SONIC SHOCKS Issue 39 - August 2015

Love them and give them away

Issue 39 - August 2015

plus interviews with X Japan, Kristian Nairn, Five Finger Death Punch, Backyard Babies, Pop Evil, Ahab, Hey! Hello!, Battlecross, The Clameens, Ed Is Dead, Annihilator, Rivers of Nihil, Heart of a Coward - Exotic Burlesque special - Island Beats - Reading & Leeds preview - Ibiza Rocks 10th Birthday with The Libertines

ON THIS ISSUE P 03: VINTAGE TROUBLE P 55: ED IS DEAD Interviews with Ty and Rick by C Massei Interview with Edu Ostos by Nelly Loriaux P 14: X JAPAN P 60: ANNIHILATOR Interview with Yoshiki by Cristina Massei Interview with Jeff Waters by Matt Dawson P 22: KRISTIAN NAiRN Interview by Nelly Loriaux

P 66: RIVERS OF NIHIL Interview with Adam Biggs by M Dawson

P 26: FIVE FINGER DEATH PUNCH P 69: HEART OF A COWARD Interview with Chris Kael by Matt Dawson Interview with Carl & Steve by M Dawson P 30: BACKYARD BABIES P 70: THE GOLDEN AGE OF BURLESQUE Interview with Nicke & Dregen by C Massei Exotic Location Special!

Feature by Sophia Disgrace P 40: POP EVIL Interview with Matt Dirito by Matt Dawson P 72: ISLAND BEATS @ THORPE PARK With Martin Luke Brown, Kyra, Bluey P 43: AHAB Robinson and Sigma Interview with Daniel Droste by M Dawson Review by Nelly Loriaux P 46: HEY! HELLO! P 74: READING & LEEDS 2015 PREVIEW Interview with Rev, Toshi & Ai by M Dawson Feature by Cristina Massei & M Dawson P 48: BATTLECROSS Interview with Don Slater by M Dawson P 52: THE CLAMEENS Interview with Sean, Hayden & Colm by C Massei

P 78: IBIZA ROCKS 10TH BIRTHDAY

PARTY WITH THE LIBERTINES

Intro by Nelly Loriaux Libertines review by Cristina Massei

SONIC SHOCKS TEAM Editor in Chief & Creative Director CRISTINA MASSEI Associate Editors MATT DAWSON & NELLY LORIAUX Burlesque SOPHIA DISGRACE

Photographers on this issue: Cristina Massei, Nelly Loriaux, Matt Higgs, Trudi Knight

Front page photo credit: Cristina Massei with special thanks to Gibson Rooms

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the real thing

The Gibson Rooms, venue to my first Vintage Trouble experience and to today’s interview, might have change location, but my boys haven’t changed a bit. They went a long way, sharing stages with the Stones, Bon Jovi, Kiss, Paloma Faith and more recently the Who and AC/DC, and they made me enormously proud, although a tiny part of me missed the days when they had time for a pint, a chat and a hug… But fear I should have not. Between playing to 80,000 at Wembley and doing the press rounds for new album ‘1 Hopeful Road’, the band still find the time for a sweaty intimate show at London’s 229 Club and a few pints at the pub next door with old and new friends. Humble and grateful just as I remembered them.

Big or small stage, they deliver with the passion and swagger of their very first show: a tornado of positive energy and sexual innuendo, a force that continues infallibly to recruit every newbie to the ever-growing Troublemakers family, as their fan base call themselves. The ‘family’ is not your usual gathering of band followers: they come in all shapes and ages, true friendships have blossomed and even families in the family have been formed. In the front row tonight is a mature man in crutches next to a girl that can’t possibly be older than 12, and then ladies of all ages in contemporary clothes and colourful 50s style outfits, rockers and hipsters side to side tapping their feet in unison.

Like The Bomb Shelter Sessions, new album '1 Hopeful Road' is a hurricane of emotions bursting out of your speakers, and the songs hit you even deeper live. Sophomore album curse defeated, with a family counting more members than Cosa Nostra, is this just the beginning for Vintage Trouble?

Time to sit down once again with Ty Taylor and Rick Barrio Dill to talk about music, fans, the 50s, Amy Winehouse, love, angels, vintage cars and the steep path to world domination...

Welcome back to London and thanks for last night – loved the show.

Ty: Thank you!

So for a start – when was the last time you had a day off?!

Ty: Erm… 2013?

Rick: Yeah. [laughs] Sounds about right!

Yesterday – which could have been a day off – you played a gig for your fans.

Ty: It was for press and fans to tell the truth. You come to London and you’re doing so much running around there’s a lot of opportunity to connect with a lot of these people – from magazines, our record label, television shows, as well as our fans – and you don’t get those moments in most cities; usually we’ll just go in, do a show and fly out so you got to take advantage of it when it’s happening.

Yesterday half the room was Troublemakers and the other half of the room were the finest of the press here in London!

Do you guys even need press at this point? Judging from the size and passion of the Troublemakers family, looks like your fans personally connect to you and you know them one by one. How do you manage to do that with the little time - and many fans - you’ve got?

T: It’s a lot but it’s important and the hard part now that it’s growing is that there’s many more people that you actually get to know and you actually form friendships and then it becomes a sticky situation because you can’t really get to each and sometimes people start feeling neglected because there are moments that you get to be so close with each person. but we will not slow down, they keep trying to make that happen, the idea is to stretch yourself at the end of the day and until we snap we’ll keep extending ourselves to all the Troublemakers – snap as in you’ve got to regroup yourself and think about how to do it differently.

Until that point happens we’re just going to keep connecting with people because people can listen to any song on the radio or on television or on their computers and the fact that they would choose to listen to us, that’s really the bigger honour. The fact that we can hang out and talk to someone and say hello to them, that seems to be the easy part, it’s a huge thing to us that someone is choosing to be part of us than it is that we’re being a part of them.

R: About the press, that’s one of the things where in order to try and grow all the Troublemakers

would want us to have the best press we could get; true Troublemakers would want to grow the community the right way and - even though everybody loves the idea of an intimate gig like we did last night - they also love the fact the band they hooked up with and became friends with is also playing Wembley stadium, I think you can’t have one without the other so press is something that’s really important too.

I still remember that first gig and yesterday the end of it brought a tear to my eye just like the first one.

T: That’s funny, today we were coming to the Gibson Rooms, which was where we played first in England and I thought that’s what we were walking into today [Gibson Rooms has physically changed location since and we are at the new one today]… but still the idea that we are at Gibson which is where we did our first little press gig, the first time we stepped onto any kind of stage was here… and so it’s a full circle moment today!

Right down the block is the Getty images museum which we went to earlier on. I was just there and walking around, I mean talk about press and the idea whether it’s necessary still or not – the Rolling Stones became The Rolling Stones and they had press from 1965 to tomorrow. You always need press because the idea really is to extend your family rather than it just becoming personal. A lot of the Troublemakers over there yesterday were saying it felt like a good old gig because some of the places have gotten so big, a lot of people like to hold on to what felt like was their own, sometimes there is a little bit of not wanting to share things with the world because then it’s not just yours anymore, but I remember there was a song we used to sing at church when I was a kid, ‘love is nothing until you give it away’, and it’s kind of the same thing: the idea that Vintage Trouble gets bigger should be a nod to everyone who was there from the beginning to say ‘you didn’t need to be told, you felt it’. It’s all of us that are spreading it, not just the band.

We’re not getting further away from anyone that started with us, we’re taking the whole thing on the road basically! [laughs] Yeah, you guys are now touring with AC/DC and The Who and it actually took me ages to arrange this interview because you were so busy, but it was nice to see last night that that hasn’t changed you. It still gives me goosebumps thinking how it was just us in a little room and now supporting AC/DC so well done – how does that feel for YOU? Is it a surprise or did you think from the beginning you’d get this far?

T: I guess I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think we’d go this far. I believe in us like I believe in God, and I think that the possibilities that we can have come to reality are endless. It doesn’t cut down the feeling of honour that happens every day, and we’re honoured that someone like AC/DC, The Rolling Stones, The Who, Lenny Kravitz, Paloma Faith would take us under their wing and support us - and they are another form of press by the way, because the idea that they say ‘we’ll take you on the road with us and show you to our people’ is the biggest commercial you could ever want to have of Vintage Trouble.

Everyday we’re thankful that the path has been spinning quickly; we do realise that after having been a band for only five years being here is kind of a small miracle when you think about a lot of other bands, but we put in a lot of time, we work really hard, we love doing what we do and we fight to keep ourselves pure and authentic in our spirits, so I think that as long as we keep on that path then it’s going to be cool.

As a matter of fact, after the show yesterday, I hadn’t really thought about it until I got backstage but I haven’t had that good of a feeling on stage in a really, really long time! I mean, there are

W car min

We actually LIKE the word retro. If I could have any right now it’d be a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air, and I don’t nd admitting I’d rather have that than a Prius

some things that are magnificent in our lives but when you’re on a stage and you’re in a stadium a lot of that is presentational; the fact that we got to do what we did yesterday reminded me - and I hope all of us – the feeling that you’re not being presentational it’s kind of like introspective performance at the same time, it felt really good to be in that small room and not have to do things for that 100,000th person in the back to see, it felt like home.

R: The funny thing was we didn’t necessarily have a plan from the very beginning, other than the plan to let everything come from inside. In previous situations we’ve been in, you’d be on the outside almost looking and chasing something, whereas here everything emanated from the inside and that was the only plan I think that we really had.

When we realised how true that was, how that was the shortest distance between a and b inside ourselves and as a band, I think that’s why it caught on so quick in a town like Los Angeles.

The only plan was to keep doing that, ride that as far as we could ’til the wheels came off and quite frankly there’s a long, long, long way to go when we look at bands like AC/DC that are kind of a dying breed that can sell that many tickets and have 40 years of songs that people sing and stuff like that. It’s Mount Everest – we’re barely at base camp, it’s way up there!

Talking about your fans, one thing I noticed from the beginning is how

Troublemakers come in all shapes and forms, and yesterday’s audience was once again proof of that. Even the acts you supported, from AC/DC to The Who to Paloma Faith and so on, cover an extremely diverse spectrum.

R: Absolutely. I think we’re rooted in that dare I say authentic or old school rhythm and blues, soul and early rock and roll which tends to be something not really trendy but kind of timeless, and that tends to be the target or the area that we seem real comfortable in. What we shoot for is to have music that’s timeless and in that respect anybody — if you’re into hip-hop, country, metal - you’re going to understand the DNA if you listen to Vintage Trouble. You’re going to understand where we come from because it all ties back to the same place and I think that really works amazingly for us: we can do a pop situation, a Bon Jovi situation, an AC/DC situation and be fine, Bootsy Collins and do great, we’re very fortunate in that regard because we do shoot for that timeless kind of category which is a tough one to be in nowadays!

It’s tough to do and it’s tough to be that and market it…

That’s the other face of the medal – you can go with everything but there’s a lot of bands doing that, so how do you emerge? Did you ever think about how you were going to stand out when you decided to take this route?

T: I never worried about it because of who I am and I know who we are I think we short change the minds of listeners and viewers and I think people don’t just look at something as a grand picture; they go beyond that, something inside them connects to the details of what they’re seeing and what they’re hearing. The makeup of who we are is so specific – it’s not just like a rhythm and blues band, it’s not a rock and roll band where it’s perfectly that, not a perfect soul band, it’s a combination of things. So to me although we fall into a genre of things that happen to be in right now with a lot of this soul and blues music, I think that we’re so unique that I can’t even begin to compare us to anyone. I mean as soon as you start you have to say ‘but they’re not this’ and maybe that’s because we didn’t plan it too much when we got started, it happened

so fast we didn’t have time to fine tune exactly what we were doing.

I think that worked in our favour, and I also think that a lot of things have helped us out and one of them is my main inspiration out of any contemporary artist, Amy Winehouse. Artists like Amy brought soul music to the forefront of today in a way that didn’t sound like an old retro band; she opened the path for a lot of bands like us - Alabama Shakes, Saint Paul and The Broken Bones and Duffy to name but a few; it made people think of 1950/60s music as not something from the past. We’re sitting in this room right now on this amazing 1950/60s furniture and we sit on that in today’s world, it’s kind of nice this style of music, although reminiscent of another period feels just as much today as it did back then.

You see girls with tattoos like old pin up dolls, walking down the street you’ll see more people dressed in 50/60s clothes than any other. Fifteen/sixteen years ago people might have looked at them and go ‘ooh what kind of style is that?’ but now it’s so common. Girls in those little ballerina shoes and jeans, guys with pulled together pants. It’s my favourite time so I like it.

T: The 50s were always my favourite time period as far as music and style, but it’d be hard for me to live in the 50s being black so it’s nice to get so much of it now. Even though there’s still racism it’s not as bad as it used to be – we get the best of both worlds now, we get to play this rhythm and blues/soul music to people that just get it. That’s part of the reason why we can open for so many different kind of acts, because what we do is universal. I think something about that especially the 50s felt so pure before we started thinking it was uncool, it was pure and it was beautiful, the colours were bright and the music had a swing to it and happy was cool.

That’s why Happy Days was so good, because it was cool. I love the idea that when I listen to our music I can see it as a soundtrack to some of my favourite images and TV shows from the 50s, movies and things like that. It’s actually been nice to watch so many of the old black and white movies and you think about songs like Gracefully from our first album that could be behind it, or even from this new album – My Heart Won’t Fall Again – I was watching some movie the other day, it was an early Sidney Poitier movie and I was like, that song could be behind it. I like that the music is obviously feeling timeless not just to us but to other people, and that people associate us with a time that was cool.

We used to dog down the word retro and not want to be considered a retro band, but I think that comes from a need to protest too much against what other people are saying about you, just accept it. Yes, our music is from that time but we walk around it today, there’s something modern about it, we don’t have to deny it anymore, it’s such a great time in music!

Sometimes the word retro gets a negative connotation to it but that’s other people’s negative connotation. We actually LIKE the word retro. If I could have any car right now it’d be a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air, and I don’t mind admitting I’d rather have that than a Prius and I would deal with feeling bad about the gas and the environment to drive it! [laughs loudly] Let’s talk about the new album – the second is a crucial one for a lot of bands as the first one they say you have your whole lifetime to write it; did you feel any pressure?

R: To us in some ways it’s probably our first because there’s so many people left to find out what Vintage Trouble is. Ty said something the other day – you know how they say lifetime for the first and a couple of months for the second one? – ours was the other way around! We did our first record after only being a band for three months and we’ve been on the road for the last four and a half years so we had that to come up with this record. The beautiful thing is it came along at a time in a way that felt organic, when Don Was and Blue Note records got into the mix things started falling into place perfectly and when he came to produce the record

everything else fell into place. We were like ‘OK, if it gets through the four of us alpha males and Don Was we’re fine!’ I don’t know if there was so much pressure in so much as – speaking from my vantage point - we wanted to make sure we try the best to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves, that our fans have for us and what the beautiful and great artists and musicians that came before us have done, we just want to try and live up to that the best we could. I’m sure Ty has a different take…

T: No, not a different take. The good part about the songs on this record is that there’s such a specific image that comes to mind when we think about each song - where it was written, why it was written and what time it came from. I think what people are going to get on this is a big variety, because we wrote this album on the road and it’s real nice to listen to it because you can hear everything from Japan to England to California to New York to Spain, Australia and everything that happened in between. It really makes us excited that it doesn’t sound like an album recorded in a vacuum, it was recorded through life experience on the road. There’s a lot of songs that were written three or four years ago even, and it’s hard because there are times in your life when you write songs and you’re going through emotional things and you think that you actually dealt with them and got them out of the way, now you have to just replay all those emotions that you thought you’d dealt with… so some of the album is actually kind of hard, but at the same time it is really exciting. Some of the songs written towards the end like Soul Serenity were written at a time where we were actually thinking about what songs we would want to play that would act like a salve on our soul every time we played it.

Life is rough right now on the outside world, even in some of our lives inside the band it’s been a little odd and hard, and then you have a song like Soul Serenity that ends up being the exhale off of all the agitation that could be going on at any given point. There’s everything on this record, from old stories that make it hard to play to new songs that whenever you get to them you’re like ‘oh thank god you’re here for me’.

People are going to get definitely a bigger knowledge of who we are as individuals and as a band by listening to the entire record rather than just song by song. What I’m really thankful about is that there are a lot of grooves that make us dance the way we do when we’re listening to our favourite groove songs, that’s really cool.

What is one song on the record that’s particularly hard for you?

R: ‘Shows What You Know’ for me. I think that’s the beauty of what Ty said – love is nothing until you give it away - that’s the cool thing about art too, I think a good song is left for people to find and interpret for themselves.

T: The hardest one for me is ‘If You Love Me’. Love is always a complicated, small word and a lot of times people throw it around and often mean it to the best of their ability, but at the end of the day there are a few things that love always is if you really strip down what it is by definition, and sometimes people say that they love you when there’s no way that their acts are showing it or what they’re doing towards you is love. It’s just their interpretation of love, and so many times you have people giving things and on their knees, making love to you, kissing you or saying that you’re a friend or family.

It’s hard for me because I’m an empathic person so it’s hard for me to look at someone lying and saying they love me; you get it quite often and you know that people are trying to the best of their abilities to do what they think is love but it’s not that. ‘If You Love Me’ is like ‘if you love me you wouldn’t be doing those things’ and it’s something that I never really said to anyone in life because I try to support people and lift them up at all times , so to sing it in a song made

me realise how emotional this statement is, to actually say to someone ‘I know you say you love me but these list of things would not be happening if you loved me.’

Do you think some people just don’t know how to love though in the way you mean?

T: No one has to love in the way that I’m talking about because I’m not being specific in the way I’m saying love is, I’m talking about the word love – love has to do with at least caring for someone, being selfless, the basic elements. I think everyone is able to, I just don’t think everyone allows themselves to get to a place of being able to do it. In most cases I don’t think it’s the person’s fault because it starts so early our patterns of love, but it is our responsibility to fix ourselves if we know things are wrong or we can live in darkness if we want. I try not to fault people because you have to be unconditional about love although people’s histories are different – THAT’s why it’s a hard concept, because you’re looking at someone that’s telling you they love you and you know that they’re trying but it’s not love.

Sometimes you accept that’s the best they can do, or could they do better?

T: Everyone could always do better.

You’ve got a song about LA on the new album - Angel City, California - and you said most songs where written on the road and remind you of a place. Which song would you say is about London or would you make about London?

T: ‘Strike Your Light’ because we had this first batch of songs we started all around the world and then all of a sudden right around the time we started performing ‘Strike Your Light’ at home we came to England, we did the Jools Holland show and there was something about the way we were seen here by people that showed us who we could be. It’s one thing to perform at home but it’s another thing to go somewhere else and be accepted. In 1967 Stax brought all their soul artists to the United Kingdom; that’s how we kind of modelled our whole thing after that so we

came here and then it happened: people struck their lights on us and it was the most amazing thing. It’s just nice to have your reflection, even the best of what you think you are it’s nice to have it amplified when it’s being reflected back to you.

R: All the same reasons that he just said, but also ‘Run Like The River’ because I remember when Ty came in with ‘As wheels do turn/is how I go/ya’ll so should know/as flames do burn/ I am ignited’. I remember you came in with your John Henry and you had it written on the paper and I remember looking out, we had a window that day in our rehearsal room in London, it gave us that swagger. It was one thing to do in LA which is no small feat, what we even did to get out of LA is no small feat, but then to come to London and actually feel like the people here gave us this swagger underneath to let us go and try shit and if we fall they’ll catch us, we can be bold, we can try to fly and if we fall there’s a net underneath us.

Last thing I’ll say is Angel City is literally Los Angeles but Angel City is to me wherever your angels make you your best you - can be in Japan, Chicago, New York, London, Birmingham, Newcastle - whatever city you found your swagger you’ve found your Angel City.

I remember about that period in London you guys playing a week of shows everywhere and by the end of that week EVERYBODY seemed to know you – it was word of mouth through gigs and I always thought your major strength is your live shows – I’m not sure whether it’s the energy or the connection but everyone I take to your shows and that’s it – new favourite band!

T: I thought that way more so than ever yesterday, the concept that happened was its affirmation really – a computer, television, talking to someone on their iPhone is never going to do as good in life as actually being in front of someone and being tactile with them not just in music, but in general. The idea that people come to the show and the smells, feels and sounds in the room, the audience in the room, the band, everything in that moment tells them to tell someone to come the next time, to me it just makes me feel good about life connection - not only live connection - and it’s cool that our music is happening as the soundtrack to all of it. I love like in the 50/60’s before MTV there was a time when the only way to connect to a million people was to have played in front of a million people. It’s the way it should be.

I think the calibre of musicianship would be better if that was the case. We love computers and all this kind of stuff, but some of it has allowed the youth of the world to not have to become as good musicians, because things are easier to fix instead of spending hours practising. So to be a band that people say is one of the band on the forefront of live music and keeping it alive, that to me is a huge compliment. At that Getty Images gallery I was looking at pictures of Tina Turner and The Who and The Rolling Stones just sweating, dripping and flipping hair, jumping, reaching and all that kind of stuff – you don’t get that from a television or a screen, the only way you’re going to get that is through live music.

Speaking of press I don’t think we’ve had a chance to formally thank all the amazing photographers, videographers and even YouTubers that have helped spread the word; there’s so many videos and images of us and to me it feels good - Adam Kennedy, Neil Kitson, Thomas Merkle, Matthias Hombauer, Chance Edwards, Lillian Jenae, all these people act like the best megaphone we could ever have, if I saw some of these images it would bring me to a show without ever knowing the music so it’s not only press it’s also the photographers and everyone that’s helped us.

A couple of questions from my Troublemaker friend who was dancing last night near the stage…

T: The hot Latin girl with tights?

Yes! Each one of you later thanked her for dancing; she wants to know why… In fact, she can’t quite understand how people could NOT dance to your music!

T: I think we’ve been performing with AC/DC so much and it’s a big rock crowd with fist pumping and head moving, I think it was just a reminder about dancing to music. Once one woman said to us ‘How does it feel to have the superpower of the act of causing dance?’. And sometimes in a big room people can’t move, but last night because there was space she was able to let it all go and it caught the eye!

Her other question was do you dress like that all the time?

R: Of course! it’s respectful to our fans, the greats that came before us, to ourselves, to my mama and I love it!

Many find that there’s a sexual charge to your live shows – do you find it’s something that comes naturally with music?

T: I don’t think it comes naturally with music although I think music is one of the sexiest things, sometimes music can suck sexually out of you. We refer to our music as primitive soul and we just try to strip ourselves to the core of what music is supposed to be - I think that’s what people probably feel the sexual attraction, because there’s some sort of nakedness and primitive banging the chest cavemanness to it when we perform, and we try to get out of our heads as much as we can and as much as our bodies will allow. People are just drawn like a kid to an electrical socket, they find that sexy!

I remember someone saying to me once that dancing should be like making love…

R: Especially Latin dance!

And to finish, 1 Hopeful Road is out on August 14th…

T: Even though it’s out on August 14th it’s available on pre-order, and you’ll have three tracks and some sneaky surprise shows between now and the fall (Autumn)! Keep an eye on the Troublemaker page on Facebook and on our website Vintagetrouble.com Vintage Trouble: we didn't need to be told. WE FELT IT. And if you were there, I'm sure so did you.

It was almost 20 years ago, back in 1996 when iconic Japanese rockstars and visual-kei founders X Japan released their 5th studio record Dahlia. Little did their loyal fans know that Dahlia was to be the last X Japan album for a very long time. In 1997, at the height of their popularity, the band split; shortly after, what was to many a musical tragedy was followed by a real life one, with the passing of their young guitarist Hide.

Fast forward ten years and, to the joy of many, founders Toshi (vocals) and Yoshiki (drums) turn the pain into motivation and get the band back together to keep the legacy alive at least on stage. For a new chapter to see the light of the day in record form, however, we’ll have to wait another ten years…

X Japan have finally announced the release of a new album for 12th March 2016. To make it worth the wait, a film will also be launched on the same day. Aptly named #XDAY, it’s produced

by UK Bafta winner John Battsek (Searching for Sugar Man) and directed by Stephen Kijak, responsible for ‘Stones in Exile’ and ‘Scott Walker - 30th Century Man’ (produced by David Bowie).

And it doesn’t end there: #XDAY’s worldwide premiere will take place at Wembley Arena on 12th March, followed by a live performance to be remembered.

Sonic Shocks jumped on the opportunity to find out more from Yoshiki himself, when he hit London with Toshi for an appearance at Hyper Japan. A special thanks goes to our friend and long time X Japan follower Lewis, who helped us enter and understand the very special world of a true Japanese institution and world music legend.

So 12th March 2016’s the big date – we’ve got a new album, Wembley show and a movie in one day – first album in twenty years after being back together for ten: why did it take so long and how did it all come about?

Yoshiki: If we create an album that’s not better than last album there are no reasons for us to bring out an album. In 2010/2011 we were on tour, around that time label/management create an album to introduce X- Japan to the world so they selected 50% from old songs, 50% from new songs, also a lot of our devoted fans already listened to our old albums.

After the first world tour we were in pain because that tour was one we were going to do with Hide, so we had to take a little break then think. But during that time I kept writing songs and eventually we got really some strong ones, then we started working very hard towards the

album – that was like the end of last year pretty much, or early this year. Now I think we are comfortable and confident enough to release that album. It’s a creation – why do artists release an album? What’s the reason? Of course there’s the contract between the record company and the artist [laughs], but we didn’t have to follow that route!

So we can say the songs on this album were born organically…

It came organically to that point where we decided, we were working really hard actually.

What can you tell us about the record?

I’m usually shy about talking about quality, but this album I think might be the best we’ve ever created: same X-Japan vibe, beautiful melodies and heavy music, that’s the main thing, but we did some experimental things sound/arrangement wise so we got more wide range. The beautiful side becomes more beautiful while the heavier side becomes even heavier.

We’re pretty confident about the outcome.

You’ve always had a strong emotional connection with your songs, like Forever Love – do you feel the same way with the new songs?

Completely. Each song or each memory I put everything into it; sometimes it’s easy, sometimes it’s really hard.

When I compose I just write scores on a music sheet then play piano later but each song’s very meaningful, it’s not something where I’m just writing another song, these songs are special.

Is there one in particular on this album that is personal to you?

Every single song is very personal but Kiss The Sky in particular – talking about death, talking about life,

but it also has a positive message. There’s always a positive message or insinuating something positive, although the surface is very dark. This song is very positive, probably the first time we are showing a feeling of positiveness.

After all this time since Hide passed away have you found a positive in a tragedy?

When my father passed away – when I was ten years old he killed himself – I was crying every day. Hide was pretty much the same thing but I wrote a song called Without You and that kind of helped me.

I’m not sure if that will make it to the new album, we’re still debating because we wrote so many songs, only ten plus are making it to this album so maybe if it doesn’t make it we’ll release it separately. Anyway it was a very impactful moment of my life. When X-Japan reunited it was like, how are we going to reunite the band without Hide? So at that moment we used a hologram, but then we realised even though Hide is physically not there he’s spiritually. I feel like every single show we’re playing, we’re playing it with him. While we spread our music we can spread his legacy, so we decided to keep going. We lost another member as well, Taiji; we hadn’t played in a long time but in 2010 at Nissan Stadium he was our special guest. He passed away in 2011, but since we’ve got back together we feel like we’re playing with him too, even though there are only five of us are on stage I feel that seven of us are playing.

Back to 2016 – I was wondering why choose London for such a big event?

There’s several reasons: I grew up playing and listening to classical music so I had some kind of connection with Europe because pretty much all the classical music came from here. All the bands that influenced me - Led Zeppelin, iron Maiden, David Bowie, Sex Pistols - are all UK bands. Finally, when we play European tour it was an amazing tour: we had such a deep connection with the audience doing the shows, and since we’ve been thinking that with next album we wanted to do something big somewhere in Europe. Last year we performed in Madison Square Garden - that was a big moment - and we started shooting the film as well, then we started thinking again about Europe as there was so much influence from British rock, and naturally we chose Wembley – one of the most famous landmarks in Europe.

Can you tell us more about the film?

We started filming the year before the Madison Square Garden show; my agent in Los Angeles brought up the idea several years ago. I told him it was a great idea but very painful to open the door… When we broke up we played a show called the Last Live, that was a great show but I couldn’t watch the video so we couldn’t release the DVD for a few years, actually the Japanese Universal CEO came to Los Angeles and said ‘you need to release this DVD, it’s a

historical show’. I agree but I can’t watch it, I can’t go more than five minutes without crying so how can we edit?

Anyway, it took a few years to finish that project so if only that part of X-Japan’s life was that painful, how could we go back all the way to the history of the band? We kept talking about this film and he said we could give the world a positive message in that even though we had that much pain we still keep going, and that’s the story we should talk about; I said maybe we should do this. After several years we decided to create the film; it’s not going to be a live show recording, more like a live story of XJapan, how Toshi and I met, and how we kept going despite all the pain inside.

I’ve been talking to fans prior to this chat and what they have been worried about is your health – you were supposed to have an operation but here you are, with a bandage, ready to play…

Lewis: You're every doctor’s worst nightmare aren't you? [laughs] Yes, I had a neck surgery a few years ago and it was no more drums for a while. With X-Japan reunited, I need to play drums and the one condition is I have to wear this neck brace.

At the beginning it was so hard to play but I learned how to play drums with a neck brace. They also said don’t play too hard…

Eventually I started to play the piano a lot then my ligament got torn, last year I did a classical tour so I did fourteen shots of cortisone – normally you can only take 4/5 shots a year or it’s not good for your health but I had to do this. They said no more shots, your bones will melt if you do this! I said OK, what can we do?

‘You stop doing this, you need to have an operation – a transplant.’ I don’t have enough downtime so…

How long would you need?

Could be six to eighteen months but the next eighteen months will be the most crucial time for us. I can deal with pain then if I survive I’ll do the operation, this pain’s nothing compared to the emotional pain.

Going back to the Dahlia period – there was quite a change of image then there was the split and all the tragedy; was there any connection in any way between these events?

When we released Dahlia we had also planned to go overseas, so we signed kind of a worldwide deal with a label then we all moved to Los Angeles but at the same time everyone had solo deals so at that moment the band wasn’t really together. It was a real interesting album but was not true X-Japan. I remember promoting Dahlia and the record company took me to press and ask ‘what do you think of the album?’ I said it’s ok, but it’s not a good album, and they were freaking out! They weren’t bad songs but as an album I didn’t think it was one of our best, Dahlia’s not bad but we’ve created better than that.

It’s well recognised you’re one of the founders of the visual kei movement – you’ve also created a label that’s still active – how do you feel about visual kei now and which bands would you recommend?

In the beginning of our band career we were playing super heavy music, super fat, putting on tons of makeup and critics could not define who we were so we were like the black sheep of the family, nobody could really place us, and eventually that became visual kei.

Visual Kei means more of a freedom to how you can express yourself so there’s no rules, you can do anything; we didn’t think it was going to be a genre but a few bands contributed to that era and eventually it became a genre which is really cool. I’m so proud to be one of the founders of the visual kei movement. I was in Japan two weeks ago for a festival and they had a bunch of new artists that were quite amazing, it’s cool that visual kei is evolving.

Aside from X-Japan you’ve been doing a lot of other stuff – Violet UK for a start; any more planned?

Yes, I’ve been recording. All those projects are getting closer to the goal to finish the album but I chose X-Japan, we chose X-Japan as it’s such a crucial time for us. As of now I’m putting all my energy to X-Japan but when I have spare time – which is very hard to find [laughs] – I’m doing my classical album.

About S.K.I.N – will there be another performance or anything from that in the future?

I talk to them quite often but everybody’s doing their own thing so that MAY happen for the future but I need to consider X-Japan for now.

Of course. We talked about Forever Love earlier – it’s been used for a political party campaign in Japan I hear?

Yeah that’s right! When the former Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi was doing a campaign he used Forever Love.

Were you happy with it?

Yeah, at that time X-Japan was not active, he came to one of my shows and he really liked the song, he always sang it at karaoke!

What does that song represent to you?

All my songs when I write there’s a meaning to them – like a baby or child you create – but the song also has its own life. I don’t want to categorise a song as this so it can be something else.

I wrote Forever Love for an animation called X but eventually it became a signature song.

Around the same time I was writing the piano concerto for an Emperor of Japan (Akihito), ten year anniversary of his reign, that was cool too.

When I compose a song I have certain meanings but when the song’s done anyone can take their meaning and transfer it to any way they want.

You also worked on Repo! The Genetic Opera with the likes of Ogre from Skinny Puppy, Anthony Head and Paris Hilton…

Yoshiki laughs!

How was that experience for you?

That was very interesting, they were recording pretty much everything in my studio in Los Angeles and I was musical director come to think of it! I recorded everybody including Paris Hilton, it was amazing, everyone was devoted to that film, that’s become a cult film and I’m lucky to be part of it.

Finally when will we hear more from the album, where can we follow you on social media?

I think we’re going to start releasing singles as early as October/November also I may start putting up on my Youtube channel. Tomorrow’s just piano/vocal.

Any final message to the fans?

Thank you so much for sticking with us so many years, because of you we made it through and we’ll finally be able to release an album. Thanks so much for being supportive, it’s going to be a memorable moment soon so please join us, I’d love to spend time with the fans together.

He may be better known as gentle giant Hodor in Game Of Thrones, but Kristian has a few more strings to his bow than his monosyllabic character. Not content with being a resident DJ for years at Belfast’s Kremlin club, he is also bringing his fantastic theme dance parties DJ show ‘Rave Of Throne’ all over the world and has just released his debut single ‘Up/Beacon (feat Leanne Robinson) already clocking over 250.000 plays on Soundcloud. "It's been a long time coming, and I think 'Up' and the material yet to come is a really good reflection of how I feel about house music. We have been very lucky to find Leanne, and it’s been great working with her. I’ve never been more excited to share 'Up' and what else I’ve been doing in the studio with the world over the next months."

Kristian takes time off his busy schedule to tell us all about his other life in the realm of the electronic music world.

What led to your career as a DJ? How did it all begin?

It began by learning to DJ while at Music College, and having a huge music collection. A DJ called in sick to a bar I was working at, and I offered to cover. I haven’t stopped DJing since then… 20 years ago. Before that, I was a big fan of the house/trance scene and definitely spent most of my weekends partying to the music I loved.

What were your influences when you started? What about today?

I always loved and admired the mammoth sets and mixes Danny Tenaglia put together and the twisted beats he always played. I remember seeing Tony De Vit DJ, not long before he sadly passed away. That was a pivotal night for me also… Seeing the effect the DJ could have on the crowd was almost mystical and magical. I have SO many influences these days; I don’t even know where to begin.

Do you have any unusual stories from when you were just starting out? Gaffes you may have made, gigs that went horribly wrong or maybe playing to the bartender and no one else?

Oh god, yeah… I’m sure every DJ has a horror story or two. I mean, we have all done the “hands up - it’s not my fault” pose when the music cuts off in the DJ box (laugh). I remember a full blown riot started one night I was DJing , and things were flying everywhere. I remember I was playing the conductor and cowboy remix of Sonique – ‘Feels So Good’ at the time, and some kindly girl decided to put her shoe on top of the deck for a minute so she could use her hands to throw more objects!!! We ended up barricaded into the back office of the venue while the riot police arrived!!

People may know you best as HODOR but you have been a prolific DJ for many years on the Belfast house music scene, was the hiatus from Game Of Thrones the perfect break for you to pursue your first love?

That’s actually not true. I never stopped DJing. I would still do as much of my residency as possible while filming. That would mean some terrible time turnarounds… but I can’t not DJ… It’s a huge emotional release for me.

How did you come about creating your ‘Rave Of Thrones’ theme parties? What was your motivation?

I wanted to create a vibe that reminded me of old skool clubbing; People of all walks of life coming together and letting down their barriers. The Costumes and shared interest really helps with that. It can be a very special atmosphere, and it makes me very happy when it all comes together.

You have been performing your ‘Rave Of thrones’ parties for a while now. For those who haven’t had a chance to witness them as yet, what can they expect to see?

Honestly, as we aren’t at the stage of having a fleet of semi’s full of Lady Gaga-esque props, it’s really down to each venue, as to how much they want to get into the theme. Some REALLY go for it, and others more low key/cool.

You will be performing your ‘Rave Of Thrones’ at NYC's Irving Plaza on Thursday, August 13th where guests are asked to wear themed fancy dress, with those ignoring the dictum allegedly risking the wrath of the Hand of the king.

First of all, what kind of fancy dress do you expect to see?

I imagine there will be a lot of Daenerys, Joffrey, Jon Snow and Cersei… and maybe a few white walkers. Those are definitely the favourites.

And secondly what wrath will be set upon the disobedient ravers at your show?

You’ll have to ask the hand of the king!!

Do you have a favourite live set?

I do. Many years on Proton Radio, Nathan Fake dropped a Massive set there. Really mixed genre, and totally incredible.

If you could stage one of your rave anywhere in the world, where would be your ideal location and why?

On a beach near table mountain in South Africa. It’s just the most beautiful place, and I imagine doing an open-air gig there would be incredibly special.

I believe you are a loyal sci-fi and fantasy fan, which shows take your fancy the most?

I’m a massive LOTR nerd, but it’s the Warcraft universe that really does it for me. The approaching movie, well, I’m probably more excited about that, than anything I can remember.

Do you ever have to deal with overly eager fans whom overstep your boundaries whilst Djing? If so, how do you deal with it?

I can handle myself at the end of the day, so it’s never going to get to TOO messy a situation.

Also I have a great tour manager, who is very handy with the old “clothesline” technique for stage invaders.

You have recently released your debut single ‘Up/Beacon’(feat Leanne Robinson), how is it going so far?

It’s going far better than I hoped and imagined. It’s had a LOT of interest on SoundCloud and beyond. I couldn’t be more excited to see where this is going to lead.

How would you describe it in let’s say 2 to 3 words?

Energy, piano, fun.

What do you find the most challenging: acting or djing?

Being a parent is challenging, or a surgeon (Laugh) Every set is different, just like every scene is different.

Any last word/shouts before I let you go back to your realm?

Just Thank you for all the support that’s been shown for the tracks so far, I can’t tell you how much it means.

Check out Kristian's debut single 'Up/Beacon' on our Soundcloud showcase: https://soundcloud.com/sonicshocks/sets/showcase-electro

With a career that’s been going from strength to strength it’s only right we catch up with Chris Kael before one of the biggest performances they’ve ever done in the UK. More details about Got Your Six are revealed alongside the biggest show they’ve EVER done in the UK that’s to come in November with Papa Roach. Chris also reveals a special thing that might happen with a band that wield a Groovehammer…

So how’s everything been going?

It’s going well, we just flew in the other day, had a day off in Austria in-between festivals and hanging out in Birmingham, the birthplace of metal! There’s some great food there, I went to an Indian restaurant, it was amazing!

What’s the highlights of these places that you’ve been visiting?

So many different highlights! Obviously every day we’re out there playing an hour and 15 minutes for the fans that have come everywhere to see us so that’s clearly a highlight but as far as seeing the sights – my God I’ve seen everything from Red Square in Moscow to a castle up in Edinburgh. I’m one of those guys that treat this as a tourist affair for me too, you never know when you’re going to be back to see these places. I soak it all up, I’m not the guy in the hotel room or at the bar drinking all day, I drink at night time!

Higgs: So what’s it like going to these places and getting that kind of response?

We started off touring in the States heavily and the plan now is to keep on going out here and try to get Europe to where we’re at in the States. I’ve had so many people come up to us and be like ‘You’re the reason we’re here today.’ That blows my mind knowing that we have some of the other bands that are on these bills because I’m a huge music fan, I go out and listen all day long and to have these fans come up and tell us they’re here because of us – that blows my mind.

What are you listening to at the moment?

Right now there’s a band out of the UK called The Hell – I love The Hell, actually one of the guys invited me on Twitter to come out and do vocals for them, I would fucking love to do that. The

Š Matt Higgs Photography

We wanted to come out with a strong one-two punch and we delivered some elbows and knees along the way!

new At The Gates, something lighter but a little more melodic: a band called Stick To Your Guns from California – I didn’t know what to expect when I first heard but I love that band, probably one of my favourite releases of the year.

Now you have a new album on the way – August 28th…

Album’s called Got Your Six. Going into this we sat back and evaluated the catalogue that we do have and we were like ‘You know what, we’ve done really good at what we’re doing so far but we’re all in a really heavy mood right now.’ Touring for as long as we’ve been touring listening to the label on your back the whole time, dealing with management – it’s going to piss you off after a while, you’ll hear that anger in the new record.

We wanted to come out with a strong one-two punch and we delivered some elbows and knees along the way!

Higgs: Do you find the writing process has changed over time?

No, it’s one of those things – we’ve been doing it for six albums now – we’ve got our process and what works for us, I think we’ve pretty much nailed that stuff for us right now.

Now the last record had a few guests on there – can we expect any on this one?

Just Five Finger all the way on this one. We like to change things up and last time we had the guest appearances, I mean hell we had Rob Halford on there, who the hell do you get after that?! [laughs] We’re sticking to writing the heavy stuff, quite pleased with the new album.

You’ve worked with Kevin [Churko] again for this album, a guy you’ve worked with since War Is The Answer – does it feel like he’s a ‘fifth Beatle’ at this point?

100%, technically the sixth Beatle as there’s five of us [laughs] He’s well equipped to work with the five alpha males that we have in Death Punch. We’re very strong headed, we’re always shooting for what we want individually while acknowledging the thing that’s best for the band but Kevin is good at wrangling five incredibly different personalities and making that work. We come up with the ideas, the music and Kevin helps us maintain that.

We’ve got a LOT of things planned for that one, we’re certainly looking to make that one gigantic. Growing up in the States there’s two places you want to play: Madison Square Garden and Wembley and we haven’t done Madison Square Garden yet but Wembley’s on there now.

© Matt Higgs Photography

It has also been announced that you are playing Wembley (SSE Arena) with Papa Roach in the ONLY UK date.

Any final words?

Thank all of you guys for your continued support, we appreciate every single one of you. We’re one of those bands that are lucky enough in a time where people aren’t necessarily buying albums, our fans are still buying albums and that allows us to come all the way across the pond, these big shows we’re doing, the production for Wembley and allows us to come and do these massive festivals. We sincerely 100% wholeheartedly thank each and every one of you.

The indefinite hiatus is finally over: Sweden’s finest sleaze rockers Backyard Babies are back.

Same line up, same enthusiasm and energy, they’ve let us wait five years while broadening their horizons with several other projects. New album ‘Four by Four’ however - out August 28th - is well worth the wait, with Nicke and Dregen’s more recent experiences converging in yet another pure rock’n’roll record.

We’ve been lucky enough to talk to both about their break, the comeback and the early days of the band…

Welcome back, to London and in general! First of all why the long break and why did you feel it was the right time to come back?

D: I think that we all were in one way or another confused and a bit frustrated with the industry of being in a rock band – where are we going to take this? I think it was a healthy decision to take a break; we could have easily not just said anything, be away from each other and make a record and leave people wondering why it’s taking so long, but we decided to tell people ‘we’re taking a break, we don’t know for how long, be patient, bear with us while we do other stuff’ and we did that for many years and let people talk and wonder what was going to happen on their own. We did a lot of stuff in-between and eventually Backyard Babies came knocking on our door again and we felt we had the chance to do so much other stuff.

We talked: shall we do it? Shall we get the band back together, a new record, start touring again? Yeah and interest was [clicks fingers] instant which also made us realise the decision was good.

N: The band formed in 1989 and we were kids but were working very hard to get a record deal first. We started to tour quite heavily before we had an album out - 91/93 - then we got a record

deal in 94 and toured again from 94 up to 98. For the first time could pay our rent and actually could start living for real out of music, but from 98 up to 2010 we were constantly on tour and making albums. In the end I was cliché: rock and roll overdose, everybody loves playing but we did it like 24 hours all the time so at the end I couldn’t tell if a gig was good or bad; we were just like machines, a little bit tired of what we are still loving to do, but we do it too much. So I think it was kind of good to just step back and look at it from a third person, have a few years off and get that jonesing to get back together and play.

D: The most tragic thing is when a band hold themselves together because they haven’t got anything else to do and their record started to be experimental blah blah blah…

You’ve always said in the past you’d rather not put out a record than put out a record that is not good…

N: I have to say every record that we put out from 1994 to 2008 had been really good albums.

They’d be different from each other, not trying to repeat the previous record or not trying to do stupid stuff, we did the best record we could possibly do at the time throughout the whole career; but I’m very sure that if we had continued after 2008, making another record because me and Dregen wanted to do more stuff that could fit in the Backyard Babies, trying squeeze them in they wouldn’t have sounded like Backyard Babies or be as good. Being able to do exactly what you wanted to do on your own with other people makes it much easier today to let Backyard Babies be what Backyard Babies is.

You’ve both done solo albums and several collaborations in the meanwhile - Michael Monroe, Ginger and other projects – how did all of that influence this new BYB record?

D: I can hear just from writing this new album together with Nicke that he has been becoming a much better songwriter and that I can tell is from those years that we’ve been apart. It’s almost like Backyard Babies is more than just a band, we’ve been around for so long it’s almost like a brotherhood or family but sometimes it’s good to play other stuff and play with other people because I get a lot of new ideas from doing that.

N: I must say the exact same thing but to Dregen; singing on his solo album, he’s become a much better singer, guitar player and artist in general. You get that as he said by playing with other people and also doing stuff on your own. Even though I sing and play guitar with Backyard Babies, singing and playing guitar with my solo stuff but is different; you put that kind of self confidence and with new ideas, new inspirations into what you’ve been doing for so many years, and you have that when us two sit down and work together.

D: That’s a really cool thing, I think the list of the band’s experience is endless, it’s nowhere rocket science really but it’s important to actually dare to take these steps, see what you can actually get back.

But Backyard Babies has always been there in the background.

N: Yeah, we were honest to ourselves and to the fans, we were going to take a break for we don’t know how long because otherwise it would be like we had this kind of plan: no, this was hardcore honest.

D: Also we were prepared to start over – or at least I was. Mentally I saw myself standing on the streets in Stockholm handing out flyers, ‘come check this band out called Backyard Babies, we’re playing down in the cellar’, because in my mind no one was going to remember us, but it was almost the opposite. My mindset was if it was like that fine, we start from the fucking scratch again because this Backyard Babies… I hate to say comeback because it was never

a comeback, we just took a holiday or break from each other BUT it’s not that somebody came with a bag full of money, it’s not for anything more…

N: This sounds like a phoney cliché line from a movie but it’s very true: if you really love something, set it free and if it’s coming back to you it’s meant to be there forever. It’s the same kind of thing, you have to be prepared that maybe there was a chance that Backyard Babies would never play again, maybe we will try, maybe we will also prepare but maybe it’s not going to be good, not going to be fun, it’s not gonna work. You have to be prepared for that by letting it go, and now it’s come back but with all the experience. We can actually take a year or two here and there and still have the band active, we proved to ourselves and to our fans that they can trust us, don’t worry we’ll be back!

D: With better albums, better amplifiers, bigger lights! I think all four members treat Backyard Babies as like a guitar or a painting: it’s our treasure. If we got back together then we realised ‘fuck, we suck, we can’t play anymore!’ and songs were not good I don’t think we would have done another album, we are not cramping into releasing bad Backyard Babies albums because it’s something that should have like a fucking rock and roll quality stamp to it.

N: I’ve got to say this to be really honest – the first time Dregen was sitting in the rehearsal room and Peder our drummer…

D: Peder had played drums for us for five years and we decided the first day of rehearsal to just play together in September last year; we hadn’t played at all with each other for five years and he hadn’t even touched his drums, so he didn’t even have time to take his jacket off and all of a sudden we were playing.

N: We were nervous it’d be like totally dead, couldn’t feel anything and the songs would suck, maybe we were afraid that we couldn’t do Backyard Babies anymore – but that was like a brief second.

D: We’ve been blessed, when you get struck by that kind of rock lightning when you’re 12/13… when I saw Kiss I was 7 and I was like ‘this is what I’m going to do mama’!

Was she happy?

D: Well she couldn’t do anything about it! All four of us still like the same kind of records of course, we listen to different records but the main we think about are the best rock records, we still think the same today as we thought back then. If after these four years Nicke and I want to put back together Backyard Babies but he gets struck by the Michael Bolton lightning and wants Backyard Babies to be more like Michael Bolton, I’d have to say no! But we know what this band should sound like.

N: That’s why the luxury about having all the other musical careers is that you can get your other influences out working with other people/projects, and leave Backyard Babies be what it is.

D: For us AND for the fans. I’m a big fan of different bands and I hate when they start fucking compromising!

That’s where I wanted to go…

D: You want me to talk about my next solo album of only Michael Bolton covers?

Please don’t! [both laugh] You said earlier how all your albums are different between them, you don’t tend to do the same thing yet again you are always Backyard Babies.

It’s odd in a way – I could say the new record is definitely ‘a Backyard Babies album’, which is a positive, but could be seen as you’re repeating yourself which you’re not.

We’re not a political band, we can’t really save the world like that but we can put on a show one night, see people in the audience get happy, get some energy and maybe listen to our songs to get by through hard times because we’re entertainers, we play rock and roll music. That’s where we get the energy from now.

How do you manage to keep faithful to your roots yet not repeat yourself?

D: I think you also have to sound and express 2015, this is not a bad thing – we’re turning 42 this year!

N: Second time he says that!

D: I’m just saying that I hope that you can hear it’s four guys young at heart but we actually sound like we’re 42 because we’re not trying to sound like we’re 23 anymore. I don’t want to do that, I want to be here, be 42, do my shit and feel it. Rock and roll’s not rocket science it’s guitars, drums, bass and expressions. On Diesel & Power you can hear that we were young guys, some of those songs we wrote when we were 15/16 and then on Total 13, our breakthrough album, you can hear that we’d been touring, didn’t have any money, the frustration, we were living in the same apartment –the whole album was built on frustration.

N: As we did on this new album as well, the most important thing is not to think too much, not to analyse what type of album should we do; once you’re going down that path I think you’re going to fail because it’s never going to be what you figure it’s going to be – just let things loose and play by heart. Total 13 was definitely written straight from the heart and balls sometimes, there was no master plan behind that album at all, no idea of what we were doing - we were just so fucking pissed off! We had the producer Thomas Skogsberg who run everything through distorted channels, we were like ‘OK, that sounds good!’; we had no idea what we were doing, we didn’t even know what the songs were about – some of the lyrics we wrote because we were like ‘this is crazy’, then people turned that into some kind of ‘Yeah, wow!’

When we were doing Making Enemies Is Good after that we wanted to… I don’t know what we wanted to do but the guy had Hysteria by Def Leppard in the studio as a reference listen so we were like ‘Fuck!’ and that turned out to be some really weird album like that instead, but again we didn’t have a plan. The most successful rock albums in history are made without a plan.

D: Maybe not so much the last ones but I think to really draw the line hard, if we go right on this album most definitely we’re going to go left on the next album. I always like bands that you expect the unexpected.

N: Without losing the nerve of the band and what the band is all about, once again that’s not going to happen, we’ve totally secured that danger by having different outlets.

You say that Total 13 was coming from a pissed off place – so which mood does this one come from?

D: We’re pissed off at so many other stuff now – picking up kids from kindergarten, traffic jams, there’s so much stuff to be pissed about! The weather! [laughs] N: The energy today does not come from being pissed off, it comes from really enjoying being on stage, making music, seeing people that stood by this band for over 20 years.

We’re not a political band, we can’t really save the world like that but we can put on a show one night, see people in the audience get happy, get some energy and maybe listen to our songs to get by through hard times because we’re entertainers, we play rock and roll music. That’s where we get the energy from now.

Let’s talk about some of the tracks on this album. First single: Th1rt3en Or Nothing – does that have anything related to Total 13?

D: We wanted to have something in the chorus like ‘all or nothing’ but it’s been used so many times, so we started to play with Thirteen Or Nothing, like a roulette, because for common

people on the street out there 13 is an unlucky number but for us 13 is in a way a lucky number because of Total 13…

It’s a lucky number in Italy, 17 is an unlucky number.

For us Nicke has seen me win in Las Vegas with 13.

N: 17’s the unlucky number in Italy?

Yeah, I don’t know why but it is. 13 used to be a lucky number – now a lot of American things are coming to Italy: Halloween, the whole 13 thing but originally…

D: Your subtitle is Friday the 17th!

Yeah!

D: The meaning of it is more Backyard Babies and what it’s about: it’s all or nothing. When we started this band Johan [Blomqvist] was playing bass and he was starting to become a doctor so that in case if the band didn’t break he’d have something to fall back on; we’ve just been all or nothing.

N: The song is about where we are and what we did, it’s like ‘OK, we’re back!’, just reboot the computer, plug it in, wait for it to come back on again.

So you never had a plan B really?

D: We don’t do plan B’s!

N: Plan B was to try again!

Something I found strange about this record is the last track (Wolves) has got a very dark twist towards the end with guitar that’s more on the metal side…

D: I’ve been dusting off my old Judas Priest records! On the rest of the album if you know your Backyard Babies history you can hear a lot of Backyard Babies timezones, even Blood And Tears goes right back, we haven’t done songs like that since the first album Diesel and Power, a ballad more like the classic rock ballad; but with Wolves we wanted to put in another dimension of Backyard Babies where we’ve never been before: double bass, twist of Judas Priest like you said almost like metal riff into it, the ending also… it’s funny that you’re Italian because I think that it’s got an Italian touch – mixed between a vintage horror movie with a little Sicilian Godfather kind of thing. It’s beautiful and dark at the same time, and also has a twist of Pink Floyd.

The lyrics are also about drugs and how they can affect you. It was my idea for having that whole kind of outro thing in my mind when I read the lyrics for that whole thing, and the last part of the song is more about how a trip can be.

N: It’s like really cool because we wrote Wolves, jammed the whole piece together in the rehearsal room… we had so many different options when we got into the studio and these days it’s really expensive to be in a studio and a lot of kids just do everything in front of the computer you know? We did this on the studio floor live with different reverbs and everyone was involved, having some fun, and I feel sorry for the bands who don’t have an opportunity to do stuff like that. They might stay in front of their computers and be like ‘I want the spaced out, psychedelic outro jam influenced by Judas Priest, download that’. People don’t even have a rehearsal space so it’s great to be able to do that and create something that’s fun and sounds amazing.

D: That was a fine moment in this recording when we did that; ‘One more round!’ ‘It’s seven minutes, it’s too long!’ ‘Who gives a shit man? It’s our record, let’s make it seven and a half,

eight minutes!’

Kids today are taught a perfect rock song is 3 minutes: Paradise City is fucking 6:40! I think it’s important once again as Backyard Babies to go that way. Everybody’s talking about this song and I don’t think we could have seen that coming that much; we know it stands out, the whole thing with the double bass and the acoustic with the druggy thing of the song – it’s a blues song at the beginning and turns into this amazing outro.

Is drugs something that influenced you in the early days?

N: For good and bad ways I will say, the whole sex, drugs and rock and roll thing was like maybe the number one thing that attracted us to play in a band, yeah we have to write songs and play in a band…

D: It’s actually a fucked up thing - seriously 100% real, when we started this band if there was no sex and drugs I don’t think we would have kept playing!

D: We were really attracted to the whole thing you know – it was 50% music and 50%... we were in a small village, so boring, we just wanted to get out into the world and see… the girls!

N: I want to go to LA, hang out on the Sunset Strip, play the Troubadour, go to Japan, want to have tons of girls, shit load of cocaine, well we have to write and play as well but we want THIS, we want everything!

D: Then we kind of hit the wall and slowly like a blessing the music thank god started to be more…

N: The music was important all of the way and these days it continues to be more and more important. Of course you want to make better, greater stuff, this is not a cliché thing – it’s really hard for a rock band to write lyrics more than the music when you are super happy and never did anything bad or dangerous.

D: Even if it’s rock and roll it’s fucking from blues, and blues is to let your sadness or problems out. It’s almost like you’re seeing a shrink and we’re happy guys, me and Nicke we love sunshine, being on the beach – if it’s sunny outside I don’t want to sit around and write fucking songs I want to be out and be happy!

N: We never really worked that well on drugs or alcohol.

D: Backyard Babies have hardly done any writing when we’ve been on drugs – we have been on drugs but we’ve been writing about it sober the next morning.

N: Once the party ends, you try to be creative. My turning point was that I was really fed up – I was writing tons of stuff, tons of ideas but I was always a little bit too drunk or too high to do actually fulfil them. This band works better sober, but we have earned so much experience.

I think our generation had it pretty good, I don’t want to sound cliché but we’ve expressed all that and progressed whereas kids nowadays the kind of drugs they do…

N: I hate to sound so fucking old but EVERYTHING was better!

I mean horse tranquilizers – what’s the point?!

D: For us it was surprising that it’s an age thing y’know? In the beginning, I mean fucking hell! our first Japan tour we landed on the Friday, we had a gig Friday, Saturday and went home on Sunday – I don’t remember sleeping, you [looks at Nicke] had to call an ambulance, if not I would have been dead by gig number two. With that said in the beginning we could do drinking and drugs and still you’re 25, up at eight in the morning, you rehearse and you become creative,

but after a while the hangovers come and it’s just like a big blanket around you…

I still party sometimes but I think it’s better for me to come up with a great idea when clean and sober, then I can get fucked up but I need the idea first.

Does it take you the same time to recover?

D: We had a turning point on the American tour because we had to start to record a new album and we didn’t have songs, so we had an idea to build a demo studio in the back of our tour bus.

That was the turning point because we’d never been recording much stoned or drunk and we did that every night after every gig and we were in until seven in the morning recording while the bus was riding then we went up all day listening to the recording. Oh my God, I hope we erased it! it was fucking horrible was not for Backyard Babies…

Back to the album – any song that’s important to you personally?

N: One of them in one way is Bloody Tears about a relationship and drugs, life drama; Mirror’s the same thing, Wasted Years – I’m so proud we took ourselves out of that small little town at the time we did because if we hadn’t done that we wouldn’t be sitting here doing the interview with you - but in one way we don’t like to talk so much about lyrics because I think the coolest thing about rock and roll lyrics is that everybody experiences them differently, so if I tell you exactly what a song is about for me maybe you won’t listen to it the same way.

D: I can’t really answer because for me I look at Four By Four as one big song. I’m proud of Wolves and Th1rt3en or Nothing because those two songs is a sound that Backyard Babies hasn’t had before, like a new direction, but if we only had that kind of style of the other ten songs on the album then it wouldn’t be a Backyard Babies album. Songs like Never Finish Anything or On my Way To Save Your Rock And Roll is typical Backyard Babies songs. And if it would have been ten of those it would have been TOO typical.

N: That’s why this band is unique in that way, we have a lot of different influences and somehow everything turns out to be right and now by these nine songs together it makes a perfect mix for an album.

You’ve got a special edition as well which you are Pledging – tell us a bit more.

D: I’m a special edition nerd and I’m a Gemini so I’m not schizophrenic, but I have very much two sides: the conservative Dregen and the other side that’s totally futuristic. With that said I still have a record player at home, I still love playing vinyl records so this is a box set of five 7 inch picture discs with a whole album on it in a nice little box.

Five with the whole album on it?

D: Five picture discs – two on each. And a special edition t-shirt only for the box and a postcard.

You also get things like upgrades for the tour…

N: I think it’s really important for Europe. In Sweden the CD sales are in one way totally dead, you sell vinyl fair enough and downloads are also dead – streaming is the one.

Dregen: Spotify is Swedish so…

N: It’s different in the UK, Germany, we believe we’ve always had a certain amount of hardcore fans, every rock band has a certain amount; out of 100%, 30% is hardcore and they want to and will buy cool stuff. I’m a fan of the special edition stuff and I’ll save some extra money to buy that so it’s really cool these days to focus on that hardcore fan base and give them really cool valuable stuff. The rest – they’re fine with streaming.

Where does the money come from now?

N: It’s been divided like that, once again it’s not rocket science, CD sales are dead and we’re facing technology where you have everything on your fucking iPhone, so the ones who are real lazy will go ‘my record store has shut down, where shall I get the music? Spotify, perfect!’ It doesn’t matter for them but that’s perfect because I think you gain more listeners that way.

D: At the end it’s the same story for us as ever, Backyard Babies were never a band who could say ‘Cancel the tour, we’ve got so much money, I’m going to lie on the couch for six months!’; we’ve never been surviving on record sales EVER, it’s only been touring for us.

N: It’s new for us, an experiment in one way. We sell these special products because fans really want them and the things we lose in the CD sales that are dead to the world we gain a bit from streaming, but maybe it’ll all even out. Backyard Babies has always been ‘We come to your city, please come see us live, we play songs from our whole career, we put on a good show, we’re great with the fans and we hang out a little bit.’ That’s what we do as a band.

D: It’s almost like two camps – in Sweden there are artists that as soon as you turn on a radio channel their songs are going to be playing fucking everywhere – Starbucks, McDonalds, in stores – but when they come to a town and play no one is showing up, people are not interested to see them live because they know the song but they don’t know who is singing it; and for us we’ve hardly been played on the radio because we’re too loud but on the other hand we can fucking go to Ipswich, Sydney…

In Sweden I think there’s still a sleaze scene… do you still live there?

N: We live in Stockholm.

D: We moved there when we got signed in 1994 so a long time.

Anything else you want to say?

D: We’re coming back to the UK in November (20-24th), new AND old material. Come see us and hang out!

Coming off their biggest UK performance to date at Download Festival, Matt Dirito from Pop Evil discusses how the band are adapting to the UK, the three songs on their new album that capture specific moods, his love for Queensryche – the Geoff Tate era specifically – and the weirdest thing he’s seen at a Pop Evil show.

How’re we today?

Doing fantastic, at least it’s not raining!

How was it to open the main stage at a prestigious festival such as this one?

It’s such an honour, this is one of the biggest festivals in the entire world and to be a part of it – our first time here – being main stage it’s just killer, a great feeling!

Now you guys have quite the following in the USA and you’re just starting to build a following in the UK – how’re you finding that so far?

It’s really interesting because we’re like so used to the radio markets in the US and it’s not really the same over here. People do a lot more research, they get online, they look at your music videos so we have to change our setlist around a little bit to tailor to what we have available online but I think people are catching on great, we laid a good solid foundation in the US and translate it over here.

For people that don’t know you how would you describe Pop Evil exactly?

Pretty high energy and as our name dictates one extreme to the other – sometimes our songs are ballads, lighter, pop and we’ve got the evil/heavy side too where we can throw down and headbang with the rest of them. The last thing we wanted to do is get pigeonholed into one style so when you see a Pop Evil show you can usually expect some sort of dynamic.

Š Matt Higgs Photography

sometimes our songs are ballads, lighter, pop and we’ve got the evil/heavy side too where we can throw down and headbang with the rest of them.

Last time you were here in the UK was with Five Finger Death Punch – how was it touring with them? It looks like a good fit.

Yes it is, the first time we toured with those guys was years ago and we’ve done a lot together in the States, it was only natural they brought us out on our first European run.

With the new album what would you say is your favourite track?

It changes all the time depending on the mood I’m in..

Let’s say three songs for three moods…

We did one today called In Disarray which feels like a post punk kind of song , almost kind of grungey. Seattle Rain is another one because it shows off more of our ballad side, I was able to be more musical with an acoustic guitar riff that I wrote and we built it up from there and Kingdom Come – the last track on the record – has a Pink Floyd vibe to it.

People here are crazy man and it’s awesome! [laughs] Any circle pits, wall of deaths etc?

It’s funny you mention that because we’re not really THAT heavy but we’ve had some of the biggest pits we’ve ever had over here. The other day we were playing a slower song in the middle of our set and this dude did a handstand in the middle of the pit!

What are you listening to?

currently

Avatar, love those guys! A lot of times I dip into old stuff so I’ve been on a Queensryche kick – Empire, Mindcrime.

© Matt Higgs Photography

How do you compare the crowds between the US and the UK?

With the latest album The Boats Of The Glen Carrig being the most experimental album in Ahab’s career it’s only right that we spoke to vocalist Daniel Droste.

It only made sense given they had played London a few days prior to our chat and praising a new band called Darkher that our chat began as such before we moved onto Lovecraft, the work of William Hope Hodgson and the Alan Parsons project!

You’ve just played London a few days ago and I just wanted to get your thoughts on how that went…

The gig was excellent! It was nice to have our friends in Esoteric join us, also Darkher was a great live band to have on the billing so it was a very nice weekend for us.

You mentioned Darkher on social media after the gig – would you tour with them in the future as you said how they were a nice discovery for you guys?

Yes, I guess Chris discovered them on the internet and we just all fell in love with the music and the vibe this band has, it was a really good live band and maybe I hope to possibly catch up – I think they’re playing a gig in a big cave in Germany that’s two hours from my place!

Last year you also did Damnation Festival – which I believe was a rare UK show that wasn’t London – how was it playing at that prestigious festival?

Well it was amazing – such an excellent line up with I guess 5,000 people, it was a really cool experience, really great to play there.

What are your thoughts on doing more dates around the UK in particular?

For this year we’re just going to do a tour in Germany, maybe France and maybe a show in the UK. We think it would be better if possible to do a short, separate UK show in 2016 – nothing’s planned but we’ve thought about that.

Now you have a new album out soon called The Boats Of The Glen Carrig and with this one I hear that the suggestion came from a fan on social media.

Yes, we’re always searching for new stuff – literature about sea related topics, sometimes fans write us : Lovecraft is proposed very

often and it would be stupid if we’d not listen to them because we have more vast sources of input we can take inspiration off.

Were any other books/sources of material considered?

Yes, we were reading the follow up of the book of the last album but we found it to be too calm, not much happening where we can connect the variety that we wanted to have in our music, also there was another book which would be translated to The Discovery Of Slowness – also an interesting story but we had no points to connect it to our music, the story has to be interesting and we need special moments where we can play heavy parts.

For example 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea was more like a book for teenagers and wouldn’t be that good for playing harsh metal to it so we chose (William Hope) Hodgson.

With this album you have a couple of songs – ‘Red Foam (The Great Storm) which is slightly more fast paced and then ‘The Weedman’ which is the opposite plus ‘The Light In The Weed (Mary Madison’. What led to Ahab doing a song with clean vocals and also to go the directions you did with Weedman and Red Foam?

Well on the part of Weedman and Red Foam it was just like a natural process that came out of us, we also started songs immediately after The Giant but without a real outline because we had no book at the time so we just jammed – we had two/three songs finished without vocals but with no real direction in where we wanted to go, when we got the Hodgson story it became clear what part we’d want to compose to.

It wasn’t like we tried to do a very long and slow song then put a fast/short song afterwards, it just happened. The only thing that was planned on the bonus song was that Chris did the lyrics for it and he wanted us to have a song which was like only with clean vocals.

How was it recording at Rama Studios?

It was excellent, the guy knew our sound and our way of work – that already happened with The Giant sound wise and we knew what was possible in the studio and how we can get the sound we wanted so we changed the way we recorded – last time it was traditionally recording drums, after wards bass, rhythm guitars, lead guitar, vocals and that’s it. This time we recorded drums and bass together, the rhythm sections together then solos and vocals afterwards because we wanted it like a more natural sound.

It was mixed in analogue format as well.

The thing is it just sounds different for example I spent this time almost a week mixing with the owner of the studio and we listened to the digital mix which already sounded great and we just put the mix through his analogue stuff – don’t ask me why but something happened and it sounded better afterwards, the guitars are more present. I don’t know what happened but it sounds more natural.

There’s a cover of The Alan Parsons Project’s The Turn Of A Friendly Card – were there any other songs in mind and why was the decision made to do the Alan Parsons track?

The thing is I think with cover versions is that I should have a relation to the song that I cover so we didn’t want to do a metal song – If I could choose it myself I’d cover an old Anathema song – but it has to be a different genre, something we can transform into our sound.

With the songwriting for this album was there any major difference in how you went about it?

This time it was more taking solos and riffs to the rehearsal room and then work it out with the guys and that’s the way we do it now.

Ahab have been going for around a decade – just over – how do you think the band has evolved along with yourself as an individual?

When we started it was more like a project because when Chris and I joined forces he was like let’s record a demo EP and live gigs just for fun then we got a big offer to play a festival which was in my opinion at the time the biggest thing we could do was this festival in Germany in a chapel, only doom bands playing with 4-500 people then Stephan and Cornelius joined.

I still can’t believe we have the possibility to travel around and play gigs, still feels strange but we’re very thankful to do that.

Who were the artists that inspired you to do guitar and vocals?

The first CD I got was Use Your Illusion I by Guns ‘N’ Roses – the first band I really liked – back then it wasn’t related to Slash, more the whole band. Later I guess the first time I was really into guitar players was when I heard Opeth or Porcupine Tree – different genre but I like the way they’re playing, I’m not a fan of this high speed, tapping heavy metal thing, for me it’s more about feeling what you play not how you play. Mikael Akerfeldt and Steven Wilson have many great ideas so I’d name these two.

Anything that attracted you towards the doom side when Ahab started to take shape?

The thing about starting a doom band was Chris and I had played in death metal bands before and we wanted to do something different – like I said before I’m a fan of old Anathema: Pentecost III was the first CD I had from Anathema and I was like why was there not more stuff like that?

When you have a trio that have been a part of many bands over a number of years it’s only fair to speak to them about history, why the day they headline a stage is special for one of the three in particular and how the new Guitar Hero game fits in. Ladies and Gentlemen – say hey and hello to Rev, Toshi and Ai!

© Frank Kozik

So how have you found the day – despite the weather?

Rev: Well the weather is the weather…

Toshi: And we haven’t seen much of it yet!

How is it to headline a stage on your Download debut?

Ai: Excellent, first time for me at the festival.

Rev: Ai’s doing it properly – first time AND headlining! It’s always a prestigious event to headline Download, We’ve played it a few times in the past and to be on the top spot on one of the stages is great, you’ve just got to make sure you deliver your best performance and enjoy yourself really.

Now let’s very quickly – for those that don’t know – go through the many bands all three of you have been in…

Rev: I started off in Towers Of London, The Prodigy, last year I was playing with my band The Howling and now Hey! Hello!

Toshi: Antiproduct, The Wildhearts for one tour, The Ga Gas, Slaves To Gravity, a few bits and bobs and now Hey! Hello!

Ai: I toured with The Wildhearts (support band) ten years ago, at the moment I’m in a band called Trip To Miami.

Has work begun towards the second album at all?

Rev: Work will begin after the Download Festival, many conversations have been had in rehearsals over where this next album is going to go and how we’re going to approach the new album, we’re all excited about just moving forward.

There’s definitely an upbeat sound to the group…

Rev: Definitely a pop sensibility about it in the way that The Ramones wrote pop, five vocalists in the band, we really take priority of it, integrating harmonies but still

behind it there’s powerful drums, the guitar riffs and a punk rock attitude. The first single will be ‘Don’t Stop Loving The Music.’

Toshi – you’ve also done something related to the new Guitar Hero game…

It’s actually been a bizarre one! Rev actually introduced the guys to get in touch in, I went to an audition, passed the first one then the second one. When we were filming it I didn’t know what it was for – super secret. Finally you may have seen the trailer and unfortunately I was in the emo band so I felt a bit dirty [all laugh] but hey it’s good exposure!

Future touring plans?

Rev: September with The Wildhearts, some headline Halloween shows and then we have been told to keep November/December clear, keep your eyes open. New album to write/ record over the summer. You’ll be seeing a lot of Hey! Hello!

Interview by Matt Dawson & Bonnie Archer

The self proclaimed Blue Collar Thrash Metallers will be releasing Rise To Power this August 21st – Don Slater talks to us about their aspirations, working with Jason Suecof and new drummer Alex, touring with great people like Kirk from Crowbar, his memories of Dave Brockie and much more.

Who came up with the name of the new album, and is it meant to reflect your aspiration to rise to the top of the heap?

Rise to Power was a combinative effort between all of us in the band. We started with several titles, and eventually whittled it down to the one we all could agree on. It certainly took a few days, but all in all we’re quite pleased with our new album title. Rise to Power isn’t necessarily supposed to mean us specifically rising to power; it’s meant for everyone. Whatever you’re good at, whatever you’ve wanted to do in life, rise to it, summon the strength it takes to overcome any insecurities or doubt and just do it. Say you’ve always wanted to run a marathon, but you’re a bit out of shape.

Well, get off your butt, start off small and work your way up. Rise to that achievement you’ve always wanted. It’s going to take some work, but most things in life are like that, so you better get used to it. The same that goes for you, goes for us. Nothing is handed to us. We work just as hard to do what we love, and slowly but sure, the fruits of our labor is tasting sweeter and sweeter.

Who writes the majority of the lyrics?

Again, we all have our input. For Rise to Power, we left most of the lyrical duties to Kyle, as being the frontman, it’s imperative that he connects most with what he’s screaming in your face.

Same goes for the music we write. Sure, some people in the pop-genre world do well with songwriters, and that’s fine; but I’ve always felt that if you really want to get the most out of a song or an album, you gotta do a lot of the writing, at the very least, have your say in what’s being written. On our sophomore release War of Will, we were finding ourselves strapped for time, so I had to hop in and help with the lyrical bits. Gumby would write a couple lines, a stanza or two, and I’d expound upon it. The barbecue sauce on the rack of ribs, so to speak. Maybe a side of smashed potatoes and gravy as well, haha.

You recently completed a successful tour with Crowbar and Lord Dying. As you know, Kirk Windstein is originally from England. Tell us something we Brits might not know about him.

That’s a tough one, seeing I don’t know what y’all know about him already. He’s a fun old salt, fantastic humor and a boatload of stories at the ready. Talented as all hell, and in his thirty years of touring, he’s pretty much seen it all. Kirk is a very genuine dude, means well but won’t

hesitate to put his foot down if things aren;t how they should be. On the tour, I saw a couple promoters receive an earful on his behalf; but that’s just what happens when the numbers don’t add up or they someone simply “forgot” to mention a stipulation on merch cuts. It happens to the best of us, but overall, he’s a sweetheart and one of the coolest dudes I’ve met. The entire band and crew of Crowbar are that way. It was easily one of the best - if not THE best - tours we’ve been on. Hope we can do it again!

Aside from the upcoming tour with Gwar and Butcher Babies, what's next on the horizon for Battlecross?

As far as tour go, I sadly cannot say at this time. It’ll be good though, I guarantee! On the personal front, Tony will be a father in mid-September and Alex will be getting married in October. Happy times, for sure! Though I’m unable to talk about October and beyond right now, I can tell you what we have before GWAR and BB! We’ll be playing Heavy MTL on 8/8 for the second time. Very excited about this one, since our first excursion there was nothing but a drunken good time, filled with great bands, great people, great fans, great food, and of course, great beer! Then from 21/8 to 24/8 we’ll have a series of CD release shows in support of Rise to Power in cities like Detroit, Chicago, Kokomo (Indiana), and Cleveland. Very much looking forward to the next four months of shows!

This is the first album with Alex – tell us how the story of how he joined Battlecross and how he’s managed to settle in?

Good ol’ Alex. He actually tried out via video audition before we enlisted Shannon Lucas for our European tours and his drumming on War of Will, but since Shannon already knew the songs and has had more than plenty of tour experience, we had to take him. About halfway through our second tour of Europe, Shannon burned out and we found ourselves in need of a drummer yet again. We recalled Alex having interest, called him as asked if he was still interested despite the pass the first time around, we flew him out from California, jammed with him, found ourselves incredibly impressed with the talented young man and had him along for a tour. He proved to us that he is a tour dog just like the rest of us and we asked if he’d like to be full-time. He accepted, and the rest is soon to be history! He fits in extremely well and we find ourselves blessed yet again with a top-notch drummer.

How was it working with Jason Suecof – I hear he pushed you guys to the limit in order to get the greatest performance possible?

Good ol’ Jason, haha. A musician couldn’t have asked for more of an easier yet productive time than working with Suecof. Having worked with bands like Trivium, Death Angel and Cannibal Corpse to name a few, we knew we were stepping into the shrine of a very talented and gifted man with an incredible ear for music. He knows how each instrument should work, both dynamically and structurally, and his (for lack of a better word) bubbly personality makes for what could otherwise be a stressful situation seem more like challenge to what you can do musically. He’s an incredible guitarist himself, so having him less than a meter away to grab the guitar and simply show you what’s on his mind was both life-saving and eye-opening. We learned a lot when writing under his production. Couldn’t have asked for a better time.

Which song would you is the most personal to you on this album?

To me, it would be Absence.

Not lyrically, but musically.

Of the few songs I wrote skeletons to and presented to the band, this one made the cut. Not that the other one’s were bad, but Absence simply stood out more. It’s everything I’m not in casual life - fast and energetic, haha. Playing that song, much like the rest of our songs, give me that release that every musician strives to get. That near-orgasm, the noted-chills, the rush of adrenaline. The fact it’s one of our premiere songs we’ll be playing for the next couple tours means a lot to

me, and I’m just happy I could do my part as contributor and songwriter.

What are your thoughts on the thrash/metal scene as we reach over the halfway point of 2015?

I’d say it’s alive and thriving, for sure. I must be honest, due to lack of funds I haven’t been able to purchase many albums this year, so mostly what I hear is either on Spotify when I’m driving so I can’t really look at my screen since traffic and laws and such, or hearing it via the local support when we tour, I’d say it’s doing very well with a lot of creativity out there. The bands that have been out for a while have been nailing it down, as expected, but it’s also good to hear fresh new music from bands that sadly I don’t know the names. Again, from what I’ve heard, and I’m sure some will disagree with me, we have nothing to worry about as far as good music coming from the thrash/metal scene.

What would you say are your favourite records to listen to while on the road or when just chilling out in downtime?

As of late, my go-to’s on the road or any time for that matter is Darkest Days by Ignite, Perseverance by Hatebreed, Beat the Bastards by the Exploited and Live from Mt. Fuji by GWAR. Every album is energetic and the perfect pick-me-up if I’m feeling sluggish and slow.

Even as mood elevators, those four work wonders for me. If I need to get somewhere fast and drive aggressively, Hatebreed and the Exploited are absolute musts. If I’m in a rather joyful mood and feeling happy or content, Ignite does the trick. I know the lyrics aren;t exactly about feeling that way, but the music is great. And GWAR… good ol’ GWAR. I love Live from Mt. Fuji because it has the late great Dave Brockie on the mic. He’s sorely missed for his uniqueness, both in personality and vocally. I have high hopes for GWAR continuing on despite his unfortunate absence, but there’s a special place in my heart for Dave. He’s honestly one of my biggest influences and the reason I love music as much as I do today.

Favourite albums of 2015 so far?

This may be a total buzzkill and an unfit way to end the interview, but I have not purchased any new albums that came out in 2015. I’m still catching up on the last few years, so hopefully next year I’ll be able to catch up to this year, haha. I support, I truly do, but between writing our new album, finding work on our off-time, writing music for our next album (Yes, so soon. Gotta be ready!), touring and life in general, I don’t find myself at the music store as often as I would like.

Rest assured, I will catch up! Just… give me a few months to a year, haha.

The beauty of London’s music scene - or whatever is left of it - is that you go to check out a new band and bang, you discover one or two more you had never heard about before! In this case, we were at the Sebright Arms in East London waiting for The Jacques (our cover choice for the past issue) and we got blown away by their support, young Irish hopefuls The Clameens.

The self-styled ‘4-piece Rumblebeat Pop’ made a hell of an impression on their very first London appearance tonight, getting the front rows in a dancing frenzy and those at the back tapping their feet at the very least. we ran to grab them quickly before all heading back downstairs for The Jacques’ set and found out that they - had travelled 14 hours and had no sleep - just got signed on Libertines’ Gary Powell label 25 Hours Convenience Store - love both the Clash and Willie Nelson - those people dancing in the front were as new to them as we were!

Here’s the lowdown of our chat with The Clameens…

Sean: We’re from Northern Ireland, Derry; that’s Hayden, I’m Sean and that’s Colm, we started many years ago as a two piece then a three piece, gathered steam after that and just been

© Cristina Massei

writing, practicing our craft for the past few years.

Hayden: Me and Sean actually met at school so since then like we’ve always been working and developing our sound, writing songs and then when Ethan the younger brother got old enough he joined the band and then we came across Colm and it just flowed from there.

Sean: We signed to Gary [Powell]’s label two weeks ago at Liverpool Sound City, this is our first London show since, we played tonight at Sebright Arms with The Jacques who are also our label friends, we suffered a 14 hour journey to get here with no sleep so your praise is very welcome and appreciated!

No sleep and you pulled that off!

Colm: One of us got about 40 minutes sleep in and out, nobody got really any sleep, we’ve just been up walking around getting ready for it, we just went in there, had a bit of fun and do what we do on stage!

Sean: We were a wee bit worried but I think us being tired pushed us way more.

Sometimes the adrenaline pushes you through.

Hayden: It’s pretty nerve-wracking playing our first London show since we got signed; us as young boys can only dream of that, so for us being tired our adrenaline kicked in and we just had to prove ourselves. It was being like at the bottom of a tunnel and the rope was too high: you give it your all, jump and grab it.

The crowd was really with it! Do your fans follow you around?

Hayden: That was not our crowd! Like for any kind of band, our achievement is to see our fan base growing. I don’t know for them boys but for me it’s kind of a wee bit alien to think that somebody from Bristol would be into The Clameens, somebody from anybody can be like ‘Fuck do you know this band? They’re great live!’. Us coming from Derry – our small city – practising this nearly every day and write tunes we appreciate it a lot.

Sean: Those boys dancing down the front! I’ve never seen anything like that down the front and he was giving it some, it was kind of nice to see people rewarding us, giving it back to us and enjoying the show.

That was absolutely impressive. Where can we find out more about you?

Sean: Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Any music we can listen to?

Hayden: We have an EP coming out soon – September time. We’re absolutely delighted with it, we just can’t wait for people to hear it, we played some of the songs live tonight and then hopefully more releases soon after.

Sean: We’ve been confirmed for Electric Picnic, we’ve got a few Irish gigs coming up, hopefully a UK tour but no major festivals this year.

What are your influences?

Colm: The Clash.

Sean: My favourite song is Willie Nelson ‘Angel flying too close to the ground’, that sums up the band!

Very precise! How far do you want to go with the band?

Sean: To the end.

Hayden: Don’t say until we die, I don’t think we want to be like The Rolling Stones, I want to leave a legacy like The Smiths and The Jam, maybe Oasis if they don’t get back together. I certainly don’t want to be doing this when I’m 50, I just want to sit in a lounger and get fat!

Last message to potential new fans out there?

You need to check out our Facebook because we’re four looking good boys who make good music and hopefully you’ll like us and everybody will get excited about us!

© Cristina Massei

It has been a long time coming but Edu Ostos AKA Ed Is Dead has finally reached his time for ‘Change’. After years dedicated to exploring different genres and music production, acclaimed Spanish artist, Dj, producer and composer Edu Ostos takes us through the arduous but well worth journey that led him to where he is at now, why he prefers to takes risks on stage by bringing live elements to his set rather than being just a knob turning dj and gives us some insight about his ‘Change’ and the amazing artists that appear with him on his eclectic debut album.

Hi Edu, thanks for taking the time to answer a few questions for us. So first of all, let’s start with a personal introduction.

Glad to be here, let´s get started!

Who is ED IS DEAD? What or who were your early passion/influences? How did it all begin for you? Talk us through the journey that took you to where you are at now.

I´m a megalomaniac from Madrid, I´ve been playing music since I was very young. And now That I can start to see my life with a little perspective I realize that I´ve been always jumping from one thing to another. Maybe because I´m hyperactive, but it´s hard to sum it up: in terms of instruments I have flirted with piano, cajon, drums, bass, sampler, keys, If we talk about styles, I’ve been in different bands playing rock, hardcore, latin, metal, rap, drum’n‘bass even jazz or electro and if we focus on roles, I´ve been musician, live sound technician, producer, backliner, seller in a music store, DJ, engineer, label owner … so I guess I can say I have a global vision of the industry! ☺ My influences (what a hard one) are a really huge collection of artists from opposite styles, from Bjork to Pantera, from Canned Heat to Aphex twin, Nirvana, Stevie Wonder, Refused, all 90 ´s house. Having said that, if you’d ask me the very same question in the next 5 minutes, my answers will be completely different!

My passions (this question is the easiest one): MUSIC, MUSIC, MUSIC, Musical gear (synths, plugins, drum machines…) PLAY MUSIC, SEE LIVE MUSIC, MOTORBIKES, ENDUROBIKES (and read books about music, buy vinyl, see tutorials, watch music videos…) and TRAVELING. If you could go back in time, is there anything you would do differently?

I don´t regret anything I´ve done but I have lost a lot of time working in dead-end-jobs. Of course in the past I was doing that because all of us need money to pay the bills but I realize now that these were only distractions that helped me focus on my real passion MUSIC. It is hard to see

this when you are a young boy but you eventually grow and focus on your goals.

You’ve used a few aliases so far like Sex Ed and music3du so is ED IS DEAD the one you’d like to be known as? if so, why? What does that name represent for you? What made you decide to choose this PIXIE’s track?

I have used a lot of a.k.a´s in the past, some of them because people used to advise me that it is better to have different names if you are going to do different kinds of music, they told me if you don’t do that you distract your fans.

In the past I used to listen to that kind of advices; but honestly, I´m tired of that. It has been a very hard journey for me to not only learn and study every single genre of music I have been involved in but also to learn and understand how to produce it, a steep learning curve of listening, digging and a process of trial/error.

But I don´t want to play that game anymore so from now on I´m ED IS DEAD, I will do what I do and it will include a lot of different genres and influences.

What was the first event you ever played at?

Recently I found a flyer for an illegal rave in 1998 I was Djing at… sooo MUCH fun and my first concert as a musician may be in the institute I barely remember.

Is there one particular track that, no matter where you perform, always appears on your set list?

I´m trying hard to take out of my set one remix from Marco Lys of the original track from “Emmanuel & Haji – Weekend” but believe me it is an all-terrain dancefloor smasher since the first time I played it, about 3 years ago!.

Is there one particular club, festival or event you aspire to perform at? And why.

I honestly use to love small places for Djing, but everyone who has played in Stereo Montreal, have told me that the sound system is completely amazing; so this will be a cool place to be in the future. As for live playing, I would love to be in Coachella, Glastonbury or big things like this.

You’ve recently released your debut ‘Change’, quite an eclectic offering of electronica, dance, rock, techno, classical and a few guest vocalists. How did you chose who would appear on your album, what was your vision?

Every single person that has collaborated in my album has (in my opinion) an amazing talent, sensibility or voice.

In the last 10 years I´ve been recording with a lot of different people and with a few of them I was pretty sure that when I would decide to make an album they would be included, that´s the case of NIccó, Odille, Clara Brea or even Ed Zepp Others artists like Ale from Spanish band “Fuel Fandango” or St. Barbarella are people than were in the same vibe in the Spanish scene, and we started to work without any pretension.

And others like Taki Tekyurt only appear after a long process of digging and searching for vocalists.

Are you planning to go on tour to showcase it? If so, how do you plan to encompass all the elements from the album on stage? Who will you take with you?

Yes, of course I´m playing it live, and it is amazing for me to do that. I have two kinds of shows: In the big one, I come on stage with Odille Lima (singer) and Echeday Molina ( a talented

percussionist/drummer) and we play all the “Change” album and a few covers and in the other format of the show it´s me alone on stage.

I really enjoy this last one, because I use synths, percussions, sampler, keys, and a huge list of toys and machine. It is kind of challenge to jump from one instrument to another and have all the track list completely calculated, sometimes it turns out a bit stressful but it is what in my mind a Live set has to be.

Any plans to come over to the UK? By now I have other European dates but sadly not in London, and believe me I love your city I have big friends there and I can´t wait to play in U.K You also have a project with Ariadna Catellanos, how is it going so far? Tell us a bit more about it.

It´s without a doubt one of most enriching projects I have done in my entire career, basically it´s about mixing Jazz, Flamenco and Contemporary electronic Music, I haven´t heard anything like this before and we are so excited to finish and release the album.

Ariadna is a worldwide pianist and when we started to work we felt we needed to make something different; for example it has some unusual bar signatures in Electronic music (12/8, 3/4, 7/8), I have recorded a lot of acoustic instruments, piano jazz ensemble, but also I treated everything with the “quirurgic” technics of contemporary electronic production so, definitely we are very excited.

DJ, producer and composer…what challenges do you face in each role?

Mmm sometimes quite different sometimes the same ones…

As a DJ I love small places and I feel comfortable into the “underground” scene maybe because I love this kind of “African” ritual when you get all your audience into the same vibe, playing records they probably didn’t known before.

As a Producer I have to get the 200% out of the artist I work with… of course there is a lot of engineer, technics and keep updated with sounds, industry and gear in all that but sometimes it is more about psychology and motivation.

And as a Composer (I guess the hardest one) is to find my own voice, to write something really relevant, special or at least personal, I love music and I want to transmit emotions with it, it may sound a little bit mystic, but it is how I feel at this moment.

Back in the days the DJ set up was pretty static, probably just a pair of technics and a mixer; today’s set ups are becoming more diverse but has the level of available automation in Djing taken away something from the crowd’s experience?

It’s a delicate theme, in my humble opinion, a lot of artists are hiding their lack of talent or technique behind the apparent complexity of gear; I mean when you see a Guitar player, everyone can realize what he is doing, but with electronic performers/DJ’s most of the people don´t have any idea of what is happening in the booth.

At least in the past, you had to spend hours practicing to play two turntables together, but now, everyone could be on stage making a ‘dj set’; for me this point has devalued sensibly the quality of the DJ sessions, and I hope this only represents a period in time, and that in the upcoming years people will get bored of that and start to appreciate the real ones more.

The dance music is certainly taking a change of direction of late, more and more live elements and visual displays are introduced, this was even reinforced during IMS

during the Back2live keynote and associated concert. What’s your view on this phenomenon?

Everything added to a show makes a biggest experience for the audience, so, I love that but we can forget what it is about. It is about MUSIC, I mean… sometimes I have the feeling that the ‘envelope’ is bigger than the content and I don´t like when this happens. If I come to a concert, a session or a live gig it´s to listen to music, of course to have fun, and see dancers, fire, video, lights, explosions, stars, dragons, aliens…. But first Music, we have to be exigent with the performers and the artists, and see the other things like “extra”.

Although clubs remain a great place for the appreciation and discovery of electronic music, people and media are often speaking about the demise of the club scene. In your eyes, how is the scene at the moment? What about in, let’s say, 5 years’ time?

I think we are living the beginning of a big polarization, I picture it as in the food industry, mainstream music for me its like McDonald’s , I love burgers, it is a fast food, easy to choose, it is everywhere, tasty and it sells millions of burgers each day but most people don´t come to a burger joint looking for quality, even if they are into fine cuisine.

Small restaurants are the real places to eat amazing dishes, so here you have it.. Here is where the real music will be and will remain for years.

The problem is that opposite to the food industry where quality and sales have well known different values for everyone, in music the only value in every chart are SALES. Which scene would you say that you are most involved with?

I don’t know underground scene maybe, but honestly I´m not sure about what this word means today.

What are your plans for the summer?

Play, play play…live set, with the bands, djing; and in my spare time get in the studio and make some noise.

Can you recommend DJ’s to our readers which you feel deserve their attention.

Of course, if you are looking for a real DJ set, Mathias Kaden is one of my favourites, and about upcoming artists you may check O Mer from Brooklyn, he is an amazing and talented guy.

If you could stage a dance event anywhere in the world, where would you choose and why?

That’s a hard one; there are so many places I would love to perform at, I am always thinking in things like that, I take two: On one hand, I would love to make a show of electronic downtempo beautiful music in a nursing home for the elderly. I really believe they would be so impressed and grateful.

On the other hand, I would love to play whilst seeing the northern lights in Iceland.

When all the partying is over, what do you do to relax?

I don´t do anything in particular to relax; maybe Sports (biking, downhill or boxing) help me to disconnect, but to be honest, I´m hyperactive and I like to be doing as much things as I can.

Anything else you’d like to add?

SO SO SO SO many thanks for an amazing interview.

Š Patygelduck

Known as one of the strongest guitarists in metal Jeff Waters has been there as Annihilator make it to the milestone of their fifteenth release in Suicide Society and wanted to get quite a few stories and information out there. The amount of research he did when writing about the title track, an incident that happened in his studio and even the story behind an iconic image from their debut UK tour all gets talked about in a very interesting chat.

To begin with – was it planned that the album went down the path that it did – you’ve got the title track then tracks like Creepin’ Again about insanity and then the Break,Enter track…?

The second one ‘My Revenge’ – that wasn’t ‘oh we’ve got to put that on the final record’, you know you’ve got everyone saying you’ve got to put your best songs first on the CD right? Well now we’ve sort of half CD and half digital age so it doesn’t matter but it’s still old school of the CD for better sound and when I’m buying a record from a band I’m looking forward to I do download it on itunes but it’s CD all the way!

For order I thought OK, if it’s still important I’ll try and stack my favourite songs at the front and the ‘My Revenge’ song didn’t fit in the order that I put my top three/four exactly so it just… if I took that song out of there it would leave me with ‘Suicide Society’ and ‘Snap’ as the first two songs and as much as that’s exactly what I wanted to put order wise - in the big picture I guess it doesn’t make too much of a difference but to me it did – it didn’t make sense there: you go from a Zeppelin, groovy music with a bit of Megadeth and Annihilator vibe – well I hope Annihilator, it’s our song! – which is a lot different from any of the other songs I’ve written not only on the album but in the whole career and then you’ve got a song like Snapwhich is a simpler song in our catalogue.

So now you’ve got the first two songs which would have been the simplest song by Annihilator and a song that is really different than the 160 songs written so I’d thought I put in something in-between there, I thought about the song Creepin’ Again, that’s right out of our demo days style of song and that’s one that I think Annihilator fans from the beginning will like but then I start thinking my top three songs are gone [laughs] so I thought I’ll spread them out so I’ll take my fifth pick and throw it at number two – it’s just a stupid way of re-ordering it but I wanted to spread my favourite tunes out a little longer on the record then again being my favourite tunes you feel a little bit of pressure playing them to other people and you often get one of the four people that come up and say they like track eight then you’re like what?! [laughs] When writing this album – what inspirations were there from what you were seeing in the media?

A lot of the songs I’ve written from the beginning – in the early days it was a little more fantasy, stuff I was reading about psychology, dreaming and personality disorders, just the messed up young lad I was but as time went on it became more about things happening to me or my family or my friends or observations about things going on around me or in the world so occasionally you get a serious song that was about something important but then you also get a goofy song

about something funny and that’s the Canadian way!

I think that there’s always going to be some kind of inspiration from TV or the news, Death Scent touches on terrorism stuff, Narcotic Avenue is just my observation about a street in Vancouver where there was just a lot of drugs, you pop down ideas to write and sometimes they’re not really important or just an observation, not necessarily a message or throw a little message in there.

Break, Enter was a story – my house got robbed, people broke in and stole a bunch of stuff, my music gear too, I came back home, called the police right away and as I was on the phone with the police the same three people came back for a second run inside the house so I basically chased them ‘til the police showed up and I got two out of the three! That’s a real life funny – funny now but it wasn’t then – story but then the title track ended up being a lot more serious than it was intended to be at least in my mind, kind of a little awakening, I was sure a lot of people talked about recycling and talked about doing the right things, being a good person, you know how humans need to start treating each other and the Earth better, we all know that’s what we should be doing – some of us do our little parts , some of us go beyond the call of duty and spend their lives dedicated to it and some just don’t give a shit – I was I know it’s right but I don’t give a shit, right in the middle so I was always be busy to sit down and think about things, doesn’t make you a bad person, it just means you’re not contributing that much right?

When I wrote that song Suicide Society I wrote down three pages of things that that humans are doing to each other, things that humans are doing to nature, animals and the Earth, you write it down and initially it’s another song about the environment or another song that at least is bringing up something you should think about, again I was only half believing what I was saying and it made for a good song and I thought it was going to fit good.

As I was really writing down these three pages I had a little lightning bolt moment that you rarely get that made you sit back and almost get emotional about it, it just made me realise when you write down three pages of all the horrible stuff that we’re doing – what the big corporations and

drugs are doing – 99% of anti depressants are useless and don’t work – corrupt politicians – we all know punk rockers have been writing about this shit for decades!

I actually started to get into that and it sort of made a little bit of change in my life that’s going to last I think because I’ve already taken up a few things I wanted to do that I didn’t do before and even recycling; we all feel good about putting the plastic in the plastic thing, the paper in the paper bin, doing our part , the government putting it in their tax money and paying some advertising company fifty more times the money than they should be paying the company to come up with a little video that tells you to recycle and then you really look at the facts and you find out that we all feel good about it but it’s doing almost zero to help the environment.

It was just a million things I wrote down on those pages and you’re sitting there going ‘what the fuck are we doing to the planet?!’ That’s why the song is there, that was the one that meant the most to me, it ended up over two days, it’s the first song, catchy title and chorus – why don’t we make it the title track? I thought about the cover and said let’s not make it bloody serious and show all this like a photograph of humanity gone wrong why don’t we make it comic or a little less heavy so I thought I like the concept of Earth as an experiment, some little bacteria or cell was thrown away to Earth on a comet, we were basically put on Earth somehow to grow as an experiment by somebody, God, a creator, something and we were given a chance, we evolved where we evolved to today and we failed so whatever was up there that created it sent a Terminator/Iron Man/Annihilator killing machine to come and wipe out the experiment and start all over again, see if we get it right the next time.

Who designed the cover?

Gyula Havancsak, he’s an Hungarian artist that’s been doing all our covers since 2004, I think we were his first cover, he went to do everything you could imagine: Nuclear Blast, AFM, SPV. The guy’s just a genius, I’m lucky from a business standpoint: he does the covers for very… if I told you you’d go ‘Waters you’re such an asshole!’ but it’s not because I don’t want to pay him more – we give him shirts, tickets and we helped launch him, he’s just so grateful for that

he’s like I’ve got a piece of art, you can use this for your merchandise, he’s just a nice guy.

When it comes to studio albums this is your fifteenth one – how is it to reach that milestone?

It’s amazing, the whole goal of Annihilator was essentially just tour – the first one was when I was a teenager and started the band my goal was a very uninformed, uneducated goal of I want to be in a band, have a record deal like Exodus, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest and Metallica but it’s easy to say that, it’s not getting a record deal, there’s a hundred things around that; I want to have a manager, a good band, financing, a good record company, publisher, merchandiser – you can go through the whole list of what you really wanted to say but you simplify it when you don’t understand it or are too young and I just wanted to have a record deal and a record in stores, that was like a reasonable goal/dream and it happened.

We launched right into a tour with Testament and a support thing with a British band – our first tour was with Onslaught, they took us over here – funny story that I joke about with some of the guys now when I see them: they were doing pretty good, a known band, they brought us over and then Alice In Hell hit right at the beginning of the tour and it went from unknown band Annihilator to all of a sudden shirts were selling and then halfway through attendance would be going up and you would pick up magazines and they’d be saying ‘Canada’s answer to Metallica!’, crazy things like that.

By the end of the tour it became the Annihilator Alice in hell tour, we were given less time, on the last show the doors were held so halfway through the set people were trickling in and I was so angry at that I smashed my guitar at the end of the set and that image was broadcast around the world in print, the Onslaught gig around Europe was represented by Waters smashing the Flying V! We kind of joke about that – looking back on it it’s sad, I’d hate that to happen to my band but we joke about it now.

It’s a hell of a long run so far and I’m not even fifty years old so I’m crossing my fingers and the goals yes – to get a record deal, we got that and after the Alice In Hell tour was finished I came back, sat in my manager’s office in Vancouver and he says OK, so now we have to start talking about another record and I’d never even thought about it, I was so high off the first goal happening before my eyes and even more that my reaction was another album, what do you mean? I didn’t understand and that was twenty five and a half years ago and now fifteen albums later….!

It’s easy to get caught up in compliments, sometimes you’re

touring and you’re doing a big festival and there’s 20/30,000 people singing your songs but the cool thing to us is we always get the reality check – we’ll go and play a show in the UK for 500 people or we’ll play in the afternoon and the band we thought we were doing better than us are headlining so you always get reality checks, they don’t always come with those big things, they come with learning very quickly there are hundreds and thousands of great guitar players so there’s no reason for you to think you’re special, the band is just another band, we’re lucky to have fifteen records and have fans and labels that want to sign us and we’re not incredibly special.

It’s funny when you see bands that think they’re the only band in the world and the only ones that are good, it’s just crazy because they were probably influenced by ten or fifteen other bands.

The second goal was to survive from album to album and that involves all the business aspects.

Now on this album Mike Harshaw once again is drummer, Cam Dixon returns and you have Aaron Homma making his debut – how was it to get Cam back and how did you meet Aaron?

It’s an interesting and sad story with Cam – he had been in the band back in 1995 on the King Of The Kill tour that we did, he left for something in another band, life goes on and then he we had a bass player named Oscar from Toronto who was part of the touring for the last cycle and he just came up and said he had his own project and had some offers to do some stuff, I said that’s fine, I’ll get someone else but if you want to come back at any time just let me know because that’s how I run a couple of slots for the band – semi revolving – which sounds strange but that’s the way I’ve been doing it, works for me but confuses the shit out of everybody else!

Oscar did a good job and I thought I’ll bring back Cam if he’s around and wants to do it, he wanted to do it, first thing he did with the band was he showed up to do the video shoots for Suicide Society and Snap and he got a phone call that his fiancé was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer so he went back and that was the extent of his return with the band, we wish him all the best.

Aaron – when our singer Dave [Padden] left in December to retire from touring – he did for

eleven years straight and he couldn’t do it anymore, his heart wasn’t in it – when that happened I realised I needed a guitar player because he was a fantastic touring guitar player, I started looking worldwide – Battle Of The Bands, Youtube clips – I narrowed it down to the USA and Canada, couldn’t find anything then I narrowed it down to Ontario and then Toronto so at the very end literally five minutes from where I live I found the one in a million guitar player!

What have you been listening to recently – either current or classic?

Current albums – nothing, it’s one of those things where I pretty much overloaded myself in a good way of 80,s punk, heavy metal and thrash metal and that started in my teen years and essentially stopped as soon as Annihilator started up – I remember that the last batch I listened to was Appetite For Destruction and The Headless Children by W.A.S.P, the reason I remember that is those are the two records I’d listen to all the time when coming home from the recording sessions from Alice In Hell, later those two albums affected me more than I even knew – I only realised the intro to Funhouse is very well known and I realise that came from my year of listening to that W.A.S.P album and Guns ‘N’ Roses, Izzy Stradlin has a clean guitar part that he played in Think About you and it’s in the chorus only, it’s such the most beautiful chords and I didn’t realise that ended up on most of my records sneaked in somewhere so little things like that!

I will listen to the new Slayer album, I’ll listen to the double Maiden album with the long song, it’s going to be a good month [September] for metal fans, there were bands that for a long time that 5-9 years ago were very popular but they weren’t known as being metal or heavy bands, now they’re coming out with a new album, change their image and they’re playing metal now – ‘this is the heaviest album we’ve ever done’ and it’s like would you please shut up, what you doing in the past wasn’t metal so don’t pretend, you know what I mean?

The types that up to five years ago would jump onto this new metal style that exhausted its good bands, we still see them on festivals but a lot of them have changed their style, now we’re metal.

I support all those – Testament, Exodus, Overkill, Annihilator – these are the bands who weren’t part of the big four, weren’t big sellers, the generation that slipped in right after Metallica and stuff, all four went through dramatic lineup changes over the years especially in the downtime for this music when it wasn’t really popular, the ten years of downtime showed who the real bands were and they’d get jobs on the side – I’d have my studio, guys like Chuck Billy would be manager of a trucking company and now it’s awesome because now you see bands that never gave up, switching members because they had to, you’re now seeing the best records from them, those are the bands I support number one – I make an effort to download a song and buy the CD.

With their new album Monarchy carrying on the work from their debut released in 2012 we chat to Adam Biggs (bass) on how to follow up The Conscious Seed Of Light, working in various studios and what the future holds for the rising stars.

As you began the process for Monarchy what were your thoughts? Did you feel any personal pressure given the reviews for your debut at all?

The general thought about following up The Conscious Seed of Light was most basically to make an album that we all felt lived up to our potential and to really express a wider range of what the band is capable creating sonically. We decided fairly early on that we were going to track and edit guitars and bass ourselves so that we'd have all the time and freedom we needed to really give the whole album the layered, atmospheric qualities we were going for. Did I feel pressure from the reviews? No. There was definitely more inspiration to be gleaned from them than that. We got a lot of positive reviews, but none of them were perfect, a lot of 8/10 type stuff which is good, but that sliver of criticism (and a few more negative reviews) gave us some inspiration and direction in a few areas.

The album has been sequenced in a particular way – it starts off very dark indeed particularly on Heirless – what was the feeling behind it?

The idea behind the track was to give the listener a feeling of a barren, deserted earth which acts as the backdrop for the story in the lyrics. The idea was to make it have almost sort of a film score quality that establishes the feel for the first half of the record. It also bridges into "Perpetual Growth Machine" pretty nicely, which I think helps give the listener the idea that the songs are connected.

This time you decided to write the majority of the album and even co-wrote at one point. Did you feel that opened up an extra burst of creativity?

(Brody, our guitarist, wrote most of the album but I'll answer as best I can) Brody had a pretty clear idea of what he wanted the album to sound like from the start.

On the previous album he and I did a pretty good deal of writing together in his "studio" (at the time it was very basic). Since then Brody got a lot more comfortable as a producer and also more comfortable writing on his own, he took over the vast majority of writing

duties for the album. We talked a lot about what we all wanted the album to sound like, but it pretty much came down to trusting Brody's vision for the record. I think it paid off, I've been working with Brody for a long time and the material written for this album is, in my opinion, head and shoulders above anything else we've done. Jon Topore was a somewhat late addition to the band so his writing for the record was limited to the cowriting of one song, it turned out really well, and hopefully we can do more of that for the next record.

Which song would you say is the most personal to play?

It's kind of a tough call this early on, we haven't done any touring for the record, and playing these songs so far has been sort of an exercise in trying to play them right more than anything. But all that aside I'd have to say that "Circles in the Sky" is probably the most emotional song for me to play. It's big and epic and sad and has some of the most emotional lyrics I've ever written, the song also takes me all the skill I have to play, the riffs are tough and it has a bass solo smack in the middle of it, something I've never really focused on before. All of that adds up into an experience that's really personal for me in a lot of ways.

How was it for you working in the various studios throughout the process?

The recording process for this one was the most comfortable we've ever been through.

Doing all the strings in Brody's home studio was great, it was really relaxed and we were able to be totally honest with each other about what we thought did or didn't work. We know what each other is capable of and were able to judge our performances based on that. Bringing those tracks to Atrium Audio in Lancaster, PA was just as comfortable. It's a studio that's close to home and that we're really familiar with. Grant and Carson, the producers at Atrium, are also guys that we've known for a long time and we know we're capable of making the record sound just right.

Monarchy continues the concept started in ‘The Conscious Seed Of Light’ – how has it progressed and is there any indication within towards the future?

Conscious Seed ends with a massive solar flare turning the earth into a giant, lifeless desert with no oceans. Millions of years later, small bits of water light the spark of new life on earth that evolves into the new intelligent life forms inhabiting the planet. These new beings grow in a lot of ways similar to humans, they build a religion and a system of government that starts to oppress and effectively enslave these people in a destructive class system, a Monarchy takes hold. Story wise I think the album is a bit of a step up from the disjointed nature of the last and I do intend to continue the thread of this story with the next two records to complete the "seasonal" cycle. Hopefully we can make the storytelling even more comprehensive on future albums.

Any plans regarding UK/Europe touring?

Not yet unfortunately, but hopefully sooner rather than later, I know we'd all love to do it. It's just a matter of finding the right opportunity to do so.

Which albums/bands are on your current playlist and which albums do you consider your favourites from 2015 so far?

I've been listening to a lot of Cattle Decapitation and Hate Eternal, I'm very excited to hear both of their new albums. So far this years personal favorites are probably the new ones from Leprous, Native Construct, Between the Buried and Me and Faith No More.

With a new track recently making waves Carl and Steve from Heart Of A Coward join us for a brief chat; we find out which track will be the secret weapon (even if the name’s still classified!) on their new record, their plans for 2015 and a cameo from a food-based Sabbath tribute!

Recently you gave us a taste of the new album with the video for Hollow – what else can we expect from the new record?

Carl: There’s a lot more pace, I think Hollow was a very good introduction to what people can expect from this next record. We wanted to focus more on a song structure that works live because we found with Severance there was a few tracks that didn’t really work for the live show. I think people will be pleasantly surprised.

Which song would you say you’re particularly proud of individually?

Carl: I like Track 7!

Steve: Ah I see what you did there! Which one’s that?

[All laugh] Steve: I also like Track 7!

Carl: That’s weapon.

the

secret

I take it you guys will be touring very soon… [In fact after this was conducted the band were announced as headliners for the Sat at Tech-Fest.]

Carl: With Full Force festival, Resurrection Festival in Spain but we’ll be touring the album when it’s out later in the year.

How’s the weekend been?

Carl: We watched Slipknot yesterday apart from the weather which was awful!

What are you currently listening to?

Carl: When we’re writing I really focus on that, I think the albums I play a lot are the recent Architects, Deftones…

Steve: Graveyard – Lights Out. Black Sabbath – Vol 4.

Always Masters Of Reality for me!

Steve: That’s where doom started!

[Steve then notices two members of the band Mac Sabbath – the caricatures of Ronald and Grimace] I saw them a week ago at the venue I work at and they were awesome, it’s definitely something you’ve got to see.

When you’re not touring then what do you do?

Carl; The time we have off work is the time we have to tour, we all kind of hang out, party every now and then, nothing out of the ordinary!

By Sophia Disgrace

(Sophia's Photo by Otto Bohne)

Welcome to your one stop drop for all the news on the best burlesque nights, in the capital and beyond!

I’m Sophia Disgrace, I've performed across the UK as well as internationally, everywhere from festivals to the most exclusive clubs.

I perform in a Neo Burlesque style and incorporate elements such as angle grinding into my routines. You could say I like to shake the audience up a bit and keep 'em on their proverbial toes!

Burlesque - or 'the art of tease' as it's also known - first rose to prominence in the 1950s; in recent years it's enjoyed something of a revival, with stars such as Dita Von Teese helping to popularise the scene once again.

London as ever is at the fore front of this movement, which is both alluring and inspirational for men and women alike….

However this month it’s an exotic location special, so sit back, grab yourself a cocktail or three and reeeelax!

THE LOTUS CLUB - Marrakech, Morrocco The Lotus Club is a sumptuous venue located right in the heart of vibrant Marrakech. Once a haven for hippies and beatniks, Marrakech is rapidly expanding its horizons to celebrate all things cultural, sparkly and inspired!

This rather exclusive venue incorporates Arabic charm with a selection of cutting edge musicians and performers, including an in-house Burlesque troupe performing in the 'Revue OhLaLa!' show. There is also a restaurant and fully stocked bar in house, with a suitably enticing menu of drinks and to die for cuisine!

For more information on opening times and entrance fees please refer to www.lotusclubmarrakech.com PRETTY PEACOCK PRODUCTIONS - Honolulu, Hawaii

Pretty Peacock Productions are 'Hawaii's most sought after burlesque and cabaret company' and put on various events throughout the year. Their website manifesto states that ‘their inherent aim is to provide top quality performance, whilst respecting artistic integrity and creative output’. They offer burlesque classes for groups and individuals plus a point of contact for artists to share, create and educate the lovely citizens of Hawaii on the art of the tease!

Book that one way ticket and check out their next show here: www.prettypeacockproductions.com PHUKET SIMON CABARET - Phuket, Thailand Simon Cabaret first opened its doors some 2 decades ago and it continues to offer a wealth of cabaret entertainment from across the globe. For a night of true decadence, lavish set design and glamorous performances, look no further!

With an online invite to 'let your imagination fly...' and a promise that their performers may be 'more of a man than you will ever be and even more of a woman too' I think it’s safe to say it will be nothing if not a memorable experience!

For more information please refer to www.phuket-simoncabaret.com Ravish your home with a touch of TIKI....

Stave off those pesky holiday blues and bring a lil Tiki into your life! The counter culture staple of all self respecting Psycho Billies and Pin Up Gals alike, the cult of Tiki is hotter than ever, so make like Betty Page and start living island style www.tikimaster.com

ISLAND BEATS @ THORPE PARK, 31st July 2015 feat Martin Luke Brown, Kyra, Bluey Robinson and Sigma

The summer nights are getting better at Thorpe Park with its new Island Beats live gigs taking place almost every Friday and Saturday nights in July and August. Guests can enjoy a great mix of live music alongside the SUMMER NIGHTS events where selected rides stay open until 10PM. So far great headliners have included The Vamps, Little Mix, Ella Eyre and stereo Kicks with some great support acts complementing the intimate performances. Tonight is SIGMA’s turn to take the headline spot with Martin Luke Brown, Kyra and Bluey Robinson rounding up the line-up.

Accompanied with just a guitar and a powerful soul infused falsetto voice, Martin Luke Brown gets the crowd warmed up with tracks from his ‘Take Out Of Me’ EP, a blend of catchy pop and raspy soul that goes down well with the small but appreciative audience . With debut single ‘Nostalgia’ gaining support from people in high places including acclaimed radio DJ Zane Lowe and the title track being premiered by Annie Mac on BBC Radio One, it may be wise to keep an eye on this young emerging songwriter.

Next up is Kyra, another artist recently picked up by Annie Mac for her BBC ‘Musical hot water bottle’ playlist as well as Huw Stevens as his ‘Track of the day’. Showcasing a few tracks from her ‘Bandages’ EP, she enthralled us all with her beautiful blend of R’n’b and acoustic soul.

You may know him for his 2011 smash hit ‘showgirl’ ,as one of the presenters of MTV news or maybe as brand ambassador for streetwear MOSSINO, one thing for sure Bluey Robinson brings some ‘Cool’ onstage and rocks up the audience with his R’n’B and soul funk set. Donning a white cap, black leather jacket and white sneakers, he relentlessly get the crowd going jumping, sliding and even a touch of break dancing across the stage whilst waving his union jack flag.

Sigma finally comes on stage to a raucous reception; the crowd is now well ready for the charismatic duo. They may be better known for their drum & bass ‘Rudeboy’ but crossing over into the mainstream Electronic/dance has certainly done them no harm, if anything it has increased their audience.

From ‘Redemption’ to ‘Glitter Ball’ via number 1 hits ‘Nobody To Love’ and ‘Changing’ and a few classics from Rudimental (Waiting All Night) and Route 94 (‘My Love’), young and old alike (well let’s say more mature, after all music has no age restriction to be enjoyed), waste no time in singing along, brandishing hands and mobile phones in the air and jumping on cue to the encouraging words of MC Justyce.

All in all, a great evening of drum, bass, pop and rollercoasters with the sun setting down in the background. Who says summer evenings had to be spent with beers and BBQ? Island Beats certainly gives a new meaning to ‘Rock’n’roll’.

Remaining headliners: 7 August: Professor Green with Everyll + Aidan Davis + Cleo 8 August: Rixton with Jerry Williams + Kieran Alleyne + Brad Kavanagh 14 August: Wilkinson with David Stewart + Ava Lily + Joe Woolford 15 August: DJ Fresh with IV Rox + Dee Freer + Misunderstood 21 August: Conor Maynard with Concept + BB Diamond + Cahoots 29 August: Union J with Remedy + Sweet Riot + IM5 + Luke Friend* th th

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For More info : https://www.thorpepark.com/island-beats/events/island-beats/ Check our gallery for more photos: http://goo.gl/oUK32g

It’s about that time of the year again, when UK Festival season heads to a close and Reading & Leeds brings out the heavy artillery to tie it all up nicely.

Here’s how things are shaping up at Reading…

To take the ‘heavy’ literally you’ll have to wait for the Saturday, when the Main Stage sees Metallica headlining a bill including Bring Me The Horizon, latest rock sensation Royal Blood, Alexisonfire and more. Friday sees Mumford & Sons offering a more chilled opening day with support by Alt-J; also on Main Stage Bastille, Drenge and Palma Violets. But it’s Sunday that promises the biggest and more passionate crowd, as The Libertines take Main to let those few uninformed left know that they are back, and they mean it.

Preparing the crowd for them is Kendrick Lamar, but also Jamie T and The Maccabees, giving punters a taste of their newly released album. Leeds will see The Libertines on Friday and close with Metallica, check www.leedsfestival.com for details.

PREVIEW

The NME stage looks promising, a mix of contemporary favourites and promising new blood - with the exception of Friday’s peculiar headliner Limp Bizkit. Check out ‘regulars’ Peace if you haven’t yet, and Don Broco currently making quite some waves. Saturday Sonic Shocks might just set camp there, with some of our favourites gracing the tent: Spector for a start, back with a well deserved upgrade; Nothing But Thieves, one of the most believable young British promises we’ve see blooming this year; then Wolf Alice, Twin Atlantic and Slaves, who impressed us in Ibiza with their slot in support of the Libertines. Sunday is headlined by DeadmaU5, but you should get there early and make sure you catch a glimpse of The Skints, Ghostpoet and Awolnation.

We love the Festival Republic Stage! This is your tent if you want to get your hands on future stars before they hit the big time; it’s here that we discovered the likes of Spector. Headlining this year are respectively Django Django, The Wombats and Frank Turner; Darlia are also high on the Saturday bill. Early in the day on Friday we catch up with a couple of ‘old’ favourites in Elle King and The Bulletproof Bomb - you need to be there for these, trust me. There’s also Ash, Radkey, Ratboy, Little Comets, Walking on Cars and The Sherlocks (in no particular order) and we are quite looking forward to Gengahr, playing on Sunday afternoon.

BBC Radio One Extra Stage will be there to rescue you every time you feel the need to shake it a bit, with headliners A$AP FERG, Azealia Banks and Krept & Konan. Saturday eve also sees the welcome return of Ms Dynamite. Other names to get you sweating are Lethal Bizzle, Bugzy Malone and Flatbush Zombies.

Who doesn’t like a bit of New Found Glory at a Festival? The Lock Up Stage on Friday brings just that as a main dish, with sides of God Damn - one of the strongest duos you’ll

see this weekend - plus The Bronx and The Menzingers amongst others; then turns into The Pit Saturday and Sunday to gather for the heavier crowd. Matt’s department…

(Matt Dawson) While the main stage has the likes of Bring Me The Horizon, Babymetal (in a grey area…) and of course Metallica, if you want bands that are just as heavy The Pit on Saturday and Sunday does the job nicely. While Mastodon have sadly had to pull out due to personal matters Ghost get their chance to headline a UK festival stage for the first time, and with Papa Emeritus III making his debut onto these shores it’ll be very interesting to see how their spirit and energy resides now.

Prior to them we have the ever exciting/amazing

Gojira, a band that never fails to go from strength to strength with each performance but with the videos and pictures going around of Frank Carter And The Rattlesnakes it might be a great competition to see which of the two lives up to the stage’s name! Other bands to check out are Hawk Eyes, Turbowolf, Queen Kwong (featuring Wes Borland), LTNT and Ho99o9!

Last but not least is BBC Radio One Dance Stage metal and dance in the same festival it’s one of those things only Reading can pull. We’ve just had a chance to catch Hannah Wants at W.A.R. in Ibiza and couldn’t resist dancing on the beds, let’s see if she can work her magic on UK territory! Headliners this weekend are Wilkinson Live, MK and Boy Better Know, with DJ Fresh joining as special guest on Saturday and many more including Charli XCX, Hudson Mohawke, Evian Christ and Rustie.

All we need now is a bit of cooperation from the big man up there with the weather, but hey, with so much choice both open air and undercover and all so nicely close, even those who aim to stay dry will surely enjoy Reading. If you don’t have your tickets yet, you can get them on SeeTickets and include a special Babymetal Reading & Leeds t-shirt.

I’ll keep my merch budget for the mighty Libertines, but whatever takes your fancy…

Wellies: check. Poncho: check.

Extra socks: check. See you there.

I’ll be the last one to leave on Sunday night!

The naysayers predicting that bringing live acts to the dance isle would never work must be choking on their words. Instead of the anticipated downfall, Ibiza Rocks has not only been growing stronger and stronger by the years but was also celebrating its 10 anniversary in style with none other than THE LIBERTINES supported by up & coming SLAVES. th

Over the last 10 years, bands such as Rudimental, Kaiser Chief, Nile Rodgers, Ed Sheeran, Sigma to name but a few, have graced its stage and its popular Wednesday live events show no sign of slowing down in the foreseeable future.

Ibiza Rocks is also known for its infamous antics from Kaiser Chiefs front man Ricky Wilson jumping in the iconic swimming pool from the VIP balcony to the latest addition of Pete Doherty throwing himself into the crowd within the first few minutes of The Libertines’ set. But just like Vegas, what happens in Ibiza, stays in Ibiza.

There is no doubt that Ibiza Rocks has changed the musical perspective of the white isle and whilst blowing the candles on its 10 birthday, I would venture that the team’s wish was ‘Here’s to many more years to come’. th

Happy 10 birthday from the all team at Sonic Shocks. th

THE LIBERTINES In 2004 the biggest bromance in recent British music history came to a halt, when The Libertines split up due to Doherty’s notorious drug issues. A year later in 2005, against all odds, Doherty was still standing and singing, bringing his new outfit Babyshambles to the white isle for

the first year of Ibiza Rocks; as usual, the controversial artist couldn’t keep to his side of the stage he was given, and made it his business to take the show from the dark bar to the much more enticing open air space. In 2006, estranged brother-inart Carl Barat was following his footsteps in the sand, performing with his Dirty Pretty Things.

Fast forward 10 years… In 2014, initially triggered by an inviting paycheck from BST Hyde Park, The Libertines get back together to an wholehearted welcome from their loyal following.

A year later in 2015, against all odds Ibiza Rocks - a rock venue on the dance island - is still standing and singing, bringing The Libertines back to celebrate a birthday very few saw coming. Again Doherty can’t keep to his side of the stage and, before opener ‘Horrorshow’ is over, he’s lying in the front row submerged by over-affectionate fans and smiling oblivious while security tries to pull back up in one piece all six-foot-something of him.

Ibiza Rocks’ 10th birthday had something magic about it, and wasn’t just due to the confetti and balloons that left Carl and Peter staring in awe. It was the triumph of the finest rock music, defying odds, rules and detractors.

But let’s talk about this Libertines comeback… Sure - let’s face the pink elephant in the room - it all started with an offer they couldn’t refuse, and maybe the three nights residence at Ally Pally wasn’t planned in a much different spirit. But somewhere along the line, with some help from sunny Thailand, the bromance was truly rekindled: what we see tonight on stage is 4 people clearly happy to be here and giving it their best.

As the speakers blast ‘Time for Heroes’, looking up at the colourful confetti for Ibiza Rocks’ birthday, Carl and Peter seem to embrace them as their own celebration, and so do the fans gathered here. If

you’re not sure it’s for real, just look at Gary Powell’s smile as he observes his boys playing together. Even John seems to smile occasionally!

Musically speaking, The Libertines’ tight summer schedule brought tightness to their natural chemistry, with San Antonio witnessing probably

their best performance to date since reuniting. We just can’t wait for Reading.

The setlist is a mix of new and old, with latest single Gunga Din already a singalong classic. There’s a renewed feel of confidence in the way the whole band commands the stage, culminating with Gary leaving the drumsticks to Peter towards the end.

Just like Ibiza Rocks’ decade of success, the new Libertines are a miracle that needs to be seen to be believed, and fuck the haters. As they say hasta luego to fans ‘looking back into the Ibiza sun’, you can’t help but hope for another 10 years like tonight.

To an interviewer asking ‘where do you see The Libertines in 10 years for now’, Peter replied ‘why don’t you ask me where do I see them 1 year from now?’, then adding he sees them writing a follow up to ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. That’s much more than many could have hoped just 2 years ago.

We’ll take it. And we’ll take our Billy Bilo as he is: too honest to make promises he’s not sure he can keep, but always hoping to give more than he can promise. What a failure he would be as a politician.