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This is Rune Rebellion from Turbonegro at Desertfest, London.

My dad was in a band in the 70’s, like a rock band, well he’s a Jazz musician but in the 70’s you couldn’t make any money playing Jazz so he had to! So he had like a Deep Purple/Tom Jones cover band and I was like 7 and I got to come along to soundcheck, help him rig the gear. There was a guitar player who had just bought a new Orange rig, wow amazing, he plugged in and I was like Wow! this was my first true rock n roll experience.

This is the exact same guitar player that rumour says they were playing a wedding and he ended up in bed with the bride, thats rock n roll!

First time I played regularly was like 10 years ago, since then I have been using it all the time, its become my, the love of my life. For the studio I mostly use the 50 Watt and also when I do club shows but for festivals there is the 100 one, to step it up a notch.

Obviously Orange has become the mainstream amp for rock n roll these days, you guys are doing a really good job of reinventing the brand and the sound, so ye it works for me and obviously for a lot of other guys as well.

 

 

Darty: I’m Darty, I’m with the band Chron Goblin

Richard: I’m Richard, I play bass in Chron Goblin. And this is our second time at Desertfest but we don’t really remember much of the first time…

Darty: We have an amazing scene in Canada but it’s just amazing to come over here and just see people that are into our music. We live so far away from home and everyone is so grateful and so nice to us, and we are so grateful to be here. Fuck we love love Desertfest!

Darty: So the first time we ever saw Orange amps was when we came to Desertfest 2012 just to watch the festival. Everyone there was using Orange Amps and it sounded amazing! So when we returned to Canada we were dead set on trying out some Orange Amps, right after that I bought my first Rockerverb 100 Head. It’s been Orange ever since.

Richard: Ye same with me. I saw them, I was aware of them but they were so high end that they were a kinda out of my price range for quite a bit and I wasn’t in a band before. So we came to check out some stuff, we had a play through the OBC810 and an AD200, the bass head, it blew me away when we played with it at the Underworld! Like everything was shaking on me it was so awesome! It’s been my pursuit to play through that since, I need to have that again!

Darty: Ye the Stage Manager at the underworld literally made us play it at full volume and it was unheard of. It was crazy! It was awesome!

Richard: It was awesome! ye the Brits like it loud and so do we!

Richard: I use the Orange AD200 Bass head, the tube, and then recently the 15 and the 410 cabs and it’s amazing. I keep my pedals pretty simple so I just have a distortion Boss pedal and then a wah and a tuner and that’s about it and the head does everything else.

Darty: Like Richard says, pretty simple set up. Actually right before I got here I just got the new Orange Rockerverb MKIII with built in attenuator which is unreal because you can really set up in any kind of room with the ability to change the wattage as well. So it’s fantastic! So I run that through just a 412, a Dunlop Crybaby, pretty simple, and just like Richard here, let the Orange Head do the work.

Richard: Oh and recently I got one of those Palmer Pedals that you take the active signal out of the head and it turns it passive so you can DI it after the head, because in Canada most people DI the pedals before it gets to the head. So essentially what you have is a gigantic stage monitor right behind you, which isn’t the worst thing to have but your not really getting any of that tube sound out.

What’s it like to be an Orange ambassador?

Darty: It’s literally like a dream come true. It’s so awesome we are so grateful! You know we would be using Orange gear regardless of your support and to be able to have the support is amazing. So ye we are very grateful. Orange until death!

Richard: Ye it’s a very rad thing to do. We are picking up Orange gear for the entire tour after this show and without that we would of had to rent the Orange gear. That would of been a decent dent with the exchange rate now. So you know it does unbelievably good things for touring bands. Like Matt Pike has his wall you know and I’m sure that’s great but for us we just get it out there and as long as it sounds rad we are going!

As Cheap Trick embark on their 2017 tour, which marks the 40th anniversary of their ’77 self titled debut record, I met up with bassist Tom for a quick pre-gig chat. As I arrive at the Kentish Town Forum for my interview, I seek shelter from the rain while chatting to one of the main security dudes who pretty much find me roaming the backstage area there on a monthly basis with all sorts of bands, as the venue almost seem to be a Mekka for Orange ambassadors.

While waiting around as a drowned cat dreaming of the remaining of my pint that’s been left in unsafe hands with my mate at the pub (low and behold – it was still there when I got back!), Cheap Trick’s tour manager and Tom comes to find me, leaving me to wish I could time travel back to 1978 to tell my 18 year old dad what was about to go down. Tom brings me upstairs to his hospitality room, where he introduces me to his wife and two kids, his daughter being sat on the sofa chilling out and playing the bass – cool kid = level expert. We take a seat, and I make myself as comfortably as humanly possible sat face to face with rock royalty and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee.

First of all – congratulation on the 40 year anniversary of your first record! How does it feel to still be going that strong after four decades in the industry?
Well, we’ve always just been taking it one day at a time, it was never anything we did while trying to plan our future, it’s just something that’s been happening – You do a record, you do a tour, and at first it was a massive thing just being able to do it and survive, and we’ve just been lucky enough to be able to just go along with it. It’s not like we had some master plan on how to do it or how to make it, we fell into it and did our best, got extremely lucky, and made it.

I had a quick chat with you last year right before you got inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and you mentioned then that your plan was to release a new album every year?
And we went and did it, didn’t we?! And even more to come, as we’ve actually just finished recording a Christmas record about two months ago, which will actually make it three records in two years! The Christmas record will be released around Halloween, and it came out great! We did one standard, and then all sorts of different songs on there, it’s really cool.

Are they your own Christmas songs, covers, or a little mix of both?
We’ve got a few originals, and we covered songs from artists that we really like which have done Christmas songs we think’s really cool, you know, Roy Wood and that sort of thing. The only confusing thing about recording this record, is that every song had the word Christmas in it, so we could never keep it straight during recording, trying to figure out which song was which; ‘Ok guys so let’s do the Christm….. the sleigh song next.’

That’s so awesome, and the fact that after all these years playing together you’re still hungry for more and keep coming up with great new material.
It just seems very natural for us, I can’t really explain it. People will ask for advice, and, I just dont have any. We love recording and writing together, and we always search for that perfect record which you can never achieve, so I guess that might be one of those things that keeps us going, there’s always room for improvement and change. Occasionally you get this one tone and we’re all just like ‘No one moves, stand in this spot – THIS.IS.IT!’

So, the reason we’re both here today; Orange Amps.
Yes, and you know what? Our guitar player Rick Nielsen and I were friends before we started working together, so in 1968 we came to London, I was 18 and he was 20, and everything we loved, came out of London. It was the British invasion, and we were totally into it. So when we came here, we went to Cliff’s shop, and he was telling us all about his plans of putting out a line of amps which he was building in the back of the shop, and the first ever band I saw using Orange was Fleetwood Mac. They came to the US in ’69, and it was so great. At that time they had those really big ones, you know, giants. The cabinet was like ten feet tall, it was a joke. After that, we all just absolutely loved Orange Amps, and I’ve loved them ever since.

How long have you been using Orange yourself?
For a very long time, I don’t even know what year it was. I’ve had an Orange guitar head which I’ve had for years that I use when I record, but I dont take that one on the road. I love the AD50 and the AD200, and what’s so great with Orange having done so well for themselves, is that I can go pretty much anywhere in the world and get those amps, the exact rig that you want.

So what is it about the Orange Amps that draws you to them, is it the fact that you can pretty much just plug in and play?
Yeah absolutely! I don’t use any pedals, none of us do, so it’s just straight out, and I really like the push. Orange is great because you can push them and make them sound great at low volume too. Mainly I get a guitar sound, and add low end to it for bass, which I find especially useful since I’ve got a 12 string bass.

Let’s talk some more about your famous 12 string bass…
Well, when I decided I wanted a 12 string bass, there was no such thing as a 12 string bass, there was an 8 string, but that was a crummy lil’ thing that didn’t have any low end, they didn’t fret out, and they just weren’t all that great. We just wanted our sound to be as big as possible, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I just get a bass with a whole bunch of strings, so it’ll sound kind of like a guitar player just playing along with the bass player?’ I originally started out as a guitar player, so it’s sort of just like a huge, giant rhythm guitar.

Well, you mentioned your Christmas Record being released later this year, are you still planning on sticking to the whole ‘releasing an album a year’ thing after that as well?
Yes, absolutely! As long as the label allows it, and they were the ones who suggested it, so there’ll definitely be more new music coming your way…

Hey man, who are you, what’s your band, and what are you guys up to?
Dennis: Hey, I’m Dennis, I sing and play guitar in Ghost Bath. We play depressive, suicidal black metal, and we’re on Nuclear Blast! We’re currently on tour – we got here on the 5th of May, and we’re flying back to the states on the 26th of June, and I reckon we’ll have about a total of ten days off in that time. Busy times!

It’s a pretty accurate description that, ‘depressive suicidal, black metal’ – when you started up the band did you all want to play ‘depressive suicidal, black metal’, or did you come from a black metal background and just wanted to do something a little bit different?
Dennis: Until 2015, I was the only member of the band and writing all the music. Originally I heard bands such as Agalloch and was really into them, as well as bands such as SBM (Scream Blue Murder), and I wanted to make depressive suicidal, black metal that was recorded very well, as a lot of the recording quality on that sort of music is – I wont say it’s bad, but purposely made more rough, so I wanted to take that and have it more polished.

Makes sense, a lot of the black metal sounds like it’s been recorded in some cave in a Norwegian mountain at night time, in winter.

Anyway, you recently released your latest record ‘Starmourner’, how’s that been received?
Dennis: It’s been pretty polarizing like all of our stuff, people either love it or hate it, but a lot of people have said it’s more of a grower not a shower, basically.  The first time you hear it you’re not quite sure what to think of it, then the more you listen to it the more you’ll get into it, and I get that myself with music as well; a lot of the records I listen to today was records I wasn’t quite sure of at first, and then they slowly grew on me.

Now, let’s get down to business; Orange Amps. What’s your history with the company?
Dennis: I grew up in a small town in the mid-west in the US, but we still had a decent music scene. One time this one band I was really into and looked up to brought out this Orange Amp on stage, and it just looked so cool and really stood out with the bright colour. I’m not too sure how old I was, but I reckon it was early teens. Since these were guys I looked up to, I just knew that I needed to get an amp like that eventually, and I finally did about eight years ago when I got a Rockerverb 100, which I could just plug in and play, I don’t even have to tweak anything, it just sounds better than all the other amps I’ve had, and that’s literally all I’ve used since.

From doing these interviews that’s probably what I’ve heard the most – ‘I just plug in and play’, which is exactly what you want. You don’t want to sit there for 40 minutes fiddling around, tweaking a bunch of knobs.
Dennis: Yeah, I had a Rectifier before the Orange, and that one I couldn’t even tweak. I’d be at it tweaking for weeks just all like ‘ugh oh why…’. So yeah, I’ve never looked back after I got an Orange!

Photo by Gobinder Jhitta

It’s a pretty neat bus you’ve got here, which I’m guessing will be your home for the next couple of weeks. I know you’re 15 shows into quite an intense tour, how’s the last couple of weeks been?
Yeah they’ve been good! A lot of sold out shows and the crowd’s been pretty crazy. We’ve also got quite a busy summer ahead, we’re playing Glastonbury which will be interesting – it’s quite a different crow. We’re also playing a few festivals in Germany and Romania, and I reckon we’ll be busy all the way up until December.

Whoa, that’s pretty busy. Are your days hectic when touring or do you get time to sit back and relax a bit as well?
When we’re on a tour like this one on a bus, it’s pretty relaxing. We roll in, and I get to sleep until 11 if I want to. When you’ve been touring for as long as I have, you end up having friends in lots of different cities, so before and after soundcheck I do get quite a lot of time to hang out and catch up with them. Flying tours on the other hand, is less relxing. You’ll end up having to get up at 4 in the morning after 3 hours of sleep to rush off to the airport, fly to where you need to be, hopefully have a nap, then play the gig and do it all over again – or change it up a bit and sit in a van for 16 hours, hah. There’s a lot of just sitting down in moving vehicles or planes…

What’s your history and experience with Orange Amps?
Before joining Napalm Death as a live guitarist, I used to be in a band called Corrupt Moral Altar, and I was actually endorsed by Orange Amps. I had a PPC412 and a Thunderverb 200 and I just really liked the tone and that big fat sound, especially that raw kind of tone you get from the speaker cabinets. I very much look at the tone when buying an amp, which is why I’ve ended up with and love Orange.

Were you a big Napalm fan growing up? And what other kind of music were you into?
I was definitely a big Napalm fan, and it’s kinda surreal to be in the band now. I also used to be in Venomous Concept with Shane and Danny from Napalm, which was pretty surreal as well. As far as music goes, I was into a lot of punk bands like the Exploited and Discharge as well, anything that was noisy really. Iggy and the Stooges, proto-punk and all that kind of stuff, and then after that it just got heavier and more and more extreme. I also listen to other stuff, one of my favourite bands is My Bloody Valentine, I like Lush, and a lot of shoe gaze with delays and stuff like that. Coming off stage with Napalm I’m not exactly gonna go and blast the same kind of music when I need to wind down.

Orange Amplifiers caught up with Linz from Vodun at this years Desertfest in London. We discussed how trying a Tiny Terror in London lead to him using the TH30 and then the Rockerverb. Linz uses a complex guitar amp setup to give him a full band sound from only one guitarist. Using a TH30, Rockerverb and OB1-500 to give him the massive tone Vodun are known for.

Go check out the band on the current tour:

2nd June – London – Decolonise Fest
16th June – France – TBC
17th June – Germany – Freak Valley Festival
18th June – France – Hellfest
20th June – Italy – Rozzano
21st June – Italy – Pordenone
22nd June – Italy – Turin
24th June – France – Rock In Bourlon
25th June – Netherlands – Rotterdam
27th June – Spain – Barcelona
28th June – Spain – Madrid
30th June – Spain – Bilbao
1st July – Spain – San Sebastian
15th July – London – Metal Brew
22nd July – Portugal – Woodrock Fest

Hey man, who are you and what’s your deal?
My name’s Chris Pritchard, and I play guitar in Blood Youth. I actually wasn’t allowed music or music lessons when I was a kid because I’ve got ADHD, so when I wanted to get into music, my teachers at primary school and stuff wouldn’t let me, I had to kind of make my own way about that. I had a guitar at home, which was really bad, so when I started showing interest in that I eventually got a cheap guitar for Christmas, a Squier. I started playing that, but then swapped over to drums, which I played for about ten years. I actually studied that in UNI, and that’s what I wanted to be, a drummer. Eventually I decided I have to much energy for the drums, to sit there and be kept away, so I fell back into playing guitar. I’ve always loved that, and I think that’s my main thing.

That’s so odd though about your teachers, because surely you’d expect them to be excited for you to have this creative output?
It was probably the fact that they worried I’d use it to distract the other students, they just weren’t having any of it, so I would love for them to see what I’m doing today!

What kind of music sparked your interest and got you into playing?
I wasn’t really allowed to listen to the music I wanted to listen to – I wasn’t allowed Kerrang Magazine because they’d might have Slipknot in them, I wasn’t allowed anything with swear words or parental advisory on them. My mum would always listen through a record before I could have it, and I was so intrigued by Slipknot, KoRn, System of a Down, and all those early era Kerrang bands, and I’d end up paying my older sister to go into town to buy me Slipknot records and sneak them in without my mum knowing. My mum would always find them though, and hide them so I couldn’t get them. So, obviously having had all this kept away from me for all these years, my interest just grew stronger and stronger, so when I was actually allowed it was like this massive explosion where everything just hit me all at once. There was no smooth transition into anything like checking out one or two songs, it was full on binge listening and being blown away, and that was it, I’ve never looked back.

Well, I guess you must be preeeeeetty stoked about being endorsed by the same amp company as KoRn and Slipknot then?
Oh definitely, and Mastodon as well, I love them. I’ve been watching so many rig rundowns, and I especially love the Orange ones. Before I had the endorsement with Orange and I’d end up using rented backlines, every time it was Orange they’d always sound so, so clear, and would compliment distortion and this heavy tone so well, and I knew I wanted it straight away. I’m looking to get another Orange amp as well, but at the moment I’ve got two Orange PPC412 cabinets, and they sound sick – they are by far the heaviest things I’ve ever lifted though, totally worth it though. Plus they look killer! I want stacks of them, that’s the dream.

Hey guys, what’s up, what’s up – who are you, and you give us the lowdown on the band you’re in?
Stephen: My names Stephen Pye, I sing and play lead guitar in Psyence and have been since 2012. We also did some stuff together before Psyence when we were still in school.
Jamie: I’m Jamie Bellingham, and I play bass. And yeah, we have done some stuff before Psyence, some stuff that we don’t talk about, remember…?

Well, obviously now you’re gonna have to tell us…
Stephen: Well, when we were about 14, we were in this school variety show, Jamie on bass and me on guitar, and we covered ‘I bet that you look good on the dancefloor’ by Arctic Monkeys. Somewhere out there there is a video, and it’s hilarious. Obviously nothing we’d ever let you use in this interview though.

(Ok so I will totally search the darkest corners of the internet until I find this video.)

You just released your latest EP ‘A New Dawn’, which is awesome, and also quite different from your older stuff which seemed to be a bit heavier. Did you guys purposely change direction or did it happen naturally?
Stephen:
Two of the tracks on that EP, ‘Cold Blooded Killer’ and ‘The Bad Seed’ has that sort of generic ‘Psyence sound’, then we’ve got ‘Falling in Love Once Again’ which is a bit spacey, a bit of a loose jam and kind of a mix, then what I wanted to do personally for the EP was to get a really slow tune on there, because a lot of my favourite bands from over the years have always had slower tunes on their records, so we did ‘A New Dawn’, which worked out really well, to be fair.

Personally I’ve never been to Stoke-On-Trent, but I know it’s not exactly the biggest and most buzzing city in the UK – how is the music scene up there?
Jamie:
It’s perking up and there is a lot of aspiring new bands.
Stephen: A lot more bands now than when we first started, and we’re obviously not the first ones to be doing what we’re doing in Stoke, but a lot of bands similar to us did appear after we started gigging. We really, really pushed the band, and since that it’s become this whole new scene.

You originally started out as a five piece, then turned into a four piece, until having second guitarist Jamie Cartlidge join the band last year, how has it been for you two having a second guitarist back in the band?
Stephen:
Basically, we went as a four piece for about two years, and in the studio I would lay shit down five times, to then realize ‘how the fuck do I do this live?’
Jamie: We got to a point where we realized we couldn’t replicate what we did in the studio when playing shows, so it’s taken a lot of the pressure of the two of us, and has given us more freedom. I mean, he’s a bit of a prick, but fair enough, he’s a decent guitarist…
Stephen: He’s definitely still on probation.

So he’s like the new kid being bullied?
Stephen: Yes, he is and he will continue to be for a while. On a serious note though, going back to being a five piece, has been a lot easier than it was being a five piece in the past.
Jamie: And to be fair, most of what he says is comedy gold, he’s a good guy, Jamie.

Obviously you’re both using Orange, so can you tell us a bit about your history and experiences with the brand?
Stephen: I remember first time ever seeing an Orange amp, and although I don’t remember which one it was, I just remember being so attracted to the bright colour. I’ve been through various amps over the years, Fenders, Marshalls, what so ever, but the Orange sound is just massive. Besides from them sounding awesome, I just love looking back when we play and seeing them, it looks mint! I’ve got a Rockerverb MKII, and it sounds amazing. I definitely want an Orange extension, and I’m never going back to another brand now.
Jamie: I think the first time I ever saw one was when watching The Enemy, and it was just like a beacon on stage, I just couldn’t keep my eyes of them until I got one. I had two Ashdowns and I blew ‘em, had a Peavey which I set on fire, so then I decided to splash out and got myself an Orange and I never looked back. I’ve got OBC212 cab and the Terror Bass 500, and I do want to get another cab as well.


Psyence on Facebook / Soundcloud / Instagram


 

It’s been 30 years since you joined Sepultura in 1987, can you tell us a bit about how the music and your sound has developed over the years?
It’s developed together with everything else, like all of us growing up as people and traveling the world. We started out at a very young age, looking for pedals and gear that was nearly impossible to find in Brazil, and I started out using Mesa/Boogie, which I used for many years. Then this rep from Orange approached me, just at the time where a lot of heavier bands were embracing Orange, and as I was becoming a bit sick of my Mesa/Boogie sound I was ready to try something different, and I mean, you can watch Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranoid’ video where both Iommi and Geezer Butler are using Orange, so when I was given the opportunity to try it for myself I took it straight away – Orange always just had that ‘aura of the masters’. Orange offered more of an organic sound then what I was used to, because what I really love is when I’m able to just plug in and play. There is a lot of demand for distortion and heaviness with Sepultura, and I was very surprised that the Rockerverb II had all of that. A warm, and heavy guitar sound that kind of seemed to expand a bit more. In the studio I use a few different amps depending on what I need, but live the Rockerverb is absolutely fantastic, and on this tour I’m playing through both a Rockerverb 100 MKII and a Rockerverb 100 MKIII, and I could not be happier with all the support from Orange!

You mention Black Sabbath’s Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler as some of the masters, was there anyone else in particular that got you into playing when you were younger?
Mainly KISS and Queen, they were my two main bands. Queen came to Brazil in 1981, but my mum wouldn’t let me go because I was too young. Then KISS came in 1983, and that was my first ever show. Being able to go see them live at their Creatures of The Night tour, was insane, that changed my life. That’s why I’m here! Seeing that, in my home town, at my football team’s stadium.. As I said, it changed everything. When I first started playing, my goal was to play ‘Stairway to Heaven’, so that’s what I told my teacher. She gave me the basics and a good ground to learn on, gradually. It started out with acoustic Brazilian music, before moving onto other things. Slowly I’d expand my music taste as well, and start listening to bands such as Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Jimi Hendrix and Cream, all of those incredible vintage sounding bands and artists. I’m also inspired by Brazilian music, and as I’ve become older and developed my taste I’ve picked up on a lot of the older Brazilian music, which has been a huge inspiration to Sepultura. That’s played a huge part in finding our sound, using Brazilian percussion and other bits from our more traditional music.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but you’ve also got a radio show?
Yeah, I’ve got a show with my 19 year old son Yohan, it’s great to have him involved and see how he’s developed over the years of the show, he himself is a musician as well, although more into the progressive side of rock, which you have to be an incredibly good musician to be able to play. We’ve been doing the show for five years now, and it’s really great, it’s so hard to get played on the radio, so I’ve been lucky enough to be able to open up doors for a lot of younger Brazilian bands. There’s one band called Claustrofobia, a group of young kids playing trash who also mix some of the Brazilian percussion into their music. They released an album called ‘Download Hatred’ at the end of the last year and it’s just brilliant, so check it out if you can, it’s fantastic. Besides that we have fun, and total freedom to play whatever we want, which of course is a lot of heavy and metal, but also Beatles, Stones and other bands like that too, as well as Napalm Death and Slipknot. All the extremes, and everything in between.

Who are you, and what are you about? Can you give us the low-down?
My name is Shaun Cooper, I play bass in Taking Back Sunday. My parents introduced me to rock ’n’ roll music when I was a little kid, and I remember hearing The Beatles and I just connected immediately – hearing John Lennon’s voice was just like ‘Ok, I get this, and I really like it.’ My mum would always sing around the house and play a little bit of piano and my dad plays the accordion – you can’t really rock out with an accordion, although Dropkick Murphys figured out how to do. I guess people in my family were always into music and would play at least a little bit. I started playing bass when I was 12 years old, and I dont know what it was or why, but I just fell in love with it. I started using Orange exclusively three or four years ago and I’m currently using OBC810 and the AD200. At the time I had been trying out a few different things, and while on tour over here I was playing Orange and then my sound guy was like ‘come on man, you gotta make the switch, this sounds so good!’ So I talked to my manager and put in an order, and the rest is, as they say, history, and here we are now.

Ok – so that is pretty much the entire interview done…

It’s been nearly two decades since you originally joined the band, did you ever dream that it’d take you this far and that you’d still be going by now?
Sure, I always dreamt that, but I never had any idea that it could possibly happen. It seemed so far out of reach growing up. I assumed we’d maybe release one album, tour a bit over summer, then go back to school and then get a normal job, because that’s what people do. I never really had any hope that we’d make it a ‘thing’, as I didn’t know anyone that had actually made it or made a career out of it, but then again, here we are, as you said, nearly twenty years later, and we seem to be going strong. There’s been plenty of ups and downs, but we seem to be on a pretty good ‘up’ at the moment, and we’re just enjoying the ride. We all get along really well and have figured out how to interact with each other and to write better and better music as we progress as people, musicians and songwriters, and I’m very grateful that I’m able to be in this position.

When not touring, how do you guys work? Do you get together on a regular basis, or do you have intense sessions where you just ram it all out at once?
Mark and I live very close to each other, and so does John and Adam, so a few of us will get together and work like that. We’ll also email ideas around and set a time where we’ll all get in the studio and put those all those ideas together and work on new music. It seems to work out pretty well to do it like that, we’ve learned how to work well together and not waste time in the studio, something that’s become better with maturity and age – we’ve stopped dicking around.

You mentioned you started today by rolling into London half asleep, is that normally how you start your days when on the road?
Yeah that’s pretty much it, you get into town and the crew starts loading in the gear, I’ll roll out of bed and maybe go for a walk around town, get a coffee, get the lay of the lands, see where we’re at – that sort of stuff. I normally call home as well, I’ve got two little kids so FaceTime and all this technology is making touring so much easier as I get to see their little faces. Besides that it’s mostly about getting ready for the show, playing is always the best part of the day and what we gear up for. In the States we normally do two hour long sets, the UK and European ones tend to be a bit shorter but still intense and full on, so after the shows you try to rest, relax and recover for the next day. We love playing, so we’re very fortunate we’re still able to do so!