This is your first headline tour, so are you excited about that?
Owen (lead vocals/bass): Sure, its good to come to gigs and know people have actually come to see you.
Do you get a lot more freedom on your own tour then?
Stephen: Sure, well we get to play for 20minutes longer, so get about 45minutes now, and get looked after a lot better, (points out the crates of beer stacked to one side…), we get our own room and everything!
How much time do you get to look around the cities you’re playing in, have you had a chance to check Newcastle out at all?
Stephen: Not really unless we get a day off really, then we get a bit of time to knock about a bit, but usually its just about getting there, then sound checking and that.
Owen: You don’t really get to bed too early, so you just kind of end up sleeping your day away then getting up and setting up and everything, so its just kind of sleep then play, sleep then play.
Do you enjoy playing live then, or is it more about the recording with you guys?
Stephen: I think with us, we like it in the studio, getting to see something on tape and being able to hear it back, its really good, but after a while, after these long sessions, its good just to get out and play. We enjoy both, but probably live maybe…
Owen: I think it probably depends on the atmosphere.
Stephen: You can have a really good day in the studio, or a really bad day, but you can have a really good gig, or a really bad gig too… I think live is where it’s at.
Owen: If there’s a good atmosphere and people seem to be enjoying themselves, it makes the gig really fun and easy.
Do you find that normally at your gigs, people do get into it a lot and enjoy the vibe?
Stephen: Sure, people seem to know a lot more of the songs than you might think, seeing as we’ve only put out like one vinyl single and a download, so maybe a bit of file sharing going on! Just weird when people are singing along to these songs, and it’s a bit like, how do you know that, it hasn’t been on the MySpace for over a year…
Owen: It’s an enthusiastic sort of crowd too, usually between like 14 and 19, so everyone’s got plenty of energy and a bit of a spring in their step.
Stephen: We’re pretty enthusiastic sort of guys ourselves as well!
Getting away from the tour for a bit then, how did you guys all meet and how long have you been playing together now?
Stephen: Well these two [Owen and guitarist Enda] are brothers, so [they’ve known each other] most of his life and all of his!
Owen: We met Stephen at school at about 16 when we moved schools, and we’ve been doing this for about two years now, we were all sort of playing in other bands around a similar area. I always wanted to play since I picked up a guitar really, but I guess it never hurts if it impresses the girls too…
We actually discovered you at Leeds Festival last summer, when we heard you playing on the BBC Introducing stage. How big a break was that for you to be picked by the BBC?
Owen: It was amazing, really sort of a surprise.
Stephen: BBC Introducing have been really good to us, like Huw Stephens and Steve Lamacq just started playing us as soon as we gave them stuff.
Owen: They’ve always been behind us, and it was just a big massive push to be involved, and they were the people that got us involved. It was great, we did Leeds and Reading, as Oxegen festival in Ireland, and Bellasonic.
Stephen: We did the BBC Electric Proms as well, which was amazing.
You were also picked by NME as 10 of the acts for the future from Leeds and Reading festivals, how big a surprise was that for you?
Owen: Yeah that was madness, they picked 10 bands from 3 or 4 stages, and we managed to scrape into it, with bands like Twisted Wheel and Fight Like Apes, so it was really unexpected, but obviously a massive boost.
So the last question and a bit of a big one, what are your ambitions for the band, are you taking it one step at a time or are you aiming to go all the way and make a go of it?
Owen: We’d really make to like a go of it. Obviously some bands do it quicker than others, but I think as long as we’re out there touring and releasing things, and being accessible to people, people will come to the gigs and get into the band.
Stephen: We just want to take it as far as we can, and we really appreciate all the stuff we’ve been able to do so far. We’ve already been able to do more than 95% of bands out there ever get to do, and I think if you say you don’t want to be successful then you’re just lying for the sake of being cool.
Owen: I think at the moment it feels like the fan base is getting bigger and bigger, so until that stops, or starts going backwards, we’ll keep on doing it. There is an album coming, but it’s a couple of singles away yet, this is still very early doors for us, but we’re thinking this year sometime, hopefully summer.
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