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Smash Music: Lee
Eden Maine: Adam (Singer)
Lee: Hi Adam, How?s it going? You?re coming to the end of your tour aren?t you?
Adam: We?re like half way through; we finish on the 10th June.
Lee: How?s it going? Are you starting to feel it a bit?
Adam: Yeah, we?ve played some weird places like Weston-Super-Mare.
Lee: Yeah, I saw that. You don?t really think of that as a rock town. How did
you go down?
Adam: I think there were like, 40 or 50 people there which I was quite happy
with to be honest. I didn?t expect anyone to be there really, we?ve played a lot
of towns we haven?t done before. And because we don?t get much advertising or
anything a lot of it is just word of mouth. So yeah, it was cool.
Lee: You seem to do a lot of your PR Yourself. You just stick yourself on the
road and go for it.
Adam: Yeah, we do. We just like to keep touring to be honest. We try hard
but we don?t really fit in with how metal bands kinda sound at the moment. The
whole metallic Killswitch thing, it kind of means that you have to work a bit
harder to get peoples attention.
Lee: How would you class yourself?
Adam: We get all sorts; prog-core, err, I don?t know actually. We?re
definitely into the more atmospheric kind of vibe.
Lee: Are you the kind of band that wants to be cult underground heroes or do you
want to be really big?
Adam: We?ve always had big aspirations and stuff.
Lee: Your music fills space if you know what I mean, like it could fill a
stadium.
Adam: that?s what we aim for in a way. I think our new album (To You the
First Star) is a lot less metal and more epic like. We want to put in strings
and get really pretentious.
Lee: You started off quite hardcore. Have you won/lost fans along the way?
Adam: I think you do both actually, like all bands do. The album was quite
different to what we were doing before so we lost fans and because it took so
long to release the album.
Lee: What was it? Label trouble?
Adam: It as that and it just took a long time. Phil, one of the guitarists
joined just as the EP was being done. So, when it came to writing again, both
the guitarists had to gel. We wrote loads of songs that we scrapped, just until
we were really happy with something. Not just song, song, song but something
that flowed. Errr and I think it does?.kind of.
Lee: Yeah, did it come out in February?
Adam: I think it did, mid-February or something.
Lee: You seem to get good press in the rock magazines, Kerrang! & Metal Hammer
etc...
Adam: Yeah, those and we had like 9/10 in Rock Sound.
Lee: It must be pretty cool to see that after working so hard?
Adam: Yeah, it was wicked. I mean, it?s a lot harder being an English band
than an American one, like trying to get people to come to your shows and stuff.
Lee: Like Weston-Super-Mare?
Adam: Yeah, exactly. So its cool, we just have fun playing the stuff. It can
be kinda depressing going to shows and playing to like 10 people, but you?ve got
to try and be positive and stuff.
Lee: Well, you start to build up a fan base that way, especially as if you don?t
get much coverage.
Adam: Yeah, you?ve just got to keep going basically. Keep touring and
hopefully in the end people will start to take notice.
Lee: I?m sure they will.
Adam: Yeah.
Lee: Didn?t you have Kurt Ballou produce your EP but Andrew Schneider do the
album. Why the change?
Adam: Kurt was more the hardcore kind of shit. We just wanted someone that
could make it much more?errrm?big.
Lee: How did you approach him?
Adam: Just emailed him and said like ?Do you want to do it!? and he was like
?yeah?.
Lee: That easy. Cool.
Adam: It just took us so long trying to find a producer; we talked to Matt
Balsh for a while. But we were really happy in the end. There were things that
were changed but I guess there always is. But yeah, it was really cool; he tried
to capture the more big vibe sort of thing.
Lee: You?ve had support slots with Lost Prophets and Sepultura. What was it like
playing to Sepultura fans?
Adam: There were like two shows in Dublin, one in Belfast and one in
Londonderry. They were like old metallers really; there were young guys who were
into it and stuff. We sold loads of merch so it was cool. See with things like
that you don?t need that much of a percentage of the people to be into you to
make a difference. Cos, when you?re playing to 1000 people, its just kind of, if
you just get say 5% of the people there, it really helps.
Lee: Being on the road so often must burn a hole in the pocket?
Adam: Yeah, we all try and do this full time, so it?s like; I?ve earned
?1000 this year. So, it?s like fucking skint. We just try and work between tours
and stuff. I wouldn?t want to do anything else; I don?t want to sound like a
moaner. We love doing it. I just wouldn?t mind having some money to spend.
Lee: Give it a couple of years and the big bucks will start to roll in.
Adam: Exactly.
Lee: Download and all that?
Adam: Ah, that would be amazing.
Lee: Are you playing any festival this year?
Adam: Yeah, the Bukanskit festival. We?ve played it before. There are some
good bands on there. This Girl are headlining our stage, then us. On the main
stage there?s Skith, Raging Speedhorn, Biffy Clyro. Loads of big bands and
another big headliner to be announced?
Lee: Excellent.
Adam: It should be good. Really good.
Lee: You?ve got another tour after this haven?t you? With UnderOath?
Adam: Next week, yeah.
Lee: How did that come about?
Adam: We just like got offered it, It sucks because we?re having to swap
some of our shows for that, which isn?t a very cool thing to do, but the guy
that booked us in for this has put us in venues far too big. So, I feel bad but
sometimes you just have to take some chances when they come along. There are so
many bands out there fighting for everything. After that we?re back to Europe,
America??just keep touring.
Lee: How do you get on in the states?
Adam: We haven?t been there yet. Europe we do really well in. Germany?s
cool, France is good and the Dutch are cool. America is obviously the ideal
place, so hopefully??yeah, so its gigs all over and then to get writing again.
Lee: Got any singles planned?
Adam: We?re doing a video soon, for one of our tracks on the album, ?Hunter
and the Hunted? I think. We?ll have to probably edit it down a bit to try and
get it played.
Lee: Are you gonna go down the Metallica route and wear make up and eye liner
for your first video?
Adam: Ha, ha, yeah we?re gonna do a documentary as well, a rockumentary on
the trails of being in a band for the past 4 years.
Lee: You?ve got a best selling book there as well.
Adam: Yeah.
Lee: Looking forward to tonight?
Adam: Yeah, should be good, hopefully they?ll be people in there.
Lee: It?s starting to fill up a bit now.
Adam: It was like this last time we were here, people trickled in slowly and
you think there?s no one here but you go up stairs and it?s full. Its weird in
London sometimes, we had like 120 people here before.
Lee: Is it Welwyn Garden City you?re from?
Adam: St Albans, it?s just near there. We?re all scattered about really.
It?s a cool town I guess, we?ve played with a few good bands there.
Lee: Cool, well thank you for your time.
Adam: No worries, cheers.
interviewed
by
Lee
Puddefoot
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