Agogo Magazine Issue 01 Autumn 2012 by Gordon Duncan

agogo! ISSUE 01 | AUTUMN | 2012

The best new music near you

THE YEAR OF THE BUGG

JAKE TAKES OFF

PLUS:

PURE LOVE NINA NESBITT SEYE LIFE IN FILM DON BROCO AXEWOUND KYLA LA GRANGE FOXES

agogo!

The best new music near you

elcome to issue 1 of agogo! magazine and thanks for clicking! Our mission is to let you know about some of the best new bands and singers touring the UK, some of whom you’ll have heard of, some we’ll hopefully bring to your eyes and ears for the first time. We’re not about a particular genre or any notion of cool – if there’s a buzz about them and we like them, they’re in. And rather than us pontificating, we simply ask them some questions and let you make up your own mind, with some handy links to their music and, if we’ve got you really interested, to buy tickets to your local show. We love music, we love magazines, but we’ve decided to give this a go(go!) in a web-only format for now because, you know, printing stuff is expensive. Hopefully the page-turning style will give you the best of both print and web in one easy-to-read hybrid. If you like what we’re doing, feel free to download the magazine, embed it on your social pages or website and share it amongst your friends. We think there are lots of people out there who want to read about up and coming music and you can help us find out if we’re right. If you agree, please ‘Like’ us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AgogoMag and let us know what you think. Cheers, Gordon Duncan (Editor)

© agogo! magazine 2012 Editor: Gordon Duncan (gordon@agogomag.com) Contributors: Ben East (@beneast74, btb.east@gmail.com) Rachel Gardner (rcrgardner@yahoo.co.uk) Design by: Root Creations (www.rootcreations.co.uk)

CONTENTS LIFE IN FILM

20 JAKE BUGG

04 KYLA LA GRANGE

24 PURE LOVE

08 DON BROCO

NINA NESBITT

12 AXEWOUND

| ISSUE 01 | AUTUMN | 2012

SEYE

FOXES

| CONTENTS | agogo! |

JAKE BUGG

Interviewed by Ben East

Nottingham teenager who combines the folky charm of Donovan with the insouciant Northern attitude of Arctic Monkeys, Jake Bugg’s unique voice, once heard, is never forgotten. After debut single Trouble Town alerted tastemakers such as Zane Lowe and Jools Holland, he played most of the major festivals this summer, supported the likes of Michael Kiwanuka and Noel Gallagher and has already sold out his autumn UK tour.Current single Two Fingers is playlisted on daytime Radio 1, and just after his debut album is released in October, he reunites with Gallagher on a US tour. We find out how Jake’s coping with these heady times. Just over four months ago you were releasing your debut single, and wondering how it would be received. Now you’ve made daytime Radio 1, done Jools Holland, played loads of festivals and sold out an autumn tour. Of course you always hope that success might come your way, but what’s happened must be incredible? It is. When I was younger and writing my very first songs, obviously you dream of a life like this. But I never once thought that it would actually happen, especially not to the level I’ve got to now. Honestly, I never thought it would pan out like this, or this quickly. Can you put your finger on why people have really taken Trouble Town, Lightning Bolt and Taste It to their hearts in such a big way? It helps when Zane Lowe calls them the hottest records in the world! But it is difficult to explain. I think a lot of it might be down to the fact that there isn’t actually that much new guitar music around these days, to be honest. So when you do come up with something that seems to work, people really really like it. But that’s just one theory. I think everyone who makes popular music would like to know why it’s their songs that people latch on to rather than loads of others! So what have you particularly enjoyed as the excitement has built over the past few months? Doing Jools Holland’s show was just a great day all round. But getting the nod to go on an American tour with Noel Gallagher and Snow Patrol in the autumn is a massive achievement for me. I’ve always wanted to go and play my music in the States, and to do that with two such massive acts is actually a bit difficult to take in. Hopefully it’ll sink in at some point.

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Like what? Well, in the last ten years Arctic Monkeys, definitely. But then I’m just as happy listening to Robert Johnson or Donovan. The Beatles, of course.

What would you say to people who haven’t heard you yet by way of introduction? Well, I play my tunes. I write my songs. I like to swing from genre to genre - country, indie, even a bit of reggae. I take influences from all over but people are calling my stuff rootsy, which is fine by me. There’ll be an EP at the end of May which has quite a lot of punch and attitude to it, but then I’ve also got lots of softer, more intricate stuff too. Grit and rawness, mixed with quietness and delicacy, that’s how I’d put it. The first thing people will think when they hear you is that this is the work of a classic, back catalogue artist who is far older than you are. Did writing these songs come naturally, or were you trying to ape some of your heroes? It’s not a secret that when you start out, you want to try and be like your favourite artists. When you first learn guitar, you don’t immediately sit down and write songs, you try and work out the songs you already like. And I did that when I was 12. But somewhere along the line, you find your own sound, you work on it and develop it. To be honest, I just prefer older music.

That’s not a playlist on most teenagers’ iPods. Particularly not Donovan. Actually, people have been comparing me to Bob Dylan too. And he is amazing, don’t get me wrong, but maybe a lot of people say that because they don’t really know Donovan. My Mum always played Catch The Wind, and some of the songs he wrote are just phenomenal, so gorgeous; just really mellow and nice to listen to. Your parents are musicians, aren’t they. Would it be fair to say their musical tastes rubbed off on your songwriting? There is a bit of that. But I also think you find out for yourself that the songs were better back then. Too much music today sounds the same, the songs have got no vibe about them. The other distinctive element of your music is your voice. Where did it come from, because it’s hard to imagine many other Nottingham teenagers channelling the likes of Bob Dylan or Donovan when they start writing songs. That’s a tough question really. I started writing at 14 and I didn’t really notice that my voice was developing in a particular way. At first, to be honest, I couldn’t sing a note. But I worked and worked at it. The weird thing is, what I hear isn’t what other people hear. To me it just sounds like I’m singing a song, I’m not deliberately trying to sound like anyone else. But then I do get people saying I sound really different. It’s a strange one.

| JAKE BUGG | agogo! |

Trouble Town has the memorable line ‘the only thing that’s pretty is the thought of getting out’. Do you have a love/hate relationship with Nottingham? I love Nottingham, actually. But when you’re growing up, you want to get away, don’t you? I think that’s a feeling that everyone’s experienced as a teenager. You want to go out, travel the world, see things for yourself. And luckily, I’m doing that through my music. But did growing up in Nottingham have an impact on your music did you think? Totally. You’re right to spot that Trouble Town is based on Nottingham, even though it could be anywhere. But the city does support its local artists - not least because it’s not really so well known for its successful musicians. There are a lot of gigs, a lot of bands. It’s helped me get noticed. And can you pinpoint the exact moment you did? Absolutely. It was when I uploaded a song onto the BBC Introducing website. I got an e-mail literally the next day from BBC Radio Nottingham saying they wanted to play the track. I couldn’t believe it. And before I knew it I had a manager and got signed, all within six months of taking a deep breath and uploading the song. And from that I went on Radio 1 and Glastonbury. Incredible, really. What was the Glastonbury experience like? It was fantastic to play there. I’d auditioned for this event called Glastonbudget, which is a tribute festival to Glastonbury, and they turned me down. And then the next day Radio 1 rang and asked me to play the actual thing. It was mad. Actually playing on that stage was phenomenal for me, a great achievement.

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Who were you up against on the other stages? Er, Beyonce was on at the same time as me! So I didn’t have the biggest crowd. But in a way it was the footage of me playing at Glastonbury which was more important. This summer you’ve been honing your live act at lots more festivals. They’ve been just as important to your momentum in a way, haven’t they? There’s been a few mad ones, yes! Some of them were booked before I was signed, so there was this family festival in South Yorkshire somewhere which was a bit strange - but cool too. And I really liked The Wickerman, particularly when they actually burn a wickerman. But it’s been interesting, because you do quickly understand that you’re there to entertain, and sometimes one man and a guitar won’t be enough. So how did you adapt? Well, after you’ve played a few gigs you realise that you need to create a persona for yourself, I think. You have to put on a show rather than just playing eight songs and going home. So even though there are a few songs I will play on my own, I’ve got a bass player and a drummer now, which means a gig of mine can be much more varied. The idea of a persona is interesting because there is an element of storytelling in your songs, isn’t there. Will that be a feature of the album too? I like telling stories in my songs. But what I’ve learned is that it’s cool if they’re true, but it’s not the be all and end all. Creating stories out of things you’ve dreamed or fantasised about is just as interesting and important.

And of course, in the end, the song’s the most important thing. Absolutely. You know, what I really hope for the album beyond the obvious - that it’s successful - is that it’s the kind of record which might inspire teenagers to pick up guitars and write songs again rather than messing around on midi keyboards all day. When Bradley Wiggins wins gold in the Olympics everyone’s riding around the streets in all the cycling gear. And a good guitar record can do the same for guitar music. Maybe some were inspired by Arctic Monkeys at the opening ceremony... Yeah, they did Come Together as well, didn’t they? You know, it was great they were there. Every time people say guitar music is dead, it comes back stronger. And I hope I can be a part of that renaissance. We’ll see what happens. I’m intrigued to see what happens, anyway!

JAKE BUGG FACTS: Album: ‘Jake Bugg’ out October 15th Single: ‘Two Fingers’ out October 15th UK TOUR DATES: September Belfast

Black Box

Reading

Sub89

Mon 12

Birmingham

Tue 13

Portsmouth

Wed 14

London

HMV Temple Wedgewood Rooms Koko

Thu 15

Bristol

Thekla

Sat 17

Manchester

Club Academy

Sun 18

Leeds

Cockpit

Mon 19

York

Wed 21

Glasgow

Thu 22

Newcastle

19 King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut O2 Academy 2

Fri 23

Nottingham

Rescue Room

Fri 28 October Tue 16 November

| JAKE BUGG | agogo! |

PURE LOVE Interviewed by Ben East

hen Frank Carter left hardcore punk band Gallows, few expected him to resurface as the frontman of a more accessible rock act - and to be singing the songs rather than screaming them. But an encounter in New York with fellow hardcore musician Jimmy Carroll (The Hope Conspiracy, The Suicide File) led to a whole new outlook on life and music. The result is Pure Love. You’ve both come from a background in hardcore punk, but this music seems a lot more accessible. Was that always the intention for Pure Love? JC: I’ve been writing songs like, say, Bury My Bones, for years. In fact, probably since I first started playing guitar. The sound just came very naturally to us when we starting putting Pure Love together. Yes, it is hooky, but it’s not contrived in any way to be so. FC: The album is naturally rock orientated, absolutely. It’s certainly got more hooks in it than people will have been used to hearing from me in the past. But that’s no bad thing. Is it true, Jim, that you had this archive of songs and snippets of material, and you were waiting for the right person to sing them? JC: Yeah, I was just waiting for David Bowie to get in touch! Seriously, though, I had loads of demos and voice memos of ideas. I forget things very easily and it was a way of collating everything so that when the time was right, I could dive into this archive and there would be plenty of stuff to work on. When we started doing Pure Love I had to go back through it all - a lot of it was complete garbage but some was really good. Although, a lot of it didn’t actually end up on the record... FC: His archive was more a good starting point for us: Jimmy would send me rough ideas, I would work on lyrics that might change the tone of the song and from there we started putting songs together.

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It actually worked out that very few of the songs from that early period made the cut for the album. JC: He’s right - most of the songs are proper collaborations that were written after we had started the band. But those early songs are important because they excited us and made us realise that we could do something really good. So how did hardcore punks from Watford and New York hook up in the first place? FC: We played a show together when Jimmy was in The Suicide File and I was in Gallows. This was 2006, so a long time ago. And then after that when I moved to New York I was looking to start a new band and I met up with Jimmy at a show. We both immediately realised that we didn’t want to play hardcore music right now, that we wanted to try something different. He sent over a couple of songs that night, I put lyrics and a melody to one of them straight away and the rest is history.

How did it feel when you realised the music was really clicking? FC: It was great because I hadn’t written music for a long time. The Gallows stuff towards the end wasn’t coming out very easily, and to be honest the songs had ground to a halt. But this was a lot of fun, it was fresh and new and Jimmy I just got on really well from the get go. Even the decision making process was different from what I had experienced previously; it was fast and instant. I knew very early on that Pure Love was what I wanted to do, and a couple of months later it was time to make a conscious decision. So I quit Gallows to work on putting this album together in the studio. Bury My Bones has the line “so sick of singing about hate” Is that something of a manifesto for Pure Love? FC: Well, I’d been in quite a negative place for a long time. I was punishing myself for the entertainment of other people and I wanted to change things if I could. Like Jimmy has an archive of songs, I have the same with lyrics and I’d written those lines a long time ago; Pure Love was just the right music for them. I’ve got a whole new lease of life, and all these old lyrics now have a place.

With Gallows, you were known for your lyrical content, which often had a social and political edge. Has that continued into Pure Love? FC: This record’s definitely more personal, but then, that’s how I actually started writing lyrics. It was only when Gallows went into making Grey Britain that the social commentary came in. But this one is about me and my life in the last couple of years; there’s a lot of conviction in the words because it’s all stuff I’ve experienced or seen in the people around me who I love and care about. I’m really comfortable with that, and I think Jimmy feels the same - we play off each other so well. What he found in my lyrics I found in his music, if you see what I mean. It’s a perfect partnership.

Does that make sense to you Jimmy? JC: Yeah, Pure Love is going great. I couldn’t be happier. I quit a band, moved to a new city and I was really trying to find something new. I knew what I wanted to do, and I tried my best on my own but I needed the right people around me to make all these songs come to fruition. When I met Frank and he played me a demo of him singing, I immediately asked him why he was wasting his time screaming in a band. He has the best, most natural sounding voice for rock when he sings. And as soon as we sat down to talk about Pure Love I knew it was going to work. It’s been the easiest writing process I’ve ever gone through - when things worked, we simply recorded them and moved on to the next song. The music is very simple in some respects, but it’s also the biggest sounding thing I’ve ever done. I love it. | PURE LOVE | agogo! |

It’s interesting you should say the sound is “big”. Which bands inspired you when you were writing? FC: It’ll be a shock for Gallows fans to hear maybe, but Oasis, Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd. The classic British bands actually. We want to have fun, play music that we love and if it’s huge sounding... then great. Which puts the album on a different level to an underground punk record doesn’t it. What would you hope people feel about it when it’s released later this year? FC: That they’ve had a religious experience! JC: A sexual experience. FC: A sexual religious experience... that all sounds wrong, doesn’t it? In all seriousness, there’s no pretense or arrogance to these songs. All we’ve wanted to do is be really honest and have fun, and play the music that we want. Whatever people get out it, fine. As long as people listen to it with open ears and not write it off immediately. There’s a lot of critics out there these days - I don’t know why people can’t just relax and enjoy the music.

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JC: These are songs that people should sing along to. They’re definitely celebratory. And looking into the crowd at our second show, where people were singing along to songs that haven’t even come out yet... I think that proves we’re on the right track. It blew my mind actually, to see these people with such joy on their faces. Jimmy mentions singing along to the songs. Of course, you’re singing too now, Frank... FC: The music that Jimmy wrote lent itself naturally to my voice, and singing these songs every night gave me a huge amount of confidence. I went to a handful of lessons with a singing instructor to make sure I wasn’t damaging it, and I felt immediately that I had control over it. I’m actually a little gutted because right now I can hit a stronger register than I could when we recorded the album. I’ve seen a few bits and pieces from people online doubting that I could pull off a singing voice live, so those people are going to be silenced very quickly. So it’s all moved quickly from being a project between friends to a proper band. Was making the name up a big moment?

FC: We had a lot of songs and song titles before we had a name for the band. We’d been firing stuff back and forth for ages there was a text conversation one week which was pretty much limited to band names. JC: There was never a yes or no. But one day I was listening to 1970s prog/jazz band Mahavishnu Orchestra and looked at the song titles and saw Pure Love. It just stood out - I texted Frank and he agreed. That night we had the stickers! FC: Yeah, I went straight home and made 500 stickers. We covered Brooklyn with them. We were committed to it by then because I’d spent so much money on printer cartridges! PURE LOVE FACTS: Single: ‘Riot Song’ out October 22nd Album: ‘Anthems’ out Spring 2013 UK TOUR DATES: October Thu 25

Exeter

Cavern

Fri 26

Guildford

Boiler Room

Sat 27

Chester

Compass

Sun 28

Sheffield

Leadmill

Tue 30

Newcastle

Cluny

Wed 31

Leicester

Lock 42

November

Sat 03

Tunbridge Wells Coventry

Kasbah

Sun 04

Cambridge

Portland Arms

Tue 06

Birmingham

O2 Academy 2 *

Wed 07

Oxford

O2 Academy *

Thu 08

Manchester

Ritz *

Fri 09

Stoke

Sugarmill *

Sat 10

Glasgow

Garage *

Mon 12

Nottingham

Rescue Rooms *

Tue 13

London

Forum *

Wed 14

Brighton

Thu 15

Portsmouth

Fri 16

Leeds

Concorde * Wedgewood Rooms * Metropolitan Uni *

Fri 02

Forum

* Supporting Pulled Apart By Horses | PURE LOVE | agogo! |

NINA NESBITT Interviewed by Ben East

inging songs about boys might be the preserve of many a teenage hopeful, but not many do it so well as 18-year-old Scot Nina Nesbitt. After her memorable folk-pop songs on an acoustic guitar caught the eye of Ed Sheeran and Example, she supported both at high profile gigs before selfreleasing the Apple Tree EP in April. September sees the release of first major label single on Island, Boy, and she goes out on an eagerly-awaited tour in October You’ve just released Boy, your first major label single. These are exciting times, aren’t they? Absolutely. I think after The Apple Tree EP people might have thought I was another typical singer-songwriter, but Boy is a nice progression I think. It’s more uptempo, it’s more polished without being overproduced, I hope. I took the rock genre as a bit of an influence on this one and merged it with pop and folk. I actually wrote it about 18 months ago but it’s only recently I’ve had the chance to put it in the studio. It was fun making the sound. You must be - you’ve been tweeting asking your fans what their favourite line in the song is… I know! The first one I got back was “I let you walk all over me, leave your footprints on my heart,” - I like that one too - and it’s great to know people are really listening to the lyrics as well as the music. When writing songs I always really focus on the lyrics so I always try and get that across. The lyrics are what many people have really picked up on so far, isn’t it? Your early songs were all about the trials and tribulations of growing up - but you must have had to do a lot of growing up yourself in the last six months. Absolutely. I can still relate to all the early stuff but I have moved on as a person from those experiences, and the songs I’m writing now are more about relationships. 12

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You’ve also relocated from Scotland to London and started working with songwriters who have written for everyone from Adele to Ed Sheeran. Is that slightly odd when you’re so used to writing by yourself? Well, you do get very close to your own songs, and I do write all of them. I think that’s important when you’re singing about stuff that represents your personality. But I do enjoy co-writing too, simply because these people have been writing much longer than me. They have the experience. Most of the album will be fully my own work, but I don’t think it’s a problem to bounce ideas off people who have had massive hits with beautiful songs. It’s not always easy though, is it. Another tweet of yours the other day said that when you’re making an album, it’s important to recognise that not everything works first time. I think I was just having a bad day! It was a newly written song and I had a clear idea of how I wanted to sound but sometimes what you hear in your head seems impossible to make real. After a few attempts on getting it right we finally got it the way I envisioned it to sound and I’m really happy with it now. It’s a debut album and I want the songs to be recorded exactly how I envisioned them for all these years because this is an album that will stay with me forever. I don’t want to be regretting things later down the line.

| NINA NESBITT | agogo! |

The other thing you’ve been tweeting recently was the opportunity for local bands to play on one of three support slots during your upcoming tour. Well, Ed Sheeran & Example basically gave me that exact same opportunity when they heard some of my songs. I can’t tell you how much of an amazing experience that was for me, it helped me massively. So I just wanted to try and do something similar for someone else - I’m not quite at Ed’s level obviously, but still it’s an opportunity for people with perhaps no gig experience. I know the impact being given the chance to play live in front of an audience can have, so if I can extend that opportunity, that’s great. I’m glad you mentioned Ed. He seems to get mentioned in every article about you. Is it getting annoying? Honestly, it’s not a problem. It was lovely of him to take me on tour, I have so much respect for him for doing that. It’s all about working hard though and having your own thing happening, you can never rely on other people to make you a success. I strive towards being successful in my own right. And if Ed has Sheeranators, you have the Nesbians! They seem like a pretty dedicated bunch - there are blogs, websites, all sorts. One of the fans came up with the term, and it seems to have stuck! It seems to have really caught on and Radio 1 always like to make a thing of it. I am really grateful for my fans, they’re amazing and so dedicated. I wouldn’t be where I am without them. Having a dedicated fanbase mobilising online support like that seems so crucial these days. YouTube’s been quite important to you as well, hasn’t it? It has. I started off uploading covers about three years ago. They weren’t very good I don’t think but they were kind of the first step to playing live. I then started to suddenly build a little following through them and that’s when I begun playing live. I then got the chance to support Ed & Example. Obviously you get a lot of fans through that and networks start to build. I have a cover of Example’s Stay Awake up and then he got in touch saying he’d like to take me on tour. So I have a lot to thank Youtube for. It’s just a great platform for young artists to show that they can perform a song live without all the fancy technical stuff.

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But you might also have made it in a different field altogether... Well, I’m not so sure! Basically, as a kid I was training in the gymnasium for, well, 20 hours a week. And I was really into it. People were talking about perhaps representing Scotland in the Commonwealth Games for rhythmic gymnastics. And then I got to high school, got a social life, and thought ‘hmmm, do I really want to do this anymore’? I started to get sore knees, and music took over. In a way, the dedication I would have needed to make it as a gymnast is slightly similar to how I’ve had to work at these songs, so it helped in some small way. Are there any songs from that very early time which have lasted? My style has changed quite a bit for one thing so not many. The first song I wrote on guitar was about three years ago, and in fact, Standing On One Leg, will most probably be on the album. It’s strange how these things work out.

NINA NESBITT FACTS: ‘Boy’ is available to download now. TOUR DATES: Boy Tour: October Tue 09

Glasgow

Oran Mor

Wed 10

Newcastle

O2 Academy 2

Thu 11

Manchester

Academy 3

Sat 13

Bristol

Thekla

Sun 14

Leeds

Warehouse

Tue 16

Sheffield

Leadmill

Wed 17

Birmingham

Ballroom

Thu 18

London

Dingwalls

Mon 29

Stirling

Tolbooth

Tue 30

Inverness

Iron Works

Thu 01

Aberdeen

Tunnels

Fri 02

Forres

The Loft

Sat 03

Ullapool

Village Hall

November

| NINA NESBITT | agogo! |

SEYE Interviewed by Ben East

ith his exuberant, afrobeatinfused melodies, Seye Adelekan (pronounced Shaya), is surely one of the most exciting of the new wave of African-influenced pop stars. Releasing the critically acclaimed White Noise in April, he was signed by Mercury Records and has toured with Lana Del Rey, Emeli Sande and Paloma Faith.He also shared a stage with Damon Albarn and Paul McCartney(!) on the recent Africa Express tour. Anyone who loves Paul Simon, Peter Gabriel, The Very Best or Vampire Weekend will find much to love here, and this Nigerian-born talent goes on tour with Aiden Grimshaw this month before releasing infectious new single Mexicana Bounce on October 8. It’s been an amazing summer for you, hasn’t it? Signing to Mercury, playing loads of festivals and topped off by going on Damon Albarn’s Africa Express Train Tour. I’m just back from the Africa Express tour, and I’m literally eating a greasy spoon breakfast right now - I felt I had to do something very very English! But it was unbelievable - probably the best creative experience I’ve ever had, and one of the best social experiences I’ve ever had too. It was inspiring, fun and really quite challenging too. Often I’d get taken aside by someone asking me to play bass for them. I’d go “cool, when are you on?” and they’d say, “er, 15 minutes!”. So you had to learn the part quickly, run up on stage and just do it.

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And you played with Paul McCartney. Yes! Damon pulled me aside a couple of days before the London show and told me I needed to learn a couple of Wings songs. I didn’t really know why, but the day before it was confirmed that the man himself was going to come down. It didn’t really hit me until he turned up. I was talking to someone else and saw him come in the room - I had to turn away because I was so starstruck! But it was fantastic. That’ll always be my comeback from now on: “yeah, but have you played with Paul McCartney?!”

A lot of people went to Africa Express who perhaps wouldn’t usually find themselves listening to music from or inspired by that continent’s sounds. There’s a real upsurge of interest in African music, isn’t there? Yeah, we’ve seen it this year in the charts. D’Banj, a fellow Nigerian, made it into the top 10 with Oliver Twist. Wizkid and Ice Prince are now touring here, doing big shows. Africa Express was pretty much sold out the entire way, so it feels like things are bubbling up. And that’s what I hope to be a part of, a future Afro movement which can do something like Paul Simon did in the 1980s - bring African music to a world stage where it can’t be ignored. Graceland by Paul Simon is a really key record for you, isn’t it? It was unique. When he recorded Graceland, there was no internet, no Spotify or whatever, where people could easily check out a song and see whether they liked it. So that meant not many people actually knew what music from South Africa sounded like. There was all the apartheid stuff going on, which made it a controversial but nevertheless intriguing record. People hadn’t heard a western pop artist playing with African instrumentation before - they might have come across some of the rhythms, but this had lyrics they could understand. It was a mixture of the familiar and the alien that gelled so well. Which is, maybe, a bit like your music; there’s all sorts of elements of chart pop, dance, garage, African rhythms and melodies in there. Yeah. We don’t want it classed as ‘world music’, or to be on specialist radio shows on stations you have to seek out and find. Trying to get it into public consciousness so it simply becomes music should always be the key. See, I genuinely believe people do want something a bit different. They’ll listen to bog standard pop because it’s easy but the music that really hits home, that lasts, that means something, is the stuff which does sound different. And I think you can have a pop sensibility, make songs which are catchy and which people can sing along to and still have that quirkiness. That’s the music which is valuable in the end. Which brings us onto Mexicana Bounce, your new single. Can you talk us through it? We were randomly doing this jam, singing the line “a break up... in a Mexican joint” over and over. So then it expanded into the story of this guy who thinks he’s going to a Mexican restaurant to split up with his girlfriend, but just thinks, “forget that, let’s just go out and have a good night.” That’s the Paul Simon influence again in that we did want to channel something of Graceland into Mexicana Bounce: the verses are quite abstract and very lyrical but the chorus is quite straight - something you can recognise and sing along to. | SEYE | agogo! |

And you definitely can. “When I go out there’s a bounce in my T-shirt” should be one of the mottos of 2012 It’s a cool phrase isn’t it! It’s meant to capture that feeling of when you’re happy and alive and your heart’s beating really fast. I’m definitely going to put it on T-shirts. Mexicana Bounce has a really infectious electronic sound and yet your acoustic covers of Bat For Lashes and Emile Sande have got quite a following on YouTube. Where do you feel most comfortable? Well, I write on the guitar, and most of my ideas start that way before we start adding things to the riffs and melodies. I love Ryan Adams and when I was younger I tried to write songs like his, but to be honest they were pretty dreary. The stuff I really really love makes me happy - so I tend to gravitate towards writing songs like that. That’s not to say that every song on the debut album will be relentlessly “up”. Hopefully there’ll be stuff that’ll make you think - it’s not just about partying. You wouldn’t have noticed a love of Ryan Adams from Mexicana Bounce. But then, you have some really interesting guilty pleasures, don’t you... I love 1980s music, man. I love Deacon Blue. I’m a Real Gone Kid. I was 14 or something, and I saw the video for that on VH1. And it made me so freakin’ happy, I couldn’t get it out of my head. And as I got older, I got into more of their stuff, YouTubing old concerts and so on. It’s not all great but they are really under-rated songwriters. I’ve got a lot of time for them. 18

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You’ve supported Emeli Sande this year, and in some ways you’ve followed a similar path; both of you have made a career making or playing music with other people before releasing your own material. Are there benefits to that approach? I always wanted to make my own music. But I didn’t know how to go about it so instead I offered my services to other people as a guitarist or bass player - either live or in the studio. I knew I wanted to make a living through music basically, and if that meant playing songs for Ellie Goulding or The Noisettes, that was fine. And it’s been an amazing journey, playing to hardly anyone in a tiny indie venue to playing for Paloma Faith. I’m so grateful for it because if I’d started out playing my own stuff straight from school it would have been a disaster. I wasn’t ready.

but the singer is really aloof. He doesn’t say thank you. Or if he does, he doesn’t mean it. I’ve got no time for any singer who thinks they’re too cool to look like they’re enjoying what they’re doing. It’s important to be personable, to have a rapport. After all, these people have come to see you. And hopefully more and more people will come and see you after the new single. Absolutely. The next six months are going to be really exciting. I’m hoping that the connections I made on Africa Express will mean I can do some good collaborations, we’re working on the live show, I want to expand my band... and then there’s the album. Getting that ready to go is the main thing - I can’t wait for it to be finished and for people to hear it.

What did you learn? Well, it taught me a lot about playing with other people, how managers and labels work, who to stay close to, who to avoid, how venues and touring works... I must have stayed in every Travelodge in the country! Basically it laid all the foundations I needed before going off and doing my own thing. The only thing I needed really was my own songs. And it’s been a complete joy to play with all these people. I mean, I’ve even got Paloma’s dove insignia tattooed on my neck! I’ve been branded! What was the one thing you’ll really take from all those experiences. Well, that to be successful takes time, that you have to build a fanbase. But most of all that it’s often the bits in between the songs which really define you. A lot of the time you go and see a band and you can see the musicians are giving it everything

SEYE FACTS: Single: ‘Mexicana Bounce’ out now UK TOUR DATES: Supporting Aiden Grimshaw September Wed 26

Birmingham

Thu 27

Glasgow

Fri 28

Leeds

O2 Academy King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Cockpit

Sun 30

Manchester

Academy 3

Mon 01

Oxford

O2 Academy

Tue 02

London

Scala

October

| SEYE | agogo! |

LIFE IN FILM

Interviewed by Rachel Gardner

ondon based guitar band Life in Film is made up of Samuel Fry, Micky Osment, Edward Ibbotson and Dominic Sennétt. They caught the attention of industry giant Stephen Street (The Smiths, Blur) who has been working with them on their album and been asked by fashion label Burberry to play an acoustic session for them. When we speak to Ed the excitement the boys have for the music they are making and the tour they are just about to set off on is evident. How did you guys meet and decide to start making music together? I’ve known Sam since we were at school together, we did a few half-arsed band things when we were at school but then we both went to Uni. That’s where Sam met Dom and Mick. They played about a bit but nothing serious and then when Uni ended they broke up and Sam came back to London. We started playing about with guitars and the other two moved up to London and we decided to give it a go. Dom says he remembers the first time I met him and it was in a pub in Acton, I seem to remember that being ages after I met him so that’s an ongoing dispute. We all get on really well, we pretty much spend all of our time together and it’s quality.

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I think it’s pretty much all we’ve ever wanted to do. In an interview we did a while ago Dom said that most of our humour is based on insulting each other so if it ever came down to an argument we’ve already said the worst stuff you could possibly say, it would almost be pointless to have the argument. It’s wicked, there has never been a big bust up and we are all quite close emotionally and sort of look after each other.

There are several stories around about how the name came about. I read that an Indian guru told you that you needed to be in a band called My Life in Film. Is that the real story? I quite like the guru one but it’s absolute bollocks. I got told that the other day, I think Dom said that I’d gone to India and meditated with a guru or something like that but it’s absolute nonsense. Although I kind of wish it was because that’s far more interesting. It came from this film called American Movie, which is a documentary

about this guy who’s obsessed with horror movies and he is trying to make his own. But it’s really low budget and he’s slightly deluded and this documentary follows him trying to make it. Although he was the guy that was desperate to make the movie, this documentary was kind of his life in film, even though it was all about him trying to make his own film. We liked the ideas running through that. We spent ages trying to think of a name and we came up with some bad ones. I think it’s a bit like hearing the sound of your own voice. It always sounds a bit alien.

How was it working with Stephen Street? Yeah that was brilliant, that’s probably been a high point for all of us. We like the same music but also each like our own different things but I think the Smiths and Blur are probably the two bands that we would say are big influences, so that was just a dream. I think a lot of people that aren’t in bands maybe don’t know about producers but even before I was in a band I knew about Stephen Street. I just thought it would be amazing to work with him. I think he had heard a couple of early demos and he knew that we weren’t signed at the time so he just did it because he obviously really liked us. I know people always say what an honour it is to work with someone but for us that was a pretty big thing, probably the biggest thing that’s happened to me. | LIFE IN FILM | agogo! |

What can we expect from your album? The good thing about him (Street) was that he didn’t really interfere too much with the sound of it. We have a few more up-tempo tunes, we’ve just released an EP which we tried to show different sides to us. There is a fast tune, a slow tune, a mid tempo tune, all that stuff and I think that carries over on to the album. There are a couple of nice acoustic slow ones and enough fast ones to keep everyone occupied and then just a lot of nice pop songs. It’s quite hard to pin it down, we only just recently got together the full track listing for the album and I looked at it and it’s quite varied, it ticks all the boxes and they are great songs. Fucking wicked. Do you think it’s as important for artists to release albums as it was years ago? I’m a bit confused about it myself. When I look at the singles charts as they are and being a guitar band, it’s a lot harder. When I look at the album charts, last week most people in the top 10 were guitar bands. There were the Vaccines, Two Door Cinema Club and people like that so I think for us, the album is quite important. You don’t want to release a couple of songs, you want to release as much as you can. I think one song doesn’t really explain the whole sound of the band. I think that with pop acts, they will release two or three singles and then when it comes to the album it’s a lot of filler while with us the album is really important. I grew up listening to albums not singles. I would sit and listen to the whole thing so I think we probably come at it from that angle, obviously knowing that the singles are going to have to be fast, attention-grabbing songs. Some of my favourite songs on the albums aren’t the singles. They are the slower ones, the more introspective stuff. Again to hear those you have to get the album.

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Is image something that you consider as a band, do you call each other before photo shoots to see what you’re wearing? To an extent, I think we all have a similar style. Actually we have done a couple of things where we have gone in to pick up some clothing and we have all come out matching because the items that we have all gone for look like the items we would individually go for. I will always go for anorak. Sam will go for a Harrington jacket. Sometimes we will call up and say ‘no one’s wearing a stripy top are they?’ When we did a video recently we just thought ‘we’re not going to dress up smart we’ll just dress how we normally dress. We all came in blue denim jackets and blue denim trousers and desert boots. Our manager was like ‘what the fuck is that all about, I thought you weren’t going to do any sort of thing’. We were like ‘none of us had discussed this, it’s just how we dress’ so we all looked like fucking Brian Adams. No one is going to come out in a pair of flares or something daft. Actually Micky came out with a Hawaiian shirt the other day and he got a talking to about that. We played a gig recently and he threatened to wear that shirt, I think he did that just to piss us off. Who would you most like to tour with and why? We’ve done a couple of gigs with this band called the Book Club, they aren’t as well known as they should be but we love them and we really like their music. If I was going to go around the world then that’s a different matter. What does success look like for you as a band? I don’t know. To be honest just people acknowledging the music and hearing it played on the radio. I don’t think any of us are particularly that bothered about the fame side of it. I want people to just be buzzing about it and spreading the word. The idea of it being played on the radio and people are buzzing off it, that’s my idea of fame, what I would like to take from it.

Which historic gig do you wish you had played at? I would say Oasis at Knebworth. I remember my mate going down there and I was really jealous. We were probably a bit too young to go and his older brother was taking him and I remember seeing all the bands that I was just starting to get into. I would have loved to have played at that. Anything you want to tell the world about your band? We have got so much coming out, it’s taken quite a while to get to this stage in terms of getting the album together. We’ve got the tour coming up in October so we are really busy. I think we are fucking good. I don’t want to end up sounding like a Liam Gallagher but I think every person in a band thinks they are the bollocks. Sometimes we do a rehearsal and at the end of a song we are just like, ‘yeah that’s fucking good, if only someone else had heard it.’

LIFE IN FILM FACTS: EP: ‘Needles & Pins’ out now UK TOUR DATES: October Mon 15

Southampton

Tue 16

Oxford

Thu 18

Nottingham

Fri 19

Liverpool

Sat 20

Glasgow

Mon 22

Manchester

Joiners O2 Academy 2 Bodega Shipping Forecast King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Sound Control

Tue 23

Birmingham

Hare & Hounds

Wed 24

Bristol

Thekla

Thu 25

London

Dingwalls

| LIFE IN FILM | agogo! |

KYLA LA GRANGE Interviewed by Rachel Gardner

yla La Grange isn’t your typically demure singer-songwriter. Her critically acclaimed debut album ‘Ashes’ takes in striking rock, bewitching pop and intricate folk, all built around soaring choruses which belie darkly emotional subject matter. The singles so far have revealed such a wide range of styles. How do you go about describing your music? Oh, I’m terrible at doing that! There are a huge jumble of influences but at the core is folk and rock music, and there are loads of big harmonies and choruses to grab hold of. It’s often sad and sometimes angry. And that’s about as close as I’ve ever got to nailing it: I leave the rest to other people to work out! You don’t sound - or look - like an angry person. Where does it come from? Honestly, I go through months where I don’t write anything at all because I’ll feel happy and relaxed, like I am now. Unfortunately, being in that state is creatively unproductive for me! For as long as I can remember, ever since I was a kid actually, whenever I felt sad I would sit down and make something. And to this day it’s how I cope with feelings: I write a song. Vampire Smile in particular seems written from personal experience. For my debut album there are three specific relationships I’ve explored. I know that lots of people write about love and the end of love, but in a way it’s understandable because it’s often the most intense emotion you feel. I don’t have to write about love, by the way, but when I write, it has to provoke that same sort of intensity.

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Vampire Smile was written quite a long time ago. Does it feel odd to be raking up emotions, and even people, from such a distant place? Yes, it’s six years since I wrote that song. You know, I wish it did feel weirder. The problem is, the emotional themes that run throughout the song - of obsession, rejection, neuroticism - were written from the viewpoint of a 19 year-old, but have seemed to persist in all my relationships afterwards! I love Vampire Smile though: it makes the whole album hang together because it most clearly encapsulates what is behind a lot of the songs. You’re clearly very keen on intimate lyrics that tease out some pretty strong emotions. But how easy is it to fit them around songs that you presumably want people to be entertained by? To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever written a song with the express intention of entertaining someone. I don’t think I’d be able to do it! And I never actually imagined that I’d be able to write music for audiences; I was first of all doing this for myself because I really enjoyed it. For a long time I did find it quite hard to play live because it felt tough to take something that personal to me on stage. I did wonder why I wanted to make a career out of it, because that would mean sharing with everyone. But then, after a while, you get addicted to how it feels to do just that.

Still, every song has a huge chorus. If you weren’t bothered about entertaining people, you wouldn’t take such care in writing such memorable songs. Right. I think that’s just what comes out of me when I write. There’s something really cathartic about writing something which sounds epic and uplifting when the subject matter is the opposite. In my head, I probably wish I was more of an indie, Elliott Smith-style introverted singer-songwriter. It’s certainly the music I listen to. But for some reason when I write it always has to have a hook. Believe me, I’ve tried to write in an understated, lo-fi way and I just can’t do it - I guess I just like working with melody! But I do see what you’re saying; you want to move people with the music as well as the lyrics. People like to feel sad sometimes, they like to feel they can identify with a song. Certainly when I’m listening to music myself the most, it’s when I’m feeling miserable - because I want to feel that sense of, well, comfort. | KYLA LA GRANGE | agogo! |

We’ve talked a lot about the emotional, thoughtful side to your music. Did studying philosophy at university have an impact, do you think, on your writing? Probably not: the songwriting is the irrational part of my brain whereas the philosophy is the measured part! But actually being at university did definitely have one benefit: it was the first chance I had to play at open-mic nights in front of people who I didn’t know - which was much less scary. It was very useful in that sense, in terms of learning what songs would work. And how does having a band these days impact on songs you’ve worked on for so long? I’m still a complete control freak I’m afraid! I usually write the song in my room and do a little demo on my computer, and because I’ve known the band for so long now, it’s then just a question of going into a rehearsal room and we’ll all try things out. Usually the bones of the song, the melody and lyrics and so on are already there. But the band are really good at bringing their ideas too. The album Ashes is out now – how does that feel? It feels kind of strange to have the album out - I worked on it for so many years and now I’ll probably have to wait a few years before I can bear to listen to it again. I’m really proud of it, it’s just that by the end I had listened to those recordings so many times that they stopped having an effect on me. I’m looking forward to being able to play it back to myself sometime in the future. At the moment I’ve been spending a lot of time writing new songs. It feels good to be starting something different. What kind of reaction have you had to it? Fans have been really lovely, it’s been wonderful to read and hear all their comments. The press was great too though, to be honest, as much as it’s nice to hear that people like my music, I make it for myself first and foremost, so it was most important to me that I was happy. As soon as you start worrying too much about what other people think then you stop being able to make good music. Well, I do anyway. 26

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You were part of Damon Albarn’s Africa express tour - how was it different from your normal tours? It was amazing. Probably one of the best things I’ve ever done, or been a part of. I ended up singing with people from Bassekou Kouyaté to Carl Barat, Nick Zinner, Richard Russell, Baba Maal, Temper Trap and The Very Best. I’d never really been exposed to that much African music before, so it was such an eye-opener, and really interesting to hear how so many styles came together and combined. The train was crazy - everyone rehearsing everywhere, making new friends every day and eating curry for breakfast. I just hope if they do anything like that every again that I can be involved. Tell us about the new single Been Better.. I don’t really like saying what my songs are about, but I guess broadly this song is about circumstances making you not like who you are, and wanting to be better. It’s a bit of an angry song. How has your live show changed from the last time you toured? I’d like to think it’s better. The more you play the better you get, so fingers crossed the band and I are always improving. If not people will ask for their money back!

KYLA LA GRANGE FACTS: Album: ‘Ashes’ out now Single: ‘Been Better’ out October 29th UK TOUR DATES: October Mon 01

Bristol

Thekla

Tue 02

Manchester

Deaf Institute

Wed 03

Glasgow

School Of Art

Fri0 5

Oxford

O2 Academy 2

Sat 06

Nottingham

Bodega

Mon 08

Southampton

Joiners

Tue 09

London

Scala

| KYLA LA GRANGE | agogo! |

DON BROCO Interviewed by Rachel Gardner

t’s been a busy summer for Don Broco, although the band have been together since 2008 relentlessly touring the country, the release of their debut album Priorities saw the crowds get bigger and their shows reviewed in Kerrang! Lead singer Rob Damiani took the time to talk to us about his writing process, dealing with doubters and doing it DIY. It seems to be very important to you guys to do it yourselves, what are the advantages and disadvantages of doing it DIY? We have always had a quite DIY ethos, it’s almost quite hard to give that up in a way. Since we signed to Sony they have been great, obviously they have had more ideas for us, there is a bigger team behind us but we still get to keep our individuality and any ideas that we want to put forward come first, which is great. I think it’s important because it means you don’t turn into a standard band in a way you still get to get all your original ideas out. 28

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If someone came along and said they could guarantee you a No1 album and lots of money but you would have to change the band would you do it? No I don’t think so because everything has happened so naturally for us, I don’t think we could ever change things up dramatically. The way things are going they seem to be working all right. It’s nice having other people involved, with anything really. With the album, we wrote that ourselves but we are also taking advice from our producer. Collaborations are great but when anyone comes in and tells you what to do it’s not going to end well.

How did you guys know when you found your sound? It’s been a gradual process. The songs we wrote when we first started three years ago don’t sound anything like the songs we’re coming up with now. It’s a learning curve, learning how to write songs and learning what we like about our own music. It definitely wasn’t straight away. We’ve all got such varied influences, it was quite hard to pick what it was we wanted to do. When we first started we just wanted to be a band, we wanted to play anything. When we wrote our mini album Big Fat Smile we saw that as a definite turning point - this is what we like, this is what we want to do. Writing the album, it really came together and now it’s finished it’s still quite diverse in the sense that we cover a lot of ground and we have tried a lot of things out on it but it’s a way more focused release. Looking back through the progression of stuff, it’s definitely changed and I don’t think when we started we could have written that.

When you were making a name for yourself did you have people that doubted you and if so how did you deal with that? You do get that, when you are doing stuff on the low levels and you are spending months on the road, touring venues and then you come back and your mates, they’ve all got real jobs. We did have one or two mates that were like ‘guys what the hell are you doing, what are you thinking, you don’t have any money, it’s a nice dream but grow up and get a real job.’ We had one or two friends like that but we also had way more support from friends and family who saw what we were doing. They saw the ins and outs of it and that we were growing as band. That sort of faith and the faith you have in yourselves makes you carry on. There has never been a time, and hopefully there won’t be in our careers, when it ever slows down. It was always building, with every gig you would see a few more people come over or see more people getting in contact through Facebook and Twitter. When you see it translate at a show, when the gigs are getting busier and more people are singing the words back, that’s the stuff that really inspires you to persevere and carry on. There are definitely hard times, but I think if you can come through that it’s all for the better. Do you have a favourite festival to play? Both Download and Reading festival were amazing this year. They were both real landmark moments in terms of the crowd getting ridiculous. We have done both festivals before but on smaller stages. This year at Download we did the Pepsi Max Stage, which was huge and the tent was massive. We were a little nervous going into it especially as the Download crowd isn’t exactly our usual fan base. It’s more of a heavier crowd so we were a little nervous but the reaction was just amazing and the crowd knowing the words and getting down to it made it. Reading is like our festival. That was the one we went to as kids growing up and we got to do that last year for the first time on the BBC Introducing Stage and we didn’t know what to expect from that. | DON BROCO | agogo! |

We turned up and the crowd was just huge, there was no actual tent, it was just people expanded for miles. This time there was a tent and there is nothing worse than playing to an empty tent so again we were a little nervous before we went on. But we didn’t have anything to worry about as it was one of those shows were there were people queuing to get inside the tent. Not everybody could see us because it was just too busy. We tried some of the new songs out and they went down amazingly. That’s the festival we will take away from the year as the highlight.

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You have done a lot of touring in the past few years, do you think it’s sustainable or will you need some downtime? At some point we are going to need to take a break and have some down time to write the next album. Currently we just want to be full speed ahead and we feel most like a band touring. I think it most comes together and comes across in the best way live. We are a live band we love playing live, we love the buzz of gigs, we love travelling around and meeting new people and playing to our current fans. It’s definitely going to continue in probably the most hectic times we have ever seen over the next few months. We aren’t able to announce anything yet but I think we are going to have the busiest touring schedule over the next six months that we have ever had. We don’t want to slow down in any way. It’s going to be a pretty crazy few months but that’s the way we like it. You are all very good looking lads but do you enjoy photo shoots? To be honest I really don’t. I don’t know about the others but I really don’t, as I never know how to look. Personally I would much rather be playing shows. I love doing video shoots as you’re moving around but photos I always find a bit weird, as you have to stand in the same position for ages.

Lyric wise do you come up with an idea and then write the lyrics or do some lyrics come into your head and you build on that? It really changes from song to song, sometimes the lyrics will start with the melody, the guitars going down first and I try a few melodies to them and we build the song, depending on what melodies work and what’s good enough. Sometimes phrases pop into my head and they fit the melody and I change them from that. It starts off as something that might make a bit of sense and that’s what sparks an idea to write a song about that. Other times in day to day business I come across something that I find quite interesting, whether it’s one of my friends that’s texted me in a predicament or something happens within the band that I think is worth writing about. I just sort of write loads of draft messages down on my

phone so I don’t forget them and then when it comes to putting them together I read through all these random notes and build from that. It really depends from song to song which I really like as it keeps everything interesting. What five words you would use to describe the album? Energetic. Fun, it’s quite a fun album. Catchy, I like to think. Instant, when you first hear it you are going to get it straight away. But also layered, as there is definitely stuff that you won’t pick up on when you first hear it. What’s the aim for the band? Now the albums out in the UK, that was the big thing for the summer and that again surpassed all our expectations. We were hoping it might do well - you want to sell albums because that’s what it’s about and we thought we might get into the top 40. Then in the first week we actually went in at number 10. We had had an album release show on the Monday and woke up on the Tuesday and management had called us and said it was actually in the top 10 of the UK charts. That’s something we never thought possible, we were over the moon with that. Looking forward we want to continue to grow and make more people aware of the band and get out to more countries.

It’s the first step next month where we’re getting to go to France, Germany, Spain, Switzerland, Netherlands and Belgium. There’s talk of going to Australia and America, hopefully that will happen next year. It’ll be amazing to get the chance to travel and enjoy the ride.

DON BROCO FACTS: Album: ‘Priorities’ out now Single: ‘Hold On’ out 19th November UK TOUR DATES: With Lower Than Atlantis and Dangerous Summer October Mon 01

Exeter

Phoenix

Tue 02

Southampton

Mo’Club

Wed 03

Bristol

Thu 04

Nottingham

Fri 05

Glasgow

Trinity Rescue Rooms Garage

Sun 07

Manchester

Club Academy

Mon 08

Norwich

Arts Centre

Tue 09

Birmingham

O2 Academy 2

Wed 10

Leeds

Thu 11

London

Cockpit Electric Ballroom

| DON BROCO | agogo! |

AXEWOUND Interviewed by Rachel Gardner

hat’s better than being in one hugely successful metal band? Being in two of course, a feat AxeWound are working on with their debut album Vultures. Instigator Matt Tuck (Bullet For My Valentine) got together Liam Cormier (Cancer Bats), Jason Bowld (Pitchshifter), Mike Kingswood (Glamour Of The Kill) and ex-Rise To Remain bassist Joe Copcutt to push metal to it’s limits. Here Matt talks us through the changes in metal music and how he lost his confidence when he had his tonsils removed. How did the group come together? It was something I had wanted to do for a long time and I had know Jason from when he stood in at some Bullet shows. We kept in touch ever since as he was the guy I wanted to do it with. We had an opportunity to do it December last year so I just phoned him up and we kind of just did it there and then. Then after the music was written and recorded then we put the band around it.

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Which song do you think most defines the bands sound? If I had to pick one it would probably be Post Apocalyptic Party. It’s got a little bit of everything that AxeWound is about. There’s a lot of swagger in that song, it’s brutally heavy but it still something you can nod your head to which is a nice thing to be able to do. You recorded Vultures in 11 days, with no pre-writing or rehearsing, what was the motivation behind that? We just didn’t have the luxury of time or budget. We did it all in my downtime from Bullet and we funded everything ourselves. It was coming up to Christmas so we just gave ourselves a goal of 11 days. We dropped one song from the album because we weren’t too sure of it and we put it to bed.

How do you balance being in two bands at once? It’s always a little bit difficult doing what I do, but considering how quickly we did the record, it didn’t really take that much time anyways. We’re not doing extensive touring with it at all. It’s more just whenever we can do something we will, because everyone else in the band has got their own thing going on as well. It’s kind of difficult trying to juggle getting everyone in the same place at the same so it’s not going to be a full time touring job, it’s just something to do when everybody has some time off. It’s still going to become something because it’s really good and I think it would be a shame not give it the time and effort it deserves now. It won’t take any time out of Bullets schedule or Cancer Bats, we are fully committed to our day jobs but we do want to take this as far as we can.

What do you think are the most significant changes in the metal genre in the past 10 years? Why do you think Bullet has had more success in America than other British metal bands? I just think more musicianship has come back into the game, I think everyone’s noticed that. The new metal thing and the grunge thing that was happening in the 90’s and early 2000’s, it was definitely more of a swagger and image vibe whereas now it’s gone back to more of an old school thing with technicality and guitar solos. That’s something that we wanted to introduce from our first EP so I definitely think we are kind of responsible for a resurgence in the old school sound. That’s probably the biggest difference especially with the European and British metals acts, we’ve definitely put an old school flavour back on metal and I think a lot of people appreciate that. At the end of the day Bullet was a flag flyer bringing old school metal back to the UK and Europe. | AXEWOUND | agogo! |

What do you think about illegal downloading of music? It’s a double edge sword, we as well as every one have taken a massive hit in sales since the first album and obviously it’s not something we condone. It is technically anonymous theft, you wouldn’t go into HMV and steal a Bullet record or any record, you just wouldn’t do it. So the fact that people can do it anonymously online, makes it worse in a way. It’s not something I condone, there’s no way of controlling it unfortunately. It is what it is. If it inspires someone to come to a concert eventually then that’s kind of cool anyways, it works both ways. We’ve just got to get on with what we can do and that’s play live and do great merch and make a living elsewhere as albums just don’t cut it these days. How was it starting this project compared to when you started Bullet for my Valentine? It was kind of the opposite really, it was just something I wanted to do, there was no real intension of it actually becoming something of a big deal or anything. We didn’t really know if a label would even want to release it. It was just something that I had wanted to do for a while and have a laugh with some other dudes for five minutes. As soon as we finished it we were like ‘its pretty good’. 34

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How is it not being the front man of the group? It was a little weird at first, I’m still talking to the crowd a lot, I still have quite a few vocal parts, but it is nice not to have the entire show on my shoulders. I didn’t want to not do anything vocally as I thought it would be kind of stupid to have the tool and not use it. Do you ever suffer from writer’s block? Yeah, we didn’t really on the AxeWound record because we were in a whirlwind of work and Jason was just bringing out a load of fresh ideas. He is so creative on the drums I was getting inspired to write certain guitar parts listening to drum parts, which is something I have never experienced before. But in Bullet, we have been doing it a while now, we have just finished our 4th album. When you get that far in your career then it does kind of kick in a little bit so we had a few difficult days recording the new Bullet record but that’s all done and dusted now as well. It’s worth those few days of sitting there banging your head against a wall because something does eventually come from that.

When you had your tonsils removed did it change the way you thought about your voice or how you used it? It changed everything really. It was equivalent of a pro footballer breaking his leg or something. I mean I was out, totally out the game. It took a long time for me to get the actually physical ability to sing back and the confidence to do it, which was a huge battle. The mental side of signing a lot of people won’t ever understand, being a singer is a huge mental battle as well as a physical, technical thing. My confidence was just rock bottom as well as not actually being able to talk a lot of the time because it was that bad. It was just a nightmare so it kind of made me appreciate what I had even at that early stage of my career. I took vocal coaching with various people and I take it very seriously at every show I do now. When we do tours, a couple of weeks before I’ll start to warm up and doing what I need to do to get through those shows. Especially when you hit 30 you’ve got to work for it, it’s not a natural thing anymore. It’s like any other muscle - you have to warm it up, warm it down.

What’s the future for AxeWound? Our debut record comes out the 1st October in the UK, then we are just going to do a couple of tours, UK tours and America for two weeks, then unfortunately we are just going to have to take it from there as it depends on everyone else’s schedule.

AXEWOUND FACTS: Album: ‘Vultures’ out October 1st UK TOUR DATES: October Mon 01

Nottingham

Tue 02

Glasgow

Wed 03

Manchester

Rescue Rooms King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut Academy 3

Thu 04

Wolverhampton

Slade Rooms

Sat 06

London

Underworld

Sun 07

Bristol

Thekla

| AXEWOUND | agogo! |

FOXES Interviewed by Rachel Gardner

hen we speak to Foxes (A.K.A Louisa Rose Allen) she is on her tour bus on her way to Berlin and surprisingly upbeat for someone who has got another five hours of travelling in front of them. With an infectious charisma and stunning ethereal vocals that were showcased on her Neon Gold Records’ releases Youth and The Warrior EP late last year, Foxes is capturing people’s attention all over the world. You moved to London to study music but you pulled out of the course. Why did you stop? Well I feel like music can’t really be taught. I think it was a bit too much of a classroom for me and I just wanted to go and create some sounds. It was great fun but it wasn’t really for me. I feel that music school is for if you want to become a teacher. It’s probably different for lots of people but for me I wasn’t really into all of the theory classes. I just don’t feel like you can be taught music, I feel like it’s something you learn yourself. I just wanted to run off and write songs and sing them on stages.

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What were your musical influences when you were growing up compared to now? Growing up I loved the Spice Girls, Eminem, it was very pop. I was a typical young kid in the 90’s and I loved all sorts of stuff. I was a big fan of 90’s dance music. I really liked Kate Bush, Patti Smith and Björk, Portishead, Massive Attack, stuff like that. I actually get my inspiration more from film. It’s visually more inspiring for me so I watch a lot of films and listen to soundtracks. I love Leon and more recently I think the Drive soundtrack’s brilliant. When I was younger I used to watch Leon five times a day and Forest Gump five times day. My mum said I used to sit there and have them on repeat. How do you describe yourself as a performer? I think I just get into it. I really enjoy magical stage performances. I like it when the artist can take the listener away for half and hour and make them think they have gone into another world. I’m a big fan of magical moments in performances and the occasional jump about. It’s taken me a while to get good at my craft, stage confidence and performance. I don’t get nervous now but I used to. Is it true your mum had a dream about foxes the night you decided to call yourself Foxes? I needed to change my name and someone said ‘how about Foxes’. I thought it was really silly and wasn’t a very good name and then the next day I rang my mum and was like ‘mum what do you think about the name Foxes?’ She said ‘I had this dream last night that foxes were running up our street and making these hauntingly beautiful sounds.’ She said it reminded her of my music and it was really beautiful and after that I just sort of went with it as I felt like mum’s always right and she had had this dream, which I thought was quite funny. | FOXES | agogo! |

What do you love about London as a city? I love that people come to London to get to the rest of the world. I see it as a stepping-stone to the rest of the world. London’s the beginning of big things. I’ve always thought it’s a great place to really push yourself, as it’s so big and there are so many people that want to achieve big things there. It’s a great place to be pushing yourself and your career. I love how exciting it is. It’s been a busy year for you, has it all sunk in yet? It has been an odd year but because I am in it I’m not really noticing anything, I just feel like normal as I’m working. I still feel like I am vey much at the beginning of things and it still feels like it’s trundling along nicely. Probably the weirdest moment so far was when I had my music on the end of Gossip Girl because I am obsessed with that show. I watch it religiously so to hear Chuck and Blair confessing their love for each other and then my music coming on, I was just like ‘what is happening’. You did a mini tour of the US, how was that? That was crazy because we were doing headline shows and I just thought no one was going to turn up and we were going to be singing to ourselves but it was packed and people were singing the words. I was really shocked, I felt like someone had paid people to come and sing all the lyrics. It was a really strange feeling but it was amazing and that must have been Gossip Girl. It’s crazy what that stuff can do. I see you have been rocking a fox Kigu on tour? I am in it now! I wear it on the tour bus when we are sleeping during the day. It’s so cosy but it’s got this massive stuffed tail that gets in the way and you turn into an animal when you are wearing it. You feel like animals feel, having to move this tail around in order to be comfy. It’s really warm and it’s got little ears. I keep getting funny looks though because I wear it out if we’re going to get food. I get out the van and 38

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I’m like ‘why is everyone looking at me?’ then I realise that I am wearing this massive onesie. Once all my flatmates and me had a Kigu party. We were all running around the house dressed as animals, it was bizarre. What couldn’t you live with on tour? My fox onesie, warm socks and my headphones. What’s next for Foxes? The album is pretty much done and it should come out in the spring and I have a single coming out soon. I’ve just been to LA to shoot the video, which was really fun. And I’ll be on tour with Marina and the Diamonds of course. Lots of exciting things.

Have you got one song that fans seem to identify most with? Youth, defiantly that song. When I wrote that song I never thought it was anything special, it was just one of the first songs I wrote. People tend to know the lyrics and identify with it the most, which is really nice. I think lyrically people identify with it. Now that the album’s finished to you want to get it out there as soon as possible? I’m quite happy to put out singles first and just build a nice fan base if possible. I think giving it some time is good, and I don’t feel like I have put much out there anyway. There’s so much more to come.

FOXES FACTS: UK TOUR DATES: October Mon 08

Leicester

Academy *

Tue 09

Wolverhampton

Wulfrun Hall *

Thu 11

London

Forum *

Sat 13

Bristol

O2 Academy *

Sun 14

Lincoln

Engine Shed *

Mon 15

Oxford

O2 Academy *

Thu 18

Cardiff

SWN Festival

Sat 20

Oxford

Gathering

* Supporting Marina and the Diamonds

| FOXES | agogo! |

“Ridiculously good”– NME

ALBUM OUT 15 OCTOBER WWW.JAKEBUGG.COM