INME - CARLING ACADEMY - 20/05/04

Phil (Smash) - So we?re backstage here at the Islington academy, is there anything you ever find scary about playing London?

Simon ? It?s always called the BLS (the big London show) because you always get the people from the record company coming down and the people in the suits at the back thinking ?we?ve put loads of money into you, now entertain us?. Apart from that, we just treat it like any other show, you can never see anything because there are so many lights infront of you, so you go out there, and just blast it, then come off stage and collapse.

P - So how?s the tour going overall, you?ve sold tons of tickets for this show, tonight?s show is completely sold out and I believe tomorrow is too, is this a sign of things to come?

S - I hope so! I think our first ever tour sold out every night, which was an amazing thing. It?s a great feeling knowing you?ve got fans that are dedicated coming back every time, so after the gigs, we always go out and do a ?meet and greet? kind of thing, every night we go and sign everyone?s autographs.

P - You recorded the follow up to ?Overgrown Eden? with Josh Abraham who?s worked with Staind and Orgy, why did you choose LA and what made you choose Josh?

S - Well we?d been doing a few demo sessions around the UK, and then we sent all our stuff to a few producers and Josh came back to us saying he would really like to do it, plus we like the stuff he?s done in the past, and it seemed like a good idea. LA?s the perfect place really, any chance to get out of the country and spend two months in the sun! But I think going to America definitely brought a new perspective to the music. I mean, we?re a British band with a British sound but in order to break America you?ve got to have the big production, and its only in America you can get that kind of thing. There are some good producers here, but the best of them are in America, they have to be the biggest and best about everything.

P - How did you adjust to the LA lifestyle?

S - Well I'm not really good with heat, so I got bothered by it, so I generally spent most of my time inside, like in the studio.

P - What was the most memorable moment of recording the album?

Joe - It was all a bit of a blur, but I think the most memorable bits were going out and partying. Well we spent so much time writing the album that when we went out there it was pretty much just getting what we wrote down and experimenting. I mean there are obviously moments where you sit there and think ?shit that sounds great?. We had a jeep that we were driving around, so it was pretty cool just waking up in the morning, slapping on a new mix of the album and driving through LA! It was cool.

P - So Overgrown Eden exceeded all expectations, and it must have cost you a fortune to record the new record, does this ever make you feel pressured at all?

J - Obviously with people who do the business and math, there?s going to be pressure there because they don?t spend money just to see it go, but for a band if you make the decision that you want to do it and you want to do it right and you want to do it exactly how you want to do it then you have to be prepared and we approached it with ?we?re going to make a record that we like? and if no one buys it then we still have a record that we love. We?d rather that than conform to what everyone wants us to do. I think we thought that there?s always going to be pressure because of the first album, it turned peoples heads, and I think even if we?d gone somewhere else to do it, we?d still have a lot of pressure because it would be the second album, and we might as well try and do it as big as we can.

P - So what can fans expect to hear from the new album in terms of progression?

J- I think they are really going to have to sit down and if they liked the first one kind of aclimatise to the fact that we?ve changed. There has very much been a change. In a sense that we?re just taping more diverse stuff now. The first one was a very raw in your face record, and this time we?ve grown, experienced the record industry, we just wanted to go out and make a bigger and better record that has more songs on it. There are a lot
more softer songs on the record, when we?ve gone for soft it?s really soft and when we?ve gone for heavy we?ve really tried to make it heavy. There are violins, glockenspiels, and kettledrums, everything's there!
 

P ? You released ?faster the chase? which is your first
single from the new album. What made you choose that as the first single?
 

J - It?s a good representation of the album, its kind of a midway point. - Its kind of funny really because in every song we purposely made a point, and no song is going to sound the same, so it was hard when we sat down and thought, well how do you advertise an album with one song? Can we just chop 12 songs into little bits and use each? So it?s a midway point. It?s a good starting point. We want people to think ok, well that?s what the first single sounds like, when the second single comes out we?re sure it will surprise them, it?s a totally different song. We are trying to build up the idea that there are a few different things on there. That?s the hope anyway!
 

P - Will you be planning a big headline tour for this release?

J - Err... I don't know how big but I'm sure we'll do a tour, that's what we're planning to do.