Ali: “Oh you don’t know what scat is?”

Matty: “No”

Ali: “It’s when I shit on your chest and you go thank you Ali.”

Matty: “I thought that was called… pooping on your chest.”

Matty: “It was a good time, it was a good time.”

General Laughter

Matty: “We’re sorry.”

Have there been any changes to the Zebrahead sound on the new record?

Ali: “Matty doesn’t suck as bad on this one.”

Matty: “Well you know, I don’t suck as bad.”

Ali: And what else?

Matty: “Ali raps Jay Z lyrics, it’s weird.”

Ali: “Yeah well I’m not very creative so if somebody has already done it why would I spend time. I’d rather watch porn and shit on people.”

Matty: “Scat, Scat, Scat. I think our sound is pretty much the same. It’s just a better version of it.”

Ali: “Ok we’ll do one serious answer. Are you ready? Here it goes. This is our second album with Matty and I think on this one it was a lot more comfortable because we kind of learnt how to write with each other and we weren’t feeling each other out as far as you know, what other people were capable of.

We kind of had an idea so we were focused on the songs and everyone had a clear vision of ultimately what we wanted the songs to sound like and I think it really comes across when you hear the album.”

Following recording your second album in the band have you become more comfortable with your live performances?

Matty: “Oh yeah. I was becoming more and more comfortable like half way through the touring cycle of the last record and now it’s like we’re all part of one. Except now we have to play a week of shows with a new drummer for a week.”

Ali: “Did you hear that story? It’s a great story. This is Chris he’s in a band called death by stereo who are friends of ours from back home and I’m a big fan of their band.”

Matty: “I’m not.”

Ali: “Our drummer Ed bought a motorcycle two days before we left for the tour and decided he wanted to have a beer shirtless, and shoeless, and go for a ride and he saw a cop. And I don’t think the cop even saw him but he freaked out and flipped his bike. The whole side of his body got messed up.”

Matty: “He’s got a scab or a scar that looks like the Wu Tang Clan and then he’s got what looks like a bullet hole. The reason why he couldn’t come was because he wouldn’t go to the doctor.”

Ali: “Do you know why he went to the doctor?”

Matty: “Why?”

Ali: “Because he called me and was like I’ll be fine, I’ll be fine. And I said Ed what happens when we’re in the UK and you get an infection. Shouldn’t you get some antibiotics or something before you go and he goes oh yeah. This was two days after his pussy, bloody foot was not healing so he had a major infection.”

He could have made use of the UK’s free health care.

Matty: “He could of.”

Ali : “But what the doctors had told him was that if he had flown with the amount of infection in his leg he could of got a blood clot and died.”

Matty: “Well his foot, he’s got fat feet. His left foot doubled in size and was freaking huge and it looks like a big football.”

Ali: “You know Fred Flintstone, he’s got one of those feet now.”

Are there any songs from the new record that you’re particularly proud of or are looking forward to playing live?

Matty: “We’re playing a new one tonight actually. It’s called Mental Health. I’m proud of all the songs. This record is our best yet and I’m very proud of it.”

Ali: “How many songs did we record all together eighteen?”

Matty: “Twenty. Not counting photographs nineteen.”

Ali: “I think out of the nineteen we’re probably going to end up putting like seventeen of them on there.”

Matty: “It’s going to be a big one.”

Ali: We’re pretty stoked about it.

Your last visit to the UK was as part of the Get Happy Tour with Bowling For Soup. What was that experience like and how did you get involved with the tour?

Matty: “That was a great time.”

Ali: “We had kind of known those guys through friends and they invited us out to play with them for those shows and it was really cool. The first day of the tour we new we were going to get along because we roll into our dressing room and Chris from Bowling For Soup had made little beer coozies for all of us with his face on holding a beer. And in each of the coozies was a joint and it said welcome to the tour.”

Matty: “Wow what a nice guy. That was a good time, all of the bands that were on it we had a good time with. Army of Freshmen and Bloodhound Gang.

Ali: “Everyone was really nice and it was a fun tour to watch.”

Are you looking forward to playing at Download next month?

Ali: “No (Everyone laughs) No I’m just kidding. We played that once before and it was really, really fun. The thing I love about the download festival is that the crowds are fucking nuts. If they don’t like you they will beat your ass down with bottles you know what I mean so you better have a good show.

With that sort of tension before you play you make sure you play good and you fucking play tight. Actually that was the show that the circle pit was so gnarly.”

Matty: “It was inside like the horse track and the circle pit was so huge, so massive, that the dust went everywhere and got all over the equipment and us.”

Ali: “The next day I woke up to sneeze and I sneezed out a shit load of dust.”

Matty: “It was amazing. I think we’re playing that same stage too.”

What is a typical day like for Zebrahead on tour?

Matty: “I usually wake up and throw the girl away and.”

Ali: “Well it’s a blow up doll but he calls it a girl.”

Matty: “I have to deflate her and put her in my bag.”

Ali: “And then he wakes me up and I take a big shit on his chest.”

Matty: “Scat, Scat, Scat.”

Ali: “And then we sound check usually and then after that if we’re low on cash Chris goes hooking and he brings back like fifteen quid or something and we go get some lunch.

Then we get ready for the show and while we’re getting ready for the show we have to slaughter fifteen live chickens which is hard because fifteen chickens a day is like.”

Matty: “It’s a lot of blood.”

Ali: “I mean where do you keep them you know.”

Matty: “In a trailer. Our trailer is full of chickens.”

Ali. “It’s a normal day really. I don’t know what other bands do.”

Matty: “I hope it’s normal.”

Ali: “Then we play the show and on the rider we have an order for at least five trannys so after the show we hang out with them.”

Matty: “My blow up doll is a tranny doll.”

Ali: “I mean it’s a normal day surely you do the same thing.”

Matty: “There’s a lot of down time.”

Chris: “You’re on a bus so there’s also a lot of sleeping involved. What else can you really do? You can walk around that’s always a good think. I loose weight on tour because I walk around so much. I don’t walk at home because there’s nothing to walk to except for gang members and bell taco.”

One of your songs is regularly used on World Wrestling Entertainment has that had an effect on your popularity?

Matty: “On iTunes that is the number two most downloaded song of ours. It had a huge impact on that. I think they just approached us one day and said Stacey Keibler, who it was going to be for originally, wanted a song.

So we wrote the song and then she went off to dancing with the stars or something like that and it got used for Maria instead.”

Ali: “The exciting part was that we got to bang Maria after we recorded the song.”

Matty: “Yeah Ali and I double teamed her.”

Chris: “Sounds like she was a Chicken on a rotisserie.”

Ali: “You said chicken dude, don’t forget we have to do the chickens before we play. Good old Maria, she’s hot.”

Matty: “She is hot.”

What is the song writing process like in Zebrahead?

Ali: “It depends if one of us has an idea, like if Matty has an idea he will call me on his AM radio because we don’t have cell phones and he’ll be like I have a guitar part and he’ll send it to me. I’ll put on something and then send it to Ed. It’s very collaborative.”

Your live performances feature a lot of crowd interaction has this helped to build a loyal fan base?

Ali: “No.”

Matty Laughs

Ali: “Why does everybody laugh? No you know what it is the crowds are always really cool and when it first started out it wasn’t really like that. So Matty came up with this brilliant idea and was like dude get tasers.

So we have these tasers set up at the side of the stage and if the crowd sucks we just taser shit. After a couple of them get tased the rest of them perk up real quick and they’re like wooo Zebrahead.”

Matty: “I think its called Pavlov’s theory.”

Ali: “And we lock the doors to so they can’t get out.”

Ali: “Chris is drunk I’m really sorry about his behaviour.”

Chris: “I’m not drunk.”

Ali: “I’m really embarrassed for him right now.”

Matty: “He’s out of control.”

Are you still in contact with Justin (Mauriello former Zebrahead frontman)?

Ali: “I haven’t talked to Justin since he left the band. We have some mutual friends that I run into every once in a while but I haven’t talked to him in a really long time. I know his band I Hate Kate but I haven’t been to any of their shows or anything. But Matty and him are tight.”

Matty: “We go water jet skiing.”

Ali: “He actually gets the chickens for us before every tour.”

Matty: “He’s the chicken handler. No, he’s the chicken wrangler.”

Ali: “Yeah he’s the chicken wrangler.”

Interview complete Ali asks if he can turn the tables and ask his own questions however the bands tour manager patiently reminds everyone that there is another interview waiting.

With that Bandidge makes its goodbyes and leaves Zebrahead to enjoy their Beer, Harry Potter and, apparently, their chickens.

Zebrahead’s new album ‘Phoenix’ is due for release on August 5^th.

Conditions Interview

This is the interview I carried out via email with Alex Howard from the band Conditions. It has been up at www.bandidge.com for about a week. Enjoy.

Conditions recently impressed a string of sold-out UK crowds opening for two of the biggest names in pop-rock New Found Glory and Paramore. Now the rising US rock band have caught up with Bandidge via the wonders of technology a matter of days after celebrating the release of Conditions debut E.P.. Alex Howard, one of the bands guitarists, gave us his thoughts on the Riot tour and explained why Bandidge readers should watch out for Conditions. 

Was opening for New Found Glory and Paramore on their UK tour a daunting experience for you?

”It wasn't really daunting in any way, we were all so freaking excited like little kids to get the opportunity to be with both of those bands. Paramore have become great friends of ours and have helped us out so much.

   “I've been listening to New Found Glory since I was like 12 years old, so to get the opportunity to get to know them, share my music with them, and even get to play a song in their set with them was more than I could ever ask for. That band has influenced me from such a young age that it was truly amazing to share the stage with them.”

 

How much did the praise given to you by both bands during the tour mean to you?

“It meant SO much! Paramore is just an all around amazing band. Their live show is flawless and they're such a tight unit, so having them compliment our live show meant a lot. New Found Glory is the most fun band I have ever seen live. I watched their set literally every night and it put me in such a good mood every time. They know how to put on a show, so their kind words definitely meant a lot.”

 

Do you feel you got a good response from the UK crowds and if so has it increased your desire to do your own international tours in the future?

“The UK crowds were absolutely amazing to us! We all felt like we had such a good response, and it was so relieving because support bands don't always get a lot of love, but we honestly can't think of any nights on the tour that the crowd wasn't great to us. We would absolutely love to come back soon whether it be on our own or with another great tour like this past one.”

 

Has there been any interest in signing you by any major record labels yet?

“There have been some talks with a wide variety of labels, but just that so far, only talks.”

 

Your debut EP will be released shortly, what was the recording process for that like?

“We actually recorded the EP in 2 separate sessions in 2007, and both times were great. It was produced by Paul Leavitt (Senses Fail, The Bled) in Baltimore, MD, and we totally connected with Paul right off the bat. He is great at what he does and made the process easy and a lot of fun.”

 

How would you best describe the Conditions sound and what are your main influences?

“As many artists we absolutely hate trying to pinpoint our "sound," but I guess we would respond with minor key, catchy rock. We have a wide array of influences amongst all the band members, but some big ones for all of us would be Thrice and Radiohead, which may or may not come across in our music. We just write music that is energetic and we would love to hear.”

 

If you had to suggest one of your songs to try and win over new fans which would you choose and why?

“Most of the time we show new listeners "Keeping Pace With Planes." It's a pretty good summary of how we are because it's got its heavy parts but also has some pretty catchy lines and chorus.”

 

When you played in Leicester your live performance and stage presence seemed very well developed how long have you been playing together as a band?

“We have been playing together for just over a year. We have totally hit it off together since the beginning, and the fact that 3 of our 5 guys have been playing together since high school.”

 

You were all smartly attired on stage, is style something that is important to your band?

“Style does make a difference to us in some ways. Different bands have their different "looks," and some people may call us pretty boys or whatever they'd like, but we just like to take care of the way we look. People that come out to a show and see us for the first time will definitely judge us on the way we look, and we hope the way we look doesn't make them want to turn the other way, haha.”

 

Do you have any particular goals or things you want to achieve within the next year?

“We would love to tour as much as possible throughout the whole year, as well as team up with a great label to take us to the next level.”

 

Will any new fans you have made outside the US be able to get their hands on your new EP?

“Our EP will become available through online retailers like iTunes, Smartpunk, and Interpunk in late March, so they should be able to order it from there.”

With a tight live show and some impressive songs at their disposal should their debut get the attention it deserves from labels and music fans Conditions are a band that could go places very quickly indeed. Being able to name check the likes of Hayley Williams and Jordan Pundik as friends shouldn’t do any harm either. Keep an eye on these boys they could be huge.

Lincoln Live Scene post 1

This is my first blog post for Lincoln Live Scene a new online guide to local Lincoln bands which I am developing along with a group of journalism students. Two weeks ago (Friday 22nd of February to be precise) I attended the Bivouac gig night at the Duke of Wellington Pub, Lincoln. This was actually the second time I had been to the night but the week before's event featured only one halfway decent metal band playing to a small largely un-responsive and un-interested crowd whom it seemed were there simply beacuse they were the family of the headline indie act who as it turned out were awful. So awful in fact that they failed to notice that the PA wasn't working until halfway through their first song. Should anybody feel inclined to find out more the indie band were called Esteem. I'm told the metal band were called def-nation. However it was a case of second time lucky as the 22nd saw two rather good and two rather less good bands playing to a larger and conisderably more inspired crowd. The band of the night were without doubt Drive By Theory whose blend of indie and pop punk rock was well recieved by the crowd. Set highlights were the songs 'Paris' and 'Fistfights in the front room'. I am due to be meeting the band for a chat in a few weeks so keep an eye out for that as DBT are definitely a band to watch. The band before, 'This Day Remains' from Grantham, were pretty impresive too. They were another pop-rock band and their singer had a lot of charisma and stage presence for such a young band. The band also gave out free copies of their E.P at the end of their set. To find out more about the Bivouac night and the bands mentioned above see the full reviews on the Lincoln Live Scene website when it is up and running.

New Found Glory Interview

Here is my interview with Chad and Cyrus from New Found Glory.

Veteran punk rockers New Found Glory returned to the UK this month to tour with one of last years breakout bands and seemingly NFG’s new best mates Paramore.

Since splitting with record label MCA New Found Glory have been busy doing really anything they please including spending last Summer on the Warped Tour and headlining the lock up stage of last years Reading and Leeds festivals before starting work on their Album of Movie song covers.

Called From The Screen To Your Stereo Part II it followed up a similar project made for Drive-Thru records back in 2000 which featured songs such as My Heart Will Go On and I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing.

FTSTYS part II was also released on Drive-Thru and hit UK stores earlier this month. This time around NFG called in collaborations from some of their big name friends including Taking Back Sunday’s Adam Lazzara and Fall Out Boy’s Patrick Stump.

The video for the EP’s cover of Kiss Me featured Paramore highlighting the growing friendship between the two bands and as a result it was no real surprise to anyone when they announced they would be touring the UK together. Although the fact that NFG would be supporting the younger and still relatively new band raised one or two eyebrows.

Bandidge caught up with Cyrus Bolooki and Chad Gilbert from NFG before the tours show at Leicester’s De Montfort Hall.

Do you feel that being the support band for the first time in a while has meant there has been no pressure on you and that you can just go out there and perform?

Chad: “I think New Found Glory never really feels pressure any more doing shows because we have such a die hard fan base and this show is awesome because although we are not closing it still doesn’t feel like we’re a support band its more just like a show you know, it’s like a special guest kind of thing. You know a lot of our fans are here and then a lot of new fans to that have never heard of us before so it’s super easy because we play our songs and our fans go crazy then all the kids want to be a part of it that don’t know us so they go crazy you know it’s really fun.”

Cyrus: “I think we’re really excited to be back out here because we really love to be outside of America, in England, Europe you know anywhere else it’s really fun to be back out here.”

With Paramore all being under the age of 21 have you been taking advantage of the younger drinking age here in the UK to lead them astray?

Chad: “They’re really not that type you know they’ve come out a couple of the times to like a club or a bar or something and they’ve come and hung out with us but it’s not really their thing. I mean I don’t drink either but I like going out to the bars and stuff.”

Cyrus: “I think the good thing about them is even though they’re young and kind of a newer band you can already tell that they have their heads on like straight and they’re focused on what they’re doing.”

How did you pick the tracks on your new Album From The Screen To Your Stereo Part II, and how did some of the collaborations come about?

Chad: “The way we picked the songs is really a combination of things like one we tried to find movies that we like with good songs but a lot of movies we like have bad songs or vice versa a lot of good songs are from bad movies so there’s a bunch of reasons. I mean we tried to find songs that we can make sound like New Found Glory sticking to the movie theme.”

Cyrus: “Make sure that our singer still sounds right and doesn’t sound too much like a girl. Sometimes it’s hard because a lot of the songs that we picked had girl singers and were just different types of bands to us. We always found a way to kind of make them our own. And then collaborations we just had a lot of friends we wanted. We called out to a whole bunch of people to see if they could work with us, people that we felt would work well on each song.”

What songs will your upcoming EP The Tip Of The Iceberg have on it and what sort of sound will they have?

Chad: “That is just three New Found Glory originals that are like super fast kind of more our older style of songs, like super fast hardcore type songs. Still melodic because Jordan always sounds melodic when the music is a little bit heavier.”

Cyrus: “Like edgier”

Chad: “And then three songs from older bands that we listened to growing up. You know the movie covers are songs that are just kind of guilty pleasure joke songs, but the songs that are on The Tip Of The Iceberg that we cover are actually songs that you know were influential that inspired us to play our music.”

Has picking the tracks for your Hits album made you take stock as a band and look back at how much you have changed in the last ten years?

Cyrus: “I don’t know that it’s necessarily how much we’ve changed I think it’s just if anything it’s a great collection and it’s like a good summary of what we feel is almost like the first chapter in our band. Like I think right now the best thing about the greatest hits is it’s almost like it shows what’s ahead of us. That’s like you know what we’ve done for the last ten years and they are awesome songs and there is such a good mix of songs on there including like a song that we never really released situation and B sides as well so I think you know we don’t have to look back and necessarily see how much we’ve changed but we really look to what is coming and we have so much coming.out like with the tip of the iceberg ep and a new record we’re planning on doing in the summer so there is a lot to look forward to.”

Your last album Coming Home dealt with more personal issues then and had a more mature sound to it then your previous records will this continue on your next album when you record it?

Chad: “I think lyrically, I mean all of our songs are always personal, I think musically though we are going to, its going to be a step forward in the sense that we’re going to write a new completely different kind of record it’s not going to sound like Coming Home. It will be like a different style but it will be more energetic, like, more like a live record. Like a live friendly record you know.”

In recent years there has been a trend for American punk bands to make quite political records. Is that something you have ever been tempted to do?

Chad: “I feel like a lot of bands in the punk genre sing about political things just because they feel they need to and they don’t always know what they’re talking about because you can go up to them after a show and start talking to them.

“We are a sincere band and we don’t really like singing about things that we aren’t a hundred percent into you know just because we want to be political. A lot of bands have tried to pull the political card to try and get respect you know and”

Cyrus: “It’s not really us.”

Chad: “No it’s not our thing.”

You’re currently not signed to a major label have you signed a deal with anyone to record your next album yet?

Cyrus: “We haven’t done that yet we’re still looking and I think we have a good idea in what direction we’re going to go but like I was saying earlier it’s just really cool and really exciting for us right now because we can go anywhere.”

Do you feel that not being signed to a major label has allowed you to be more creative with what you have been doing recently?

Cyrus: “Creative, Yeah. I think if you look at what we’ve put out in the last six months definitely it’s a wide mix from covers of crazy kind of random bands to like our stuff.”

Chad: “We’ve never really had pressure from labels. We’ve always been creative. You know even on our original albums we’ve never had pressure from labels to write a certain style of music.”

Cyrus: “They let us do what we want to do, what we do best.”

Ian (Grushka, NFG bass player) recently started his own clothing label how is that going?

Chad: “King Doula? He just started some t-shirts. It’s kind of funny because we’re like we’re all five different people and Ian you know when we do t-shirt designs we never really use Ian’s ideas because they are so like whack, not like err.”

Cyrus: “They’re out there”

Chad: “Yeah they’re like out of whack with what New Found Glory is you know so this was a cool thing for him to do to have his own ideas.”

Will you be doing your own tour of the UK anytime soon?

Cyrus: “November, we’re coming back in November.”

New Found Glory are clearly a band that are happy just to be on the road playing their music and despite a crowd reaction somewhat less frenzied crowd reaction then they normally receive the band showed in Leicester why they are one of the best pop punk bands in the world. NFG’s set must surely have made an impression on the kids who had stayed up past bed time to make the trip to see Paramore.

And when Chad said he didn’t feel pressure during shows he really wasn’t joking casually playing literally every instrument on the stage during NFG’s set which ended all too quickly. Even drummer Cyrus got in on the act playing the second half of the bands set closing rendition of My Friends Over You.

It will be interesting to see if this tour has any effect on the average age of the crowd when New Found Glory bring their own tour to the UK in November.

This interview also appeared online at http://www.bandidge.com/interviews/n_nfgint You can also see photos of the interview and gig taken by Kev Grange at www.BADesign.deviantart.com.