AJ – Vocal/Guitar
Davey – Guitar
Tony – Bass
Chris – Drums
JoOp: Right guys, what’s this about you working with the music producer who brought us the Arctic Monkeys?
Chris: Yeah, that came about because we’re friends with a Nottingham band called the 7.21’s who are creating a bit of a buzz at the minute. They recorded a demo with Alan Smith and we were really impressed with his stuff, so we gave him a call, got chatting and we’re going into the studio in April and will be recording with him, he’s doing our new EP.
JoOp: How long have you guys been strumming away now?
Chris: This line-up as it is now…since about October, there were a couple of New Gen’ line-ups in the past. The bands probably been going about two years now, but now this is the definitive line-up…the most hard rocking!
JoOp: Awesome. Who would you say are your influences, or what influences you the most?
AJ: It’s difficult to say really, because we’re so influenced by so many bands and I think that’s why we sound like we do, because we sound like so many other bands, but everybody from The Sex Pistols, Dead Boys, New York Dolls, right through to Hardcore Superstar or even New Generation Superstars…..
JoOp:Haha…How Would you describe your sound if the whole music genre system didn’t exist?
Chris: I reckon, New Gen’s sound…absolutely massive crunching riffs, bass that would shake you bones, pounding drums and huge sing-a-long choruses.
AJ: Catchy, rather than flashy
Tony: Just giving it your heart and soul, putting everything you can into the music and just getting on stage and putting on a great show.
JoOp: Whereabouts have you played outside of Nottingham?
Davey: Barnsley!
AJ: Yeah but we can’t talk about Barnsley! Erm…everywhere, London, Hull, Coventry, Birmingham, Leicester….
JoOp: Do you gig swap or….
AJ: Nah, it’s mostly suff we arrange ourselves, if we do gig swaps, we’ll get ’em a show in either Nottingham or Leicester and they’ll get us a show down there…
Chris: There’s been a few cool things, like we did a UK Tour with a band called Vain last year, we got to play places like The Mean Fiddler and Rock City and things like that, and then there was a band…Bare Necessities and Disco Volante who came over from Sweden, so we’ve done some shows with them, then we’re gonna go over to Sweden. Also bands like Any Given Day from the Coventry area, we’ve done some gigs with them, we’ll play anywhere, anytime really.
JoOp: You recently lost a guitarist and also you cancelled a show in Camden…explain how you lost these two…things.
Chris: Haha, ok the first one, a guy called Graham who was in the band before Davey, erm basically it was just time he wanted to finish playing music, no bad splits, he just lots of commitment outside the band, so felt it was an appropriate time to leave.
AJ: He actually said about 18 months ago, and we were like, “we’d really rather you not go right now, we’ve just comminted to this tour” and he says he’d do that, then ahlf way through that tour, we committed to another one and so he stuck it out for those two tours, but then family commitments and other interests have lead him to pack away the guitar under his bed…it’s a shame….
Tony: We’re still mates and everything, he still comes to the shows. It was good times, but fortunately Dave was available at the time so, it was good time for it to happen.
JoOp: To compensate for the lost gig, are there any big dates coming that will give you a boost within the scene?
Chris: The London show we were gonna do the other day, unfortunately the venue actually got sold, so they cancelled all gigs, which wasn’t too pleasent, but we’re back down in Camden again towards the end of March/April time
Davey: There’s two or three big support slots…
Chris: Yeah, a few things pencilled in, but I don’t wanna jinx anything!
Davey: Top Secret!
Tony: A couple of big bands from Sweden we might be playing with, so fingers crossed for that.
JoOp: Right, any shout-outs?
Chris: I think a good place to mention would be where we recorded our last EP, which is Mesters Recording Studio in Nottingham, just opposite
Magnet. The guys there really know what they’re doing, absolutely spot on to work with.
AJ: To be fair, it’s the first time I’ve been in a studio where they actually listen to what you want, instead of saying “Ok, now let’s do it like this…” so they’re a really nice bunch of guys, would recommend them to anybody.
Chris: Like we said earlier, Any Given Day, The 7:21’s, Big Gay Following, Disarm, Junktion 7, just great people, there’s a lot of good stuff going on with the Nottingham scene.
Davey: There’s a lot of good bands out there that’ll thank you for stuff, there’s a lot of wankers too…that we don’t wanna mention….
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