Interviews

SFG: How are ya John, what’s been happening?

JOC: I’m good, it’s a nice sunny day!  It’s been raining at home so its nice to see its sunny here and hopefully it stays like that.

SFG: It’s a busy weekend for you, today at SW4, then Creamfields tomorrow?

JOC: Yeah we have Creamfields tomorrow but we are driving up tonight.  Going to get there nice and early as its always very enjoyable, and I have been there the last few years.  Its my first time at SW4 so it will be interesting to see the difference in style of festivals.

SFG: Talking about the difference in festivals, what can the crowd expect from your sets today?

JOC: I don’t know yet cause I was at the arena and it was quite empty.  It depends on how many people are there, that will effect what I play so ill find out 2 minutes before 3.

SFG: You play a number of festivals every year, what’s been your highlight so far?

JOC: The best one so far has been Global Gathering in the UK.  It was a great atmosphere, great crowd.  I was playing just as the sun was coming down, there was great trance music and a really good vibe.

SFG: What are you looking forward to for the rest of the year, anything special coming up?

JOC: I have a track with Aly & Fila, also with Agnelli and Nelson, a remix for Armin Van Buuren and my own vocal single which should be released around October time.  I haven’t given it a name yet, there are still a few tweaks to get it finished.

SFG: Anyone special on the vocals?

JOC: Well it’s all secret for now.  It’s cool and fresh.

SFG: What’s next from your Subculture label?

JOC: The current release is by Chris Metcalfe, a UK producer with a melodic trancer the next release.  There’s also a release from Full Tilt, a progressive house tune with a Jorn Van Deynhoven remix, a really good uplifting vocal trancer.  Armin’s played it on his radio shows, it’s a tune, one of my base tracks, its massive.  Then of course we have my new vocal track, got plenty of stuff coming in but we only do one release a month, only 12 songs a year.

SFG: You have been on the Trance scene for a number of years now, how has your sound evolved from the trance of old times?

JOC: I would say BPM and genre wise it’s pretty much kind of the same. I stuck to trance and still enjoy the trance that I was playing years ago.  I suppose the music itself has developed, I am just playing what’s out there.  There is a lot less tech-trance now.  You know years ago there used to be Katana, Pascal, Marco V and others, remember that stuff?  It seems to have disappeared.  Its either trance or house, no kind of in-between.  I kind of miss that you know, people like Mark Norman and stuff like that, there seems to be a gap and only a couple of people filling it so next year I might look at doing something like that myself.

SFG: If you could play back to back with anyone in the music industry, who would it be?

JOC: At the moment to be honest, some of the best back to back sets I am doing are with Aly & Fila.  We have done it twice so far.  We never discussed it or planned it or talked about it, we just turn up and press play and that seems to work best.  We did it at GodsKitchen and the atmosphere was amazing.  A lot of people there gave us good feedback.  It’s kind of like we are long lost brothers in a way.  We both have the same interests but we are from completely different backgrounds and we do really well on the decks.

SFG: London was home of the Olympics this year, did you manage to catch any of it?  

JOC: No didn’t see one thing, only what I have seen in the news or the papers.  I’m busy at home with work and have a little baby so TV comes like 4 down the line.

SFG: We have a SW4 Olympics event we are playing with the artists this year, Rock Paper

Scissors, it’s the best of 3, let’s go!

RESULT: SFG takes the gold winning by 2 – 0.

JOC: No medal for Ireland *laughs all around*

SFG: It’s been a pleasure John, thanks for your time and we look forward to your set at SW4.

SFG: Markus, its great to see ya, how is everything, and more importantly how is your eye?

Markus Schulz: It’s not healing quite as quickly as I was hoping, you know, it hasn’t kept me away from any of this weekend’s festivities.

SFG: It’s a massive month for you with your latest album Scream being released, how has it been received so far?

MS: Fantastic, we just did the album release special on my radio show yesterday and the feedback was fantastic!  There are a lot of tracks on the album that people are surprised at, in a positive way.  I am really happy with the album, especially the balance.  There are 12 vocal tracks and 11 instrumentals.  People that are into instrumentals have an entire album of instrumentals, and those that like vocals, there’s a whole album of vocals for them. 

SFG: What were your personal highlights of making the album?

MS: I started the album a couple of years ago when I was working with different artists and writing.  The cool highlights for me are some of the new artists that I discovered on this album.  One of the first singers I worked with on this album was Adina Butar.  Adina and I really clicked in the studio so we wound up doing three or four tracks but only two tracks made it on the album.   She also has her hand in production as well, she has a good ear for it.  She was chiming in and giving her opinion on some of the other tracks on the album and it was a lot of fun. 

SFG: That’s quite different to have an artist to assist in production?

MS: It was great because she did have some great ideas.  Working with artists like Khomha, Mr Pit, Ferry Corsten, Dennis Shepard, Wellenrausch was a lot of fun on this album.

SFG: We caught you at Global Gathering last year, and heard some of the new tracks.  The crowd were loving it, how does that feel seeing the reaction from behind the decks?

MS: To be honest with you, I’m not up there enjoying the moment as much as I should, I am more analyzing what can I change to fix it.  If I’m looking at the audience and feel that there is a dead spot, then I am analyzing why and what I can do to pick up this dead spot in the track, maybe I should be enjoying the moment a little bit more but the critical artist in me is up there analyzing.

SFG: Your almost at the end of your residency at Privilege, how has that gone this summer?

MS: Fantastic, I am part of the residency for A State of Trance night on Monday nights.  To be honest with you, I think it’s fantastic for both Ibiza and the trance scene.  Nobody really expected us to do what we have been doing, selling out the club week after week, 7000 strong.  The whole island is kind of like looking at us going ‘what’s going on, how are they able to do this’.  It’s really just put the spotlight on trance music again.

SFG: Like bringing it back?

MS: Well it never really went anywhere. It was out of the spotlight for a little bit, and it was really showing people that trance music is big and has a massive following and here we are, were still here.

SFG: Coming from a trance background myself, I noticed the decline in the popularity of trance, however over this past festival season, it seems to have picked itself back up?

MS: We are sitting here backstage and the music from the main stage sounds like trance to me.  What was trance is now labeled as progressive house but those melodies are unmistakably trance.

SFG: You’re performing at Creamfield’s later on this evening, what’s been your festival highlight so far?

MS: Obviously in the United States, the Electric Daisy Carnival was fantastic.  The ordeal that we had to deal with there, with the weather, there was high winds so they had to shut down the stages because the trusses were moving.  So about an hour into my set they had to shut down all the stages.  That made it quite memorable.  Nature One this year was amazing for me, last year it was one of the best gigs of the year for me and this year it was even better!

SFG: You live in Miami now right, how does that differ where you have lived before in Europe?

MS: First of all Miami is nothing like the rest of the United States, it has much more of a South American feel, it’s a lot more ‘caliente’.  As far as Europe vs the United States right now, I think the biggest difference is that in the United States, a lot of the scene is composed of the new generation of clubbers.  You start to see that in Europe slowly, there is a youth movement starting up and over the last two years there has been a huge youth movement over in the United States and its made the scene very exciting.  New ideas, new passion, new DJ’s and new artists are coming up.  There is definitely a change and this new generation has brought his change on.

SFG: This new generation that you talk about, is the same generation that was coming up say around 12-15 years ago when trance really took off?

MS: That’s a great analogy.  What I am seeing happening in the United States right now is kind of what happened in Europe in 1999.  In 1999 it was definitely a youth movement in the UK and Europe and now that generation has now grown up and it’s time for a new generation to bring their new ideas into the scene and that’s what’s happening right now.  A lot of the old school are elitist and snobby about it sometimes, and I think that for the new generation, if we can remind them that the scene was built on blood sweat and tears and passion and hand that down, then I think the scene will be very healthy moving forward.

SFG: In terms of newer DJ’s and producers coming up, where do you see yourself sitting in between the new and the old.

MS: My thing has always been to try and give a platform to the new up and coming artists.  On all of my artist albums and mix compilations, I always try to find new artists to expose.  To me that is more exciting than working with the established guys and pop stars.  For me it’s really nothing new seeing this new change as I am constantly working with new up and coming people.

SFG: What’s next for Markus Schultz

MS: Well having just finished my artist album, I will be promoting that, very happy with the way it turned out, 12 vocal and 11 instrumental tracks, a little bit for everybody!

SFG: You will be touring the new album worldwide?

MS: The album release party is August 31^st in Miami, and September 1^st in New York City. Then we will start some select album tour dates.  In the first quarter of 2013 we will do a massive tour with full production.

SFG: With London being the home of the Olympics, did you manage to catch any of it?

MS: Yeah of course, I watched every single game that the USA Men’s Basketball team played.  I love basketball and to see that was a lot of fun.  The gold medal game against Spain was really competitive and great to watch.

SFG: We have a SW4 Olympics event we are playing with the artists this year, Rock Paper Scissors, there are only 2 medals, a winners and losers, lets go!

WINNER: Markus Schultz 
Markus won the SW4 Olympics Rock Paper Sisscors event as it went to a tie breaker and he pulled out the ‘Firecracker’ which totally took me by surprise!

SFG: Thanks for your time Markus, we look forward to your set!

We got to speak to Joe Hoare, guitarist to stoner metallers Orange Goblin, and this is what he had to say:

SFG: Have you been enjoying Bloodstock so far this year?

J: Yeah it’s great, since we’ve came here we’ve literally been doing press for the last few hours, but already it’s a great atmosphere, like always it’s fun, people are here to have a good time, as opposed to the other  bigger festivals which are also fun, but this is a bit more intimate and its nice.

SFG: Are you looking forward to any bands playing or caught any you wanted to see yet?

J: Yeah we saw a bit of Crowbar that is the only band I’ve seen any of y’know for like 20 minutes. Of course they were awesome as always! Later on, we’re clashing with Testament which I would have liked to see, everyone I know has been saying ‘ah I don’t know what to do!’, fair enough if people want to see them I wouldn’t blame them at all. Yeah Machine Head of course I would like to see, I always like to see their set, but apart from that I don’t have enough time to absorb everything so I’m just going to grab whatever bands I can when I get a chance.

SFG: Going on about clashes, last year at Sonisphere (2011) you clashed with the mighty Slipknot and still managed to pull a good crowd, was that a good feeling?

J: Yeah it was a great feeling, it was a fantastic crowd and we are still getting over how many people there were last year! Same thing we thought okay yeah we’re on the same time as Slipknot, we kinda have to expect not to play in front of many people but a couple hundred fans turned up and it fantastic, was a really good feeling. I guess at a festival that big, you kind of really appreciate the fans that do come to see you because they’ve come to see you as Slipknot are a great band, and yeah it’s been a good year for us!

SFG: Hopefully you’ll get that with Testament then! Onto other things, you’ve just had Eulogy Of The Damned out earlier this year, how was that like recording?

J: It was brilliant, it was the 7^th album we’ve done, and to be honest it’s been the best one we had received, it’s just gone down so well. The way we recorded it we used a guy called Jamie, who’s just a young producer, done some good stuff but nothing big. We used him because we recorded a Sabbath song for a CD mount on a magazine; we liked what he did then so we just said ‘look, do you want to do the album for us?’, and he did, he made a great job of it. The response we had like I’ve said has been phenomenal. We didn’t expect to have such a good response.  17 years down the line you kind of hit a steady flow and all of a sudden to be elevated a little bit is kind of unexpected! It’s been a great year so far.

SFG: I’ve heard you’re going to be re-releasing some of your earlier albums on vinyl again, what was the decision behind that?

J: Yeah we’ve never had the first couple of albums ever released on vinyl. It’s always something the band and Lee, and Will at Rise Above have always had in the pipeline it just never happened for whatever reason. We got speaking to Lee, we’re on very good terms with Rise Above so the time came where he just went ‘okay I wanna do this now’,  yeah its looking good, there’s gonna be a few different coloured vinyls coming out. Not sure when they’re being released yet, its great to finally have them out.

SFG: So what else is in the future for you?

J: The future, next year it’s looking pretty busy. We’re hoping, not definite yet but we want to do a world tour, but again that’s in the pipeline, not 100% sure about that yet.

SFG: Bit more on the album, it’s a lot heavy than the previous albums, its quite a lot heavier than the previous album, a more bassier tone to it, is that something you were moving towards or was it just what happened in the studio at the time?

J: It was pretty much what we just did in the studio at the time. If you look back at the album like The Big Black; that was pretty heavy, pretty bass heavy. I think every album subconsciously has got a different kind of sound and theme running through it. This one has is pretty much a bit of everything, it wasn’t intentional we just went in there with a lot of riffs. Whether it sounded like a Southern Rock song or a whether it sounded likea  Sleep song, whatever band we decided to rip off at the time! (laughs). The reason we started a band was to do what we love doing, so this album, if anything is more polished than others. As for the heaviness, we wanted it to be heavy but clear. We weren’t bothered about it being extra extra heavy and sludgey or whatever. We wanted people to hear what we were doing, and make it as clear and pristine as possible but at the same time but be as heavy as we could make it! Again, Jamie did a great job producing it; we spent a bit of time on the sounds. Yeah but we never intentionally set out to do anything any different to any other album, it’s just what ever come out at the time, and this is what came out this time!

SJM: well I think that’s all for today, thanks for your time! 

At Bloodstock we at Summer Festival Guide got to talk to Ol Drake from Evile, getting to talk about all manner of music related subjects and this is what he had to say:

SFG: Have you been enjoying Bloodstock so far this weekend?

O: Very much, it’s always one of the best festivals. It’s just pure metal and just fun as hell.

SFG: Are there any stand out bands you’ve seen so far, anyone you’re particularly looking forward to?

O: Testament yesterday were amazing, because it’s Testament, Machine Head were really good as well. Today we’re doing a lot of press so I don’t think we’ll chance to get to see many bands.

SFG: Fair enough. Are you looking forward to your set later today? Being bumped to main stage will make it different to what you originally planned?

O: It’s going to be amazing, we were originally on the Sophie Stage, but we got bumped up, and it’s an honour to play Bloodstock as it is, but being on the slot that we are is amazing. It’s going to be really good!

SFG: Are you feeling any different from the last time you played in 2010 or more confident or anything?

O: I think slightly more confident, because we’ve done a lot more festivals now. We’ve got into the groove of how different a festival is to playing a club show. It’s really different in terms of playing, so it should be a lot better this time.

SFG: Later on this year, you’re touring with the heavy metal fun house of Wolf, are you looking forward to that one?

O: Definitely! They’re a great band and great guys.  It’s good to have a band that’s not typically thrash, y’know as a bill of Thrash can get a bit jarring on the ears. It’s really good to have a classic metal band with Thrash as well, so it’ll be really fun.

SFG: I’ve read that you’ve got a unsigned competition going on for your Huddersfield home town show. What ended up being the decision to do that?

O: When we were trying to think who we wanted to support, it just seems unfair to pick one band when so many bands emailing saying ‘please let us open’, so we thought why not let anyone open in a sense, so we opened it up as a competition, simple as that really!

SFG: Good response to it so far?

O: Yeah we’ve had shit loads, some ridiculous death metal bands with like the most ridiculous names and some great Thrash bands so it’s going to be interesting!  It’s going to be hard to pick as well.

SFG: So are you picking all yourselves as well then?

O: Say if there’s 100 bands that enter, we all will pick like 25 then we’ll whittle it down to 10, and then keep whittling it down till we get 4 and then vote on 1 probably.

SFG: We’ve heard a sneaky rumour that you’ve got a new album in the works, is there any details on that?

O: I basically started writing as soon as we finished Five Serpents Teeth,   and I’d say I’ve got about 12/13 songs like started on the skeleton structure. It’s sounding angry, aggressive, some really heavy stuff. Maybe another nice sounding song with clean guitars instead of noisy ones, but it’s sounding interesting anyway.

SFG: Backtracking to Five Serpents Teeth, it seemed to be quite well received; did you find the response good from it?

O: I was surprised actually, because we put so much into it that, when you put so much into something you feel kind of vulnerable, people might be like ‘oh that’s terrible’ you’ll be like ‘oh shit it really meant a lot’, but because we put so much into it the result was great and we’ve had nothing but really good feedback on it and we couldn’t be happier because people enjoy it, couldn’t be happier really.

SFG: Good couple of years then recently

O: We had a rough 2009 and 2010…

SFG: With Mike Alexander…

O: Yeah, but, yeah it’s been great, we’ve just been keeping busy and keeping going, it’s cool.

SFG: Anything else planned for the future of Evile or is it just open after the tour?

O: It’s basically write, record the album, tour as much as possible, and then just do the same thing again. Do the next album, it’s what we like doing so that’s what we’ll do!

SFG: Sounds like a good plan! I think that’s all the time we have for today, thanks for your time and it’s been lovely to meet you.

On Friday August the 10^th, BT London Live Olympics Festival in Hyde Park was in full swing; with glorious sunshine, phenomenal live music and – of course – three gold medals for team GB, to ensure smiles were on every face. The Overtones performed to several thousand Olympic-enthusiasts. Combining their unique sound with boundless energy, the lads soon had the entire audience on their feet and every Great Britain flag waving high in the air.

Shortly after their set, they joined me backstage for a quick chat. Band member Mike was chomping on a huge burger, so I opened the interview by addressing him directly.

SFG: So, Mike, with your mouth full of food. Whereabouts in the UK are you from?!

Mike: Bristol.

SFG: That’s near me, I’m from Plymouth.

Mike: Our tour ends in Plymouth.

SFG: I will definitely come along to watch! So whereabouts are you all from? You seem to have different accents.

Mike: We’re from all over. I’m from Bristol.

Mark: Manchester.

Timmy: I’m from Ireland!

Lachie: I’m from Sydney.

Darren: And I’m Mr Essex. I actually was Mr Essex one year.

SFG: Really?

Darren: No, that’s a lie.

SFG: Oh, I was going to say!

The boys laugh.

SFG: So how did you all meet up then? How did you get together?

Timmy: Well, the four of us had been singing together for six years without Lachie. We met while singing at open mic nights. I met Lachie several years ago, handing out leaflets for a famous department store. But I won’t mention the name, because he used to take lots of lunch breaks and put the leaflets in the bin!

SFG: We’ve all done it.

Timmy: I then heard his amazing bass voice and said ‘you have got to be in our band!’

SFG: Amazing! So how did you get involved in this Olympic festival?

Mike: This festival has just been amazing to us. We’re really lucky guys, they invited us along and we’ve just had an amazing time.

Timmy: Unreal crowd; everyone is in such good spirits. Not only is the weather great, but everyone is really getting into the whole Olympic atmousphere. Team GB have done so well.

Mike: It feels so patriotic at the moment it’s ridiculous. We’ve actually just come back from LA where we recorded or first video for the next album ‘Higher’, which is out on October 1^st. Although we’ve been away, we’ve seen little bits of the coverage on US TV and it’s not the same. But coming back here, you just get right back into the spirit of things. I love this country!

Timmy: But you also learn to appreciate sports that you would never normally get to see. I’ve never enjoyed show-jumping so much in my life!

Mark: Can I just say, I’m really looking forward to Sunday because we’re all going to have a few drinks and watch the closing ceremony.

SFG: So you’ve all been following the Olympics from overseas?

Mark: No, I’m just looking forward to the party at the end of it! Of course, I’m joking, we’ve all been following it.

Darren: I enjoy the diving most. That really impresses me. Team GB did really well.

Lachie: He’s quick isn’t he, that Usain Bolt?

Darren: Yes, I’ll think he’ll win it.

SFG: So who does the choreography for your set? Because when I was watching, I couldn’t help but love your moves!

Timmy: (Jokes) Beyonce.

SFG: I knew it!

Timmy: Well, she gives us a hand. We’ve done most of it by ourselves in the past year, but now we’ve been getting people on board. It feels weirdly like we’re loosening the reigns with the shows. But we’re still involved in everything we do regarding style and choreography, so we always add our little Overtones moment. A bit of a click. A little toe-tap. It’s got to be done!

SFG: Is there a signature move that you do in every show?

Timmy: I have a little move. It’s called the Timmy Shimmy, so I do do that. And if there is Beyonce on, I will grind a little bit!

SFG: Steady on! So, did you come to London just for this gig?

Lachie: No, we live here.

Timmy: It’s where we’re based. We were lucky enough to perform at the Queen’s jubilee this year too. Gary Barlow asked us to be the warm-up act which was amazing. It was such a big thing to be a part of! We’ve been having a great year so far. Of course, we’re all looking forward to the album coming out as well and people hearing the new stuff we’ve been working on. It’s such an exciting time for us. We’ve worked our butts off for the last 8 months; living in the studio. It’ll be great for people to hear it, so check it out! ‘Higher’ is out on October 1^st, baby!

SFG: And finally, who do you think would win in a fight out of all of you combined, and one female welterweight Olympic boxer?

Timmy: I have to mention Katie Taylor because she’s flying the flag for female boxing at the moment.

Lachie: I think she’d kick our ass.

Darren: She wouldn’t.

Lachie: She would.

Timmy: Have you seen her fight?!

Darren: Yeah, she’s good, but against five guys?!

Lachie: Darren, take the shame. She’d win.

Timmy: We’d let her win!

Lachie: Although we could stop her with a wall of harmonics. (Sings) GET BAAAACCCK!

SFG: On that wonderful note, it’s been an absolute pleasure talking to you! Best of luck with the new album, and thank you for coming to speak to me today.

All: Thank you!

By Rachael Broadhurst

SFG: So I’m here with NeedToBreathe from the USA and they just played the Pepsi Max Stage, well a few minutes ago anyway, and we’re at Hard Rock Calling 2012, so how you doing guys? Had a nice day so far?

NTB: Oh yeah, love it, love it. It’s dreary but we’re excited about all the rock n roll coming up.

SFG: It was a pretty big crowd in there, everybody dancing, loads of girls in daisy dukes, quite appropriate?

NTB: It was, it was great, yeah it’s our typical audience, haha

SFG: So, British Summer, as you can see, pretty rubbish. Coming from South Carolina, it must be a bit of a shock?

NTB: It’s a nice change of pace I guess, it’s a nice way to put it… hahaha

SFG: That was a *really* nice way to put it, yeah, thank you!

NTB: We’ve experienced a little bit of it before, we actually recorded our first record in England, and so yeah we’ve had a little bit of the British weather before.

SFG: It’s got to be the worst though, surely

NTB: We’ve heard from everybody here that they’re just disappointed, but the sun will come out at some point!

SFG: How do you think your Southern Rock style goes down over here? I mean obviously South Carolina is known for that kind of thing, but Britain hasn’t really got that kind of groove…

NTB: Um, I think it’s refreshing, you know I think for us it comes off to the fans as genuine. It’s something we grew up doing, something we didn’t have to try at, you know we didn’t have to try to be some other band or be something different, and real fans, they appreciate that. And so, I think that goes over anywhere.

SFG: Do you have a good British fan base?

NTB: We just started, this is our second tour over in the UK, and its been amazing. It’s crazy to see people who have the record and it’s not even in stores you know?

SFG: I did just hear that your London show on Monday has rocketed in ticket-sales, and obviously you seem to be pretty popular in the TV and Film world, I’ve been doing a bit of research there and just for the record they’ve had songs on; PS. I Love You, The Hills, Prison Break, Employee of the Month and Cougar Town, just to name a few – that is a serious list guys!

NTB: It is, it is. It’s always a shock and surprise you know, when it comes on, cause we don’t know every time it’s going to come on and we start seeing the tweets and it is weird. When you hear it sometimes it takes a few, we’re kinda caught off guard a little bit, and we don’t even notice it’s us right away, cause we don’t sit around listening to the record – we play the song and it’s always a bit different to the record

SFG: Do you not just go “hey, who’s this, I really like that, that is such a good song”

NTB: Hahaha yeah “oh yeah there is something about this that is really getting me going” yeah that’s the way it is haha

SFG: Well following on from that, my question is, if you could pick any TV show or movie, past, present, future, that you could record the soundtrack for, what would it be?

NTB: Er…wow… maybe…

SFG: Jeez, that’s a tough one right? I’m thinking… not Predator, or Alien… right

(Bo, laughing) Yeah wow, haha, I think The Gladiator movie, I like the arrangement of that, yeah I like the big sounds.

(Joe) For me it would probably be Lost, because all you would really need to do it so be able to make that ‘woaawwwww’ sound.

SFG: So, you’re currently touring Europe, but what other festivals have you done this summer, and how do they compare to Hard Rock Calling?

NTB: Um, we just did Bonnaroo, about a month ago, yeah and it was really like… stinky hot. It might be kinda cold here, but at least the smell is kept in by the cool air, in Bonnaroo it is just released among the crowd, it reeked of hot weather.

SFG: How do the festivals compare to playing your standalone shows?

NTB: Yeah it’s always fun when it’s our crowd but it’s nice playing to new people and showing what we do, so we like the festivals yeah.

NeedToBreathe’s upcoming single ‘Keep Your Eyes Open’ is out on September 3rd with full album ‘The Reckoning’ being released the following week in the UK.

We caught up with the Scottish duo Pat and Gregory Kane from Hue and Cry at Isle of Wight before their set on the main stage on Saturday, to talk about their latest musical ventures and sticking it out in the music industry for the long haul.  It turned into a conversation about wigs and cynicism…standard.

SFG: You've just started touring your new album hows that going?

Gregory: We did a series of stripped back tours just Pat and I on our own, and we played beautiful theatres all over England, from way down south, Bournemouth to all the way up north in Newcastle.  And we've just reached out to all the people that liked Hue and Cry in England for the past two months, and there was a great response.

How have you found playing such a stripped back tour, compared to playing with a full band?

Pat:  When you're playing acoustically, the stakes are higher.  When you're facing an audience, of  three hundred or four hundred people every note counts and every moment counts, its quite exhausting, draining actually because you have to commit to it.  I’m not saying you can be indifferent with a band but at least there’s seven other people around you.  You play your part in a collective production as it were, not everything relies on you.  Where as with me and Gregory its just the melody and the chords and the words and the keys and the guitar, but that can be magical.

SFG: As a band an as a song writing collaborative you've have been able to carve out a career over a long period of time.  In a day of flash-in-the-pan artists and bands that break down after one or two albums how have you managed to continue working together?

P:  Well brothers don’t beat themselves to a bloody pulp…usually.  They usually figure out ways to sustain each other so, we have a deep relationship and a deep musical relationship.  We keep coming back to drinking from that well, cause its inexhaustible.  

G:  Its a vocation for me, I love what I do, I've made music my whole life since I learned how to play the piano at 9 years old, 34 years later I’m still here playing the piano.  I did a paper round to help pay for my first saxophone.

SFG: Do you think your songwriting process has changed significantly or do you still work in the same way?

P:  We're quite naïve songwriters; we kind of write from the heart and don't really copy any body and don’t write for a market.  We write for ourselves.  A lot of the songwriters I know who are much more successful than us are a bit more cynical than that.  We've never really done that, we just get together and we sit ourselves in a room around a piano or a guitar and we see what happens.  We don’t plan it out.  And in the production side of it, then we'll decide what kind of record we want it to be.

SFG: How have you managed not to become cynical?

P:  Because we couldn’t stand up and sing it with a straight face…We feel we've spent our whole careers trying not to be cynical in what we do.  We lasted five years in major-record-company-land; touring with Madonna and playing with James Brown, and that was enough.  The last album we did, the third album, was the most eclectic thing we'd done, a seven piece jazz outfit from Edinburgh and our poor London record company were scratching their heads thinking 'Oh no what are they doing?'  I think that was the final straw for them, we wouldn’t go and write with who ever had the last hit.  Seymour Stein one of the most famous A&R men from the eighties; he discovered Bruce Springsteen, flew over to Glasgow to see us and we met with him and saw the potential in us.  He saw it in us, but we didn’t see what he saw, so we didn’t go with him.

G:  I told him, I couldn't work with someone who had a leather piano key tie, and a Les Paul badge, so that was it.  I wonder if he'll be here with Springsteen tomorrow we could say Hi to him.  We also have to ask him if he's got a wig on.

SFG:  Springsteen or Stein?

G:  Bruce, its definitely a wig.

P: Yeh.

SFG:  If we could make it really windy…?

P: Oh no, its a rock wig, its beautiful.

G: I was thinking a fishing line…

SFG:  So anyway…What's the best festival that you guys have ever played?

P:  We played the Cork Jazz Festival many moons ago and it was the wildest jazz audience.  Appreciative wild Irish passionate audience,its the best festival I’ve ever done.

G: They were soaked in there own urine most of the time.

P: Oh yeh, not pretty, but they were an appreciative jazz audience.

SFG: For new listeners, How would you describe your music?

G: Erm, basically, if you scrunch together the lyrical ambition of Elvis Costello, with the musical eclecticism of Prince and Steely Dan, and then put it in a haggis wrapper…

P: and boil it…

G:  Boil it and then eat it…

P: and then shit it out.

G:  Shit it out…but draw nutrients from it in the process. 

P:  That would be Hue and Cry.