Our Hollow, Our Home Interview

I spoke to local metalcore band Our Hollow, Our Home before their set at Takedown Festival about the Hampshire metal scene, Facebook fans and the reaction to their latest EP.

How does it feel to be back at Takedown Festival?
Josh: Amazing! We love this festival, since it is our hometown… Apart from Tim, Pompey, wahey! Yeah, it is great! So many sick bands, shout out to Advanced Promotions for putting it on every year.
It is the best day out and the start of summer!

What has changed since you played Takedown last year?
Tim: We are more unfit!
Toby: We have released a CD! That is a little bit more important!
Josh: We have released a CD! We are concentrating on the summer, getting touring and we have a lot of things planned. It is probably just taking it that step up, just being a bit more serious about it.
Tim: We’ve had summer festivals and touring. We have to push the EP a bit, but we have a new video coming out. Yeah, just having fun.

What bands are you planning to see today?
Tim: I’m going to see the boys in Create To Inspire, they are good lads. We have already seen Prolong The Agony, they are good mates of ours. I want to go see Moose Blood and Blood Youth. There are so many bands at the moment, there are too many to choose from!
Josh: For me it is Mallory Knox, I don’t really listen to Charlie Simpson but it would be interesting to see him.
Tim?: We are majorly gutted because we clash with Creeper! And they are like the band of the weekend for us and we can’t see them, but hey ho! Come see us, not them! (laughs)

In the time that you have been together you have gained over 10,000 fans on Facebook, how does it feel knowing that you have reached out to so many people?
Tim: It’s amazing! We are used to growing up in bands where you get 2000 fans and you are really excited. You have to take a step back and just be like ‘wow’. We have done nothing to warrant that many people paying an interest in us, so it is pretty special.
Josh: It is awesome! When we struggle, when we are like ‘god we have put so much money into this band’ it makes it all worthwhile, it really does.

What are your views on the Hampshire metal scene?
Josh: At the minute it is going really well, we have got local bands that are killing it! Creeper, Bury Tomorrow. Obviously they are getting places! But then you have got other bands such as Prolong The Agony who are doing really well and it is just really good to see. A few years ago there wasn’t the community in my eyes that there is now.
Tim: It is like the local bands coming through, there was sort of a gap there for a while and now you have got the boys in Gone By Tomorrow and Saint[the]Sinner. We supported their last show and all of them just make the scene a community, instead of just being bands that occasionally play together.

What has been the reaction to the //Redefine EP?
Josh: From what I can tell from the reviews that we have been reading it has done really well. It has been a long time coming and it has been painful for us to get that EP out. I cannot stress how hard it has been for us, but it is out! Download it on iTunes, Band Camp, come buy it at a show, illegally download it in some way, shape or form!
Tim: It has been a labour of love to get it out, but it has been worth it just to see people say that they are going to listen to it, people checking it out… It is worth it, all of the way!

How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?
Both: Cheesy metalcore!
Josh: We don’t think that we are that heavy, but when we play live we are pretty heavy! Catchy heaviness! We could play any stage of this festival! (laughs)

What inspires you to keep writing music and performing?
Toby: Well I am the only one who writes anything! I don’t know, I watch a lot of classic films. I get a lot of electronic bars from soundtracks like Gladiator and Lord of the Rings. Things of an epic scale I don’t like can be limited to a single genre. I will take elements from all sorts of things in life and focus and channel it through music.

What advice would you give to any aspiring musicians?
James: Don’t act like us! (laughs)
Toby: I would say that the best thing to do is to get into a practice room together and write a good couple of songs, maybe four or five, and when you have got those five choose one that you think is your strongest song and don’t skimp on recording. If it means that you save and work a Saturday job or whatever, try and raise £800 and go to a professional studio because in this day and age the internet is everything, so people will judge you and merit you on your online presence. So by having a good track online for people to listen to is the best way I’d say to start anything.
Josh: Just to add onto that any Tom, Dick and Harry can get a MacBook and record something, so the quality of that recording is so important!
Tim: I think that the work never stops as well, you can’t stop pushing yourself and you can’t stop pushing your band name. Just try and get people to listen to it, you can’t just take a break from that or it won’t be worth it.

What should people expect from a live show from Our Hollow, Our Home?
Toby: A bit of a party, I suppose! We play heavy music but we don’t necessarily come across as big bruiser guys who are like ‘YEAH!’
Josh: We like everyone when we play live to have a great time. We played at The Joiners a few weeks ago and it was a party! We don’t take ourselves too seriously.
Toby: You have got to understand that a lot of people forget that when you pay to go and see a show that it is a show. So like you wouldn’t pay to go and see West Side Story just standing there would you, you expect an act. We try and put on a show, that is what we do.

What else do you have planned for the rest of this year?
Josh: We can’t say… Festivals! We have got a couple of things that we can’t say but that makes it exciting. We have got touring, festivals, we want to push the new video as we said earlier. We are going to try and build up what we have done last year and cement ourselves a little bit more.
Toby: Along with continuing write the new release I suppose. We have made some headway with it, but I would like to get a lot more nailed in on the pre-production side so I can expect where to shape the record.

www.facebook.com/ourhollowourhome
Photography by Rob Campion 

Miss Vincent Interview

I spoke to Miss Vincent at Takedown Festival about death, vomit and their new EP.

How do you feel your set went today?
All: Really well!
Alex: We were first on so when we were getting ready to go on there was almost nobody in there, there was a load of people at the front and that was cool but we got our stuff together, turned around to get ready to play and it was rammed!
Lawrie: I was actually really nervous about playing this morning because this was our first time playing Takedown so I was super nervous this morning. But yeah, we were really happy with it.

Do you plan on checking out any of the other bands?
All: Definitely, so many!
Lawrie: Definitely Creeper! We will probably check out Milk Teeth as well, I don’t know what  time they are on.
Alex: I think there are loads of good bands on the Obsidian Stage as well, which is where we were. We are actually missing Ugly Love right now which sucks, but we will make it up to them some other way. But there are so many cool bands, there is almost too many to list.
Lawrie: We will definitely be watching Dead because they are on the same stage as us and they are good friends of ours, so we will definitely be watching them as well.
Alex: Ashestoangels, even though they clash with InMe! I will have to split my time between those two. Yeah man, today is going to be amazing!

How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?
Lawrie: I guess I would say moody punk rock. We have a new EP coming out in a couple of months’ time and we have gone down a much darker direction with it, so the first EP is a little bit lighter, but it still has its dark parts so I guess I would say moody punk rock.
Alex: Yeah, I mean fast and dark, that is kind of it. It is not like… It’s hard! I don’t want to say we are like a goth band, I want to say we are like a pop punk band but…

Lawrie: …We kind of are! We are kind of everything, let’s just go with moody punk rock.

You mentioned the new EP, have you finished that or is there still work to do on it?
Lawrie: Yeah, it is pretty much there. It is all recorded, we have got artwork, we are just kind of finalising everything with the label that we are working with. Just kind of in the final stages of preparation really just to get it out there basically.

What inspired your band name?
Alex: So I am a massive Alkaline Trio fan and there is a line in one of their songs which references Miss Vincent, so I Googled it thinking that there must be a really cool story behind it. I actually stumbled on a completely separate ‘nothing to do with it’ article about a woman in London who was late thirties/early forties, she had a family…
Lawrie: She wasn’t a recluse or anything.
Alex: No, she was just a normal person and she died watching TV one night, wrapping Christmas presents for her family. And nobody found her for two years. It inspired me to write a song about it first of all…
Lawrie: Very morbid but very interesting and quite sad at the same time, because this was in London. It wasn’t sort of out in the middle of nowhere kind of thing. It was just in a London flat, a middle-aged woman who wasn’t found for two years, which was a long time to be dead and for no one to notice.
Alex: Our first single that we ever released was actually going to be called Miss Vincent before we had a band name, and then we sort of just adopted it for our band name.
Lawrie: We just decided we liked it!
Alex: And that was kind of it!

Who would you say your major influences are?

Lawrie: Well two of us are wearing Bayside t-shirts right now, so I’m going to have to say Bayside!
Jack: Definitely Alkaline Trio, obviously. We all love Alkaline Trio! Then it is kind of a mixture after that.
Lawrie:  There are a few bands that we all absolutely love, for example Bayside and Alkaline Trio, and then we have all got our separate influences. I absolutely love Brand New!
Alex: He is a massive Brand New fan!
Lawrie: Yeah! Nirvana, and then we all like stuff like Bad Religion and A.F.I.
Alex: Yeah, just mix all those bands up, throw it and then that’s what you get.
Lawrie: If all those bands were sick into a bucket and we drank it…
Jack: But why would you drink it?!
Lawrie: I’m not really sure where I was going with that…

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
Jack: Practice! And don’t give up, just keep trying.
Lawrie: Just work super fucking hard and gig as much as you can. Just really, really try and don’t expect anything for nothing! You have just got to bust your balls and work as hard as you can.
Alex: Also get an instrument, get good at it and then join a band, or just get to a certain level. You need to be able to have confidence in yourself to work with other people, and then once you are in a band practice, practice, practice! And never stop practicing, ever!
Lawrie: I think part of it is just pinpointing what you want to do as a band, because a fair few bands that are around at the moment, no names in particular, but we have played with some bands who go a bit this way with one song and a bit that way and they don’t pinpoint who they really are, so you’re not quite sure what they are about. It is about really pinpointing what you want to do and what you want to sound like and just go straight towards that.

What inspires you to continue to write music?
Alex: Whatever happens around me! I find writing really cathartic so essentially I just can’t stop writing songs, I don’t know what I would do if I didn’t write songs. I write hundreds… Well not hundreds and hundreds, but I think at the moment we have a bank of almost a hundred tracks. Most of which we will never ever use! Most of them are no good at all, but the process of writing really helps me a lot and it is just something that I feel like I need to do all the time. And if I don’t write for a while I get really, really sad and really down about it!
Lawrie: Yeah and for all of us as well this is really our kind of sole creative outlet, like none of us do anything else musically really. I teach, but that is not so much creative. So collectively it is our sole creative outlet.
Alex: So we have to do it, essentially!

What else have you got planned for this year?
Alex: So much! But we can’t talk about any of it yet. New EP, tours and more tours!
Lawrie: New music and gigs. We recorded a new video last weekend which will be out in a months’ time. New everything!

Photography by Rob Campion
www.facebook.com/missvincentband 

SMILEfest Interview - Laura Snapes

I spoke to Laura Snapes, features editor of NME, about female musicians, how to deal with entitled males and how to break into the music journalism world.

You said in the conference about the Reading and Leeds Festival line up that there were hundreds of other bands that have more credibility, what were some of that bands that you were thinking of?
Don’t make me name 100 (laughs)! There is so many! Slater-Kinney, Warpaint, St. Vincent and Wolf Alice.. I mean, maybe they are playing. Paramore! There are many, I am really bad at thinking of things off the top of my head. But the thing in these situations is when the bookers of these festivals are getting defensive, ‘yeah, well who could we book?’ and when people say that then it is evidence to me that they are just not looking very far and trying very hard. They are pretty happy with the way things are because their festival will sell out regardless of who they put on.

Do you believe that as a music journalist that it is harder to get into or do you believe that there is more equality and that it is based on how well you can write?
Yeah, I think that it is all about being good basically. I feel lucky in that I have never really come across any, or very few entrenched, chauvinistic editors or anything like that. I mean, to the contrary, I was really lucky when I was nineteen I started writing for The Quietus, which is run by two guys: John and Luke. And John was in his early forties and he was such a champion! If I ever got any bad treatment, I don’t know if you saw the thing in there, but the guy who gave me abuse, he was one of the editors that I meant, and I said ‘John, this guy has just said this to me’ and it was John who emailed around the other editors like ‘never commission this guy again!’. And there was a couple of times where people would be aggressive towards me and people like him are just such champions. It is such a good positive reinforcement to have people like that on your side and I know that not everyone is lucky enough to have it, but those are the kind of people that make it worthwhile. But no, I positively discriminate. Like a man, this dick, emailed me the other day asking for advice on a live review that he had written and I didn’t have time to do it, but he sent me about five more emails and I eventually got to the point where I was like ‘I haven’t got time’ and then he started having a go at me. I was like ‘get your male entitlement out of my inbox’ and he was like ‘Oh, you’re being sexist now are you?’ and I was like ‘what? To be honest with you if you were a woman then I would have read your review so probably I am sexist.’ But I don’t know, I feel more predisposed towards helping people who are not entitled young white boys. And also I think that all of the best young music writers are mostly women. If you made me name them then it would probably be ninety seven per cent women and three per cent blokes!

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to break into music journalism or feature writing?
I would say first of all to make sure that it is something that you are really, really, really dedicated to and passionate about! It is the kind of thing where I go to work, I work in an office and I work 10am to 6pm, but your work never stops because music is a thing that you are into all of the time. I have a friend that works at a financial magazine and she comes home and she is like ‘Oh, I don’t have to think about that shit anymore!’ So yeah, first of all make sure that you are super passionate and dedicated to it and just think about ‘what is it that I want to say about music and why do I want to say it?’ This is such vague but important advice: just work really hard at being the best that you can possibly be. In order to do that read the best music writers that you can. Read new stuff, old stuff in all different formats. Really study it and take it apart, sit and read something that you think is amazing and then think ‘what is it that is making this amazing?’ Pull it apart like you are in a school English lesson and think ‘this is how they are using adverbs’ and ‘this is how they are constructing arguments’. Look at the technical side of it and pull it apart a bit, because if you study that you will come to absorb it a bit as well. So yeah, just read loads and figure out what you think is smart. Do your best to not necessarily emulate it, but there was definitely a period where I emulated what I thought was good and then just off doing that you get into the rhythms of writing and  then you can kind of go off and fly! Do it your own way. You just need to have a ferocious appetite for music. If I get to the end of a year and I see music journalists saying that is has been a bad year for music, and you are like ‘really? You just were not looking hard enough’. It has to kind of be everything. I am not saying that you should work all hours by any means, I go home and watch House Of Fools like everybody else does, but it is kind of more than just a job.

What inspired you to want to become a journalist and write features?
It was a couple of things. I always loved listening to Radio One and I loved pop music as a kid, and then I would get to hear Jo Wiley and stuff when I was like ten/eleven, and I thought that I would really love to do what she does and interview people. I didn’t even know that the word was journalist or whatever! I was just like I want to interview people, I want to ask people who make music about how they do it and stuff. And then a few years later there was this musician that I was really obsessed with and I was like I want to meet this person, how can I do it in a way that is not just like ‘hi I think you are great’, but like a professional excuse to have a conversation. I was like maybe I could interview her or something? And then I just really liked doing it and it was just a way of like, using careers advice, young people are not given enough as it is and figure out how to make your hobby your job. My little brother is sixteen and there was definitely a time where he wanted to be a footballer, and it is like face facts, you are never going to play for Manchester United, unless something amazing happens! That does not mean that your dream is dead, because if you look at that one footballer and think about how many hundreds of people work in the industry around them. I mean, I only ever wanted to be a music journalist, I never wanted to be a musician or anything, but figuring out how to make your hobby your job, that is a thing that everybody can do pretty much, and I think that is a piece of advice that people are not given enough.  

www.facebook.com/SolentSMILEfest
www.twitter.com/laurasnapes

Ashestoangels Interview

I spoke to Crilly from Ashestoangels at Takedown Festival about damaged knees, internet piracy and Johnny Cash.

How do you think your set went today?
Pretty good, nothing broke! I stood on the audience and they seemed to like it! I had a good time, it was really exciting and it is nice to play to a full room during the day.

Are you planning on checking out any of the other bands on today?
Creeper, 5.35pm! I have got the time tattooed on my inner arm like the guy from Les Misérables, except instead of the number from a time that I was in a French prison for stealing bread to feed my family it is just the time to see Creeper! They are going to be good.

How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?
A goth punk explosion!

How has the reception to Horror Cult been?
Pretty good, people seem to like it! They seem to love stealing it from the internet, which I am actually fine with. I would rather people stole it, enjoyed it and came to see us play it. I don’t care about online sales, which is lucky so we gave half of them to Music For Good to put houses somewhere. Somewhere nice, I hope!

What inspired the band name?
David Bowie! Ashes To Ashes is my third favourite David Bowie song, we couldn’t call ourselves Ziggy Stardust or Spiders From Mars, that is a thing!

What made you want to become a musician?
Well I wanted to be a fighter pilot, but that didn’t work out. So I went for the second best of not killing anybody! Also I started going to local gigs and being like ‘yup, that is what I want! I want to be on that stage!’

Who would you say that your major influences are?
It started out as A.F.I and Aiden, and now…  I don’t know, I still love those bands, but I don’t really think about anyone else when I am writing, I just try and write the best songs that I can, the only way I know how… Like Johnny Cash! Three points for the Johnny Cash reference, number three!

What advice would you give to anyone that wants to become a musician or a singer?
Look after your knees! I left my knee brace at home, I made this one out of duct tape and it is pretty bad… I am going to pay for this one tomorrow! When I started out first of all I fucking sucked, and that is fine! You don’t have to be good to begin with; in fact it is good to have to improve because it teaches you valuable lessons. But I really wish that I had learnt how to sing a little bit better than I did in the beginning, like I never used to warm up and because of that I get vocal problems. But yeah: warm up, tune up, play and make sure that you practice and you will be alright!

What inspires you to keep playing songs and writing music?
Stuff like today! I think we are the kind of band that people… There are no like casual fans, people don’t just check us out. People either don’t like us, don’t know us or they are really into it and they are the people that like music the way that I like music. I am an old man compared to most of the people in this venue and to see people who have the same passion that I do is just amazing and I hope that they keep it up, because I have and I am still here.

What do you think that people should expect from a live show?
Well… They are going to get involved! I don’t stand for any of that standing still! And also people have stopped videoing us, there is no video evidence of us playing for the past two years. I don’t take a stand against it, we are not one of those bands who are like ‘fuck your camera!’ or any of that shit, I just think that you are going to have more fun if you are actually involved.

What else do you have planned for 2015?
Got to record another album, because I get bored! We are going to go on tour some more. I really like being on tour and our new van is more reliable so… Cool!

Is there anywhere that you want to play that you haven’t before?
Festivals! I want to start doing the festivals! We are doing D.I.Y tours, and that is fine. We have been doing them forever but now like our last one, half of it is sold out which is fucking crazy! So we are going to keep doing that and building on that. We’d really love to play some festivals! I have such a good time at them!

Ashestoangels head out on tour again later this month with 48Hours. Catch them at a date near you:

March
26 HARLOW - Square
28 MANCHESTER - Satans Hollow
29 NEWCASTLE - Think Tank
30 BIRMINGHAM - Asylum
31 BRIDGWATER - Tiki Beach 

April 
01 LONDON - Barfly

www.facebook.com/ashestoangels

INTERVIEW: Jill Janus from Huntress

On the final night of their UK tour I spoke to Jill Janus, lead singer of Huntress, about her classical music training, dogs and the theme of Huntress' new album!

How has the tour been going so far?
It has been fantastic! What a great bill, and we are just so excited to be on the road with Amon Amarth. Savage Messiah kicks ass too!

What is it like being on the road with them?
Well, you know, it feels like family. We have known Amon Amarth since we toured together on Mayhem Festival in the States back in 2013, so everyone just feels like family and we are very supportive.

Awesome! How does it feel to be playing in Southampton tonight?
You know, I hear it is a real rager! I heard you guys know how to party so you had better freaking bring it!

How do crowds in England compare to crowds in America and other countries around the world?

It really depends on what the cities are like, y'know. They vary from city to city, but metalheads, true metalheads, all over the world are very much the same. They all have the same type of passion and you can see throughout the world, as long as they love heavy metal you know they are going to love true heavy metal.

How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?

We are melodic heavy metal. I'm not easy listening heavy metal, you won't see me in a god damn corset or singing faux-opera, y'know. My background and my training is classical, which is the foundation for my screams. We are melodic, through and through. True, old school heavy metal, we have some of that in there. A little element of doom and thrash and even black metal and some death vocals. But y'know it is also tinged with theatre. Y'know I grew up on theatre, so you are going to see elements of theatrical in there and that is kind of a little bit of a hat-tip to Alice Cooper and King Diamond, and even Rob Halford and Judas Priest.

If you were trained in opera then what made you want to be in a metal band?

I have always wanted to be in metal or rock! I mean from the time I was thirteen years old I was obsessed with Suicidal Tendencies and Danzig and The Misfits and King Diamond. So my mother was the one who really encouraged me to stay true to opera and musical theatre because that is what was just occurring then in the small town I lived in. That is what I was doing and I won a scholarship to go to a school to study opera and performing arts. It has just been a really interesting journey for me. I have always wanted to sing, but now that I created this world for myself and following my purpose. I could not be happier!

What do you think that people should expect from a live show from you?

To be entertained! We are entertainment through and through.

What inspires you to continue writing and keep performing?

Music owns me! Ever since I was a very small child. Like I said, there has never been anything else but music. So that is my purpose and there is nothing else. And especially when Huntress started to gain momentum and we started ascending within the ranks of metal it became very clear that other ambitions would have to be abolished, so I am a slave!

Have you had to deal with much sexism in the music industry or do you believe that the metal community is more accepting?

I don't really pay attention! Again, part of living for your purpose is that you don't really participate in outside opinions. I don't read reviews, I don't ever allow myself to go on the internet to see what the trolls are up to. So I am very, very careful about what other people think. So I really do keep a very strict distance from all of that noise, positive or negative so that it won't affect my path.

What are your favourite and least favourite things about touring?

My least favourite is leaving my dogs at home! If we are touring in America then I can bring them with me, I can bring my little Annie with my Anubis. She is a rescue, well all of my animals are rescues and I am very involved in animal welfare and adoption and I just love critters! And then the best thing is just feeling like you really are achieving your goals in life. It is very rewarding to be here and sometimes you can get wrapped up in this strange loneliness. Every day kind of blends together and you just have to kind of step back and see the big picture and realise that we are really fortunate to be on the road with all the bands that choose us. So it is quite a blessing!

What advice would you give to anyone aspiring to become a musician?

Lessons! Train yourself! Just don't go in blind, especially with vocals if you want to be a metal vocalist. I am asked over and over again how do I do it every night, night after night without losing my voice with the rapid screaming, back into a clean voice, back and forth. It really begins with training so get yourself in some serious vocal lessons and even if you want to be a musician, get guitar lessons! It is just about discipline. You have to be disciplined. You are not going to achieve anything if you are not really focussed. I mean, that is really the main rule for Huntress, it is vital to our existence, is discipline.

What else do you have planned for 2015?

Releasing that next album! Our new record will be out this summer and we are touring, touring, touring! We are writing and we are just having fun. Staying sane! It is really important that I don't go crazy!

Have you finished writing the album?

Yeah, we are recording it. Actually, we are heading back after Amon Amarth just to finish up a few things on it and then it will be handed over to Napalm Records and to the masses.

Does it have a specific theme?

Well, the first three albums for Huntress, if anyone is a Huntress fan, they would know that I talk about this a lot. It is dedicated to the triple goddess. So the first three albums are a bit of a spiritual journey for myself and a trilogy I would say. The first album 'Spell Eater' is in the Maiden phase and the second album 'Starbound Beast' is the Mother phase. So we are moving into the Crone phase and I always say that she is evil and old and horny. So you are going to get that viciousness on this third album with elements of doom and it is the death phase. It is the dying phase, so you will feel that. It is going to be heavy!

Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/interview-with-jill-janus-from-huntress

www.facebook.com/HuntressKills
www.twitter.com/HuntressKills

INTERVIEW: Johan Söderberg from Amon Amarth

On the final night of Amon Amarth's UK tour, I spoke to guitarist Johan Söderberg about what it is like to tour in England, covers and the possibility of a new album.

How has the tour been going so far?
Good! It has been sold out almost every show.

How does it feel to be playing in Southampton tonight?
I'm sure it is going to be good! But it's cold in here, I hope it warms up when the people come.

How would you say that crowds in England compare to other countries that you have played in?
I would say that it's not a huge difference. Everywhere that we play is all the same, except for maybe South America. People are a little more crazy over there!

How would you describe your music to someone who has not heard it before?
It is kind of like traditional heavy metal, but it's more dorky-sounding and a little more aggressive.

What should people expect from a live show from Amon Amarth?
It's just a well-played, tight band with lots of power.

What inspires you to continue to write music and keep performing?
I'd say it's my biggest interest. From the beginning it was like a hobby and now it has turned into work but it's still one of my biggest, like, what I do in my spare time as well.

Have you hear the cover that Sabaton did of 'Twilight of the Thunder God' and what are your thoughts on it? Would you ever think of covering one of their songs in return?
I thought they did a good cover of it, but we are not going to do any covers. I also heard they play it live when we had them as an opening band in the US.

What made you want to become a musician?
I guess it was when I was a kid and I saw Iron Maiden and bands like that play. It felt like something that I wanted to do.

What are your favourite and least favourite things about touring?
I mean, the least favourite thing is that you can never really be by yourself. You are always surrounded by people. The good thing is that you get to see lots of places in the world that you would never see otherwise.

What advice would you give to aspiring musicians?
Just play the kind of music that you like to listen to yourself and keep on doing what you like to do. I guess that is the best recipe for success.

Do you have much planned for the rest of this year?

This is the last tour for this album, so after this we are going to go back home and start working on new material.

Have you already got the new material planned out or are you waiting until you have finished the tour?
Not really! Just some small, small ideas.

Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/interview-johan-soderberg-from-amon-amarth

www.facebook.com/OfficialAmonAmarth www.twitter.com/AmonAmarthBand

Jamie Lenman Interview

Before he went on stage for his set Independent Venue Week, I was lucky enough to chat with Jamie Lenman about the transition from band to solo work, what has inspired his recent change of musical direction and what his plans are for this year. 

Julia: What made you want to get involved with Independent Venue week?
Jamie: Dominique. She runs this venue and she runs my heart, as she says. Or actually it may have been Lydia, her sister. Both of them run this venue and I’ve known them for a very long time. They said to come on down so I said ‘no probs!’ But of course I love independent venues and I love The Boileroom. Would I love The Boileroom if I didn't know Dominique and Lydia? Probably not quite as much, although it’s a great place to come, it means a lot to know the people that run it and there are always happy faces here. So I suppose that chimes with the whole deal, it’s all about people, isn’t it.

Julia: How did your shows in December go?
Jamie: Yes, I think they were a success! They all sold very well, so from that perspective I think they were good. I always find it quite difficult playing live, including tonight, so I couldn’t say that they were a wonderful experience for me. What was wonderful was to connect with the audience, to connect with the people that come along. Whether that was on stage and we all sang a bit of a song together, that was brilliant, those are my favourite bits, or whether it was afterwards, going to say hello and shaking everyone’s hands and signing things if they wanted to. So that part of it was great, yes. In terms of connecting with people and making sure the venues weren't empty it was a success, yeah.

Julia: Do you think it’s harder to go onstage on your own rather than with a band?
Jamie: Yes! Yes!

Julia: What are you favourite and least favourite things about touring?
Jamie: My favourite things about touring… Well, I’ll tell you what used to be my favourite thing about touring. The short answer to that is what I sort of just said about meeting people. I used to particularly like in the old days when I was touring with my old band (Reuben), we’d go around and we wouldn't have anywhere to stay and we couldn't afford (to stay at a) Travelodge. So before the last song I’d always say ‘This is our last song, can we please stay at someone’s house?’ And that was the best bit! And we’d meet these people, and every night someone, even if they only had like a garage that we could sleep in, which let me tell you happened! We’d meet someone that would say ‘Just come back to mine!’ and they’d always
have a cup of tea and we’d make those friends. Some of those friends lasted. I’m still in touch with some of those people. Some of them I never spoke to again, but some of them have become real friends and that was my favourite bit about touring. My least favourite bit about touring is losing my voice. Voice problems, it’s a real pressure. If a guitar string breaks you can but another string on, or if your guitar snaps in half you can borrow someone else’s, but you can’t borrow anyone else’s voice. You can’t fix a string on your voice; you can’t fix a vocal cord. So every time I tour that’s a real worry. That’s my least favourite bit, yeah.

Julia: What made you want to become a singer?
Jamie: Freddie Mercury! Freddie Mercury made me want to become a singer, and Brian May. I wanted to be a combination of Freddie Mercury and Brian May, which I think I’ve achieved, in terms of guitar prowess and fantastic mustache! It’s not quite as good as Freddie’s, but those two, yeah. I mean I dug all my parent’s music: I dug The Searchers and I dug The Beatles. But it was really Queen that made the first meaningful impression and I’ve looked towards that ever since.

Julia: How would you describe your musical style to someone that hasn’t heard it before?
Jamie: I would say it is intelligent, yet aggressive guitar music. I think that’s all you can say. And more recently, on this latest album, with sort of a folk leaning to it. But it’s still intelligent, aggressive and guitar. Those are the three main points.

Julia: Is there anything in particular that made you want to try doing folk music?
Jamie: No, it was an accumulative thing. I mean, often young folks don’t go towards folk so much because I think folk is a lot about looking to the past and it’s about keeping certain traditions alive, which you’re not really concerned with when you’re young. Well certainly I wasn’t. You’re concerned with what’s new, and then as you get older… How old am I? (Jamie asks his wife how old he is) Thirty one? I’m not that old. But I think as you go on you start to appreciate tradition and the importance of tradition more and the things you can learn from the past. So slowly but surely an appreciation of folk crept up on me. Frank Turner, who is a good friend of mine, he has always had an ear for folk and so I got a lot of it through him. It just generally sort of seemed to happen and at the same time a lot of my friends were starting to listen to bits of jazz. I’ve always had a love for jazz, actually, but then that sort of bled into folk. And when you see where jazz comes from, from the blues, it all sort of just creeps up on you really. It will creep up on you, you watch out! You’ll be playing a washboard before too long!

Julia: What should people expect from a live show from you? 
Jamie: Fun, honesty… Just those two, those are the only things I can promise. That you will have fun and that I’ll be honest about it. I can’t even say I’ll sing on tune, I can’t say I’ll sing what you like, but I will try my best to make sure that everyone has a good time. Including me, you know, I’m going to try and enjoy it.

Julia: Creating an album with many different musical styles is quite ambitious, but you’ve managed to make it work. Why do you think this is? 
Jamie: Well thanks very much for that verdict on it! I dunno, I suppose it helps if you have a distinctive voice,
a tone to your voice, which I think I do. I wouldn’t say it’s like a great tone, to me I sound like a bit of a potato! If you do have that, if you put on a record and you can hear it’s me singing, I can hear it if someone is playing in another room. It just cuts through. So I think if you’ve got something like that to tie it together then that has it nailed a bit, I think that’s part of it. Other than that I couldn’t really say. It was all produced by the same people, so it has sort of got a sound that reaches across the two discs. But I think the only thing that is constant is my voice, so I think that must go some way to making it seem cohesive.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite style of music to write?
Jamie: Well, really what I like to write is the sort of riff-melody-riff thing that I was doing in Reuben. I don’t know what you’d call that, people call it post-hardcore? I don’t know what you’d call it. What would you call it, like big riff and then big chorus? Is it post-hardcore? Rock. I like writing rock.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite song that you have written and why?
Jamie: My favourite song that I have written… I think it’s probably a song on my latest record. I hate it when people say that, because it’s always like ‘Oh my new one is the best’. My favourite, it’s called ‘I Ain’t Your Boy’ and I just thought that it was the most successful in terms of trying to get my feelings across. I was feeling some big things and these days when I write I do try and put that into the music and get it across and I feel like I succeeded. I quite like the structure; it’s quite tidy, from a musical perspective, but also from an emotional perspective. I think it managed to get across my feelings. And every time I sing it, and when I sing it tonight I guarantee I feel all the feelings are fresh and I’ve managed to bottle that. I’ve only done it a couple of times, so I’m quite proud to have managed that.
Julia: My boyfriend is going to be so happy that you’re playing that song!
Jamie: Oh is he? Who’s your boyfriend? Not in like a ‘who’s your boyfriend’ way.
Julia: He’s doing photography tonight; he has got this huge flash-head so you’ll probably see him.
Jamie: Cool! Great stuff.
(It is worth noting that during the concert, Jamie actually dedicated this song to my boyfriend in front of the whole crowd. Yet more proof of how lovely he is!)

Julia: What do you write first: the lyrics or the tune?
Jamie: I always write the tune first. I know people that have journals and jotters and notebooks full of lyrics and that has always seemed a bit weird to me. I never wrote poems when I was little, well when I was a kid. It’s always the music first. You sing any old bollocks over the top like ‘I want a car!’ just because ‘I want a car!’ fits and then you think ‘Do I want a car?’ And then you sort of think no I don’t, so then you write a
song about how you don’t want a car! Or if you do then you write a song about what car you want. Do you see what I mean? It sort of evolves out of gibberish and I hope somewhere in the process I decide what I want to sing and I sort of mould it around that. So it’s always the music first.

Julia: Is it hard to find enough time to focus both on music and illustration or do you think it balances quite well? 
Jamie: It’s really hard! Well it’s not hard to find the time; I’m quite good at allocating time, it is hard making it fit. So today even, the reason I’ve had to come so late and we’ve rescheduled the interview (thank you very much), is because I had so much illustration work on. I was literally drawing when we went out the door, so it’s hard to make it fit but I know what I’m doing. It’s only possible because I’m able to allocate different bits of time.

Julia: As you've had experience in music, illustration and filming, is there anything that you have really wanted to experience but haven’t had the chance to? 
Jamie: Yeah, like a lot of musicians I’d quite like to do a bit of acting, but I sort of have a sneaky suspicion that I’m not very good at it or I wouldn't be. I think if you look at the videos I've made for my own songs, that’s as close as I've ever got to acting and they’re pretty bad! Even singing my own lyrics, I can’t do that convincingly. So I don’t think it’s probably for me. Also, it’s quite arrogant for musicians or non-actors to say ‘I might sort of dabble in acting’, because although it does sound like fun and it does sound like the sort of thing that you can dip into, real actors have trained for decades and I do feel their pain when real actors would hear someone say ‘Oh, I may do a bit of acting!’ and you think ‘For fuck’s sake, I’m trained!’ So it’s probably best to leave it to the actors. But as long as I add that caveat that I realise it is hard work, I would like to try my hand at acting. But I acknowledge that it’s an arrogant thing to say.

Julia: What advice would you give to any aspiring musicians?
Jamie: The thing is, the advice that you are often given, it stays true, so this is going to sound like a cliché, but like try as much as you can to be yourself. I spent a lot of time, and I think a lot of other people do spend a lot of time trying to imitate what they’ve heard. And to a certain extend you can’t really help that. But I can certainly remember certain songs that I was like ‘Oh great, that sounds just like Weezer!’ When really I should have been trying to concentrate on what I want I was. It does take a lot of time to work out what you are, but when you discover what that is, follow that and don’t use the crutches of other stuff. Don’t pretend. That’s the advice that I would give to any person doing anything, not even in terms of doing art. I would just say don’t pretend, just be honest. So you can be honest in illustration, you can be honest in roadwork. Do you know what I mean? Just be honest is the best way to be, and certainly in music. I think it’s very, very important to be honest with your audience and with yourself. God, I sound like Buddha! Well, I look like Buddha!

Julia: Do you have much planned for this year?
Jamie: For this year? Yeah, I've got a lot planned! Illustration wise I’m going to do five more books, so that is going to take up most of my time. But then we are playing quite a few festivals, so that is going to take up a lot of time. Who knows, we talked about whether we were going to do another tour, we’re going to have to see. As I say, I find it difficult to play live. A few books, a few shows, trying to take it easy but failing. Yeah.

Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/jamie-lenman-interview 
Check out Jamie Lenman here: https://www.facebook.com/jamielenman
Photographs by Rob Campion Photography: https://www.facebook.com/RobCampionPhotography

New Artist Profile – Eddie Eisinger

With a world obsessed with pop stars and the latest X-Factor winners, it’s often easy to forget about those musicians who work hard to create songs that won’t be listened to by thousands of people on YouTube. Despite being seen as a ‘bedroom producer’, Eddie Eisinger doesn’t create tacky club remixes: his musical style is extremely versatile and includes (but is not limited to) rock, ambient and even soundtracks for video games.

So who is Eddie? He’s a twenty-year-old student at Southampton Solent University, studying Sound for Film, Television and Games. His musical background started when he was very young: he started playing the harmonica aged six, started singing lessons aged twelve and started playing guitar since he was fifteen. He is also able to play piano and violin, enabling him to experiment widely with the music that he can create. Inspired by great artists such as Robert Plant, Paul McCartney and Tony Iommi, his specialism lies within the classic rock genre.

Previously Eddie has been in three bands: an unnamed pop-punk band, a metal/rock band called Acedia and a rock cover band called Marmotta. When asked about why he left all three of his previous bands, Eddie had this to say: “Too much drama. I can honestly say I have never been in a band where there haven’t been arguments between the rhythm section (bass and drums) and the lead section (vocals and guitar), because they are always at it. I have never been in a band that never had those two sides arguing, and I probably never will. I don’t like working in an unfriendly atmosphere.”

With such negative experiences in bands, it’s no wonder that Eddie has since decided to focus more on the production side of music. Using many different editing programmes he is able to compose and create music for all purposes.  He was inspired by learning about how to create music on his own: “I thought ‘what do I need a band for?’ I do miss being on stage, but I enjoy creating a song from nothing then hearing the final product.”

Now specialising in creating music for films and games, Eddie hopes that one day people who require music for a project will instantly think of him. When asked about how he would cope with fortune and fame, his response was that he will ‘dance around like an old western prospector that has just found gold. Then possibly die of a massive overdose at 27.’

Check out Eddie's SoundCloud: https://soundcloud.com/eddie-eisinger 

Interview with The AvD from The Defiled 22/3/13

The AvD plays the keyboard and sings backing vocals in The Defiled. I caught up with him on the day of the Bournemouth show of the Jagermeister tour.

Julia: How would you describe your musical style to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
The AvD: Our musical style to someone who hasn’t heard it before? Like a rusty trombone on a sunny day! They’ve described us as ‘industrial metal’ a lot, whatever you want to call us. We’ve written acoustic tracks, we’ve written metal tracks, we’ve written a track that may surprise some people on the new album, so whatever really. That’s up to you guys to pigeon-hole us.

Julia: Who would you say are your major influences?
The AvD: I don’t know, everything really. Growing up, I think anything you do in life is just an amalgamation of whatever you’ve experienced really, so I guess we just get into the studio and whatever comes out comes out. Yeah, I can’t really pin-point one person that changed my life. I’d say maybe when I was younger Nine Inch Nails influenced me a lot into what I studied, but yeah, I wouldn’t say that it’s a major influence on what I write.

Julia: How has the tour been going so far?
The AvD: It has been going really well. It’s a privilege and an honour to be invited for the third year in row to the Jager tour, they treat us really well on this and to play with Gojira and Ghost is amazing. We’re really big fans of those bands so it’s really good.

Julia: How does it feel to sign with Nuclear Blast?
The AvD: Nuclear Blast, ah man! It feels like a payoff for many years of work. To be honest we’ve wanted to work with Monty and Mark, who are the new, I guess, head A&R guys over there now. We’ve been talking to Monty since he was working at Roadrunner Records and when they closed down we were like ‘Oh right, so I guess that’s over now.’ But he was like ‘No, come to Nuclear Blast!’ So we did. It feels really good to finally get a record deal and get recognised. The reckoning is coming! It will be good!

Julia: How is the new album going?

The AvD: Yeah, it is recorded; we recorded it in Florida with Jason Suecof. We recorded fifteen tracks and I think we’re going to release eleven. It is going to be called ‘Daggers’ and it’s sounding pretty brutal, I think. I don’t know, I hope you guys like it, basically!

Julia: How does it feel to be playing in Bournemouth tonight?
The AvD: Bournemouth! Man, we used to play Bournemouth in… What was it called? I can’t remember. ‘The Gander’? We used to play really little clubs over here and now we’re playing the O2 Academy, so it feels really good. Showing people we’ve moved on, really.

Julia: What’s your favourite thing about touring?
The AvD: My favourite thing about touring is seeing parts of the world I’ve never seen before. Touring just makes you a better person, I think, because you’ve got to respect people in a certain way that you don’t need to generally in life. You live in a really close proximity to people and everyone has their little weird things and it makes you just learn to leave people alone and give people down time. I think it makes you a better person, that’s the best thing about touring.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite song that you’ve written?
The AvD: That I’ve written? I don’t know, I like all of them, that’s why I wrote them! I’d say the one that means a lot to me is ‘Five Minutes’ on the new album ‘Daggers’ because it’s about a family member that died, so that means a lot to me. I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite, but you know.

Julia: Do you have much else planned for 2013?
The AvD: Yeah, a lot planned for 2013! Basically once we release this record this summer it’s go, go, go! It’s going to get a worldwide release and we’re going to be touring globally. We’re going to be playing festivals, we’re going to be releasing our reworks album, we’re probably going to release a covers EP as well. I don’t know if we’re going to do it as a deluxe edition of ‘Daggers’ or whatever, but we’ll see.

Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/interview-with-the-avd-from
Check out The Defiled here: http://www.facebook.com/thedefiled/

Interview with Danny Felice from Breed 77 14/3/13

Danny Felice is a guitarist from the band Breed 77. I caught up with him before the band’s show at The Cellar in Southampton.

Julia: How would you describe your musical style to people who haven't heard it before?
Danny: Well, I think it is quite a unique sound mix. We are a rock/metal band, but we mix it with a bit of flamenco and Eastern kind of sound. We are from Gibraltar and we have all this influx over music from Africa and Spain which is flamenco, rapid rhythms. So we incorporate this into our style.

Julia: Who would you say are your major influences?
Danny: I think as a person more like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Maiden. I’m a big fan of Maiden. In the band, mixed with something like Paco de Lucía, he’s one of the famous Spanish guitarists. So that’s more or less the influences of where we come from.

Julia: How does it feel to be in Southampton tonight?
Danny: Yeah, it’s cool! It’s a while since we’ve played around here. It’s the first time we don’t play in a place, you know The Joiners? We always played there. So this is the first time in town and it’s a nice city.

Julia: How has the tour been going so far?
Danny: Very good! I mean the response has been really good from people coming to see the new album. This is the first of many, we hope. It’s just the beginning. The album comes out on the 25^th March, but it was already out on the 11^th on iTunes, but we are selling it on the road so we’re excited. This is the first tour of the album.

Julia: Have you got much planned for the rest of the year?
Danny: Yeah, I mean we are going to try to play as much as we can. Anywhere that will have us! So it will be like ‘tour, tour!’ Hopefully we will be playing everywhere.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite song that you have written and why?
Danny: That’s a very difficult question! I don’t think I have a favourite, but I think on this album ‘Motionless’ is a very unique and very epic song, and we are proud of that song.

Julia: What inspired you to start a band?
Danny: Music, I was a very big fan of Maiden since I was a kid and, I don’t know, it just happened. You start playing an instrument and then you just want to be doing music around and being taken more serious and that’s it.

Check out Breed 77 here: http://www.facebook.com/breed77
Listen to the interview here: https://soundcloud.com/juliaconopo/interview-with-danny-felice
Photo by Rob Campion: http://www.facebook.com/RobCampionPhotography

Interview with Dave McPherson and Gazz Marlow of InMe 22/2/13

Before InMe’s show at the Vault in Rugby, I was able to catch up with Dave McPherson and Gazz Marlow. Here’s what they had to say.

Julia: What inspired you to start a band?
Dave: A love of music.
Gazz: …And drugs and girls!
Dave: Escapism, generally. Escaping through music, and music is the one thing that never gets boring.

Julia: Who would you say are your major influences?
Dave: Alcohol. Bands that have done things that are different and interesting, or artists that have done things that are different and done it on their own terms. People that are nice, it’s very nice when you hear things about David Bowie, for example, and you hear that he’s a very friendly, chatty guy and that he’s still down to earth. Those sort of people, that can be nice, but also do business and do things artistically their own way and don’t compromise, in that respect, but are also still humble and don’t get above themselves.

Julia: How does it feel to be playing in Rugby tonight?
Dave: It’s pretty cool! It’s a hard place to Google, because we had to Google between Rugby and Brentwood tonight to get back home and it was very tricky because it just came up with the rugby club in Brentwood. And then I had to Google ‘Rugby, Warwickshire’ and I didn’t know if there was more than one Rugby, so I didn’t know if I had got the right Rugby. That was tricky.
Gazz: I think the venue was misspelt in our itinerary
Dave: Probably, he probably wrote the itinerary!
Gazz: This is not the black sheep!
Dave: But it’s a nice town and there’s a room full of people out there being nice to us. People seem to be here for the music, which is nice, and we’ve never played here before, so it’s always cool to come to a place and get that kind of response.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite thing about touring?
Dave: Generally the show, but the things outside of the show are manageable and it’s nice to be having a laugh and giggling and stuff and doing stupid shit.
Gazz: You get to see new places as well, don’t you?
Dave: You get to see a new place, kind of. We haven’t really got a chance to tour around Rugby today.
Gazz: But I mean like last year, when we were out in Germany we had a couple of nice days off, by the big lake and all that stuff.
Dave: Touring Europe is really cool for that, just finding a scenic location that you can just relax in. We’re not at a level, we’d love to be at that level, but we’re not at a level where we have really strict press days and have five hours of press and then you’d have to do the gig; you don’t really have a life, you don’t actually get to appreciate touring quite as much then, because it’s all work. So it’s nice to be able to escape for a few hours and enjoy wherever you are. Sometimes you’re in a place in the UK where there’s not an awful lot to appreciate, to be honest. But then the show is even more of an enjoyable experience because if people live in a town where there’s not an awful lot going on apart from live music, then that’s enjoyable for the gig, but if you’re walking around and you feel like you’re going to get stabbed or something then not so much… Just the fact that people want to come to your show, and bands try really hard to play outside their hometown and we’re fortunate enough to be able to do that.

Julia: What would you say is your favourite song that you’ve written and why?
Dave: For InMe it’s really hard to say, really. I suppose ‘Reverie Shores’.
Gazz: The best one is ‘Neptune’! (laughs) It’s official, it’s on the internet, someone wrote it on YouTube!
Dave: I suppose ‘Reverie Shores’ from ‘The Pride’, ‘Saccharine Arcadia’ from ‘Phoenix’. We like that, but that’s a tough one.
Gazz: ‘Almost Lost’ from ‘White Butterfly’. I think we’ve all got very different opinions and they change as well. One minute I’ll love ‘Myths & Photographs’, another moment I’ll love ‘Turbulence’.
Dave: And then you’ve got ‘Fasten The Chase’ and ‘Underdose’ and songs like that which don’t seem to want to go away. They’re great. For us, we’re on auto-pilot, we’re playing these songs we’ve played a billion times, but when you get the feedback from the audience, sometimes, just because it’s your favourite song it’s not necessarily your favourite song to play in front of people because you’re not getting the same vibe.
Gazz: Like on the last tour we were doing a couple of our personal favourites, like ‘Beautiful Sky Gardens’ and ‘Silver Womb’, and they’re great songs and we love them, but they’re not as fun to play live. Even though we’d probably say that they’re amongst our favourites.
Dave: I’d disagree on ‘Beautiful Sky Gardens’, but I’d definitely agree with ‘Halcyon Genesis’ and ‘Silver Womb’. They’re cool songs, but they’re hard for us, so we have to concentrate a lot to be as animated.
Gazz: It’s more fun when you play simple stuff running around the stage, to a point.
Dave: It’s very simplistic in a way that we operate; if everyone’s going mental then we obviously think we’re doing something right. If we’re playing a song that we think is amazing, but everyone’s just kind of watching and not rocking out and going over the top for then you question it. So I suppose songs like ‘Faster The Chase’, for example, although it’s so old for us, to see people getting that personally involved is a great feeling.

Julia: How would you describe your music to someone who hasn’t heard it before?
Gazz: Incredible!
Dave: That’s quite tricky really. I suppose it takes things from heavy rock and it’s got an edge to it, hopefully. But ultimately it’s melodic and there’s a lot of emotion there.
Gazz: It’s complicated as well.
Dave: That was a dirty word for a while, was emotional music. I think it got associated with ‘emo’ and whatever, but I don’t think we were ever that. We’ve been called a grunge band, a prog band and whatever. We get called all sorts of genres, but there’s meaning to the lyrics and there’s meaning to the music and the melodies mean something in their own right. Melody and emotion, I suppose.
Gazz: But with a healthy helping of balls.
Dave: A lot of balls. You’ve got to mean it. You’ve got to display balls.

Julia: Have you got much planned for 2013?
Dave: No. (laughs)
Gazz: We’ve got a lot of stuff planned that isn’t InMe related, really. Working on the new album.
Dave: Gazz has got a solo album, I’ve got a solo album, we’ve got a side project thing we’re working on called ‘Sentiment’. Aside from that, we’re writing a triple album, as opposed to a normal length album, so that’s going to take some time. We won’t be back properly until 2014, but it’s nice to do little one-offs like this and ‘2000 Trees Festival’ we’ve just announced as well.
Gazz: It’s good to let people wait a bit as well, otherwise you get taken for granted when you do shows and stuff. Like, ‘well, they’ll be back in six months’, sort of thing. You need to make shows special. 

Check out InMe here: http://www.facebook.com/inmeofficial