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Smash Music: Lee
Young Heart Attack: Steven Hall (Bass) & Frenchie (guitar)
Lee: So guys, how?s it going? How?s England treating you?
Frenchie: Sensational man, it?s the first gig of this tour. Its really not part
of an album release or anything, it?s us reconnecting with some old friends and
hardcore fans you know.
Steven: It?s a breeze being here, it?s great. We just left Austin, which is
already having 100 degree weather. Strolling off the boat, you know, feeling
like a Brit, you know, it?s great.
Lee: How do your gigs at your home town (Austin, Texas) compare to here in
London?
Frenchie: The gigs at home are really subject to? err. It?s a small city in
general you know, so there?s a lot of entertainment going on. So it?s very
subject to what competition is on. If Spoon are playing on the same night or
Nine Inch Nails, it could be like across the street, so like 2,500 seaters and
200 seaters are neck and neck.
I?d say there are a lot of great Austin bands that we tend to play with, it?s
usually the same crew and cats we play with. It?s always really good because,
when you control the venues, the entertainment for the night, you?re many feet
ahead. They?re the kind of gigs you like to do, in theory.
The further you are from home, you?re part of tours and you can?t always control
what band you?re gonna play with. Usually on tour we?re pretty lucky with who we
play with. We?re playing with Tokyo Dragons tonight, Steven contacted them.
Steven: Yeah, we?re known them for a while, in some form or another. We?ve seen
each other around at shows. It?s like a gig that should have gone down about 2
years ago but finally?..
On this gig we didn?t have a support act at all. Some people were calling saying
like ?what about this, what about that?. We were like ?no, no, no, no? and
finally just arranged this.
Lee: Didn?t you guys have the Glitterati supporting you last time you were in
London?
Frenchie: Yeah, I think that was around September.
Steven: Yeah, about the last day of August it was. They played with us a handful
of dates and at the Reading Festival.
Frenchie: Yeah, that was fun. Those guys were cool.
Lee: So, are you in the studio now? Working on new material?
Steven: Yeah, we?ve been doing hi-fi demos for the new record, we?re actually
going to play about 5 of these tonight. It?s kinda also the point of this tour.
We thought; just bring it on the road.
Lee: Is it a similar sound to what you?ve got already? The AC/DC, Motorhead
and glam rock thing?
Steven: To a degree.
Frenchie: We think we have a sound that we?ve established. There?s a performance
level that we want each song to get to, like an energy level. I think that?s
outset in all our songs.
Steven: We?re also highlighting Jennifer?s voice a little more than the first
album. It?s still mostly 50/50 but the first album she wasn?t on it a lot, now
she?s really singing great. We?ve written stuff she?s a little more featured on.
Frenchie: It?s definitely still loud as shit.
Lee: You guys have had really good press, particularly magazines like Kerrang!
But the last album (Mouthful of Love) didn?t quite do it commercially. How was
that, have you just thought, fuck it we?re gonna carry on doing our thing?
Frenchie: The thing is, good rock music is really, naturally commercial, because
it?s something that a lot of people can relate to. It?s not as intelligent as
maybe a lot of current music. I mean, you don?t have to understand fractions of
music factions; it?s like, if it has that cavemen beat, a lot of people can
relate to it.
Lee: Good time music?
Frenchie: Yeah.
Steven: If we start thinking in terms of commercializing ourselves or trying to
make a record that?s gonna get you hits, you really start fucking up.
Frenchie: It?s kind of a weird place to come from. Of course we do like being
liked, it?s nice to play to 100 people versus like none.
Lee: Is there one gig that stands out for being totally amazing?
Frenchie: There was a gig in Spain, a festival, what was it?
Steven: Festi-Mad.
Frenchie: Festi-Mad yeah, just outside of Madrid. It was, I don?t know if we
played exceptionally well, but there was this field that kind of drifted off to
a river. Then right before we played it looked a little dead.
It was between this other stage that had all these heavy hitters on it, Pixies,
you name it and right before we played, it filled up. There was like 5 or 6
thousand people out there and all of a sudden the native townsmen - I mean, even
the people that were handling us from our record company had broken English, we
did this interview and it was like Mayor Quimby in the Simpson?s, you know, we
had translators crowed in this tent and one person asked a question and it had
to be translated ? but to see 50 people deep dude, singing along?.
Steven: Knowing the lyrics.
Lee: That must be quite a feeling?
Frenchie: That was an amazing day.
Steven: High Five in Melbourne, 2nd night yeah, in March. We did a gig with the
D4 & Dallas Cray?s. That gig, all the way round on the bill, incredible. The 2
gigs at Brixton Academy (London) with the Darkness during the Health Hazard
tour, that was cosmic.
Lee: Quite entertaining guys?
Frechie: That was fun to play with them, they were extremely on fire.
Lee: So tonight. Are you ready o rock out?
Steven: Absolutely.
Frenchie: Hell yeah!
interviewed
by
Lee
Puddefoot
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