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My name is Nils Hay.
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Gig Review: Soundwave Festival 2011, RNA Showgrounds Brisbane - 26th Feb 2011
Soundwave’s back for another year and bigger than ever – to accommodate this year’s mammoth line-up, organisers have allowed the festival to spill across both sides of Gregory Terrace, so if the moshpit doesn’t get me sweating on this warm summer’s day, the dash between stages certainly will.
Like many others, I ease myself into the festival (and attempt to squeeze into the already packed area around Stage 4) for Swedish punk rockers and local festival favourites, Millencolin. Almost 11 years to the day since the release of the quartet’s breakthrough album Pennybridge Pioneers, they treat the crowd to an upbeat sampling of their 18-year career and get everyone singing along for their closing number ‘The Ballad’.
A brisk walk to the far side of the showgrounds finds me at Stage 3 where Sevendust frontman Lajon Witherspoon is conjuring a sea of hands up from the audience. Pretty soon the Georgia five-piece have the front section jumping along as they overlay huge guitar riffs with their three-part vocals. It’s still a little early for some of the attempted crowd-hyping, but just because they aren’t willing to scream back at the top of their lungs doesn’t mean they aren’t enjoying themselves.
With a huge burst of noise and energy, Londoners Rise To Remain take stage next door. They look young, and put that youthful energy into jumping around the stage while lead guitarist, Ben Tovey, does some serious shredding. With a new (Colin Richardson-produced) album on its way later this year, they play ‘The Serpent’, just a taste of what the metalcore quartet has in store, but more than enough to get a circle pit going.
While waiting in line for a drink and pondering the purchase of a Nutella croissant (which probably constitutes some kind of metal festival faux pas), I notice a cover of Jimmy Eat World’s ‘The Middle’ and female shrieking coming from Stage 5B. Intrigued, I stumble upon We The Kings, a powerpop four-piece out of Florida. After a couple of comments like “we would crowdsurf and make out with you all” followed by the band shedding their shirts and encouraging the audience to “party by getting naked”, it’s becoming pretty clear that they’re definitely out to get as much of the 14-16 year-old female market as they can. To the squealing delight of the crowd, they’ll be back later this year to support Good Charlotte. And get another serve of tenderoni.
On the hunt for something with a little more substance, I’m rewarded for making the trek back to Stage 4, which has cleared out a little by now, for The Gaslight Anthem. Frontman Brian Fallon may sound a little gruff, but he generously invites a couple of fans on-stage and even resists kicking them back off when his suggestion that they watch from the side of stage are ignored and they dance around with the band instead. The band’s mix of rock, earnest punk and Americana may not have attracted the biggest crowd of the day so far, but it’s a devoted one; huge swaths singing along to last year’s hit single ‘American Slang’, and they’re rewarded with an outstanding performance.
They had large chunks of the crowd in front of Stage 1 jumping along with their fists in the air, but if Stone Sour spent more time playing their set and less time yelling “ARE YOU READY?!” they would probably be able to finish on time, rather than eat into the minutes when, frankly, I would much rather be listening to Primus (and finding out exactly why they are joined on stage by Buzz and Neil, a pair of 15ft high inflatable astronauts). The superbly quirky trio offer no comment on their stage companions, but between Les Claypool’s unearthly bass solos – which include a blistering stint on a “pain in the ass” six-string for ‘Jerry Was A Race Car Driver’ – Larry LaLonde’s huge guitar licks and Claypool’s further antics in a pig-mask, the set delivers on many levels. There is some intense dissatisfaction however when the band finish (on time) leaving some material unplayed. There’s no point yelling at the slowly deflating astronauts though; Stone Sour’s Corey Taylor is the man who should be blamed.
Before I have the chance to get too angry though, Slash takes the stage, and I get just a little perplexed. There is no denying that the man is an icon in his own right, and has been responsible for some downright incredible guitar lines in his time. It’s the ‘his time’ part that perhaps I have issue with. His new band, try as they might, can only really get a reaction from the crowd for Guns’N’Roses hits like ‘Sweet Child O’ Mine’ and ‘Paradise City’. As much Slash swaggers in his trademark hat, and as good as the guitar-work remains, it’s hard to see exactly where this man now fits in the current musical landscape.
Slayer, another of the day’s drawcards, appear before two large, neat piles of Marshall speakers. It’s hard to describe the sound of the thrash metal icons (now in their thirtieth year) without getting self-referential; you don’t compare Slayer to other bands, you compare other bands to Slayer. Even today, with Exodus guitarist Gary Holt filling in for Jeff Hanneman, it’s hard not talk about the explosive drumming and breakneck guitar work bellowing forth from those speakers in terms of anything besides Slayer. ‘South Of Heaven’ and ‘Raining Blood’ prove highlights, and despite their gradual advancement in years, it’s hard not to be impressed by the sheer force of sound that the band still pumps out.
While a little younger, Zack de la Rocha, is now in his 40s, and – like the gents in Slayer before him – has not let age dull his powerful conviction. As ferocious a frontman as ever, with One Day As A Lion, he is using keyboards and synths, to generate organ-liquefying amounts of bass while (Mars Volta drummer) Jon Theodore is relegated to the occasional percussive burst. Talented and fiery as de la Rocha remains, the ODAAL set-up lacks the musical depth and variation of his previous project, Rage Against The Machine, and left me fantasising that Tom Morello would walk out and they would play ‘Guerrilla Radio’, or, you know, something good.
With five albums (of something good) to choose from, Queens Of The Stone Age run with a little bit from all of them; trotting out material from Avon to Sick, Sick, Sick. There’s a brief technical glitch which gives frontman Josh Homme the chance to banter with the crowd (and neck some vodka) but, on the whole, the black-clad quintet are staying on task and producing a solid, but not stellar performance. Closer, ‘No One Knows’, with its extended guitar solo adds a cherry to what was otherwise a consistently excellent, but otherwise vanilla set.
At this point, I went off in search of sustenance, and found – by happy coincidence – The Melvins. With a few of the headliners appearing on the other stages, it was sparsely populated by comparison at Stage 3, but that didn’t take anything away from an incredible performance. The grunge icons have, in recent years, added a second drummer to their band and now – as a quartet that is 50% percussion – have a formidable sound. The truly impressive aspect of their set though, is the synchronicity in the drums – from their slower passages while the men in front throw out bass and guitar solos – to rapid fills and solos, they literally do not miss a beat. Sure they’re another member of today’s lineup with over 25 years behind them, and the bassist’s spangled cape probably wasn’t the most hip choice, and yes the fuzzy hair is from a bygone era, but they are nonetheless nothing short of compelling.
Of course, this all brings us to the festival headliners, Iron Maiden, and their two-hour slot. Ignoring the two-tiered set that looks like some kind of moon-base, and ignoring the gigantic backdrops with album art that would swoop in for their relevant songs, (as if you can) frontman Bruce Dickinson is a man, who above all else, knows how to play to a crowd. Sure, he hits every note, but beyond that, he races all over the stage, changing outfits, waving flags and exercising a penchant for the dramatic that is rarely seen in modern music. To thunderous cheering from the completely packed amphitheatre, he dedicates ‘Blood Brothers’ to the victims of the Christchurch earthquake, and his undeniably charming British manner has probably made many wonder over the years how such a nice man become one of the most notable men in metal. The new album, The Final Frontier gets a fair shake, but with this much time, the big singles certainly aren’t neglected. By the time the encore rolls around and ‘Number Of The Beast’ begins, I can’t be the only one wondering just how the organisers are going to improve on this for next year.
Interview: Moose - Bullet For My Valentine
(This interview was originally published on LiveGuide on 23rd Feb 2011 in condensed form. What follows is the full transcript of my conversation with Moose from Bullet For My Valentine from 25th Jan 2011.)
NH: Hey Moose, this is Nils. How are you going?
Michael ‘Moose’ Thomas: What’s happening man, how are you?
NH: Very well thank you. Where have I caught you today?
MT: I’m in my kitchen, drinking cider.
NH: Half your luck! So you’re back home in Wales at the moment then?
MT: Yep.
NH: Alright, kicking off, you’re about to come out to tour Australia, which includes the Soundwave Festivals along with a bunch of sideshows. You guys have done an Australian tour every single year since 2007. What keeps you coming back?
MT: Ummm… Our love for your beer? (Laughs)
NH: It is good beer…
MT: Every time we come down the crowd is just amazing and we do very well down there. It’s like a second home for us, we love coming down. The only thing that sucks is that it’s so far away and it takes us ages to get there.
NH: I guess that’s why, with big touring bands, we tend not to get the kind of attention you guys give us; because we’re a small country, population-wise, and so far from everything. So the fact that you guys do it every year, five years in a row, that’s pretty awesome.
The Soundwave lineup this year is pretty incredible too - you’re playing alongside Iron Maiden, Slayer, Slash, Rob Zombie and dozens of others. When you’re at a festival do you get a chance to see many other bands or it is pretty much just work, work, work for you guys?
MT: No, we’re on pretty early, which is nice for us. Especially on this tour. We’re going to be off and then we can go and watch whoever we want to watch really.
NH: Cool. Over the last decade, you’ve played with a number of the other bands on the Soundwave bill, when you’re backstage do you catch up with everyone? Is it a fairly sociable thing back there?
MT: Yeah. I’m good friends with Mr. Dave Lombardo from Slayer and I can’t wait to see him; we’ll be hanging out with those guys. 36 Crazyfists took us out on our first ever tour of the UK, when we were unsigned… Iron Maiden, they took us out on tour before and were really nice, so hopefully we get to say hello - although you never know what security is going to be like these days… There’s a few, and hopefully we make some new friends too.
NH: Of course. Judging from what I’ve seen on Bullet TV, the band enjoys having some fun and running amok from time to time - does it ever get rowdy backstage?
MT: After the show, yeah, definitely. I remember one time in a European festival we threw a party and made all our techs get all the speakers out and stuff - and we were right behind the main stage - while Motorhead were playing, and we got told to turn it down because they could hear it on stage.
NH: Did Lemmy come back and tell you off personally?
MT: No, he was too busy performing.
NH: You toured the new album, Fever, here last September, are you bringing any new material for next month’s shows, or will the set just feature a bit more from your previous two albums?
MT: I think it’ll probably be equal of all albums because we’ve only got a limited time. We haven’t written the set yet though, so it could change.
NH: When you guys are out here, do you get much a chance to travel around and see the country, or is this a fairly tight tour?
MT: I think we’ve got four days off in one place and we love Australian red wine, it’s our favourite thing to drink, so if we’ve got four days off a couple of us are going to fly into McLaren Vale.
NH: OK. That doesn’t strike me a particularly metal thing to do, but that’s very cool.
MT: Yeah, either that or we’ll just go to the pub and get hammered.
NH: Haha, sweet. I’ve noticed, just from looking at your tour schedule, once you’ve done the Australian tour, you have a couple of dates in Japan and Germany but there are no shows scheduled between about March and Download Festival in June. What is happening there? Is there a new album in the works? Are you guys taking a break?
MT: We’re penciling in an American tour, so that’s going to happen sometime, and after Download Festival I think we’re going to start writing a new album.
NH: OK, cool. You guys have been playing together since the band was Jeff Killed John back in ‘98. Do you ever feel like you need a break from each other, given the amount of time you spend together on the road?
MT: Yeah, I did. Not from my friends in the band, just from music in general. It’s lucky we’ve had this time off because it was starting to feel like a job.
NH: I’ve noticed that from some of the interviews you were doing late last year - you guys saying that it is starting to feel more like work and less like fun. It’s good that you’re taking a break to unwind and blow that steam off.
MT: This year, definitely. We sat down with our management and said “In 2011, we don’t want to go out for six months at a time. We want to do a month, come home, do whatever’s beneficial for us as a band to keep it fresh and exciting rather than just piss us off.
NH: As you guys get older too, you’ve got girlfriends, I know that (bassist) Jay (James) has a daughter, it must be getting harder, with family and that kind of thing to stay in touch with everyone when you spend so much time on the road…
MT: Yeah, it is really bad. I suffered last year because of my touring; my partner left me and took my children and stuff, so I only get to see them now once a week when I’m home. (Lead singer) Matthew (Tuck) is just become a father as well, so we’re definitely going to slow touring down a bit.
NH: I imagine your priorities change as that sort of thing happens, for sure.
MT: Yeah, but we still love the band - before anything else.
NH: You guys were all born and bred in Wales, obviously you’re there at the moment, as of now, you are probably one of the highest profile Welsh acts on the global tour. What’s it like for you at home, are you pretty big back in Wales as well?
MT: Musically, yeah, we are; we just played the Arena in Cardiff, which is our capital city. I dunno, I just walk around like I’ve always walked around really. I don’t walk around as much as I used to, I don’t think Matthew can walk around as freely as I can, that’s the difference between being the singer or drummer.
NH: Yeah, you can hide a little more easily than he can.
MT: Yeah, it’s great.
NH: What was the music scene like there are you were growing up? Obviously, the band has a lot of thrash influences, the likes of Metallica and Pantera… but were there any Welsh bands that you also looked up to as well?
MT: Not really, no. We’d always hear about Budgie and stuff - have you heard of Budgie?
NH: Yeah.
MT: Obviously Metallica covered a song of theirs… But locally for us, it was more cover bands and that type of thing.
NH: Going back to the current album, Fever, it’s been really well received the world over, #3 in the States, #5 here and I think #1 in Japan, and it’s a lot more vocally focused than your previous, Scream, Aim, Fire. Is this the kind of sound you think you’ll be taking the new album in as well, or is it a bit early to tell?
MT: A bit early to tell, but we all love Fever and we all think it’s our best album to date and if it’s not broke don’t fix it. It may be similar to Fever, or we may want to piss loads of people off and we’ll just do a death metal album. (Laughs)
NH: I was going to ask a little about that, because from what I’ve been reading, one of the reasons Scream, Aim, Fire had the sound that it did is because you wanted to prove to critics of your debut album, Poison, that you could be a bit more metal. Then, with Fever, you basically said “Stuff it, we’re just going to make music we want to make and if people like it, they like it.” Do you find that as the band goes along you’re getting less influenced by what the outside world is saying about the music?
MT: Yeah. We released our first album (Poison) and it did really well, we all liked it and of course we worked hard doing it - then we had all these people reviewing it be they metal fans or death metal fans putting it down. We were like “Fuck you, we’re metal fans and we can write a metal album.” Being young and being naive it was the wrong thing to do.
So with the latest album we just said “Fuck everyone else” because that’s what we’d done for Poison; we’d just written songs that we liked writing and we felt comfortable writing, so that’s what we did.
NH: Okay. As much as obviously you want to make the music you want to make, does the fact you’re following up a really popular album put extra pressure into the process?
MT: It will, definitely, but we’re not going to release anything if we feel it’s not good enough to release.
NH: How does the writing process work for you guys, is the entire band involved, or does Matt do the lyrics? How does it go?
MT: We just book X amount of months and we just get in a room and jam. If anything catches we just work on it and finish the song, Jay and Padge (guitarist Mike Paget) will leave and myself and Matthew will make it tighter and add a few more bits if they’re needed. Then we go to the studio to record it and then Matt will do lyrics and vocals and stuff.
NH: Talking videos, late last year, you shot Bittersweet Memories and Fever - the 3rd & 4th singles off the album - the Bittersweet Memories clip is up, showing Matt in an abandoned shopping mall and running in the rain. Has the Fever clip dropped yet? When’s that due?
MT: We did do a video for Fever, but we didn’t like it so we’re not going to release it.
NH: Are there plans to do another one, or are you just going to leave it?
MT: I think we’re just going to leave it, which is a shame, because that song deserves a good video, and that’s why we didn’t release it because it just wasn’t good enough. We felt it was disappointing so we didn’t release it.
NH: From what I saw in the making of, Bittersweet Memories was shot in this abandoned shopping centre. Where did that idea come from?
MT: Me and Matt sat down, because we originally shot Fever and Bittersweet memories in LA and we felt that both weren’t good enough. Because we were shooting Bittersweet in London and we were after a story, me and Matt sat down and wrote it and sent it off to directors.
NH: Do you enjoy doing the film clips, or would you rather be playing, writing or elsewhere?
MT: This is the first film clip we’ve actually done and wrote ourselves, so that’s definitely something that we’d do again. It’s not a major thing, music is #1, we’re not going to waste money on rubbish videos anymore though.
NH: When you were growing up, did you dream of being a drummer in a rock band? Is this what you’ve wanted to do your whole life?
MT: No, I actually played guitar first and I wanted to play guitar. It was really annoying because I bought cassettes, I’d listen to Nirvana and Metallica and all I could hear was drums and I was really pissed off because I didn’t want to be a drummer, but apparently I gave in.
NH: One thing you touched on earlier is that as the drummer, you tend to be a little less in the limelight than the other guys, certainly less than Matt. I saw you interviewed late last year and you said that if it wasn’t like that, you probably wouldn’t have lasted this long. Are you not a huge fan of all the publicity that the band receives?
MT: No. I get to go up there, play in front of thousands of people, be a rockstar for X amount of time and I think it’d be horrible if I was not able to walk around and just be a normal person. That’d really piss me off.
NH: You’re happy to be a rock star for an hour a day on stage and then when you walk off, it’s over…
MT: Yeah. I can live with that.
NH: If the band hadn’t worked out, what do you think you would’ve done instead? Would you have still been in music or was there something else you nearly ended up doing?
MT: No, music was always number one for me since I was 14 years old, so that’s always what I wanted to do. I wouldn’t mind being a butcher though.
NH: Really? Why a butcher?
MT: I don’t know, I’ve always just thought that, or a fireman for some reason, I don’t know.
NH: A butcher at least would be quite therapeutic, if you had any rage you’d be able to get it out quite easily…
MT: Yeah, maybe a butcher’s a bit like a drummer, you just smack things…
NH: We’re running really low on time, but finally, what are you looking forward to most about coming back to Australia?
MT: Good crowds, great country, nice beer. It’s a good time.
NH: Moose, thanks so much for taking the time for a chat and we look forward to having you - and the rest of Bullet For My Valentine - back on our shores at the end of the month.
MT: Cool. We look forward to it.
Gig Review: Amanda Palmer / Mikelangelo & The Tin Star / Tom Dickins, The Old Museum - 12th Feb 2011
You have to feel a little sorry for Amanda Palmer; she picked a difficult show to film.
Tom Dickins – one half of The Jane Austen Argument – gets the evening off to a jovial start with his black-feathered wings, and wry humour from behind the keyboard. Mikelangelo & The Tin Star follow, the eponymous frontman lending his baritone voice and larger-than-life onstage persona to the quartet’s country and surf-influenced rock. They are joined for a couple of tracks by Saint Clare who alternately adds her vocals and go-go dancing to the performance. Cheesy though it may be, everyone is well and truly warmed up.
Emerging from the crowd to rapturous applause, the opening number ‘Missed Me’ is confident, boisterous and – with Mikelangelo & The Tin Star staying on as backing band – exactly the kind of entrance one would have expected from tonight’s headline act. It’s about two-thirds of the way through ‘Astronaut’ that the trouble starts; beginning with the sudden death of the keyboard. Several minutes into bantering with the assembled masses and pleading with the sound engineers, the set list is reorganised and Palmer switches to sultry lounge-singer mode for ‘Doctor Oz’ – one of the centrepieces of her recent release, Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under.
Barely back in her stride, the screaming of an overzealous fan in the front row brings proceedings to a halt again. Amanda’s sweetest entreaties have no effect – if anything the attention increases the intensity of the yelling and adds to the general audience’s distraction. Taking advantage of an eventual lull, Palmer attempts to finish the song, only for her microphone to drop out.
“Whose idea was it to film Brisbane?” She queries the cameramen roving around the room.
Then, a miracle, the keyboard has been resurrected and it seems the set can be rebooted. Why, at this juncture, a small but vocal minority decide to lower the already-embarrassingly low standard of punter behaviour remains unknown – but it only takes so much mid-song calling out before, during ‘Australia’, tears form in the eyes of tonight’s star and she chokes up. It takes this: for the continuation of the entire show to be on shaky ground, to silence them. There is little doubt that plenty of artists would have pulled the pin at this point, walked off and had a stiff drink – instead though Palmer ploughs on (while one of her assistants brings the stiff drink to her on stage).
It now feels like a conscious decision has been made to play out the show and, regardless of what else happens; attach some positive memories to the night. The set list is out the window and the crowd are invited to give requests. These are scattered amongst new tracks like ‘Vegemite’ and old favourites including ‘Coin Operated Boy’ – the performance growing more compelling with each bar. By the time Saint Clare returns to boogie to the chorus of ‘Twist And Shout’ – which has been thrust in the midst of ‘Oasis’ - the night’s dramas have been largely replaced by a roomful of cavorting people.
A brief curtain-call later (presumably for Amanda to put on her My Little Pony merkin) and the band is back with largely-naked dancers for new track ‘Map Of Tasmania’. Having once again become the confident and boisterous performer who started the show, Palmer closes the night out with ‘Leeds United’. In hindsight, the cameras were unnecessary; this show won’t be forgotten for some time.
Gig Review: Foster the People / Mitzi, The Zoo - 13th Feb 2011
Mitzi’s disco revivalism is hitting The Zoo for the first time. While the vocals are suffering from a lack of clarity – no thanks to the cymbal fuzz – that’s to take nothing away from the local five-piece and their catchy mix of live and synthesised beats, keys and guitar licks; they certainly aren’t struggling to coax the dancers out of the crowd.
The crowd are in a dancing mood though, as tonight’s headliners are discovering. Launching a whirlwind East Coast tour (and their maiden tour outside of the USA) California’s Foster The People harness keyboard-driven pop, with plenty of synth and effects thrown in, while the quintet’s percussion and guitars take supporting roles. The drums’ influence – live and electronic – is waxing and waning; from barely a cymbal tap to a tribal outburst requiring the full effort of two-fifths of the band; either way it has the crowded room heaving. With this energetic performance and a suite of feel-good pop tunes, the reason for the hype behind the band is evident. The audience already know all the words to Pumped Up Kicks and positively erupt for current single Helena Beat; it’s largely irrelevant that the set is barely 40 minutes long, quality trumping quantity once again.
Gig Review: Foals / Last Dinosaurs, The Great Northern Hotel - 2nd Feb 2011
As the line to enter begins stretching its way down Jonston St, Brisbane’s Last Dinosaurs are letting their rock licks loose on the rapidly swelling sell-out crowd. They play a polished and upbeat set – the pinnacle of which, ‘Honolulu’ - causes a bout of dancing to break out. The four lads are entirely unafraid to throw out some reverb and jump around, but much of the audience seems to be conserving energy for tonight’s headline appearance.
FOALS’ initial appeal for me started back in 2008 with the release of Antidotes; at that time their math-rock and almost-shy post-punk was engaging as much because of its novelty as anything else. Last year’s release, the Mercury Music Prize-nominated Total Life Forever, underscored the Oxford quintet’s adoption of some more upbeat rock techniques and a move towards the mainstream, during this time - due to the growing prevalence of post-punk and dance-punk - the mainstream was also coming to them. Consequently, while their sound may not be as unique as it once was, it is now more varied and – importantly from a live point of view – loaded with potential for energetic bursts of the irresistibly danceable. The question remaining to be answered was just how that potential would translate in reality.
Given that the crowd are singing along from the opening of ‘Blue Blood’, and then also clapping as the set builds into ‘Olympic Airways’ it’s almost surprising that it’s taken until ‘Total Love Forever’ (about eight minutes into the set) before a vast swath of the packed-out room loses all control. Pausing briefly to tell everyone how much the band is enjoying their maiden trip to Byron Bay, the bouncing, heaving mosh returns for ‘Miami’.
As much attention as the new material is receiving, it’s the frenetically charged ‘Cassius’ that sees frontman Yannis Philipakkis take advantage of his cordless guitar and charge headlong into the crowd. By this time, everyone’s in need of a breather and the pace slackens off a little mid-set, however ‘Balloons’ heavy, distorted guitar break, and the wild instrumental interlude in ‘After Glow’ are keeping heart rates from returning to normal. By the time ‘Heart Swells’ builds to its crescendo one thing has become incredibly apparent: Would-be rock stars, go out and buy a cordless axe; the amount of enjoyment that Yannis both received and generated scaling the side-of-stage speaker stack, stage-diving and engaging in general crowd-invasion is immeasurably large. You don’t want to worry about wires getting in the way of that.
With the band having ducked off for a towel-down and a breather, drummer Jack Bevan comes back early to silence the masses imploring for more. A drum solo later and the band are back on, bringing the curtain (and the house) down with ‘French Open’ and ‘Two Steps, Twice’ while Yannis takes a final stroll around the room and a pair of stage-invaders are lobbed back into the still-roiling mosh.
For those who just skipped to the end wondering how that huge potential would work in a live setting; as it turns out, really goddamn well.
Interview: Mark Foster - Foster The People
(Originally published in condensed form on LiveGuide on 11th Feb 2011, following is my full conversation with Mark Foster, frontman of Foster The People, on 25th Jan 2011)
NH: Hi Mark, how are you?
Mark Foster: Good Nils, how are you going?
NH: Very well thanks. Where have I caught you today? In LA?
MF: I’m about an hour south of LA in Costa Mesa, we’re playing a show tonight here.
NH: Alright. Cool. What time is it over there?
MF: It’s about seven minutes to 8pm.
NH: OK. When do you guys go on?
MF: I think we go on at 11.30.
NH: Oh sweet, fairly late then.
Alright, well starting with the band; you guys formed as I understand back in October 2009 - prior to which you’d been playing solo acoustic. Can you tell me a little bit about why and how you the other members came together?
MF: Yeah, I’d been a solo artist for a while and I’d been writing song after song after song - you know, I love being in the studio - it’s my favourite place; I love to write songs and I love to produce songs. I was just locked up in a cage for a few years just doing that and I wanted to put a band together again.
I think I realised the limitations of being a solo artist; when I first started writing music, a lot of it was very simple - focused around an acoustic guitar - but when I started producing and got my first drum machine and started doing that stuff all of a sudden there were no boundaries any more. I had so many sounds at my fingertips that I started to write tons of melodies and songs with things flowing around and orchestral pieces and crazy stuff and it got to a point where I was like “I need a good band to make this happen.”
The guys in the band were good friends of mine and were playing in other projects and busy and I was busy - I was composing for commercials, so I was busy doing that at the time - but their time got freed up, and I freed up my time a little bit and that’s kind of when the band formed. Pretty soon after that we just realised that something really clicked.
NH: OK and pretty soon after that you put out your first single Pumped Up Kicks, which has already had over 1 million YouTube hits, and received plenty of airplay here in Australia. As far as debut singles go, that’s impressive. How did you guys react to the success of the track? Had you expected it to go as far as it did, considering that you just released it initially on MySpace to your friends, didn’t you?
MF: Yeah, we didn’t even have a MySpace, we just put it on our website and it was so weird; I finished that song and a week later it was on our website, then it was online, on this internet fashion show and then it just kind of took on a life of its own. It was really, really cool to watch. There have been some songs that I’ve written in the past that I thought people would like that never really got any life breathed into them like Pumped Up Kicks did, there was never that platform for them to be heard, or the timing wasn’t right, I don’t really know - you never know how these things go. But the fact that Pumped Up Kicks did take off, it was a whole surprise.
NH: You’ve got your self-titled EP coming out officially today (25th January) - which also has Houdini and Helena Beat on it. How would you compare these other two songs to the first single?
MF: I don’t really know if there is a comparison. I like versatility in the music that I write and I think the other songs are very different from Pumped Up Kicks. They both have identities of their own and I think as a collective, Foster The People, we’re a band - we’re not just one song and there’s a lot of different facets of our sound that, when the full album comes out, people are going to realise. It doesn’t all sound like Pumped Up Kicks, every song has its own identity but I think there is a through-line; every song has a familiarity that runs through all the songs.
NH: So while you might not say that it sounds similar, you can still listen to it and go “That’s a Foster The People song.”?
MF: Yeah, and I especially think that when the album comes out and you can wrap your head around the whole thing, I think that you’ll be able to digest it and walk away being “OK, I get it. I get their sound now. I understand it.”
It’s a pretty versatile record and for me it’s perfect because when we start working on our second record, I think this record’s kind of setting the table in a way for our sound. I think, for some people, it is going to stretch their sensibilities musically but I think that at the end of the day there’s a through-line.
NH: Following on from that, obviously we’re talking about a full-length record. How’s that coming along? What stage is that at at the moment?
MF: It’s great, it’s probably 98% done. I’m pretty much just mixing now and maybe tweaking some minor stuff, but pretty much just mixing and mastering is left, then it’ll be done.
NH: When are you hoping to have that out?
MF: We’re looking around April.
NH: Fortunately for Australian audiences, we don’t have to wait until April to hear your other stuff because you’re going to out here quite soon. How would you compare your live sound to the recordings we’ve heard so far?
MF: I think it’s different. I think one challenge that we’ve had and that we’ve been working on is that I wrote these songs in a studio and the way that I write is that I produce as I go. Then, as a band, when we get together we start to deconstruct the song that I did in the studio and start to breathe life into them live.
We’ll be like “OK. Who’s doing what? What does this need to help translate it to live?” Obviously, you have a lot more liberties live than you do on a record and certain things on a record won’t sound good on a record. Certain things live - if you’re a super live band and that’s where the song was originally constructed - sometimes they don’t sound good recorded. So we’re working backwards from a finished song and trying to figure out how to present it live. It’s fun.
I think some of the songs come across pretty much bang on what you hear recorded and there are some other songs that we go a little more left-field with and have fun with and do things more for a live experience.
NH: Have any of you been over to Australia before?
MF: Yeah, I think our drummer has actually. Our drummer and guitar player have, when they were younger. But I haven’t and Cubbie, our bass player, hasn’t. We’re super excited to come over there.
All the guys are pretty avid surfers and so we’re definitely going to be out, trying not to get eaten by a great white.
NH: It’s OK. I’m sure they’re more afraid of you than you are of them…
MF: Oh yeah, right. (laughs)
NH: Are you going to have much time to go surfing and explore the country while you’re here, or is it a fairly tight tour schedule?
MF: No, it’s really nice. After we’re done playing, we’re staying an extra couple of days so we can sight-see and hang out. So we’re going to have some time.
NH: Following your Australian tour, you’ve been announced on the Coachella lineup – it’s an incredible lineup this year. I know you did SXSW last year, but have you played many festivals, or do you tend to find yourselves playing mainly venue shows?
MF: No, not really. We haven’t. Coachella’s going to be the first really big festival that we’ve done. We’re going to be doing a US tour - our first US tour - leading up to Coachella. Then we’ve got some other festivals this year that I don’t think we can really talk about yet that we’ll be playing.
NH: All in the States, or are you looking at going further abroad?
MF: There’s some festivals abroad as well.
NH: OK, cool. As I said, you haven’t done a lot of festivals, but do you have any real preference over a festival or a venue show?
MF: I guess, just relating this to my experience, the only thing that I’ve done that comes close to playing a festival was SXSW last year and that was fun. It was really fun I guess, the camaraderie of being around a ton of other bands and musicians and being able to watch what other people are doing and have them check out what you’re doing. It’s kind of run-and-done and SXSW is definitely run-and-done - it’s like you show up, you barely get a soundcheck, you play, you hope that you can hear yourself, then you pack up your stuff and go to the next show and do it all over again.
It’s kind of fun but we haven’t done a ‘proper’ Coachella-style festival yet and I’m really looking forward to it.
NH: From what I’ve read, apart from your acoustic work, you were also in a metal band in your younger years. Foster The People is certainly neither acoustic or metal - who would you say your musical influences are?
MF: They’re all over the place. I’ve listened to so many different types of music and it’s all up there in my head somewhere. I don’t know, my biggest influences early on were The Beach Boys, they were a huge, huge influence for a long time. Nirvana was a big influence and - even though you probably can’t hear it in the music that I’m making - Nirvana foundationally kind of taught me how to write a song. It’s very simple core production with really good vocal melodies over the top of that and there’s a genius in the way that Kurt Cobain wrote songs, and Bradley Nowell from Sublime too, I studied and stepped through them when I was trying to learn how to write a song. I couldn’t figure it out for the life of me - but I’m getting off on a tangent.
Motown, I grew up on Motown… The Clash, New Order, David Bowie, Aphex Twin…. I bought Daft Punk’s record when I was in fifth grade…
NH: Which record?
MF: Homework.
NH: Excellent album…
MF: I remember listening to Ace of Base on my first cassette player. The first cassette I bought was Ace of Base and I was riding my bike around the neighbourhood, about eight years old and just loving it.
NH: Was that the cassette with All That She Wants on it (Happy Nation)?
MF: Yeah, that record’s brilliant. It’s still brilliant.
NH: Have you, or any other members of the band, had any formal musical training or are you all pretty much self-taught?
MF: It’s a mixture of both. Let me think about that with the other guys… I think we’re all pretty much self-taught. As kids I think we all took lessons at some point but the only formal training that I ever really got was as a vocalist. I sang for the Cleveland Orchestra Children’s Choir when I was a kid, so for four years I sang with them and I learned a lot through that process. I was singing under Robert Shaw - he’s passed away, he was an old guy even when I sang for him but he’s a legendary kind of choral conductor.
I picked up a lot from that experience, but I think that other than that we’re mostly self-taught.
NH: You’re on pretty much everyone’s “Bands to Watch in 2011” list. While the huge hype surrounding the band has to be good for getting your music heard - but you feel extra pressure when it comes time to put out this new album?
MF: Yeah. I definitely struggle with that because a lot of times pressure is your greatest enemy when you’re trying to create. When I recorded and wrote Pumped Up Kicks there was no pressure, and when I uploaded the song it was a demo. I finished that song in a day and a half; if I was to show you the background vocals for that song you’d be like “Are you kidding me? You let these go? These are on your record?” They’re not on pitch; I’m not even kidding, it’s got a lot of rough edges and there’s kind of a magic to that.
Going in and recording our record, knowing that people will be listening to it and going through it with a fine-toothed comb, and knowing that there will be critics that want to pick it apart it’s definitely a different headspace, but I’ve tried really hard not to let it affect me or affect the band. I think pressure can be a really good thing if you handle it the right way and turn it into fuel to rise to the occasion and not let it squash you.
NH: On a different tangent, one of your solo works was used in 2008 on Paris Hilton’s TV show, My BFF - and a Foster The People one appeared last year. Is there some kind of Paris Hilton connection going on here?
MF: No… No. There was a song that is actually going to be on our record, but it was a song that I had written as a solo artist and it ended up being used for this, fully licensed.
NH: Following the success of Pumped Up Kicks, you guys signed up with StarTime (the same label as Peter, Bjorn & John, Passion Pit and Does It Offend You, Yeah?). I’m sure you got plenty of offers, what made you choose them?
MF: It just felt good, you know, the whole vibe over there. StarTime do a really good job; first of all they understand our genre of music - with Passion Pit, watching what they’ve been doing with Passion Pit was really cool; watching what they’re doing with Peter, Bjorn & John is really cool; also seeing the other bands that they sign and their musical taste - it’s matched with ours.
When they said that they liked us and wanted to sign us we knew that they weren’t just blowing smoke up our ass. Also, there’s a lot of labels out there that try to follow what everybody else is following, and they’ll sign a hundred bands and throw them all against the wall and the ones that stick stay, and the ones that don’t drop - or don’t get any attention.
StarTime and Columbia have a pretty good reputation for not doing that; they sign what they believe in and they go for it and stick by their artists. That’s the vibe that I got, but we’ll see… Talk to me next year and see if we’re still signed. (Laughs)
NH: See if you guys have stuck to the wall?
MF: (Laughs) Yeah, exactly!
NH: When you aren’t out and playing, besides surfing, what do you and the other members of the band get up to?
MF: We all surf and that’s a big thing, we’re avid surfers. We’re all kind of homebodies; we hang out with our girlfriends a lot. I’ve been cooking food at home with my girlfriend. We don’t really know how to cook so our new goal is to cook a meal once a week; just pick something and learn how to make it - and try not to burn down the kitchen. Other than that, honestly, we’ve been in rehearsals so much and when we’re not rehearsing or playing shows we’re trying to wrap up the record. We really haven’t had a lot of down time to really do much else with anything.
NH: Do you listen to much music, or go out and see many shows, or do you just not have the time?
MF: Yes and no. It’s funny, I don’t really go out and see a lot of shows and I don’t obsess about music or listen to music like some other people do. I don’t really know why either, maybe it’s because when I’m writing songs I don’t want too strong an influence to be in my head? I don’t really know.
Lately I’ve just been listening to a lot of classic stuff - Hank Williams, The Zombies, ELO… The only new thing I’ve been listening to is the new Sufjan Stevens record, which I love.
NH: I read in an interview that you weren’t really planning on becoming a musician - what were your other options at the time?
MF: At the end of high school, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. One option was to become a computer programmer, I kind of taught myself how to computer program when I was in high school and I was pretty decent at fixing computers and that sort of thing. The other thing that was a little bit more romantic was being a graphic designer and photographer and pursuing that. I’d won some awards nationally for photography and stuff and I really loved doing that, so that was something I was thinking about. I didn’t really want to go to college, I was pretty lost - I didn’t know what I wanted to do.
I got super-close to even joining the air force, really just because I would’ve known that the next four years of my life would’ve been planned out, but that was also before the US went into war so thank god I didn’t join, that was before that stuff happened.
Yeah, it’s funny, my whole life I’ve loved playing music but I never thought that I’d ever be able to make a career out of it.
NH: It seems like you’ve made the right choice at the end of the day, Mark. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today, we’re looking forward to having you out here in Australia and I hope you bring some good surf with you.
MF: Alright, thanks a lot.
Gig Review: Two Door Cinema Club / Parades, The Great Northern Hotel - 3rd Feb 2011
As a beach ball is swatted intermittently across the stage, Sydney four-piece Parades launch into tracks from their recent SMAC Award-nominated album, Foreign Tapes. The bass could come up a notch as the guitar, keys and three-part vocal harmonies saturate the upper registers, but the energy invested in their hybrid of math rock, alt-rock and pop deftly draws attention away from flaws such as this.
The stage suitably cloaked in smoke, Two Door Cinema Club appear ready for the capacity crowd. Opening with Cigarettes In The Theatre and Undercover Martyn, it doesn’t take long for a sea of hands to sprout from the already-singing audience. While they’re sneaking in some older tracks like Hands Off My Cash, Monty – and a new one in the form of Hampshire – the Irish indie pop darlings are playing largely from last year’s record, Tourist History. It’s a fun show, but as we bounce along to Costume Party the similarity in a fair portion of the set list becomes evident. This renders the inevitable encore hugely successful as, aural palate cleansed by the cacophonous cheering, Come Back Home and I Can Talk come through fresh, hugely energetic and atop an unstoppable wave of venue-wide adulation.
Interview: Passenger
(Originally published in condensed form on LiveGuide on 7h Feb 2011, following is my full conversation with Mike Rosenberg [aka Passenger] from 21st Jan 2011)
NH: How are you going Mike?
Mike Rosenberg: Great Nils, how are you?
NH: Very well thanks, mate. Whereabouts have I caught you today? Are you in Sydney?
MR: I am mate, yeah. I’m at my house in Surry Hills in Sydney.
NH: Great. You’re playing tonight, so you have a few interviews this morning before you go in a get set up, I suppose?
MR: I think that’s the plan, yeah.
NH: I imagine you’ll be playing a bit of your current album Flight Of The Crow, which came out last September. Apart from your own voice - you recruited a lot of Australian talent, like Lior, Katie Noonan and Boy & Bear to help out. How did some of those collaborations come about?
MR: It’s funny really man, the whole project was quite an off-the-cuff sort of thing. I mean, I knew Lior and Josh Pyke from previous visits and through mutual friends. I just did a bit of writing with them and a bit of recording and a couple of songs came out really well. Then we said “This is a great idea, why don’t we get more people involved” and it just grew one step at a time, really organically, and it was quite a funny and intense process. It was really good though.
NH: You embark on another tour - with Old Man River - from February 9, which takes you around the country, including a stop at Between The Bays festival. Will any of your guests on the album be making cameos along the way?
MR: Hopefully mate, yeah. To be honest, it’s been so busy I haven’t really had the chance to see who’s about. But if people are in town when we’re coming through, it’d be awesome to get a few guests in. So yeah, I hope so.
NH: You’ve played around the world. Do you find the Australian music community is a bit more tight-knit and as a result projects like this are a bit easier to do here? Or was it just a case of good luck with this one?
MR: Bit of both man. It just happened here, for many reasons. Luck and timing and where I was at and where everyone else was at for sure. But I love the Australian music scene, it’s smaller but it’s got more of a community feel than other areas, and it doesn’t take long for you to meet a lot of people within the industry here - at gigs and hanging out. It’s a nice feeling.
NH: For those not familiar with your earlier work, Passenger was, at one stage, a 5-piece band whereas now it’s more a solo project. What prompted that shift?
MR: A couple of things. We recorded our first album as a five-piece and did a lot of touring around the UK and the United States. It got to the point where… we’ve got a couple of members in the original lineup of the band that had - well, still do have - little children and couldn’t commit to all the touring that being Passenger meant. So the band kind of split up and we got new people in for a little while and it was great, they were great players and lovely guys, but I think the moment had just passed a bit and I started writing these lo-fi acoustic songs that didn’t necessarily need the whole full band treatment.
So I just went busking for a summer in the UK on my own and it went so well that I haven’t looked back since.
NH: I was going to ask about that next, because as well as your venue shows, you’ve busked extensively around many parts of the world - how do you think that kind of experience has shaped you as a live performer? I would imagine it’s quite different playing for strangers on the street than at a gig where people have paid to come and see you…
MR: Exactly. It’s massively different and you have to approach the two things as different entities. I think busking’s an excellent way of honing your craft. As you said, you’re playing for strangers and if you can do that and engage people in their lunch break who aren’t necessarily the gig-going public, who won’t necessarily go out of the way to see live music, if you can play to them and get a positive reaction, then when you play in a venue to people who’ve paid to come and see you, it’s a lot less of a hill. It’s a good thing to do.
NH: The name, Passenger, is - I believe - derived from the fact that a lot of your songs come from the view of someone watching the world go past, as if a passenger in a car… Is that right?
MR: Yeah.
NH: That being the case, as someone who does travel quite a lot, do you find it easy to get inspiration for your lyrics just in your everyday travels?
MR: Definitely. I think since I’ve been travelling this intensely, my music’s changed massively. I think it’s always been observational but now that I’m travelling so much and meeting so many people and seeing weird and wonderful things I think it definitely comes through in the writing. I’m really happy that it does because I think it broadens my music quite a bit.
NH: Do you write when you’re on the road, or do you need to stop and take a break and sit down to write properly?
MR: To be honest, I try to keep all the plates spinning at all times. Always gigging, always writing, always recording, always trying to do everything. If you step out of any one of them for a few months it always feels a little bit weird to get back into it. If possible, I’d just love to keep everything going as much as I can.
NH: Going back to the busking - is it true you actually funded Flight Of The Crow with proceeds from that work?
MR: It’s absolutely right.
NH: Wow. That’s incredible…
MR: It took a little while, but you know, you’d be surprised. Because I’m selling CDs as well, if you pick a good spot on a Saturday afternoon you can make good money busking. It’s funny, in this day and age in music…25 years ago you’d have no option but to get a big advance from a big label and go into an expensive studio and make a record, but now it is possible to do it in numerous other ways, so it’s just a case of having to think outside the box a little bit.
NH: OK. What got you into busking in the first place?
MR: I’ve been busking for years; not as full time as I am now though. I started at 14 or 15 - it was either that or washing up or a paper round and it kind of seemed like a more enjoyable way to earn some money. I’m still on a sort of daily basis shocked about how good it is in so many different ways. I talked earlier about getting better at your live work, but also getting out the name of the band - handing out cards and selling CDs - it’s just a really great promotional tool as well.
NH: You’ve done it around the world, are people more generous in some places than others?
MR: Definitely. I wouldn’t say necessarily a country is more generous than another country but there are areas that are good and areas that are terrible for it. Places in the UK like Edinburgh and Manchester and Bath and over here Sydney and Melbourne seem to be great and I just had a great busk in Fremantle as well. It’s funny, it takes a while to figure out where works and where doesn’t.
NH: I heard you had a rough time in Cairns… What happened there?
MR: You know what? It was more me than Cairns. I got really sick, I had some sort of man-flu, and tried to busk anyway in 8000 degrees. For an English guy, we’re just not built for that weather, and being sick as well, it wasn’t my finest moment. I think Cairns would be a good busking place, but just not that day.
NH: You’ve been really well received over here; you’ve sold out headline shows of your own as well as touring with Boy & Bear and Josh Pyke, you’ve been getting really good reviews… I would imagine the time would come when you won’t need to busk to pay to make records - would you still do it?
MR: I really hope so man, I really hope so. I’ve been asked that a couple of times recently and it keep you grounded and it’s just a way of remember that actually there’s a real joy in playing music - whether it be to strangers on the street or at a big festival. I think that as an artist, no matter how big you get, you have to remember that and hold on to it - and make sure you just enjoy playing music, not get carried away with where you’re playing it and for who.
NH: Prior to coming to Australia the first time, you’d toured a fair bit around the globe. What brought you out here initially?
MR: I toured with Lior about three years ago just because I knew him and we’d been mates for a while. So I came out for 3 or 4 weeks and did a few shows with him. It just went really well and I went back to the UK around about the same time that I’d started doing my own thing and was busking properly for the first time.
Then, the summer ended over there and I wanted to carry on busking and it was too cold in the UK and Australia seemed like the obvious choice; from my experience before I knew that my music went down well here and I had a few contacts and a few mates here so I thought it’d give it a go - and I’ve barely left since. It’s been a really good move in hindsight.
NH: You’ve had a fair bit of success here - what do you think it is about your music that resonates with Aussie crowds?
MR: I don’t know man. From my short experience, it seems like Australia has a real love for song, and for songwriting and story-telling within songs, and I think that helps. Also, it’s probably my cheeky little London cockney accent…
NH: Yeah, I don’t think that hurts… As I said before, you’re playing Between The Bays as well as some venue shows - do you prefer playing festivals or venue gigs?
MR: Either one can be fantastic or terrible. I think, if they’re well organised and you’re in the right state of mind for it and the other thousands of factors are going towards it, I think it can be fantastic. I’m really looking forward to Between The Bays - I think it’ll be a good festival to play in.
I’m just really happy to play for people, whether it be festivals or in a venue.
NH: When you do play festivals, do you make a point of trying to catch the other acts?
MR: Sometimes. Depending on what’s going on around that. If I’m in the middle of a tour then it might just be a cheeky in and out job. If I can, I love hanging out and soaking up the festival atmosphere.
NH: By the same token, when you’re out and about, do you think you stop and pay more than the average amount of attention to a busker on the street?
MR: If they’re good yeah. If they’re good then I’ll stick around and watch and try to learn. Busking is a lifetime of learning and it’s a very psychological thing. You can really pick up a lot from people who have been doing it for years. I’ll definitely hang around for ages to watch a good busker.
NH: What are your plans once you finish the tour with Old Man River?
MR: Well, I’m looking at recording a new album in March and then hopefully doing one more tour before I go home at the end of April. I’m thinking about putting a full band together and just doing five or six shows to say “farewell for now” - so that’s really exciting actually.
NH: As far as this new album goes - it hasn’t been long since Flight Of The Crow came out - have you already got a few tracks nailed down for that? As you said, you do try to do everything at once - you keep writing while you’re on tour - so is there some material there that you’ve already go nutted out?
MR: Absolutely, yeah. I mean, I do write an awful lot and since finishing Flight Of The Crow and up till now, I’ve written a fair few tracks and there’s 10 or 11 that I’m really confident in. I’m still ironing out the details, but I’m pretty sure about which songs are going on the record.
NH: Do you reckon you’ll be trying a few of those out on the crowd in the upcoming tour?
MR: Without a doubt.
NH: As well as the original stuff, while I was listening to tracks on your MySpace page, I came across a couple of covers - The Sound of Silence, which didn’t surprise me given your influences, and Rhianna’s Umbrella - which did. Do you listen to much pop music?
MR: I love pop music. Pop music has got such a terrible name for itself in the last couple of years, but I think that good pop music is the best. Think about what pop music was and should be, it’s just catchy melodies and that’s what I love about music generally.
The Rhianna thing was a bit of fun, but I think it’s a really beautiful song and the sentiment is a great one and a rare thing to find in the world of hip-hop and pop - you know, that very shiny cars and everything doesn’t matter, it’s just more about relationships and that kind of thing. I think the sentiment of the lyrics really stood out for me, but as I said, I think it was just a bit of fun for me as well.
NH: I was just curious about that, because I’ve read a few interviews you’ve done where you talk a lot about the importance of honesty in music, and, for me, a lot of pop music these days really doesn’t have that, so I was curious…
MR: Oh mate, without a doubt. We can talk for hours about that! That’s kind of my point, it was quite confronting and truthful and that was something I really loved about the song.
NH: Okay. What are you listening to at the moment?
MR: All sorts of stuff, I’ve actually just got into this - I’m sure that I’m really late on this, because everyone’s been into them for years - but I’ve just got into The XX. A fantastic band, just so unique and really sexy music.
NH: Being over here in Australia, do you still manage to stay relatively in touch with what’s happening in the UK as far as music’s concerned, or do you find yourself a bit insulated from that at the moment?
MR: To be honest, I’m not one of those dudes with my ear firmly to the ground in any case, whichever city I’m in. I just like what I like and whatever pops up and whatever friends recommend. I’m not very cool as far as that kind of stuff goes. I live mainly off a diet of Neil Young and Paul Simon.
It’s kind of hard to stay in touch with the UK though, both musically and personally as well - with friends and family - it’s hard to live in two worlds at once. I guess I am a little out of touch.
NH: Obviously, you’ve been out here for a while and good things have happened from a musical point of view and you’ve made plenty of friends, but is it difficult uprooting yourself the way that you have? I’m sure you have plenty of friends and family back in the UK that you haven’t seen for a while now…
MR: It is actually, I’m finding it more difficult this time around. I was so busy last time and so occupied with Flight Of The Crow that it kind of whizzed past, and that was six months. As for this time, it looks like it’s going to be more like nine months. It’s busy and it’s been incredible, but I’ve been travelling for about three years now pretty much non-stop and it gets to a point where living out a suitcase and skyping people with terrible reception starts to do your head in a little bit.
I’m still loving travelling and playing as well, but I guess this time it has been a bit more challenging.
NH: After tonight, you’ve got a couple of weeks off before you start the tour with Old Man River. What are you going to get up to in that time? Are you taking a break? Writing for the new album? Going busking? What do you get up to when you’re not playing gigs?
MR: It’s going to be a mix of busking and pre-production for the record. So no rest for the wicked I’m afraid.
NH: Where are you going to be recording the new record?
MR: I’m not entirely sure yet mate, there’s a couple of options so I shouldn’t say anything at the moment.
NH: OK. We’ve only got a little bit of time left, but just out of curiosity - there’s a Swedish metal band also called Passenger… Have the two of you ever been confused? Have you ever toured in Sweden and had a bunch of metalheads show up to see Passenger and gone “What on earth is this?”
MR: Not anything as catastrophic as that, but in a festival guide once they did put the picture of the Swedish metal band against the blurb about us… They look a bit like The Village People, so it wasn’t ideal, but it was pretty funny actually.
NH: You guys didn’t play it up and go out and get some really good outfits for the show?
MR: A last-minute Village People call out? It didn’t happen unfortunately.
NH: That’s pretty much our twenty minutes. Thank you very much for taking the time out for a chat, Mike. All the best with the show tonight, and the upcoming tour. Look forward to seeing you when you make it up to the Gold Coast.
MR: Awesome man, fantastic. Let us know if you want tickets to the show or whatever.
NH: Will do, thanks so much.
MR: Thanks very much Nils.
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