Home
Album Reviews
Live Reviews Old
Live Reviews New
Film Reviews
These pages are updated regularly!
The NME tour has rumbled into Norwich and the expectation is feverish. It's cold and raining, but spirits are high, because this tour is already loaded with controversey and excitement. Andrew WK accidently headbutted a girl unconscious last night during one of his many frenzied moments. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club have shunned the rest of the bands on the bill, causing resentment from their fellow travellers. The Lost Prophets have drawn in almost two-thirds of the crowd every night and the mini-moshers are already surrounding their tour-bus, waiting anxiously for a glimpse of their new Welsh favourites. All in all, a massive success for the NME in every way, something rather welcome considering they have just been overtaken by Kerrang! in the struggle to maintain their lead as the biggest selling music weekly.
However, some are whispering that the biggest draw on the bill, unquestionably Lost Prophets, weren't even supposed to be on the bill in the first place. The original offer went to psychedelic indie-kids The Music. How glad NME must be that the Leeds hopefuls decided not to accept. Lost Prophets go down a storm tonight, energy flowing from the stage into the limbs of the mentalist crowd. They slam down their metal, shower us with punchy hip-hop beats and make us swoon with charming melodies. They'd deck me for saying it but they sound like the missing link between Incubus and Linkin Park, although obviously better than both. And they look great. They are almost a wet-dream-come-true for Sony who recently signed them up. Six good-looking, confident Welshman who provide an interesting spin on the nu-metal formula.
Already Lost Prophets have re-released their debut album 'The Fake Sound Of Progress' with Sony having provided the hard-cash for them to polish it up to the sound the band always wanted it to have. "Sell-out!" hollered a few fans. "Bollocks!" the Prophets yelled back even louder. "We wanted to do a new album when we signed to Sony", reflects frontman Ian Watkins. "We were like, 'Great new album time, major label debut release', but then we thought 'actually, we like this album, some people haven't heard it, only the UK has, so lets release it to the rest of the world'. Because it only cost £4000 to record, it was done it a week and a half, and they wanted to put it on the radio and compete against bands like Staind, so we knew the production value could be boosted a bit. The new version is what the album would have sounded like if we had had the money in the first place". Well, would you not have done the same?
We find the band on their tour bus, sitting with a few cherub-faced fans, laughing and hanging out. We have frontman Ian Watkins and guitarist's Mike Lewis and Stuart Richardson surrounding us, looking relaxed and not at all like a band who are about to have an enormous year. It's been a while coming though, their album was written over three years ago and they only came to the attention of many when a year after that they were working their way up from the many toilet venues of the UK. Now things are looking like going through the roof. The world is loving metal at the moment, especially America, and inevitably speculation has begun over whether The 'Prophets could be our first true successes in the States since, erm... Radiohead. But we need some perspective from the band themselves.
Ian: "We tend not to think about it. When you start lifting your head up and thinking about what is happening and taking it all in you might get a bit blaze or a bit complacent. We're arrogant, we're like heads-down and just try and keep doing what we have been doing for the past two years".
Mike: "You kinda lose your focus when you start analysing what you're doing and where you are going. You tend to lose your focus on what you're doing, so we're heads-down, scrum down, and get on with the job".
There must be times when you recognise that things are really taking off though. Whether you like it or not there must be moments when it justs hits you that you are onto a good thing. When did you realise that it was starting to take off and Lost Prophets were becoming big news?
Ian: (smiling) I dunno because when you're in a band you don't really realise it and you're always seeing other bands and thinking 'why aren't we going that, why aren't we doing that'... (struggles to make point). It's like when you look at yourself in the mirror everyday you don't really see that you are changing, but when other people see you and they haven't seen you for a while they're like 'Oh you've really changed'. But because we see ourselves everyday it doesn't become as noticable. Reading Festival was a tangable turning point, I don't know if it was, but it seemed to be a catalyst for everything".
Mike: "That was a point in our history where I stood back and was like... it was so unexpected".
Ian: "So many people came down to the tent".
That was around the time you won your Kerrang! award.
Ian: "The whole media hadn't really cared about us until then. Kerrang! had always known about us and helped us out now and again but magazines like the NME were all like 'The Strokes, The White Stripes' and then we packed this tent out and they were like 'why don't we know about this band?'".
Well at least they got there in the end. Lost Prophets have had a while of walking that path to recognition of course. The album they are still touring was written over three years ago now. Does it seem bizarre that the tracks are only now coming to people's attention? Are they keen to get new material out?
Mike: "Yeah, sometimes it is bizarre, when you think that two years ago I was playing to thirty people in Cardiff and now we are playing to a thousand people there and it's exactly the same songs".
Ian: (Interjecting) "But although they are the same songs, when we're playing them and you see people enjoying them you kinda forget about it".
Mike : "Every show on this tour we have had people coming up to us saying they haven't seen us before or haven't heard us before. It's always refreshing to play to people who haven't see you before and still get into the music even though we wrote them over two years ago".
Ian: "Yeah, it makes it bearable that people that people are still getting into it. If we were playing to people and they were like 'Oh, that fucking song again...', I mean I'm sure some people are, there will be people who have been seeing us since the first tour and they'll be like 'Enough already! A new album please!".
Did you ever feel demoralised when initally your debut didn't capture the radio or the magazines in quite the way that it is now?
Ian: "No, because we never released it for that, it was released on an independent. There was never any money behind it, we only released it to tour. We weren't on a major label, we had no management company or PR company, no-one representing us. All in all it was an album to sell from the back of a van just to tour and that is all we wanted, we wanted to take small steps, not 'Big release! Big hype!' and we'll tour and if people wanna buy the album they can go to the shops and get it.
Really, The Lost Prophets story is quite a sweet one. The band grew up together in Wales and have remained the best of friends since. It seems fitting that they should all appear so grounded and calm as things become increasingly chaotic around them. You watch them pratting around with each other on the bus and you see a sort of impenetrability that you get when a close group of people have known each other for so long. Others are welcome in but few get close enough to make a difference to them. It is this closeness they blame for the constant stream of accusations that they are an arrogant band.
Ian: "We get that every time. We've always been arrogant. Every interview we've done on this tour we've been asked why we are arrogant but when they meet us they are like 'Oh, you're really nice!'. People judge us by how devilishly good-looking we are. Comments like that. We say it with irony and it goes over people's heads. (Dumb voice) What's irony?"
Mike: "It's just the general thing of people judging you before they get to know you".
Ian: "Some of it comes because we grew up together, we were an insular group. Because we've been hanging with each other all our lives, it's kind-of hard to hang out with other people. If we are in a room full of people we'll be in the corner giggling amongst ourselves because we're shy, we're not used to mingling with people but people think of it as arrogance. We're not too cool to hang-out, just too shy. How can people know if we're arrogant without speaking to us?"
Stuart: "It's the devilishly good looks man!"
Perhaps is stems from the onstage showmanship; the posing, the assured manner in which they play, their immaculate clothes and sense of style.
Ian: "Yeah, but it's mainly tongue-in-cheek"
Stuart: We make fun of each other and the crowd feed off it".
Ian: "Sometimes you're in the mood to just play and sometimes to show about a bit, do a flip across the stage. We get into it every time".
How do you feel when onstage, how would you describe it?
Mike: "Fun Chaos".
Stuart: "Everyone has a laugh, jumps around . You can stand about and watch or dance or whatever."
Ian: "It's just a good laugh".
Do you have any most embarrassing moments onstage?
Mike: We've had tonnes. When we had the shittest equipment in the world guitars would break every night".
Ian: "My belt has snapped a few times. I've had to hold my trousers up. Michael has fell over, he fell over yesterday".
Mike: "That was embarrassing. I went 'ugh' into the monitor".
Ian: "Everyone's really hyped, mostly Mike and he comes on and slips on his arse. Jamie falls over and I'm trying to sing whilst I'm laughing. We don't like it to be like too perfect, like 'we're the band', your the audience', it we fuck-up we fuck-up. The gig will be shit without us or without them, it's a 50/50 thing, we need them to have as much fun as we do".
You have toured together on numerous occassions now. Who has the most annoying habits in the band?
Ian: "Other Mike snores like a bastard".
Mike: "Everyone has their days when they're grumpy shitheads and we take the piss out of 'em for being like that".
Ian: We have a grumpy shithead award. It's not like we've been thrown together for the first time though, we've grown up together. We know each other well enough to put up with each other".
Mike: "We have way more space now on a bus then we ever had when we were in a van so this is way more comfortable now. Falling out with each other is alleviated. We have pleasant surroundings now".
Have there been any particularly wild nights when Lost Prophets have been on the road during your time together as a band?
Ian: "Nah, we're pretty gay as a band. We're pretty un-rock 'n' roll, we had to get our roadie to throw a TV out the window because we wouldn't do it".
Mike: "We had a row yesterday for breaking our dressing-room because of playing 'Ghostbusters' with the fire extinguisher. Childish pranks really. We run away and hide though and regret it when our dressing-room is a mess".
It really is fool-proof surely. There are tonnes of rock bands gagging to take advantage of the current popularity of the genre, but Lost Prophets seem the least bothered about hitting the big-time of all. And what's more, they are making the fastest progress, with just one album behind them. Now they tell us they aren't even indulging in rock 'n' roll excess (most of the band are straight-edge) so there will be nothing to ruin things for them - except themselves. So now things are taking off what is the plan from here?
Mike: "We're going to the States in a couple of months so we are going to try and write the rest of the new album whilst over there and then come over here for festivals. Then do a headlining tour in November and hopefully get the album ready for next year".
What direction is any new material likely to take?
Mike: "Similar sort of thing really. A bit more coherent and anthemic".
Ian: "And keeping that naviety of throwing everything in".
Stuart: "We have loads of new influences to throw in".
Ian: "When we did the first album we'd never toured, the only thing we did was gig every now and again in our friends backyard. It's gonna be the same but bigger".
Christ, aren't they grounded, aren't they so nice? Mentalmusic is bery impressed with Lost Prophets but we like a bit of fire when we go out interviewing. We narrow our eyes and try to get some juice. They don't disappoint.
How do the magazines treat you in your opinion, guys?
Mike: "Most of the time it's good".
Ian: "Unless you get ignorant magazines where they call us rap-metal, it's like 'ugh, find me rap in this album!'. Just because we have a DJ we must be rap. We ain't just rock either. Our DJ has that extra elements, he's not just 'wicca, wicca, wah-wah', although I wish he was! He does ambient sounds, sequences. The NME will be like 'Oh a DJ, it's like LISTEN TO IT!".
What are the downsides to the music industry?
Mike: "How fashion-based it can be. The hyping".
Ian: "If you have a nice meal you wanna enjoy it, take it down in small bites and savour it, you don't want it rammed down your throat because you're gonna throw up. The Strokes get rammed down everyone's throats, 'you must like this band, you must like this band'. You're gonna react to it. Let me find it and enjoy it myself".
Mike: "Because otherwise you listen to it with an objective rather than listening to it with an open-mind and fiding out whether you like it or not. You're thinking 'This is the next fucking cool thing' and you end up listening to it with that mind-set. It's frustrating".
Ian: "A lot of bands we have been reading about recently have been so caught up with what genre or sub-genre they are. I think bands should just worry about the music. Let the journalists worry about catergorisation. Don't worry about whether your nu-metal or not, just think about writing good music".
Stuart: "But at least Brandon Boyd is lush".
Mike: Yeah, that makes up for it, doesn't matter what music they make. If he hadn't cut his hair they wouldn't have sold-out Wembley , I'll tell you that for nothing".
The only other moment we catch some fury in the eyes is when we probe them about the relations between the bands on the tour: basically the key words to extract gossip are 'Black Rebel Motorcycle Club'.
Mike: "I gave up on them a while ago so fuck it, fuck them. I'm enjoying seeing them trying to play music that was invented in Britain trying to sell it back to us".
Ian: "Woah! (trying to supress the rant, most wise in front of a budding journo, but even he cannot resist a pop). They are just too-cool-for-school... (shrugging) Whatever".
Lost Prophets might look a bit too-cool-for-school, but they don't act like it. We need them right now for rock. They have a great debut album, they hate Limp Bizkit and they do the whole shebang with a bit of intelligence. Watching them tear the uni down when they take to the stage later confirms how vital they are. Watch the Prophets rise.
The thing that is so refreshing about sitting with a tired but enthusiastic King Adora is that they look like they have made the effort. Whilst our guitar music scene might be thriving with bands like Starsailor and Coldplay breaking hearts and making piano fashionable again, it is almost utterly devoid of any in-yer-face visual stimulation. This glamourous, camp foursome might not quite be porn-pop but they are certainly sexier than Badly Drawn Boy.
Looking splendid in fake-fur, eyeliner and carefully dyed-hair, these guys make Brian Molko look like he ought to quit the stage. These people look like rock stars and have the tunes to match, proving that the image isn't a ploy to divert attention from any lame records. OK, so the glam rockers of the seventies were doing this, but with tracks about male anorexia, obsessional relationships and hedonistic times, these guys in particular are strapping on their leather boots and stomping all over the twee cosy hats and acoustic mumbling's of their contemporaries. Later they will demonstrate this in the most raucous of manners when they take to the stage at the Norwich Arts Centre and blast out thirty minutes of spikey, arrogant and strident glam-indie. "We normally have a tape-deck backstage and play some Buck's Fizz and Jackson 5 when we are warming ourselves up" smirks Robbie. "We do loads of dancing and stretching too". He pauses and then smiles. "Well, perhaps not too much stretching".
For now though, singer Matt and bassist Robbie sit grinning as we try to remove some of the glitter and eye-shadow in order to reveal the true King Adora. It must be immensely frustrating for the band to be constantly questioned on their image, but 'Mentalmusic' is not feeling in the giving vein this day, and decides to raise the subject and get it out the way with.
I think the songs have to suffer sometimes because of the image, but this is the way that's it's always been like", Robbie says. "It's no different for us". Matt is even more dismissive. People will get it as it goes on, the people coming to the gigs are switched-on to it".
But surely part of what you are trying to do is liven up the faceless and imageless indie scene with a striking image?
We're not consciously trying to be more interesting", disagrees a pant-flaunting Matt, a little unconvincingly. "We are misfits and that can work in our favour sometimes. If we were doing that on purpose when we would be contrived and would be as bad as everything else. We're just who we are and that's why people like us. They get that's it's real".
Dealing with the real is something that King Adora are not afraid to do. The subject matter of the tunes have often been as arresting as their style of dress. Their distinctive image perhaps reflects the powerful nature of their songs. Most notable has been the tricky topic of male anorexia, a problem often thought of as being exclusive to females. "We've had great feedback on the strength on that song", ('Big Isn't Beautiful') states Matt. "We've had the odd person who has taken the song the wrong way, thinking that the song is slating fat people, but that isn't what the song is about. The title is tongue-in-cheek and at the end of the day, it's a song, y'know? It's not controversial. Just because it isn't what the boring mainstream are singing about some people seem to want to jump on it and make a negative fuss about it. But it really isn't an issue to us because the the track is completely heartfelt".
Do you find it frightening or empowering that some people can identify so greatly with a song?
"I dunno", ponders Matt. "We wanna connect with people on all levels if possible. That's why we are writing songs so that we can connect with people, and whatever level they connect on, there is going to be some satisfaction there for us".
Hmm, and what about negative identification, Columbine for example? Do you feel artists should be exempt from criticism for misinterpretation of lyrics and band attitudes?
Being more specific this time, Matt seems interested in the issue. "I would answer that in much the same way as Marilyn Manson did", he says. "If people can crucify Jesus without music or TV then you don't need music to channel your hate or destruction in any particular way. We won't be responsible for stuff like that because we are a band, and if people interpret a song in one particular way, then that's not our problem. We know that we are on about and so do the majority of people. There is a level of understanding between us and the fans but there will always be somebody who takes it a little bit too far and everybody wants a scapegoat. Bands get used as scapegoats".
I guess some people just cannot face or understand reality and have to blame society's troubles on a pop song or band. The fact remains however, that 'Big Isn't Beautiful' is a song some are going to channel their emotions deep into. It's a gorgeous song about additive personalities. What dangerous things have the band been drawn towards before, we wonder?
"I wouldn't call them dangerous!", replies Matt, somewhat boringly. But wait! "We like to drink, we like to have fun", he elaborates. " There is always a bad side to personalities. You are never going to be dealt a full deck of cards. It's just one of those things that you have to put up with and hope that you can stay on top of it. As long as you have people around you, and we have enough people on this bus to sort each other out and stop us going in the wrong direction. It;s not really a problem unless you are on your own".
So they are far from spiralling out of control, probably much to the disappointment of those who percieve them to be wild, hedonistic and carefree. When pushed to determine whether this tour has seen the boys indulging in rock 'n' roll excesses, the reponse is somewhat blunt.
"Yeah, it has been crazy", says Matt. Care to elaborate on that? "No", he replies quickly, before laughing to himself.
OK then! And what are King Adora doing for Valentine's Day? Such crazy and imaginative boys must have something lined-up?
"We'll be sleeping, it's our day off", laughs Matt.
It appears the boys aren't wild in all areas then. Even glam-boys need time to recharge their energies.
New single 'Sufffocate' is released on February 19th. Their debut album will follow in the Spring.
Tairrie: They are awesome players, it's now a final band. A complete band whereas it wasn't last year. I like to talk about them and get focus on them, and the big magazines have only just started to recently, so y'know, we're definitely a band now. You guys are going to be seeing tonight first hand. My band rocks.
Mick: The difference is My Ruin started as Tairrie's solo project. She wrote and recorded her first record before she had a band for it. She recorded it all over the place with a lot of different people writing and producing and, y'know, it turned out a really cool record but now it's kinda evolved. We hooked up as a band before writing the new record and so we are all really behind this album because it's part of us, because it's from all of our hearts and not just her's. And I think another difference is that she is proud of this band, she's into it, and we are behind her one hundred per cent and I think at the shows the crowds can see this now. So far the tour has been insane, it's not just been like 'Tairrie, Tairrie', it's like people are going fucking nuts in Meghan's face, my face, yelling at Yael behind the drums, and y'know, it feels like a band. It's very rock 'n' roll, it's heavy, heavy as hell, but very rock 'n' roll at the same time.
Tairrie: (Jumping in) Well 'Speak and Destroy' was y'know you've heard and seen things, and in Tura Satana I could never do anything like that. I needed to just break away and breathe and so something a little different until it let me go back into the head-shape of what kind of a band I wanted and what kind of a record I really wanted and so it was like starting all over again. When I met Mick he came from a completely different influence and when you say 'hardcore', there are a lot of hard parts, but the record to me has a very stoner, very heavy, Sabbathy vibe and I know it's nothing like Manhole. I see people compare this record to Manhole and I've seen people say (indignantly) 'Oh, they're never gonna top Manhole' but this record blows Manhole off the fucking chart, I'm sorry but it really does.
Yael: It's completely different.
Tairrie: But it's like vocally, I have come a million degrees further and these guys are awesome.
Tairrie: It's a positive and negative influence on me. Whatever I am writing about at the time. If I'm writing in a romantic sense it's positive and if I'm writing in a fuck-you sense it's negative, because the Bible is that, it's both positive and negative. It's filled with good and evil. I like the religious imagery of it and that's what drives me, I'm not a big overtly religious person.
Tairrie: Do I ever feel uncomfortable? No, I would feel uncomfortable if I wasn't. I would feel like a liar if I wasn't because I'm not a comfortable person. That's just the way it is.
Yael: There are some songs you don't like to play live though which are from a certain time in your life.
Mick: Things that you don't wanna re-live again.
Tairrie: Yeah, there are certain things which I can't play live. People ask me to play 'June 10th' which is a very brutal song to me. It's a very pretty song, but a brutal song also. I did that on the record, I got that out, that was my release. I don't need to inflict that on myself again and we have other songs now. It's like people go way back to Manhole and Tura Satana and ask us to play those but we're like 'no', because we did that last year as we had only one record, now we have two. We have enough to draw on of our own. I think a lyricist should be first and foremost true to themselves and I can only write about what I know.
Tairrie: Yeah, and the band are playing some of those songs which they didn't even write, yet they are playing them far better than the way they were recorded so My Ruin definitely has it's own sound now. I don't think we sound like anyone else. People say 'Who would you compare your music to?' and the coolest thing is nobody has ever said 'you sound like so and so'.
Mick: We don't sound like Korn! (laughs)
Tairrie: We don't! But that was never our vibe, we never wanted to sound like that. We wanted to come up with something that was My Ruin, whatever that meant, and that's gonna be our trademark and we are gonna go on and develop that.
Tairrie: You know what, I really look at it personally and you can ask everybody their different opinion but as for me, I'm not really in this to be massive. I'm just here to have a career and do something I love, just like a barber or a mechanic. You do it because you love it. I do it because I love it. If I ever fall out of love with music, if it gets too much for me this whole business, I'll stop doing it. It's very simple, like what I did with rap, and did the cross-over and the got the 'oh, she's sold-out' and whatever. If you fall out of love with it, it's like a relationship with your band. With your fans, with your enemies, with everything. If this band gets massive, I can only hope that this band will remain the band that it is mentally. That nobody will go crazy here. We aren't massive, we are what we are. It's really cool because the people that I admire like Rollins Band, PJ Harvey, Nick Cave and these people, they're not massive, yet they are so amazing. They are massive in that way.
Mick: They are very mysterious because you don't see them plastered all over MTV and making Cola commericials and videos.
Yael: People seem to get was more affected by seeing PJ or you (Tairrie) than if you go and see a Korn show because it's more personal.
Tairrie: Way more personal.
Yael: I think it would be great if we got big, bigger and bigger and whatever but as long as it's just the same crowd growing and growing. I'd like for more people to get to know My Ruin in the same way that the people who like My Ruin now did. I hope that we'd stay the same and never let that go to our heads and never be...
Tairrie: A whore band on MTV, dripping and whoring yourself out because MTV's gonna play your video twenty times a day and the juxaposition of that is you've gotta get on there jocking some fucking idiots cause you want your video played. I'm not gonna do that, I can't do that, I wouldn't feel right about it.
Yael: It's not real.
Tairrie: I like the fact that kids always say we're a cool band. It's rad.
Mick: I think we are all a little apprehensive about how if you get too successful, more people start trying to get their hands in the pot. You have more people trying to influence what you are doing so the next record will sell more.
Tairrie: (sarcastically) Put a radio song on there!
Mick: Put a radio song on there and if you get this guy to direct your video or whatever. You know, we want to do it the way we like.
Tairrie: We don't write a radio song when we write. We don't sit there and go 'Hey Mick, I need a riff that is gonna get on the radio'. If my band ever said to me, 'That song is never gonna get us radio play, can't you change these lyrics?', instead of saying (on the track 'Beauty Fiend') 'Fuck what they print in those damn magazines, can't you maybe say...
Yael: 'To hell with what they say in those magazines'.
Tairrie: Yeah! I'd be like 'no' because it's 'FUCK what they hear', you understand what I'm saying? They understand it, they geddit, we get each other and that's the way I feel comfortable. I know I can go on stage every night with my band and if I fall on the floor, if I throw up, if I do anything, I know my band won't go 'What the fuck were you doing? What the fuck was that about? You're making us look bad'. When I say things to the crowd and when I talk, you gotta trust your band. I didn't trust my old band at all. I never trusted them. I trust my new band.
Mick: Most people in this industry aren't trustworthy so the more successful you get the more bullshit you have to deal with.
What do you think of the current alternative/ metal scene?
Tairrie: (shaking her head at the words 'alternative metal') Alternative metal...
Yael: Hard question.
Mick: I think that there is some good. But I think that a lot of it is really safe and you can see the formula.
Tairrie: (Quoting their song 'Sychophant') 'Children Of The Korn-fed styles'.
Meghan: I think that there is pioneers, then second generation and then third generation. And when it gets to that, it needs to stop...OH SHIT!!!!
(At this point Camden metallers Breed 77 burst into the room, minus the singer Paul, and recieve an overjoyed reception from My Ruin. We learn that the awesome frontman has shaved off his dreads and that they have a new bass player. Breed 77 top the line-up of bands playing the Nottingham rock City alternative all-nighter post-gig and Tairrie is determined to get Paul up to add his brutal vocals to 'Sick With It' as they did each night on the previous My Ruin tour where Breed 77 supported. She is later successful. Once the chaos subsides and Breed exit, we continue).
How has it been touring with Snake River Conspiracy and Sugar Coma?
Tairrie: Well it's been really wierd with Snake River because it's almost like they're not here. Oh yeah, that's right, they're not! The drummer broke his hand so they can't do the tour. So we have Sugar Coma.
Meghan: Sugar Coma ROCK! You can't tell at all (she smiles gesturing to her Sugar Coma t-shirt). They're rad.
Tairrie: Jessika is singing with us tonight. Jessika the singer gets up every night and does 'My War' with us. It's crazy!
Meghan: They weren't really talking to us until last night because they thought maybe we didn't wanna hang out with them or something.
Tairrie: We're gonna make all the girls in Sugar Coma dance with Mick Murphy in the club. To Pantera. And I'm gonna video tape it.
Yael: And all three of us have to dance to Sepultura!
Is it important that people understand the intention behind the lyrics or do you prefer to leave them to general interpretation?
Tairrie: General interpretation, that's what it's all about. Um, like 'Letter To The Editor' is about one specific woman (an ex-editor of Metal Hammer called Robyn Dorien, a woman who resorted to pathetic insults against Tairrie B is her columns for no reason whatsoever other than spite) but it's not anymore, it's now become about the ex-editor Darren Sadler, so it becomes and takes on a new form whenever anybody acts like a jerk-off (does wanker action) and walks into that shoe. Step in the role and you're gonna fucking live it. It's a theme. People are getting off on it, they love it (laughs). I think everything is open to interpretation, that's what art is y'know, I mean I don't wanna look at something and go 'Oh, I know exactly what that artist meant'. I wanna get a meaning from it because it makes me feel a certain way.
It must be pretty annoying when people misinterpret your lyrics however, like the nonsense single review of 'Beauty Fiend' in Kerrang!"
Tairrie: Yeah, that was horrendous.
Also the line from 'Stick It To Me' that goes "looking like a fucking chick in lipstick" recently upset a transvestite that wrote an angry letter into Kerrang!
Tairrie: Oh I was talking about fucking Coal Chamber in that lyric, I have no problem with that. I don't did guys that, hmm, I don't dig all that bullshit, fake bullshit. I knew bands in LA for years and all of a sudden they got a record deal and they slap on some make-up and lipstick and they're like Hollywood fucking... FUCK THAT! And I have no problems saying that to these people and y'know, I'm sorry, it's not about that for me. It's not about a costume. Rock is not a costume. It's not halloween.
Especially in Coal Chamber's case!
Meghan: YEAH!
Tairrie: Y'know, I'm very blunt about my lyrics. That song is just saying if you are gonna talk your shit, come stick it to me where I can see it. Don't stab me and shake my hand and then turn around and call me a fucking bitch, call me a bitch to my face and don't shake my hand. I'd have more respect for someone who did that. That's why I love Meghan (touches Meghan's leg with mock sexual intent).
Meghan: Urrrhh! (pulls face).
Tairrie: Heh heh, yeah, but those letters in Kerrang!. Some of those letters hurt because they are from the kids and it hurts because I think 'Where are they getting there misinformation from?', and they are getting it from the magazines. Y'know Taleena in Kittie, someone wrote a letter about her and said 'it's a shame she doesn't lose a little weight' or whatever. The editor wrote back saying 'I think that women shouldn't be judged upon their weight, that's why Tairrie B is such a good role model, she is obviously asethetically challenged and loves her doughnuts. You know, what is that?
Mick: That is serious editor bullshit.
Tairrie: It doesn't have anything to do with weight. Otherwise what would half the guys in rock be doing? To put that impression in young girls minds that 'I wanna rock and I wanna play guitar and I wanna be a vocalist but if I do that these magazines are gonna rip me apart and rip my body apart and I don't have a great body' or whatever, that's a head-fuck! And I think those magazines STINK for doing that shit.
Yael: It fucks up little boys as well.
Yael: Boys die from weight problems every other day and if a boy reads that it's gonna affect him in the same way that it would affect a girl. Y'know if they are gonna say that someone who is five fucking pounds overweight has a doughnut eating problem...
Tairrie: Robb Flynn had a buliema problem, but did anybody make fun of him? Nobody because he's Robb Flynn.
Yael: They would behind his back.
Tairrie: Right, behind his back, but they wouldn't say it in a magazine. So what gives them the fucking right to talk about me and not those people? Don't think that I'm not gonna kick your fucking arse. All of us will. It's bullshit. OK, I know there are a lot of boys who wear make-up and stuff, I understand that. All I'm saying is that a band sets an example, sets a standard for a bunch of kids, and these guys (Coal Chamber) are as fake as a fucking three dollar bill. That's what I'm saying. They don't care about their fans. When a band cares about their fans they care about why they are there, who put them there, they didn't get there by jerking-off to their record. It's true! They get up there and do a carbon copy of someone else, second generation as Meghan likes to say.
Yael: I don't think that Tairrie has a problem with any guy wearing make-up. It's a freedom of expression and if he feels like that in the morning that's cool.
Tairrie: That's right! Cos that's gotta be you and you're not gonna hide it, that's you, and at night you aren't gonna go 'oh, time for the Coal Chamber show' and slap on some make-up or whatever because throwing it on to me is fake. I go out fo the house looking the way I look. Meghan says to me 'No false metal' and that to me is 'false metal'. So anyone who fakes it just to get attention can suck it!
Yael: Yeah!
Tairrie, 'Sanctuary' stands out from the album because you do a fair bit of rapping on it. How do you feel about your rapping days in hindsight and will you be doing any in the future?
Tairrie: Here's the funny thing. To me I don't hear myself rapping on that song but everybody else does. It's really wierd.
Yael: I think it's because of the rhythm behind it.
Tairrie: Yeah, it's like people write in and say 'oh did you know that Tairrie used to be a rapper?' and it's like so fucking what? So did Everlast and look at him now. I decided I love that music, I love the music, the graffiti art and the breakdancing, it's what I grew up on, I love that shit. I'm not a tortured ex-goth.
Meghan: I was! (laughter).
Tairrie: I was a rapper. I was into NWA when it wasn't cool to be. When Snoop Dogg wasn't in it. I was into that shit back then and everybody made fun of me for it, 'You're a white girl thinking you're black and all this shit'. But I was like 'this is what I like', it's poetry. So people can say whatever they want. I gotta a website (www.myruin.com) full of pictures from when I was a rapper. I'm not hiding it, I'm not ashamed, fuck 'em. Taught me how to be a better fucking person now, going from NWA to the world of Pantera, you better walk with your head up and your fucking back straight and your fist in front of you, and know what you're doing.
What bands are you into right now?
Tairrie: Goatsnake. I like Rico. Last year Paul wanted us to take Rico on tour and I was like, I dunno, because the name Rico freaked me out (Tairrie used to have a stormy friendship with a guy called Rico who played in Tura Satana with her). I didn't give it a chance. Then we booked the tour. Then the tour director gave me the CD and I was like 'Oh, fucking nuts', why didn't I bring this guy out. He is amazing.
Mick: I like a lotta stuff. I've liked a lot of the same stuff for years. I like Goatsnake, I like Fu Manchu, bands that are more organic and rock influenced with less of a hip-hop feel like a lot of the metal has now. I mean 'Sanctuary' has some rap in it and that's fine, but I dunno, I'm definitely into more seventies metal and stuff like that. Stuff that is raw and real.
Meghan: I'm listening to Britney Spears! (Much laughter as Ben reveals he's a fan too). I like to listen to pop. It's a change when I don't wanna listen to stuff like this or I wanna listen to something that's just like... (laughter again as Meghan struggles for a nice word to describe pop). I like the new Orgy album a lot, that's really good.
Mick: Yeah, Orgy are cool.
Change of subject now, who did you vote for in the American Election?
All: Didn't vote!
Tairrie: there was no candidate.
Mick: It looks like we didn't really miss out.
Meghan: Hey, our votes could have changed the election!
Mick: Well they would only now be getting to count them so...
(At this point the tour manager hints the band should get their arses to the sound check. So after discovering that the band are as intriguing and as passionate as they are on record, we depart after a touching farewell from the band members).
Warned to 'Enter at your own risk' by a smirking tour manager, we anxiously creep down a tight corridor presuming we have been cruelly tricked and prepare ourselves to encounter a lairy and bad-tempered gun-tooting Cypress Hill or a devilish Slipknot. Moping the sweat from our brows we were delighted to be greeted by a friendly and high-spirited couple of beer-guzzling Llama Farmers.
Will rocks and leans on his chair, roaring with laughter astonishingly frequently. He and singer Bernie look contented and relaxed, poking fun at questions and taking their increasingly active schedule in stride. Stoking the fire with a whirl-wind spin around the country to assess new material in the live context, the Llama Farmers are tentaviely channeling their way back through the musical waters, prompting their adoring fanatical fanbase back into awareness. New split single 'Same Song/Movie' has prompted a reasonble gathering at The Waterfront in Norwich tonight to witness one of the this youthful outfits exuberant live performances, and pre-gig the Farmers predict the age of tonight's mass with a knowing accuracy. Every gig is packed full of thirteen years olds!" , they cackle, before demonstrating the band's ascendacy to underground worship status by enlightening us of an act of lustful groupie committment. "Last night was a bit of a wierd one because there was this girl hanging around outside the venue" begins Will before being interrupted by Bernie. "She was really nice and came along and gave me letters and then we woke up this morning and she was still outside the venue and i was like 'Oh My God!' and I asked her where she stayed and she was like, 'Oh I live here' and I was like 'phew!'. She was OK and stuff but just a little attached". Will laughs and adds, "At first she was saying that she had nowhere to stay and we were like 'Fuck!', but it good to get some variety in our audience, heh heh". . The two glance amusingly at each other and the lure of this band whose independent ages barely exceed twenty becomes quite prominent. These guys look and act like all your mates, goofing around in a grunge band, enjoying relating tales of groupie madness, getting pissed and having a laugh. They are unbothered by potential success.
Yet this is no ordinary garage band. This mob are superb punky-grunge-pop with a mountain of gorgeous melodica injected into each tune, meaning that they sound like the bastard offspring of The Pixies and Tripping Daisy. None of this is surprising as Bernie weaned himself on a diet of Velvet Underground and early-nineties plaid-shirt wearing long-haired rockers. "They just had that magic thing. When you see a great band live you just sort of fall in love with them, like when I saw Tripping Daisy. It made me go and buy their album and then their other albums and that's what makes a band so great, really". The sound of the now defunct American punk-poppers may not be so conspicious on new single 'Same Song' but there is certainly echos of some self-pitying grunge wallowing in the tracks downcast and reflective lyrics; 'Same day/ Same song/ I feel no-one/ Lets burn our skin and eat our fingers', for example. As Bernie so imaginatively offers; "It's a pretty sad song about something which I'm not going to tell you about". Gee thanks! But why opt for a double A-side single? "Well the camp was split", Bernie explains. "Our record company is fantastic (Beggars Banquet who apparently signed the band for heaps of cash) and they said 'Well why don't you do a double A-side?. The songs are a really good contrast to each other". When pressed to reveal what movie roles they would leap at tackling they answer disappointingly. "Extra's probably! Something really nice and easy!". Tsk, lazy grungers, eh? In another shocking attempt at a pun I ask then which 'same old songs' (geddit!?) they listen to over and over as a soundtrack to their lives, ahem. Bernie professes a love for The Rolling Stones 'Paint It Black' and Will chirpily offers "Our own!" , Well ,you've got to I suppose.
Nearly eighteen months since the critically acclaimed demolision that was 'Dead Letter Chorus' was released, the bands are preparing their as yet untitled notoriously difficult second album. Will explains. We've recorded half the album now and this time we have experiented a bit more. Before we didn't really know a lot about the studio and we only knew how to play the songs, but this time we know about such things more". Bernie takes over again, being rather vague. The new single single is more representative of both types of whatever it is. We don't just do the rock thing all the time, we have a few softer ones. I like both of the single tracks, but on the whole this band started off as a loud guitar band and it always will be". Now you have your collective experiences behind you do you regret anything about the first album which you made at sixteen years old? Yeah, they are all kinda personal things that each of us got wrong and were too stubborn or obnoxious about to change" , says Bernie before Will adds; It's difficult to be objective about it when all the tracks were writted when we were so young. It is a bit cheesey but it's our own fault for putting it out". And what do you think of the other young rock hopefuls trying to get some attention? "I went to see My Vitriol and JJ72 but I was too drunk by the bar to watch them properly" , giggles Will. I like Twist, Silverchair are doing their own thing and Angelica I haven't really hear although I have met them. Twist are really in your face and loud all the time though, which is good". So have the Llama Farmers ever decided that their true destination should be at the back of seminar room in Aberyswyth, Bernie? "Nah, things would have to be pretty dire. I was going to do English Language and Creative writing, though". "I'd probably be singing on", laughs Will.
Just as well the band have been presented with a golden opportunity by their record label and are maximising their talents to the full, then. With the second album to be completed and polished, the Llama Farmers will probably be relying on ticket and t-shirt sales for a while yet, escaping the education system's claws. Booze. groupies and tuns, it's a cliched but fine rock 'n' roll life for Llama lovers.
Metal has made somewhat of a startling comeback in the last year. Spotting a red boiler suit at twenty yards has never been so easy. In fact, the success of whingey-whiney American psycho-lad-rock pseudo hip-hop nu-metal acts has rather overshadowed our equally aggressive homegrown talent. So dischard the obligatory trouser-chains! Burn the beastly baseball caps! Showing your underwear is still allowed though because the British bands do it! Slipknot and Limp Bizkit, your time is up, make way for Breed 77, Raging Speedhorn and Earthtone 9! Not forgetting upcoming rockers Kill 2 This. We don't try and compete with American bands which a lot of British bands do. We're not trying to sound like Korn or Deftones, we're just doing what we like doing, I guess" , says a surly Matt, singer with this religion-obsessed, back-to-basics hard-rocking Manchester-based outfit.
By all accounts, Kill 2 This offer a not altogther uncommon alternative to the odious Bizkit phenomenon that continues to sweep the nations. Look around in the underground circles and some absolutely blinding bands emerge from the undergrowth, playing some damn fine straight and passionate hardcore-metal. Kill 2 This are an example of committment to music rather than commerical marketting, whatever you think of their slightly dated sound. The introduction to their new album, 'Trinity: Voodoo, Vice and The Virgin Mary' is "This is not some kind of sick fashion parade. This is art. This is emotion. This is religion. This is Kill 2 This". No, that wasn't made up.
Matt is dressed in casual combats and a t-shirt emblazoning his own bands name, so that matches the introduction at least. So what of this surge in British aggression then, Matt? "I think there are a few bands bubbling under", he muses. "I don't think it is as mainstream as it is in America, it's all very underground in Britain, although there are some good bands" And do these bands share any sense of unity? "I think they do to a certain degree, I know there is a big hardcore scene, and we are all good friends with Earthtone 9 (superb noise terrorists supporting Kill 2 This on their current UK trek) and One Minute Silence (rubbish noise terrorists not supporting Kill 2 This) , so I guess you could say there is a little bit of togetherness, and also a bit of rivalry as well". Matt pauses before praising some of these British comtemporaries. "I like Breed 77 and their new direction and Raging Speedhorn are really heavy". He's not heard the fantastic Stoopi, but we'll forgive him that.
Kill 2 This have yet to be as warmly embraced by the British metal press and they have yet to be spun on the decks of the Mary Ann Hobbs Radio 1 Rock Show (at the time of writing!), despite the bands growing collective output. The debut from the KIll 2 This crew was 'Another Cross II Bear' three years back, with the lairy and scary bassist Mark Mynett the only surviving member from those times. The more electoncia influences 'Deviate' followed, and now we arrive at 'Trinity...', a collision of pounding beats and crushingly heavy guitars. With the acquistion of singer Matt, the blue-haired bassist Caroline Campbell and tub-thrasher Ben Calvery, things have begun to smoothen out considerably, with fans more eager to support the band than the press. Things have been going really well, the attendances have been really good at the gigs. We're pretty happy and hopefully things are going to continue that way".
With the new solid material just unleashed into the stores, the safe prediction is that the Kill 2 This profile will lift. Achievement wasn't always as forthcoming, however. This album was three-times as hard to make as 'Deviate', Matt sighs, lloking like he might be a little stressed about something, and if the lengthy mobile phone conversation he has post-interview is anything to go by, this is certainly the case. We used the same studio, the same producer and had the same amount of time but everything just went wrong. We were all pretty tired from rehearsing and touring, and consequently it was a really hard album to get right". Thankfully, a smile creeps across his face when speaking of the finished product. "The songs are certainly more organic and contain less samples and technology, and these songs are a lot more live based, whereas before there was a lot of the 'deviate' songs that we could not perform live". Live, Kill 2 This are energetic and entertaining, working up the disappointingly sparse Norwich crowd into an intense mosh. This reception is almost certainly down to the new material. We've been really happy with the response we have been getting from the people. We have played a lot of these venues before, supporting bands that were headlining, and there has always been a lot of people turning up to see us. I think it is just a reflection of the hard work we have put in in the past. The new material is going down really well, we have played a few of the songs before to the hardcore Kill 2 This fans, so some of them know the new stuff already".
A sure sign of success is the career highlights coming in thick and fast. First it was recording with Fear Factory's big-lunged vocalist Burton C Bell and then teaming up with My Ruin frontwoman Tairrie B. Following this was the ultamite treat - supporting Slipknot no less. We played a few shows with Tairrie and she was just the nicest person, we had a lot of fun. Slipknot were amazing though. We supported them in December and they asked us back out again last month. They are a really cool band and are just really professional, they blew me away every night". Er, sod the professionalism, are they as mental as they claim? Yeah, they are actually, they are all so brilliant and down to earth as people, but put them on stage and you get the alter-egos, do you know what I mean?"
Matt goes on to breifly mention about how he his ultamite plan is purely make "good music and not to sell out in any way" . He plans to vote Labour in the next election, claims to have never been in a fight ever, confesses to being an introvert and begins a rant on the evils of Mel C. I just hate her voice, I really don't like it, and she always pisses me off when I see her on the TV, she just seems so false. I can appreciate what most people do, but not Mel C. Indie make-over not fooling this chap, then.
And with that Matt offers me the handshake and scurry's off to jabber at length on the phone whilst we comtemplate a serious night's moshing.