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Atlanta’s Family Force 5, are destined for huge success over here in the U.K. Having already played two sold out dates at the Manchester Academy and London’s Underworld, the 5 piece are already planning to come back for a November tour. With stage names such as Nadaddy, Chap Stique, Phatty, Crouton and Soul Glow Activatur, it’s clear that FF5 are party boys, who play party music for party people. Defined as ‘Christian Crunk’, Solomon Olds (aka Soul Glow Activatur) sets the record straight about their faith, the scene and the infamous hulk hands. FF5’s band history is pretty simple, head honcho Solomon explains, “We started the band about four or five years ago. Three of us are brothers and The Jonas Brothers’ name was already taken so we couldn’t do that.” He goes off on a tangent to talk about the young Hollywood starlets that have taken a shine to their music, “We met The Jonas Brothers a couple of times. They like our band a lot for some reason and Taylor Swift too! I don’t know if Miley Cyrus likes us or not, but we know that the others dig our band.” With that cleared up, he returns to the matter in hand, “I met two of my brothers when they came home from the hospital. I’m the eldest, Crouton and Phatty are twins, so we all got together, and I met Nadaddy at school and I met Chap Stique around town, we had to fire another guitar player so …” FF5 are no strangers to life on tour, headlining an annual tour of all of the United States and playing last year’s Warped Tour made sure they were all well versed in that area. “Some of the guys from The Maine ran out with their asses hanging out on our set so that was kind of funny. That was definitely the craziest thing I’d seen!” Warped Tour antics are notoriously riotous and solid bonds are usually formed. After all, what goes on tour, stays on tour and FF5 seem to have formed a special bond to Brit-rockers with ‘monster-visions’, The Automatic. “We played with them and we got to know those guys pretty well. They were great! They were like ‘you guys are our favourite band. You’d do well over in the UK.’” Reports of partying hard come thick and fast, “Everywhere we’d go I’d get with Dave from Cobra Starship and we’d always have dance parties every single night just because he was like, ‘well the FF5 dudes are stupid and they love dancing all the time so let’s go ask them!’ It was just crazy grinding on one another, both boys and girls. Iit was weird but it was all really, really fun. My brother, he actually had a dance contest with Katy Perry at one point and he actually came in second place. He almost beat her though. He just didn’t pull off the move that would’ve killed her. Maybe he can like have a dance off between her and Rhianna and maybe get one of the Spice Girls too…!” Owning The Dixie Chicks old tour bus might have something to do with FF5’s endless need to party. The spirit of the Chicks is still apparent on the bus even if the old décor isn’t. “We bought their old tour bus. When we got it, I guess Natalie, the lead singer, had been eating quite a bit because the seats were so ripped up from where she’d been sitting. Dixie Chicks were partying on that bus, man! So we had to re-upholster everything. I don’t know if I can rip it up like Natalie - she must have been gnawing on those seats!” A Family Force 5 live show is a spectacle to behold and having toured the U.S extensively there are plenty of ‘boys go wild on tour’ stories to be told. However the main entertainment seems to come from the fans, “Family Force 5 tend to play club shows … sometimes there’s not good security so the whole crowd ends up being onstage with us, singing our songs for us, so then we just jump down into the crowd and watch them sing it all! “Sometimes we get kids that look total scene kids and stuff, then there’s kids that’ll have like chicken costumes on for some reason. Family Force 5 play dance-y electro but there’s also a Flaming Lips quality to it as well, so you get kids dressed up really weird!”
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URL: www.youtube.com/addition ma gazine
URL: www.youtube.com/addition magazine
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A key part in FF5’s live success, a n d p o s s ib ly to blame for the weird costumes th a t t h e ir fa n s seem to love to don at their shows , a re a p a ir of hug e, elab orately d ecorated Hulk Ha nds . S o lo mon gets down to explaining them, “A c o u p le o f years ag o I was looking at this kid s hulk ha nds , some mom was running us around s o m e w h e re and I was like ‘d o you have any hulk ha nds ?’ be cause I saw these kids wearing the m a n d I wa s like, ‘w hat i f w e stuck a microp hone in t ha t a nd sprayed the hulk hands platinum o r s o m e t h in g and made them real bling-bling look i n g ? ’ Pe o p l e just ate i t up for some reason. They l ike d i t !” H e also claims to gain super powers w h e n h e p u t s the hands on during a show, “I fe e l l ike e ve r y time I p ut them on i t makes me mo re po w e rful. My muscles get bigger. Not too m u c h b ig g e r though. It ’s funny none of my clothe s fa l l o ff, b u t I w ish they w ould !” Another strange sight on a FF5 s t a g e is w h a t looks like a rather hug e time machin e … T ime ma chine i t isn’ t, but in fact i t ’s the Fa m i ly Fo rc e 5000… “That ’s our six foot d rum ma c hine . We actual ly made a joke one day becaus e I p lay a lo t of drum machines in our music and I s a id ‘ w h a t i f w e b uil t a six foot d rum machine?’ and e ve r y bo dy was like ‘that ’s so stup id , no!’ b ut we ke pt la ughing about i t wi th our friends and we a c t u a l ly m e t someone that could make i t. I said ‘ no dude , yo u can’ t make this’ and he goes ‘Oh ye s I c a n ’. S o he and his dad buil t this thing for u s . E ve r y b o d y that ever has to li ft i t hates us.” Whe n que s t io ne d about the serious logistic complicat i o n s invo lve d he exp lains, “We d rag i t in our trailer. We c o uldn’ t fi t i t on the p lane this time. . .
. . . b e c a u s e A i r C o n t in e n t a l w e re l ike , ‘ n o w e d o n ’ t c a r r y s ix fo o t dr um m a c h in e s ’ … We l l yo u s h o u ld b e c a u s e w e h ave t h e o n ly o n e in t h e w o r ld r ig h t n o w.” A ny way, i t s e e m s o n ly fa ir t h a t t h e U K fa n s s ho uld ge t t o e x pe r ie nc e t he ful l F F 5 s t a ge s ho w s a me a s t he U.S fa ns do. A s ma l le r, but a ls o ke y ins t r ume nt in a F F 5 s e t is N a da ddy ’s ke y t a r, “ N a d a d d y wa s o n t u r n t a b le s fo r a w h i le b u t w e w e re l ike ‘ m a n , t h is i s s t u p id . We d o n ’ t e ve n n e e d t h e t u r n t a b le .’ S o h e wa s j u s t s o r t o f s i tt in g b a c k t h e re p lay in g t h e t a m b o u r in e re a l l y…” C le a r ly, t h e t a mbo ur ine no t be ing a huge s o und, S o lo mo n e xp l a in s t h a t N a d a d d y a lm o s t g o t f ire d fro m t h e ba nd, he c la ims t ha t t he y c a me t o t he c o nc lus io n t h a t “ w e ’ re e i t h e r g o in g t o f i re t h is g u y o r w e ne e d t o give him a j o b. S o w e w e re j us t like , ‘ yo u s h o u ld p l ay t h e ke y b o a rd ’ s o h e p lay s t h e ke y b o a rd e ve r y n ig h t a n d i t ’s a h u g e s o u n d fo r w h a t w e d o. I t ’s ve r y fu n . H e ’s g o t t h is o n e fo o t ke y b o a rd n o w, l ike a m in ia t u re ke y b o a rd , b u t i t s o unds like a mo ns t e r !” Xa n a d u is a ls o a c r u c ia l p a r t o f F F 5 . N o, t h e y d o n ’ t s i t a n d wa t c h t h e f i lm o n c e a d ay lo o k in g fo r s ty l e a n d m u s ic a l t ip s . Xa n a d u is t h e n ic k n a m e o f t he ir “ Hy pe Ma n Ex t ra o rdina ire ”. S o lo mo n c o mp l a in s , “ Xa n a d u is n o t w i t h u s r ig h t n o w, I m e a n , h e ’s a l i ve , h e d id n ’ t d ie o r a ny t h in g , h e ’s j u s t n o t in t he U K w i t h us . He ’s a big O liv ia N e w t o n Jo hn fa n ! H e p u t s o n ro l le r s k a t e s e ve r y s in g l e d ay. H e wa s o u r ro a d t e c h a n d w h e n w e f ir s t s t a r t e d w e ha d really, really bad equipment and it would always break down. My brother’s drums would always break, so he was onstage fixing something whilst we were playing and I said ‘dude you’re almost onstage as much as we are, so if...
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FI RS T L OOK AT TH E UK EP ART WORK S ched uled for release on 28th se pt embe r thr ough EMI . more info comin g very soon at: www. myspa ce.com/familyforce5...
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...you’re going to be out here you should pop n’ lock a couple of times or try do the moonwalk as best you can!’ and he ended up doing that, and people started eating it up so he became our ‘hype man’ but he still fixes everything on stage! He was pretty bitter about not coming over to the UK. He was like ‘man, you guys suck.’ “When FF5 aren’t leaving key members back in the US they’re getting bored on tour. Perhaps an obvious remedy is to capture some of that boredom and turn it into a sartorial set of videos and release a DVD. Solomon explains that that’s exactly what they did, “We shot the videos probably a year and a half ago and we decided to put them on DVD, see if kids would like it or not. And we were like, we get so bored on tour, ‘what can we do?’ so we just started doing our own kind of shows and they’re real tongue in cheek and real dry humour and stuff but the kids like them a lot. We might make some more of them but I don’t know … We’re kind of like ‘we should move on from this idea.’ We want to keep it fresh.” One of those fresh, new ideas is to record a Christmas album. Being renowned for their Christian faith, it seems only fitting to put their own spin on that treasured time of year. “This is the first Christmas album we’re putting out; it’s got so much glee and jollyness! I’ve already played it to a bunch of friends and they said ‘dude I hate Christmas songs but I’d totally buy this because you can shake your badonkadonk to it. So if you can throw down with some egg nog and have a dance party on Christmas, then FF5’s Christmas record is going to do really well for you! It’ll be a good thing to put on, you don’t have to listen to Bing Crosby and Mariah Carey. It was like ‘yeah let’s just pick out some of our favourite songs’, because I don’t really like Christmas music either, which is funny, but it’s just the same songs you hear over and over so I was like ‘what if we put our twist on it and made it kind of ghetto fabulous and put some rock in there too?’” It’s set to feature a song called ‘That Baby’ which is about ‘the little baby Jesus’, however, in true FF5 style there’s a twist! “We decided that the wise men were from Atlanta and they were riding Cadillacs and bringing bling bling to him and throwing diamonds on him and stuff so we made it kinda club orientated!” A third album is apparently in the works too and when asked when to expect the album to hit the stores Solomon says, “…Pretty soon. We’re probably going to try and release a single over here in the UK called ‘Keep the Party Alive’ and there’s a giant store over in America called Target and we just did a song for a campaign for them that’s going to be coming out around Halloween.” FF5 are giving their fans a lot to be excited about and Solomon even explains a little about the song writing process for their third album… “For the third album we’re actually doing a lot of writing with lots of people in L.A. We want to break out from the ‘scene kid’ touring base. When we first started out it was really, really cool to be in the scene but now I feel like we’re seniors! It’ll definitely still be party music, it’s always going to have that because that’s what we do, but we just want to broaden our horizons and write with some hip song writers and see what comes out of it. And if it sucks then we just won’t put it out and if it rocks then we’ll put it out.” There’s a burning question on most FF5 fan’s lips, and that is ‘Are FF5 purposefully dressed up to look like Power Rangers in their ‘Dance or Die’ video?’ An upload to their MySpace page has sparked a huge debate between the fans, as the video sees the band members don all-in-one suits and throw karate style shapes. Solomon finally puts it to rest and explains that, “We decided to come up with the most space age outfits that we could and a girl from Canada made them for us and we were like ‘oh my god these are so awesome!’. We saw a picture of us in it and were like ‘man we look like Power Rangers!’ and so when we shot the video with the director, he was quite an eclectic dude, and everything just kind of came together and if people want to call us Power Rangers then that’s more power to them, I guess. We are somewhat of a force to be reckoned with!”
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URL: www.myspace.com/familyforce5
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FACT are a 5-piece Rock band from Japan made up of Takahiro (guitars, vocals), Tomohiro (bass, vocals), Kazuki (guitar, vocals), Eiji (drums, vocals) and Hiro on lead vocals. While you might not have heard of them yet, that is all set to change with their debut self-titled album due for realise in the UK on August 3rd through Vagrant UK. The record is receiving positive reviews across the board for their creative high-energy sound that infuses their love of music that pours out with their list of influences and obvious commitment too their cause. Their first trip to the UK leads them to Sonisphere festival in Knebworth and in an act of enormous luck they find themselves playing the main stage mid-afternoon as an extreme unknown band but receiving a promising and welcoming reaction from the UK. They are humble, excited to be here and grateful for the chance to play, “This is the first time we’ve been to the UK, we’re very excited to be here. We’re really excited for people to get to know who we are and listen too the album live, it’s a great opportunity to be here because we’ve only played in America outside of Japan. We’ll be coming back to do a tour playing throughout the UK, we expect everyone will not have heard us yet so might just stand and listen but we hope they will dance!”. This 2nd visit to the UK will see them visiting London, Manchester, York, Glasgow, Cardiff and Birmingham and it is strongly strongly recommend that you go check out the 5 piece in action. “We formed 10 years ago in 1999, we all grew up in the same neighbour hood and all played in bands growing up, the band explain, We played some shows together in different bands but all joined together to write metallic hardcore but with really sort of melodic melodies over the top which is why we got Hiro to do vocals. We infused different ideas and styles to create something new. We started from there and developed further and further”.
y t i t n e d i r u o e d i h s k s a m “the ” t i w o h s o but als
At this point what you might not realise is that they speak very little English, so its surprising that the entire record is in English! “I was always influenced by American and English bands when I was growing up so singing in English has always been easy for me because its what I’ve always listened too, explains Vocalist Hiro, in fact I think singing in Japanese is harder!” Another feature of the band is their traditional Japanese masks they wear on stage and in photo shoots, the reason behind this being...? “The reason is that its another way of engaging the fans, as we are a Japanese band there’s a little bit of a handicap with that, we could get so easily labelled as something we’re not. So the masks are embracing who we are but also stepping out of that boundary. They hide our identity but also show it, in a certain way, which means that you actually have to listen to our music first before you can tell what we are like”. The record in question is the self-titled 15 track release worked on by producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette (Incubus, Story of the Year) and mixed by Chris Lord Alge (Green Day, My Chemical Romance). To add to the impressive input during recording the band cite a diverse list of Influences which include Incubus, Anthrax, Hundred Reasons, Slayer, Lamb of God and Metallica which totally reflects in the eclectic style of their music as well as a penchant for writing a killer hook or two. Their favourite track to perform live is album number ‘Purple Eyes’ explains guitarist Takahiro, “...i like the riff and the whole feel of the song, performing it live just brings a lot of movement and energy!” Passionate about music on stage and off the exciting atmosphere surrounding FACT is sure to become explosive, spread the word and prepare for something different.
URL: www.myspace.com/FACTJAPAN
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Fresh from playing UK’s Reading and Leeds Festival, Northern California’s Set Your Goals are preparing to sound check for their post-festival London date at the newly opened, Relentless-sponsored Garage. Vocalist, Jordan Brown, shares dance party secrets, their long-term influences and straight-edge member swaps! “We’re from Northern California, we have members from Los Angeles and San Francisco but primarily we’re from Northern California. We formed in 2004 so we’ve been a band for about 6 years. I now live near San Francisco” shares Vocalist Jordan Brown. With Los Angeles and San Francisco being almost 350 miles away from each other, curiosity as to how the band came about is in the fore-front of most minds, “I met all the guys going to shows actually, we all just grew up going to shows” he explains. “Matt was the first person I met and he and I both had the itch to play something different around the same time. We were playing in, like, hardcore bands in our area and stuff, and this was ,kind of, like a breath of fresh air, and allowed us to incorporate all of our influences into one band. With our other bands, people kind of wanted to take things in a certain direction and Audelio wanted to create, write and do whatever he wanted to do. But yeah, we met everyone going to shows and it’s been really cool, kind of, growing up with everyone!” We’ve released two full length albums, we’ve had an EP that we put out before those.” The EP in question is ‘Reset’. Record label chops and changes are a recurring problem for new artists, but as Jordan explains, Set Your Goals were fortunate enough to remain reasonably unscathed when switching from Eulogy to Epitaph, “Our newest album just came out with Epitaph. We had one album with Eulogy and then things got a little sour, but fortunately we were able to make a clean split with them, and Epitaph helped us out with that and we’ve been with them since about the Fall. We officially signed with them this year, but we’ve been working with them since last Fall.” A strong sense of unity is apparent within the band and this reflects in the song-writing process, “This record is actually a band effort. Our drummer and I write all the music together - or we at least get the initial ideas going - and then when we bring them to the studio, we get everyone else’s input since they’ll be the ones tracking the guitar strings. So we would regroup and polish things up and then as far as the lyrics go, our lead vocalist and I write all our ideas down and work out our vocal parts together.” Changing labels came with a few bonuses for Set Your Goals, “We are good friends with Paramore. We did a tour with them a couple of years ago and we had Hayley sing on the record just as an artistic collaboration, nothing more, and her part was really fun actually, because with every part we just wanted to push everyone to try something different, and that song had a real hip hop group feel to it, so we just wanted to really explore that, and she was into it just as much as everyone else. It was really fun. It’s one of my favourite songs that we got to do.” The track in questions is titled ‘The Few That Remain’ and can be found on the album, ‘This Will Be the Death of Us’. Recording can take its toll on a band but Jordan explains his coping mechanisms that came into play, “After we finished recording the Album [This Will Be the Death of Us] we’d toured with pretty much every band we wanted to tour with, so now it’s just fun and we get things as they come. It’s not as stressful as it was. It’s good to have the feeling of being worryfree, like ‘Everything’s going to be OK, you don’t need to worry, even if the band broke up, it’s going to be OK’ ... I was really going through a lot of paranoia and worrying and questioning last year. I was like ‘Did you read those letters [from fans]? Do you realise how much impact we have on other people’s lives?!’ I started to get sort of pressured, like putting pressure on myself, but then that thought helped me to take the pressure off too.”
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URL: www.youtube.com/SETYOURGOALSVIDEO
URL: www.youtube.com/SETYOURGOALSVIDEO
Extensive touring is a staple for new bands, and S et Your Goals have certainly done their fair share. Playing the entire Warped Tour last year, and embarking on a headline tour of the Uni ted States. Jordan spil ls about the trials and tribulations of S et Your Goals on the road, “When we did Warped Tour - our first year in 2007 - i t was good. B ut last year ’s was kind of rough on us because i t was two and a half months and we only did two weeks that first year. We thought we were prepared, but i t ended up taking a lot out of us” Al though this seems like a bad experience, on reflection he clari fies, “B ut i t was good because even though i t drained us, and exhausted us, i t real ly forced us to question our dedication to the band and I know that we’re a lot stronger now because that tour real ly broke us and put us to the test.” The tour i tself has seen many a band grace i ts stages. It has made bands and broken bands, but al l of the acts agree that the Warped Tour is a unique experience. “Warped tour is a lot of craziness. I was going through a lot of personal things, so for me i t was just like a blur, but you defini tely had great moments but you stil l have the music there, like, every day I enjoyed a band cal led B edouin S oundclash. They are awesome, they were on our stage so there were a few bands that real ly made i t worthwhile, and they were one of them.”
S et Your Goals were no strangers to the afterdark antics that Warped Tour is renowned for, “We had a few dance parties on the tour bus. We’d just, sort of, play music and people in bands would just, sort of, walk in to see whose bus i t was and we’d, like, turn the music up and there’d be people hanging from the lights. It was real ly cool. Warped tour ’07 was where we met bands like New Found Glory, Paramore and that was our first time getting to actual ly be on tour wi th those guys. Four Years Strong came to be very good friends wi th us on that tour, and B roadway Cal ls. We met Gal lows because of Warped Tour too.” S et Your Goals popped their Reading/Leeds Festival cherry this year, playing the Lock-Up Stage wi th B ri tish acts such as The B lackout and Enter Shikari. “It was awesome! We never played i t before. We were actual ly invi ted before, but had to cancel because we lost money, so we thought we wouldn’ t be invi ted back, but they understood the si tuation and they were real ly cool to us. It was fun! Reading was like the most fun I’ve had at a festival. The crowd was real ly cool! Leeds was good, I actual ly liked Reading a bi t more just because there was more energy circulating that day. B ut Leeds was great too because i t ’s great that they have i t happening al l over in di fferent parts of the country so that people who can’ t drive far can go.”
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THIS WILL BE TH E DE ATH OF US. OUT NOW. PURCHASE FROM: www. banq uetrecords.com/87028
Playing the festival is only part of the fun, albeit the main fun. Being a diverse festival with 6 stages, there are plenty of opportunities to check out favourite bands and the competition, “I got to see Rise Against and Thursday. I got to watch Polar Bear Club: we did a tour with them just before we all came over here, so we’re good friends with them and Jimmy actually sings Hayley’s part on that song. We actually just did a headline tour and it was our first headline in three years. We did a lot of small tours but we did two months this summer and it was with Four Years Strong, Polar Bear Club, Swallows, and Fireworks”, he digresses, “But yeah, Thursday were awesome. I wanted to see a band called Metric too.” Away from touring, Set Your Goals still like to go to gigs like they did when they were teenagers. A couple of new bands have caught the ears of Jordan, “There’s a band from L.A called Blackout 101. They’re 15 years old, we did a tour with one of their other bands this summer but they sound like Unwritten Law, like old school Unwritten Law. I really like them a lot. They’re cool ... I think a lot of times I get really into music and the more time I have to spend with myself and music, the better I feel .” He goes on to explain the rest of the band’s hobbies when not touring, “Everyone has their own little tricks. Matt [Wilson] is really into collecting action figures. We try to take as much time off as we can between tours, just to have that time to relax and do what you want. Like some of us will still need to travel around the country a little bit, but it’s all still on our own terms, which is really neat.” Jordan spills on the many line-up changes of Set Your Goals over the years and of the subsequent change in dynamics of the band, “I’m not straight-edge, our other singer is straight-edge and Jr. [Audelio Flores], he’s straight-edge. About half the band are vegetarian [and] a couple of the guys eat fish. It’s funny that we’ve gotten through 15 line-up changes, the last three years we’ve been this line-up though, so we’ve actually gone from having all vegan, to almost all vegetarian at one point, to like no vegetarian and all straight-edge at one point to like two straight-edge, it’s really fun to see it shift! The straight-edge hang out just as much as we do though” he quickly adds. Set Your Goals formed with the intent of carrying on the legacy of hardcore bands that they loved as kids that all seemed to be breaking up, “Lifetime and The Movielife were bands we grew up with, though those bands had broken up around the time we formed this band. Really what it was, we saw a lot of our favourite bands that we used to be able to see, that we weren’t able to see any more, so we were like ‘well let’s just try to carry it on’ you know, just have fun playing the same kind of music.” Alongside those bands, their childhood heroes were New Found Glory, “New Found Glory was a big band that we’ve grown up with and who really keep developing genres. Like a mix between aggressive hardcore and melodic pop punk, and so they were a really big influence,” explains Jordan, “In terms of New Found Glory, I’ve been seeing them since I was like 14, so it was neat to re-meet those people later on when you’ve established your own sound. Every band we’ve toured with I get like ‘wow, I’ve totally grown up listening to you guys!’” The future is bright for Set Your Goals and optimism is rife, he explains, “I think we’ll spend a couple of years touring on these songs and I’ve started writing a little bit of new music and we’ll see what develops from that, it’d be nice to put new music out and tour that.”
URL: www.myspace.com/setyourgoals
It’s been a few months since one of the hardest working bands from the South made their presence known in the world of the music press, landing themselves high ranking places in the unsigned polls in both Rock Sound and Kerrang!. After years of waiting for the recognition they’ve worked so hard to receive, these dirty electro-punks have exploded onto the scene and set the proverbial ball rolling, seeing the boys even making a shock appearance in Kerrang! with their own poster, unheard of for a band that is yet to officially release their debut album… “It was such a surprise to us!” laughs dashing front man Laurence René. “It’s like we’re the new generation, with ol’ [Marilyn] Manson on the back! It’s so exciting; we never really thought this would happen to us. Not yet anyway!” But with music press approval or not, the My Passion crew couldn’t care less of gaining the right opinions from magazines or positive mentions from those high in the music industry. “We don’t expect everyone to love what we do,” says René when the subject of bad reviews of their debut is brought up, “people who are just into their metal or just love punk probably will struggle with the mix of genres we have, a mix that we think is original and interesting. But we’ve always been of the opinion that if we’re happy, then that is what’s most important. We’re not here to please anyone; we just hope that the people who do give us bad reviews stay open-minded enough for the next album. It could go more industrial, there are so many different elements to our music that who knows which way it could go!” But the boys have received a lot of love for their work to date too. So much so in fact, that Dutch label Mascot flew over especially to offer them a record deal and a place as the main band on their roster. “It all happened to fast; we really weren’t searching for a label to take us on at all, we had our own agenda and it just wasn’t on our minds” recalls René. “But they came over especially to see us after being recommended by our TV and radio promotion team as they were looking for a hot new English band to champion the label. After seeing us at two of our London shows they were blown away and seemed to find it really thrilling; they made us an offer that weekend.” But finally finding themselves in the position of professional musicians doesn’t mean they’ve lost control of what makes My Passion the band they are, nor does it mean that they’ll be resting on their laurels anytime soon. “Nothing changes in our world; we still have full control. It’s a three album deal and we’ve already started working on the next one. When you’re as creative as we are there’s no time to just stand around, and now our future is more secure we can start moving forward in the way we’ve always wanted.” With such a tight knit group that is constantly striving to make it out on top, a smaller, more personal label reflects the family style working ethics of the band perfectly, allowing them to use the label to their advantage: “The people involved are really working for you and that’s what we wanted. I can phone up the boss of the company now and speak to him if I
wanted to and not have to wait for days to get a response back just from his secretary! We demand a lot of attention so it’s good we’re the main band on the agenda, because we’re not ones to sit back and wait. Now is the time we start working even harder. It’s what we’ve always wanted.” With the option of worldwide distribution opened up to the boys, they finally have a chance to reach the furthest corners of the world, from the US to Japan. “It’s a really exciting time for us,” gushes René. “Being with Mascot means we have a budget to do a video, promotions and actually make some money back from merchandise. We’re starting to see our vision finally come together and at last we can finally start planning our world domination!”
In between being snapped up by labels and being named the darlings of the UK’s upcoming music scene, My Passion have still found time to tour, their main love in life where they out to their fans, old and new. Not so long ago, the boys found themselves playing alongside iconic 90’s band Rachel Stamp, a band that influenced the boys massively as they grew up: “They are one of the most entertaining bands to watch live as performers so it was amazing to be asked by (singer and bassist) David to play with them at the one-off show. There were a lot of old friends from growing up there, we kind of felt like the next generation. It was a very nostalgic experience as they were always such an underground band, just like us and David has done a lot of work with us in the past and had such a huge impact to make us the band we are today. There’s definitely not enough theatre or performance like that in music these days…” With debut album ‘Corporate Flesh Party” due later this month, My Passion find themselves back on the road as a kind of “celebration” of their achievements to date and René seems to breathe a huge sigh of relief as he considers the weight that may be taken off their diligent shoulders in the near future. “This might be the last tour we’ll have the do the groundwork for!” he beams. “We’ll be on the road for a month and we want everyone to join us, it’ll be like a massive party. Hopefully after that we’ll look to Europe and to the rest of the world – we’re hardened and roadworthy now, we can take it!” Perhaps most flattering to the band is the sudden reversal of roles. Where once My Passion were the young and aspiring band asking to support, the boys have suddenly found themselves in the position where young bands like them are asking for a spot to join them on tour. “It’s really great to have got to this point” says René, “hopefully we’ll be in the position soon that we can bring out bands that we love personally that have caught our eye on our travels. It’s great to give back and give other young bands the opportunity.” And true to form, the final date of the tour with be held in St. Michaels Church in Camden, London, a dramatic end to what will most likely be one of the most memorable tours in the history of My Passion…excluding a certain tour bus fire...
“...I’d never personally piss in a cup and throw it at someone because, I’m a modern gentleman...” “It’s a real church! But I shouldn’t think they still do many ceremonies” adds an amused René. “We didn’t want to just play the Barfly or the Underworld; we wanted to do something a little more ambitious rather than settling with just something standard. It’s a huge gothic church which we’re going to bring a massive light show and PA to and make it into a big event. It’s looking to be pretty epic and we’ve got a few friends’ bands joining us like SleeperCurve and Kyra who practically live on Lake Windermere in the Lake District where not a lot happens out there! They’re great guys who deserve to be seen.” Their previous involvement with energy drink giant Red Bull and their Bedroom Jam concerts has more than paid off, with the brand helping to fund the whole event, a method of sponsorship that up until now has been part of the monetary backing to propelling My Passion further forward in realising their dreams. “It’s definitely been good being independent by using companies to support us rather than having a label. It’s meant we’ve been able to do something a bit special and different – it definitely won’t be like any other night. Hopefully it’ll be filmed and added to DVD, but it’ll be documented in some way at least so we can look back at it.” One of the most memorable experiences in the near future for the band however will be playing Download Festival for the first time this year, fully prepared for any onslaught from the few ignorant metal fans that may take an instant dislike to the My Passion musical stylings. “I’d never personally piss in a cup and throw it at someone because I’m a modern gentleman” chuckles René, “but we’re not Panic At The Disco, we’re not going to cry about it if they do. It’s not going to put us off because we’re living our dream. I mean, I’d like to ask those people what they’ve achieved lately! There’s always people out there that respect and adore you for doing it and will hopefully give it the attention it deserves.” While many bands would feel rather content and pretty proud of themselves for finding themselves at one of the biggest rock festivals in the country, My Passion, as ever, are reaching higher: “Hopefully we’ll go up the bill a bit for next year, maybe manage to sneak in to Reading and Leeds this year too; we’re never content! It’s only a small stage this year so it’ll still be pretty intimate, but we’re so excited to be part of it with the bands we love and to be there for the whole weekend. We just hope we don’t clash with Slipknot or it’ll be empty!” jokes René. “We’re always looking for more though. We’re disappointed to not get onto the Warped tour as well!”
With their lives snowballing as professional musicians, has the lifestyles of My Passion changed at all? “The people in our local town say to us, so that’s it then, so where’s the Ferrari?” laughs René, “but we’re definitely not counting our golden coins yet, we’re got a lot of work to do still. We can finally pay off our debts to parents, friends, whoever for vans and production and start to make a wage; it’s just the first step in our journey. We’ll always appear after shows and keep in contact with people; the only difference is that now there’s a light at the end of the tunnel! To live off what we do is a dream come true.” With the future of the band set and with some of the weight taken off their shoulders as a DIY band, the effortlessly handsome foursome are steadily climbing the ranks of the music world, with more than enough brand names from New Era to Red Bull and the music press behind them, it’s been a heady few months for them and it can only get madder. But do they think that people are beginning to take more notice of them now as a whole, and understanding what My Passion is all about? “I don’t think people will ever get it!” exclaims René, “they’re more, what the fuck is going on! We’re not a 2 dimensional band, we’re much deeper than these pop punk bands and as people watch us develop, they’ll see there’s a lot of depth to My Passion. People tend to not get where we fit but to us its rock music and it’s what we love.” For the rest of the year it seems they’ll be spreading the word of My Passion with more fervour than ever before, releasing more singles from the album and more touring in the pipeline to encourage more people to catch them for one of their exhilarating live shows: “Seeing us live is something extra, it’s something we take pride in and something we’ve invested in.” Needless to say, there’s no sign of My Passion stopping until the world is completely under their electronic-metal mash up spell. “We’re on a big adventure at the moment. We’ve achieved a lot for a bunch of young guys, almost anything could happen.” URL: www.myspace.com/MYPASSION
rolo tomas si One ye ar o n fro m t he releas e of th e ir m u ch loved and la ude d d e b u t a lb u m ‘H y s ter ics ’, R OLO TOMASSI have e s c a p e d t o Lo s A n g eles to record their second album w i t h U S p ro d u c e r D iplo.
‘H yste r ic s ’ wa s re corde d wi th Jas on San derson (65 D ay s o f S t a t ic , T h e Plight) in B arnsley and was the ki nd of a l b u m t h a t s h owcas ed a you n g an d fearless ba nd, re a d y t o p lay arou n d wi th e ve r y s onic conve ntio n , s u b ve r t e ver y pre con ceived ide a of g enre a n d j u s t s h o w c a s e a sense of fun, making the album t h e y a lway s wa n t e d to make. There was no messing a b o u t , i n a n d o u t , release and tour. Whe n t h e b a n d p laye d at th e SX SW even t in Aust in , Te x a s e a r l ie r this year, ROLO TOMASSI were a p p ro a c h e d by D ip lo, who was a fan and had been re c o m m e n d in g t h e m in interviews for Pi tchfork, The G ua rdian e t c . D ip lo h as n otably recorde d MIA, Sant o g o l d a n d B o n d e Do Role as wel l as remixed artists fro m Ka nye We s t t o Daft Punk and Radiohead. He a ls o r u n s t h e Ma d Decent label and blog in the US, w hic h is a c o l le ct ive of exci tin g n e w ar tis ts . T h e a lb u m w i l l b e released in March 2010 on Hassle Re c o rds i n t h e U K an d acros s E u rope T h e y w i l l a ls o t h e n embark on an exci ting tour of the U K , new s o f w h ich wil l be an n ou n ce d s h or t ly. This fo l lo w s t o u r s t h is year wi th The B ronx, Fucked Up, G a l lo w s , G ra m m a t ics an d Pu l le d A par t B y H o rses as w e l l a s a ra f t o f E u rope an fe s tivals in clu din g Pukkel p o p, L o w la n d s a n d S onisphere. T h e y w i l l a ls o c o n tinue to run their successful 7” s in g le s c l u b t h ro u g h Hassle, which this year included spl i ts wi t h Ca n ce r B ats an d Th roats as we l l as a numbe r o f re m ixe s a n d acou s tic track s . URL: www.myspace.com/ROLOTOMASSI
Hollywood locals, LMFAO slink on to the roof of Universal Records, beers in hand, emblazoned with their own clothing brand, and seemingly very jet lagged, having journeyed over for their second ever London date. Sky Blu, one half of the Uncle-Nephew group, explains “This is our second time in London but tonight is our first gig this time. The first time on the first trip went amazing. There were a lot of people there... For tonight we expect to see a lot of drunk foolery. I want to see the party animals of London come out and really show what it’s about here because everywhere we go in the world you get a different type of party animal ... A different creature that lives. I want to see what the party beast is here!” After that confusing start, Red Foo gets to talking more about how they started out and what the clincher for starting LMFAO really was, “We started about two and a half years ago. We took a trip to Miami for the Winter Music Conference and on that trip we drank all day, partied all night, and when someone called us from Hollywood and said ‘Hey, come down to The Grafton, there’s a pool party!’ We said ‘I’m in Miami, bitch!’ And we spent such an amazing week in Miami, as most people do when they take that great vacation, you know, when they go on their honeymoon, and that’s how we felt, like we were on our honeymoon. But of course we’re not... Not like that! But it was such an amazing time. We came back and we said: ‘OK, we’re off of our vacation, now it’s time to work again.’ And we looked at each other and said ‘No you don’t. No you don’t. We’re gonna party forever and we are going to make this our lifestyle because we had so much fun that we cannot NOT live this life’ And that’s when we came up with the concept of starting LMFAO, so here we are today!” LMFAO have already got off to a good start. They have a smattering of tour dates scheduled with cross-atlantic super group the Black Eyed Peas. Red Foo explains how this came about and how their relationship with Will.I.Am paved the way for LMFAO’s success, “Black Eyed Peas are from LA. We actually went to school together, with Will.I.Am. They would hear our stuff on the radio up there and we did do the remix for Fergie – Girl Can’t Help It. They heard and it’s funny enough that we didn’t know how they felt about it, we just did it. But apparently they really liked it and one day Will said ‘I want you to meet Jimmy Iovine’(record producer and chairman of Interscope Records) and we went to his house and Jimmy said ‘I wanna sign you guys’ and funnily enough we’d just got back from London and he goes ‘We’ll make it all work ... You guys can go be on Island, but LA is your home town. You need to orchestrate it from the USA.’ And that made a lot of sense to us, we hadn’t thought about that really, but it’s all in the Universal family, so they made an offer and everybody was happy and now we’re on Interscope through Will.I.Am’s label.” Having the backing of Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas has certainly helped propel LMFAO into the spotlight, but with catchy songs such as ‘I’m In Miami, Bitch’, ‘Rock The Beat’, ‘Lil’ Hipster Girl’ and newest single ‘La La La’, these combined with their unique and quirky style, the whole package is evident .. LMFAO’s MySpace top friends includes a girl called ‘Bikini Girl’. When questioned, Red Foo explains how she couldn’t make it to the UK, but there is still hope, “We might be auditioning for a new bikini girl because we love vision. She’s amazing ... A little crazy... but she’s great. It was a luck how it happened with her, one of the girls that was supposed to do it felt bloated and said ‘I don’t wanna do it’ on New Year’s. And we said ‘OK, fine’ because actually I’d invited this girl to the show and I said do you wanna be bikini girl and she said OK! And so since last New Year’s she just, for a lot of the shows, became bikini girl. The new auditions are being held very soon. I think we’re going to make the announcement in a couple of days and have a contest so we’ll keep you posted. It might be s’end a video saying why you think you should be bikini girl...’ ”
It’s hard to quite explain the genre that LMFAO have mastered. When asked to define their own sound Red Foo explained, “I think we’ve evolved into our own genre of party rock. But scientifically it’s probably a cross between electro and hip hop but we see it as so much more than that. There are a lot of different types of electro and different types of hip hop and we feel that whatever we do has got to rock the party!” It’s not only music that these guys are connoisseurs of; they have their own clothing label called ‘Party Rock’ too. “You can buy Party Rock in the UK online... www.partyrocklife.com. We accept traveller’s cheques...” When questioned on their own sense of style they explain it’s an ‘organised confusion’ and that ‘If it is mish-mashed, it is mishmashed on purpose.’ LMFAO come decked head to foot in their own designs, even the heart necklaces that LMFAO are sporting are a Party Rock creation, “We make heart necklaces. You can buy them on www. partyrocklife.com. [We’re wearing] the LaLaLa hearts. You know, a lot of people wear their heart on their sleeve... Not us, we wear ours round our necks.” LMFAO’s MySpace pictures include a picture with heiress and socialite Paris Hilton, “Sky grew up with Paris Hilton” explains Red Foo followed by a short clarification from Sky Blu, ‘Yeah she’s like my big sis. I’m definitely the prankster in the group but I think that I got that from her. She would prank me when I was little. It made me develop a pranking mechanism that I unleash on everyone that probably doesn’t deserve it.” Famous friends help in the music business, and with their hit single ‘I’m In Miami, Bitch’ being featured on the Kourtney and Khloe Kardashian show that’s previewing on E! their exposure is growing, Red Foo takes a moment to discuss the impression Kim Kardashian has made on him, “If I would’ve met Kim Kardashian with that damn nice booty, she’d probably be right here, under one of my arms!” and, when told she was single after having previously been rumoured to be engaged to Reggie Bush, Red Foo asks, “Why is she single? He just didn’t have the magic stick.” The impression of Hollywood party boys is made evident when they explain how they came to be on The Alexa Chung show, “That was really fun. There were a lot of fans at that show in the studio audience. Joey (Kovar -The Real World) was right before us, he got kicked off of the Real World because he partied with us and it’s funny because before he went to sleep he said, ‘LMFAO, rock the beat and rock this show’, and then he didn’t wake up!” To get a real sense of how hard LMFAO party, their Youtube channel has plenty of documentation, “We used to do a video a day for our Youtube but we’ve become so busy with the day-to-day stuff so now we’re taping everything and Sky Blu edits everything, but we have to do interviews and often times we find ourselves sleeping in the day, whereas when we first started we didn’t have all these things to do so that was when we had time to do the videos. But we got Paparazzi Pete now and we have plenty of footage. We have a few masterpieces!” Sky Foo expands, “One time we went into a radio station and some of the people at the beginning didn’t believe that we drink so they offered us some shots. They said, ‘you drink? You take some shots now!’ So we drank a whole bottle of Absolut vodka and at the end of the day I was laughing because they were like, ‘yeaaah do it!’ and we’re bashing in their computer screens with a bat. So we have that footage ... I feel like something like a DVD release might happen...” A classic LMFAO Youtube clip is cryptically called ‘The Return of the Backpack’, “There is an amazing story behind ‘Return of the Backpack’. It’s something that might make you weep; someone with a weak heart may have a heart attack. We lost our backpack. Well we got drunk and the reality is, is that someone stole the backpack. But we needed to get it back and we were so desperate that we made up a story...
...like someone had found it. And we had some ideas on who it could’ve been so we just said ‘we know who it is and you’re a hero!’ So we made it like they were heroes and we offered a reward. The people that found the person who took it and ended up kind of being responsible for returning the backpack are now our DJ and our dancer on stage! and we became best friends with them and we basically spend every day of our lives with them when we go on tour. In the backpack was drawers, a computer. We were DJ’s at the time so we had our Serato, we had our whole studio, we made masters and we hadn’t backed up for three or four weeks, it had a microphone, 60 dollars cash ... BIG DEAL! And everything was returned.... including the dirty drawers!” Whilst LMFAO have played plenty of one-off gigs, this winter sees their first solo tour of the USA, Red Foo explains the deal, “This is our first time on the bus. We fly mostly everyday to our shows and stuff so this is the first time we’re going to be on a bus. I feel like there’s going to be fans following us in carloads. We’re probably going to have to make some rules. You know, probably we’d normally say one girl to a guy because you can’t crowd the bus. But that’s unfair, I may ask for two girls for me. I got different tastes ... I got two arms!” One date in London doesn’t seem like enough for LMFAO fans but they promise to be back with more dates in the New Year, “We’ll be back in the UK around March with the Black Eyed Peas, probably before that. We’re booked all the way ‘til New Year’s so maybe January/February. It really depends, if the party animals come out... Like Canada! We’ve been back to Canada three times because they love us over there and we love them. And so they keep asking their promoters ‘bring ‘em back, bring ‘em back!’ So the promoters have to do it.” And a few parting words of wisdom from the L.A duo, “We’re like iPhones, you know, if you want the iPhone you’re going to find a way to get it. Hack it, crack it, you know !”
URL : WWW. MYSPACE .COM /LM FAO
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