Various music news features cropped up every so often on the Native.tv website. Here's a handful I managed to salvage.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
ABOUT - LIVE EARTH
You're going to be hearing an awful lot about Live Earth soon, if you haven't already. All the newspapers are talking about this. But what exactly is going on?
It’s a big concert!
Indeed it is. It will be held on July 7th, which number fans will notice is 07/07/07. Confirmed for the UK leg at Wembley Stadium are Red Hot Chili Peppers, Snow Patrol, Bloc Party, Duran Duran, Beastie Boys, Black Eyed Peas, Corinne Bailey Rae, Madonna, Razorlight, James Blunt and Foo Fighters. The Police have reformed to play the US gig.
Isn’t it another Live 8?
Er, not quite. Live 8 raised awareness of poverty. Live Earth is set to raise awareness of climate change. It’s not out to raise money like other charity telethons - it’s meant to help educate us on what is happening global-warming wise; what potential dangers are there and what we can do to help.
Do concerts not use electricity etc then?
Ha ha ha. You cynics. Live Earth is aiming to be unique amongst giant, resources-guzzling gigs by using greener, carbon-neutral methods of transport and 'eco-friendly' electricity. Organisers hope it will set a precedent for future events.
Where is it being held?
The UK leg (as we just said) will be at Wembley Stadium. But this will be a 24 hour gig thanks to various time zones and a hell of a lot of organising. Other shows will be in Brazil (Rio de Janeiro), Australia (Sydney), USA (New Jersey), South Africa (Johannesburg), and Japan (Tokyo).
Who’s the brains behind it?
Kevin Wall, founder of SOS (Save Our Selves) and Worldwide Executive Producer of Live 8. Now there’s a job title to have on your CV. Also a certain Mr Al Gore, former US Vice President and a frequent campaigner for combating global warming. Seen his film ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ yet?
Save Our What Now?
SOS, or Save Our Selves, is all about starting a mass movement to combat our climate crisis (says the website blurb). The more the merrier, as it were. They believe the problems caused by global warming can only be addressed by us, and it has to be on a mass scale to make any significant difference.
“SOS is more than a distress call. The most important part is how people respond. As we move forward, SOS will not only issue the call, but will provide the solutions individuals, corporations, governments and the world can use in answering it.”
So there.
So how do I get a ticket?
Hold your horses. Sadly you can't just nip out and buy one. First of all you have to register your details at this address. You’ve got from noon on Friday April 13th until Monday April 16th (again at noon) to do this.
Those who register will then go into a ballot. The lucky chosen few will be sent a reference number and ticket hotline details by Wednesday April 18th. This will allow them to purchase one pair of tickets – providing they do so before Friday April 20th.
Tickets are £55 each.
I’m not paying that!
Fear not, you can help save the environment in marginally cheaper ways. Spend the money on some energy-saving light bulbs. Look into carbon offsetting when you have to fly. If flying’s not necessary then take the train, you can get some good deals booking in advance. Don’t forget to recycle all those bits of card and paper you were going to throw out.
I want more information
Oh, do you. Well try these links:
Live Earth - the official site
Alliance For Climate Protection – doing their best to educate the public on climate change and what can be done
MSN - They’ll be streaming the concert live
Control Room – owned by Kevin Wall. Watch online concerts
RecycleNow – about recycling at home
Climate Care – includes carbon footprint calculator
The Royal Society – science behind climate change
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ABOUT - SOUTH COAST IDOL
South Coast Idol is a music talent contest. After a series of exciting heats, the finals are rapidly approaching us, like a runaway train (but less dangerous). Let's tell you a little more about what's happening...
South Coast Idol? Where’s Simon Cowell?
Strangely enough, Simon Cowell does not run every single music talent contest. Neither does Louis Walsh.
So what’s this about?
Actually it’s the biggest music talent contest in the UK outside of ‘X Factor’. Unsigned bands, singer/songwriters, groups and solo artists. By mid-January, some 10,000 had registered.
There are two categories – under 17s, and old people (aka over 17s). Entrants have a short time to impress the judges. A lucky few will be invited to perform at the regional semi finals, and an even luckier few will be attending the finals. Last year, the finals sold out.
What does the winner get?
A very welcome management contract and a £20,000 advance.
Who are the judges/celebrity acts?
The judges and celebrity acts at each heat vary, but have included Mark Hill (ex-Artful Dodger), DJ Terry Mills, Musical Youth, 4Tune, Steve Brookstein, and the lovely Cheryl Baker. The shows also attract a healthy number of industry professionals who lurk around looking for the next big thing.
This time round, adult heat winners were Blue Soul Pharmacy (Croydon), Chris Pugh (Lymington), Loaded Dice (Shepperton), Moontown (Dorchester), Sam Harding (Bristol), Sarah Covey (Swindon).
Youth heat winners were Delleile Ankrah (Liverpool), Fizz Reynolds (Waterlooville), Hardy Heroes (Portsmouth), Jay Orme (Kingston), Michelle Nunn (Kent), Sam Smith (Cambridgeshire) and Spite (Devizes).
There were also a large number of triumphant runners-up, who we won't list here (nothing personal, just due to space restrictions).
I don’t want to enter but it sounds interesting.
That’s why there are heats, so you can go along, lend your ears and support local talent. The heats also feature surprise celebrity performances.
I’m not a Southerner.
Next year the competition will be going national. Regional heats are being planned for Birmingham, Bradford, Brighton, Cardiff, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Guildford, Leeds, Liverpool, London (North), London (South), Manchester, Portsmouth, Reading, Sheffield and Southampton.
The next round of auditions begins in November, so get practising. You can register now.
Can you tell me about the final?
Yes we can. It’s at Portsmouth Guildhall on Saturday 26th May. Actually there are two, an afternoon showcase for the under 17s and an evening showcase for the over 17s. The afternoon one will include performances from Eton Road, Ben Mills and Lee from Steps. The evening one will include performances from East 17, Gilkicker, Dane Bowers and Mark Hill.
Tickets are £17, or £22 for front row seats. Cheapskates – sorry, we mean ‘early-birds’ – can get tickets for £15 up to and including 30th April. Get them from the Guildhall website or call the box office on 02392 824355.
I want to find out more.
See the official website for more information and pictures.
Monday, 26 May 2008
Moz Satire
Way back in 2005/2006, a website briefly existed; yes, even more briefly than Native.tv. This was called True To Yew, a website specialising in what the writers (if not anyone else) believed was sparkling sarcasm, made up facts, cheeky wit, various insults, satire to make you snort your Earl Grey through your nostrils, and a distinct lack of sensible news about the Man, the Myth, the Morrissey.
The owners came up with a list of suggested articles and various people chose which to do. However the site also contained various dodgy artworks, one of which appeared to show Morrissey threatening to engage in some unsporting and illicit activities with young choir boys. I believe it was this piece which caused some lawyers to slap some faces; perhaps Moz himself got involved, anyway the site was taken down with not a word from the owners and it was barely mentioned again.
If The Law have some issues with me putting my words up here, let me know and they will be taken down immedietely, although I don't think my stuff was inflammatory. I bear no malice. I still enjoy a nice slice of Morrissey, but don't hang around his internet communities because I quite frankly don't feel intelligent enough. Lastly, I tip my hat to Private Eye, for Hislop and co are so clever it makes me weep.
Almost News - January 1st 2006
It could have made the papers. It should have made it on Morrissey-Solo. You’ll never find it on MorrisseyMusic. It’s ALMOST news.
Person Almost Writes Story About Morrissey Without Mentioning His Sexuality Or The Smiths
Oh, shit.
************************
Moz Slams Know-All Fans
Rock hunk Morrissey today criticised his fans for not telling everyone where he’s living.
Morrissey said he was irritated that people who proclaim to know everything about him still haven’t managed to put his address on the Internet. Since moving from Los Angeles fans have been clueless where to hunt him down, and he thinks they aren’t trying hard enough.
“I won’t rest until my current address is announced far and wide across the Internet,” said Moz. “I was so happy when my last one was. Especially if it’s accompanied by people discussing my current taste in soft furnishings, neighbours, and which side of my front door the milk is delivered to.”
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People Travelled To Rome And Didn’t See Morrissey
A tourist came back from his holiday in Rome today having not seen Morrissey once during his trip.
“Well I went to Rome with my wife for two weeks,” said Mr. Johnson, 55. “We went to the Coliseum - it’s absolutely stunning, by the way. I couldn’t believe how huge it was. Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day! - and we had a splendid trip to a traditional pizzeria. My wife went shopping and spent a lot of our money in the Via del Babuino. But whoever this Morrissey chap is, I certainly didn’t see him. Sorry to waste your time.”
************************
People Travelled To Rome And Thought They Saw Morrissey, But They Didn’t
“Do you know,” said Amy P. (aged 22), “that I saw Moz standing in Gucci! So of course I followed him round Rome for a couple of days. I mean, if it’s Morrissey, that’s what you do isn’t it! But after trailing him round a building site on several occasions, I realised he was simply a rich and handsome engineer with a bit of a quiff. Sorry to waste your time. But he did look a little like Morrissey.”
************************
More People Travelled To Rome And Thought etc etc etc
Tourists Rich and Bob were stood outside an attractive cafe on a Roman piazza when they saw a man inside wearing a hat and eating a sandwich.
“My heart skipped a beat - it was Morrissey!” said Bob. “Eating a ham sandwich too! Or so I thought. So we went in and tried to speak to him. When he took his hat off he had blonde hair, which we thought was a bit of a disguise to keep the fans away.”
“And he spoke with a strong German accent,” continued Rich. “He kept asking us to let him eat his lunch in peace, but we wouldn’t leave until he’d signed a few autographs.”
“Now you mention it,” said Bob, “he didn’t really look like Morrissey at all. But what a close shave, eh? What if it had really been him! Sorry to waste your time though.”
to be continued on every Morrissey website across the world ever
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December 2005
Whyte Brain Slur To Web Users
Guitarist insults fans with song dedication
Alain Whyte has stunned the Moz internet community after making inappropriate remarks at a gig.
As he opened the show for his steel band Red Lightning, Whyte announced he was dedicating the first song ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ to users of Morrissey Solo.
Eyewitness reports say that the guitarist was not booed or stoned off stage because half of the crowd was fuming in a shocked silence. The other half of the crowd was trying to understand what had just been said.
A few days later, the Morrissey-Solo forum was buzzing with activity as users posted their criticism. Most of the comments were along the lines of “Bastard,” “Thoughtless turd,” and “I don’t believe it… surely this is made up?”
One user tried to sum up everyone else’s reaction with a well-thought out and eloquent defence of Whyte.
“Surely Alain is entitled to his own opinions?” said the peacemaking poster.
“If it’s true then yes, his words were cruel and thoughtless, but such is the occasional pitfall with free speech. I suggest that everyone calms down and thinks of Voltaire: ‘I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.’
“I think ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ contains lyrics which are very relevant to everyone here. ‘I would not be just a nuffin’/ My head all full of stuffin’/ My heart all full of pain.’ We’ve all felt that, that’s why we turn to Morrissey.
“And maybe Alain had a point. I don’t mean to sound rude, but some posters on here can be a little bit mean.”
This user sadly met an unfortunate end a few days later. They were found having been repeatedly set alight, their house razed, their pets lawnmowered and their allotment raped. They had indeed defended to the death.
A message was subsequently posted the next day reading ‘Fuck Voltaire’, in the style of pleasantries usually followed by tolerant posters. As a result, this message sent their karma rating skyrocketing and they were instantly reborn as a cactus.
Alain Whyte himself has refused to comments on his comments, saying: “I refuse to comment.”
The band are set to release their first album soon. Morrissey fans are expected to send it soaring to number one on the Billboard because they might be insulted, but first and foremost they are collectors.
Red Lightning is named after a brand of super-strong cider beloved of hobos. The band members are Alain Whyte on guitar and trombone, John Dimambro on Hammond organ and harmonica, and Milo Todesco on beatbox.
The original ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ was written in anticipation of George W, Bush’s presidency; for further details, see the Internet.
Morrissey-Solo is a long running and highly informative website which provides fans with news and views on the world of Morrissey. Only a very small number of people have been killed for venting an alternative opinion on the forums; others choose to fake their own death after dropping their idiot selves right into it by talking rubbish.
The owners came up with a list of suggested articles and various people chose which to do. However the site also contained various dodgy artworks, one of which appeared to show Morrissey threatening to engage in some unsporting and illicit activities with young choir boys. I believe it was this piece which caused some lawyers to slap some faces; perhaps Moz himself got involved, anyway the site was taken down with not a word from the owners and it was barely mentioned again.
If The Law have some issues with me putting my words up here, let me know and they will be taken down immedietely, although I don't think my stuff was inflammatory. I bear no malice. I still enjoy a nice slice of Morrissey, but don't hang around his internet communities because I quite frankly don't feel intelligent enough. Lastly, I tip my hat to Private Eye, for Hislop and co are so clever it makes me weep.
Almost News - January 1st 2006
It could have made the papers. It should have made it on Morrissey-Solo. You’ll never find it on MorrisseyMusic. It’s ALMOST news.
Person Almost Writes Story About Morrissey Without Mentioning His Sexuality Or The Smiths
Oh, shit.
************************
Moz Slams Know-All Fans
Rock hunk Morrissey today criticised his fans for not telling everyone where he’s living.
Morrissey said he was irritated that people who proclaim to know everything about him still haven’t managed to put his address on the Internet. Since moving from Los Angeles fans have been clueless where to hunt him down, and he thinks they aren’t trying hard enough.
“I won’t rest until my current address is announced far and wide across the Internet,” said Moz. “I was so happy when my last one was. Especially if it’s accompanied by people discussing my current taste in soft furnishings, neighbours, and which side of my front door the milk is delivered to.”
************************
People Travelled To Rome And Didn’t See Morrissey
A tourist came back from his holiday in Rome today having not seen Morrissey once during his trip.
“Well I went to Rome with my wife for two weeks,” said Mr. Johnson, 55. “We went to the Coliseum - it’s absolutely stunning, by the way. I couldn’t believe how huge it was. Rome certainly wasn’t built in a day! - and we had a splendid trip to a traditional pizzeria. My wife went shopping and spent a lot of our money in the Via del Babuino. But whoever this Morrissey chap is, I certainly didn’t see him. Sorry to waste your time.”
************************
People Travelled To Rome And Thought They Saw Morrissey, But They Didn’t
“Do you know,” said Amy P. (aged 22), “that I saw Moz standing in Gucci! So of course I followed him round Rome for a couple of days. I mean, if it’s Morrissey, that’s what you do isn’t it! But after trailing him round a building site on several occasions, I realised he was simply a rich and handsome engineer with a bit of a quiff. Sorry to waste your time. But he did look a little like Morrissey.”
************************
More People Travelled To Rome And Thought etc etc etc
Tourists Rich and Bob were stood outside an attractive cafe on a Roman piazza when they saw a man inside wearing a hat and eating a sandwich.
“My heart skipped a beat - it was Morrissey!” said Bob. “Eating a ham sandwich too! Or so I thought. So we went in and tried to speak to him. When he took his hat off he had blonde hair, which we thought was a bit of a disguise to keep the fans away.”
“And he spoke with a strong German accent,” continued Rich. “He kept asking us to let him eat his lunch in peace, but we wouldn’t leave until he’d signed a few autographs.”
“Now you mention it,” said Bob, “he didn’t really look like Morrissey at all. But what a close shave, eh? What if it had really been him! Sorry to waste your time though.”
to be continued on every Morrissey website across the world ever
-----
December 2005
Whyte Brain Slur To Web Users
Guitarist insults fans with song dedication
Alain Whyte has stunned the Moz internet community after making inappropriate remarks at a gig.
As he opened the show for his steel band Red Lightning, Whyte announced he was dedicating the first song ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ to users of Morrissey Solo.
Eyewitness reports say that the guitarist was not booed or stoned off stage because half of the crowd was fuming in a shocked silence. The other half of the crowd was trying to understand what had just been said.
A few days later, the Morrissey-Solo forum was buzzing with activity as users posted their criticism. Most of the comments were along the lines of “Bastard,” “Thoughtless turd,” and “I don’t believe it… surely this is made up?”
One user tried to sum up everyone else’s reaction with a well-thought out and eloquent defence of Whyte.
“Surely Alain is entitled to his own opinions?” said the peacemaking poster.
“If it’s true then yes, his words were cruel and thoughtless, but such is the occasional pitfall with free speech. I suggest that everyone calms down and thinks of Voltaire: ‘I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend, to the death, your right to say it.’
“I think ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ contains lyrics which are very relevant to everyone here. ‘I would not be just a nuffin’/ My head all full of stuffin’/ My heart all full of pain.’ We’ve all felt that, that’s why we turn to Morrissey.
“And maybe Alain had a point. I don’t mean to sound rude, but some posters on here can be a little bit mean.”
This user sadly met an unfortunate end a few days later. They were found having been repeatedly set alight, their house razed, their pets lawnmowered and their allotment raped. They had indeed defended to the death.
A message was subsequently posted the next day reading ‘Fuck Voltaire’, in the style of pleasantries usually followed by tolerant posters. As a result, this message sent their karma rating skyrocketing and they were instantly reborn as a cactus.
Alain Whyte himself has refused to comments on his comments, saying: “I refuse to comment.”
The band are set to release their first album soon. Morrissey fans are expected to send it soaring to number one on the Billboard because they might be insulted, but first and foremost they are collectors.
Red Lightning is named after a brand of super-strong cider beloved of hobos. The band members are Alain Whyte on guitar and trombone, John Dimambro on Hammond organ and harmonica, and Milo Todesco on beatbox.
The original ‘If I Only Had A Brain’ was written in anticipation of George W, Bush’s presidency; for further details, see the Internet.
Morrissey-Solo is a long running and highly informative website which provides fans with news and views on the world of Morrissey. Only a very small number of people have been killed for venting an alternative opinion on the forums; others choose to fake their own death after dropping their idiot selves right into it by talking rubbish.
Interview - The Hours
I was pretty nervous before this started. When I was a teenager, Pulp were my favourite band. I was in the fan club and everything, but had never got around to seeing them. Antony Genn played with the band in the mid-1980s and I had been reading odd stories about him for about ten years, so this was pretty big for me. In the end he was lovely and chatty and even gave me a wink at the end. Martin was a little harder to draw out, but that's understandably normal if you're repeatedly being asked questions by a series of strangers. Oh and the bit where I said I saw them at the Great Escape - I was at the back by myself, couldn't see anything on stage because I'm short, got bored, drank too much and got sick. But I'm sure in other circumstances, they would be great.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE HOURS
The Hours are very talkative. I could have left the dictaphone and questions in front of them, returned half an hour later to collect and they probably wouldn’t have minded.
“I’m Martin from The Hours.”
“And I’m Antony Genn from The Hours. What do you do, Mart?”
“I play piano. What do you do Antony?”
“I sing, Martin. Like this.” They trill ‘Laaaaa!’ into the dictaphone. “Same note,” notices Antony.
“When it’s in tune, man.”
As they kindly introduced themselves, The Hours are indeed Martin Slattery and Antony Genn. We’re sat in a London pizza restaurant where they nipped to during the previous interview and have decided to stay because it’s far more comfortable than a boring office. They’re done eating, and Antony is currently ordering diet fizz to ‘get more hyper’. The band recently released ‘Ali In The Jungle’, a piece of dramatic pop designed to get the adrenaline pumping. Originally from Manchester (Martin) and Sheffield (Antony), the musical pair formed The Hours relatively recently after decades of playing in other bands. They're both friendly and jokey, and dressed in dark colours. Now they're sated on pizza and probably ready for a nap, it's time to dig out the question cards and get them chatting...
NEXT GIG YOU’RE GOING TO
Not necessarily one of your own. “Well actually we’re going to Summercase, because we’re playing there in Madrid on Friday, and there are lots of other bands playing there,” says Antony. “One of which is our good friend Mr Jarvis Cocker. So I presume that will be the next gig.”
“Probably will be, although you never can tell with festivals can you?” says Martin.
“No, but I would say that’s probably the gig we’re going to because he’s playing two after us on the same stage.”
“Only two? Is he not doing very well?” jokes Martin. “Can I pick the next question?”
FESTIVALS
“That’s not a question,” says Martin. “It’s a topic, Martin!” Antony protests. The band recently played three gigs at Glastonbury, including the Leftfield Tent and the John Peel Stage. According to Antony, the rain started pouring shortly before their Leftfield show so thousands crammed in to see them. The gig on the John Peel stage was the best gig they’ve ever played.
“It was really great, everyone was going for it.” He pauses to order a drink.
“There’s a lot of factors required for everyone to have a great gig,” explains Martin, “and they were all in place on that show.” Is mud one of the factors? “Do you know, not usually but in this case, it obviously was.”
“It seemed to work for us, the mud,” agrees Antony. Watching it on telly all the bands are so clean and everyone else was head to toe in mud. How did you manage it?
“You change into clothes,” says Antony with a big grin. You don’t say. “More suitable stage attire, moments before you go onstage.”
“Yeah, you should have seen us before we went onstage,” says Martin. They also recently played T in the Park and Oxegen, where they saw some great bands including Arcade Fire and Bright Eyes.
“We’re in no way festival virgins. We’ve been going to festivals for years but our band’s a festival virgin and it’s been nice to see a lot of people coming out and showing their appreciation,” says Martin. I think I saw The Hours at Brighton’s Great Escape but I was quite drunk and I don’t remember much about it. But I’m sure they were great. “You’re right, we were great,” confirms Antony with a smile.
MUSICAL PAST
Both Antony and Martin have played with some fantastic names before forming The Hours. They played together in Joe Strummer’s backing band The Mescaleros in the late 1990s and have plenty of gigging experience in other bands. Martin was “plucked from jazz obscurity in Manchester,” as he puts it, to play with Black Grape for a couple of years.
“I used to play in this club called The Band On The Wall in Manchester all the time when I was a teenager. When I went on the road with Black Grape I was about 19, and then I came back and there was a massive poster by the side of this club. The poster was a picture of every member of Black Grape and under my picture somebody had written ‘Traitor’.”
He laughs. Did you get a photo of yourself standing next to it? “I can’t believe I never did that! I would love to own that. I’ve got to say, I was quite shocked. I think it was probably just like a little joke really but you know how you get a little bit paranoid about those kind of things… it kind of freaked me out a little bit so I probably did my gig then went home and had a little cry!”
Antony was the bassist in Pulp for a while back in the Eighties, then graduated to playing other instruments for them. “When I was kind of a young lad and then when they got bigger I kind of went on tour with them and would play a bit of this and a bit of that, and maybe Jarv would want to play something on TV so I’d play guitar for him, I just had a general laugh really."
Antony and Martin also produced and remixed records for other people, like Ian Brown, Unkle and Queens of the Stone Age.“’Til we just realised that we were just giving our ideas away to other people and we might as well actually use them for ourselves,” says Martin. “Which obviously birthed The Hours...”
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO FORM THE HOURS?
“I think the reason why our band exists is ‘cause we spent a lot of time working with other admittedly great people, and we got to a point where we wanted to use our ideas for ourselves and not give them away. Unless you have your own band in this business, you’re always working for somebody else, whether you’re writing film music or whether you’re producing or writing, you’re always doing it for someone else. So we figured that the only way we could do it for ourselves was to form a band,” Martin continues.
Antony then took Martin to see Radiohead perform, which Martin says was “an amazing experience. And we played the one regret game. For me, that would have been to not be on stage with my mates playing my own songs.
“I’ve got to say, I’ve pretty much done all the things that I dreamed of doing when I was a kid. You know, the last one was doing it all again but with my own thing, so…”
Is there any reason you chose the name The Hours?
“It’s just a silly story really,” says Martin.“He was having some turf laid in his back garden and the turf guy said “Don’t stand on that for 48 hours.” So I said: “What about that, we could be called The 48 Hours,” explains Antony. You were this close to being called The Turf Guy. “Yeah. The Turf Dudes!” says Antony, while Martin laughs. “So eventually we just turned it from being The 48 Hours to just The Hours.”
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR SONGWRITING?
“I’ll quote Kraftwerk on this – from silence to everything,” says Anthony. “You know, everything inspires songwriting. Life on Planet Earth inspires songwriting. Watching TV inspires songwriting.”
“There’s a lot in the studio for us where we’ll be mic-ing up the drums and getting ready to record one song and then summat’ll happen, and then suddenly you’re on the road to another song. And that’s the greatest creative environment you could be in, where everyone’s free enough to allow themselves to smoothly move from one idea to another so you don’t lose out,” says Martin. “The idea that you’re working on you think might be an awesome one, it might be just that little scrap of someone falling on the piano that’s actually the great thing and if you don’t pursue it, you’re going to lose it. That’ll be a terrible thing.”
“Lyrically I’m inspired by real life,” says Antony. “Real emotions, real feelings. I mean I want to communicate in a very direct way with people, you know. I’m not into being shrouded in mystery, I’m not into being a ethereal, mysterious, middle-aged prophet, do you know what I mean? I want to tell it like it is and be direct about things. I think honesty is a dying trait on this planet. I think people build up an idea of what they want to be or what they think they should be, rather than saying ‘This is what I am, take it or leave it mate. What you see is what you get’.”
I think with the internet and sites such as MySpace it’s a lot easier now for someone to hide behind an image and you don’t always get to see the real person.
“I know people who make themselves out to be something that they’re not, and as you say it’s very easy to do that these days,” says Martin.
“It’s bullshit, you know," says Antony. "It’s like, what you do is inherent in who you are, but who are you? As far as the music is concerned we can be watching an advert and think: “That’s a good beat,” nick that beat and come in the next day. Like a magpie I’m always stealing. It’s the greatest artistic invention in the world, a collage. Nick a bit from there and a bit from there, sew it all together, put it in with a bit of salt, pepper, spinach, coriander, give it a stir. You got yourself your own little soup there."That’s the idea anyway,” he finishes.
Martin isn’t paying attention because he’s playing with his phone. “Kid dropped it in the mud at Glastonbury,” he says, trying to scrape some of the evidence off.
IF YOU WERE AN ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD YOU BE?
Sorry, I ran out of decent questions so I went a bit Smash Hits. “That’s all right, Smash Hits is good,” says Antony.
“It’s got to be cool to be a cat because you can just do what the hell you want,” says Martin, then admitting he hates his cats because they act like dogs and pester him. That’s very odd, because my dog’s a bit like a cat.
“The world is going bonkers, man! Not only is it July and it’s raining, but your dog’s like a cat and my cats are like dogs.” It’s pretending to be something it’s not. “Has it got a MySpace, your dog? My cats must have. Little fuckers. So yeah, cats. Cool cats.”
After much deliberation, Antony decides on a killer whale. “You know, kind of cool, smart, generally quite a laugh and playful but would just fucking tear you in two at the drop of a hat. Nice and cuddly, a bit Free Willy style, but there is a twisted dark side that could leave a lot of blood and mess.”
WILD REPUTATION
“A perfect lead on,” says Martin. This is mostly for Antony – type his name into Google and you get an interesting variety of stories come up, from his naked streak during Elastica’s set at Glastonbury – he then landed a job as their keyboardist, although it’s not something we’d generally recommend career-wise – to falling off bridges and much drug taking. Does Martin have a similar reputation? “No.”
“I suppose I have a bit of a wild reputation,” says Antony. "But nice, definitely. Well I wouldn’t say I was nice, I’d say I was a good human being. Yeah I’ve been known to do slightly insane mental things with my time. I don’t have a dimmer switch, I’m an on-or--off kind of guy.”
Q magazine’s website mentions his streak as one of the great moments of the festival, so well done for that. “There you go,” he smiles. “I’d like to think that at the end of my life I’ll be remembered for a little more than that. Maybe I won’t.”
“That’s the world we live in,” opinions Martin.
Unfortunately I have in my hand a piece of paper about the band which mentions ‘Infamous Glastonbury streaker Antony Genn’ but fails to mention Martin’s name anywhere.
“I ain’t afraid of the truth!” says Antony, slightly Mr T. “You know I was out of my fucking mind on all the drugs in the drug book. You don’t need to be on drugs to be mental. You take drugs because you’re mental, usually.
"I’m a pretty considered person these days. But I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of me. And I don’t give a fuck about consequences of telling the truth, and if that’s constituted as a wild way to be then I’m quite happy to be that. I ain’t wild as in 'getting off my head' anymore. But put me in a room with the most off their head, wild people in the business and I think I’ll do all right. I’ll outwild them,” he grins. I don’t doubt him.
Does the wildness rub off on you Martin? “I’ve had my moments, but none that have been reported in Q Magazine as the best moments of Glastonbury.”
Let’s get onto some of the imagery associated with The Hours. Firstly:
THE SKULL
It’s the band’s image, on all their artwork, and was designed by their friend and creative genius Damien Hirst. Did he give you a little leftover piece from ‘For The Love Of God’, his recent diamond-encrusted skull?
“We wouldn’t be sitting in Pizza Express if he had,” points out Martin.
Antony explains that Hirst designs all their artwork and says the band is lucky to know him. “He’s one of the most incredible human beings you would ever be likely to meet, on this planet anyway. I don’t know about the rest of the solar system. He’s so generous and creative and he’s got boundless energy. The only people that don’t like Damien Hirst are the people who have not met him.”
Martin calls the skull ‘striking’. “I know he’s into skulls anyway but the way he laid it out for us was brilliant,” he says. The band have t shirts featuring the logo and even toyed with masks in a video, but confess it didn’t quite work.
So if you’re an art lover and you’ve ever wanted to own a Damien Hirst, you may find something by The Hours more within your budget.
And secondly, imagery-wise:
JONAS ODELL
AKA the man who directed the video to ‘Ali In The Jungle’. Antony says Odell has also directed videos for Mad Action and Franz Ferdinand. “My original idea was that when I was a kid I used to really like the opening credits to The South Bank Show. How things kept moving and morphing into the next thing. So I just told him that. You know, what you want when you collaborate with anyone is you want to tell them a basic idea and then you want them to come back to you with something ten times better that what you could have ever imagined.”
“I was going to say, with this whole process, it’s probably the only time it’s happened,” says Martin, “out of a million. Not just videos I’m talking about, it’s very rare you can come out and you have a rough idea of what you’d like and then you get a rough copy of that thing, music, video, writing or whatever from that person and it blows your mind, and you know it’s only going to get better from there.”
“Literally I had that one conversation with him and then made like one or two comments during the making of it. I think it’s a brilliant video and I’d love to work with him again on something. I told him about The South Bank Show and he was like ‘OK I see what you mean yeah, so we could use like an old theatre’ and the next thing you know he sent us that back and I was like – rrrrespect! So there you go. Hats off to Jonas Odell. Respect to that man.”
NARCISSUS ROAD
It’s the name of their debut album and a song on there. It’s also a road in West Hampstead. “I used to walk past it on the way back from my therapist and I always thought “God, that’s a catchy name, ‘Narcissus Road’ for a song or something.” And it never really made any sense to me. Then I had a disastrous relationship with a pathological narcissist and hey presto (clicks fingers) bingo, you got yourself a little song –“
“Fucking bingo!” interrupts Martin.
“Fucking bingo, man! You got yourself a little song there about a horrible human, and it seemed like a snappy little title for the record. That is our album, ‘Narcissus Road’, and it’s brilliant. Go and buy it.”
I will. But I can’t pronounce it because I’ve got a lisp. “I think it sounds like you’ve got a lisp if you haven’t got a lisp. Narcissus Road.” Antony clonks his empty glass down on the table. “Lisps are cool.”
So I leave The Hours to it. They’re discussing their weekend in Spain playing at Summercase, which Martin is particularly looking forward to because he might get to experience a bit of summer sunshine.“It ain’t easy going to see bands and you’ve got to trudge through The Somme. So hopefully we can wander round quite casually and catch a few gigs. I’m hoping Bright Eyes is going to be playing again and you can share the experience, mate,” he says to Antony. Let’s hope they did.
The Hours released 'Ali In The Jungle' on July 9th through A&M Records. 'Narcissus Road' was released in February 2007
Free Damien Hirst artwork! (Sort of). To get your hands on a skull desktop clock, follow this link to download.
Or play about and make your own 'Ali In The Jungle' cover artwork here
Website
MySpace
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
THE HOURS
The Hours are very talkative. I could have left the dictaphone and questions in front of them, returned half an hour later to collect and they probably wouldn’t have minded.
“I’m Martin from The Hours.”
“And I’m Antony Genn from The Hours. What do you do, Mart?”
“I play piano. What do you do Antony?”
“I sing, Martin. Like this.” They trill ‘Laaaaa!’ into the dictaphone. “Same note,” notices Antony.
“When it’s in tune, man.”
As they kindly introduced themselves, The Hours are indeed Martin Slattery and Antony Genn. We’re sat in a London pizza restaurant where they nipped to during the previous interview and have decided to stay because it’s far more comfortable than a boring office. They’re done eating, and Antony is currently ordering diet fizz to ‘get more hyper’. The band recently released ‘Ali In The Jungle’, a piece of dramatic pop designed to get the adrenaline pumping. Originally from Manchester (Martin) and Sheffield (Antony), the musical pair formed The Hours relatively recently after decades of playing in other bands. They're both friendly and jokey, and dressed in dark colours. Now they're sated on pizza and probably ready for a nap, it's time to dig out the question cards and get them chatting...
NEXT GIG YOU’RE GOING TO
Not necessarily one of your own. “Well actually we’re going to Summercase, because we’re playing there in Madrid on Friday, and there are lots of other bands playing there,” says Antony. “One of which is our good friend Mr Jarvis Cocker. So I presume that will be the next gig.”
“Probably will be, although you never can tell with festivals can you?” says Martin.
“No, but I would say that’s probably the gig we’re going to because he’s playing two after us on the same stage.”
“Only two? Is he not doing very well?” jokes Martin. “Can I pick the next question?”
FESTIVALS
“That’s not a question,” says Martin. “It’s a topic, Martin!” Antony protests. The band recently played three gigs at Glastonbury, including the Leftfield Tent and the John Peel Stage. According to Antony, the rain started pouring shortly before their Leftfield show so thousands crammed in to see them. The gig on the John Peel stage was the best gig they’ve ever played.
“It was really great, everyone was going for it.” He pauses to order a drink.
“There’s a lot of factors required for everyone to have a great gig,” explains Martin, “and they were all in place on that show.” Is mud one of the factors? “Do you know, not usually but in this case, it obviously was.”
“It seemed to work for us, the mud,” agrees Antony. Watching it on telly all the bands are so clean and everyone else was head to toe in mud. How did you manage it?
“You change into clothes,” says Antony with a big grin. You don’t say. “More suitable stage attire, moments before you go onstage.”
“Yeah, you should have seen us before we went onstage,” says Martin. They also recently played T in the Park and Oxegen, where they saw some great bands including Arcade Fire and Bright Eyes.
“We’re in no way festival virgins. We’ve been going to festivals for years but our band’s a festival virgin and it’s been nice to see a lot of people coming out and showing their appreciation,” says Martin. I think I saw The Hours at Brighton’s Great Escape but I was quite drunk and I don’t remember much about it. But I’m sure they were great. “You’re right, we were great,” confirms Antony with a smile.
MUSICAL PAST
Both Antony and Martin have played with some fantastic names before forming The Hours. They played together in Joe Strummer’s backing band The Mescaleros in the late 1990s and have plenty of gigging experience in other bands. Martin was “plucked from jazz obscurity in Manchester,” as he puts it, to play with Black Grape for a couple of years.
“I used to play in this club called The Band On The Wall in Manchester all the time when I was a teenager. When I went on the road with Black Grape I was about 19, and then I came back and there was a massive poster by the side of this club. The poster was a picture of every member of Black Grape and under my picture somebody had written ‘Traitor’.”
He laughs. Did you get a photo of yourself standing next to it? “I can’t believe I never did that! I would love to own that. I’ve got to say, I was quite shocked. I think it was probably just like a little joke really but you know how you get a little bit paranoid about those kind of things… it kind of freaked me out a little bit so I probably did my gig then went home and had a little cry!”
Antony was the bassist in Pulp for a while back in the Eighties, then graduated to playing other instruments for them. “When I was kind of a young lad and then when they got bigger I kind of went on tour with them and would play a bit of this and a bit of that, and maybe Jarv would want to play something on TV so I’d play guitar for him, I just had a general laugh really."
Antony and Martin also produced and remixed records for other people, like Ian Brown, Unkle and Queens of the Stone Age.“’Til we just realised that we were just giving our ideas away to other people and we might as well actually use them for ourselves,” says Martin. “Which obviously birthed The Hours...”
WHAT MADE YOU DECIDE TO FORM THE HOURS?
“I think the reason why our band exists is ‘cause we spent a lot of time working with other admittedly great people, and we got to a point where we wanted to use our ideas for ourselves and not give them away. Unless you have your own band in this business, you’re always working for somebody else, whether you’re writing film music or whether you’re producing or writing, you’re always doing it for someone else. So we figured that the only way we could do it for ourselves was to form a band,” Martin continues.
Antony then took Martin to see Radiohead perform, which Martin says was “an amazing experience. And we played the one regret game. For me, that would have been to not be on stage with my mates playing my own songs.
“I’ve got to say, I’ve pretty much done all the things that I dreamed of doing when I was a kid. You know, the last one was doing it all again but with my own thing, so…”
Is there any reason you chose the name The Hours?
“It’s just a silly story really,” says Martin.“He was having some turf laid in his back garden and the turf guy said “Don’t stand on that for 48 hours.” So I said: “What about that, we could be called The 48 Hours,” explains Antony. You were this close to being called The Turf Guy. “Yeah. The Turf Dudes!” says Antony, while Martin laughs. “So eventually we just turned it from being The 48 Hours to just The Hours.”
WHAT INSPIRES YOUR SONGWRITING?
“I’ll quote Kraftwerk on this – from silence to everything,” says Anthony. “You know, everything inspires songwriting. Life on Planet Earth inspires songwriting. Watching TV inspires songwriting.”
“There’s a lot in the studio for us where we’ll be mic-ing up the drums and getting ready to record one song and then summat’ll happen, and then suddenly you’re on the road to another song. And that’s the greatest creative environment you could be in, where everyone’s free enough to allow themselves to smoothly move from one idea to another so you don’t lose out,” says Martin. “The idea that you’re working on you think might be an awesome one, it might be just that little scrap of someone falling on the piano that’s actually the great thing and if you don’t pursue it, you’re going to lose it. That’ll be a terrible thing.”
“Lyrically I’m inspired by real life,” says Antony. “Real emotions, real feelings. I mean I want to communicate in a very direct way with people, you know. I’m not into being shrouded in mystery, I’m not into being a ethereal, mysterious, middle-aged prophet, do you know what I mean? I want to tell it like it is and be direct about things. I think honesty is a dying trait on this planet. I think people build up an idea of what they want to be or what they think they should be, rather than saying ‘This is what I am, take it or leave it mate. What you see is what you get’.”
I think with the internet and sites such as MySpace it’s a lot easier now for someone to hide behind an image and you don’t always get to see the real person.
“I know people who make themselves out to be something that they’re not, and as you say it’s very easy to do that these days,” says Martin.
“It’s bullshit, you know," says Antony. "It’s like, what you do is inherent in who you are, but who are you? As far as the music is concerned we can be watching an advert and think: “That’s a good beat,” nick that beat and come in the next day. Like a magpie I’m always stealing. It’s the greatest artistic invention in the world, a collage. Nick a bit from there and a bit from there, sew it all together, put it in with a bit of salt, pepper, spinach, coriander, give it a stir. You got yourself your own little soup there."That’s the idea anyway,” he finishes.
Martin isn’t paying attention because he’s playing with his phone. “Kid dropped it in the mud at Glastonbury,” he says, trying to scrape some of the evidence off.
IF YOU WERE AN ANIMAL, WHAT WOULD YOU BE?
Sorry, I ran out of decent questions so I went a bit Smash Hits. “That’s all right, Smash Hits is good,” says Antony.
“It’s got to be cool to be a cat because you can just do what the hell you want,” says Martin, then admitting he hates his cats because they act like dogs and pester him. That’s very odd, because my dog’s a bit like a cat.
“The world is going bonkers, man! Not only is it July and it’s raining, but your dog’s like a cat and my cats are like dogs.” It’s pretending to be something it’s not. “Has it got a MySpace, your dog? My cats must have. Little fuckers. So yeah, cats. Cool cats.”
After much deliberation, Antony decides on a killer whale. “You know, kind of cool, smart, generally quite a laugh and playful but would just fucking tear you in two at the drop of a hat. Nice and cuddly, a bit Free Willy style, but there is a twisted dark side that could leave a lot of blood and mess.”
WILD REPUTATION
“A perfect lead on,” says Martin. This is mostly for Antony – type his name into Google and you get an interesting variety of stories come up, from his naked streak during Elastica’s set at Glastonbury – he then landed a job as their keyboardist, although it’s not something we’d generally recommend career-wise – to falling off bridges and much drug taking. Does Martin have a similar reputation? “No.”
“I suppose I have a bit of a wild reputation,” says Antony. "But nice, definitely. Well I wouldn’t say I was nice, I’d say I was a good human being. Yeah I’ve been known to do slightly insane mental things with my time. I don’t have a dimmer switch, I’m an on-or--off kind of guy.”
Q magazine’s website mentions his streak as one of the great moments of the festival, so well done for that. “There you go,” he smiles. “I’d like to think that at the end of my life I’ll be remembered for a little more than that. Maybe I won’t.”
“That’s the world we live in,” opinions Martin.
Unfortunately I have in my hand a piece of paper about the band which mentions ‘Infamous Glastonbury streaker Antony Genn’ but fails to mention Martin’s name anywhere.
“I ain’t afraid of the truth!” says Antony, slightly Mr T. “You know I was out of my fucking mind on all the drugs in the drug book. You don’t need to be on drugs to be mental. You take drugs because you’re mental, usually.
"I’m a pretty considered person these days. But I don’t give a fuck what anyone thinks of me. And I don’t give a fuck about consequences of telling the truth, and if that’s constituted as a wild way to be then I’m quite happy to be that. I ain’t wild as in 'getting off my head' anymore. But put me in a room with the most off their head, wild people in the business and I think I’ll do all right. I’ll outwild them,” he grins. I don’t doubt him.
Does the wildness rub off on you Martin? “I’ve had my moments, but none that have been reported in Q Magazine as the best moments of Glastonbury.”
Let’s get onto some of the imagery associated with The Hours. Firstly:
THE SKULL
It’s the band’s image, on all their artwork, and was designed by their friend and creative genius Damien Hirst. Did he give you a little leftover piece from ‘For The Love Of God’, his recent diamond-encrusted skull?
“We wouldn’t be sitting in Pizza Express if he had,” points out Martin.
Antony explains that Hirst designs all their artwork and says the band is lucky to know him. “He’s one of the most incredible human beings you would ever be likely to meet, on this planet anyway. I don’t know about the rest of the solar system. He’s so generous and creative and he’s got boundless energy. The only people that don’t like Damien Hirst are the people who have not met him.”
Martin calls the skull ‘striking’. “I know he’s into skulls anyway but the way he laid it out for us was brilliant,” he says. The band have t shirts featuring the logo and even toyed with masks in a video, but confess it didn’t quite work.
So if you’re an art lover and you’ve ever wanted to own a Damien Hirst, you may find something by The Hours more within your budget.
And secondly, imagery-wise:
JONAS ODELL
AKA the man who directed the video to ‘Ali In The Jungle’. Antony says Odell has also directed videos for Mad Action and Franz Ferdinand. “My original idea was that when I was a kid I used to really like the opening credits to The South Bank Show. How things kept moving and morphing into the next thing. So I just told him that. You know, what you want when you collaborate with anyone is you want to tell them a basic idea and then you want them to come back to you with something ten times better that what you could have ever imagined.”
“I was going to say, with this whole process, it’s probably the only time it’s happened,” says Martin, “out of a million. Not just videos I’m talking about, it’s very rare you can come out and you have a rough idea of what you’d like and then you get a rough copy of that thing, music, video, writing or whatever from that person and it blows your mind, and you know it’s only going to get better from there.”
“Literally I had that one conversation with him and then made like one or two comments during the making of it. I think it’s a brilliant video and I’d love to work with him again on something. I told him about The South Bank Show and he was like ‘OK I see what you mean yeah, so we could use like an old theatre’ and the next thing you know he sent us that back and I was like – rrrrespect! So there you go. Hats off to Jonas Odell. Respect to that man.”
NARCISSUS ROAD
It’s the name of their debut album and a song on there. It’s also a road in West Hampstead. “I used to walk past it on the way back from my therapist and I always thought “God, that’s a catchy name, ‘Narcissus Road’ for a song or something.” And it never really made any sense to me. Then I had a disastrous relationship with a pathological narcissist and hey presto (clicks fingers) bingo, you got yourself a little song –“
“Fucking bingo!” interrupts Martin.
“Fucking bingo, man! You got yourself a little song there about a horrible human, and it seemed like a snappy little title for the record. That is our album, ‘Narcissus Road’, and it’s brilliant. Go and buy it.”
I will. But I can’t pronounce it because I’ve got a lisp. “I think it sounds like you’ve got a lisp if you haven’t got a lisp. Narcissus Road.” Antony clonks his empty glass down on the table. “Lisps are cool.”
So I leave The Hours to it. They’re discussing their weekend in Spain playing at Summercase, which Martin is particularly looking forward to because he might get to experience a bit of summer sunshine.“It ain’t easy going to see bands and you’ve got to trudge through The Somme. So hopefully we can wander round quite casually and catch a few gigs. I’m hoping Bright Eyes is going to be playing again and you can share the experience, mate,” he says to Antony. Let’s hope they did.
The Hours released 'Ali In The Jungle' on July 9th through A&M Records. 'Narcissus Road' was released in February 2007
Free Damien Hirst artwork! (Sort of). To get your hands on a skull desktop clock, follow this link to download.
Or play about and make your own 'Ali In The Jungle' cover artwork here
Website
MySpace
Interview - Ruarri Joseph
This was a nice chatty interview. We couldn't hear a thing in the venue as youthful punk act Whiskey Versus Faith were soundchecking deafeningly, so I was given free rein to carry out the interview somewhere else in the Mornington Crescent region. It's not a location I know well, and all the pubs seem noisy, so we slipped into the comfy plastic chairs of a nearby fast food takeaway, armed with water for Ruarri and a Fanta for me. Bit of an unusual place for an interview, but no-one seemed bothered, and it makes me smile when I walk past. And I have still never eaten anything from there...
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Ruarri Joseph is very apologetic. He’s drinking a bottle of water. He’s sorry for being boring, but he can’t really drink something fizzy before a show. He’s also apologising for his swearing, which tends to come out when he’s not around his children, and he spends much of his gig telling the crowd he’s sorry for being a geek.
The ‘Who’s Jack’ night is presenting a selection of bands at Tommy Flynns for our listening pleasure. Currently, the opening act Whiskey Versus Faith is making a lot of noise as they soundcheck. It’s impossible to do an interview without yelling, so I take Ruarri to a nearby greasy chicken takeaway where he sips water – cleverly also avoiding food poisoning – and I am able to spread my question cards randomly on the table. No-one gives us a second look. This is Camden, where every second person is or was in a band. And every third is a media person following them about.
Ruarri (pronounced like ‘brewery’) is a casually dressed 25-year-old singer/songwriter. It’s a curious name, and a bit of research tells me the Gaelic version (Ruaidhrí) means ‘red-headed king’. There’s a bit of ginger in his beard, but he’s hardly Boudicca. Recently signed to Atlantic, Ruarri’s recently finished touring with Ben Taylor and is now doing the rounds at the festivals. He’s good-natured and talkative, and I feel a slight kinsmanship in that we’re both southern bumpkins who are strangers in North London.
The Ben Taylor tour was particularly good fun, playing to a couple of hundred people a night around the country. Ruarri hadn’t travelled too far from London for gigs before. “It was like the perfect crowd. ‘Cause I’m from Newquay I’m used to playing to drunken people and stag parties and things where it gets a bit aggressive, so it was nice to play to a sort of mellow audience and actually play the guitar instead of just whacking it, and sing instead of shout! No, I enjoyed it. As first tours go, I think I got very lucky, and had a good time, and it was cool.”
He’s just done at Glastonbury, and was still wearing his festival wristband. The mud coating his guitar case is a less savoury reminder. “Go and have a look, it’s plastered, it’s hideous. Glastonbury was amazing. Basically we were in the Leftfield Tent, they had a comedians’ slot and then I was the first musician on after them.”
Did people wonder why you weren’t telling jokes? “I don’t know! But what happened what it was chucking it down with rain so the Leftfield Tent was full. Then suddenly about ten minutes before I went on the sun come out, so everyone was like ‘Wahey! The sun’s out!’ So I didn’t play to that many people, but I had a great time and the people who were there enjoyed it.”
“One I’m looking forward to the most is the Ripcurl Festival, which is a mile away from my house, so I’m going to walk there and then I’m going to walk home afterwards which I think is really cool.” With your guitar and everything? “No, I’ll get a taxi for that,” he laughs. “I just like the idea of walking home. But I’m looking forward to that one. I’m looking forward to all of them. It’s just exciting, I think it’s just exciting. I get too excited if I keep saying the word ‘excited, so I’ll lay off it.”
Are you playing any festivals abroad? “No. Well, is the Isle of Wight abroad?” Ruarri jokes. As a mainlander, I’d say so. “So that one. I’m doing the Bestival at the end of summer.” He’s looking forward to the fancy dress party the festival is famou for. “Don’t they send out like an email or something which is a poem and you have to theme your fancy dress around the poem?” he muses I think I heard rumours it was pirates and flappers. “Quality. I’m from Cornwall, so that’s perfect. I’ll just go dressed normally.”
Ruarri isn’t quite from Cornwall. He was actually born in Scotland but his family made their way down to Callestick (“which has a cider farm and an ice cream parlour and that was it”) when he was about five, then later moved to Newquay. After a couple of years in New Zealand and a filed venture to London, he was back in the South West. “Just sort of within the last couple of years I’ve actually just fallen in love with Cornwall.”
He first picked up a guitar at the age of 11 or 12, and someone taught him a couple of chords. “I would literally sit in the garden shed for hours on end just playing those two chords over and over, different rhythms and singing stuff, making things up. And that’s about it really, it’s always been about making things up for me. I went through a phase of learning other people’s stuff but it’s much less fun.”
His first gig was at the young age of 14 in a Perranporth pub with a band called Oblivion. “My early years in music were fun. Now there’s pressure. Somebody goes ‘Write a song’ and you’re like ‘Oh God, this better be a good one’ whereas it used to be write whatever you like and hopefully somebody will like it. It’s quite fortunate because having had it as a hobby I’ve got quite a lot of songs that I can just go back to and say ‘What about this one, it’s quite cool’. So I’m not in a position yet where I have to write on demand, where they say ‘Right, we need a ballad’ or ‘Right, we need a Christmas song’.” Would you do a Christmas song? “Yeah, I reckon I would. I wouldn’t release it, but I’d do it and play it to my family and friends and say ‘Isn’t this a load of shit’.”
Ruarri actually ended up joining the first band he went to see, the Rhythm Doctors. After first seeing them in a pub, when he returned from New Zealand he found himself working in the same pub as the drummer. A few years later, and he was playing Glastonbury with them.
We discuss the music scene in Cornwall. It was pretty hyped the other summer, but the resorts are so seasonal, Ruarri explains pubs are not keen to book bands in the winter months because there aren’t the punters. Luckily the bands in the area tend to be friends and help each other out. “It’s just there’s so little opportunity down there. Last year, instead of going out on our own and doing pub gigs to nobody or to drunkards we thought we should all get together and organise a night where it’s music, people can come for free and we advertise it and get five bands in one night, so the music scene for that summer and a bit into the autumn was brilliant.
“And more and more Cornish acts are getting on the Ripcurl. When we first started it was big names and that was it, whereas last year the Hitchcock Rules played on it and Joe Francis and the Ammunition played on it, this year there’s like the Noel Prior Band, there’s me, there’s quite a few Cornish things going on. So hopefully that will kind of pick things up as well. Everybody’s close and we’re all friends but it’s not like a big, buzzing hyping music scene, it’s just a good fun one. It’s all about that kind of community thing, it’s very cool.”
The last band he saw was The Who, at Glastonbury. He left halfway through. “That sounds bad,” he adds, catching sight of my face, “but I’m really glad I did because we spent about three hours trying to get out of the mud in our car. So I’m pleased we left when we did because apparently the next day it was chaos. But on the same day I also saw Willy Mason, who I thought was brilliant, and Shirley Bassey, who was quality.”
It hasn’t always been drifting along happily in a life of music for Ruarri. A man’s got to earn a living, and this one has done so in pubs, strawberry picking, daffodil picking, a nursery, a nursing home, and a farm, amongst other places. The farm work was in New Zealand. “Here’s a little farming tip for you – if you don’t dock a lamb’s tail, it gets full of dags, and then they get poorly. So you have to dock a lamb’s tail.” I didn’t know that. I thought a dag was an uncool person. “Well, a dag is actually a lump of shit on the back of a sheep. So if you’re calling somebody a dag, that’s pretty offensive.”
“Since signing a record contract, (music is) my fulltime job which is magic. Because it means I can play a guitar all day long, and when (his wife) comes home and says ‘What have you done today?’ it’s ‘I’ve been working’. When I used to do that, I’d sort of feel guilty and have to lie: ‘I have done other stuff too, I didn’t just play my guitar’. But now I’m just doing my job.”
His job at the moment involves a fair bit of promotion for his debut album ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’. Plenty of autograph signings mean he’s developed a beautiful signature. Because some of the songs on the album have been kicking around for about seven years, he says his influences have changed and some may sound ‘erratic’. He loves listening to Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Django Reinhardt, as well as old and unpolished-sounding songs from all genres, but says just because he likes listening to these people doesn’t mean he thinks he sounds like them. On the plus side, the fact songs have been around a while mean there’s a variety of themes on the record.
“I am looking forward to (the release), but still can’t quite believe it. I won’t believe it until I walk into a shop and see it. I’m really pleased with it actually. I didn’t think I would be, for some reason I thought that signing a contract and making an album with kind of restrictions would be a really bad thing. But the record company have been amazing.
“Half of the album was recorded in my bedroom and just remixed and the other half was done in a professional studio, but they let me play all the instruments myself and they didn’t insist I got other musicians in. I produced half of it, and the other half I co-produced with a guy called Paul Reeve.” For us, standout songs are ‘Patience’, ‘Won’t Work’, ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’ and the singalong of ‘More Rock N’ Roll’.
The rest of 2007 is looking pretty chocka, with festivals until September when he starts a solo tour, with a band tour in October and another solo tour is pencilled in for November. Ruarri’s eyeing a well-earned break in December. “If I can get three weeks off, I’d be delighted. But right now I’m just happy to be busy and working. That’s it really. That’s really dull though, isn’t it!” I’ll make something up; I’m a journalist, I promise. Incidentally, I’d like to announce Ruarri’s new extreme gigs where he takes his acoustic on all matter of adventurous activities while singing. The parachuting leg starts in October. “But I mean even if I wasn’t working it would be things like fix the fence in the garden. I’m a family man, I just do the family stuff.”
During our conversation I also discovered that Ruarri is ‘crap’ at surfing (“It’s the Scottish blood in me”), he doesn’t have a lot of time for hobbies but loves hanging out with his family and playing in the park, and his favourite milkshake is chocolate, though he prefers smoothies because “the only health I get is a smoothie.” We pause while Ruarri considers making a documentary on one particular brand of milkshake. “They’re like syrup. So heavy. They defy gravity. They’re evil. I’m going to make a documentary and drink 30 of them in one day and film it.” Like Morgan Spurlock. “Exactly. But better because it’s milkshakes. I’m going to live on milkshakes for a day. Then at the end I’m going to be very sick.”
Back to the gig at Tommy Flynns. Both Whiskey Versus Faith, with their miniature tattooed Elijah Wood-a-like frontman, and the fake blood covered second band Fucking Vagas are loud, brash and punky, with plenty of shouting and deafening keyboard samples. They’re with friends and all sat on the tables closest to the stage. After a 20 second soundcheck, Ruarri walks past and confides that he’s making minor adjustments to the setlist because the crowd is “more indie” than he imagined.
Everyone else is dressed in black skinny jeans, with baseball caps and hard rock band t shirts. In contrast, Ruarri is wearing layered t shirts and flip flops. But the punk kids enjoy their music, and years of playing to “drunken people and stag parties” means he has no trouble handling the crowd. He apologises for being a geek several times, and the punk kids laugh and say they’ll let him off because he’s from Newquay. They get him chanting Applecore, after their friend’s band, and make him bite a blood capsule, which he does with jocular embarrassment after plenty of egging on from his manager. In return, he gets them swaying and singing ‘sea-shanties’ for ‘More Rock N’ Roll’ and they stay behind to clap along for his instrument-less version of ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’.
Ruarri shakes hands on the way out, and I spy his guitar case. It’s caked and splattered with Glastonbury mud. Grime and grit indeed…
Album ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’ is released on July 9th through Atlantic and is preceded by single ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’
Website
MySpace
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Ruarri Joseph is very apologetic. He’s drinking a bottle of water. He’s sorry for being boring, but he can’t really drink something fizzy before a show. He’s also apologising for his swearing, which tends to come out when he’s not around his children, and he spends much of his gig telling the crowd he’s sorry for being a geek.
The ‘Who’s Jack’ night is presenting a selection of bands at Tommy Flynns for our listening pleasure. Currently, the opening act Whiskey Versus Faith is making a lot of noise as they soundcheck. It’s impossible to do an interview without yelling, so I take Ruarri to a nearby greasy chicken takeaway where he sips water – cleverly also avoiding food poisoning – and I am able to spread my question cards randomly on the table. No-one gives us a second look. This is Camden, where every second person is or was in a band. And every third is a media person following them about.
Ruarri (pronounced like ‘brewery’) is a casually dressed 25-year-old singer/songwriter. It’s a curious name, and a bit of research tells me the Gaelic version (Ruaidhrí) means ‘red-headed king’. There’s a bit of ginger in his beard, but he’s hardly Boudicca. Recently signed to Atlantic, Ruarri’s recently finished touring with Ben Taylor and is now doing the rounds at the festivals. He’s good-natured and talkative, and I feel a slight kinsmanship in that we’re both southern bumpkins who are strangers in North London.
The Ben Taylor tour was particularly good fun, playing to a couple of hundred people a night around the country. Ruarri hadn’t travelled too far from London for gigs before. “It was like the perfect crowd. ‘Cause I’m from Newquay I’m used to playing to drunken people and stag parties and things where it gets a bit aggressive, so it was nice to play to a sort of mellow audience and actually play the guitar instead of just whacking it, and sing instead of shout! No, I enjoyed it. As first tours go, I think I got very lucky, and had a good time, and it was cool.”
He’s just done at Glastonbury, and was still wearing his festival wristband. The mud coating his guitar case is a less savoury reminder. “Go and have a look, it’s plastered, it’s hideous. Glastonbury was amazing. Basically we were in the Leftfield Tent, they had a comedians’ slot and then I was the first musician on after them.”
Did people wonder why you weren’t telling jokes? “I don’t know! But what happened what it was chucking it down with rain so the Leftfield Tent was full. Then suddenly about ten minutes before I went on the sun come out, so everyone was like ‘Wahey! The sun’s out!’ So I didn’t play to that many people, but I had a great time and the people who were there enjoyed it.”
“One I’m looking forward to the most is the Ripcurl Festival, which is a mile away from my house, so I’m going to walk there and then I’m going to walk home afterwards which I think is really cool.” With your guitar and everything? “No, I’ll get a taxi for that,” he laughs. “I just like the idea of walking home. But I’m looking forward to that one. I’m looking forward to all of them. It’s just exciting, I think it’s just exciting. I get too excited if I keep saying the word ‘excited, so I’ll lay off it.”
Are you playing any festivals abroad? “No. Well, is the Isle of Wight abroad?” Ruarri jokes. As a mainlander, I’d say so. “So that one. I’m doing the Bestival at the end of summer.” He’s looking forward to the fancy dress party the festival is famou for. “Don’t they send out like an email or something which is a poem and you have to theme your fancy dress around the poem?” he muses I think I heard rumours it was pirates and flappers. “Quality. I’m from Cornwall, so that’s perfect. I’ll just go dressed normally.”
Ruarri isn’t quite from Cornwall. He was actually born in Scotland but his family made their way down to Callestick (“which has a cider farm and an ice cream parlour and that was it”) when he was about five, then later moved to Newquay. After a couple of years in New Zealand and a filed venture to London, he was back in the South West. “Just sort of within the last couple of years I’ve actually just fallen in love with Cornwall.”
He first picked up a guitar at the age of 11 or 12, and someone taught him a couple of chords. “I would literally sit in the garden shed for hours on end just playing those two chords over and over, different rhythms and singing stuff, making things up. And that’s about it really, it’s always been about making things up for me. I went through a phase of learning other people’s stuff but it’s much less fun.”
His first gig was at the young age of 14 in a Perranporth pub with a band called Oblivion. “My early years in music were fun. Now there’s pressure. Somebody goes ‘Write a song’ and you’re like ‘Oh God, this better be a good one’ whereas it used to be write whatever you like and hopefully somebody will like it. It’s quite fortunate because having had it as a hobby I’ve got quite a lot of songs that I can just go back to and say ‘What about this one, it’s quite cool’. So I’m not in a position yet where I have to write on demand, where they say ‘Right, we need a ballad’ or ‘Right, we need a Christmas song’.” Would you do a Christmas song? “Yeah, I reckon I would. I wouldn’t release it, but I’d do it and play it to my family and friends and say ‘Isn’t this a load of shit’.”
Ruarri actually ended up joining the first band he went to see, the Rhythm Doctors. After first seeing them in a pub, when he returned from New Zealand he found himself working in the same pub as the drummer. A few years later, and he was playing Glastonbury with them.
We discuss the music scene in Cornwall. It was pretty hyped the other summer, but the resorts are so seasonal, Ruarri explains pubs are not keen to book bands in the winter months because there aren’t the punters. Luckily the bands in the area tend to be friends and help each other out. “It’s just there’s so little opportunity down there. Last year, instead of going out on our own and doing pub gigs to nobody or to drunkards we thought we should all get together and organise a night where it’s music, people can come for free and we advertise it and get five bands in one night, so the music scene for that summer and a bit into the autumn was brilliant.
“And more and more Cornish acts are getting on the Ripcurl. When we first started it was big names and that was it, whereas last year the Hitchcock Rules played on it and Joe Francis and the Ammunition played on it, this year there’s like the Noel Prior Band, there’s me, there’s quite a few Cornish things going on. So hopefully that will kind of pick things up as well. Everybody’s close and we’re all friends but it’s not like a big, buzzing hyping music scene, it’s just a good fun one. It’s all about that kind of community thing, it’s very cool.”
The last band he saw was The Who, at Glastonbury. He left halfway through. “That sounds bad,” he adds, catching sight of my face, “but I’m really glad I did because we spent about three hours trying to get out of the mud in our car. So I’m pleased we left when we did because apparently the next day it was chaos. But on the same day I also saw Willy Mason, who I thought was brilliant, and Shirley Bassey, who was quality.”
It hasn’t always been drifting along happily in a life of music for Ruarri. A man’s got to earn a living, and this one has done so in pubs, strawberry picking, daffodil picking, a nursery, a nursing home, and a farm, amongst other places. The farm work was in New Zealand. “Here’s a little farming tip for you – if you don’t dock a lamb’s tail, it gets full of dags, and then they get poorly. So you have to dock a lamb’s tail.” I didn’t know that. I thought a dag was an uncool person. “Well, a dag is actually a lump of shit on the back of a sheep. So if you’re calling somebody a dag, that’s pretty offensive.”
“Since signing a record contract, (music is) my fulltime job which is magic. Because it means I can play a guitar all day long, and when (his wife) comes home and says ‘What have you done today?’ it’s ‘I’ve been working’. When I used to do that, I’d sort of feel guilty and have to lie: ‘I have done other stuff too, I didn’t just play my guitar’. But now I’m just doing my job.”
His job at the moment involves a fair bit of promotion for his debut album ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’. Plenty of autograph signings mean he’s developed a beautiful signature. Because some of the songs on the album have been kicking around for about seven years, he says his influences have changed and some may sound ‘erratic’. He loves listening to Bob Dylan, Tom Waits and Django Reinhardt, as well as old and unpolished-sounding songs from all genres, but says just because he likes listening to these people doesn’t mean he thinks he sounds like them. On the plus side, the fact songs have been around a while mean there’s a variety of themes on the record.
“I am looking forward to (the release), but still can’t quite believe it. I won’t believe it until I walk into a shop and see it. I’m really pleased with it actually. I didn’t think I would be, for some reason I thought that signing a contract and making an album with kind of restrictions would be a really bad thing. But the record company have been amazing.
“Half of the album was recorded in my bedroom and just remixed and the other half was done in a professional studio, but they let me play all the instruments myself and they didn’t insist I got other musicians in. I produced half of it, and the other half I co-produced with a guy called Paul Reeve.” For us, standout songs are ‘Patience’, ‘Won’t Work’, ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’ and the singalong of ‘More Rock N’ Roll’.
The rest of 2007 is looking pretty chocka, with festivals until September when he starts a solo tour, with a band tour in October and another solo tour is pencilled in for November. Ruarri’s eyeing a well-earned break in December. “If I can get three weeks off, I’d be delighted. But right now I’m just happy to be busy and working. That’s it really. That’s really dull though, isn’t it!” I’ll make something up; I’m a journalist, I promise. Incidentally, I’d like to announce Ruarri’s new extreme gigs where he takes his acoustic on all matter of adventurous activities while singing. The parachuting leg starts in October. “But I mean even if I wasn’t working it would be things like fix the fence in the garden. I’m a family man, I just do the family stuff.”
During our conversation I also discovered that Ruarri is ‘crap’ at surfing (“It’s the Scottish blood in me”), he doesn’t have a lot of time for hobbies but loves hanging out with his family and playing in the park, and his favourite milkshake is chocolate, though he prefers smoothies because “the only health I get is a smoothie.” We pause while Ruarri considers making a documentary on one particular brand of milkshake. “They’re like syrup. So heavy. They defy gravity. They’re evil. I’m going to make a documentary and drink 30 of them in one day and film it.” Like Morgan Spurlock. “Exactly. But better because it’s milkshakes. I’m going to live on milkshakes for a day. Then at the end I’m going to be very sick.”
Back to the gig at Tommy Flynns. Both Whiskey Versus Faith, with their miniature tattooed Elijah Wood-a-like frontman, and the fake blood covered second band Fucking Vagas are loud, brash and punky, with plenty of shouting and deafening keyboard samples. They’re with friends and all sat on the tables closest to the stage. After a 20 second soundcheck, Ruarri walks past and confides that he’s making minor adjustments to the setlist because the crowd is “more indie” than he imagined.
Everyone else is dressed in black skinny jeans, with baseball caps and hard rock band t shirts. In contrast, Ruarri is wearing layered t shirts and flip flops. But the punk kids enjoy their music, and years of playing to “drunken people and stag parties” means he has no trouble handling the crowd. He apologises for being a geek several times, and the punk kids laugh and say they’ll let him off because he’s from Newquay. They get him chanting Applecore, after their friend’s band, and make him bite a blood capsule, which he does with jocular embarrassment after plenty of egging on from his manager. In return, he gets them swaying and singing ‘sea-shanties’ for ‘More Rock N’ Roll’ and they stay behind to clap along for his instrument-less version of ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’.
Ruarri shakes hands on the way out, and I spy his guitar case. It’s caked and splattered with Glastonbury mud. Grime and grit indeed…
Album ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’ is released on July 9th through Atlantic and is preceded by single ‘Tales Of Grime And Grit’
Website
MySpace
Interviews - Dumbledore's Army (Harry Potter and the Order Of The Phoenix)
Now this was exciting. I love Harry Potter. I'm one of the many adults who knows their Sectumsempra from their Ravenclaw (the second one is intelligent and good; the first is very, very bad). We received an invite for an Order Of The Phoenix round table, where they bring out various Dumbledore's Army actors and actresses who are quizzed by a number of press people. It was in a fantastically posh hotel somewhere in the Kensington region. There were sandwiches and chipsticks. All the other journalists looked to be regulars, with many at my table knowing each other, all of them film experts (not necessarily Potter ones though) who chatted away and barely let you get a question in. I was a music journalist who wanted to be cast as Tonks. But I did manage to establish - without prompting - that Neville Longbottom is a Pigeon Detectives fan. Evanna Lynch was delightful, Katie Leung was quite shy, and Bonnie Wright was talkative and professional. They grow up so fast nowadays...
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June and July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Matthew Lewis
Katie Leung
Bonnie Wright
Evanna Lynch
The fifth Harry Potter film '...Order Of The Phoenix' has a hotly anticipated release this summer. In the film, the refusal of the authorities to believe Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned alarms Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Realising they have to take up the fight themselves, they form a society called Dumbledore's Army and set about learning defensive spells, joined by several brave classmates.
MATTHEW LEWIS (NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM)
We're sat in a plush London hotel ready to meet Leeds lad Matthew Lewis, better known to millions as Harry Potter's classmate Neville Longbottom. Neville is the chubby, shy and under-achieving one of the group who doesn't quite seem to fit in. He is nervous about his abilities which makes him perform magic badly, with many spells going awry. The other Gryffindor students aren’t entirely fond of him to begin with as he seems uncool and frankly a bit dim. It takes a challenge or two for Neville to start standing up for himself and a bit of confidence does his skills no end of good.
In real life Matthew Lewis doesn’t look like Neville; far from it. He's 18 at the end of June, is wearing a denim jacket over a Stone Roses t-shirt and has definite stubble.
“I just need a shave! Yeah, it’s quite weird actually. It’s almost like leading two completely different lives and being two very different people, and not being called insane! It’s fun ‘cause I have this fat suit and I have a side parting in my hair, and there’s things that stick my ears out, and then at the end of the day I get to take it all off and be me again. It’s very bizarre. I really, really love doing it, and I guess that’s why actors do it, just to be someone else for however long. It’s fun.”
One of the plus sides of the dodgy outfit is that Matthew doesn’t get recognised a lot in public. “Around my home town of Leeds I do a little bit, what with regional newspapers and TV programmes, and just ‘cause people know me from school or whatever. But when I’m down in London I’m fine, or in a foreign country it’s great. I can go down the local Morrison’s or whatever and pick things up and not get mobbed."
Matthew’s acting career started way before the Potter series, which he first began filming at the tender age of 11. His parents don’t quite understand where the acting bug comes from –it certainly isn’t hereditary as they hate being in front of the camera.
His brother Anthony won a part in Heartbeat as a child, and Matthew was brought along by his mum who was chaperoning.
“I just assumed it was another job that people did and I kept nagging his agent to ask if I could join up. She kept saying no, it was a kid’s agency but I was too young at three and four. And then eventually I got to five and I just nagged her so much she went ‘Right, I’m going to send you for an audition, and then you can join when you’re six, if it’ll shut you up,’ and I went and got the part for this TV film (Some Kind Of Life, starring Ray Stevenson and Jane Horrocks). So she said I could join after that.”
One of the things Matthew is proud of is the impact the character of Neville has had on others. “Meeting the fans is one thing that I actually love. I think it’s fantastic. To hear the feedback, and people have actually said to me that they’ve been bullied at school or they have problems with teachers intimidating them, and watching Neville helps them deal with it and they can relate to it. It’s just the best feeling ever that you can do a job like this, have so much fun, get paid for it and still affect people’s lives in that way.”
He’s particularly impressed with the way that bumbling Neville has developed through the films, coming to a head in …Order Of The Phoenix. “He becomes really courageous in this film, and just becomes really reckless and stupid. He just wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t care about his own safety, he just wants to help out his friends and make sure the bad guys don’t win and it was really fun to do as an actor because growing up with Neville you see him being shy, you saw in the first one an inkling of his courage, and actually to come out at the end of this fifth one was great.”
The sheer scale of ‘Harry Potter’ is still taking some getting used to. “You just have to watch the credits to see just how many people work on the film, and the scale of the sets, the amount of money put into it, it’s unbelievable, it’s like nothing I’ve ever done before. Like we work nothing compared to what the crew do, they work so hard constantly. When we get up in the morning and come in they’ve already been there a few hours before, and they leave a fair few hours after, and they do about double the months we spend on it, and it’s something else, it really is. And then coming down to a five star hotel in London and doing interviews for people all over the world - it’s something unheard of in Heartbeat!
“And also the premieres, it’s indescribable the amount of fun you have at a premiere. When you get out of the car, you never get used to it. Just to get out and hear people screaming not Neville but Matthew, I’ll never, ever get over that.”
The Harry Potter cast all get on well, which is very lucky seeing as they spend so much time together. “I’d say that Dan and Rupert are my best friends on set, I’m always in Rupert’s room playing pool or darts. He’s got the best room ever! He’s got a dartboard, pool table, table tennis, massive TV... Or I’m in Dan’s room listening to some new album he wants me to buy. We love a very similar sort of music. I do like having debates with Dan. The North versus the South. That’s the debate we always have. Beatles v the Rolling Stones. All that kind of thing. I’d say I win [the argument], but I’m sure he’d disagree!”
Outside of the set, Matthew spends a lot of time supporting his beloved and beleagured Leeds United, commenting that the torture they provide helps him deal well with Neville's traumatic moments. He jokes that he can't afford to help them out financially as "Ken Bates is asking too much!"
And as for Matthew’s career plans after Neville? “I would very much like to stay in films. Just ‘cause of just the scale of it I guess, being able to stay in these kind of hotels, you know what I mean?
“I definitely want to start going into other roles. I’ve sort of been wondering what to do and I do love comedy, I thoroughly enjoy making people laugh. My brothers are some of the funniest people I know and they make me laugh, if I can make anyone laugh as much as they make me then I’m very happy. So that’s something I’d like to do."But what I really loved this year in …Order of the Phoenix was the emotional drama side of Neville’s character, that was a real challenge for me. So if I could get anything that would challenge me even further then that would be great.
“It’s very strange to think that, that after all this time – since I was 11, so it’s six years already, and however long to go - that it’s all going to come to an end, it’s very strange. Those that are so into the book and know their characters, for it to end it’s going to be very disconcerting. And I’m not really looking forward to it. But I guess by that time I’ll be however old, and I can drive now, so it won’t be too bad I’ll be able to see everybody.”
Anyway, it won’t be ending for a few years yet. So back to Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. “This year the character’s become so much more integral into the story, and we find a lot more about his past, his background and why he is as he is. And you’ve still got the comedy light-hearted humour bit but then he’s got a bit more action stuff to do towards the end which I’ve not done before so that was a lot of fun to shoot.
“We go to the Ministry of Magic and we’re fighting Voldemort’s Death Eaters. There’s a lot of running about and we fall through this door and it’s like a long fall into oblivion which we had to do, and it’s kind of like a Mission: Impossible style stunt on wires on our chests which was really cool. And we did jumping from rock to rock; wasn’t very high, but it was fun to do anyway. And then we had make up on with blood coming out of my nose. Just stuff like that we’ve not done before. It was great to be in an action film for a while.”
Matthew finds it ‘really weird’ that he will know exactly what he’ll be doing in a few years by reading ahead. “I was always a fan, I used to lose myself in the story and I’m in the universe and all of a sudden I’ll stop at the end of the book and think – wow, I’m going to be doing that in a few years. That’s going to be really fun.”
And for Neville’s future? Matthew would like him “to live, if possible! Or as long he dies in a really heroic way and like saves somebody else’s life, that’d be okay. I wouldn’t mind that. I think he will see it through to the end, and I think he’ll be fighting alongside Harry all the way, doing the right thing.”
--------
KATIE LEUNG (CHO CHANG)
Katie Leung walks in the room calmly and shyly. She’s wearing a short sleeved white cardi over a grey top and is softly spoken with a delicate Scottish lilt.
One of the newer characters, Cho Chang first appears in …Goblet of Fire. She’s an intelligent and slightly older girl in Ravenclaw house who Harry develops something of a crush on, and she's left confused and heartbroken when her boyfriend Cedric is killed during the Triwizard Tournament by a newly returned Lord Voldemort. Cho likes Harry back, but her emotional state leaves her a bit of a wreck most the time.
Motherwell-born Katie first got into the Harry Potter films when her dad suggested she go along to an open casting. It took several hours of queuing and a quick screen test before she was invited back to a workshop, then was told she had the part. Her father says she had no previous acting experience, not even for a school play.
She’s asked if she’s been rather spoilt having Potter as a starting point for her acting career. “You can’t be picky as an actress. It’s a very unstable sort of career. I’m still in the early stages - I mean all I’ve done is Potter so I’d like to go on to all different sort of things.”
Was it any different the second time around? “I enjoyed it just as much, I mean it was different because I’d be coming back to familiar faces again. It’s kind of like a second home to me now, Leavesdon. So I felt much more relaxed in front of people, in front of the camera, and just kind of learned to ignore it. It was good. Sometimes when say, you’re talking to somebody, and the camera’s right in front of you and it’s kind of hard to ignore it, your eye just kind of catches it. But no, I mean you just get used to it.”
Now she’s one of the ‘familiar faces’ herself, did she help the even newer cast members such as Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) fit in? “She was really sweet when she first came in, she did look incredibly nervous.
"We stayed in the same apartment for the first few weeks or so of filming and I just got to know her a little better, we went to the park and we watched movies together and stuff. She’s such a lovely girl and she’s handling it really well. And she’s such a big fan of the films, so I’m really happy for her.”
Is Katie coping with all the madness, interviews and promotional hype around the films? “I don’t really get used to it because you know it’s not like you’re constantly doing it. I just definitely didn’t realise it was going to be on such a big scale, doing all these interviews and the size of the premiere with all the fans, and getting to travel everywhere, it’s definitely not a bad thing! [The strangest thing I’ve been asked]… what would I change if I was Queen. Yeah something like that.”
Six journalists excitedly wait to see what it the answer is. “Er, I said I would make everyone ride bikes in London. Drivers are mental.”
In Glasgow everything’s just peachy is it, asks someone. “Yep!” she says proudly.
She finds it a “really strange and cringeworthy” experience watching herself back at the cinema. “When I watched it at the cinema it was one of the biggest screens in London with thousands of other people. There’s nothing really you can do about it, you just have to sit and watch and hopefully the reactions you get from the audience tell you whether you did a good job or not.”
Someone comments that with something the size of Harry Potter, Katie could be watching other films and see herself in a trailer, or a bus with her face on it will pass. She smiles. “Yeah, I think that happened when I was promoting the film in Japan last year. They had my big face on a bus and it was really, really strange you know, you travel halfway around the world and it’s just odd.”
You can travel for free when that happens, explains one of the journalists. That’s a law. She laughs.
As her mother attended the UK premiere, she took her father on the promo tour of Japan “on a break because he works really hard and stuff. When there was the premiere in Japan, he was watching at the side while I was doing interviews and he didn’t see me as his daughter, he just saw me as Cho Chang, which is really strange.”
Although …Order of the Phoenix was a return to Leavesden and the cast members Katie had worked with before, there was one major change – David Yates replaced …Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell. She describes them as both different and brilliant.
“I have a special bond with Mike because he took part in picking me for the role, and he was so great. But so was David, he was really gentle, he was really soft-spoken, and just he would sort of pull me to a corner and then he would give me his opinions on my character and ask what I thought about my character, then sort of have a little discussion. And he would tell me how my character was going through a really bad time and she’s really emotional, and just the way he said it made me want to cry! He was great at doing that and he put me in the mood, in the zone.”
One of the main scenes for Katie involves Harry Potter’s first kiss with Cho Chang. It’s highly anticipated and there’s a lot of teasing about it. “I’m not sure how nervous [Dan Radcliffe] was but God I was so nervous, I was so worried. Just ‘cause people were constantly mentioning the kiss and all my friends were just asking me how it was going. The schedule’s always changing, so when you think it’s coming up they could set it back ‘til a week later and you wouldn’t know.
“The funny thing was, I was just having sleepless nights over it and when the set date finally came Daniel felt ill. He was dreading it that much!” she jokes.
In the end, the terrifying scene turned out to be “fine”. “We sort of had a laugh just before it, you know ‘Have you had your breathmint, have you brushed your teeth?’, stuff like that. It wasn’t 30 takes! Everyone says it was. It was much less than that.”
Now her friends as well as a lot of annoying journalists keep asking how it went. “It went by in such a flash and you know I think when you’re a bag of nerves nothing really sticks in your mind, it’s all just a blur.
“What I’m hoping for is it’s going to satisfy everyone’s perception of how the kiss is going to look. Hopefully when an audience see it they’ll think back to when they had their first kiss, you know it’s supposed to be a very awkward moment but sweet and very endearing at the same time. Everybody’s looking forward to it because a lot of people watched Harry Potter grow up and you can’t miss the kiss, you’ve got to see it!”
Katie might be recognised a little more often after this film is released. Currently very few people realise who she is, which she says is good. “I mean you don’t want people coming up to you all the time going ‘Oh look, there’s her’. But yeah, you get the odd few who just come up and say ‘I love the films’.
"Most of them aren’t sure, they come up and say ‘Are you the girl from Harry Potter?’ and sometimes I’ll say ‘No, but I get told that I look like her a lot. I get it all the time’. But sometimes I say yeah, and it’s nice things they say. They’re like ‘Oh I really enjoyed the films and I hope filming’s going well at the moment’.”
As for the future, Katie isn’t sure if she’ll carry on acting or if she’ll study graphic design or media at university, saying her indecisiveness is “one of the worst things” about her. But there’s one thing she’s definite on – reading the last book. It’s already on pre-order “and I’ll probably go in at midnight to queue up and find out what happens.” Look out for her in a queue near you.
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BONNIE WRIGHT (GINNY WEASLEY)
Sixteen-year-old Bonnie Wright enters the room and sits at the table. She’s wearing a pale pink hoodie and a vest top with thin black and white stripes. Maybe it’s the lighting, but her hair doesn’t seem as ginger as you’d expect from a Weasley. She’s well spoken and friendly, and occasionally her enthusiasm makes her try and say several things at once.
Her character is Ginny Weasley, younger and shyer sister of Ron. She starts with a bit part in the first film – and a crush on Harry - then has the misfortune of being possessed by Voldemort in …Chamber Of Secrets. …Order Of The Phoenix sees Ginny coming out her shell as a person and becoming a bit of a Quidditch whiz, as well as displaying something of that Weasley cheeky sense of humour.
The Weasley family is one of the more comforting and stabilising aspects for Harry, introducing him to the ways of the wizarding world, and also providing him with a sense of family. Rupert Grint (Ron), James Phelps (Fred) and Oliver Phelps (George) have been in like Bonnie’s older brothers in real life.
“Through doing all The Burrow scenes and in this film there’s quite a funny Christmas scene at Grimmauld Place, the Black house, so definitely I think it’s been quite like a brotherly family relationship.” Julie Walters has also been keeping up her role as loveable worrying mother Molly – “She likes to have a quite a little cuddly, family running around, but I think she definitely brings so much kind of energy to the Weasley family. We’re all meant to be so bubbly, no matter what’s happening we’re still smiling and I think she keeps that smile on in a lot of the scenes and we kind of mirror her.”
As for Rupert, he’s more like Fred and George in real life, always pulling pranks and corpsing on set. “He just completely laughs all the time when we’re on set, he just can’t stop and half the time he doesn’t even know what he’s laughing about. We’re in the middle of a scene and he’ll be trying hide his giggles and we’re all just laughing away with him. So I think he keeps us giggling probably a bit too much…”
Bonnie’s been getting on particularly well with Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood). She’s asked if there’s a ‘girls versus boys’ feeling on set. “Yeah people say that, I don’t know!” she laughs. “No, I think especially towards the end of this film there was the six of us, and we had to do a lot of action; different bits together, but we had to be quite intense together as part of the scene. Three girls, three boys, so that was quite good.
”It’s like a second home almost [Leavesden], and we all have our dressing rooms that we’ve done up. Also from each film we haven’t seen each other for a while, so when we get back there it’s almost like we’re all going back to Hogwarts and back for our school term. Being there is definitely good ‘cause you’re kind of used to it.”
And the young actors aren’t too frightened to work around their more experienced adult counterparts, such as Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham-Carter and Julie Walters. “I think for us it’s amazing to have them there because we’re definitely learning from them all the time. They’re all kind of open to of our endeavours in all the scenes. They’ve done so much compared to us, but I think the dynamic is good, and I think they enjoy it.”
She’s asked if the adults tell them off for being rowdy. “No, sometimes we’re telling them off!” she laughs.
Going on to other work after Harry Potter is more of a challenge, says Bonnie, because you’re used to relaxing around familiar faces on set. She’s had parts in Stranded and Agatha Christie: A Life In Pictures. Despite all this experience, she isn’t sure if she wants acting as a ‘total’ career. She’s always wanted to go to art school and might still, although her interest in the film industry means she might do something behind the camera. Luckily her interest here is encouraged by Stuart Craig, the production designer and she enjoys watching the team at work:
“It’s really kind of interesting to go kind of even now they’ve started all their designs for the next film. They’re still working there all the time while we’re not there. And the costume department, I mean the amount of designs that go through… each film has like a new character and they’ve got to design what they’ll look like, so I really look like how they kind of take it from the book into the film.”
Bonnie says director David Yates came in with a strong insight into the films. “I think everyone has to kind of create a new film because it’s obviously their film and they want to put a new energy into it. I think he’s a real kind of actor/director, he likes to have your opinions gel, he wants you to be a part I suppose of what it’ll end up as.
“He’s thinking about every character and we’re thinking mainly about how we’re reacting and what we’re doing. He’s not someone who says ‘Right, this is how I want to do it and everyone this is what you’re doing.' He always kind of lets us know what’s in his mind, and I think that’s good for us. He’s very direct in what he wanted and I think that created a bit more kind of energy and fluency.”
It can be tricky visualising those bizarre creatures and spells which are all such normal parts of the wizarding world according to JK. “Seeing all the concept drawings and the models you really have to picture exactly what they are and what they’re doing in front of your eyes. A lot of different spells produce different shapes and forms, so it’s made me a bit more aware of what you have to imagine in front of you.”
The action scenes of …Order Of The Phoenix were particularly enjoyable to film. “Part of the Ministry of Magic scenes are very dark, but then there is a lot of kind of… one minute it’s intense, the next minute, kind of legging it down the hallway with prophecies smashing behind us, so it was fun to have a bit of a run.”
The feedback Bonnie’s received from fans has always been positive. “People kind of stop you in the street and say ‘Are you…?’ and they always kind of, you can always see them thinking out in all their head. But it’s always been really positive, and it’s always made me aware of exactly how big the audience is, it’s not just completely a children’s film you know, mums and dads are as interested as their five year old kids, so I think that’s made me really appreciate how many people are really a part of it.”
At the moment there’s not too much pressure on Bonnie during filming. “I think there’s a slight pressure in that people want to see how you’ve developed because if we all stayed pretty much the same they would get bored, so I think through character development and making each film different is something that will impress them. So I think that’s something that I’m quite concentrated on, but I don’t think it’s ever a kind of negative pressure that I get.”
Lastly, Bonnie thinks it’ll be sad when they get to the end of filming and realise they have nothing to look forward to. “I hope there’s an eighth one but there won’t be! Yeah I think it will be sad when we finish the last one, but we’ll have been doing it for about ten years so that’s going to be a large kind of chunk out of all of our lives.”
Enough of looking too far into the future for now – the release of ‘Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix’ is just around the corner…
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EVANNA LYNCH (LUNA LOVEGOOD)
Evanna Lynch is a pale wisp of a girl. She's wearing a patterned, peach-coloured top and she’s wearing a bracelet with an opal-like stone. She has a quietly spoken Irish accent which often comes across as dreamy, like her character.
Evanna plays Luna Lovegood, who's in Ginny Weasley's year but in Ravenclaw House. Luna’s a nice girl, but seems to often be in another world mentally. Believing in superstitions and mystical creatures which Hermione and Ron scoff at, her peculiarity marks her out and she’s often picked on by other students who call her ‘Loony’ behind her back, which isn’t helped by her habit of wearing odd jewellery made from Butterbeer corks. Despite his embarrassment at her behaviour sometimes, Harry finds himself liking the dreamy girl who is something of an outsider like himself.
The young actress playing her is from the village Termonfeckin in Ireland. Getting into films is generally ‘not what we do here’ and Evanna occasionally finds children recognising and pointing at her in town, although her friends and family are getting used to it and say they’re proud. She once wrote to JK Rowling complaining that nothing ever happened – JK wrote back: “Don't be too hard on Termonfeckin; it does have a brilliant name! And I come from a very sleepy place.”
Evanna’s father flew her to London for the Luna Lovegood open casting, where she beat some 15,000 other girls to the role.
It must have been so exciting for the teenager to have been chosen for the part because she’s a fan of the books and films. Not just any casual fan – Evanna calls herself a ‘serious’ fan and Harry Potter was her main interest, resulting in many an online visit to MuggleNet, which she looks forward to even now.
“Like my brother’s [hobby] is hurling and my sister’s is music, but mine is Harry Potter. I just think I was always saying that I wish we could study it in school then I wouldn’t have to do homework, it would be great.” She jokes that the plus point is she can now make money out of her pastime.
What attracted her to the books in the first place? “Because it was an escape from normal life you know, because it’s fantasy and all this amazing stuff (JK Rowling) dreams up. And yet they’re really normal, Harry and Ron and Hermione; they’re called witches and wizards but they’re just the same as us except that they are talented at a different thing, which is magic.”
Her great knowledge of the series means she knows the other characters’ lines well; in fact her and her friends used to read the books aloud for fun. “There was always a girl playing Harry and Ron, and then sometimes I would just laugh when I would hear Dan or Rupert or Emma saying the same line as my friends do and I’m with them. That’s very surreal!”
She describes her reaction to the call saying she had the part as “very stunned… I’d been dreaming about it for so long. I was just very, very wide-eyed and I wanted to drink in everything, you know. I wanted eyes all around my head. I loved it.
"The first two weeks of it, I went from just doing homework and doing normal things at home to sitting in a read-through with all of the cast. They were very very fast two weeks but I’m getting more used to it now. People will say ‘You’re going to be fighting a Death Eater and he’s six foot’ and I’m like ‘Yes ok!’” she says brightly.
How did Evanna respond to meeting the cast in the flesh after seeing them on screen for so many years? “[When she first met Daniel Radcliffe] I was calm on the outside but on the inside I was screaming and jumping. But he probably doesn’t know that.”I think I’ll always be a little bit ‘Oh, look, Harry’ but he’s more Dan now. For the first few months I was calling everyone their character name and I was very stubborn about that,” she laughs. It took a while to adjust to how the actors are very different to their characters, which felt odd at first but “the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff.”
It was a whole new experience seeing how the films are made. Scenes aren’t shot in order and the set isn’t build exactly how you’d expect when watching the films. “It’s not a whole castle built in a studio. And I went in and I was made to see bits of Diagon Alley just strewn around the place.”
Luna is a curious character and her kookiness meant she had some ‘amazing’ outfits and jewellery. Sadly, as Evanna discovered, you can’t take bits home to show them to people. “You can try it, but you won’t get away with it!
“You’re given your wand on set by the props people and usually as you’re going out of the set they‘re standing taking wands. Sometimes they would be distracted like they’re talking to somebody and you’d run off set. We had wand pockets in our trousers or skirts or whatever so I would stick it there - but they would always come and find you!”
Her favourite film so far to watch has been …Prisoner Of Azkaban. “It was the most artistic of them, the most different. All the others, a lot of people like them because number four and number two, they go by the books so much. [Director Alfonso] Cuarón kind of changed things. He moved the location of Hagrid’s house and he put in shrunken heads and I thought, I like that. I like seeing another person’s take of the book, even if it wasn’t exactly the same.”
Someone suggests Evanna could have influenced some part of the story if she made any suggestions during filming. “Yeah, that’s nice,” she smiles, although she admits to being quite nervous about making comments because everyone on the set has been working there for years, whereas she's a newcomer.“Me and Bonnie were saying we should get the six of us to [direct] the last one, like Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna. But I don’t think so!”
Is she looking forward to seeing herself on screen? As a fan of the books first and foremost, Evanna is a little worried whether she has done the character justice. “I’ll be so excited just to see the film of course. Luna matters so much to me I’m a bit worried that I’ll be like ‘That’s not Luna’ but I’ll try and enjoy it.”
So far, she’s met JK Rowling a couple of times. What’s the author like? “Ah, she was brilliant, she was. She has kind of a magical air about her and everyone says: ‘I bet she was really down to earth, I bet she was really nice’. She’s really nice but there’s also something mysterious about her, and that’s what’s nice you know, she’s special.
“She’s happy that I’m playing Luna and she just kind of talks to me about her and anything I’m wondering about, like ‘would she do this?’ she’d help.” When JK Rowling met Evanna, she reportedly described her as ‘perfect’ for the role of Luna.
As an 11-year-old and in hospital, Evanna was let out for a few hours so she could buy a copy of …Order Of The Phoenix. To mark the occasion, the youngster dressed a Harry Potter t-shirt and had Golden Snitches painted on every other nail. She also used to dress in homemade t-shirts to watch the premieres streamed online and thinks it’s ‘weird’ that this time she’ll be on the other side of the barrier.
When the final book of the series, ‘Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows’ is released, Evanna’s undecided as to where she’ll go. “I think I’ll go to England because in Ireland they’re not so hardcore as the English and the Americans so… I want to go somewhere where there’s really loads of excitement.”
When it comes down to the world of Harry Potter, Evanna Lynch certainly shouldn’t have any trouble finding excitement there.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix is released in UK cinemas from July 12th.
Website
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June and July 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
Matthew Lewis
Katie Leung
Bonnie Wright
Evanna Lynch
The fifth Harry Potter film '...Order Of The Phoenix' has a hotly anticipated release this summer. In the film, the refusal of the authorities to believe Lord Voldemort (Ralph Fiennes) has returned alarms Harry (Daniel Radcliffe) and his friends Ron (Rupert Grint) and Hermione (Emma Watson). Realising they have to take up the fight themselves, they form a society called Dumbledore's Army and set about learning defensive spells, joined by several brave classmates.
MATTHEW LEWIS (NEVILLE LONGBOTTOM)
We're sat in a plush London hotel ready to meet Leeds lad Matthew Lewis, better known to millions as Harry Potter's classmate Neville Longbottom. Neville is the chubby, shy and under-achieving one of the group who doesn't quite seem to fit in. He is nervous about his abilities which makes him perform magic badly, with many spells going awry. The other Gryffindor students aren’t entirely fond of him to begin with as he seems uncool and frankly a bit dim. It takes a challenge or two for Neville to start standing up for himself and a bit of confidence does his skills no end of good.
In real life Matthew Lewis doesn’t look like Neville; far from it. He's 18 at the end of June, is wearing a denim jacket over a Stone Roses t-shirt and has definite stubble.
“I just need a shave! Yeah, it’s quite weird actually. It’s almost like leading two completely different lives and being two very different people, and not being called insane! It’s fun ‘cause I have this fat suit and I have a side parting in my hair, and there’s things that stick my ears out, and then at the end of the day I get to take it all off and be me again. It’s very bizarre. I really, really love doing it, and I guess that’s why actors do it, just to be someone else for however long. It’s fun.”
One of the plus sides of the dodgy outfit is that Matthew doesn’t get recognised a lot in public. “Around my home town of Leeds I do a little bit, what with regional newspapers and TV programmes, and just ‘cause people know me from school or whatever. But when I’m down in London I’m fine, or in a foreign country it’s great. I can go down the local Morrison’s or whatever and pick things up and not get mobbed."
Matthew’s acting career started way before the Potter series, which he first began filming at the tender age of 11. His parents don’t quite understand where the acting bug comes from –it certainly isn’t hereditary as they hate being in front of the camera.
His brother Anthony won a part in Heartbeat as a child, and Matthew was brought along by his mum who was chaperoning.
“I just assumed it was another job that people did and I kept nagging his agent to ask if I could join up. She kept saying no, it was a kid’s agency but I was too young at three and four. And then eventually I got to five and I just nagged her so much she went ‘Right, I’m going to send you for an audition, and then you can join when you’re six, if it’ll shut you up,’ and I went and got the part for this TV film (Some Kind Of Life, starring Ray Stevenson and Jane Horrocks). So she said I could join after that.”
One of the things Matthew is proud of is the impact the character of Neville has had on others. “Meeting the fans is one thing that I actually love. I think it’s fantastic. To hear the feedback, and people have actually said to me that they’ve been bullied at school or they have problems with teachers intimidating them, and watching Neville helps them deal with it and they can relate to it. It’s just the best feeling ever that you can do a job like this, have so much fun, get paid for it and still affect people’s lives in that way.”
He’s particularly impressed with the way that bumbling Neville has developed through the films, coming to a head in …Order Of The Phoenix. “He becomes really courageous in this film, and just becomes really reckless and stupid. He just wants to do the right thing. He doesn’t care about his own safety, he just wants to help out his friends and make sure the bad guys don’t win and it was really fun to do as an actor because growing up with Neville you see him being shy, you saw in the first one an inkling of his courage, and actually to come out at the end of this fifth one was great.”
The sheer scale of ‘Harry Potter’ is still taking some getting used to. “You just have to watch the credits to see just how many people work on the film, and the scale of the sets, the amount of money put into it, it’s unbelievable, it’s like nothing I’ve ever done before. Like we work nothing compared to what the crew do, they work so hard constantly. When we get up in the morning and come in they’ve already been there a few hours before, and they leave a fair few hours after, and they do about double the months we spend on it, and it’s something else, it really is. And then coming down to a five star hotel in London and doing interviews for people all over the world - it’s something unheard of in Heartbeat!
“And also the premieres, it’s indescribable the amount of fun you have at a premiere. When you get out of the car, you never get used to it. Just to get out and hear people screaming not Neville but Matthew, I’ll never, ever get over that.”
The Harry Potter cast all get on well, which is very lucky seeing as they spend so much time together. “I’d say that Dan and Rupert are my best friends on set, I’m always in Rupert’s room playing pool or darts. He’s got the best room ever! He’s got a dartboard, pool table, table tennis, massive TV... Or I’m in Dan’s room listening to some new album he wants me to buy. We love a very similar sort of music. I do like having debates with Dan. The North versus the South. That’s the debate we always have. Beatles v the Rolling Stones. All that kind of thing. I’d say I win [the argument], but I’m sure he’d disagree!”
Outside of the set, Matthew spends a lot of time supporting his beloved and beleagured Leeds United, commenting that the torture they provide helps him deal well with Neville's traumatic moments. He jokes that he can't afford to help them out financially as "Ken Bates is asking too much!"
And as for Matthew’s career plans after Neville? “I would very much like to stay in films. Just ‘cause of just the scale of it I guess, being able to stay in these kind of hotels, you know what I mean?
“I definitely want to start going into other roles. I’ve sort of been wondering what to do and I do love comedy, I thoroughly enjoy making people laugh. My brothers are some of the funniest people I know and they make me laugh, if I can make anyone laugh as much as they make me then I’m very happy. So that’s something I’d like to do."But what I really loved this year in …Order of the Phoenix was the emotional drama side of Neville’s character, that was a real challenge for me. So if I could get anything that would challenge me even further then that would be great.
“It’s very strange to think that, that after all this time – since I was 11, so it’s six years already, and however long to go - that it’s all going to come to an end, it’s very strange. Those that are so into the book and know their characters, for it to end it’s going to be very disconcerting. And I’m not really looking forward to it. But I guess by that time I’ll be however old, and I can drive now, so it won’t be too bad I’ll be able to see everybody.”
Anyway, it won’t be ending for a few years yet. So back to Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix. “This year the character’s become so much more integral into the story, and we find a lot more about his past, his background and why he is as he is. And you’ve still got the comedy light-hearted humour bit but then he’s got a bit more action stuff to do towards the end which I’ve not done before so that was a lot of fun to shoot.
“We go to the Ministry of Magic and we’re fighting Voldemort’s Death Eaters. There’s a lot of running about and we fall through this door and it’s like a long fall into oblivion which we had to do, and it’s kind of like a Mission: Impossible style stunt on wires on our chests which was really cool. And we did jumping from rock to rock; wasn’t very high, but it was fun to do anyway. And then we had make up on with blood coming out of my nose. Just stuff like that we’ve not done before. It was great to be in an action film for a while.”
Matthew finds it ‘really weird’ that he will know exactly what he’ll be doing in a few years by reading ahead. “I was always a fan, I used to lose myself in the story and I’m in the universe and all of a sudden I’ll stop at the end of the book and think – wow, I’m going to be doing that in a few years. That’s going to be really fun.”
And for Neville’s future? Matthew would like him “to live, if possible! Or as long he dies in a really heroic way and like saves somebody else’s life, that’d be okay. I wouldn’t mind that. I think he will see it through to the end, and I think he’ll be fighting alongside Harry all the way, doing the right thing.”
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KATIE LEUNG (CHO CHANG)
Katie Leung walks in the room calmly and shyly. She’s wearing a short sleeved white cardi over a grey top and is softly spoken with a delicate Scottish lilt.
One of the newer characters, Cho Chang first appears in …Goblet of Fire. She’s an intelligent and slightly older girl in Ravenclaw house who Harry develops something of a crush on, and she's left confused and heartbroken when her boyfriend Cedric is killed during the Triwizard Tournament by a newly returned Lord Voldemort. Cho likes Harry back, but her emotional state leaves her a bit of a wreck most the time.
Motherwell-born Katie first got into the Harry Potter films when her dad suggested she go along to an open casting. It took several hours of queuing and a quick screen test before she was invited back to a workshop, then was told she had the part. Her father says she had no previous acting experience, not even for a school play.
She’s asked if she’s been rather spoilt having Potter as a starting point for her acting career. “You can’t be picky as an actress. It’s a very unstable sort of career. I’m still in the early stages - I mean all I’ve done is Potter so I’d like to go on to all different sort of things.”
Was it any different the second time around? “I enjoyed it just as much, I mean it was different because I’d be coming back to familiar faces again. It’s kind of like a second home to me now, Leavesdon. So I felt much more relaxed in front of people, in front of the camera, and just kind of learned to ignore it. It was good. Sometimes when say, you’re talking to somebody, and the camera’s right in front of you and it’s kind of hard to ignore it, your eye just kind of catches it. But no, I mean you just get used to it.”
Now she’s one of the ‘familiar faces’ herself, did she help the even newer cast members such as Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood) fit in? “She was really sweet when she first came in, she did look incredibly nervous.
"We stayed in the same apartment for the first few weeks or so of filming and I just got to know her a little better, we went to the park and we watched movies together and stuff. She’s such a lovely girl and she’s handling it really well. And she’s such a big fan of the films, so I’m really happy for her.”
Is Katie coping with all the madness, interviews and promotional hype around the films? “I don’t really get used to it because you know it’s not like you’re constantly doing it. I just definitely didn’t realise it was going to be on such a big scale, doing all these interviews and the size of the premiere with all the fans, and getting to travel everywhere, it’s definitely not a bad thing! [The strangest thing I’ve been asked]… what would I change if I was Queen. Yeah something like that.”
Six journalists excitedly wait to see what it the answer is. “Er, I said I would make everyone ride bikes in London. Drivers are mental.”
In Glasgow everything’s just peachy is it, asks someone. “Yep!” she says proudly.
She finds it a “really strange and cringeworthy” experience watching herself back at the cinema. “When I watched it at the cinema it was one of the biggest screens in London with thousands of other people. There’s nothing really you can do about it, you just have to sit and watch and hopefully the reactions you get from the audience tell you whether you did a good job or not.”
Someone comments that with something the size of Harry Potter, Katie could be watching other films and see herself in a trailer, or a bus with her face on it will pass. She smiles. “Yeah, I think that happened when I was promoting the film in Japan last year. They had my big face on a bus and it was really, really strange you know, you travel halfway around the world and it’s just odd.”
You can travel for free when that happens, explains one of the journalists. That’s a law. She laughs.
As her mother attended the UK premiere, she took her father on the promo tour of Japan “on a break because he works really hard and stuff. When there was the premiere in Japan, he was watching at the side while I was doing interviews and he didn’t see me as his daughter, he just saw me as Cho Chang, which is really strange.”
Although …Order of the Phoenix was a return to Leavesden and the cast members Katie had worked with before, there was one major change – David Yates replaced …Goblet of Fire director Mike Newell. She describes them as both different and brilliant.
“I have a special bond with Mike because he took part in picking me for the role, and he was so great. But so was David, he was really gentle, he was really soft-spoken, and just he would sort of pull me to a corner and then he would give me his opinions on my character and ask what I thought about my character, then sort of have a little discussion. And he would tell me how my character was going through a really bad time and she’s really emotional, and just the way he said it made me want to cry! He was great at doing that and he put me in the mood, in the zone.”
One of the main scenes for Katie involves Harry Potter’s first kiss with Cho Chang. It’s highly anticipated and there’s a lot of teasing about it. “I’m not sure how nervous [Dan Radcliffe] was but God I was so nervous, I was so worried. Just ‘cause people were constantly mentioning the kiss and all my friends were just asking me how it was going. The schedule’s always changing, so when you think it’s coming up they could set it back ‘til a week later and you wouldn’t know.
“The funny thing was, I was just having sleepless nights over it and when the set date finally came Daniel felt ill. He was dreading it that much!” she jokes.
In the end, the terrifying scene turned out to be “fine”. “We sort of had a laugh just before it, you know ‘Have you had your breathmint, have you brushed your teeth?’, stuff like that. It wasn’t 30 takes! Everyone says it was. It was much less than that.”
Now her friends as well as a lot of annoying journalists keep asking how it went. “It went by in such a flash and you know I think when you’re a bag of nerves nothing really sticks in your mind, it’s all just a blur.
“What I’m hoping for is it’s going to satisfy everyone’s perception of how the kiss is going to look. Hopefully when an audience see it they’ll think back to when they had their first kiss, you know it’s supposed to be a very awkward moment but sweet and very endearing at the same time. Everybody’s looking forward to it because a lot of people watched Harry Potter grow up and you can’t miss the kiss, you’ve got to see it!”
Katie might be recognised a little more often after this film is released. Currently very few people realise who she is, which she says is good. “I mean you don’t want people coming up to you all the time going ‘Oh look, there’s her’. But yeah, you get the odd few who just come up and say ‘I love the films’.
"Most of them aren’t sure, they come up and say ‘Are you the girl from Harry Potter?’ and sometimes I’ll say ‘No, but I get told that I look like her a lot. I get it all the time’. But sometimes I say yeah, and it’s nice things they say. They’re like ‘Oh I really enjoyed the films and I hope filming’s going well at the moment’.”
As for the future, Katie isn’t sure if she’ll carry on acting or if she’ll study graphic design or media at university, saying her indecisiveness is “one of the worst things” about her. But there’s one thing she’s definite on – reading the last book. It’s already on pre-order “and I’ll probably go in at midnight to queue up and find out what happens.” Look out for her in a queue near you.
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BONNIE WRIGHT (GINNY WEASLEY)
Sixteen-year-old Bonnie Wright enters the room and sits at the table. She’s wearing a pale pink hoodie and a vest top with thin black and white stripes. Maybe it’s the lighting, but her hair doesn’t seem as ginger as you’d expect from a Weasley. She’s well spoken and friendly, and occasionally her enthusiasm makes her try and say several things at once.
Her character is Ginny Weasley, younger and shyer sister of Ron. She starts with a bit part in the first film – and a crush on Harry - then has the misfortune of being possessed by Voldemort in …Chamber Of Secrets. …Order Of The Phoenix sees Ginny coming out her shell as a person and becoming a bit of a Quidditch whiz, as well as displaying something of that Weasley cheeky sense of humour.
The Weasley family is one of the more comforting and stabilising aspects for Harry, introducing him to the ways of the wizarding world, and also providing him with a sense of family. Rupert Grint (Ron), James Phelps (Fred) and Oliver Phelps (George) have been in like Bonnie’s older brothers in real life.
“Through doing all The Burrow scenes and in this film there’s quite a funny Christmas scene at Grimmauld Place, the Black house, so definitely I think it’s been quite like a brotherly family relationship.” Julie Walters has also been keeping up her role as loveable worrying mother Molly – “She likes to have a quite a little cuddly, family running around, but I think she definitely brings so much kind of energy to the Weasley family. We’re all meant to be so bubbly, no matter what’s happening we’re still smiling and I think she keeps that smile on in a lot of the scenes and we kind of mirror her.”
As for Rupert, he’s more like Fred and George in real life, always pulling pranks and corpsing on set. “He just completely laughs all the time when we’re on set, he just can’t stop and half the time he doesn’t even know what he’s laughing about. We’re in the middle of a scene and he’ll be trying hide his giggles and we’re all just laughing away with him. So I think he keeps us giggling probably a bit too much…”
Bonnie’s been getting on particularly well with Katie Leung (Cho Chang), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger) and Evanna Lynch (Luna Lovegood). She’s asked if there’s a ‘girls versus boys’ feeling on set. “Yeah people say that, I don’t know!” she laughs. “No, I think especially towards the end of this film there was the six of us, and we had to do a lot of action; different bits together, but we had to be quite intense together as part of the scene. Three girls, three boys, so that was quite good.
”It’s like a second home almost [Leavesden], and we all have our dressing rooms that we’ve done up. Also from each film we haven’t seen each other for a while, so when we get back there it’s almost like we’re all going back to Hogwarts and back for our school term. Being there is definitely good ‘cause you’re kind of used to it.”
And the young actors aren’t too frightened to work around their more experienced adult counterparts, such as Gary Oldman, Alan Rickman, Helena Bonham-Carter and Julie Walters. “I think for us it’s amazing to have them there because we’re definitely learning from them all the time. They’re all kind of open to of our endeavours in all the scenes. They’ve done so much compared to us, but I think the dynamic is good, and I think they enjoy it.”
She’s asked if the adults tell them off for being rowdy. “No, sometimes we’re telling them off!” she laughs.
Going on to other work after Harry Potter is more of a challenge, says Bonnie, because you’re used to relaxing around familiar faces on set. She’s had parts in Stranded and Agatha Christie: A Life In Pictures. Despite all this experience, she isn’t sure if she wants acting as a ‘total’ career. She’s always wanted to go to art school and might still, although her interest in the film industry means she might do something behind the camera. Luckily her interest here is encouraged by Stuart Craig, the production designer and she enjoys watching the team at work:
“It’s really kind of interesting to go kind of even now they’ve started all their designs for the next film. They’re still working there all the time while we’re not there. And the costume department, I mean the amount of designs that go through… each film has like a new character and they’ve got to design what they’ll look like, so I really look like how they kind of take it from the book into the film.”
Bonnie says director David Yates came in with a strong insight into the films. “I think everyone has to kind of create a new film because it’s obviously their film and they want to put a new energy into it. I think he’s a real kind of actor/director, he likes to have your opinions gel, he wants you to be a part I suppose of what it’ll end up as.
“He’s thinking about every character and we’re thinking mainly about how we’re reacting and what we’re doing. He’s not someone who says ‘Right, this is how I want to do it and everyone this is what you’re doing.' He always kind of lets us know what’s in his mind, and I think that’s good for us. He’s very direct in what he wanted and I think that created a bit more kind of energy and fluency.”
It can be tricky visualising those bizarre creatures and spells which are all such normal parts of the wizarding world according to JK. “Seeing all the concept drawings and the models you really have to picture exactly what they are and what they’re doing in front of your eyes. A lot of different spells produce different shapes and forms, so it’s made me a bit more aware of what you have to imagine in front of you.”
The action scenes of …Order Of The Phoenix were particularly enjoyable to film. “Part of the Ministry of Magic scenes are very dark, but then there is a lot of kind of… one minute it’s intense, the next minute, kind of legging it down the hallway with prophecies smashing behind us, so it was fun to have a bit of a run.”
The feedback Bonnie’s received from fans has always been positive. “People kind of stop you in the street and say ‘Are you…?’ and they always kind of, you can always see them thinking out in all their head. But it’s always been really positive, and it’s always made me aware of exactly how big the audience is, it’s not just completely a children’s film you know, mums and dads are as interested as their five year old kids, so I think that’s made me really appreciate how many people are really a part of it.”
At the moment there’s not too much pressure on Bonnie during filming. “I think there’s a slight pressure in that people want to see how you’ve developed because if we all stayed pretty much the same they would get bored, so I think through character development and making each film different is something that will impress them. So I think that’s something that I’m quite concentrated on, but I don’t think it’s ever a kind of negative pressure that I get.”
Lastly, Bonnie thinks it’ll be sad when they get to the end of filming and realise they have nothing to look forward to. “I hope there’s an eighth one but there won’t be! Yeah I think it will be sad when we finish the last one, but we’ll have been doing it for about ten years so that’s going to be a large kind of chunk out of all of our lives.”
Enough of looking too far into the future for now – the release of ‘Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix’ is just around the corner…
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EVANNA LYNCH (LUNA LOVEGOOD)
Evanna Lynch is a pale wisp of a girl. She's wearing a patterned, peach-coloured top and she’s wearing a bracelet with an opal-like stone. She has a quietly spoken Irish accent which often comes across as dreamy, like her character.
Evanna plays Luna Lovegood, who's in Ginny Weasley's year but in Ravenclaw House. Luna’s a nice girl, but seems to often be in another world mentally. Believing in superstitions and mystical creatures which Hermione and Ron scoff at, her peculiarity marks her out and she’s often picked on by other students who call her ‘Loony’ behind her back, which isn’t helped by her habit of wearing odd jewellery made from Butterbeer corks. Despite his embarrassment at her behaviour sometimes, Harry finds himself liking the dreamy girl who is something of an outsider like himself.
The young actress playing her is from the village Termonfeckin in Ireland. Getting into films is generally ‘not what we do here’ and Evanna occasionally finds children recognising and pointing at her in town, although her friends and family are getting used to it and say they’re proud. She once wrote to JK Rowling complaining that nothing ever happened – JK wrote back: “Don't be too hard on Termonfeckin; it does have a brilliant name! And I come from a very sleepy place.”
Evanna’s father flew her to London for the Luna Lovegood open casting, where she beat some 15,000 other girls to the role.
It must have been so exciting for the teenager to have been chosen for the part because she’s a fan of the books and films. Not just any casual fan – Evanna calls herself a ‘serious’ fan and Harry Potter was her main interest, resulting in many an online visit to MuggleNet, which she looks forward to even now.
“Like my brother’s [hobby] is hurling and my sister’s is music, but mine is Harry Potter. I just think I was always saying that I wish we could study it in school then I wouldn’t have to do homework, it would be great.” She jokes that the plus point is she can now make money out of her pastime.
What attracted her to the books in the first place? “Because it was an escape from normal life you know, because it’s fantasy and all this amazing stuff (JK Rowling) dreams up. And yet they’re really normal, Harry and Ron and Hermione; they’re called witches and wizards but they’re just the same as us except that they are talented at a different thing, which is magic.”
Her great knowledge of the series means she knows the other characters’ lines well; in fact her and her friends used to read the books aloud for fun. “There was always a girl playing Harry and Ron, and then sometimes I would just laugh when I would hear Dan or Rupert or Emma saying the same line as my friends do and I’m with them. That’s very surreal!”
She describes her reaction to the call saying she had the part as “very stunned… I’d been dreaming about it for so long. I was just very, very wide-eyed and I wanted to drink in everything, you know. I wanted eyes all around my head. I loved it.
"The first two weeks of it, I went from just doing homework and doing normal things at home to sitting in a read-through with all of the cast. They were very very fast two weeks but I’m getting more used to it now. People will say ‘You’re going to be fighting a Death Eater and he’s six foot’ and I’m like ‘Yes ok!’” she says brightly.
How did Evanna respond to meeting the cast in the flesh after seeing them on screen for so many years? “[When she first met Daniel Radcliffe] I was calm on the outside but on the inside I was screaming and jumping. But he probably doesn’t know that.”I think I’ll always be a little bit ‘Oh, look, Harry’ but he’s more Dan now. For the first few months I was calling everyone their character name and I was very stubborn about that,” she laughs. It took a while to adjust to how the actors are very different to their characters, which felt odd at first but “the good stuff outweighs the bad stuff.”
It was a whole new experience seeing how the films are made. Scenes aren’t shot in order and the set isn’t build exactly how you’d expect when watching the films. “It’s not a whole castle built in a studio. And I went in and I was made to see bits of Diagon Alley just strewn around the place.”
Luna is a curious character and her kookiness meant she had some ‘amazing’ outfits and jewellery. Sadly, as Evanna discovered, you can’t take bits home to show them to people. “You can try it, but you won’t get away with it!
“You’re given your wand on set by the props people and usually as you’re going out of the set they‘re standing taking wands. Sometimes they would be distracted like they’re talking to somebody and you’d run off set. We had wand pockets in our trousers or skirts or whatever so I would stick it there - but they would always come and find you!”
Her favourite film so far to watch has been …Prisoner Of Azkaban. “It was the most artistic of them, the most different. All the others, a lot of people like them because number four and number two, they go by the books so much. [Director Alfonso] Cuarón kind of changed things. He moved the location of Hagrid’s house and he put in shrunken heads and I thought, I like that. I like seeing another person’s take of the book, even if it wasn’t exactly the same.”
Someone suggests Evanna could have influenced some part of the story if she made any suggestions during filming. “Yeah, that’s nice,” she smiles, although she admits to being quite nervous about making comments because everyone on the set has been working there for years, whereas she's a newcomer.“Me and Bonnie were saying we should get the six of us to [direct] the last one, like Harry, Ron, Hermione, Neville, Ginny and Luna. But I don’t think so!”
Is she looking forward to seeing herself on screen? As a fan of the books first and foremost, Evanna is a little worried whether she has done the character justice. “I’ll be so excited just to see the film of course. Luna matters so much to me I’m a bit worried that I’ll be like ‘That’s not Luna’ but I’ll try and enjoy it.”
So far, she’s met JK Rowling a couple of times. What’s the author like? “Ah, she was brilliant, she was. She has kind of a magical air about her and everyone says: ‘I bet she was really down to earth, I bet she was really nice’. She’s really nice but there’s also something mysterious about her, and that’s what’s nice you know, she’s special.
“She’s happy that I’m playing Luna and she just kind of talks to me about her and anything I’m wondering about, like ‘would she do this?’ she’d help.” When JK Rowling met Evanna, she reportedly described her as ‘perfect’ for the role of Luna.
As an 11-year-old and in hospital, Evanna was let out for a few hours so she could buy a copy of …Order Of The Phoenix. To mark the occasion, the youngster dressed a Harry Potter t-shirt and had Golden Snitches painted on every other nail. She also used to dress in homemade t-shirts to watch the premieres streamed online and thinks it’s ‘weird’ that this time she’ll be on the other side of the barrier.
When the final book of the series, ‘Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows’ is released, Evanna’s undecided as to where she’ll go. “I think I’ll go to England because in Ireland they’re not so hardcore as the English and the Americans so… I want to go somewhere where there’s really loads of excitement.”
When it comes down to the world of Harry Potter, Evanna Lynch certainly shouldn’t have any trouble finding excitement there.
Harry Potter And The Order Of The Phoenix is released in UK cinemas from July 12th.
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Interview - Stephanie McIntosh
There are times when PRs ask you to cover something an artist who you think would be out of place on your title. You feel like saying 'No, sorry I'm busy', but that would be mean. And besides, you've probably said it before and don't feel like standing them up again. Such was the case with Stephanie McIntosh, a lovely Australian girl embarking on a pop career. I wasn't sure a Neighbours star going into music would be ideal content for the website, but she's fairly well-known, and besides, all the men in the office had a crush on her. For the record, her album sounds a bit Avril Lavigne and isn't that bad, and she's polite and bright.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STEPHANIE MCINTOSH
Stephanie McIntosh is Sky from Neighbours. She’s also Jason Donovan’s half sister. But the 21-year-old is also a person in her own right and is embarking on a career as some sort of budding pop goddess. We gave her a ring in London to find out what she’s up to.
Hello?
“Hello. Can you hear me?”
Yes I can, it’s all working fine. How are you at the moment?
“Yeah, I’m well, I’m well. It’s the first interview of the day, so I can’t complain at all.”
Your first one? So you’ve only just got up then?
“Yeah, well, pretty much! Have you, or have you been working for a while now?”
No, I only just got in. I thought I was going to be late, I was in the car and the traffic was really bad, and I was like ‘Oh God I’m got to be there in half an hour!’
“I’m still getting used to all the traffic in London. It’s crazy. It’s very different to Melbourne, although Melbourne has its traffic but obviously not the population with it.”
Are you actually from Melbourne? What’s it like there?
“Very laid back. It’s a very easy going lifestyle and just very relaxed.”
Better weather as well?
“Well, we have our good and bad days. It’s kind of similar, like the forecast will say it’s gonna be hot but it won’t be. And that’s kind of like Melbourne.”
We’ve got this image that Australia is just permanently really hot.
“Well our summer is just really boiling I have to say, and we had a really long summer this year, but it was good.”
Stephanie’s spent the last couple of weeks doing the promotional rounds for her album ‘Tightrope’. “Last week was strange ‘cause I was trying to understand that I was actually in London and that it was all happening. But it’s all been good.
“It’s the debut, and it’s being released in Australia now, and we’ve just finished releasing the third single back at home which is cool. And it’s kind of a pop rock record, and something which I’m really proud of.”
Have you got any favourite tracks on there?
“Yeah, the last track on there which is called ‘The Light Of My Life’. When you listen to it you’ll know what it’s about but it’s just a really special ballad full of strings and it’s just the lyrics are very touching so I was always connected to that song. There’s a track called ‘A Change Is Coming’ which is probably one of those tracks people don’t realise how much fun it is ‘til they sort of listen to it a few times. I love every song on it and hope that people can sort of feel the same way.”
As for life in entertainment, she took her first tentative steps - or pirouettes – in ballet aged just three. “I love dancing, I still dance when I can, it’s just not full time anymore because obviously Neighbours was a full time job in itself, I just couldn’t make the classes so I had to slow down on it.
“I think singing’s always come first, ‘cause it’s more natural, it’s something you can do, you know, easily in your own bedroom, and just sort of get carried away with it.”
Are you interested in keeping your acting going at the moment, alongside your singing career?
“Yeah, I hope I can combine all of it. Obviously at this stage my priority’s ‘Tightrope’. After four years on one set, I’m really happy to make my singing a priority but I haven’t shut [acting] off, that’s for sure.”
Stephanie is of course familiar to many Brits as Sky Mangel in Neighbours. We had a quick look at a biography of the character, and got slightly confused. Turns out Sky was born to Kerry Bishop and Eric Jensen, but her mother was shot dead and her father was a bit of a hippy so she lived with Joe then moved in with grandfather Harold, dated Boyd, was kissed by Lana, kissed Dylan, cheated on him with art lecturer Jean-Pierre, then cheated on him again with Stingray, had Stingray’s baby, called it Kerry, Kerry developed leukemia… it was then we lost track.
I have to confess I’m not sure what’s going on in Neighbours at the moment. It’s usually on when I’m driving home from work.
“Well apparently Stingray just died here, so… Actually Ben (Nicholas) who plays Stingray is living in London at the moment.”
Have you been catching up with him?
“Yeah, him and Kyal Marsh who plays Boyd, they’re my best mates off set so it’s been fun having them here.”
Have you got any sort of fond memories of your time in Neighbours?
“Oh, of course. I mean yeah, the whole four years has been amazing for me, it was just such a good place to learn and grow and experience so many different things.”
It’s good you got on well and everything and you’re still in touch with people.
“Yeah, well there’s definitely a few of us that will probably stay friends forever I hope. But yeah, it is really lovely.”
Do you think you’re likely to go back?
“Um… I sort of feel I’ve put closure to Neighbours now, you know if I was asked to go back or be a guest, if it was a good time I would definitely go back.”
Do you think you’re much like Sky in real life?
“If anything, maybe more so now. As she’s got older, I’ve got older obviously, but initially for the first couple of years on the show, not at all. We were chalk and cheese, like I found sometimes I didn’t even know what she was talking about. That was so much fun though and it was part of it, like that she was so different, and it just made it so much more interesting, and challengeable for me.”
It was good acting then, because you looked like you knew what she was talking about…
Stephanie has also been busy with ‘The Steph Show’. It might sound like a camp game show, where your host appears in some sort of gold shimmery fabric and a fluorescent grim to watch losers juggling fire or something. In actual fact this was an eight-part fly-on-the-wall documentary which followed Stephanie over time as she prepared her album.
Was it a bit weird having the camera following you round? Because in Neighbours you know the camera’s going to be there, you’re acting, but ‘The Steph Show’ was more fly-on-the-wall wasn’t it.
“It had its good and bad days, I have to admit. It’s sort of hard to believe but you do forget it’s there sometimes but more than not you’re aware of the camera being there. There were some really hard days where I was sort of a bit sick off jumping off the Neighbours set and having another camera in my face. It got pretty full on.
“You know, I am a pretty private person behind the scenes and behind Sky Mangel and behind the music which sounds pretty silly. It was hard but a great experience and I’m really lucky that I had the chance to do something like that.”
I guess everyone here’s been mentioning to you all the other people from Neighbours who have released singles…
“Yeah!” (laughs)
Probably a bit annoying to hear about that. Is there something in the Erinsborough water?
“Exactly, that’s exactly what I have said before! I guess it’s funny how they’ve all come out of one place. It is kind of weird because there are so many talented artists back home in Oz that aren’t just actors.”
The other thing I guess people have been speaking to you about – your half-brother Jason Donovan. Do you follow much of his career?
“Yeah. I’m living with him while I’m here, which is really nice to have some family over here. I think I’ve been a little bit naïve to how successful he was. He’s got all these amazing framed albums and platinums and golds, he’s done so well. There’s a big age gap between us and I was very young when he was breaking through with it all. It’s nice to be able to appreciate it now for him.”
Has he been sort of mentoring you?
“Yeah, in a big brother way I guess. But yeah, he’s been great, you know he and his children and his partner are all very supportive, it’s just very normal when I go back at home at the end of the day.”
Jason was on ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ Would you ever appear on those sort of gameshow reality shows yourself?
“I guess that all depends… it honestly would depend where I am and what I’m doing, if the timing was right, if it was a good thing to do…”
If you wanted bugs on your head, that sort of thing.
“Yes! I don’t know much about the show because it wasn’t over in Oz. I was aware of what he did and that he was doing it but I haven’t seen any of it yet. But I heard it was quite extreme, so maybe not that one!”
Any other plans for this year?
“I hope this album sees me through to the end of the year really, I hope I get the opportunity to release more than the first single. If I have it my way hopefully there’ll be three to four singles. So I’m just really focused on this album and hope to stretch it out for the whole year.”
Then have a nice holiday.
“Something like that, exactly!”
MySpace
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
STEPHANIE MCINTOSH
Stephanie McIntosh is Sky from Neighbours. She’s also Jason Donovan’s half sister. But the 21-year-old is also a person in her own right and is embarking on a career as some sort of budding pop goddess. We gave her a ring in London to find out what she’s up to.
Hello?
“Hello. Can you hear me?”
Yes I can, it’s all working fine. How are you at the moment?
“Yeah, I’m well, I’m well. It’s the first interview of the day, so I can’t complain at all.”
Your first one? So you’ve only just got up then?
“Yeah, well, pretty much! Have you, or have you been working for a while now?”
No, I only just got in. I thought I was going to be late, I was in the car and the traffic was really bad, and I was like ‘Oh God I’m got to be there in half an hour!’
“I’m still getting used to all the traffic in London. It’s crazy. It’s very different to Melbourne, although Melbourne has its traffic but obviously not the population with it.”
Are you actually from Melbourne? What’s it like there?
“Very laid back. It’s a very easy going lifestyle and just very relaxed.”
Better weather as well?
“Well, we have our good and bad days. It’s kind of similar, like the forecast will say it’s gonna be hot but it won’t be. And that’s kind of like Melbourne.”
We’ve got this image that Australia is just permanently really hot.
“Well our summer is just really boiling I have to say, and we had a really long summer this year, but it was good.”
Stephanie’s spent the last couple of weeks doing the promotional rounds for her album ‘Tightrope’. “Last week was strange ‘cause I was trying to understand that I was actually in London and that it was all happening. But it’s all been good.
“It’s the debut, and it’s being released in Australia now, and we’ve just finished releasing the third single back at home which is cool. And it’s kind of a pop rock record, and something which I’m really proud of.”
Have you got any favourite tracks on there?
“Yeah, the last track on there which is called ‘The Light Of My Life’. When you listen to it you’ll know what it’s about but it’s just a really special ballad full of strings and it’s just the lyrics are very touching so I was always connected to that song. There’s a track called ‘A Change Is Coming’ which is probably one of those tracks people don’t realise how much fun it is ‘til they sort of listen to it a few times. I love every song on it and hope that people can sort of feel the same way.”
As for life in entertainment, she took her first tentative steps - or pirouettes – in ballet aged just three. “I love dancing, I still dance when I can, it’s just not full time anymore because obviously Neighbours was a full time job in itself, I just couldn’t make the classes so I had to slow down on it.
“I think singing’s always come first, ‘cause it’s more natural, it’s something you can do, you know, easily in your own bedroom, and just sort of get carried away with it.”
Are you interested in keeping your acting going at the moment, alongside your singing career?
“Yeah, I hope I can combine all of it. Obviously at this stage my priority’s ‘Tightrope’. After four years on one set, I’m really happy to make my singing a priority but I haven’t shut [acting] off, that’s for sure.”
Stephanie is of course familiar to many Brits as Sky Mangel in Neighbours. We had a quick look at a biography of the character, and got slightly confused. Turns out Sky was born to Kerry Bishop and Eric Jensen, but her mother was shot dead and her father was a bit of a hippy so she lived with Joe then moved in with grandfather Harold, dated Boyd, was kissed by Lana, kissed Dylan, cheated on him with art lecturer Jean-Pierre, then cheated on him again with Stingray, had Stingray’s baby, called it Kerry, Kerry developed leukemia… it was then we lost track.
I have to confess I’m not sure what’s going on in Neighbours at the moment. It’s usually on when I’m driving home from work.
“Well apparently Stingray just died here, so… Actually Ben (Nicholas) who plays Stingray is living in London at the moment.”
Have you been catching up with him?
“Yeah, him and Kyal Marsh who plays Boyd, they’re my best mates off set so it’s been fun having them here.”
Have you got any sort of fond memories of your time in Neighbours?
“Oh, of course. I mean yeah, the whole four years has been amazing for me, it was just such a good place to learn and grow and experience so many different things.”
It’s good you got on well and everything and you’re still in touch with people.
“Yeah, well there’s definitely a few of us that will probably stay friends forever I hope. But yeah, it is really lovely.”
Do you think you’re likely to go back?
“Um… I sort of feel I’ve put closure to Neighbours now, you know if I was asked to go back or be a guest, if it was a good time I would definitely go back.”
Do you think you’re much like Sky in real life?
“If anything, maybe more so now. As she’s got older, I’ve got older obviously, but initially for the first couple of years on the show, not at all. We were chalk and cheese, like I found sometimes I didn’t even know what she was talking about. That was so much fun though and it was part of it, like that she was so different, and it just made it so much more interesting, and challengeable for me.”
It was good acting then, because you looked like you knew what she was talking about…
Stephanie has also been busy with ‘The Steph Show’. It might sound like a camp game show, where your host appears in some sort of gold shimmery fabric and a fluorescent grim to watch losers juggling fire or something. In actual fact this was an eight-part fly-on-the-wall documentary which followed Stephanie over time as she prepared her album.
Was it a bit weird having the camera following you round? Because in Neighbours you know the camera’s going to be there, you’re acting, but ‘The Steph Show’ was more fly-on-the-wall wasn’t it.
“It had its good and bad days, I have to admit. It’s sort of hard to believe but you do forget it’s there sometimes but more than not you’re aware of the camera being there. There were some really hard days where I was sort of a bit sick off jumping off the Neighbours set and having another camera in my face. It got pretty full on.
“You know, I am a pretty private person behind the scenes and behind Sky Mangel and behind the music which sounds pretty silly. It was hard but a great experience and I’m really lucky that I had the chance to do something like that.”
I guess everyone here’s been mentioning to you all the other people from Neighbours who have released singles…
“Yeah!” (laughs)
Probably a bit annoying to hear about that. Is there something in the Erinsborough water?
“Exactly, that’s exactly what I have said before! I guess it’s funny how they’ve all come out of one place. It is kind of weird because there are so many talented artists back home in Oz that aren’t just actors.”
The other thing I guess people have been speaking to you about – your half-brother Jason Donovan. Do you follow much of his career?
“Yeah. I’m living with him while I’m here, which is really nice to have some family over here. I think I’ve been a little bit naïve to how successful he was. He’s got all these amazing framed albums and platinums and golds, he’s done so well. There’s a big age gap between us and I was very young when he was breaking through with it all. It’s nice to be able to appreciate it now for him.”
Has he been sort of mentoring you?
“Yeah, in a big brother way I guess. But yeah, he’s been great, you know he and his children and his partner are all very supportive, it’s just very normal when I go back at home at the end of the day.”
Jason was on ‘I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here!’ Would you ever appear on those sort of gameshow reality shows yourself?
“I guess that all depends… it honestly would depend where I am and what I’m doing, if the timing was right, if it was a good thing to do…”
If you wanted bugs on your head, that sort of thing.
“Yes! I don’t know much about the show because it wasn’t over in Oz. I was aware of what he did and that he was doing it but I haven’t seen any of it yet. But I heard it was quite extreme, so maybe not that one!”
Any other plans for this year?
“I hope this album sees me through to the end of the year really, I hope I get the opportunity to release more than the first single. If I have it my way hopefully there’ll be three to four singles. So I’m just really focused on this album and hope to stretch it out for the whole year.”
Then have a nice holiday.
“Something like that, exactly!”
MySpace
Interview - Paramore
This is one of those combination interviews where they say 'Oh, you'll be getting Person 1 and Person 2, alternatively you'll get Person 3 and Person 4,' then you inevitably end up with an entirely different pairing. Not that it matters in this case, as Paramore musicians Josh and Jeremy sounded like nice chappies.
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
PARAMORE
You know those bands which seem to suddenly loom out of nowhere? Paramore are one of those. American emo rockers fronted by the stylish and confident Hayley, their name has been floating around on the breeze for a while, but the release of massive tune 'Misery Business' should see them become a powerful force on the scene. Paramore were recently described by NME as '(lucky) for you, they're chuffin' amazing', they are Kerrang! cover stars - and aged 16 to 22, it looks like they'll be around for a while yet. We phoned guitarist Josh Farro and bassist Jeremy Davis for a chat.
Are you having a good day?
Josh - Yes are you?
I’m having a lovely day thank you.
Josh - Good.
You’re from Tennessee aren’t you? What’s it like there?
Jeremy - It’s the best place in the world. Beautiful.
Josh – It really is. Maybe it’s just ‘cause we’re from there but we take great pride in our state.
I don’t know much about how you guys got together, how did you meet?
Josh – I’m brothers with Zac so I sort of live with him! We went to this school for like a year then halfway through this girl joined the school and we were like ‘Who is this?’ Zac is really outgoing so he went up and introduced himself and later came up to me like ‘Dude you have to meet this girl Hayley, she’s so cool and she plays the guitar’ and I was like ‘oh, all right’ and I started to get a little jealous because I play guitar.
Then Jeremy at the time was in a band with her, it was like a cover band, they played like funk songs and r’n’b songs. Then that band ended and Zac and I had a band so we asked Hayley to join and sing and we asked Jeremy to play bass. I think it was about three years ago? We played in a living room for a year before we did anything really.
Your first gig was in Nashville wasn’t it? How was that?
Jeremy – It was a lot of fun. We actually played our very first show with a couple of bands called Copeland and Lovedrug and at the time those were some of our favourite bands. We were really nervous but we were happy. All of our friends thought it was cool because they were all going to the show anyway.
According to all your biographies, you’ve been voted best new band by Kerrang!, NME put you in their top ten ‘New Noise’ section, and Hayley keeps getting all those Sexy Female things –[They laugh.]- so what awards do you think you should be getting?
Josh - We should get the sexiest male! I guess they’re just saving the best for the last…
You’re not jealous or anything are you?
Josh – No! [they laugh]
You played at the Download Festival on Friday. How was it?
Josh – It was great. Porcupine Tree played before us – that is such a funny name, I’m sorry – and right after us was Enter Shikari. Korn was after them. It was crazy.
Jeremy – It went really well. We were really scared we were going to get bottled, ‘cause we don’t sound like any of those bands. And we were really excited when we did it, and actually it was a good time.
Nothing thrown then?
Josh – Actually there were a couple of bottles of beer or something.
You expect that though, don’t you? It’s not a proper festival if you don’t get stuff thrown at you.
Josh – Yeah I know, it’s like a tradition over here. It’s really weird.
Were there any bands you stuck around to watch yourselves?
Josh – We watched My Chemical Romance. We didn’t really have time to catch anyone else because we were doing a lot of interviews and press, but we heard Dragonforce. They’re amazing.
How have your other UK shows gone?
Jeremy – So far it’s been a lot of fun. We had a band from over here from Derby, called Lost Alone and they’re so cool, they’re like some of our new best friends.
Josh – Touring over here is always amazing. We went to the rest of Europe and it was cool. Coming to the UK for the first time we were so used to the US we were like ‘Man, this is really weird!’ When we went to the rest of Europe we were like ‘Man, we can’t wait to get back to the UK where everybody speaks the same language as us!’ It was great though, the UK is always amazing and the kids are always off the chain. Just awesome, it’s great.
Do you have any special tricks up your sleeves for live shows, do you get up to anything much onstage? Apart from playing, obviously.
Josh – Jeremy and I do this thing where… it’s going to sound really weird over the phone! He’ll go to one side of the stage and run over towards me and he’ll flip over my back. You have to see it, it’s on our first music video for our song ‘Pressure’.
Circus trick.
Josh – It’s like the only trick we have. We’re trying to come up with more but we don’t really ever have that much time to actually plan out any awesome tricks.
At the moment you’ve got Taylor York standing in on guitar. How’s he coping with it all?
Josh - He’s great. He’s like really young as well – 17 - so he’s missing home a little bit and this is his first tour ever in his life. He’s a great guitar player and just a great person and I think our fans are accepting him really well.
Jeremy – That’s good because we’ve known him for a really long time, so we’re all getting along really well.
Your single ‘Misery Business’ is coming out soon. What’s that about?
Josh – It’s a strange one. It’s about this girl and she came into our lives through dating a friend. She basically destroyed his life, and it really hurt us all. It really hurt Hayley, because at the time she was like the only girl friend of ours, so I guess she sort of felt threatened by her, and so when she saw what that chick did to our friend she was pretty mad. She had been holding it in for a while and when I wrote some music for the new record she just put the lyrics to it because she thought it fit them better.
Your album is out over here in a few weeks, can you tell me about it?
Josh – it’s called 'Riot!' and we recorded it with producer David Bendeth who’s actually from over here. Not exactly sure where. But yeah, he’s a great guy, It was probably some of the best three months of our lives and a great experience. He really stretches us as musicians. We’re really proud of our record. We hope our fans love it and we hope to gain many more.
I have to say I like the song name ‘For A Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic’. Have you got any favourite tracks on there?
Josh – I really like one of our songs called ‘crushcrushcrush’. We haven’t started playing it yet, so hopefully it’ll sound as good live as it sounds on the album. But I really like that song.
Do you think your sound has developed much since your last album ‘All We Know Is Falling’?
Josh –I think it’s a lot more mature and I feel like it actually sounds like we have a vision for our sound.
What other plans have you got for the next few months – you’ve got a big US tour coming up haven’t you?
Jeremy – We’re playing the Warped Tour this year and it’s our third time but this is the first time we’ve done the entire thing, like two months long. It’s pretty ridiculous, it’s amazing. All the stages move, all the bands move, there’s like 120 buses every year and tonnes of bands and stuff. It’s seriously like a big circus that moves across the country.
What other bands are playing this time?
Jeremy – Bad Religion, New Found Glory, Cute Is What We Aim For, Under The Thumb for a while, Funeral For A Friend, a lot.
There’s some pretty big names there. Have you got anything else planned?
Josh – I think we’re going to play Reading and Leeds. And then we’ll probably build a tour around that one, and just like around Europe I guess.
And then have a very long holiday.
Josh - Yeah! (laughs)
Almost done. Can you tell me a random fact about each other?
Jeremy - Hmm… I like ketchup a lot. I eat more ketchup than I think anyone in Europe has ever dreamed of. Hayley loses everything she ever buys. Like honestly she would lose her head if it wasn’t attached to her.
You’ll have to get her to buy two of everything so when she loses one, you can hand her the other.
Jeremy - More like six of everything!
--------
Paramore single ‘Misery Business’ is released on June 18th through Fueled By Ramen and album ‘Riot!’ follows on June 25th
Website
MySpace
Words - Suzy Sims
Previously published on Native.tv http://www.native.tv in June 2007
(c) Niche News & Publishing Ltd
PARAMORE
You know those bands which seem to suddenly loom out of nowhere? Paramore are one of those. American emo rockers fronted by the stylish and confident Hayley, their name has been floating around on the breeze for a while, but the release of massive tune 'Misery Business' should see them become a powerful force on the scene. Paramore were recently described by NME as '(lucky) for you, they're chuffin' amazing', they are Kerrang! cover stars - and aged 16 to 22, it looks like they'll be around for a while yet. We phoned guitarist Josh Farro and bassist Jeremy Davis for a chat.
Are you having a good day?
Josh - Yes are you?
I’m having a lovely day thank you.
Josh - Good.
You’re from Tennessee aren’t you? What’s it like there?
Jeremy - It’s the best place in the world. Beautiful.
Josh – It really is. Maybe it’s just ‘cause we’re from there but we take great pride in our state.
I don’t know much about how you guys got together, how did you meet?
Josh – I’m brothers with Zac so I sort of live with him! We went to this school for like a year then halfway through this girl joined the school and we were like ‘Who is this?’ Zac is really outgoing so he went up and introduced himself and later came up to me like ‘Dude you have to meet this girl Hayley, she’s so cool and she plays the guitar’ and I was like ‘oh, all right’ and I started to get a little jealous because I play guitar.
Then Jeremy at the time was in a band with her, it was like a cover band, they played like funk songs and r’n’b songs. Then that band ended and Zac and I had a band so we asked Hayley to join and sing and we asked Jeremy to play bass. I think it was about three years ago? We played in a living room for a year before we did anything really.
Your first gig was in Nashville wasn’t it? How was that?
Jeremy – It was a lot of fun. We actually played our very first show with a couple of bands called Copeland and Lovedrug and at the time those were some of our favourite bands. We were really nervous but we were happy. All of our friends thought it was cool because they were all going to the show anyway.
According to all your biographies, you’ve been voted best new band by Kerrang!, NME put you in their top ten ‘New Noise’ section, and Hayley keeps getting all those Sexy Female things –[They laugh.]- so what awards do you think you should be getting?
Josh - We should get the sexiest male! I guess they’re just saving the best for the last…
You’re not jealous or anything are you?
Josh – No! [they laugh]
You played at the Download Festival on Friday. How was it?
Josh – It was great. Porcupine Tree played before us – that is such a funny name, I’m sorry – and right after us was Enter Shikari. Korn was after them. It was crazy.
Jeremy – It went really well. We were really scared we were going to get bottled, ‘cause we don’t sound like any of those bands. And we were really excited when we did it, and actually it was a good time.
Nothing thrown then?
Josh – Actually there were a couple of bottles of beer or something.
You expect that though, don’t you? It’s not a proper festival if you don’t get stuff thrown at you.
Josh – Yeah I know, it’s like a tradition over here. It’s really weird.
Were there any bands you stuck around to watch yourselves?
Josh – We watched My Chemical Romance. We didn’t really have time to catch anyone else because we were doing a lot of interviews and press, but we heard Dragonforce. They’re amazing.
How have your other UK shows gone?
Jeremy – So far it’s been a lot of fun. We had a band from over here from Derby, called Lost Alone and they’re so cool, they’re like some of our new best friends.
Josh – Touring over here is always amazing. We went to the rest of Europe and it was cool. Coming to the UK for the first time we were so used to the US we were like ‘Man, this is really weird!’ When we went to the rest of Europe we were like ‘Man, we can’t wait to get back to the UK where everybody speaks the same language as us!’ It was great though, the UK is always amazing and the kids are always off the chain. Just awesome, it’s great.
Do you have any special tricks up your sleeves for live shows, do you get up to anything much onstage? Apart from playing, obviously.
Josh – Jeremy and I do this thing where… it’s going to sound really weird over the phone! He’ll go to one side of the stage and run over towards me and he’ll flip over my back. You have to see it, it’s on our first music video for our song ‘Pressure’.
Circus trick.
Josh – It’s like the only trick we have. We’re trying to come up with more but we don’t really ever have that much time to actually plan out any awesome tricks.
At the moment you’ve got Taylor York standing in on guitar. How’s he coping with it all?
Josh - He’s great. He’s like really young as well – 17 - so he’s missing home a little bit and this is his first tour ever in his life. He’s a great guitar player and just a great person and I think our fans are accepting him really well.
Jeremy – That’s good because we’ve known him for a really long time, so we’re all getting along really well.
Your single ‘Misery Business’ is coming out soon. What’s that about?
Josh – It’s a strange one. It’s about this girl and she came into our lives through dating a friend. She basically destroyed his life, and it really hurt us all. It really hurt Hayley, because at the time she was like the only girl friend of ours, so I guess she sort of felt threatened by her, and so when she saw what that chick did to our friend she was pretty mad. She had been holding it in for a while and when I wrote some music for the new record she just put the lyrics to it because she thought it fit them better.
Your album is out over here in a few weeks, can you tell me about it?
Josh – it’s called 'Riot!' and we recorded it with producer David Bendeth who’s actually from over here. Not exactly sure where. But yeah, he’s a great guy, It was probably some of the best three months of our lives and a great experience. He really stretches us as musicians. We’re really proud of our record. We hope our fans love it and we hope to gain many more.
I have to say I like the song name ‘For A Pessimist I’m Pretty Optimistic’. Have you got any favourite tracks on there?
Josh – I really like one of our songs called ‘crushcrushcrush’. We haven’t started playing it yet, so hopefully it’ll sound as good live as it sounds on the album. But I really like that song.
Do you think your sound has developed much since your last album ‘All We Know Is Falling’?
Josh –I think it’s a lot more mature and I feel like it actually sounds like we have a vision for our sound.
What other plans have you got for the next few months – you’ve got a big US tour coming up haven’t you?
Jeremy – We’re playing the Warped Tour this year and it’s our third time but this is the first time we’ve done the entire thing, like two months long. It’s pretty ridiculous, it’s amazing. All the stages move, all the bands move, there’s like 120 buses every year and tonnes of bands and stuff. It’s seriously like a big circus that moves across the country.
What other bands are playing this time?
Jeremy – Bad Religion, New Found Glory, Cute Is What We Aim For, Under The Thumb for a while, Funeral For A Friend, a lot.
There’s some pretty big names there. Have you got anything else planned?
Josh – I think we’re going to play Reading and Leeds. And then we’ll probably build a tour around that one, and just like around Europe I guess.
And then have a very long holiday.
Josh - Yeah! (laughs)
Almost done. Can you tell me a random fact about each other?
Jeremy - Hmm… I like ketchup a lot. I eat more ketchup than I think anyone in Europe has ever dreamed of. Hayley loses everything she ever buys. Like honestly she would lose her head if it wasn’t attached to her.
You’ll have to get her to buy two of everything so when she loses one, you can hand her the other.
Jeremy - More like six of everything!
--------
Paramore single ‘Misery Business’ is released on June 18th through Fueled By Ramen and album ‘Riot!’ follows on June 25th
Website
MySpace
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