
We hung out with the guys in Nottingham to chat about why they like playing festivals, the new single "Stand For Something" oh and Pistonhead lager. Full interview below...
Hey guys- are you having fun? You’ve
already played in The Rescue Rooms, how was it for you?
JIM [Thoman, vocals]- Yeah, it was really good.
JACK [Fairbrother, guitar]- It’s the first time for us in Nottingham
and we loved it, it was great.
JIM- Yeah the room was pretty packed, which was more than we thought was
going to happen and yesterday the same vibe; didn’t expect to play to anyone
and ended up playing to a load of people. So it was great, really enjoyed it.
Are festivals like this always quite fun?
JIM- We haven’t actually played many…
JACK- …but we’re enjoying them, because it’s like an
extended support show. We love supporting because we love that challenge of
people not knowing who we are and winning them over.
JIM- The atmosphere at these things aswell, we just love wandering around;
everyone is drunk and in a good mood.
JACK- And it gives us an opportunity to see friends in
other bands who we haven’t seen for a while.
Are you hungover from Bristol Hit The Deck at all, or feeling fresh?
ALL- Nah, not at all.
ANDY [White, drums]- Well, Ash might be [laughing]
GREG [Day, bass]- We go on to a tour after this so the rest of us were
like we’ll go back to the hotel early, have some food
ANDY- And Ash was like “nah, I’ll stay out, see you back at
the hotel”
ASHLEY [Oliver, guitar]- Well I had some friends come down to see me so I
thought it would be rude to leave [laughing].
ANDY- My memory of last night was you were having a
Jagerbomb downing competition with a girl…
GREG- And you lost and were shouting at me [laughing]
ANDY- There’s a classic rule we live by; five pints and
you’ll be alright the next day, so we’ll stick to that tonight.
JACK- We have to drive to Manchester tonight so the idea of being drunk
and sitting going backwards in the van isn’t nice.
ANDY- Greg has a habit of throwing up in bin liners in the
van as well, so we’ve knocked that on the head [laughing].
You're touring with Mallory Knox. Are you looking forward to it?
JACK- Yeah, really looking forward to it. We’ll be going to
a few new places so that’s always good. And since we did the tour with Futures
and Don Broco last July we’ve only toured with American bands. And the American
bands are great and everyone’s been really nice to us…
JIM- Disclaimer- we like Americans, we love Americans.
JACK- Yeah we do, but it’ll be refreshing to tour with an
English band again.
“Stand For Something” the single is out
in June, you’ve released the video and you got fans involved too...
JACK- Yeah, we really think that it’s important to get
everyone involved and we really want to push this community vibe; any chance we
get to have people who like the band involved we do. We have this thing called
“The Tribe” which is us and the fans. So when it came to the video we didn’t
just want to do a boring performance and then we had this idea of the card
thing so thought let’s get everyone involved. The response was amazing. We did
it with a tour so we brought Duncan who shot the video out on the road with us.
We’ve just got to try to think of an
even better idea for the next one now [laughing].
ANDY- I say we do what we did for the first one, go to Spain again.
The album’s coming out at the end of summer, right? What can we expect? Can you give anything away?
JACK- Anyone who’s heard us then it’s that but just an
extended version in every way. We experimented with groove a lot more on the
album and think there’s a real tribal rhythm with more of the songs, and that
sets it apart from what we’ve done before.
What else is in store for fans this
year?
JIM- Yeah, Mallory Knox tour and then The Summer Set tour in May…
JACK- …but we love Americans so we’re looking forward to
that [laughing]. And some festivals too that we can’t announce yet, but we’ll
be busy with them and touring. And when we’re not touring we’ll be busy writing
album two, so just non-stop. People waited long enough for the first album so…
And finally guys what’s your festival
tipple?
JACK- The rider, free beer. Pistonhead lager is the best
lager for a festival, not because they’re giving it to us for free or endorsed
by them [laughing] but when it’s a hot summer’s day and I’m sitting in my
garden with sweat on my brow there’s nothing like a Pistonhead lager.
GREG- And the cans are coke can size so by the time you get
to the bottom it’s still cold, and you feel like a man ‘cos you can neck like
ten.
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To read our full review of Hit The Deck Nottingham click HERE