LOSTPROPHETS >>EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW


By Student Writer Nariece Sanderson


start working on a new record and it all came together pretty easily to be honest. For me, I think the biggest challenge we faced on the record was actually finishing it. We had 90 percent of the record done, it was just the final tweaks and changes here and there. Again, as we usually do, the record was finished, mixed and we ended up writing another song. We were like “Aw man, this is pretty good, this should go on the record,” so we had to go back in the studio and record that. This is the core problem we had in my eyes; the biggest challenge was we were writing songs at the end, which we felt were good enough to go on the record- that’s better than the challenge of not being able to get started. It was a pretty fun record to make.


J


ust ahead of Lostprophets’ next UK tour and release of new album “Weapons” On! Magazine had a chat


, Full


with guitarist Mike Lewis about festivals, image and what’s coming up for the band


“Weapons” is released on the 2nd April, what are your general feelings about the album? I’m just excited. You spend so long making a record -we spent most of last year making it- and once you finish it you can’t wait to get it out and for people to hear it. I just can’t wait to get it out, have people listen to it, get into it, then go on tour, play some shows and have people come out!


Was the album a challenge to create? I don’t think so actually. It all came together kind of naturally. We finished touring “The Betrayed” at the end of 2010- we were all pretty anxious and pretty excited to get back in and


You played a surprise show at Koko in Camden, what was that all about? It was for a TV show – the T4 Chart Show. We did seven songs in the end, we were only meant to do six, but then a bunch of people were chanting for us to play “We Are Godzilla” so we ended up playing at the end off the cuff. It was a free show, they gave away tickets and it was rammed. It was pretty cool, many people came down and it was well fun.


What are your views UK festivals nowadays? There’s a lot of them aren’t there? You know what, I love playing festivals – so it’s cool. Reading has always been massive for us, we played our first time there in 2001, we’ve done the main stage three times I think since and then we headlined the second stage… they’re pretty awesome. Festivals in general are pretty cool and come the summer – you go out there and you


play a load of festivals, it’s always a good time. We got to headline Download in 2008 which was pretty massive for us. There’s definitely a lot of festivals though!


Is image an important component of being a successful band? I think so, yeah – it always has been and always will be. Obviously you have bands that it’s not important for, but ultimately even if you look at Nirvana – whose image was anti-image – it’s still an image whether you like it or not. Nirvana who were rebelling against having an image – people went out and copied them. Music and fashion goes hand in hand – and it always will, whether you go back to The Beatles wearing suits in the 60s through to the way the Punks dressed, or Mods, or even Metal bands. I dig it when a band looks good. My favourite band ever is The Clash, and they always looked cool. The Clash obviously made an effort and nobody would ever call them sell-outs, they always had an amazing message, were very real, and they always had this amazing image to go with it. When I see a band, especially when I was younger, or when you see a band- you think “Aw, they look cool- I want to be like them!” I think that’s always been the way and it always will be.


When Lostprophets were created, did you ever set a target you wanted to hit? Have you achieved that goal? When we started as a band, all we wanted to do was play music, cheesy as that sounds- that’s what we started to do. We were all mates in this small town in Wales that just got together and played music and wrote music because we loved music. It was something to do- that was all we wanted to achieve in the beginning.


full on! 13


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24