1: Congratulations on a great debut album, How the devil are you today and where are you?

A: Devilishly good thanks!

2: What drove the band to take up the Rock banner?

A: Loud guitars, bashing drums why wouldn’t you! I can't remember how it started, but I do remember making a drum in school when I was about 8 or 9 and a good friend at school always seemed to have Raw/Kerrang so rock was an easy path to get into.  Around that time rock music was, for me, in its prime.  Metallica’s black album, GnR’s Use Your Illusions, Nirvana’s Nevermind, Maiden’s Fear Of The Dark and my first album, Def Leppard’s Adrenalize all came out so it was a great time to start.

3: What do you think the band has to offer that would take you to the top of people’s shopping list?

A: Here’s where we bang on about being new, fresh, different, like nothing before right??  Well, truth is it’s a genre that has been done over and over again; we just try to be better.  We feel it’s an album with no weak track on it.  I think the thing that stands out for us is that there are a number of different influences and styles musically, in our work.  This adds to our sound, the way we write and the dynamics.

4: How did you pick music as a career and, when you think of yourself being in a band, does that bring a big smile to your face or, is it more an office job?

A: Being in a band definitely brings a smile to the face, especially when gigging.  In terms of career, it’s still early days.  We all still fit proper jobs around gigs and practices.  We hope to one day do less of the office job and more of the band, though I run a pub so I’m sure it will be a Busman's holiday when I do get a chance to do music full time!

5: How important do you think social networking is to promote the band?  MySpace, Facebook, Twitter etc?

A: Social networking is fantastic.  Firstly it’s free, with the tight budget we have at the moment you can’t do better than that.  Also, the amount of people that use Facebook and the amount of times they on average log on, you are bound to catch someone at some point!  We try to keep status updates interesting so people don’t switch off/block us - there is nothing worse than logging on and having your wall full of pointless nuggets of uninspiring nonsense.  Myspace on the other hand we feel is dead.  It’s full of bands self-promotion, not many music fans seem to log on, it’s slow and overly fussy on the eye so I'm not a fan any more, though when I first started bands it was the best thing ever, free webspace and uploadable and streamable music.
 
6:  A question for Matt. How did you end up on the drummer’s stool and who are your influences?

A:  As mentioned earlier, I started at a young age but I'm not sure why.  Guitar was my first love so my early influences were people like Slash. When I got my first kit I looked to the drummers of the bands I listened to. Thanks to bad timing, Phil Collins was all over the music scene in those influential days; he played drums for everyone and any one so I listened to his stuff a lot.  Dave Grohl has thankfully taken over that role now so he is another guy I love to watch and listen to.  Nirvana,
QOTSA, Them Crooked Vultures even some of the one off tracks like NiN and Prodigy are all corking drum tracks.  His drumming on the Foo's 'Colour & The Shape' is truly epic.

If I could swap my talents, my soul and probably a limb (no Def Leppard jokes) for someone else's talent it would be Danny Carey from Tool. That guy has great style and such ability, all 4 limbs seem to be doing different rhythms and time signatures all at the same time, while I struggle to do an AC/DC beat at times!

7: What as a band are you next steps, say over the next 18 months?

A: If it’s anything like the last 18 months anything is possible!  I guess getting the album out to as many people as possible is a must.  Gig more, gig with bigger bands and get into bigger venues and eventually get to a point where we can leave these day jobs of ours!

8: What does a rock band, listen to in the tour van these days?

A: We currently listen to Jon go on about his poor 3G and slow Sat Nav!  When I get the radio fixed I think we may have to get it sorted so its loud enough to drown out his incessant waffle.  When it is up and running I would probably have some Alter Bridge on for driving.  Today’s sound track to the venue was AC/DC live.  Thunderstruck and Who Made Who were the highlights of the short trip.

9: How is the music scene on the South Coast any other bands or venues to recommend?

A: The south coast has always been a haven for good bands and the music scene in places like Portsmouth, Brighton and Southampton is huge - often not getting the credit it deserves.  You tend to find that there are such extremities in music tastes and massive scenes with Indie and Metal, that the Rock genre is so vague and massive that it gets left behind.  What someone calls rock will be another man’s pop.  I would seriously recommend checking out bands such as We Caught the Castle, The Dead Pinups, Graces Collide, Tricorn, Beligerence and Gorse.

10: If you were able to choose an established band to support on a U.K. Tour at this stage of your career, who would it be and why?

A: That's a tough one, well as the original Guns n Roses line up is about as likely to reform as Jon getting a full 3G signal, I would have to say someone like Alter Bridge, Stone Temple Pilots, Alice in Chains, Foo Fighters, The Black Spiders or of course Motley Crue. Bon Jovi would be a split camp on this one i feel!

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